Baltimore Reclaiming presents
Invocation, Devotion, Embodiment: Working with the Mysterious Ones
A Series of Three Workshops
February 17, March 30, and April 20, 2024
What is our relation to Mystery and the Mysterious Ones, that is, to Spirit and Spirits? How do we call to them? How do we linger with them, listen to them, love them? How might we embody them, and how might we manifest them in our lives and in the world?
In this series of workshops, we will explore all of these questions. In particular, we will strengthen our skills in working with the Mysterious Ones, whether they be the Spirits of Nature, our Ancestors, or the Gods. The skills that we build here will be relevant both to our personal practice and to community ritual.
The first workshop, Invocation, will focus on how to effectively call the Mysterious Ones into the circle, starting with the invocation of our Divine Selves.
In the second, Devotion, we will collectively practice the art of building a relationship with Spirit, through the technologies of prayer, offerings, and altar-building.
In the third workshop, Divine Embodiment, we will draw even more closely with the Mysterious Ones, listening to them for inspiration and inviting them in through aspecting.
Students can take one, some, or all of the workshops. Each will last approximately three hours on a Saturday afternoon. Each will be taught by a different set of teachers.
The schedule:
Invocation, February 17, taught by Feris and Marcos 1-4 pm
Devotion, March 30, taught by Jessica, Pansie, and Zac 1-4 pm
Divine Embodiment, April 20, taught by Marcos and Romana 2-5 pm (NOTICE DIFFERENT TIME)
The course costs $25 to $50 per workshop, sliding scale. No one will be turned away for lack of funds; scholarships and work exchange are available. We try to balance the need to justly compensate teachers for their labor with our commitment to make our work available to people of all economic levels.
Register for one or all the workshops here.
Reclaiming is an activist tradition of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft founded by Starhawk, M. Macha Nightmare, Diane Baker, and others in 1979. It is an international movement with roots in feminism, anarchism, direct action, and environmentalism.
*This course title is borrowed from a Baltimore Reclaiming workshop taught by Sylvan Redbird and Cypress Fey in 2010. Many thanks for their teaching and inspiration.
Baltimore Reclaiming presents
THE ELEMENTS OF MAGIC - A WEEKEND INTENSIVE - MAY 17-19,2024
“Magic is art — that is, it has to do with forms, with structures, with images that can shift us out of the limitations imposed by our culture in a way that words alone cannot, with visions that hint at possibilities of fulfillment not offered by the empty world.”
Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark
The elements of air, fire, water, earth and spirit are the ever-present allies of the Witch, lending their wisdom, inspiration and power to her work. They anchor our work in the physical, embodied world, a reminder of the urgency of the challenges we face. They help us remember that “the earth is alive and all of life is sacred and interconnected.” (Reclaiming Principles of Unity) As we come into this remembering, we have the opportunity to redefine our relationship to the natural world-no matter what setting we find ourselves-and to become a fierce advocate for the wild-the wild found within, and the wild found without.
This is an invitation to begin that journey. This weekend intensive is an introduction to magic in the Reclaiming Tradition, an anarchist, ecofeminist, non-hierarchical strand of Witchcraft that was born in the California Bay Area in the early 1980’s. With the five sacred elements as our guides, we will create and inhabit sacred space, build altars, learn how to sense and raise energy, explore techniques of trance journeying, join our voices together in chanting and toning, and try our hand at spellcrafting and ritual design. As we connect to the elements of magic and a remembering of our more wild selves, we come into greater embodiment and ownership of our Witch-self, the one who bends and shapes the world into a place of greater justice and liberation.
We welcome both beginning students, and advanced students who want to deepen their experience of the sacred elements as worked in the Reclaiming tradition. We welcome all genders, all gender histories, all races, all ages and sexual orientations and all those differences of life situation, background, and ability that increase our diversity. (Principles of Unity) If you have questions about this, please contact jes.phillips@gmail.com
This class is a prerequisite to future core Reclaiming classes such as Rites of Passage, Iron Pentacle, and Pearl Pentacle.
Registration
You can register here: https://forms.gle/gQ1tktqxpAtS5voZA
Registration for this Elements of Magic is going to occur in two tiers. The first tier, from Friday April 12 - Friday April 19th, will only be for the following people:
Individuals that have not taken Elements of Magic before
Persons who are Black, Asian, Indigenous, Middle Eastern & North African, Latino/Latine, or multiracial
Persons who are transgender and/or nonbinary
The second tier, from Friday April 20th onwards, is open to everyone
Space is limited. Register Now!
Hours
Friday 7pm-10pm
Saturday 10 AM to 10 PM
Sunday 10 AM to 3 PM
Location
The 300 block of Wyndhurst Avenue; details given upon registration
Cost
Sliding Scale $85-250
Deposits are due upon registration and are not refundable.
Balances are due on May 3rd. After that date, no tuition is refundable.
We practice a NOTAFLOF (no one turned away for lack of funds) approach. Please inquire on the registration forms about full or partial scholarships.
COVID Policy
Students will be required to submit a negative rapid COVID test on Friday evening to attend the class. We ask that all students additionally practice social distancing for the 5 days prior to class and wear masks when around others.
Teachers
Sparrow (It/They) was raised by the Blue Ridge Mountains in Appalachia on Cherokee Land and currently lives on Piscataway Land in so-called Silver Spring. A non binary queer witch, Sparrow’s magic centers the body, connection with beings both seen and unseen, and the power of a cackle. They are currently surviving capitalism as a bodyworker and spend their free time on trails with their pup. Sparrow came to Reclaiming in 2016 and has assisted in organizing Spiralheart Witchcamp for 7 years. They are excited to explore and be in relationship to the elements with you!
Jessica Dreamer (She/Her) grew up on 40 sweet and wild acres nestled along Maryland's coastal bays, lands of the Pocomoke-Assateague people. In that place her Witchcraft was born, closely partnered with the Spirits and Beings who, whether seen or unseen, were deeply felt as they received her with rich welcoming. A queer child of the brackish bays and salty, wild Ocean she honors her ties and obligations to the great blue crab, the eastern oyster and the wild ponies of Assateague. Today she finds magic in the cracked concrete and Ailanthus trees of Baltimore, land of the Piscataway, where she has been a member of Baltimore Reclaiming for over a decade, teaching since 2015. She loves to make music with this rowdy crew of witches.