An army chaplains handbook: excerpt on wicca. Facsinating. Seemingly all inclusive and possibly considered an overgeneralization by some ( they used a variation of the thelemic rede), but still. Issued by the u.s. Army to its chaplains.
It used to be included in the Army chaplain's guide, but that material was omitted when the guide was revised in the early 2000's. The guide you are probably looking at was the one created using information provided by the American Council of Witches in 1974.
I thought it was funny that american council of witches was founded in 1973 and had 73 members. I did read that another group was being formed and they had issues with agreeing on a name and then i was directed to a facebook site with seemingly no activeity. Well there were 2 but i dont think the 1st one was it. I did see argument that some members wanted to remain annonymous and couldnt do that on facebook.
The other problem being that trying to have some sort of Council related to Wicca is that Wiccans are terribly independent. The general reaction in 1973 and more recently is that "they can call themselves whatever they want, but they don't speak for me and mine!" Since both groups were founded by Carl Weschke, the owner of Llewellyn Publications, and organization that turns out an awful lot of questionable books on Wicca the reaction among the Wiccan community was particularly negative.
One of the articles i read was by kenny klien. He stated that one of the original members, oslo or oswald? And llewellens wife were aiding in the formation of the council and that they had 3 objectives. 1. Revise the army chaplins excerpt 2. Revise the outlines of wicca. And 3. Revise the 13 principals. I keep thinking it is a step backwards that they removed the excerpt from the handbook. Why did they do that?
I meant oberon zell. And i guess he is part of the covenent of the godess who was also mentioned in the army chaplains handbook excerpt. I was able to log onto their faceboo page... The last post was from yesterday around noon. Another zell, named morning glory was admitted to the hospital for dehydration, kidney problems and the return of cancer. So sad.
It wasn't just the section on Wicca that was removed from the Chaplain's Handbook. All sections on specific religions were removed. Instead what they are doing is teaching about such things during the Army training program for its chaplains. Cherry Hill Seminary has been very active in teaching introductory classes about a number of Pagan religions at the military Chaplain's training course in South Carolina
