Out of Closet, Into Kitchen : Witches Win Nonprofit Tax Status as a Religion, Hope to Shed Evil Image

Witches in Rhode Island--which was founded as a haven for religious dissenters--hope that they, too, will gain public acceptance now that the state has recognized their sect as a legitimate religious group.

Members of the Rosegate Coven want outsiders to see them as followers of a faith, not freaks who ride brooms and cast spells.

In a recent interview in a kitchen adorned with skulls, pictures of sorcerers, the obligatory broom and a humorous kitchen-witch, the members talked about their attempts to sensitize others to their beliefs.

“We have to combat centuries of conditioning. People have been conditioned by their religion . . . and society to ridicule us, not to take anything seriously that the Christian religion doesn’t put forth,” said the coven’s high priestess, Joyce Siegrist, also known as Lady Genevieve.

“People don’t easily give up their misconceptions--they really enjoy them,” said Siegrist, 46, who is also director of the New England chapter of the Witches’ Anti-Defamation League.

At a meeting last October, the group, which has about 40 members, decided to incorporate as a nonprofit religious group and apply for exemption from the Rhode Island sales tax. Recently, the state tax administrator reversed an earlier decision and approved the request.

The framed exemption certificate hangs in the modest kitchen near an enlarged photograph showing the Rosegate “grove,” the overall group of about 40 initiates. The coven, or inner core of leaders, consists of about a dozen people.

“Obviously, the intent wasn’t to save the 6% sales tax,” said Julian Bradford, who handles Rosegate’s public relations. “It was to obtain the legitimization.”

The coven, also known as Our Lady of the Roses Wiccan Church, decided to come out of the closet in part because of recent publicity about Satanists.

“We’ve been lumped with them for 800 years. It makes us stand up and say ‘enough is enough!’ ” Bradford said.

To believe in Satan, one first must believe in the Judeo-Christian tradition, Bradford said.

The Wiccans believe in a deity with both male and female attributes, whose psychic energy can be tapped by anyone. Rosegate, a Wiccan sect, emphasizes metaphysics rather than simple magic, and does not use many of the props often associated with witchcraft.

“In our tradition we are trying to eradicate needless superstition,” said Siegrist. She cited as an example the use of crystal balls. “The ball doesn’t have diddly. The power comes from within.”

From Siegrist’s kitchen office, equipped with a copying machine, the coven puts out a newsletter eight times a year, keeps track of its 75-subscriber mailing list, arranges witchcraft classes and plans meetings.

The group has a small building fund and hopes someday to open a center, complete with sanctuary and classrooms.

Rosegate suffers little harassment overall, said Siegrist. A crank caller who repeatedly phoned during the interview was “really the first crank I’ve ever had to put up with,” she said.

But “the mockery is always going to exist,” said Bradford. “We’re the victims of eight or nine centuries of bad press.”

When hostility surfaces, “we try our best not to return it,” Siegrist said.

The witches profess to be uninhibited about their beliefs but appear to be held back by their traditional upbringings.

Sanura, 49, the secretary and musician of the group, said she has told only one relative that she is a witch. “Those Irish Catholics would disown me for sure.” She would not give her Christian name.

Bradford, who fought in Vietnam and has a “Mother” tattoo on his forearm, said: “We’re very open about what we are because we have nothing to hide. We welcome the opportunity to educate others.”

He said others are accepting when they learn he is a witch.

“One guy made broom jokes at work until he had a problem I worked out with a little magic,” he said. Bradford, who works at an East Providence car dealership, would not elaborate on the problem or his solution, other than to say there was “no hocus-pocus, simply the application of proven metaphysical principles.”

Now that the coven has proved that it is legitimate, at least in the eyes of Rhode Island’s division of taxation, what does it want now?

“Give us a corporate broom to fly us to the Bahamas,” Bradford said.