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Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or a family of religions which is influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Africa and the Near East. Although they share similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse and as a result, they do not share a single set of beliefs, practices, or texts. Scholars of religion may characterise these traditions as new religious movements. Some academics who study the phenomenon treat it as a movement that is divided into different religions while others characterize it as a single religion of which different pagan faiths are denominations.
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern pagans, consisting of the year's chief solar events and the midpoints between them. While names for each festival vary among diverse pagan traditions, syncretic treatments often refer to the four solar events as "quarter days", with the four midpoint events as "cross-quarter days". Differing paths of modern paganism may vary regarding the precise timing of each celebration, based on such distinctions as lunar phase and geographic hemisphere.
Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today is a sociological study of contemporary Paganism in the United States written by the American Wiccan and journalist Margot Adler. First published in 1979 by Viking Press, it was later republished in a revised and expanded edition by Beacon Press in 1986, with third and fourth revised editions being brought out by Penguin Books in 1996 and then 2006 respectively.
The Starwood Festival is a seven-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival, taking place every July in the United States of America. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects. There are also live musical performances, rituals, bonfires, multimedia presentations and social activities. It is a clothing optional event, and skyclad attendance is common.
A covenstead is a meeting place of a coven. The term relates specifically to the meeting place of witches within certain modern religious movements such as Wicca that fall under the collective term Modern Paganism, also referred to as Contemporary Paganism or Neopaganism. It functions to provide a place for the group to conduct rituals, undertake lessons and recognise festivals. It can also be referred to as the home of the coven.
Polytheistic reconstructionism is an approach to modern paganism first emerging in the late 1960s to early 1970s, which gathered momentum starting in the 1990s. Reconstructionism attempts to re-establish genuine polytheistic religions in the modern world through a rediscovery of the rituals, practices and contextual worldviews of pre-Christian Pagan religions. This method stands in contrast with other neopagan syncretic movements like Wicca, and ecstatic/esoteric movements like Germanic mysticism or Theosophy.
Pagan Occult Distribution System Network (PODSnet) was a neopagan/occult computer network of Pagan Sysops and Sysops carrying Pagan/Magickal/Occult oriented echoes operating on an international basis, with FIDO Nodes in Australia, Canada, Germany, the U.K., and across the USA. PODSnet grew rapidly, and at its height, was the largest privately distributed network of Pagans, Occultists, and other people of an esoteric bent on this planet.
The Pagan Federation is a UK-based voluntary organisation, founded as the Pagan Front, that provides information and counters misconceptions about Neopaganism. It was formed in 1971, and campaigns for the religious rights of Neo-pagans and educates both civic bodies and the general public about Paganism. Pagan Federation is a constituted voluntary organisation, registered as a private Company limited by guarantee, with exemption for use of 'limited' with Companies House on 22 August 2000, with its nature listed as a Religious Organisation. The memorandum of the association lists the objects of the Pagan Federation as providing services for Pagans in the UK and abroad, providing information about Paganism to the public and all interested bodies, educating the public about Pagan beliefs and traditions, providing access to Pagan celebrations, and providing pastoral care for Pagans in the community including those in hospitals and prisons.
The Witches' Voice (WitchVox) was an online information and networking resource for the Wiccan and Pagan community. It is a non-profit organization founded and run by Wren Walker and Fritz Jung in 1997. It won Peoples' Choice under Spirituality in the 2002 Webby Awards, and is considered one of the "most extensive" Pagan websites. The organization's website was retired on December 31, 2019.
The Council of Magickal Arts, Inc.(CMA) is a Neo-pagan organization in Texas, and runs one of the USA's largest bi-annual Neo-pagan festivals in the Southern United States.
Lady Rhea has been a Wiccan high priestess in the Gardnerian tradition since 1973, and since 1982 runs an occult shop in New York, with Lady Miw. In 1992, she opened Magickal Realms in Greenwich Village, later relocating to The Bronx, where she co-operates the shop with Lady Zoradia.
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.
Usenet is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was established in 1980. Users read and post messages to one or more topic categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles a bulletin board system (BBS) in many respects and is the precursor to the Internet forums that have become widely used. Discussions are threaded, as with web forums and BBSs, though posts are stored on the server sequentially.
The American Council of Witches was an independent group founded in 1973 consisting of approximately seventy-three members who followed Pagan, Neopagan, or Witchcraft traditions; the group convened and disbanded in 1974 after drafting a set of common principles.
Semitic neopaganism is a group of religions based on or attempting to reconstruct the ancient Semitic religions, mostly practiced among ethnic Jews in the United States.
Minnesota's Twin Cities region is home to a large community of Wiccans, Witches, Druids, Heathens, and a number of Pagan organizations. Some neopagans in the USA refer to the area as Paganistan, a term coined by linguist, poet, and humorist Steven Posch in 1989, which he then used in the title of his spoken word album Radio Paganistan : Folktales of the Urban Witches.
Eclectic paganism, also occasionally termed universalist or non-denominational paganism, is a form of modern paganism where practitioners blend paganism with aspects of other religions or philosophies. In the book Handbook of New Age, Melissa Harrington states that "Eclectic Pagans do not follow any particular Paganism, but follow a Pagan religious path, that includes the overall Pagan ethos of reverence for the ancient Gods, participation in a magical world view, stewardship and caring for the Earth, and 'nature religion.'" The practice of eclectic paganism is particularly popular with pagans in North America and the British Isles.
Modern paganviews on LGBT people vary considerably among different paths, sects, and belief systems. LGBT individuals comprise a much larger percentage of the population in neopagan circles than larger, mainstream religious populations. There are some popular neopagan traditions which have beliefs often in conflict with the LGBT community, and there are also traditions accepting of, created by, or led by LGBT individuals. The majority of conflicts concern heteronormativity and cisnormativity.
TheScottish Pagan Federation (SPF) is a Scotland-based organisation which works to support the Neopagan community in Scotland. Originally part of the Pagan Federation, it became an independent organisation in 2006. The group seeks to promote tolerance of Neopaganism, spread information to the public, interface with other religions through interfaith activities, defend Neopagans from religious discrimination, and provide a network for Scottish Neopagans. They have been members of Interfaith Scotland since 2013. They run an annual conference which brings together Neopagans from across the country as well as an annual summer camp. In 2021 they announced the release of an official tartan intended for the use of Neopagans worldwide.
References
- 1 2 BBS: The Documentary
- 1 2 Boardwatch Magazine, October 1995
- ↑ The Brewers' Witch BBS website
- ↑
- Call For Votes (and results) for soc.religion.paganism on Google Groups
- ↑ Notes and on-line logs of the Brewers' Witch BBS in the possession of Silverflame, one of the original participants.
- ↑ Signed logbooks of many of the early PNOs are in the possession of Donal, the SysAdmin of The Brewers' Witch BBS.