# Paganism: the old religions, their fall, and their return

The long arc of the old religions: how 'pagan' became a Christian label, how Theodosius and the mobs closed the temples, how paganism lingered in the countryside and survived as a state religion in Lithuania until 1387, and how it returned through the Romantic revival and the modern Neopagan movement of Wicca, Druidry, and Asatru.

*This story parallel: How Christianity grew and split*
*This story part of: The old gods and their long shadow*
*This story parallel: The Norse and Germanic gods*
*This story parallel: Easter, Lent, and the roots of the spring festival*
*This story part of: State, law, and coercion*
*The modern occultists and their circles parallel this story*

## c. 380 — 'Pagan' becomes the name for the old religions

As Christianity spreads, Christians borrow the Latin word paganus, a country-dweller or civilian, as a dismissive label for followers of the old gods. 'Pagan' was never a religion anyone chose to belong to; it was an outsider's name for everyone else.

## 391 — The Serapeum of Alexandria is destroyed

A Christian crowd destroys the Serapeum, the great temple of the god Serapis and one of the wonders of the ancient world. It became a symbol of the violent end of organized paganism in the Roman world.

## 392 — Theodosius outlaws pagan worship

The emperor Theodosius bans public and private pagan sacrifice and makes Christianity the sole religion of the Roman state. The old cults were driven underground after a thousand years of open worship.

## 529 — Justinian closes the Academy of Athens

The emperor Justinian shuts the Neoplatonic Academy of Athens, the last school of pagan philosophy descended from Plato. It is often taken as the symbolic end of ancient paganism.

## c. 600 — Paganism lingers in the countryside

For centuries after the cities converted, rural Europe kept the old festivals, charms, and holy wells. Both 'pagan' and 'heathen' (dweller on the heath) meant country folk, because the old ways survived longest in the fields.

## 1387 — Lithuania, the last pagan state in Europe, converts

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania adopts Christianity, the last pagan state in Europe to do so. Organized European paganism as a public religion survived a full thousand years after Rome fell to the Church.

## c. 1800 — The Romantic rediscovery of the pagan

Romantic poets, folklorists, and scholars revive fascination with the old gods, nature-worship, and myth, gathering the folk survivals of paganism. It laid the groundwork for a modern pagan revival a century later.

## 1954 — Gardner founds modern Wicca

Gerald Gardner publicly launches Wicca, a modern religion of witchcraft drawing on folklore, ceremonial magic, and nature-worship. It became the seed of the worldwide Neopagan movement.

## c. 1970 — The Neopagan revival spreads worldwide

Wicca, modern Druidry, Norse Asatru, and reconstructed Greek and Roman worship grow into a global family of Neopagan religions. Most are freshly built rather than unbroken survivals, a deliberate return to the old gods.

## c. 2015 — The mainstream return of witchcraft and the old ways

Astrology, tarot, and witchcraft surge back into popular culture and the wellness industry, a mass, commercial 'return of the pagan'. The oldest religious impulses find a new life in the most modern of media.