Quick Note: Paganism is So In!
UK women’s magazine Fabulous (a News of the World production) lets us know that Kabbalah (of the Madonna-practicing variety) is so out, and that “kooky, sexy, cool” Paganism is the “hot new religion”.
“Welcome to the world of paganism. Walk into any high-street bookshop and, alongside the usual chick-lit best-sellers, there’s another set of books flying off the shelves, all about how to find your inner witch. Yes, really. Hot on the heels of best-selling vampire saga Twilight and new US drama Eastwick, it seems all things weird are wonderful. Pagan culture has arrived in the 21st century – and young women are behind its growing popularity. Intrigued by its mystery and underlying sexuality, 20-somethings are converting in their droves, making paganism the UK’s fastest growing religion. According to the Office of National Statistics, there were 31,000 pagans living in the UK in 2001. Just eight years later, the Pagan Federation estimates there are now around 360,000.”
Fabulous goes on to interview three women (a Wiccan, a Celtic Pagan, and a practitioner of Vodou) about why they left more mainstream expression of religion for these “hot” belief systems, and they even interview “kooky, sexy, cool” British historian Ronald Hutton on why younger women are attracted to Pagan religions.
“As women become more empowered in their relationships and careers, they’ve begun to look for a set of beliefs that reflects this,” he says. “In paganism, women are given an equal role to men – and in some branches, they’re actually dominant. Women want a religion that empowers them.”
It is certainly true that young women in the UK are abandoning Christianity at a impressive rate, and that many of them are turning to Wicca and other forms of modern Paganism, but we’ll have to wait till the next census to see if modern Paganism is really the fastest-growing religon in Britain. In the meantime, we can all be assured that our faiths are the in thing to be, at least according to Fabulous magazine.
16 responses so far
