So the big pagan avalanche of the 1990's has coasted to a stop in a town called "Oblivion."
What, in your opinion, will be the next phase for paganinity?
So the big pagan avalanche of the 1990's has coasted to a stop in a town called "Oblivion."
What, in your opinion, will be the next phase for paganinity?
Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.
Ehh, I expect it to coast along the margins indefinitely. I don't expect any massive growth in pagan numbers in the near future but belief systems can coast along for a rather long time once the ideas behind them reach enough people. The refusal of ideas to die is sort of annoying when it comes to some of the more asinine BS floating around these days but I'll take it when it comes to Paganism.Originally Posted by B. de Corbin
"It is not simply enough to know the light…a Jedi must feel the tension between the two sides of the Force…in himself and in the universe."
―Thon
"When to the Force you truly give yourself, all you do expresses the truth of who you are,"
Yoda
Yoda told stories, and ate, and cried, and laughed: and the Padawans saw that life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
"But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."
John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper
"You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."
Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis
making A.i.'s the new spirit guides, ghost in the machine? alexa??
MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED
all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.
my new page here,let me know what you think.
nothing but the shadow of what was
witchvox
http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html
I think a lot of people are being quieter about any beliefs that aren't mainstream. It's kinda dangerous out there these days.
Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.
Mainstream religions have bowed to new age pressure reducing the market space for explicitly pagan providers. According to a survey by and metrics from christianity's own witchdoctors, for example, the majority of their parishioners have become something other than strictly christian. The future of "paganinity" is to be found in it's ingress of the traditional religious field, if demographic are any indication.
In my opinion paganism and witchcraft are trendy, which means there's interest. At least some of that interest will be genuine. Even casual observance, or desire to incorporate the aesthetics, is itself a valid form of religious expression. I do not feel one needs to be plumbing the depths of the fifth aeon to be a valid experience of faith. Paganism's general lack of unified religious structure, church, or dogma, I feel, prevents it from dominating in an evangelizing way. The religion is intrinsically personal and about personal relationship with the divine, which is appealing for those brought up in an increasingly impersonalizing world with religious structures that are rife with disappointment. It's a search for personal revelation promised by the mainstream religion, but never delivered upon.
Our disorganization is in this way a strength as it makes it impossible to grow to the point that institutional abuse can occur and be projected onto the entirety of pagan belief- there is always a new school and there is little formal history to criticize, at least on a structural level. I agree that pagan religion will likely always be an outskirts thing, but it seems clear to be that it's a minority which is growing and is pervasive. Among young people it's difficult to not find someone interested in the "witchy" or "spiritual" and that itself is a subversion. I think it'll be interesting especially as environmentalism becomes more apparent and even more present in the media- our relationship with each other and nature is a rich source of faith, but one which is quite present in the growing climate crisis.
“They moaned and squealed, and pressed their snouts to the earth. We are sorry, we are sorry.
Sorry you were caught, I said. Sorry that you thought I was weak, but you were wrong.”
-Madeline Miller, Circe
I feel that the future of paganism would be far more certain if we simplified our practice and made it accessible and push it within the bounds of the law. Represent our values out in public without fear and openly, encourage others to join us. Even I have trouble sometimes, but let's be safely out in public and let the persecutors do what they wi.
With respect to the demographic explosion of paganism in the us, the best most of us can do to get our values out there in the competition of ideas, is to raise solidly pagan children who will, likewise, raise a pagan family themselves. We're about to see the third generational cohort as respondents in surveys. Early adopters in the 50's and 60's had no support, second gen always understood that the roots had not yet run deep - but now, with a focus on environmentalism and at least some pagan g. grannies out there in the world. I think this is just the beginning. Maybe I'm a zealot and an optimist, but I see no way that we survive without the comprehensive subversion of traditional culture by values that we might not call explicitly pagan, but are functionally indistinguishable from explicitly pagan values.
The only question with respect to the future of paganism is whether or not pagan parents follow the reproductive arc of the christians (for example) and breed below replacement.
Last edited by Rhythm; 02 Sep 2022 at 10:06.
With Stranger Things apparently creating a new resurgence in D&D, I'm expecting Satanic Panic 2.0: Satanic Boogaloo, which will create another round of kids looking to upset their parents with this mythology-based thing. I know a lot of people will be grinding their teeth that the new generation is here from a fantasy game, but I think we'd be lying if we all pretended that my generation didn't get here via The Craft and LotR.
Beyond "how many people practice and identify as pagans", I think Corvus is spot on- beliefs have a habit of being preserved in the little things like slang, fashion trends, the ideas and values people hold. The old druids never died; they just crossed out their title and scribbled "royal poet" hastily over it. Having every day of the week named after a deity can be considered its own small way of keeping paganism alive even through the ebbs and flows.
The Satanic Panic never really died, it just exited the mainstream media, but it's making it's comeback in recent months. Here is a blog post by a friend of mine explaining the situation in great detail.
To come back to topic, I don't think there is a "future" per se of paganism as a whole. The advent of the internet caused a definite boom with forums, boards and the like, but over time more mainstream media also has taken residence in the net. With the current flood of information all over the web, it is no surprise that we are once again relegated to what we truly are: a disparate minority. As bleak as it may sound, I think it is a good thing, that paganism doesn't stay confined to a single bubble. At the same time, that pagans do not feel the need to gather among ourselves as much is also a sign that our environment as individuals is become less hostile to our beliefs. Common interests will always tie us, but we are now a bit more free to live our faith in our daily, mundane lives.
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