Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, Vol 14, No 1 (2012)

The Pagan Explosion Revisited: A Statistical Postmortem on the Teen Witch Fad

James R. Lewis
Issued Date: 18 Jul 2013

Abstract


Contemporary Paganism’s explosive growth was big news during the first decade of the new millennium. By the end of the decade, however, it was clear that this rapid expansion had fallen off, and the movement appeared to have returned to something approaching a normal pattern of growth. What actually happened was that shortly after the turn of the millennium, the Teen Witch fad temporarily inflated total numbers of self–identified Pagans. After the fad ended, explosive growth also ended, leaving an established and maturing religious tradition in its wake.

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DOI: 10.1558/pome.v14i1.128

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