Witches, Pagans join rush northward to see total solar eclipse
CASPER» Not only astronomers, campers and tourists but druids, witches and pagans are headed to Wyoming to experience Monday’s total solar eclipse.
Among them is Ken Biles, a Colorado man who goes by the name Greyhart. A solar eclipse is a transition, and transitions are powerful moments both for cultures and individual people, Biles told the Casper Star-tribune.
“There is an energy that surrounds everything and at this point in time, we don’t have the technology to detect or measure it,” he said. “We are going to take that energy from the eclipse and manipulate it to our own desires.”
He plans to conduct a ceremony near Glendo Reservoir during the eclipse.
Others, including California author and wizard Oberon Zell Ravenheart, plan to congregate at Beartrap Meadow on Casper Mountain.
Ravenheart has experienced three previous eclipses with other pagans.
“I tell people who don’t believe in magic, I ask them, ‘Do you believe in love?’ Love is universally regarded as the most powerful form of magic,” he said. “One definition of magic is simply ‘The science we don’t yet understand, because we don’t yet have a theory for it.’ ”
Wyoming officials estimate the number of people coming to see the eclipse could double the state’s population of 585,000.