Neo-Paganism
Neo-Paganism is an umbrella term for modern revivals of ancient ethnic and magickal traditions. These are usually polytheistic, but many Neo-Pagans consider their faith pantheistic, and many other concepts of deity can be found among Neo-Pagans as well. Subdivisions within Neo-Paganism include Wicca, Magick, Druidism, Asatru, neo-Native American religion and others.
Only recently has Neo-Paganism become a movement of any significant size and visibility. Solid statistics on Neo-Paganism on a worldwide scale are essentially non-existent, but it is a rapidly growing religion/religious category. Estimates regarding its worldwide size range widely--from under one hundred thousand to over four million. Independent surveys and government-based figures are not indicative of the higher estimates provided by Neo-Pagan and Wiccan organizations, but there may be a variety of reasons for this.
There are two reasons why some might argue that Neo-Paganism should not be listed as a major religion on this page: 1) It might be said that Neo-Paganism is not a single religion, but an umbrella term for many disparate religions. But upon closer examination of the movement, one finds that despite drawing upon such disparate sources as European witchcraft, Norse mythology, Druidism, and Egyptian, Greek, and Native American ancient religions, Neo-Pagans as a whole have a remarkably cohesive, identifiable culture and generally shared value set, even more so than religions such as Christianity, Islam or Judaism when taken as a whole. 2) It could also be said that Neo-Paganism could be classified as a subset of primal-indigenous religion. Though it has roots in primal ethnic religions, Neo-Paganism is something distinct, clearly drawing much of its identity from Gardnerian principles introduced in the 1930s. Neo-Paganism is distinct from the primal ethnic religions of ancient pre-industrial societies just as Buddhism has roots in, but is distinct from, Hinduism. So we are including Neo-Paganism on this list because the most recent sociological work in the field indicates it is a distinct religion, and because it is increasingly significant.
There were 768,400 Neo-pagans (largest subset were Wiccans) in the U.S. in the year 2000, according to the Wiccan/Pagan Poll, conducted by the Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) beginning in late July, 1999. [Online source: http://www.cog.org/cogpoll_final.html] Researchers may also be interested in Isaac Bonewits' succinct web page, How Many "Pagans" Are There? Bonewits identifies reasons for enumeration, difficulties in doing so, and concludes by estimating the Neopagan population at "from half a million to several million people in the USA and Canada."
Neo-Paganism is an umbrella term for modern revivals of ancient ethnic and magickal traditions. These are usually polytheistic, but many Neo-Pagans consider their faith pantheistic, and many other concepts of deity can be found among Neo-Pagans as well. Subdivisions within Neo-Paganism include Wicca, Magick, Druidism, Asatru, neo-Native American religion and others.
Only recently has Neo-Paganism become a movement of any significant size and visibility. Solid statistics on Neo-Paganism on a worldwide scale are essentially non-existent, but it is a rapidly growing religion/religious category. Estimates regarding its worldwide size range widely--from under one hundred thousand to over four million. Independent surveys and government-based figures are not indicative of the higher estimates provided by Neo-Pagan and Wiccan organizations, but there may be a variety of reasons for this.
There are two reasons why some might argue that Neo-Paganism should not be listed as a major religion on this page: 1) It might be said that Neo-Paganism is not a single religion, but an umbrella term for many disparate religions. But upon closer examination of the movement, one finds that despite drawing upon such disparate sources as European witchcraft, Norse mythology, Druidism, and Egyptian, Greek, and Native American ancient religions, Neo-Pagans as a whole have a remarkably cohesive, identifiable culture and generally shared value set, even more so than religions such as Christianity, Islam or Judaism when taken as a whole. 2) It could also be said that Neo-Paganism could be classified as a subset of primal-indigenous religion. Though it has roots in primal ethnic religions, Neo-Paganism is something distinct, clearly drawing much of its identity from Gardnerian principles introduced in the 1930s. Neo-Paganism is distinct from the primal ethnic religions of ancient pre-industrial societies just as Buddhism has roots in, but is distinct from, Hinduism. So we are including Neo-Paganism on this list because the most recent sociological work in the field indicates it is a distinct religion, and because it is increasingly significant.
There were 768,400 Neo-pagans (largest subset were Wiccans) in the U.S. in the year 2000, according to the Wiccan/Pagan Poll, conducted by the Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) beginning in late July, 1999. [Online source: http://www.cog.org/cogpoll_final.html] Researchers may also be interested in Isaac Bonewits' succinct web page, How Many "Pagans" Are There? Bonewits identifies reasons for enumeration, difficulties in doing so, and concludes by estimating the Neopagan population at "from half a million to several million people in the USA and Canada."
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