Source: ABC News

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1256677

On October 31, 2005 ABC News reported, "When Tracey Johnson first moved to Petal, Miss. and opened The Circle of the Green Faery, she didn't receive the warmest of welcomes. It seems not everyone in the small, rural southern Mississippi community was willing to accept a witch who sold supplies for pagan lifestyles.

But ever since Hurricane Katrina, Johnson's shop has been bustling.

'The divination...

Source: Yahoo! News

Wire Service: AP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051030/ap_on_fe_st/netherlands_witch_s_tax_break

On October 30, 2005 the Associated Press reported, "Dutch witches were guaranteed a financial treat when the Leeuwarden District Court reaffirmed their legal right to write off the costs of schooling — including in witchcraft — against their tax bills. Those costs run to thousands of euros. The case...

Source: The New Haven Register

Source: The Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-1829195,00.html

On October 17, 2005 The Times reported, "Pagan priests will be allowed to use wine and wands during ceremonies in jails under instructions issued to every prison governor. Inmates practising paganism will be allowed a hoodless robe, incense and a piece of religious jewellery among their personal possessions. They will also be allowed to have Tarot cards but are forbidden from...

Source: The Herald

http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/5258727p-4773941c.html

On October 16, 2005 The Herald reported, "With the deadline to appeal set to expire, Great Falls officials have made no move to pay the legal bills of a Wiccan high priestess who successfully sued the town to remove the name of Jesus Christ from pre-meeting prayers. Federal Judge Cameron Currie last month ordered the town to pay about $53,000 in legal bills that Darla Wynne...

Source: The Age

On October 16, 2005 The Age reported, "[Caroline] Tully [a witch in Melbourne] is part of an Australian trend in which witches and charismatic Christians are leading religious growth. Many women are turning to witchcraft or paganism as a reaction to the patriarchal nature of traditional Christianity. Academic Dr Philip Hughes, of the Christian Research Association, told a Melbourne seminar on spirituality that 'nature' religions rose by 140 per cent between 1996 and 2001. Agnostics are on the rise, too. For many, the nature religions were...

Source: The Washington Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101100637.html

On October 11, 2005 the Associated Press reported, "The Supreme Court rejected an appeal on Tuesday from a Wiccan priestess angry that local leaders would not let her open their sessions with a prayer. Instead, clergy from more traditional religions were invited to pray at...

Source: Indiana Daily Student News

Source: The Telegraph

Source: The Decatur Daily

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/teenpage/051004/wiccan.shtml

On October 4, 2005 The Decatur Daily reported "[Sixteen-year-old Ricky Shepard, a sophmore at Priceville High School in Decatur, Alabama and a Wiccan] confronted [the school's] principal, Guy Bowling after he confiscated two seventh-graders' pentacles, the Wiccan equivalent to a Protestant's cross or a Jew's star of David... Shepard didn't persuade his...

Source: Kiro TV

http://www.kirotv.com/irresistible/5056128/detail.html

On October 4, 2005 Kiro TV reported, "A navy veteran from Kent, [Washington] reportedly wants the symbol of his Wiccan faith on his grave marker when his time comes.

Even though other believers get the symbol of their choice, the National Cemetery Association and the Veterans Affairs Department haven't approved the Wiccan symbol -- a stars and circle pentacle, the Seattle Post-...

Source: Reclaiming Quarterly Magazine

http://www.reclaimingquarterly.org/web/dc05/dc05-2-call.html

On September 24, 2005 Reclaiming Quarterly Magazine issued a statement that reads, in part: "To all who are called: Please join us in Washington DC, September 24 - 26, to expose the truth about the G8, the IMF and World Bank, and the War in Iraq. Take each other's hands in flesh and in spirit. Join with us and with the ancestors to make visible the unjust...

Source: Spero News

Source: PR Web

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/9/prweb287804.htm

On September 20, 2005 a PR Web Press Release reported, "Pagans and Wiccans are working together to send aid under Avalon Cares!, a new aid organization formed last year after the tsunami and now providing assistance to Katrina victims. Paganism and Wicca are growing faiths in America that are often ridiculed and discounted, but, quietly, Pagans have been making a difference for years. Now in the wake...