Is witchcraft on the rise?

[Alcibiades]

“Witchcraft” is usually what people mean when they use paganism in a derogatory sense (as opposed to its more philosophical  strains), and it is indeed endemic to all societies which trust the senses over the intellect, including our own.

Paganism, stretched out as far as one can take it, is not endemic in our society. Wiccans, the largest “pagan” group, number less than 1.5 million people and the total “pagan” + new age folks probably number less than 1% in adherence.

Group affiliation isn’t really appropriate when it comes to “new age” beliefs - 30% of all Americans believe in astrology after all. Besides, idols like nationalism and identity politics are just as pagan as tarot and the zodiac.

lol

Fine, the wide usage of taking astrology and zodiac signs seriously might extend it, but can we really say that it’s on the rise since the 1990s? I don’t see much care for occultism nor neoshamanism among either the youth nor culture at large outside of anti-patriarchal witches whom are small now. It doesn’t seem to, and this is the important part, be taken as seriously nor as becoming more socially acceptable than the monopoly American Christianity has.

That astrology percentage actually is on the rise, yes. Even if it hasn't hit your circles yet, this sort of thing is increasingly popular.

Are there surveys showing this?

[Alcibiades]

Alcibiades, here are some links to (or about) Pew polls showing a mild upswing in belief in astrology:

Pew poll from 2009 showing 25% of American adults believe in astrology
New Yorker article from 2019 citing a figure of 29% from the 2018 Pew poll
Stridently supercilious and condemnatory post on a Columbia University stats blog analyzing the 2018 numbers

Note that the last link has breakdowns by religion and shows almost half of "nothing in particular" respondents believing in astrology, and fully 78% believing in at least one of "spiritual energy located in physical things", psychics, reincarnation, and astrology--the highest of any religious group in the poll. (Avowed atheists, on the other hand, were, as one would expect, the lowest, followed by Evangelicals. Bizarrely, the stats blog interprets the very low "atheists" number as evidence that belief in these sorts of things doesn't substitute for traditional religious belief, while the staggeringly high "nones" number goes completely unremarked-on.)

Given the numbers for reincarnation--51% of "nones" believe in it--I feel increasingly confident in my hypothesis that that is now the plurality belief about the afterlife among Americans who aren't committed Christians.

Thanks for taking the time to find these. I’m not sure whether an increase of 5% in public polling ought to be considered statistically significant, due to the inevitable margin of error, but I’m certainly prepared to believe that belief in astrology is rising in certain groups.