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Halloween is just around the corner, and that can only mean one thing -- pagans are popping out of the woodwork like oversize, Earth-loving jack-in-the-boxes.

Apparently, there is a growing trend of paganism, especially Wicca, in the United States right now, with the number of people who identify as Wiccans more than doubling since 2001. We know that to a lot of people, Wicca is a serious religion, but the whole thing makes us nostalgic for "The Craft" and looking up books of spells in the junior-high-school library.

Did all teenage girls go through a phase when they listened to Letters to Cleo and pranced around dressed like Stevie Nicks? Or were we the only ones who wanted to emulate Fairuza Balk's creepy eyes and wear slimming, head-to-toe black? Books like "Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation," and "The Teen Spell Book" indicate the idea of benevolent witchcraft still has special appeal to adolescent girls.

As Alison Amoroso, editor in chief of Teen Voices magazine told Family Education, "It values them as women -- it's very women-centered. Adolescence is a time when you are seeing yourself in the context of the world, looking for places of belonging. Wicca, like all religions, provides identity and value formation."

Tell us: Did you go through a Wiccan phase?