Gerfried Rapp

@greenbird462883

Kleve, Germany Joined Jan 2026

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Gerfried Rapp

@greenbird462883 · Jan 12, 2026

CMV: Neo-paganism is mostly a LARP by people whose understanding of "religion" is distinctly Abrahamic, not "pagan"

A few disclaimers:
1. I am not talking about any polytheistic or non-Abrahamic religion. By "neo-paganism", I mean the modern movement which seeks to "revive" Greco-Roman/Nordic/Slavic polytheisms, mostly by young people in Europe and America, with most of its members being first- or (more rarely) second-generation self-identified pagans.
2. I am not a scholar of religion or an anthropologist, but I do have a strong amateur interest in ancient history and anthropology.
3. I think the phenomenon I'm talking about is largely harmless, and I don't think the people doing it are "bad" people. My only concern is how this movement distorts historical understanding of ancient religion, and also gives \*some\* practicioners an unearned pretense of spiritual expertise and depth.
Now to my point- I've been seeing a rise on social media of content made by people identifying as "pagan" or "neo-pagan". This content usually takes the form of "ritual guides" or religious polemics defending the legitimacy of neo-pagan beliefs and practices.
What I've noticed is how deeply \*non-pagan\* most of this content is in terms of its understanding of what "religion" is; it seems clear to me that most people

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