The Summer Solstice, longest day of the calendar year, was indeed a long one for local Wiccan adherents, emphasizing as it did the nearly complete lack of fear generated by a faith that at one time struck at the heart of the American way of life. Wicca, a nature-based belief system that holds the changes of the seasons sacred, in the past was often wrongly associated with witchcraft and Satanism. But now, images of baby-murder, orgies of blood, and the obscene co-mingling of demon, beast, and shreiking psychopath are becoming a thing of the past.
"Those were the days," quipped Moonshine Wolfbane, the taken name of Dr. Morris Fishbein, a Trenton podiatrist and Wiccan chief priest. "Used to be I got a little respect this time of year. My patients sat quietly in the waiting room and never complained. Used to get a lot of free perks--good table at restaurants, comps at the casinos ... no more."
Other Wiccans tell similar tales. Rosemarie Vagnozzi, a Philadelphia PTA president and middle school soccer parent, also laments the passing of ignorant confusion and the advent of informed tolerance. "It's just the modern world. It's what's happening now; we just have to learn to deal with it."
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