JOURNAL of Religious Studies in Paganism Esotericism and Magic vol. 1 nr. 1, 2026

The Journal of Religious Studies in Paganism, Esotericism, and Magic is a peer-reviewed venue for historical, anthropological, and comparative scholarship on contemporary and historical Pagan movements, Western esotericism, and magical practice. The journal treats these traditions as legitimate objects of academic inquiry within religious studies and intellectual history, examining them through the same critical, source-based methods applied to any other field of religion, rather than through either polemical dismissal or practitioner advocacy.

Its scope spans contemporary Paganism and nature religion (Wicca, Druidry, Heathenry, and related reconstructionist movements); the history and theory of Western esotericism, including Hermeticism, Christian Kabbalah, and Renaissance occult philosophy; the historical and anthropological study of ceremonial and ritual magic, from the nineteenth-century occult revival to contemporary Chaos Magic; and shamanism and neo-shamanism as categories of comparative religion. The journal welcomes work grounded in history, anthropology, sociology of religion, philology, and the history of science, and is particularly interested in scholarship that examines how these traditions negotiate questions of authenticity, tradition, legitimacy, and their relationship to modernity and secularization.

The journal publishes original research articles, critical review essays, and archival or source-based studies. Submissions are expected to meet standard academic conventions of argumentation, citation, and engagement with existing scholarship; the journal does not publish devotional, instructional, or advocacy material.