Guest written by our friend Gladys Fuentes

My wife and I spent what seemed like forever looking for our new home. It was really difficult for us to make a commitment that big. We are well aware of the fact that we aren’t rich, and we knew that when we bought a new home we would have to live there, no matter what. We were scared that we would get into a thirty-year mortgage, and then decide we made a huge mistake. We didn’t know if we would ever find a place that we liked, and things started to seem hopeless. Then, we found our home. As soon as we walked in the front door we knew that this was the place for us. It was spacious and had all new and modern appliances. The neighborhood is awesome, and we totally got lucky with our neighbors. They are always there to give us great advice, like going to HomeSecurity101.com for our alarm system. We really feel like we hit the jackpot of houses, and are so glad we held out for the right one. I’m really grateful we didn’t jump the gun early on in the search.

I can’t get enough of my direct tv and it’s mostly because there are so many entertaining shows on right now about being single and how to get a man. I am single and although I don’t watch the shows to get advice I think it’s really entertaining to see where other people in my position are thriving and where they need work. There’s one on right now called Tough Love and it’s fascinating – it’s all these women living together in a house and the matchmaker just keeps throwing curveballs at them and telling them why they’re not finding love. He’s surprisingly accurate and they just have the hardest time listening but it’s been really encouraging watching the great guys come on the show – I guess there are some good men left out there! I can only imagine what it will be like when I find my true love but until then I’m going to sit at home and watch these shows to my heart’s content, you know what I mean?

After years of living away from my parents, I am so thankful for the way they raised me. When I was growing up, my parents made me do everything for myself. I would get frustrated and annoyed. I would not want to do it and would always tell them they were the only parents who made their child do everything. At the time, I thought my parents were just being lazy. However, now I am so thankful for all the practice. I live with two roommates who do not know the first things about being responsible. When we moved into the apartment, they expected their parents to make sure everything was working and hooked up correctly. When their parents refused, they were like lost little puppies. Since I already knew what to do, I called and had our water, power and Expert Satellite hooked up. I talked to various representatives to make sure we had the best price. I was even able to get a better deal than the one advertised. It was in that moment I realized my parents were not lazy, but rather teaching me how to live on my own. It just took me a long time to understand and be thankful for it.

Posted by Heriberto Fuentes

Following my uncle’s passing, I moved back to my hometown of Irvine in order to help my aunt out. My parents had moved to Hawaii five years earlier and upon hearing of my uncle’s death, they asked that I go live with my aunt to keep her company. After getting my request to be transferred to the Irvine branch filled about a year ago, I moved in with my aunt. Seeing as how I hadn’t seen my aunt since I was a little kid, it was pretty awkward at first. When I remembered that my aunt had been an avid bowler and been the first person to take me bowling as a child, I suggested that we head over to Irvine Lanes for a few games. Once we got there we eventually started to reminisce about those times. It really helped bridge that awkwardness created from over a decade apart from one another. Since then the two of us go bowling regularly. My aunt is a waitress and I work as a sales representative so both of our hours are pretty shaky. Most evenings either I end up having to entertain clients during happy hour or my aunt has to work a dinner shift. We end up going fairly late most times and have to remember to set our home security alarm from security choice. Still, we try to at least go once or twice every two weeks depending on my work schedule.

Guest post written by Amelia Dowden

I think that the I heart camping gene must skip a generation in our family. My husband and I used to go camping all of the time and were so excited to take our kids camping once they got old enough to where we felt confident letting them sleep in a tent overnight. Unfortunately, our kids have and always will hate camping. But we held out for our grandkids and we’re taking them in about a week or so.

I went online to try and find some good guides for teaching camping safety to kids. I’ve been so many times that I’m sure many things I won’t think to mention! While I was searching for that, I ran across the website http://hearingaids.miracle-ear.com/hearing-locations/florida/t/tarpon-springs/. I showed it to my husband and we decided to schedule some free hearing aid tests.

I did find some good camping safety resources that I’ll use to teach my grandkids a thing or two. I just hope that they take to camping like me and their grandfather have!

So you had a fight with your boy/girl friend or your spouse. You love them, and you think its all a big misunderstanding, yet they go out and put a restraining order on you, chances are YOU ARE NOT GETTING BACK TOGETHER.

Many times I just want to laugh when I get calls from scorned lovers who just want their mate back, but the other person has moved on and isnt looking back and has gone as far as involving the police or courts. Why would you want someone like that? Why would you want to be in their lives? Apparently the time you two did spend together was forced to an end with documentation that says you can not contact them ever again…Please stop getting mad at me when I give you a reading that isn’t what you want to hear.

I am not a fake reader, I will not tell you what you want to hear. SORRY!

The Author of this post is Velma Baird

When I set up shop here in town as a mechanic I never thought I’d need to get a website or do anything fancy like that. After a few months of slow business, though, I realized that my competitors had something I didn’t: a web presence. I decided to buy a http://www.domainnames.com and have a friend of mine help me set up a simple website and it’s been a great decision. Many of my recent customers tell me they found me online and didn’t even know my shop existed! I’m really glad I spent the money and I’ll never regret ! doing something to further my business. It’s been fun having a place to put pictures of the cars I’ve restored and I’ve even thought about going so far as to offers coupons to new customers on the site to drive business. My designer, Sandra, was great and I couldn’t have done it without her. She’s cute, too and I may even ask her out to dinner!

Take this into consideration before you walk away from a relationship. Remember why you fell in love with that person, and try to figure out where it went wrong and how to fix it.

Sometimes we find our shoes on the other foot. Taking time to really examine your words and what you have said to someone even if you dont agree with that person’s actions, comments, or opinions, one should always take the higher road and keep to themselves. You can talk the ears off of someone, but if they dont want to listen, then you are just wasting your time and breath.

This is where picking your battles comes in. Knowing what to say, and when to say it can turthfully help your cause. If you are suggesting something to someone and they wish not to hear it, in one ear and out the other….
Take some time to just listen, you dont always have to have a say, just listen, and be non-judgmental about things.

Perhaps being with somebody who is like you in every way can become a hindrance in making a relationship work, because of its tendency to impede growth and to foster narcissism in an individual.

Wow is all I have to say. Ladies, if you are seeing a man who is seeing someone else, dont get all possessive of him because he isn’t yours in the first place. If he is cheating on her, he’ll cheat on you too.
Also dont waste your time with doing love spells on one person who you think you love now, why not ask me to do …a spell for you that will bring someone worty of you into your life?

I guess what the meaning of this post is supose to be is this. Sometimes you need to listen and not speak. Sometimes others dont need your view point, and even though you do not agree with something, dont knock it as its not your place. If someone asks your opinion do not beat them over the head with it simply say ‘i feel this way________, but I support your choice to do _______” one of my most faviorite things to tell people is this :

                      “I really dont agree with that choice, however, I am always going to be right here for you, good, bad, or indifferent. Just note that I reserve the right to say ‘Ha ha I told you so…”"

This lets others make their own decision and that way should they fail in what they were indecisive on they can not come back and said ‘well i did what you said now look at where I am!” Because you only offered up your view point, you didnt give them the idea, you merely suggested how you would do something.

Remember words are powerful weapons, and better than doctors, when used correctly.

I love trees, I always have. I love the natural world but for some reason trees have always had a special meaning and a special power for me. The reverence and appreciation I feel for them can be intense and lately I’ve made it a daily practice to connect and work with them. They are a great teacher for me and they demonstrate and symbolize how to live in the world with grace, groundedness, openness and connectedness. They help me move energy by connecting me with the Earth and acting as a channel for its energy.

They comfort me when I’m feeling lost and help me get to my feelings. They provide a natural temple to connect with Spirit, the Goddess and the power of the Earth. Its really too bad they aren’t appreciated more for what they have to offer people as well as what we can do for them because I think we are meant to work together.

Trees are an amazing spiritual symbol and they represent grounded connected life very well. If we consider how a tree exists this becomes clear. A tree is dependent on the world around it, it needs light, water, air and soil to grow and prosper. Yet if a tree is to survive it must put down strong roots deep into the ground while reaching up into the sky to the sun so it must be grounded in the Earth while open to the sky. If it is not well grounded a strong wind can topple it or even blow it away but if well grounded a tree can and must withstand storms and the tumult of the outside world. It must also be flexible so as not to break in the wind, a balance of strong grounding and flexibility.

Humans too must be well grounded in themselves, the Earth and in Spirit if they are to withstand the trials of life. If we are not well grounded we tend to be swept up in the circumstances and emotional drama of our lives and this is particularly true in these intense times. However if we are well grounded, we find our stability within and we are not swept away even in the most difficult of times. Like the tree we must also be flexible and not be so rigid in our groundedness that we snap. We flow with the changing current of life without being overwhelmed by it. Being grounded and flexible is what trees symbolize for me.

The tree has also been used by many cultures as a powerful symbol, an example of which is the Tree of Life. Here the tree is used to symbolize life itself in all its complexities and interconnections. A similar concept is that of the World Tree where the tree is used as a cosmological symbol of the underworld, the Earth and the Heavens.

Trees can be powerful healing tools because they can help us ground and move emotional energy very effectively. When I’ve felt stuck in my “stuff” lately I’ve taken a trip to the park to do tree practice. I’ll find a strong tree I feel drawn to and touch it with both hands while planting my feet firmly on the ground next to it. I will then ask the tree for help in moving my stuck energy.

If it feels right to continue I visualize energy from the earth coming up through my feet and into me and flowing out through my hands into the tree and back into the earth creating a circuit. The tree has a way of helping me make this connection and moving the energy. I usually find emotion comes up rather easily when I do this… whether it be sadness, anger or some other feeling I had been holding onto. Once energy has moved I will quiet my mind and feel the energy of the tree and the earth, which is very calming. I conclude by giving the tree my gratitude and sending it love and light.

I think this practice is a powerful one because we can be so disconnected from nature in our modern world yet we are a product of nature. I wonder how much of our mental and emotional pain is made so much worse because we have lost this natural connection that is so healing. The drama and trauma of human life tends to obstruct life energy so it becomes things like depression, anxiety, anger and confusion. To Mother Nature this is all just life energy and so in reconnecting with her she can help us remove the obstructions and free this energy returning it to source while allowing it to flow through us in a way that allows us to live fully connected with life.

In the sacred rites and rituals of old, particularly the Druids, trees represented the place of spiritual worship, the sacred grove. They became a temple to the Divine. I have come to see it that way myself and consider the park near my house a temple and place of spiritual practice. The paths are the sacred halls of the temple and the trees living manifestations of the Goddess as well as access points to the Earth energy we are all a part of.

Reconnecting with the Earth in this way is not only healing for us but for the planet as well. If we can return all the disconnected energy we have created in separation, that energy can be used consciously to heal the planet. The environmental crisis we are experiencing today is a manifestation of this separation. In seeing ourselves as separate from the planet we have harmed it greatly while not realizing we are directly harming ourselves at the same time.

Is it any wonder our culture is so sick and dysfunctional? We are not separate from the planet; we are a conscious part of it and with our consciousness acting in harmony with the planet, it and we can be completely healed together. Technology, science and rational solutions will not save us because the problem is much more simple and basic than that and the solution is right here right now if we can just let go, listen, feel and realize our interconnectedness.

So hopfully the title of this blog “The best thing about blogs, they just keep going” is exactally what this one will do!!!

After the athame, the most popular – and misunderstood – ritual tool is the wand. Aside from the “is the wand a tool of the East or a tool of the South?” debate I covered in my Witchvox article on athame basics, there seem to still be quite a few unanswered questions about the wand and its use including: Is it better to make or buy a wand? How long should my wand be? What should I make my wand out of? When should I use the wand in ritual, as opposed to using the athame? How do I charge my wand and make it ready to use? Is it better to make or buy a wand? In general, it is always better to make a ritual tool than buy it. Obviously, unless you have a forge and the training to make your own blade from scratch, it’s better to buy an athame rather than make it. Plus, wands made by other people can be *expensive.* I remember a few years back with wands made of wood that had a natural spiral twist to it from growing with a wild grape vine wrapped around it were being sold for about $60. If the seller added a shell or crystal at the tip, the naturally spiral wands were closer to $70. I remember talking to a friend who was Pagan and also participated in “Host Your Own Murder Mystery” events.

 She had just returned from a murder mystery convention and was telling me about the weird stuff that the attendees bought to make their weekend events more realistic (fake blood and cap guns were only the tip of the iceberg) – and how much they paid for it. I said, “Yes, but Pagans have been known to pay $70 for a stick!” She laughed, but she also had to agree with me. How long should my wand be? Traditionally, your wand should be exactly the length from the inside of your elbow to the tip of your middle finger. No more, no less, and *never* “trim” your already-made wand to fit in the fancy storage box your sweetie gave you for Yule (seriously, I know someone this happened to) .

However, it’s been my experience that if two people are working partners and only one of them has a wand, the other can generally use the wand even if it’s traditionally the “wrong” length. What should I make my wand out of? Wands can be pretty easy to make. All you need is a short, cured wooden branch, or, if you want to go fancy, find your own “stick” that has wild grapevine growing around it. Take home, strip the bark off, and polish. I had a student once who wanted more than anything to be a music conductor. Her wand was, in fact, a conductor’s baton. I thought it was perfect for her. I’ve also known people who have used bones from their totem animals (deer bones work very well, if you can get them) rather than wood. They seemed to work well, too. My husband has a lovely wand he “recycled” from a red maple tree that needed to be cut down in his mother’s front yard a few years ago.

To give him an even closer connection with his wand, he and his father were the ones that planted the tree in the first place. If I ever have a wand, it will probably be made of oak, holly or apple – my favorite trees. A quick note to the Harry Potter fans: no, it will not have a phoenix feather in the middle of it! You can decorate your wand with shells, crystals, feathers, paint, carve runes into it – whatever makes it more “yours.” However, I would reference the excellent article Lupa posted here on Witchvox about the legal use of animal parts for ritual items before adding feathers or bits of fur to the end, or even making the wand out of bone as mentioned above.

The last thing you want is to take your wand to a public space to use for a community ritual and have it confiscated by the police or park rangers because you’ve put a feather on it that, legally, you’re not allowed to have. When should I use the wand in ritual, as opposed to using the athame? You can, generally, use the wand for anything you’d use the athame for –casting the circle, saluting the quarters, etc. If you believe the wand is the tool of the East, use it any time you need extra “air” energy – when you’re doing a ritual to help you study more effectively for an exam, for instance, or when beginning a new job. If you believe the wand is the tool of the South, use it any time you need extra “fire” energy – if you’ve been feeling physically run down lately, or you’ve got some old life baggage you want to burn away.

If your wand is made of wood, I’d definitely refrain from placing it in a combustible situation – using it to consecrate a burning candle, or poking your incense charcoal to get the burnt ash off the surface and expose the glowing coal within, for instance. Use your athame or boline for those – and save yourself the pain and embarrassment of setting your wand on fire! How do I charge my wand and make it ready to use? I keep my wand tucked away with the rest of my altar tools (I have a small child and many pets. Ritual tools are safely stored in a special cabinet) . To charge it, I waited for a particularly windy day (yes, I am definitely of the belief that wands are the tool of East/Air) and took my wand outside for a few hours so it could absorb the wind. I also did this as close to sunrise as possible to add the dawn/new beginnings energy to the tool. I still do this periodically if I haven’t used it in ritual for a while – just in case. Whether your wand is something you make yourself or a gift from a dear friend, cherish it and use it well!

Recently during one of my classes on the history within our magickal traditions, a question came up about levels and degrees of hierarchy found in Witchcraft and Wicca. Within these, is there a title or position wherein someone is called Witch Queen or Witch King.

First of all: YES!

This is a real term, older than recorded time. It does not matter what the word is you use King, Queen, Sovereign, Master, Elder Lord or Lady; these are each equal titles given to someone that is held in a place of greatest honor within the traditions of magick, spell crafting and the old ways and traditions. It is not a self-professed degree. You have to have worked for years with many other teachers and traditions of understanding. The Wise Ones and the Elders must first teach you. Then you become a teacher in your own right to achieve these levels.

If you work as a solitary this will not be an issue. But if you are in a group that works within a degree system you may decide you want to move forward within this group as an Elder, teacher or someday leader yourself. Not all traditions follow a degree system. It depends on the specific tradition you follow and what requirements there are within that group.

A Witch Queen is a High Priestess (of third degree depending on traditions) within a coven that has had a certain number of hives that have formed independent covens under which the Queen oversees. The hiving can be either from growth or from desire.
The title “Witch Queen” is not a rank. It is given in honor and with respect to those of aged wisdom. We give this title to those of great knowledge that work to share our beliefs within the light and truth.

The title shows dedication, wisdom and heart of commitment. A pledge is then given freely and witnessed by Elders, Priest and Priestesses as well as other Witch Queens and Kings. This can be difficult when these traditions are so personal and held in great secretary within all traditions.

To receive the title Witch Queen, you must be a High Priestess (HPS) of the third degree or higher. Depending on the tradition, the second level may be required (5 to 13 years training) . From there, you must have taught and trained several students who have reached the level of High Priest or High Priestess of the third degree (10 to 20 years +) and have subsequently hived themselves unto their own independent covens, clans or groves. During all this work, study, time, teaching and subsequent hiving and growth, you must be maintaining your own personal working coven without question or falter, maintaining all the wisdom in its continued teaching and training therein.

In other words, you must have at least five working covens that have hived from your group. These Covens must be in good standing as working covens holding to their teachings and traditions. Yet you must continue to be a strong leader within your personal Coven. As Priest or Priestess within your group you must be teaching, training, and upholding the daily responsibilities. In addition to these duties you must be ready, willing and able to deal with any circumstances that may arise within those Covens that have hived from you and look to you for guidance.

To receive the Title of “Witch Queen” can take anywhere from 13 years to a lifetime. Please note: That 13 years to achieve the honor of Witch Queen is very rare even if you are truly doing all that must be done.

How it works:

Once you have studied and trained within a Coven to receive the title of High Priestess of the third degree (this takes 5 years or longer) , you must ask your Coven HPS permission to hive. If it is agreed, you begin to work towards this goal. As an Elder and HPS within your Mother Coven, you will train with your Coven High Priestess for a year and a day. You will begin to find and teach students that will be a part of your group when you hive off from your Mother Coven or Hive.

(To hive, it is best to have at least four students who have reached the level of first degree under your instruction. Those whom have trained with you within the Mother Coven as you prepare to separate into an independent group.)

Once your Coven is formed and independently working from the Mother Coven, the work truly begins. You must labor to keep your group active and growing. In this, you may have members that desire to learn and grow and become leaders. So you will teach and work with them unto this goal, while also teaching and working with new members and the community. No Coven can be made up of only leaders; there must be students and seekers to make it whole.

Once you have established your own working Coven independent unto itself you are ready to begin. You must teach and train five members of your Coven unto the level of third degree High Priestess or Priest; that have started working with their own groups independent of the Mother Coven. This will not and cannot happen all at once. While teaching these members, and during the hivings, you must still maintain your personal working Coven outside these members and all the time maintaining your group while teaching and working within the community.

Once you have at least five members that have hived to create their own active, working covens, (which have not withdrawn themselves from your coven in any way that would cause turmoil or malice to enter) then and only then, you may request that your Mother Coven’s High Priestess recognize you as a “Witch Queen” within your own right. This is how the cycle continues and we grow as a community.

The title “Witch Queen” is given to honor those who have dedicated their lives to the continued understanding of who we are within the community as a whole and unto those seeking understanding of our beliefs.

“Witch Queen” is not an entitlement one can give oneself. It comes from hard work and knowing that this life is a gift that must now and always be shared.
To be a “Witch Queen” shows that you will continually work, teach and train others; working as a teacher, advisor, elder and/or councilor.

“Witch King”: So do we have Witch Kings? I am not sure why we don’t hear as much about the male side of this coin. Those who have reached the honor of being a Witch Queen are rare. I have to imagine that Witch Kings are just as rare.
I can tell you the terms I have heard. I believe them to be equal; both Witch King and Witch Queen are terms we give to those we know of knowledge, wisdom and honor.

Witch King is the best known of the titles. But I have also heard the term Master Witch. Both being rare and seldom used. I think the Master Witch today sounds too much like a video or computer game. (This may be why we don’t hear it used.)

Because we don’t hear a lot about a Witch Kings is not to say they are not around. Like myself it is the honor we hold not the scepter. We don’t wear signs that state, “I am King or I am Queen.” We are generally known in our circles and by those we love and trust. Occasionally we share the information with others to teach, and to explain why we should all keep striving to be more.

The title “Witch King” is given to honor those who have dedicated their lives to the continued understanding of who we are within the community as a whole and unto those seeking understanding of our beliefs.

“Witch King” is not an entitlement one can give oneself. It comes from hard work and knowing that this life is a gift that must now, and always, be shared.

To be a “Witch King” shows that you will continually work, teach and train others, be this as an advisor, elder and/or councilor in and outside the traditional Coven workings.

* NOTE: I understand from history the mundane world decided to believe that male was stronger than female, somehow better. Like in history; first we had the Goddess. She was strong, full of love and life. She was the giver of life and the cycle of creation found in Life and Death. Later we find balance in both the God and the Goddess as they worked together in balance. Then man decided this was not to be. Man was the master and in this he tried to destroy the Goddess saying we needed only one God. To seek the female energy would be a sin and bring death to those who worshiped Her.

During these changes in history, society began to believe that man should rule over woman in all things. Therein, a King should rule or stand over a Queen. She became somehow less than he. We in the Pagan world understand this will just not work. We have both Priestesses and our Priest. We may stand together or alone, but we stand as equals in the balance of female and male. Those who study history along with the old ways understand this to be true.

I think this may be why we have so few that stand proudly in these old traditions of pride within our beliefs. It is not that we do not find honor in the titles of who we are, Witch Queen or/and Witch King. We are somehow put off by the way others see them. Yet if we don’t teach those walking the path anew, who will teach those how come later.

I have pride in who I am, what I have accomplished and those I teach. I know in my heart that they shall carry forward into the next generations the truth with wisdom and honor.

Blessed Shall They Be.

Lady Abigail
High Priestess Ravensgrove Coven
Greenfield, IN
Copyright © 01252010

Copyright: Lady Abigail
Copyright © 01252010
High Priestess Ravensgrove Coven
Greenfield, IN

By AARON BURGIN
The Press-Enterprise

It might never be easy to be a witch in southwest Riverside County, but it’s getting easier, Ivy Lieberman said.

Lieberman, a Lake Elsinore resident, is a practicing pagan and a member of the Murrieta Witches of the Goddess, a pagan group whose membership has ballooned from a handful in 2006 to more than 130 today. Some in the group come from as far as Hemet and Perris. They meet in public places like coffee shops.

When she moved to Lake Elsinore 26 years ago, Lieberman said, walking with her pentagram around her neck would have led to charges of devil worship. Coming out of “the broom closet,” a term used for someone practicing witchcraft in secrecy, could have cost her a job and friends, she said.

Now, Lieberman and other pagans said they are finding people in one of California’s most conservative and Christian regions to be more tolerant of their beliefs than ever before.

“You’ll have occasions where I’ve been in Walmart or at the stadium and people will see me wearing my pentagram, and they will say, “Blessed be (a Wicca greeting), how are you,’ and people really wanted to know more about my beliefs without prejudice,” she said. “That is very promising.”

Wicca, neo-druidism and Shamanism, among other belief systems, fall under the umbrella term neo-paganism, which identifies a number of new religious movements, particularly those influenced by European pre-Christian pagan beliefs, according to the Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements.

Story continues below Ed Crisostomo / The Press-Enterprise
Behind a spirit wheel depicting the four elements are members of the Murrieta Witches of the Goddess, a pagan group whose membership has grown from a handful in 2006 to more than 130 today. In southwest Riverside County they find people more tolerant of their beliefs.
Some neo-pagans worship a god and a goddess, others believe in multiple gods and the existence of a soul or life force in humans, animals and inanimate objects. Others believe that God and the universe are the same. Many practice witchcraft and perform ritualistic ceremonies, adherents said.

They don’t, however, fly on brooms or worship the devil, said Ronda Ritchie, a Hemet witch who has her witch heritage on display on everything from her necklace to her car. “Spellcaster1″ is emblazoned on her rear window.

“We don’t practice evil. That is not even in our vocabulary,” Ritchie said. “Our belief is that whatever you send forth will come back three times harder, so you better not send any evil out or you’re going to be in a mess of trouble.”

The growth of neo-paganism in southwest Riverside County mirrors that in the United States. Trinity College’s annual American Religious Identification Survey estimated that the number of new religious movement adherents grew from 1.2 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2008. Some, according to the survey by the Hartford, Conn., college, were disenchanted converts from Christian faiths.

It isn’t surprising that tolerance for neo-paganism would be on the rise, said Rebecca Moore, a religious studies professor at San Diego State. Television shows and books that cast witches, magic and other vestiges of pagan culture in a favorable light are common today, she said.

Story continues below

Ed Crisostomo / The Press-Enterprise
Ronda Ritchie and her fellow members of the Murrieta Witches of the Goddess meet.
“You see it in TV shows, like ‘Charmed,’ and in a large body of literature that present pagans in a very positive light,” Moore said.

Representatives from some of the Inland region’s largest churches said they have noticed the rising number of pagans but see it as a desire for spirituality among the younger generations. This desire has caused a similar increase in their church memberships.

“Generation Y … is so incredibly spiritual by nature,” said Tony Wood, the Generate teaching pastor at Crossroads Christian Church in Corona. “They are seeking an answer, some valid truth, and that leads certain people in different directions.”

In southwest Riverside County, adherents to neo-paganism said they have seen entire families show interest in paganism and attend covens, or gatherings. The increased numbers have emboldened some, like Ritchie, to proudly display their pagan icons and openly discuss their beliefs.

But many people remain intolerant toward their beliefs, they said. Some witches still keep their beliefs a secret from family, friends and employers for fear of being ostracized or fired.

As a candidate for the Lake Elsinore Unified School District board of trustees in 2004, Lieberman didn’t disclose her pagan background because she said it would have made her a political pariah.

“No one would have voted for me,” said Lieberman, who finished several hundred votes behind Jon Gray for the last of three seats up for election. “To me, it wasn’t any of their business what my beliefs are.”

Lieberman said she doesn’t think her beliefs will ever be fully accepted in this region.

The difference between acceptance and tolerance is not confined to southwest Riverside County, Moore said.

“Toleration means you’re not out on witch hunts, trying to deliberately persecute them. Acceptance would be full civil, legal and human rights,” Moore said. “I’m not sure any part of U.S. society is there yet. I think we can look to the fact that it would be hard for an atheist or a Mormon in some places to be elected to public office.”

But change of any kind is still blessed, Lieberman said.

“We have to do it one person at a time, but even then I probably won’t see any complete acceptance in my own time,” she said. “We will see change, though, and that is heartening.”

Reach Aaron Burgin at 951-375-3733 or aburgin@PE.com