The success of the new Harry Potter movie will no doubt have some Christian parents wringing their hands.

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LOOKING FOR GOD IN HARRY POTTER – Jeremy Reynalds

It’s a good time to be a witch, says a Costa Mesa wife, mom and author of ‘The Enchanted Diary.’

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Life – Spellbound

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By Liz Chretien

So what does a practicing Wiccan have to say about all the stereotyping, assumptions and criticisms?

“It’s very sad that people have such polarized views about this series,” says Maria Kay Simms, a Kensington resident, Wiccan high priestess, and Harry Potter fan who has been practicing Wicca since 1987. “These people are confusing a Halloween secular idea with a spiritual path that has nothing to do with it.”

Simms says she reads about opposition every time a new book or movie comes out. “A lot of the objectors are fundamentalist Christians who don’t understand what they are objecting to.”

Simms, also an astrologer and published author, began her study of Wicca with the Covenant of the Goddess Group in San Diego in 1987 after experimenting with many different spiritual paths, including Catholicism. She prefers to keep a low profile with her beliefs here in New Hampshire, largely because of some of the criticisms Wiccans draw from those who, she says, are uneducated or closed-minded.

“It’s very inaccurate, first to compare Wiccans to the characters in Harry Potter, and secondly to say that the books teach Wicca to children,” she says. “It is sad that people let their ignorance of what they think they are against be directed at this series when the correlation clearly isn’t there.”

The fact that the books mainly take place in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry brings a “knee-jerk reaction” from protesters, according to Simms. But she notes that Halloween is never mentioned anywhere in the book, while the students celebrate Christmas each year.

“People make a big issue about Halloween, but the secular customs of most holidays are pagan,” Simms says, adding that Wiccans celebrate Samhein (pronounced Sow-wen) around the time of Halloween to honor those who have passed over and the end of the earth cycle.

Simms says there is no religion anywhere in the Harry Potter series. “No one should fear kids reading these books,” she says. “There is no religion apparent in the book at all, no mention of the god or goddess, and nothing in the Muggle (non-witch) community regarding Christianity either. The books do have a very magical quality about them, however, as it is a series that induced a lot of children to read in an electronic generation.”

Simms adds that she reads all the books and takes her grandchildren to see the movies when they are released. “I don’t believe (author) J.K. Rowling had any deliberate motivation about what she did in these books. She has a wonderful way with words, and I was so impressed with the books from the first one on, even before the description of Hogwarts,” she says. “I suspect those who complain haven’t even read the books and are just reacting to the idea.”

Simms says she believes that parents worrying about their children looking to another religion should first look to their own practices. “A lot of times, kids turning to other religions is not about an attraction but a discomfort or dissatisfaction of the religion they’re in,” she says. “In the case of the books, parents should not withhold that privilege from them. Reading Harry Potter wouldn’t discourage kids from the religion their parents are teaching them.”

Still, a feeling of disappointment resonates with Simms over the controversy. “I don’t feel anger when I hear the comparisons, I just think it’s regrettable that some deprive their kids of reading inspirational writing. I imagine things like this encourage creativity, and this is a time when creativity is needed in kids.”

Simms says she fully intends to see “Goblet of Fire” when it is released, and she plans to take her grandchildren. “I’ve seen the evidence of positive influence these stories have had on my granddaughter,” she says. “I urge parents to read the books themselves so they can see if there is any religion. But these books will be classics. I don’t volunteer to argue with people, but I would try to convince them that there is nothing to worry about in ‘Harry Potter.’”

Hampton Union Currents: Practicing Wiccan says Harry Potter series is not about religion

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By LEE ARNOLD

Considering how far off it was, I started reading more into the horoscopes on the page trying to figure out when I should have been born. It turns out I shouldn’t have been born at all, if you believe the horoscope writers. I just didn’t fit in anywhere.

The attributes of every sign were cheery, bubbly and reeked of optimism.

For examples those born in the sign of Aries are “enthusiastic, alert, outspoken, strong-willed and creative.”

Those under Taurus are “practical, methodical, determined, patient, honest dependable and a good team player.” Leos are “spontaneous, gregarious, independent and born to lead.”

Even those under the sign of Cancer, perhaps the worst name for an astrological sign ever, are “imaginative, dramatic, philosophical, nurturing and protective.”

Where are the dim-witted, anti-social, careless, impatient, loud-mouthed dregs of society supposed to fit in? I have never, ever, read a horoscope that told the truth.

Just one day, I want to get up, read the paper and read something that says, “SAGITARIUS (Nov. 11-Dec. 21) — Today is going to suck just as much as yesterday and tomorrow will likely be no better. Your attitude toward life is your main problem, and it makes the people around you hate you. You would be better off if you moved away and started over in some country where the people don’t even speak English, because the words that come out of your mouth are so mean spirited that you will never get ahead in this society. Your rotten teeth are a perfect match for your soul. We sincerely hope you like the heat, because once you leave this lifetime, you are going to have quite a while to swelter in a lake of fire with all of your so-called friends.”

Now that’s a horoscope that hits close to home, as I’m sure it does for a whole lot of other people out there. It even points out the fact that I am going to go to Hell for reading my horoscope. You can’t beat that kind of honesty. I don’t even get that from my tarot cards when I play with them every Friday night after my Wicca meeting with the fine folks at the Order of the Rising Phoenix (Just kidding of course. I need to clarify that so I don’t get burned at the stake while roaming around the county one night. Then again, it could be true. I’m not going to say for sure. That’s just how mean spirited I am.)

My point is that we are not all happy, cheery and bubbling over with optimism.

Many of us, like me, look at life through spray painted sunglasses. We really don’t want to see what’s going on out there because we know it’s bad and it’s just too darn depressing.

We curl up on the couch, watch a schedule of television shows that does not contain news broadcasts, and try our best to block out the rest of the world.

I think the writers of horoscopes need to take that more into consideration when writing this crap to be published in newspapers and web sites all over the nation.

For all you Capricorns with your “rock-solid, dependable, responsible, highly organized, goal-oriented, logical and clever,” attitudes, there are thousands of us “irresponsible, unorganized, not-so-bright people who still eat paste straight from the jar like when they were in kindergarten,” people out here trying our best to just live until we have to die.

For the record, the writer of the horoscope claimed that I would be best suited for a career in sales, public relations, social administration or theology. I can’t imagine anything that could be any more distant from the truth.

I think I would be best suited for a career in property repossessions, law, sports event referee, drug enforcement agent (never a welcomed sight at the party), the guy who works for the government who tells people that the their land is being taken for the greater good of the community, and bowling pin setter.

You might have noticed that first jobs in that list are those that inspire hatred and feelings of ill will. The bowling pin setter was added just because that’s about all of the job skills I really possess — the ability to make self standing objects stand upright.

But alas, the horoscope writer apparently never thought of those professions for me. So once, again I am left confused, bewildered and straight up verklempt at where I am in life and just where it is I’m supposed to be going.

Thanks for the help guys.

The Lincoln Journal Online – Lee Arnold – Lair of the Poison Pen

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By Doug Pifer
11/17/2005

Witch hazel is a small tree found in rich woods, often along stream banks or rocky hillsides. Like the dogwood, it’s an understory tree, preferring to grow in the shade of taller trees rather than in sunny spots. Throughout the summer it’s easily ignored, with rounded, coarsely lobed, irregular shaped leaves on zigzaggy twigs. It’s the sort of tree I would naturally brush aside while looking for something else.

About the time most trees drop their seeds and start to shed their leaves, witch hazel comes into its own. By the time most of its own leaves have turned yellow and brown or fallen off, witch-hazel breaks into flower. Tiny four-sided buds break open, and almost overnight clumps of stringy petals pop out, in clusters of four, like bursts of yellow fireworks on the bare twigs. Up close the strap-like petals look like twisted strips of yellow crepe paper at a party. Against the gray background of the November woods, the modest witch hazel becomes spectacular.

This month witch hazel has another surprise. Further back from the flowers, clusters of brown, nut-like capsules about the size of jellybeans. Warmed by the dry, Indian-summer sun, they suddenly split in two. forcefully propelling their two shiny black seeds for a distance of up to 20 feet.

Many years ago while a student at Penn State I stopped for lunch during a hike along a wooded ridge in Centre County, Pa. Dozing for a moment on the warm October afternoon, I was startled awake by what I thought was stray shot from a grouse hunter’s gun. Looking around I discovered a witch hazel tree nearby. I’d been “shot” by its exploding seed capsules. Witch hazel’s late flowering and its ability to shoot its seeds explosively out of their capsules have resulted in the alternate names, winter bloom and snapping hazel.

Although the blooms and seeds show up around Halloween, its name isn’t about witches or witchcraft. The “witch” in witch-hazel is believed to come from writh, an Old English word for turning or twisting, and not from wicca meaning witch or wizard. The word goes back to the ancient art of divining or witching, which is almost unknown today.

In the old days in Britain and in Europe, if landowners wanted to know just where to drill for water or minerals, they often consulted a respectable practitioner of this almost occult art. A diviner would walk along holding a Y-shaped witch-hazel stick by its forked ends, with the tip parallel to the ground. The tip of the rod was supposed to “witch” or twist earthward at the point it detected whatever the diviner was seeking underground. In the 1800s in America, witching for water was well known to prospectors and pioneers in the arid western states, but these tough minded folks were suspicious by nature and the practice had taken on a bad reputation by then. In recent times it’s been dismissed as folklore or superstition. Nowadays the closest thing you’ll see to divining is the metal detector.

An ancient herbal tonic, witch hazel remains a popular household remedy. The witch-hazel you buy at the drug store is still the real thing and not a synthetic chemical compound: a clear extract of witch-hazel bark, twigs and leaves mixed with alcohol and distilled water. Medicinally it’s an astringent, which means it draws soft tissues together or puckers. Native Americans recognized this property and used witch-hazel externally for rheumatism and fever and internally for hemorrhoids and menstrual cramps.

Witch hazel can be applied directly to the skin at room temperature to relieve aching muscles, heated on a steamed towel to sooth bruises and strains, or on a cold compress to relieve symptoms of fever. Witch hazel extract is also an important ingredient in certain after-shave lotions.

Witch hazel is also cultivated as a decorative shrub that grows 5-15 feet high. Varieties with reddish or orange blossoms, and even one that blooms in spring, are available. .

Doug Pifer is an artist and writer with Rainbird Studios in White Post.

Times Community Newspapers – Local News – 11/17/2005 – Yellow flowers in the woods
wicca

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Planters and migrants arriving in 17th century Ulster brought a belief in the existence of witches which had gripped the Lowlands of Scotland – echoing the witchcraft panics of mainland Europe.

As time passed, however, and arguably through a determination not to relive the impassioned atmosphere of Scotland’s witch-hunts, Presbyterian clerics may have adopted a more sensible attitude towards the investigation of supposed witchcraft here, said Dr Ó Catháin.

“Witches – or, more properly, suspected witches – were Public Enemy Number One in Scotland for much of the 17th century. Accusations of witchcraft became fairly widespread,” said Dr Ó Catháin, a research associate with the Magee-based Institute of Ulster Scots Studies.

“There was a whole catalogue of beliefs attaching to people who were suspected of witchcraft. The reality is that they tended to be people who ‘didn’t fit in’. All too often they were the people of the margins. The classic suspects were the poor, the ugly and the old, though the wealthy were also occasionally accused.”

Research into trials and church-investigations is hampered by a lack of original sources, in particular the relative absence of 17th century Irish judicial records, many of which were destroyed by fire along with other historical manuscripts in the Four Courts, Dublin in 1922.

He has traced important information relating to Ulster in minutes of Sessions of the Presbyterian Church and also through contemporary decuments

“There is plenty of evidence that there was a fairly widespread belief in the presence of witchcraft, but there was a lack of prosecutions – so far as we know. Evidence about that comes from Session Minutes. Predominantly, whatever convictions took place appear to have been in County Antrim, although other Ulster counties were also involved.

The biggest known mass-trial involved eight defendants, mainly from Islandmagee, who were tried in Carrickfergus in 1711. A girl had claimed to have been bewitched by local women. Since she did not die, convicted defendants were given the standard sentence for non-lethal witchcraft – one year’s imprisonment along and standing in the stocks four times. One woman lost an eye when hit by an object thrown as she stood in the stocks.

In 1698, a woman was tried for witchcraft in Co Antrim after a child to whom she had give a leaf of sorrel became ill and suffered various fits.

“The ‘witch’ was tried, convicted, strangled and burned. It was apparently thought that the child was going to die, but she was still alive when the execution happened,” Dr Ó Catháin explained.

Concern about witchcraft arose in Ireland generally later than the rest of Europe, which in the 16th century was also swept by the political-legal-religious turmoil of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic counter-reformation.

James, a Protestant who became King James VI of Scotland and King James I of England), married Anne of Denmark (a Lutheran who later became a Catholic in 1589. A rough sea crossing which had endangered his ship on the way home after the marriage, and early difficulties in securing the marriage, sparked his worries that Scottish witchcraft might be to blame. He ordered investigations.

A series of prosecutions culminated in the first major witchcraft trial of (1590-91 in the north Berwick area, not far from Edinburgh. Some were convicted and hanged. Several 17th century Scottish “witches” were burned, although hanging was the usual execution method.

In a European climate of demonology, witchcraft was often seen as the root cause of happenings which, in those days, lacked explanation; a death, an illness, a psychological condition, or even a change in the weather, Dr Ó Catháin said.
University of Ulster Online – News Release