What exactly is paganism? That might seem like an all-too-obvious question, but it's not as simple as it might first appear, because the connection between ancient pagan religions and modern neopagan religions is far from straightforward.

First off, let's set aside the notion that there's any direct historical connection- the idea that the medieval witches were actually underground pagans, or that Gerald Gardner discovered a secret witchcraft tradition, should no longer be taken seriously by anyone. Maintaining these old discredited stories is the neopagan equivalent of insisting that the Earth is actually just 6000 years old.

So, if neopaganism has no real historical connection to ancient paganism, is it even the same type of religion? Here, too, the connection is not so clear. Take the ancient Celtic religion- it was mostly about maintaining a harmonious relationship between the tribe of a particular territory, as represented by its king or chief, and the sovereignty goddess of that territory as represented by its most important river. In order for the tribe to have good harvests and victory in war, the king had to be ritually married to the river goddess. It is hard to see what similarity this really has to anything in neopaganism.

Then there's the fact that ancient pagan religions were unquestionably polytheistic while most modern Wiccans are basically duotheistic, the fact that ancient pagan religions were warlike and often patriarchal while neopagan religions are often the opposite, and many other points of disconnection. Of course, there are modern pagans who attempt to accurately reconstruct the ancient pagan religions, but most do not.

This is perhaps as it should be. We are modern people, after all, and paganism was reborn in the modern world to answer the spiritual needs of modern people. It is simply not important whether or not it bears much resemblance to ancient paganism. So, in answer to the question “what exactly is paganism?” I would say this: modern paganism is a religion of magic and reverence for the natural world- not because there is anything particularly ancient about what we do, but because this path answers the spiritual needs of our own time.