Witch holiday: time for a spell
Tuesday, 22 Sep 1998 - Newcastle
Morning Herald
By Ben Doherty
Belmont's Jacqui Watson says she is a teenage witch
but unlike TV's Sabrina, she's more inclined to talk
to trees than cast spells to catch boys.
But this week the 16-year-old will be doing what most
witches do on their holidays, taking it easy.
Sometime between September 21 and 23 Australia will
fall into the Spring Equinox, when the sun crosses the
celestial equator as it moves from the northern celestial
hemisphere to the southern celestial hemisphere.
And while this won't mean a great deal to most of us,
for Jacqui and other pagans, it's one of eight annual
witches' holidays called Ostara.
`Ostara is a sacred time, one especially to sit back
and think about where the past year has taken us and
also to plan new projects for the coming year,' she
said.
Jacqui became a witch about 18 months ago but that
didn't mean she went out and bought a pointy black hat.
She said witchcraft or `wiccan' did indeed involve
spells but the perception witches followed Satan or
practised `black magic' was incorrect.
`Witches and pagans aren't devil worshippers, we don't
even believe in Satan,' she said.
`We are a peaceful, nature-loving folk who celebrate
the seasons and aim to live in harmony with our mother
Earth.
`We realise that every plant, animal, rock, river,
hill, path, shadow, fire and twig has its own soul and
message.'
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