Military won't recognize Wicca symbol, fight for pentacle as authorized symbol Options

[Tapati]

While some headway has been made in military circles to allow Wiccan ritual and Wicca listed on dogtags, apparently the symbol hasn't been officially recognized for use in memorial cemeteries:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/200...ws/6149634.html

[Kalisurfer]

While some headway has been made in military circles to allow Wiccan ritual and Wicca listed on dogtags, apparently the symbol hasn't been officially recognized for use in memorial cemeteries:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/200...ws/6149634.html

Amazing story, you would think that once someone gives up their life serving in the military, that they earned the right to have any type of religious symbol they and their family wants on their memorial plaque or gravestone.

Something like this calls for an act of underground guerilla action, like hiring a stealth stone carver that just goes into the night and carves the symbol onto the memorial anyway. Though I am sure they would come back and cover it up!

These are the kinds of stories that a few hundred years from now—people will read it and wonder how anyone could of lived in that 21st century dark age.

[Tapati]

Yes, this is certainly a dark age in our history. Here we thought we had made some progress with civil liberties and rights and it's all just eroding under our feet like sand sweeping into the sea.

All the while Bush keeps bragging about our freedom...

Maddening.

[daveseeker]

Are we as bad as a Fundamentalist country? Not yet.

Are we a religious state like Iran? Getting close.

[0Oneiros0]

Yes, this is certainly a dark age in our history.

Are you making a comparison to the dark ages of Europe? If so, I think that the comparison is inappropriate.

[Tapati]

Yes, this is certainly a dark age in our history.

Are you making a comparison to the dark ages of Europe? If so, I think that the comparison is inappropriate.

No, I'm not.

[Tapati]

Meanwhile, we have the infamous Rev Phelps and his group with their anti-gay protests at military funerals:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/21/funeral.m...s.ap/index.html

Goddess bless the bikers who are opposing him!

[Gerard]

Occult hit: Witches bucking religion trend

WICCA | Leader teaching classes here tries to dispel myth that 'we're satanists and that we belong to the devil'


March 30, 2009
BY MIKE THOMAS Religion Reporter Chicago Suntimes

They don't toil over bubbling caldrons or cook lost kids. They have no use for flying monkeys. And their spice racks are more apt to contain ginger or paprika than eye of newt.

Still, witches are far from fictional. And according to the most recent American Religious Identification Survey, released earlier this month, there are more of them than ever.

While most other major religions lost ground, Wiccan -- whose members, Wiccans, sometimes refer to themselves as witches -- and other so-called "New Religious movements" grew by more than a million members since the last ARIS survey was published in 2001. They're now an estimated 1.2 percent of the adult population.

In Chicago -- home to an unknown number of Wiccan covens (congregations) and independent practitioners --there's even a Witch School. An outgrowth of the nationally popular and long-active Web site witchschool.com, the Downstate Rossville-based organization currently offers three monthly courses and returned to town earlier this month after a five-year absence.

"One of the things that we found is that people frequently did not have access to information and wanted to learn more about Wicca and metaphysics," said the school's chancellor and one of its owners, the Rev. Don Lewis. "And we went into online teaching in order to make it more accessible to people. But it was never our intention that [the site] should replace real-time teaching."

Local classrooms include the Occult Bookstore in Wicker Park and the Life Force Arts Center in Lake View. Lewis said there's talk of expanding to St. Louis and "a number of different regions."

On a recent Friday night, Witch School CEO Ed Hubbard visited the Occult Bookstore to talk on the topic of "Magick for the Masses."

Few people attended, save for a handful of employees and one drop-in, but the show went on.

"You can change your environment by the power of your will," he declared, as a tiny digital camera taped his lecture for the YouTube channel Magick TV. "The first step is thinking. You have to have that spark."

The air smelled of honey-amber incense. Shelves and tables displayed crystals, candles and hundreds of books, with such titles as Practical Angel Magic of Dr. John Dee's Enochian Tables and The History of Witchcraft and Demonology.

In a phone interview before the event, Hubbard said a common misconception people have of witches is "that we're satanists and that we belong to the devil. That's a big one. And it's very hard because that's the dualist world of Christianity, and we just don't accept it."

[Homer]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12...0#ixzz0GGCnOQVy

"Witches, druids and followers of the Norse gods in police forces throughout the country have persuaded the Home Office to let them set up a support group... The Pagan Police Association will help officers who cast spells and join midnight rituals to fit their beliefs around their police work

‘While balancing operational needs, the force’s religion and beliefs policy gives all staff the choice of re-allocating the traditional Christian bank holidays to suit their personal faith.

‘This has been very well received by a number of faith groups, including Muslims and Jews.’

He said PC Pardy had also written ‘very informative’ details on paganism for the force’s internal website on diversity.

Superintendent Hawkins also said the force had appointed two pagan chaplains in the last 12 months."