Back in February I highlighted a quote from an opinion piece by Margaret Caldwell, the world’s oldest newspaper columnist, who mused that “perhaps I am Wiccan” when pondering her religious beliefs. Now, in an Easter-themed column, she expands on that “perhaps” a bit more.

“I have a daughter, not the dear one who lives with me, but one I adopted about 15 or 16 years ago. She is Wiccan. Some years ago she was going to attend an all-night celebration for Wiccans on Mount Shasta. When I said “I would love to go,” she said, “Then come. You can you know, if you really want to be there.” I went. It was real. In the night I saw her, and a number of men and women who chanted and danced in a grove of fragrant pine trees. I wore a red dress. When next we met, I told her I had been to the Wiccan celebration. “I know you came”, she said. “You wore your new red dress.” “Why did you not let me know you saw me?” She just looked at me and I got it. It was totally a spiritual thing – a real Wiccan spiritual happening. I shall never forget it. This is my Easter story.”

Stories like this help remind us that the appeal of Wicca isn’t simply a youthful rebellion against Christianity, or the passing fancy of a “spiritual but not religious” seeker, but a living and breathing faith that contains a deep current of sacredness and awe. A faith that can even appeal to a 102-year-old newspaper columnist who wants to remind the world that the earth is holy and that “an old crone is a wise old woman.”

A few interesting quotes that I’ve come across in my daily web-travels.

“[It is my] “duty to our Goddess to build a better world.” – The Rev. Luis Barrios, an Episcopal priest canonically resident in the Diocese of New York. The quote is from a statement he released after his conviction for trespassing onto the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation’s property (better known as The School of the Americas).

“People often wonder about my religious beliefs at age 102. I am not a follower of organized anything but the encompassing thrill of the spirit of compassion that surrounds our world. I do not go to church. In this world church to me is a business — I do not find God there. Perhaps I am Wiccan. All my life I find God in nature, sweet and calm and loving.” – Margaret Caldwell, 102, the world’s oldest newspaper columnist.

“Governments, corporations and assorted others regularly exploit the idea that tribal peoples are “primitive” in order to remove them from their land or open it up to outsiders, thereby freeing up access to the natural resources on or under their land. Often this is done in the name of “development”, justified on the grounds that the so-called “primitive” tribes are backward and out-of-date and need to “catch up” with the rest of us. But what are the consequences? For the tribes, they are almost always catastrophic: cultural and spiritual alienation, poverty, alcoholism, disease and death.” – Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International in response to BBC broadcaster Michael Buerk’s assessment of New Guinea tribal peoples as  “primitives” who kill strangers “whenever they come across them”. Survival’s “Stamp It Out” campaign was recently successful in convincing British newspapers The Guardian and The Observer to ban the terms ‘primitive’ and ‘Stone Age’ to describe tribal peoples.