Modern Paganism

Summary

Modern Paganism, sometimes referred to as contemporary Paganism or Neopaganism, represents a family of related new religions that are all inspired by the extinct non-Abrahamic traditions of Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. These culturally alternative spiritualities arose principally from the environment of 19th-century occultism and cultural romanticism, trends which brought forth an increasingly positive reassessment of pre-Christian religion. The fuller emergence of a modern Pagan milieu followed in the early 20th century, as English occultist Aleister Crowley developed his Egyptian-influenced religion of Thelema and Germanophone völkisch nationalists began to revive the worship of Wotan. Over the course of the 1920s and 1930s, further modern Pagan groups sprung from the nationalist groundswells of Central and Eastern Europe, and 1950s Britain saw the formation of Gerald Gardner’s Wicca—a religion of modern Pagan witchcraft. By the 1960s, the United States was taking center stage in the Pagan world, with American Pagans generating a plethora of new traditions, often under the influence of social movements like feminism. The collapse of Marxist governments across Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s subsequently helped open space for the public reemergence of Pagan traditions in that region, among them Russian Rodnoverie, Lithuanian Romuva, and Latvian Dievturība.

There is considerable variation in the beliefs of these modern Pagan groups, although all draw, often to a considerable extent, on one or more of the pre-Abrahamic spiritual traditions of the Old World. Accordingly, they usually display a degree of skepticism toward the Christianity and Islam which came to dominate this area in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Similarly, the modern Pagan religions typically share a concern for the natural world and with it a certain sympathy for environmentalism, sometimes rhetorically presenting themselves as “Earth religions” or “nature spiritualities.” Beyond that, there is considerable variation in outlook. Theologically, some Pagans are polytheists; others are monotheists or even atheists. Different Pagan groups commit themselves to different ethical tenets and often display very different ideological worldviews from each other. Many Pagan movements espouse ethnonationalism and strong social conservatism; others intertwine their traditions with a progressive commitment to feminism, racial inclusion, or LGBT rights.

Emphasis is typically placed on embodied practice, and rituals and ceremonies often center on a shrine or altar created as a space through which Pagans can engage with deities, lesser spirits, or ancestors. Offerings will usually be gifted to these entities, varyingly consisting of creative performances, food and drink, and on rarer occasions animal sacrifices. Other Pagan rites involve divination, ceremonial magic, or the cultivation of altered state of consciousness through which practitioners hope to engage directly with beings of the otherworld.