Attempts to recreate the nature-loving worship of old are gaining popularity even if they are based on guesses

IN A quiet location on the north-western edge of the United States, a group of devotees gather round a bonfire to celebrate the summer solstice. They begin by lighting a candle dedicated to Brigid, a holy figure from early Ireland whose shadowy tradition is linked with poetry, healing and the skills of the blacksmith. Attire at this late-night session is casual. Most people sport jeans and T-shirts.

One member of the 25-strong group carries the flame around the circle while sprinkling water from a well. Then, sitting among pictures of pre-Christian deities, the attendees act out a ritual, using a script which runs to six pages. People who know the modern mythology of C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien might recognise the style, although it hardly rates as high culture.

HERALD: By the power of star and stone,

By the power of the land within and without,

By all that is Fair and Free,

We welcome you to this rite of Alban Hefin,

In the seed group of the Circle of Coll

EAST: We have come from East

WEST: and West

NORTH: and North

SOUTH: and South to be here together today

The participants are practising neo-Druidry, a form of devotion that seeks to recreate the sacred world of the Celts that existed before the arrival of the Romans and, later, the Christian missionaries in the British Isles. Although Ireland and Wales are thousands of miles away, the devotees draw heavily on the lore and language of Celtic lands, ancient and not-so-ancient. The term used for the summer solstice, Alban Hefin, was dreamed up by a Welsh antiquarian in the 18th century.

How much the earnestly enacted rites and simple verses used by this group resemble anything from the distant past is unclear. But various forms of paganism seem to offer an attractive modern path to the transcendent. According to Ronald Hutton, a professor of history at Bristol University and an authority on modern pagan religions, over 100,000 Britons probably practise neo-paganism, and perhaps five times as many Americans.

As Professor Hutton uses the term, neo-paganism refers to forms of worship which regard nature as sacred, which acknowledge feminine deities and celebrants, which eschew the idea of divine commandments, and which aspire to recreate the pre-Christian religions of Europe and the Middle East. Two of the sub-groups within this general heading are the neo-Druids and the Wiccan movement, which follows a revival in witchcraft that was pioneered by Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), a British writer and archaeologist.

It is hard to tell whether neo-paganism is growing in size, given the movement’s loose structure and the fact that some Wiccans keep their affiliation secret. But in recent decades pagan religions have steadily gained recognition from all branches of authority, especially in the English-speaking world.

In the United States, neo-pagans can look back on a series of hard-won successes. In 1985 a district court in Virginia declared that Wicca was clearly a religion for the purposes of the American constitution’s First Amendment, which guarantees the free exercise of faith. In 1997 Fort Hood in Texas became the first American army base to allow Wicca practices, and several more have followed suit. And in 2007, as the result of a court settlement, the American government allowed the pentacle, a Wiccan symbol, to adorn military graves (see picture).

In rather different ways, neo-paganism is being recognised in Britain. The country’s prison service recently advertised for chaplains who would be expected to “provide for the religious care of prisoners and staff in the pagan faith tradition.” An employment tribunal has laid down that bosses must respect the spiritual needs of any Wiccan workers, which might include time off at Hallowe’en. The University of Edinburgh is one of several campuses with a chaplain who caters to the needs of pagan students.

Professor Hutton argues that the Druid and Wiccan practices of today are valid forms of pagan religion even though they are based on self-conscious revivals (in the 18th and 20th century respectively) that were not rooted in certain knowledge of earlier practices and beliefs. As the professor and other experts acknowledge, it is impossible to be sure what sort of people the Celtic Druids really were. Modern understanding is largely based on the biased views of Roman historians or Irish and Welsh annalists writing centuries after the subject matter had vanished.

One feature of ancient Druid practice that is no longer acceptable is animal sacrifice. That does not mean that modern Druids practise their religion falsely, insists Professor Hutton; it is simply that human needs have moved on.