A Guide To Repaganizing Your Area

How to make everyday people understand that paganism a real religion.

The pagan community is often perceived as something that exists on the fringes of society, that being a modern pagan is inherently being some sort of outside. However, over the past few decades, paganism has left the fringes. In several countries, paganism is now the fastest growing religion, meaning that in your town, it is highly unlikely that you are actually the only pagan. There are millions of us now and we are increasingly being socially recognized as a real and legitimate religion, with some religious scholars even beginning to take paganism out of the “new religious movement” category of scholarship. For this reason, we should begin acting like the sizable religious minority that we are, connect with each other more, and begin what I would like to call “repaganization”.

Repaganization is the normalizing, mainstreaming, and promulgating of paganism within your community. This is a collaborative process that is aimed at inspiring more people to take up the flame of the Gods, to honor their ancestors, and build a tie to the sacred land. Right now, paganism has numbers, but those numbers are disconnected. The vast majority of people are solitary practitioners, with many pagans even hiding their religious beliefs from those around them. When we are growing at the speed that we are, we do not need to hide anymore—we do not need to act like we are an irrelevant group of Internet forum members, we can act like the real religion we are.

The first step is to be open. If you are able to be open, you should be. Of course, if you can’t be open about your beliefs for professional, legal, or safety based reasons, feel free to keep concealing them. However, if you are able to, and willing to, opening up is good. To be clear, opening up does not mean you need to mention it all of the time. I am incredibly open about my beliefs, yet I do not bring them up when it is inappropriate or irrelevant to the conversation. However, if religion, holidays, or beliefs come up, share your pagan faith. If someone mentions myths, astrology, or spirituality, open up.

This is not a call to proselytize. There is a term that is used in Thelema, a tradition that I’ve spent many years within, called “promulgation”. Promulgation means promoting, not pushing. The Thelemic belief, which I believe holds true for all of Paganism, is that anyone can approach the mysteries, but only those who are strong enough will. Only those with willpower will follow through. However, the mysteries are still open to all, and you make it clear that they are open to all, so that the strong ones know that they exist. You make people aware, then from that awareness, if they are willing to, then they follow it. You do not push it down people’s throats, you do not force convert anyone, you do not pressure anyone—you simply let them know and show them, through your life and success, the beauty of the Gods. You allow them to see the path, recognize the path, and decide on their own accord if it is for them.

You want people to be educated and informed about Paganism. A lot of people, even people who become Pagans by name, don’t actually know very much. Many people, when they think of Paganism, think of Viking cosplayers or their AP World History class in high school—they do not think of it as a living religion that people take seriously. For this reason, you show them that. You do not make it seem like theatre or cosplay, because it is not, and you encourage Pagans who act that way to change. You make it clear that the Gods are alive and, while you honor the history and ancestors, you do not simply re-enact history in a way that alienates people. You show that the history is alive, that our ancestors are with us, instead of simply doing theatre.

As well, you want people to know about holidays. The best repaganization method is to host events, parties, picnics, group hikes, group meditation sessions, and so on around the holidays. You invite your pagan friends, but also the normal people. Parties are great for this, because you can show them their own Pagan roots, and help them see how Pagan traditions have lasted into the modern day. They will realize that becoming Pagan is not scary, not something that makes them reject their identity, but something that celebrates what they already do. Show them that they can keep their Christmas tree up and it is actually a Yule tree! Show them that their rabbit decorations for Easter are also Pagan fertility decorations! There already is Paganism within their life, they just need to embrace it.

Another thing you can do is invite people along to things you do to connect to nature. Within Paganism, we honor the sacred nature of the earth and the land. For this reason, we go outside a lot. Take people hiking, kayaking, and exploring the wild. It is known that nature has immense psychological benefits, and even if people do not know these psychological benefits are actually just a result of the spiritual benefits, they will feel it. They will look around them and see the sky, the trees, and see the divinity there. You can teach them that there are Gods within us all, and within everything, and this can make them love life and the Gods. As well, this has immense mental health benefits, which people are in dire need of in the modern world.

The next step to repaganization is a bit more grandiose and that is building community. For a long time, to find Pagan community, it was quite hard. There was one amazing website called Witchvox, which is unfortunately now defunct, that had a large Yellowpages style listing of Pagan organizations. This does not exist, meaning that names of groups are scattered across many sites. I call upon people who have good web design skills, which unfortunately I do not have, to make a new Witchvox. This would make it much easier for people to find events. For now, I recommend checking Facebook (even if, yes, boomery, but many groups are on there), Meetup, Eventbrite, and talking to people at your local metaphysical (or metaphysics adjacent) shop—they often can let you know about events. Some shops even have a pin-board of flyers for various events.

I suggest going to events and meeting people. Without a doubt, you will run into some events and groups that you do not align with. Do not give up—find another! If you live in a more remote area, it could be worth starting your own group. If you are newer in your path, this many seem intimidating, as you might not feel ready to run a group. But, even if you do not take on some priestess roll, you could make a place for people to picnic, chat, and pray together. You do not need to be an advanced practitioner to do this. But, if you cannot do any of this, do not worry, you do not need an organization or group to reach your spiritual goals, or connect with the Gods. It simply is something that is helpful and brings people together.

Another way to repaganize is to normalize pagan ritual practices. Things like offerings, invocations, and divination may seem intense to people. Due to films like Midsommar that demonize Pagan faiths, people can find Pagan rituals scary. However, they are not. There is nothing menacing about calling up the Gods. It can be helpful to allow people into your ritual space if they are particularly curious. Alternatively, you can tell your stories from your experiences. People are emotional, not rational in their psychological core, so personal experiences often impact people more than theological proofs. As much as people may wish they were fully logical, that is simply not how human nature works.

Regardless though, learning theology and metaphysics is important. A key part of spiritual growth is gnosis, or knowledge, so for your own development to progress from beginner to advanced, you do need this information. Another use of it is to talk with people. There are some people who are very philosophically minded and they will find actual conversations about metaphysics, theology, and the nature of the Gods engaging. With this type of person, a big reason why they may be skeptical of Paganism is that often does seem more praxis than theory focused. However, when one gets deep into Paganism, there actually is a lot of theology, it is just not discussed enough. Allowing these people to hear how Pagan theology actually works, and perhaps even getting into a lively debate with them about it, may make them get it more. I’ve entered many conversations with Christians, especially Catholics, who saw Paganism as a complete joke, until I was able to get into these topics with them. They then see that, even if they disagree with Paganism, it does have an intellectual backbone that can compete against their thinkers like say, Aquinas.

The most important thing of all is this though—people need to see Paganism lived. They have poor opinions of our religion because of this. They think of Pagans as people who just cosplay or vaguely say New Age statements. They do not see it lived. They do not see the devotion, they do not see the will, and they do not see the virtue. They can only see this through example. You need to live Paganism. You need to live these principles. You need to do these rituals. You need to follow the calendar. You need to do it. Once people see Pagans doing it, outwardly and openly, not just alone, they start to see it is a real religion. They see it, they understand it, and they start to normalize it.

Repaganization begins with you and I.

-GR