Oregon daily emerald., April 17, 2000, Page 10A, Image 9

I will
... support students in their
efforts to create a campus that
mirrors diverse perspectives in a
multicultural world.
... encourage students to explore
their academic opportunities and
engage those among whom they
live and study.
... inspire expectations of
academic excellence, social
interaction and political
consciousness.
j will
challenge students to drink
responsibly or not at all.
Carla Gary
Director of the Office of
Multicultural Affairs and University Advocate
00897'
WICCA
continued from page 1A
the practice of ritual, has since
blossomed into a tradition shared
by female members ranging from
teenagers to grandmothers.
Wiccans adhere to the pre
Christian pagan calendar of the
four seasons and celebrate each
with quarterly festivals in Febru
ary, May, August and October.
Beltane, the commemoration of
the bounty of spring, will be ob
served May 1 (often called May
Day).
Joyce, 69, is not only a founding
mother of the Oregon-based net
work but continues to work on ex
panding the message of WICCA to
the community at large.
“I knew I wanted to meet with
women,” she said. “That we had a
special job to do in saving Mother
Earth and in healing the destruc
tion patriarchal religion has
done.”
Expanding the responsibilities
of that special job, WICCA’s mes
sage is now available to those in
the Lane County justice system.
Joyce has been officially recog
nized by the state as a spiritual ad
visor for incarcerated pagans.
Additionally, she recently be-*
gan a six-week series of classes at
Hillcrest Youth Correctional Fa
cility in Salem teaching the tenets
of paganism and female-centered
spirituality to youth offenders
who express interest in the pro
gram.
Another founding member of
the local group, Susan Walker,
said being involved in WICCA
empowers women, including her
self. She describes it as the thing
that “has helped me the most in
my life.”
“Magic comes from within,”
she said. “It’s about taking respon
sibility for our lives.”
Responding to popular miscon
ceptions of the group, Walker
stressed that Wiccans continue to
work against stereotyping as
witches or satanic practitioners
and “being lumped into the oc
cult.”
“We do not do the devil,” she
said. “In WICCA, there is no dark
side. We are a church of the god
dess.”
Their deity, though female in
context, stands to symbolize the
feminine divine energy Wiccans
believe is present and focuses on
the aspects of the changing sea
sons or the creative nature of
Mother Earth. “For us, the god
dess is not a separate god,” Walk
er said. “It is beyond all that.”
In practice, Wiccans gather
weekly in small groups of no
more than eight, called “wings,”
to perform and share in rituals
that can vary from meditation,
song or movement exercises to a
lesson on medicinal herbs.
Joyce said each experience in
the wing is unique, depending on
the rotating woman in charge of
orchestrating the activity that
week and ranges from the “eso
teric to the prosaic.” It is not the
same as traditional prayer meet
ings or liturgical services of other
various denominations.
“Ritual is different in the sense
that we are celebrating our being,
our commitment to Mother Earth,
to the goddess’ energy and the
wheel of life,” Joyce said.
Kim Reed, who moved to Eu
gene last year, sought out joining
the group because she wanted to
become involved with women
who shared her interest in god
dess energy.
“I wanted people to do rituals
with,” she said. “But you get so
much more out of it than that, too.
You get to know yourself.”