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<P>just a forward from Ansteorra's list</P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 17:11:26 -0500<BR>From: Stefan li Rous <<A
href="">StefanliRous@austin.rr.com</A>><BR>Subject: [Ansteorra] Pentagrams
now allowed in SCA heraldry<BR>To: Ansteorra mail list SCA <<A
href="">ansteorra@Ansteorra.ORG</A>><BR>Message-ID: <<A
href="">E1DA9000-3675-4ACF-9155-BB6259CAB9DF@austin.rr.com</A>><BR>Content-Type:
text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes<BR><BR>This is just out
from the SCA College of Heralds via the Lochac list.<BR><BR>So this shows that
the College can be prevailed upon to change <BR>erroneous past rulings or
perhaps that the SCA continues to evolve.<BR><BR>Stefan<BR><BR>Date: Tue, 9 Jun
2009 17:01:47 +1000<BR>From: Paul Sleigh <<A
href="">bat@flurf.net</A>><BR>Subject: [Lochac] Pentacles Are
Registerable<BR>To: Shambles <<A
href="">lochac@sca.org.au</A>><BR><BR>Posted just now by Tamsyn Northover to
the Blazons mailing list, hot<BR>off the presses from the March Letter of
Acceptances and Returns<BR>(LOaR). Summary: the College of Arms have
decided there's nothing<BR>offensive about pentacles, regardless of what Jack
Chick may think, so<BR>you can register them in your heraldry.<BR><BR>Next time
someone tells you the Heralds are all bastards who make up<BR>rules to hurt
people and never listen to sense, remind them of this.<BR><BR>: Bat
:<BR><BR>"Ailis Linne. Badge. (Fieldless) A mullet of five points voided
and<BR>interlaced within and conjoined to an annulet azure.<BR>There is a long
history of rulings regarding the unregisterability of<BR>mullets voided and
interlaced (also known as pentacles or pentagrams),<BR>beginning as early as
1973 by Ioseph of Locksley and including rulings<BR>or correspondence in 1976,
1978, 1979, 1990, 1994, and 1996. The ruling<BR>in 1990 was appealed to the
Board of Directors, as reflected and<BR>discussed on the April 1991 Cover
Letter. As specified in that Cover<BR>Letter, the primary argument against the
registerability of this charge<BR>was that "the device was not returned for its
specific religious content<BR>as perceived by the submitter and her
co-religionists, but for the<BR>specific anti-religious content as perceived by
a far larger number of<BR>people, both within and without the SCA." The 1996
ruling was an appeal<BR>of a return from 1994, and after considering the various
arguments, the<BR>then Laurel King of Arms, Da'ud ibn Auda, felt "compelled to
uphold the<BR>prior precedents disallowing the registration of mullets of five
points<BR>voided and interlaced, whether within and conjoined to an annulet
or<BR>standing by themselves. [Based on the evidence presented, s]uch
charges<BR>still are perceived by a significant portion of the population as
[a]<BR>"satanic symbol", and hence cannot be registered by the
College."<BR><BR>The current submission presents extensive documentation showing
that the<BR>pentacle or pentagram is no longer perceived as a specifically
satanic<BR>symbol. Instead, it has become more closely recognized as a symbol
of<BR>the Wiccan religion. For example, the US military services
have<BR>acknowledged the Wiccan religion in their Chaplain's handbook since
at<BR>least 1990, and, more recently, the association of the pentacle with
the<BR>Wiccan religion was acknowledged by the US government when the
pentacle<BR>became the Wiccan religious symbol allowed on the
government-furnished<BR>headstones of fallen US soldiers.<BR><BR>We received a
large amount of commentary on this submission from the<BR>College, and the
consensus was overwhelmingly in favor of dropping the<BR>ban on this charge. We
hereby overturn the ruling from 1996, and allow<BR>the registration of mullets
voided and interlaced, both inverted and<BR>not, and both conjoined to annulets
and not, so long as the overall<BR>design in which this charge is used does not
otherwise violate RfS IX.2<BR>Offensive Religious
Symbolism."<BR><BR>--------<BR>THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of
Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra<BR> Mark S.
Harris Austin,
Texas <A
href="">StefanliRous@austin.rr.com</A><BR>**** See Stefan's Florilegium files
at: <A href="">http://www.florilegium.org</A> ****</DIV></BODY></HTML>