Reclaiming (Neopaganism)
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Reclaiming (formerly known as Reclaiming Collective) is an international community of women and men working to combine earth-based spirituality and political activism. Reclaiming was founded amid the peace and anti-nuclear movements of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and focuses on progressive social, political, environmental and economic activism.
Reclaiming's spiritual approach is based in the religion and magic of the Goddess, who is understood as the imminent life force, not as a transcendent deity. Theologically, Reclaiming is very diverse. The common thread is an active honoring and defending of the Earth. The focus of teaching and rituals is empowering the individual and the community to take action.
Reclaiming originated about 1980 in the San Francisco Bay Area, blending the influences of Victor and Cora Anderson's Feri Tradition of Witchcraft, Dianic Witchcraft as taught by Z. Budapest, and the feminist, Anarchist,[1] peace, and environmental movements.
Among the tradition's teachers are Starhawk, author of The Spiral Dance and several other books; T. Thorn Coyle, author of Evolutionary Witchcraft; Diane Baker, co-author of Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition (1998) and M. Macha Nightmare, co-author of The Pagan Book of Living and Dying.
Today, Reclaiming has several dozen affiliated communities across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Weeklong intensives called "Witchcamps" bring Reclaiming people together in about a dozen regions. Classes such as "Elements of Magic," "Rites of Passage," and "Iron Pentacle" share practical skills in personal empowerment and group process. Reclaiming has also produced several CDs of Pagan chants and songs, and publishes the magazine Reclaiming Quarterly.
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[edit] Critiques of Reclaiming
Reclaiming paganism endures some critique from other neopagan groups and individual neopagans.
One critique is that Reclaiming authors and thinkers (such as Starhawk) cast men in a predominantly negative, simplistic, or even misandronist, ways, particularly in their earlier writings. While at present the Reclaiming traditions charter documents are gender neutral and Reclaiming gatherings and political actions can be freely attended by men, the critique remains that central figures in reclaiming have written or pronounced misandronist ideas and never recanted them, even as the larger Reclaiming community evolves to be more inclusive of men.
Critiques of Reclaiming ritual practices at their "witchcamps" and other events is that male divinities and aspects are underrepresented in ritual and the myths chosen for camp 'themes'. Another is that standards of conduct are at times unevenly applied to men and women, such that men are held to higher standards at most events and must be more circumspect in their participation in ritual and community activities.
In political actions, Reclaiming groups are sometimes criticized for being presumptively inclusive, that is, dealing with their neopagan partners as equals in speech, but then appearing to subject their partners to Reclaiming's internal processes and standards or expecting them to apply these standards.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Jone Salomonsen, Enchanted Feminism: The Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco (London and New York: Routledge, 2002) ISBN 0-415-22392-X
- T. Thorn Coyle, Evolutionary Witchcraft (Tarcher/Penguin, 2004)
- Starhawk and M. Macha Nightmare, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying (Harper/SF, 1997)
- Starhawk, author of The Spiral Dance and numerous other books - see Starhawk
- Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America (Penguin, 2006)
- V. Vale, "Modern Pagans" (Re/Search, 2001)
