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"WE DON"T WORSHIP SATAN, WITCHCRAFT PRIESTESS SAYS"
[Taken from the Wisconsin State Journal, Wensday Aug. 27, 1986.]
By Chris Martell (Regional Reporter for the above publication)
BARNEVELD - The tranquility of Selena Fox's summer afternnon was broken a few weeks ago by teh surprise visit of a truckload of young men, some of them quite drunk.
The strangers had come to her farmhouse to ask some startling questions.
Was it true, they wondered, that she and members of her church sacrificed black babies? Flew on brooms? Levitated their barn? What about rumors that dead dogs were hanging in the woods on the 200 acre property?
As a priestess of the Wiccan religion, otherwise called witchcraft, Ms. Fox, 36, had heard such questions before. So she patiently explained that, no, the stories were fiction. That members of her Circle Sanctuary Church are not devil worshippers, nor do they "Cast evil whammies or huddle in the woods in dark robes calling up demons." She assured them there were no blood sacrifices, no sex orgies, and "the only thing I can do with a broom is sweep my porch, and people jump over it in marriage cerimonies."
Since becoming a Wiccan shortly after graduating from William and Mary College, she has battled misconceptions about her religion. She avoids the word witch, because of public relations problems witches have had ever since the inquistion.
Wiccans worship the 'life force' in all people and animals, rever nature and harm no one, she said. The religion began before Christianity, and is like Native American religions. Ms. Fox, who was raised in a fundimentalist Southern Baptist family in Virginia, also points to similarities between Wicca and mainstream religions.
"My practice of Wicca includes following Christ's teachings," she said "I love my fellow man and try to be a good neighbor." After the Barneveld tornado, she stood beside women from Christian churches, giving food to the uprooted.
Christian symbols for Christmas were borrowed from Wicca: carols, greenery, wreaths, exchanging gifts, colored lights, mistletoe, holly, ivy and the colors of green, red and white. One of Wicca's eight seasonal festivals, Spring Equinox, is echoed in Easter: It is represented by a Germanic goddess whoose sysmbols are a rabbit and a basket.
Ceremonies here are performed in the lush garden: The sanctuary's walls are a lacy mugwort hedge, inside is a maypole with bright ribbons.
From a battered Samsonite travel case, Ms Fox pulls ritual objects, protected by old socks. A cup, a dish of soil, incense, candles, a rattle, a chunk of quartz - all representing elements of life. On a wand, wedding rings are blessed, and there is an inflatable globe used to pray for peace. "The trappings aren't important. They're just reminders," she says.
"That star is also used by some Native American and ancient Celtic religions, Jews, some Christian churches. There are also 50 of them in the American Flag. Datanists turn it upside down and desecrate it. It no more belongs to them than the cross belongs to the Ku Klux Klan," she said.
Wiccan churches are small and independant, and the number of practitioners nationwide is estimated at more than 100,000. Each coven, or 'healing circle' chooses its own traditions and symbols. Ceremonies, performed in a circle with about a dozen people, involve dancing, singing, chanting, readings and candle-lighting rituals.
To join, initiates study with a member and then undergo a Nature Vigil; They spend a night outdoors and alone in a place of unspoiled natural beauty, often a state park, and communicate with the 'life force'.
The Circle's big festivals, usually held at James Madison Park, in Madison, are open to the public. "Some people come just because they want to celebrate the season," she said. Occasionally, Ms Fox turns up in pulpits of Christian churches, or ecumenical services at the state capitol.
As part of her ministry, she has performed about 40 marriage ceremonies. "Once at Niagara Falls, I married an oil company executive and his fiance. That must have been quite a sight, all these upper-class people in suits and expensive dresses, standing in a circle under the sky."
In addition, she lectures at universities nationwide on Wicca, folklore and herbs. Her writings turn up in some surprising places, like the US Army's handbook for chaplains.
So how did a former Baptist Bible Scholar wind up a Wiccan Priestess?
Ms Fox left the Christian Church when she was in high school, after giving a sermon. "I asked the congregation why they weren't helping the starving Spanish Catholics down the street. I told them they were only going through the motions of Christianity. There were hundreds of shocked people. Then, I realized I had no right to judge these people.
AFter college, she found herself on an archaelogical dig with a German woman who practiced Wicca. After several years, and a few conventional jobs (including a stint as an editor at Cuna Mutual Insurance), she decided to devote herself entirely to Wicca and founded Circle Sanctuary in the mid-1970's.
Serendipity brought her to Madison. With its many Indian mounds and lakes, the area is thought to be a hot spot of spiritualism. "I liked it here better than anywhere else. It's a center of culture and education, and it has a reputation for tolerance."
She now shares a herb-filled farmhouse with her new husband, Dennis Carpenter, a former school psychologist, and her ex-husband, Jim Allen, who once taught music in Catholic schools in the area. Both men devote themselves to the Wiccan ministry, and despite the unusual arrangement, Ms Fox says her marriage is monogamous.