Continue to manifest the great work you do as individuals, privately, in small groups, as elders……..maidens, mothers & crones experience & celebrate in unique ways.

Traditions are invariably diluted, but like a homeopathic remedy deliver the most necessary of practicalities. From the smallest part, comes the strength & memory. The contribution of tradition in a world that has all the bells & whistles is invaluable.

Wonderful published material from Reclaiming members exists. We in the southern hemisphere may not have had this chance to dance & admire this quality without Reclaiming.

Blessings, Willow Newberry (Sydney, Australia)

Hmmm, maybe you missed the part in my post about being in a completely different part of the country when I had that conversation about the baby and the bathwater. And maybe you missed the part in “A Peak Experience” about being in Minneapolis. And in “Whither Reclaiming” being in Chicago, England, and other places.

I am very happy to hear about what Tejas has going; I’ve heard from other Tejas witches that it is a vibrant community, as well. I hope you don’t think that my general comments about the tradition as a whole - based on a whole lot of travel and a wide network of friends and acquaintances - means that you don’t have a splendid community down there. That was not my point at all.

And Pitch, thanks for posting. I think that is exactly what my friend meant by the comment “there is no baby in the bathwater”: that there is no “place” in Reclaiming to aspire to, there’s just what each of us as individuals do with the skills we gain.

Here in Texas, I am very proud of what we have in Tejas Web, our rituals etc. are awesome and get better and better all the time. We’ve been actively working this thread for more than 10 years now. Our biggest challenge is *not enough* new blood and people motivated to step in and take up the mantle to keep things going - we may run out of gas as our most experienced members find they want to step back to take on new projects outside of the Web - we’re getting older and finding new priorities (health issues the previous 3 years slowed me down personally a great deal). As an example we will not be continuing to hold Tejas Witch Camp if I recall aright - the same people have been doing it for some time and want a break or pursue other projects.

I am sorry to you, Macha, Oak, Thorn, etc. that the Bay Area has such terrible political and social problems - it seems to be the nature of the culture there that fosters both the dream and the frustrations. The rest of the country or the world does not necessarily experience the same weaknesses and issues.

Reclaiming as a tradition originated in the Bay Area, but it no longer belongs to the Bay Area, and I really wish that folks out there would remember that and dab their brushes in that little section of the canvas rather than make sweeping brushstrokes that paint everywhere else as well where it may not necessarily apply. I’ve heard that Spiral Heart has had some of its own issues as well on the East Coast.

Here in Texas, aka the Third Coast, we have no babies and no bathwater.. we have experienced priestesses and the refreshing cool waters Barton Springs… and we love to splash, swim, and play in the lifegiving waters of the Goddess and revel in the tremendous gift that is Reclaiming as we practice and experience it.

Right now the bluebonnets are beginning the carpet the highways everywhere the Maiden steps upon the awakening earth - the Goddess is alive here and magic is underfoot. And I am proud to say that Reclaiming magic here is probably some of the best magic there is in Texas.

blessings

mike

But what I want to say about Reclaiming–and about the consequence
of gaining various skills and experience as a Neo-Pagan practitioner–
is that it may be misleading to imagine or to aspire to a *place* to
*advance* to. Reclaiming, at least in it’s idealized form, suggests that
a magical community may exist with a lot less hierarchy and a lot more
cooperation than Americans generally expect.

Big rituals, which are a sort of Reclaiming specialty, are cumbersome.
Nonetheless, I have found that Reclaiming carries them off pretty well.

I have come to enjoy little rituals chock-a-block with improvisation.
The improv note poses a challenge to participants who prefer ritual
activities that follow a fairly well-established scripting.

Not being facetious, just curious.
Is there some other accessible tradition you would recommend as having a higher babies-to-bathwater ratio?

From my semi-outside perspective, Reclaiming, despite it’s anarchistic, eclectic leanings, seems to be one of the biggest, most cohesive traditions around.
Most Traditions I know of, have no central body, let alone website, and have even less checks on how the tradition is taught or continued, and within a few ‘generations’ can mutate into wildly differing strands. They’re traditions in name and lineage, but in practice?

Reclaiming has many ways for people to check back into the main strands of Reclaiming, whether that be through books, websites, or witchcamps. Being in a distant country, I really appreciate that, and it’s one of the things that interests me about Reclaiming (chiming in with Jason, yeah - most Reclaiming stuff is worlds ahead of most of what we’ve got going locally - or to not even exaggerate a little, at least a couple of decades).

Most traditions don’t have that, that fluidity and yet the ability to check back in. There’s only a few that I think that can even mobilise from some central point, probably the witchschool one (Corellian), or Fellowship of Isis etc.

I can see, as a ‘n00b’ it has problems, but how does it compare to the alternatives?

As with many others, I’ve heard of and experienced the constant power struggles in what is supposed to be a consensus-based, non-hierarchical tradition. Among a small group of friends, we talk about how we can’t imagine having to be official Reclaiming teachers. We prefer to do the work in our home communities and at camps - experimenting, playing and living it, thereby possibly passing the information along through practical means, co-creation with others and discussions in our kitchens and our sacred porch space.

I do not see Reclaiming as The Solution. I do see it as an option towards deepening our relationship with other people who live to shift the world towards an existence where all acts of love and beauty are our pleasure.

On a side note, it’s my understanding that technically speaking there are no “official” core classes of Reclaiming. The only thing it might be wise to agree with in order to be a Reclaiming Witch are the Principles of Unity.

That is a disturbing statement (not that I don’t want to be sexy and powerful!). I am trying to teach people to become more themselves: more human and more divine. And let me tell you, it takes a lot of daily effort and practice.

And it is said that *going into the Faery realms* either makes you mad or a poet. That often gets conflated with Feri Tradition and it should not. It has in Reclaiming sometimes. Feri trad helps people to release bound up life force, which is of course, life changing, which can, of course, feel dangerous to the parts of us that want the illusion of safety and sameness.

Reclaiming also helps people to release life force - but it often doesn’t provide enough ongoing structure to help with the consequences of that. It is why daily practice is the drum I beat the hardest.

I *do* love Reclaiming’s ability to touch beauty in a group of voices raised in praise and power.

Woah, sweeping statement and not at all true from my experience of working with pagans and witches from all over Britain. Sure, it’s true of some - but to suggest that the US side of things has made the Craft a nature or earth religion is, I’m sorry, wide of the mark. You can’t inflate the significance of Reclaiming by distorting reality. Or is it because Reclaiming hasn’t set the British pagan scene aflame that you might interpret us as not being ecologically-minded? Reclaiming is not unique in having an ecological agenda; British ‘traditional’ Craft is not static; how could it be, to last as long as it has? So perhaps calling it trad is to unfairly deny its capacity for change, and bear in mind, there was a time when ecology was not the focus for anyone. I don’t think there’s a British tradition now where green issues are not considered.

If you’re only talking to what I might term surface or decorative pagans over here, you’ll get that impression, same as anywhere - they are the raver crowd; but for many people, pagan practice of all kinds has been about nature, the earth, for as long as the Craft has been known to exist. I’d say awareness of ecological issues is widespread in the UK as a whole, not just among pagans. I’d like to be able to say the same about the situation across the water, but alas that big ol’ monkey Bush shows clearly that there is much to be done to convince people of ecological need, let alone action. And in both the US and Canada much gas-guzzling and excessive food-gobbling continues to go on, in all communities! So I guess I’m saying, people in glass houses etc etc…

Last but not least, I wanted to say how much I enjoyed coming across this blog entry today and reading all the many opinions expressed in the comments. It’s good that these things are being discussed! x

And yes, there are parts and places where I share Macha and Anne’s frustration.

Thank you for this most enlightening discussion. Maybe the best part of all was the (unintentional) networking and re-networking, year after year.

Mevlannen etc. etc.
from very far away and (daytimes at least) three miles under the mountain.

The following is an excerpt from a private email I sent to Anne, Jason & Chas today:

“I would add - as an outsider who heard the grumbles for many years and went to various events to see for myself - that the group was never comfortable using power and authority in responsible and open ways…. I don’t say this lightly. I’ve run my own non-profit Pagan groups and worked with many others in the larger community. I’ve been both a mundane teacher and a manager in business, as well, so I know how hard that kind of work can be, and I’ve made my own share of mistakes in growing our groups. Reclaiming, though, has made it ever harder on themselves. Their idea of “consensus” meant that they bought into endless arguments and discussions. Those who wanted to get anything done gathered together a few hard working souls and did it quietly, behind the scenes. That is no way to grow a larger movement.

Let us also not forget that they had to deal with their shadow sides as well. Most of us come from dysfunctional family systems. Unless those issues are honestly acknowledged, they can’t be healed or used for the greater good. To that end, I wrote these articles:

The Shadow Knows:
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=&c=fritz&id=6619

The Bard and the Poser:
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usor&c=fritz&id=6620

among others,

and started Spiral Steps: http://www.spiralsteps.org

Those who avoid doing the difficult inner work their life offers will find that their work in the world suffers accordingly. I can speak to this issue because, like I always say, you get a great view from a glass house.

By the way, I’ve seen several generations, starting with the ones from the 1960’s, who have a lot of trouble with authority figures. And then it comes time for them to *be* authority figures…..boy, does that bite hard…..”

Sia Vogel