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Paper short abstract:

In line with Cowan’s observations on the affinity neopagans hold for cyberspace, this paper focuses on the importance of the digital world in the construction of contemporary Mexican neopaganism.

Paper long abstract:

In line with Cowan’s (2004) observations on the affinity neopagans hold for cyberspace, this paper focuses on the role the digital world plays in the construction of contemporary Mexican neopaganism. The main focus is the internet in general and its function as an anonymous access point into the neopagan field from a mainly Catholic environment where witchcraft and heathenism are still often negatively connotated. Social media platforms like Facebook and “Witch-Toc” as online spaces for transnational exchange of information and experiences as well as digital tools like apps for magic and everyday neopagan practices will also be addressed.

The paper is guided by the question: How do neopagans in the Mexican capital use digital assets for the construction of their religiosities, their interactions with other neopagans around the globe and their religious practice? Based on research data comprising interview material and statistical as well as content-related observations concerning relevant Facebook groups, I will show how the internet had a crucial catalytic effect on the communitarisation and thus the emergence of a neopagan field in Mexico around the year 2000 and how the digital world still influences contemporary neopaganism in the Mexican capital.

Special attention will be paid to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to significant transformations in communication, practice and interaction among neopagans, and has fuelled conceptual changes in the expression of their worldviews and identities. Apart from that, I’ll touch upon emic negotiations that aim to critically reflect on the relation of cyberspace and predominant worldviews in the neopagan field that assume pantheistic or animistic viewpoints and thus underline analogue, experience-based aspects of interaction with the living environment, often framed as overtly opposed to the digital world.