"Wiccan dressing up and pretending"
Some of the wiccans I've met certainly are't pretending.
Cursing is bad news as it rebounds on the person who did it, so it's not a sacrifice made often. It's a myth that witches do evil, of course - most of their work is done for the good of others. I should imagine that anybody who uses magic for evil purposes keeps pretty quiet about it.

There are certainly some pagan folkies but hardly a majority. Pete Jennings who used to host a folk programme on BBC radio Suffolk is an Odinist. He won't mind my mentioning that as it's all over his web site which is worth a visit for lots of links between paganism and folk traditions. I know of a singing trio who are all pagan too. Their name is a bit of a give-away...

Maybe paganism isn't some people's idea of "the occult" but it's not far off.

By the way, there's a recent Wild Goose album called Songs of Witchcraft and Magic. Note that there are no ghost songs on the album - this is deliberate as there are so many of those that another album is planned to cover that topic. I've no idea when, but keep an eye out for it.

Anahata