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Neopaganism in Italy reportedly counted about 3,200 adherents in 2020, according to data from CESNUR, [1] divided among numerous neopagan, neodruidic, neoshamanic, or neo-witchcraft religions, presenting themselves as a varied set of cults that claim to descend from or be inspired by the pagan religions of classical or earlier eras
Interest in reviving ancient Roman religious traditions can be traced to the Renaissance, with figures such as Gemistus Pletho and Julius Pomponius Laetus advocating for a revival, [2] when Renaissance magic was practiced as a revival of Greco-Roman magic. Gemistus Plethon, who was from Mistras (near the Mani Peninsula—where paganism had endured until the 12th century) encouraged the Medici, descendants of the Maniot Latriani dynasty, to found the Neoplatonic Academy in Florence, helping to spark the Renaissance. Julius Pomponius Laetus (student of Pletho) established the Roman academy which secretly celebrated the Natale di Roma, a festival linked to the foundation of Rome, and celebrated the birthday of Romulus. [3] [4] The Academy was dissolved in 1468 when Pope Paul II ordered the arrest and execution of some of the members, Pope Sixtus IV allowed Laetus to open the academy again until the Sack of Rome of the 1527.
During 19th-century Italy, the fall of the Papal States and the process of Italian unification fostered anti-clerical sentiment among the intelligentsia. Intellectuals like archaeologist Giacomo Boni [5] Pagan and writer Roggero Musmeci Ferrari Bravo promoted the restoration of Roman religious practices. [6] [7]
Since the early 20th century there has been a resurgence of neopaganism in Italy within esoteric circles, spearheaded by the "Schola Italica" founded by Amedeo Rocco Armentano, who believed that Italian tradition had its main influences from the Pythagorean mysteries as well as Hermeticism. The Schola sought to metaphorically stand on two pillars, one symbolized by Pythagoras and the other by Hermes Trismegistus. [8]
The mathematician Arturo Reghini, a disciple of Armentano, [9] carried on the project of reviving the Pythagorean roots of the Italic Roman tradition. In the 1920s, with perennialist philosopher Julius Evola and disciple Giulio Parise, he founded a "magical" chain called Gruppo di Ur, an esoteric fellowship that attracted other Pythagoreans from various backgrounds. [10] The group's organ was the magazine Ur (1927–1928).
In 1928 Evola published the essay Pagan Imperialism , which can be considered the 20th-century manifesto of Italian political paganism, aimed at opposing the Lateran Pacts between the State and the Church. Although the group disbanded at the end of 1928, its chain continued for another year under the name Krur in 1929.
That year, Krur published a mysterious document from hermetic circles in Rome, signed with the pseudonym Ekatlos, which many attribute to orientalist Leone Caetani. The document explicitly claimed that Italy's victory in World War I and the subsequent rise of fascism were supposedly facilitated, if not determined, by certain Etrusco-Roman rites performed following a mysterious discovery of ancient magical artifacts. [11]
Beyond strictly esoteric aspects, studies have been conducted on pagan cults that allegedly survived in Italy even during the Christian era, gradually transformed or syncretized with popular Catholicism. This complex of traditions, beliefs, and rituals, still present today in veiled forms mainly in rural and agrarian settings, has been called Italian witchcraft. [12]
Adherents to the modern reconstructionism of this ancient witchcraft consider Charles Godfrey Leland's book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1899) as a reference text, the first to explore such pre-Christian pagan cults that purportedly survived in Italy. [13] Anthropologist Margaret Murray argued that "the continuity of pagan religion during the Middle Ages becomes irrefutable when one discovers that it survives even today". [14] Today, Italian neopaganism, akin to Wicca in the Anglo-Saxon world, seeks to recover this Old Religion|primordial religiosity, based on an animistic view of nature, believed to be inhabited by invisible creatures and spirits, [15] along with the practice of herbs, formulas, and spells often used in conjunction with sacraments and prayers of the Catholic Church. [16]
The modern reconstructionism of ancient witchcraft is sometimes referred to as Stregheria, founded in the 1970s by Italian American Leo Martello; the Wicca tradition, of Anglo-Saxon origin, is also present in Italy with covens of various traditions:British Traditional Wicca (Gardnerian and Alexandrian), Black Forest, Temple of Ara, Minoan Brotherhood, NY Wica Tradition, Seax-Wica, Italic Wicca, Temple of Callaighe, and Dianic Wicca. Since 2002, the Circle of Trivi has been active, one of Italy's first Wiccan associations, managing the Temple of the Moon in Milan. Both Wicca and Stregheria draw inspiration from the text Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches , which is said to contain information on ancient Italian witchcraft traditions. Independent local movements also exist, sometimes referred to as " traditional witchcraft ".
Among the reconstructionist cults of classical era religions, there is Roman-Italic neopaganism, represented by the reconstructionist Roman religion, inspired by Roman mythology. Organizations adhering to this include Nova Roma, the Associazione Tradizionale Pietas, which manages various places of worship across several Italian regions, the Communitas Populi Romani, the Movimento Tradizionale Romano, the association with the longest continuous presence, the Societas Hesperiana pro Cultu Deorum, focused on the worship of the Genius Loci and sacred geography, and the Federazione Pagana, which presents elements more related to Greek mythology and neopagan and neowitchcraft forms. [17] [18] Another neopagan association present in Italy is Nova Roma. [19]
There are also neopagans who claim to descend from or be inspired by other ancient European and Mediterranean religions, such as Germanic heathenry, inspired by Germanic mythology and Norse mythology, with adherents like the Comunità Odinista, the Tempio del Lupo (Wolfsangismo), the association Άsa-Ódhinn (Italian branch of the Asatru Folk Assembly), the Associazione Bosco di Chiatri, and the Tribù Winniler – Cerchio Bragafull (Vanatrú); Kemetism, inspired by the ancient Egyptian religion and represented by the association Kemetismo Ortodosso Solare; Celtic reconstructionism and druidism, inspired by Celtic mythology, represented by the Cerchio Druidico Italiano, the Ordine Druidico Italiano Bosco dell'Awen, and the Movimento Spirituale Riformato dei Nativi d'Insubria (Celtic neopaganism); and Hellenism, inspired by Greek mythology. [20]
Among the movements classified as neo-shamanic, meaning they claim to descend from or be inspired by traditional shamanism, there are small groups in Italy that draw from the mysticism of pre-Columbian America, [21] and others affiliated with the Goddess movement, such as the Tempio della Grande Dea [22] in Rome and the Tempio della Dea in Turin [23] and in Sassari.
In recent years, there has also been the emergence of very small neopagan groups in Italy with supremacist, neofascist, and neo-Nazi political leanings, whose religious views are aligned with Esoteric Nazism. [24] [25]
Diana is a goddess in Roman and Hellenistic religion, primarily considered a patroness of the countryside and nature, hunters, wildlife, childbirth, crossroads, the night, and the Moon. She is equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, and absorbed much of Artemis' mythology early in Roman history, including a birth on the island of Delos to parents Jupiter and Latona, and a twin brother, Apollo, though she had an independent origin in Italy.
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse, sharing no single set of beliefs, practices, or religious texts. Scholars of religion may study the phenomenon as a movement divided into different religions, while others study neopaganism as a decentralized religion with an array of denominations.
Paganism is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. In the time of the Roman Empire, individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not milites Christi. Alternative terms used in Christian texts were hellene, gentile, and heathen. Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Greco-Roman religion and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry".
Skyclad refers to ritual nudity in Wicca and Modern Paganism. Some groups, or Traditions, perform most or all of their rituals skyclad. Whilst nudity and the practice of witchcraft have long been associated in the visual arts, this contemporary ritual nudity is typically attributed to either the influence of Gerald Gardner or to a passage from Charles Godfrey Leland's 1899 book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, and as such is mainly attributed to the Gardnerian and Aradian covens.
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by a range of modern pagans, marking the year's chief solar events and the midpoints between them. Modern pagan observances are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of the historical practices of world civilizations. British neopagans popularized the Wheel of the Year in the mid-20th century, combining the four solar events marked by many European peoples, with the four midpoint festivals celebrated by Insular Celtic peoples.
Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland's 1899 work Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, a claim that has subsequently been disputed by other folklorists and historians. In Leland's Gospel, Aradia is portrayed as a messiah who was sent to Earth in order to teach the oppressed peasants how to perform witchcraft to use against the Roman Catholic Church and the upper classes.
Stregheria is a neo-pagan tradition similar to Wicca, with Italian and Italian American origins. While most practitioners consider Stregheria to be a distinct tradition from Wicca, some academics consider it to be a form of Wicca or an offshoot. Both have similar beliefs and practices. For example, Stregheria honors a pantheon centered on a Moon Goddess and a Horned God, similar to Wiccan views of divinity.
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy, that documented their beliefs and rituals. Historians and folklorists have disputed the existence of such a group. During the 20th century, the book was influential in the development of the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca.
Celtic neopaganism refers to any type of modern paganism or contemporary pagan movements based on the ancient Celtic religion. One approach is Celtic Reconstructionism (CR), which emphasizes historical accuracy in reviving Celtic traditions. CR practitioners rely on historical sources and archaeology for their rituals and beliefs, including offerings to spirits and deities. Language study and preservation are essential, and daily life often incorporates ritual elements. While distinct from eclectic pagan and neopagan witchcraft traditions, there is some overlap with Neo-druidism.
Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic, and revolve around a Goddess and a Horned God, thereby being generally dualistic. In traditional Wicca, as expressed in the writings of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, the emphasis is on the theme of divine gender polarity, and the God and Goddess are regarded as equal and opposite divine cosmic forces. In some newer forms of Wicca, such as feminist or Dianic Wicca, the Goddess is given primacy or even exclusivity. In some forms of traditional witchcraft that share a similar duotheistic theology, the Horned God is given precedence over the Goddess.
Modern paganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest modern pagan religious movement is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions or spiritual paths were introduced during the 1950s and 1960s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in the early 1970s. Hellenic Neopaganism appeared in the 1990s.
Since its emergence in the 1970s, Neopaganism in German-speaking Europe has diversified into a wide array of traditions, particularly during the New Age boom of the 1980s.
Neopagan witchcraft, sometimes referred to as The Craft, is an umbrella term for some neo-pagan traditions that include the practice of magic. These traditions began in the mid-20th century, and many were influenced by the witch-cult hypothesis; a now-rejected theory that persecuted witches in Europe had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion. The largest and most influential of these movements was Wicca. Some other groups and movements describe themselves as "Traditional Witchcraft" to distinguish themselves from Wicca.
Revivals of ancient Roman polytheism have taken various forms in the modern era. These efforts seek to re-establish the traditional Roman cults and customs, often referred to as cultus deorum Romanorum, religio Romana, the Roman way to the gods, Roman-Italic Religion, or Gentile Roman Religion. Several loosely affiliated organizations have emerged in the contemporary period.
Neopaganism in Hungary is very diverse, with followers of the Hungarian Native Faith and of other religions, including Wiccans, Kemetics, Mithraics, Druids and Christopagans.
Sabina Magliocco, is a professor of anthropology and religion at the University of British Columbia and formerly at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She is an author of non-fiction books and journal articles about folklore, religion, religious festivals, foodways, witchcraft and Neo-Paganism in Europe and the United States.
Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives is an academic anthology edited by the American religious studies scholar Michael F. Strmiska which was published by ABC-CLIO in 2005. Containing eight separate papers produced by various scholars working in the field of Pagan studies, the book examines different forms of contemporary Paganism as practiced in Europe and North America. Modern Paganism in World Cultures was published as a part of ABC-CLIO's series of books entitled "Religion in Contemporary Cultures", in which other volumes were dedicated to religious movements like Buddhism and Islam.
Central to Kremmerz's work is the Fr+Tm+ of Miriam, founded officially in 1898. This group sought to restore the ancient Egyptian Isiac mysteries through a focus on "hermetic medicine" and therapeutic magic. Its goals included alleviating suffering and exploring phenomena such as clairvoyance, telepathy, and other "supernormal" human capacities. The organization operated under a strict "Pragmatica Fondamentale," delineating its practices and philosophical aims.
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