Neopaganism

(Revision as of 14:00, 9 Jul 2005)

Neopaganism (sometimes Neo-Paganism, meaning "New Paganism") describes a heterogeneous group of modern religions, many of which attempt to revive ancient, mainly European pre-Christian religions. Some Neopagans stress their connections with older forms of Paganism in terms of "underground" continuity.

Neopaganist beliefs and practices are extremely diverse, and tend towards syncretic melding of once-diverse practices and beliefs. It has been said that there are as many Neopagan belief systems as there are Neopagans. However, while Neopaganism tends towards individualism, many adherents share a body of common precepts, including a reverence for nature or active ecology, Goddess and/or Horned God veneration, use of ancient mythologies, the belief in "magick," and often the belief in reincarnation.

Neopaganism is most commonly associated with mythology originated in the pre-Christian religions of northwestern Europe. However, the term also applies to modern revivals of other cults and belief systems, such as those of Isis, Mithra and of the state religion of ancient Rome, and to non-reconstructionist Pagan belief systems developed within modern times.

History of Neopaganism

In Germany, a resurgence of interest in pre-Christian, authentically Germanic pagan practices such as summer solstice festivities were a feature of the Völkisch movement in the late 19th century, one of the main roots of modern paganism. The late 19th century also saw a renewal of interest in various forms of Western occultism, particularly in England. During this period several occultist societies were formed such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis. Several prominent writers and artists were involved in these organizations, including William Butler Yeats, Arthur Edward Waite, and Aleister Crowley.

Along with these occult organizations, there were other social phenomena such as the interest in mediumship, which suggest that interest in magic and other supernatural beliefs were at an all time high in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Some evidence suggests that returning colonials and missionaries brought ideas from native traditions home to Britain. In particular the anthropologist Sir James George Frazer's The Golden Bough (1900) was influential.

In the 1920s Margaret Murray theorized that a witchcraft religion existed underground and in secret, and had survived through the religious persecutions and Inquisitions of the medieval Church. Most historians reject Murray's theory, as it is based on a similarity between the accounts given by accused witches; this similarity actually derives from the standard set of questions that were used in the interrogation. Murray's theories generated interest reflected in novels by Mitchison ("The Corn King and the Spring Queen") and covens were created along Murrayite lines.

It is likely that this general atmosphere created the circumstances which were necessary for the rise of Wicca. At the very least, it was fertile ground for its introduction.

In the 1940s Gerald Gardner claimed to have been initiated into a New Forest coven led by Dorothy Clutterbuck, an ex-colonial woman returned from India. Gardner had already written about Malay native customs and now wrote books about Wicca. The term "Wicca" is still used to refer to the traditions of Neopaganism that adhere closely to Gardner's teachings, or direct offshoots such as the teachings of Alex Sanders.

In the USA today Wicca is sometimes (mis)used loosely to equate with any form of Neopaganism; while Wicca is by far the largest form of Neopaganism in the US, it is nonetheless a subset of the larger Neopagan movement. This error is common among outsiders and newcomers, less so among those who've been involved with the Neopagan community for significant amounts of time. British based Neopaganism, on the other hand, used to use the term 'Wicca' much more narrowly, as Gardnerian or Alexandrian Wicca; also, a third generation of Wicca descended from Gardnerian is now flourishing, notably Seax-Wica.

However, in Britain today, the term is most commonly associated with a Celtic themed approach. Indeed, Wicca in Britain is now so widespread that the two forms of Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca have been submerged in a wave of modern offshoots, much of it from the United States. Much of this was inspired directly or indirectly by the publication of The Tree by Raymond Buckland, detailing the tradition of Seax-Wica; prior to this, Wicca had been unpublished and secret in nature. After it, people started creating new orders on their own, to the lasting irritation of the Gardnerians.

Wicca has been arguably the most well organised and influential form of Neopaganism until the mid '80s, perhaps justifying a tendency by some Wiccans to claim for themselves the priesthood of the Neopagan community. Other Neopagan traditions do not see it so. This is sometimes a flashpoint for considerable argument.

Mythological and religious sources

Many - but not all - Neopagans and Neopagan traditions incorporate ancient mythology into their beliefs and practices. Wicca in particular is sometimes referred to by its proponents as the "Old Religion", a term popularised by Margaret Murray in the 1920s. Its use until the 1990s drew on a perceived underground European Paganism and supposed ancient "Goddess religions". These models are now largely discredited, notably by Ronald Hutton, and allusions are now more cautiously made to local folk healers/small groups, and a plurality of ancient "Goddess traditions", among others. However, while Neopagans draw from old religious traditions, they also adapt them. The mythologies of the ancient civilizations are not generally considered to be literally factual or historical in the sense that the Bible is claimed historical by fundamentalists. Nor are they considered to be scripture, as most Neopagans are resistant to the concept of scripture.

The mythological sources of Neopaganism are many, including Celtic, Norse, Greek, Roman, Sumerian, Egyptian and others. There is probably no widely known mythology or religious tradition that has not been used as a source by some group at some time. Some groups focus on one tradition; others draw from several or many. All mythologies are believed to contain truth, seen from different perspectives. Neopagans seemingly borrow or adapt from any tradition they find useful. For example, the Charge of the Goddess, a text by Doreen Valiente, used materials from the Gospel of Aradia by Charles Leland (1901), and Aleister Crowley's writings. It is commonly used to invoke the "Goddess", beginning with the words: "Listen to the words of the Great Mother, Who of old was called Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arionrhod, Brigid, and by many other names", showing a glimpse of Neopagan eclecticism.

Some Neopagans also draw inspiration from living traditions, including Christianity, Buddhism and others. Since most Neopaganism does not demand exclusivity, Neopagans can and do sometimes practice other faiths in parallel.

As there is no Neopagan dogma, nor any authority to deem a source apocryphal, neopaganism has been notably prone to fakelore, especially in recent years, as information and misinformation alike have been spread on the Internet and in published material.

An Earth-based religion

Neopaganism is considered an "Earth-based" or "nature-based" religion because it holds Earth and all of nature to be sacred. Some Neopagans are influenced by religions that are also nature-based such as those of Native Americans and Africans.

The divine nature of Earth is recognized in the form of the Goddess by many names, among them Gaia, the Earth Mother, and the Great Mother of classical anthropology. In masculine form, the nature force is called the Green Man.

Witchcraft

Witchcraft is one specific Neopagan tradition often referred to by its members simply as The Craft. Both women and men are titled as witches. Confusingly, the American usage makes Neopaganism and Wicca witchcraft broadly similar. British usage restricts Wicca to one form of witchcraft, the Craft as one among many forms of Neopaganism.

Number of adherents

Adherents.com (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html) estimates there are one million Neopagans. It is necessary to define clearly who is included in any estimate, as Neopagan could mean active initiates, or anyone who likes Tarot! Also there is a difference between Western (Neo) Paganism, (technically a New Religious Movement), and worldwide traditional Neopagan faiths. It is possible, however, to consider these varied and diverse indigenous religions, generically referred to as "pagan" by monotheistic faiths, as having enough in common to warrant grouping them together as a single denomination. This would raise the number of adherents to many millions.

Most Neopagans do not have distinct temples, usually holding rituals in private homes or sacred groves and other outdoor locations. Many adherents keep their faith secret for fear of repercussions. Many also practice their faith as "solitaries", and work within no fixed spiritual community.

A UK study by Ronald Hutton compared a number of different sources (including membership lists of major organisations, attendance at major events, subscriptions to magazines, etc.) and used standard models for extrapolating likely numbers. This has to estimate multiple membership overlap and number of persons represented by each person attending an event. This concluded at adherence of 250,000, roughly equivalent to the national Hindu community.

The Covenant of the Goddess (http://www.cog.org) conducted a poll of U.S. and Canadian Neopagans in 1999 that estimated the population in those countries at 768,400 (see http://www.cog.org/cogpoll_final.html). This would seem to support the view that there are at least one million worldwide. This poll was not scientific and represents a self selected subset of all Neopagans, but it does provide some interesting insights that confirm what many Neopagans have observed anecdotally. Some other statistics from this poll are:

65% of respondents were between 26 and 39 years of age. Neopaganism appears to be particularly popular among young people.
86% were registered to vote, a figure much higher than the national average
There were nearly three times as many women as men (71%).
13% have served in the Armed Forces, and Neopagan women served at a higher rate than the general population. 32% of Neopagans who reported having been in the Armed Forces were female.

Concepts of divinity

While today's Neopaganism does continue many beliefs and practices of previous forms of Paganism, including many gods and goddesses, it is in many ways claimed to be very different.

Many Neopagans believe that there is a single divinity, a life force of the universe, who is immanent in the world. The various names and archetypes which they worship are seen not as truly separate individuals, but as facets, or faces, of something that is far beyond our human abilities to see, know, or understand. Rather than attempt to describe the indescribable, they approach the divine through one of its many aspects. This is claimed to be a genuinely new theology, particularly by critics, although it is a common concept, especially in Eastern philosophy and can be traced in Western thinking to the ancient Egyptian concept of divinity — the ancient Egyptian word for god, netjer, is sometimes claimed to have literally meant "all one". Hutton considers ancient Pagans did not see "All Goddesses as one Goddess; all Gods as one God" [sic] (though his expertise is limited to the Pagans of the prehistoric British Isles). As such, some more "traditional" approaches to paganism are polytheistic rather than pantheistic, and worship their pantheon while acknowledging others that do not affect their lives.

Ancient paganism, particularly in Mediterranean societies, tended to regard beliefs as valid insomuch as they were part of the traditions and customs, or cultural patrimony of the people. Moreover, as Christianity became a rising force in the Mediterranean world, many authors wrote arguments against Christian claims and in defence of the traditional religions that give us insight into their structure. Most ancient Western religions identified a single source of divinity with ranks of lesser divinities below them till one reached the tier containing deified mortals such as Greek heroes, teachers and Roman emperors. Porphyry, in particular, makes this clear in the surviving fragments of Against the Christians, in which he attempts to claim Jesus for this "heroic tier."

For Wiccans, divinity is bipolar as two bodies dominate: Goddess and God, with many lesser aspects. For Heathens, (Nordics, Celtics, Egyptians, and Greeks), divinity is polytheistic. For Druids and High Magicians there is an overall One but other divinities are also recognised. Of Goddess worshippers, many are monotheistic, believing in one Goddess, while others are polytheistic, believing that the one Goddess can be worshipped in many different forms.

Festivals

Different Neopagan groups celebrate different holidays. The eight main Wiccan celebrations or Sabbats are more or less evenly spread through the year in a cycle sometimes called the Wheel of the Year.

Non-sabbat celebrations, called Esbats, may be held to honor phases of the moon, or events of personal or group significance.

Traditions

A sect within Neopaganism is sometimes referred to as a "tradition," although this term is more properly used to define a sect within a particular Neopagan religion, such as Wicca, Hellenism, Ásatrú, Druidry, Dianics etc. There are many traditions within the larger world of Neopaganism, most of which are identified according to the pantheon they work with, or the founder of the tradition.

Some of the larger traditions of Neopaganism include:

Wicca

See main article: Wicca

Wicca is a recently created Neopagan religion, with various branches of Wicca that can be traced back to Gardnerian Witchcraft which was founded in the UK during the late 1940s. Wicca is based on the symbols, seasonal days of celebration, beliefs and deities of ancient Celtic society. Added to this material were heavy Masonic (See: Freemasonry) and ceremonial magical components from recent centuries. Wicca has several branches, which emphasize polarity, or working with both masculine and feminine forces. See the Wicca article for more details of these.

Since Wicca is so flexible and syncretic (some have gone so far as to describe themselves as Christian Wiccan) it could be considered a New Age spirituality.

Heathenism

Ásatrú/Odinism is frequently regarded as one of the Neopagan family of religions. However, many Ásatrúers prefer the term Heathen to Neopagan and look upon their tradition as "not just a branch on the Neopagan tree" but as a different tree (altough it may be in the same forest). Unlike Wicca, which has gradually evolved into many different traditions, the reconstruction of Ásatrú has been based on the surviving historical record; its mythology has been maintained as closely as possible to the original of the Norse people. Several elements of Asatru are also contradictory to Neopagan beliefs.

Ásatrú, also known by some as Odinism. Asatru or Ásatrú is an Icelandic word, a translation of the Danish word Asetro. The latter was coined by scholars in the mid-19th century. It was intended to mean belief in the Æsir, the Gods. In Scandinavia the religion is called Forn Siðr (which means the Olden Way), Forn Sed (the Olden way), Nordisk sed (Norse way), or Hedensk sed (Heathen way). The religion's origin is lost in antiquity. At its peak, it covered all of Northern Europe. In 1000 CE, Iceland became the second to last Norse culture to convert to Christianity, and Sweden became the last after a civil war that ended with the burning of the Temple at Uppsala in 1087. In Sweden, folklorists discovered that legends of the gods and secret sacrifices surfaced as late as the early 20th century (see Trollkyrka and Norse mythology). Icelandic poet Gothi Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson promoted government recognition of Ásatrú as a legitimate religion; this was granted in 1972. Since the early 1970s, the religion has been in a period of rapid growth in the former Norse countries and North America.

Hellenism, Romanism and Graeco-Roman Paganism

While not identical, Hellenic (Greek) and Roman religion would have been difficult mto fully disentangle from each other, even in late antiquity, owing to the cultural exchanges and diffusion of cults and philosophies during the Roman imperial period. While some of the Hard Roman Reconstructionists, particularly those to be found in the micronation of Nova Roma (http://www.novaroma.org) would seem to view the practice with some disdain, judging from discussions on the ReligionRomana (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReligioRomana) list, finding modern Pagans who combine Greek and Roman observances is not difficult.

Among online sources, the most popular form of Hellenic Paganism (or Hellenic Reconstructionism) goes by the name of Hellenismos, and Roman Paganism often is known as the Religio Romana.

Celtic-based

Druidry is one of the Neopaganism family of religions. Some present-day Druids attempt to reconstruct the beliefs and practices of ancient Druidism. Other modern-day followers of Druidism claim to have worked directly with the spirits of places, of pagan gods and of their own ancestors to create a new Druidism. Within ancient Druidism, there were three specialties. The Bards were "the keepers of tradition, of the memory of the tribe - they were the custodians of the sacredness of the Word". The Ovates worked with the processes of death and regeneration. They were the native healers. They specialized in divination, conversing with the ancestors, and prophesizing the future. The Druids (in actuality the original singular was "Drui", "Druid" being the plural) performed the functions of modern day priests, teachers, ambassadors, astronomers, genealogists, philosophers, musicians, theologians, scientists, poets and judges. Most modern Druids connect the origin of their religion to the ancient Celtic people. However, historical data is scarce. Some think the Druids were active in Britain and northern Europe before the advent of the Celts.
Celtic Spirituality inspired by the cultures of Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Ireland and Scotland. Its deities are mega-heroic and foreign, but not puppeteers. Celtic soul work is anamchara based (soul friend) rather than priest/ess-based, and can generate a Celtic Pagan Christianity based on early medieval models of pantheism. Some forms of this fall under the rubric of Celtic Reconstructionism.

Slavic

Most Slavic neopagans follow customs of old Slavic religion and revere Slavic gods. Many use the Book of Veles as their sacred text. As a group these Slavic religions are known as Slavianstvo. Most Slavianstvo call themselves heathens rather than pagans. Slavic reconstructionists are a relative rarity since there is little information available in English.

Baltic

Romuva is a Lithuanian Pagan tradition, while a neo-pagan Latvian tradition is called Dievturiba.

Ancient Near East-based

Judeo-Paganism, which celebrates the old religions of the ancient Near East, including the Canaanite-Ugarit religion.

Modern

Eco-Paganism/Eco-Magic: 'The Ecology Party at prayer' (Hutton) is an active, earth loving ecology network that uses meditation and ritual to sustain conservation projects and eco-politics.
Techno-Pagans: Rather than looking back to ancient mythos, Techno-Pagans are inspired by modern technology, especially computers and rave music.
Feminist Wicca is a Dianic Pagan tradition, emphasizing the divine feminine and often create women-only groups.
Solitary Paganism: Some neopagans either find inspiration in solitude or are more comfortable practicing paganism alone.
Christo-Paganism: Certain individuals and groups identify with both Christianity and Neopaganism, or in some cases with Christianity and some form of Historical Reconstructionism. They create their own syncretic spirituality from the aspects of both religions. Eg. the "Christo-Hellenic" faith described in the Almond Jar (http://christohellenism.bravehost.com).

Some Unitarian Universalists are Pagan. Unitarian Universalism is a non-dogmatic, non-creedal, individual search for truth. Unitarian Universalists seek to find individual truth, incorporating a variety of Pagan and non-Pagan beliefs; so most UU Pagans do not identify with any specific Pagan tradition. They can be considered Neopagans.

Many neopagans self-identify as "eclectic", taking their practices and knowledge from a varity of sources to synthesize a personal understanding and expression of their beliefs.

Terms for kinds of Neopagan worship

Most Neopagans worship various Gods and Goddessesm but this may not be actually polytheistic; some believe as Dion Fortune wrote "All Gods are One God, All Goddesses are One Goddess." Many neopagans (particularly Wiccans) are dualists, or panentheists, but there are also polytheists, some are animists, and some believe in the deity within. The terms are defined below:

Animism is the belief that spirits inhabit every existing thing, including plants, minerals, animals and, including all the elements, air, water, earth, and fire. Since a spirit pervades every piece of living matter, an individual can absorb its essence by eating it. For example, ingesting the brains of a particularly clever creature will impart its intelligence to the ingester. Animism was probably the first form of worship.

Monotheism is the belief in one ultimate Deity alone, or in the unique God.

Panentheism is the belief that God is both immanent in creation and transcendent to it. God creates, contains and sustains the universe, but mysteriously exists outside of it as well. Subjectively, it can be explained as the feeling that nature, the universe, has a divine or awe-inspiring aspect. This is a form of monotheism. Compare with the Logos.

Pantheism is the belief that god is the universe and the universe is god -- or, more generally, that the universe is literally Divine. Thus what happens in the universe is happening to god. If there is evil in the universe, then god is partly evil. Matter and spirit are two sides of the same coin. They come from the same source and share the same essential nature. Dualism is an illusion. This is a combination of animism and henotheism.

Dualism (sometimes known as Ditheism) is the belief that there are only two fundamental things or substances or constituents of things in the world at large or in the human soul. Most commonly, this implies a God and a Devil-god, absolute good and absolute evil, or spirit and matter. Some sects of Gnosticism were dualist in this sense. Another example, from neopaganism, is the existence of a Goddess and God, neither of which is either good or evil, but each of which exists simultaneously and balances the other despite their mutual independence.

Polytheism is the belief in more than one god(dess). Polytheism often involves the worship of a heavenly pantheon of kindred gods, with one chief god who typically sits as lord. In addition, a polytheist may show respect to lesser spirits which are not part of the gods' pantheon, but which may be associated with specific localities, plants, elements (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element#Classical_elements_in_Greece), other-worldy realms, or mind-states. A polytheist may also believe in the existence of gods worshipped outside his own culture. In a form of polytheism more closely related to henotheism (such as Mormonism), one god is supreme and the others are ancillary and do not have the same level of godhead ("god-ness").

Henotheism is the worship of many gods who are but faces of a single god. Forms of late Greek and Roman classical religion became henotheistic as the old polytheistic myths were rationalized to fit the newer monotheistic philosophy. Most forms of modern Hinduism are also henotheistic.

Syncretism is the incorporation of gods from one culture into the worship of another.

Monolatrism is a type of polytheism. Its adherents believe that many gods do exist, but these gods can exert their power only on those who worship them. Thus, a monolatrist may believe in the reality of both the Egyptian gods and the god described in the Bible, but sees him or herself as a member of only one of these religions. The gods that he/she worships affect their life; the other gods do not. This reflects a form of solipsism and universalism.

Universalism is the belief that all religions are equal roads to heaven, although the adherent may chose only one or a few religions for his/her/its primary focus.

Suitheism is the belief in the deity of one's own self without denying the existence of other god(desse)s. This is common in Thelema and among Left-Hand Path occultists. This is sometimes considered a vehicle of amorality, super-egoism and/or solipsism.

Usage of the term 'Neopagan' in different quarters

The term "Neopagan" is used by academics and adherents alike to denote those Pagan traditions which are largely modern in origin, or which are conceived as reconstructions of ancient practices.

Some critics claim that Neopagans cannot legitimately be considered practitioners of "true" Pagan religion, citing that in the history of ideas it is understood that revivals are not identical to their models: e.g., Roman sculpture compared to the neoclassicism of, for example, Antonio Canova. Furthermore, a revival or reconstruction can only be as true to the original as the reference material from which it draws, and many alleged Pagan reconstructions have been shown to owe more to erroneous scholarship (such as that of Margaret Murray) or even to outright fakelore than to any historically authentic Pagan religious practice. Claims of inherited, unwritten, underground Pagan traditions, which would convey authenticity while conveniently avoiding academic scrutiny, were formerly the standard counter to such observations. These claims are viewed with increasing scepticism by Neopagans, though a small minority adhere to them.

However, no accepted definition of the term "Pagan" requires unbroken continuity with earlier forms; the term is applied according to what the adherent believes, not according to the historical provenance of those beliefs. So while Neo-Egyptian spirituality may not be the same thing as its original, both are technically Pagan (albeit very different varieties).

The usage of the term is further complicated by paganism apparently having arisen in the 18th or 19th century at the earliest as a term for a primitive state of religious belief, rather than a group of beliefs. (The term pagan is much older than paganism.) While it may therefore be possible to revive a Pagan religion or tradition, it is not possible to revive 'paganism' as such, since the term described a condition and not a set of beliefs. It is also misleading to regard individual Pagan traditions, new or old, as subsets of Paganism; it is more accurate to regard 'Paganism' as a disparaging and generalising label applied to a wide variety of belief systems.

The term Neopaganism does provide a means of distinguishing between those religions which have continued through history and those which consist of an attempt to revive or emulate earlier faiths. The argument for using it is that without the 'neo' prefix, there is a misleading implication of unbroken connection (and moral identification) with the pagan traditions of the past, since there is no difference between the label applied to a contemporary 'pagan' and an ancient one. Some modern pagans within the community desire exactly this removal of distinction, since the movement gains authority and relevance by appearing to have its roots in ancient tradition. Others within contemporary paganism consider this dishonest, and emphasise that the modern practice is connected with the old only by aspiration.

Difficulties have arisen following attempts to revive supposed elements of ancient Paganism whose existence has later proven to be tenuous. A case in point is Eostre, a goddess sufficiently popular to have had the modern Spring Equinox festival of Ostara named after her and presented as the historical forerunner of Easter. However, according to recent statements from academic sources, Eostre never existed as a figure of worship; she was invented by the 8th century scribe Bede [1] (http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12666249%255E3462,00.html), who misunderstood second-hand reports.

Although some Neopagans dismiss such academic conclusions as irrelevant to their beliefs, the majority accept them. They are not disheartened when the evidence suggests that their beliefs have been founded on a misreading of history or upon fakelore, and instead contend that any goddess who is worshipped is 'real', whether she previously existed in history or not [2] (http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detaila.html?id=12531).

Neo-pagan as used in literary criticism

The growth of, and consequent emphasis on, neopagan religion has almost entirely obscured the use of neopagan as a term for a type of vital philosophy expressed in 20th century literature. This use does not indicate any literal paganism in the religious sense at all. It connotes, rather, a form of positive existentialism comprising an attitude to the environment in which the immediate is indulged in to the fullest, with tomorrow left to fend for itself. To quote from Cyril Conolly's introduction to the first English edition of Albert Camus' L'etranger:

'Meursault represents the neo-pagan, a reversion to Mediterranean man as once he was in Corinth or Carthage or Alexandria or Tarshish, as he is today in Casablanca or Southern California. He is sensual and well-meaning, profoundly in love with life, whose least pleasures, from a bathe to a yawn, afford him complete and silent gratification. He lives without anxiety in a continuous present and has no need to think or to express himself; there is no Nordic why-clause in his pact with nature.'

By this definition, Ernest Hemingway's philosophy can be construed as neo-pagan, becoming explicitly so towards the end of his life in True at First Light in which he advocates an ancient hunter religion based upon Gitche Manitou, in contrast to Islamic monotheism.

This interpretation of paganism as existence in a 'continuous present' is wryly mocked by Dorothy Parker in her poem The Flaw in Paganism. [3] (http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/parker/12578)

First Modern Appearance of the Term

The word "Neo pagan" appears in an essay by F. Hugh O'Donnell, Irish MP in the British House of Commons, written in 1904. O'Donnell, writing about the theater of W. B. Yeats and Maude Gonne, criticized their work as an attempt to marry Madame Blavatsky with Cuchalainn. Yeats and Gonne, he claimed, openly worked to create a reconstructionist Celtic religion which incorporated Gaelic legend with magic.

Pagans, or Pagans MC, is also a name of one of the four major outlaw motorcycle clubs.

External links

WikiPagan (http://pagan.wikicities.com), a wiki for the pagan community.
The Pagan Poets Society (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paganpoetssociety/)
Circle of Shadows (http://www.freewebs.com/gerinadunwich/) official website of Neopagan author, Gerina Dunwich
Myth*ing Links (http://www.mythinglinks.org/) A meta page about myths and mythology around the world.
Vivianne Moon Dove's Sacred Wood (http://www.viviannemoondove.com) One person's spiritual autobiography.
The Neopagan Religious Archive (http://www.lysator.liu.se/religion/neopagan/) An online archive of Pagan material.
The Association of Polytheist Traditions - APT (http://www.manygods.org.uk/) A UK-based community of Polytheists with a website and a discussion group open to non-members, and a closed list for paid-up members.
BritPoly discussion group (http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Britpoly/) The Association of Polytheist Tradition's (APT) discussion group open to non-members. All polytheists are welcome, though the emphasis and style of the group is based on that of the UK.
Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (http://adf.org/core)
Isaac Bonewits' Website (http://www.neopagan.net) A neopagan author's thoughts on the development of neopaganism, modern druidry and public perception.
WiccanWeb.ca: (http://www.wiccanweb.ca/) Canadian-based pagan community site.
Witches Voice: (http://www.witchvox.com/) online neopagan community.
Odinist Library (http://geocities.com/odinistlibrary/main.htm) An educational resourse for the Folk of Odins Holy Nation and their organic religion of Odinism
Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (http://www.cuups.org/)
First Church of the Goddess (http://www.gallae.com/)
HeartsEase - A Witch's Cottage (http://www.aheartsease.com/nuke/)

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