This is exciting.  The fact that Pagans are featured in news articles around the country more and more is a wonderful thing, generally, but the articles are not always particularly accurate or favorable.  That's why it's such a delight to see a well-researched, well-balanced, truly educational feature article.  The fact that I have participated in rituals with this particular group makes it all the more exciting to me.  (Unfortunately, they are an inconvenient distance away, so it's rare that I can participate in person.)

Anyway, following is the article.  I hope you enjoy it.

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Pagan followers fight misconceptions, slowly gain acceptance

By: Gary Warth, Staff Writer

The start of summer means shorts, swimsuits, Hawaiian shirts and sunscreen. And, for some, hooded black robes and pentagrams.

The robes, five-pointed stars and drums no doubt attracted a few stares when they were spotted by beachgoers admiring the sunset on the first Friday of summer last week in Oceanside.

They weren't Satanists, a bizarre suicide cult or even a gothic performance group, but the misconception wouldn't be surprising. They were pagans, possibly the most misunderstood ---- and fastest-growing ---- religion in the country, gathered to celebrate Litha, the summer solstice, one of its eight high holy days.

"Basically, everything you can say about us, the witch stuff and scary stuff about us casting spells on people, is a bunch of garbage," said San Marcos resident William Eade, a high priest and national director of the First Celtic Wiccan Church Inc., a federally recognized nonprofit church since 1994.

Eade, 77, has been Wiccan for 40 years and said his church is among about 20 pagan groups in the county and the only federally recognized nonprofit one with a local headquarters. About a half dozen groups are in North County, he said.

Wicca is a pagan religion, an umbrella term that applies to ancient, earth-centered belief in a number of gods or an understanding of God outside of Christianity, Judaism or Islam definitions.

Paganism itself is hard to define, said Tamara Szewczyk, 29, head of the San Diego chapter of the Pagan Pride Project, which started in 1997 with a mission statement to "foster pride in Pagan identity through education, activism, charity and community."

"Your basic term is somebody who worships more than one deity, and their religious practice is around that," she said. "It tends to be pre-Christian. It could be shamanic. It could be magical. It could be communing with Mother Earth."

Wiccans and pagans have no central religious authority and no shared text, but do share a common creed to "Do what you will, an it harm none." Some followers worship in groups called covens, but many practice their religion alone.

As with other faiths, paganism has a range of denominations. Generally, they emphasize nature, worship gods and goddesses, and do not believe in demons or Satan.

New followers, old beliefs

While paganism is rooted in ancient beliefs, followers today often are called Neopagans, which emerged in the last 40 years and follow reconstructed practices of the Druids, Celts, pre-Christian Norse, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians and other civilizations. Wiccans alone may be classified as Alexandrian, Gardnerian, Eclectic or other denominations.

While the number of Wiccans nationally is small compared with other faiths, it is by some standards the fastest-growing religion in the country. According to the American Religious Identification Survey conducted in 2001 by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Wiccans grew from 8,000 to 134,000 in 11 years, roughly a 16-fold increase.

Eade suspects the number is even higher and believes that for every vocal Wiccan there are five more quiet about their beliefs.

The religion also is slowly gaining mainstream acceptance. Wiccan characters have appeared on network television series, the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans has 70 chapters in 36 states, Fort Hood in Texas has allowed soldiers to practice Wiccan ceremonies since 1999, and 117 Pagan Pride events are scheduled nationally for this year, including one in Balboa Park on Sept. 17.

In other cirlces, pagans still face open discrimination. The Fort Hood decision sparked strong protests from some conservative Christians and Republicans, including then-governor George W. Bush, who told ABC News that witchcraft is not a religion and the military should rethink its decision.

In Indianapolis last month, a judge's ruling on a custody case prohibited a couple from exposing their child to their Wiccan beliefs.

Not Satanists

Tamara Szewczyk said she has never had any negative experiences because of her religion, and thinks that some people may confuse pagans with Satanists because both use a five-pointed star symbol.

"The First Church of Satan uses the inverted pentagram for their beliefs," she said. The pagan pentacle has a point on top and symbolizes earth, air, fire and water, with the top point symbolizing the spirit.

"It's a symbol that's as sacred to us as the crucifix is to Catholics," she said.

Szewczyk, who lives in Hemet with her husband, said she was raised as a Baptist until she was 12, when she began questioning her church.

"The whole fire-and-brimstone thing didn't make sense to me," she said. "I started asking questions, and I didn't get satisfactory answers. I started doing my own research at the library. My parents weren't happy with it at the time."

Szewczyk kept her beliefs to herself until about three years ago. "I finally realized I'm an adult and I can pretty much follow my own path," she said. "I started to seek others in the community."

She since has become active in the Pagan Pride Project, which attracted 200 people to its Balboa Park event and collected food and cash for the San Diego Food Bank and Project Wildlife last year.

"Personally, I don't really see a God as Christianity defines it," she said. "I see a source of energy I really can't explain. I recognize balance in everything, a male aspect and a female aspect."

While pagans are non-Christians, Szewczyk said she has no problem with Christianity.

"I think we're all trying to get to the same place, but taking a different road," she said.

Networking pagans

Carlsbad resident Ryan Smith, 20, is one of 220 members of the Yahoo group Networking North County Coastal Pagan, which helped organize Friday's ceremony on the beach in Oceanside.

"One reason we sponsor events like this is to make it easier for people to come together," Smith said. "I've noticed Wiccan churches exist, but for the most part, official organizations are usually the exception rather than the rule in the pagan community. Most pagans I talk with are by and large very independent-minded individuals."

Smith said he was drawn to paganism because of its emphasis on honor and self-worth.

"It's tied heavily into integrity and how one carries himself," he said. "It's valued on what kind of person you are."

Rather than a list of "thou-shalt-nots," Smith said pagan religions focus on virtues, such as the Celtic ideals of honor, duty and truth.

With so many variations and so few groups to attend, people interested in the religion turn to Internet groups like Yahoo or Meetup.com, the Web site WitchVox.com or even the New Age section of local bookstores.

"I will say there are some very good, very informative in-depth books out there, but you really have to sift through a lot that is commercially available, because there's a lot that is repetitive and doesn't present anything that's useful," Smith said.

Belief in an afterlife

Many pagans believe in an afterlife, reincarnation, karma and fate.

"There is no belief of an absolute good or evil," Smith said. "Not that there's no morality, but there's no evil trying to tempt us or an absolute good trying to save us. It's believed the gods gave us free will."

Some pagans believe gods are a human way to understand the divine forces beyond our realm of understanding, while others believe gods are actually deities.

"The divine is inherent in all things," Smith said. "Divine has masculine and feminine sides to it. The way they see it is that different gods are different aspects of those feminine and masculine aspects."

Wiccans also believe in magic and followers often are called witches, which has added to the religion's occult image, Eade said.

"We don't usually call ourselves witches, but we technically are," Eade said. "Basically, it means 'the wise ones.' We knew about herbs. We knew about healing. We knew about the nature of things, like the times to plant, times to harvest."

Eade's First Celtic Wiccan Church meets every two weeks at his home. About 18 people attend, and although there is an altar at Eade's house, the sessions are more about teaching than worshipping.

Despite all the differences between mainstream and pagan beliefs, Eade said there are similarities. Yes, Wiccans have what they call "magical names," but they don't use them to hide their identities, rather to help commune with the gods.

"Like when this last gentleman became pope, he changed his name," Eade said. "We use a magical name in the circle for connection with the gods and goddesses. We do it for the same reason the Pope does: for access to the gods."

Pagans and Christians also share a belief in their faith's power to heal and protect. Some Christian church groups make prayer quilts, which are given to those in need of comfort and healing. Eade's church plans to make "protection packets" filled with herbs, which they will send to service members stationed in Iraq.

"The magic we do basically comes from within," Eade said. "It's not a matter of hocus-pocus type magic. We do healing. We pass energy to people who need the strength. It's basically the same thing that Christians call laying on of hands."

Eade even sees a Christian comparison in spell-casting.

"What's a spell, basically?" he said. "If you pray, isn't that a spell? You're asking for something. We call on our god or goddess for help, and we'll send off our message to them. They will generally do what's best for us, not necessarily what we ask for us. As far as doing spells to harm someone, that's against our basic principles, which is to harm no one."

Source article with pictures is __here__.

-- Edited by Silverweb at 19:28, 2005-07-03