Technopaganism

Technopaganism, as described by Victoria Dos Santos, is "a term encompassing a variety of practices and expressions related to contemporary paganism, popular culture, and spiritual pursuits in digital environments."¹ The Internet, for instance, is considered by some technopagans to have spiritual significance or unique magical applications.²³

Technopaganism is concerned with spiritual and magical aspects of technology and, sometimes, the interconnections between technology and society. Dos Santos classified technopaganism into two types: the first pertains to the adaptation of various neopagan currents to online environments (e.g., via virtual communities or collaborative software), while the second comprises a body of neopagan beliefs and practices greatly influenced by information and communications technology and "deeply merged with cybernetic culture".²

A notable instance of technopagan adaptation of neopagan practices is the creation and distribution of virtual Books of Shadows and sacred texts through the Internet;²⁴ similarly, virtual world platforms such as Second Life and VRChat² are used to connect with others and conduct rituals.⁵

A common element of technopaganism is the adaptation of neopagan beliefs, such as animism, to technology and cyberspace. Dos Santos writes that a fundamental aspect of technopagan animism is "a dialogic relationship with the digital environment itself."² In a 1995 Wired article, technopagan Mark Pesce describes how, upon first using NCSA Mosaic, he realized that the World Wide Web was the first emergent property of the Internet: "It's displaying all the requisite qualities – it came on very suddenly, it happened everywhere simultaneously, and it's self-organizing. I call that the Web eating the Net." He went on to create VRML, with one of his motivations having been to bring about a spatial dimension of the Web.³