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Warts and AllLee Ann Kinkade discusses the realities of witchcraft and the Wiccan faith.

Posted Friday, Oct. 31, 2008, at 4:58 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

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Thppt : Forgive my ignorance, but I have a question concerning Wiccan vegans. Wicca, if I understand correctly is supposed to be a nature-based belief system. In nature one animal consumes another animal with regularity; so it would seem that we humans as omnivores by nature would be expected to consume meat as is natural. So I would wonder if there is a vegan Wicca who could explain to an ignorant Christian raised agnostic how being a vegan fits into their beliefs? Just curious.

Lee Ann Kinkade: Ummm … steak.

The debate around food preferences and ethics must rage without my participation.

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Anonymous: Is the Samhain ritual viewed as something sacred, i.e., this is a commandment that is shall be performed, or do you see it more as something that is good for bolstering the spirits of the participants? What do you view as the reasons why it is performed?

Lee Ann Kinkade: We're not big on commandments where I'm from.

I see bolstering the spirits of the participants as a sacred act. It seems to be one that crosses a lot of cultural barriers and is one of the functions of most holidays, including Samhain.

I practice ritual because doing so allows me to move through the world in a way that's meaningful—something I suspect in common with those participante in other religious ceremonies.

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For jmbusse: Okay, I am a Christian. Today isn't really the day slated for Christians to commemorate their departed loved ones. That's All Souls' Day, Nov. 2, also called the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. On years like this one, when Nov. 2 falls on a Sunday, All Souls' Day sometimes is celebrated on the next day so that All Saints' Day (November 1) can be celebrated on Sunday. So what I am doing today is getting home early to be able to greet any neighborhood kids who come by trick-or-treating. I will be focusing on the departed this coming Monday evening, at the All Souls mass at my Episcopal church.

Lee Ann Kinkade: There's nothing I love better than a thoughtful answer to a rhetorical question.

It seems like your plans for this time of the year—creating carnival for children and honoring your dead—are very similar to mine. With you in spirit.

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Milwaukee: I think your article was interesting, and certainly gave an "insiders" view of planning and participating in an eclectic Wiccan context, but I worry that it gives the impression that there can be no structure or order to Wicca. Within the more formal traditions (Gardnerian, etc) there certainly is quite a bit more in the way of a unifying set of practices and beliefs. I wish you could have touched on this fact. Also, why the variant spelling on Samhain?

Lee Ann Kinkade: Other Pagan traditions do have more structure. I have never felt any visceral connection to them. I did not intentionally neglect them, little experience yields little copy.

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tbunni331: I really enjoyed this article. I and my fellow local pagans (Salem, Ore., area) always have referred to any organizing duty as "herding cats." How much more apt is the phrasiology here! Very few of my pagan friends belong to covens—we are all basically "solitary"—even though we celebrate and mourn together as friends. So, no hierachy, no "leaders"—a great recipe for disaster, except that somehow, some way, it always works out. To all my non-pagan friends, Happy Halloween. To all my fellow pagans—good luck—it's Samhain! Blessed Be!

Lee Ann Kinkade: I love our large, disorganized Pagan family.

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New York: There are obvious elements of paganism in Christianity (Christmas Tree, Easter Eggs, etc.), and this irks some religious people. Are there elements of Christianity that have seeped into paganism, and does this irk any of the orthodox pagans?

Lee Ann Kinkade: Actually, I noticed that fundamentalists of both brands, Pagan and Christian, wish to segregate their symbols: you get the Cross, we get the Easter Eggs. The fact that attempts to do so have failed abysmally strikes me as a sign of a healthy multi-culturism.

Everybody's gotta be irked by something.

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