1996_10 Insight October 1996

              Lifestyle
OCTOBER 30, 1996 I
Witches celebrate Halloween with ancient rituals
■ Followers of Wiccan
religion say witches
get a bad rap
by Joanne de Rozario
Staff Writer
It's that time of year again.
Costume-clad individuals roam the
streets, children get to stay up late
"trick-or-trcating" and tales of
haunted houses and old graveyards fill
quiet, dimly lit living rooms.
Behind windows displaying blue,
pink and purple translucent rocks and
oddly shaped trinkets, a spiritual ritual
takes place.
This Halloween followers of thc
Wiccan religion gather at the Brass
Unicorn in "he Tower District.
In a back room, unfurnished except
for a quilted rug hung on the stark
white wall, they meet to celebrate
Samhain, the Witches' New Year.
The word "witchcraft" frightens
some and confuses others.
In children's fairy-tales, witches arc
old hags on brooms with black cats,
chanting over a boiling potion in a
cauldron filled with toads' breath and
lizards' tails.
"Myth," said Kathryn Barile. 38.
owner of the Brass Unicorn and a .
Wiccan follower..
Barile wore a loose-fitling beige
top. a printed skirt and no shoes. Her
long blonde hair, parted in the middle,
frames a friendly face that often looks
thoughtful, as if remembering the
distant past.
Nowhere to be seen was the
stereotypical black pointed hai, and
no, Barile does not have a big nose or
According to Barile. witchcraft is a
goddess-based religion. .
It is not structured on dogma, a set
of beliefs, scriptures or a sacred book.
Instead, it is based on teachings from
nature and the life cycle.
Perhaps the oldest religion in the West,
witchcraft originated before Christianity
and Islam in northern Europe about
35,000 years ago.
Barile said w itchcraft draws inspiration
from the movements of the sun. moon and
stars and the cycles of the season.
What distinguishes witchcraft from
many other religions is its worship of a
female deity, a Goddess.
The Goddess is known by many names.
To some witches she is Aradia. She is
also known as Bride. Diana, Marian,
Ashtoreth. Artemis and as Mother Earth.
Gaia.
She is an abstraction.
Known as thc Triple Goddess, she is
Maid, Mother and Crone, all in one.
She represents enchantment, ripeness
and wisdom, three phases of a woman's
life. Barile said.
As Maid, the Goddess resembles thc
untamed, unstructured beginning of life
said astrologer and feminist Rae Beth in
her book "The Wiccan Path."
She initiates things and is not afraid of
journey, cither out lo the world or into
herself. Any woman of any age can show
attributes of the Maid.
Thc Mother is the one who brings birth.
Prehistoric figures depict her with
pregnant belly and full breasts, squatting
to give birth.
According to Beth, this emphasizes thc
blood and milk of motherhood, the
physical reality, immense power and
tender nurturing qualities of a woman.
The Mother is present when something
is completed. Whether it be a book,
poem, project or a dream fulfilled.
The Crone is thc wise old woman. She
knows about herbs and can heal. She tells
the future and gives advice based on this
knowledge.
In her. followers look for knowledge of
the roots of life. She also brings an end to
Intight Photo by Mohammad E
Employee Delilah Weeks guides customers through their visit to The Brass
Unicorn, a storehouse of the unusual in the Tower District.
things and cleans away the old lo make
way for new life.
Barile said lhat in patriarchal religions,
especially Christianity and Islam, the
woman is nol seen as Goddess but as the
bearer of sin.
She said archeologists who discovered
early figures of women thought of them as
fetishes, not Goddesses, because they
would not accept a woman as the primary
deity.
The Goddess is further diminished when
associated wiih Venus, the Roman Goddess of love.
This is an association with love and sex.
which is considered evil by other religions.
The Wiccan Goddess is also associated
with the mysterious thirteenth moon which
leads to Friday the thirteenth superstitions
and the belief that 13 is an unlucky
number.
Barile said there was nothing supernatural about the thirteenth moon. Thc
phenomenon that a new moon occurs
every 28 days requires that there are no
more or less than 13 moons a year.
She said-witches believe the seasonal
cycle is a way the processes of birth,
growth, death and rebirth play themselves out.
Witches celebrate eight Sabbats, or
holidays, at different times of the year,
based on the equinoxes, solstices and
different moons. Each Sabbat is linked
to a different event.
One of these events is Samhain. or
Halloween, when witches celebrate with
food and a secret ritual to determine
what the new year will bring. It is also
the Festival ofthe Returning Dead.
Barile said the veil between this world
and the next is thinnest at Halloween. It
is a good time for witches to ask for
guidance from their ancestors, say goodbye to those who have died during the
past year and acknowledge their
heritage.
However, witches don't "call back"
the dead. They only make a space for
the dead to come back, if they want to
and are able.
Barile said most people lump witchcraft, devil worshipping and Satanism
all together when they're really three
separate things.
"Wiccan predates Christianity by
about 20,000 years. So to associate
Wiccan with the devil in the Christian
tradition is itself erroneous," she said.
She added that Wiccan is a very
private religion
"The Wiccan tradition is very much a
learning process that you go through in
order to become part of a group," Barile
said. "It's very much like being part of
the cycle, unlike other religious traditions that separate you from the earth."
She said followers of wiccan meet in
groups of no more than 12 or 13 people
because a large group would not allow
the intimacy that the religion requires.
Witches don't try to convert anyone,
said Barile. It is considered wrong for
them to do so.
"It's inside, not that you've learned it
out there," said Barile. "It's just part of
your innate being."
"You realize you've always been this,
you just never knew it had a name."
Community theater keeping the arts alive in Fresno
I Local theaters worry
about attendance,
future of the art
by April Ghan
Staff Writer-
Located in an almost-forgotten pan
of downtown Fresno is an old building that is the home of an almost-forgotten art form.
In 1928. the building, with its ornately-carved wooden rafters, big picture windows and hard-wood floors,
was used as the collection office for
PG&E. But in 1973. the building was
transformed into a small three-sided
seating theater.   ^J
Today. Theatre Three Repertory
Company is the only non-profit theater company in the Fresno area that
produces a full season of plays.
The building is not Ihe only part of
the theater with an interesting history.
Pepper DeLano-Doty. 31. has been
performing in live theater for 20
years. She has spent the last thret
and-a-half years with Theatre Three.
"I guess it all started with writing
skits in the living room and singing
into thc hair brush. Acting is jusi
somclhing I have to do." DeLano-
Doly said.
In the daytime. DeLano-Doty
works for Wal-Mart. But at the theater, she transforms into whatever her
scripted character may be.
j She once played the part of a dog
that spoke and walked on two legs.
"It wasn't my most challenging
role." DeLano-Doty said, "but it was
different."
Love of the craft
DeLano-Doty said she has no desire to go after the stars and fame of
Hollywood.
She said she is perfectly happy lo
stay at this level of acting for the rest
of her life.
"Impressing another human being
with your love ofthe craft is a rewarding experience. When you can meet
people after thc show, you can see il
in their eyes lhat you've moved them
and taught them something that
t maybe they didn't know about themselves or about life." she said.
Smaller audiences
John Harper. 28. is not as sure why
he enjoys live performance.
His acting days began after taking
a drama class at Fresno State. This is
his fifth year of performance with
Theatre Three.
"Sometimes I'll be sitting in rehearsal and I just have to ask myself.
'What the hell am I doing here?"'
Harper said.
Harper hasn't figured out exactly
what first attracted him to theater or
if he will continue to do it.
"All I know is lhal right now, I want
to improve. I wantfo get better and
do a good job with whatever character I play," Harper said.
Harper is currently cast in "Butley."
a play by Simon Gray. It is about a
university lecturer who musi face the
dissolution of his marriage and the
friendship of a colleague. It runs
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Harper expressed concern about the
lack of interest in theater today.
"It's a rare day when all 107 seats
of this small theater are filled. Maybe
people think it's a pretentious art,"
Harper said.
Second Space, another local theater, located at 928 east Olive Ave. is
also experiencing low-attendance
problems.
Nancy Miller is a publicist for Second Space and has been involved in
•heater for 23 years.
"Statistics show that only one percent of the population world-wide is
interested in live performance," Miller
said.
Magical experience
Second Space is owned and operated by Roger Rocka's Good Company Players.
In 1982, it opened as a 150-seat
arena theater that now produces dramas, classics, comedies and original
plays.
The theater is currently working on.
"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," by Frank Loesser.
This play about a window washer
who devises a plan that will "take him
to thc top," will run from Nov. 14 to
Jan. 19.
• Miller said that it is always a fight
to develop a new audience.
"We arc trying to get youngeffami-
lies involved and hope that their kids
will grow up loving theater and will
return to il," she said.
Miller was 10 years old when she
had her first experience with theater
and she said that she will never forget it.
"It was a touring company from England that put on the production of
'Mikado'. The whole experience of
sitting in the theater was magic," she
said.
"I can't really put it into any other
words. But then that's the thing about
magic isn't it?" she said.
Part ofthe magic of theater may be
a sense of the unexpected. And because theater is a live art form, anything can happen.
Dps and downs
Kenney Green is a 19-year-old
graduate of Lemoore high school. He
has been acting for six years.
He was cast as Joseph in "Joseph
and thc Amazing Technicolor Dream
Coal." last year.
"It was opening night and the reviewer from thc paper was there. We
were all supposed to run out and say
our character's name. But 1 didn't
make my entrance because as I was
running up the stairs. I tripped and fell
flat on my face. Everyone was waiting for me to come out but 1 was on
thc ground. So I just picked up my
head from where I was at and yelled,
•Joseph.'" Green said.
When all goes well, theater can also
be an uplifting experience.
Patrick Tromborg, 38, is currently
cast in "How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Try ing." Il will be his
ninth play in a row with Good Company Players.
"Acting is like my religion. It is the
place I go to get to thc supreme whatever. It is the place where I can focus
the best and leave myself behind."
Tromborg said, dressed in a T-shirt,
cut-off shorts and a clip-on earring
shaped like a lizard in his left ear.
Tromborg also described theater as
a "power trip."
"There's all this emotion swirling
around the room and you're the conductor," he said.
Shcrri Udall, 27, did not seem as
confident. Blonde and petite, she will
be performing in her first play.
"I'm excited and nervous." she said,
"I can be having a rotten day but when
I come down here the whole atmosphere is fun. It's a whole new adventure."
Hooked for life
Managing Director of Theatre
Three. Robert Reich, said he is trying to make theater more visible.
"One of thc markets where 1 don't
see a lot of return is from thc universities." Reich said.
He said he hones lhat the problem
is as simple as students not knowing
about the theater, rather than not caring about it.
Miller however, said that theater
will always be a minority art form.
"Theater has never been for the
mass audience." she said, "but the
people who do discover it arc hooked
for life."
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