What does heathen and pagan mean?

This is what the MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY has to say:

MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY

hea·​then | \ ˈhē-t͟hən \

Definition of heathen

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 old-fashioned + often disparaging : of or relating to people or nations that do not practice Christianity, Judaism, or Islam : of or relating to heathens (see HEATHEN entry 2 sense 1), their religions, or their customs : PAGANheathen rituals

2 old-fashioned + disapproving : STRANGE, UNCIVILIZED

pagan

1 a person who worships many gods or goddesses or the earth or nature: a person whose religion is paganism2 old-fashioned + often offensive: a person who is not religious or whose religion is not Christianity, Judaism, or Islam

Today most people in the Heathen/Pagan communities see these words as generic, covering a wide range of older Earth based spiritual traditions. In Modern American Shamanism we add the word Germanic to Paganism and Heathenry so we can be specific about the traditions we practice and teach. Our Heathen practices come from a wide range of Northern European countries, Denmark, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Northern Germany. Our Germanic Pagan traditions come from Germany (Europe) and the Pennsylvania German Pagan (America) traditions. We strive to share these different practices based on the historical evidence we can find. We also work to highlight the differences in practices shared by many different peoples of Northern Europe, like blot.

We will be having numerous online and in-person classes in 2022. We at Modern American Shamanism will be working hard to keeping up our weekly educational blog posts and our monthly free classes on YouTube. A list of our in-person class for 2022 will be up on our website in December. See everyone next year!