1) Pagan’s house burns in Great Falls, SC.
By Christopher Blackwell

I am interviewing Richard Potter, a Pagan man that recently moved into Great Falls, SC.

Potter had the misfortune to have his house, on 6 Jackson St., catch fire while he was asleep on Sunday Feb. 4, 2007.

Christopher: Richard how did you happen to move into Great Falls and when did you move into your house?

Richard: I had been living in Camden, S.C. taking care of my aging parents. My parents both died and since the house was willed to six people really could not afford to buy out everyone else. The house was also far to large for me to maintain by myself. Being a friend of Darla Wynne's I became familiar with Great Falls, found it to be a pretty little town with basically friendly people. Land prices here were cheap and I found a house and property that fitted my income requirements. The house and property almost called out to me. I felt a sense of comfort and security there: it just had that good feel.

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2) Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance public ceremony for veteran pentacle rights
By Christopher Blackwell

Feb. 24, the Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance held their first large public ceremony in the St. Paul government mall in front of the State Capitol Building. The ceremony that went on for two hours was support for inclusion of the Pentacle on VA headstones for Wiccan and Pagan veterans.

http://umpaganalliance.com/vision.shtml

Despite cold weather, sleet, and snow, 150 Pagans showed up for the ceremony, and after the ceremony they formed a human pentacle.

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3) Nature’s Church destroyed by fire
By Christopher Blackwell

At 6:30 p.m. Feb. 2, Nature’s Church near Blechertown MA was reported on fire. Two men who lived in the one family home, that also served as the church, Allen Dean, 26 and Robert St.Cry, 44, lost all their clothes, furniture, books and other belongings in the fire and were temporarily homeless.

Evan Walgren, 44 was charged and and jailed without bond for arson.

She had, on the Thursday morning before been arrested at the church for wanton destruction and assault, trespassing, breaking and entering to commit a felony. Kept over night, she was released and had been ordered to stay away from the church.

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4) Witches Brew, a Pagan business
By Christopher Blackwell

In Auburn, NY, there is a cafe called Witches Brew, named after a brand of coffee that they serve there. To learn a bit more about this business and some of the ideas behind it, I am interviewing one of the co-owners, Nancy Health.

Christopher: I would imagine every Pagan has toyed with the idea of having a business, yet only a small number of even ordinary businesses survive. I guess my first question is how Pagan friendly is Auburn and how did that affect how you panned your business?

Nancy: Auburn is for the most part a very conservative city. I had decided to try opening this cafe and gift shop with a Pagan theme because it was never done in this area. I knew there was a Pagan community, which I felt needed a place to share beliefs, ideas and itself with the area.

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5) Wiccan-Boscov’s ruling upheld by Superior Court
By Christopher Blackwell

Feb. 12, Judge Robert B. Young, of the Kent County Superior Court, Delaware, upheld the religious discrimination ruling that requires Boscov’s to pay a $5,000 fine and pay $21,000 to two Wiccans, a Christian, a Spiritualist and a Pagan for canceling classes to be held at the store.

Last May, the state Human Relations Commission found that the Reading Pa. based department store chain had caved in to pressure of church people and illegally canceled classes of on subjects of tarot, talismans, candle magic and the pentagram to be held in the Dover store in Oct. 2005.

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6) Why American Witches no longer fly brooms
By Christopher Blackwell

Nice thing about brooms was they were good cheap personal transportation, you could take off and land anywhere and store them in the closet. By the way if you ever saw Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks you would see that you sat back on the broom end not on the slender stick part. Hollywood got that part right.

All might have gone well a lot longer but you know the youngsters, not very subtle flyers. Back in the 1930s teenage Witches painted them in garish colors and showed off all the time, even mounted claxion horns on them, like the old Model Ts sometimes had. Teenagers, but what can you do about them?

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