A Western religious movement begun in the mid-Twentieth Century in which people rebelled against the dominant Judeo-Christian religions and began to explore the world-wide pagan heritage as sources of valid religious material and experiences. Neopaganism is comprised of a wide variety of small groups called Traditions which include Wicca, Asatru, Faerie, Orders of Ceremonial Magic like the OTO, Discordianism, Santeria, Voudoun, Satanism and many revivalist groups focussed on specific classical pantheons like Greek or Egyptian.

Since the definition of neopaganism is largely negative (roughly, neopaganism is anything which is not one of the big five world religions being practiced now) there is little uniformity in doctrine or liturgy among neopagan groups as a whole. Some common themes are quite popular however including Goddess worship, polytheism, magic, anti-clericalism, anti-hierarchicalism, and non-dogmatism.

Ne`o*pa"gan*ism, n. [Neo- + paganism.]

Revived or new paganism.

 

© Webster 1913

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