They could have had that town be a place where, over generations, weird deaths happen. (I'm imagining that Ruby could have been from that town - and one of the weird things in the teaser could have been her playing with dark powers in the 17th century or something and then moving up to the current "book club.")

Ahh yes, thank you it was the pentacle comment I was trying to remember. Time for me to watch the first two seasons again...oh darn =P. In terms of covens though, if you're looking at contemporary Wicca, there are all male covens and there are quite a few mixed-gender covens as well. Wiccan rituals often call for a male to represent the god and a female to represent the goddess unless it is a Dianic sect that purposefully excludes male energy. I just hope SPN isn't going to head so far down the pagan=demonic and final apocalyptic hell-war path that the show loses what I value most about it: the monster of the week and urban legend focus. *crosses her fingers*

Several years ago, when the Army decided to start letting Wiccans use their chapels, one of my co-workers was very upset about it, obviously thinking Wiccan=Satanist ... so I just dropped a comment about well, it's not like they're Satanists or anything ... and left her with her mouth open, trying to work that one out.

Good for you, Todd!

In my list, above, I neglected to mention Phoenecian, Sumerian, Minoan, Coptic, various flavors of Egyptian (and by extrapolation), Gypsy, Middle Eastern, Hebrew, ancient, not-so-ancient, and almost-modern Greek, plus "influences" from Haiti, Africa, etc., etc., sigils, rituals, spells, poultices, gris-gris, more etc. *pagan* lore and practice at Missouri's and Bobby's and John's fingertips, to use, and that has been previously shown to be used, against evil forces.

Feh. Enough with the pagan=evol! presentation. I'm ag'in it.

Apropos of everything, *damn* I miss Ellen. Anybody else miss Ellen? The older, v. sexy-but-not-hypersexualized, intelligent, competent, protective NOT EVIL woman on the show?

Specifically, I'd like to see her wash those boys' mouths with Octogon soap, but I'd settle for just having her on my screen.

Octogon?

Octagon soap: [link]

Yeah, that stuff.

Yeah, the Ellen missing is pretty fierce. She was supposed to be back this season, but I don't know, now with the episodes missing due to the strike. I do hope we get her back in some fundamental way, not just as a nod.

I miss Ellen quite a bit for the same reasons--an older, wiser female character who is intelligent as well as emotionally and physically strong and that is valuable for more than her sexuality provides a much needed counter-balance to the increasing plethora of hyper-sexualized demons and vampires we've been seeing in terms of representations of femininity. Ellen has been one of my favorite characters and I have also begun to wonder if they are going to make her a stronger presence or slowly phase her out. I am hoping for the former.