Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities?

Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (Full Version)

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SocratesNot -> Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 6:33:15 AM)
The questions for all pagans here: How did you become pagans? What is the thing in paganism that fulfills you? Do you really believe in physical or metaphysical existence of pagan goddesses and gods or you just chose to be pagan because you like pagan values, ethics and worldview? Which pagan deities do you worship? Do you also believe in pagan deities from mythologies other than your own? Can one be a pagan and an atheist at the same time? The questions for non pagans: What do you think why is paganism becoming so popular these days? Why is paganism quite a lot more common in "alternative communities"? Have you ever considered becoming a pagan?

tazzygirl -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 7:23:38 AM)
I was not aware its becoming popular. Ah well.

kittinSol -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 7:24:41 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: tazzygirl I was not aware its becoming popular. Ah well. Me neither. In fact, I thought it was hopelessly 1990's.

RCdc -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 7:26:43 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: tazzygirl I was not aware its becoming popular. Ah well. Me neither. I thought it was conspiracy that was the new in thing. </sarcasm> the.dark.

sunshinemiss -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 7:26:44 AM)
Why would you ask non pagans why paganism is becoming popular? It's like asking a Muslim why Mormonism is becoming popular. How would they know? And why would they care? I don't see a huge shift in paganism in the last 20 years or so. I see more awareness of it thanks to Hollywood, but changing in the religion? Meh. And yes, I've practiced... and no I don't anymore... although my religion tends toward Buddhism with a healthy dash of Taoism and a big hunk of Paganism. *dang typos.

DCWoody -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 9:35:27 AM)
Damn you're out of date dude. People started making up variations on it claiming to be continuations of originial pre-roman european type shit, which was cool.....ofc this turned out to be bullshit, and it's dying off now that people realise their parents predate their new 'religion', which kinda makes it hard to ignore the inbuilt insanity of most religions. AFAIK the 'oldest' of the bunch is wicca....which traces it's origins back as far as a series of romanticised twilightesque fictional 'history of witches' books in the 1920s. Islam is the fastest growing major religion, mostly due to birth rates....by 'conversion', all religions are losing to secularism.

LadyEllen -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 9:56:25 AM)
Asatru is the oldest and it does trace back to pre-Christian times - its a recognised religion in Iceland and I think also in Norway. There is also a pagan cult in one of the Baltic states (amongst the last to be converted) that has been going uninterrupted to the modern day. And of course there's Hinduism - which is a pagan religion related to pre-Christian (edit) European religious forms through the Indo-European line; the similarities and correspondences to Asatru are interesting. As for the rest - modern confabulations, generally arising from the tail end of 19thc spiritualism and the romantic movement combined with 20thc progressive liberal ideals. But if it works for you then fine, go with it - aint no one can tell you youre wrong only that it isnt right for them. My attraction to paganism is the bloody sacrifice of virgins after running round naked in the woods for half an hour. Thats what I tell my therapist anyway. E

flcouple2009 -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 10:02:46 AM)
I don't think there are any larger numbers of pagans, gays and lesbians, or any other grouping now than there were before. I think what you find is more people feeling a safer environment to open up about it.

DCWoody -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 10:07:29 AM)
When I said oldest, I meant continual practice....many variations try to copy (at least partially) previous beliefs and practices, with varying accuracy....but none are descended via actual practicioners in the manner of judaism or zorostrianism.

mnottertail -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 10:38:28 AM)
Is cock worship paganism? Cuz my girls gonna be going to hell for it, when Jesus finds out.

LadyEllen -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 11:32:44 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DCWoody When I said oldest, I meant continual practice....many variations try to copy (at least partially) previous beliefs and practices, with varying accuracy....but none are descended via actual practicioners in the manner of judaism or zorostrianism. I can appreciate where youre coming from on this, but it appears that (presumably) owing to the notion of religion acquired from Christian tradition that religion is a fixed observance and practice, not to mention the more recent notions in our culture that religion is something separate from everyday life and exclusive in character, you misunderstand what the likes of Asatru is and how and why it can be said to have been practiced continually, not merely since the coming of Christianity but in an unbroken line reaching back into prehistory. Asatru is not a monolithic religion - like Hinduism there are shared parameters across all times and places but observance and practice varies and always has varied from time to time and place to place. There is no "holy book" and there is no creed in the sense of Christianity. Asatru is and always was an evolving tradition and encompasses and always did a comprehensive cultural model which came to incorporate in many places ideas drawn from the imposed foreign cult which incidentally can be shown to have not been some revolutionary force in our lands and people but rather to represent the domination for a time of a foreign tradition that provided a useful means of extending to popularity minority cult ideas already in Asatru. Indeed this is why, within the wide interpretations and expressions found today we have disparate observation and practice that opens Asatru to the charge that it is all made up, reinterpreted, not a religion at all, populated by nazis, populated by tree hugging hippies and a host more alike and why any organisation of it is a nightmare. It is also why Asatru does not exist in opposition to Christianity, regardless of the ideas of some in both camps, but can easily accomodate it as long as the hotheads in both camps can be held at bay. It is not that aspects of the old survived or were incorporated into Christianity. It is not that anyone reinterpreted anything for modern presentation. Rather it is that Asatru is us, wherever we go, whatever we say and whatever we do, whether we know it or acknowledge it or not. E

Hillwilliam -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 12:06:51 PM)
Respect yourself Respect your planet Respect your fellow man Do no harm if it is avoidable Deliberate harm will be returned to you manyfold What a freakin concept. No wonder the Baptists hate em

Moonhead -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 12:21:01 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: LadyEllen Asatru is the oldest and it does trace back to pre-Christian times - its a recognised religion in Iceland and I think also in Norway. It doesn't, in fact: it's a reconstruction of a religion that was long gone by the end of the dark ages. It more closely resembles the original than Gardnerian Wicca, but that's purely because Gardner was just after an exotic religion/magick system that was a bit less male than the hermetic stuff, particularly after Crowley had been running the two main groups for a while.

DCWoody -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 12:54:51 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: mnottertail Is cock worship paganism? Cuz my girls gonna be going to hell for it, when Jesus finds out. Ah c'mon, she can't be that bad.

tazzygirl -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 12:58:01 PM)
Cum to think of it, i bet that's what all the old timers meant about "wooden gods" [;)]

Mercnbeth -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 1:49:27 PM)
quote: Why is Paganism becoming so popular The dress code? [image]local://upfiles/33972/7A6A76475BAD4E728318E66EDAF30937.jpg[/image]

MarcEsadrian -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 3:05:57 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: SocratesNot Why do you think why is paganism becoming so popular these days? Fantasy literature, secular freedom and modern romanticism conspire to keep shadows of old Gods and Goddesses alive and well. While I don't have knowledge of the statistics, I've felt for the past decade that paganism has waned under a less theistic society. When I think back, it seems the heyday of Anne Rice's vampire novels marks with some proximity when "alt spiritualism" was more "in". I recall earlier when growing up how scandalous Anton LaVey was. I recall an obsession with witches, demonology and ghosts, too. Halloween seemed more...oh, I don't know...serious. This is not to say we don't persist on with occultism and monster stories; they carry on, indeed—though sleekly commodified for regular pop consumption, starting with preteens. Somewhere along the way we lost our private love affair with our own personal sense of spiritual doom and occult enchantment. Perhaps that was the benefit of not having giant screen tvs, computers and artfully designed three dimensional video games (while at the same time having to go to Sunday School regularly). You could tune out to Black Sabbath while staring at their album covers and really let your brimstone imagination take over. The speed of big bright digitized life doesn't have much patience for those simpler self-masturbatory processes to candle light and vinyl. quote: ORIGINAL: SocratesNot Why is paganism quite a lot more common in "alternative communities"? Is it? I suppose that makes sense. One could say D/s has a lot of "carnal paganism" involved in it. That is to say, the worship of others as Gods and Goddesses (you who really do so out there know who you are). Occultism and alternative spiritual practices sometimes serve to reify "deviant" hedonism, and vice versa. That said, a larger religion like Christianity can easily be sexualized or incorporated into D/s. Type-O-Negative's Christian Woman illustrates that fairly well to a tune, and I suspect most know on some level that the Devil has always kept the church in business. I think I just lost my point. Anyway... quote: ORIGINAL: SocratesNot Have you ever considered becoming a pagan? Not in the traditional sense, but in the sense of being served as a God or serving one as a Goddess in flesh—yes. Outside of that, I hold spirituality too preciously mysterious to make from my head or borrow from someone else's any sort of graven image to worship. When I'm in the mountains, I like looking up into the night sky and seeing an enormous and cold universe above me; it's enigmatic beauty and infinite depth is strangely comforting to me. I like just leaving it at that.

Elisabella -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 5:07:12 PM)
To clarify, when I refer to myself as 'pagan' I mean only that I believe in an eclectic pantheon and not one of the world's major, established religions, not that I'm a Wiccan or Hermeticist or any specific brand of paganism. How did you become pagans? Divine intervention. Seriously though, I knew a lot of pagans and magick practitioners when I was a teenager, and when I became interested in it I felt what I believe were religious experiences that drew me in, then scared me off, and it's just something I'm starting to come to terms with again. What is the thing in paganism that fulfills you? The specialization of the gods, the fact that there are archetypal energy forms that represent something powerful. Christians, for example, would pray to Jesus or Jehovah if they were going through a difficult childbirth. I would ask favor of a mother Goddess, because to me a mother Goddess would hold more sway over childbirth than a patriarchal God or his son. Do you really believe in physical or metaphysical existence of pagan goddesses and gods or you just chose to be pagan because you like pagan values, ethics and worldview? Yes and no. I don't believe any mythology is the one true representation of a god or goddess, but I do believe that the act of naming the god/dess brings up all the energy that has been associated with it. If I wanted to casually say "good luck" I'd just say good luck. If I wanted to put force into the blessing I'd say "bona fortuna," which is Latin for "good luck" but also invokes the goddess of luck, Fortuna. In my mind, bringing the name of the goddess into it gives the words more power. Which pagan deities do you worship? Depending on the situation I call her Isis, Magna Mater, or Bona Dea, though I also pray the Ave Maria to her so I suppose she's also Miriam. Do you also believe in pagan deities from mythologies other than your own? Yes. Can one be a pagan and an atheist at the same time? I believe so. If you see the gods as archetypes rather than divinities you can invoke the concept with will rather than with prayer.

SpiritofaSub -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 5:08:50 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Mercnbeth quote: Why is Paganism becoming so popular The dress code? [image]local://upfiles/33972/7A6A76475BAD4E728318E66EDAF30937.jpg[/image] skyclad........got to love it. OP This pagan can live without paganism becoming popular. It isn't and won't be at least while I am still alive.

AnimusRex -> RE: Why is Paganism becoming so popular especially in alternative communities? (5/24/2010 7:00:15 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: LadyEllen My attraction to paganism is the bloody sacrifice of virgins after running round naked in the woods for half an hour. Infidel! Heretic! Us true pagans despoil said virgins by mass rutting in the heather and implanting them with our seed...and THEN we run naked for half an hour.

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