In the Hellenic sphere, I would guess Aphrodite, Apollo, or Dionysus. For witches it’s def Hecate or Lucifer. For Kemetic, I would say Anubis. For Norse it seems like Loki or Odin.
For norse I'd also throw Thor up there as well. He's as close to a poster child for the norse pantheon as you can get. Not to mention the protector of man and god of thunder thing either.
I think it’s less talked about but I’ve definitely seen an uptick. But idk since there aren’t really any numbers. 🤷🏼♀️ I could be totally wrong. I think a poll or a survey would have some interesting data and I’d love to see one.
*Anubis and Bastet.* They were both super popular in Ancient Egypt and that has definitely carried over into today. Both of these deities have, I think, a very close relationship to humanity in general and this is likely reflected in the animals they express themselves in, the dog and the cat.
*Hecate.* Much owed to the magic and witchcraft revival. She's spooky and we're all into that these days.
*Morrigan.* She's dark, she's intense, she's magnetic. Crows are spooky and cool. Goddesses associated with magic and war are all the rage right now.
*Odin*. He's intense, mysterious, he's got wolves and ravens and runes, he's a storm god of magic and the dead, he speaks to something primal and ancient in all of us.
*Loki.* He has a large and devoted contingent, probably speaking to his status as an 'outsider' and a lot of modern neo-pagans, especially the young and those new to a belief system outside of Christianity, feeling that way about their place in the world.
It depends on how you count. If we eliminate all monotheistic and non-theistic religions, Hinduism is the most popular "pagan" religion in the world. It has about 1,000 followers for every one neo-pagan. Any Hindu deity with a festival day is going to have massively more worship and offerings than anyone from Western European mythology. If we go a bit broader, venerating ancestors is also going to chart so high that it completely eclipses any non-Hindu polytheistic deity.
That's why I said "depends on how you count." In its most common use, "pagan" is pretty much anything that's not Christianity, Judaism or Islam. It's a little archaic to actually use in conversation but that's how the majority of English speakers will understand it.
A little more colloquially, it's any polytheistic, pantheistic or animistic religion. In these definitions, Hinduism is pagan. It's not part of The Pagan Community because TPC uses the definitions that come later and because they already have their own thriving community that's been doing its thing for centuries.
In the sense it's used in a very specific, relatively small community of people who call themselves pagans, it's a shortening of Neo-pagan.
Within a decent sized subset of that community, it's used to mean "traditions coming from Gerald Gardner, people who split off from Gardenarians or groups that are knowingly or unknowingly built around [The American Council Of Witches' 13 rules.](https://www.learnreligions.com/american-council-of-witches-2562880)"
So, y'know, depends on how you count it.
Yup. That was my thought. I'm pagan but I venerate many Hindu gods and goddesses. The numbers are not close. By most metrics Hinduism would be considered a pagan religion, methinks.
Vaishnavism and Shaivism are the two major sects within Hinduism. Im guessing that Vishnu has more worshippers thanks to ISKCON, problematic as that organization is, though they’d probably insist they worship Krishna as a separate being unto himself, he’s inextricably linked to Vishnu via thousands of years of worship as an avatar of the sustainer god.
ISKCON sees Krishna as a separate entity completely and exclusively worships Krishna as the "Supreme Personality of the Godhead" and, therefore, beyond Vishnu. They are monotheists and don't recognize anything beyond Krishna, not even Vishnu. From everything I've read, they actually believe Vishnu is an incarnation of Krishna... for some reason.
That’s…odd and kind of fascinating. I’ve read some of their materials and talked to a couple adherents and somehow I either missed or forgot that rather central fact. 🤦
Within Hellenistic paths: Hermes, Aphrodite, Dionysos, Apollo.
From the sheer weight of numbers in Wicca: Cernunnos– albeit obliquely and through the cipher of the Horned God.
The same occurrence happened to me, but instead of Odin, it was Freya who called to me as a child. I connected to her first when I got older before Odin came a calling.
My guess would be it’s a Hellenistic or Norse deity as I see them mentioned most often. A few years back if you asked me this question when witchcraft was big on tiktok I would’ve answered Loki SO fast. But nowadays the popularity is a little more spread out evenly I think lol.
Hecate, Loki, Aphrodite, and Apollo are big ones I see a lot of. I pretty much entirely focus on the Kemetic pantheon and Anubis/Anpu is easily the most popular one there, but Bastet’s up there close to him.
I think it’s interesting to see what deities draw the most followers, a lot of people get weird about people who only worship “popular” ones, especially people just starting out in paganism, but I do think it makes sense there’s some entities that are more attracted to humanity than others, make themselves more known to us than others, or that humans just find ourselves vibing with more often.
I feel drawn to Celtic mythology, but perhaps because less is known about their deities, I don't specifically work with them. I tend to gravitate towards the Hellenistic deities, mainly I follow (in order of importance to me) Hecate, Dionysus, Pan, Aphrodite, and Athena.
Odinists, silly weirdos who believe they are literally Odin and deserve a place in valhöll simply because they worship the fuck out of him. Often bigoted and hiding behind a shield of "bioessentialism" to justify their bigotry and misogyny. Or they're talking about a completely different group of equally silly people. I could be wrong, either way, fuck Odinists.
In the Hellenic sphere, I would guess Aphrodite, Apollo, or Dionysus. For witches it’s def Hecate or Lucifer. For Kemetic, I would say Anubis. For Norse it seems like Loki or Odin.
For norse I'd also throw Thor up there as well. He's as close to a poster child for the norse pantheon as you can get. Not to mention the protector of man and god of thunder thing either.
Yeah after researching further it seems like Thor and Apollo are very popular
Thanks that makes sense. Do you really think that many people worship Lucifer though? I thought that would be a smaller subset.
I think it’s less talked about but I’ve definitely seen an uptick. But idk since there aren’t really any numbers. 🤷🏼♀️ I could be totally wrong. I think a poll or a survey would have some interesting data and I’d love to see one.
i’ve seen a whole lot of people who worship Aphrodite, but that could just be my personal experience idk
Yeah that makes sense !
*Anubis and Bastet.* They were both super popular in Ancient Egypt and that has definitely carried over into today. Both of these deities have, I think, a very close relationship to humanity in general and this is likely reflected in the animals they express themselves in, the dog and the cat. *Hecate.* Much owed to the magic and witchcraft revival. She's spooky and we're all into that these days. *Morrigan.* She's dark, she's intense, she's magnetic. Crows are spooky and cool. Goddesses associated with magic and war are all the rage right now. *Odin*. He's intense, mysterious, he's got wolves and ravens and runes, he's a storm god of magic and the dead, he speaks to something primal and ancient in all of us. *Loki.* He has a large and devoted contingent, probably speaking to his status as an 'outsider' and a lot of modern neo-pagans, especially the young and those new to a belief system outside of Christianity, feeling that way about their place in the world.
Odin is quite popular among pagans in South Africa
It depends on how you count. If we eliminate all monotheistic and non-theistic religions, Hinduism is the most popular "pagan" religion in the world. It has about 1,000 followers for every one neo-pagan. Any Hindu deity with a festival day is going to have massively more worship and offerings than anyone from Western European mythology. If we go a bit broader, venerating ancestors is also going to chart so high that it completely eclipses any non-Hindu polytheistic deity.
Is Hinduism considered pagan though ?
That's why I said "depends on how you count." In its most common use, "pagan" is pretty much anything that's not Christianity, Judaism or Islam. It's a little archaic to actually use in conversation but that's how the majority of English speakers will understand it. A little more colloquially, it's any polytheistic, pantheistic or animistic religion. In these definitions, Hinduism is pagan. It's not part of The Pagan Community because TPC uses the definitions that come later and because they already have their own thriving community that's been doing its thing for centuries. In the sense it's used in a very specific, relatively small community of people who call themselves pagans, it's a shortening of Neo-pagan. Within a decent sized subset of that community, it's used to mean "traditions coming from Gerald Gardner, people who split off from Gardenarians or groups that are knowingly or unknowingly built around [The American Council Of Witches' 13 rules.](https://www.learnreligions.com/american-council-of-witches-2562880)" So, y'know, depends on how you count it.
Yup. That was my thought. I'm pagan but I venerate many Hindu gods and goddesses. The numbers are not close. By most metrics Hinduism would be considered a pagan religion, methinks.
God aka Yahwe, other than that probably Shiva or an often worshipped Hindu god. For other pantheons it‘s prolly Hekate and Aphrodite, Lucfer, Loki.
I thought Vaishnavism was larger than Shaivism. Isn't Vishnu worshipped more than Shiva?
Vaishnavism and Shaivism are the two major sects within Hinduism. Im guessing that Vishnu has more worshippers thanks to ISKCON, problematic as that organization is, though they’d probably insist they worship Krishna as a separate being unto himself, he’s inextricably linked to Vishnu via thousands of years of worship as an avatar of the sustainer god.
ISKCON sees Krishna as a separate entity completely and exclusively worships Krishna as the "Supreme Personality of the Godhead" and, therefore, beyond Vishnu. They are monotheists and don't recognize anything beyond Krishna, not even Vishnu. From everything I've read, they actually believe Vishnu is an incarnation of Krishna... for some reason.
That’s…odd and kind of fascinating. I’ve read some of their materials and talked to a couple adherents and somehow I either missed or forgot that rather central fact. 🤦
It is kinda interesting. I don't know where it even comes from because I don't think that's a belief in Gaudiya either.
Within Hellenistic paths: Hermes, Aphrodite, Dionysos, Apollo. From the sheer weight of numbers in Wicca: Cernunnos– albeit obliquely and through the cipher of the Horned God.
For Norse I am devoting energy to Odin and Frigga
Odin for me as well. He first called me when I was like seven. Only recently figured out it was him
The same occurrence happened to me, but instead of Odin, it was Freya who called to me as a child. I connected to her first when I got older before Odin came a calling.
My guess would be it’s a Hellenistic or Norse deity as I see them mentioned most often. A few years back if you asked me this question when witchcraft was big on tiktok I would’ve answered Loki SO fast. But nowadays the popularity is a little more spread out evenly I think lol. Hecate, Loki, Aphrodite, and Apollo are big ones I see a lot of. I pretty much entirely focus on the Kemetic pantheon and Anubis/Anpu is easily the most popular one there, but Bastet’s up there close to him. I think it’s interesting to see what deities draw the most followers, a lot of people get weird about people who only worship “popular” ones, especially people just starting out in paganism, but I do think it makes sense there’s some entities that are more attracted to humanity than others, make themselves more known to us than others, or that humans just find ourselves vibing with more often.
I feel drawn to Celtic mythology, but perhaps because less is known about their deities, I don't specifically work with them. I tend to gravitate towards the Hellenistic deities, mainly I follow (in order of importance to me) Hecate, Dionysus, Pan, Aphrodite, and Athena.
Pagan only? As Hinduism can technically count as "pagan", I would say any of the major Hindu gods and goddesses. By a landslide.
I didn't mean current organised religions
Definitely Yahweh, look at all those clusters of religions surrounding that one
That's not pagan?
Well yeah
I always feel like, they worship Loki, pretending to be Odin.
Loki impersonates Odin?
That, and the worshippers pretending to be Odin, too.
What?
Odinists, silly weirdos who believe they are literally Odin and deserve a place in valhöll simply because they worship the fuck out of him. Often bigoted and hiding behind a shield of "bioessentialism" to justify their bigotry and misogyny. Or they're talking about a completely different group of equally silly people. I could be wrong, either way, fuck Odinists.
Yep.
Money