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 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". 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 ideas 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 ways in which many North American pagans have gotten 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 United States Based upon her work in the United States, Adler found that the pagan movement was "very diverse" in its class and ethnic backgrounds. She went on to remark that she had encountered pagans in jobs that ranged from "fireman to PhD chemist" but that the one thing she thought made them into an "elite" was being 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 [American] spiritual traditions," The sociologist Regina Oboler examined the role of gender in the American 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 ingrained within it, with female deities being accorded traditional western feminine traits and male deities being similarly accorded what western society saw as masculine traits.
Racism and nationalism Generally, modern pagan currents in
Western countries do not advocate
nationalist or far-right
ideologies. Instead, they advocate
individual self-improvement and liberal values of
personal freedom,
gender equality, and
environmental protection. The nationalist sentiments expressed by modern pagans in Western countries are marginal, so the ideas of
cosmopolitanism are prevalent. Faith and dogmas give way to active practices, including psychotechnics, which was extensively influenced by
neo-Hinduism. In contrast, many areas of post-Soviet modern paganism, including Russian, are occupied not so much with individual self-improvement as they are occupied with social problems, and they also create nationalist ideologies based on the "invented past". Modern paganism is one of the directions in the development of
romantic nationalism with its components such as the idealization of a particular people's historical or mythological past, dissatisfaction with modernity, and the ease of transition to a radical stage with the postulation of national superiority. Sociologist
Marlène Laruelle notes the activation of "Aryan" modern paganism in the West and Russia. For example, social movements are thus developing that appeal to the Celtic past and call for a return to the "
druidic religions" of pre-Christian Europe. For the most part, the French and German
Nouvelle Droite share the common idea of a pan-European unity based on an "Aryan" identity and the desire to part with Christianity, the period of domination of which is seen as two thousand years of "wandering in darkness."
White supremacist ideologies and
neo-Nazism, including ideas of racism, antisemitism, and
anti-LGBTQ, have infiltrated or assimilated many Germanic modern pagan movements such as
Odinism and some Ásatrú groups, including the
Asatru Folk Assembly. These groups believe that the Germanic beliefs they hold constitute the true Caucasoid ethnic religion.
Western Europe and North America organization "Germanic Faith Community" (Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft, GGG), founded by the artist and poet
Ludwig Fahrenkrog, a representative of the
Völkisch movement. Brochure, circa 1920. In Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Völkisch movement, characterized by a racist
antisemitic ideology of radical ethnic nationalism of the dominant population, spread. The central elements of the worldview were racism and
elitism. The movement included a religious modern pagan component. The ideology developed out of German nationalist romanticism. Nazism is considered one of the movements within the völkisch or as strongly influenced by the völkisch. Völkisch consisted of many religiopolitical groups whose leaders and followers were closely associated with each other and the developing
Nazi Party. This ideology significantly impacted various aspects of German culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Liberalism and rationalism, which demystified the time-honored order that accepted authorities and prejudices, also caused an adverse reaction from supporters of the völkisch movement. A negative attitude towards modernity characterizes the writings of German nationalist "prophets" such as Paul Delagardie, Julius Lang, and
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck. The movement combined a sentimental patriotic interest in
German folklore and
local history with anti-urban, back-to-the-earth populism. To overcome what they considered the ailment of scientific and rationalistic modernity, the authors of völkisch found a spiritual solution in the essence of the "people," perceived as genuine, intuitive, even "primitive," in the sense of the location of the "people" on the level with the original (primordial) cosmic order. Völkisch thinkers tended to idealize the myth of the "original nation", which they believed could still be found in rural Germany, a form of "primitive democracy freely subject to its natural elite". The idea of the "people" () was subsequently transformed into the idea of "racial essence", and Völkisch thinkers understood this term as a life-giving and quasi-eternal essence and not as a sociological category, in the same way as they considered "Nature".
Ariosophy and Nazism Modern pagan ideas were present in
Ariosophy, an
esoteric teaching created by the Austrian occultists
Guido von List and
Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels in Austria between 1890 and 1930. The term "ariosophy" can also be used generically to describe the "Aryan"/esoteric teachings of the völkisch subset. The doctrine of Ariosophy was based on pseudoscientific ideas about "Aryan" purity and the mystical unity of spirit and body. It was influenced by the German nationalist völkisch movement, the
theosophy of
Helena Blavatsky, the Austrian
pan-German movement, and
social Darwinism and its racist conclusions. Ariosophy influenced the ideology of Nazism. The works of the Ariosophists describe the prehistoric "Aryan" golden age when the wise keepers of knowledge learned and taught occult racial teachings and ruled over a "racially pure" society. It is alleged that there is an evil conspiracy of anti-German forces, including all "non-Aryan" races, Jews, and the Christian church, seeking to destroy the ideal "Aryan" German world by freeing the "non-Aryan" mob to establish a false equality of the illegitimate (representatives of "non-Aryan" races). History, including wars, economic crises, political uncertainty, and the weakening of the power of the German principle, is seen as the result of racial mixing. The doctrine had followers in Austria and Germany. Occultism in the doctrines of the Ariosophists was of great importance as a sacral justification for an extreme political position and a fundamental rejection of reality, including socio-economic progress. The Ariosophists sought to predict and justify the "coming era" of the German world order. To counter the modern world, "corrupted" by racial mixing, the Ariosophists created many small circles and secret religious societies to revive the "lost" esoteric knowledge and racial virtues of the ancient Germans to create a new pan-German empire. To recreate the religion of the
ancient Germans, List used the Scandinavian epic and the work of contemporary theosophists, in particular Max Ferdinand Sebaldt von Werth, who described the
eugenic practices of the "Aryans", as well as
The Secret Doctrine by Helena Blavatsky and
The Lost Lemuria by
William Scott-Elliot. Influenced by these works, List used the terms "Ario-Germans" and "race" instead of "Germans" and "people", perhaps to emphasize the overlap with the fifth
root race in Blavatsky's scheme. List and Lanz developed ideas about the struggle between the "Aryan
race of masters" and the "race of slaves" and about the ancestral home of the "Aryans" on the sunken polar island of
Arctogea. In Nazi Germany, Germanic pagan folklore, as a source of primordial moral standards, was revered higher than Christianity associated with Judaism. Many Nazis saw anti-Christianity as a deeper form of antisemitism.
Heinrich Himmler spoke of the need to create a "neo-Germanic religion" capable of replacing Christianity. The Old Testament was especially repugnant to the Nazis. Adolf Hitler called it "Satan's Bible". Rosenberg demanded that it be banned as a "vehicle of Jewish influence" and replaced by the Nordic
sagas. The Nazi ideology combined the veneration of the "pagan heritage of the ancestors" with puritanical, Christian sexual morality, which the "Nordic"
Apollo was supposed to personify.
Ensio Uoti led the Nazi Party
SSTP Pagan Universalism Supporters of the universalist and anti-racist approach believe that the deities of Germanic Europe can call anyone to worship them, regardless of ethnic origin. This group rejects the völkisch focus on race, believing that even unintentionally, such an approach can lead to racist attitudes towards people of non-Northern European origin. Practicing universalists such as
Stephan Grundy emphasize that ancient northern Europeans married and had children with members of other ethnic groups, and in
Norse mythology, the
Æsir did the same with the
Vanir,
jötnar, and humans, so these modern pagans criticize racist views. Universalists favorably accept practitioners of modern paganism who are not of Northern European origin; for example,
The Troth, based in the United States, has
Jewish and African American members, and many of its white members have spouses who belong to different racial groups. While some pagans continue to believe that Germanic paganism is an innate religion, universalists have sometimes argued that this paganism is an innate religion for the lands of Northern Europe and not for a particular race. Universalists often complain that some journalists portray modern paganism as an inherently racist movement, so they use the Internet to highlight their opposition to
far-right politics. In Heathenry, the terms "völkisch", "neo-völkisch", or the Anglicised "folkish" are used both as endonyms and exonyms for groups who believe that the religion is closely related to the claimed biological race. In Belarus, the founder of the local Nazi Party, Aliaksei Dzermant, is also the founder of the Belarusian branch of the neo-Nazi pagan
Allgermanische Heidnische Front, linked to arson and murder. The historian and ethnologist
Victor Schnirelmann considers Russian neopaganism as a direction of
Russian nationalism that denies
Russian Orthodoxy as an enduring national value and distinguishes two cardinal tasks that Russian neopaganism sets for itself: the salvation of Russian national culture from the leveling influence of modernization and the protection of the natural environment from the impact of modern civilization. According to Schnirelmann, "Russian neopaganism is a radical variety of conservative ideology, which is distinguished by frank
anti-intellectualism and
populism." Religious scholar
Alexei Gaidukov considers it wrong to reduce the diversity of native faith groups to nationalism only – he views the ecological direction of Rodnovery as no less significant. Historian and religious scholar Roman Shizhensky believes Rodnovery poses little danger and law enforcement agencies should deal with radical groups. The Austrian occultist
Guido von List, who created the doctrine of
Ariosophy, argued that an ancient developed "Ario-Germanic" culture reached its dawn several millennia before Roman colonization and Christianity. According to him, before
Charlemagne's forced introduction of Christianity, Wotanism was practiced in what is now the Danubian territory of Germany. List considered Charlemagne the killer of the Saxons in memory of the bloody baptism of the pagans of Northern Germany by him. List considered the entire Christian period as an era of cultural decline, oblivion of the true faith, and unnatural racial mixing, when the "Aryan" ruling caste of priest-kings was forced to hide, secretly saving their sacred knowledge, which now became available to List as a full-fledged aristocratic descendant of this caste. In Slavic neopaganism, there is the idea of an ancient multi-thousand-year-old and developed civilization of the "Slavs-Aryans", while the entire Christian period seems to be an era of regression and decline, the enslavement of the "Aryans" by foreign missionaries who imposed on them a "slave" (Christian) ideology. Rodnovers often regard these missionaries as Jews, "
Judeo-Masons", or their accomplices. At the same time, the Slavic "Aryan"
volkhvs or priests had to hide in secret places, preserving the knowledge that was now passed onto their direct descendants, Rodnovers. The idea of the Jewish-Khazar origin of Prince
Vladimir the Great is popular, explaining why he
introduced Christianity, an instrument for the enslavement of the "Aryans" by Jews, and staged the genocide of the pagan Slavs. Roman Shizhensky singles out the neopagan myth about Vladimir and characterizes it as one of the most "odious" neopagan
historical myths and one of the leading Russian neopagan myths in terms of worldview significance. The author of this myth is
Valery Yemelyanov, one of the founders of Russian neopaganism, who expounded it in his book
Dezionization (1970s). Shizhensky notes that the neopagan myth about Vladimir contradicts scientific work on the issue and the totality of historical sources. Concerning the trend of convergence of neopagan associations from different countries, Andrey Beskov notes that neopagan nationalism is not an obstacle to "neopagan
internationalism", and
anti-globalism, one of the manifestations of which was the popularity of ethnic religions, itself acquires a global character.
LGBTQ The western
LGBTQ community, often
marginalized and/or
outright rejected by
Abrahamic-predominant mainstream religious establishments, has often sought spiritual acceptance and association in neopagan religious/spiritual practice. Pagan-specializing religious scholar Christine Hoff Kraemer wrote, "Pagans tend to be relatively accepting of
same-sex relationships,
BDSM,
polyamory,
transgender people, and
other expressions of gender and sexuality that are marginalized by mainstream society." Conflict naturally arises, however, as some neopagan belief systems and sect ideologies stem from fundamental beliefs in the
male–female gender binary,
heterosexual pairing, resulting
heterosexual reproduction, and/or
gender essentialism. In response, groups and sects inclusive of or specific to LGBTQ 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 LGBTQ 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 LGBTQ 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."
Transgender existence and acceptability is especially controversial in many neopagan sects. One of the most notable of these is
Dianic Wicca. This
female-only,
radical feminist variant of Wicca allows
cisgender lesbians but not
transgender women. This is due to Dianic belief in
gender essentialism; according to founder
Zsuzsanna Budapest, "you have to have sometimes [sic] in your life a womb, and ovaries and [menstruate] and not die". This belief and the way it is expressed is often denounced as
transphobia and
trans-exclusionary radical feminism. 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.
Relationship with the New Age movement 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 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 revivalist Ram 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 religion Jean-François Mayer described Gérard's activities as part of the development of a "Western-Hindu 'pagan axis.
Prejudice and opposition In the
Islamic world, pagans are not considered
people of the book, so they do not have the same status as Abrahamic religions in
Islamic religious law for example, Muslim men cannot marry pagan women while they are allowed to marry among people of the book; and Muslims can eat meat of halal animals that are slaughtered by people of the book, but not that slaughtered by methods of other religions. Regarding 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
antisemitism 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.
Pagan studies 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 was not until the 1990s that the actual 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. == Criticism ==