Honoring Our Veterans

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. It is a time set aside in the United States to honor those who serve in the five branches of the Armed Forces. On that date in 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany during the First World War. After that, the day became known as Armistice Day and was unofficially observed. Then in 1938, it was declared a federal holiday specifically set aside to honor WWI veterans. Shortly after the Korean War, the name was changed to Veterans Day and included all American veterans of all wars.

While in the past there was resistance by some prominent Pagan leaders to the idea that a person could serve in the military and be a Pagan, that sentiment has changed. Now, instead of Pagan groups barring entry to active duty military Pagans, they are honoring military Pagans during community rituals.

Warrior Blessing ritual at Hallowed Homecoming. Participants wrote down the names those who have served & are serving in the US Military. [Photo Courtesy Circle Sanctuary]

Today, the group is hosting a visiting day for guests to pay their respects at Circle Cemetery located in Veterans Ridge. This is followed by a 3 pm Veterans Day ceremony during which group will award Pagans who have served, or are currently serving in the military, a Pagan Military Service Ribbon.

Circle Sanctuary Military Ministries team at Hallowed Homecoming, left to right: David Ewing, Jeanet Ewing, Selena Fox, Tiffany Andes, and Tristan. [Photo Courtesy Circle Sanctuary]

The Wild Hunt asked several Pagan, Heathen, and Polythiest veterans and family members of veterans to share what Veterans Day means to them.

Josh Heath is the co-director of The Open Halls Project, an Army Veteran, and a graduate student at American University in its International Peace and Conflict Resolution program.

There is a sense of separation from civilian society that happens when you join the military. Veteran’s Day is one day for us to specifically acknowledge the commitment and oaths our military service members swore. It should also be a day for our service members to be welcomed back fully into their communities, for their worth to be acknowledged, and to begin to peel back that sense of separation. It is a day to acknowledge that oath has been completed by the veteran and to acknowledge their service and empower them to make an impact in the civilian world.

Rev. Dave Sassman is is an openly Pagan Air Force Veteran, member of Circle Sanctuary’s Military Ministry, and board member of Indy Vet House, Inc.

As a minority faith it is important to honor those who choose to serve in the uniformed services. Many of those who have served have become or will become community leaders who bring a wealth of experience that will guide the Earth Based Faith Community into the future.

Chuck Hudson is a Heathen, former host of Raven Radio, and a Former Combat Medic in the U.S. Army.

We are the ones that signed a blank check for the total sum of our lives and handed the check to this country. We were the ones that were lucky enough to get the check back and were able to tear it up. Some of us bear the wounds of combat, some the struggles of keeping a unit going. Being a vet isn’t about how many drops you made. Nor how many pallets you loaded. Or privates you trained, trays served or papers filed. It’s about setting aside your life and putting the country’s life ahead of yours. Being Heathen makes the task even more satisfying. Some call us a “warrior religion”  No not really. We have the gods and goddesses that teach us HOW to use violence and where and when. So we are for the most part not opposed to using violence to protect our family friends and country. Maybe that is one of the reasons so many of us serve.

Veterans Day is a day of mixed emotions for me. I am glad I made it home nor more screwed up than I am. And I am also melancholy thinking about those that didn’t come home. And furious that 22 of my brothers and sister end their lives by their own hands each day.

But Veterans Day is for us that made it back to the world. And still stand ready to rally to our nation’s side. To raise the horn to with our brothers and sisters. To have the privilege to call our brothers and sisters of the different armed forces by their nicknames. Flyboy, Dog Face, Jarhead. Puddle Pirate and Squid. We earned the right to call each other those names and their right to stomp a mudhole in someone’s chest who didn’t earn that right.

Hagl berjast menn okkar og konur. Þeir sem þjóna landið okkar og þjóð. Hagl til vopnahlésdagurinn okkar. Hail our fighting men and women. Those that serve our country and people. Hail to our veterans.

Like Circle Sanctuary, Covenant of the Goddess issues service medals to its members who are or have served in the military.

Galina Krasskova is a Northern Tradition shaman, author, and vitki [wise woman].

Every year, I give the entire month of November over to honoring our Veterans. For me, this day is about remembrance and not just of those men and women who fought in our wars.

Veterans day is about remembering all the wars  that have defined and devastated us as a people. Keeping this day is a way of saying to the veterans (and all warriors living and dead):  You are remembered. Your sacrifices mean something. You are part of something so much bigger than yourselves. I wish that as a nation, as a species, we could look to you and question the devastation of war before we throw ourselves gaily forward into another one. I wish that we could see the price that our Veterans pay and allow that to inform our decisions of how much life we’re willing to expend for our nation’s dubious glory. In the meantime to every man and woman serving: respect.

Julia Ergane is a Hellenic Reconstructionist and served in the United States Air Force.

As a veteran and the daughter and niece of veterans it is an important day to me. I feel pride in completing a duty I feel that I owe to my country. Even though the mid-1970s was fairly peaceful, I was still stationed in South Korea when we very nearly did lose our cessation of hostilities. During this time, I did feel the strength of Athena and Ares come to my aid. Both of my uncles received the Purple Heart during WWII, one at the Anzio Beach head in Italy. This was an invasion like the invasion at D-Day in France. When I was twenty I visited the site. My Father attended the USCGA during WWII and was active duty during the Korean War as well as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. I have special relationships with Poseidon, the Nereids, Ares, and Athena all in regard to military matters.

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Author’s Note: As a military veteran myself, who proudly served in the United States Air Force, I’d like to thank all my fellow veterans for their service.