Milan was the center of Cisalpine Gaul, settled by the Gauls who sacked Rome
> in the Fourth Century BCE (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus was the most famous of the
> Gallic Romans). And the Gauls were, of course, Celts.
>
You're right about the Celtic angle. I was focused more on this:
"Melwyn, a 23-year-old Milanese secretary who gave only her Celtic name, fits the movement's demographics.
"A Celtic re-enactor, she read about Wicca as a teenager and discovered practitioners at the Samhain festival four years ago.
"'A lot of people are close to Wicca without knowing it, especially re-enactors' she said. 'They believe in it but don't acknowledge it.'"...
"The founder of Milan's Circle of the Crossroads, Davide Marre, remembers when his group numbered 'four cats,' an expression for virtually nobody.
"Six years later, he has 200 members, with conferences, study groups, a magazine, a book, even a monthly bar fest called the Witches' Café."
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."