Introductory Reclaiming Books

Some people may hear about Reclaiming first from their friends or local Pagan/Witchy community, if they're in touch with such a community, and that community has an awareness of the tradition. In our area here in northeast Ohio, I have found that very few people have ever heard of Reclaiming.

A good amount of people have, however, heard of Starhawk and The Spiral Dance.

If you didn't hear about Reclaiming through a friend, online group, or other similar means, you probably first found out about it by reading one of these books (or perhaps another by Starhawk, or other authors who were, or still are, involved with the tradition). This may be repeat information in that case. But for those who find this page through other means and want to know how to learn more, these books are a great starting point. Some of them are even used as prerequisites for participating in Reclaiming classes or workshops, to make sure people have a passing familiarity with the basics before jumping into work together, or so you can come in with questions for discussion ready.

The Spiral Dance, The Twelve Wild Swans, and Elements of Magic --
Three books that give an introduction to different aspects of Reclaiming

The Spiral Dance

In the upper left of the above picture is a copy of the 20th anniversary edition of The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess by Starhawk. It was originally published in 1979 by Harper & Row (HarperCollins, or Harper San Franciso), with a second edition being released in '89 for the 10th anniversary, and a third edition in '99 for the 20th anniversary. If you can find it, I do recommend reading the 20th anniversary edition, because it includes the author's notes and further thoughts about the original text at both the 10th anniversary, and the 20th. You can read through the book and wherever asterisks have been added, either one* or two**, there are notes about it in the 10th* or 20th** anniversary sections, respectively. I personally think this is really great, because you can immediately get a feel for how much things changed in the first twenty years since the book was originally published, and how Reclaiming tradition was already evolving. Of course if you can only find the original edition, or even the 10th anniversary edition, that's okay! Just bear in mind that what you're reading was originally written over 40 years ago now, and some things may have changed, new information may have come about, and the author's viewpoints have also grown and changed. The practices and basic information, however, are still used to this day.

New Blog!

Welcome to the Ohio Reclaiming Witchcraft homepage!

This page was created to be a home base for Reclaiming Witchcraft community in Ohio, USA, and for anyone in nearby states who are close enough to consider Ohio a place to go for community. The creators of this blog, myself and my partner, are based in Cleveland, OH.

For years now, the only Ohio community option on the Reclaiming website's list of resources was a Yahoo group for the "Tri-State Reclaiming" community which encompassed Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. I joined the group years ago in hopes that I would meet other Reclaiming Witches near me, but found that the group was long since abandoned by whomever had started it. There were some posts from people in Ohio over a decade ago, but no one had ever replied to them so they left. The group was full of spam that no one was removing.

In 2016 I posted in that old group letting people know my contact email, so people in the area could contact me and eventually we could get in touch. This blog is what I am creating as our new home base, to replace that outdated Yahoo group that no one was maintaining! It was too sad to me to think that some people in my state had reached out years ago to try and find Reclaiming community, and no one was running the group in order to actually communicate with them. I want there to be a place for people to go, someone to contact who can write back and say, "We're here!" We may not be a huge community yet--currently, my partner, myself, and one other person are the only people I have been able to find in the Cleveland area who identify with Reclaiming--but we are here. In order for there to be community, someone has to build it!