Mao Zedong's cult of personality was a prominent part of ChairmanMao Zedong's rule over the People's Republic of China from his rise in 1949 until his death in 1976. Mass media, propaganda
and a series of other techniques were used by the state to elevate Mao
Zedong's status to that of an infallible heroic leader, who could stand
up against The West, and guide China to become a beacon of Communism. Mao himself, however, publicly criticized the personality cult which was formed around him.
During the period of Cultural Revolution, Mao's personality cult soared to an unprecedented height. Mao's face was firmly established on the front page of People's Daily,
where a column of his quotes was also printed every day. Mao's Selected
Works were later printed in even greater circulation; the number of his
portraits (1.2 billion) was more than the inhabitants in China. And
soon Chairman Mao badges began to appear; in total, about 4.8 billion were manufactured. Every Chinese citizen was presented with the Little Red Book
- a selection of quotes from Mao. It was prescribed to be carried
everywhere and displayed at all public events, and citizens were
expected to quote the contents of the book daily.
The personality cult of Mao Zedong can be traced back to the 1930s, to his involvement in Jiangxi on the Long March (1934–36), and especially during the Yan'an period in the early 1940s. In 1943, during the Yan'an Rectification Movement,
newspapers began to appear with a portrait of Mao in the editorial, and
soon the "ideas of Mao Zedong" became the official program of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
After the victory of the Communists in the Civil War,
posters, portraits, and later statues of Mao began to appear in city
squares, in offices and even in citizens' apartments. In 1957, Mao
launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign,
which was regarded as a continuation of the Yan'an Rectification
Movement and further consolidated the rule of the Communist Party and
Mao in mainland China. However, the Great Leap Forward caused tens of millions of deaths during the Great Chinese Famine, forcing Mao to take a semi-retired role in 1962. The reputation of Liu Shaoqi, the 2nd President of China, grew so high that challenged the status of Mao. As response, Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement in 1963.
The cult of Mao was brought to its peak by Lin Biao in the mid-1960s. In 1964, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, commonly known as the Little Red Book, was published for the first time, which later became one of the most famous symbols of the Cultural Revolution.
A kindergarten classroom in Shanghai displaying portraits of then-Chairman Hua Guofeng and former Chairman Mao Zedong (1978)
Mao's cult was significantly elevated during the Cultural Revolution, despite the major failures of his Great Leap Forward
campaign only years prior. The established Cultural Revolution
Committee preferred not to take harsh measures against critics of the
regime at first. And so Mao decided to turn to the grassroots of the
revolution and "true socialism" where he reaffirmed the foundation of
his cause - "in addition to left-wing radicals - Chen Boda, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao, Mao Zedong's ally in this enterprise was to be primarily Chinese youth".
Mao once again proved his “fighting efficiency” after swimming across the Yangtze
River in July 1966, in an annual swim that commemorates his first
historic swim across in 1956. Following this upon his return to Beijing he made a powerful attack on the liberal wing of the party, mainly on President Liu Shaoqi. A little later, the CCP Central Committee approved Mao's Sixteen Points on the Cultural Revolution,
an early expression of the political views and objectives of the
cultural revolution. It began with attacks on the leadership of Beijing University
lecturer Nie Yuanzi. Following this, students of secondary schools, in
an effort to confront conservative and often corrupt teachers and
professors. This political initiative was strategically cultivated by
Mao, who skillfully fanned the “leftists” in organizing themselves in
“hongweibin” detachments - “Red Guards”. The left-controlled press subsequently launched a campaign against the liberal intelligentsia. Unable to withstand persecution, some of its representatives as well as party leaders committed suicide.
On 5 August, Mao Zedong published his own dazibao (big-character poster), a short but pivotal document titled “Bombard the Headquarters”,
which called out leading figures who were leading the bourgeoisie whom
were trying to suppress the rapid movement of the great proletarian
cultural revolution.
With the logistical support of the People's Army provided by Lin Biao, the Red Guard movement became a nationwide phenomenon. This movement persecuted leading workers and professors
throughout the country, subjected them to all kinds of humiliation, and
often beat them. Following this, at a million-strong rally in August
1966, Mao expressed full support and approval for the actions of the Red
Guards, giving them further validation and permission to continue their
actions. Soon after, more and more brutal atrocities by the Red Guard
took place. For example, among other representatives of the
intelligentsia, famous Chinese writer Lao She was brutally tortured and committed suicide.
Throughout all areas of life, classes and regions of the country,
the presence of the Red Guard was felt. Not only famous personalities,
but also ordinary citizens were robbed, beaten, tortured and their
belongings destroyed, often for the most insignificant of actions. The
Red Guard destroyed countless works of art, burned millions of books,
thousands of monasteries, temples, and libraries. Soon, in addition to
the Red Guard, detachments of revolution working youth - Zhaofans
(rebels) formed. Both movements divided into warring factions, sometimes
waging a bloody struggle between themselves.
When tension reached a peak between these two factions the life
in many cities froze, and so regional leaders and the PLA decided to
oppose the riots. Classes between the military and the Red Guard, as
well as internal clashes between revolutionary youth put China at the
risk of civil war. Realizing the instability Mao decided to end the
revolutionary terror by sending millions of Red Guard, Zhaofans and
party workers to villages spread around the country. This marked the
final stages of the revolution. China was figuratively and in some parts
literally, lying in ruins.
The 10th CCP Congress, which took place in Beijing from 1 to 24
April 1969, approved the first results of the "Cultural Revolution". In
this report, one of the closest associates of Mao Zedong, Marshal Lin
Biao, ensured praise is focused on the "great helmsman", whose ideas
were called "the highest stage in the development of Marxism–Leninism".
This new CCP charter officially consolidation of "the ideas of Mao
Zedong" as the ideological basis of the CCP. The program part of the
charter included an unprecedented provision that Lin Biao is "the
continuation of the work of Comrade Mao Zedong”. The entire leadership
of the party, government and army was concentrated in the hands of the
Chairman of the CCP, his deputy and the Standing Committee of the
Politburo of the Central Committee.
During the Cultural Revolution, Mao's personality cult manifested itself in the ubiquitous wearing of badges depicting Chairman Mao, and people carrying around a Little Red Book with the writings of Mao, which would be studied and quoted from at every opportunity. There was even a "loyalty dance" (忠字舞) which people would perform in order to demonstrate their loyalty to the great leader.
In propaganda writings, such as PLA's legendary communist soldier Lei Feng's
Diary, loud slogans and fiery speeches significantly elevated the cult
of Mao. Crowds of young people drove themselves into hysteria, shouting
toasts to the "red sun of our hearts" - "the wisest chairman Mao." Mao
Zedong became a figure on which almost everything was focused in China.
During the years of the cultural revolution, a real psychosis reigned in
the country: the Red Guards beat those who dared to appear without the
image of Mao Zedong; passengers of buses and trains had to repeat
excerpts from the Little Red Book. Classic and modern works were
destroyed such that Chinese citizens could only read the Little Red
Book, which was published in tens of millions of copies.
The following quotes epitomize this Red Guard's thoughts surrounding Chairman Mao, in their manifesto they wrote:
"We are the red guards of
Chairman Mao, we make the country writhe in convulsions. We tear and
destroy calendars, precious vases, records from the USA and England,
amulets, ancient drawings and elevate above all this the portrait of
Chairman Mao."
Ye Jianying
Chairman of the NPC Standing CommitteeYe Jianying in 1979 described the time of Mao Zedong's reign as a "feudal fascist dictatorship". A different assessment was later given.
"Comrade Mao Zedong is a great
Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist. If
we consider his life and work as a whole, his merits before the Chinese
revolution to a large extent prevail over misses, despite the serious
mistakes made by him in the "cultural revolution". His merits occupy the
main place, and mistakes take a secondary place."
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution artists were condemned as
counter revolutionaries, and their work was destroyed. Instead this was
replaced with government made art that supported Maoism,
and redirected efforts towards agriculture, industry and national
defense, as well as concerns such as hygiene and family planning.
Under the command of Lin Biao, the People's Liberation Army's efforts
were increasing employed to bolster the personality cult surrounding
Mao, eventually creating Mao's god-like image. In addition to this revolutionary songs such as Mao Zedong is our sun or Hymn to Chairman Mao
were sung by schoolchildren, soldiers, prisoners and office workers.
These tunes were also played from loudspeakers installed on street
corners, railway stations, dormitories, canteens and all major
institutions.
Artwork
Images
of Mao's face appeared everywhere, from portraits in schools and
government buildings, to street signs and wall murals, even small
shrines within private homes were not unusual.
Guided by Maoist thought, the contents of the propaganda were militant,
with messages of proletarian ideology, communist morale and spirit, and
revolutionary heroism. Simplistic in design and coloring, red was heavily featured and symbolized everything revolutionary, good and moral. Depictions of Mao often featured him as a benevolent father, bringing the Confucian mechanisms of obedience into play.
Mao was frequently portrayed either leading or directing the masses, or
looming over them like a demigod. His image was considered more
important than the occasion for which a particular work of propaganda
art was designed: in a number of cases, identical posters dedicated to
Mao were published in different years bearing different slogans.
The Great Four titles
Emphasizing his ability to steer China's future, Mao was referred to as "the great leader Chairman Mao" (伟大领袖毛主席) in public and he was entitled "the great leader, the great supreme commander, the great teacher and the great helmsman" (伟大的领袖、伟大的统帅、伟大的导师、伟大的舵手)
during the Cultural Revolution. This could also be influenced by the
role Mao played in guiding the Red Army on the Long March to escape the
Chinese Nationalist Party. The accounts by Mao and his followers during
this time painted him as innovative, inspirational and strategically
brilliant, as assessment at odds with the views of several historians.
Officially titled 'Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung', it was central symbol of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The book was used to promote the popularity of Chairman Mao, and his brand of communism called Maoism'. Wrapped in a distinctive red vinyl cover, it became more commonly known as the 'Little Red Book' .
This book contained a series of political and cultural statements from
Mao Zedong's speeches and writings, which campaigned the slogan from the
Karl Marx'sCommunist Manifesto, "Workers of the world, unite!".
Printed since 1964 until around Mao's death in 1976, over a billion copies were distributed throughout China. During the period of China's Cultural Revolution
it became almost mandatory for all citizens to carry a copy, so that
they could easily refer to it for guidance and become inspired. Failure
to produce a copy when requested would often result in a punishment from
the Red Guard, which varied from verbal harassment and beatings, to a prison sentence. The final edition listed 267 quotations spanning over 25 topics such as war, peace, unity & discipline.
The simplification of Mao's writings also finally gave access to the
thoughts and ideas of communists to peasants and lower-class citizens,
this helped to further solidify support for his cult of personality.
Notable Quotes from the Little Red Book
"Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
This phrase was first used during an emergency meeting of the CCP on 7 August 1927, at the beginning of the Chinese Civil War.
"All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful."
A "Paper Tiger"
refers to something or someone that claims or appears to be powerful
and/or threatening, but actually has no real power. It was popularized
by Mao Zedong, often using it against political opponents such as the
U.S. Government.
"A revolution is not a dinner
party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing
embroidery... A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by
which one class overthrows another."
This quote from Mao Zedong emphasizes the struggle and difficulty of
the communist revolution and the means by which he is willing to achieve
it, suggesting that violence will be an unavoidable component of the
revolution.
Loyalty dance
Children at school performing folkloric dances, Kashgar, Xinjiang (1986)
In the late 60s, during the Cultural Revolution,
Mao's cult of personality reached new heights, with citizens performing
a "Loyalty Dance" (忠字舞; zhōngzì wǔ) to express their love to the
chairman.
This simple dance did not involve much more than stretching one's arms
from the heart to Mao's portrait, with movements originating from a folk
dance popular in Xinjiang. It was frequently accompanied by revolutionary songs including "Beloved Chairman Mao", "Golden Hill of Beijing" or "Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman".
Some lyrics included the quote "No matter how close our parents are to
us, they are not as close as our relationship with Mao", which was used
to inspire a spirit of collective worship.
A notable slogan related to the Loyalty Dance was the "Three Loyalties"
(三忠于): loyalty to Chairman Mao; loyalty to Mao Zedong Thought; loyalty
to Chairman Mao's revolutionary line. The loyalty dance (忠字舞; zhōngzì wǔ)
was an everyday fixture of life in the late 1960s, which was practiced
in order to display one's lifelong devotion to Mao Zedong and exercise
total discipline. Nevertheless, by the 70's it was fleeting, and as the cultural revolution came to an end it rapidly waned.
Mango worship
In
August 1968 Mao presented members of a 30,000-strong propaganda team,
who had been sent to pacify a Red Guard insurrection at Qinghua University, with four dozen mangos as a sign of appreciation. Mao had given his security chief Wang Dongxing the fruits for delivery to leaders of the propaganda team. Mao had been given the mangos from a delegation from Pakistan, headed by foreign minister Mian Arshad Hussain,
and sent them to a range of student groups in the capital. "The
factories and universities that received the mangoes were overfilled
with joy at this Great, Greatest, Happiest of Events." Part of the Mao
cult was about preserving and showing the mangos: some were placed in
glass, others were put in a jar of formaldehyde. In one case, water in a
tank in which one of the mangos was being kept was given to factory
workers, so they could "literally [be] filled with the spirit of Mao."
After his death
Legacy
Mao and Robert F. Williams
Elements of his cult of personality continue to exist. He is still
the “galleon figure” of Chinese communism, he is still honored, Mao's
monuments are still standing in the cities, and his image adorns Chinese
banknotes, badges and stickers. Moreover - some of Mao's monuments were
erected after his death. However, the current cult of Mao among
ordinary citizens, especially young people, should rather be attributed
to the manifestations of modern pop culture, and not to a conscious
worship of this person's thinking and deeds. In fact, Mao Zedong has
become a commercial brand in modern China.
Shining Path poster in Peru
Mao left his successors a country in a deep, comprehensive crisis.
After the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, China's
economy stagnated, intellectual and cultural life was crushed by
left-wing radicals, political culture was completely absent
due to excessive public politicization and ideological chaos. The
crippled fate of tens of millions of people throughout China who have
suffered from senseless and brutal campaigns should be considered a
particularly serious legacy of the Mao regime. Estimates of the number
of victims of the Maoist regime vary greatly. According to various sources, only half a million died during the cultural revolution
up to 20 million people. Another 100 million were affected one way or
another in its course. The number of victims of the "Great Leap Forward"
was even greater, but since the majority of them were in the rural
population, even the approximate number characterizing the scale of the
disaster is unknown.
On the other hand, one cannot fail to admit that Mao, having
received an underdeveloped agricultural country, mired in corruption,
anarchy and general devastation, in a short time made it a fairly
powerful, independent state with atomic weapons. During his reign, the
percentage of illiteracy decreased from 80% to 7%, life expectancy increased by 2 times, population has more than doubled, industrial production - more than 10 times. He managed to unite China, and also included Inner Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkestan. The ideology of Maoism
has also had a great influence on the development of leftists,
including revolutionary movements in many countries of the world — the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Shining Path in Peru, the "Maoist Centre" in Nepal, and the communist movements in the US and Europe.
Meanwhile, China itself, after the death of Mao, in its economy has
moved far from the ideas of Mao Zedong, preserving the communist
ideology. The reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping
in 1979 and continued by his followers de facto made the Chinese
economy capitalistic, with corresponding consequences for domestic and
foreign policy.
In China itself, the persona of Mao is evaluated extremely
ambiguously. On the one hand, part of the population sees him as a hero
of the Civil War, a strong ruler, a charismatic personality.
Some older Chinese people are nostalgic for their confidence in the
future, equality and the absence of corruption, which, in their opinion,
existed in the era of Mao.
On the other hand, many people cannot forgive Mao for the cruelty and
mistakes of his massive campaigns, especially the cultural revolution.
Today in China, it is allowed to speak openly about the role of Mao in
the modern history of the country, discussions about the negative
aspects of his rule are allowed,
however, too harsh criticism is not welcomed and suppressed. In the
PRC, the official formula for evaluating his activity remains the
opinion given by Mao himself as a characteristic of Stalin's activity
(as a response to the revelations in Khrushchev's secret report): 70
percent of victories and 30 percent of mistakes.
In this way, the CCP is seeking recognition of its power in a situation
where the bourgeois economy in the PRC is combined with communist
ideology.
Mao has been depicted on postage stamps in China, Albania, and East Germany. The collage “Marilyn in the image of Mao" or “Marilyn/Mao” (created by the American photographer Philippe Halsman in 1952) turned into an artistic image used by many famous artists such as Salvador Dalí, Chinese artists Yu Juhan, and Hua Jimin.
Chairman Mao badge
Trading markets of Chairman Mao badges
were common during the Cultural Revolution, particularly during the
chuanlian movement in which Red Guards travelled for free around the
country to “exchange revolutionary experiences“. Maoist memorabilia
began reemerging in the early 1990s, as teenagers who were too young to
remember the horrors of the Cultural Revolution began to snap up Mao
badges for their kitsch appeal.
Moreover, in the 1990s, the markets were targeting Westerners with
commodification. Cultural Revolution badges are rampant in markets
frequented by Chinese and Westerners, and new replicas of badges are
sold in luxury hotels and tourist sites only minutes from Mao's
mausoleum. "Mao badge museums" can be toured at modest prices, and,
recently, and American catalogue advertised Mao badges for $12 a badge.
Chairman Mao badge made of porcelain, showing a young Mao at Yan'an, Shaanxi.
Badges were most common from 1967 to 1969, when wearing them was
considered a sign of loyalty to the Great Helmsman. There were many such
badges. Icons with a portrait of Mao became a symbol of his cult of
personality. An estimated 2 billion badges have been manufactured during
the years of the cultural revolution. In 1969, Mao said that the
country needed aluminum to produce aircraft, and they began to make less
icons.
Modern Paganism, also known as Contemporary Paganism and Neopaganism, is a collective term for religious movements influenced by or derived from the various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern peoples.
Although they share similarities, contemporary Pagan religious
movements are diverse, and do not share a single set of beliefs,
practices, or texts.
Most academics who study the phenomenon treat it as a movement that is
divided into different religions; others characterize it as a single
religion of which different Pagan faiths are denominations.
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, ethnic religions as accurately as possible. Academic research has placed the Pagan movement along a spectrum, with eclecticism on one end and polytheistic reconstructionism on the other. Polytheism, animism, and pantheism are common features of Pagan theology.
Contemporary Paganism has sometimes been associated with the New Age movement, with scholars highlighting both their similarities and differences. The academic field of Pagan studies began to coalesce in the 1990s, emerging from disparate scholarship in the preceding two decades.
Terminology
Definition
There is "considerable disagreement as to the precise definition and proper usage" of the term "modern Paganism". Even within the academic field of Pagan studies, there is no consensus about how contemporary Paganism can best be defined. Most scholars describe modern Paganism as a broad array of different religions, not a single one. The category of modern Paganism could be compared to the categories of Abrahamic religions and Indian religions in its structure. A second, less common definition found within Pagan studies—promoted by the religious studies scholars Michael F. Strmiska and Graham Harvey—characterises modern Paganism as a single religion, of which groups like Wicca, Druidry, and Heathenry are denominations.
This perspective has been critiqued, given the lack of core
commonalities in issues such as theology, cosmology, ethics, afterlife,
holy days, or ritual practices within the Pagan movement.
Contemporary Paganism has been defined as "a collection of modern
religious, spiritual, and magical traditions that are self-consciously
inspired by the pre-Judaic, pre-Christian, and pre-Islamic belief
systems of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East."
Thus it has been said that although it is "a highly diverse
phenomenon", "an identifiable common element" nevertheless runs through
the Pagan movement.
Strmiska described Paganism as a movement "dedicated to reviving the
polytheistic, nature-worshipping pagan religions of pre-Christian Europe
and adapting them for the use of people in modern societies." 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."
Discussing the relationship between the different Pagan
religions, religious studies scholars Kaarina Aitamurto and Scott
Simpson wrote that they were "like siblings who have taken different
paths in life but still retain many visible similarities".
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. The various Pagan religions have been academically classified as new religious movements, with the anthropologist Kathryn Rountree describing Paganism as a whole as a "new religious phenomenon". A number of academics, particularly in North America, consider modern Paganism a form of nature religion.
Some practitioners eschew the term "Pagan" altogether, preferring the
more specific name of their religion, such as "Heathen" or "Wiccan". This is because the term "Pagan" originates in Christian terminology, which Pagans wish to avoid. Some favor the term "ethnic religion"; the World Pagan Congress, founded in 1998, soon renamed itself the European Congress of Ethnic Religions (ECER), enjoying that term's association with the Greek ethnos and the academic field of ethnology. Within linguistically Slavic areas of Europe, the term "Native Faith" is often favored as a synonym for Paganism, rendered as Ridnovirstvo in Ukrainian, Rodnoverie in Russian, and Rodzimowierstwo in Polish.
Alternately, many practitioners in these regions view "Native Faith" as
a category within modern Paganism that does not encompass all Pagan
religions.
Other terms some Pagans favor include "traditional religion",
"indigenous religion", "nativist religion", and "reconstructionism".
Various Pagans who are active in Pagan studies, such as Michael York
and Prudence Jones, have argued that, due to similarities in their
worldviews, the modern Pagan movement can be treated as part of the same
global phenomenon as pre-Christian Ancient religions, living Indigenous religions, and world religions like Hinduism, Shinto, and Afro-American religions. They have also suggested that these could all be included under the rubric of "paganism" or "Paganism". This approach has been received critically by many specialists in religious studies.
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. Doyle White writes that modern religions that draw upon the pre-Christian belief systems of other parts of the world, such as Sub-Saharan Africa or the Americas, cannot be seen as part of the contemporary Pagan movement, which is "fundamentally Eurocentric". 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".
Reappropriation of "paganism"
Many
scholars have favored the use of "Neopaganism" to describe this
phenomenon, with the prefix "neo-" serving to distinguish the modern
religions from their ancient, pre-Christian forerunners.
Some Pagan practitioners also prefer "Neopaganism", believing that the
prefix conveys the reformed nature of the religion, such as its
rejection of practices such as animal sacrifice. Conversely, most Pagans do not use the word "Neopagan",
with some expressing disapproval of it, arguing that the term "neo"
offensively disconnects them from what they perceive as their
pre-Christian forebears.
To avoid causing offense, many scholars in the English-speaking world
have begun using the prefixes "modern" or "contemporary" rather than
"neo". 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. In 2015, Rountree stated that this lower case/upper case division was "now [the] convention" in Pagan studies.
Among the critics of the upper-case P are York and Andras
Corban-Arthen, president of the ECER. 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.
The Parthenon, an ancient pre-Christian temple in Athens dedicated to the goddess Athena.
Strmiska believed that modern Pagans in part reappropriate the term
"pagan" to honor the cultural achievements of Europe's pre-Christian
societies
The term "neo-pagan" was coined in the 19th century in reference to Renaissance and RomanticistHellenophile classical revivalism. By the mid-1930s "Neopagan" was being applied to new religious movements like Jakob Wilhelm Hauer's German Faith Movement and Jan Stachniuk's Polish Zadruga, usually by outsiders and often pejoratively. Pagan as a self-designation appeared in 1964 and 1965, in the publications of the Witchcraft Research Association;
at that time, the term was in use by revivalist Witches in the United
States and the United Kingdom, but unconnected to the broader, counterculture
Pagan movement. The modern popularisation of the terms pagan and
neopagan as they are currently understood is largely traced to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, co-founder of the 1st Neo-Pagan Church of All Worlds who, beginning in 1967 with the early issues of Green Egg, used both terms for the growing movement. This usage has been common since the pagan revival in the 1970s.
According to Strmiska, the reappropriation
of the term "pagan" by modern Pagans served as "a deliberate act of
defiance" against "traditional, Christian-dominated society", allowing
them to use it as a source of "pride and power". 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.
He suggests that part of the term's appeal lay in the fact that a large
proportion of Pagan converts were raised in Christian families, and
that by embracing the term "pagan", a word long used for what was
"rejected and reviled by Christian authorities", a convert summarizes
"in a single word his or her definitive break" from Christianity. 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",
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.
Divisions
Ethnicity and region
Some examples of symbols for various modern pagan religions
For some Pagan groups, ethnicity is central to their religion, and some restrict membership to a single ethnic group. Some critics have described this approach as a form of racism.
Other Pagan groups allow people of any ethnicity, on the view that the
gods and goddesses of a particular region can call anyone to their form
of worship.
Some such groups feel a particular affinity for the pre-Christian
belief systems of a particular region with which they have no ethnic
link because they see themselves as reincarnations of people from that society.
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. Such ethnic Paganisms have variously been seen as responses to concerns about foreign ideologies, globalization, cosmopolitanism, and anxieties about cultural erosion.
Although they acknowledged that it was "a highly simplified
model", Aitamurto and Simpson wrote that there was "some truth" to the
claim that leftist-oriented forms of Paganism were prevalent in North America and the British Isles while rightist-oriented forms of Paganism were prevalent in Central and Eastern Europe.
They noted that in these latter regions, Pagan groups placed an
emphasis on "the centrality of the nation, the ethnic group, or the
tribe".
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.
Eclecticism and reconstructionism
"We might say that Reconstructionist Pagans romanticize the past,
while Eclectic Pagans idealize the future. 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."
— Religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska
Another division within modern Paganism rests on differing attitudes
to the source material surrounding pre-Christian belief systems.
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." Strmiska argues that these two poles could be termed reconstructionism and eclecticism, respectively.
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.
They often follow scholarly debates about the nature of such
pre-Christian religions, and some reconstructionists are themselves
scholars. Eclectic Pagans,
conversely, seek general inspiration from the pre-Christian past, and
do not attempt to recreate past rites or traditions with specific
attention to detail.
On the reconstructionist side can be placed those movements which often favour the designation "Native Faith", including Romuva, Heathenry, and Hellenism. On the eclectic side has been placed Wicca, Thelema, Adonism, Druidry, the Goddess Movement, Discordianism and the Radical Faeries.
Strmiska also suggests that this division could be seen as being based
on "discourses of identity", with reconstructionists emphasizing a
deep-rooted sense of place and people, and eclectics embracing a
universality and openness toward humanity and the Earth.
Strmiska nevertheless notes that this reconstructionist-eclectic
division is "neither as absolute nor as straightforward as it might
appear". He cites the example of Dievturība, 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. Similarly, while examining neo-shamanism among the Sami people
of Northern Scandinavia, Siv Ellen Kraft highlights that despite the
religion being reconstructionist in intent, it is highly eclectic in the
manner in which it has adopted elements from shamanic traditions in other parts of the world.
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 Æsir gods; as well as strongly eschewing the emphasis on ethnicity that is common to other reconstructionist groups. While Wicca is identified as an eclectic form of Paganism,
Strmiska also notes that some Wiccans have moved in a more
reconstructionist direction by focusing on a particular ethnic and
cultural link, thus developing such variants as Norse Wicca and Celtic Wicca.
Concern has also been expressed regarding the utility of the term
"reconstructionism" when dealing with Paganisms in Central and Eastern
Europe, because in many of the languages of these regions, equivalents
of the term "reconstructionism" – such as the Czech Historická rekonstrukce and Lithuanian Istorinė rekonstrukcija – are already used to define the secular hobby of historical re-enactment.
"Modern Pagans are reviving, reconstructing, and reimagining
religious traditions of the past that were suppressed for a very long
time, even to the point of being almost totally obliterated... Thus,
with only a few possible exceptions, today's Pagans cannot claim to be
continuing religious traditions handed down in an unbroken line from
ancient times to the present. 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."
— Religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska
Although inspired by the pre-Christian belief systems of the past,
modern Paganism is not the same phenomenon as these lost traditions and
in many respects differs from them considerably.
Strmiska stresses that modern Paganism is a "new", "modern" religious
movement, even if some of its content derives from ancient sources.
Contemporary Paganism as practiced in the United States in the 1990s
has been described as "a synthesis of historical inspiration and
present-day creativity".
Eclectic Paganism takes an undogmatic religious stance and therefore potentially sees no one as having authority to deem a
source apocryphal. 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. A number of Wiccan,
pagan and even some Traditionalist or Tribalist groups have a history
of Grandmother Stories – typically involving initiation by a
Grandmother, Grandfather, or other elderly relative who is said to have
instructed them in the secret, millennia-old traditions of their
ancestors. As this secret wisdom can almost always be traced to recent
sources, tellers of these stories have often later admitted they made
them up.
Strmiska asserts that contemporary paganism could be viewed as a part
of the "much larger phenomenon" of efforts to revive "traditional,
indigenous, or native religions" that were occurring across the globe.
Beliefs and practices vary widely among different Pagan groups;
however, there are a series of core principles common to most, if not
all, forms of modern paganism. The English academic Graham Harvey noted that Pagans "rarely indulge in theology".
Polytheism
One principle of the Pagan movement is polytheism, the belief in and veneration of multiple gods or goddesses.
Within the Pagan movement, there can be found many deities, both male
and female, who have various associations and embody forces of nature,
aspects of culture, and facets of human psychology. These deities are typically depicted in human form, and are viewed as having human faults. They are therefore not seen as perfect, but rather are venerated as being wise and powerful. Pagans feel that this understanding of the gods reflected the dynamics of life on Earth, allowing for the expression of humour.
One view in the Pagan community is that these polytheistic deities are not viewed as literal entities, but as Jungian archetypes or other psychological constructs that exist in the human psyche. Others adopt the belief that the deities have both a psychological and external existence. Many Pagans believe adoption of a polytheistic world-view would be beneficial for western society – replacing the dominant monotheism they see as innately repressive. In fact, many American neopagans
first came to their adopted faiths because it allowed a greater
freedom, diversity, and tolerance of worship among the community. This pluralistic perspective has helped the varied factions of modern Paganism exist in relative harmony. Most Pagans adopt an ethos of "unity in diversity" regarding their religious beliefs.
It is its inclusion of female deity which distinguishes Pagan religions from their Abrahamic counterparts.
In Wicca, male and female deities are typically balanced out in a form of duotheism.
Among many Pagans, there is a strong desire to incorporate the female
aspects of the divine in their worship and within their lives, which can
partially explain the attitude which sometimes manifests as the veneration of women.
There are exceptions to polytheism in Paganism, as seen for instance in the form of Ukrainian Paganism promoted by Lev Sylenko, which is devoted to a monotheistic veneration of the god Dazhbog. As noted above, Pagans with naturalistic worldviews may not believe in or work with deities at all.
Pagan religions commonly exhibit a metaphysical concept of an
underlying order that pervades the universe, such as the concept of harmonia embraced by Hellenists and that of Wyrd found in Heathenry.
A key part of most Pagan worldviews is the holistic concept of a universe that is interconnected. This is connected with a belief in either pantheism or panentheism. In both beliefs, divinity and the material or spiritual universe are one. For pagans, pantheism means that "divinity is inseparable from nature and that deity is immanent in nature".
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. The prominent Reclaiming priestess Starhawk
related that a core part of goddess-centred pagan witchcraft was "the
understanding that all being is interrelated, that we are all linked
with the cosmos as parts of one living organism. What affects one of us
affects us all."
Another pivotal belief in the contemporary Pagan movement is that of animism.
This has been interpreted in two distinct ways among the Pagan
community. First, it can refer to a belief that everything in the
universe is imbued with a life force or spiritual energy.
In contrast, some contemporary Pagans believe that there are specific
spirits that inhabit various features in the natural world, and that
these can be actively communicated with. Some Pagans have reported
experiencing communication with spirits dwelling in rocks, plants, trees
and animals, as well as power animals or animal spirits who can act as spiritual helpers or guides.
Animism was also a concept common to many pre-Christian European
religions, and in adopting it, contemporary Pagans are attempting to
"reenter the primeval worldview" and participate in a view of cosmology
"that is not possible for most Westerners after childhood".
All Pagan movements place great emphasis on the divinity of nature as a primary source of divine will, and on humanity's membership of the natural world, bound in kinship to all life and the Earth itself. The animistic aspects of Pagan theology assert that all things have a soul - not just humans or organic life
- so this bond is held with mountains and rivers as well as trees and
wild animals. As a result, Pagans believe the essence of their
spirituality is both ancient and timeless, regardless of the age of
specific religious movements. Places of natural beauty are therefore
treated as sacred and ideal for ritual, like the nemetons of the ancient Celts.
Many Pagans hold that different lands and/or cultures have their own natural religion, with many legitimate interpretations of divinity, and therefore reject religious exclusivism.
A Wiccan altar belonging to Doreen Valiente, displaying the Wiccan view of sexual duality in divinity
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.
Pagan ritual can take place in both a public and private setting.
Contemporary Pagan ritual is typically geared towards "facilitating altered states of awareness or shifting mind-sets".
In order to induce such altered states of consciousness, pagans utilize
such elements as drumming, visualization, chanting, singing, dancing,
and meditation. 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".
Sociologist Margot Adler highlighted how several Pagan groups, like the Reformed Druids of North America and the Erisian movement incorporate a great deal of play
in their rituals rather than having them be completely serious and
somber. She noted that there are those who would argue that "the Pagan
community is one of the only spiritual communities that is exploring
humor, joy, abandonment, even silliness and outrageousness as valid
parts of spiritual experience".
Domestic worship typically takes place in the home and is carried out by either an individual or family group.
It typically involves offerings – including bread, cake, flowers,
fruit, milk, beer, or wine – being given to images of deities, often
accompanied with prayers and songs and the lighting of candles and incense.
Common Pagan devotional practices have thus been compared to similar
practices in Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox
Christianity, but contrasted with that in Protestantism, Judaism, and
Islam.
Although animal sacrifice was a common part of pre-Christian ritual in Europe, it is rarely practiced in contemporary Paganism.
A painted Wheel of the Year at the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, Cornwall, England, displaying all eight of the Sabbats
Paganism's public rituals are generally calendrical, although the pre-Christian festivals that Pagans use as a basis varied across Europe. Nevertheless, common to almost all Pagan religions is an emphasis on an agricultural cycle and respect for the dead. Common Pagan festivals include those marking the summer solstice and winter solstice as well as the start of spring and the harvest. In Wicca, a Wheel of the Year has been developed which typically involves eight seasonal festivals.
The belief in magical rituals and spells is held by a "significant number" of contemporary Pagans.
Among those who believe in it, there are a variety of different views
about what magic is. Many Neopagans adhere to the definition of magic
provided by Aleister Crowley, the founder of Thelema:
"the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with
Will". Also accepted by many is the related definition purportedly
provided by the ceremonial magicianDion Fortune: "magic is the art and science of changing consciousness according to the Will".
Among those who practice magic are Wiccans, those who identify as Neopagan Witches, and practitioners of some forms of revivalist Neo-druidism, the rituals of which are at least partially based upon those of ceremonial magic and freemasonry.
History
Early modern period
Discussions
about prevailing, returning or new forms of paganism have existed
throughout the modern period. Before the 20th century, Christian
institutions regularly used paganism as a term for everything outside of
Christianity, Judaism and—from the 18th century—Islam. 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. Various folk beliefs have periodically been labeled as pagan and churches have demanded that they should be purged.
The Western attitude to paganism gradually changed during the early
modern period. One reason was increased contacts with areas outside of
Europe, which happened through trade, Christian mission
and colonization. Increased knowledge of other cultures led to
questions of whether their practices even fit into the definitions of
religion, and paganism was incorporated in the idea of progress, where it was ranked as a low, undeveloped form of religion. Another reason for change was the circulation of ancient writings such as those attributed to Hermes Trismegistus;
this made paganism an intellectual position some Europeans began to
self-identify with, starting at the latest in the 15th century with
people like Gemistus Pletho, who wanted to establish a new form of Greco-Roman polytheism.
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. The approach to paganism varied during this period; Friedrich Schiller's 1788 poem "Die Götter Griechenlandes" presents ancient Greek religion as a powerful alternative to Christianity, whereas others took interest in paganism through the concept of the noble savage, often associated with Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
19th and early 20th centuries
Great God! I'd rather be A 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 wreathèd horn.
One of the origins of modern Pagan movements lies in the romanticist
and national liberation movements that developed in Europe during the
18th and 19th centuries. The publications of studies into European folk customs and culture by scholars like Johann Gottfried Herder and Jacob Grimm resulted in a wider interest in these subjects and a growth in cultural self-consciousness. At the time, it was commonly believed that almost all such folk customs were survivals from the pre-Christian period. These attitudes would also be exported to North America by European immigrants in these centuries.
"The rise of modern Paganism is both a result and a measure of
increased religious liberty and rising tolerance for religious diversity
in modern societies, a liberty and tolerance made possible by the
curbing of the sometimes oppressive power wielded by Christian
authorities to compel obedience and participation in centuries past. To
say it another way, modern Paganism is one of the happy stepchildren of
modern multiculturalism and social pluralism."
— Religious studies scholar Michael Strmiska
The rise of modern Paganism was aided by the decline in Christianity throughout many parts of Europe and North America, as well as by the concomitant decline in enforced religious conformity and greater freedom of religion
that developed, allowing people to explore a wider range of spiritual
options and form religious organisations that could operate free from
legal persecution.
Historian Ronald Hutton has argued that many of the motifs of
20th century neo-Paganism may be traced back to the utopian, mystical counter-cultures of the late-Victorian and Edwardian
periods (also extending in some instances into the 1920s), via the
works of amateur folklorists, popular authors, poets, political radicals
and alternative lifestylers.
Prior to the spread of the 20th-century neopagan movements, a
notable instance of self-identified paganism was in Sioux writer
Zitkala-sa's essay "Why I Am A Pagan". Published in the Atlantic Monthly
in 1902, the Native American activist and writer outlined her rejection
of Christianity (referred to as "the new superstition") in favor of a
harmony with nature embodied by the Great Spirit. 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.
The 1960s and 1970s saw a resurgence in Neodruidism as well as the rise of Germanic neopaganism in the United States and in Iceland. In the 1970s, Wicca was notably influenced by feminism, leading to the creation of an eclectic, Goddess-worshipping movement known as Dianic Wicca. The 1979 publication of Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon and Starhawk's The Spiral Dance opened a new chapter in public awareness of paganism.
With the growth and spread of large, pagan gatherings and festivals in the 1980s, public varieties of Wicca continued to further diversify into additional, eclectic sub-denominations, often heavily influenced by the New Age and counter-culture movements. These open, unstructured or loosely structured traditions contrast with British Traditional Wicca, which emphasizes secrecy and initiatory lineage.
The 1980s and 1990s also saw an increasing interest in serious academic research and reconstructionist pagan traditions. The establishment and growth of the Internet in the 1990s brought rapid growth to these, and other pagan movements. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, freedom of religion was legally established across the post-Soviet states, allowing for the growth in both Christian and non-Christian religions, among them Paganism.
Goddess Spirituality, which is also known as the Goddess movement,
is a Pagan religion in which a singular, monotheistic Goddess is given
predominance. 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.
The Goddess movement draws some of its inspiration from the work of archaeologists such as Marija Gimbutas, whose interpretation of artifacts excavated from "Old Europe" points to societies of Neolithic Europe that were "matristic" or "goddess-centered" worshipping a female deity of three primary aspects, which has inspired some neopagan worshippers of the Triple Goddess.
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.
According to this view, human society was formerly a matriarchy, with communities being egalitarian, pacifistic, and focused on the worship of the Mother goddess, which was subsequently overthrown by violent and warlike patriarchal hordes - usually Indo-Europeanpastoralists who worshipped male sky-gods, and continued to rule through the form of Abrahamic religions,
specifically Christianity in the West. Adherents look for elements of
this mythological history in "theological, anthropological,
archaeological, historical, folkloric and hagiographic writings".
A Heathen altar for household worship in Gothenburg, Sweden
Heathenism, also known as Germanic Neopaganism, refers to a series of
contemporary Pagan traditions based on the historical religions,
culture and literature of Germanic-speaking Europe. Heathenry is spread
out across northwestern Europe, North America and Australasia, where the
descendants of historic Germanic-speaking people now live.
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.
Heathens believe in multiple polytheistic deities adopted from
historical Germanic mythologies. Most are polytheistic realists,
believing that the deities are real entities, while others view them as Jungian archetypes.
Eco-paganism and Eco-magic, which are offshoots of direct action environmental groups, strongly emphasize fairy imagery and a belief in the possibility of intercession by the fae (fairies, pixies, gnomes, elves, and other spirits of nature and the Otherworlds).
Some Unitarian Universalists are eclectic pagans. Unitarian Universalists look for spiritual inspiration in a wide variety of religious beliefs. The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans,
or CUUPs, encourages its chapters to "use practices familiar to members
who attend for worship services but not to follow only one tradition of
paganism".
Occultism and ethnic mysticism
In 1925, the Czech esotericist Franz Sättler founded the pagan religion Adonism, devoted to the ancient Greek god Adonis,
whom Sättler equated with the Christian Satan, and which purported that
the end of the world would come in 2000. Adonism largely died out in
the 1930s, but remained an influence on the German occult scene.
In response, groups and sects inclusive of or specific to LGBT
people have developed. Theologian Jone Salomonsen noted in the 1980s and
1990s that the Reclaiming movement of San Francisco featured an unusually high number of LGBT people, particularly bisexuals. 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.
When Adler asked one gay male pagan what the pagan community offered
members of the LGBT community, he replied, "A place to belong.
Community. Acceptance. And a way to connect with all kinds of
people—gay, bi, straight, celibate, transgender—in a way that is hard to
do in the greater society."
Trans exclusion can also be found in Alexandrian Wicca, whose founder views trans individuals as melancholy people who should seek other beliefs due to the Alexandrian focus on heterosexual reproduction and duality.
Mabon-Fall
Equinox 2015 Altar by the Salt Lake Pagan Society of Salt Lake City,
UT. Displayed are seasonal decorations, altar tools, elemental candles,
flowers, deity statues, cookies and juice offerings, and a nude Gods
painting of Thor, the Green Man, and Cernunnos dancing around a Mabon
Fire.
Wicca is the largest form of modern Paganism, as well as the best-known and most extensively studied.
Religious studies scholar Graham Harvey noted that the poem "Charge of the Goddess" remains central to the liturgy of most Wiccan groups. Originally written by Wiccan High Priestess Doreen Valiente in the mid-1950s, the poem allows Wiccans to gain wisdom and experience deity in "the ordinary things in life".
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 historical theories of English archaeologist Margaret Murray. English esotericist Gerald Gardner was at the forefront of the burgeoning Wiccan movement. He claimed to have been initiated by the New Forest coven
in 1939, and that the religion that he discovered was a modern remnant
of the old Witch-Cult described in Murray's works, which originated in
the pre-Christian paganism of Europe. Various forms of Wicca have since
evolved or been adapted from Gardner's British Traditional Wicca or Gardnerian Wicca, such as Alexandrian Wicca. 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. In the academic community Wicca has also been interpreted as having close affinities with process philosophy.
In the 1990s, Wiccan beliefs and practices were used as a partial basis for a number of US films and television series, such as The Craft, Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, leading to a surge in teenagers' and young adults' interest and involvement in the religion.
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). Magenta Griffiths is High
Priestess of the Beit Asherah coven, and a former board member of the Covenant of the Goddess.
Vattisen Yaly could be categorised as a peculiar form of Tengrism,
a related revivalist movement of Central Asian traditional religion,
however it differs significantly from it: the Chuvash being a heavily Fennicised and Slavified ethnicity and having had exchanges also with other Indo-European ethnicities,
their religion shows many similarities with Finnic and Slavic
Paganisms; moreover, the revival of "Vattisen Yaly" in recent decades
has occurred following Neopagan patterns. Thus it should be more carefully categorised as a Neopagan religion. Today the followers of the Chuvash Traditional Religion are called "the true Chuvash". Their main god is Tura, a deity comparable to the EstonianTaara, the GermanicThunraz and the pan-Turkic Tengri.
Demographics
Establishing precise figures on Paganism is difficult. Due to the secrecy and fear of persecution
still prevalent among Pagans, limited numbers are willing to openly be
counted. The decentralised nature of Paganism and sheer number of solitary practitioners further complicates matters. Nevertheless, there is a slow growing body of data on the subject. In the US, there are estimated to be between 1 and 1.5 million practitioners.
Neopagan and other folk religion movements have gained a significant following on the eastern fringes of Europe, especially in the Caucasus and the Volga region.
Caucasus region
Among Circassians, the Adyghe Habze faith has been revived after the fall of the Soviet Union, and followers of neopagan faiths were found to constitute 12% in Karachay-Cherkessia and 3% in Kabardino-Balkaria (both republics are multiethnic and also have many non-Circassians, especially Russians and Turkic peoples) In Abkhazia,
the Abkhaz native faith has also been revived, and in the 2003 census,
8% of residents identified with it (note again that there are many
non-Abkhaz in the state including Georgians, Russians and Armenians); on 3 August 2012 the Council of Priests of Abkhazia was formally constituted in Sukhumi. In North Ossetia, the Uatsdin faith was revived, and in 2012, 29% of the population identified with it (North Ossetia is about 2/3 Ossetian and 1/3 Russian).
Neopagan movements are also present to a lesser degree elsewhere; in
Dagestan 2% of the population identified with folk religious movements,
while data on neopagans is unavailable for Chechnya and Ingushetia.
Volga region
The Mari native religion
in fact has a continuous existence, but has co-existed with Orthodox
Christianity for centuries, and experienced a renewal after the fall of
the Soviet Union. A sociological survey conducted in 2004 found that
about 15 percent of the population of Mari El consider themselves
adherents of the Mari native religion. Since Mari make up just 45
percent of the republic's population of 700,000, this figure means that
probably more than a third claim to follow the old religion.
The percentage of pagans among the Mari of Bashkortostan and the
eastern part of Tatarstan is even higher (up to 69% among women). Mari
fled here from forced Christianization in the 17th to 19th centuries. A similar number was claimed by Victor Schnirelmann, for whom between a quarter and a half of the Mari either worship the Pagan gods or are adherents of Neopagan groups.
Mari intellectuals maintain that Mari ethnic believers should be
classified in groups with varying degrees of Russian Orthodox influence,
including syncretic followers who might even go to church at times,
followers of the Mari native religion who are baptized, and nonbaptized
Mari.
A neopagan movement drawing from various syncretic practices that
had survived among the Christianised Mari people was initiated in 1990, and was estimated in 2004 to have won the adherence of 2% of the Mordvin people.
Western Europe
A study by Ronald Hutton
compared a number of different sources (including membership lists of
major UK organizations, attendance at major events, subscriptions to
magazines, etc.) and used standard models for extrapolating likely
numbers. This estimate accounted for multiple membership overlaps as
well as the number of adherents represented by each attendee of a pagan
gathering. Hutton estimated that there are 250,000 neopagan adherents in
the United Kingdom, roughly equivalent to the national Hindu community.
A smaller number is suggested by the results of the 2001 Census,
in which a question about religious affiliation was asked for the first
time. Respondents were able to write in an affiliation not covered by
the checklist of common religions, and a total of 42,262 people from
England, Scotland and Wales declared themselves to be Pagans by this
method. 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. This is more than many well known traditions such as Rastafarian, Baháʼí and Zoroastrian groups, but fewer than the big six of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism. It is also fewer than the adherents of Jediism, whose campaign made them the fourth largest religion after Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.
Modern Hellen ritual in Greece
The 2001 UK Census figures did not allow an accurate breakdown of
traditions within the Pagan heading, as a campaign by the Pagan
Federation before the census encouraged Wiccans, Heathens, Druids and
others all to use the same write-in term 'Pagan' in order to maximise
the numbers reported. The 2011 census
however made it possible to describe oneself as Pagan-Wiccan,
Pagan-Druid and so on. The figures for England and Wales showed 80,153
describing themselves as Pagan (or some subgroup thereof.) The largest
subgroup was Wicca, with 11,766 adherents.
The overall numbers of people self-reporting as Pagan rose between 2001
and 2011. In 2001 about seven people per 10,000 UK respondents were
pagan; in 2011 the number (based on the England and Wales population)
was 14.3 people per 10,000 respondents.
Census figures in Ireland do not provide a breakdown of religions
outside of the major Christian denominations and other major world
religions. A total of 22,497 people stated Other Religion in the 2006
census; and a rough estimate is that there were 2,000–3,000 practicing
pagans in Ireland in 2009. Numerous pagan groups – primarily Wiccan and
Druidic – exist in Ireland though none is officially recognised by the
Government. Irish Paganism is often strongly concerned with issues of
place and language.
Canada does not provide extremely detailed records of religious adherence. Its statistics service only collects limited religious information each decade. At the 2001 census, there were a recorded 21080 Pagans in Canada.
The United States government does not directly collect religious
information. As a result such information is provided by religious
institutions and other third-party statistical organisations. Based on the most recent survey by the Pew Forum on religion, there are over one million Pagans in the United States. Up to 0.4% of respondents answered "Pagan" or "Wiccan" when polled.
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.
In 2006, there were at least 6804 (1.64‰) Pagans among New Zealand's population of approximately 4 million. Respondents were given the option to select one or more religious affiliations.
Paganism in society
Propagation
Based upon her study of the pagan community in the United States, the sociologist Margot Adler noted that it is rare for Pagan groups to proselytize
in order to gain new converts to their faiths. Instead, she argued that
"in most cases", converts first become interested in the movement
through "word of mouth, a discussion between friends, a lecture, a book,
an article or a Web site". She went on to put forward the idea that
this typically confirmed "some original, private experience, so that the
most common experience of those who have named themselves pagan is
something like 'I finally found a group that has the same religious
perceptions I always had'".
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. When she eventually came
across the Wiccan religion many years later, she then found that it
confirmed her earlier childhood experiences, and that "I never converted
in the accepted sense. I simply accepted, reaffirmed, and extended a
very old experience."
A simple Pagan altar.
Folklorist Sabina Magliocco
supported this idea, noting that a great many of those Californian
Pagans whom she interviewed claimed that they had been greatly
interested in mythology and folklore
as children, imagining a world of "enchanted nature and magical
transformations, filled with lords and ladies, witches and wizards, and
humble but often wise peasants". Magliocco noted that it was this world
that pagans "strive to re-create in some measure". Further support for Adler's idea came from American Wiccan priestess Judy Harrow, who noted that among her comrades, there was a feeling that "you don't become pagan, you discover that you always were". They have also been supported by Pagan studies scholar Graham Harvey.
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. Other manners in which many North
American pagans have got involved with the movement are through
political or ecological activism, such as "vegetarian groups, health
food stores" or feminist university courses.
Adler went on to note that from those she interviewed and
surveyed in the US, she could identify a number of common factors that
led to people getting involved in Paganism: the beauty, vision and
imagination that was found within their beliefs and rituals, a sense of
intellectual satisfaction and personal growth that they imparted, their
support for environmentalism or feminism, and a sense of freedom.
Class, gender and ethnicity
Based
upon her work in the United States, Adler found that the pagan movement
was "very diverse" in its class and ethnic background.
She went on to remark that she had encountered pagans in jobs that
ranged from "fireman to PhD chemist" but that the one thing that she
thought made them into an "elite" was as avid readers, something that
she found to be very common within the pagan community despite the fact
that avid readers constituted less than 20% of the general population of
the United States at the time.
Magliocco came to a somewhat different conclusion based upon her
ethnographic research of pagans in California, remarking that the
majority were "white, middle-class, well-educated urbanites" but that
they were united in finding "artistic inspiration" within "folk and
indigenous spiritual traditions".
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.
"Neopagan practices highlight the centrality of the relationship
between humans and nature and reinvent religions of the past, while New
Agers are more interested in transforming individual consciousness and
shaping the future."
— Religious studies scholar Sarah Pike.
Since the 1960s and 1970s, contemporary Paganism, or Neo-Paganism, and the then emergent counterculture, New Age, and hippie movements experienced a degree of cross-pollination.
An issue of academic debate has been regarding the connection between
these movements. Religious studies scholar Sarah Pike asserted that in
the United States, there was a "significant overlap" between modern Paganism and New Age, while Aidan A. Kelly
stated that Paganism "parallels the New Age movement in some ways,
differs sharply from it in others, and overlaps it in some minor ways".
Ethan Doyle White stated that while the Pagan and New Age movements "do
share commonalities and overlap", they were nevertheless "largely
distinct phenomena."
Hanegraaff suggested that whereas various forms of contemporary Paganism
were not part of the New Age movement – particularly those who
pre-dated the movement – other Pagan religions and practices could be
identified as New Age.
Various differences between the two movements have been highlighted;
the New Age movement focuses on an improved future, whereas the focus of
Paganism is on the pre-Christian past.
Similarly, the New Age movement typically propounds a universalist
message which sees all religions as fundamentally the same, whereas
Paganism stresses the difference between monotheistic religions and
those embracing a polytheistic or animistic theology. Further, the New Age movement shows little interest in magic and witchcraft, which are conversely core interests of many Pagan religions, such as Wicca.
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.
Many Pagans have expressed criticism of the high fees charged by New Age
teachers, something not typically present in the Pagan movement.
Relationship with Hinduism
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. Some modern Pagan literature prominently features comparative religion
involving European and Indian traditions. The ECER has made efforts to
establish mutual support with Hindu groups, as has the Lithuanian Romuva
movement.
In India, a prominent figure who made similar efforts was the Hindu revivalistRam Swarup,
who pointed out parallels between Hinduism and European and Arabic
paganism. Swarup reached out to modern Pagans in the West and also had
an influence on Western converts to Hinduism or pro-Hindu activists,
notably David Frawley and Koenraad Elst, who both have described Hinduism as a form of paganism. The modern Pagan writer Christopher Gérard has drawn much inspiration from Hinduism and visited Swarup in India. Reviewing Gérard's book Parcours païen in 2001, the historian of religionJean-François Mayer described Gérard's activities as part of the development of a "Western-Hindu 'pagan axis'".
Regarding to European paganism, In Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives
Michael F. Strmiska writes that "in Pagan magazines, websites, and
Internet discussion venues, Christianity is frequently denounced as an
antinatural, antifemale, sexually and culturally repressive,
guilt-ridden, and authoritarian religion that has fostered intolerance,
hypocrisy, and persecution throughout the world." Further, there is a common belief in the pagan community that Christianity and Paganism are opposing belief systems.
This animosity is flamed by historical conflicts between Christian and
pre-Christian religions, as well as the perceived ongoing Christian
disdain from Christians.
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.
They also express disapproval of Christianity's continued missionary
efforts around the globe at the expense of indigenous and other
polytheistic faiths.
Some Christian authors have published books criticizing modern Paganism, while other Christian critics have equated Paganism with Satanism, which is often portrayed as such in mainstream entertainment industry.
In areas such as the US Bible Belt, where conservative Christian dominance is strong, Pagans have faced continued religious persecution.
For instance, Strmiska highlighted instances in both the US and UK in
which school teachers were fired when their employers discovered that
they were Pagan. Thus, many Pagans keep their religion private to avoid discrimination and ostracism.
The earliest academic studies of contemporary Paganism were published in the late 1970s and 1980s by scholars like Margot Adler, Marcello Truzzi and Tanya Luhrmann,
although it would not be until the 1990s that the actual
multidisciplinary academic field of Pagan studies properly developed,
pioneered by academics such as Graham Harvey and Chas S. Clifton.
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 first international academic conference on the subject of Pagan studies was held at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, North-East England in 1993. It was organised by two British religious studies scholars, Graham Harvey and Charlotte Hardman. In April 1996 a larger conference dealing with contemporary Paganism took place at Ambleside in the Lake District. Organised by the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Lancaster,
North-West England, it was entitled "Nature Religion Today: Western
Paganism, Shamanism and Esotericism in the 1990s", and led to the
publication of an academic anthology, entitled Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World. In 2004, the first peer-reviewed, academic journal devoted to Pagan studies began publication. 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.
From 2008 onward, conferences have been held bringing together scholars
specialising in the study of Paganism in Central and Eastern Europe.
The relationship between Pagan studies scholars and some
practising Pagans has at times been strained. The Australian academic
and practising Pagan Caroline Jane Tully argues that many Pagans can
react negatively to new scholarship regarding historical pre-Christian
societies, believing that it is a threat to the structure of their
beliefs and to their "sense of identity". She furthermore argues that
some of those dissatisfied Pagans lashed out against academics as a
result, particularly on the Internet.
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