Many people come to Neo-Paganism after leaving the religion they were raised in. Different Neo-Pagan groups may have differ­ent requirements for membership, like a probationary pe­riod of study. But there is no formal process of conversion to Neo-Paganism, and many Neo-Pagans never join any group. Any­one can call themselves Neo-Pagan (which is one of the rea­sons it is so difficult to define). Most Neo-Pagans come to iden­tify as such through a process of individual spiritual explora­tion.

Many of us experience our coming to Neo-Paganism as a feeling of “coming home,” by which we mean that “Neo-Pa­gan” is an expression of a religious identity for which we previ­ously had no name. For many reasons, we feel drawn away from the religions of our birth. We feel drawn to the woods, the mountains, or the seashore. We feel a sense of the divine in na­ture, in the Earth, in the changing of the seasons, and in our own bodies. We are moved by fairy tales, stories from folklore, and ancient pagan myths and art. When we meet other like-minded people, we discover that we are not alone, and we real­ize that we are Neo-Pagans too.

Updated 2019