On a warm Saturday afternoon in September, hundreds of cars cruise past an old white house on Richard Arrington Boulevard, perhaps carrying people to the Birmingham Zoo or Vulcan. No one seems to notice the sweet smell of incense lingering in the air, the small wrought iron cauldron just off the edge of the road or the bumper stickers on cars lined up outside: "My other car is a broom."

"You only find it if you're meant to find it. Most people don't even know we're here," says Mitchell Hagood, 45, owner of the 1865 Greek revival-style home which houses Books, Beans and Candles metaphysical shop. The shop carries everything the modern witch might need: magic wands, tarot cards, herbs, runes, jewelry and knives.

Hagood, a Wiccan who worships the feminine deity Morgan, founded Books, Beans and Candles eight years ago. During that time, he says he's watched Birmingham's pagan community grow tenfold. The shop now hosts monthly meetups for witches, astrologers and other groups including the 400-member Magick City Pagans.

On this particular Saturday, an internationally-known witch, Ellen Dugan, author of 17 books on witchcraft, has flown in from Kansas to give a lecture on practical magic. The 45-person crowd at the sold-out event is almost too big for the old house to hold. Wooden floorboards creak and sigh as pagans decked out in everything from magic amulets and black cloaks to Reeboks and Levi's all scurry to seats.

Dugan's message is clear. Magic, she says, is simply positive change.

A GROWING CULTURE IN ALABAMA

The Church of the Spiral Tree, Alabama's first ecumenical pagan church, was founded in Auburn in 1997 with just 14 active members. Today, the church has 68 members who meet six to eight times per year for rituals and fellowship, says founder Linda Kerr. The church also operates a home school cover school, Sacred Grove Academy. (Membership in a cover school, which provides guidance on curriculum and grading, is required by law in order to home school children in Alabama.) Sacred Grove Academy has a 2014 enrollment of 118 students between the ages of 7 and 17 from across the state.

"Most cover schools are Christian, and require membership in church, a statement of faith, or the teaching of religious material," Kerr says. "We found that so many parents in Alabama wanted their children to be part of a school that didn't come with a religious requirement."

Items on display at Birmingham's metaphysical shop, Books, Beans and Candles.

Kerr, who follows the faerie faith path, says the biggest change for pagans in Alabama over the last few decades has been the ability to connect.

"When I first became pagan in the 1980s, the state of the Internet- well, it wasn't much," she says. "Eventually, people started using Yahoo! groups, and now everyone uses Facebook," she says. "Technology has allowed pagans to connect with one another like never before."

Today, Kerr runs a prisoner pen-pal program with volunteers from the church. Inmates can join the church at a reduced rate and receive the monthly newsletter.

"That's really special to pagan inmates, to hear from someone on the outside world who understands what they are about," she says. "It's common for prisons to have a Christian chaplain, but not someone versed in paganism. People who are incarcerated come from all walks of life. People think of them by default as Christian, but they're not.

Rhiannon, 30, a witch in Huntsville who asked that her last name be excluded for privacy reasons, remembers how difficult it was for pagans to find one another when she first became interested in the craft. She joined a group in Anniston when she was 16 after meeting some witches who were handing out flyers in the "occult" section of Walden Books. She recently started her own circle, a group of witches similar to a coven, minus the hierarchy and high priestess.

Rhiannon's circle has seven members and meets twice per month. The members first met at a "Pagans in the Park" event at Big Spring Park, organized by members of the Facebook group "Huntsville Pagans," which has 81 followers.

"When I first started, it was rare to find other witches in Alabama, and even rarer to find someone who knew what you were talking about when you said you were a witch," she says. "But in the last seven or eight years, if you say you're Wiccan, people have some familiarity with the word. They may not know exactly what it means, but they have some context."

Mitchell Hagood, owner of Books Beans and Candles, a metaphysical shop in Birmingham.

In Mobile, Lux Terrea, a pagan whose name means "earth light," founded the group Moonlit Grove Pagans in 2011. The group has grown from five to 236 over the last three years, and today members hold rituals, camp-outs and get-togethers, including "witch walks" and pagan crafting circles. The group also meets regularly to feed the homeless.

"When I started the group, solitaries [solitary pagan practitioners] started coming out of the woodwork. By 2012 we would get as many as 40 people together for rituals," Terrea says. "People would come up and tell me, 'I have been alone for so long, and now I feel like I have a family.' We are just now getting to a place where we can do some really interesting things."

Although pagans are certainly in the minority in Alabama, it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone in the heart of Dixie that the pagans here are devout, explains Arsh Darksbane, a witch based in Jasper, who worships the goddess Eris. Darksbane is the founder of Stardust Haven Grove, a 30-member ecumenical pagan church that's a branch of the Church of the Spiral Tree.

"This is the South. People here have deep spiritual roots, and we are active because most of us were raised in communities that value a spiritual connection," she says. "It's only natural that we would want to continue that connection and fellowship with friends and family."

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE PAGAN/ A WITCH?

All witches are pagans, but not all pagans are witches. While witchcraft falls under the pagan umbrella, pagans can worship a variety of gods and goddesses, and frequently worship more than one deity at a time.

Pagans choose their own "path." Some are drawn to worship the Norse and Egyptian deities, while others gravitate towards Greek, Native American, Celtic or Hindu gods and goddesses. Many pagans have altars in their homes where they offer treats to their deities, or light candles or incense to honor them. Also, many pagans prefer to worship the goddess, known as the "divine feminine" over the male god, the "divine masculine." This is why paganism is sometimes referred to as the "feminist's religion."

Paula Wahn, owner of the Raven's Nook, a metaphysical shop in Mobile.

"Everyone finds their own way, but the one thing all paths should have in common is respect for Mother Earth," explains Paula Wahn, 41, owner of The Raven's Nook, a metaphysical shop in Mobile.

For Wahn, powerful witchcraft is all about positive energy.

"If you think positive thoughts and put that out into the universe, you get back positive things. If you are constantly a negative Nancy, 'My life sucks,' with a terrible attitude, you're going to get that. To me, that is magic. Whatever you put out there, whether positive or negative, is going to come back to you."

Paganism is more of a lifestyle than a religion, Wahn says. Many pagans have their own gardens and farms and often choose to recycle and compost, giving back to the earth.

"Over the years, people have forgotten how to take care of themselves. You can't always depend on the grocery store. Plant a garden, honor the earth," she says. "The earth is here for us to live off of, not steal or depend on someone else to take care of you. We're all about self-sufficiency."

At the end of the day, the goal for all pagans is self-improvement, Terrae explains.

"We want to continue our own evolution and become less of apes and more of humans," he says. "The greatest teacher man has is nature. We can sit at the feet of nature and learn everything we need to know to feel prosperity, inner peace, and happiness. Nature is where we came from, and returning to it brings us joy."

RITUALS AND SPELLS

There are eight pagan rituals practiced throughout the year. Many of the pagan groups in Alabama meet only for these rituals. They are as follows:

Imbolc, the invoking of spring which occurs in February; Ostara, the spring equinox; Beltane, a celebration of spring and fertility that occurs on May 1; Litha, the summer solstice; Lammas, the end of the summer harvest; Mabon, the autumnal equinox; Samhain, a celebration of death and rebirth that occurs on Oct. 31; and Yule, the winter solstice.

A display at Books, Beans and Candles, a metaphysical shop in Birmingham.

At most pagan rituals, participants gather in a circle and try to "raise energy," giving thanks to the god and goddess, Hagood describes. Participants may walk or stand in or around the circle, chanting and singing to their deities, or just sit quietly and meditate. An altar with fruit, wine and other bounty from nature might also be on display, depending on the holiday.

"You're casting a circle of energy, a circle of protection and creating a sacred space," he says.

Most rituals are pretty tame, he says- but not all.

"We had one a few years ago, some of us were naked. We had a bonfire and people stripped and bathed in a waterfall. We built a huge throne for the goddess inside a cave. It was really bitching."

While rituals are often done in groups, spell-casting is a more solitary activity. However, there are no rules associated with either.

"When you cast a spell you are connecting with the energy of the universe, directing it to what you want," Darksbane says. "There are a billion possibilities in the chaos of the universe. You want those possibilities to align and do something."

Although magic wands, crystals and other "accessories" can be helpful in focusing your energies and "letting go of disbelief," ultimately, they aren't necessary.

"All tools help your state of mind. They help you focus on channeling and connecting with your energy, but you can do magic without them," she says.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as "dark magic" or "white magic," Darksbane says. There are only bad people and good people. Unfortunately, yes, a witch can curse you- but only if you believe they can.

"If I say 'I cursed you,' and you believe it, then suddenly you will start seeing the negative in everything and the curse will manifest," she says.

If you cross a witch, rather than casting a spell to hurt you, most witches would perform a "self-protection" spell so that you aren't allowed to hurt them again, Darksbane says.

"This doesn't mean that you're going to fall down the stairs and die," she says. "Far from it. It may mean that you get a huge promotion at work and move halfway across the country to a beautiful new home."

ACCEPTANCE

"In Alabama, marriage equality isn't as scary as paganism," Darksbane says. "I am more readily accepted for being gay than for being a witch."

Paula Wahn, owner of The Raven's Nook, a metaphysical shop in Mobile.

When Darksbane and her wife, Anna, go somewhere together in "normal" clothing, they never receive any hateful remarks. However, if they go out dressed in black or wearing pentagrams (the five-pointed star indicative of witchcraft) it's a different story.

"Once when I was dressed [like a witch], a woman came up to me at a restaurant and said, 'I wish I could drag you out in the street and beat you to death.' I said, 'Do you not realize how un-Christian that sounds?'"

In the past, church-goers would stop by Darksbane's house with pamphlets on Christianity. Once, after a week of near-daily visits, Darksbane had her own literature printed.

"I made up a flyer about paganism. When they knocked, I took their flyer and just handed mine right back to them. They never came back."

Jessica, 30, a shamanic pagan in Jasper who asked that we exclude her last name for privacy reasons, says that in the Bible belt, acceptance from family is often the biggest challenge.

"My dad is a pastor and my mom is active in the church. When I was 12, I borrowed a book on Wicca from a friend and my mom burned it. She said, 'This is of the devil and you're going to hell.' It's taken me 18 years to get through to my parents saying, 'I respect your religion, but I'm not converting to Christianity.' Now I hear, 'We'll pray for you,' which doesn't sound like much, but it's better than burning my books."

In Huntsville, Rhiannon says she encountered some prejudices and bullying in high school- including death threats- but eventually got the last laugh.

"The boy who threatened to kill me came to me later asking if I could do a spell to make his hair stop turning gray," she said. "I thought it was funny. Even those who want to crucify you still want your help when it suits them."

Over the years, Rhiannon says she has met pagans terrified to come "out of the broom closet," for fear of being judged by family members, friends, or of losing a job. Thankfully, she sees less of that today.

"I am a witch. I like using that word because I feel like it's reclaiming the word," she says. "For so long people were afraid to say it. So, yes, I am a witch, but I am not going to kill your children and eat them."

Mitchell Hagood, owner of Birmingham's metaphysical shop, Books, Beans and Candles.

Books, Beans and Candles has never been openly protested, Hagood says, but people have come by over the years to offer Christian testimony and hand out literature.

"I just say thank you," he says. "I don't mind it. Most pagans are pretty live and let live."

It's that carefree attitude, Hagood says, that will ensure the future growth of the pagan community in Alabama and across the nation.

"We will never be organized enough to get policies changed, but because of that we will never fall into the same traps that Christianity, Judaism and Islam have. When you get too big, you get corrupt," he says. "You just can't have groups of people deciding what you can and can't believe. Spirituality should be sought by the individual."

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This weekend, both Books, Beans and Candles and The Raven's Nook will celebrate with a "Witches' Ball." The events are open to the public and will feature music, food, dancing and, of course, costumes. For more information on the Birmingham Witches' Ball, click here. To read more about Mobile's Witches' Ball, click here.