[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. You might argue that the most successful pagan revival movement in the 20th century was National Socialism. 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. [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. [178] In 2004, the first peer-reviewed, academic journal devoted to pagan studies began publication. [23] This approach has been received critically by many specialists in religious studies. "[72], Another pivotal belief in the contemporary pagan movement is that of animism. Today, the Western nations, once considered "Christian," appear to be in the midst of a "pagan revival," as noted in a December 2018 New York Times article titled "The Return of Paganism." [82], Paganism's public rituals are generally calendrical,[70] although the pre-Christian festivals that pagans use as a basis varied across Europe. Neo-Druidry is the second-largest pagan path after Wicca,[citation needed] and shows similar heterogeneity. 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. The figures for England and Wales showed 80,153 describing themselves as pagan (or some subgroup thereof.) [48] He cites the example of Dievturba, a form of reconstructionist paganism that seeks to revive the pre-Christian religion of the Latvian people, by noting that it exhibits eclectic tendencies by adopting a monotheistic focus and ceremonial structure from Lutheranism. European nationalism (including the British Order of Druids), but most contemporary Pagan groups trace their immediate. 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. An example of a nativistic movement is: . [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. Acceptance. [169], In India, a prominent figure who made similar efforts was the Hindu revivalist Ram Swarup, who pointed out parallels between Hinduism and European and Arabic paganism. Pay Less. [19] In this, he compared it to the gay liberation movement's reappropriation of the term "queer", which had formerly been used only as a term of homophobic abuse. [179], The relationship between pagan studies scholars and some practising pagans has at times been strained. Further, some convents only accepted women of the nobility or those who . [154] Margot Adler noted groups whose practices focused on male homosexuality, such as Eddie Buczynski's Minoan Brotherhood, a Wiccan sect that combines the iconography from ancient Minoan religion with a Wiccan theology and an emphasis on men who love men, and the eclectic pagan group known as the Radical Faeries. [141] A practicing Wiccan herself, Adler used her own conversion to paganism as a case study, remarking that as a child she had taken a great interest in the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece, and had performed her own devised rituals in dedication to them. ", Letcher (2001) "The Scouring of the Shire: Fairies, Trolls and Pixies in Eco-Protest Culture", Arena - Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia, Europe's Last Pagans Worship in Mari-El Grove, "Christians! 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. [98] [124] In the US, there are estimated to be between 1 and 1.5 million practitioners.[125]. 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 . [104] Their main god is Tura, a deity comparable to the Estonian Taara, the Germanic Thunraz and the pan-Turkic Tengri. [44] They often follow scholarly debates about the nature of such pre-Christian religions, and some reconstructionists are themselves scholars. Today, we'll discuss a fascinating phenomenon that stretches back thousands of years, What if the Catholic World. [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. Their religious rituals are characterized by harmonious devotion to . Inside Iceland's pagan revival. Other forms loosely based on Gardner's teachings are Faery Wicca, Kemetic Wicca, Judeo-paganism or jewitchery, and Dianic Wicca or feminist Wicca, which emphasizes the divine feminine, often creating women-only or lesbian-only groups. Across Europe, different cultures are attempting to revive their pre-Christian religious heritage. [4] Among the critics of the upper-case P are York and Andras Corban-Arthen, president of the ECER. [81], Domestic worship typically takes place in the home and is carried out by either an individual or family group. Aby Warburgbibliophile, scholar, library founderhas become known as one of the most original and brilliant art historians of the twentieth century. These figures were not released as a matter of course by the Office for National Statistics, but were released after an application by the Pagan Federation of Scotland. Contemporary pagan ritual is typically geared towards "facilitating altered states of awareness or shifting mind-sets". The word " Asatru " combines the words "Asa," which refers to Norse gods, and "tru," meaning "faith.". Pagan; Paganism: . [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". Many of them have not been Christianized until the 18th century. "Neopagan" redirects here. Adherents of the Goddess Spirituality movement typically envision a history of the world that is different from traditional narratives about the past, emphasising the role of women rather than that of men. The up-to-date handbook introduces you to a breadth of Pagan traditions and core beliefswelcoming you to this inclusive movement with a myriad of ways to deepen your personal spirituality. [], Canada does not provide extremely detailed records of religious adherence. [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. 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. [71] For pagans, pantheism means that "divinity is inseparable from nature and that deity is immanent in nature". 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. [178] In April 1996 a larger conference dealing with contemporary paganism took place at Ambleside in the Lake District. [56], Eclectic paganism takes an undogmatic religious stance [57] and therefore potentially sees no one as having authority to deem a source apocryphal. Irish paganism is often strongly concerned with issues of place and language. [24] Critics have pointed out that such claims would cause problems for analytic scholarship by lumping together belief systems with very significant differences, and that the term would serve modern pagan interests by making the movement appear far larger on the world stage. [89] Positive identification with paganism became more common in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it tied in with criticism of Christianity and organized religion, rooted in the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and Romanticism. 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. 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. Capitalizing the word, they argue, makes "Paganism" appear as the name of a cohesive religion rather than a generic religious category, and comes off as naive, dishonest or as an unwelcome attempt to disrupt the spontaneity and vernacular quality of the movement. 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. In the Islamic World, pagans are not considered people of the book, so they do not have the same status as Abrahamic religions in Islamic religious law for example, Muslim men cannot marry pagan women while they are allowed to marry among people of the book; and Muslims can eat meat of halal animals that are slaughtered by people of the book, but not that slaughtered by methods of other religions. [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. 2. [3] Scholars of religion may characterise these traditions as new religious movements. [14] Rountree wrote that it was wrong to assume that "expressions of Paganism can be categorized straight-forwardly according to region", but acknowledged that some regional trends were visible, such as the impact of Catholicism on paganism in Southern Europe. [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. [172] Some pagans have claimed that Christian authorities have never apologized for the religious displacement of Europe's pre-Christian belief systems, particularly following the Roman Catholic Church's apology for past anti-semitism in its A Reflection on the Shoah. [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". Adherents rely on pre-Christian, folkloric, and ethnographic sources to a variety of degrees; many follow a spirituality that they accept as entirely modern, while others claim prehistoric beliefs, or else attempt to revive indigenous religions as accurately as possible. [180], Neopaganism has been criticized on a variety of fronts, ranging from pseudohistory to racial issues to institutional issues. [84] Nevertheless, common to almost all pagan religions is an emphasis on an agricultural cycle and respect for the dead. [39] Such ethnic paganisms have variously been seen as responses to concerns about foreign ideologies, globalization, cosmopolitanism, and anxieties about cultural erosion. Go home": A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia, "How Do Pagans Feel About Homosexuality? 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. Download Free . Due to this legacy, the Mari reject the word "pagan". In the first case, there is a deeply felt need to connect with the past as a source of spiritual strength and wisdom; in the second case, there is the idealistic hope that a spirituality of nature can be gleaned from ancient sources and shared with all humanity. Mari fled here from forced Christianization in the 17th to 19th centuries. European nationalism (including the British Order of Druids), but most . We all need to heed these prophetic and timely warningsand avoid being drawn into this pagan revival! [59], Religious studies scholar Graham Harvey noted that the poem "Charge of the Goddess" remains central to the liturgy of most Wiccan groups. Why is Paganism and other Occult beliefs booming in Europe, America and beyond? [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. [91] These attitudes would also be exported to North America by European immigrants in these centuries. Pagan beliefs have survived alongside Christianity. There is "considerable disagreement as to the precise definition and proper usage" of the term modern paganism. She further recounted her mother's abandonment of Sioux religion and the unsuccessful attempts of a "native preacher" to get her to attend the village church. Although animal sacrifice was a common part of pre-Christian ritual in Europe, it is rarely practiced in contemporary paganism. Adonism largely died out in the 1930s, but remained an influence on the German occult scene. [64] Others adopt the belief that the deities have both a psychological and external existence. It is, in fact, unique among Pagan paths. [167], Many pagans have sought to distance themselves from the New Age movement, even using "New Age" as an insult within their community, while conversely many involved in the New Age have expressed criticism of paganism for emphasizing the material world over the spiritual. Renaissance: Influence and Interpretations. [86], Discussions about prevailing, returning or new forms of paganism have existed throughout the modern period. [108], Historian Ronald Hutton identified a wide variety of different sources that influenced Wicca's development, including ceremonial magic, folk magic, Romanticist literature, Freemasonry, and the witch-cult theory of English archaeologist Margaret Murray. "[165] [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. [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). Rowman Altamira. "[44] Strmiska argues that these two poles could be termed reconstructionism and eclecticism, respectively. 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". 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