{"id":3955,"date":"2012-03-10T21:18:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T04:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3955"},"modified":"2012-03-10T21:54:40","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T04:54:40","slug":"babies-bathwater-and-the-reclaiming-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3955","title":{"rendered":"Babies, Bathwater, and the Reclaiming Community"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Of all American Witchcraft traditions, Reclaiming seems to be the most prone to self-criticism. Perhaps that is because, as Anne Hill writes in her brief blog-memoir, The Baby and the Bathwater<\/em>, there was always much conflict over different visions for Reclaiming.<\/p>\n

What started with one foot in the Faery\/Faerie\/Feri Witchcraft tradition of Victor and Cora Anderson also co-existed with a social vision of growing organic vegetables in a solar-powered paradise fueled by consensus decision-making, pushing the boundaries of gender-theory and overcoming enemies with the power of\u00a0 love and passion.<\/p>\n

Hill, one of the original group’s<\/a> long-term members, writes things that only an insider could say. The Baby and the Bathwater <\/em>combines blog posts that she wrote from 2006 to 2010, including the comments that readers left on her Blog O’Gnosis<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen good people come and go over the years, and have noticed that mostly the good people go after they realize that Reclaiming is a victim of its own idealism and there\u2019s nowhere to \u201cadvance\u201d once you have experience and skills. I said that I have been struggling to clarify my present-day involvement with Reclaiming, particularly trying to discern what is baby and what is bathwater and not throwing away that which is of lasting value.<\/p>\n

My friend responded instantly: \u201cBut there is no baby in the bathwater,
\nand there never has been.\u201d I was stunned at that, and have been thinking about it ever since. Can it be true that what started as a grand experiment in creating a spirituality that was Goddess-centered, egalitarian, politically and socially radical would have absolutely nothing to show for itself 25 years after the fact? Could it be that a community and religious movement which has been at the center of my identity for over two decades consisted all along of nothing but our intense willingness to believe our own promotional language?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Baby and the Bathwoter<\/em> <\/a>sees an up side to Reclaiming too, as Hill visits groups seeded in other areas and savors their enthusiasm.\u00a0 <\/em>You can download the PDF file for $2.99.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of all American Witchcraft traditions, Reclaiming seems to be the most prone to self-criticism. Perhaps that is because, as Anne Hill writes in her brief blog-memoir, The Baby and the Bathwater, there was always much conflict over different visions for Reclaiming. What started with one foot in the Faery\/Faerie\/Feri Witchcraft tradition of Victor and Cora […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,75,29,12],"class_list":["post-3955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blogging","tag-california","tag-witchcraft","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-11N","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":699,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=699","url_meta":{"origin":3955,"position":0},"title":""There is no baby with the bathwater"","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Anne Hill (of Serpentine Music) blogs on issues about the Reclaiming tradition. But is it Craft or is it just \"progressive\" politics?Can it be true that what started as a grand experiment in creating a spirituality that was Goddess-centered, egalitarian, politically and socially radical would have absolutely nothing to show\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8198,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8198","url_meta":{"origin":3955,"position":1},"title":"Pentagram Pizza at the Mongolian Grill","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Some links worth exploring: \u2022 In post-Soviet Mongolia, shamanism is a \"growth industry,\" says an MIT anthropologist. In Manuduhai Buyandelger's Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Memory, and Gender in Contemporary Mongolia, she writes how, \"shamanism is a historical memory for people who lost parts of their ancestral homeland, and who had been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Mongolia\"","block_context":{"text":"Mongolia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=mongolia"},"img":{"alt_text":"pentagrampizza","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/pentagrampizza-126x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1041,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1041","url_meta":{"origin":3955,"position":2},"title":"Fooling the Cyber-Censors","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I wrote a review of The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture, a collection of papers edited by Hannah Johnston and Peg Aloi, for the upcoming issue of The Pomegranate.Teen Witches, a fluid and constantly changing group, have been heavily dependent on the Internet, because they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4754,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4754","url_meta":{"origin":3955,"position":3},"title":"Pentagram Pizza: Buy It by the Slice in the Occult City","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 David Metcalfe writes in depth about the \"Mapping the Occult City\" event that I mentioned earlier. \u2022 The one true religion \u2014\u00a0 the Church of Aircraft. It has some bizarre rituals too. \u2022 Dver on polytheism: \"Gods are not characters.\" \u2022 A rare book on witchcraft \u2014 a manual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"pentagram pizza\"","block_context":{"text":"pentagram pizza","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=pentagram-pizza"},"img":{"alt_text":"pentagram pizza","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/pentagrampizza1-126x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":918,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=918","url_meta":{"origin":3955,"position":4},"title":"Witchcraft on the Screen and on the Page","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan performance-studies scholar Jason Winslade is interviewed at the TheoFantastique blog on Witchcraft and the entertainment industry:Let me first say that I have a hard time coming up with any examples of \u201creal witchcraft\u201d or \u201creal magic\u201d in television or films. As you rightly state in your blog, any portrayals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":558,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=558","url_meta":{"origin":3955,"position":5},"title":"Under Southern Skies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug Ezzy, sociologist and co-editor of Researching Paganisms also edited an anthology by \"Down Under\" Witches called Practising the Witch's Craft: Real Magic Under a Southern Sky. He writes to say that it is now available from Amazon for the rest of the world. It ranges from Gardnerians to Goddess\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3955"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3959,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions\/3959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}