The very short version is that from the 80s through the 00s, a lot of folks started calling themselves "Neopagans" and having Neopagan festivals and what have you. While initially meant to just be a term for "folks who are pagan today and haven't always been," the scene developed its own flavor, as scenes will do. Most folks who embraced the term leaned towards an eclectic approach, and since it was an alternative spirituality scene that made one of its selling points how different from Christianity it was, it tended to skew politically liberal. The political side of things really took off in the teens (like everywhere else), and so prominent neopagan folks and organizations began to take explicit stances on political issues and to expect members to agree on those issues and so forth. The term "neopagan" came to more and more refer to those folks who remained a part of this scene and continued to identify this way, and to a lesser degree, "pagan" has that coloring, at least in the US.
A related, but slightly distinct point is that some folks did/do identify as neopagan who do not believe in the actual reality of the Gods - they see them as archetypes or useful shared images or the like (this is sometimes called "soft polytheism," but that term can also mean other things). Due to its big-tent ethos, the neopagan scene tended to welcome these folks. Since they have an explicitly materialist viewpoint, they often don't get along as well with those polytheists for whom the actual reality of the Gods called upon is important.
Many polytheists who either never were a part of the neopagan scene, or else otherwise felt distinct from it, took a look at the way the scene was going and decided they didn't want to use the label. Many heathens, for example, don't think of themselves as neopagans and don't like being lumped in with the folks who do use the label these days, even though most do fit the letter of Bonewits's definition.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2023-07-11 12:47 am (UTC)https://www.ecosophia.net/blogs-and-essays/the-well-of-galabes/the-twilight-of-the-neopagan-era/
https://www.ecosophia.net/blogs-and-essays/the-well-of-galabes/a-wind-that-tastes-of-ashes/
https://www.ecosophia.net/an-older-tradition/
The very short version is that from the 80s through the 00s, a lot of folks started calling themselves "Neopagans" and having Neopagan festivals and what have you. While initially meant to just be a term for "folks who are pagan today and haven't always been," the scene developed its own flavor, as scenes will do. Most folks who embraced the term leaned towards an eclectic approach, and since it was an alternative spirituality scene that made one of its selling points how different from Christianity it was, it tended to skew politically liberal. The political side of things really took off in the teens (like everywhere else), and so prominent neopagan folks and organizations began to take explicit stances on political issues and to expect members to agree on those issues and so forth. The term "neopagan" came to more and more refer to those folks who remained a part of this scene and continued to identify this way, and to a lesser degree, "pagan" has that coloring, at least in the US.
A related, but slightly distinct point is that some folks did/do identify as neopagan who do not believe in the actual reality of the Gods - they see them as archetypes or useful shared images or the like (this is sometimes called "soft polytheism," but that term can also mean other things). Due to its big-tent ethos, the neopagan scene tended to welcome these folks. Since they have an explicitly materialist viewpoint, they often don't get along as well with those polytheists for whom the actual reality of the Gods called upon is important.
Many polytheists who either never were a part of the neopagan scene, or else otherwise felt distinct from it, took a look at the way the scene was going and decided they didn't want to use the label. Many heathens, for example, don't think of themselves as neopagans and don't like being lumped in with the folks who do use the label these days, even though most do fit the letter of Bonewits's definition.