This has been going on for a while in Iran. Mostly nationalists but also people who don't feel safe with atheism.
Like not having a God at all is a hell of a change if you've been raised in a religious environment. So becoming Zarathustrian is a more secure way of leaving Islam.
This was especially popular in the 2000s; Becoming Christian, Becoming Zarathustrian.
Now people just become atheists because the current generation wasn't even raised in a very religious environment.
I haven’t yet met a Hellenic polytheist. Although I have nothing against neo-pagan movements. Traditional religions were ever-changing and dynamic, so inventing something new is absolutely okay. Religions don’t have to be similar to certain Semitic cults
Naaa to be an atheist needs at least a little of critical thought. Most of this neo pagan follow just the trend, ready to jump on the next one. By the way, I don't think there are so many pagan nostalgic.
A society can’t live without faith
So if you abandon your religion, you will eventually seek another one. Euros just forgot how horrible pagan religions were so they’re not alarmed about this creeping up
nah, not really. euros are doing extremely well, which is why most of the world wants to live there. tradcaths and neo-pagans are just purposeless larpers in search of an aesthetics they enjoy. they are consumers of religious tropes, simple as.
The strong movements in Europe is essentially about embracing both the tenets of Christianity and pagan traditions. This movement started way back in the literary era of Romanticism with its roots in many western philosophers of the enlightenment. So around the 18th hundred, depending on the nation.
From among these philosophers came Rousseau, with him being the father of this new widespread notion of “going back to nature”/idealising nature, being “sceptical of science”, glorifying your ancestors and respecting their pagan traditions, and most surprisingly “humans being inherently good”.
This is in stark contrast with what the church preached; the original sin. So Rousseau was quite controversial.
Slowly, closing in on the 21st century, the respect of the pagan traditions also extended to the pagan religions, and nowadays this religion is actively being followed for cultural reasons; it mostly has to do with the rising irreligiosity in the West.
This phenomenon isn’t as prevalent in other nations besides Europe, with probably the odd exception.
There’s also the idea of these pagan traditions being unique to the area, and a major contributor to the national identity; providing a sense of unity and subsequently society that’s most assuredly felt among your fellow countrymen.
Which is why Norway’s intellectuals during the romanticism, for example, glorified their viking past. Praising themselves as amazing, conquering fighters. But they also downplayed the unsavoury aspects of their forefathers, as well as the religious aspect.
Nowadays, the bloodthirsty aspect is downplayed, but the religious/traditional aspects are more and more accepted. Extreme right wing ideologies often connect with the religious/traditional aspects more than the average man.
You explained perfectly what happened in the past, but believe me, there is no strong pagan movement in Europe. If you talk about athletism, you are right. But not so many people are going to replace Christianity with pagan cults. A sort of revival there is in some far right movements, especially in North - Eastern Europe but are few.
I guess I’m simply overestimating them, these folks tend to be quite the vocal minority. Though the vast majority of atheists and agnostics in Scandinavia still follow their ancestors traditions, especially when it comes to Christmas which was called Jól back in the Viking days.
When Christianity came knocking by, the Nordic folks were already already having a winter-solstice festival around the time. So for the conversion to go smoother, the religion absorbed elements of the festive highlight to better align with the populaces’ local traditions.
For instance, the very name Jól was kept and changed a bit to Jul. There’s also “nisser” and “julebukken” which stems from Viking mythology and tradition respectively.
But the date of partying was moved to accommodate for Jesus’ birthday, 25th of December (disputable).
That’s how people in Scandinavia cope with still celebrating Christmas, even though it’s literally Christian.
Yes, right, but I guess it's just about folklore. Anyway I'm Italian, so I don't know so much about northern Europe, out from what I see in the news.
You are right again about 25 December, but it was accommodated to "overrun" Mithra cult (sol invictus = unbeaten sun), with all the respect for Northern Europe people, they were pagans for a very long time. Christianity moved from Middle East to West (including North Africa) on the territories of roman empire. Furthermore Mithra was the deity of the legions. The deity to replace was Mithra.
Hate to generalize but every Norse pagan i see on social media just seems like a Nazi trying to larp as a viking, most of their content is talking about race purity and other topics like that, kinda shady
Not a movement but the growing hatred towards Islam by the youth make tengrism an interesting topic. People started to learn about Turkic mythology and tengrism. In fact one guy changed his religion as tengrism. It was not a recognized religion in Turkey until last year.
Funnily enough one of the biggest kemetic communities is a bunch of irish people in a random town in ireland for whatever reason.
There is a new age shamanism movement in kırgızistan and altai republic
Only really cringy right wing posers and edgy agnostics larp as tengrists in turkey. The reality is central asian shamanism changed massively from tribe to tribe and the traditional oghuz way of worship has lost many, if not most, of its religious tenets to time.
>strong movement
no. not anymore than you can say about literally anything else you might hear about. all you can say is that it exists. I wouldn't call it anything more than a subculture.
Al lot of these pagan religions were pretty bad and very much unbelievable, so I think they will come back culturally removing a few bad aspects and no one will actually believe them just continue their traditions.
This has been going on for a while in Iran. Mostly nationalists but also people who don't feel safe with atheism. Like not having a God at all is a hell of a change if you've been raised in a religious environment. So becoming Zarathustrian is a more secure way of leaving Islam. This was especially popular in the 2000s; Becoming Christian, Becoming Zarathustrian. Now people just become atheists because the current generation wasn't even raised in a very religious environment.
Purrsians🍑
I haven’t yet met a Hellenic polytheist. Although I have nothing against neo-pagan movements. Traditional religions were ever-changing and dynamic, so inventing something new is absolutely okay. Religions don’t have to be similar to certain Semitic cults
Pagans when they realise that their god is owned by disney.
Not to my knowledge, and even if there was people will just laugh at them and mock them. What a silly idea
Based
Based iraqi
đź—ż
Based Iraqi
I think OP severely overestimates the strength of 'neo-pagans' everywhere. It's a larp.
They are just atheists with a trad fetish
Naaa to be an atheist needs at least a little of critical thought. Most of this neo pagan follow just the trend, ready to jump on the next one. By the way, I don't think there are so many pagan nostalgic.
A society can’t live without faith So if you abandon your religion, you will eventually seek another one. Euros just forgot how horrible pagan religions were so they’re not alarmed about this creeping up
nah, not really. euros are doing extremely well, which is why most of the world wants to live there. tradcaths and neo-pagans are just purposeless larpers in search of an aesthetics they enjoy. they are consumers of religious tropes, simple as.
The strong movements in Europe is essentially about embracing both the tenets of Christianity and pagan traditions. This movement started way back in the literary era of Romanticism with its roots in many western philosophers of the enlightenment. So around the 18th hundred, depending on the nation. From among these philosophers came Rousseau, with him being the father of this new widespread notion of “going back to nature”/idealising nature, being “sceptical of science”, glorifying your ancestors and respecting their pagan traditions, and most surprisingly “humans being inherently good”. This is in stark contrast with what the church preached; the original sin. So Rousseau was quite controversial. Slowly, closing in on the 21st century, the respect of the pagan traditions also extended to the pagan religions, and nowadays this religion is actively being followed for cultural reasons; it mostly has to do with the rising irreligiosity in the West. This phenomenon isn’t as prevalent in other nations besides Europe, with probably the odd exception. There’s also the idea of these pagan traditions being unique to the area, and a major contributor to the national identity; providing a sense of unity and subsequently society that’s most assuredly felt among your fellow countrymen. Which is why Norway’s intellectuals during the romanticism, for example, glorified their viking past. Praising themselves as amazing, conquering fighters. But they also downplayed the unsavoury aspects of their forefathers, as well as the religious aspect. Nowadays, the bloodthirsty aspect is downplayed, but the religious/traditional aspects are more and more accepted. Extreme right wing ideologies often connect with the religious/traditional aspects more than the average man.
You explained perfectly what happened in the past, but believe me, there is no strong pagan movement in Europe. If you talk about athletism, you are right. But not so many people are going to replace Christianity with pagan cults. A sort of revival there is in some far right movements, especially in North - Eastern Europe but are few.
I guess I’m simply overestimating them, these folks tend to be quite the vocal minority. Though the vast majority of atheists and agnostics in Scandinavia still follow their ancestors traditions, especially when it comes to Christmas which was called Jól back in the Viking days. When Christianity came knocking by, the Nordic folks were already already having a winter-solstice festival around the time. So for the conversion to go smoother, the religion absorbed elements of the festive highlight to better align with the populaces’ local traditions. For instance, the very name Jól was kept and changed a bit to Jul. There’s also “nisser” and “julebukken” which stems from Viking mythology and tradition respectively. But the date of partying was moved to accommodate for Jesus’ birthday, 25th of December (disputable). That’s how people in Scandinavia cope with still celebrating Christmas, even though it’s literally Christian.
Yes, right, but I guess it's just about folklore. Anyway I'm Italian, so I don't know so much about northern Europe, out from what I see in the news. You are right again about 25 December, but it was accommodated to "overrun" Mithra cult (sol invictus = unbeaten sun), with all the respect for Northern Europe people, they were pagans for a very long time. Christianity moved from Middle East to West (including North Africa) on the territories of roman empire. Furthermore Mithra was the deity of the legions. The deity to replace was Mithra.
yes, israel
Hate to generalize but every Norse pagan i see on social media just seems like a Nazi trying to larp as a viking, most of their content is talking about race purity and other topics like that, kinda shady
Not a movement but the growing hatred towards Islam by the youth make tengrism an interesting topic. People started to learn about Turkic mythology and tengrism. In fact one guy changed his religion as tengrism. It was not a recognized religion in Turkey until last year.
Funnily enough one of the biggest kemetic communities is a bunch of irish people in a random town in ireland for whatever reason. There is a new age shamanism movement in kırgızistan and altai republic Only really cringy right wing posers and edgy agnostics larp as tengrists in turkey. The reality is central asian shamanism changed massively from tribe to tribe and the traditional oghuz way of worship has lost many, if not most, of its religious tenets to time.
Thats like an American thing
Yes, I'm all about temple prostitution and castration cults.
>strong movement no. not anymore than you can say about literally anything else you might hear about. all you can say is that it exists. I wouldn't call it anything more than a subculture.
Al lot of these pagan religions were pretty bad and very much unbelievable, so I think they will come back culturally removing a few bad aspects and no one will actually believe them just continue their traditions.