Occult hit: Witches bucking religion trend
WICCA | Leader teaching classes here tries to dispel myth that 'we're satanists and that we belong to the devil'

BY MIKE THOMAS Religion Reporter mthomas@suntimes.com

They don't toil over bubbling caldrons or cook lost kids. They have no use for flying monkeys. And their spice racks are more apt to contain ginger or paprika than eye of newt.

Still, witches are far from fictional. And according to the most recent American Religious Identification Survey, released earlier this month, there are more of them than ever.

While most other major religions lost ground, Wiccanism -- whose members, Wiccans, sometimes refer to themselves as witches -- and other so-called "New Religious movements" grew by more than a million members since the last ARIS survey was published in 2001. They're now an estimated 1.2 percent of the adult population.

In Chicago -- home to an unknown number of Wiccan covens (congregations) and independent practitioners --there's even a Witch School. An outgrowth of the nationally popular and long-active Web site witchschool.com, the Downstate Rossville-based organization currently offers three monthly courses and returned to town earlier this month after a five-year absence.

"One of the things that we found is that people frequently did not have access to information and wanted to learn more about Wicca and metaphysics," said the school's chancellor and one of its owners, the Rev. Don Lewis. "And we went into online teaching in order to make it more accessible to people. But it was never our intention that [the site] should replace real-time teaching."

Local classrooms include the Occult Bookstore in Wicker Park and the Life Force Arts Center in Lake View. Lewis said there's talk of expanding to St. Louis and "a number of different regions."

On a recent Friday night, Witch School CEO Ed Hubbard visited the Occult Bookstore to talk on the topic of "Magick for the Masses."

Few people attended, save for a handful of employees and one drop-in, but the show went on.

"You can change your environment by the power of your will," he declared, as a tiny digital camera taped his lecture for the YouTube channel Magick TV. "The first step is thinking. You have to have that spark."

The air smelled of honey-amber incense. Shelves and tables displayed crystals, candles and hundreds of books, with such titles as Practical Angel Magic of Dr. John Dee's Enochian Tables and The History of Witchcraft and Demonology.

In a phone interview before the event, Hubbard said a common misconception people have of witches is "that we're satanists and that we belong to the devil. That's a big one. And it's very hard because that's the dualist world of Christianity, and we just don't accept it."

good article Lynann....welcome back BTW. I sent this to my friend Stef, who is wiccan.

The misconceptions are real. I have read up on the Wiccan religion myself and there are concepts to it that I agree with. I have not chosen it as my religion but it is a positive religion in the sense that it teaches self responsibility, self respect and the effects we have on our environment from even just our attitude daily. It is also one of few religions that respects all other religions or beliefs.

As the father has ruled for a time.

Perhaps it is time for the mother to be acsendent.

Or returned.......

Right...I think returned is MUCH more accurate.

Seen on a man's t-shirt: I rule the roost.
Seen on a woman's t-shirt: I rule the rooster.

If you think "our Father in Heaven" is mad, WAIT TIL MOM FINDS OUT!!

Well on a serious note, the one thing that women and god have in common is we both create life. It kind of reminds me of the parrot sitting on his perch in the pet store who tells people,

"I can talk, can you fly?"

interesting