Anna Holloway, professional writing graduate student, places colorful fabric on an alter cloth on the floor and sets candles representing the five natural elements in each cardinal direction to begin practicing her religion.

She adds a cauldron for burning incense, a chalice, dagger, wheat grain and a shell full of lavender to the alter to practice her religion, Wicca.

But these items are just Holloway’s set of tools used to practice the Earth-based religion.

“Everybody who practices it has a different form of approach, a different way of seeing that, a different way of understanding what is divine and what isn’t,” Holloway said.

The religion is one that is commonly misunderstood and stereotyped, though, she said.

“Wicca is a religion that is centered in understanding that our easiest and best contact with Creator is through creation,” Holloway said. “So we make our contact to God with God’s works. That’s what makes it Earth centered.”

From Catholicism to Wicca

Holloway was raised Roman Catholic but said she has always been connected to nature and eventually realized Wicca had always been a part of her.

At the age of 36, she joined a Unitarian Universalist church in Norman and found a pagan group that met there. The group led her to realize Wicca was a suitable religion for her.

“I always liked animals and I always liked the outdoors and I always liked plants and I always felt that was the right thing, that there was something right about it,” Holloway said. “It wasn’t like leaving civilization and going into the wilderness, it was just realizing that living things are cool.”

Holloway’s stumbling upon the religion is one of the only real ways to join, she said.

“It is not something that anybody converts you to,” Holloway said. “We don’t run around converting people because there wouldn’t be any point to it. Either you get it or you don’t and if you get it, you just may not know what it is.”

Holloway said she has not found a religion that failed to teach her something. She is also a follower of American Daoism and, as she said, is “a student of the teachings of Jesus.” She said she doesn’t like to use the term “Christian,” though because there are many people she wouldn’t like to be associated with.

Centuries of misunderstanding

Wiccans are a misunderstood religious breed, Holloway said, and although some call themselves “witches,” they aren’t witches in the historical and stereotypical sense.

Past events like the Salem Witch Trials have put a negative connotation on the word “witch,” and now most think of someone who calls upon Satan, which simply isn’t true, she said.

Wiccans also practice spells but the spells aren’t what one might think.

“Spells are the same thing as prayer,” Holloway said. “Just as a Christian would pray to heal a friend, a Wiccan will sit down and ask God to heal a friend from a slightly different set of rituals, but it is still the same request, and as far as I’m concerned it goes to the same God.”

Intolerance still a problem

Many might overlook it, but religious persecution is still present and Wiccans are far from excluded.

She said she knows some people who hide their religion from the public because they’re afraid they might lose what they’ve worked for personally or professionally.

“I know one person whose divorce decree specifically forbids him from associating with a certain religious institution in town,” Holloway said. “His ex, who used to practice Wicca, used that as an excuse and basically went to the court and told them that he was taking [the children] to see witches and used it as an excuse to limit his contact with the people who were his support system.”

She also said she has a friend who believes she was fired because her pentacle necklace fell out of her shirt.

But Holloway’s negative experiences have been more personal than professional or legal.

She worked in ministry programs at various prisons around the state from 2001 to 2008 and said the responses to her religion were always different.

“There were some people in the prison systems that were extremely supportive because I was bringing a lot of support to inmates who were Wiccans and pagans of different kinds,” Holloway said. “There were other people who were just horrified that I was even allowed in.”

While some Wiccans hide their religion, Holloway believes in being open about it.

The reactions leave Holloway feeling alone sometimes, but she said many have been supportive and she believes being open about her religion will only help other Wiccans.

“I am personally one of those people who thinks that we are going to do ourselves in the long run more good by being out and open than by hiding,” Holloway said. “And I think there is much more to be gained by saying this is who and what I am, this is what I practice and this is how we relate to each other. I just think that is a healthier way to be in the world.”