Reclaiming Witchcraft (Pagan Portals book) by Irisanya Moon

The new Pagan Portals book, Reclaiming Witchcraft by Irisanya Moon, was published by Moon Books in 2020. This is a short book, fewer than 100 pages! Several shorter chapters are only four pages, while the longer couple of chapters are around sixteen pages each, going into a little more detail about Reclaiming ritual, and Core Classes.

An earlier post on this blog outlined a few other books which can be thought of as Introductory Reclaiming Books. Covering three books -- The Spiral Dance, The Twelve Wild Swans, and the Elements of Magic anthology to which Irisanya also contributed -- that post was written before this book came out! 

This book, given its brevity, is definitely one anyone should pick up if they are looking for a brief introduction to Reclaiming as a tradition and community. Irisanya, who is a Reclaiming initiate, teacher, and priestexx, gives insight into how Reclaiming operates. Topics include the way consensus process is used, how tradition-wide decisions are made, how meetings are held, and how Witchcamps, cells, and working groups are organized.

There is a chapter about how we do ritual, but this is not a "how to be a Witch" book by any means! This is a look into how this tradition actually functions. If you're curious about the things that make Reclaiming different than other traditions, this book will give you a nice primer.

This book was also published before Reclaiming began the recent updates to the Principles of Unity! This is a living tradition and change can happen at any moment! So do bear in mind that the text of the POU as published in this book is now different as far as the fifth paragraph. The text of this book was, however, accurate as of the release date, which was in the summer of 2020. Discussions to update the POU did not begin until September 2020, and the changes were officially agreed upon and put into place in January 2021.

Check your local public library systems and library apps for copies of this book, too! You may want to read before buying, or borrow a friend's copy. Irisanya has also written other books in the Pagan Portals series, too, if you're interested. Visit Irisanya's website!

Blessings~
- Ember -

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 have changed, new information may have come about, and the author's viewpoints have also grown and changed. Many of the practices and basic information, however, are still used to this day.