Now that I'm (a) more or less getting over being sick and (b) past the @!#!?! phishing hack that froze the site the past couple weeks or so, I can finally post reader contributions! To start, here are a couple of pics showing that Christians aren't the only ones who have turned car decoration into a means of religious expression--and even a nonprofit business opportunity!
Thanks Chris!
Weird Universe does its best to track down the organization behind this ad--the Academy of Mystic Arts in New York City.
A commenter recalls another organization that used to advertise a lot in magazines I read back in the 1970s--the Rosicrucians--and I have to say one of my daily delights is walking past their Grand Lodge every day on the way back home from my office. Good to see it still around, as opposed to being displaced for yet another wine bar.
One old model of secularization theory posits that an abundance of choices in the spiritual marketplace can create a spiritual aporia--there are so many viable choices that it can be hard to pick just one, thereby leaving us with nothing.
Whatever the value of that theory in understanding society, it sure applies to this site in regard to the C.B. Gardner Witches Mill Collection that's been selling on eBay, which has so many cool pieces that I've been dithering over which one to post. Be sure to click over to another of my favorite daily reads--AltReligion--for the scoop.
Why did I pick the image above? Well, it's a magic square, a wonderful example of a spiritual icon now reincarnated in a pop secular form. For an illustrated history of the link between magic squares and sudoku, check out this article from Plus as well as this fun page from EMAS Portsmouth, which integrates mathematical training with cultural traditions.
But the story isn't over. As noted on neopagan blog Views from the Cyberhenge, an Air Force Pagan/Wiccan congregation has encountered opposition to its attempt to get official recognition for its Wiccan chaplain. The interesting fillip: their candidate had already previously been approved as a Protestant chaplain. The congregation has an online petition to get help from Congress.
I've been off grading and such, but the following story could not go unnoticed: an Albany woman with pentagrams hanging from her mailbox comes home to find "a lengthy diatribe on the side of her house that invokes the Lord's Prayer and calls [her] an 'evil witch' and a 'spook' while asking God to 'please move evil away.'
Love thy neighbor indeed.
We can find religious symbols on every medium imaginable, from jewelry and t-shirts to that most solemn ornament which marks our passing from this life.
This Memorial Day, however, there is one family that the government has not allowed to place its own religious symbol on their memorial for a fallen soldier. His widow has also been prohibited from speaking at a local Memorial Day ceremony.
The reason? The soldier in question--killed in Afghanistan--was a believer in the Wiccan faith. The U.S. government does not allow a pentacle (pictured left) to be placed on a veterans' memorial, a prohibition that would also appear to extend to public memorial ceremonies for the honored dead.
The government has yet to explain its longstanding failure to add the pentacle to the list of approved religious symbols. The most likely reason: a concern that Christians would view this an implicit approval of what many folks unfamiliar with pagan traditions believe to be devil worship.
"For those who don't know their lore, they think I'm worshipping satan with my skin."
To learn what this spiritual tattoo really means, click the pic for the designer's explanation.
Believers the world over seem to have relatively little trouble discerning the mind of God. Google's Adsense, however, exists on a noumenal plane that seems to defy the dictates of pure reason. Below is screenshot of a Christian youth minister's blog to which Google helpfully appends ads for Wiccan jewelry.
Must have been the keywords "Blessed be"!
