COMMUNITY NEWS

Home Office cash to support faiths festival

LEICESTER: A spring equinox fair, to be held on Saturday, March 17, at Moat Community College, in Maidstone Road, Leicester, will be a free multicultural and multifaith event, hosted by the Beltane Spring Fayre Group.

It will be a showcase for talent in music, singing, dancing and poetry.

The festival will also offer children's entertainment.

Face and henna painters will be there, with a creche available.

The event, the group's third spring fair, is receiving funding from the Community Development Foundation, which is supported by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

There will be workshops and talks on spirituality to offer visitors a chance to understand neighbours' beliefs.

Druidry, Wicca, Celtic and Native American Indian lore will be among those illustrated. Interfaith and other faith groups have been invited to take part.

For details, call Lesley Vann on 0116 270 4765 or e-mail:
lesleybeltanefayre@yahoo.co.uk

COMMUNITY NEWS

New indoor venue for group's Equinox fair

Faiths unite for festival of pagan belief

Nearly 2,000 people of different faiths joined a pagan celebration and learned about spirituality.

The Beltane Spring Equinox Fayre, held at Moat Community College, in Highfields, Leicester, was organised by the city's Pagan Alliance.

Organiser Lesley Vann said: "What was so great about it was that we had Hindu, Muslim and pagan families all listening to each other.

"The whole point of the day was to strengthen ties in the different communities.

"There has been a revival in paganism recently because people are more respectful of others' beliefs."

Beltane is old English for May Day, but the celebration was held early as a Government grant for the day had to be spent before the end of March.

"We're not just about casting spells to make people love you"

Tatterhood wants to know if her house guest would like a cup of tea or coffee. Or perhaps, she smiles, you might like "something unusual". I go for "unusual". Tatterhood and her friends Moon Bramble and Iridore do " unusual" rather well. So here I am, drinking jasmine tea, slightly woozy on sage incense, in a semi-darkened room festooned with ornamental skulls, pagan carvings, home whittled wands and a magic broomstick. This might not be the weirdest moment of my Mercury career, but it's definitely in the play-offs.

Iridore is a druid. Moon Bramble and Tatterhood are "good, old-fashioned" witches. All three are from Leicester. Moon Bramble and Iridore aren't their real names, obviously. They're their pagan names. If we printed their real names, it would probably see them put in paper underwear and a snug-fitting jacket that buttons up at the back.

Even in touchy-feely, tolerant, multi-faith Leicester - a city where the council is happy to hitch its logo to Leicester Pagan Alliance's Spring Equinox Fayre - telling people you're a witch still raises eyebrows. "If the people at work found out, I'd probably be sectioned," laughs Moon Bramble, as I surreptitiously spit bits of barky stuff back in to my herbal brew.

SPELLBINDING

Tatterhood offers to read my tea leaves. I didn't realise you could tell someone's fortune from boiled jasmine. "I can read the froth on the side of a pint glass," she says. Last year, Moon Bramble, a woman who looks in her mid-40s, made her horrible neighbour disappear. The police played a part, carting him off in. the back of a van for drugs offences, but magic forces were directing operations, she believes. "I did it through spellbinding," she says. "I sent out energy that bound him mentally and physically so he could not do anything to harm others or himself. He's in prison now."

Tatterhood, aka Ayn Saywood, co-ordinator of the Pagan Federation in Leicestershire and Rutland and chair of Leicester Pagan Alliance, is happy to have her real name printed. "It's on the internet, so you might as well," she says. Ayn " - formerly Anne - has been a witch for 11 years. She always had a fascination for the paranormal. Where it came from is a bit of a mystery, but she always liked ITV's Robin Of Sherwood.

Most young girls got a flutter of excitement every time Michael Praed came on tossing his long Timotei locks. Not Ayn. She worshipped the altogether more enigmatic forest god Herne the Hunter. She still does - nowadays, quite literally. Moon Bramble used to be a Christian. "I moved away from that a long time ago," she says. "I was always interested m spiritual things, but my partner was very anti. He always used to put me down. "When that relationship broke up four years ago, I decided I wanted to get into it more."

Moon Bramble and Ayn are keen to set the record straight about what witches are really like. They do have broomsticks - used for sweeping negative energy out of the home - but the pointy hats, warty noses and bubbling cauldrons only exist in children's fairytales. "We don't eat children or sour milk," says 33-year-old Ayn. "And we don't worship Satan." "We don't believe there is a Satan," adds Moon Bramble. "That's a Christian concept. Satan is just an anagram of Santa."

Ayn favours candle magic, which, like most magic, is best done after dark. Basically, you light a coloured candle and you visualise what you want to achieve. If you want to draw something to you, you write its name from top to bottom on the candle. If  you want to dispel it, you write the name the other way round. "Remember how when you're little you blow out the candles on your birthday cake and make a wish?" says Ayn. "Well, it works on a similar principle." Magic is mostly used as & last resort. Many witches believe it rebounds threefold on its sender, Ayn explains, so you have to be very careful how you use it.

Witchcraft, like lots of pagan traditions, is about re-connecting with nature, she says. "It's about working in harmony with nature. Quite a few pagans are also environmentalists. We celebrate the seasons. "People seem to think it's all about casting spells to make people love you. It's not like that.'' "You don't have to cast a spell to believe in magic. You can see it in the first bluebell of the year. That, to me, is nature's magic."

Druids are similarly misunderstood, according to Iridore, a 42-year-old mum-of-one, "The first question I'm usually asked is 'Do you run around naked in the woods?'' she says. "Of course we don't. There's far too many spiky, brambly things in the countryside to cavort about with nothing on."

Pleasingly, they do cavort. Last Sunday, they could be seen doing a ritual spiral dance in Western Park. They do it at the end of every month, explains Iridore matter-of-factly making it sound like a big shop at Tesco. "It's earth magic," she says. "It's been around for generations. The spiral creates energy. We draw energy up from the earth and give it back to heal the planet."

It doesn't seem to be working, I suggest. The earth's thermostat has gone haywire and every month seems bring to a new environmental catastrophe. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking, insists Moon Bramble. If more people did it Mother Nature would be in rude health.

"A Japanese philosopher got 300 people to stand around a stagnant, poisoned pond," she says. "They chanted good wishes at the pond one day a week for about three weeks. "Do you know what happened?'' she asks, voice bubbling with miraculous joy ."The pond self-cleaned itself." "In Washington DC, they wanted crime to go down. Several hundred people wished it and it happened."

I like Ayn and her friends. I like them a lot, they're nice people. That doesn't make them any less bonkers. I don't believe a word of what they believe. Or perhaps I do. Just a little bit. Maybe lots of us do. Perhaps we paddle in the shallow end of their beliefs every time we read a horoscope or step over a crack in the pavement or pick our lucky numbers for the lottery. And is lighting a candle in a temple or saying a prayer in a church so very different from chanting at a pond? It might still make sense to stay in the broom closet if you're a witch, but times are changing, according to a new survey. Rationality is in retreat. Research for the History Channel suggests 10 per cent of people now believe they have some sort of mystic or psychic power. The Pagan Federation in Leicestershire and Rutland has more than 160 members. Nationally, it says there are 10,000 witches, 6,000 druids and more than 100,000 pagans. That's a lot of like-minded people, "I'm not forcing anybody to believe what I believe," says Ayn. "If someone wants to believe in Norse gods or Roman gods or Christianity or Islam, that's fine by us.

"Magic exists in all different forms. It's all around us. It's everywhere in nature. You just need to be able to see it

• The Spring Equinox Fayre is at Moat Community College, Maidstone Road, Leicester, from 11am to 6pm on March 17.

FIRST PERSON

A research report published yesterday is just a start, says one of its authors, Sarah Wright

Laughter and fun in the city of many faiths

The humbling response Tove Delanius and I received from many of the 48 groups we met across Leicester as part of our research into the city's interfaith situation was: "Thank you for listening to us."

We have had a lot of fun and laughter along the way and met some amazing people with wonderful stories to tell. We met people from the big recognised faiths and smaller less-known groups. We met atheists, humanists and people who did not subscribe to any specific faith. With backing of Leicester Council of Faiths we have produced a report, Life Views, to share our findings with a wider audience.

"Leicester's particular character is in its welcoming of diversity," said a Christian respondent. There was a feeling that the city allows difference. "I believe in letting people live their own lives as long as they don't interfere with mine," said a person who did not subscribe any faith. A Brahma Kumari woman reminded us: "Lots of people came here before us; the Vikings and the Romans left their marks here, so do each new community; it is something to be proud of." A group of Somali Muslims pointed out: "First when you see new communities you ask what will come out of them - then when you get to know them you see the benefits." A Baha'i person said: "We are in a sense still evolving a new and challenging culture here in Leicester." A Jewish woman felt that people can get along and achieve common goals. "People can share and be motivated and passionate about the same things even if they have very different faiths or life views."

There were voices of caution, a view that more needs to be done to listen to the communities and that we need to make an effort to get on with each other. A Rastafarian told us: "We need more acceptance and understanding of the present minority communities in the city." A Spiritualist added concern: "Groups with cultural differences find it hard to adjust. There is friction even without other communities coming here! The city needs events to bring people together."

"Promoting interfaith co-existence is vital," added a Muslim. A Christian pointed out: "It would be better if more people knew about the work of faith awareness and interfaith networks and did not see it as purely a province of the academics." A Pagan added an extra note on the bottom of our questionnaire: "Thank you for reaching out to our community."

• Sarah Wright, an Anglican priest, and Tove Dalenius, a Swedish Muslim, worked together to produce Life Views. For a copy, call 0116 254 6868.

HARMONY: PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT FAITHS GET ALONG WELL IN THE CITY

We are all the best of friends

A report into life in Leicester has found people of different faiths get along well with each other.

Researchers asked people from the city's largest and smallest religious groups to assess the state of relationships across religious and cultural divides. They found three-quarters of the participants said they had close friends or acquaintances of a faith other than their own. The researchers, who were commissioned by Leicester Council of Faiths to conduct the study, also spoke to people from non-religious backgrounds.

Leaders of the council of faiths, which has been working to build bridges between communities for more than 20 years, said the study portrayed Leicester as a harmonious city. The findings contrasted with a claim by Trevor Phillips, of the Commission for Racial Equality last year, that cities such as Leicester were becoming "ghettoised". However, the latest study, called Life Views, said extra funds should be invested in work to help people overcome barriers.

 Resham Singh Sandhu, chairman of the council of faiths, said: "I think the report shows Trevor Phillips was wrong. There are no ghettoes in Leicester. "There are pockets of communities living together but that does not mean they are segregated. People mix and enjoy doing that."the public later this week, was due to be discussed at an executive meeting of the council of faiths last night.

City councillor Manjula Sood, a trustee and executive member of the council of faiths, said: "It is a good piece of research. "Overall, the feedback has been very positive about life in Leicester. It has also indicated that there is more that groups like the council-of faiths can do to bring people closer together. We will be looking at finding grants to do that."

Coun Roger Blackmore, leader of Leicester City Council, said: "We are very fortunate to have such an extremely active and hardworking council of faiths, which is the envy of many cities. Partly as a result of this, the many faith groups in the city interact well. The fact they have undertaken this study is a clear indication of the positive role which faith groups play in city life."

The report, which will be available to the public later this week, was due to be discussed at an executive meeting of the council of faiths last night.

by CIARAN FAGAN

SOCIAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT