VA Approves Wiccan Symbol for Gravestones

c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has approved the pentacle, a religious symbol used by Wiccans, as an official symbol for veterans’ gravestones, according to a settlement announced Monday (April 23). “The Wiccan pentacle will henceforth have the same status as the other emblems of belief on VA’s […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has approved the pentacle, a religious symbol used by Wiccans, as an official symbol for veterans’ gravestones, according to a settlement announced Monday (April 23).

“The Wiccan pentacle will henceforth have the same status as the other emblems of belief on VA’s list of emblems available for inscription on government-furnished headstones and markers,” reads the settlement released by Americans United for Separation of Church and State.


The agreement comes after the Washington watchdog group filed suit last November seeking recognition of the pentacle used by groups such as Circle Sanctuary, which includes widows of U.S. veterans among its members.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs has now agreed to settle the case by giving our plaintiffs exactly what they wanted,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “This settlement has forced the Bush administration into acknowledging that there are no second-class religions in America, including among our nation’s veterans.”

The pentacle will join 38 other religious or philosophical symbols permitted by the VA. Wiccans had long sought to have the pentacle _ a five-pointed star within a circle _ included among the symbols used by the VA.

“The quest has lasted a decade but the impact of this religious freedom victory is far-reaching,” said the Rev. Selena Fox, senior minister of Circle Sanctuary, an international Wiccan church based near Barneveld, Wis.

She said at least 11 families will be immediately affected by the settlement, including eight connected to her church or its network. Wiccans practice a nature-based religion rooted in pre-Christian Europe that celebrates the cycles of the seasons.

“The lack of the pentacle on the (VA) list has complicated their grieving process,” said Fox, who wore a silver pentacle necklace at the news conference.

Now, she said, “We can move on. More healing will happen.”

Roberta Stewart of Fernley, Nev., a plaintiff in the suit, expressed relief with the VA decision. Her husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, was killed in Afghanistan in 2005 after his helicopter was shot down. She wore his dog tags, marked “Wiccan,” along with a pentacle around her neck on Monday.


“I was in shock the day I ordered my husband’s memorial plaque and I was told I could not put our emblem of faith (the Pentacle) on that plaque,” she recalled Monday. “I cried for days.”

In December, a state-approved pentacle was added in her husband’s honor to a memorial plaque at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley. Now, she will be able to have the federally furnished marker at the Circle Cemetery at the church headquarters in Wisconsin, where some of his ashes are buried.

The pentacle is now on the VA list that includes symbols representing Christians, Jews, Buddhists, atheists, Muslims, Sikhs and others. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has applied for its stylized cross symbol to be approved by the VA.

Some Seventh-day Adventist veterans have asked that their church’s emblem _ consisting of a cross, flame and open Bible _ be considered, too. Chaplain Gary Councell, military endorser for Seventh-day Adventist chaplains, said a committee is studying the issue, but no official request has been made of the VA.

VA officials did not respond to a request for additional comment about their decision on the pentacle.

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Debby Morris, a Wiccan high priestess and Navy veteran from Germantown, Md., said she co-officiated at a service for the widow of a veteran who was buried beside her husband at Arlington National Cemetery. She said the widow used to place a temporary paper pentacle on her husband’s grave when she visited the cemetery.


Now, Morris hopes to attend the ceremony when the official pentacle will be placed at the gravesite.

“If I know the date and time, I am so there,” Morris said.

Editors: To obtain photos of the Circle Sanctuary’s pentacle and file photos of the Rev. Selena Fox and the late Sgt. Patrick Stewart, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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