Letter: Can Nature-worship be the basis of a new religion?

IT WAS pleasant to read an article on contemporary Paganism which was broadly sympathetic, in contrast to the ridicule we receive in the tabloids. However, I must point out a couple of errors in David Nicholson-Lord's otherwise admirable article.

'Few of us,' he said, 'may be leaping through Beltane bonfires this week,' as if to suggest that the real hard-core, out-and-out pagans would be doing just that. In fact, no Pagans leap through Beltane fires at midsummer - for the simple reason that Beltane is celebrated on the first of May.

As for 'gathering St John's Wort to chase away the Devil', Pagans do not believe in the Christian Devil, and would prefer to leave St John's Wort growing wherever it thrives.

Andrew Clifton

London NW4