The couple were married Saturday in a Pagan tradition called handfasting. Trombley said blood is rarely used in Pagan rituals because �it�s a very serious type of magic.� She chose to wed in this way because to her, the promise was more binding than a legal notice of marriage. Thoms also noted that the blood�bond puts �a hell of an exclamation point� on it.
The two have followed Pagan paths most of their lives and are actively leading a group called Hillsdale�Lenawee County Witches. Its listserv has 120 members, and on Saturday about 20 adherents came to celebrate the festival of Beltaine with them.
Beltaine is a ritual to welcome the beginning of the harvest season that typically falls around the first of May.
In the couple�s backyard, a handful of fellow Pagans, friends and family gathered. Most were wearing cloaks or holding a staff. Some wore pendants of a pentagram within a circle: a symbol of the five elements � earth, water, air, fire, and spirit � in perfect balance. Others simply wore jeans and sweatshirts.
Thoms said there was nothing special about wearing cloaks, except that mentally �when we put these on, it takes us to the place we need to be ... from the mundane to the magical.�
Hillsdale College Philosophy and Religion Department assistant professor Don Westblade said Paganism predates the written word, but the connection between ancient and modern practices is �pretty thin. The way that people thought about it then may not be the way people think about it now.�
The term Pagan was once used to refer to rustic, local or civilian people during the classical Greek and Roman eras, said Westblade. It is now used as an umbrella term, covering everything from witchcraft to Shamanism to Druidism. The common thread is they identify the earth as the locus of divinity.
This difference between Paganism and monotheistic religions like Christianity, said Westblade, is Pagans �would have said Earth is my mother. Others would have said the Earth is a gift from God and not spiritual. So either God is the world or God made the world.�
Thoms� three kids follow their father�s path, though to varying degrees. His 14�year�old son, Scott Thoms, said he considered himself a Christian until a year ago, when he asked his father to teach him how to follow a Pagan path. Scott Thoms said he chose it because it was more tangible. With Christianity, �I didn�t really feel it,� he said. During Beltaine he wore a green cloak, the color of an apprentice, and was the Keeper of the Fire for Beltaine.
Thoms� 17�year�old daughter, Bianca Martinez�Thoms, also stood in the open circle for Beltaine. She was a little more skeptical than her little brother, but was eager to be a part of her family�s faith. Wanting to continue learning about Paganism, she said it made her happy because it embraced life.
Thoms� youngest daughter, 14�year�old Alicia, said when she started learning about Paganism a year ago, she found it was not completely incompatible with Christianity, and considers herself to be both � but more Pagan than Christian. When her school friends found out she was a Pagan she was happy that �they didn�t treat me differently at all. Everybody has a different religion and shouldn�t be teased about it.�
�It is difficult to be of a minority religion, but it is becoming less so,� Trombley said. Over the past several years, shows like Ghost Whisperer and Charmed have mainstreamed familiarity with Paganism, although many followers are still �closeted� for fear of rebuke.
Because there are also many loosely defined subdivisions within Paganism, it is nearly impossible to make an accurate count of its followers.
Trombley said most would probably be surprised how many people are Pagans. �We are the plumbers, the nurses, the corrections officers, the cable guys, and in my case a former city councilperson in Hillsdale County. It is important to us that people understand that they stand in line with us in the grocery store every day and they probably would never know,� she said.
Trombley sat on the Litchfield City Council from 1991 to 1995 and served on the budget and finance committee, the parks and recreation committee and the police administration board.
To the Hillsdale�Lenawee County Witches, any person seeking a path toward the divine is welcome in their group. �It doesn�t matter to us what path to the divine you�re on,� said Trombley. With an easy laugh, Thoms added, �We know that there is more than one trail up the mountain.�
Trombley said she also exposes her children to her beliefs, but wants them to explore at their own pace. �The most important thing to me is that they find the path that is their own,� she said.
This story was published in The Hillsdale Daily News. You can find them at
www.hillsdale.net
Spiritual hunger leads some local residents to old ways of paganism
Elizabeth Huff, Staff Writer
Hillsdale Daily News
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