Supposedly the phrase “may you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse. As a witch, experienced with the power of paradox, I’m pretty clear that a curse can be a blessing as well, and vice a versa. These are interesting times. Sometimes I feel blessed by that, and this week, well, it’s felt more like a curse. Everything feels in spin, everything in flux, and as usual, the inner mirrors the outer, the outer mirrors the inner. What’s going to happen? Just wondering about that is exhausting. Best to just keep breathing and attempt to think about other things.
As I breathe, one of the things my mind continues to chew on is the bone of Reclaiming, the spiritual tradition I’ve been part of creating. At the witchcamp I just taught at, my friend Rook and I taught a path on Reclaiming and Feri. I am a Reclaiming and Feri initiate, Rook is neither, and has been turned off to the glamour of Feri as he’s seen in shimmer thru his community. We didn’t so much as “teach” as we did facilitate, and it was quite a discussion we facilitated! One shocking and somewhat inconvenient truth that was revealed is that there is no general consensus or agreement on what Reclaiming theology consists of. Everyone acknowledged the principles of unity, although someone said that even these are up for review after BIRCH, and some want the word “witch” taken out. As far as I can tell, there is no real agreement on what it means to be a Reclaiming witch other than we are our own spiritual authority, heck, some consider themselves part of Reclaiming and don’t even consider themselves witches!
So what does this mean, being our own spiritual authority? Anne Hill in a recent blog compared Reclaiming to Wiki-pedia, and coined the great term “wiki-spirituality”, noting that Reclaiming is a tradition that people can add to or edit at will. What is taught in any given “core class” can vary widely and does. For some, the idea of the Goddess is central, for others, the idea of the Goddess is not stressed, or it’s stressed that Goddess and God always need to be invoked equally, or some are dropping gender and using instead the concept of "mysterious ones". What one Reclaiming witch considers central to their theology may mean nothing to another. Teaching our path, Rook and I were aware of how much some people long for “the answer”, how much authority we as teachers/facilitators are given, and how much work it is to actually teach/facilitate people coming to their own conclusions. Does the term “spiritual authority” encourage us to keep asking questions, or does it set up a situation where we are striving to have the answer? I've been noticing a heck of a lot of "answers" being put forth, with very little critical thinking applied to what's actually being said.
I'm thinking that an example of this is the relatively new phenomenon of “sacred sexuality” being taught widely in Reclaiming. My guess is that each and every person who teaches this has their own view and take on what sacred sexuality is and how to get there….and paradoxically, it’s being presented as Reclaiming paths/classes/workshops, as if there actually is something we all agree on as a tradition wide way to approach sexuality. What does this mean in a developing theology? It’s here that my guess that our wiki-spirituality might show itself most blatently. For some, a sacred sexuality class might be about coming to your senses and working with the tools to know your own boundaries, run your energy mindfully, and so forth…with no sexual contact or orgasms being part of the path. For others (like in Madrone’s workshops of years ago) the work might involve sexual contact with others and culminate in everyone masturbating together while doing a specific breathing technique. The values and ideas on what constitutes "sacred sexuality" probably vary widely in Reclaiming, and my guess if we somehow could do a review of what is being presented, it might totally contradict.
So, this is the bone I’m chewing on. What does this all mean? What is the baby in the bathwater of Reclaiming? Is it different for every one of us? Can we even agree it IS a baby? What the heck have we been creating? As usual, more questions than answers. But, that’s probably the only way to survive in interesting times, to stay open and questioning. If I turn it over to the Goddess, am I still my own spiritual authority? Today, I'm asking for guidance, and now....I think I'll try to just breathe, and stop thinking and put down the bone.
10 comments:
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If Reclaiming were *only* a spiritual movement, I'd say that the whole mess is of no importance. However, Reclaiming is a politically-oriented spiritual movement, and if political means are to be used to implement the principles that Reclaiming has, there needs to be some agreement on what those words mean.
As regards how people unfamiliar with Feri see Feri in their home communities: as I understand it (as an accepted one-to-one Feri student), Feri is even more a personal responsibility path than Reclaiming. (If the path you taught had ever gotten to the point of discussing the idea of "amorality" in Feri, I was planning to take the stance that both Feri and Reclaiming are amoral, but at least Feri's more honest about it. ;> )
One problem I see in both Feri and Reclaiming is the ignorance of consequences. Yeah, everyone's their own spiritual authority - but when separate-but-equal spiritual authorities meet, and boundaries of respect are not created and observed, you get witch wars - even in non-violent Reclaiming. One situation which I believe Rook may have been referring to was something that happened between two people who were not only Feri-initiated, but Reclaiming-initiated as well.
My new phrase (since reading Anne Hill's and your provocative thoughts about spiritual authority) is: I am the authority of my own spiritual curiosity.
I don't want to swallow any theology without consistently questioning it, whether it's my own, the Pope's or the the ideas put together by the Union of Reform Judaism.
Also wanted to say - Macha - I do believe there is a Reclaiming entity, being, energy field, whatever you want to call it - that thing that makes anything more than a sum of its parts. You know how a Mozart quartet equals a lot more than 4 musicians dragging bows across strings and a page of notes? That's what I'm talking about.
Unfortunately, with so many different ways of interpreting the Principles of Unity, what Reclaiming actually has is a quartet where one person has a score written by Mozart, another has a score written by Wagner, the third has a score written by Elgar, and the fourth score is written by Schickele.
As a result, instead of music, you get cacophony.
I have been involved with Reclaiming for a few years now. As newer member, I want to speak to my perception of what it means to be your own authority.
For me, it has been about using the magic I've learned (trance, meditation, prayer, etc) to struggle with my questions and, perhaps more importantly, to help me to ask the "right" questions. When an answer comes a long, I feel very blessed.
Oak, I've been talking about lack of consistency in WC classes for years. Sacred Sex is just a new topic.
We used to "require" that someone new to WC take the Elements path, regardless of how much experience they had in another trad. I started saying, "hey, wait a minute, no two teachers teach Elements the same way anymore!" And by not teaching them in the same way, I mean *radically different* approaches being used that showed no consistency of trad. And that became the new trad.
As for Feri, Rook seems to like you and me just fine!
I'm having another thought that I'll send to you privately, since these conversations are now being looked at on Wild Hunt.
I love ya, honey, for, among other things, your questioning and adventurous spirit. I enjoyed reading this immensely and take away much to think about.
For me, being your own spiritual authority is something I think a lot of people either directly or indirectly involved in Reclaiming and Feri never truly consider the ramifications of, or truly incorporate into, their daily lives and spiritual practice. There are still way too many people wanting to be told what to think and do, and sadly too many people willing to take on that responsibility, no matter how dangerous or misguided that might be.
Being your own spiritual authority can be a difficult thing at times, especially if you find yourself at odds with others on any given issue or practice. I think, though, that the rewards are far greater when you truly grasp the nettle and not only say you are your own spiritual authority but live it also. The problem comes in that people are conditioned to be spoon-fed, and breaking out of that requires personal effort. No matter the belief system, there always seems to be this sheep/shepherd axis which is very, very hard to demolish but necessary to break if we are to realise our own worth and everyone else's.
I keep popping in to see if you've had the chance to add your stanza to the Open Source Poem yet. Have yourself a lovely day, as always. x
You asked: "If I turn it over to the Goddess, am I still my own spiritual authority?"
Oh yes! Although at the level of figuring-stuff-out, at the level of Worrying about being our own spiritual authority, we merely have our divine aspect & are merely an aspect of the divine -- at the level of Being, where we 'turn it over' and where turning it over takes us, our worries are resolved, for there, Thou Art Goddess, Thou Art God.
Oak, Loving your blog. Thanks for posting the link on Spider!
I spent a good chunk of last year at Eastern Mennonite University, and when I tried to explain Reclaiming paganism but Mennonites, one of the things I really liked to say was that it's a religion with shared values and a shared practice, but *not* shared theology.
And I think that's a very good thing. In fact, I think it's what the world really needs right now, as we try to negotiate the culture war between modernist, anything-goes relativism and reactionary fundamentalism. I love the fact that we can spend a week at camp having very powerful shared experiences, and a sense of having worked deep magic together, *without* having to agree on precisely what happened or what it means.
Of course, it does get us into trouble sometimes when we try to do things together, and choosing the boundaries that *do* matter gets tricky, but I think it's well worth it.
Love to you,
Evelyn
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