Word: neopaganism
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...others point to women who have formed separatist "Women-Church" worship, a New Age blend of feminist, ecological, neopagan and Christian elements. One book offers liturgies to celebrate the coming-out of lesbians, teenagers' first menstrual period and cycles of the moon. In an Ash Wednesday rite, women repent not of their own sins but of the sins the church commits | against women. Last month, 30 members of Chicago Catholic Women gathered to chant, "I am a woman giving birth to myself; bless what I bring forth," and then shared eucharistic bread and wine -- without once uttering the name...
...affluent classes of developed countries have rejected high-demand sects and cults in favor of no-demand faiths. Groups loosely lumped together as the World Soul Movement originated with the synthetic pantheist, neopagan, nature- love and New Age groups that were the rage early in the 21st century. The triumph of feminist religion caused many Christians and Jews to shun references to God in personal terms (no more Lord or Heavenly Father). This in turn strengthened the groups that worship a mysterious nature-force or seek to deify the self. Today's variegated religious revival is partly the result...
That witch next door may be just a friendly neopagan...
Originally, modern interest in ancient pagan practices was spurred by research early in this century by British Anthropologist Margaret Murray, who sought to dispel folklore that witches were invariably malevolent. But today's neopagan movement has its roots in the counterculture. Though many neopaganists live otherwise ordinary lives as, say, bank tellers or bartenders, others gather in communes. Psychologists say that neopaganism functions as a form of "folk therapy," a sort of ritualized search for self-worth in an increasingly complex society...
...true that "tradition tends to embalm the moment in time when the culture feels it is at its peak." Call our generation neopagan, secular or whatever, it is at odds with phoniness and insincerity. Our irreverent generation is not bent on overturning the past, but on crying out against the arbitrary embalming and sanctification of one historical moment. Our American lack of "tradition" is not our national stigma; our innate respect for and optimistic sense of an evolving human experience has been the unsung American contribution to modern civilization...