Circle Talk · Circle Podcasts

Rev. Dave Sassman at PSG

February 5, 2025·56 min·4 clips

A retired veteran showed up at PSG, died overnight, and his family found solace in the Warrior Blessing Ritual.

1. Circle Talk host Debra Rose interviews Reverend David Sassman, a Vietnam veteran, Circle Sanctuary minister, and leader of PSG's Warrior Blessing Ritual and Warrior Spirit Center. 2. Dave was ordained through Circle Sanctuary's Minister Training Program in 2015, has been involved with Circle since April 1999, and attended his first PSG at Wisteria after meeting pagan leaders including Oberon Zell and Pete Pathfinder Davis at the Pagan Leadership Conference in Bloomington, Indiana. 3. The episode's core purpose is to introduce the Warrior Blessing Ritual and Warrior Spirit Center to potential PSG 2025 attendees, particularly veterans and military families. 4. Dave first encountered the Warrior Blessing Ritual at PSG after 9/11, when it was created and led by Win Walker and Dr. John; in 2008, Win Walker called Dave and asked him to take over, and he has led every PSG iteration since then. 5. The ritual assigns military branches to compass quarters: Army at north, Air Force at east, Marine Corps at south, Navy at west, with Spirit at center, Coast Guard absorbed into the Navy quarter, and the Space Force still being figured out. 6. Dave has accumulated artifacts — uniforms and military memorabilia gifted by attendees — that are displayed before the ritual begins; the collection is heavily Vietnam-focused, and the younger veteran taking over in three years will add Afghanistan and Iraq material to represent more recent service members. 7. Attendees have reported sensing the presence of deceased relatives and ancestors during the ritual; one person described George Washington and Abraham Lincoln appearing, which Dave says he cannot prove but finds meaningful. 8. The Pentacle Quest was a 10-year campaign (1997-2007) by Circle Sanctuary, Covenant of the Goddess, ATC, and other pagan organizations to get the pentacle recognized as an approved symbol on Department of Veterans Affairs government-issued headstones. 9. The campaign's decisive legal action centered on Sergeant Patrick Stewart, an Army helicopter crew member killed in Afghanistan, whose widow was denied a pentacle on his headstone; the coalition's successful advocacy resulted in formal VA approval of the pentacle. 10. Over 200 government headstones now carry pentacles; the Pentacle Quest also established precedents enabling Thor's hammer symbols for heathen veterans and owens for Druidic veterans. 11. Any family of a pagan veteran with an existing government headstone can request a replacement bearing their faith's symbol at no charge. 12. The Warrior Spirit Center, now in its 12th year at PSG, is a dedicated physical space where active duty and veteran pagans gather for morning coffee and donuts (called 'revelry'), share experiences, and access informal pastoral support from Dave and others. 13. Dave describes the Warrior Spirit Center's function as one the wider community cannot easily replicate: veterans share a common experience of boot camp, yelling, tech schools, and service — a shared context that creates trust between strangers faster than most environments. 14. Dave discharged from Vietnam-era service in 1972 with no exit interview or transition time: 'I was in Saigon in the morning, I got to Travis Air Force Base at midnight, and I had to be off base by eight o'clock in the morning.' 15. He identifies this abrupt exit with no processing time as the common experience that brings veterans to the Warrior Spirit Center: many of them have no other year-round community where they can discuss what they went through with someone who understands. 16. At the most recent PSG in Missouri, a younger retired veteran spent time at the Warrior Spirit Center and said 'I'll see you tomorrow'; that night he died, and at the Warrior Blessing Ritual the next morning, the strangers Dave didn't recognize turned out to be the man's widow, daughter, and grandson. 17. Dave also describes interrupting his own workshop attendance during his minister training program to give time to people who wanted to talk — 'it was more important for me to listen to them than to go to a workshop' — framing availability as a core part of his ministry. 18. The episode has a warm, community-oriented interview format; Debra and Dave are clearly long-standing friends, and the conversation moves between formal description of the ritual's structure and personal story. 19. Veterans, military family members, and pagans interested in how the pagan community has addressed military service and VA recognition will find the episode directly meaningful. 20. Listeners with no connection to military service or pagan religion may find the community-building sections less engaging, though the Pentacle Quest narrative has broader civil rights relevance.

As heard by us

A plainspoken look at how the Warrior Spirit Center builds belonging through routine, ritual, and repeated contact.

The segment stays grounded in the Warrior Spirit Center at PSG and in the small routines that make a place feel welcoming rather than ceremonial.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a welcoming veteran-specific conversation, this is the one to start with.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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