Newspaper Article printed in U. Magazine, October 1995
THEY DON'T
RIDE BROOMSTICKS. THEY
DON'T STIR bubbling
caldrons. They don't cast evil spells. But the U. of Iowa students
who follow the ancient religion Wicca do call themselves witches.
|
Recently
recognized as a student group by UI, the nature-based, lifeaffirming
Wiccans faced no opposition when they applied for religious group
status last winter. 'We didn't have any qualms [about recognizing them]," says Curt Boelman, of the UI activities board. "We might giggle a little, but our own personal feelings towards the group have nothing to do with who gets in or not." But the 12 core members of the group want to publicize that their beliefs are no joke. UI senior Lon Sarver says that since people don't understand the religion of Wicca, they tend to believe in stereotyped characters. "What they get is the wicked witch from Disney." Instead, Wiccans are students who go to class, celebrate eight holidays, commune with nature and pay homage to the Goddess Mother. |
The
single rule that binds the more than 200,000 witches in North
America is the Wiccan Rede: "If it harm none, do as ye will." Loosely translated, that means Wiccans have nothing in common with the broom-riding harridan that chased Dorothy around Oz. "There are a lot of people who have beliefs like ours but don't have a name for them," says Dawn Atkins, a grad student at UI. "We don't recruit, but we do want people to understand what we're doing [when we worship]." Atkins and the other Wiccans at UI are designing a series of tapes for public access TV to explain that witches are not what fairy tales make them out to be. So just who dances with the devil in the pale moonlight? Only Macbeth, the Brothers Grimm and Goody Proctor would know. Kathryn Phillips, U. of Iowa/Photo by Michael Dickbernd, U, of Iowa |