Hail and Farewell, Ariana Lightningstorm

One of our favorite bloggers has passed into the Summerland. Ariana Lightningstorm began writing for us in 2021, and published nine articles about her music here on Pagan Song. My heart is heavy. Ariana was such a pleasure to work with. As the editor of our blog, I exchange many messages with the writers as we gather all the materials for a post, format them in WordPress and publish them on our website. Ariana was a warm and open person and would often give me updates on her life. We got to be friends over years of literally hundreds of messages.

Ariana cared for her mother who had dementia, and would often confide in me about how stressful that was. Her mother passed last fall, and I was hoping that would open the door to an easier period in Ariana’s life. Alas, in half a year, Ariana was gone also. She died at the age of 64. I am bereft.

Ariana began writing pagan songs in the 80s, some of which were released by her band Pomegranate. Then she started the band KIVA and was the lead singer and primary songwriter for them for over 30 years. KIVA released albums from 1990 through 2017 and Ariana was always right there in the center, creating musical magic. They continued performing into the 2020s–I think their last concert was in the summer of 2025.

There were many facets to Ariana’s life, but in this post I’d like to honor the work she did for Pagan Song.

The Turning of the Wheel

Many of the songs Ariana wrote are about the modern pagan spiritual path. The pagan tradition is all about cycles: the cycle of day and night, the cycle of the moon, and the cycle of the year. Ariana wrote a series of posts for us about her songs for the solstices and equinoxes–the solar points in the Wheel of the Year. She decided she wanted to create ‘picture videos’ for these posts. She put in many hours arranging images to go along with the music. Ariana said it was really fun to master those skills and she was pleased with how the videos came out. I was, too.

A lifetime is a cycle, too. Birth, growth, life, decline, death. As Ariana completes the circle of her own life, let’s spend a few moments with her posts about the seasons of the year.

Summer

I asked Ariana to write a post about her song High Summer. My coven the Crow Women learned the original version of the song (from The Healing Art) and sang it at the handfasting of one of our members in the mid-1990s. When the KIVA album A Call to Beauty came out in 2002, I was delighted to hear the updated arrangement of the song. Very groovy!

Here’s the picture video that Ariana created for the song. Starting about halfway through, there are pictures of Ariana and KIVA performing. Check it out:

You can read Ariana’s full blog post here: https://pagansong.com/high-summer-reigns/. It has all the lyrics, as well as some of Ariana’s reflections about the song.

Autumn

Ariana was born in the autumn–she said it was her favorite time of year. The song Autumn’s Twilight sparkles with her love for the fall. Most of the pictures in this video are of brilliant autumn foliage, pictures she found or took herself. Tucked in the middle of the video is a photo her father took of Ariana and her sister jumping into a pile of fall leaves as little girls. A moment of joy captured, from a life full of joy.

You can explore Ariana’s full blog post here: https://pagansong.com/autumns-twilight/

Winter

In this post, Ariana wrote about Winter Solstice Sunrise, which was the first chant she ever composed. She describes the sunrise ritual it was first used in. Over the years, many solstice sunrises have been greeted by this song. I know I’ve sung it in the winter solstice dawn many times.

You can enjoy Ariana’s full blog post here: https://pagansong.com/winter-solstice-sunrise-and-yuletide-changes/ This article also includes a lovely picture video of Ariana’s song Yuletide Changes. KIVA released an entire album devoted to winter, Yuletide, on which both these songs reappear, together with additional beautiful music for the Yule season.

Spring

I was so happy when Ariana agreed to write about her song Spring is Returning. I’ve used it in my coven’s Ostara ritual many times over the past 30 years.

Spring was the last season of Ariana’s life. She left us on March 17, 2026. I was the priestess for the Crow Women’s 2026 Ostara ritual just a few days later. We remembered her as we danced the roles of all the Goddesses in Spring is Returning. Ariana said it was one of the most playful songs she’d written. I believe she has taken that joy along with her to where she has gone. May she dance as the spring maiden beneath the blooming cherry trees that she so loved.

You can read Ariana’s full blog post here: https://pagansong.com/spring-is-returning/. It includes all the lyrics to Spring is Returning, with its many spring Goddesses.

And more…

In addition to her seasons posts, Ariana wrote about several other topics for Pagan Song. She wrote 3 posts about songs that have interesting backstories.

Jnana Mai

Her first post, even before she began her ‘journey around the seasons’ series, was about the song Jnana Mai. It’s on the album Mother Wisdom. That record has chants from many cultures. Among those is The Earth is our Mother. That’s wildly popular at all the pagan festivals. Ariana would walk up to a fire circle where the crowd was singing the song. Someone would say, “I love this chant” and Ariana would say, “Thanks. I wrote it.” In this post, Ariana shared how Jnana Mai was inspired by a mystical experience her bandmate Tom had–with a bathtub! You can read it here: https://pagansong.com/jnana-mai-song-of-mother-wisdom/

Aphrodite’s Flowers

This post was about Ariana’s lyrical song Aphrodite’s Flowers. Ariana had a music video they had made of the song way back in 1990. She spent many hours digitizing the video and turning it into the fun picture video you find in this post. It’s very sweet to see KIVA–they were so young! Well worth watching: https://pagansong.com/aphrodites-flowers/

Diana, the Hunter

I asked Ariana to write a post for autumn that features the Wild Hunt. She said Diana, the Hunter would fit perfectly. In the post she explains the origin of the song and what it was like to record it live while channeling the Goddess Diana. Here’s the full post: https://pagansong.com/diana-the-huntress/

Posts about a Theme

Most recently, Ariana began writing blog posts that centered on a theme. These were different from her previous posts, in that she shared more of her personal thoughts, and included a range of different songs that worked together as a group to tell a story.

Songs of Empowerment

Need a dose of self-love and self-confidence? Then I hope you’ll click through and read this post. It takes you on a journey through three songs by KIVA. They are Lovin’ Ourselves Into Love, A Call to Beauty and Empowerment. Ariana is gone from this world, but her music and wisdom are still here for us. If you need a dose of “loving yourself just as you are”, I recommend this post: https://pagansong.com/songs-of-empowerment/

A Thanksgiving Story – Musical Connections

The very last blog post that Ariana published on Pagan Song was about gratitude. In this post, she wrote about things she was thankful for. The songs she featured are Dance in the Moonlight, Maria, and Rain Prayer, which includes the songwriting of other composers whose songs were recorded by KIVA . Have a read and hear Ariana’s voice one last time. Her gratitude post is here: https://pagansong.com/a-thanksgiving-story-musical-connections/

With the Fairies?

Ariana was on the schedule to publish a post today: May 14,2026. This space would have been hers. We had agreed that she would explore her songs about faeries. The KIVA album Out of the Corner of the Eye is full of songs about the Fey Folk. I’m sure she would have given us the inside story about that music. We’ll never have that post now, but perhaps you’ll listen to the album and imagine what she would have said to us.

Hail and Farewell

Ariana’s obituary is here. Her mundane name was Anna Snodgrass, and that’s how her obituary is listed. But we knew her as Ariana Lightningstorm, one of most awesome pagan stage names of all time, perfect for one of our most talented performers. There’s an interview with one of her friends here: Honoring Ariana Lightningstorm. If anyone knows of other memorials online, please put a link in the comments.

And now this tale is complete. Ariana was many things–a lipsologist, a Tarot reader, a RenFaire denizen, a key member of her family, a songwriter, a performer, an organizer, a business woman. And, in between all of that, she wrote about her music for Pagan Song.

She will be deeply missed.

For more information about Ariana, including her collected articles here on Pagan Song, her bio, and links to KIVA’s and Ariana’s sites on the web, check out Ariana’s page on Pagan Song.

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