Pagans Out Of the 'Broom Closet' In Southwest Riverside County

October 30, 2009

Author: Aaron Burgin

Source: The Press-Enterprise

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_E_new_witches31.46d6183.html

It might never be easy to be a witch in southwest Riverside County, but it's getting easier, Ivy Lieberman said.

Lieberman, a Lake Elsinore resident, is a practicing pagan and a member of the Murrieta Witches of the Goddess, a pagan group whose membership has ballooned from a handful in 2006 to more than 130 today. Some in the group come from as far as Hemet and Perris. They meet in public places like coffee shops.

When she moved to Lake Elsinore 26 years ago, Lieberman said, walking with her pentagram around her neck would have led to charges of devil worship. Coming out of "the broom closet," a term used for someone practicing witchcraft in secrecy, could have cost her a job and friends, she said.

Now, Lieberman and other pagans said they are finding people in one of California's most conservative and Christian regions to be more tolerant of their beliefs than ever before.