The System and Psychology of Conversion:
A Short Treatise on Why Converts to Paganism Sometimes Return
To Their Former Faith, or Leave the Religious Company
Of Other Pagans Altogether


Copyright © 2007 By Robin Artisson
All Rights Reserved.




Introduction:
The Sordid Story of Heather, and the Sad Tale of John

Heather, a young college student, and longtime fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, finally moves away and gets free of her mother and father's Southern Baptist household. She finds her way to Goddess Worship and Wicca; she decorates her room with Venus of Willendorf statues and Goddess posters.

She packs her bookshelves with Merlin Stone, Marija Gimbutas, Riane Eisler, and Starhawk, takes lots of classes on women's issues and feminism, and hooks up with a group of young ladies who spend time "drawing down the moon" every 28 days and calling each other "sister". She calls her menstrual blood "moon blood". She even goes to Halloween parties wearing hooded robes and "Avalon's blue crescent moon" painted on her forehead. You know Heather; even if you never met this girl personally, chances are, you've met someone just like her.

College years finally come to an end; Heathen moves away, gets married, and one day, a few years later, you look her up. Remembering the "good old days", you are rather shocked to find, through an email that sounds nothing like the Heather you knew, that she's "saved" now, and she urges you to give your life to Jesus, accepting him as your personal lord and savior.


John is another man you've met- in fact, maybe you've read his book. He was a born college student; always the bookworm, he arrived at university well-versed in the Classics. He loved his Greek mythology books as a kid, and read the Iliad and the Odyssey very early on. He studied liberal arts, debated Plato and Aristotle, and ended up being that annoying guy who knew who the Pre-Socratics were when the professor asked everyone to name a few in Philosophy 101.

Before you write John off, John was Pagan. He came from a very liberal and secular Christian background; his parents couldn't care less who he prayed to, so long as he made his own decisions. John was staging full historically accurate libations and hymns to Zeus, Apollon, Artemis, and Aphrodite before he was even out of high school. John took Latin and Greek, became fluent, even got his PhD in Classical Studies, and joined forces with other lonely souls who wanted to form a real Hellenic Pagan organization.

So they did- and John wrote the book. He wrote an entire book of fully reconstructed and authentic-as-possible rituals for all seasons of the year, in honor of the Gods of old Greece. The book was a breakthrough, one of the first of its kind. His organization got membership. John was active on the internet, writing essays, talking on discussion groups. It seemed like Hellenism might be making a real comeback, but then, people began to notice shifts in John's behavior. Maybe it was his Christian girlfriend that was doing it, but no one really worried, because everyone knew that she was okay with John being Pagan, and besides, their relationship was based on something more than just agreement over religion.

It wasn't a year later that John suddenly declared that he was Christian, and renounced his Hellenic Pagan beliefs. His book was still on the shelf, but John was now deep in prayer and chanting vespers with his wife in church. Ask him about the Gods now- he'll be happy to tell you how false they really are. Or maybe he'll tell you nothing at all, a sense of guilt just barely beneath the surface.

You've been there. You know Heather and John. Their hypocrisy stings you, a Pagan, who might have known them, prayed with them, worshipped with them, or even read John's book. Is there an answer to the puzzle presented by these sorts of people?



The Double Converts

This is a short work that I've been preparing in my head for a long time, regarding a topic that is very important to me: people who self-identify as "Pagans" for a period of time, and who convert back to their former faith. I'm pretty well known for my scorn for these sorts of people; but this topic deserves something more than my scorn- it deserves a (more or less) systematic treatment of the reasons why conversions happen, then happen again.

In the west, the "former faith" of most Pagans who convert away from Paganism is normally some brand of Christianity, though the modern Pagan movement has its share of Jews who decided to break with their upbringing and "whore after strange Gods", as well as former atheists and agnostics who found a non-mainstream conception of God, Goddess, or Gods to be to their liking long enough to abandon their former lives of skepticism.

Paganism of any variety in the modern Western world is a religion of converts; few if any people can claim to come from Pagan households, born of Pagan parents, though this is changing now as more Pagans have children. The real question is this: will those parents remain Pagan long enough to raise their children to believe in the Gods?

I don't believe that a study has been done on precisely the numbers of converts there are to the various forms of Paganism per year in any country, nor have I heard of a study that deals with the numbers of Pagans who become disillusioned or dissatisfied with whatever form of Paganism they had practiced, and "convert back" or "convert away" from Paganism.

I can speak from my own experience and suggest that the numbers of "converters away" are pretty high. We've all heard claims like "Wicca is the fastest growing religion" in this or that country, and the like, but no one ever discusses the people who leave Wicca, or any alternative spiritual path.

From what I have observed, from a pretty broad spectrum of Pagans I've known, most Pagans don't have a long "career" in Paganism. I have personally not met many Pagans who were able to remain Pagan over a course of 5-10 years. Many I personally observed at the university level lose their interest in it over a period of 2-3 years.


Breaking It Down

I will break this down into specifics- the more aligned to the "new age" a Paganism tends to be (Eclectic forms of Wicca being the most aligned to it) the more likely people are to lose interest in it and "convert away". Those who are attracted to the less glamorous forms of Paganism, such as the various scholarly "reconstructionist" faiths (Religio Romana, Celtic Reconstructionism, Hellenism, Asatru, and the like) tend to have a longer "career", and of all the Pagans I've known, tend to be the people most likely to make a life-commitment to Paganism. Druids today tend to fall more into a Wiccanish mold, or a neo-Pagan mold, and therefore have less staying power than the few practitioners of Druid paths that are more in alignment with Celtic Reconstructionism.

Overwhelmingly, (again in my observations) those Pagans who were in the constant company of other Pagans tended to remain with it longer, or make life-commitments, while the "solitary" Pagans were extremely likely to drop Paganism altogether after a while. This should come as no surprise to anyone; the socially satisfying nature of religion- any religion- is one of its most crucial aspects. I will discuss this more in a few of my items below.

I'm going to organize my thoughts on this matter into a series of items and propositions, all of them attempting to help me and my readers to understand why people convert to Paganism (of any variety), and then away from it.

I'd also like to establish a preliminary criteria for predicting who is likely to be a "double convert", that is, a person who converts to and then away from Paganism. I should say, in the spirit of realism, that human beings are complex things, and it is, in final analysis, impossible to perfectly predict what people will do, think, or say at any point in their life-course. The variables and conditions of life are simply too many; the web of causality is too dense and full of hidden layers.

That being said, we humans have always tried to chart a map through life based on what we can see, and not all attempts to understand life or predict events are hopeless.



A Few Things That Have To Be Stated

I have to state a few things, before we get started.

This is not meant to be a "scientific" study or paper; this is a collection of inferential ideas, theories, and data which I have collected through direct experience of other people in my life. This is my own thinking being put to paper, along with my conclusions. That's all. Don't whine about how this isn't "based on science" or how I'm trying to force my ideas onto you.

Also, in case you don't know who I am, allow me to state, up front, my biases. I'm stating these now so that there is no chance that any member of my readership will feel misled regarding who I am, and so that no critic of mine can attack my work here based on their assumptions about who I am or who I should be.

I am a Pagan, and have been so for 14 years. I am not "politically correct"; I do not think that "all religions are equal"; I do not think that all religions are valid or good for this world and the people in it.

I do not think that all religions, or the cultures attached to them, are worth defending or preserving merely because they are "other people's beliefs", or things that people have believed for a long time. I think that some beliefs are inherently bad for this world and humankind, and should be abandoned or changed. I do not believe in the use of violence to affect these changes, but I do believe in the use of social and political effort to do so.

I do not think that "all Gods are one God" or anything remotely of the sort. I do not think that morality and right behavior is "all relative", nor completely governed by the particularities of time and place. I do not believe that the "Truth" is all relative, either. What was true about the Gods and the nature of man 10,000 years ago is just as true right now. I do not think that there's ever a situation where the sacredness of life can be rightfully sidelined or legislated away in the name of someone's convenience, financial or otherwise.

I do not believe in being tolerant of religious people that cannot and will not be tolerant back, nor am I tolerant of religious scriptures that can and will be taken "the wrong way" by the vast majority of the people who read them, conditioning them to become idiots.

I am an animist; I believe that nature is alive and sacred, packed full of spiritual beings and powers that are all sacred, alongside humankind and the other animals on this planet, who are also all sacred.

I do not believe that any God or Gods made this world for the "use" of human beings. I do not believe that human beings are “superior” parts of this world, but equal parts of this world with every other. I believe that the survival of mankind will be based on man's ability to re-integrate himself with a needed balance back into the world-system. I think that the world-system is sacred, and the act of re-achieving our needed perspective and balance is a sacred duty.

Now that THAT'S out of the way, let's really begin.



Part One: Becoming Pagan


"Pagan" in my usage here refers to any modern religion or religious system that is based (however loosely) on models of spirituality that were alive and active during pre-Christian times in Africa, the Americas, the Near East, or Europe. For the sake of simplicity, I will not cover polytheistic or animistic religious systems from India or the Far East, though I consider them to be "Pagan" as well.

How did we reach the point where "Paganism" refers to a lot of minority religions, only followed by people usually pretty far outside of the mainstream?


Historical Conversions to Christianity

It is a remarkable feat that Christianity managed to practically subvert the entire European Pagan world in less than a thousand years. History has made it perfectly and incontrovertibly clear how they did it: society was Christianized from the "top down"- rulers and kings were converted first, who then passed laws or used force to make their subjects accept the new faith. Numerous examples of this can be found in historical records. One can never forget the element of force involved in historical conversions.

However, in every country, some people willingly converted, especially early on when Christianity was limited largely to the worlds of Pagan Greece and Rome. Why? To begin with, Christianity appealed to the large amounts of dispossessed and disenfranchised members of those societies, offering them what seemed to be a dignity and respected status that they could not achieve elsewhere. The truth of the religious beliefs of the Christian sect were less important to these poor souls than simply finding acceptance and respect. This basic need on the parts of converts led them to often risk or lose their lives at times. This human tragedy-drama in turn led to a good amount of sympathy for the struggling Christian movement.

There are other factors that made Christianity attractive to the peoples who converted to it early on:

1. It offered a simpler religious and moral code and worldview that was better suited to less intelligent people. The pantheons of Greece and Rome, along with countless local festivals and religious events had become bewildering and hard for the common person to "keep up with". It also offered people a chance to attain new status that they would forever be denied in traditional societies, so the urge for power, respect, or authority was always at work.

2. It offered a far more optimistic view of the afterlife. Humans have always wondered at the realities of life after death, and the dominant Pagan religions of Greece and Rome tended to focus more on this life, and very little on death. The notions of Hades and the Afterlife that were common in Southern Europe and the Near East were dreary or unclear. Many people, after a point, were uncomfortable with not having a clearer view of their Fate after death. Christianity answered that need, though bear in mind again that we aren't dealing with who was telling the truth about life after death; we are dealing with weak-minded individuals who preferred to take shelter in any happy tale or promise regarding their happiness after death, rather than face the hard fact that life after death may not be so clear-cut. This should alert anyone to the fact that Paganism in the past was more about society and tradition, and Christianity in the past was about breaking with social norms and assuring individuals of their own eternal happiness.

3. After a point, it was politically advantageous to rulers to convert to Christianity, and for powerful families to do the same.

4. Christianity represented a break with the tribal and social realities of the Pagan world, and the beginning of a "new world order", a "new Europe", which would lose its old borders and divisions, and become a feudal world with a single monolithic religious entity ruling it from the top down through Emperors and Kings who governed with approval from the Pope. The world was changing; Tribal Europe was drawing to a close. This "shift" from Tribal Europe to Medieval Europe should not be considered an unavoidable shift; it was motivated largely by politics; it is merely a vicissitude of human plotting and tampering. Europe was not massively improved by the new faith, nor did warfare, hunger, injustice, or disease get dramatically lowered by the presence of Christian authorities or churches.


Introduced and revealed religious systems (like Christianity) become melded with social custom and thinking within a few generations, following the destruction of Pagan temples, institutions, and cultural artifacts, and following the deaths of those people who refused to convert (from murder or natural deaths). The social systems of Europe after this point had little or no conscious memory of earlier Pagan religious realities. Society has little lasting memory, as it is, and history, forever manipulated by victors, will not reflect the entire truth regarding the past. Pagan religions swiftly came to be belittled, mocked as superstition and idolatry, and considered "amoral" by later generations.

People generations down the line who grew up only surrounded by Christianity naturally came to attach their normal and natural human needs and desires to it, and gain what satisfaction they could from it. Most would not question it or break with it, for fear of losing their only religious lifeline to comfort. In some cases, such as with pre-modern Europe, questioning or breaking with Christianity carried with it the risk of social or actual death.

Against all odds, a point came in the modern day where religious institutions were denied their power from a legalistic and socio-economic standpoint, and laws were changed relaxing penalties on people who wished to believe differently, if they wanted to believe at all. With this "Post-Christian" era comes the phenomenon of the rebirth of Pagan religions, from what evidence is remaining. Another source for this rebirth is natural truth: the Pagan religions of old, being organic religions, were not based on mere opinion or mistake of perception; they were based on truths inscribed in the human soul and being.

Now some people- a few people- "convert" to Paganism in the modern day.


Propositions:

1. People are attracted to Pagan religions in the modern day because of the failure of modern mainstream religions to satisfy their religious longings, questions, or desires. Mainstream and revealed religions often contain patterns of belief and behavior that are not congruent with the truths encoded spiritually in human beings, truths about human nature and the nature of the world that were recognized and openly expressed by older organic religions in the context of organic beliefs and other practices.

2. The people who are more likely to convert to Paganism and remain committed are initially drawn to Paganism because it offers them a more intuitive, holistic or naturalistic way of relating to the world and/or the unseen reality, or a path to feeling at "home" in this world, and in a human body. Other "positive" reasons to be initially drawn to Paganism include a respect for the Pagan past: its heroes and worthies, its powerful aesthetics, its many cultural and technological accomplishments, and the strength of many of its philosophies (such as Stoicism in Greece or Rome).

3. A sense of the "over-simplification" of monotheistic philosophy, making polytheism seem more plausible, is another positive reason to consider Paganism as a viable religious life-path. Converts to Paganism are often repulsed by the disastrous, political, and bloody history of revealed monotheistic religions, and rightly so. The seeds of much violence in the world today is sown in the monotheistic past, and in the monotheistic insistence on the existence of a "one world religion" that people from every culture and country can join in, which reflects a truth that is for all people. Such an idea is unrealistic and will end (as history has shown) in nothing but violence and trouble.

4. The people who are more likely to become "double converts" are those who are initially drawn to Paganism because they follow trends and fads, see it popularized in fiction, or view it as a route for social rebellion. Other "negative" reasons to be initially drawn to Paganism include a need for nonconformity other than rebellion, or a search for some sense of "identity" that is satisfied by the symbols and rhetoric of certain Pagan sects. This includes people who are marginalized by the mainstream already, such as homosexuals or the like, who assume that "Pagan" equates with "radically liberal" and expect to find total acceptance for their lifestyles. It also includes people with radical political leanings (like radical feminists) who naturally assume that the worship of Goddesses automatically equates with radical feminism.

5. The influence of friends or peers can never be trusted as a factor that will decide who commits fully to Paganism. A person who converts to Paganism solely on the basis of friendly or peer influence is not likely to remain Pagan. The true change that makes a person into a Pagan with reliable "staying power" comes from a strong subjective and personal religious experience, or from a stable and natural developmental orientation towards organic religious systems. That orientation is never "chosen"; it is something which will have been present from very early on in the individual.

6. Developmental orientations towards Paganism often manifest themselves as love for ancient aesthetics, love for mythology, a long-standing sense of discomfort with mainstream religions, and love for literature, movies, or academic subjects relating to the Pagan world.

7. "Pagans" who over-emphasize the sexual aspects of the Pagan movement, whether it be the standard Pagan teachings that sexuality is natural, normal, okay, or acceptable to express, are to be viewed with suspicion. The "dirty old man" type who seems to hang around (usually) younger, attractive Pagan females, or the domineering older female Pagan who works her way sexually through crowds of younger male (or female) Pagans are usually not "Pagans" at all, but sexual predators or sexually frustrated men and women who view Paganism as an invitation to sexual license or debauchery. Sad though it may be, this is a reason some make surface "conversions" to Paganism. These people are not to be mistaken them for Pagans; they are predators.





Part Two: Becoming a Double Convert




The Seed Does Not Choose the Soil

People become Pagan, and then convert away with some regularity. Those who "convert away", the "double converts", are often those who were drawn to Paganism for the negative reasons listed in the previous propositions.

Why would a radical feminist who has found a good "religious home" among feminist Wiccans decide to convert away later? The fact is that radical political and social beliefs and stances are (for most) based largely on youthful vigor and emotions that run hot and strong for a brief period of time, but do not persist in the life-course. The world is full of stories of rebels and activists who "calm down" in their older age and either change their stances, or begin working towards them in a more revised, moderate, or diffuse fashion.

As the feminist in my example settles down more, sees her other friends trickle away from the movement, or gains a stable relationship (especially with a man) and has children of her own, she almost always comes to reconsider her initial beliefs and ideas and tactics. At this point, if she converted to Paganism, that religiosity will fade in strength as well.

All manner of rebellion, urge to nonconformity, and the like will fade naturally over time, and if converting to a Pagan religion was part of this, it too will fade.

If a person converted to Paganism from a strong religious background (such as a person who was once quite deeply invested in Christianity, but became disillusioned for some reason), the chances of them returning to their original or "root" faith is extremely high. When the disillusionment or anger or dispute fades naturally over time, they will begin to reconsider their decision to convert, and (typically) begin to find ways to apologize for their former faith, and integrate aspects of the former faith into their Paganism- the famous "We all believe the same thing" logic that is so endemic in modern Paganism. Eventually, this trend leads to a collapse of Pagan religiosity and a return to the root faith.

The appearance of a strongly attractive or charismatic member of the former faith (or sometimes another faith) can easily cause a "double conversion" scenario, in much the same way a good Pagan friend may have been one of the causes of the conversion to Paganism to begin with. The important thing to understand is that when a person becomes a "double convert", it does not happen suddenly; they were always secretly seeking a "way" to make the conversion, usually for some time; they were seeking an internal justification, or feeling some sense of longing for their old faith or another faith altogether.

Without a strong subjective "spiritual" experience dealing with Paganism, or without a life-course developmental orientation towards organic religions, a person will not remain Pagan for long. Paganism in the most genuine sense of the word is not a "let's try this" series of religions; membership cannot reliably come in with mere "curiosity", unless that curiosity is a manifestation of an innate developmental orientation that has existed in them for a long time. Any other basis for entering the Pagan complex of religions will be weak, and die out eventually.

A person is "called" to be Pagan or "meant" to be Pagan, called by mystical or subjective experience, or meant to be Pagan because of the internal realities of their developmental psychology and their intuition. No one "chooses" to be Pagan, in the final analysis. The seed takes root where it is thrown by the hands of the sower; the seed does not choose the soil.


Propositions:

1. Radical beliefs and social activism, like rebellion, always fade with age and maturity, and Pagan religiosity that was linked with these things fades proportionally.

2. People who were well-entrenched members of other faiths before converting to Paganism, and who converted for reasons of disillusionment, personal disputes with members of their religious congregations, or some other such disagreement, will almost always return to their root faith after a time.

3. The only reliable "entry" into Paganism is motivated by a subjective spiritual experience of sufficient strength or a conscious decision based on a long-standing developmental orientation. Mere academic curiosity, calculations based on the "match" between Paganism and one's political or social beliefs, or the influence of friends is not enough.

4. Age is a factor for double conversion. The younger a person is who converts to Paganism, the more likely they are to convert away from it. Young people simply do not and cannot understand the deeper personal realities involved in religious conversion, or the greater context of religion in the world, historically or otherwise. They can have ideas, but they have not mingled those ideas with a mature experience of life, to see how the entire system works. People who claim to have "converted at age 14" are not doing themselves any honor; they are essentially stating that they'll probably be converting away later on.


Other Reasons for the Double Conversion: Personal Psychology and Weakness of Character

To be a Pagan in the modern day places a person directly in a path that is not supported by the mainstream of society. Neither mainstream social life nor mainstream religious life offer support for Pagan religious realities. To place yourself in a position to be Pagan takes a lot of emotional endurance, discipline, and dedication to sets of principles that are not likely to be shared or honored by many of the people in your society. It also normally calls for a person to abandon or go against the teachings and beliefs of a former religion, most likely the one they grew up in. Such conditioning very early on in life is very difficult to overcome.

Much Christian conditioning is based on fear- fear of letting down God or family, and fear of damnation. This fear drives people back to Christianity with great regularity, and indeed, that was likely the original intention of such beliefs.

The task of belonging to a non-mainstream religion is not for everyone. Not everyone has the strength of character or fortitude to see the task through to its completion. To be Pagan in the long-term is a revealing test of personal psychology and strength of character. It can be safely stated that people who make oaths to Pagan Gods or religions, or make promises to Pagan religious communities and then go on to break or violate those by converting back to Christianity or away from Paganism are one or more of the following things:

1. Lacking in conviction, and will lack conviction wherever they go;

2. Easily swayed, lacking true strength of mind or self-determinism;

3. Usually unable to maintain their stated convictions without a group of people to bolster them;

4. Too psychologically weak to resist social or family pressure;

5. Secretly invested in their original faith, such that they never truly "gave it up" and genuinely replaced it with a new faith, instead taking on a new faith as a veneer, while remaining loyal below the surface, even if they didn't consciously feel loyal;

6. Unable to resist the pressure of a romantic interest or relationship partner who was not Pagan.


Weakness of character is commonplace in the modern day, and it is the common scourge of all religions, not just Paganism. Many allow themselves to be surprised by the decisions of such weak persons, but surprise never need be a factor: people reveal weakness of character in many ways long before they act on them in events of double conversion.

People reveal their underlying and secret loyalty to their former religious faiths in many ways:

1. They maintain close friendships with former religious confederates and authorities, or they keep friends and people close to them who hold strongly contradictory religious beliefs

2. They still attend meetings or functions of the former religion

3. They attempt to speak of "tolerance for all faiths" with every opportunity, focusing on how "tolerant" Pagans have to be of their former faiths

4. They attempt to spread ideas about the "truth of all religions" or espouse a belief that "all religions are teaching the same thing" or "all religions are paths going to the same place".

5. They attack Pagans who refuse to be as tolerant as they are about their former faith, or attack other Pagans who refuse to agree that "all religions are the same" or other such ideas.

6. They keep the bibles or scriptures of their former faith, or other faith-based paraphernalia, in their homes.

7. They seek to establish their former religion's basic moral and ethical codes into their new Pagan faith-system, in various ways

8. They find or accept romantic partners who are not Pagan, or entrench themselves in "dual faith" relationships where their girlfriend, boyfriend, wife or husband is not Pagan, and carry on two separate religious lives, which will almost always degenerate into the acceptance of the mainstream partner's religion.

9. If they are former Christians, they maintain firm political support for the State of Israel. This may sound strange, but Christians across the world have a misguided love for the state of Israel, despite the fact that the Zionist state of Israel was founded on illegal seizure of land and the forceful displacement of millions of native Palestinians. Also, despite the fact that many Orthodox Jews don't support it, there is a large contingent of Pagans out there who, while praying to many Gods that any Jew, Muslim, or Christian would call "false", still "support Israel". Many Christians view supporting Israel as "supporting God's people", and still view it as the right thing to do, even if they cease being Christian. Supporting the "covenant people" is not a Pagan's task; it is not our covenant, nor did the offspring of that covenant- namely Christianity and Islam- ever do anything good for our ancient faiths. Pagans who "support Israel" are still hiding some superstitious monotheistic belief that these Israelis are "special" somehow in the eyes of Some "God", which of course they are not.

10. If they are former Christians, they try to include “Jehova” or “Jesus” or “The Christ” as part of their religious practices, claiming that “some Pagans” in the past accepted Christ as another God and prayed to him. They may also try to pray to “angels” or “archangels”, claiming that these things were originally Pagan ideas, or pray to Saints, alongside Pagan Gods.

11. If they are former Christians, they show a very large interest in Christian Gnosticism, spending a considerable amount of time claiming that “real Gnostic Christianity” was cool and open-minded or very deep, and even that Gnosticism was “Goddess worship”, while the “fake Christianity” we see today was the result of evil political manipulations.


As you observe people who are Pagan, seek signs of character- do they often give their word frivolously? Do they gossip and back-bite? Do they cave in to pressure from family or friends a lot? Do they have beliefs that they stand by, even when it isn't convenient to have them? Do they display signs of secret loyalty to former faiths?

These are signs of the weakness of character that I discussed above. Take note of them carefully before you trust a person to remain Pagan in some reliable way, and to be true to what they claim to believe.


The Weakness of Pagan Systems and Communities

Weakness of Character is a major reason, but certainly not the only reason why Pagans convert away from Paganism. Pagan systems and communities themselves have a part of the responsibility, as well.

Modern Pagan "communities" are very small and normally very weak. The more "neo" a Pagan community is, that is, the more corrupted it is by the postmodern worldview, ideas of universal love and tolerance, ideas of "all Gods being one God", or ideas of radical liberal social activism, the weaker it will be, and the less it will be able to offer long-term support for Pagan people. Despite the fantasies of most modern Pagans, religion isn't about "believing whatever you like"; religion must make demands on a person, challenge a person, and give them a code, a way of seeing the world, that sometimes forces them to discipline themselves. Lacking those things, a religion cannot comfort or sustain a person in hard times.

It has long been recognized that, despite the truths lacking from Christian churches, they do offer their members large membership, large support networks, a visible and comforting social presence, and many other benefits. Pagan communities suffer greatly from not being able to yet offer these things to their members. Some Pagans convert back to their former faith for the simple reason that they don't feel supported, or miss the lavish resources they once had available to them.

Pagan communities are also weak in leadership; the radical liberal slant of most Pagan communities leads the leadership to be lacking in the needed LONG TERM stability, convictions, and motivations that allow for communities to become established and recognized. The entire "believe whatever you want" mentality that is found in so many places in the Pagan world assures that Pagan communities will not be taken seriously by the mainstream of society, and will therefore miss many chances to establish themselves as something more than "kids playing witch" or "weirdoes".

Pagan communities are finally weak in interaction-systems. The sheer levels of gossip, politics, and in-fighting stupidity found in many Pagan communities are frightening. In this sense, Pagan communities are similar to many other larger and more well-known religious communities; it is common for even religions the size of Christianity to have considerable disagreement and in-fighting. But for the purposes of the survival of Paganism in the modern day, Pagan communities have to realize the danger inherent in "agreeing to disagree" or "not getting along, so we'll leave to do it our way".

Consensus is needed. In all Pagan groups, across the board, internal consensus and bonds of friendship are needed, even if that means that some people have to change the way they think. Without such stability, Pagans will continue to influence double converts toward their decisions to leave Paganism, and they will continue to ensure that Paganism never gets anywhere. Power games, lack of pastoral care, lack of guidance, and lack of authentic historical traditions and practices make up the final lacks in many Pagan communities. These things must be addressed by Pagans in the future.


Social and Family Pressures

The most persistent and effective forces that drive Pagan people away from Paganism are social and family pressures. The idea of someone's boss discovering that they are Pagan can be frightening; it may even cost them their job. The idea that a mother or father or wife or husband strongly desires that a Pagan person convert is enough, over time, to make a Pagan become a double convert.

Romantic relationships are the most likely to cause a Pagan's defection. Most people are willing to resist a parent's scorn, but a lover is, for most, nearly impossible, especially over time. Natural feelings of romantic love for another lead people to want to please that person in any way they can, including changing their ways religiously.

Social and Family pressures by themselves are strong incentives for Pagans to become double converts, but these pressures don't become truly powerful or dangerous until they are mixed with other pressures. At that point, a double conversion is all but assured for most people.

An example would be as so: a man was originally Catholic, but got out of it at age 19. He was agnostic for years, before coming to Paganism because it seemed to be free of the nonsense of organized religions, and he really liked some of the people.

His wife of several years was also Catholic, but pretty liberal. She doesn't go to church, but does believe in God and in the Christian message. She doesn't tell her husband that he has to convert away, but it is an unspoken and uncomfortable reality in their relationship. He wants to make her happy. He's been Pagan for years, but the local Pagan community is a joke- nothing but kids and new-agers, and constant fighting. He has a few good friends who are serious Pagans online, but no one close to him. His wife becomes pregnant, and his life changes towards fatherhood.

At this point, you can be certain that this man will become a double convert. The timing may be a while, but it is practically inevitable. Look at what he gets: he can now please his wife, and join her in faith, even the comfort of believing that he, his child, and his wife can "go to the same place" after they die. He can raise his daughter in a religious community that is (probably) more acceptable and stable than the local Pagan travesty. He no longer has to hide his beliefs from his fundamentalist boss. He has the bible to give him an easily accessible moral code, so that he doesn't have to jump through hoops or do research into little-known philosophies explaining why he thinks things are morally right or wrong. He has the great comfort of "coming back" to the root-religion that is deeply embedded in his mind. He’s not risking God’s wrath; He doesn't have to go against the flow anymore.

From the perspective of any Pagan of conviction, he's a weak person. But if he managed to let down any of his Pagan friends, it is important not to blame him- blame those people. It would have been obvious to anyone of intelligence what he was going to do in the future. Living against the flow- especially when a lover or spouse is going the other way- is not easy for people to do.

Forget the ideas you have about truth or falsehood in religion. Maybe there ARE many Gods; maybe the Pagans of the past had it pretty much right on mark. People today largely don't care about the truth of their beliefs. They care about going with the flow and being comfortable. Double converts often love to claim that the "Truth" of their root-faiths drew them back home, but this is nonsense. This is the final justification that they can come up with for their weakness.



Conclusion

Conversion and double conversion will happen, no matter what. The only thing that modern Pagans who care about quality and stability in their communities can do is be mindful of my conclusions here, and be wary of those who show the warning signs of double conversion.

The chief warning sign that a Pagan is simply wasting time until they return to their Christian roots is simple: despite the fact that they talk like Pagans, act Pagan, profess to believe in Pagan Gods or Goddesses, read Pagan literature, and take part in Pagan rites, they still go out of their way to defend their former faith, commonly preaching tolerance and the idea that "all religions are aiming at the same thing, just going about it different ways". Do not mistake this for "good" or positive tolerance; with alarming regularity, this behavior hides a person's inability to release themselves from the hold of earlier religious conditioning.

Who are your reliable Pagans? Know them by their effort. Know them by the love they express for the Old Ways, and the Old Gods. This love should color their activities and their words, not just every now and then, but commonly. This is what the human soul does when it blossoms into the being it was always meant to be, as it developed towards its Pagan place in the weave of life.