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Halo's back again, with some more (a lot). She'd be willing to answer any and all questions, and can literaly ramble for days, but I'd suggest maybe taking reclaiming to it's own thread?
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Before I say anything, I need to make it clear that this is in my experience and other people may/will have different views, but then I suspect that’s a given.
Also... this may be slightly rambly and has turned our longer than I meant it to, but its a big subject and there’s a lot to say.
Basically Reclaiming was started in the 1970s, in the San Francisco area, by a group of people who were practising magic along with being into activism, from what I understand they wanted to bring magic into a practical setting to help "change the world". This being the aim of the protesting and campaigning etc. they also did.
From what I understand, part of what was done in creating Reclaiming is that, as well as wanting to include more active/practical type magic (magical activism) people felt that the Feri tools and aspects of it were helpful and wanted to share it, but because Feri is initiatory it is hard to use the tools with the framework of Feri, and the energy itself is considered to be quite extreme, (stories of burnouts abound) Feri itself is definitely not for everyone... so Reclaiming tried to make parts of it more accessible. Alongside everything else, Reclaiming is non-initiatory, although if you want to be initiated you can be, but this is more of a commitment for yourself whereas in Feri it involves receiving the current, and taking vows and receiving secret names etc.
The most famous member of Reclaiming is the author Starhawk, alongside Macha Nightmare. I don't know Macha's writings well but I do know that Spiral Dance (by Starhawk) does seem to be a good look at the principles of Reclaiming.
In Reclaiming the groups decide things on consensus... the only thing that is unanimously agreed on as Reclaiming is the Principles of Unity;
http://reclaiming.org/about/directions/unity.html
but since then it has spread too far and too big to ever consense on anything for the entirety of the tradition, so it remains the only thing that can be said to be core to the beliefs in Reclaiming generally. There are local groups around America and Europe, and I'm sure there are in other places, who consense things on a local level, and people do try to get together and communicate between groups. Every summer each community runs a "Witchcamp" where teachers get swapped round and they teach classes and run rituals based on the story or theme the week is based on (the theme being chosen by community members based on what they think the community needs).
The people who started Reclaiming were all, as far as I'm aware, Feri trained so the basic ideas in Feri of knowing yourself thoroughly (for example) was carried into Reclaiming, as was the emphasis on creativity and some of the tools. As mentioned earlier, the Iron and Pearl pentacles can be found in Reclaiming(see Spiral Dance), these were originally Feri tools. There is a lot of information floating around on the internet, from which you can see the differing ways people work with the same tools/concepts, but my understanding is that they are used to gain an understanding of yourself and your position within the interrelationships that make up your life/community and how you relate to the world. Hence its importance in both traditions.
Reclaiming does put a lot of emphasis on connecting with our bodies and respect for the earth, at most gatherings a talk or workshop on environmentalism, permaculture, magical activism or something ecological tends to be run, and there are also often workshops working with the body, the body as a pentacle or magical tool is a popular theme.
In recent conversations the key threads of British Reclaiming were described as Priestessing (the word is used to include both genders as saying priesting is a bit clunky and there hasn't been a better word developed yet), which is about running ritual and magic within the Reclaiming community etc, Personal work, Magical activism.
Gender plays quite a large part in many discussions as, following its Feri roots, Reclaiming aims towards accepting all forms of gender/sexuality etc. and does quite well. Feri is often described as a queer tradition, Reclaiming is not far off that in my mind. Unlike some wiccan groups it does not work with any kind of gender polarity (unless small groups particularly want to, in which case that’s up to them), and alongside that Reclaiming tends towards a lack of hierarchy, wherever possible, again hearkening back to its roots in activism and anarchy. The anarchistic approach is also visible in the Feri community as a whole, but hierarchy seems more important as there is the issue of passing on the Feri current, and initiation, which leads to a situation where the teacher can be put above the students. In my experience, the Feri teachers I've worked best with have avoided that, for example; Thorn asked the class (she teaches groups more than individuals, others take on one or two people for several years, a nice idea but not practical for people in Europe as all the teachers are in America!) to work together, to all take part in the holding of the energy and keeping the focus for the duration etc., she made an effort not to put herself above the other people, which is something I've seen in Reclaiming (Thorn is also part of the Reclaiming community)... so, yeah, hierarchy isn't something that seems to be encouraged.
Although Reclaiming grew out of Feri, it isn't the same. As I said, in Britain it is becoming more heavily influenced by Feri which not everyone is happy about, but they are two separate things (despite my constant references to Feri!).
I'll stop rambling for now, if there's anything specific I'm happy to talk more, as you can probably see.
With love,
*Halo* |
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