The Times-Picayune brings us the story of a Wiccan mother, Susan “Willow” Schroeder, who responded to her son’s shooting death by painting her house, fence, and surrounding sidewalk with colorful designs and patterns.  Schroeder, who fought having her house demolished last year, is now dealing with an angry neighbor unhappy with the painted sidewalk, and a city that seems to be able to enforce sidewalk painting but unable to actually repair sidewalks in the neighborhood.

Susan “Willow” Schroeder and Karen “Feather” Espeut.

“Schroeder continued working out her misery through a sprawling memorial, covering her entire yard and every inch of her home, inside and out. Since the 2001 murder, most of her neighbors have watched the kaleidoscopic transformation with empathy for her inestimable loss. In a city that proudly embraces eccentrics, they say, the house fits right in. But one neighbor, JoAnn Taylor, didn’t share their tolerance. She called the encroaching sidewalk paint “harassment,” a frightful abomination. Soon, she enlisted City Hall in her quest to get the sidewalk returned to its usual gray.”

JoAnn Taylor and her husband call the house “spooky” and that it looks like a “witch’s house” (oh, the irony), and while Schroeder has erected a large fence to block their view of the house, they are still on a warpath to have all paint removed from public property. As for the city, a spokesperson said that Schroeder will soon be fined $100 a day until it is removed, and that the city, ultimately, may paint it over for her (at her expense). Meanwhile, her other neighbors seem to appreciate the mother’s artistic therapy writ large.

Most neighbors, however, seem to relate to the garden and the other paintings. “I like it,” said Roland Brown, who has lived his entire 20 years two houses away and knew Ayo. He sees images of himself and other longtime residents in the mural in the park. “It’s the whole neighborhood on there,” he said … Down the block, Larry Anderson talked about his fondness for Schroeder’s garden, where he said he sometimes goes to seek peace … Rose Gentry, 79, who lives directly across the street, said she likes to sit on her porch and look at Schroeder’s house. It reminds her of country houses, like the ones she grew up near in St. Francisville. Almost every day, she said, people stop outside and take photographs. She said she’s baffled that anyone would object …

This struggle brings to light the tensions between communal art, individual creative expression, and the laws designed to keep order and peace. While JoAnn Taylor and the city are clearly in their legal rights, the rest of the neighborhood seems to appreciate the art and Schroeder’s contributions to their community. One would hope that some sort of compromise could be reached that won’t incur fines and hard feelings all-around, but it appears to be too late for that.

Back in the beginning of October I reported that Wiccan Cliff Eakin had been successful in his efforts to have a local anti-fortune telling ordinance overturned in Livingston Parish, LA. Now MagickTV has produced a four-part series that features interviews with Eakin and his lawyer, and includes footage of the party held for the official signing of the settlement papers (and featuring Raymond Buckland as an official witness).

Here are links to all four episodes: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. Kudos to the MagickTV crew for doing this important primary-source journalism and creating a document of this win for the broader Pagan community.

A federal judge has tossed out a Livingston Parish Council ordinance barring all forms of fortune-telling. The ordinance was challenged by local resident Cliff Eakin, a Wiccan who believed the ban violated his religious freedoms.

“A Livingston Parish Council ordinance outlawing fortunetelling and soothsaying is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. A Wiccan minister, Cliff Eakin, sued the parish over the ordinance, asserting inspiration from the divine transmitted by a Wiccan minister should be treated legally the same way as a message from God transmitted to a congregation by a Christian minister. “I would highly recommend that the council not appeal it,” Blayne Honeycutt, the council’s attorney, said of Tuesday’s ruling.”

The Livingston Parish Council, despite warnings from their lawyer telling them they would lose, decided to fight removing the ordinance on religious principle.

“Harrell and councilmen Jimmy McCoy and Eddie Wagner said they have no plans to change their votes. Other council members did not comment on where they stand. ‘I got elected to represent my constituents,’ McCoy said. ‘I am a Christian and I love the Lord, period. We can vote today or next month, my vote won’t change.’”

This case is just the latest in a string of successful legal and political challenges to outdated or religiously biased laws and ordinances banning fortune-telling. As I said when this case first emerged, today’s fortune-tellers and diviners aren’t simply grifters on the make, but a growing assortment of men and women who have a deep religious investment in their trade.

“While banning psychics was once seen as an easy political move to garner an image as a moral crusader fighting fraud (and activities that carry a Biblical injunction), in the last thirty years the business has changed. It isn’t simply a bevy of frauds peddling fake “curses” and a smattering of sweet old ladies making a buck on the side, the business has been steadily infiltrated by modern Pagans, Afro-diasporic faiths (VooDoo, Santeria, etc), and the New Age movement, many of whom see divination work as a spiritual calling. These groups on the whole are more affluent (relatively speaking), more aware of their legal rights (and hence more litigious), and more rooted in their communities than the stereotypical image of the fly-by-night con-man (or woman) who makes a living grifting from the margins.”

Laws explicitly banning psychics and other diviners from plying their trade are outdated and discriminatory, and the growing legal consensus has favored overturning such bans. Religious favoritism masquerading as social concern can no longer be tolerated in a free and multi-religious society. Congratulations to Mr. Eakin for his victory.

A mess is brewing in Louisiana. On Tuesday, Farmerville High School was sent into lock-down after rumors of a “big war” between two groups of students reached school officials. Making the matter even more complicated is the fact that one of the rival groups (allegedly) claim to be a Wiccan coven.

“Two departments took protective measures at Farmerville High School on Tuesday after hearing rumors of a “big war” and that some students had formed a Wiccan coven, officials said … “Farmerville police received information over the weekend that threats of violence had allegedly been made against a group of students at Farmerville High School.” Those threats were to be carried out Tuesday, according to a news release from the sheriff and chief. Detectives from both agencies determined a student had allegedly said a “big war” would occur. They also learned that a group of students had allegedly formed what they referred to as a “Wicca” and had carried out “certain ritualistic ceremonies that included self-mutilation of their arms and legs,” the release stated.”

Who threatened who? Good question! According to School Superintendent Steven Dozier, it was the Wiccans who threated a rival group of teens at the school.

“A student said “war will begin Tuesday.” School Superintendent Steven Dozier says the students involved with the threat practice Wicca, a form of witchcraft. This alone had school leaders and police concerned.”

But a subsequent news story doesn’t make that claim, and a story filed the day after the lock-down noted that the “big war” rumors have been floating around for nearly eight months.

“But these rumors began much earlier than a few days ago. The sheriff’s office says that these rumors go back to as far as eight months ago. And they say some parents and students knew about the threats of violence…but never came forward … Rumors at the high school began spreading like wildfire. Authorities say one child told a parent that their name was on a list to be killed. Tuesday was the day the ‘big war’ was supposed to happen…but it never did.”

During the lock-down, no weapons (connected to the alleged threats) were found. After a series of interviews, two students were hospitalized pending a mental evaluation after expressing thoughts of suicide (though an earlier report claims they were involved in the Wiccan group). So far, no physical evidence of any sort has surfaced pointing towards a “big war” or any other sort of violence.

Since we are dealing with (escalating) rumors, it is hard to tell what was really going down, and who instigated what. School officials, rather than trying to engage the (alleged) ringleaders of this ongoing conflict, instead went into a post-Columbine panic and terrified the entire school. Painting the “Wiccans” as scapegoats in the process.

“…we were not going to take any chances of anybody getting hurt whether it being a true or false rumor. We simply hit the campus and hit it hard.”

Are schools now going to be “hit hard” by police whenever a rumor about a groups of outsiders surface? What are the chances that this groups of kids will receive fair treatment at the school now that the Superintendent has publicly incriminated them? There is a good chance that any “big war” that arises from this will come in the form of lawsuits if the school isn’t very careful about what it does next.