Neopaganism is on the rise. There has been a modern revival of various pre-Christian spiritual traditions, often drawing inspiration from ancient pagan religions. The resurgence encompasses a diverse array of beliefs and practices, including Wicca, Druidry, and various forms of nature spirituality. This growing movement is intentionally decentralized, with practitioners often forming small groups or covens. But virtually every expression of this phenomenon is marked by the worship of nature, a fascination with astrology, the belief in multiple deities, or a pantheon of gods and goddesses, rituals involving magic or spell work, all within the supreme focus on the actualization of the self.
00:00:00.560Neo-paganism is on the rise. There has been a modern revival of various pre-Christian0.91
00:00:06.820spiritual traditions, often drawing inspiration from ancient pagan religions. The resurgence
00:00:12.440encompasses a diverse array of beliefs and practices, including Wicca, Druidry, Heathenry,
00:00:18.920and various forms of nature spirituality. This growing movement is intentionally decentralized
00:00:24.380with practitioners often forming small groups or covens.
00:00:28.260But virtually every expression of this phenomenon is marked by the worship of nature,
00:00:34.060a fascination with astrology, the belief in multiple deities,
00:00:37.500or a pantheon of gods and goddesses, rituals involving magic or spell work,
00:00:42.800all within the supreme focus on the actualization of the self.
00:00:47.420Join us as we unveil the dark and sinister roots of neopaganism.
00:00:55.080All right, here we are. Neopaganism, this is episode five for the viewer. And we've kind of
00:01:01.420been talking about neopaganism for the last four episodes. So it's not like we haven't discussed it
00:01:08.300at all. A lot of the different episodes that we're doing in this 10 part series,
00:01:13.140all have their root in each other. And neopaganism being one of those roots. Burning Man
00:01:19.200has, you know, has roots in neo-paganism and, well, a lot of stuff, the greys, we'll talk about
00:01:27.160that, you know, it all kind of, the occult, you know, all these kinds of things kind of play into
00:01:30.920one another. But maybe from the outset, Andrew, could you just, what is neo-paganism? Paganism,
00:01:38.320you know, just these old pagan gods, but neo-paganism, what's that?
00:01:43.440Yeah, new paganism or trying to resurrect what people would call pagan spirituality from the ancient days, right? Like even like Babylonian magic, in a sense, a form of paganism. So when we're thinking about new paganism, we're thinking about people who are trying to start doing practices again that had once died out because of Christendom and resurrect those practices.
00:02:08.540So they're looking at what they would call history in order to try to resurrect these practices.
00:02:15.460So for example, we have many people saying that Easter has its roots in a pagan holiday, right?
00:04:26.920That's how they told stories around the fire.
00:04:28.680Then one person told them to another and more sensationalism, more lore came out of that.
00:04:36.400The literary tradition, it's not as though no culture ever wrote other than Christian
00:04:42.600culture, but it is a fair statement to say that Christians, I mean, were, I mean, in
00:04:49.840terms of literary emphases that the dominant uh that came through christians they were people of
00:04:57.860the book everything else you know it was oral tradition but also um practices and things that
00:05:03.500you know and mysticism and um but christians were people they were known as people of the text
00:05:09.800people of the book like so very early on this uh massive emphases that was placed on write it down
00:05:17.660And so we have, you know, which even I remember with, you know, all the woke controversy and stuff, it's like, you know, picking on, well, Europe used to do this and England did that and America did this.
00:06:41.440So in the same way how God has communicated to his people revelatory through his word throughout all time, in the same way we've emulated that, being image bearers of God, writing down historical records, in the same way how God has preserved his word.
00:06:58.500So you see that sort of emulation trying to reciprocate that being in the image of God.
00:07:03.540I think that's one very interesting aspect.
00:07:05.700But in regards to oneism, which is a blending of the material and the immaterial, there's
00:07:11.700no distinction between what all is divine, all is one, all is self.
00:07:16.480The creation is worshipped rather than the creator.
00:07:19.260The one thing that's very unique about every part of the world is so unique and distinct
00:07:24.620There's a very distinct culture in India in contrast to a lot of the Nordic European areas of the world that were where you saw a lot of like the Vikings and that area of like Nordic spirituality and the worshipping of the different, you know, gods of that time and trying to achieve Valhalla.
00:07:44.000you know, there's a movie that came out a couple of years ago, The Northmen. And that movie is
00:07:50.320basically, I'd call it like the Saving Private Ryan of Vikings movies. It just showed that world
00:07:56.200in its very brutal form before those areas were Christianized. And what you really see is the same1.00
00:08:02.920thing. You see the sort of worship of the creation and sort of giving all this adherence to the
00:08:09.500different gods. And it was such a brutal world and a brutal time. But again, you see occultism as
00:08:15.320its whole and paganism. It is same in principle, but it gets carried out differently depending on
00:08:22.380the culture. So you would see that articulated like in the Northmen, you would see that articulated
00:08:28.440in a place like feudal Japan, where they were in contact with entities. And you would see a lot of
00:08:34.500areas in which they would have many different cultures that had temples in the high places.
00:08:39.500and trying to get in contact with the gods, and now I think you are seeing that on an unskilled
00:08:48.020level because we're inherently spiritual, and now because we've abandoned God and how he gives a
00:08:54.980directive for how to run society, now we're trying to grasp at that, and we're returning to one-ism.
00:09:01.000Like one example, one of our friends, Josh Robinson, who's been on the podcast before,
00:09:05.360Just in his area within West Virginia, there's been this large resurgence even amongst men to try and get back into sort of that Ragnar Lothbrok Vikings spirituality.
00:09:17.460It seems like they're a very manly aesthetic to it, and they're extremely drawn to it.
00:09:22.600And they're deterred against, they're going towards that and being deterred by Christianity because generally speaking, the evangelical message of the West is a very feminine thing.
00:09:36.260How many men, there's just a post that came out with Stephen Furtick wearing this pink oversized Easter sweater that costs two grand at his Easter service.
00:09:44.320Like what is, I think men are drawn more towards a Ragnar Lothbrok than Stephen Furtick in a giant pink oversized two grand sweater.
00:09:52.600I think that's just like one small aspect of it, but ultimately you're looking at multiple different cultures in ancient times that would practice onism, would practice that, and it got carried out differently depending on their environment and their culture.
00:10:08.300So the same way, while the practice, again, the same principle, you see a practice differently as articulated in the movie, The Northmen versus Feudal Japan. You had a lot of like, even like the ninjas that were known as that. They didn't just use their practice being stealth-like. They actually use a lot of like the dark arts.
00:10:26.660In fact, Jeff, Pastor Jeff, from, if you guys follow Apologies Studios, when he was heavily in martial arts, he went around, he spent time in Japan, given that his dad was in the Air Force, he was an Air Force brat, and he got introduced into occultism by way of getting into ninjutsu, because there are processes where you can actually utilize within ninjutsu astral projection to try and, when you're trying to infiltrate a castle, they would utilize that as a way to spy to see what was in the next room.
00:10:56.660And so there are areas in which even something like martial arts, you have to be careful because there are parts, there are ones that are just inherently physical, like a psychic is a psychic. There's a part of Taekwondo where you pivot the foot back and you pivot your foot in a certain way, it creates a lot more torque and power where it can easily dispatch someone with your legs versus if you don't use that.
00:11:21.740But there's also aspects of different martial arts, like Tai Chi, that will incorporate a view of oneness. So you see that there, and then it's different in India. And you'll see that even now in the resurgence of that, one thing also as well, too, and I'll let you jump in here, Andrew, is that paganism is always syncretizing, it's constantly syncretizing, it's constantly blending and re-blending.
00:11:45.920So in the same way how it's not linear, it's always circular. It's always taking new things. And so while, for example, in West Virginia, let's say there's a resurgence into the old Nordic spirituality trying to find some sort of masculine identity in that, it wouldn't just be the Nordic traditions as articulated in the movie The Northmen.
00:12:06.360you also would be incorporating a lot of culture and folklore from west virginia as well too and
00:12:13.320there's even like a lot of mysticism that comes up just from like the 1800s so they would take that
00:12:17.900they have blended in all together um that's what joseph smith was a syncretist as well too
00:12:23.440so that's the one thing too within paganism you see the general one versus two
00:12:27.040but you will always see cultural constant and continual cultural syncretism one way uh you
00:12:33.920saw this articulated was in the film wild wild country where you have this hindu cult the rosnish
00:12:40.200they went up into oregon and they started this commune and they syncretized they took a lot of
00:12:46.380what they learned from the east and they blended it in with the west right you know you had the
00:12:50.520strange hypocrisy too where you had somebody who was saying get rid of all your possessions but
00:12:54.900i'm gonna drive around and own a bunch of rolls royces right so you had somewhat of an inconsistency
00:13:00.480there but i don't know what are your thoughts on that andrew real quick before we continue with the
00:13:04.540show i wanted to let you know that this is actually just one episode of a 10-part series that we will
00:13:10.800be slowly releasing to the public on places like youtube and your favorite podcast platform over
00:13:17.780the coming months however if you want to get all 10 of these episodes right now early access and
00:13:25.420ad-free, we are making them available exclusively for our Patreon members over at patreon.com
00:13:32.880forward slash right response ministries. Here are the titles for just a few of those episodes.
00:13:39.200We've got transhumanism and artificial intelligence. We also have DMT and the astral
00:13:46.280realm. We also have neo-paganism and another of my favorite episodes is an entire episode devoted to
00:13:55.220the grays. So again, head on over to patreon.com forward slash right response ministries and sign
00:14:03.220up for our silver tier, which is just $5 a month. And you'll be able to get all 10 of these episodes
00:14:09.700ad free right now. And if you join us at the gold tier for just $10 a month, you'll get early access
00:14:17.520ad free for the full 10 episodes, plus an additional live stream that I and the guys who
00:14:24.280join me for this series, that's Jeremiah Roberts and Andrew Sunkrant, the three of us will be doing
00:14:30.080live streams where we'll be taking questions from you, our gold tier Patreon members, and providing
00:14:36.880for you the best answers that we possibly can from the Word of God. So don't delay, go to patreon.com
00:14:43.460forward slash right response ministries and become a supporter today. Yeah, when I think about
00:14:48.520neo-paganism, I tend to think, well, how did it get here? What started the rise of neo-paganism?
00:14:53.880Today, I see it really as the bastard children of atheism are really now pushing themselves full fledged into a form of spirituality, going away from the materialistic parents who had failed them in every aspect or regard, whether it be intellectually, or in the schools, emotionally, they were abandoning them in so many different aspects.
00:15:15.000But before that, even thinking within America and the folk magic that was being practiced in the 19th century by many different people within the Americas, it's coming from the Enlightenment period, right?0.64
00:15:27.980Like post-Enlightenment period, we have the denying of God's word, the veracity of God's word, the truth of God's word.
00:15:34.680Coming from that, we then have the Second Great Awakening.
00:15:37.660We have so many different things going on in America with like spiritism, stating that there needs to be a restoration of the true gospel.
00:15:46.460People weren't, you know, intellectuals were questioning God's word at this time.
00:16:00.140We have movements like the Jehovah's Witnesses.0.91
00:16:02.580All of these came about just because of the questioning of God's word around that time period, which can create atheists even after that.0.91
00:16:09.700They're like, God's word, if it can't be trusted, you know what I mean?
00:16:12.540Whatever presupposition they're trying to stand on by stating that there needs to be proof in general, we know as presuppositionalists, they're contradicting themselves.
00:16:20.840But in terms of a society, we go to full-fledged materialism, right?
00:16:26.480And not only that, since there's a questioning of God's word, besides the materialism, what's also developing is another form of spirituality that's going on where people are doing seances, right?
00:16:39.920And they're trying to find an older religion than Christianity.
00:16:44.000So what we see today on many TikTok videos is older means more true, right?0.97
00:16:47.780Buddhism's older than Christianity, therefore Buddhism must be true.0.94
00:16:50.640Hinduism's older than Buddhism, so that must be true.0.97
00:16:53.540And even within, like, the larger Christian banner, there's a push right now to, like, Eastern Orthodoxy.0.96
00:17:01.000Some to Roman Catholicism, a bit big on Eastern Orthodoxy because Eastern Orthodoxy, I mean, they're just right place, right time in the West, you know, right now.
00:17:11.300Because you've got the optic, the allure of masculinity.
00:17:22.880It's like, here's a priest, he's a dude, he has a big beard, you know, and like, and then there's Stephen Furtick, he's got a pink sweater, and he's super duper gay, you know, and so like, so it looks masculine, then also you have the robes, the tassels, the candles, the incense that, you know, the icons, you know, all these things to venerate and to, and so it feels not only old, which gives it a sense of credibility, you know, tried and true, but it also feels mystical.
00:17:51.540So like Eastern Orthodoxy and part of it being, you know, it differs both from Protestant and Roman Catholicism in the sense that it's like they, you know, the rationale is not nearly as important for them.
00:18:05.420Like rational, consistent, you know, logic, those things are not as important of virtues as they are for the West.
00:18:16.200For them, it's more about being one with God
00:20:59.400Right. So in terms I'd say of like, I think like Roman worship or Greek worship and Hino theism, that's recorded in terms of their worship.
00:21:07.540But when I'm talking about specifically like rites and rituals, like magic circles, things that the witches are practicing is not necessarily the same practices.
00:21:15.880But in terms of the form of the basic underlying premise that there are certain things that need to be done in order to connect yourself with the divine, that's been going on forever, right?
00:21:26.480Like we can talk about paganism and child sacrifice to Moloch.
00:21:45.440So it changes form, but in terms of the actual, what Wiccan's practice comes from something
00:21:52.960called the Corpus Hermeticum, which is a book which we'll talk about in another one of our
00:21:56.900episodes on the occult. But it was a Latin translation of the Corpus Hermeticum, which I
00:22:02.800believe it's Clement. I'd have to look at my notes, but it's Clement who actually mentions this even
00:22:07.300in early church history, the 42 books of Hermes, that has rites and rituals that were supposedly
00:22:12.940being practiced by the Egyptians that was then amalgamated by the Greeks. And in these rites
00:22:19.960rituals, it's essentially like ancient Egyptian and Babylonian magic. So they take that translated
00:22:25.580into Latin, and then they get books like the Magus. And there's even mentions of this in the
00:22:31.840discovery of witchcraft, which is another book that was written to show that a lot of witchcraft
00:22:37.120was mainly fake. But also it shows rituals that were being produced during the times of the
00:22:43.200medieval period but the the point being is that it has many different forms throughout the ages
00:22:50.440but to say that what the wiccan believes today is older than what christians have been practicing
00:22:55.960is not necessarily historically true does that make sense and when you say not necessarily you
00:23:00.800mean definitely not true yeah i mean like we don't have any like primary contemporary sources yeah
00:23:06.100yeah they mean they don't the ultimate reliable primary source for for paganism would just be
00:23:11.560genesis right and and you look at just the fallen and just when it says like on the day they should
00:23:16.620you know quite one question hath god really said and that for the day that you eat of it you should
00:23:21.400be as gods knowing good and evil so what you really have you know the original seeks uh the
00:23:27.320original seeking of ascension is right there in genesis and what you see is the first attempt
00:23:31.880for secret esoteric hidden knowledge and power outside of god to be like god uh knowing good
00:23:38.080and evil and it's and we've been reciprocating that ever since you know there's a saying that
00:23:41.980god made man in his own image we've been returning the favor ever since right and so the and even
00:23:47.400then like and there are you know there are sources out there that do sort of show in like ancient
00:23:51.960astrological charts and things that people were into but even though that documentation that we
00:23:57.240have they were syncretizing on their time and we don't we don't know every single aspect of what
00:24:02.340they were syncretizing and in the same way with even modern paganism you know you look at witch
00:24:07.500talk for example you're you're looking at which talk we are which talk and people's that uh so
00:24:13.600which talk i mentioned before that's the those who are witches who articulate their spells and
00:24:18.960incantations and terror readings on tiktok under the hashtag which tack which there's around it's
00:24:24.940like billions it's billions 40 billion or something yeah it's even larger than that i think the last
00:24:29.360time i checked it's around 70 billion i just i just i i make a habit not having chinese spyware
00:24:33.840on my phone yeah so um but that that's what you end up seeing so um so yeah so like when it comes
00:24:40.700to witch talk singretism would take place where you're incorporating even old ancient traditions
00:24:46.920you'd call that but now in the same way how transhumanism is trying to take the ascent to
00:24:53.860godhead and in a seek ascension through technology and seeing us as a as a collective mind hive
00:24:58.960now you are looking uh through the lens of tech talk and people who are witches are now incorporating
00:25:05.220technology so in the same way how we can use this for good uh you're we're gonna this podcast is
00:25:10.680going to be seen by thousands of people there's gonna be people engaging sharing it there are
00:25:14.980people that we'll never meet on this side of attorney all over the world who are going to hear
00:25:19.160this conversation that's being done for good they're incorporating and synchronizing in the
00:25:23.880same technology to say, hey, here's my wick, here's what I'm doing. Here's my incantation.
00:25:29.520Here's the incense and everything that would have been done, you know, in some time during the dark
00:25:34.520ages, you know, you think, you think about some sort of medieval movie where there's that one
00:25:39.360obscure person, you know, trying to do incantations or to give a hex on one or the other, like now
00:25:45.020that's being syncretized, but now with technology. So that's, that would be an example of neo-paganism
00:25:51.020That you would see the same thing with Burning Man now incorporating policies like climate change. So one of the areas that's connected to the Green New Deal and the idea of doing these now carbon taxes.
00:26:06.140So we're going to take a certain percentage out of what you're paying to put gas in your car because that's going to, quote-unquote, harm the environment or to keep everything syncretized.
00:26:20.080That worldview comes out of Gaia and planetary worship and attributing to the worship of the gods.
00:26:26.420And in fact, Carl, who I mentioned in the other episode, he's from Canada, they already have that incorporated.
00:41:01.000I think, you know, build a pagan God, you know, build a pagan spirit.0.99
00:41:05.100That, I think, will probably be on the rise as, you know, as Christendom, as we're continuing in the West to apostatize against Christ.0.95
00:41:13.920And so there's this waning of Christendom.
00:41:16.880A lot of those major cults, they were like parasites that attached themselves to Christendom.0.98
00:41:26.640So if Christianity is not faring very well, then Jehovah's Witness and Mormonism are, they're kind of screwed, you know, but, but give me, you know, 20% little personal religion, give me 20% Thor and 30% Jupiter with a sprinkle of the divine feminine and then some Taylor Swift.0.99
00:41:47.500And now we're talking that, that money, you know, so I could see that being one of the big things that we deal with.0.96
00:41:53.120So this whole idea of, you know, one-ism versus two-ism, right?
00:41:56.760Is there actually a distinction that, you know, two, not one, but two, a distinction