Editing Modern paganism (section)

===Relationship with the New Age movement===
{{Main|Modern paganism and New Age}}
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote="Neopagan practices highlight the centrality of the relationship between humans and nature and reinvent religions of the past, while New Agers are more interested in transforming individual consciousness and shaping the future."|source=— Religious studies scholar Sarah Pike.{{sfn|Pike|2004|p=18}} }}

Since the 1960s and 1970s, contemporary paganism, or neo-paganism, and the then emergent [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]], [[New Age]], and [[hippie]] movements experienced a degree of [[Trans-cultural diffusion|cross-pollination]].{{Sfn|Hunt|2003|pp=147–148}} An issue of academic debate has been regarding the connection between these movements. Religious studies scholar Sarah Pike asserted that in the United States, there was a "significant overlap" between [[modern paganism and New Age]],{{sfn|Pike|2004|p=vii}} while [[Aidan A. Kelly]] stated that paganism "parallels the New Age movement in some ways, differs sharply from it in others, and overlaps it in some minor ways".{{sfn|Kelly|1992|p=136}} Ethan Doyle White stated that while the pagan and New Age movements "do share commonalities and overlap", they were nevertheless "largely distinct phenomena."{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=9}}
Hanegraaff suggested that whereas various forms of contemporary paganism were not part of the New Age movement – particularly those who pre-dated the movement – other pagan religions and practices could be identified as New Age.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|1996|p=78}} Various differences between the two movements have been highlighted; the New Age movement focuses on an improved future, whereas the focus of Paganism is on the pre-Christian past.{{sfn|Kelly|1992|p=138}} Similarly, the New Age movement typically propounds a universalist message which sees all religions as fundamentally the same, whereas paganism stresses the difference between monotheistic religions and those embracing a polytheistic or animistic theology.{{sfn|Kelly|1992|p=138}} Further, the New Age movement shows little interest in [[magic (paranormal)|magic]] and [[witchcraft]], which are conversely core interests of pagan religions such as [[Wicca]].{{sfn|Kelly|1992|p=138}}

Many pagans have sought to distance themselves from the New Age movement, even using "New Age" as an insult within their community, while conversely many involved in the New Age have expressed criticism of paganism for emphasizing the material world over the spiritual.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=9}}
Many pagans have expressed criticism of the high fees charged by New Age teachers, something not typically present in the pagan movement.{{sfn|Kelly|1992|p=139}}