New religious movement in the context of "Wicca"

Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term has different, divergent and often pejorative, definitions both in popular culture and academia and has been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.

Beginning in the 1930s, new religious movements became an object of sociological study within the context of the study of religious behavior. Since the 1940s, the Christian countercult movement has opposed some sects and new religious movements, labeling them cults because of their unorthodox beliefs. Since the 1970s, the secular anti-cult movement has opposed certain groups, which they call cults, accusing them of practicing brainwashing.

Various sociological classifications of religious movements have been proposed by scholars. In the sociology of religion, the most widely used classification is the church-sect typology. The typology is differently construed by different sociologists, and various distinctive features have been proposed to characterise churches and sects. On most accounts, the following features are deemed relevant:

• The church is a compulsory organisation into which people are born, while the sect is a voluntary organisation to which people usually convert.
• The church is an inclusive organisation to which all kinds of people may belong, while the sect is an exclusive organisation of religiously qualified people.
• The church is an established organisation that is well integrated into the larger society and usually inclined to seek for an alliance with the political power, while the sect is a splinter group from a larger religion: it is often in tension with current societal values, rejects any compromise with the secular order and tends to be composed of underprivileged people.
• The church exhibits complex hierarchical bureaucratic structures, while the sect is a smaller, democratic and relatively informal organisation.
• The ministers of a church are formally trained, educated and ordained, while the sect rejects sharp distinctions between clergy and laity, and is often ruled by charismatic leaders.
• In theology and liturgy the church is inclined to dogmatism, traditionalism and ritualism, while the sect promotes intensified spiritual experiences for its members and adopts a more inspirational, informal and unpredictable approach to preaching and worship.

The church-sect typology has been enriched with subtypes. The theory of the church-sect continuum states that churches, ecclesia, denominations and sects form a continuum with decreasing influence on society. Sects are break-away groups from more mainstream religions and tend to be in tension with society. Cults and new religious movements fall outside this continuum and in contrast to aforementioned groups often have a novel teaching. They have been classified on their attitude towards society and the level of involvement of their adherents.

Kardecist spiritism, also known as Kardecism or Spiritism, is a reincarnationist and spiritualist doctrine established in France in the mid-19th century by writer and educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (known by his pen name Allan Kardec). Kardec considered his doctrine to derive from a Christian perspective. He described a cycle by which a spirit supposedly returns to material existence after the death of the body in which it had dwelled, as well as the evolution it undergoes during this process. Kardecism emerged as a new religious movement in tandem with spiritualism. The notions and practices associated with spiritual communication have been disseminated throughout North America and Europe since the 1850s.

Kardec coined the term spiritism in 1857 and defined it as "the doctrine founded on the existence, manifestations, and teachings of spirits". Kardec claimed that spiritism combines scientific, philosophical, and religious aspects of the tangible universe and what he described as the universe beyond transcendence. After observing table-turning, a kind of seance, he was intrigued that the tables seemed to move despite lacking muscles and that the tables seemed to provide answers without having a brain, the spiritualist claims being "It is not the table that thinks! It is us, the souls of the men who have lived on Earth." Kardec also focused his attention on a variety of other paranormal claims such as "incorporation" and mediumship.

The anti-cult movement, abbreviated ACM and also known as the countercult movement, consists of various governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals that seek to raise awareness of religious groups that they consider to be "cults", uncover coercive practices used to attract and retain members, and help those who have become involved with harmful cult practices.

One prominent group within the anti-cult movement, Christian counter-cult organizations, oppose new religious movements (NRMs) on theological grounds, categorizing them as cults, and distribute information to this effect through church networks and via printed literature.

A minority religion is a religion held by a minority of the population of state or which is otherwise politically marginalized. Minority religions may be subject to stigma or discrimination. An example of a stigma is using the term cult with its extremely negative connotations for certain new religious movements. People who belong to a minority religion may be subject to discrimination and prejudice, especially when the religious differences correlate with ethnic differences.

Laws are made in some countries to protect the rights of religious minorities, such as protecting the minorities' culture and to promote harmony with the majority.

Modern paganism, also known as neopaganism and contemporary paganism, is a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse, sharing no single set of beliefs, practices, or religious texts. Scholars of religion may study the phenomenon as a movement divided into different religions, while others study neopaganism as a decentralized religion with an array of denominations.

Adherents rely on pre-Christian, folkloric, and ethnographic sources to a variety of degrees; many of them follow a spirituality that they accept as entirely modern, while others claim to adhere to prehistoric beliefs, or else, they attempt to revive indigenous religions as accurately as possible. Modern pagan movements are frequently described on a spectrum ranging from reconstructive, which seeks to revive historical pagan religions; to eclectic movements, which blend elements from various religions and philosophies with historical paganism. Polytheism, animism, and pantheism are common features across pagan theology. Modern pagans can also include atheists, upholding virtues and principles associated with paganism while maintaining a secular worldview. Humanistic, naturalistic, or secular pagans may recognize deities as archetypes or useful metaphors for different cycles of life, or reframe magic as a purely psychological practice.

Hungarian Neopaganism, or the Hungarian Native Faith (Hungarian: Ősmagyar vallás), is a modern Pagan new religious movement aimed at representing an ethnic religion of the Hungarians, inspired by taltosism (Hungarian shamanism), ancient mythology and later folklore. The Hungarian Neopaganism movement has roots in 18th- and 19th-century Enlightenment and Romantic elaborations, and early-20th-century ethnology. The construction of a national Hungarian religion was endorsed in interwar Turanist circles (1930s–1940s), and, eventually, Hungarian Neopagan movements blossomed in Hungary after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The boundaries between Hungarian Neopagan groups often relate to differing beliefs relating to the ethnogenesis of the Hungarians, generally believed to have originated on the Asian Steppe. Some Hungarian Neopaganistic groups sought to reconstruct their native faith based upon contemporary ideas about Scythian, Persian, and Sumerian religions and cultivate Turanist links with Turkic cultures.