Modern Paganisms, ancient paganisms – are they related?

John Matthews: I think in some ways that there's not a lot of difference between what practising pagans do today and what people in the past did as far as we know. I mean of course its not really possible to say exactly how people in ancient Rome for instance worshipped, or of course anything earlier than that becomes pure speculation, but there's always this sense that there are, that deity is present and that deity is listening and that when you approach you are being heard and I don't think there's any difference between now and then in that respect.

 

 

William Dalrymple: I think there is a difference. The problem I have with it is precisely that it lacks any continuity with its ancient precursors, and appears to be born more from the mindset of western individualism than from a community in which religious ideas evolve over centuries. But it does reflect the fact that we live in an age of great religious diversity, and in this respect - if in no other - it's like the first century.

 

BBC Radio 4, The Long Search, June 2003

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/search/prog1.html

A common criticism directed at modern Paganisms is their lack of resemblance to ancient ones. Obviously, as there is a huge historical discontinuity between the two in most parts of Europe, this is somewhat inevitable; but on the other hand, there are many available sources (literary, archaeological, and historical) to enable us to fill in the gaps. There are also parallels from other cultures – but we should be wary of using these, for several reasons. One is that the other cultures might resent our borrowings, as being too redolent of past colonial exploitation; another is that we may be overlooking our own historical sources; and the imported ideas may not be a very good fit with our local circumstances.

Is there any resemblance between modern and ancient practices? Should there be? Since we are in a different situation than that of our ancestors, perhaps the Paganisms that have arisen now will inevitably be different to the ancient ones. William Dalrymple points out that many modern Paganisms appear “to be born ... from the mindset of western individualism” - though we can hardly help it if our traditions have not evolved over centuries, since they were suppressed or supplanted by Christianity. In fact, we know quite a lot about how people in ancient Rome worshipped – enough for some modern Pagans to reconstruct their rites.

In Triumph of the Moon: A history of modern Pagan witchcraft, Ronald Hutton traces the development of modern Pagan witchcraft (Wicca) and identifies several factors which led to the revival of Pagan ideas. One of these factors was undoubtedly the prevalence of individualism in the Western mindset, and this is evident in both the eclectic approach to Paganism, and the ethical stance of many modern Pagans. However, the individualistic mindset was, ironically, a product of Christianity, where the emphasis is (in theory at least) on the worth of every individual. Fred Lamond, in Religion without Beliefs, puts forward the hypothesis that Paganism is more prevalent in Protestant countries, partly because the Industrial Revolution happened there, and the development of Paganisms was a reaction against industrialisation, born from a desire to return to Nature; and partly because the Protestant rejection of priests as intermediaries with the divine was carried to its logical conclusion by Wiccans, who wanted to make each person a priest or priestess in their own right.