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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 2)

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Boston: How protected from "witchcraft" did the ceremony at Sarah Palin's church leave her?

Lee Ann Kinkade: Well I haven't successfully turned her into a Newt.

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Nick_Danger : Nice to know the same kind of bull goes on backstage for the Wiccans as it does for the other religions.

Lee Ann Kinkade: Always happy to air the (tie-dyed) dirty laundry.

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iscandara: You had me in stitches. I especially cracked up with the part when it rained and then a crack, hiss of beer. I've been there, and I've seen the awkward moments, people who barely know each other holding hands, the wind kicking over an altar (that wasn't properly set to the ground) and the giggles when calling a deity into a person's body. It's embarassing how little I knew until I began practicing with others, but then it's all a matter of perspective. I've felt such a strong connection since I've renewed my contact with others that it is moving. Blessed be!

Lee Ann Kinkade: Love it or hate it, witchcraft is a warts and all religion.

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Philadelphia: Since there is no real doctrine, how were even the basics of the rituals, like casting a circle, established?

Lee Ann Kinkade: It depends how you define real doctrine. Most Pagans I know follow a fairly similar ritual schematic for calling the directions, casting a circle, and invoking deities. It was popularized by the neo-pagan movement in the 1960s. I would love to be able to tell you more about the origins of these traditions, but one of the problems of being raised Pagan is how little I question these things. I wasn't aware I had as many assumptions as I do until I started working on this article.

Personally, intuition and inspiration have as a large a role as tradition in my practice. Doctrine is a largely interior affair prone to all the attenant errors, I'm afraid.

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BoneDaddy: FamTrad is bull. No, really. I've yet to run into anyone with a plausible FamTrad story, and all of them eventually devolve into fabulism about burning times and Cotton Mather and the gods only know who else, and it's all puffery. I've known a second generation witch—whoop-ti-do! It's a Trad in her little Fam, but it's hardly a reason to get one's nose in the air.

In short, unless your last name is Leland or Waite or Levi or Fortune or even Blavatsky, I probably won't believe your claim to be a sixth-generation witch, and deep down neither will you. And it isn't important. No one cares who your great grandmother was, we care about who you are and what you have done and how you live and the faith you practice yourself. This should be obvious to any vaguely spiritually healthy person. Vaguely spiritually healthy people don't usually need to resort to their family tree as a form of back up for their religious credentials. And finally, only a twit spells magic with a k on the end.

Lee Ann Kinkade: I don't know, it's hard to prove a negative. In order to declare Fam-Trad invalid, I'd have to meet every Pagan in the world and inspect their family tree.

I absolutely adore the term puffery.

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Lee Ann Kinkade: Thanks, everybody. Your questions were wonderful. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Happy Halloween, Samhain (however you want to spell it) and All Soul's Eve!