Washington City Paper: Contents for May. 5

Out of The Broom Closet
The old gods are back—in music, literature, and rituals practiced by a growing number of modern-day pagans.

Cover Story

Pagans!

Celtocentric. Norse-style. Wiccans—solitaries and coveners, witches all. Druids Irish and Welsh. Shamans. Poverty-line pagans, middle-class pagans. Feminist pagans, female and male. Queer pagans, straight pagans. Military pagans. Pagans for peace. Pagan art directors, writers, musicians. Pagan information systems managers, pagan accountants.

Pagans! They walk among us!

Or maybe we walk among them, we of the majority monotheistic path. In Europe, in the Americas, in North Africa and nearly all the Middle East, in the formerly godless and communistic Russia and the still godless and communistic (sort of) China, the deities acknowledged by embrace or suppression are singular: God, Yahweh, Allah. Even the U.S. of A., with its supposed separation of church and state, operates, according to the Pledge of Allegiance, as “one nation under God.”

But a surprising number of Americans now operate under two gods, three, many. And those on religious roads-less-traveled are talking up their traditions, revealing, if not secret rituals, then at least belief systems. They hope education might persuade a society often set violently against them to accept their existence.

(Still, some pagans remain uncomfortable with the idea of the spotlight. More than one interview subject asked to remain anonymous, or be mentioned only by “craft” name—appellations employed in coven or group instead of “mundane” birth monikers, to preserve secrecy and honor nameholders' mystical aspirations. Some didn't even want their craft names used. Unless otherwise noted, I have honored those requests.)... Continued

Issue of May. 5 - 11, 1995

News and Features

Out of The Broom Closet
The old gods are back—in music, literature, and rituals practiced by a growing number of modern-day pagans.
Cover Story By Michael Dolan
While the City Sleeps
For the Hard-Core, Fun Begins When the Bars Close
Feature By Claudia J. Rosenbaum
Sucking Up to the '70s
XTRA-104 Plays Hits From the Decade the Music Died
The City By Eddie Dean
Tune Out, Drop In
TV-Free America Wages a Lonely Battle
The City By Maurice Martin
The Secret Life of G. Gordon Liddy
The Talk-Show Host Is the Ultimate Tough Guy— at Least in His Own Mind
The City By Randall Bloomquist
Expert Advice
The Mail By Jonathan Dawes Jones
Just Doing My Job
The Mail By Danielle Roshinski
A Modest Proposal
The Mail By Dwight F. Rodgers
Bad Taste
The Mail By Lori Gabrielle Millen
A Matter of Opinion
The Mail By Pat McCoy
The Ears Have It
The Mail By Charlie Trew
Don't Bogart That Mail Page
The Mail By Donegal S. Pearce
Carry Me Back...
The Mail By Dave Schutz
AIDS Ward
The Mail By Wayne Turner and Steve Michael