Pentacles to honour US's fallen The US's Department of Veterans Affairs has bowed to requests to allow pentacles to be "added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on goverment-issued headstones of fallen soldiers", AP reports. Eleven families across the US had issued a lawsuit demanding the right to honour their fallen sons with the five- …
'Bout time that Wiccan's get acknowledged more. I think the real movement began back in the 70's but it's been there for much much longer than that. This should have been done long ago. I mean c'mon little faiths like Sufism Reoriented, Eckiankar and the Japanese faith Seicho-No-Ie were in the list before Wicca? Ah, well, at least I don't have to worry about stone tests and that whole stake-n-fire thing.
To correct one error in the families' press release in the article: Wiccans may think the five pointed star is unifying them with buddhism, but buddhism has nothing to do with that. There are plenty of numbered lists in buddhism. For example the five skandhas, five wisdoms and the five elements (in the Himalayan tradition: earth, metal, wood, fire and wind/space...nothing to do with the theistic ideal of "spirit")
Buddhism recognizes that all belief systems are part of the path of the lives of people. But when it comes to details, Wiccans may choose to represent buddhism with their symbols, but in comparison, almost all buddhist sects are entirely non-theistic - virtually atheistic. There is no belief in the poly or pan-theism of Wicca.
Prosemo
It's great that Pentacles are beginning to be given the respect they deserve as legitimate symbols of the legitimate religion of Wicca. For too long the Pentacle and the religion it represents, have been associated with silly horror movies, and not acknowledged seriously by the general public.
The article however contains a badly worded sentence: "The five points represent earth, air, fire, water and spirit, and the symbol joins those of Buddhism, Christianity, Eckiankar, Islam, Judaism, Seicho-No-Ie, and Sufism Reoriented* on a list of 39 which the VA "permits on gravestones"."
The sentence begins by explaining the symbolism of the Pentacle, but ends up sounding like the pentacle somehow joins other religions together. This confused at least one other reader "Prosemo", who felt compelled to clarify things with his statement: "Buddhism has no Relation to Wicca".
How about this for a re-write: "The five points represent earth, air, fire, water and spirit. The central section represents the "center". The Pentacle symbol has been placed amongst the symbols of Buddhism, Christianity, Eckiankar, Islam, Judaism, Seicho-No-Ie, and Sufism Reoriented* and many other religions on a list of 39 symbols which the VA "permits on gravestones"."
I don't know why there is confusion about the below statement:
"The five points represent earth, air, fire, water and spirit, and the symbol joins those of Buddhism, Christianity, Eckiankar, Islam, Judaism, Seicho-No-Ie, and Sufism Reoriented* on a list of 39 which the VA 'permits on gravestones'".
There is nothing grammatically wrong with the sentence. The comma between "spirit" and "and" neatly separates the explanation of the five points from the fact that the pentacle has now joined the list of symbols representing various religions allowed by the VA on gravestones.
Read Lynne Truss' book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" sometime to get a better understanding of your own language before lambasting El Reg with a demand to correct their own grammar.
Thanks.
A Grammar Scholar
Do they permit "no symbol"? If so, i'd say they had it pretty much right before. You include the "mainstream" religious to appease nutty old family members who like to think their dead relative was saintly (rather than "being employed to kill people for money").
As for pleasing Wiccans or any other bunch of gibbering loons in dresses, don't do it, guys. You still have guns.
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