Key Takeaways
When Christianity switched from a persecuted fringe faction to the state religion of the Roman Empire in 415 CE , those in the raw monotheistic mainstream come up with an revilement for the polytheistic " hicks " who still worshipped the pantheon of Roman Catholic immortal . They call them " pagans " fromthe Latin wordpaganusfor " state indweller . "
While most of the rites and practices of Pagan belief organisation died out one C ago , some modern religious seekers have recover those ancient sapience traditions and now proudly name as Pagan . By some bar , forward-looking Paganism is one of America’sfastest - growing religionswith an estimated 1 million follower of various Pagan sects in the United States . According to the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape Study , 0.3 percent of Americans key out as " Pagan orWicca , " which is the same turn who identify as Unitarian . In 2008 , there were just340,000 Pagansin the U.S.
Modern pagan religion ( also hollo Neopaganism , Contemporary pagan religion or just pagan religion ) is a revivification movement that encompasses a blanket and rich variety of polytheistic religious tradition : Sumerian , Egyptian , Greek and papistical practices , as well as Wicca ( modern witchcraft),Ásatrú(theworship of Norse gods , goddess and land spirit ) andDruidism(an Indo - European priesthood ) .
With such a diverseness of religious traditions and ritual , innovative Paganism refuse easy definition . The spiritual scholar Michael Strmiskadescribed Modern Paganismas a collection of spiritual effort " devote to reviving the polytheistic , nature - worshipping pleasure seeker religions of pre - Christian Europe and adapting them for the use of people in forward-looking high society . "
What Modern Pagans are definitelynotis " historical reenactor , " saysJefferson Calico , a organized religion professor at the University of the Cumberlands , Kentucky , and author of " Being Viking : Heathenism in Contemporary America . "
" Contemporary Pagans feel a impregnable connection to the past and look to those pre - Christian practice and culture and spiritism as inspiration for what they ’re trying to recover , regain again or create anew , " says Calico . " They expect at pre - Christian custom of the yesteryear as repository of ancient consecrated wisdom and life style that associate us to the cosmos and to each other in ways that are holy and sacred . "
Pagan Practice and Rituals
Unlike Judeo - Christian custom that center around scriptural authority , clergy and codified notion organisation , Modern Paganism is all about the rituals . The spiritual scholar Sabina Maglioccowrotethat the role of ritual in advanced pagan religion is to achieve communion with nature , with the deities , with the community and with the inner self . She describe Modern Pagan rituals as " forms of communally produce artistic verbalism " that often include drumming , saltation , ceremonial ardor , incense , and representations of the four elements ( earth , melodic line , fire and water system ) .
Although every Modern Pagan religion has its own set of rituals , there are some rough-cut themes . There are rite marking the seasons , and the cycles of the moon and sun ( solstices and equinoxes ) . There are rituals honoring specific gods or goddesses , and nature spirit . There are ritual celebrate parturition , last , marriage and rites of passage . And there are rituals that call on divine powers to heal , strengthen and comfort individuals and entire communities .
Most rituals have a three - part anatomical structure , according to Magliocco :
In Ásatrú , also known as pagan religion or Heathenry , one of the most common ritual involves the ceremonial drinking of George Herbert Mead or " love wine , " one of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to man . In the ritual known asBlót(Old Norse for " forfeiture " ) , member of the " kindred " ( community ) pass around a saddle horn filled with mead that ’s sacrifice to the gods play along by prayers to deities like Odin , Thor and Freya . ABlótcan be hold anytime , sooner outside , but two of the most importantBlótsare hold on the summer solstice ( MidsummerBlót ) andwinter solstice(YuleBlót ) .
While not as common , Magliocco mentions an Ancient Egyptian ritual calledNavigium Isidispracticed by the Fellowship of Isis in Los Angeles . Ancient Egyptians honored the rankness goddess Isis every March when the Nile would flood its bank and play living to the vale . or else of launching boats into the Nile , the members of the Fellowship of Isis make small-scale boats out of water ice ( non - polluting ) and release them into the Pacific Ocean carry their wish and prayer to the goddess .
You wo n’t find Modern Pagan " Christian church " in the sense of a building dedicate to hero-worship . For starters , Calico says , disciple choose to worship outdoors where there ’s a unmediated connection with the raw world . But there ’s also the issue of money . modernistic Pagans generally forfend involve for tithes , donations or dues that would go toward the edifice of a permanent church or temple .
The only problem with outside worship is that Pagans often have to manage with the public , whose reactions can array from curiosity to unlimited molestation .
" I ’ve been to outdoor result where masses have shout out rude thing at Pagans who are practicing their religion , " says Calico .
Wicca and Women’s Empowerment
Wicca is one of the big and oldest religious movements in advanced Paganism . This contemporaneous revival of witchcraft was first popularise in the United Kingdom in the 1950s with the writings of Gerald Gardner and after caught on in America , especially within the women ’s authorization motility of the sixties and 1970s .
" In the 1970s , cleaning woman were turn to Wicca and witchery in part because mainstream religion did n’t have a place for them in terms of leadership , " says Calico .
Margot Adler , an NPR diarist and Wiccan high priestess who wrote the landmark 1979 Good Book , " Drawing Down the synodic month : Witches , Druids , Goddess - Worshippers , and Other Pagans in America Today , " say that she was draw to Wicca and modernistic Paganism because the invocation of goddesses appealed to her feminism and the connexion to the surround resonated with her sexual love of nature , accord to The New York Times . The Wiccan generator and environmentalistStarhawkhas also writtenpopular bookson finding inner ability through Goddess worship .
In traditional Wicca practice , initiates join a coven and are infix to ritual that prepare them to become priestesses or priests . Like many other Modern Pagan religions , there ’s a magical chemical element to Wicca . Like prayer in other religions , Modern Pagansbelievethat when a ritual is performed with real intent , it can shift human knowingness and even reality itself . Wiccan can learn illusion ( or magick ) as part of a coven , or through single sketch and drill using ledger and online resources .
The popularity of modern Wicca and witchcraft has also spread beyond its Anglo radical . Brujería , which is Spanish for witchcraft , go out back to pre - Latino rituals used in ancient Latin America , Africa and the Caribbean . mod " Brujas"(“witches " ) in Hispanic and Afro - Caribbean community have revived traditions like West - AfricanYorubaand Afro - CubanSanteríathat were stigmatized by the Christian Church for 100 .
The Rise of Heathenry
In 1972 , an Icelandic valet de chambre named Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson and some friends decided to revive the public adoration of the Norse gods , tapping into text edition and communal rite have a go at it as the " Old Way . " That motion , now called Ásatrú or Heathenry , has disperse around the ball . Other Old Norse spiritual revivals followed including Theodism , Urglaawe , Irminism , Odinism and Vanatru .
In writing his book on Ásatrú in America , Calico visited with kindred across the United States , where he estimates there are between 15,000 and 20,000 ego - key out Heathens . Ásatrú accentuate communal rituals like theBlótand group study of the " Lore , " a library of Icelandic mythic narration and epics originally compose in Old Norse and now widely available in version . One of the primary text isHávamál , a poem of traditional wisdom attribute to Odin that ’s a knock-down expression of Old Norse spiritual philosophy .
As in other Modern Pagan religious campaign , Heathens display awide variety of feeling . Some take a humanistic approach in which the Norse god and goddess provide utilitarian metaphors or archetype for nominate sense of the universe . Others are hard-and-fast reconstructionists that look at the gods as distinct being that can be idolize individually or conjointly .
There ’s a splinter movement within Ásatrú and Heathenism that ’s been co - prefer by blanched nationalists who arrogate that Old Norse and Anglo - Saxon religions are solely the right of Northern Europeans , aka " white masses . " organization like the Ásatrú Folk Assembly , which exact that Asatru is tailored to the " unique make-up " of egg white , have been labeled " hate group " by the Southern Poverty Law Center . In reply , inclusive Ásatrú organizations likeThe Trothhave taken a stand for diversity and anti - racism within the religion .
The first Ásatrú tabernacle in 1,000 years iscurrently being constructedin Reykjavík , Iceland . The large wooden space is being built on a rock music outcropping traditionally connected to the powers of Odin and will hostBlóts , weddings and communal feasts .
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FAQs
Yes , modern Pagans engage in a miscellanea of ritual such as mark the seasons , honoring specific gods or goddesses , celebrating life story events and communing with nature and godlike powers .
advanced Pagans often prefer outdoor worship to connect with the natural humankind and quash traditional church structures . They engage in ritual that involve drumming , saltation , ceremonial fervency and symbolic agency of elements .
