Wiccans, pagans draw on natural world for faith

Staying attuned to seasonal cycles inspires religion
Lawrence Journal-World, Aug. 17, 2002
http://www.ljworld.com/section/livinglead/story/103006
By Jim Baker, Features Reporter

Kacey Carlson wants to set the record straight.

Wiccans don’t worship Satan.

They don’t sacrifice animals and babies in bizarre rituals.

And they don’t practice “black magic,” whatever that is.

“I’ve never met a Satanist. I don’t think there are any over 14. If Satanism exists at all, it is a really good adolescent rebellion against Christianity,” said Carlson, 36, co-owner of The Good Earth Mother Alchemy Shop, 803 Vt.

Carlson knows a few things about the Wiccan religion. After all, she’s a high priestess of the faith and leads a coven of about 30 believers, called witches, in the Lawrence area.

She swears there’s nothing dark and creepy going on among those who practice Wicca.

Rather, Carlson says, it’s all about revering nature, staying attuned to the Earth’s seasonal cycles and using folk magic — or “magick” — to channel the energy of the divine for strength and healing.

The problem is that Wiccans, and pagans in general, have gotten a bad rap for centuries. That’s led to popular misconceptions about their religion, as well as blatant falsehoods.

“It started when Christianity decided it was the only right religion. Propaganda was spread about pagan belief systems and how bad they are,” Carlson said.

“The devil, for instance, is a Christian concept. We don’t even acknowledge that there is a bad guy (in the universe).”

Nor do Wiccans believe in sin, or heaven and hell.
[...]

Carlson isn’t the only Wiccan or pagan in these parts.

KC Pagan Pride Day 2002, a community festival celebrating its fifth year, will be Aug. 24 in Lenexa’s Shawnee Mission Park, and event organizers expect about 250 people from the region to attend.

Pagans of every stripe will be there: Wiccans, Druids, Asatru (believers in Nordic paganism) and those who subscribe to forms of American Indian spirituality.

While the particular beliefs of people in these faith groups may vary, festival participants could best be described as followers of Earth-based religions that perceive many faces of the divine in the natural world.

They’re pantheists, following a doctrine that God and the laws and forces of nature are one.

Pagans typically believe in a single, universal source of energy, but also worship gods and goddesses as representing different aspects of this transcendent force.

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