October 6, 2006--Fanaticism XLXIII--The Wiccan Pentacle

Wicca is a religion, and although its adherents often are thought to be witches they aren’t.

Wiccans often worship a Goddess and a God; they observe the festivals of the eight Sabbats of the year and the full-moon; and they have a code of ethics that most live by. Wicca is thus generally considered to be distinct from witchcraft and is practiced in various forms by people of many religions, as well as by some atheists.

Wicca does, however, incorporates some aspects of witchcraft, thus the confusion, including the casting of spells, herbalism, divination, and various forms of magic. Wiccan ethics require that magical activities must be limited to good purposes only; witchcraft on the other hand does not.

Wicca, you may be surprised to learn, is officially recognized as a religion by the Internal Revenue Service (that’s as official as it gets) and, and this is the point, by the US military in its chaplains’ handbooks. Wiccan soldiers, on the dog tags they wear around their necks, are identified as Wiccans as such.

So why do the Wiccans have their collective pants in a bunch? According to the NY Times (article below) that’s because when Wiccans are killed in action and buried in a military cemetery, their tombstones are not allowed to include the Wiccan symbol—ironically, the pentagon.

You may be thinking they are too small in number and too quirky in practice to deserve that symbolic honor. Think again—there are quite a number of "minor" religions that have their own official grave markers. In addition to the 18 distinct Christian sects that are allowed by the Pentagon (the one with the capital P) to have various forms of crosses on their headstones and the Jews who are permitted to display the Star of David on theirs and the Bahai who may etch the nine-pointed star and the Buddhists who can depict the Wheel of Righteousness and the Mormons who are able to emboss the image of the Angel Moroni on their militray gravestones and even the Atheists who have their own emblem—an atomic symbol complete with circling electrons with an A representing the nucleus, the poor Wiccans, when they die for their country, are buried emblemless.

The Wiccans, who have been growing in followers in America (there are about 1,800 currently serving in the military service alone), have been trying for nine years to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to change its policy, arguing that during that time the Department has approved six new symbols, including one for the very obscure Shinto Izumo Taishakyo Mission of Hawaii--they have a hexagon with an Japanese character in its center. But the Wiccans are still waiting and suing the US government.

Rest assured, the ACLU is on the case, and thus I can’t wait for this one to get to the Supreme Court where Judge Alito is already sharpening his pencil.