Good morning, Chicago.
It’s hard to find a definite count of how many people practice witchcraft in Chicago. One minister whose congregation serves northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin estimates that the Chicago area is home to between 20,000 and 27,000 pagans whose religions are anchored in the Earth’s rhythms and may employ witchcraft as part of their spiritual practice.
Some people who practice witchcraft, like the Andersonville-based author Christopher Allaun, get a kick out of secular Halloween celebrations and pop-culture representations of themselves as old women with green skin and black hats. While Allaun does have pagan friends who find the holiday offensive, he appreciates a good costume and a harmless practical joke.
“I think (Halloween) is one of the few times of the year that grownups allow themselves to just be expressive and free and silly and have fun,” he said.
But Allaun — a co-founder and ordained minister of a queer, pagan church with branches in Chicago and Seattle who has been practicing magic since 1992 — also sees traditions of witchcraft and pagan practice as important spiritual tools for people who face discrimination or injustice.
Tonight is the eve of the pagan holiday Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season and the coming of winter. For pagans, the holiday is an opportunity for the living to confront their mortality and to try to connect with their dead loved ones.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Caroline Kubzansky.
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