Reclaiming Tradition

Who & What is the Reclaiming Tradition?

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Reclaiming is a community of people working to unify spirit and politics. Our vision is rooted in the religion and magic of the Goddess — the Immanent Life Force. We see our work as teaching and making magic — the art of empowering ourselves and each other. In our classes, workshops, and public rituals, we train our voices, bodies, energy, intuition, and minds. We use the skills we learn to deepen our strength, both as individuals and as community, to voice our concerns about the world in which we live, and bring to birth a vision of a new culture.

Reclaiming is a Tradition of Witchcraft that began in the 1980s in Northern California and by the year 2000 had adherents throughout North America and in parts of Western Europe. (See "Reclaiming Communities" below.)

Reclaiming is a non-profit religious organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area which has tax-exempt status under federal and state law. On the Reclaiming Website you will find information describing the structure and history of the organization and a description of who does what.

Starting a Reclaiming Community

There are a few ways in which you can start a local Reclaiming community:

1. Start a Twelve Wild Swans reading group.

The Twelve Wild Swans: A Journey Into Magic, Healing and Action, by Starhawk and Hilary Valentine, was published by HarperSanFrancisco in 2000. The book is a wonderful resource for exploring one's personal path, and well-suited for group study. You can use these suggestions and study guidelines to help create a group in your area.

 

2. Contact a Reclaiming Tradition "Resource" person to give a class or help you create local community.

A call was put out to local Reclaiming communities around the world, asking for those with teaching, organizing, priestessing and activism experience to be a part of a public list as a "Resource" to the greater witchcraft/pagan community. Use this list to find people close to your area who can help.

 

3. Attend a nearby WitchCamp.

 WitchCamp is a wonderful way to meet people from the surrounding areas. Check out which one is local to you!

Principles of Unity

"My law is love unto all beings..." 
–from
The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente

The values of the Reclaiming tradition stem from our understanding that the earth is alive and all of life is sacred and interconnected. We see the Goddess as immanent in the earth’s cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration. Our practice arises from a deep, spiritual commitment to the earth, to healing and to the linking of magic with political action.

Each of us embodies the divine. Our ultimate spiritual authority is within, and we need no other person to interpret the sacred to us. We foster the questioning attitude, and honor intellectual, spiritual and creative freedom.

We are an evolving, dynamic tradition and proudly call ourselves Witches. Our diverse practices and experiences of the divine weave a tapestry of many different threads. We include those who honor Mysterious Ones, Goddesses, and Gods of myriad expressions, genders, and states of being, remembering that mystery goes beyond form. Our community rituals are participatory and ecstatic, celebrating the cycles of the seasons and our lives, and raising energy for personal, collective and earth healing.

We know that everyone can do the life-changing, world-renewing work of magic, the art of changing consciousness at will. We strive to teach and practice in ways that foster personal and collective empowerment, to model shared power and to open leadership roles to all. We make decisions by consensus, and balance individual autonomy with social responsibility.

Our tradition honors the wild, and calls for service to the earth and the community. We work in diverse ways, including nonviolent direct action, for all forms of justice: environmental, social, political, racial, gender and economic. We are an anti-racist tradition that strives to uplift and center BIPOC voices (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). Our feminism includes a radical analysis of power, seeing all systems of oppression as interrelated, rooted in structures of domination and control.

We welcome all genders, all gender histories, all races, all ages and sexual orientations and all those differences of life situation, background, and ability that increase our diversity. We strive to make our public rituals and events accessible and safe. We try to balance the need to be justly compensated for our labor with our commitment to make our work available to people of all economic levels.

All living beings are worthy of respect. All are supported by the sacred elements of air, fire, water and earth. We work to create and sustain communities and cultures that embody our values, that can help to heal the wounds of the earth and her peoples, and that can sustain us and nurture future generations.

Reclaiming Principles of Unity – consensed by the Reclaiming Collective in 1997. Updated by consensus at the BIRCH council meeting of Dandelion Gathering 5 in 2012 and at the BIRCH Council meeting in January 2021.

For more information on the Reclaiming Tradition, visit the reclaiming.org website.

Reclaiming Communities

Here are several Reclaiming-identified communities throughout North America, Western Europe, and Australia that are electronically accessible:

Australian Reclaiming Community - Melbourne, Australia

Baltimore Reclaiming - Baltimore, Maryland, US
email list

BCWC - British Columbia, Canada

British Reclaiming - Great Britain, UK

Hive Tribe - Chicago, Illinois, US

The Dragon's Cauldron - Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill/Research Triangle, North Carolina, US

Gaia Reclaiming - Atlanta, Georgia, US

Heart of the Witch - online group spanning the US and Europe, but concentrating on Germany and The Netherlands

Kentucky Reclaiming (email address only) - Kentucky, US

Midwest Reclaiming - Midwest Region, US

Montreal Reclaiming - Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Niedersachsen Reclaiming - Northern Germany

New York Reclaiming (email address only) - New York City, New York, US

North Bay Reclaiming - North Bay Region (Sebastopol), California, US

Portland Reclaiming - Portland, Oregon, US
email rowan@portlandreclaiming.org to subscribe to list.

Reclaiming Earth Activist Network - Europe - Pan-European

Reclaiming Deutschland - Germany

Reclaiming España - Spain

Reclaiming LA - Los Angeles, California, US
Facebook site: Reclaiming Los Angeles

Reclaiming Spirit - Denver, Colorado, US

San Francisco Bay Area Reclaiming - San Francisco, California, US

Seattle Reclaiming - Seattle, Washington State, US

SpiralHeart - Mid to South Atlantic states, US
email list
Facebook site: SpiralHeart

Suisse romande (email address only) - Switzerland

Suomi Helena Kivela (email address only) - Finland

Tejas Web - Southeastern Texas, US

Toronto Reclaiming Community - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Upper Mississippi River Reclaiming - Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota, US
email list

Trillium Reclaiming - Southeastern Michigan, US

Vancouver Reclaiming - Vancouver, BC, Canada

VWC - Vermont, US

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