Author: Michael Hess

Source: BBS News

http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20070830225011346

BBSNews 2007-08-30 -- (AU) Americans United for Separation of Church and State today commended President George W. Bush for his apology to a Wiccan war widow who was excluded from a private meeting with veterans and their deceased family members in Nevada earlier this week.

Roberta Stewart, whose husband Sgt. Patrick Stewart was killed in combat in...

Author: David Van Biema

Source: Time

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1654386,00.html?cnn=yes

Should you find your way up to Salem, Mass., this Halloween season, your chances of encountering a psychic are up — and the odds that that he or she has a felony record are down. That, for those of you who were too drowned in multimedia Harry Potter to notice, is the news from the real town where some estimate every...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Northern Echo

http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/display.var.1583659.0.pagan_prisoner_to_sue_bosses_over_ban_on_drum_in_her_cell.php

A MOTHER serving life for murdering her baby son will sue prison bosses for refusing her a native American drum so she can talk to the dead.

Chah Oh-Niyol Kai Whitewind says wardens at Low Newton prison, in...

Author: Kylie Walker

Source: Independent Online

Author: Onnik Krikorian

Source: Eurasianet.org

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav072707.shtml

Tradition, in the South Caucasus, dies hard. With the ancient July festival of Vardavar, one small group of Armenians is seeing a chance to relive Armenia’s pagan past, and affirm the country’s national identity.

Armenia adopted Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD, thereafter...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Newslab

http://english.newslab.ru/news/226704

A bathing party was held as part of "Sayan Ring" festival in Shushenskoe, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, on Saturday night. The holiday was conducted by actors of "Krasa" Krasnoyarsk state ensemble. Up to 1,500 people came to the Shusha River, where the pagan holiday was celebrated. Up to 500 spectators were looking at what was happening from the bridge across the river.

"Krasa" sang...

Author: Michael Hess

Source: BBS News

http://bbsnews.net/article.php/2007070223370233

BBSNews 2007-07-02 -- America's first VA-issued gravestone containing both a Christian cross and Wiccan pentacle will be dedicated on the 4th of July at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.

Wiccans, Christians, and those of other religions from across the nation will be taking part in the interfaith service, which will be...

Author: Paula Johnson

Source: Witchvox

Author: Jennifer H. Svan

Source: Military.com

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,138720,00.html

They each have a story about how they found their path.

One is a former Catholic who gave the faith up at 21.

Another was raised by strict Southern Baptists.

One had parents who encouraged him to explore many faiths.

For another, a self-described hereditary witch, it’s been a family tradition...

Author: SCOTT BAUER

Source: The Kansas City Star

Wire Service: AP

http://www.kansascity.com/432/story/124994.html

Since Korean War veteran Jerome Birnbaum died in 2005, his grave in a pagan cemetery had been marked with only a pile of stones and U.S. flags.

On Memorial Day, Birnbaum's grave and those of other military veterans will be dedicated with government-issued markers etched with a symbol of their religion...

Source: No source given.

Wiccans and those of other faiths from Wisconsin, Ohio, Nevada, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, and elsewhere are traveling to Barneveld, Wisconsin to take part in the nation's first Memorial Day Dedication of Wiccan veteran gravestones.

Three granite markers with Pentacles will be dedicated on Monday, May 28 at Circle Cemetery, Wisconsin's first conservation cemetery, located at Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve, near the village of Barneveld, about 25 miles west of Madison, Wisconsin.

Rev. Selena Fox, Senior Minister...

Author: NEELA BANERJEE

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/us/16wiccan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

DUMFRIES, Va. — Above the woman’s fireplace hangs her wedding picture, taken in a Lutheran church years ago. Below it, on the mantelpiece, is a small Wiccan altar: two candles, a tiny cauldron, four stones to represent the elements of nature and a small amethyst representing her spirit.

The...

Author: Bob Audette

Source: Reformer.com

http://www.reformer.com/headlines/ci_5824569

Though Vermont has a reputation for being tolerant and accepting, one local high school student recently learned that disrespect has many faces. And sometimes it can be scary.

The student, a 15-year-old Marlboro resident who practices Wicca, never expected to have her beliefs attacked in the form of an offhand joke.

"I told him several times to knock...

Author: Timothy Getz

Source: The Oberlin Review

http://www.oberlin.edu/stupub/ocreview/2007/05/04/arts/Oberlin_Pagan_Group_Brings.html

A small but enthusiastic crowd was gathered in Tappan Square with some people decked out in skirts and capes and sporting their finest piercings, while others were dressed in everyday clothing. But everyone was there last Saturday to experience the Beltaine Festival, which Tim...

Author: Charles C. Haynes

Source: Tucson Citizen

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/50193.php

In theory, the government treats all religions equally in America. In practice, however, some religions are more equal than others.

But two victories by minority religious groups last month are small but significant steps toward leveling the religious-liberty playing field as promised in the First Amendment.

April 23, Wiccans...