Modern paganism in the United States
Modern paganism in the United States is represented by widely different
Hellenic Neopaganism
appeared in the 1990s.
History
Paganism first arose in the United Kingdom, with individuals like
Theodism. In the same period the first Kemetic
groups were formed, with the tradition itself originating in the US.
Dianic Witchcraft, mothered by Zsuzsanna Budapest who published a 1979 piece tilted "The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries".[1]
The 1980s and 1990s saw the emergence of a number of
Hellenic Neopaganism (Dodekatheism), for example, has flourished since the 1990s, along with parallel developments in Greece. Hellenism was soon legally recognized as a 'known religion' in 2017 within Greece, when granted it more religions freedoms such as the freedom to open houses of worship and the freedom for clergy to officiate weddings. [3]
Organizations
Notable US Neopagan organizations:
- Wicca/Goddess/eclectic:
- Cherry Hill Seminary, South Carolina, since 2001[citation needed]
- Church of All Worlds, formed 1962, formerly the largest of all the pagan movements, which centres on worship of the earth-mother goddess[4]
- Circle Sanctuary, based in Wisconsin; largest Neo-Pagan organization in the US; its newsletter, Circle Network News, has some 15,000 subscribers (as of 1992)[5]
- Council of Magickal Arts, Texas[citation needed]
- Covenant of the Goddess, since 1975[citation needed]
- Hellenic-inspired goddess worship, established 1967 in southern California by Frederick M. Adams, as a continuation of his Fellowship of Hesperides founded in 1957, based in Nevada City[citation needed]
- Feri Tradition, from ca. 1960[citation needed]
- Reclaiming Tradition, an international community of women and men working to combine earth-based spirituality and political activism[citation needed]
- Roman Paganism
- Nova Roma, since 1998[citation needed]
- Hellenic Neopaganism
- better source needed]
- Druidry:
- Ár nDraíocht Féin, since 1983[citation needed]
- The Druid Order, since 1909[citation needed]
- Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, since 1964[citation needed]
- Reformed Druids of North America, since 1963[citation needed]
- Ancient Order of Druids in America, since 1874, when it was the Ancient Archaeological Order of Druids[citation needed]
- Heathenry (new religious movement):
- Ásatrú Alliance, AA, since 1988, Arizona-based[citation needed]
- The Ásatrú Community Inc. (2012) A nonprofit universalist Ásatrú organization located in Thousand Oaks, California.[citation needed]
- Ásatrú Folk Assembly, AFA, California based, since 1994, re-activation of Stephen McNallen's 1974-1986 Asatru Free Assembly, formerly Viking Brotherhood, 1971-1974[citation needed]
- Odinic Rite, ORV, since 1997[citation needed]
- better source needed]
- Wolves of Vinland[citation needed]
- Fellowship of Northern Traditions, a group founded by Heathen YouTuber, Wisdom of Odin[citation needed]
- Kemetism
- Ausar Auset Society, since 1973[citation needed]
- Church of the Eternal Source, since 1970[citation needed]
- Kemetic Orthodoxy, since 1988[citation needed]
- Nondenominational Pagan groups
- American council of witches, pagans, and friends. A group working towards unity through friendship, help, information, news and issues.better source needed]
Festivals
- Heartland Pagan Festival, since 1986
- Pagan Spirit Gathering, since 1980
- Starwood Festival, since 1981
- Pan Pagan Festival, since 1976
- The Spiral Dance, since
Demographics
Wiccan churches and other Neopagan institutions are becoming more common in the US. However, estimates of their numbers vary widely. The 2014 Pew Research Center's Religious Landscapes Survey included a subset of the New Age Spiritual Movement called "Pagan or Wiccan," reflecting that 3/4 of individuals identifying as New Age also identified as Pagan or Wiccan and placing Wiccans and Pagans at 0.3% of the total U.S. population or approximately 956,000 people of just over 1,275,000 individuals in the New Age movement.[10] Most of the 1990s studies put the number of US Neopagans between 200,000 and 1 million (0.1% to 0.5% of the total population).[11] A 2008 Pew Forum survey put "New Age" religious believers, including Neopagans, at about 1.2 million.[12]
According to David Waldron (2005),[13] roughly 10 million Wiccan-related books were sold in 2000 (up from 4.5 million in 1990), as reported by the American Booksellers Association. However this gives only a rough guide to the size of the Wiccan-related economy and he comments that the added complexity of determining the boundary between Wiccan or Neopagan products and New Age products makes determining the size of the movement from this rather problematic.
More conservative estimates included Helen Berger and Craig Hawkins in Exploring the World of Wicca, who guessed from 150,000 to 200,000. Melton, J. Gordon, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly in New Age Almanac (1991, p. 340) estimated a total of about 300,000 people associated with the "overall movement" of Wicca, with "tens of thousands" of members active in between 1,000 and 5,000 covens. Conservative estimates in 1993 arrived at about 50,000 Wiccans in the US (Religious Requirements & Practices of Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook for Chaplains, 1993) while Wiccan high estimates claimed several million (Phyllis Curott, The Book of Shadows: A Modern Woman's Journey into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess). In 2008, U.S. Today estimated 1 million
Wiccans,[11][14][15][16] a fast growth compared to the 100.000/200.000 estimated in late 1990s and early 2000s.[14]
The United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey found 342,000 Wiccans and 340,000 Pagans in the United States in 2008.
Wicca
Wicca was introduced to North America in 1964 by Raymond Buckland, an expatriate Briton who visited Gardner's Isle of Man coven to gain initiation. Interest in the USA spread quickly, and while many were initiated, many more non-initiates compiled their own rituals based on published sources or their own fancy.[17] Another significant development was the creation by feminists in the late 1960s to 1970s of an eclectic movement known as Dianic Wicca, or feminist Dianic Witchcraft.
The
Patrick Stewart allowed the pentacle as an "emblem of belief" on tombstones in military cemeteries.[18][19][20]
Druidry
Druidry is also known as Druidism and
Neodruidism. The Ancient Order of Druids in America was founded in 1912 as the American branch of the Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids.[21]
Coming from the Druid cultural revivals in the UK in the 18th and 19th centuries, Neodruidry in the U.S. has a long history.
Celtic Reconstructionism, while not associated with Druidry directly, is also part of the cultural diaspora of Celtic Paganism. Celtic Reconstructionists place a greater emphasis on scholarly approaches, reviving and reconstructing the old practices of the Celts in the modern day.[22][23][24]
Asatru
Ásatrú in the United States began in the early 1970s with Stephen McNallen
's 1974-1986 Asatru Free Assembly, formerly Viking Brotherhood, 1971-1974.
In 1986, the "
white supremacism escalated, resulting in the breakup of the Asatru Free Assembly. The "leftist" (universalist) branch reformed as The Troth, while the "rightist" (folkish) branch became the Ásatrú Alliance
(AA).
McNallen re-founded his own organisation as the Ásatrú Folk Assembly
(AFA) in 1994.
In 1997, the Britain-based
International Asatru-Odinic Alliance
from 1997 until 2002, when it dissolved again as a result of internal factional disputes.
Discrimination
According to feminist pagan Starhawk "religious discrimination against Pagans and Wiccans and indigenous religions is omnipresent in the U.S."[25]
Controversies mostly surround religious rights in
US military. Prison inmates' right to practice minority religions was asserted in 2004 by the Supreme Court in Cutter v. Wilkinson.[26]
Some neopagan groups, particularly Germanic ones, have themselves been accused of racial discrimination. See
Nordic racial paganism
.
See also
- Religion in the United States
- Ásatrú in the United States
- Dynion Mwyn
- Christianity and neopaganism
References
- ^ a b c d White, Ethan (2010). "The Meaning of "Wicca": A Study in Etymology, History, and Pagan Politics". The Pomegranate. 12: 185–207 – via Academic Search Complete.
- ^ aoda.org. Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids http://www.aoda.org/AODA_History.html.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "Hellenism legally recognized as religion in Greece". Wildhunt. 18 April 2017.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Neo-Paganism
- ^ Article Title
- ^ "Hellenion".
- ^ "The Troth".
- ^ "American council of witches, pagans, and friends".
- ^ "American Council of Witches". Facebook.
- ^ "Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics".
- ^ a b "Adherents.com". adherents.com. Archived from the original on 2 October 2003. Retrieved 16 May 2008.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "- Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics".
- ^ David Waldron (2005). Witchcraft for Sale!: Commodity Vs Community in the Neopagan Movement.
- ^ a b "Estimated 1 Million Wiccans in U.S. Today - Technology - redOrbit". redorbit.com. Retrieved 16 May 2008.
- ^ "Major Religions Ranked by Size". adherents.com. Archived from the original on 16 August 2000. Retrieved 16 May 2008.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ USA Census: Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population: 1990 and 2001
- OCLC 281240.
- ^ "Wiccans symbols allowed on grave markers in government cemeteries". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. 23 April 2007. Retrieved 11 July 2007.
- ^ "Veterans Affairs Department Must Accommodate Wiccan Symbol on Memorial Markers at Government Cemeteries, Says Americans United" (Press release). Americans United (AU.org). 8 June 2006. Archived from the original on 8 October 2007. Retrieved 11 July 2007.
- ^ "Available Emblems of Belief for Placement on Government Headstones and Markers". VA.gov. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
- ^ Ancient Order of Druids in America
- ISBN 0-275-98713-2.
- ISBN 0-7225-3233-4.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Littlefield, Christine (November 2005). "Rekindling an ancient faither". Las Vegas Sun.
- ^ Washington Post: Discrimination Against Pagans
- ^ "Cutter v. Wilkinson". Oyez.
Further reading
- Helen A. Berger (26 May 2005). Witchcraft And Magic: Contemporary North America. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-3877-8.
- Helen A. Berger; Evan A. Leach; Leigh S. Shaffer (2003). Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-488-6.
- Helen A Berger (1999). A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-paganism and Witchcraft in the United States. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-246-2.
- Margot Adler (2006). Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1-101-54976-6.
- Robert S. Ellwood; Harry Baxter Partin (1988). Religious and spiritual groups in modern America. Pearson College Div.
- Annie Gottlieb (1987). Do you believe in magic?: the second coming of the sixties generation. Crown.
- Robert S. Ellwood, Notes on a Neopagan Religious Group in America, History of Religions (1971).
- J. Gordon Melton (2003). Encyclopedia of American religions. Gale / Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-7876-6384-1.
- G. Melton and I. Poggi, Magic, Witchcraft, and Paganism in America (1992).
- ISBN 978-0-231-12402-7.
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