Pagan rituals welcome spring
BY JANE SCHMUCKER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
If you can look beyond the man wearing an ivy wreath and horns, the royal blue face paint, capes, and long robes, part of area pagans' May Day celebrations seem similar to a religious service.
They take candles and flowers to altars.
They fast.
They share ceremonial wine.
They raise their hands in worship.
They give thanks for the land, sky, and sea.
They say their creed is essentially the Golden Rule.
"It's not all this [stuff] you read of hocus-pocus and orgies," said Jeffrey Cather, who calls herself Lady Circe. In her 70s, she is considered queen of a group of witches that meets in her Parkwood Avenue home in the Old West End.
About 40 people in what she calls The Sisterhood & Brotherhood of the Old Religion celebrated May Day eve on Friday night at her home by dancing around a Maypole after a circle ceremony in her backyard. Then they feasted at midnight, ending an all-day fast.
Many older members wore black robes as witches did years ago when they feared persecution and wanted to escape into the woods unseen for worship.
Some younger members, perhaps further removed from prejudice against witches, wore pastels for what is thought to be one of the world's oldest holidays celebrating the arrival of spring.
May Day, which pagans believe starts the part of the year that is ruled by the goddess of summer, is the opposite holiday to Oct. 31, when they think a god bringing winter takes over.
A more diverse group of 35 pagans met yesterday morning in Oak Openings Preserve Metropark to urge on spring.
A 21-year-old social work student at Eastern Michigan University who calls himself Wolfdance acted as priest.
In that group, which met to bolster pagan unity, were people who call themselves witches, Gaelic traditionalists, Celtic reconstructionists, and Egyptian priestesses.
Some people - especially college students - traveled from as far as Columbus and Ann Arbor, Mich., but leaders said at least four local pagan groups meet regularly.
About 10 children stood in a circle with adults in a grassy clearing at the park where three tall sticks were placed in the ground to symbolize air, earth, and water.
A woman, dressed a bit like a bride was the May Queen and the man with the ivy wreath was the May King.
Swords were present at the ceremonies, but they are used as symbols - never to draw blood, leaders said. Unlike popular perception, most witches do not believe Satan exists, Lady Circe said.
Tony Whitman, a 20-year-old who works at an Oak Harbor drive-through resturant, guarded the area, twirling around in his cape to get in sync with nature. Participants were asked to remove their watches to take them into a different time.
If park rules had allowed it and the weather had been warmer, some worshippers might have considered getting naked to be more one with nature. That is sometimes done in ceremonies on land owned by pagans in remote areas, according to Bobi Stebbins, a witch who organized the park gathering.
But at Oak Openings, a family was setting up a tent nearby for a conservation program.
Mary Bucher, a conservation volunteer, wondered if the pagans would be more interesting than speeches that would be made at her meeting.
Tolerance is a blessing to many of the pagans and witches who have claimed persecution for centuries. Many still fear for their jobs and their family's love if they reveal their religion, said John Morris, a pagan from Ann Arbor who was once a Unitarian minister and college philosophy instructor.
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Despite stigma, Wicca's presence in neo-pagan movement grows
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
REHOBOTH, Mass. - An hour before sundown, 40 adults have formed a circle in a small back yard, the limbs of a barren tree overhead. Most are dressed in black, many in capes. But the occasion, a gathering of local witches' covens, is expectant, not somber.
In their midst, a blonde raises a sword above her head, points skyward, and walks clockwise within the group.
"I would like you to concentrate on raising a circle of energy around us, to turn the wheel of the year," says Cheryl Sulyma-Mason, high priestess of one coven, in this town near Providence, R.I.
After completing the circle, she adds, "We will change the future through tolerance, education, and through love." All respond, "As a witch, I make this pledge."
Encouraged by federal court rulings recognizing witchcraft as a legal religion, an increasing number of books related to the subject and the continuing cultural concern for the environment, Wicca - as contemporary witchcraft is often called - has been growing in the United States and abroad.
It is a major element in an expanding "neo-pagan" movement whose members regard nature itself as charged with divinity.
Given the movements diversity, without essential texts, no central authorities, and many solitary practioners, estimates of how many people fit under the pagan umbrella vary widely, from 100,000 to three or more times that number.
Some have found historical antecedents for their beliefs and work to re-create ancient Egyptian or Greek religions; some call themselves Druids.
Witches can be found at Pagan Pride Days in various cities and at an October festival in Washington. An internet site called The Witches' Voice lists nearly 900 covens and other Wiccan groups.
Fritz Jung, who created the site with his wife, Wren Walker, said nearly 17,000 people had listed themselves on it.
To wear the label can pose a social risk, because in many people's minds, witchcraft is associated with black magic.
Witches today say the rituals they practice are beneficial, in keeping with the Wiccan Rede, an ethical code that states, "An' it harm none, do what thou wilt," and the conviction that what one does for good or ill returns to the doer three times over.
John K. Simmons, a professor of religious studies at Western Illinois University, said that the clothing, the rituals, and the focus on nature may remind people in their 30s and 40s of the sort of qualities they thought religion should have when they were younger.
"I think it feels familiar," Mr. Simmons said, "particularly to those of us who went through the '60s. And when you add feminism and environmentalism, it feels like home to people."
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