With the opportunity to travel to different parts of the world easily available it's easy to overlook some of the potential pitfalls that can waylay the Pagan traveller . Up to and including your ritual equipment wanting to come along on the trip! What have been your experiences?

What a great and thorough article, Ian! It's so sad that people still have fears and prejudices against others' beliefs.

I never imagined that it might be dangerous for you to travel because others might accuse you of witchcraft. With all of your travels for magick study, can you provide a short list of pagan-friendly countries?

You took my breath away with the story of the knife. When my son returned from school in NYC, he did a rush job of packing, of course. He forgot to pack kitchen utensils but all he wanted was his sushi knife. He slipped it into his laptop case without thinking. Good thing that it slipped in upright on its blade edge (like when it is chopping) next to the laptop because the x-ray machine did not see it. On one hand, I was relieved that he didn't get arrested; on the other it didn't make me feel safe or protected by all of that airport "security" checking.

Sadly most security at airports is what is termed "Security Theater", there just to make it look as though there is some sort of obvious security 'to keep you safe'. For a more in-depth appraisal of this go to this Schneier on Security site and enter 'Theater' to get a security insiders' view.

All I'll say is I've had physical protective tools passed over, and in one case returned to me after I accidently left it at a gate, by scanners.

On the Pagan-friendly countries front the best thing to do is steer clear of the Middle East if you are carrying anything obvious like Tarot cards. The same goes for most of Africa as far as I can tell, with the exception of some of the smaller countries on the West Coast. Otherwise you should be relatively OK and may receive extra respect if these are discovered!

Security Theater! LOL. So true!

Very My Dad worked for the security services for twenty years, so when I enter a 'secure area' it's obvious to me if it's not. He was the


When I used my skills to nip into the American Embassy in Japan in 1989 , bypassing the security along the way.

That was a great experience in the American Embassy in Japan! Fun read! Thanks!

You surely are brave, Ian.

The opinion of my friends re my actions seems to be equally divided between brave and foolheardy!