Neopaganism

Overview: Neopaganism is a broad term used to designate a set of modern religions and spiritualities inspired by ancient pagan traditions, historical reconstructions, Western esotericism, nature religiosity, and contemporary ritual practices. It includes very different currents such as Wicca, modern Druidry, reconstructed Hellenism, Heathenry, eclectic paths, and diverse regional movements. For that reason, it does not correspond to a single church, canon, or uniform theological system.

Origin and development: Modern neopaganism developed especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in dialogue with romanticism, folklore, archaeology, occultism, cultural nationalisms, religious feminism, ecology, and countercultural movements. In some cases, the emphasis lies on ritual reconstruction based on historical sources; in others, on contemporary spiritual creativity and direct experience.

Beliefs and central practices: Recurrent themes include the sacredness of nature, polytheism or related forms of religiosity, the valorization of seasonal cycles, ritual, domestic devotion, ancestry, magic, an ethic of responsibility, celebration of the body, and interest in pre-Christian cosmologies. Not all of these themes are present with the same weight in every current. Some traditions are strictly reconstructionist; others are openly eclectic.

Texts and authority: Neopaganism does not have a single normative text. Authority may come from ancient historical sources, poetry, mythology, oral transmission, modern books, ritual leaders, academic reconstruction, mystical experience, or communal consensus. This creates wide internal diversity.

Debates and internal diversity: There are intense debates over historical authenticity, cultural appropriation, universalism and ethnicity, relationships between magic and religion, the place of political activism, the use of categories such as gods and archetypes, the inclusion of LGBT+ people, race and ancestry, as well as controversies over ethnically exclusive groups. In comparative studies, it is important to distinguish neopaganism as a broad field from specific religions such as Wicca or Hellenic and Norse reconstructions.