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Lughnasadh is upon us, and the farmers are anxiously looking to the skies for a few clear hours when they can harvest their crops of wheat in my area. It has been a hot, dry summer, and of course, just when the harvest is due to come in we get changeable weather with rain showers every day; not ideal when you need to gather in a crop like wheat totally dry, or else it will rot. So just like our ancestors, we look up and hope and pray for some dry weather, and for the farmers, that they’ve rented the combine harvesters on the best day for it, and not when it's going to dump it down halfway through their work.  

Things are unpredictable in life. It's just something that we have to accept. With a little grace, we can face the problems and triumphs, the highs and the lows with equanimity. Grace is a word that is little used today, but one which I think is important, and one that I've been trying to live each and every day.

The Mother Church of the ATC sits along the beautiful and wild, Skykomish River in a private resort community, in the very small township of Index, Washington. This quaint, cozy and magical place is one of the oldest and longest serving houses of witchcraft, the world headquarters of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church. Within its property lines are a 38-year sacred collection of Wiccan artifacts, witchcraft history, sacred documents, and even items that belong to the Gods themselves.

            I have come to think of Vegan Paganism as my own personal form of eclectic Neo-paganism. However, most of us study within or practice within broader traditions. I thought it might be interesting to look at the traditions I have come across that helped me in my eclectic Vegan Paganism. I'm sure readers will identify others.

Don't let familiarity blunt the impact.

These are revolutionary words.

All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals.

No circles, initiations, or Drawings-Down necessary.

Wiccanly speaking, that's revolutionary.

And—audacity of audacities—it's a revolution built right into the system.

Some years back, one of the local Wiccan churches (living in Paganistan, I get to say such things) held a Beltane ritual with three simultaneous Great Rites: male-female, female-female, male-male.

Now that the Neo-pagan holiday of Ostara is behind us, the secular/Christian celebration of Easter looms ahead. I know that many of us celebrate the mainstream holiday with the rest--especially as it has become a more secular event where all kids expect an Easter basket, and probably to take part in an egg hunt.

Due to our avoidance of eggs, we vegans have to adapt this holiday a bit more than other Neo-pagans. Here is an article that I wrote up about the season, and ways vegans can join in the fun. 

A Priestess, a minister, and a fat white woman walk into a bar…? Nope, it’s not a joke, it is merely I, Catharine Clarenbach, one of the newer bloggers to come onto Witches & Pagans. I have been blogging elsewhere, as well as at my own site (see below), and I welcome the chance to interact with you her at "Deep to on High."

As NeoPaganism has grown and flourished, the paths taken to get here have multiplied from those taken by a relatively few serious spiritual explorers initially engaged in occult studies to include people attracted by dissatisfaction with monotheism, a feeling of finally finding a spiritual home, our music and culture, curiosity about the off-beat or forbidden, and increasingly, their family’s beliefs.   This is not a bad thing.  It is in fact a good thing. But it is a complex good thing.