SEATTLE – The Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) honored Rev. Selena Fox with a Lifetime Achievement Award during this weekend’s Hekate’s Sickle Festival, the Church’s signature three-day gathering held each November in celebration of the goddess Hekate. Festival organizers wrote, “Join us in honoring Selena Fox for her lifetime of service, teaching, and protecting you and your religious freedoms so that you could spread your wings and soar.”
Founded by the ATC, Hekate’s Sickle Festival has been evolving as one of the Pacific Northwest’s prominent Pagan events. Dedicated to Hekate, goddess of crossroads, witches, and liminal spaces, the festival draws hundreds each year for rituals, workshops, and community celebrations. Highlights include the famed Vampire’s Ball, a vibrant marketplace of magical artisans, and ceremonies that recognize service and leadership within the Pagan community.
Honoring a Trailblazer
The Saturday evening recognition ceremony honored both ATC members and allies who have strengthened the Pagan movement, culminating in a tribute to Rev. Selena Fox. Born in 1949 in Arlington, Virginia, Fox is a pioneering Pagan minister, psychotherapist, author, and activist who co-founded Circle Sanctuary in 1974. As Senior Minister and High Priestess, she has built Circle into one of the most influential Pagan institutions in the United States: home to CIRCLE Magazine, a green cemetery, and a respected nature preserve.
ATC Matriarch Belladonna LaVeau presenting Lifetime Achievement Award to Rev. Selena Fox [Photo Credit: S. Ciotti
Fox’s career has been marked by decades of advocacy for religious freedom. Her work helped secure federal recognition of the Pagan pentacle on U.S. military veterans’ headstones, and she has represented Pagan perspectives at international interfaith gatherings, including the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Combining professional training in psychology with ministry, she has guided generations toward healing, equality, and ecological reverence.
Lady Belladonna LaVeau, Matriarch of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church and Hierophant of the Great Mother Demeter, presented the award, calling Fox “a bright star that called so many souls.” LaVeau reflected on Fox’s influence during a time when women faced significant obstacles in public life:
“Selena Fox hacked out a world for Paganism—and she did it as a woman. There were few who could, and she faced great opposition. I remember seeing her on television with a globe, doing a spell, and realizing there were more of us out there. Selena was one of the bright stars who helped us find one another.”
To highlight the era in which Fox first emerged as a Pagan leader in the 1970s, LaVeau reminded attendees that this was a time when women still needed their husbands’ permission to obtain a credit card or open a bank account.
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Fox rose to the stage at LaVeau’s invitation and energized the hall. In her acceptance speech, Fox expressed gratitude and renewed commitment to the community’s shared mission:
“This award is especially powerful and meaningful because it represents my life’s work for the Craft, for Paganism, for nature religion. ”
Fox added, “We need to be in the light. And if we want, we can be in the shadows through shadow workings. However, we need our equal rights. We need our freedom. And so, I accept this lifetime achievement award with much joy and much pleasure, and real appreciation for everyone who has been part of my journey and my life. And looking ahead to the future, those who will continue to connect in new ones as well as we go into the future. I have hope. I have optimism that no matter what’s happening with the planet, with our nation, with other things going on, we are connected with the old ways in new ways. And together we’re strong.”
Fox led a cheer, exclaiming “Libertas!”
Rev. Fox proclaiming Libertas after accepting the award. [Photo Credit: S. Ciotti
Immediately following the ceremony, the festival’s main ritual, called Aradia and the Resurrection, brought Fox to the center once more, this time embodying Aradia herself. The ritual called participants to break old chains and embrace rebirth, inspired by Aradia’s mythic role as liberator and teacher of witchcraft.
In Charles Godfrey Leland’s 1899 Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, Aradia descends to free the oppressed and to teach resistance through magic. In channeling that spirit, Fox’s portrayal underscored her lifelong dedication to empowerment, justice, and sacred freedom.
As the community cheered and candles flickered in the ritual hall, the symbolism was unmistakable: a circle of gratitude honoring a woman whose light helped generations of Pagans find one another, and who, even now, continues to guide the community forward.
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