Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 10, 1995 TAG: 9508100008
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"There's one or two parks that are wonderful for watching the moon and for just sitting if we have things to talk over," says one member.
The moon is central to their religion, as are the particular gods and goddesses of their tradition. It's called Wicca, or Wica - an ancient pagan religion that's enjoying increasing appeal in the Space Age.
Most people know it better as witchcraft.
"Wicca is a very natural religion," says Sara, the priestess of a Roanoke Valley coven, or group of witches. "It makes sense when you get into it. It's comfortable, it makes you happy."
Sara isn't the priestess' real name. She asked to use it for this newspaper story. Witches have been underground, and have endured persecution, so long that most are unwilling to go public.
Witchcraft is a hard religion for outsiders to even know about, much less join. There are likely other covens in Roanoke that Sara's doesn't know about.
Sara discovered a local coven only after writing to the authors of books on witchcraft and being put in touch with others in her area. The coven worshipped in Rockbridge County until recently, but Sara and a few others are moving to Roanoke.
They're looking for others to join them. Sara agreed to talk to a reporter after placing a classified ad in the newspaper seeking new members for her coven. The handful of responses are being carefully screened, and she's corresponding with the serious prospects.
Modern witchcraft went public in the 1950s, when Great Britain repealed sanctions against its practice. A few witches at that time came out of the closet.
Wicca, with its strong focus on female deities and ecology, appeals to feminists and to nature lovers. Although it claims ties to ancient pagan religions, Wicca is in part a product of New Age beliefs, says Marcello Truzzi, a sociology professor from Eastern Michigan University.
"There are traditional witches in the U.S., but most of these people are what I call `nouveau witches,'" Truzzi says. "They've taken it up from reading and talking" to other witches.
Considered an expert on witchcraft, Truzzi says most of those practicing the craft are "extremely ethically oriented," in part because they believe their actions will come back to them threefold - that good or bad deeds will be rewarded in kind three times over.
"It's basically a very benign religion," he says.
Most meetings take place outdoors, beside a mountain or stream.
"We take our shoes off and walk through the grass," says Sara.
"The entire religion is nature-based. If it doesn't exist in nature, it doesn't exist in our religion."
The religion's holidays are based on the four seasons, the cycle of nature.
"It makes life very interesting, too," Sara says. "If you celebrate Christmas with your family, you have two holidays back-to-back. It's worth it, but it keeps me very busy."
In Wicca, there are different traditions, similar to denominations in Christianity. Sara's coven practices Seax-Wica, or the Saxon tradition.
"The beliefs are basically the same" from tradition to tradition, she says. "The names of the gods change."
The religion has nothing to do with Satanism. Witches don't even believe in Satan, so how could they worship him, Sara asks.
There are seven members in the Roanoke coven, but its members would like a few more.
"Thirteen is said to be ideal," Sara says. "Six loving couples and a priestess."
Hers is a "daughter" coven, spun off from the original "mother" coven. New members are selected carefully and must study for months before being allowed to attend a ritual. The small group is like a family and every addition changes the dynamics.
"It's hard to trust people when there's so much animosity to the religion to begin with," Sara says. "It's very uncommon they would let someone in from outside. ...You have to be very careful about who you take in, whether or not they fit into your group."
She says she was accepted a few years ago because she had "a few witches on one side of my family."
To become a priestess, she had to read extensively and study with a teacher. It can take three years to become a priestess. She's been leading her coven a little over a year.
In her coven, three members are new to Wicca. The rest are "hereditary witches," for whom the practice is a family tradition.
Truzzi says such witches are rare.
"The traditional `my mother was a witch, my grandmother was a witch' are not common," he says. "If it exists, it's mostly a closed shop."
Modern witches are usually people disenchanted with traditional religion. Truzzi says they are attracted by Wicca's connection to ancient pagans and its orientation around magic and nature.
In Sara's case, she didn't have much religious education as a child, but did "try" Southern Baptist churches for a while.
"I had a problem with the concept of absolute evil and absolute good," she says, "which once again goes back to nature. Absolute evil and good does not exist."
But, she adds, "I don't have any problem at all with Christianity. It's a good, positive religion. We're very firm believers that there's not one religion that's right for everyone."
Sara declines to offer details of the coven's rituals, the casting of spells and the like.
She explains magic like this: "When your child does something new and there's this little moment of magic - `Hey, he's growing.' In rituals, we take power from within - everyone has energy - and we combine it to make magic, to find somebody a job, to heal somebody. Magic is kind of like love at first sight. That sudden spark."
A book on witchcraft written by a witch was recently selected as a book-of-the-month in a book club, Sara said, indicating at least curiosity if not acceptance of Wicca. It also shows the commercial industry that has sprung up, with witches' bibles, tarot cards, books of spells and rituals competing with other books on the occult and New Age philosophy.
"Wicca is about living within nature, not above it," she said.
Anyone interested in joining the coven, and members of other covens, can write to Sara at P.O. Box 7669, Roanoke 24019.
by CNB