Air Force Academy adapts to pagans, druids, witches & Wiccans with $80,000 Stonehenge-like worship center

.


In the still of a cold November evening, a small gathering of pagans, led by two witches, begins preparations for the
coming winter solstice. But these are not just any pagans, and this is not just any setting. They are future officers of
the United States Air Force practicing their faith in the basement of the Air Force Academy's cadet chapel.

Still, the academy this year dedicated an $80,000 outdoor worship center — a small Stonehenge-like circle of boulders
with propane fire pit — high on a hill for the handful of current or future cadets whose religions fall under the broad
category of "Earth-based." Those include pagans, Wiccans, druids, witches and followers of Native American faiths.

Witches in the Air Force? Chaplain Maj. Darren Duncan, branch chief of cadet faith communities at the academy, sighs. A
punch line waiting to happen, and he's heard all the broom jokes.

For the record, there are no witches among the cadets this year. But the two spiritual leaders for all Earth-based
religions — one a civilian, one an Air Force reservist — are witches and regularly cast spells, which they say is not so
different from offering prayer. There also are no druids this year. But there could be next year.


_