SALISBURY – When she saw the devil costume in a local store, frustration boiled inside her.
Everything classic about the devil was there, said Morning Dove. There were horns and red makeup, but the pentacle – the symbol of her Wiccan religion – was like a slap in the face.
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“How am I supposed to protect my son from that, that pentacles represent evil,” she said of how the symbol was represented on the costume. “It’s a sacred symbol of earth, and Mother Earth is our goddess.”
Beyond complaining, Morning Dove, a practicing Wiccan who asked that her given name remain anonymous, said all she can do to change the perception of Wiccans is to educate people.
“People need to realize that that’s not what Wicca is about. It’s not about the devil,” she said. “We are moral people who are not out to hurt anyone.”
Wicca
The biggest misconception about Wicca – the largest religion under Paganism – is that its followers worship the devil.
“Most pagans don’t acknowledge Satan as an actual being,” said the Rev. David Andrews of the Church of Eclectic Pagan Fellowship. “Those that recognize him as a deity are from Christianity.”
Instead, Wicca is a modern religion that borrows from contemporary to ancient traditions.
“We look at everything around us and recognize that everything has a soul,” said the Rev. Heidi Andrews, also of the CEPF. “Everything has a spark of the divine.”
The three practicing pagans said not all pagan paths are the same. It is not only impossible to give a number of practicing Wiccans, but also explain their traditions or make assumptions.
“We all have different paths,” David Andrews said.
Most Wiccans are polytheistic, believing in the Lord and Lady, which rule over different parts of their yearly calendar. They have a golden rule, or moral rede, which says, “If it harm none, do as ye will.”
Morning Dove said Wiccans believe the earth is divine and seek spiritual growth and connection with the divine.
“All religions are like that,” she said. "We just go about it in a different way