Grandmother Spider's SpiritWeb

Not only *can* it happen here, it IS happening here. Pagans aren't atheists, but to the Christianists (as opposed to the Christians), it's all the same; we ain't them, and that's enough.

The widow of a Wiccan soldier killed last year in Afghanistan is gaining support in her quest to have a pentacle placed on his grave:

The space where the memorial marker of Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, a decorated American soldier who was killed last year in Afghanistan, should stand is empty because his Wiccan faith is not one of 30 approved for such designation by the federal government.

Stewart, a 34-year-old native of Fernley, Nev., was killed Sept. 25 by a rocket-propelled grenade. His body was cremated and he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

His widow, Roberta, held her own Memorial Day service this past May 31 to protest the government's policy. She has refused a temporary marker at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery until she gets a permanent recognition of her late husband's faith. ...

Now, several secular and religious organizations -- including Americans United for Separation of Church and State -- and a well-known constitutional scholar say Stewart's widow should be allowed to have the Wiccan pentacle placed on his marker.

In a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson and Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs William Tuerk, Americans United said Wiccans have been trying to get the pentacle, a five-pointed star in a circle, on the list of approved religious symbols to no avail. The group says this is a direct violation of the First Amendment and has asked the VA to respond within 30 days to avoid litigation.

Keep in mind that Wicca is a recognized religion in the US military services, but Wiccans are not allowed to mark their graves with a pentacle because they don't have a "headquarters." No guru, no method, no teacher--no grave marker.

Interestingly, that "well-known constitutional scholar" cited by Beliefnet is an evangelical Christian.

Liberty Desecrated, and how:

A church in Memphis Tennessee - with the attractive name of World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church - has turned the Lady into a Jesus freak.

Into a travesty.

She holds, not a torch to light the darkness, but a cross. Her crown is emblazoned with the name Jehovah. She carries the Ten Commandments, and beneath her there they are again.

And she's crying.

Well she might be, poor Liberty, dragooned into the service of a religiosity that no longer knows what it means, that confuses patriotism with religion, and seeks to show that America belongs to Jesus. This evil twin of Liberty doesn't want to welcome, but to dominate. And although Jesus echoed some of her concerns, it's clear that many of his followers don't.

American Taliban much?

Note of the Day reads "Wicca's Charm" so you don't have to:

I found the book, Wicca’s Charm, written by Catherine Sanders and subtitled “Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality,” in the Pagan/Wiccan section of the bookstore — which is most certainly where it does not belong, as it’s not truly about Wicca or Paganism. It’s about the reasons why some Wiccans had become disillusioned with Christianity, and a primer on how Christians can understand and convert Pagans to Christianity. ...
A sad and startling aspect of the disrespect shown to Pagans in this book is that our beliefs are highly misrepresented. In the first chapter, the author states that the following four tenets are the most common Wiccan beliefs:

1. “Wiccans hold the monistic and pantheistic beliefs that all living things are of equal value… humans have the same value as flowers, trees, or grass.”
2. “Wiccans believe they possess divine power within themselves and that they are gods or goddesses.”
3. “Personal power is unlimited — Wiccans believe that their power is not limited by a deity.”
4. “Consciousness can and should be altered through the practice of rite and ritual.”

With the exception of the fourth “tenet” on that list, this is totally inaccurate. Wiccans do not believe that human life is equal to plant life, and the vast majority of Pagans do not believe humans are equal to animals. Wiccans do not believe they are gods or goddesses, except in the figurative sense of honoring the divine spark within all people. The issue of personal power (which is left conveniently undefined in this book) being unlimited or not is simply not a Wiccan tenet or teaching. As for altering one’s consciousness, worship in Christian churches does the same thing, through prayer, hymns, and focusing one’s attention on sermons & their meanings. Altered consciousness may possibly be the only constant found in all religious practices!

Avoid. And if you find this book misfiled in the Pagan section at your bookstore, tell the store staff to move it. Or, just move it yourself. Fiction seems a good spot.

Darn it if that Bill O'Reilly wasn't right! Twenty-six stolen Baby Jesuses from Christmas nativity scenes were found in a New Jersey teenager's car:

"It looks like a nursery here," said police spokesman Ken Kelly. ...

"It was supposed to be some kind of Jesus burning party. I guess they were going to burn everything up," Kelly said, adding that local prosecutors would determine whether the incident constituted a bias crime.

"There was nothing sprayed or written. Is it a crime against Christians? I don't know. We'll be looking at that," Kelly said.

It's a lot more than a prank, that's for sure, but I'm betting that at the bottom it's an anti-authoritarian statement. Not that I approve--I don't--but it is kinda funny.

As usual, they're mostly Pagan:

While each culture’s New Year celebration has its own flavor, there are certain common themes. The period leading up to New Year's Day is a time for setting things straight: a thorough housecleaning, paying off debts, returning borrowed objects, reflecting on one's shortcomings, mending quarrels, giving alms. In many cultures, people jump into the sea or a local body of water—literally washing the slate clean.

In some towns in Italy, I've been told, you have to watch out for falling objects, as people shove their old sofas, chairs and even refrigerators out of their windows on New Year's Eve.

Luckily for my neighbors, I'm not Italian.

First off, my dears, a Blessed Yuletide to you and yours. We ate a big-ass ham with cranberries and potatoes, opened presents, ate no-flour chocolate cake for dessert, and are currently basking in the afterglow. I love being Pagan.

We look from this darkest night into the approaching (secular) New Year. According to Beliefnet's astrologer, 2006 may be interesting in the Chinese sense of the term:

[W]ill 2006 be all sunshine and roses? Hardly. But the conflicts will be colorful, and with the intense hilarity and richness of Jupiter in Scorpio in hard aspect to Saturn in Leo through much of the year, the tension could be downright entertaining. That is, if the climate of heightened religious fervor doesn’t intoxicate us all. Most of all, the frustration that many people are experiencing at the moment will yield joyful experiences, revelations, epiphanies, and reasons to celebrate before the year is through.

Judge John Jones (if that's his REAL name) has ruled that teaching "intelligent design" would violate the Constitutional separation of church and state:

"We have concluded that it is not [science], and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents," Jones writes in his 139-page opinion posted on the court's Web site.

"To be sure, Darwin's theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions," Jones writes.

This is a TRAVESTY of justice. Everyone knows that humans cannot evolve; the Sun Mother gave us a piece of her consciousness so that alone of all the animals we would not wish to change our shapes. The Sun Mother said it, I believe it, and that settles it.

True to form for this administration, the BLM is announcing during the holidays (when it thinks no one is paying attention) that it plans to spray nearly one million acres of public land with herbicides. Seventeen Western states including Alaska are included in the proposal. You've got until January 6th, 2006 to comment on this and try to get it stopped, so start your engines.

Categories: BLM, herbicides, ecology, conservation, Bush, Bush_Administration, poison, commons