When many think of Paganism, it’s easy to jump straight to magic spells, tarot cards and other sorts of hocus pocus.

For Simon L. Delott, a junior double major in secondary education and philosophy and religion, being a Pagan is more of a religious experience. (more…)

Few bureaucrats can subvert a well-intentioned principal like the separation of church and state with the hypocritical bombast of school administrators. But when they actually succeed in making religious fanatics seem rationale, well now that’s an achievement worthy of an OFF/beat Idiot of the Year nomination.

Donna Brewer, of Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, is suing Abington School District, claiming that her 10-year-old son’s “rights to religion and free speech were violated” because he was not allowed to wear a Jesus costume during his school’s Halloween parade. The federal suit was filed on her son’s behalf by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that believes in spreading the Gospel through “traditional family values.” It further claims that since costumes were mandatory and many students chose to dress as “witches and ghouls” (i.e., pagan costumes), Willow Hill Elementary violated the fourth-grader’s equal protection rights. (more…)

Murphysboro, IL - By the end of class, Denise Livingston of Carterville knew exactly what kind of house her instructor lived in simply by touching his pen.

Livingston and about seven others met with “Coyote” Chris Sutton of Godrey last week at New Ages Other Worlds bookstore to enhance their psychic abilities. (more…)

United Kingdom - Hundreds of druids gathered yesterday for the funeral of Tim Sebastian, the Arch- Druid of Wiltshire and founder of the Bardic Chair of Bath.The respected figure in druid circles died at the beginning of this month, aged 59.

Among those paying their respects to Mr Sebastian at Haycombe Crematorium, Bath, were Terry Dobney, the Stonekeeper of Avebury, Dreow Bennett, the Arch-Druid of Glastonbury, and Denny Price, Lady Arch-Druid of Glastonbury. (more…)

Minneapolis, MN - Oblivious to an icy, spitting wind, Vietnam veteran Al Hensel held high an American flag as he and three fellow vets marched Saturday into a circle of birdseed laid out in front of the State Capitol in St. Paul.

Hensel, 53, of Minneapolis, who served in the Marine Corps from 1971 to 1973, was among about 150 pagans and Wiccans who rallied Saturday to urge the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to add the Wiccan pentacle to the list of 38 religious symbols approved for use on military-cemetery gravestones and other markers. Participants — women and men, old and young — came from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. (more…)

Allentown, PA - There is nothing so evil, so clearly un-American, as the imposition of a particular religious dogma by force.

That is why America’s Founding Fathers made it the first order of business in the Bill of Rights to say that government must not advance ‘’establishment of religion.'’ (more…)

Don Larsen was, by all reports, an excellent Army Chaplain. When he was a Pentecostal Christian, that is. His superior while he was in Iraq, Chaplain Kevin L. McGhee, called Larsen “the best” out of the 26 chaplains he supervised. But then Larsen applied to change his religious affiliation to Wicca, and the Army railroaded him out of Iraq and out of the Army.

The whole sordid story is extensively detailed in a recent article in the Washington Post which (though long) is well worth reading for anyone interested in the subject. (more…)

Aubrun, NY - Don’t let the name fool you - a pagan persuasion is not necessary to enjoy the food and coffee of Witches Brew in downtown Auburn.

“We’re not a Wiccan cafe; we’re here for anyone,” said co-owner Sally Toth. (more…)

The pentagram that hangs from a chain around Kate Dunning’s neck elicits raised eyebrows from many people who catch a glimpse of it. The emblem of a star enclosed in a circle symbolizes that she practices witchcraft.

Don’t expect to find any pointy witch hats or steaming cauldrons tucked away in her dorm room closet, however. Dunning, a junior English and French major, is like any other UB student, she just happens to be Wiccan. (more…)

Britain’s image as the home of sensible and practical types takes a knock today, with the publication of data showing just how many of us think we are wizards, time-travellers or able to divine water. Norse and Celtic influences moving down the centuries have led almost 10% of people in some areas to believe they can teleport their neighbours as well as read minds, crystal balls and tarot cards.

The scale of a return to an island of ley lines and Merlin comes to light in a survey of psychic organisations backed by polling and research into cases of supposed witches, enchanters and close encounters of the third kind that have made the media, scientific and alternative journals in the past 100 years. Published by the SciFi TV channel to mark a drama series on the subject, the project was supervised by the Rev Lionel Fanthorpe, an Anglican priest who chairs numerous bodies concerned with unidentified flying objects and “anomalous phenomena”. (more…)