| Neopaganism began with the 19th century
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| | only recognize certain historical texts
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| Romantic movement, and the surge of
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| | and sources as being relevant to their
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| interest in Germanic paganism with the
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| | belief system, intentionally focusing on
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| Viking revival in the British Isles and
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| | one culture to the exclusion of others,
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| in Scandinavia. In Germany the Völkisch
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| | and having a general disdain for the
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| movement was in full swing. These
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| | eclectic mentality.
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| Neopagan currents resulted in a
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| | The mythological sources of the various
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| wide-spread interest in folklore,
| |
| | Neopagan traditions are similarly varied,
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| ecology, occultism, romanticism and
| |
| | including Celtic, Norse, Greek, Roman,
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| nationalism.
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| | Sumerian, Egyptian and others. Some
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| During this resurgence in the UK,
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| | groups focus solely on one cultural
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| Neo-Druidism and various Western occult
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| | tradition, while others draw from
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| groups emerged like the Hermetic Order of
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| | several. For example, Doreen Valiente's
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| the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi
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| | text The Charge of the Goddess used
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| Orientis who attempted to syncretize
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| | materials from The Gospel of Aradia by
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| "exotic" elements like Egyptian cosmology
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| | Charles G. Leland (1899), as well as
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| and Kaballah into their belief systems,
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| | material from Aleister Crowley's
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| although not necessarily for purely
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| | writings.
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| religious purposes. Influenced by the
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| | Some Neopagans also draw inspiration from
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| anthropologist Sir James George Frazer's
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| | modern traditions, including
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| The Golden Bough, several prominent
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| | Christianity, Buddhism and others,
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| writers and artists were involved in
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| | creating syncretisms like "Christian
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| these organizations, including William
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| | Witchcraft" or "Buddheo-Paganism" Since
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| Butler Yeats, Maud Gonne, Arthur Edward
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| | many Neopagan beliefs do not require
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| Waite, and Aleister Crowley. Along with
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| | exclusivity, some Neopagans practice
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| these early occult organizations, there
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| | other faiths in parallel or dual trad.
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| were other social phenomena such as the
| |
| | Since eclectic Neopagans take a rather
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| interest in mediumship, and an interest
| |
| | undogmatic religious stance, and
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| in magic and other supernatural beliefs
| |
| | sometimes see no one as having authority
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| which were at an all time high in the
| |
| | to deem a source "apocryphal",
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| late 19th century and early 20th century.
| |
| | Neopaganism has been notably prone to
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| In the 1920s Margaret Murray theorized
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| | fakelore, especially in recent years, as
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| that a witchcraft religion existed
| |
| | information and misinformation alike have
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| underground and in secret, and had
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| | been spread on the Internet and in print
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| survived through the witchcraft
| |
| | media. A number of Wiccan, Neopagan and
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| prosecutions by ecclesiastic and state
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| | even some "Traditionalist" or "Tribalist"
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| courts. Most historians now reject
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| | groups have a history of spurious
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| Murray's theory, as it was partially
| |
| | "Grandmother Stories" – usually
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| based on the similarities of the accounts
| |
| | involving initiation by a Grandmother,
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| given by those accused of witchcraft and
| |
| | Grandfather, or other elderly relative
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| such similarity is thought to actually
| |
| | who is said to have instructed them in
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| derive from the standard set of questions
| |
| | the secret, millennia-old traditions of
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| laid out in witch-hunting manuals that
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| | their ancestors. As this "secret wisdom"
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| were used by interrogators.[9]
| |
| | has almost always been traced to recent
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| In the 1940s, Englishman Gerald Gardner
| |
| | sources, or been quite obviously
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| claimed to have been initiated into a New
| |
| | concocted even more recently, most
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| Forest coven led by a woman named "Old
| |
| | proponents of these stories have
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| Dorothy", whom some surmise was actually
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| | eventually admitted they made them up.
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| a woman named Dorothy Clutterbuck - an
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| | Ecological and mystical currents
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| ex-colonial woman returned from India.
| |
| | Neopaganism generally emphasizes the
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| Gardner had already written about Malay
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| | sanctity of Earth and Nature. Some
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| native customs, as well as books about
| |
| | Neopagans are influenced by Animist
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| witchcraft. Gardnerian Wicca is used to
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| | traditions of the indigenous Native
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| refer to the traditions of Neopaganism
| |
| | Americans and Africans.
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| that adhere closely to Gardner's
| |
| | Neopagans often feel a duty to protect
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| teachings, differentiating it from
| |
| | the Earth through activism, and support
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| similar traditions, such as Alexandrian
| |
| | causes such as rainforest protection,
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| Wicca.
| |
| | Organic farming, permaculture, animal
|
| The 1960s and 1970s saw a resurgence in
| |
| | rights and so on - the frequent embracing
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| Neodruidism as well as the rise of
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| | of animal rights by Neopagans stands
|
| Germanic Neopaganism and Ásatrú in the
| |
| | sharply at odds with historic European
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| USA and in Iceland. The 1980s and 1990s
| |
| | Paganism, in which animal sacrifice was
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| saw, on the one hand, an increasing
| |
| | all but universal. Many Neopagans who are
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| interest in serious academic research and
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| | vegetarian or vegan are only such in
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| Reconstructionist Pagan traditions, and
| |
| | response to the modern factory farm,
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| on the other, more New Age,
| |
| | finding its methods of ending animal life
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| counter-cultural, and commercialized
| |
| | for food or other uses inhumane.
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| perceptions of Neopaganism, derided by
| |
| | Many Neopagans refer to themselves as
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| some Neopagans as "Wicca Lite".[10] In
| |
| | following Nature-based spirituality, and
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| the 2000s, the community is incredibly
| |
| | this ethic links Neopagan spiritual
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| large, diverse, and (given some of the
| |
| | practitioners with indigenous, shamanic,
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| above differences) sometimes polarized.
| |
| | and traditions that supposedly pre-date
|
| Oberon Zell-Ravenheart was a modern
| |
| | agricultural civilizations.
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| popularizer of the phrase "Neo-Pagan",
| |
| | Concepts of the divine
|
| beginning in 1967 with the early issues
| |
| | Most Neopagan traditions are
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| of Green Egg, described as being
| |
| | polytheistic, but the interpretation of
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| published by "the 1st Neo-Pagan Church of
| |
| | the concept of deity or deities varies
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| All Worlds"
| |
| | widely, including monist, pantheist,
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| Historical sources
| |
| | dualist, deist, animist, henotheist,
|
| Many Neopagans and Neopagan traditions
| |
| | psychological and mystical variations and
|
| attempt to incorporate elements of
| |
| | interpretations.
|
| historical religions, cultures and
| |
| | Hutton states that the historical Pagans
|
| mythologies into their beliefs and
| |
| | did not see "All Goddesses as one
|
| practices, often emphasizing the hoary
| |
| | Goddess; all Gods as one God", but some
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| age of their sources. Thus, Wicca in
| |
| | types of modern Neopagans believe that
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| particular is sometimes referred to by
| |
| | there is but a single divinity or life
|
| its proponents as the "Old Religion", a
| |
| | force of the universe, which is immanent
|
| term popularized by Margaret Murray in
| |
| | in the world. The various manifestations
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| the 1920s, while Germanic Neopaganism
| |
| | and archetypes of this divinity are not
|
| (more properly defined as a
| |
| | viewed as wholly separate, but as
|
| Meso-Paganism) is referred to as Forn Sed
| |
| | different aspects of the divine which are
|
| or "the Old Way". Such emphasis on the
| |
| | ineffable.
|
| antiquity of religious tradition is not
| |
| | In Wicca, (especially Dianic Wicca) the
|
| exclusive to Neopaganism, and is found in
| |
| | concept of an Earth or Mother Goddess
|
| many other religions. For example the
| |
| | similar to the Greek Gaia is emphasized.
|
| terms Purana, Sanatana Dharma, and the
| |
| | Male counterparts are also evoked, such
|
| emphasis on the antiquity of the Ancient
| |
| | as the Green Man and the Horned God (who
|
| Egyptian sources of the Hellenistic
| |
| | is loosely based on the Celtic
|
| Mystery religions. Antiquity of source
| |
| | Cernunnos.) These duo-theistic
|
| suggests authenticity and authority to
| |
| | philosophies tend to emphasize the God
|
| many believers.
| |
| | and Goddess' (or Lord and Lady's) genders
|
| Some claims of continuity between
| |
| | as being analogous to a concept similar
|
| Neopaganism and older forms of Paganism
| |
| | to that of yin and yang in ancient
|
| have been shown to be spurious, or
| |
| | Chinese philosophy; ie, two complementary
|
| outright false, as in the case of Iolo
| |
| | opposites. Many Oriental philosophies
|
| Morganwg's Druid's Prayer. Wiccan beliefs
| |
| | equate weakness with femininity and
|
| of an ancient monotheistic Goddess were
| |
| | strength with masculinity; this is not
|
| inspired by Marija Gimbutas's description
| |
| | the prevailing attitude in Neopaganism
|
| of Neolithic Europe. The factual
| |
| | and Wicca.[14] Among many Neopagans,
|
| historical validity of her theories have
| |
| | there is a strong desire to incorporate
|
| been disputed by many scholars, including
| |
| | the female aspects of the divine in their
|
| historian Ronald Hutton.
| |
| | worship and within their lives, which can
|
| While most Neopagans draw from old
| |
| | partially explain the attitude which
|
| religious traditions, they also adapt
| |
| | sometimes manifests as the veneration of
|
| them. The mythologies of the ancient
| |
| | women. Other Neopagans reject the concept
|
| traditions are not generally considered
| |
| | of binary gender roles.
|
| to be literally factual by Neopagans, in
| |
| | Historical Paganism, particularly in the
|
| the sense that the Bible and other
| |
| | Mediterranean, tended to regard beliefs
|
| Abrahamic texts are often thought of by
| |
| | as valid as long as they conformed to the
|
| their followers. Eclectic Neopagans in
| |
| | traditions and customs, or cultural
|
| particular are resistant to the concept
| |
| | patrimony of the people. As Christian
|
| of scripture or excessive structure,
| |
| | eschatology became a rising force, Pagan
|
| considering personal freedom to be one of
| |
| | thinkers such as Celsus and the Roman
|
| the primary goals of their spirituality.
| |
| | Emperor Julian wrote arguments against
|
| In contrast, some Reconstructionist
| |
| | Christian claims and in defense of the
|
| sects, like those who practice Theodism,
| |
| | traditional religions which give us
|
| take a stricter religious approach, and
| |
| | insight into their contrasting beliefs.
|
