The Canon · No. 107
Modern Paganism
Neopaganism; Heathenry; contemporary Druidry; polytheist reconstructionism
c.1717 / 1960s CE – present · Esoteric / Occult · Living · UK, US, Iceland, Lithuania, Greece, Russia, Brazil
VIII. POSTWAR & CONTEMPORARY — 1945 – PRESENT
How many
Roughly 2–3 million worldwide across all forms. Among the fastest-growing categories in Western census data, from a very small base.
Who began it
No single founder. Modern Druidry begins with antiquarian societies from 1717 and 1781; Ásatrú was organised in Iceland in 1972 by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson; Hellenism, Kemeticism, Rodnovery and Romuva each arose separately.
What it is for
To reconstruct, revive or reimagine pre-Christian religion — and, in most cases, to relocate the sacred in the natural world rather than beyond it.
What it worships
Depends entirely on the tradition. Heathens worship the Norse and Germanic gods; Hellenists the Olympians; Kemetics the Egyptian netjeru; Rodnovers the Slavic gods; Romuva the Baltic; Druids variously Celtic deities, ancestors or nature itself. Most are genuinely polytheist and mean it literally.
What it holds
Two broad camps, and the difference between them is the movement's main internal fault line. Reconstructionists aim for historical accuracy, work from primary sources, and are often sharply critical of invention. Eclectics treat the old material as a resource for present-day spirituality and feel free to adapt. Common ground: immanent rather than transcendent divinity, cyclical time, reciprocity with gods and land, and an ethic of honour, hospitality and obligation rather than of sin.
What it does
Seasonal festivals tied to solstices, equinoxes and agricultural markers. Offerings of food, drink and craft. Blót and sumbel in Heathenry. Bardic, ovate and druid grades in modern Druidry. Ritual at ancient sites, which produces recurring negotiations with heritage authorities. Oath-taking as a serious binding act.
After death
Varied and generally undogmatic. Heathens draw on the Norse sources — Valhalla, Hel, the mound, rebirth in the family line. Druids often speak of the Otherworld or of the ancestors. Many modern pagans hold reincarnation; many hold that the dead join the land or the ancestors; a substantial number are frankly agnostic about it and consider the question secondary to right living now. What is nearly universal is the absence of judgment and of eternal punishment.
Its texts
No scripture. The Poetic and Prose Eddas, the Irish and Welsh mythological cycles, Hesiod and Homer, the Egyptian funerary texts — read as source material rather than as revelation.
Its branches
Heathenry/Ásatrú; Druidry; Hellenism; Kemetic Orthodoxy; Rodnovery; Romuva; Religio Romana; Celtic reconstructionism; eclectic and devotional polytheism.
Of note
Modern paganism has spent forty years shedding the romantic-survival myths it began with. The traditions that survived the shift are the ones that stopped claiming ancient descent and started doing serious historical work.
Its timeline
- 1717, 1781 CE Ancient Order of Druids and antiquarian druidry founded in London — invented tradition, not survival.
- 1792 CE Iolo Morganwg holds the first Gorsedd; he forged a great deal of the material and also created institutions still functioning in Welsh culture.
- 1964 CE Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids founded.
- <strong>1972–73 CE</strong> Ásatrúarfélagið is legally recognised in Iceland, the first modern state recognition of a reconstructed pre-Christian religion. It is now one of Iceland's fastest-growing religious bodies and built its first temple in decades at Reykjavík.
- 1970s–90s CE Rodnovery in the Slavic world; Romuva in Lithuania, recognised in 1992; Hellenism organises in Greece.
- 1998 CE Ásatrú recognised in Denmark; similar recognitions follow in Norway, Spain and elsewhere.
- 2017 CE Greece formally recognises Hellenic religion.
- 2000s–present A sustained and public conflict between inclusive Heathen organisations and folkish groups that restrict membership by ancestry; The Troth, Ásatrúarfélagið and others have repeatedly and explicitly repudiated the use of Norse symbolism by white nationalists.
- 2019 CE US Army authorises Heathen and Ásatrú religious accommodation and emblems.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.