By Marcelle Richards

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Anna Nelson spent her youth carrying a Bible in one hand and a spell book in the other.

But this Catholic schoolgirl-turned-witch isn’t going to mount a broomstick and sail off into the moonlight tonight.

She’d much rather dance around a bonfire.

Today on the the Wiccan holiday of Samhain, better known as “Halloween”, the veil between this world and the next is thinnest and witches bid final goodbye to the dead.

Consider tonight New Year’s eve for Wiccans, followers of the “the craft of the wise” or witchcraft, who until recently, have practiced beliefs in relative secrecy for fear of persecution.

After all, it was barely 30 years ago that the first Wiccan church was established and that witchcraft was granted federal recognition as a religion, despite existing in some form or another for the past 5,000 years.

Since then, roughly 200,000 have come out of the broom closet though common perceptions of witches — broomstick in hand, black cat on board — have trailed behind the public acceptance of Halloween.

The ties to Oct. 31 vary for different sects within Wicca, since some witches celebrate lunar and solar holidays, meaning the celebration comes when the full moon rises.

This year all Wiccans on the lunar calendar will celebrate Samhain on Nov. 1.

“This is a time of transformation, about death and rebirth,” said Jo Frost, a practicing Wiccan and daughter of the founders of the School and Church of Wicca in West Virginia — one of the few such establishments the world.

Samhain is associated with the Greek myth of Persephone, the daughter of the goddess of fertility, who was kept in Hades when the god of the underworld fell in love with her causing the change in seasons.

Without her, winter ensued, hence the significance of Samhain.

For some Wiccan traditions the time is termed “jumping over the fire” to honor those who have died.

A token or belonging of the dead is burned in remembrance; the smoke is symbolic of the dead’s lingering spirit even though the physical presence is gone.

“Because of what happened on Sept 11 there will be a lot of rituals, trying to find balance,” Nelson said.

But the conduct of spells and rituals is a daily commitment.

All Wiccans generally sew a “witch sampler,” which is made by stitching names of witches onto a hat to be used in prayer to honor those who died for their beliefs.

Nelson’s sampler is made of witches who share her first name.

“The belief is, once a witch, always a witch,” she said.

Contrary to popular belief, modern witches do not generally drape themselves in black garb and top their heads with pointed hats. But there is “witch-sense.”

“You kind of have a sense about someone,” she said. “And then there’s the dead giveaways when there’s pentacles. There’s an old joke, the bigger the pentacle the newer you are.”

For most witches, the title they adopt is a matter of preference.

The title of warlock, sometimes assumed to be the masculine title for a witch, is controversial since it translates to “traitor” in Gaelic. Typically, all Craft practitioners are witches or Wiccans.

The polytheistic faith focuses on an Ultimate Deity, a genderless God-ess (not to be confused with Satan) around which five tenets of the religion form a pentagram — a symbol of the perfected human.

As the religion has grown, sects have appeared — and with it, the rise of “Bitch Craft.”

“There’s a lot of, like any faith, bitch Craft,” Nelson said. “My coven is better than your coven, like my church is better than your church.”

But ultimately, all Wiccans strive to follow the Wiccan Rede: “If it harm none, do as you will.”

Some are born into the church and some come on their own accord. Nelson, who joined despite having an arch Roman catholic minister for a mother, said those who are meant to come will do so.

Frost, conversely, grew up within the church as the child of Wiccan parents.

“Teachers would try to convert me, (saying) ‘The Bible will save you,’” she said.

In schools, her parents fought against the ostracization of their children from activities.

Even now, a neighbor refuses to speak to her.

“Today it’s not so much a sense of community but that I can say in confidence and clarity the big battle’s already been fought,” she said. “Without taking a stand the religion would be nowhere.”