Along Maryland Route 5, Wiccans Work Their Magic
They Transform the Shoulders 4 Times a Year

By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 8, 2006

The three hold different jobs: Amber Russell designs bouquets; Anne Rutherford is a legal secretary; Bonnie Smith works for a landscaper.

But the three Southern Marylanders have this much in common: Each considers herself a witch.

They practice a religion called Wicca, one they say is growing in the area, and one that surfaced -- tangentially, at least -- in a St. Mary's County campaign for the Maryland General Assembly. Just before last month's primary election, House of Delegates candidate Clare Calvert Whitbeck issued a statement denying she was a Wiccan, saying she did so to put a false rumor to rest.

Whitbeck clearly wanted to distance herself from the religion. She lost her challenge to five-term incumbent John F. Wood Jr. in the Democratic primary for District 29A, which includes the northern half of St. Mary's and a small piece of Charles County.

But five Wiccans in all three Southern Maryland counties stressed in interviews that there is nothing to fear from their beliefs. And on that score they have backing from a trio of scholars who studied the broader world of what is known as neopaganism.

"For the most part, these are totally law-abiding people who do not engage in devil-worship and that kind of thing," said Evan A. Leach, coauthor of "Voices From the Pagan Census, a National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States." Leach teaches at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and holds a doctorate in organizational behavior from Yale University.

No one knows how many Wiccans live in Southern Maryland. "I would suggest it's more than people think," Leach said.

Rutherford, 59, and Russell, 57, estimate there are at least several hundred Wiccans in the area practicing their faith alone or in groups, which they call covens.

They generally follow an earth- and nature-based spirituality. They perform rituals linked to seasonal cycles and phases of the moon. Many Wiccans cast spells, a practice they liken to prayer, aiming for everything from physical healing to improved finances.

As for being a witch, many say it's simply about being at peace with the earth, or casting spells. Wiccans say they do not cast bad spells, in part because they believe in threefold returns. Do something good, and the karma comes back to you multiplied by three. Do something bad, and that returns with triple force.

Lots of Wiccans are environmentalists.

There is clear evidence of that in St. Mary's County, on Maryland Route 5. Off the shoulder along the southbound lanes, just north of Leonardtown, is a Maryland Adopt-A-Highway sign for "The Circle of Amber Rose." Rutherford said this is the name of a Wiccan coven. Members turn out four times a year to pick up litter on the side of the highway. Afterward, they generally go to Leonardtown for pizza.

In Calvert County, Bonnie Smith, 57, works as a gardener for a landscape company. She is a solo Wiccan practitioner, who in good weather performs rituals outside her house in Lusby.

"I like to face the morning sun," Smith said.

Russell, the coven's high priestess, said she has practiced Wicca since 1969. She said the coven, which was formed in Baltimore, came up with "Amber Rose" from her first name and from the fact that the original members were florists.

She met her husband, also a Wiccan, 11 years ago when he noticed her bumper sticker in a parking lot. (It said "Blessed Be," a common Wiccan term.)

They live in Leonardtown, in an apartment above a large room where people meet for classes and rituals. As an example of a ritual, Russell said Wiccans have decorated masks with paint, glitter and feathers, which ushers in feelings of self-improvement. "Amber lives by one motto, and that is: 'Do no harm,' " said Linda Wible, who works with Russell.

According to Leach and his co-authors, there are fringe elements to the religion. And at some festivals, adherents walk around nude, or "skyclad." But the practice appears more akin to nudist camps than orgies. "It's not necessarily associated with being sexual," said Helen Berger, one of the Pagan census authors. She said many Wiccans are countercultural, but "there's nothing innately in their religion that makes them scary."

As for devil worship, just 26 of more than 2,000 respondents to the survey defined themselves as Satanists. "The link created between witchcraft and Satanism in the historic witch trials during the early modern period of Europe and colonial America continues to influence popular images of contemporary Witchcraft," the Pagan census authors note. "To counteract these images, Witches and Neo-Pagans usually differentiate themselves quite forcefully from Satanists."

Rutherford, another Wiccan who gathers litter on Route 5, acknowledges that she is friends with Whitbeck, which may have been the basis of the campaign rumor last month.

Rutherford has attached two Wiccan bumper stickers to the back of her minivan. She works for a law firm in Washington, which she asked not be identified.

"If we did half of what we are accused of doing," she said, "we would not have time to work, or go to PTA meetings, or do any of the things that are required in normal life, like laundry."