[] By the mid-1930s "neopagan" was being applied to new religious movements like Jakob Wilhelm Hauer's German Faith Movement and Jan Stachniuk's Polish Zadruga, usually by outsiders and often pejoratively. [42], "We might say that Reconstructionist Pagans romanticize the past, while eclectic pagans idealize the future. Golden Dawn ended up winning 18 seats, making it the third-largest party in parliament. The word " Asatru " combines the words "Asa," which refers to Norse gods, and "tru," meaning "faith.". Neopagan and other folk religion movements have gained a significant[citation needed] following on the eastern fringes of Europe, especially in the Caucasus and the Volga region. of human rights inhibited the faithful from living in accordance with their beliefs and indeed would lead to a neo-pagan revival. [74], Animism was also a concept common to many pre-Christian European religions, and in adopting it, contemporary pagans are attempting to "reenter the primeval worldview" and participate in a view of cosmology "that is not possible for most Westerners after childhood". 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. Although the movement is small, there is a religious movement attempting to revive the worship of the ancient Greek gods . Some modern pagan literature prominently features comparative religion involving European and Indian traditions. Although they share similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse, and do not share a single set of beliefs, practices, or . [65] Many pagans believe adoption of a polytheistic world-view would be beneficial for western society replacing the dominant monotheism they see as innately repressive. sir describes a particular category or subset of deities in Norse mythology. ", Religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska[55], Although inspired by the pre-Christian belief systems of the past, modern paganism is not the same phenomenon as these lost traditions and in many respects differs from them considerably. What affects one of us affects us all. Europe is extremely rich in festivals and holidays, be them Christian, pagan or non-religious. 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 . [47], Strmiska nevertheless notes that this reconstructionist-eclectic division is "neither as absolute nor as straightforward as it might appear". Jonas, along with his son-in-law Artras Sinkeviius, opened the program by singing a Lithuanian . George Watson MacGregor Reid founded the Druid Order in its current form in 1909. [82] It typically involves offerings including bread, cake, flowers, fruit, milk, beer, or wine being given to images of deities, often accompanied with prayers and songs and the lighting of candles and incense. [91] These attitudes would also be exported to North America by European immigrants in these centuries. [38] Strmiska notes that pagan groups can be "divided along a continuum: at one end are those that aim to reconstruct the ancient religious traditions of a particular ethnic group or a linguistic or geographic area to the highest degree possible; at the other end are those that freely blend traditions of different areas, peoples, and time periods. [123] Nevertheless, there is a slow growing body of data on the subject. Thus, with only a few possible exceptions, today's Pagans cannot claim to be continuing religious traditions handed down in an unbroken line from ancient times to the present. ", "Minoan Brotherhood | Transcendence Directory | Western Esotericism Community", "Why won't pagans accept trans women? Great God! Born in 1866 as the eldest son of a leading family of bankers, he purportedly turned his birthright over to his younger brother Max in favor of committing some of the family's . The first comprehensive study of its kind, this fully illustrated book establishes Paganism as a persistent force in European history with a profound influence on modern thinking. Studies in Contemporary European Paganism (2012) 2012 Adam Anczyk. [60][61] Most are non-practicing. [83] [35], For some pagan groups, ethnicity is central to their religion, and some restrict membership to a single ethnic group. European. "[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. [4], Various pagans who are active in pagan studies, such as Michael York and Prudence Jones, have argued that, due to similarities in their worldviews, the modern pagan movement can be treated as part of the same global phenomenon as pre-Christian Ancient religions, living Indigenous religions, and world religions like Hinduism, Shinto, and Afro-American religions. Irish paganism is often strongly concerned with issues of place and language. In discussing Asatro a form of Heathenry based in Denmark Matthew Amster notes that it did not fit clearly within such a framework, because while seeking a reconstructionist form of historical accuracy, Asatro nevertheless retains a strong christian influence; with a modern construction of dogma, practices, religious titles, literature & an over emphasis on acknowledging & the worship of only the sir gods; as well as strongly eschewing the emphasis on ethnicity that is common to other reconstructionist groups. [67] This pluralistic perspective has helped the varied factions of modern paganism exist in relative harmony. Further, some convents only accepted women of the nobility or those who . The establishment and growth of the Internet in the 1990s brought rapid growth to these, and other pagan movements. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Pay Less. [145], Many pagans in North America encounter the movement through their involvement in other hobbies; particularly popular with US pagans are "golden age"-type pastimes such as the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), Star Trek fandom, Doctor Who fandom and comic book fandom. View. Pagan; Paganism: . [180], Neopaganism has been criticized on a variety of fronts, ranging from pseudohistory to racial issues to institutional issues. [11], Contemporary paganism has been defined as "a collection of modern religious, spiritual, and magical traditions that are self-consciously inspired by the pre-Judaic, pre-Christian, and pre-Islamic belief systems of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. [65] Among many pagans, there is a strong desire to incorporate the female aspects of the divine in their worship and within their lives, which can partially explain the attitude which sometimes manifests as the veneration of women.[]. [15] The various pagan religions have been academically classified as new religious movements,[16] with the anthropologist Kathryn Rountree describing paganism as a whole as a "new religious phenomenon". Go home": A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia, "How Do Pagans Feel About Homosexuality? For the last several centuries, Europe and America have become increasingly secular as pre-Christian ideas and traditions have gained acceptance. William Wordsworth, "The World Is Too Much with Us", lines 9-14, One of the origins of modern pagan movements lies in the romanticist and national liberation movements that developed in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1970s, Wicca was notably influenced by feminism, leading to the creation of an eclectic, Goddess-worshipping movement known as Dianic Wicca. Reconstructing the Pagan Mind in Seventeenth-Century Europe (I.3) - The Kingdom of Darkness I.3 - Reconstructing the Pagan Mind in Seventeenth-Century Europe A Historico-Philosophical Critique of Pure Reason from Part I - Giving Up Philosophy Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2022 Dmitri Levitin Chapter Get access Share Cite Later that year, attacks on immigrants reportedly doubled. [38] There is greater focus on ethnicity within the pagan movements in continental Europe than within the pagan movements in North America and the British Isles. "[44] Strmiska argues that these two poles could be termed reconstructionism and eclecticism, respectively. [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". 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. Heathenry is a term used to describe the religious practices of two main groups of people, one historical and one modern. Religious studies scholar Sarah Pike asserted that in the United States, there was a "significant overlap" between modern paganism and New Age,[163] while Aidan A. Kelly stated that paganism "parallels the New Age movement in some ways, differs sharply from it in others, and overlaps it in some minor ways". In the United States, the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA) was established in 1912,[119] the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) in 1963, and r nDraocht Fin (ADF) in 1983 by Isaac Bonewits. 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. They are modern people with a great reverence for the spirituality of the past, making a new religion a modern Paganism from the remnants of the past, which they interpret, adapt, and modify according to modern ways of thinking. Due to the secrecy and fear of persecution still prevalent among pagans, limited numbers are willing to openly be counted. 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". Pagan beliefs have survived alongside Christianity. Aby Warburgbibliophile, scholar, library founderhas become known as one of the most original and brilliant art historians of the twentieth century. Why is Paganism and other Occult beliefs booming in Europe, America and beyond? [19] This is because the term pagan originates in Christian terminology, which individuals who object to the term wish to avoid. Since traditional religion is declining I don't see it not spreading. [138] Out of 21507717 recorded Australians,[] they compose approximately 0.15% of the population. This estimate accounted for multiple membership overlaps as well as the number of adherents represented by each attendee of a pagan gathering. 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. [144] They have also been supported by Pagan studies scholar Graham Harvey. . Mari fled here from forced Christianization in the 17th to 19th centuries. Pre-World War II neopagan or proto-neopagan groups, growing out of occultism and/or Romanticism (Mediterranean revival, Viking revival, Celtic revival, etc.). Christmas day (December 25th) was usurped and inaccurately fixed by Christians from the Roman festival of Mithra. [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". Swarup reached out to modern pagans in the West and also had an influence on Western converts to Hinduism or pro-Hindu activists, notably David Frawley and Koenraad Elst, who both have described Hinduism as a form of paganism. [63], One view in the pagan community is that these polytheistic deities are not viewed as literal entities, but as Jungian archetypes or other psychological constructs that exist in the human psyche. And a way to connect with all kinds of peoplegay, bi, straight, celibate, transgenderin a way that is hard to do in the greater society. In the early medieval ages, these religions were influential, and, in some cases, they were even the official . [137], According to Helen A. Berger's 1995 survey "The Pagan Census", most American pagans are middle-class, educated, and live in urban/suburban areas on the East and West coasts. EU-wide celebrations are indicated in bold. You might argue that the most successful pagan revival movement in the 20th century was National Socialism. The 19th century saw a surge of interest in Germanic paganism with the Viking revival in Victorian Britain[] and Scandinavia, and the Vlkisch movement in Germany. 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. This is connected with a belief in either pantheism or panentheism. A number of Wiccan, pagan and even some Traditionalist or Tribalist groups have a history of Grandmother Stories typically involving initiation by a Grandmother, Grandfather, or other elderly relative who is said to have instructed them in the secret, millennia-old traditions of their ancestors. [lower-Greek 1][lower-Greek 2][bettersourceneeded], The United States government does not directly collect religious information. The population of Europe was growing, but in the 12th century the nun's orders on the whole were not opening new convents. [46], On the reconstructionist side can be placed those movements which often favour the designation "Native Faith", including Romuva, Heathenry, and Hellenism. Most people who have explored the medieval architecture of Western Europe have heard a tour guide explain that a particular carving or decorative feature is a pagan image obtruding itself subversively in a Christian sacred space. Renaissance: Influence and Interpretations. [77], Such views have also led many pagans to revere the planet Earth as Mother Earth, who is often referred to as Gaia after the ancient Greek goddess of the Earth. [19] He suggests that part of the term's appeal lay in the fact that a large proportion of pagan converts were raised in Christian families, and that by embracing the term "pagan", a word long used for what was "rejected and reviled by Christian authorities", a convert summarizes "in a single word his or her definitive break" from Christianity. Smi people - an Uralic group native to northern Scandinavia and neighboring parts of Finland and Russia. [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. The largest subgroup was Wicca, with 11,766 adherents. The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies was edited by Clifton, while the academic publishers AltaMira Press began release of the Pagan Studies Series. 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. Named after the Norse pagan gods called the sir - which includes a pantheon of popular Norse gods such as Odin, Thor, Frigg, and Baldur - the spirits and entities that the folklore represents are also taken into consideration.This contemporary version of the original pagan . When the Roman Emperor Julian (Flavius Claudius Julianus) came to power, Christianity was less popular than polytheism, but when Julian, a pagan (in contemporary usage) known as "the Apostate," was killed in battle, it was the end of Roman official acceptance of polytheism. According to the most recent Pew poll, only 71 percent of Europeans still identify as Christian, though 81 percent were raised in the faith. Prior to the spread of the 20th-century neopagan movements, a notable instance of self-identified paganism was in Sioux writer Zitkala-sa's essay "Why I Am A Pagan". [61], One principle of the pagan movement is polytheism, the belief in and veneration of multiple gods or goddesses. [170] The modern pagan writer Christopher Grard has drawn much inspiration from Hinduism and visited Swarup in India. Common pagan devotional practices have thus been compared to similar practices in Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity, but contrasted with that in Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam. SS leader Heinrich Himmler designed the . Many neopagans adhere to the definition of magic provided by Aleister Crowley, the founder of Thelema: "the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will". In this article, the author surveys the history of Neo-Paganism from the Romantic movement to the 20th-century revival of Witchcraft, Druidism, Asatru and other forms of Pagan religion. Some academics who study the phenomenon treat it as a movement that is divided into different religions while others characterize it as a single religion of which different pagan faiths are denominations. It is also fewer than the adherents of Jediism, whose campaign made them the fourth largest religion after Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.[]. [52], Some pagans distinguish their beliefs and practices as a form of religious naturalism or naturalist philosophy,[53] including those who identify as humanistic or atheopagans. [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. (, Davy, Barbara Jane (2007) "Introduction to pagan studies". "Neopagan" redirects here. [28] Several pagan studies scholars, such as Ronald Hutton and Sabina Magliocco, have emphasized the use of the upper-case "Paganism" to distinguish the modern movement from the lower-case "paganism", a term commonly used for pre-Christian belief systems. "[1] Thus it has been said that although it is "a highly diverse phenomenon", "an identifiable common element" nevertheless runs through the pagan movement. [98] Published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1902, the Native American activist and writer outlined her rejection of Christianity (referred to as "the new superstition") in favor of a harmony with nature embodied by the Great Spirit. Census figures in Ireland do not provide a breakdown of religions outside of the major Christian denominations and other major world religions. [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. A proposal to erect a pagan "Amazonian love god" statue near a cathedral in the English city of Wakefield has drawn the ire of residents who claim its placement mocks Christianity. The primary forms of Paganism in Europe were Hellenistic religions, including the Roman Imperial cult, mystery religions, local ethnic religions, especially among Anglo-Saxons and the Germanic tribes, Gnosticism and Neo-Platonism. Conversation With A European Pagan: Resurgence of European Paganism 32,796 views Premiered Jan 26, 2019 2.2K Dislike Share Save The Sham Sharma Show 741K subscribers Survive the Jive is a channel. The Mari native religion in fact has a continuous existence, but has co-existed with Orthodox Christianity for centuries, and experienced a renewal after the fall of the Soviet Union. Modern forms of paganism are rooted in the 19th century C.E. [136] Up to 0.4% of respondents answered "pagan" or "Wiccan" when polled. Although animal sacrifice was a common part of pre-Christian ritual in Europe, it is rarely practiced in contemporary paganism. [168], Because of their common links to the Proto-Indo-European culture, many adherents of modern paganism have come to regard Hinduism as a spiritual relative. [109], In the 1990s, Wiccan beliefs and practices were used as a partial basis for a number of US films and television series, such as The Craft, Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, leading to a surge in teenagers' and young adults' interest and involvement in the religion. [147], Based upon her work in the United States, Adler found that the pagan movement was "very diverse" in its class and ethnic background. [140] Respondents were given the option to select one or more religious affiliations. He then discusses the future prospects of Paganism, examining various social and cultural factors that work in its favour and others that work against it. [129] Neopagan movements are also present to a lesser degree elsewhere; in Dagestan 2% of the population identified with folk religious movements, while data on neopagans is unavailable for Chechnya and Ingushetia.[126]. He claimed to have been initiated by the New Forest coven in 1939, and that the religion he discovered was a survival of the pagan witch-cult described in Murray's theory. [30], The term "neo-pagan" was coined in the 19th century in reference to Renaissance and Romanticist Hellenophile classical revivalism. [150], The sociologist Regina Oboler examined the role of gender in the US pagan community, arguing that although the movement had been constant in its support for the equality of men and women ever since its foundation, there was still an essentialist view of gender engrained within it, with female deities being accorded traditional western feminine traits and male deities being similarly accorded what western society saw as masculine traits. [37] Some such groups feel a particular affinity for the pre-Christian belief systems of a particular region with which they have no ethnic link because they see themselves as reincarnations of people from that society. Adonism largely died out in the 1930s, but remained an influence on the German occult scene. Acceptance. Europe Leaves Christianity for 'Paganism' LONDON and DUBLIN - Martyr's Free Church in Edinburgh is part of the rich history of Christianity in Scotland. The 2001 UK Census figures did not allow an accurate breakdown of traditions within the pagan heading, as a campaign by the Pagan Federation before the census encouraged Wiccans, Heathens, Druids and others all to use the same write-in term 'pagan' in order to maximise the numbers reported. What Paganism Is. [102], Beit Asherah (the house of the Goddess Asherah) was one of the first neopagan synagogues, founded in the early 1990s by Stephanie Fox, Steven Posch, and Magenta Griffiths (Lady Magenta). [27] Some pagan practitioners also prefer "neopaganism", believing that the prefix conveys the reformed nature of the religion, such as its rejection of practices such as animal sacrifice. As this secret wisdom can almost always be traced to recent sources, tellers of these stories have often later admitted they made them up. pages 111130 in Olivia Cosgrove et al. [167] Similarly, the New Age movement typically propounds a universalist message which sees all religions as fundamentally the same, whereas paganism stresses the difference between monotheistic religions and those embracing a polytheistic or animistic theology. Increasing academic interest in paganism has been attributed to the new religious movement's increasing public visibility, as it began interacting with the interfaith movement and holding large public celebrations at sites like Stonehenge. As a result, fairly detailed breakdowns of pagan respondents are available. [84] Nevertheless, common to almost all pagan religions is an emphasis on an agricultural cycle and respect for the dead. This includes animism, nature religion, Druidism, pantheism, and Wicca/Witchcraft. Their religious rituals are characterized by harmonious devotion to . In 1964 Ross Nichols established the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. [71] The prominent Reclaiming priestess Starhawk related that a core part of goddess-centred pagan witchcraft was "the understanding that all being is interrelated, that we are all linked with the cosmos as parts of one living organism. (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? Renaissance and revival History of modern Paganism Contemporary Paganism is the restoration of indigenous religion, especially that of ancient Europe. In Wicca, male and female deities are typically balanced out in a form of duotheism. In 2001 about seven people per 10,000 UK respondents were pagan; in 2011 the number (based on the England and Wales population) was 14.3 people per 10,000 respondents. [81], Domestic worship typically takes place in the home and is carried out by either an individual or family group. [66] In fact, many American neopagans first came to their adopted faiths because it allowed a greater freedom, diversity, and tolerance of worship among the community. . [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. [174] Thus, many pagans keep their religion private to avoid discrimination and ostracism. [178] In 2004, the first peer-reviewed, academic journal devoted to pagan studies began publication. Most of what is considered Christian Europe is actually pagan Europe . The Pre-Druidic Period. "[142], Folklorist Sabina Magliocco supported this idea, noting that a great many of those Californian pagans whom she interviewed claimed that they had been greatly interested in mythology and folklore as children, imagining a world of "enchanted nature and magical transformations, filled with lords and ladies, witches and wizards, and humble but often wise peasants". [19] To avoid causing offense, many scholars in the English-speaking world have begun using the prefixes "modern" or "contemporary" rather than "neo". [15] On the eclectic side has been placed Wicca, Thelema, Adonism, Druidry, the Goddess Movement, Discordianism and the Radical Faeries. ", Religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska[43], Another division within modern paganism rests on differing attitudes to the source material surrounding pre-Christian belief systems. 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