Home›Modern Pagan›DenominationsBrowse ByDenominationsThis page groups religions by how many internal denominations or branches they have split into over time. Wikipedia notes that Protestantism alone, having separated from the Catholic Church in the Reformation, "is split into thousands of denominations." Browsing this way lets a visitor see which traditions have stayed largely unified and which have fragmented into many distinct bodies.FactsLearn MoreDenominationsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedTwentieth- and twenty-first-century traditions that revive, reconstruct or reimagine pre-Christian religion, typically honouring many deities and marking a seasonal calendar. Some work from the historical record and say so; others are openly modern creations. 2StatusStanding as a Comparative CategoryWell-attestedA standard category in the study of new religions. Pagan here is a self-designation the movements adopted for themselves, not the ancient usage, in which it was a word for other people. 3DirectoryCategoryWell-attestedReligions 1Learn MoreModern Pagan religions This group holds modern Pagan religions: contemporary movements, mostly of the twentieth century onward, that revive, reconstruct or reimagine pre-Christian and nature-centred spirituality. They are new religious movements, though many draw sincerely on older imagery and lore. The browser will find traditions such as Wicca and the broader contemporary Pagan and nature-religion movements. The atlas presents these as modern religions, marking clearly where a practice is a recent creation and where it claims older roots.DenominationsFilter Results7 entriesDate of Separation End YearAll1967 (1)1971 (1)1974 (1)1980 (1)1995 (1)Date of Separation Start YearAll1962 (1)1971 (1)1973 (1)1979 (1)1985 (1)Defining Doctrinal PositionAllA Goddess and a God as a divine pair (3)No fixed pantheon or liturgy; each practitioner composes their own (3)The Goddess alone (1)FounderAllAlex Sanders (1926-1988) and Maxine Sanders (b. 1946). (1)Gerald Gardner (1884-1964). (1)No founder; Scott Cunningham (1956-1993) is the most influential of its authors. (1)Raymond Buckland (1934-2017). (1)Starhawk (b. 1951) and Diane Baker. (1)Victor Anderson (1917-2001) and Cora Anderson (1915-2008). (1)Zsuzsanna Budapest (b. 1940). (1)GovernanceAllAutonomous covens, authority conferred by initiation (4)Business decided by the gathered meeting seeking unity, without clergy (1)No central authority (3)Liturgical LanguageAllThe vernacular (7)Membership Over TimeAllno count isolating this tradition exists (3)practitioners are by definition uncounted (1)OrdinationAllAuthority conferred by initiation rather than by ordination (5)Conferred by a teacher's certification of learning (1)No ordination; authority rests on learning or on the whole body (2)Open to women and men (5)Restricted to women (1)Origin Period End YearAll1954 (1)1960 (1)1967 (1)1971 (1)1974 (1)1980 (1)1995 (1)Origin Period Start YearAll1940 (1)1946 (1)1962 (1)1971 (1)1973 (1)1979 (1)1985 (1)Place of OriginAllLos Angeles, California (1)Manchester and London (1)San Francisco, California (1)The New Forest and southern England (1)The San Francisco Bay Area, California (1)The United States (1)The United States, Britain and the anglophone world (1)Practice StatusAllAlexandrian Wicca, founded as a close relative of the Gardnerian tradition, shares its three-degree initiatory structure and oath-bound Book of Shadows, transmitted between initiates rather than published, though its general history and structure are documented by outside scholarship. (1)Gardnerian Wicca is a three-degree initiatory tradition whose core ritual text, its Book of Shadows, is transmitted by hand copying from initiator to initiate rather than published, and practitioners are traditionally bound by oath not to disclose its specific content. General information about the tradition's history and structure is well documented by outside scholars. (1)Separation or DivergenceAllAn independent American tradition older than the arrival of Gardnerian Wicca in the United States, which later exchanged material with it (1)Feri, in which Starhawk trained (1)Gardnerian Wicca, in which Buckland was initiated and which he had brought to the United States; in 1973 he published a self-initiatory system that the initiatory lineages do not recognise. (1)Gardnerian Wicca, whose material Alex Sanders used and adapted (1)No separation (2)Reclaiming combines it with feminist and anarchist political practice and works by consensus rather than by degrees (1)Solitary practice was made possible by published handbooks, and the lineages do not regard it as the same thing (1)The earliest of the modern Wiccan lineages, and the one from which most others descend or borrow (1)The initiatory lineages, which held that Wicca could only pass from coven to coven (1)The mixed-gender Wiccan covens, on the ground that women's ritual required women's space (1)The tradition's exclusion of transgender women has been contested within the wider Pagan community since the 1990s (1)The two lines remain close enough that some covens work both (1)Status TodayAllLiving tradition, practised today (7)BrowseCompareAlexandrian WiccaDenominations1 entryDianic WiccaDenominations1 entryEclectic Solitary WiccaDenominations1 entryFeri TraditionDenominations1 entryGardnerian WiccaDenominations1 entryReclaimingDenominations1 entrySeax-WicaDenominations1 entrySources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 12. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcrafttier 1Ronald Hutton, Oxford University Press, 1999View the Source3. Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectivestier 1Michael F. Strmiska (ed.), ABC-CLIO, 2005Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.