Polytheistic reconstructionism
Encyclopedia
Polytheistic reconstructionism (Reconstructionism) is an approach to Neopaganism
first emerging in the late 1960s to early 1970s, and gathering momentum in the 1990s to 2000s. Reconstructionism attempts to re-establish historical polytheistic
religions in the modern world, in contrast with syncretic
movements like Wicca
, and "channeled" movements like Germanic mysticism
or Theosophy
.
Many practitioners of folk religions live outside of the original cultures and territories from which those historical religions arose, and reconstructonists consequently face the problem of understanding, and then implementing, the worldview of pre-modern rural societies in a modern, possibly urban environment.
in the late 1970s. Bonewits has said that he is not sure whether he "got this use of the term from one or more of the other culturally focused Neopagan movements of the time, or if [he] just applied it in a novel fashion." Margot Adler
later used the term "Pagan Reconstructionists" in the 1979 edition of Drawing Down the Moon to refer to those who claimed to adhere to some sort of historical religion. This emphasis on reconstruction is in ostensible contrast to more fanciful approaches to "paganism" in Romanticism
, as seen for example in Germanic mysticism
.
Reconstructionist Paganism has evolved into Polytheistic Reconstructionism, and is a distinct movement from the syncreticism and eclecticism of popular Neopagan
culture, and the Wicca
n ritual format that has been widely adopted by many Neopagan groups. Reconstructionist religions are based on the surviving historical record, and on surviving folk practices of the culture in question.
According to Linzie (2004), the reconstructionist movement originates around 1970 with early attempts to
reconstruct pre-Christian religions, with Germanic neopaganism
in the USA, the UK and Iceland focussing on Norse religion of the Viking Age
, and reconstruction of Hellenic polytheism
in Greece, and of Baltic polytheism with Romuva
.
In a second phase beginning in the 1990s, these movements have been joined by serious attempts at reconstructing Roman polytheism and Celtic polytheism
(see Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism
). Many of these groups focus on the 1st millennium AD (with the exception of Greek and Roman polytheism which is already well-attested in sources of the mid to late 1st millennium BC
), up to the period of Christianization of the respective populations. Most also include folkloric practices that have survived into recent history or, in some cases, the present day.
, early Neodruidism and Wicca
) as follows:
The use of the terms "Pagan
" and "Neopagan" to apply to polytheistic reconstructionists is controversial. Some reconstructionist, ethnic and indigenous religious groups take great issue with being referred to as "Pagan" or "Neopagan," viewing "Pagan" as a pejorative term used in the past by institutions attempting to destroy their cultures and religions. In addition, reconstructionists may choose to reject the terms "Pagan" and "Neopagan" in order to distance themselves from aspects of popular Neopaganism, such as eclecticism, cultural appropriation, the practice of magic, and a tendency to conduct rituals within a Wiccan-derived format, that they find irrelevant or even inimical to their religious practice.
Other reconstructionist groups actively self-identify as "Pagan Reconstructionists" and may participate in pan-Pagan organizations or gatherings such as Pagan Pride Day
. However, even among those who see themselves as part of the broader, Pagan or Neopagan spectrum, or who simply see some members of the Pagan community as allies, there is still a refusal to accept or identify with the more problematic aspects of that community, such as the above-noted eclecticism, cultural appropriation
or Wiccan-inspired ritual structures. Many Polytheistic Reconstructionists see Reconstructionism as the older current in the Pagan community, and are unwilling to give up this part of their history simply because eclectic movements are currently more fashionable.
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
first emerging in the late 1960s to early 1970s, and gathering momentum in the 1990s to 2000s. Reconstructionism attempts to re-establish historical polytheistic
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
religions in the modern world, in contrast with syncretic
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
movements like Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
, and "channeled" movements like Germanic mysticism
Germanic mysticism
Germanic mysticism or Germanic occultism may refer to* Ariosophy* more generally, various schools of Esotericism in Germany and Austria* various modern systems of runic magic...
or Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
.
Many practitioners of folk religions live outside of the original cultures and territories from which those historical religions arose, and reconstructonists consequently face the problem of understanding, and then implementing, the worldview of pre-modern rural societies in a modern, possibly urban environment.
History
The term "Reconstructionist Paganism" is thought to have been coined by Isaac BonewitsIsaac Bonewits
Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits was an influential American Druid who published a number of books on the subject of Neopaganism and magic. He was also a liturgist, singer and songwriter, and founded the Druidic organisation Ár nDraíocht Féin, as well as the Neopagan civil rights group, the Aquarian...
in the late 1970s. Bonewits has said that he is not sure whether he "got this use of the term from one or more of the other culturally focused Neopagan movements of the time, or if [he] just applied it in a novel fashion." Margot Adler
Margot Adler
Margot Adler is an author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess and radio journalist and correspondent for National Public Radio .- Early life :Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Adler grew up mostly in New York City...
later used the term "Pagan Reconstructionists" in the 1979 edition of Drawing Down the Moon to refer to those who claimed to adhere to some sort of historical religion. This emphasis on reconstruction is in ostensible contrast to more fanciful approaches to "paganism" in Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, as seen for example in Germanic mysticism
Germanic mysticism
Germanic mysticism or Germanic occultism may refer to* Ariosophy* more generally, various schools of Esotericism in Germany and Austria* various modern systems of runic magic...
.
Reconstructionist Paganism has evolved into Polytheistic Reconstructionism, and is a distinct movement from the syncreticism and eclecticism of popular Neopagan
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
culture, and the Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
n ritual format that has been widely adopted by many Neopagan groups. Reconstructionist religions are based on the surviving historical record, and on surviving folk practices of the culture in question.
According to Linzie (2004), the reconstructionist movement originates around 1970 with early attempts to
reconstruct pre-Christian religions, with Germanic neopaganism
Germanic neopaganism
Germanic neopaganism is the contemporary revival of historical Germanic paganism. Precursor movements appeared in the early 20th century in Germany and Austria. A second wave of revival began in the early 1970s...
in the USA, the UK and Iceland focussing on Norse religion of the Viking Age
Viking Age
Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
, and reconstruction of Hellenic polytheism
Hellenic polytheism
Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism refers to various reconstructionist movements that revive ancient Greek religious practices, emerging since the 1990s. Since 1997 the movement in Greece has been institutionalized under the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes...
in Greece, and of Baltic polytheism with Romuva
Romuva
Romuva may refer to:* Romuva , an ancient worship place in Old Prussia* Romuva , a pagan movement in modern Lithuania* Romuva, heaven in the philosophical writings of Vydūnas...
.
In a second phase beginning in the 1990s, these movements have been joined by serious attempts at reconstructing Roman polytheism and Celtic polytheism
Celtic polytheism
Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts...
(see Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism
Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism
Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism is a polytheistic, animistic, religious and cultural movement...
). Many of these groups focus on the 1st millennium AD (with the exception of Greek and Roman polytheism which is already well-attested in sources of the mid to late 1st millennium BC
1st millennium BC
The 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of many successive empires, and spanned from 1000 BC to 1 BC.The Neo-Assyrian Empire, followed by the Achaemenids. In Greece, Classical Antiquity begins with the colonization of Magna Graecia and peaks with the rise of Hellenism. The...
), up to the period of Christianization of the respective populations. Most also include folkloric practices that have survived into recent history or, in some cases, the present day.
Reconstructionism and Neopaganism
Linzie (2004) enumerates the difference between reconstructionist Neopaganism and "classical" Neogapanism as found in Eighteenth to mid Twentieth century movements (including Germanic mysticismGermanic mysticism
Germanic mysticism or Germanic occultism may refer to* Ariosophy* more generally, various schools of Esotericism in Germany and Austria* various modern systems of runic magic...
, early Neodruidism and Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
) as follows:
- There is no attempt to recreate a combined pan-European paganism.
- Researchers attempt to stay within research guidelines developed over the course of the past century for handling documentation generated in the time periods that they are studying.
- A multi-disciplinary approach is utilized capitalizing on results from various fields as historical literary research, anthropology, religious history, political history, archaeology, forensic anthropology, historical sociology, etc. with an overt attempt to avoid pseudo-sciences.
- There are serious attempts to recreate culture, politics, science and art of the period in order to better understand the environment within which the religious beliefs were practiced.
The use of the terms "Pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
" and "Neopagan" to apply to polytheistic reconstructionists is controversial. Some reconstructionist, ethnic and indigenous religious groups take great issue with being referred to as "Pagan" or "Neopagan," viewing "Pagan" as a pejorative term used in the past by institutions attempting to destroy their cultures and religions. In addition, reconstructionists may choose to reject the terms "Pagan" and "Neopagan" in order to distance themselves from aspects of popular Neopaganism, such as eclecticism, cultural appropriation, the practice of magic, and a tendency to conduct rituals within a Wiccan-derived format, that they find irrelevant or even inimical to their religious practice.
Other reconstructionist groups actively self-identify as "Pagan Reconstructionists" and may participate in pan-Pagan organizations or gatherings such as Pagan Pride Day
Pagan Pride Day
Pagan Pride is a movement among the American Neopagan community to provide a positive public image of Neopagans and Neopaganism.Local Pagan Pride groups sponsor "Pagan Pride Day" festivals, usually in public locations such as city parks or university campuses...
. However, even among those who see themselves as part of the broader, Pagan or Neopagan spectrum, or who simply see some members of the Pagan community as allies, there is still a refusal to accept or identify with the more problematic aspects of that community, such as the above-noted eclecticism, cultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of...
or Wiccan-inspired ritual structures. Many Polytheistic Reconstructionists see Reconstructionism as the older current in the Pagan community, and are unwilling to give up this part of their history simply because eclectic movements are currently more fashionable.
Varieties
- Germanic: Germanic Polytheistic Reconstructionism
- Celtic: Celtic Polytheistic Reconstructionism
- Greek: Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism
- Slavic: Slavic NeopaganismSlavic NeopaganismSlavic Neopaganism is a modern fakeloric, polytheistic, reconstructionistic, and Neopagan religion; its adherents call themselves Rodnovers , and consider themselves to be the legitimate continuation of pre-Christian Slavic religion.- Rebirth of Slavic spirituality :The pre-Christian religions...
- Baltic: Baltic NeopaganismBaltic neopaganismThe Baltic countries were the last part of Europe to be Christianized, and vestiges of paganism blend into a Neopaganism movement that is largely independent of Western Asatru.*Romuva in Lithuania*Dievturība in Latvia...
- Finnish: Finnish NeopaganismFinnish neopaganismFinnish Neopaganism is a Neopagan religious system that attempts to revive old Finnish paganism, the pre-Christian polytheistic ethnic religion of the Finnish people....
- Roman: Roman polytheistic reconstructionismRoman polytheistic reconstructionismRoman polytheistic reconstructionism, also known as Cultus Deorum Romanorum , Religio Romana or Romano-Italic Tradition, is the contemporary movement which reconstructs or revives the traditional Roman and Italic religious cults.-Practices:Roman polytheistic reconstructionism is a revived...
- Egyptian: Kemetic Revivalism
- Canaanite: Semitic NeopaganismSemitic NeopaganismSemitic Neopaganism is the revival, mostly US based, of religious traditions deriving from Ancient Semitic religion...
External links
- ecauldron.com: What is Pagan Reconstructionism?
- The Association of Polytheist Traditions While not strictly reconstructionist, APT is an educational group concerned with ancient historical religions as well as modern syncretist new age religions
- Neopagans vs. the Recons (beliefnet.com)
- The CR FAQ - An Introduction to Celtic Reconstructionism A consensus document, co-authored by representatives