So. We are a Pagan church. Who are we? What do we do?

Well. First, let us say. We had our local beginning back in the early 1980’s.

Our beloved founder, a lady known as Oz, taught some Wicca 101 classes. After that came some gatherings to celebrate the “turning of the year” – celebrations honoring the Equinoxes and Solstices and the even more sacred “Cross-Quarter” days – the points midway between Equinox and Solstice.

These points in the year – celebrated as sacred for many centuries by peoples in various cultures across the globe – form a framework for the various seasons of the year and corresponding celebrations based on myth and tradition.

Initially we identified ourselves as Southwest Earth Festival Association – SWEFA – for the purpose of announcing events and handling registrations and reserving space in national forests for our gatherings. We idealistically eschewed formal organization, having only one officer – a treasurer to handle those registrations and payments for our expenses.

Realizing we needed more structure, we dreamed up the name of CASHEW and first filed a Certificate of Incorporation as a New Mexico non-profit on December 20, 1982.

We had begun to dream of having our own land where we could have gatherings. That led to the realization we needed a more formal structure. First, we held a series of meetings to define our principles and values and how we wanted to operate as a community. We began to have regular meetings and elect officers. We decided to offer religious education and conducted “Wicca 101” classes that actually continued over several years, culminating in “First Degree” and “Second Degree” Initiations confirming and celebrating individuals’ learning and their commitment to the Pagan Path.

(We do not control our members. People may join or leave our group according to their wishes. Nor do we tell them what to believe. Our guiding principle is the Wiccan Rede: Do as ye will and harm none. Our members may study and practice from various traditions.)

Members continued their educational development under the auspices of CASHEW, with Third Degree initiations. As our group continued to evolve and develop, a number of us worked toward, and received, Ordination.

As we continued to grow as a community, we realized that the next step in our evolution as a group needed to be federal recognition. We’d seen some sensational and inaccurate depictions of Pagans in local and national media, and we wanted credentials to speak to the public and the press. And, we wanted validation for conducting Rites of Life Passages – such as handfastings and weddings, and baby blessings, and celebrations of life, as well as ceremonies celebrating and validating other growth and development in a person’s lifetime – adolescence, graduations, promotions, completions and endings, and other life decisions and evolutions.

So, we worked gaining federal recognition in the form of an IRS designation as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit church. This entailed explanations much more detailed and complex than this account – CASHEW’s history, its activities, compensation to its officers (none!), publications (We published the Innerconnexion newsletter with reports of current community activities, artwork, fiction and more.), and myriad other details. Recounting our history was challenging, with so many events and developments over the years. At last, our IRS designation came through.  The IRS agreed, in a letter dated August 24, 2005, and stated that the designation is retroactive to our original incorporation as a New Mexico non-profit corporation on December 20, 1982.

After much searching, we located the land for our group, about an hour southwest of Grants, using funds from SWEFA’s long history of holding Beltane Celebrations, Enchanted Mountain Gatherings at Lammas in early August on various state and federal land in the Albuquerque area, and Yule Celebrations, often accompanied by Renaissance Faires, at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds and other locations, plus generous donations from various Friends of CASHEW.

We held camping events in the early years on the land, but have eschewed that in recent years due to drought conditions making campfires a danger. At present we get out to the land for CASHEW Picnics once or twice a year.

We hold monthly CASHEW Spiritual Circles, usually on the second Sunday, at local parks and Pagan homes. We have quarterly business meetings near the cross-quarter dates in early February (Imbolc), May (Beltane), August (Lammas) and November (Samhain). And we participate in Pagan Pride Day around Autumnal Equinox (Mabon). We have a public Yule Celebration around Winter Solstice, sometimes in collaboration with CUUPS.