The Wiccan Family Temple

                                

                                 Witching Hour In America

 

BY LENORE SKENAZY
April 25, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/53141

Praise the Goddess and pass the magical candle — the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs has finally recognized the Wicca religion.

You've heard of the Wiccans, right? They're the group perhaps 700,000 strong in this country who sometimes call themselves witches — but sometimes don't. They believe in the power of the seasons, the Goddess of the earth, and the United States of America, which some of them even died for. Until Monday, however, none of these vets were allowed to be officially buried under the Wiccan symbol, the pentacle — a five-pointed star inside a circle.

After a 10-year fight, the VA finally relented, agreeing to add the pentacle to its list of 38 other approved religious symbols, including an atom for atheists.

Leaving aside the question of why a country founded on religious freedom would even make a list of "approved religions" (what are we, China?), how did this breakthrough finally come to pass?

Simple, Wiccan High Priestess (and Bronx shopkeeper) Lady Rhea said: Magic.

"There have been thousands of spells done" to make the VA come around, the Lady R, reached at the Magickal Realms botanica on Webster Avenue, said. "Everyone's been doing a lot of magical operations to get them to agree that we have our constitutional rights."

The fruits of these spells could not have come at a more propitious moment, as this weekend is Beltane, one of the two highest holidays in the Wiccan religion (the other being Samhain, a.k.a. Halloween).

Beltane in the Park, an event taking place this Saturday(error: Sunday) at the Central Park dairy, has already received 300 RSVPs, according to its organizer, a Brooklyn Wiccan named Starr.

"It's supposed to be on the eve of May, but we're doing it on Saturday because of everyone's work schedule," Starr said. Activities include dancing ‘round the Maypole — an age-old fertility rite (think: pole) — and a purifying ritual called "jumping the cauldron." Traditionally, one jumps over a cauldron brimming with fire, Starr said. For safety purposes, "We're using a plastic cauldron."

There will be incense inside it.  There will be a line to jump it.

"Wicca has exploded in the last 10 to 15 years," the author of the Goddess classic "Drawing Down the Moon," Margo Adler, said. "There's even a military pagan network." And yet she sounds a little wistful remembering the religion's earlier, struggling days.

"When I got involved about 35 years ago, you went to the library to find out about groups," Ms. Adler said. You were lucky if there was one near you. "Now you can go on witchvox.com and if you're Irish you can find a Celtic group, or an Italian one with a strega background." At big Wiccan shindigs there's often a "teen tent" (where the kids probably talk about how square their parents are). Pagan Pride events are popping up all over. And Alcoholic Wiccans can join a Pagan AA.

Wicca is the next yoga.

For all that, the religion is still widely distrusted, in good part because many confuse it with devil worship — something Wiccans never practiced, except in B-movies. To fight such disinformation, Laurie Cabot formed the witchcraft equivalent of the Anti-Defamation League.

"We have an organization here in Salem called the Witches Public Awareness League," Ms. Cabot said. She is the Official Witch of Salem — thus proclaimed by Governor Dukakis. As the founder of the WPAL, she campaigns for Wiccan civil rights. In particular, she hopes to raise awareness of the prejudice that still meets many Wiccans in the courtroom, where judges have decided custody suits against them because of their religion.

Unfortunately, there is still no spell against prejudice that has proved 100% effective. But Brooklyn's Starr has concocted one potion that is almost as sought after.

"I have an incense and oil to try to get rid of parking tickets," she said. "It worked a little bit. I got a couple less tickets."

Share that with the world and Wiccans will not only be tolerated, they will be worshipped.

 AND  

Links to a Charmed Halloween Event 2006  http://www.charmedbystarr.com/free/press/bcckingsman1.htm 

Longest Day of the Year; Few Notice

At precisely 7:59 p.m. on Friday in New York, a momentous celestial event, one that has been celebrated around the planet for thousands of years, officially arrived.

Skip to next paragraph Summer began, or in astronomical terms, the sun reached its highest point in the sky, marking the summer solstice and the longest day of the year, which means more sunlight. In ancient times, Egyptians heralded the event as the start of the New Year. Native Indians held elaborate ceremonies. And the Celts, always up for a party, danced and lighted bonfires to add to the sun’s energy.

So how did New Yorkers handle their moment, or in this case, their day, in the sun? There were no citywide celebrations, no public rituals to the gods, and according to a spokesman for the Fire Department, no bonfires to speak of. Many New Yorkers noticed the extra sunlight but were unaware of its significance.

As the clock struck 7:59 p.m., the sun fell behind a patch of clouds like a white peach, and Steve Simon, an organizational psychologist, stopped for a moment at 132nd Street and 12th Avenue in Upper Manhattan with his eyes pointed toward the Hudson River. He appeared to be taking in the gravity of the event, but soon confessed.  “I did forget it was the longest day of the year,” he said.  He was not outside reflecting on the seasons, he said, but merely waiting for his wife to finish her shopping at the Fairway .

At that precise moment, a borough away in Long Island City, Queens, Elena Kim, 27, appeared to be celebrating at the Water Taxi Beach, an outdoor bar on the East River. But on this day of maximum sunlight, she, too, was slightly in the dark.  “I knew today was the first day of summer only because my secretary told me so,” she said. Her date for the evening, David Turley, 30, said they were there primarily for the view, not the solstice. “I’m more excited about the weather,” he said.

Michael Walker, a spokesman for the American Museum of Natural History, said even the Hayden Planetarium had no special events planned to mark the occasion. And Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, the curator-in-charge with the museum’s astrophysics department, was out of town in Germany — on nonsolstice-related business.

But New Yorkers who let the occasion slip by without the fanfare of centuries past could be forgiven. The idea that summer begins on the solstice is a modern one. Many people and cultures have long considered the event not the start of summer, but the middle of summer, and the period around the summer solstice is still widely referred to as midsummer. The Swedes, who typically celebrate by raising a maypole and dancing in traditional outfits, for example, refer to their celebration as “midsommarafton,” or midsummer’s day.

Back in New York, Barbara Herbst, 47, was attending a different ritual of sorts. She was one of thousands of people who descended on Prospect Park’s Long Meadow for the Metropolitan Opera’s summer concert.  “The sun is now closer to the earth, right?” she asked. “Wait, is it the equinox?”  Not quite. On the equinox, the sun is directly over the equator. The solstice occurs when the tilt of Earth’s axis toward the sun is its most direct, exposing the Northern Hemisphere to more sunlight. A half year later, the reverse occurs: the Northern Hemisphere is greeted with winter, and the Southern Hemisphere with summer.

But to say the solstice went entirely unheralded would not be true.

At the Sixth Street Community Center in the East Village, about 30 self-described witches and pagans gathered for a lively solstice celebration organized by Starr Ravenhawk of the Wiccan Family Temple. The Wiccan followers, some wearing colorful makeup and long robes and dresses, formed a human circle that was not allowed to be broken, as they received anointing oil and sang ritualistic songs, including one honoring the longest day.                                                                      This being the East Village, however, they did not draw much attention.

Ricky Martinez, a Wiccan who works at Enchantments Book Store on the Lower East Side, said he was considering attending a private celebration with other Wiccans. This party, however, was by invitation only; nonpagans excluded.   “The stuff that goes on I can’t really invite you to,” he said. “It’s for the people in the coven. It’s pretty hush-hush.”

Reporting was contributed by Annie Correal, David Giambusso, Jason Grant, Mathew R. Warren and Rebecca White.  All from THE NEW YORK TIMES June 20th 2008.