Aquarian Tabernacle Church

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Aquarian Tabernacle Church

Founded in 1979, the Aquarian Tabernacle originated as a small group of Pagans in greater Seattle, Washington. It was incorporated four years later and has since grown into an international body with affiliated groups across the United States and in Canada and Australia. Founder Pete Pathfinder and his wife Wende (nee Graebex) serve as the archpriest and archpriestess for the church. The Aquarian Tabernacle Church teaches what can be thought of as a consensus modern Pagan perspective. Deity is viewed as both transcendent and immanent and is most likely to manifest as female and male, and in a multiplicity of forms (i.e., the goddesses and gods). Members share a deep love of nature, believe that life should be joyous, pleasurable, and loving, and refrain from harming others. The Pagan path is seen as leading to growth, evolution, and balance.

The church maintains a retreat house in the Cascade mountains and a nearby Moonstone Circle constructed by menhirs where some of the annual major festivals (sabbats ) are held for those members who reside in the Northwest. Like most Pagans, the church follows a cycle of worship including eight major gatherings evenly spaced through the year and anchored in the solstices and equinoxes, and lesser biweekly gatherings (called esbats ) at the new and full moon.

The church has been in the forefront of claiming a place for contemporary Paganism in the larger religious community. The church joined the Interfaith Council of Washington State, and Pathfinder served two terms as its president. Pathfinder also serves as a member of the Religious Advisory Commission of the Department of Corrections in Washington. The church gained some unwanted national attention in the 1990s when one of its congregations in Melbourne, Florida, became the target of some city residents angered by the idea of having a functioning Witchcraft group in their midst.

The church has also been in the forefront of calls for more educated Pagan priesthood and to that end has founded the Patricia Holmes Woolston Theological Seminary, a small school that operates out of the church's headquarters in Index, Washington. The church's periodical Panegyria includes both articles on Paganism and news of the church. Information may also be found at the church's website, http://www.aquatabch.org/, or that of one of its prominent congregations, http://www.ironoak.org/. The church may be contacted at P.O. Box 409, Index, WA 98256.