Halloween has a special meaning for the GLBT community. For many, it is the unofficial holiday between Pride and the White party, which allows us to dress in costume and escape to a fantasy world where we are celebrated and accepted for being different. For a select few GLBT people, however, Halloween means something more.

That’s because they are witches. Yes, there is such a thing as gay witches. I, Marcus Fisher, am one of them.

But its not what you think. We are everyday gay people that practice a tradition that has been misunderstood for centuries: no we don’t just live in convents, we don’t fly on brooms – although some of us would like to – and we are not born this way, like being born gay. Since Halloween is here, I thought I’d shead some light on our little known world.

You would never know it but Hillcrest is full of gay witches. We are everywhere. Just like gays tell straights: we are your teachers, nurses, servcers, bankers; you get the point. We practice Wicca to help us deal with our everyday lives and practice it in ways that are similar to the way people practice more accepted religions like Christianity or Islam. And like the Christian or Muslim, becoming a witch often happenens by chance (meeting other followers). Let me and some of my witch friends explain.

Halloween is the holiday celebrated in mainstream culture, and it’s an event that’s eagerly anticipated by children and adults alike.

For Witches, however, Halloween is a time for spiritual observance. Halloween originated from the Celtic New Year and in Wiccan culture is known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in). Samhain is taken from the Gaelic term for summer’s end, and it marks the end of summer and the last harvest in the Celtic calendar.

According to Celtic lore, this is the time when the veil between the living and the deceased grows thin and both spirits and fairies are able to visit the earth more freely. Pumpkins or turnips are traditionally carved at Halloween to fool or frighten mischievous or baleful spirits. Witches pick this time of the year to honor their ancestors and work magic for protection and improved psychic insights.

Wicca is a neopagan tradition, meaning its rooted in non-traditional faiths such as Christianity. It’s a modern form or witchcraft which has been missunderstood for many centuries and has been growing for the past 40 years. Wicca follows the transitions of nature in the seasons and recognizes that their is a natural energy all around us. That energy enables Wiccans to use it to manifest whatever goals we have in life. Other cultures with a strong religious background basically demonized the word Witchcraft with pictures of demons and devils, but none of those creatures exist in Wicca. The basic beliefs in the Wiccan tradition is the Wiccan Rede, a statement that provides the key moral system in Wicca: ‘And do what ye will, yet harm none’. This means your will is unlimited in anything you do. But there are consequences to the things that we create in our lives. This is where the Law of Three comes in, another religious tenet held by Wiccans, which states that whatever energy you send out, be it good or bad, it will come back to you three times as great.

Born and raised in San Diego, I am still trying to figure things out in my life, but I claim to be a not so average gay boy with jagged hair and funky/alternative clothing. I am active in his community as a health educator for a nonprofit orgnization that helps at-risk youth, a core member of San Diego Mpower, a supporter for San Diego Alliance of Marriage Equality and employed as one of the psychic healers and readers at the Golden Rose Psychic Healing Center in Hillcest.

Tommy identifies as a leatherman, bear, radical faery, nun, Feri Priest, biker and cannot be mistaken as mainstream. Tommy is very easy to get to know and challenging to understand. He lives and loves outside the box. He is an active member of California Cyclemen Motorcycle Club (CCMC) and founding member of the San Diego Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (for which he is know as Sister Kali Vagilistic X.P. Aladocious). He is also the first Knight of Leather, serving as a liaison for the Leather community to the Imperial Court. He is also a local Hillcrest business owner of My Authentic Self.

Dr. Lauren Cielo, D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) is a formally trained Spiritual Counselor and Clairvoyant Teacher. Lauren offers clairvoyant training classes aimed at awakening the psychic hiding in us all. She teaches specific tools for reading and navigating the astral plane, facilitating your personal healing and increasing your ability to heal others. Lauren believes that everyone has psychic capabilities. Lauren is an ordained Ritual Priestess. She is founder and co-director of Golden Rose Psychic Services.

Being a witch is not something you are born as or that you just decide to become one day. Nine times out of 10, it just falls into your lap. I started practicing when I was 12. One day a family friend came over for a visit. She had a crystal around her neck, and I asked her about it. She started talking about the healing properties of crystals. The next day she came by with a large bag filled with different gemstones and a book on the subject. I read that book, then another on magic years later, and since then I found how to use my energy to achieve things in life and to be more self involved. When I discovered myself to be gay, I found that Wicca didn’t have any doctrin damning me for having the feature that makes God god: love. Since then I have been following each path I take, from San Diego to New Mexico, from my own room to the center of the universe. I really enjoy where this path has taken me and can’t wait for the next stop.

Starchild was 18 when he got into Wicca.

“I started with Wicca by reading books,” he explains.

The first book that jumped out at Starchild was Scott Cunningham’s Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner. “It was through this book that I discovered the relationship with God as the Baptist church had always described it. My spiritual path took to the Feri tradition, of which I studied for six years, and initiated in 2004 as a priest of Feri.”

Feri is a particular practice of the Old Ways, that is ecstatic based, as opposed to fertility/nature based as is with Wicca.

“They are both forms of witchcraft, and I am a Witch,” Starchild says.

Unlike Starchild and myself, Dr. Lauren Cielo discovered her path through unfortunate means.

“It was Christmas Eve about 20 years ago, and I was robbed,” she says, while drinking her tea.

“I knew who had done this crime and felt mortified. I wanted to do something to make this person to feel who I did. And then while I sat on the toilet, thinking how mad I was becoming, I decided this was not the way I should be using my energy but to find a way to protect myself next time from this happening.”

A good girlfriend of hers gave her a book entitled When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone, discussing the aspect of God in a female form throughout time, which is in fact one of the founding principals of Wicca and other forms of paganism. From Goddess worship to feminism, she discovered how to use her energy.

People practice Wicca in different ways as there are many different traditions of magic in the world.

Wicca practices can include everything from lighting candles to wearing a peice of jewlery. I do various things in my everyday Wicca practice. I light candles each day to affirm I’m going to be successful in my actions and light incence to honor my diety and ancestors. I also draw a card from one of my tarot decks each day. Lots of people use tarot cards to predict things in the future, but you can use the images on the cards as tools for meditation. When I draw a tarot card from a deck, it will tell me what I should be looking for in my life. For me, the Two of Pentacles card in tarot represents the balance of the value in things and the balance in weighing my options (Should I use that $10 for a drink at the bar or save it for some art supplies?). So I choose wisely in making decisions on what matters most.

I burn many different candles with pictures of saints and symbols on them to either help a situation or change them around. I also wrap crystals with jewelry wire and give them out to friends and wear a few depending on the what magic I’m putting out.

Tommy has a very creative way of practicing Wicca.

“I like chanting in my car on the way to work to motivate and check in with myself and my spirit,” he explains. For Tommy, words are also magic. “I try to watch what I say when I’m out and about. I once got mad at someone for some reason and invoked justice to happen and to come to the situation, harm the person that was harming me, and I, indeed, got it.”

Even meditation is a form of Wicca. Every morning, Cielo meditates.

“I cast an energy circle to protect and keep my thoughts and energy to myself and meditate on it,” she said. “It helps me ground myself and my goals for the days.” Cielo also speaks and prays to the Goddess.

“I make certain that all I do is in perfect love and trust with myself and the energy I use,” she says.

I like celebrating Dia de los Muertos, Samhain and Halloween at the same time. I light a candle for ancestors, mainly for an uncle who died a month before I was born. Since Dia de Lose Muertos is coming up as well, I like to mesh the two together. I like using Halloween to send out as much energy and spell casting for anything I’d like to come true. I usually read tarot cards for friends who are looking for some advice on issues in their lives. Most likely, I will be an “on-call” as a sort of psychic reader. After all that, I’m heading out on the town to Hillcrest for Nightmare on Normal Street and hopefully get wickedly lucky!

“Samhain is a very special time of the year for pagans. In my Feri tradition it’s seen as a time when the veil between this world and the next are thinnest, and we welcome together to commune with the divine. The divide between this world and the world of the dead, the fae, gods and spirits is easily passed through at this time of year, as it is an ‘in-between time’ (between summer/winter) and recognized as a time of magic, just as in Dia de los Muertos, where families in Mexico commune with ancestors who have died. We also come together during this time to invite gods to join in our circle offering us a time to receive blessings and guidance. I have a few rituals to hold as a priest, as well as attend. I will be decorating an alter for the ancestors (both relatives and ancestors of the Old Ways) as well as alters decorated for the gods (who’s names are not made public due to Feri being a mystery tradition). We will provide offerings of songs, drumming, flowers and grains, as well as sharing in cakes and wine. In addition, there will be a “Dumb Supper” where guest feast in silence with table set to include plates for the dead ancestors. This is a time to share a meal with those who have passed. If I have time, I do love to dress in costume, I’ll also head out to hillcrest for Nightmare on Normal Street.”

“I will probably try to stay up until the Witching Hour (midnight) so I can work my spells for the new year! I also use Samhain to get rid of all my sell remnants from the last year such as candle wax, the butts of smudge sticks that I use to make it a big production to find a “moving body of water” to dump the stuff. But now I just settle for a good flush of the toilet! After that, I will just enjoy the night with the people I love.”