"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."--Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, "The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

There's no such thing as a coincidence. The last week in September was Banned Book Week, sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA). ItÕs a celebration of freedom of speech, and also a warning about the growing threats to that precious liberty. And these days, those dangers are directly affecting our minority faith community.

Each year the ALA posts a list of the books that have most often been the target of complaints or requests to be removed from public libraries. You probably won't be surprised to learn that, for the last four years, Harry Potter has topped that list (joining the great American classics Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain).

This beloved children's series has nothing in common with real Witchcraft or Wicca except for the heroism, decency, and compassion of its young hero. But there are many who think Harry Potter is a seductive rendition of the evils of Witchcraft and Satanism. Those fears have led to incidents of book banning and even burning. The Harry Potter books may be lighthearted in tone, but these attempts to remove books, and ideas, from public availability are just the opposite. They are censorship. And censorship denies our freedom to read what we wish to and to think for ourselves. These attacks also threaten our freedom of religion, because they stem from a Dominionist agenda and dangerous misperceptions about our spirituality. Though Harry Potter may be protected by record-breaking sales, books that are actually about Wicca, Witchcraft, and Neo-Paganism aren't faring as well. As you've probably noticed, Pagan books have begun disappearing from many mainstream bookstores. Sections devoted to Pagan spirituality are shrinking, being moved to remote sections of stores, and even re-categorized as "occult."

Why? I've been told that the Pagan community isn't buying as many books, the market is saturated, books don't have the quality that readers want, and, worst of all, that the community doesn't support its authors. All of these discouraging explanations may be true, but there are other forces at play.

Censorship isn't always blatant, brutal, and overt, like book burnings or angry proselytizing from pulpits. It can also be done by stealth, with such subtlety as to be almost imperceptible. After hiding behind a cloak of media invisibility, the Theocratic Right (I prefer this term to the often-used "Christian Right," as the latter is unfair to true Christianity) has begun to flex its muscle.

"Christian publishing is a force to be reckoned with," Carol Johnson, vice president of Bethany House Publishing, recently said to Publisher's Weekly. Perfectly comfortable with the power that Mammon (the demon of greed, wealth, and injustice) affords them, it's been reported that the Christian Booksellers Association and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association are having an impact on major booksellers and mass retailers like WalMart. Knowing that it's all about the bottom line, they've pointed out that Christian titles such as the "Left BehindÓ series earn retailers and publishers far more money per square inch of book shelf space than subjects such as Wicca, feminism, and psychology, subjects which also happen to offend the so-called "family values" of their vast consumer market.

It's no coincidence that Wiccan shelf space is disappearing while Christian sections are exploding.

Pagan authors are already feeling the impact. One of the community's most prominent elders and authors was just told by his publisher that they were hesitant to contract his new book. In a conversation with the publisher, he was told that there were concerns about the current political climate, which is bringing into question the viability of publishing "controversial" books like those on Witchcraft. The bottom line is this: Are books on Paganism, Wicca, and Witchcraft still lucrative enough? It appears that the number-one publisher of Pagan titles -- which has so dominated the market that you're often unable to find anything but their books in Pagan stores -- will apparently now be publishing more books on angels and other "less controversial" topics. If this trend continues, many more Pagan authors are going to find themselves unable to publish. I've had my own grim experience with my latest book, The Love Spell. It's the sequel to Book of Shadows, a bestseller in Italy and a strong ongoing success in the United States, with over 100,00 copies sold to date. The Love Spell is a sexy, thoughtful memoir about the spiritual mysteries of love, eroticism, and soulmates, and it was expected to do well. It did at first, selling 6,000 copies in the first few months of release.

Despite this healthy launch (without any publicity), you won't find a single copy of The Love Spell in any Barnes & Noble anywhere in the United States, and you'll have trouble finding it elsewhere.

Everyone was shocked when 10,000 hardcover copies were suddenly returned just a few short months after the book's release in January 2005. Hardcovers that are selling aren't usually returned to the publisher until a month before the paperback is released (March 2006 for The Love Spell). There's no smoking gun, but there are also no coincidences.

Unless those returned hardcovers sell, the publisher is unlikely to renew my contract and The Love Spell could be my last book, at least for quite awhile. Frankly, I figured it was my problem, and I'm still not too comfortable talking about it. But a lot of Pagan elders and authors whom I love and respect made me realize that I needed to tell folks what was happening. Hard as it is to ask, after years of helping our community as an activist in the courts and the media, I need your help. And so do other Pagan authors and Pagan bookstore owners.

Every book brings a certain amount of screwball mail, nasty mentions on fundamentalist web sites, and even threats. This most recent book seems to have really touched a nerve, as there's been an increase in all of these. And again, I'm not alone in this problem. As I've traveled around the country, I've learned that many Pagan and New Age bookstores are experiencing increased harassment and threats, including death threats. Many of the storeowners have been as reluctant as I was to mention their situations, feeling that it was something they just had to deal with by themselves. None of us can deal with this changing political climate alone. An author can't sell a book if it isn't published and on the shelves. And you can't buy it. Authors are barely able to eke out a minimal living by writing, and the loss of our beloved occupation presents us with a great personal and professional crisis. And our Pagan stores, which are kept open more by love than income, can't sell books if they're forced to close due to harassment or the loss of business or a lease. These harsh realities will have dramatic consequences, not just for authors and storeowners, but for our entire community.

One of the main reasons this spiritual movement has grown so rapidly over the last twenty-five years is because of books. Many people find Paganism because they find our books in mainstream stores. That presence, along with our growing visibility in the media, has also helped transform the negative stereotypes that have afflicted us for centuries. Growing mainstream understanding has allowed us to practice our religion in freedom and peace, to retain custody of our children, to keep our jobs and our leases, to be included in interfaith and academic conferences, to be free from violence and harassment in our homes, schools, military, and our larger communities.

Our growing visibility has allowed us to contribute the desperately needed beauty and wisdom of our spirituality to this wounded culture and endangered planet. But if people can no longer find our books, our community will once again be marginalized, reduced in size, and more easily persecuted. The gifts that we have to offer will be lost.

The political climate has shifted radically and dangerously to the extreme right, and the media, the stores, and the publishers have moved along with the politics. Money follows the market, enforcing its own kind of insidious censorship. If we don't respond, individually and collectively, in the end we will have to acknowledge that the real reason we disappeared back into the broom closet was because of our own apathy. It's no coincidence that when Pat Robertson began his campaign to take over the government and secular institutions of America 30 years ago he predicted that the apathy of the American people would be the fundamentalist right's greatest weapon.

I got my wake up call months before Banned Book Week, and though I'd rather be working on my next book, I've been propelled to action. If I don't stand up now and fight for the rights which are slipping away, the day will come when there will be no more chances to write that book. There will be no more opportunities for you read it, or many other titles, not even The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

For more information on the Theocratic RightÕs current role in government and their goals, Phyllis recommends www.theocracywatch.org.

Activist attorney and Wiccan priestess Phyllis Curott is also the internationally bestselling author of The Love Spell (Gotham Books 2005), Book of Shadows and WitchCrafting. Jane magazine honored her as one of The Ten Gutsiest Women of the Year for her advocacy of religious freedom in the media and the courts and New York Magazine called her one of the city's most intellectually cutting-edge speakers. Curott is also founder of the Temple of Ara, one of the oldest Wiccan congregations in America, a shamanic tradition dedicated to the experience and ethics of immanent divinity.

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