Pagans are the Rodney Dangerfields of religion – they get no respect. Just as the comedian constantly crusaded to improve the esteem in which he was held, so too are earth-centered faiths trying to move from the fringes of the sacred closer to the mainstream.

A Caribou man believes that the nonprofit organization he has created, Pagan and Wiccan Restoration Foundation at www.paganrestoration.org, can help debunk some of the falsehoods surrounding the practices of pagan and Wiccan worship.

Benjamin Webber, 21, launched the Web site from his home in February.

“For years now, there’s been so much discrimination against anyone dealing with pagan or Wiccan rituals,” he said earlier this year. “Most people hear pagan or Wicca and think witches. Few people understand what actually we do.”

Webber blamed much of those misconceptions on media that have focused little on the core belief that humans are spiritually connected to nature.

“Hollywood has done a great job of misrepresenting us,” he said. “Most people think we’re Satan worshippers. I want to help get the truth out about who we really are.”

He is determined to change the way pagans and Wiccans are perceived.

“Our primary goal,” Webber said in a posting on the Web site, “is to let people know that paganism and Wicca are not what Hollywood had led you all to believe. We cannot wave a wand and it will shoot out colors or turn a rat into a wine goblet.”

He is not the only activist working for more acceptance from mainstream religious groups and government.

In April, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a group of Wiccans settled a lawsuit to include the five-pointed star in the list of “emblems of belief” allowed on veterans’ grave markers.

Selena Fox, a Wicca high priestess with Circle Sanctuary in Barnevald, Wis., and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told The Associated Press when the settlement was announced that 11 families from around the nation were waiting for the grave markers.

The settlement called for the pentacle, whose five points represent earth, air, fire, water and spirit, to be installed before Memorial Day. It is one of 38 symbols the VA decided to permit on gravestones: symbols for Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and smaller religions such as Sufism Reoriented, Eckankar and the Japanese faith Seicho-Ne-le.

People are attracted to pagan and Wiccan practices because of their devotion to nature and the incorporation of both male and female deities, Nikki Bado-Fralick, an assistant professor of religion and women’s studies at Iowa State University, told the AP last year.

Just how many practitioners there are in the United States is uncertain.

Fox estimated the number of Wiccans had increased from about 40,000 in the late 1970s to around 400,000 today. The Census Bureau in 2001 said there were 134,000 practitioners nationwide based on a survey in which people self-reported their religious preferences.

The number of pagan or Wiccan groups also is difficult to pin down. Harvard University’s Pluralism Project in 2000 put it at 236 when it identified religious centers from non-Judeo-Christians faiths. A search of witchvox.com revealed 32 groups from Maine, including Webber’s, are registered with that site.

In the years since that study, earth-centered worshippers have connected with each other on the Internet.

Paganrestoration.org differs from many other Web sites devoted to the same or similar topics because it is devoted to distilling information rather than networking with like-minded groups and individuals, Webber said.

In creating the Web site, he said he hopes Christians will read it and realize the two faiths are linked.

“If people look historically at paganism, which is older than Christianity, and the development of the organized church, they’ll find that a lot of Christian holidays derived from pagan events,” Webber said. “The primary difference is that we believe more in the earth and in earth-centered worship, and some of us believe in multiple gods and goddesses rather than one.”

Webber grew up in a Christian family in western Maine, but said it never felt right to him. While living in Sanford several years ago, he met a pagan priestess.

“She took me under her wing,” he said. “Immediately, I felt this was what was right for me.”

He moved to Caribou with his girlfriend last year.

“I’ve conversed with a group of pagans in northern Maine online,” Webber said, “but I’m not part of a group now. I’m a solitary practitioner.”

For information, visit www.paganrestoration.org.

PAGAN HOLIDAYS

Dec. 21 – Winter Solstice – The shortest day of the year. The rebirth of the sun and the promise of Spring is celebrated. Burning the Yule log gives the sun strength.

Feb. 2 – Imbolc – Also known as cross-quarter day, it marks the center point of the dark days of the year and is the beginning of lambing season.

March 20-21 – Vernal Equinox – Day and night are of equal length and the first signs of fertility and rebirth are celebrated.

May 1 – Beltane – Also a cross-quarter day, it celebrates the marriage of the goddess and the god, who conceive a divine child and give birth during the Winter Solstice. The maypole dance is symbolic of the union.

June 21 – Summer Solstice – A celebration in honor of the sun god on the longest day of the year. Traditional activities include leaping across bonfires to promote the fertility of animals and crops.

Aug. 1 – Lughnasadh – Also known as Lammas, it is the first of three festivals when the first fruits of the annual harvest are reaped.

Sept. 21 – Mabon – The Autumnal Equinox is the second of the harvest festivals and considered a time to prepare for the coming winter.

Oct. 31 – Nov. 1 – Samhain – Also known as cross-quarter day, it is the third of the harvest holidays, the end of the annual holiday cycle, the traditional time for the annual slaughter to ensure food throughout the winter and a time to remember departed ones. The separation between physical and spirit worlds is thin.

DEFINITIONS

pagan: A person who does not acknowledge the God of Judaism, Christianity or Islam but believes in many gods. Many pagans follow an earth-based or nature religion. The modern religious movement known as neo-paganism has adopted the name as a badge of faith.

neo-paganism: A term used to describe contemporary paganism. Some describe themselves as “pagan” because they trace their belief and practices back to ancient times and the emphasis on the natural world and goddess worship. Others prefer “neo-pagan” because their faith blends the old and the new.

Wicca: Of the many forms of Wicca, most share worship of the divine feminine and a reverence for nature and its cycles. Believed to be based on the symbols, celebrations, beliefs and deities of ancient Celtic peoples, many scholars consider it the largest segment of neo-paganism, tracing it back to Gardnerian Witchcraft, founded in the United Kingdom in the 1940s.

Source: ReligionStylebook.org, a service of the Religion Newswriters Association.