Why do you think most Europeans are not into native euro spiritual tradtions

[violathesiren]

Is it because of the long influence of Christianity? like everywhere I go the spiritual people I meet are into eastern spirituality, India etc. or Buddhism etc. Or anything not European. They have never pondered their ancestral European tradtions, or looked into their ancestry, or learnt the folklore or myths of their own cultures.

[Animal]

I think you've answered your own question. It's probably a mixture of Christianity demonising it and the popularity of eastern religion.

[Altair]

Christianity was an alien religion from the Middle-East. Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and also Akhnaton's one god-cult in Egypt (the sun god) are monotheistic and views the world as made for humans. Native European religion is polytheistic; Greek (Roman), Celtic, Germanic/Nordic, Slavic. And there's a place for nature spirits of all kinds.

It was part of the 'mission' of Christian missionaries to eradicate what they called 'paganism'. For example, they started chopping down ancient oak trees to make their point. Over time and generations, people forgot the old ways and were brought up under Christianity. Of course it greatly helped that Christianity was brought by the southerners that could read and write ((faster communication than runes)), and had more material wealth. The religion became that of the rulers and they could force their people to convert. Within the Empire there were other reasons for Christianity's gain, such as Constantine's conversion.

So there were different reasons for different places and time periods. 'Paganism' is also very broad, after all it's a general term for all non-Abrahamic religion. Within Europe you had the very formal and urban cults in the south, and more savage nature traditions in the north.

[Animal]

Thank you Altair, that's interesting.

[ArcticWolf]

The reason number one is probably that Paganism is a later arrival, it's on the raise and will likely get more popular over the next few decades but only a few decades ago, the only people interested in paganism were the Norweigian church - burning satanists and Neo-Nazis, so there is a bit of a baggage from the past, you know. In mainstream imagination in Northern Europe, paganism has been often associated with satanism and nazism because the Nazis were big promoters of pre-Christian paganism and that has carried over to the Neo-Nazi movements after them.

I think that in shaping the religious landscape, the introduction of Yoga and Eastern martial arts have played a role in modern Europe. Martial arts and Yoga serve as easy mainstream-culture stepping stones for people to get familiar with the Eastern traditions. By contrast, for the old European pagan traditions there is no comparable stepping stone in the mainstream culture.

The cultural impact of Eastern martial arts have been outsized compared to the actual number of people who practice them: The Shaolin monk and the Karate Kid - types have become very well known figures in fiction and they have inspired a sense of respect and admiration for East Asians that has made lots of people welcoming for those cultures more generally, including their religions.

[snowyowl]

Western Europe was thoroughly Christianised in the late Roman and 'dark ages' and a lot of the Pagan archaeological record was destroyed, lost or built over by the Churches. It was more of an oral tradition than the more written culture of Christianity (inherited I guess from its Jewish parent). But traces are still there in language, place names etc.

After several decades following eastern spirituality I'm getting interested in paganism myself: mainly Heathenry, also Druidry to a lesser extent. Due to the cultural and environmental resonance which they hold for me; eastern traditions do hold a lot of universal human wisdom yet they always felt 'foreign' to me, a feeling which never went away after such a long time. Same with Christianity too I'd say, even though it's been embedded in my country for the best part of 1500 years; it never shrugged off its middle eastern geographical references to became properly rooted in the local landscape here in England, at least for me.

Pagan religions also have a tribal foundation (all over the world not just in Europe), so the sense of community and kinship is a part of the appeal, as our society continues to lose its community.