Sabrina, Harry Potter, and the Web help Paganism grow

By Pete Harrison LONDON (Reuters) - Paganism and the ancient art of witchcraft are on the rise, experts say, as the summer's most celebrated Pagan festival approaches.

Television, the Internet, environmentalism and even feminism have all played a role in the resurgence.

Soaring Pagan numbers have churches worrying and calling for stricter controls on cult TV programmes and films that celebrate sorcery like "Harry Potter", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch".

Record attendance is expected at dawn on Saturday morning at the mystical megaliths of Stonehenge, where Pagans have celebrated the summer solstice for thousands of years.

The trend has worried some of the Protestant church's more traditional elements.

"The rise of interest in Paganism is damaging because it normalises spiritual evil by presenting it as mere fantasy and fiction," said Reverend Joel Edwards of the Evangelical Alliance, a grouping of some one million UK Christians.

"The Evangelical Alliance calls on government and TV regulatory bodies to monitor programmes which promote or glamorise Pagan issues," he told Reuters.

Thirty thousand are expected to dance in the sunrise on summer's longest day at Stonehenge, says English Heritage, which manages the site -- nearly four times the number in 1990, when it re-opened to the public after many years.

Scholars believe the ring of 20-tonne stones was built between 3,000 and 1,600 BC as a sacred temple. Many of the revellers will be there just to party, but among them will be druids, who believe in spiritual enlightenment through nature, and witches who practice Wicca -- harnessing nature's power as magic.

At least 10,000 Pagan witches and 6,000 Pagan druids were practising in Britain at the last estimate in 1996, said history professor Ronald Hutton at Bristol University. He too suggested the number was rising.

"Both the witches and the druids were always heavily outnumbered by what I'd call non-attached Pagans," he told Reuters. "There are perhaps 100,000 to 120,000 in Britain."

Paganism has been rising in the UK since the 1950s, Hutton said. "It's a religion that meets modern needs," he added. "Traditional religions have so many prohibitions: Thou shalt not do this or that. But Paganism has a message of liberation combined with good citizenship."

He pointed to the ancient Pagan motto: "An (if) it harm none, do what you will".

Matt McCabe of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids (OBOD) said his order had grown from a few hundred in the late 1980s to 7,000 worldwide today. Much of the growth he put down to the appeal of remote learning via the World Wide Web.

"People are very reassured by the structured learning we can offer via the Web," he said.

The 1970s environmental movement also had an impact, said McCabe, with a lot of environmentalists attracted to Paganism because of its veneration of nature.

Hutton said feminism in the 1980s had a similar effect, with women drawn to the female god-figure that is also worshipped. Then in the 1990s came the TV programmes "Buffy" and "Sabrina", about teenagers with supernatural powers.

"Anything that makes teenage girls feel powerful is bound to go down well," joked OBOD's McCabe.

Kevin Carlyon, High Priest of British White Witches said "Harry Potter" in recent years had continued the trend, helping create what he called "the fastest growing belief system in the world". But it was not all good, he added.

Fresh back from a trip to Scotland to lift an old hex from the Loch Ness Monster, he warned teenagers against joining witch covens too young.

I am a Pagan.
Or a Neo-Pagan, whatever you feel like calling it. I do not believe in Jesus. I DO believe in God. I believe in a female deity also, the Goddess if you will.
I am not a Liberal Feminazi. I AM a Libertarian who learned to shoot a 22. rifle at the age of 6, who periodically goes to church with her grandmother for quality time, who despises Hillary and Bill Clinton, and all that they stand for, and went to a Pro-Troops rally this year.

Pagans do not believe in Satan, the Devil, etc. The ones I have known believe that to give evil a name, you give it power, so they do not name it. They believe in reincarnation, they believe in Karma, they believe in responsibility for their actions. The phrase "An it harm none, do what thou will" though not rooted in actual historical practices, has some sense in it. Live and let live.

I know many people who are Christians, Jews and Atheists. Many of these people are my friends. We are tolerant of each others religions, while we do not believe in what they believe, we don't point fingers and scream "You're going to Hell!!!" (This has actually happened to me.)

My cousins are Baptist missionaries, and they have tried multiple times to convert me. I know that many of the people who give me stickers that proclaim "Jesus Loves Me!" are only doing what they think is best for me. They fear that I'll go to Hell to pay for my sins of not believing in Christianity. I love them dearly for caring so much about me, but it's not going to change what I believe in. I'm not hurting anyone, so I think people should let me believe in what I want to, and not make fun of it. I do the same for them, all I can ask is that they do the same for me.

I am not a baby-eating, Hitlery supporting, murderous wench. I am a 14 year old girl who got 1300 on her SAT's, was best in her Biology class of 40 at Villanova University, and who enjoys gardening, cooking, and computer programming. I also happen to be Pagan. Deal with it.

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