Post by KaiAidan on Aug 8, 2004 23:42:19 GMT -5
more "good" press
New York Daily News - www.nydailynews.com
Ending the old year, starting the new
Saturday, November 1st, 2003
Madalyn McKay is out of the closet. The broom closet,
that is.
"Oh, sure, I tell everybody I'm a witch," she says.
"It's not something I hide."
McKay is one of several thousand New Yorkers - between
10,000 and 15,000 by her account - who will celebrate
Samhain, or New Year, today. It is the most important
day on the calendar for pagans such as McKay.
Their religion is Wicca, the formal name for
witchcraft.
Is it really a religion?
"You bet," says McKay, who once led her own coven and
has an altar in her home in Astoria, Queens. "It is
recognized as a religion by the government, and it has
a theology and rituals, like almost every other
religion."
A federal appeals court ruled in 1986 that Wicca
indeed is a religion. Numbers are extremely difficult
to pin down, but according to a recent U.S. religious
census, about 130,000 Americans describe themselves as
witches.
And, like McKay, many became Wiccans after a lengthy
search for a faith that satisfied their personal
beliefs about nature and their place in it. In some
cases, feminism was the inspiration. McKay was born
Presbyterian but became by turns an evangelical
Christian, Catholic and Buddhist before she found
Wicca.
"I even spent six months studying to become a nun,"
says McKay, 47, who grew up in Bend and Redmond, Ore.,
and moved to New York in 1982 after the death of her
mother. She works in theater, television, film and -
between acting and producing gigs - as a temp.
In some cases, becoming a witch is as simple as
publicly declaring "I am a witch" three times, but
McKay was ordained after studies at the Enchantments
bookstore, a Wiccan center in lower Manhattan.
Today's holiday, Samhain (pronounced sow-in), is an
ancient Celtic feast that celebrates the end of one
year and the start of the next. There is no single set
of rituals - pagans do everything from circle dances
with drums to private, at-home devotions to favorite
goddesses.
"I'm observing the day at home," McKay says. "I've got
an altar, and I'm going to honor my parents and
friends who are gone. It's something a lot of witches
do."
Several witches, McKay among them, planned to march as
a unit in the annual Greenwich Village parade last
night - Halloween for most people, Oiche Samhain for
witches.
Oiche Samhain is the most dangerous night of the year
for witches, because, they believe, it is when the
veil between the natural and supernatural worlds is
lowered and inhabitants of the underworld are
free to roam the Earth. To protect themselves from
hostile spirits, Wiccans wear disguises.
The Catholic Church adapted Oiche Samhain and called
it All Hallows Eve, when departed souls in heaven are
honored.
Pagans in New York are often derided and ridiculed,
which McKay blames on ignorance about Wicca. "We don't
wear pointy hats and own black cats," she says. "We're
not wicked and we don't cackle."
But, yes, she says, covens, usually 13 people, do meet
on full-moon nights and, in some cases, wear dark
robes and chant incantations that outsiders call
spells. "We need to help people get past the
stereotypes," says McKay, an unpaid public relations
officer for pagan programs.
The most ambitious program is the annual Pagan Pride
Harvest Celebration, which began three years ago and
was held last month in Manhattan's Battery Park. It
drew about 5,500 people for a day of art,
music, healing workshops, meditation and crafts. Kids
made wands and Harry Potter hats. The keynote speaker
was Patricia Telesco, a prolific pagan author.
There were more than 100 pagan festivals around the
world this year, McKay says, and the one in New York
was the largest. "Only 18 people were at the first
Pagan Pride Celebration," she says, "which shows how
far we've come."
People often ask her what witches believe.
"The two most important things are not to do harm to
yourself and anyone else," she tells them, "and to
remember that any energy you send out, good or bad,
comes back at you, multiplied."
Beyond that are a great number of ethical codes,
goddesses, magical objects (swords, chalices,
pentacles, etc.) and teachings about human
relationships with nature. Many witches do not
disclose their religion for fear of criticism,
derision or worse.
"I lost a job and a boyfriend because I was a witch,"
McKay says. "It was a good job, too."
New York Daily News - www.nydailynews.com
Ending the old year, starting the new
Saturday, November 1st, 2003
Madalyn McKay is out of the closet. The broom closet,
that is.
"Oh, sure, I tell everybody I'm a witch," she says.
"It's not something I hide."
McKay is one of several thousand New Yorkers - between
10,000 and 15,000 by her account - who will celebrate
Samhain, or New Year, today. It is the most important
day on the calendar for pagans such as McKay.
Their religion is Wicca, the formal name for
witchcraft.
Is it really a religion?
"You bet," says McKay, who once led her own coven and
has an altar in her home in Astoria, Queens. "It is
recognized as a religion by the government, and it has
a theology and rituals, like almost every other
religion."
A federal appeals court ruled in 1986 that Wicca
indeed is a religion. Numbers are extremely difficult
to pin down, but according to a recent U.S. religious
census, about 130,000 Americans describe themselves as
witches.
And, like McKay, many became Wiccans after a lengthy
search for a faith that satisfied their personal
beliefs about nature and their place in it. In some
cases, feminism was the inspiration. McKay was born
Presbyterian but became by turns an evangelical
Christian, Catholic and Buddhist before she found
Wicca.
"I even spent six months studying to become a nun,"
says McKay, 47, who grew up in Bend and Redmond, Ore.,
and moved to New York in 1982 after the death of her
mother. She works in theater, television, film and -
between acting and producing gigs - as a temp.
In some cases, becoming a witch is as simple as
publicly declaring "I am a witch" three times, but
McKay was ordained after studies at the Enchantments
bookstore, a Wiccan center in lower Manhattan.
Today's holiday, Samhain (pronounced sow-in), is an
ancient Celtic feast that celebrates the end of one
year and the start of the next. There is no single set
of rituals - pagans do everything from circle dances
with drums to private, at-home devotions to favorite
goddesses.
"I'm observing the day at home," McKay says. "I've got
an altar, and I'm going to honor my parents and
friends who are gone. It's something a lot of witches
do."
Several witches, McKay among them, planned to march as
a unit in the annual Greenwich Village parade last
night - Halloween for most people, Oiche Samhain for
witches.
Oiche Samhain is the most dangerous night of the year
for witches, because, they believe, it is when the
veil between the natural and supernatural worlds is
lowered and inhabitants of the underworld are
free to roam the Earth. To protect themselves from
hostile spirits, Wiccans wear disguises.
The Catholic Church adapted Oiche Samhain and called
it All Hallows Eve, when departed souls in heaven are
honored.
Pagans in New York are often derided and ridiculed,
which McKay blames on ignorance about Wicca. "We don't
wear pointy hats and own black cats," she says. "We're
not wicked and we don't cackle."
But, yes, she says, covens, usually 13 people, do meet
on full-moon nights and, in some cases, wear dark
robes and chant incantations that outsiders call
spells. "We need to help people get past the
stereotypes," says McKay, an unpaid public relations
officer for pagan programs.
The most ambitious program is the annual Pagan Pride
Harvest Celebration, which began three years ago and
was held last month in Manhattan's Battery Park. It
drew about 5,500 people for a day of art,
music, healing workshops, meditation and crafts. Kids
made wands and Harry Potter hats. The keynote speaker
was Patricia Telesco, a prolific pagan author.
There were more than 100 pagan festivals around the
world this year, McKay says, and the one in New York
was the largest. "Only 18 people were at the first
Pagan Pride Celebration," she says, "which shows how
far we've come."
People often ask her what witches believe.
"The two most important things are not to do harm to
yourself and anyone else," she tells them, "and to
remember that any energy you send out, good or bad,
comes back at you, multiplied."
Beyond that are a great number of ethical codes,
goddesses, magical objects (swords, chalices,
pentacles, etc.) and teachings about human
relationships with nature. Many witches do not
disclose their religion for fear of criticism,
derision or worse.
"I lost a job and a boyfriend because I was a witch,"
McKay says. "It was a good job, too."
used to that stuff by now anyway! 
shock us all with your very mature and accurate response! lol. welcome Lanfear.. love your name! but yea you're right..... The Goddess will NEVER leave... in the past her name may have been only whispered but She is always going to be within the groaning pines and moonlit fields... and in our soulsthrough this lifetime and the next. 
.