“To bless means to help something flower. To speak or act with intention so that what we touch blossoms.”
— Starhawk, The Earth Path
We are living in an age of rupture. Climate chaos accelerates. Institutions falter. Grief hums beneath the surface of daily life. In the midst of this instability, people are reaching—not for quick fixes, but for something enduring. Something rooted. For a growing number, Paganism, polytheism, and Heathenry offer exactly that.
Young wild male red deer in the Aletsch Forest Nature Reserve [© Giles Laurent, gileslaurent.com, License CC BY-SA]
These traditions are not about retreat. They’re about return. They call us back into relationship—with land, with lineage, with the sacred. And in doing so, they offer more than comfort; they offer clarity, connection, and continuity in a time that feels anything but steady.
At the heart of these paths is the Earth — not as metaphor, but as kin. The wheel of the year, the turning of the moon, the cycles of growth and decay—these aren’t just seasonal shifts. They are sacred rhythms, pulling us out of abstraction and back into the embodied present. They remind us that to be spiritual is to be grounded.
Where some traditions emphasize escape or transcendence, polytheistic and animist paths speak of immanence. The sacred isn’t far off — it’s here. It lives in frostbitten branches, in the smoke curling from an offering, in the whispered names of gods and beloved dead. It lives in what we touch, what we tend.
For those on the polytheist or heathen path, the presence of many gods and spirits isn’t overwhelming—it’s intimate. Multiplicity doesn’t divide; it deepens. These are traditions shaped by nuance, rooted in locality, and alive with relationality. To honor many beings is to honor many relationships, each one unique and reciprocal.
Speaking with the ancestors is not performance—it’s remembrance. Honoring the land spirits is not poetry—it’s accountability. Tending an altar or pouring a libation isn’t about superstition—it’s about presence. These practices pull us out of the numbness and extraction that dominate our culture and back into mindful, mutual exchange.
“Spirituality is not a luxury, it is a necessity. The inner world is real, and our attention to it can shape the outer world.”
— Scott Cunningham, Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner
In a society that glorifies disconnection — where hustle drowns out stillness — ritual becomes revolutionary. Lighting a candle. Marking the solstice. Speaking the names of those who came before. These acts may seem small, but they are how we resist erosion. They say: I will not forget. I will not vanish. I will stay rooted.
And through these practices, we begin to remember one of the deepest truths these traditions offer: we are not alone. Community is not an ornament — it is essential. Pagan, polytheist, and Heathen communities are not just gatherings of like-minded individuals. They are networks of care.
We feed each other at festival tables. We hold vigil in hospital rooms. We grieve in circle, sing through sorrow, and celebrate life’s thresholds with firelight and story. These aren’t abstractions. They are embodied rituals of belonging. They are how we endure together.
The world is uncertain. It always has been. But our ancestors knew that uncertainty didn’t mean abandonment. They still sang to their gods. They still placed offerings at tree roots. They still told stories under the stars. We can, too.
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
Paganism, polytheism, and Heathenry do not offer escape from the world’s crises. But they offer us a way through—with presence, with purpose, with each other. These are not relics of the past. They are living, evolving ways of being that can meet this moment—and help us meet it, too.
They don’t promise ease. But they offer meaning. Practice. Kinship. And a path to walk.
And right now, we need that path more than ever.
The Wild Hunt is not responsible for links to external content.
To join a conversation on this post:
Visit our The Wild Hunt subreddit! Point your favorite browser to https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Wild_Hunt_News/, then click “JOIN”. Make sure to click the bell, too, to be notified of new articles posted to our subreddit.