On 'LARPing'
The long held tradition of pagans being accused of insincerity of belief
Certainly the most common critique I would say that I see pagans receiving (and have received myself) is that we don’t “actually” believe the things which we profess to. This being obviously false is quite besides the point. I have recently found myself in a situation where, after telling a group of friends what I believe religiously, and patiently answering questions, dispelling common myths and untrue beliefs, and demonstrating to them what my religion really looks like, there are still ideas circulating that suggest that I don’t really believe what I say I believe. The most harmful assertion has been that I am somehow ‘larping’ my religion, because my practice doesn’t look like their own does. This has obviously deepened the rift between myself and these people.
What I’d like to come to you today with is a series of rebuttals, written primarily for the sake of my own sanity, in lieu of wasting my breath trying to re-explain these things to deaf ears.
As a forenote, when we (being pagans) get accused of LARPing, I do like to give the benefit of the doubt. Many people are simply unfamiliar with pagan belief, and true enough there are a shocking number of cosplayers, content creators, so-called ‘playgans’ (a term I have grown quite fond of), and bad faith attention seekers, who have legitimately soiled the exogenous reputation of paganism as a faith group. I cannot deny that, and I encourage anyone who does deny the existence of these people to please look around. This is not to say that pagans are the only group with this infestation, any cursory glance at Twitter will have you meeting with the same types, only Christian instead of pagan. This could be an unpopular opinion, but disingenuous zealotry might be a good sign for the legitimacy of the pagan cause. How many Christians have you seen called to Christianity after having witnessed an intelligent takedown of insincere beliefs? I have seen this play out many times, and I believe the pagan sphere online is now well equipped enough with minds capable of providing intelligent, meaningful commentary, such that this nonsense can be dispelled, and its listeners redirected thoughtfully.
This being the case, there are still many who approach me and others with accusations of LARPing when it comes to our religious beliefs. Whether or not you choose to engage with these people is up to you. I find it exhausting, especially because these conversations quite rarely change anyone’s mind, particularly when the discussion is conducted online. However, if you really must defend yourself, I applaud you, thank you on behalf of pagans everywhere, and remind you to consider the following:
The motivation of this accusation is to get you to stop believing. With very little else at play, and almost no exceptions. The motivation of this accusation is to embarrass you into admitting that, no, you really do not believe these things, and that you could be convinced to take up another religion. If you look at the types of situations this accusation is lobbed in, you will see a very clear pattern of pagans being accused of LARPing at times in discussion where we are standing the proudest. The idea that we are LARPing our certainty is to knock us down.
We often get accused of LARPing when we are making jokes, chatting about our faith online, or saying things that are not entirely serious. This is not to say that all aspects of faith have to be deathly serious, not at all. I am just illustrating that, for people who do not know much about the faith, or only come into contact with the faith online, it may look like we only conduct ourselves religiously in that space, in that way. Of course, the way we are perceived is neither our responsibility nor our duty to correct, least of all on the Internet. This is more just a plea for my readership to recognize that the vast majority of the population is blindingly ignorant about the way that pagans conduct themselves.
For a lot of people, even very religious Christians, religion is a thing that is done. In my experience, limited though it may be, a lot of pagans hold the belief that their faith is something that they are. Of course, this is a broad brush, and I know plenty of Christians who fit firmly into the latter category. But do remember that when you are dealing with the general populace, the probability is high that you are dealing with someone who is not as serious about their beliefs as you are. Personally, this rings the truest for me when I am speaking to a lapsed Christian or an atheist about my beliefs. It is genuinely difficult for people to empathize this way about core beliefs like religion and politics, I know this to be true for myself. Before I was religious myself, I found it absolutely ludicrous that someone could believe the things that my religious friends claimed that they believed, and I assumed a lot of them were faking it as a result. Emotionally unintelligent as this perspective may be, if the person you’re speaking with is saying these things in good faith, you should try to give them grace for this.
Finally, like I have said, it will be vanishingly rare that these conversations will change someone’s mind on the spot. I don’t think it is impossible, but I would caution against getting your hopes up and going into these discussions with the idea that there is some magic combination of words, a spell, a charm, an oration, that can flip the switch in somebody’s mind and get them to take you seriously. If this mentality change is to happen, it takes dedication, calm explanation, and a willingness to maintain the relationship in question. In other words: If you think you’re going to proselytize to an audience watching you bicker on Tumblr or Reddit, you’re incorrect.
Of the major reasons I see for people accusing pagans of LARPing, several stand out. The top reasons why others commonly believe pagans are insincere believers in their religion are as follows, in no particular order:
There is no mainstream pagan authority handing down rules by which all pagans abide, and there is no semi-regular pagan religious service, like Mass for Catholics.
A lot of pagans practice ‘magic’, which seems fake and to some people seems demonic,
Of the pagan culture that we see in popular culture, most people are familiar with the comic book depictions of Thor, wiccans, the aforementioned viking cosplayers, and of those who are new to the faith and acting in strange ways,
There are no mainstream pagan denominations which are widely known, like Protestants, Catholics, and the Orthodox in Christianity.
These things, combined with a variety of other factors like ignorance to history, not feeling connected with ancestors who practiced these religions, and not knowing which of the traditions that they still practice today are handed down from pagan beliefs over time, could certainly lead to the belief that most, if not all pagans, are simply ‘faking it’. Again, it is not my belief that it is our duty to change their minds. I don’t think we are responsible for the beliefs that are incorrectly held about us, with regards to religion or anything else in life.
MYTH ONE: Pagans are LARPers because… there is no central authority handing down rules by which all pagans abide.
If there was one thing I could magically make people understand about ‘paganism’, it would be that the word means almost nothing in the context of a disagreement about “what pagans believe”. ‘Pagan’ is an umbrella term. It covers an enormous swath of native religions, including traditional European faiths, of which there are several, traditional Native American faiths, of which there are an innumerable amount, traditional Asian faiths, of which there may legitimately be too many to count, and so on. You get the picture. Saying ‘pagans dont believe anything’ is like saying ‘fish don’t live in the ocean’, because some fish live in lakes and rivers. It is abjectly nonsensical.
I do understand, though, that when LARPing is brought into question, it is typically about calling into question the legitimacy of traditional European beliefs, and quite often those of the Scandinavians and Celtics. To dismantle this it is important that we define our starting principles. Now, anyone on Earth is free to disagree with me, but here is how I see things: Paganism (although personally, I hate this word, but this is a post for another day. Currently, we will call my religion paganism) is not a rule book religion. This by no means is meant to assert that we do not have a moral code, or that we do not have a structure. However, I live in the Christianized Western World. If you were to take the average person here, and ask them what religion is, they are extremely likely to give you an answer that looks like Christianity, even if they never mention the Bible. Again, it is difficult for people to understand what a religion they have barely ever heard of might look like. Christianity (and all Abrahamic faith) is extremely structured, and for the vast majority of people, this is what constitutes ‘religion’ in their eyes. From this, we get the belief “if it is not structured like religions I know, it is not religious”. This, being obviously false, is sometimes taken for granted by members of both sides of the equation.
I often hear paganism being referred to as an ‘unstructured’ or ‘not organized’ religion, which is also false. Paganism has structure, and it is certainly organized it is just not centralized, like we are familiar with in Western ideas of Christianity. Examples of other religions which function this way are Shinto, Confucianism, and some types of Buddhism and Hinduism. If the idea is that traditional European pagans are LARPers because we do not have Mass like the Catholics, or some other dedicated time each week to listen to a sermon, then Buddhists are similarly LARPing.
Of course, many traditional European pagans do in fact, recognize a type of priesthood, many Scandinavian pagans recognize the authority of Goði, and many Celtic pagans feel similarly about the Druids. There are several countries in Europe who legally recognize their various pagan sects as legitimate religious organizations, Iceland and Greece come to mind immediately, and I am sure that there are others I am unaware of.
One of the reasons that ‘paganism’ overall on the European continent is not centralized is because the different practices we see (i.e. Scandinavian/Norse, Germanic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic… etc.) are not different denominations of the same overall religion1, they’re different religions entirely. Many of these religions and their respective pantheons share remarkable similarities, and this can certainly be chalked up to how close the practitioners were (I mean, look at how similar Lutheranism and Catholicism are), but non-pagans have the tendency to treat each branch of this tree as a denomination that can win or lose members by being ‘the most correct’, when this is not at all the case.
Most pagans believe that religion is a factor of ancestry, and that their practices are closed to general practice for this reason. This is not dissimilar to many of the Native American religions, or even to Judaism’s claim as an ethnoreligion, for an Abrahamic perspective on the matter. There is no central authority, because the authority on the practices that our ancestors took part in… are our ancestors themselves!
Is it LARPing if I carry on a family tradition? My mother wore baby’s breath in her hair at her wedding, was it disingenuous of me to pay homage to her with my crown of winter greens and baby’s breath at my own? Is it LARPing that I have my great, great, great grandmother’s lacemaking equipment? Is it dishonest of me to aspire to farming sheep, as my great, great, great, great grandparents did when they came to this country and set up their homestead? What about the dozens of little traditions my family has surrounding celebration of life accomplishments, and remembering and honouring the dead? Is it LARP for me to mourn the way my grandmother has mourned? These things have not been dicated to me by any central authority on acceptable traditions to uphold, and so by this assertion, I must be LARPing.
MYTH TWO: Pagans are LARPers because… A lot of pagans practice ‘magic’, which probably isn’t real.
One of the themes I am hoping is beginning to come together for you, dear reader, is the idea that the lion’s share of these reasons are borne of naught but ignorance.
Again, it is helpful to define ‘magic’. What does this mean to you? In my personal practice, and in my research on the topic, a grand majority of lore around magic just happens to be pleas to the gods for practical wishes: good crop yields, healing, and other such desirable outcomes. One of my favourite Substack accounts, Heryos Chad, has recently posted the article below, which is a helpful example of some of the spells and charms that were used by historical Anglo-Saxon pagans for all manner of conflict resolution, healing, and for other purposes.
When you read these charms, they read a lot like prayers. I don’t think it is too far of a stretch to even assert that prayer is another form of magic. While I was a churchgoer, I even heard this sentiment espoused by my pastor, who reminded us that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains and assured us weekly of the power of prayer. This sounds fairly magical to me, so when I hear the idea that magic is automatically a red flag for insincere belief, it vexes me. Praying for healing where none has occured is asking for divine intervention, regardless of who you are asking to perform it.
MYTH THREE: Pagans are LARPers because… our popular representation isn’t that serious.
I am actually going to go ahead and agree… with the latter part of this assertion. Yeah, popular culture would have you believe that pagan worship consists of drawing circles on the ground and trapping demons in them for fun, or that it consists of laying prostrate in front of depictions of a comic book character. This is abhorrent to me, and if prompted, I will speak for several hours on how disgusting it is that one of the most righteous and heroic deities, the guardian of Earth, is more commonly associated with the Marvel franchise than with his rightful place as a divine protector. The idea that there are not pagans out there who are similarly horrified is false, and easily disprovable if you simply look around. Ask questions to the people you interact with, instead of inventing their thoughts for yourself, would be my advice.
The Wiccan issue is something I am only just beginning to contend with myself, and although I recognize what their practice is (false, not pagan or historical, mass produced, and based on half truths and stories from the midcentury, instead of ancestral wisdom), I am still in the process of researching the intricacies of this. If a more intelligent debunk of Wiccanism is something you seek, there are several wonderful women who I can point you in the direction of in my place.
The painful fact of the matter is that this is what plenty of people hear when you tell them that you are pagan. It’s unfortunate, but it is the truth. It’s not like you can blame them, though. These are the most popular voices in media, the ‘pagans’ (playgans, hahaha) who are more Viking cosplayer than actual religious practitioners certainly are not helping the case, either. If nothing else, my hope is that these detractors would serve as a reminder to keep your behaviour honourable and reasonable when dealing with others, and to set the record straight as often as you can.
MYTH FOUR: Pagans are LARPers because… there are no mainstream pagan denominations, and no mainstream pagan worship methods.
Where Myth One is more about the metaphysical organization of pagan belief, this touches more on the idea that there is a lack of physical objects which prove the sincerity of the beliefs of pagans around the globe, such as temples and other gathering places, holy symbols, offerings made to the gods, genuine rituals and practices associated with how we treat the gods, and more. Any sort of idea that these things are not abundant in pagan belief, across different pagan religions, is simply false.
Starting with gathering places and temples of worship, there are plenty of examples of grassroots organizations who provide physical space to worship in, and religious counsel for traditional European pagans. Perhaps this is obvious to you, dear reader, especially if you are a part of one yourself, but there is a shocking amount of assumptions about just how lacking the pagan faith is in physical, real life assets. The example which best sticks out to me is the Irminfolk Odinist Community, a tax-exempt religious organization focussed on promoting traditional Scandinavian religious values. Irminfolk is in the process of building their Hof, which serves as a gathering place and grounds for worship2. Merely searching for “modern pagan temple” brings up a list of temples in nearly the entire Western world dedicated to pagan worship of all kinds. Helpfully, an online directory has been compiled so that all traditional European worshipers can have a shot at finding their closest Hof or temple.
An important thing to remember about pagan worship is that pagans are not bound by scripture to worship in a temple by any means. There is no commandment which states that worship must be conducted with a physical body of believers, since one of the major edicts of paganism in the first place is that your ancestors are always with you. It is a lot harder to worship alone when your ancestors are always with you, by dint of them being a physical and metaphysical part of you. When your congregation is in your blood and makes up the essence of your being, you will never worship alone.
Pagan holy symbols are a bit more complicated (and certainly a bit more controversial) than the intricacies of gathered worship. Many pagan holy symbols end up being things that we associate with the history of our people, and things which symbolize the gods themselves. This means that runes, either as full inscriptions or as single symbols, have been recognized in a religious capacity by some. Other examples are stylized depictions of Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, the triskele, the sun cross, and yes, certain iterations of the swastika. As I said, the use of these symbols is sometimes controversial, and certainly marred by their use in other historical contexts which have nothing to do with paganism, but they are nevertheless a part of what it means to worship in a traditional European context.
On offerings and dedicated ritual, there is much less historical information than perhaps necessary to paint a clear picture on what our ancestors may have done. However, many have proposed what these offerings may have looked like, and indeed what they should look like, and the reverence they should symbolize. Another one of the brilliant minds writing in defense of paganism today is Survive the Jive, who creates content aimed at legitimising the history and practice of pagans in the modern day. One of the videos of his that I appreciate very greatly is his video on How To Set Up An Altar for those who may not know how. It is this kind of guidance and care for beginners that, at the beginning of my own journey, legitimised the practice, and showed a pristine eye for detail when it comes to the ‘how’ of beginning to worship in this manner.
Of course, these are just mere examples of the types of physical objects, places, and symbols that prove the legitimacy of paganism of all kinds. A simple search online is enough to pull up a dizzying amount of examples of all kinds showing exactly how, where, who, and what it is that pagans believe, and how devoted a lot of us are to our religious practices, eclectic though they may seem to the outsider.
If there was a final word, or some sort of bottom line I could give you as my overall advice to combat the accusation of LARPing as a devout pagan, and how to navigate the situations in which you are accused of such things, it would be this: Changing people’s minds about their deeply held beliefs is difficult, demanding, and it can be disrespectful. It is worth remembering this about any interactions you have regarding religion, even if you are only trying to convince others about the legitimacy of your own belief. I of course understand how tempting it can be to fire back with all manner of arguments, why else would I have written this small novel combatting these myths if I didn’t? I also recognize the futility of these types of discussions in practice. I think the more forcefully you enter the situation to defend yourself, the more likely your conversational opponent will be to dismiss you, ironically enough. This is truly one of the most frustrating interactions one can have as a modern pagan.
Remember that it is not your duty to convert anyone for any purpose, whether this means converting them to your belief system entirely, or just convincing them of the belief that you are sincere in your religion. The responsibility you have is to make sure the information you are giving other people about your beliefs is correct, and that is all. I am a firm believer that the truth will find its way to the light no matter what lies try to cover it up.
In closing, I want to remind you all to remain steadfast in your own beliefs, whether you agree with me or not. I know too well how damaging it can be to try and make something work for yourself that you cannot be brought to believe in— religious or otherwise. Like I said in my recent post on leaning into our traditional beliefs, there’s really no good reason to prevent yourself from living the way you want to, no matter how many detractors insist that you musn’t.
Be honourable, and persist. With much love,
-Hrafna, Wheat & Sky
Poking the bear, I know. For the purposes of today and with the audience that this post will reach in mind, just humour me. We can get into it another time, I promise.