An Honour and a Delight! Also Gratitude!
It has been nearly a year since I wrote in these pages. And what a year it has been! We supported the birth of a new granddaughter who joined her older brother, completing their branch of the family. We had our first real pawpaw harvest from our mini Food Forest here in SW Ontario. Did you know that pawpaw ice cream is to die for? That was a first!
We also had a bumper crop of hazelnuts that we harvested before the squirrels got them. And I gotta tell you, shelling those delicious but slippery little nuts is quite the chore. Perhaps we’re growing them for the squirrels after all.
But high on my list of exciting things that happened during this year is that Priestessing Your Life, the 13 month training that I developed when I came to live in Ontario nearly 15 years ago, has risen from the ashes of the Covid years. I feel delighted.
At the beginning of December I had the honour of being interviewed for a new Reclaiming podcast, potentially named SpiralWeb. It is hoped to be on line within a few months.
Reclaiming is the tradition of WitchCraft that I connected with back in the 1990’s. A feminist spiritual tradition with a social justice conscience, Reclaiming offers intensives called Witch Camps all over the world. We also offer trainings and classes.
Reclaiming taught me that spiritual and personal growth can emerge out of joy and ecstasy. At the same time, it offered the hope of creating a more just and equitable world.
I joined up immediately.
I was invited to be interviewed for the podcast and was delighted and a tad frightened. What did I have to offer, I wondered. There are many who have been in Reclaiming longer and have far more experience than I. None the less, although my path weaves together many strands, Reclaiming has become a major part of my foundation.
I perused the decades of my spiritual life and considered the meandering path that has brought me to Now. I deeply honour the unfolding of each person’s unique path teaching that everyone has a gift to offer and that the world needs each and every one of our gifts.
And so, I pulled up my big girl pants and prepared for the interview.
I made pages of notes. Stories from my circuitous past that I hoped to relate; learnings and teachings that serve as signposts along the way. And so much more.
The interview went well. I will post a link here once it is available.
It went very well until we got to the question that went something like; “What has been the impact of Reclaiming on your life and your work?”
And I went blank.
Afterwards, of course, I recognized so many influences that I have determined to enumerate them here…..
In the moment I honoured the ritual template the Reclaiming offers. Those of you who have worked with me either in person or on line would recognize the pattern: begin with an Intention and allow the ritual to flow from there; creating the Container; honouring the sacred Elements of Life; a Deity; the Working itself; charging the work; and in the end offering gratitude and dismantling the container.
It’s a pretty straightforward template, deceptively simple. Like so many simple things it has the potential to bring us to depth and return us to our world in which we live.
But, once the interview was complete some corner of my mind kept tugging for my attention. This blog post is the completion of my gratitudes to Reclaiming…..
I have already alluded to the reality that with even my first tentative steps into Reclaiming magic I had learned that healing and growth can arise from joy and ecstasy. The was a huge and immediate learning. But it also begs the question: Why was there so much healing needed in my personal life.
As it turns out, like so many of us, the road towards growing up was littered with many destructive messages, especially about who I was. During the time within which I came of age there was little if any research and information about those who were differently abled, especially those whose brains were wired towards non-linear experience.
And that was me.
Oh I tried to fit in and *do* my life in the socially appropriate channels. But try as I might, I failed spectacularly. Which left me on the outskirts of the social norm. Complete with derisive messages about my ability to navigate through my life.
In short it was a rocky road complete with warnings to anyone who tried to follow in my footsteps that their lives would be a disaster.
Was it in Reclaiming that I learned to design open-ended experiences that invited each person to walk their own path without judgement? Was it in Reclaiming that I learned that we each have gifts, gifts that the world so dearly wants and needs? Was it in Reclaiming that I was able to claim and re-claim the beauty of my own path and support others in walking their own paths? Without judgement or derision.
Today I answer a resounding YES to each of those questions.
Now it wasn’t only Reclaiming that brought me that freedom, but Reclaiming was a huge step along the way.
And for this I am immensely grateful!
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