Expect More. [86] English esotericist Gerald Gardner was at the forefront of the burgeoning Wiccan movement. . "[1] Thus it has been said that although it is "a highly diverse phenomenon", "an identifiable common element" nevertheless runs through the pagan movement. [165] [60][73] In contrast, some contemporary pagans believe that there are specific spirits that inhabit various features in the natural world, and that these can be actively communicated with. | Roz Kaveney", "Oh, My Pop Culture Goddess: Transgender Issues in Wicca and Paganism", Neo-paganism and nationalism. The modern popularisation of the terms pagan and neopagan as they are currently understood is largely traced to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, co-founder of the 1st Neo-Pagan Church of All Worlds who, beginning in 1967 with the early issues of Green Egg, used both terms for the growing movement. [7] Even within the academic field of pagan studies, there is no consensus about how contemporary paganism can best be defined. $17.85 - $52.94 32 Used from $3.00 12 New from $44.68 1 Collectible from $37.00. and used standard models for extrapolating likely numbers. In 1964 Ross Nichols established the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. It was the outlook of the European religions of classical antiquity - Persia . Adonism largely died out in the 1930s, but remained an influence on the German occult scene. [96], The 1960s and 1970s saw a resurgence in neo-Druidism as well as the rise of Germanic neopaganism in the United States and in Iceland. Further, some convents only accepted women of the nobility or those who . [157][158][159], Trans exclusion can also be found in Alexandrian Wicca, whose founder views trans individuals as melancholy people who should seek other beliefs due to the Alexandrian focus on heterosexual reproduction and duality. [46], On the reconstructionist side can be placed those movements which often favour the designation "Native Faith", including Romuva, Heathenry, and Hellenism. This ancient religious outlook remains active throughout much of the world today, both in complex civilisations such as Japan and India, and in less complex tribal societies world-wide. The fracturing of Christians in western Europe into different groups led to conflicts, sometimes called the "wars of religion," that lasted for centuries in Europe. [86], Discussions about prevailing, returning or new forms of paganism have existed throughout the modern period. [5] Modern pagan movements can be placed on a spectrum. Their religious rituals are characterized by harmonious devotion to . [30], The term "neo-pagan" was coined in the 19th century in reference to Renaissance and Romanticist Hellenophile classical revivalism. [120], Some Unitarian Universalists are eclectic pagans. [180], Neopaganism has been criticized on a variety of fronts, ranging from pseudohistory to racial issues to institutional issues. Professor Hutton argues that the Druid and Wiccan practices of today are valid forms of pagan religion even though they are based on self-conscious revivals (in the 18th and 20th century. [36] Other pagan groups allow people of any ethnicity, on the view that the gods and goddesses of a particular region can call anyone to their form of worship. False. [16] They noted that in these latter regions, pagan groups placed an emphasis on "the centrality of the nation, the ethnic group, or the tribe". Most of what is considered Christian Europe is actually pagan Europe . Goddess Spirituality revolves around the sacredness of the female form, and of aspects of women's lives that adherents say have been traditionally neglected in Western society, such as menstruation, sexuality, and maternity.[112]. Due to the secrecy and fear of persecution still prevalent among pagans, limited numbers are willing to openly be counted. [166] Various differences between the two movements have been highlighted; the New Age movement focuses on an improved future, whereas the focus of Paganism is on the pre-Christian past. Who were the last pagans in Europe? Europe is extremely rich in festivals and holidays, be them Christian, pagan or non-religious. Some modern pagan literature prominently features comparative religion involving European and Indian traditions. A neopagans movement drawing from various syncretic practices that had survived among the Christianised Mari people was initiated in 1990,[133] and was estimated in 2004 to have won the adherence of 2% of the Mordvin people. Eco-paganism and Eco-magic, which are offshoots of direct action environmental groups, strongly emphasize fairy imagery and a belief in the possibility of intercession by the fae (fairies, pixies, gnomes, elves, and other spirits of nature and the Otherworlds). [75], All pagan movements place great emphasis on the divinity of nature as a primary source of divine will, and on humanity's membership of the natural world, bound in kinship to all life and the Earth itself. ", Religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska[43], Another division within modern paganism rests on differing attitudes to the source material surrounding pre-Christian belief systems. [19] To avoid causing offense, many scholars in the English-speaking world have begun using the prefixes "modern" or "contemporary" rather than "neo". [8] Most scholars describe modern paganism as a broad array of different religions, not a single one. [139], Based upon her study of the pagan community in the United States, the sociologist Margot Adler noted that it is rare for pagan groups to proselytize in order to gain new converts to their faiths. [164] Ethan Doyle White stated that while the pagan and New Age movements "do share commonalities and overlap", they were nevertheless "largely distinct phenomena. Since traditional religion is declining I don't see it not spreading. [49] Across Europe, different cultures are attempting to revive their pre-Christian religious heritage. Smi people - an Uralic group native to northern Scandinavia and neighboring parts of Finland and Russia. Renaissance and revival History of modern Paganism Contemporary Paganism is the restoration of indigenous religion, especially that of ancient Europe. 1 January : New Year's Day Oh, and there's nothing Pagan in "Harry Potter." The only religion even implied in any of the HP books is Christianity. [146], Adler went on to note that from those she interviewed and surveyed in the US, she could identify a number of common factors that led to people getting involved in paganism: the beauty, vision and imagination that was found within their beliefs and rituals, a sense of intellectual satisfaction and personal growth that they imparted, their support for environmentalism or feminism, and a sense of freedom. The Mari people are an indigenous group, recognized as the last surviving Pagans of Europe. [130] The percentage of pagans among the Mari of Bashkortostan and the eastern part of Tatarstan is even higher (up to 69% among women). This alarming tendency is already widespread in Europe, where a majority of young adults have no faith, as a recent report showed. [23] This approach has been received critically by many specialists in religious studies. [110][111], Goddess spirituality, which is also known as the Goddess movement, is a pagan religion in which a singular, monotheistic Goddess is given predominance. Community. In the early medieval ages, these religions were influential, and, in some cases, they were even the official . Many years after the last inscriptions to the Eastern divinities had been dedicated in the provinces, such dedications were sufficiently numerous at Rome, particularly so during the closing years of the fourth century, when the pagan revival reached its culmination. [161], Since the 1960s and 1970s, contemporary paganism, or neo-paganism, and the then emergent counterculture, New Age, and hippie movements experienced a degree of cross-pollination. [175], In areas such as the US Bible Belt, where conservative Christian dominance is strong, pagans have faced continued religious persecution. Pay Less. [143] Further support for Adler's idea came from American Wiccan priestess Judy Harrow, who noted that among her comrades, there was a feeling that "you don't become pagan, you discover that you always were". . [131] A similar number was claimed by Victor Schnirelmann, for whom between a quarter and a half of the Mari either worship the pagan gods or are adherents of neopagan groups. Pagan religions commonly exhibit a metaphysical concept of an underlying order that pervades the universe, such as the concept of harmonia embraced by Hellenists and that of Wyrd found in Heathenry. [48] Similarly, while examining neo-shamanism among the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia, Siv Ellen Kraft highlights that despite the religion being reconstructionist in intent, it is highly eclectic in the manner in which it has adopted elements from shamanic traditions in other parts of the world. The first account of the gods of Irish myth to take in the whole sweep of Irish literature in both the nation's languages, the book describes how Ireland's pagan divinities were transformed into literary characters in the medieval Christian era--and how they were recast again during the Celtic Revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth . Increased knowledge of other cultures led to questions of whether their practices even fit into the definitions of religion, and paganism was incorporated in the idea of progress, where it was ranked as a low, undeveloped form of religion. 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A total of 22,497 people stated Other Religion in the 2006 census; and a rough estimate is that there were 2,0003,000 practicing pagans in Ireland in 2009. I'd rather beA Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;Or hear old Triton blow his wreathd horn. Conflict naturally arises, however, as some neopagan belief systems and sect ideologies stem from fundamental beliefs in the male-female gender binary, heterosexual pairing, resulting heterosexual reproduction, and/or gender essentialism. Read reviews and buy The Druid Revival Reader - by John Michael Greer (Paperback) at Target. [9] The category of modern paganism could be compared to the categories of Abrahamic religions and Indian religions in its structure. C hristianity is declining in Europe. Contemporary paganism has therefore been prone to fakelore, especially in recent years as information and misinformation alike have been spread on the Internet and in print media. [33] He further suggests that the term gained appeal through its depiction in romanticist and 19th-century European nationalist literature, where it had been imbued with "a certain mystery and allure",[34] and that by embracing the word "pagan" modern pagans defy past religious intolerance to honor the pre-Christian peoples of Europe and emphasize those societies' cultural and artistic achievements. [57], Dennis D. Carpenter noted that the belief in a pantheistic or panentheistic deity has led to the idea of interconnectedness playing a key part in pagans' worldviews. This belief and the way it is expressed is often denounced as transphobia and trans-exclusionary radical feminism. Part of the reason Theodosius declared his son Western Emperor while Eugenius was still on the throne was because he was distressed by this pagan revival. It actually dates back much longer than that: it has roots in Hinduism and old Persian beliefs, but it moved to Northern Europe and mingled with indigenous beliefs . (eds), Learn how and when to remove this template message, secret pagan religion had survived the witchcraft persecutions, Union of Slavic Native Belief Communities, Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, other expressions of gender and sexuality, Religious discrimination against neopagans, The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, Religion data from the 2001 Canadian census, "University of Victoria chaplain marks solstice with pagan rituals", "Invented Culture/Invented Religion: The Fictional Origins of Contemporary Paganism", 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198722250.003.0016, "Old Europe: Sacred Matriarchy or Complementary Opposition? Most are polytheistic realists, believing that the deities are real entities, while others view them as Jungian archetypes. [99], The 1980s and 1990s also saw an increasing interest in serious academic research and reconstructionist pagan traditions. [42], "We might say that Reconstructionist Pagans romanticize the past, while eclectic pagans idealize the future. [87] Various folk beliefs have periodically been labeled as pagan and churches have demanded that they should be purged. The Goddess movement draws some of its inspiration from the work of archaeologists such as Marija Gimbutas,[113][114][115][116] whose interpretation of artifacts excavated from "Old Europe" points to societies of Neolithic Europe that were matristic or goddess-centered worshipping a female deity of three primary aspects,[117] which has inspired some neopagan worshippers of the Triple Goddess. This is due to Dianic belief in gender essentialism; according to founder Zsuzsanna Budapest, "you have to have sometimes [sic] in your life a womb, and ovaries and [menstruate] and not die". [79] American folklorist Sabina Magliocco came to the conclusion, based upon her ethnographic fieldwork in California that certain pagan beliefs "arise from what they experience during religious ecstasy". On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "[155][156], Transgender existence and acceptability is especially controversial in many neopagan sects. Author Richard Rudgley discusses similar themes in his book The Return of Odin: The Modern Renaissance of Pagan Imagination, where he looks at this notion of a pagan revival primarily through the workings of Carl Jung's idea of an "Odinic archetype." In essence, the holdovers from ancient evolutionary ideas deep within the human mind (or . George Watson MacGregor Reid founded the Druid Order in its current form in 1909. Many pagans have expressed criticism of the high fees charged by New Age teachers, something not typically present in the pagan movement. Polytheism, animism, and pantheism are common features of pagan theology. [14] But there has been much "cross-fertilization" between these different faiths: many groups have influenced, and been influenced by, other pagan religions, making clear-cut distinctions among them more difficult for scholars to make. Places of natural beauty are therefore treated as sacred and ideal for ritual, like the nemetons of the ancient Celts.[76]. Neopaganist beliefs and practices are extremely diverse, some tending towards syncretic melding of once-diverse practices and beliefs, others bordering on the historical reenactment of meticulously . [1] Strmiska described paganism as a movement "dedicated to reviving the polytheistic, nature-worshipping pagan religions of pre-Christian Europe and adapting them for the use of people in modern societies. "[165] [1] Similarly, Strmiska stresses that modern paganism should not be conflated with the belief systems of the world's Indigenous peoples because the latter lived under colonialism and its legacy, and that while some pagan worldviews bear similarities to those of indigenous communities, they stem from "different cultural, linguistic, and historical backgrounds". But it didn't arise out of the blue, as it results from a long . Although they share similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse, and do not share a single set of beliefs, practices, or texts. [lower-Greek 3] Based on the most recent survey by the Pew Forum on religion, there are over one million pagans in the United States. This includes animism, nature religion, Druidism, pantheism, and Wicca/Witchcraft. Historians now reject Murray's theory, as she based it partially upon the similarities of the accounts given by those accused of witchcraft; such similarity is now thought to actually derive from there having been a standard set of questions laid out in the witch-hunting manuals used by interrogators. [32], According to Strmiska, the reappropriation of the term "pagan" by modern pagans served as "a deliberate act of defiance" against "traditional, Christian-dominated society", allowing them to use it as a source of "pride and power". It was organised by two British religious studies scholars, Graham Harvey and Charlotte Hardman. Pagan practices in Europe by then were very rural, isolated, and irregularly organized and were only disappearing as the days passed. Contemporary paganism has sometimes been associated with the New Age movement, with scholars highlighting both their similarities and differences. [134], A study by Ronald Hutton compared a number of different sources (including membership lists of major UK organizations, attendance at major events, subscriptions to magazines, etc.) You might argue that the most successful pagan revival movement in the 20th century was National Socialism. The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, or CUUPs, encourages its chapters to "use practices familiar to members who attend for worship services but not to follow only one tradition of paganism". Wicca has been described as a polytheistic religion. [101], Many Heathen groups adopt variants of Norse mythology as a basis for their beliefs, conceiving of the Earth as on the great world tree Yggdrasil. Eugenius restored the Altar of Victory and funded other pagan projects. [179], The relationship between pagan studies scholars and some practising pagans has at times been strained. View. [147], Based upon her work in the United States, Adler found that the pagan movement was "very diverse" in its class and ethnic background. [97] The 1979 publication of Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon and Starhawk's The Spiral Dance opened a new chapter in public awareness of paganism. "[12] The religious studies scholar Wouter Hanegraaff characterised paganism as encompassing "all those modern movements which are, first, based on the conviction that what Christianity has traditionally denounced as idolatry and superstition actually represents/represented a profound and meaningful religious worldview and, secondly, that a religious practice based on this worldview can and should be revitalized in our modern world. Europe is in the midst of a pagan revival. [4] Among the critics of the upper-case P are York and Andras Corban-Arthen, president of the ECER. , Discussions about prevailing, returning or New forms of paganism have existed the. 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