Heathen and pagan mean precisely the same thing. both are from roots meaning ‘of the countryside’ - heathen is from germanic roots, pagan from latin.
Oh their roots are certainly the same. I’ve just always heard them in both verbal and written formed used to apply to different things.
Shinto and Celtic religions both had/have definite specific deities, such as Amaterasu, the Shinto Sun Goddess.
You are correct about Shinto having more specific dieties Shinto is a hard fit.
For the Celts though, no they really didn’t have dieties in the way that the Greeks had dieties. Dagdha, Danna and Lugh weren’t so much celestial beings as powerful ancestral/totem beings. The Tuatha d’Dannan were not a pantheon. They were a great people who conquered Ireland and were apparently absurdly honorable and chivalric.
A better example would have been the Norse who while basically Shamanic did posses a rather well defined Cosmology and pantheon. Though there is some evidence that this patheon was actually an over rigid misinterpretation of the Celtic ancestor spirits. Who can say though?
As does Shinto, and, functionally, all tribal religion, such as that of the Navaho or central Asian ‘Shamanic’ tribes.
Again Shinto is a hard fit. Though it became more elementally defined as confusianism, Taoism and Buddhism influenced it. Its core concepts though are primitive.
As to shamanic practices I think I’ll disagree. Shamanic religions often have rather inscrutable and vague beliefs in terms of cosmology. Take the Cherokee for instance sometimes God created the world sometimes Coyote did and sometimes Raven did. Sometimes it seems that in some places Shamanic belief is no more complex than a simple collection of localized legends and stories.
Some Pagan religions have the idea of a single ‘first cause’ but really no non-monotheistic religions contain the idea of a single personal deity who created all things. No heathen religions have the idea of a single omnipotent being.
Not so. The Apache (The One Who Lives Above), Chelan (The Great Chief Above) and the Chinook (who have Talapas) just to name three Native nations have all powerful creators.
The Dogon of Mali had a supreme diety named Amma (though their creation story is rather grusome). Ethiopia had Wak. Amongst the Bantu is the legend of Nzame and all powerful creator. (who is actually a Triune god like the Christian God). I could go on but you get the idea.
Heathens don’t describe the world in human terms they try to understand how humans are to interact with the world around them.
Likewise ancient Greek Paganism.
No the Greek pantheon is one based on human traits not understanding human traits based on nature. The Greek gods are more or less humans with really awesome powers. They do not possess higher principles or ideals than their humanity.
**The Hindu believe in a central all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present god-head. **
Though this all-mind type godhead is in no way a ‘person’, and bears no resemblance to the idea of ‘God’ in monotheist scripture.
Never meant to imply that the Indian view of a triune godhead was the same the Christian version nevertheless it is a triune god. Hindu trinity is a single god who exists in three independant aspects. At a theological level Hindu has more in common with Christianity than with typical Pagan beliefs.
as it is thought of today.This was very heathen and not a religion, it would have been called demonism and worshipping Satan but then we did not give Satan the status of being called a “god” that would have been 10 story levels too high for him, from the bottom of hell the middle of the earth center core.