"Enchanting Moment"
Diamond Valley Leader
7 December 2005

NATURE-BASED religions are being brought out of the dark in Nillumbik, with the granting of a licence to an Eltham woman to celebrate legally-binding pagan wedding ceremonies.

Seline Cardamon-Cairns is one of four Victorian pagans to have her licence to conduct "handfastings" finalised, after the State Government repealed an obsolete ban on witchcraft in July.

The term "handfasting" traditionally refers to marriages between witches, but today it also embraces ceremonies that incorporate pagan elements.

Ms Cardamon-Cairns said symbolic acts such as binding of hands, blessing of rings and jumping over brooms, were today chosen even by many non-pagan brides and grooms.

"I've had a lot of couples come to me because they do want something different," Ms Cardamon-Cairns said. "As a celebrant I can create ceremonies with traditions that I come from, as well as incorporating their own beliefs and traditions."

Ms Cardamon-Cairns, a priestess who discovered paganism eight years ago, said although she had ceremonially wed many couples who remained de facto at law, she had sought to extend her qualifications to also perform legally recognised marriages. Two years ago she began a course for wedding celebrants.

Victorian co-ordinator of the Pagan Awareness Network, Gavin Andrew, welcomed the granting of the licences as a mark of community acceptance for the 2379 pagans, 2091 wiccans and 520 devotees of nature-based religions recorded as living in Victoria in the 2003 census.

"Witches and pagans in the community are feeling more comfortable with expressing their religious beliefs, and one way they are doing this is by opting for marriage ceremonies that are legally recognised, but are still recognisably pagan handfastings," Mr Andrew said.

He is keen to dispel modern-day myths about paganism. "What witchcraft is really about is a nature-based spirituality, in which things such as the sun, moon and turning seasons have primary importance."