Joshua Wilks
Published: Februray 4 2004
An hour after sundown, 30 adults and nine children, form a circle around a fire in a backyard amid several large oak trees.
In their midst, a man dressed in a cape anoints their heads with oil, as they enter from the east.
Once all positioned, he then aims a sword skyward and walks clockwise within the group.
All together, the group then rotates simultaneously in a given direction, holding their arms up and shouting out the direction they are facing – north, east, south, or west.
For hundreds of years, they have had to hide their religion.
But the ceremony being conducted in William E. Livingston’s backyard in Milton is a ritual of the spiritual practice growing nationwide, known as Wicca.
The practitioners regard nature as charged with divinity, recognize deity as male and female and see Mother Earth as their “goddess.”
This group in Milton calls themselves the Fire Dance Church of Wicca, and Livingston is their high priest.
While some Wiccans refer to themselves as witches, this group of locals makes it known that they are not what most think all witches are – wicked.
There aren’t any green-faced, pointy black hat witches stirring evil brews in cauldrons at this ceremony.
These witches are students, educators, military members, retailers, police officers, carpenters, farmers, and homemakers.
Wicca – also known as the Craft, Witchcraft, or the Old Religion – has no central text, like a Bible, and has no authority or prophet, only the motto “An it harm none, do as ye will.”
“Wicca is not a new religion, it’s a very old religion,” said Livingston, a retired Navy sailor and former PJC student. “We all have different beliefs about what we are. We don’t tell people what they have to do, it’s a personal decision.”
Although Wicca is a federally recognized religion protected by the Constitution, Livingston and his practitioners have