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News Portal Home  Wicca Wicca
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Friday, 27 June 2008 |
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Today marks the official beginning of summer. For most of us that means vacation, swimming and doing whatever it takes to stay cool. But for the handful of people who identify themselves as Wiccans, June 21 - the summer solstice - will be spent celebrating the death of the Oak King, the God of the Waxing Year, and the birth of the Holly King, the God of the Waning Year. In 1990, only about 8,000 people reported themselves as Wiccan, according to the U.S. census bureau - but by 2001 that number jumped to 134,000. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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On the morning of Anna-Jeannine Kemper's wedding, she, like many brides, will fasten the corset of her lace and taffeta ballroom gown, pick up her silk pink orchid and rose bouquet, and re-count her Champagne flute favors. But while some brides pace nervously before the ceremony, Kemper, 25,will be busy blessing the four corners of the courtyard where she and fiancé Justin Herman will exchange vows with items that symbolize the four elements of nature: air, fire, water and earth. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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Friday, 27 July 2007 |
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A coven of elderly witches has claimed victory in a bizarre battle to have the name of a £350 million shopping centre changed. They objected after the developer, Hammerson, announced that it would be calling a huge addition to Leicester's Shires mall Highcross Quarter. That is the name given by witches to the four most important periods in the "wicca" calendar. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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Wednesday, 30 May 2007 |
The first-ever Memorial Day dedication of grave markers with the Wiccan pentacle on them is planned at a cemetery in Wisconsin after more than a decade of fighting the federal government for approval of the symbol. FULL ARTICLE LINK
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
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Wiccans who served in the U.S. military will be allowed to have their faith’s pentacle emblem engraved on government-issued tombstones and memorials under a legal agreement announced today with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Roberta Stewart of Fernley, Nev., one of the plaintiffs, had sought a pentacle-inscribed memorial plaque from the VA for her husband, Nevada National Guard Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, who was killed in action in 2005 when his helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. “I have waited for this day for so long,” said Stewart, “Today I have relief, comfort and happiness in knowing this a quest for religious freedom has prevailed.” FULL ARTICLE LINK
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Sunday, 01 April 2007 |
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People accused of witchcraft in America aren’t executed anymore (we are 300 years and a First Amendment away from Puritan Massachusetts). These days they just lose their jobs. Don Larsen discovered this the hard way. A year ago, Larsen was a Pentecostal Christian minister serving as an Army chaplain in Iraq. But then he converted to Wicca, whose members are self-described witches, and applied to become the first Wiccan chaplain in the U.S. armed forces. Today Larsen is a former Army chaplain back home in Idaho. As reported last month in The Washington Post, the Army not only denied his request to change religious affiliation, but also removed him from the chaplain corps (despite an outstanding record) and sent him packing. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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Thursday, 22 March 2007 |
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After a rocket-propelled grenade struck Army Sgt. Patrick Dana Stewart's helicopter Sept. 25, 2005, in Afghanistan, his widow, Roberta, faced religious prejudice. Roberta applied to have the symbol of her husband's faith placed on his grave marker in Nevada, but the Department of Veterans Affairs refused. The VA does not recognize Stewart's religion, Wicca, often called witchcraft. Grave marker symbols for atheists, humanists, Muslims, Hindus, Serbian Orthodox, United Moravian, Eckankar, United Church of Religious Science and various Christian faiths are allowed by the VA. But the pentagram n a five-pointed star inside a circle representing Pagans n is not one of 38 VA-approved symbols of belief. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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Thursday, 08 March 2007 |
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The night wind pushes Don Larsen's green robe against his lanky frame. A circle of torches lights his face. "The old gods are standing near!" calls a retired Army intelligence officer. "To watch the turning of the year!" replies the wife of a soldier wounded in Iraq. "What night is this?" calls a former fighter pilot. "It is the night of Imbolc," responds Larsen, a former Army chaplain. Of the 16 self-described witches who have gathered on this Texas plain to celebrate a late-winter pagan festival, all but two are current or former military personnel. Each has a story. None can compete with Larsen's. FULL ARTICLE LINK
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Sunday, 04 March 2007 |
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Before every dangerous mission in Iraq, Capt. Richard A. Briggs Jr. stood on the hatch of his vehicle, drew a pentacle in the sky with his finger and recited the Wiccan Warrior Prayer for protection. It was a quick, effortless ritual, but one that Briggs was thankful for in the spring of 2003 when his unarmored cargo truck turned a corner on an Iraqi road and rolled right into machine gun fire. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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Thursday, 22 February 2007 |
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Don Larsen was, by all reports, an excellent Army Chaplain. When he was a Pentecostal Christian, that is. His superior while he was in Iraq, Chaplain Kevin L. McGhee, called Larsen "the best" out of the 26 chaplains he supervised. But then Larsen applied to change his religious affiliation to Wicca, and the Army railroaded him out of Iraq and out of the Army. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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Saturday, 17 February 2007 |
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When he was alive, the U.S. government had no trouble finding a place for Patrick Stewart, never mind his unconventional beliefs. It inducted him into the Army National Guard, issued him dog tags giving his religion as "Wiccan," and deployed him to Afghanistan. He died there in 2005 when Taliban forces shot down his helicopter. It was only later that Uncle Sam had second thoughts. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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