Halloween is the holiday that most associate with witches and pagans, but it’s actually one of eight sabbats – or holidays – that pagans celebrate.
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Wiccan fights for religious freedom
DERBY — Make-believe witches may worry most about not getting enough chocolate today. But a real-life witch has her hands full with more pressing matters.
Alicia Folberth, a Wiccan high priestess, has persuaded the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities to review her complaint last June that she was fired, ostensibly because of her need for time off to practice her faith.
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Interview with a witch
Four years ago, OnMilwaukee.com posted the first “Interview with a Witch” segment, and because of its popularity, later created two more segments in the series. Now, the three articles are combined and updated with new information to provide a clear and honest glimpse into the life of a Milwaukee witch. Luna is 36 years old, lives in Bay View and works as an artist and hair stylist. Fifteen years ago she was initiated as a High Priestess, and today, is a part of a small coven.
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Halloween is time to dispel myths for pagans
SALISBURY — When she saw the devil costume in a local store, frustration boiled inside her.
Everything classic about the devil was there, said Morning Dove. There were horns and red makeup, but the pentacle — the symbol of her Wiccan religion — was like a slap in the face.
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All fired up for our celebration of life
Do you believe the original meanings of many festivals have been lost?
THE wheel of the year constantly turning has brought us once more to Hallowe’en, or Samhain (pronounced sow-in), as our Celtic ancestors would have known it.
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Wiccans mark Halloween as start of new year
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — Halloween is an important time for Wiccans, practitioners of a fast-growing polytheistic religion who recognize the day as the start of their new year.
Followers say the holiday, which they call Samhain, is when the veil between the living and dead is the thinnest.
“It’s a time to let those who have passed know we appreciate your time here and want you to know you are not being forgotten,” said Nicole Ross, 19, of West Bloomfield.
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Catherine Sanders on Wicca
Wicca has become incredibly popular in the past ten years,” one witch in Salem, Massachusetts, told Catherine Edwards Sanders, author of Wicca’s Charm : Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality. In her book, Sanders tries to find out just how big Wicca is (you’ll find them in Salem but also in Topeka), what the attraction is, and what others can learn from them.
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Truth or scare? Facts about Wiccan symbols
Wicca devotee Chris Jones wants to clear the air about the symbols of Samhain, or “the night where the veil between life and death is the thinnest.”
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Wiccans bewitched by nature
Allhallow’s Eve, a night of ghosts and goblins kids in costumes, going door to door, yelling “trick or treat,” pumpkins carved into jack-o’-lanterns – this is Halloween.
Wicca is a polytheistic, nature-based religion. I worship a Goddess and a God or one of the many aspects thereof.
Nature has male and female aspects; I believe the gods do, too. The God is a dying and rising God. The Goddess is eternal.
In one aspect, the God represents the grains, fruits and meat we eat. The Goddess is the mother that nurtures us and helps us grow. We celebrate eight Sabbats (holidays):
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Myths about witches: Pagan roots behind Halloween never were meant to be spooky
Like urban legends, the symbols of contemporary Halloween festivities make great theater, but bear little resemblance to their less fanciful origins. Malevolent ghosts, leering jack-o’-lanterns, witches plying the skies atop broomsticks — when it comes to embodying authentic traditions, they’re no more accurate than chocolate bunnies and plastic eggs in mirroring the Christian roots of Easter.
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