Can you be pagan without actually calling yourself pagan? That is a question that is worth pondering, considering certain developments in people’s spiritual beliefs that are not explicitly labelled as pagan, heathen and the like, but are certainly shared by pagans, heathens and witches. (With pagans, heathens and witches I mean those, mostly in the western world, that have religions, philosophies and similar world views that are based on old folklore and pre-christian pagan myths and religions.)

For example, a recent worldwide survey from the Pew Research Center showed that beliefs that align with pagan beliefs are (slightly) on the rise worldwide. You can find the whole thing here, it’s an interesting read! Several questions were asked to over 50,000 people in 36 countries with several beliefs or religions. One of the conclusions is that many people worldwide believe in life after death and the belief in spirits who reside in nature. For example, not surprisingly, 83% of surveyed people in India think animals can have spirits. Spain closes that list with the lowest number of people who hold this idea, which is still 37% percent, over one third.

What I, a Dutch pagan, found most interesting was that the Netherlands is one of the countries where people were questioned about their beliefs. So, what do Dutch people (note: not just pagans, but people in general), think about several religious and spiritual ideas? Let’s see:

• Do you believe in God? “Yes”,  say 49% of Dutch respondents (18% of which are religiously unaffiliated, median worldwide who believe in God is 83%).
• Can animals have spirits or spiritual energies? “Yes”, say 50% of Dutch respondents (median worldwide is 62%).
• Do you believe that parts of nature, like mountains, rivers or trees, can have spirits or spiritual energies? “Yes”,  say 36% of Dutch respondents (median is 56%).
• Do you believe that certain objects, like crystals, jewels or stones, can have spirits or spiritual energies? “Yes”, 23% say of Dutch respondents (median is 28%).
• “The natural world is all there is”, say 48% say of Dutch respondents (median is 34%), while 50% say that there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we can not see it (median is 62%).
• Do you believe that there is definitely/probably life after death? “Yes”, say 51% of Dutch respondents (median is 64%).
• Is religion very important in your life? “Yes”, say 20% of Dutch respondents (median is 40%).
• Can spirits of ancestors help or harm you? “Yes”, say 28% say of Dutch respondents (median is 38%).
• Do you believe in reincarnation? “Yes”, say 24% of Dutch respondents (median is 33%).
• Do you believe that spells, cursus or other magic can influence people’s lives? “Yes”, say 38% of Dutch respondents (median is 45%).
• Do you consult a fortune teller, horoscope or other way to see the future? “Yes”, say 9% of Dutch respondents (median is 12%).
• In the Netherlands, 11% of respondents attend religious services weekly or more often, while 5% do so once or twice a month.
• Do you fast during holy times? “Yes”, say 11% of Dutch respondents (median is 37%).
• Do you light incense or candles for spiritual or religious reasons? “Yes”, say 19% of Dutch respondents (median is 32%).
• Do you wear or carry religious items or symbols with you? say 15% of Dutch respondents (median is 31%).
• 63% of Dutch people say religion is not at all or not very important in their life (median is 30%) while 37% say that religion is somewhat or very important in their life (median is 69%).
• 46% of Dutch people consider themselves religiously affiliated, and 2% within those 46% consider themselves ‘other’ – which could be a pagan religion ( I cannot directly find anything about this in de linked article).

I was mildly surprised to read this result, especially the part about believing in nature spirits and animal spirits. Dutch percentages mentioned above are consistently (much) lower than (median) percentages worldwide. Still they are often higher than I expected. To me, the Netherlands seem mostly either atheist/secular of monotheist. The rather animist idea of spirit in nature does not seem to align with that, at least to me. It’s heartening to read that apparently I’m wrong on this point and at least one third to half of Dutch people (at least according to this survey) do hold these beliefs. Then again, it’s obvious that people who are monotheist or have no religion are still by far the largest groups in the Netherlands.

The spiritual beliefs do also not seem to be connected directly to a sense of religion, seeing as far less people call themselves religious than there are people who hold spiritual beliefs such as life after death and spirit in nature. (Or the other way around, people who call themselves very religious but do not believe in life after death.) This seems sort of logical to me, since these ideas seem to be very old, probably before the concept of religion was even known. These ideas are also not connected to one particular culture or even religion, but can be found all over the world.

The results also show that younger people seem to hold spiritual ideas more often in some cases. Then again older adults are more often of the opinion that religion is personally very important (21% against 15%). Also interestingly, but not surprisingly, women are generally more inclined to hold spiritual and religious beliefs and practices than men (although I have always found it strange how this works in patriarchal religions where women generally have lower status).  

The survey has lots more information on respondents of several religions, whether they are rich or poor, what their education is and how this might be connected to their spiritual and religious beliefs, etc. Go read it if you want to know more!