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Bewitching Wicca
Ancient, nature-based religion finds new devotees
By BriAnne Hess writer@kansan.com Kansan senior staff writer
Kacey Carlson performed her first spell when she was 5 years old and thought the willow tree in the yard was dying.
"I didn't understand autumn," Carlson said. "So I went around the house and found every liquid I could find and put it around the tree — it's a wonder I didn't kill it."
Wicca teacher, Kacey Carlson, describes the history of Wicca to a group of students. T Good Mother Earth Alchemy Shoppe, 803 Vermont Street. Photo by Ashley Marriott/K
Carson is now a Wiccan high priestess teaching Wicca: The Old Religion. at The Good Earth Mother Alchemy Shoppe, 803 Vermont St.
Carlson said the class was hands-on and that students would cast spells and write a ritual. KU students had enrolled in previous courses, but no students were taking the course this session.
Carlson started teaching Wicca in 1887. She said the class offered 18 hours of information about Wiccan culture and its beliefs, including cosmology, spellwork, divination, rituals, rites of passage and covens. The class costs $140 for 9 weeks.
"My goal is to pay my own bills, but people feel like they're getting a heck of a deal, too." Carlson said. "Some find they are not witches, but there are very few. If they are drawn to the class, they probably are witches."
Darcie Callahan, Lawrence doctoral student, wrote her masters thesis about Wicca. She said that Wicca was traditionally taught but that students normally weren't taught in a class format or charged. She said a person didn't have to take a class to be Wiccan, but that it would probably help.
Gaining popularity and acceptance
"In the past five years or so people are hearing a lot more about Wicca," Callahan said. "It's become a lot more trendy — which can have negative and positive effects to a religion."
Callahan said the shows had some accurate information but many Hollywood efforts falsely depicted Wicca by making it a conflict between good and evil, which is a Christian tenet.
have negative positive such as Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sabrina the Teenage Witch and movies such as Practical Magic, Witches of Eastwick and The Craft have proliferated in recent years. All involve witchcraft.
Tim Miller, professor of religious studies, said there were more Wiccans in Lawrence than most people thought — between 500 to 1,000. He said Wiccans were harder to count than those in other religious orders because there were several different organizations and some Wiccans practiced alone.
Kerry Johnson owns the alchemy shop where the class takes place and is also one of Carlson's students. She said that her shop, which sells mostly Wiccan-related merchandise, kept busy.
"They're really coming out of the broom closet in Lawrence," she said. The shop also sells teenage witch kits that are marketed by a Wiccan, Silver Ravenwolf. The kit consists of a yes/no coin, a magic wish cord, a golden money charm, sea salt, a silver bell, a pentacle pendant, a quartz crystal, a spell bag and an instruction book.
crystal, a spen bag and an illusion box. Johnson said some Wiccans weren't happy with the teen kits because it
Johnson said some Wiccans weren't happy with the teen kits because .. put magic into the hands of young people who might not know what they were doing. The kits sell for $25.
Johnson had studied Wicca for seven years before she enrolled in the class. Solitary Wiccans often meet at her shop to celebrate holidays.
Carlson said the Internet also had made a huge difference in Wiccans and pagans finding each other.
One Lawrence pagan organization, the Web of Oz, has its own Web site.
This robe, on sale at the Alchemy Shoppe, is for use in outdoor Wiccan rituals. Photos of shop items by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
Belief systems vary greatly
Carlson said she had always felt there was something different about her.
"I made a deck of cards — drew pictures on it and had to hide it from my parents," Carlson said. "I got my own tarot deck a good six years later."
She said that becoming a witch was a realization — a coming home.
it's the Native Americanism of Europe," she said. "There's a very specific system of both cosmology and behavior that has to do with natural cycles and the activity of spellwork — the study of and performance of magic."
"You become interested in accessories — astrology and tarot," Carlson said. "I don't think there's a conversion."
Carlson said Wicca was the pagan religion of Europe.
"There's two facets — worshiping the lord and lady and the natural cycles is one and the
same—earth and sky, yin and yang," she said.
Carlson practices another religion in addition to Wicca, but this d with the polytheistic, nature-oriented religion.
"I'm a Taoist Wiccan," Carlson said. "I'm just adding tools to my Christianity demands you give up your other tools. I started studying Taoism when I was 16 and converted in early college."
This warning is posted on the window of
The Good Earth Mother Alchemy Shoppe,
803 Vermont St.
Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
A group of witches,individual types of people. The group traditionally has fewer than 13 members.
Miller said that belief systems varied greatly from Wiccan to Wiccan. While some branches of Wiccan only worship a female deity, Carlson said Wicca was about the worship of the god and goddess.
Coven
Wicca A nature-oriented, polytheistic religion.
Wicca terms
Holding out hope
Pagan One who does not worship the God of Jewish, Christian or Islamic people.
The act or practice of foreseeing future events.
Miller said Lawrence generally was accepting of the Wiccan religion, but there were some who misunderstood the religion.
Divination
"My dad and stepmom are totally supportive," she said.
"They think it's keen to have a witch for a daughter — they buy me cloaks. I'm estranged with my mother. She thinks I'm going to hell — but I hold out hope we'll establish a relationship."
"A lot think it's Satanism, which it is not," Miller said. "In conservative Protestantism, there's a typical hostility to all other religions other than their own."
Miller said basic values of all religions were relatively similar but had different concents of God and had different rituals.
"Religion has the function of helping you relate to the world and improve your life," Miller said. "At heart, people are trying to live good and meaningful lives and understand what the universe is about and Wicca is no different than others."
Carlson said many people thought that because Wiccans had put the goddess back into religion, that most Wiccans were women. In fact, there are usually an equal number of men and women.
— Edited by Amy Randolph
"We've put the goddess back in because that's the thing that makes sense," Carlson said. "In our religion there are a lot of strong women, compared to your average society."
Carlson's parents have had mixed reactions to her religious preference.
This mortar and pestle can grind herbs used in potions...or cooking, for that matter.
A handmade alter tile is placed on the Wiccan altar to represent Earth
.