Reclaiming (Starhawk)

Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements · Starhawk, Diane Baker · 1979 · San Francisco Bay Area

What it is

Reclaiming is a contemporary Witchcraft tradition founded in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is not a therapy. It is a religious community and teaching network that joins Goddess spirituality, magic and political activism. WRSP names Starhawk (born Miriam Simos, 1951) and Diane Baker as its…

Format

• Witchcamps. These grew out of a summer intensive in 1985, which WRSP calls weeklong and RQ calls a Summer Intensive Apprenticeship. The intensive moved to the Mendocino Coast in 1986. Camps now run autonomously in the US, Canada, England, Germany and Norway and link through a spokescouncil, which…
• Covens and local communities. Anyone who agrees to the Principles of Unity may start a group. Reclaiming is not a lineage tradition, and it names no fixed pantheon.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Core idea of change, as Reclaiming states it. Its mission statement speaks of uniting "spirit and politics". The Goddess is understood as the immanent life force, present in the Earth's cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration. Magic is defined as "the art of changing consciousness at will". Training a person's voice, body, energy, intuition and mind is meant to strengthen them to act in the world and…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status (one line). Claims that ritual energy heals people or the Earth, or acts on events, belong to the tradition; controlled research establishing them: none found in the sources consulted. This guide neither affirms nor dismisses them.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• depression, hopelessness, exhaustion.
• genuine signs of harm, not difference.
• hypervigilance turned into a ritual role, and over-responsibility.
• isolation, shame, or loss of meaning, and help rebuild connections.
• blurred roles, and the client relying on the therapist as a spiritual authority.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.