It is also significant that one group that Marilyn Ferguson never mentions as exemplars of New Age were Neopagans. The reasons for this will be clearer later on in this article, but for now it is just worth mentioning.
Roots of Neopaganism
Neopagnism clearly came of age in the late 1970s and has grown since then. But how far back does it go? In terms of the Wicca tradition, there was the work of Gerald Gardner in the 1940s. However, in terms of ceremonial magick, Neopaganism goes back to the 19th century with the Golden Dawn. But ceremonial magic has a long history itself going further back to the Renaissance magick of Ficino, Bruno and Paracelsus. The term "Neopagan" really refers to pagan practices since Gerald Gardiner reconstructed wiccan ritual practices.
Types of Neopagans
Like the New Age, Neopagans exist on a spectrum.
- Modern wiccans include:
- Gardnerian Wicca which originated in England and was the first reconstructed wicca which drew from Margaret Murray and Robert Graves
- Alexandrian Wicca which also originated in England and more than other wiccas, has hierarchical grades and tests that must be passed to advance
- Dianic Wicca focuses on a single goddess and consists of virtually all women covens. They also draw from Margaret Murray. Z Budapest is a famous example.
- Faery Wicca specifically working with nature spirits. Gay men have been influential. Starhawk's group Reclaiming is part of this.
- Ethnic/historical Neopagans aim to revive pre-Christian practices of the Greeks, Romans, Druids, Celtic and Norse traditions.
- Voudon - these practices developed in Africa and Haiti, combining magic with Catholicism. It used to be called Voo-doo.
- Ceremonial magic which draws from the Golden Dawn and the work of Aleister Crowley. Ceremonial magicians tend to synthesize systems such as The Tree of Life, the Tarot and Astrology.
- Neopagans who emphasize the future based on science fiction writers. The Church of All Worlds is an example of this.
- Jungian archetypal psychology. While Jungians are not themselves a type of Neopaganism, there are Jungian interpretations of what wiccans and ceremonial magicians are up to. Besides Jung, James Hillman's polytheistic psychology and the work of David Miller have done a great deal to make paganism respectable in the eyes of psychologists. Margot Adler has brought a Jungian perspective to the history of Neopaganism. Vivianne Crowley has done the same in England. Robert Bly has added a mythopoetic slant to involving more men in "men's mystery traditions".
Who does Neopaganism exclude? Excluded are most Eastern mystical groups with an authoritarian structure, Christianity and Satanism, which most Neopagans consider reversed Christianity.
Characteristics of Neopagans
Though there are significant differences between Neopagan groups, they do share the following characteristics:
- The sacred sources are plural. There is a belief in animism, polytheism or pantheism. There is one exception to this and that is some feminist wiccans insist on revering a single monotheistic Goddess. Recently there has developed paganism without gods and goddesses. Mark Green has developed something called "atheopaganism" and John Halstead has cultivated something he calls "humanistic paganism."
- The sacred sources are immanent, not transcendent. This means that the material world is self-regulating and does not require intervention. Nature is all we need.
- Like the material world, the human body is not in a fallen state. The senses and sexuality are celebrated, not depreciated.
- The method of altering states of consciousness is through a collective ritual in which the imagination and senses are saturated through the arts, using music song, dance, incense, and mask-making. This is called the art and science of magick.
- Neopagans are generally anti-authoritarian and do not accept revealed sacred knowledge. Magical practices are experiential.
- There is a practice which is connected with the celebration of eight pagan holidays throughout the year. Rituals are also done for special occasions like coming of age, marriages and death.
Who are Neopagan Heroes and Heroines?
Besides Gerald Gardner, some of recent figures associated with Neopaganism are Margaret Murray, Robert Graves, James Frazer. Theoreticians are Isaac Bonewits, Aidan Kelly and Starhawk. Other notorieties include Z Budapest, Morgan McFarland, Selena Fox, Tim and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart and Gwydion Pendderewen.
Comparing the New Age to Neopaganism
I will now systematically compare New Agers to Neopagans across 27 categories. Please peruse the table to get a handle on where we are going.
Time, place and ontology
The first major difference has to do with ontology. New Agers draw mostly from Eastern traditions: Buddhism, Hinduism and the Theosophy of Blavatsky and Alice Bailey. Neopagans draw from the Western tradition of witchcraft, hermeticism and alchemy. Closely connected to this are the differences in the attitude towards matter.
New Agers follow Eastern traditions that say that matter is an illusion at worst, derivative of spirit at best. Neopagans treat matter as real, recalcitrant and to be struggled with. Western alchemists saw that their work was to "redeem matter" by changing sulphur, salt and mercury into gold. For New Agers the universe is one and transcendental to the material world. As I said earlier, with the exception of some female wiccan goddess worshipers, all Neopagans speak of nature as plural. They are either polytheists or animists and they believe these powers are immanent. Nature is self-creating and self-regulating. Lastly, New Agers follow Huxley's perennialism which says that all the world religion have esoteric core claims which are the same around the world. The differences between religions are exoteric, superficial, superstitious, and decadent. For Neopagans, sacred knowledge comes from local places which are unique to it and cannot be joined with others without the tradition being watered down or lost.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
