THE ATHANASIAN A publication of Traditional Catholics of Ametica t Editor: Fr. Francis E. Fenton, STL t Volume IX, No. 1 t January 15, 1988 THE BEWITCHING OF AMEmCA John Kenneth Weiskittel witches' coven gathers in secret to initiate a new mem­ the Goddess to perform a "purification ceremony" for A ber. Through flickering candlelight and the smoke of him. Prison officials initially refused to allow the visit but incense can be seen an altar dedicated to the Roman goddess of reversed their decision after being advised by Corrections the moon, Diana. The high priestess, clad in a blue robe and legal counsel Richard L. Varco that the "Wiccan armed with a ritual sword, approaches the altar while the others religion .. .is a genuine religion and refusal would violate begin to dance together in a circle, chanting: "Darksome night Edwards' constitutional right to freedom of worship." The and shining moon, East and South, then West, then North, Post quoted part of the Varco ruling which concluded that harken to the Witches' Rune ... " the witch "seems to perform functions parallel to those performed by priests and ministers." This sounds as though it could come from a scene in a second­ rate Elizabethan drama, written in imitation of the incantation • The movement for giving equal rights to witches in pronounced by the three "weird sisters" in Shakespeare's America's armed services. Among the goals sought by the Macbeth ("Double, double toil and trouble/Fire bum and activists (on leave for their "major religious holidays"), cauldron bubble."). It could, but it doesn't, for in this case the reports Grant Willis in the Anny Times of October 26, participants are real, members of a modem-day coven in New 1987, are dog tags that state "Wicca" or "Pagan" and York City. The initiate recounted the ceremony to "psychic" re­ chaplains to "help them form worship groups at remote searcher Hans Holzer in his pro-witchcraft book, Heather: Con­ duty locations." He interviewed one witch stationed in fessions ofa Witch. (Mason & Lipscomb, 1975) Germany, Air Force SSgt. Lorie A. Johnson, who said she placed an announcement in the European Stars and Witches in the Space Age? The notion will for many seem too Stripes recruiting for the newly-formed Farwander Mil­ preposterous to entertain seriously. Yet, in the last two decades itary Pagan Fellowship. And when Willis contacted the adherents of this age-old cult have come "out of the closet" and Army Chief of Chaplains office at the Pentagon to get an made their presence felt as part of America's occult explosion. official position on pagan activity, Lt. Col. (Chaplain) Over the past few years news of related activities has included: William L. Hutham replied: "We acknowledge their right to exist." • A sermon delivered on May 18, 1986, at the historic St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, • Ongoing controversy in Hialeah, a southeast Florida in which its 41-year-old rector, the Rev. Henry L. Scott, city near Miami, swirls around a Cuban version of voodoo Jr., announcing his resignation, stunned the congregati..n known as Santeria. Hialeah City Council denied the by saying that he had been under the spell of a witch for 14 animal sacrifice cult occupancy on a 1.4 million dollar years. (See the 1986 Facts on File, p. 460.) tract of land, ostensibly because a building on the property failed an electrical inspection. On August 7, • The protest by 35 witches-counting minors-in Boston 1987, the city issued the permit when its attorneys last June. Members of the 2,000-strong Council of Isis expressed the opinion that the Santeria "church" was pro­ demonstrated in front of the state Film Bureau office in an tected by the state's "kosher laws" but, notes Michael D. effort to prevent a movie adaptation of novelist John Dunn in the August 9 Tampa Tribune, the regional Updike's The Witches of Eastwick from taking place in director of the Humane Society challenged this, saying Massachusetts. A UPI story, carried as "'We're good, not that "state statutes permit ritual slaughter for con­ satanic,' witches say" in the June 6, 1986 Miami Herald, sumption only, and not for sacrifice." Although San­ reported that among the signs seen were "Stop Exploita­ terians claim they do eat the animals, "(i)t's not unusual," tion Of Witches," "They Are Not Real Witches In East­ Dunn writes, "to find decapitated chickens littering the wick," "John Updike Has Never Met A Witch" and, on a streets of Latin neighborhoods ... " and Hialeah Mayor baby's stroller, "I'm A Good Witch." Raul Martinez "has threatened to order the arrest of anyone who sacrifices animals." The December 7, 1987 • Minnesota Corrections Department granting a visit by a issue of Insight magazine reports that Ernesto Pichardo, witch to an inmate of the state reformatory in St. Cloud. the cult's santero ("priest"), has sued the city in response According to an item in the November 8, 1986 Washing­ to a "recently passed municipal ordinance that bans the ton Post, Robert Edwards, who is serving time for second­ practice." (Florida authorities are concerned about degree murder, requested a priestess of the Covenant of another Afro-Cuban cult, Palo, in which human remains are used in rituals. It is believed that some recent grave bright the fire-red is the color of desire." (ibid, p. 60. robberies are connected to it.-JKW) She reportedly lifted the spell when her title was dis­ avowed.) Are such developments reason for concern or merely part of a harmless fad? Modem witches claim that the negative public British-born Sybil Leek is probably the best-known witch in image they have is the result of misrepresentation and that they North America, perhaps in the world. Her Diary ofa Witch was aren't satanic or anti-Christian. This, of course, is in direct a best-seller and she has been widely syndicated as an astrol­ contradiction to Catholic thought on the matter. Before exam­ ogist. Leek, who now lives in the U.S., boasts of being able to ining the occult revival, a caution of sorts is in order. Since the trace witches in her family tree as far back as 400 years. While subject being discussed touches into some of the darkest her features give her the look of a gypsy fortune-teller, she regions of the human mind, the following contains material of a speaks with a cultured English accent. Her household has in­ baneful nature. Since every effort has been made to defer to cluded a jackdaw (a bird of the crow family that nests in ruins), common decency, the most obscene, sacrilegious and horrific named Hotfoot Jackson, and two boa constrictors. She defends aspects have been handled discreetly or omitted altogether. her beliefs, saying they predate, but don't oppose, Christianity. Despite the precautions taken, however, that which remains "It is not anti-Christian and not heathen," Leek states, "It's the gives more than an inkling of wickedness animating America's Old Religion because it goes back to a time when man was first occult underground. on earth, when he had those religious, spiritual feelings .. .What we're really doing is giving a general hymn of praise to the A New Image For The "Old Religion" universe and all the things in it." (cited, Godwin, p. 63) On July 19, 1692, Gallows Hill at Salem, Massachusetts, was the focus of the town's attention. Five women were hanged Witches are now engaged in a campaign to fight what they call there that day, having been convicted of witchcraft. The witch­ "defamation of character." Leo Louis Martello, a lapsed hunt, begun when three young girls testified that they had been Catholic who now is a practicing warlock (male witch), has pro­ victims of a spell, would not end until a total of 19 people took duced a "Witch Manifesto" to right past "offenses." Long hair one-way trips to Gallows Hill. The Salem Witch Trials have and dark beard give Martello the distinct air of a sorcerer come to be synonymous with the power of ignorance and (Godwin describes him as "a dry-cleaned version of Rasputin superstition to generate hysteria. with beads"). The manifesto makes the following demands: "(a) the moral condemnation of the Catholic Church for the torture Today, Salem has found that its history makes an attractive and murder of witches, and (b) a suit for 500 million dollars in tourist lure. Sightseers visit the city by the thousands to see the damages and reparations, to be paid by the Vatican to their "Witch House," the "Old Witch Jail" and Gallows Hill. And descendants." (Godwin, p. 68) When Senator Jesse Helms they may catch a glimpse of a black-caped figure making her (R-NC) introduced legislation in 1985 that would remove tax­ way through the streets-Salem's "official witch," Laurie exempt status to organized pagan groups, the Wisconsin-based Cabot. The city fathers may have had their tongues squarely in Circle Sanctuary, which calls itself a Wiccan Church, mounted their cheeks when they established the position but the resident a drive that helped kill the proposed legislation. The following enchantress doesn't see it as a joke. In fact, Cabot, 54, was one year it distributed a flyer, "Save Circle Sanctuary!", asking for of the protestors in Boston and is part of a coven that meets in assistance in battling the harassment it was receiving from local Salem. She told reporters that Updike's novel was "anti-witch" officials. Readers were told that any money going to the group's and that she feared that witches would "be depicted as devil defense fund was "tax deductible" and urged support through a worshipers or satanic persons who do evil" in the film.