MIAMI – As 2025 comes to a close, we find ourselves stepping off a year that was equal parts spectacle and whiplash. It was, at times, exhilarating—but more often unsettling—and it demanded a level of vigilance that rarely relented. This was a year that asked Pagan communities not only to pay attention, but to respond.
As we reflect, we’re revisiting some of The Wild Hunt’s most meaningful stories of the year—stories shaped by your readership, your responses, and the conversations they sparked within our community and beyond. If there is a single thread running through 2025, it is this: we managed, we responded, and, often, we grew stronger together.
At the very start of the year, our opening editorial, “The Bros and Beasts of 2025,” reflected on gathering cultural headwinds—ideological resistance, conservative retrenchment, and mounting challenges to pluralism—and urged resilience through awareness, storytelling, and community connection. Looking back now, the stories that seemed to matter to readers followed that very trajectory: reporting on religious freedom conflicts, political power plays, and institutional forces shaping lived Pagan experience.
The Wild Hunt exceeded its previous worldwide readership, which reached over 400,000 hits to the website a month. The stories that mattered most were those rooted in lived consequence. Our readers have been amazing, and you engaged most deeply with journalism that addressed power, religious freedom, and the everyday realities facing Pagan and minority religious communities, as events unfolded in real time.
The year opened under the shadow of the inauguration of Donald J. Trump and the rapid signaling of changes under the new administration. Early executive actions and rhetoric raised immediate concern among minority faith communities. When Trump announced the creation of a federal task force to combat what he termed “anti-Christian bias,” appointing Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead it, many Pagans heard a familiar implication: that the expansion of protections for one religious identity could come at the expense of others.
That concern proved well-founded. What followed were a series of executive orders and surprise initiatives that further marginalized minority faiths. Coverage examining Christian nationalist rhetoric, political organizing, and exclusionary religious narratives consistently drew high readership and extensive discussion. Stories that framed Paganism and other minority religions as cultural or spiritual threats proved especially galvanizing, not because readers were surprised it was happening, but rather because the consequences were becoming increasingly tangible.
Throughout the year, coverage of religious freedom conflicts emerged as a constant conversation. Stories involving zoning disputes, permit denials, and local government actions affecting Pagan spaces drew our attention. These were not passive responses. It became clear that local decisions, often made quietly, had trickled in and were going to shape religious visibility and survival for years to come.
That reality became painfully clear with the attack on Fae’s Closet in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which shocked the community. But it was far from isolated. A Christian ministry disrupted Salem’s Psychic Fair and Witches’ Market, harassing vendors, anointing booths, and desecrating an Ancestor altar amid a surge of anti-Halloween activism portraying Samhain as “demonic.” In Orlando, evangelical groups coordinated protests targeting metaphysical stores. In South Carolina, a Christian church allegedly harassed a Wiccan vendor, sparking public backlash—later reframed by the church as evidence of Christian persecution. It happened again in Georgia.
Closely tied to these events was sustained engagement with reporting on Christian nationalism and political power. Articles examining exclusionary rhetoric, symbolic state actions, and political figures positioning Paganism as a threat prompted widespread discussion and reflection. But a shifting political and religious landscape was well underway.
Coverage of changes within the military and other public institutions raised urgent questions about neutrality, recognition, and the limits of religious inclusion. The Army’s decision to halt its Spiritual Fitness Guide amid religious controversy resonated deeply, touching on fundamental concerns about whether public systems charged with serving all citizens can truly uphold pluralism in practice.
Public protest and direct action formed another critical thread. Pagans joined millions nationwide in the “No Kings” protests, blending political resistance with spiritual purpose. Through ritual, presence, and activism, participants affirmed a core democratic truth: power belongs to the people, not to kings.
Cultural flashpoints further fueled concern. In August, The Pagan Threat became a New York Times bestseller, warning of a supposed “pagan uprising.” The greater issue was not the book itself, but the relative silence surrounding its framing, raising troubling questions about interfaith integrity and who is afforded legitimacy in America’s religious landscape. In September, moral panic surged again after Jezebel’s satirical “curse” story went viral following Charlie Kirk’s death, thrusting the Strix Sisters into global scrutiny and renewed fears of a modern Witchcraft scare.
Amid these pressures, stories highlighting historic community milestones offered moments of affirmation and pride. Pagans organized in response: Pagan Solidarity formed to coordinate magickal opposition to Christian nationalism; Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC), Cherry Hill Seminary, and the Covenant of the Goddess worked through interfaith channels to protect Pagan rights and visibility. ATC’s Southern Delta Church of Wicca launched a prison outreach initiative, extending spiritual care to incarcerated individuals. In Greece, the first Hellenic Polytheist temple in 1,700 years opened and met with both celebration and resistance, followed by a legal Hellenic polytheist marriage ceremony. In Seattle, ATC honored Selena Fox with a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing decades of leadership and advocacy.
Even beyond contemporary politics, stories from the sciences, history, archaeology, as well as those honoring living traditions, captivated many of us. For example, a Viking woman’s grave in Trøndelag, marked by scallop shells and bird-wing bones, captured imaginations and reminded us that Pagan histories are still being uncovered, still reshaping how we understand belief, ritual, and identity.
We pause to reflect on the ancestors and the members of our community who joined the Mighty Dead this year. Through our weekly Pagan Community Notes, we strive to honor their lives by sharing their stories and the work they left behind.
Taken together, 2025 was a year marked by pressure and conflict, but also by resilience, continuity, and collective response. Through it all, the Pagan community did not retreat. We paid attention. We organized. And, most importantly, we continued to tell our own story.
On to 2026. Happy New Year!
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As always, our deepest gratitude to everyone who has brought us this far.
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