Dusty is the Archpriest for the Aquarian Tabernacle Church. Studying for 10 years at Pete Pathfinder’s knee, she has taken up Pete’s work as a civil rights champion and protector of religious rights, working with churches of all faiths all over the country who find themselves hindered by their local law officials. Torn between stand-up comedian and a calling to serve Goddess, Dusty entertains us with humor and anecdotes, while revealing the mysteries of the path.
In a time when Paganism is under open political attack, every dollar we spend is a quiet act of power. For Pagans, Wiccans, and those who walk Earth-centered paths, conscious spending is not merely personal preference. It is a practical expression of the values we claim to hold. Those being reverence for the living Earth, respect for diverse spiritual paths, protection of conscience, and refusal to feed systems that seek to diminish, or erase, us.
Many of the everyday products and services we have come to rely on quietly channel resources toward politicians, the military-industrial complex, and movements that treat non-Christian traditions as threats rather than fellow citizens. Some corporations and their political action committees have supported candidates who openly call for the restriction or even the full elimination of what they dismissively label “pagan religions.”
Others fund efforts that undermine environmental protections, that weaken labor standards, or advance a narrow, nationalist vision of who belongs in America. And some, even some toy companies, fund deeply disturbing military projects. When our money flows to these places, we unintentionally strengthen the very forces that work against religious freedom, our nation’s ecological health, and a society that allows our communities to exist.
Public Domain
This is not abstract theory. The recent statements by certain candidates who describe Pagan practice as incompatible with the Constitution, or who claim the First Amendment does not constrain state power, or who give hundreds of millions of dollars to increase Military AI, make the stakes plain. Supporting businesses that underwrite such politics is not neutral. It is participation. Willing or not.
Pagan traditions have long understood that energy follows intention and that material choices shape the world we inhabit. Where we spend is a form of offering. It can nourish reciprocity, or it can feed extraction and exclusion. When we continue purchasing from companies whose political giving or operational practices actively undermine the conditions for our spiritual and physical safety and the health of the land, we participate in our own diminishment.
Material choices about spending do not require perfection or purity tests. They require awareness and gradual redirection. The goal is not self-punishment or endless boycotts that leave people without necessities. The goal is alignment. The goal is moving our resources toward enterprises that do not actively work against the well-being of our communities, or the Constitution, or the very living systems of the Goddess Earth that sustain us all.
The light at the end of the dark woods is there. Analogues exist for nearly everything. The encouraging truth is that viable alternatives already exist for most of what we use. They are not always identical in convenience or price, but they are real, functional, and growing in number as more and more of us wake up to this reality.
Everyday household goods and personal care products have long-standing counterparts made by companies committed to environmental responsibility, fair labor, and earth-based values. Clorox is your friend, believe it or not, so it isn’t all large companies. Many of these brands avoid political giving that targets religious minorities or rolls back ecological protections.
There are food systems that prioritize local farms, cooperatives, and producers who themselves prioritize soil health, biodiversity, and community resilience over industrial extraction. Supporting them strengthens the land and reduces dependence on distant supply chains that often fund broader political agendas hostile to our happiness and freedom. Clothing, tools, and household items can be sourced from makers who emphasize durability. Most items that are not quick and convenient have a high level of repairability and, even if not perfect, lean on the side of ethical production rather than lobbying dollars. We have more small-time tool makers and blacksmiths in the Pagan community than most other communities.
Though it isn’t just our physical purchases. Financial services, insurance, and even digital platforms have alternatives that do not funnel profits into campaigns seeking to redefine religious liberty. Even our energy sector and utilities increasingly include options from providers investing in renewables, rather than those whose political influence works against climate stability and our public health.
These analogues are not utopian. Change exists electrically in the brain in the same quadrant as pain does. This means that we avoid change because it causes us pain, but it also means that experiencing pain causes us to change. Some of these changes in our habits will require us to do more research, pay a modest price premium, or make a change in our habits. Yet each time we choose them, we withhold support from systems that treat our spiritual and human existence as negotiable. And we strengthen networks that treat diversity of belief, and care for the Earth, and the people and creatures and ecosystems upon it, as sacred.
There is a practical path forward once we deal with the shock of having to make a change. Begin where you are. You don’t have to throw your whole life and its habits away. Especially overnight. Audit a few recurring purchases. Look at your coffee, your soap, your clothing, banking, or household cleaners. Identify one or two things or habits that can be shifted. Look for certifications that align with ecological integrity and fair treatment of workers.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
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As always, our deepest gratitude to everyone who has brought us this far!
Research where your favorite companies are donating their money through websites like OpenSecrets.org. Choose local and regional producers when possible. We have a fast food chain in Washington called Taco Time, and they only use local produce, even listing where your potatoes came from that day on the takeout window. They get my money 90% of the time I eat fast food.
Above all, support Pagan-owned, or values-aligned, small businesses when they meet your needs. Share information within trusted circles so that knowledge of better options spreads without performative purity contests.
This work is not about moral superiority. It is about refusing to subsidize our own erasure. In an era when some political voices openly declare that certain religions should “not exist” in America, when money is flowing into making weapons of mass control and destruction, when corporate money helps amplify those voices, redirecting our spending becomes a form of quiet, persistent resistance rooted in the oldest of Pagan principles: That which we feed, grows.
The land, our communities, and the constitutional protections that allow us to gather under the moon and honor the old gods do not need our perfection. They need our consistency. Every conscious choice is a small restoration of balance.
There are paths that do not work against our well-being. Walking them, purchase by purchase, is both an exercise in practical magic and our civic responsibility.
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