Historical Basis or Fashionable Invention?

The Corinthian

Given the domination of the Christian churches in Europe, it would be fare to say that that certainly up to 150 years ago, paganism was essentially extinct, with only a smattering of minor practices having survived. Interest seemed to then return to the area in the Victorian era as pagan faiths were revived or reconstructed. Of course, the question then arises whether there is any real historical basis for these revivals or whether there have been so many gaps to fill that most, if not all, modern pagan faiths are effectively invented by contemporaries? And if they were indeed invented, then would they be anything other than a fashionable affectation?

Discuss.

Talliesin

It's never really been that fashionable.

watty

Yeates, Conan-Doyle (Sherlock fame), Lady Gregory and that set had a lot to do with some of the victorian "revival"

rcunning03

I assume the information gathered about the old religions would come from archeology, so I'd say it's about as accurate as you can be. It definately makes sense to me and feels right. Also I think christainity adopted a lot of pagan practices and that kept part of the old religions alive.

The pagan religions seem to have a lot in common with the far east religions (from what I can gather watching discovery etc) where christainity never really took hold. So you could argue that either this proves that in pre-christain times all around the world we developed similar type beliefs around nature and a god and goddess (yin-yang etc) or could argue that with the revivial of the old religions they basically just adapted the eastern religions.

Either way I dont care, it makes sense to me and you can adapt pagan religion to suit your own beliefs and mix and match them. The ancients seemed to have had a much greater understanding of nature and the universe than christain man (we've only really caught up in the last 200 years or so) and I believe there is a lot we can still learn from them.

Apologies if I have made any mistakes and feel free to correct any.

Talliesin

As I've mentioned before a few times The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by Professor Ronald Hutton is an excellent book on the history of Wicca and covers a lot about the origin of various Wiccan practices. How much relevance this would have to other modern Pagan practices would vary.

rcunning03

Thanks