"Wicca bears a striking resemblance to another religion–one that also tells of a dying and rising god, that venerates a figure who is both virgin and mother, that keeps, in its own way, the seasonal 'feasts of the Wheel,' that uses chalices and candles and sacred poetry in its rituals. Practicing Wicca is a way to have Christianity without, well, the burdens of Christianity. 'It has the advantages of both Catholicism and Unitarianism,' observes Allen Stairs, a philosophy professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in religion and magic. 'Wicca allows one to wear one's beliefs lightly but also to have a rich and imaginative religious life.' Charlotte Allen, writing in The Atlantic Monthly
