Troops cleared of charges

[Narrock]

I can't remember the names of the two Wiccans that came to our Academy. That was back in 1993. But I do remember what they look like. The woman was fairly good-looking, about mid 30's at the time, with long dark-brown wavy hair, and the guy was like 6'5", fairly stocky, sported a ridiculous semi-mullet, and he wore glasses. He also looked like he was in his mid-30's. I'm just curious if you've run into them before. They are in the San Jose area.

[Narrock]

My actual name is Kevin.

-Arlos

Cheers, K-money!

[Arlos]

It's possible I've run into them, but it's a rather large community, I've encountered large numbers of people that fit those vague descriptions.

Do remember that since every different flavor of wiccanism will have its own unique elements to their rituals, those rituals tend to be only held for people that associate with that particular flavor. So, people can be in the same community for years right near each other, and never meet. Also, there's a LARGE population of solo practitioners, ones who worship on their own, and don't take part in any larger group rituals. I've been more that way for a while, though that's more cause I haven't had time to do anything else for a long time. heh.

Publicly held rituals, like those held at the unitarian church like I mentioned, are generally made more generic so as to be more approachable to a wider audience.

-Arlos

[Narrock]

Are any of those flavors Vanilla? Cuz I like Vaniller.

[Arlos]

You could try reading Margot Adler's "Drawing Down the Moon"... That's relatively vaniller. rofl

-Arlos

[Adivina]

When I was going though the police academy in San Jose, they had a couple Wiccans come in to give a presentation, and they demonstrated some of the "tools" they used in their rituals. The whole presentation only lasted about 20 minutes, thank God. There were a lot of "rolling eyes" during the show-and-tell. As soon as they left, the whole classroom erupted into uproarious laughter. It was gold.

No offense, Arlos. Just reporting some facts here.

Just another example of the blatant disrespect for the faith of other people. Of course you would find it funny Mindia, you are the fucking epitome of disrespecting other's beliefs.

Also, I attended some of the various pagan ceremonies as a child. The Summer and Winter Solstice and Equinox ceremonies, moon ceremonies, etc, they were beautiful. I find religion and religious ceremonies to be just that, beautiful, powerful, mysterious, I love studying various theologies because of this.

[Arlos]

I am sure I am going to be laughed at for this, but such is life. Not something I've ever discussed on here, or normally would, but WTF.

Probably my favorite ritual I ever went to was a spring equinox one several years ago. Was actually a fairly large ceremony, and was held outdoors. It was a grey, gloomy & chilly day, and we were kinda worried about getting rained on.

We called circle, and all went around the hcircle calling up energy together, building up quite a bit before sending it up into the sky. Honestly, as soon as we released that initial amount, the clouds overhead parted in a circle right over us. The field we were in and the area around it was bright and sunny and warmed up quickly, everything else outside that cloud gap was still under cloud and gloomy.

That gap lasted only as long as we continued the ritual, as soon as we were done and stopped calling up energy and sending it out, and closed things down, boom, the hole closed back up and we were back to gloomy and chilly again. I know how that all sounds to people here, but I'm not making it up.

Was a really nice ceremony apart from that too.

-Arlos

[Thon]

such is the power of Ogremach Scriber of the Divine Earth Circle!

[Arlos]

Yep, figured. 1 minute, slightly faster than I guessed, but not by much.

-Arlos

[Adivina]

Ignorance is rampant here. A Christian or Catholic miracle? OH OF COURSE THAT COULD HAPPEN! However, anything that any other religion claims to have happened is all just mumbo jumbo! Shame on you for thinking different Arlos!

Arlos - It sounds like the ceremony was beautiful. I'm glad you had a chance to experience it. I personally think everyone should at least learn, if not at least witness the ceremonies and celebrations of different cultures and religions. It is a humbling experience.