1) President Bush and Roberta Stewart.
By Christopher Blackball

A week before a planned Aug. 25 stopover for a speech by President Bush at the American Legion in Reno, Nevada, the White House sent out invitations for a brief personal meeting with the President to widows and family members of Army personnel that died in Iraq and Afghanistan with one notable exception, a Wiccan war widow who lost her husband a couple of years ago in Afghanistan, Roberta Stewart. Sgt. Patrick Stewart of the Nevada Army National Guard was the first known Wiccan to die in that war.

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2) Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill 2007
Interview with Damon Leff of South Africa Pagan Rights Alliance
By Christopher Blackwell

American Pagans like to think of the Witch hunts as being something of the distant past. But unfortunately in South Africa they are very much part of the present. People are still accused, beaten, banished, and sometimes killed for the alleged crime of Witchcraft in some provinces, including Mpumalanga Province.

Even government officials can be accused, such as Boykie Msimango, 57, a veteran ANC leader in Mpumalanga's Nkomazi region, with a position in the department of water affairs and forestry. Back in 2003 he was accused that he kept his position by Witchcraft. Though police were able to protect him and his ten children and he was able to get belongings out of his house, his home was burned to the ground.

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3) Druid News
By Ellen Evert Hopman

Co-Chief Order of the Whiteoak (Ord na Darach Gile)

www.whiteoakdruids.org

Update on the Druid Vets Headstone Project

At this point we are all waiting for a Druid vet to pass over. We can't do a thing until we have a deceased Druid and their family or representatives are ready, willing, and able to fight for the Awen symbol, which all major U.S. Druid Orders voted on after I and the Order of Whiteoak (www.whiteoakdruids.org) organized a collection of symbols and a vote.

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4) Ellwood “Bunky” Bartlett and the Mega Millions Lottery
By Christopher Blackwell

In the beginning

Ellwood “Bunky” Bartlett, of Dundalk, Maryland, is a forty-year-old private accountant, married with two grown children. He is a Wiccan and his wife teach Wicca and Reiki healing classes at Mystickal Voyage at the Walther Shopping Center in Nottingham, MD, a new age store owned by Mick and Lori Perdue. Bartlett considers it to be his spiritual home.

A couple of months ago a Tarot card reading told Bartlett that he should slow down and focus on his spirituality. Over the last month, he felt compelled to do more teaching at the store but felt torn because he couldn’t pull away from his work as an accountant. So he told the “powers that be” that if they wanted him to focus on teaching then he would have to win the lottery.

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5) Witch City, Burning Times, and alleged Witches
Editorial By Christopher Blackwell

I remember when I became Wiccan and I hoped to meet magical and wise people in my new community. I also remember the first letdown when I discovered most of them were rather ordinary people with ordinary faults, if dressed up in unusual clothes at the local Pagan gathering.

I find myself with mixed personal feelings about our so called Witch City, Salem, MA. While I am sure some Wiccans like it, particularly newer ones, who like being surrounded by people “like” them, I personally have to wonder at what goes on there.

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