The “modern pagan” movements are described as one of the most prominent religious currents in the West in recent decades, and some researchers have seen their rise as a natural transformation in light of the encroachment of secularism and the rejection of the traditional Christian system.
The term modern paganism or neo-paganism is used to describe the many movements and groups that revived the worship of idols or adopted modern pagan rituals in Europe, Russia and the United States.
However, these sects differ in their beliefs and orientations, as some of them arose from mixing ancient pagan practices with modern ideas and philosophies, while some sought to revive the pagan past of Europe before Christianity, with all its rituals and legends.
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However, the number of neo-pagans is growing in recent years, estimated at hundreds of thousands in different countries, and the pagan movements organize themselves in registered institutions, and many books and research have been published about them.
In the United States, Wicca, a pagan sect whose practices revolve around magic, astrology, and belief in supernatural powers, is growing. An estimated 1.5 million Americans identify as Wiccans or Pagans, according to a Pew survey in 2014, compared to just 700,000 a decade ago.
In Britain, about 70,000 people identify themselves as Pagans or Wiccans, according to the 2011 official census.
In Iceland, it is reported that Scandinavian paganism is making a strong comeback, and that it is now “the fastest growing religion in the country.” and loki.
In Denmark, the pagans completed the construction of a temple to the god Odin in 2016, for the first time in a thousand years.
Slavic paganism
In Russia, there are about ten official organizations representing pagans, with the rise of what is known as modern Slavic paganism or “Rodnovry”, which means “the original Slavic religion”.
This return of Slavic paganism had a special effect because it is related to the nationalism of the peoples of Slavic origin (Slavic), which include Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Bosnians, Serbs, Bulgarians and others.
In Poland, pagan apostasy raises confusion and questioning in a country that has long been proud of its ancient Christian traditions. The Pagans became a large registered organization with thousands of members in a country where Catholics constitute more than 87% of the population.
European and American Christians believe that modern paganism is just another aspect of Western materialism that rejects religion and any role it has in human life, and that it quotes from the legendary European past and its mysterious rituals in order to meet the spiritual needs and fill the emotional void of the new generations in the West.
But the new pagans in general see that their movement is a quest to reach a life in harmony with nature and its forces, and a return to the European heritage that contributed to the formation of Western civilization and gave confidence to its human being.
Marriage with nationalism and racism
Although the prevailing impression among contemporary Westerners of this modern paganism as a liberating and peaceful movement inspired by the left-wing youth rebellion that characterized the 1960s, it is not so in all cases, as asserts researcher Ethan Doyle White of University College London.
White says that many sects of modern paganism, particularly in central and eastern Europe, are highly conservative, even reactionary, in their social visions. He explains that these groups see the revival of the worship of pre-Christian deities as an affirmation of their ethnic and national identity in the midst of the globalization of the modern era.
In her book “Paganism, Heritage and Nationalism,” researcher Karina Aitamurto says that the Rodnovarian movement in Russia – one of the most prominent pagan groups whose name has been associated with national extremism – paints the image of a nation that lived in prosperity until it began to ignore its heritage and values and imitate foreign models such as Christianity and communism, which eliminated the The nation’s pride in itself according to the Russian pagans.
The solution for them, as Aitamurto says, is to return to the original religion of the Slavs or the Russians so that the people feel themselves and regain their balance.
In the United States, too, there are racist pagan movements that rarely come to the fore in the news, but they emerged in the events of Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, when white racists and ultranationalists organized a march under the slogan “Unite the Right.”
And participated in that march – in which a racist killed an activist from an anti-racist group by running over his car – the prominent pagan Stephen McNallan, founder of the “Asatro People’s Association”. Also among the participants was the ambitious pagan politician Augustus Sol Invictus.
“For the outside world, associating the far right with ancient gods and witchcraft may seem absurd, but it is in fact linked to specific acts of violence and terrorism,” says writer Sarah Lyons in an article for the “Vice” site.
In her article published in April 2018, she added that a member of an American racist pagan group in Virginia called “Vinland Wolves” spent more than two years in prison because he burned a black church in 2012.