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Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca

Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca

What Is a Pagan? Meaning, History and Modern Paganism

What is a pagan? The Latin origins of the word, the religions it once described, and the beliefs of modern Paganism, Wicca, Druidry and Heathenry.

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A pagan, in the oldest Christian sense of the word, was anyone who worshipped the gods of the Graeco-Roman world or of the peoples beyond it rather than the God of Jews and Christians. Today the word, usually capitalised as Pagan, names a family of modern nature-centred religions, including Wicca, Druidry and Heathenry, whose followers honour many deities or a sacred natural world and celebrate the turning seasons. The two meanings are linked by history, but they are not the same thing, and much confusion about paganism comes from mixing them.

The Origin of the Word Pagan: Paganus and Its Meanings§

The English word comes from Latin paganus, an adjective formed from pagus, a rural district or village territory. In classical Latin a paganus was a country-dweller, and in military slang it could also mean a civilian as opposed to a soldier. Christian writers began to use the word for adherents of the old gods in the early fourth century, and by the 370s it appears in imperial legislation.

Why Christians chose this word has been debated for more than a century. The older explanation held that the old religion survived longest in the countryside, so that "rustic" came to mean "non-Christian". Others suggested that Christians, who thought of themselves as soldiers of Christ, called outsiders "civilians". The classicist Alan Cameron argued that the term simply meant "outsiders", people who did not belong to the Christian community, and that it began as popular rather than learned usage. None of these explanations is certain, and they may have overlapped.

Greek-speaking Christians used a different word: Hellenes, "Greeks", for followers of the traditional cults. In the Germanic languages the equivalent was "heathen"; the Gothic Bible translated by Wulfila in the fourth century already uses a form of the word, and Old English hǣþen later supplied the term that many modern Norse polytheists prefer. In all these languages the label was applied from the outside, by Christians describing everyone who was neither Christian nor Jewish.

Paganism in the Ancient World: Many Religions, One Label§

There was no ancient religion called paganism. What Christians grouped under the word included the civic cults of Greek cities, the state religion of Rome, Egyptian temple worship, the mystery cults of Isis, Mithras and Eleusis, household rites, local spirits of springs and groves, and philosophical schools such as Neoplatonism that understood the gods in abstract terms. Readers can follow these traditions in Roman religion, Greek religion and the mysteries and Celtic religion.

These religions were mostly practice rather than creed. What mattered was correct sacrifice, festival and offering, carried out on behalf of family, city or empire. Worshippers did not usually belong to a single religion exclusively, and new gods could be added to a city's calendar without abandoning the old.

The end of public pagan worship in the Roman world was gradual. Constantine's patronage of Christianity from 312 began the shift; the emperor Julian (361–363) tried briefly to restore the old cults; and laws issued under Theodosius I in 391–392 banned sacrifice and closed temples. Episodes such as the destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria became symbols of the transition, though traditional practice lingered in many places for generations. Further north the conversion came later: Scandinavia was largely Christian by the twelfth century, Iceland adopted Christianity by decision of its assembly around the year 1000, and Lithuania's ruler accepted baptism only in 1387. The religion of the north is surveyed in Norse and Germanic religion.

From Insult to Ideal: Paganism in Renaissance and Romantic Imagination§

For most of the Christian centuries "pagan" was a word of reproach. Yet the ancient gods never disappeared from European culture. Medieval scholars preserved them as planets and allegories, and Renaissance humanists painted, sculpted and philosophised about them. A few, such as the Byzantine philosopher Gemistos Plethon in the fifteenth century, imagined a reformed religion of the Greek gods, though such projects remained private.

The Romantic movement turned paganism into an ideal. Poets contrasted the joyful, nature-loving ancients with what they saw as an anxious and industrial modern Christianity. William Wordsworth's sonnet of 1807 voiced the mood in a famous line: "Great God! I'd rather be / A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn". Later in the century Swinburne's poetry lamented the passing of the old gods, and in Edwardian England the goat-footed god Pan became a favourite literary figure, as Ronald Hutton has traced.

Scholarship fed the same current. James Frazer's The Golden Bough (1890 onwards) presented European folk customs as survivals of ancient fertility religion, and Margaret Murray claimed that the witches of the trials had been members of a surviving pagan cult, a thesis now rejected but enormously influential (see the Murray thesis). By 1900 there was an imaginative space in which a modern person might choose to call themselves a pagan with pride.

The Rise of Modern Paganism in the Twentieth Century§

Organised modern Paganism grew from several roots at once. In Britain, Gerald Gardner publicised a religion of witchcraft centred on a goddess and a horned god in Witchcraft Today (1954), giving rise to Wicca (see Wicca and Gerald Gardner). Fraternal Druid societies dating back to the eighteenth century gave way to more spiritual orders, among them the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids founded by Ross Nichols in 1964, described in Druidry. In Iceland the poet Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson and others founded the Ásatrúarfélagið, recognised by the state in 1973 (see Ásatrúarfélagið), while Heathen groups emerged in Britain and the United States.

In the United States of the 1960s and 1970s, the word "Neo-Pagan" was popularised by groups such as the Church of All Worlds, and Pagan festivals, journals and networks spread. Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon (1979) offered the first broad portrait of the movement. In Britain the Pagan Front, founded in 1971, later became the Pagan Federation. Elsewhere, revivalists turned to their own national past: Romuva in Lithuania, Rodnovery among Slavic peoples, and Hellenic and Roman reconstructionist groups.

Numbers are hard to measure. The census of England and Wales in 2021 recorded roughly 74,000 people describing themselves as Pagan and around 13,000 as Wiccan, alongside smaller numbers of Druids, Heathens and others. Estimates for the United States run into the hundreds of thousands, but surveys differ widely.

What Modern Pagans Believe and Practise§

Because modern Paganism has no founder, creed or central authority, beliefs vary considerably. Graham Harvey and other scholars nevertheless identify common threads:

  • Nature as sacred. The earth, the seasons and living things are treated as holy in themselves, not merely as creations of a distant God.
  • Many ways of understanding deity. Some Pagans are polytheists who honour distinct gods and goddesses; Wiccans often speak of a Goddess and God; others are pantheists, animists or treat the gods as archetypes. The variety is explored in gods and goddesses of modern Paganism.
  • Seasonal festivals. Many Pagans keep the eight festivals of the Wheel of the Year, such as Samhain, while Heathens keep festivals such as Yule and the "winter nights".
  • Ritual and personal experience. Worship is usually small-scale and participatory: circles in homes or gardens, offerings, seasonal gatherings at ancient sites, meditation and sometimes magic.
  • Ethics rooted in balance. Wiccans often cite the Wiccan Rede ("an it harm none, do what ye will"); Heathens speak of honour, hospitality and frith (peace within the community); Druids emphasise harmony with nature.

Most Pagans neither proselytise nor regard their path as the only true religion. Some combine Paganism with other commitments, and many describe finding rather than converting to it.

Pagan, Neopagan, Heathen, Witch: Questions of Terminology§

The vocabulary remains contested. Some scholars and practitioners use "Neopagan" to mark the movement as modern; others prefer "contemporary Paganism", arguing that the prefix implies the religion is less authentic. Many Norse and Germanic polytheists call themselves Heathens rather than Pagans. Some reconstructionists, who try to revive particular ancient religions as accurately as possible, reject the broad label altogether.

"Witch" and "Pagan" overlap but are not identical. Wiccans are usually both, but some practitioners of traditional witchcraft do not consider themselves Pagan, and there are self-described Christian witches. The relationships are discussed in what is witchcraft.

Finally, many members of indigenous religions in Africa, the Americas and elsewhere object to being called pagan, a word with a long history of colonial and missionary use. Scholars today generally reserve the term for the European-derived revival movements and for ancient Mediterranean and northern European religions.

Underlying all of this is the question of continuity. Some early modern Pagans claimed to inherit an unbroken old religion. Historians such as Ronald Hutton have shown that the movements are twentieth-century creations, drawing on ancient texts, folklore, ceremonial magic and Romantic literature. Many Pagans now accept this and value their religion as a creative response to the past rather than a literal survival of it.

Frequently asked questions§

Is paganism a religion?§

Modern Paganism is usually treated as a family of related religions rather than one religion. Wicca, Druidry and Heathenry each have their own rituals, organisations and ideas, but share a reverence for nature and the old gods. Several countries recognise Pagan groups as religious bodies, and Pagan chaplains serve in some prisons and armed forces.

Do pagans worship the devil?§

No. The devil is a figure of Christian theology, and modern Pagan religions do not include him. The accusation arose because Christian writers long regarded all non-Christian gods as demons, and because the horned god of Wicca was sometimes confused with medieval images of Satan.

Is Christmas a pagan festival?§

Christmas is a Christian feast of the birth of Jesus, fixed on 25 December by the fourth century. Many of its seasonal customs, such as evergreens, feasting and the Yule log, have roots in older midwinter traditions or later folk practice, and their exact origins are often debated.

What is the difference between a pagan and a heathen?§

Historically both words meant non-Christian, the first coming from Latin and the second from Germanic languages. Today "Pagan" is the umbrella term for modern nature religions, while "Heathen" is preferred by many who follow the revived religion of the Norse and other Germanic peoples.

Sources and further reading§