{ "model": { "rank": 2218, "code": "thing-q29536", "model_id": "vr.tr.paganism", "name": "paganism", "purpose": "Let an agent describe paganism respectfully and neutrally: distinguish historical religions from contemporary movements, attribute beliefs to adherents, and separate fictional depictions.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q29536/", "tier": 2, "score": 112, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "modern paganism", "Circassian paganism", "Paganism in Middle-earth", "Germanic paganism", "Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism", "Saxon paganism", "Taaraism", "Paganism in modern Russia", "Baltic religion", "Gothic paganism", "Nordic paganism", "Illyrian religion", "Stregoneria", "Slavic religion", "Kemetism", "Finnish Neopaganism", "Celtic Wicca", "Neopaganism in the Czech Republic", "Ata Zholy", "Albanian neopaganism", "Neopaganism in Europe", "Atheopaganism", "Assianism", "Hungarian Native Faith", "Uralic neopaganism", "Caucasian neopaganism", "Neopaganism in Finland", "Estonian Neopaganism", "Roman polytheistic reconstructionism", "Semitic Neopaganism", "Gardnerian Wicca", "Alexandrian Wicca", "Cochrane's Craft", "British Traditional Wicca", "heathenry", "Faery Wicca", "polytheistic reconstructionism", "Christianity and neopaganism", "Solitary practitioner", "Correllian Nativist Tradition" ], "aliasCount": 72, "merged": 72, "knownIn": 112, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q29536", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q29536", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T13:19:14Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q29536", "registryId": "vr.tr.paganism", "name": "paganism", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q29536/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.paganism", "name": "paganism", "purpose": "Let an agent describe paganism respectfully and neutrally: distinguish historical religions from contemporary movements, attribute beliefs to adherents, and separate fictional depictions.", "definition": "A term historically used, often by Christians, for polytheistic and folk religions outside the Abrahamic faiths, such as ancient Germanic, Roman and Circassian religions; today it also names contemporary Pagan movements, such as Heathenry, Wicca, Druidry, Hellenism and Rodnovery, whose adherents use it as a self-designation.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding religious history and contemporary spirituality.", "affordances": [ "distinguish historical and contemporary paganism", "describe beliefs and practices as adherents describe them", "find scholarly sources on ancient religions", "find information for respectful visits to sacred sites" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Umbrella term", "Historical and contemporary senses", "Often polytheistic or nature-centred", "Term was historically pejorative" ], "appearance": "Rituals, festivals, sacred sites, altars and symbols, varying widely between traditions.", "visual_identification": [ "Seasonal festivals such as solstice celebrations", "Varied traditions and symbols", "Fictional paganism in novels is a separate topic" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "ancient European religions", "Heathenry", "Wicca and witchcraft traditions", "Druidry", "reconstructionist and ethnic movements such as Rodnovery" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "religion", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "Wicca", "why": "example" }, { "relation": "is studied by", "target": "religious studies", "why": "field" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "folk religion", "why": "related concept" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Freedom of religion provisions", "Heritage protection for sacred sites" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Presenting beliefs as facts or as fiction", "Using pagan as a pejorative", "Confusing movements with extremist misappropriation of symbols" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "senses", "name": "Senses", "description": "Historical or contemporary.", "rationale": "Senses differ.", "layers": [ { "id": "historical", "name": "Historical", "description": "Ancient religions.", "findings": [ { "id": "historical-finding", "name": "Historical", "description": "Historical religions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is an ancient religion meant, and what do historians and archaeologists know about it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How reliable are the sources?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "contemporary", "name": "Contemporary", "description": "Modern movements.", "findings": [ { "id": "contemporary-finding", "name": "Contemporary", "description": "Contemporary movements.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a contemporary Pagan movement meant, and how do its adherents describe it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "When did it emerge?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "practice", "name": "Practice", "description": "Beliefs and festivals.", "rationale": "Beliefs are attributed.", "layers": [ { "id": "beliefs", "name": "Beliefs", "description": "Core beliefs.", "findings": [ { "id": "beliefs-finding", "name": "Beliefs", "description": "Beliefs.", "questions": [ { "text": "What beliefs do adherents of this tradition hold, according to them?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Do traditions differ?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "festivals", "name": "Festivals", "description": "Seasonal festivals.", "findings": [ { "id": "festivals-finding", "name": "Festivals", "description": "Festivals.", "questions": [ { "text": "When are festivals such as solstices or sabbats celebrated?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Are public events open to visitors?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "respect", "name": "Respect", "description": "Neutral handling.", "rationale": "Respect adherents.", "layers": [ { "id": "language", "name": "Language", "description": "Terminology.", "findings": [ { "id": "language-finding", "name": "Language", "description": "Terminology.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the community use Pagan as a self-designation or prefer another name?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the term used respectfully?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "symbols", "name": "Symbols", "description": "Misappropriation.", "findings": [ { "id": "symbols-finding", "name": "Symbols", "description": "Misappropriated symbols.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a symbol used by adherents also misused by extremist groups, according to monitoring bodies?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How should the distinction be explained?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "senses-fiction", "name": "Fiction", "description": "Disambiguation.", "rationale": "Fiction is separate.", "layers": [ { "id": "fiction", "name": "Fiction", "description": "Fictional religions.", "findings": [ { "id": "fiction-finding", "name": "Fiction", "description": "Fictional sense.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a fictional religion in a novel or game meant?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which entry fits?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "sites", "name": "Sites", "description": "Sacred sites.", "findings": [ { "id": "sites-finding", "name": "Sites", "description": "Sacred sites.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which sacred sites are used today, and what access rules apply?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can visitors behave respectfully?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each tradition be a separate entry?", "How should self-designations be recorded?", "How should fictional depictions be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a paganism, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent describe paganism respectfully and neutrally: distinguish historical religions from contemporary movements, attribute beliefs to adherents, and separate fictional depictions.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: modern paganism, Circassian paganism, Paganism in Middle-earth, Germanic paganism, Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism, Saxon paganism, Taaraism, Paganism in modern Russia, Baltic religion, Gothic paganism, Nordic paganism, Illyrian religion.", "72 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 112 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a paganism, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "modern paganism", "Circassian paganism", "Paganism in Middle-earth", "Germanic paganism", "Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism", "Saxon paganism", "Taaraism", "Paganism in modern Russia", "Baltic religion", "Gothic paganism", "Nordic paganism", "Illyrian religion" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 112 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 72 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one paganism from another, and a paganism from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a paganism sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a paganism from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a paganism passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a paganism between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a paganism, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a paganism is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a paganism.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a paganism and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a paganism, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a paganism and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a paganism sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What paganism is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does paganism take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of paganism, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in paganism and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of paganism may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does paganism have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a paganism came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a paganism and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a paganism is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a paganism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a paganism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a paganism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }