Pagans Are Back In Town
May 28th, 2007
Once upon a time, Paganism was seen as something going against the values of the majority of the Western population and its religion. Well, not any more. In fact, the Pagans are back. And those who label themselves as Pagans are likely to be more religious than everyone else: it is not mandatory being a Pagan but once you are, the connection with the divine is virtually everywhere.
The first thing one learns about modern Paganism when he looks at it is its enormous diversity and complexity: Celtic Paganism, Druidry, Shamanism, North tradition, Male and Female Spirits, Egypt/Greek/Roman tradition, Wicca. All of these pathways are part of modern Paganism. Confusing? Indeed.
Paganism has been reported as the eigth largest religion in England and Wales, although there is uncertainty about the figures. According to Census 2001, "in England and Wales, 151,000 people belonged to religious groups which did not fall into any of the main religions. The largest of these were Spiritualists (32,000) and Pagans (31,000), followed by […] Wicca (7,000)."
At the same time, those who labelled themselves as heathens were included in the ‘no religion’ slot, which accounts for 16 per cent of the total. "It is hard to say how many Pagans there are in this country," says Morgan Rhys-Adams, spokesperson of the Pagan federation (PF), the largest of its kind in Britain, "since it is almost impossible to track down all the traditions followed by Pagans."
Since there are no temples or churches, you can’t just walk through the door and get baptized. "We do not have a dogma, unlike most of the revealed religions," explains Rhys-Adams. "We do not have a holy book. But we do have priests, who are in charge of organising ceremonies. However it varies from tradition to tradition. Becoming a pagan is a very personal path."
Having said that, it does not matter which tradition you follow: if you are a Pagan the cult of nature is central. "Paganism is an environmentally minded religion and we do need to care after the planet more than ever," adds Rhys-Adams. "We believe that the main reason of contemporary problems throughout the society such as drugs, mental disorder, violence and so on is the fact that men and women of today are disconnected with the energy of nature."
Pagans celebrate their rituals in the wild and honour the natural elements as Gods and Goddesses, which fits well with the modern idea ‘green-revolution’. And if you are still asking yourself ‘why people choose to become pagan’, Rhys-Adams has the answer. "Over the past 30 years or so, revealed religions have failed to meet the new spiritual needs of a modern society. Paganism is the true religion of our land. It is the old tradition, the one of our ancestors."
Paganism, after all, is very concrete. "We are currently campaigning for changing definitions of Paganism in dictionaries," says Jean Williams, a two-decades activist for PF. "This involves solving the problems of carrying ritual weapons, and of course only when needed, getting officially recognized Pagan marriages in England and Wales, something we have already been able to do in Scotland. Moreover, we are working with the Home Office to provide Pagan ministers to prisons where there are Pagan inmates who need to be cared for."
