[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. 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. and used standard models for extrapolating likely numbers. [7] Even within the academic field of pagan studies, there is no consensus about how contemporary paganism can best be defined. [45] Reconstructionists do not altogether reject innovation in their interpretation and adaptation of the source material, however they do believe that the source material conveys greater authenticity and thus should be emphasized. Second, there is a civic religion that like the civic paganism of old makes religious and political duties identical, and treats the city of man as the city of God (or the gods), the place where we. It was organised by two British religious studies scholars, Graham Harvey and Charlotte Hardman. Its statistics service only collects limited religious information each decade. She furthermore argues that some of those dissatisfied pagans lashed out against academics as a result, particularly on the Internet. 1 January : New Year's Day 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. [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. At the other end are eclectic movements, which blend elements of historical paganism with other religions and philosophies; examples are Wicca, neo-Druidry, and the Goddess movement. Wicca, Druid, Jedi and all of them just a new age fad among bored Europeans. 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. The figures for England and Wales showed 80,153 describing themselves as pagan (or some subgroup thereof.) The Greco-Roman traditions were a thing for the literati, and even then the understanding of it was devoid of a clear historiography and influenced by Christian values. 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. Pagan Definition. The population of Europe was growing, but in the 12th century the nun's orders on the whole were not opening new convents. [44] They often follow scholarly debates about the nature of such pre-Christian religions, and some reconstructionists are themselves scholars. The last pagan revival was under the Western Emperor Eugenius, who was a puppet of the Pagan magister millitum Arbogast. At one end is reconstructionism, which seeks to revive historical pagan religions; examples are Heathenry (Germanic), Rodnovery (Slavic), and Hellenism (Greek). . [69] As noted above, pagans with naturalistic worldviews may not believe in or work with deities at all. T hey don't look very Christianthose strange faces made of leaves, and those women displaying cartoonishly enlarged genitals on the walls of medieval churches. National holidays are often accompanied by fireworks, and sometimes processions and official ceremonies. It was the outlook of the European religions of classical antiquity - Persia . European nationalism (including the British Order of Druids), but most . Since the 1990s, many Russians have rediscovered religion, including Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Slavic Paganism. This alarming tendency is already widespread in Europe, where a majority of young adults have no faith, as a recent report showed. [] In the academic community Wicca has also been interpreted as having close affinities with process philosophy. 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. [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. [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". Most of what is considered Christian Europe is actually pagan Europe . Why is Paganism and other Occult beliefs booming in Europe, America and beyond? [17] A number of academics, particularly in North America, consider modern paganism a form of nature religion. . They frequently associated paganism with idolatry, magic and a general concept of "false religion", which for example has made Catholics and Protestants accuse each other of being pagans. Criticisms of specific neopagan groups range from criticisms of their belief in gender essentialism[181] to criticisms of their belief in Nationalism[182] to criticisms of the worldly focuses of pagan organizations.[165]. "[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. 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. This belief and the way it is expressed is often denounced as transphobia and trans-exclusionary radical feminism. [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. [95], In the 1920s Margaret Murray theorized that a secret pagan religion had survived the witchcraft persecutions enacted by the ecclesiastical and secular courts. [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. Paganism is the ancestral religion of the whole of humanity. Also accepted by many is the related definition purportedly provided by the ceremonial magician Dion Fortune: "magic is the art and science of changing consciousness according to the Will". [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. [170] The modern pagan writer Christopher Grard has drawn much inspiration from Hinduism and visited Swarup in India. OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE View All 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. Pay Less. 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]. [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. 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. The establishment and growth of the Internet in the 1990s brought rapid growth to these, and other pagan movements. [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. [3] Scholars of religion may characterise these traditions as new religious movements. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [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. Paperback. [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. 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. As a result such information is provided by religious institutions and other third-party statistical organisations. [lower-Greek 1][lower-Greek 2][bettersourceneeded], The United States government does not directly collect religious information. Many of them have not been Christianized until the 18th century. [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". [99] By the time of the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, freedom of religion was legally established across Russia and a number of other newly independent states, allowing for the growth in both Christian and non-Christian religions. This includes animism, nature religion, Druidism, pantheism, and Wicca/Witchcraft. [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. Originally used by Roman Christians to describe polytheists, it grew in Medieval Europe to describe anyone other than a Christian or indeed the "right sort" of Christian including Jews and Muslims, despite their monotheism. 2. [68], It is its inclusion of female deity which distinguishes pagan religions from their Abrahamic counterparts. Well, it's home to one of the most dynamic revival preachers in Europe, Jean-Luc Trachsel, whose ministry in Oron is growing steadily and regularly sees conversions in the hundreds. [46], On the reconstructionist side can be placed those movements which often favour the designation "Native Faith", including Romuva, Heathenry, and Hellenism. The Pew Research Center(PRC) has as one of its core areas of interest, "Religion and Public Life." It provides extensive reportage on this decline in Christian identity. [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. [120], Some Unitarian Universalists are eclectic pagans. 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