There have been some recent changes in the Veteran’s Administration policy for requesting headstones and symbols of religion for Veterans. The new policies are detailed in the HEADSTONE AND MARKER APPLICATION PROCESS UPDATE at http://www.cem.va.gov/hm/hmqa.asp.

These changes are important to our heathen veterans who want to have a Thor’s hammer as a symbol of their faith placed on their headstone. The update explains who can apply for a government furnished headstone or marker; the process which includes a new form that veterans should be aware of; what the government considers an emblem of belief; and the type of emblems that are allowed and most importantly how a new emblem must be requested now.

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Reprinted by permission of author

Some women shirk from fighting back. Too many years have passed since the heroic age of the seventies, when everything new started. We used to have self-defense classes, repair our own cars classes, women’s studies about who we are as women and what have women done in Herstory that we are not aware of. Gathering our treasures and our tears.

Still we live in male centered societies. Males often rule by violence and rape, and the everlasting wars. Not by law. Too many rapists have gone free, too many murderers as well. White-collar thieves live long and hardly ever fall into the hands of justice.

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In the process of interviewing one set of Druids, I heard about another group, The Henge of Keltria. I got in touch with them and asked for an interview. Tony Taylor, one of the founders offered me a bit of time out of his busy schedule.

Christopher: How long have you been a Druid and how did you come to the path?

Tony: As a small child I grew up without religious direction. In the sixties, I searched for a religion that suited my sensibilities. Finally, in the seventies, I found Druidism. In fact, due to a sympathetic chaplain in the Navy, “Druid” was on my dog-tags.

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One of the aspects of a culture is its authors, and this is true of religions as well. While the sagas are available where does person start to get to know a religion that is new to you?

So at some point someone has to write for the beginner to help them get a start on what will be a life long study. Asatru is a religion with homework.

I asked to interview Erin Lale who has tried to fill the gap for the new beginner. She was kind enough to grant me some time for this interview.

Christopher: Could you give us a bit of background as to how long you have been in Asatru and what qualifies you to write such a book?

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Every religion soon creates its on culture, its own music, its own art and literature. Wicca is no different. As it spread it began to create its own culture.

In England there was created the band Inkubus Succubus, that we now know as Inkubus Sukkubus. Besides playing gigs widely in England, Europe and the United States and, it has also become known with both the Pagan Federation and then with the Children of Artemis, at Witchfest, advertised the largest Witchcraft Festival in the world.

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If you wanted to celebrate the seasonal ceremonies as they once were, if you were interested in meeting with people interested in practicing an Earth based ceremony, where would you find such a place in Brooklyn, NY? You might find your way to the The First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn (a Unitarian Universalist Congregation) and their Gaia Spirit Circle. Operating since 2005 it has gone through it all, birth, growth, loss of leaders, fading, and now rebirth and starting again.

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As a veteran I have always been interested in my fellow vets, particularly those that are Pagan and Heathen. I kept up publishing articles on the earlier pentacle quest So when I heard a new group had set up a site to help Heathen Soldiers, their families, vets and to work to get the Thor's Hammer accepted by the VA, how could I resist?

I had run into Judy Floyd on the Heathen Nation, where she posted about this group site for the Asatru Military Family Support Program.

I asked to interview her and she was gracious enough to take some time out of her increasingly busy schedule.

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Like many other Pagans I check out Witches’ Voice. Many times I get ideas for an article from there. This time I ran into an essay called, “Living a wiccan Life: Ideas to Enrich Your Practice”, by Mike.

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usmd&c=teen&id=13417

I found it to be a good straight forward essay with some pretty decent common sense advice. So I asked this young writer if I could interview him and he was kind enough to agree.

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Ever since I moved to the mostly interview format, I have done interviews based on the requests of our readers and friends. One of the surprises has been the call for a great many Heathen interviews and those will continue. The Heathen community does a great job in keeping me up to date with things in various areas.

I am working on keeping the interviews going for the other religions in the Pagan/Heathen community and that depends on you my readers. We still get a fair number of Wiccan requests to have people interviewed and an occasional Druid request. I would like to see more of the Druid community as many of us are not so aware of what it is doing.

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