Modern Paganism

Modern Paganism, often called Neo-Paganism or Contemporary Paganism, is the umbrella family of new religious movements that emerged publicly from the 1950s onward, claiming inspiration from the pre-Christian religions of Europe, the Near East, and elsewhere. Its major streams include Wicca, Druidry, Heathenry (Norse revival), Hellenic Polytheism, Kemeticism (Egyptian revival), Slavic Native Faith, and the broad eclectic field of solitary and small-group practitioners.

The family shares an orientation to nature as sacred, the turning of the seasonal year as ritual rhythm (solstices, equinoxes, cross-quarter festivals), polytheistic or animistic theology in most streams, and a strongly DIY relationship with authority: most Pagans practice without hierarchical clergy, building practice through books, small groups, festivals, and online networks. Scholarly treatments (Michael York, Graham Harvey, Helen Berger) place the family at an estimated one to two million practitioners worldwide, concentrated in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia.

Modern Paganism is contested terrain in one key way: reconstructionist streams work hard to distinguish historically grounded revival from invention, while eclectics freely blend. The umbrella term holds both, and its internal diversity is a feature of the tradition rather than a bug.