Pagans

Over more than a thousand years, Christians labelled a wide range of peoples as Pagan, from Ireland to India, from the Andes to Australia. Ethan Doyle White's study examines the physical world these communities made and used, and what it reveals about their lives and beliefs.

Since the twentieth century, groups including Wiccans, Druids, neo-shamans and Heathens have openly identified as Pagans. The book asks the questions a curious reader might raise: who these people are, what they believe, which gods and goddesses they honour, whether they worship nature, and whether divination and magic play a role in their practice.

Its answers draw on material things: sacred plants thought to hold supernatural powers, hand-carved amulets said to repel evil, mischievous spirits of the natural world, and holy mountains. Across these examples runs the idea that nature holds divine value and that ordinary physical objects can carry spiritual meaning.

The book's 449 colour illustrations show paintings, sculptures, shrines and ceremonial objects, showing how stories, symbols and rituals of Paganism were expressed through images and things.