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Teacher Biographies

This page provides information about Reclaiming Tradition teachers in California. This page does not list background information on teachers in other geographic areas.

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Teacher's Cell. To update or add a biography, please email us (Bay Area teachers only).

Abel R. Gomez

Alison

Alison is a tree-hugging dirt worshiper living in an urban habitat where rivers flow with cars and plants grow through cracks in the concrete.

Anne Hill

I am a teacher, writer, musician and dreamworker who has worked with Reclaiming in the San Francisco Bay Area since the mid-1980s. I am an initiate of the Reclaiming and Faery traditions, and have been teaching witchcamps since 1994. With Starhawk and Diane Baker I co-authored “Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions” and I founded Serpentine Music, a Pagan music label, in 1992 while helping produce Reclaiming's chant recordings. In 2003, I earned a Doctor of degree and also a black belt in aikido. Currently my spiritual practice centers on dreamwork, ritual, and aikido. I am currently working on my next book(s), have a private dreamwork practice and write essays on spirituality, leadership and dreams on my blog I teach and travel throughout the US, Canada, and England, but I love coming home to the beautiful north coast of California.

Special offerings: Dream interpretation, dream incubation (rituals asking for a dream), rites of passage, mentoring others, group facilitation, singer- songwriter concerts. Workshops on trance skills, aikido and magic, music and magic, spiritual childraising, leadership training, facilitation skills, full-spirit singing; talks on the history of dreams, dreams and healing, rites of passage for young mothers, priestesses through the ages.

Resource offered: Community mentor, guest teacher/artist, priestess on call.

April C. Taylor

Brook

I seek to help create a space inside of which students can seek their empowerment. I prefer to think of myself as a facilitator rather than as a teacher. My facilitation focuses upon experiential learning and reflection. Any information that I bring to classes is secondary to each student's experience.

I consider myself a kitchen witch; I love the transformational magic inherent in cooking, gardening, and in the other mundane tasks of living. I prefer working with simple, practical magic. I also weave my moment to moment practice of mindfulness into my work. For me, practicing the Craft of the Wise in the Reclaiming tradition is a great gift that we, the participants in any class, give to each other.

In my teaching, I try to weave the main focuses of my life work together: the practice of awareness and presence, making music, tarot, and my attempts to acknowledge the sacred in every step that I take.

I first worked with the Reclaiming community in 1982, and moved to San Francisco to join the community a year later. My primary teachers have been Rose May Dance and Starhawk, though I have learned from everyone with whom I've worked and studied.

Copper Persephone

I have been a practicing witch: doing ritual, performance and community organizing/activist work with people who live in poverty for over 25 years. I walk a spiritual path devoted to erotic and ecstatic communion with spirit in all of its faces and forms and am called to helping others to experience immanence through many roads including tantric practice and shamanic journey work. Dedicated to Freya and initiated into Reclaiming, the Honey Bees and the Bear clan as well as Queer Spirit - those roots and conversations inform my daily life.

I have facilitated workshops in leadership, personal growth, and mask making for many years, incorporating my training in Drama Therapy. I began teaching Reclaiming classes in 2001 and at Witchcamps in 2003. I was a part of co-founding Earth Dancer which hosted classes, workshops and open rituals in the Santa Cruz mountains. My daughter and I moved to Sonoma county in California in 2007 and are co-creating extended family and Northbay Reclaiming with many beings, some of them human.

Contact Copper by email at CopperPersephone@aol.com

Cybele

Cybele taught magic, ritual and meditation with the Reclaiming Collective and its founding member, Starhawk from 1984-97 in the U.S., Canada and Europe. In the last decade Cybele has taken her longtime practice of working with the body and dreaming into the earth-work of Stone Medicine.

Her meditations and devotional study of stone-lore and geology led to the creation of a pair of 8-session monthly workshops that combine healing work with stones, color and the chakras - the 7 Gates Journeys. The first 7 Gates cycle ascends the chakras for purification and the second cycle descends for manifestation. Students completing both cycles are invited to become Stone Keepers, Priest/esses of a particular stone and color for a year.

Cybele has practiced hands-on healing and intuitive work for over 25 years, focusing on trauma/ sexual abuse recovery since 1988 through Bodywork and group work. Cybele created the Breath and Body group for Women Survivors of Incest and Abuse and has facilitated it locally and abroad for 20 years. Cybele (AKA Suzette Rochat) is a Lomi Bodyworker and Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner, practicing in Santa Rosa and San Francisco.

Find more info about Cybele at www.cybeleswell.com.

Cypress

I am walking a path of the urban wild witch. Inspired by the tarot card, Temperance, I blend the cups of the urban and the wild to make an alchemy of magic in my own life and the world around me. I love working magic and ritual through dance, stillness practice and trance. I am passionate about backpacking, nature awareness skills, tracking and what the birds tell us about ourselves and what's happening on the landscape. I am also a Feri practioner within the Reclaiming tradition.

So far, my core mentors in Reclaiming have been Madrone, Rose May Dance, Sylvan, Brook, Starhawk and Charles Williams. I also consider the participants in all of the classes I have taught locally and at witchcamps to be my teachers.

I live in Oakland, California where I weave magic and healing into my medical massage practice by day, and I howl at the moon with my coyote mix dog (Amber) by night.

Elka Eastly Vera

I have been involved with Reclaiming since 1996. Deeply engaged with the Quarterly for years, I also participated on the Wheel and other cells. I joined the San Francisco Teacher's cell in 2000. As a Reclaiming priestess and teacher, I seek to co-create spaces that honor all life as sacred. As a lover of All That Is, my faith is grounded in Reclaiming tradition ritual, Taoist philosophy, Buddhist sitting practice, Catholic-influenced prayer, and channeled wisdoms.

Practical mysticism, liberation, empowerment -- these are the principles that guide my work and life. I actively participate in the "woo" (you know, that place of "whoa, that's really out there") and I live fully in the here and now.

Fern Feto Spring

I have been involved with Reclaiming since 1989 when I attended my first Spiral Dance. I have been teaching Reclaiming classes in the Bay Area since 1996 and was a founding member of the Ritual Planning Cell and also the Reclaiming Quarterly Cell. I am a Reclaiming-Feri initiate and Feri informs my work both as a teacher and priestess.

I have also been an astrologer for over 15 years, and have recently been incorporating integrative bodywork into my healing practice. I received my Master's Degree from Sonoma State University in a combined major of Psychology/Sociology, with a focus on Spiritual Activism, and my advanced massage training from the Mckinnon Institute in Oakland, as well as Alive and Well in San Anselmo. I currently do work with non-profits helping them incorporate spirit and healing into their daily work. As a witch I believe in quiet power, depth and strategic irreverence.

I can be contacted for astrology readings, classes or bodywork appointments at fern@wisestars.net, or see my website www.wisestars.net for more information about my work.

Ewa Litauer

Ewa was born in Poland, grew up in Germany, moved to the States in 1989, and now calls San Francisco her home. She is a mother of magical twin teens, a hypnotherapist, Reiki practitioner and a witch in daily life. Since 1998 she has been active in the Bay Area Reclaiming community, organizing and priestessing public rituals and other events, as well as rebel-rousing for peace and justice in the streets and teaching at witchcamps in Europe and in the US. Besides seeing clients in private practice she also teaches Self-Hypnosis, Reiki and Restorative Yoga classes as well as Reclaiming classes in the Bay Area. A commitment to deep healing and hope and a desire to transform our individual and collective shadow places flows into her work and magic. Yoga, Tarot, Astrology, Sex Magic, Pentacle work and bringing the spiritual into everyday life are some of her favorite ways to connect to the divine.

You can find out more at sfhypnotherapy.com

George Franklin

I love teaching Reclaiming classes, from introductory Elements of Magic classes to advanced classes such as Magical Writing and Tarot. I have also helped teach and organize kids' and teens' paths at several Reclaiming Witchcamps and at Teen Earth Magic.

In the past, I have taught and written about direct action organizing (using the pseudonym Luke Hauser). More recently, I have been a member of the Reclaiming Quarterly magazine cell, where I have worked my way up to Assistant Deputy Proofreader of the Revolutionary Pagan Workers Vanguard. I love Reclaiming rituals, and almost never miss a San Francisco ritual.

To me, teaching is a way of bringing people together. One of my main teaching goals is learning (and re-learning) that "we're not in it alone," and that together we can do things we would never imagine alone.

Singing and tarot - for all levels of experience - are a big part of my classes, as are co-counseling and other tools for radical self-acceptance and empowerment. I believe that Reclaiming magic can help change the world.

Georgie Craig

I'm Georgie Craig and I've been practicing Reclaiming style magic for 18 years or so. In the mundane world, I'm a mother, wife, Witch, storyteller, actor, improviser, teacher, writer, and editor. Practicing Witchcraft is an important way to nurture my creativity.

My reason for teaching is to pass on what I've been fortunate to receive from the Reclaiming Witches I've studied with. I hope I am able to do so with the skill and grace that I've experienced. Practicing magic has changed my life in countless wonderful ways. I feel grateful to have found this path. I'm a Witch and a woman who likes to have fun! I'm enjoying the most amazing life I ever could have imagined by walking this spiritual path. I hope to pass on some of the lessons I've had the great good fortune to learn.

Gwion

Grab a big cauldron. Begin stirring in a dash of priestess, a pinch of witch and a spoonful of sacred seeker. Add to this potion a love of music, improvisational theatre and a willingness to walk the edges. Mix it all together and what do you get? Gwion hasn't got the foggiest clue either which is why he keeps spiraling back in, exploring new ways to practice magick each day.

Gwion has been part of Reclaiming for eight years, and loves being in service with this community of witches and world changers. He's often found conversing with ravens, drumming with the unseen ones at the beach and teaching and co-creating community in Sonoma County.

Gwydion

Gwydion is a queer witch and a science geek. He is a Reclaiming priest and has taught Reclaiming classes, workshops, and witchcamps locally and abroad for nine years. Gwydion has been a member of the SF Bay Area Reclaiming community for over 11 years.

Irisanya

Irisanya feels she's always walked a spiritual path, finding the pagan community ten years ago, and Reclaiming three years ago. With a background in Native American spirituality, Shamanism, Buddhism, Wicca, and Witchcraft, she is a dreamer and a seeker, choosing to face fears daily as a part of her deeper practice of being a Witch. A writer, teacher, healer, and priestess, Irisanya honors the sacredness of spontaneity, imperfection, and words, spoken and unspoken. She is committed to guiding and witnessing others as they find their connection to Nature, to their inner knowing, and to each other. She is devoted to Iris, chasing her rainbows, and celebrating whenever the rain and sun begin their dance.

Jason Scarecrow

Receiving my shamanic initiation at age 16, I have felt a deep, familial connection with Gaia and Earth beings of the various realms throughout my life. I can be found tracking and wild crafting in the back country, at street protests and city hall working for environmental and social justice, working on local watershed restoration and salmonid protection, or doing permaculture installations and green remodeling at Bay area homes.

My desire is to help facilitate an empowered, spiritually engaged exploration of life and the Earth. I have been planning and priestessing community rituals since 1996. I have taught at Winter Witchcamp, in the Chicago Reclaiming community, several years at Witchlets in the Woods, and continually organize and teach at Teen Earth Magic, Free Activist Witchcamp, and community classes in the Bay area.

Laura Wyrd

Laura began her spiritual work in 1986 at the Berkely Psychic Institute studying meditation, energy work, and psychic healing. A year later she became involved with (and is still involved with) the Reclaiming Collective: taking magic classes, attending witchcamps,Êdancing in the Spiral Dance, and radically transforming herself.

She has taught at over 17 Reclaiming Witchcamps since 1993, including those in Texas, Missouri, Michigan, California, Vermont, and Vancouver. Laura has taught and led workshops in dance, ritual, magic, and drumming at the Omega Institute in New York,as well as other locations around the country. She has recorded two drumming tapes and performed in numerous Goddess-themed theater pieces.

In 1994 Laura moved to Los Angeles to teach yoga and was also one of the original founding members of Reweaving. Since 2004 she has been deeply immersed in the study and practice of Brazilian Spiritual Traditions and is initiated in the Umbanda tradition. She is currently working with a beautiful group of people to birth and create ReclaimingLA. Laura loves to hang from the trees and feels most at home dancing with the faeries in the woods...

Laurie Lovekraft

In the 1980s I discovered Starhawk's books and the Reclaiming tradition thank Goddess! I began circling with the Collective in 1992 and studied Feri, Thelema, Tibetan Chod, and Herbalism. I graduated from the Berkeley Psychic Institute's Women's Clairvoyant program and also hold a Masters in Anthropology. I co-founded the Crescent Hellions with Sam and Tara Webster, Sharon Knight and Winter, and am a founding member of Reclaiming LA (Southern California's Reclaiming Collective).

The Goddess moves through me as a singer and hand drummer and I've taught/ performed at gatherings around the country including the Starwood Festival. I played in Sharon Knight's band Pandemoneon in the mid-late 90s. My writings have appeared in Green Egg, Widdershins, and PanGaia Magazine as well as Bitch Goddess: The Spiritual Path of the Dominant Woman. I've also appeared in the book Modern Pagans by RE/Search Publications.

An ecofeminist and deep ecologist, I was an anti-nukes protestor in the 1980s, fought to save Headwaters Forest and the South Central Farm, and continue the struggle for environmental and social justice causes.

Laurel Lazuli Kadish

I am a Reclaiming and Feri Priestess and Witch who has formally studied things like Poetics, Gemology, Shamanism, the Kaballah and Tantra. I love Reclaiming Magic as we teach it in Elements; not only because it accessible and a just plain fun group activity, but also because it is potent and life-enhancing as it awakens one's own magical world. I believe that Ritual is a necessary, delicious and sometimes radical act that affirms our aliveness and has the ability to re-engross us in the Divine, including the spark we carry within. I work as a healer and writer and I'm just the type who is enraptured by the Moon, the night sky, animals, and all the rest of the soul of nature.

Luanne Blaich

Luanne Blaich is a 25 year practicing pagan, teaching the Reclaiming Tradition for 7 years. She is committed to radical sanity, estatic devotion to the Goddess, and living in the Good Reality. Her magick is informed by a lifetime's study of movement and dance technology as well as drawing on many different shamanistic and magickal traditions. She is a devotee of Aphrodite.

Madrone

I have been teaching in the Reclaiming Tradition for 16 or so years. 8 previous Witchcamps. I am an excellent drummer, for cones or trance, vast experience with spirals and large ritual formats. I think Im a good brainstormer/inventor for evening rituals and know how to work and hold the energy of a large ritual. I have developed my holistic counseling practice over the last 10 years and deepened my compassion, listening and supportive skills. I have also been doing my own personal work especially around health and exerise, moving back to prime physical fitness and energy. I exercise daily and am grateful for the huge shift in my physical fitness.

I like to teach deep emotional work, or the beginners elements classes, all works for me. I really put a lot of my energy into developing work/exercises that help a person become more empowered in their life and speaking their truth from heart. My priestessing work feeds my counseling practice and vice versa.

I have spent a lot of time developing my intuition and psychic skills, this is so important when teaching. I use my intuitive skills when counseling all the time. It is a interesting place to understand, when is the intuition speaking and the difference between that and projections.

I love to do or participate in visual invocations and support others in taking their invocations to a whole new level, bringing art into ritual, through movement and costuming, and performance ritual.

I am a working glass artist, I sculpt glass beads and turn them into sacred jewelry, lots of funky wild hearts. I have a glass studio at my house.

I love all animals deeply.

I am an avid scuba diver and travel the world with my scuba gear diving into the depths. I recently did a trip to Palau and Yap in Micronesia.

I am a sailor and sail often in the San Francisco Bay, I teach beginning sailing on Mondays and Thursdays, sometimes I race, just recently spent four days recently on an offshore race.

I am a part of a very liberal artist community here in the San Francisco Bay area, which I just love. I'm a good musician and love to sing, play a little guitar and a very good doumbeck and tar player, I also play didgeridoo. Music freak basically. I have over the last two years lost a lot of weight and gained back fitness, which makes me feel divine. I'm a clothing whore and love to dress up. I think I am a lot of fun and can be the life of the party. Love to dance and play. I'm big hearted and look forward to teaching again. I do think of myself as a wild spirit.

I have travelled the world and lived in 5 different countries. Spent most of my time in Asia. 3 years in Europe. Originally from Australia, settled here in the Bay Area 22 years ago. I am 49 years old.

I have a funny little hobby of playing online games with cyber friends till the wee hours of the night. I'm good at it.

I'm a good cook, and love to share food. I have a deep interest in the philosophy of food, the energetics of food. I studied Macrobiotics for 2 years and whole food nutrition. I have come to learn the properties of different foods and how it can change our lives. I am a holistic coach for people wanting to loose weight and claim their physical and mental lives back.

I am an earth and ocean woman, I work with the elements a lot. A practical down to earth witch. I am particularly connected with Kuan Yin and Venus, Gaia, Kali, Thor, all have helped me transform my life. Both of my parents are Scottish so the Celtic Pantheon is what calls to me the most. I spent a month travelling through Scotland, it was an incredible experience, going to all the old stone circles.

Produced the Spiral Dance Ritual in San Francisco for 12 years as one of the core organizers.

I currently am one of the main organizers for California Witchcamp.

I run womens support groups. I have in the past taught Sexual Empowerment Workshops, which I no longer teach. I also created 8 week long womens site relative ritual classes, which helps women take magic into the city, we do ritual in public places for 8 weeks using sacred and not so sacred sites around the city.

I have led ritual for environmental activists in Australia and Northern California. Organized the first "Earth Activist Training" with Starhawk and Penny Livingstone in Northern California. Was a part of the San Francisco ritual planning cell for 8 years, priestessed many public rituals over the years. I also have taught sexual healing workshops for 10 years at Pantheacon a large pagan conferance in the Bay Area.

I teach sailing to beginners twice a week.

Minerva Earthschild

Minerva Earthschild is a Reclaiming Witch, Priestess, teacher, writer and yogini. She has taught magic since 1984. She also teaches yoga, facilitates workshops and rituals for women healing from abortion, and is a contributor to the Pagan Book of Living and Dying. She lives and works in San Francisco with her partner, has two daughters and a son with special needs, and works as a mediator, attorney and children's advocate.

Oak

Deborah Oak Cooper has been active in the Reclaiming community since the early 1980's. She was a member of three covens which were instrumental in building the tradition; Matrix, the Wind Hags, and the Triskits, as well as being one of the original Reclaiming Collective alumni. She teaches internationally as well as locally in San Francisco. She has a psychotherapy practice in San Francisco and is also a visual artist. Being both an initiate of the Reclaiming and Feri traditions, she considers herself part of the newly developing Reclaiming Feri tradition and teaches from this perspective.

Panthera Orbweaver

Panthera is a Reclaiming Tradition Initiated Priestess & Witch, an NCLC Covenant of the Goddess member, a Berkeley Psychic Institute trained clairvoyant and spiritual healer.
She is also very interested in death/dying and works in the death industry.
Magic and mystery are daily parts of her life and she invites you to make it part of your own too!
For a more complete bio, please go here: http://www.pantheraorbweaver.com

Phoenix LeFae

Phoenix LeFae found herself on the path of the Witch many years ago. Since then she has worked with Egyptian, Wiccan, Celtic, Eclectic, and Druidic systems. She believes that magick and ritual can transform lives, healing the Earth and the daughters and sons of the Earth. Her passion for women's mysteries is folded into all her practices. Her love for the Gods, the Ancestors, and the Earth color all she does. Recently dedicated to the Goddess Brigid, Phoenix carries the fire of the forge, the healing of the well, and the song of inspiration always in her heart. Phoenix hopes to help foster a strong community with Reclaiming in the California North Bay.

Riyana Moon

I've been making magic with the Reclaiming Community for over ten years, when I first stepped through the Spiral portal at California Camp. As a Gemini, I find that I have many different interests that I enjoy weaving into my priestessing and facilitating work: I adore the magic of song and dance, herbalism, women's blood mysteries, sacred sexuality, and shamanism. I also very much enjoy incorporating the magic of other mystical traditions (with reverence and respect) into my work, and hold a Master's in Women's Spirituality from Naropa Unversity.

My daily practice incorporates writing, music, yoga, and immersing myself in nature. I've taught and organized for three years with Free Activist Witchcamp, as well as working with young adults at Teen Earth Magic and Witchlets, and teaching within the local community. When not hanging out with witches in the woods or by the waters, I can often be found taking a nap in the sun with my cat, Emily-Moon.

My blog can be found at wildandserene.blogspot.com

Robin Dolan

I've been a practicing witch for twenty years, and have been involved with Reclaiming for most of that time. I also work in other magical traditions, such as Gardnerian, Feri, and Nine Sisters. I consider myself eclectic and am committed to interfaith as well as inter-tradition work. I am a Reclaiming teacher in the SF/Bay Area, teaching core classes as well as special classes in Aspecting, Anchoring, Spellcrafting, Tarot, and using Music as a Magical Tool, and have student taught at two witchcamps. I have BA's in Theater and in Music, and am co-Artistic Director of Magical Acts Ritual Theater in Oakland. I am a member of the pagan folk trio Moonrise, which recorded the cd "Songs of Love, Magic and Other Mysteries", and I have sung on several Reclaiming cd's. I directed the Spiral Dance chorus for five years. Busy woman, as you can see. I am committed to community work, and served on Reclaiming's Spokescouncil for two years, and volunteered for several years in support of the local bisexual community. All this tells you about my activities and experience, but what's more valuable to me is real interaction with people. Hard to convey here, and a

lot of why I do this work.

Rose May Dance

Rose May Dance, b. 1948, Toledo, Ohio. My eclectic spiritual practice is life-long, and I have worshiped the Goddess since 1979, in Reclaiming since 1981. I have been gifted with two initiations by Reclaiming, the second one a Feri initiation.

I am a devotee of the Laughing Goddess who lovingly spins the universe. I also lay flowers at the altars of the Fierce Goddesses. I partake in the rich spiritual life of the SF Bay Area, enjoying the fruits of many traditions including witchcraft. I am a mother of a school-aged child, and I am also a grandmother.

I live collectively in San Francisco. My issues include direct action politics, open adoption, anarcho-feminist earth healing. I have taught meditation, witchcraft, and related subjects since the 1980's. I participate in a local coven. My interests/skills include nature worship, devotional practice, healing, ritual craft, and spiritual counseling. Iâve taught in community and internationally since 1981, and at witchcamps since the beginning. Retired from a career in social research with injection drugs users, I practice Hypnotherapy in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Seed

Seed has been teaching Reclaiming classes in the Bay Area since 1995. Her work is characterized by warmth, mischief, playfulness, sensuality and emotional depth. She especially enjoys welcoming newcomers to the tradition. Her practice is ecstatic and deeply grounded, embracing both vulnerability and strength.

Since 1994, she has been involved in community building in many forms, including providing open circles, conflict resolution, mentoring, and working to promote inclusiveness throughout the community. She is an initiate of the Reclaiming Tradition, a longtime member of the Wheel, the SF/East Bay Teachers Cell (now called CRAFT), and was a founding member of the Women's East Bay Ritual Group. Since 2003, she has co-designed and co-taught the teen path at Witchlets in the Woods. She is a founding member of the Well-being Cell (Well), and has helped to design the Listening Circle ritual.

She has also worked for many years alongside her dear friend, Ruth King, assisting in rage release workshops for diverse groups of women (healingrage.com), a work informed by both Buddhist and West African influences.
Seed is a magnet for children and animals. She is sustained by daily Buddhist stillness practice, accompanied by her plant allies. She lives in Oakland with her lifelong partner/husband, a stone’s throw from her grown son and his wife.

Sefora

Sefora has been practicing the Reclaiming tradition for seventeen years, ever since she was a teenage witch who stumbled wide eyed into California witchcamp.

Sefora's passion is bridging worlds through song, magic, consciousness and laughter. She is the founder of Terra's Temple, and a dedicated priestess to Terra, or Mother Earth.

As a facilitator and teacher, Sefora has worked with hundreds of people to shift old patterns, access greater wholeness, and create new ways of relating in the world. Sefora also works as a holistic counselor, empowering people to identify blocks and move toward life goals, prioritize their empowerment, liberate from old patterns, create practices that support their lives, have fulfilling relationships, and become their fullest self.

Starhawk

Starhawk is the author of The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of The Ancient Religion Of The Great Goddess (Harper & Row, 1979, 1989) and Dreaming The Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics (Beacon, 1982). Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery, (Harper & Row, 1987), The Fifth Sacred Thing, (Bantam 1992) and Walking to Mercury (Bantam, 1997). Her works have been translated into German, Danish, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese.

A feminist and peace activist, she is one of the foremost voices of ecofeminism, and travels widely in North America and Europe giving lectures and workshops, drawing on her twenty-five years of research and experience in the Goddess movement. She consulted on the films Goddess Remembered, The Burning Times, and Full Circle, directed by Donna Read and produced by the National Film Board of Canada, and is presently at work with Read on a biographical film about archaeologist Marija Gimbutas. Together with Anne Hill and Diane Baker, she is co writing Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition, also forthcoming from Bantam. In addition, she is a major voice in Reclaiming's anthology The Pagan Book of Living and Dying edited by M Macha NightMare, published by Harper San Francisco in October '97.

She is one of the founding members of the Reclaiming Collective and has worked with the group since 1981, teaching, helping to lead and plan rituals, teaching Witchcamps across the US, Canada and Europe, and contributing in many other ways. Reclaiming's El Salvador Friendship Fund is one of her special projects. She holds Permaculture Design Certificate, and enjoys finding ways of integrating hands-on earth knowledge with earth-based spirituality.

She lives part time in San Francisco and mostly in the hills of Cazadero among the wild boar people, and works and teaches with the Reclaiming collective which offers classes, workshops and public rituals in the Goddess tradition.

Sunshine Moonbeam

Sunshine Moonbeam is a legendary Reclaiming teacher from the days before Witchcamp. She taught many exraordinary classes and retreats which, sadly, were not advertised and thus were not attended. They were amazing nonetheless, and have a place in Reclaiming lore.

Her classes such as the Pearl Triangle, the Aluminum Quadrangle, and Rites of Waiting for Things to Happen paved the way for later core classes, while the Magical Doodler broke ground for experimental arts offerings.

Frustrated as a teacher, she turned to politics, and eventually became the High Priestess of Reclaiming, much to the surprise of the ritual planning cell, most of whom had never met her.

More stories about Sunshine Moonbeam, Esmeralda RagingWitch, and Goldenrod EtherChild can be found in the pages of the Revolutionary Pagan Workers Vanguard.

Suzanne Sterling

I have been a Reclaiming teacher and priestess since 1985. I have taught at midwest witchcamp in 1991, 1992, and 1999 and at Vermont in 1998. From 1995 - 1999, I assisted in the formation of Reweaving (a Reclaiming style group in Southern California), by teaching, priestessing and creating teacher's training and apprenticeship programs and curriculums. I now live in Northern California but continue to serve in teacher's cells of both communities.

As a performer, I have extensive training and experience in theatre arts and have dedicated my life to riding the edge where art and ritual meet. I spent years as a professional actress and dancer and have created many workshops and performances combining sacred dance, theatre and singing. In 1983, I co founded Imagic Dance Theatre with Beverly Frederick, performing shows such as a dance/theatre adaptation of The Mists of Avalon, Facing Aids, and choreographing Reclaiming Spiral Dances of 1988 and 1989. In 1998, I collaborated with Yemaya Duby in creating Song of the Soul, a ritual theatre opera with original music and over 30 performers.

As a musician, I was co-founder of the pagan band Skyclad (CD available on Serpentine Records) and contributed songs and performances to Reclaiming recordings Let It Begin Now, Second Chants, and Through the Darkness (also available on Serpentine). I am currently completing my first solo CD entitled Bhakti ( www.suzannesterling.com ), and producing evenings of devotional music and poetry - also called Bhakti- the latest of which was chosen to be part of the World Festival of Sacred Music hosted by the Dalai Llama.

My desire to understand and heal the wounds of an abusive childhood has led me through 15 years of therapy, co-counseling and shamanic exploration (in addition to the deep healing of magical work), and my daily yoga practice has become a foundation and grounding point for all my work.

I live with my partner and his 8 year old daughter in a house filled with many imaginary friends and lots of trolls and faeries. I am passionate about: empowering others to be their authentic, expressive selves, creating sacred community, awakening fierce compassion, singing, laughing and breathing! Blessed Be.

Tara Brihde has been a sacred seeker for her entire life, a practicing witch for 20 years, and a teacher of the healing arts since 1996. Her greatest teachers have been the living elements and spirits of Ireland. Holding paradox as a sacred state, moving between the worlds of shadow and light and magic and mundane; these are her strengths. She is an initiate of the Church of All Worlds tradition, HOME. She has been dancing around the edges of Reclaiming since 1992, and stepped fully into the circle in 2005. Her magic is creative and deep. Her teaching style is humorous and evocative. She is committed to finding and bringing forth the gifts which are already present in her students and co-hearts. She is especially passionate about welcoming newcomers to the Reclaiming tradition and to the Craft.

Vibra Willow

Reclaiming Teachers' Cell of which I am a member and/or to which I am accountable:
SF/East Bay Teachers Cell

Teaching experience in Reclaiming Tradition:
June 2001 - Elements of Magic with co-teacher Brighde and student teacher Panthera.
1988 - present - Co-taught several classes, including Elements of Magic and Iron Pentacle with, at different times, co-teachers Cybele, Margaret, Minerva Earthschild, Raven, Rick Dragonstongue, Starhawk, Susan Falkenrath, and Toni Savage
1996 - 1997 - led "Wiccan Study Group" at Northern California Women's Facility in Stockton, CA.
1987-present - Abortion healing work -- co-leader of workshops with Minerva Earthschild; individual healing work.
Other teaching experience:
1995 - California Institute of Integral Studies (Master's Degree program) in Women's Spirituality with Cam Shanty.

Student teaching and training:
Summer 1983 - Student in Ritual and Personal Power Workshop with Starhawk
Fall 1983 - Student in Women's Mysteries with Rose May Dance and Pandora
1986 - Student in Rites of Passage with Rose May DanceSpring 1987? - Student Teacher, Elements of Magic, taught by Cybele and Raven
1986? - Developed Healing from Abortion Workshop with co-leader Minerva Earthschild

Work experience in Reclaiming cells:
2000 - present, Member of Rite Here (East Bay ritual planning cell)
2000 - present, Member of Inside Protocell (work with prisoners)
1998 - present, ECell
1998 - present, Member of Advisory Council
1993-1995 - Events Line Fairy
1988/89? - present, Member of SF/EB Teachers' Cell
1984 -1997 - Member of Reclaiming Collective
1984 -1989 - Member of Newsletter Cell

Other information concerning involvement in the Reclaiming Tradition, Collective, community, etc.:
My work with the Reclaiming Collective included a few years on the newsletter production staff; coordinating the production of the first Chants Tape & singing on it; obtaining the first re-sale permit; obtaining the first special event insurance policy; co-writing the original By-Laws with Macha; helping to organize many public rituals (including everything from leaflet distribution to doing child care to finding a lighting technician to sweeping up); and operating the Events Line for a couple years. From 1987-1997 Minerva and I co- organized the Winter Solstice Cookie Party for all the children in the community.

In 1993 Cam Shanty and I co-led a group of women who designed and constructed the labyrinth at Salamander Camp, and developed a workshop called Women's Mysteries: Through the Labyrinth. This was also the title of a class that Cam and I taught in 1995 at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the Master's Degree program in Women's Spirituality.

From 2000 -- present I have taught Reclaiming classes to women and men in the East Bay, and from 1990 - 1999 I taught women-only classes and led women-only rituals in the East Bay. In 1994 the Women's East Bay Ritual Group was formed by women involved in the women's Beltane celebration and/or in the Elements of Magic for Women class that year.

I have also led and co-led many private rituals, including Coming of Age (First-Blood) Rituals; baby welcomings; handfastings; divorce; healing; and death (deathbedside and funeral). Occasionally I have served as an informant/subject for students or filmmakers doing research on modern Paganism, feminist spirituality, etc.

I have been a member of 3-D Circle since 1984.

My primary teachers in the Reclaiming Tradition, i.e those who have influenced me the most:
Arachne, Cybele, Raven Moonshadow, Rose May Dance, Starhawk (in alphabetical order)

Articles, books, or other published work I have authored or co-authored related to the Reclaiming Tradition:
"Who Are We? Where Did We Come From? A brief account of the Reclaiming community's evolution," published in Reclaiming Quarterly Autumn 1999; (now known as the Quarterly); Labyrinth meditations, an article on abortion healing, and the glossary for The Pagan Book of Living and Dying (HarperCollins 1997); and an article on divorce rituals for Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions (Bantam, 1998); various articles for the Reclaiming Newsletter in the 1980s

Credentials to teach, train, or pass on the Tradition:
Minister credentials (Elder) from CoG, 1995(?) to present.

Personal information:
Sex: Female
Age (year of birth): 1946
Sexual orientation: Bisexual (in past I identified as heterosexual for many years, and as Lesbian for several years)
Ethnicity: Western European descent (English, Dutch)

Experience with other religions/family religious background:
My mother, a pantheist, was my primary spiritual teacher growing up. I sang in Methodist Church choirs from age 7 to 17 but my family was also involved with Unitarians and Quakers. In adulthood I have been involved with The Peace Church (Washington Square Methodist) and Park Slope Methodist Church in New York, with the Society of Friends (Quakers) in England, and with the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco.

Particular areas of Magical/religious interest:
I am more of a nature-worshiper than a psychic. I am particularly interested in: creating ritual; rites of passage for our lives today; using magic for healing; interfaith work, prison ministry.

Political/social activism or interests:
Rights of the disabled, especially the deaf; rights of Lesbians and Gays; allocation of resources to breast cancer research; anti-death penalty work; rights of children; international women's peace work. I am the co-editor, with Susan Schechter, of The Park Slope Safe Homes Manual, A Community-Based Program for Battered Women and Their Families, published in 1979

Formal academic education:
B.A. in social sciences (UC Berkeley, 1968); J.D. (Hastings College of Law 1984).

Mundane occupation:
Attorney (appellate defense in capital cases)

Other work experience that might be of interest:
In the 1970s I worked in child care and family services in Illinois and New York. From 1973-77 I worked as a Social Worker with the Deaf in London, England, using British Sign Language, and I have also studied American Sign Language at Vista Community College in Berkeley. I have experience as a Union organizer, peace activist, non-violence trainer, encounter group leader, stage manager, costume maker, and theatre production coordinator.

Other comments: I was born and raised in California, but I have also lived a few years in New York City and in London, England. As an adult I lived many years in a nuclear family and several years in an all-women household. Now (January 2000) I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (East Bay) with a male partner and two cats. I have practiced polyfidelity for many years. My new, blended family includes eight adult children and three grandchildren, and my aging parents live nearby.

Wilowfire Zachubi

Wilow Fire integrates her decades of experience as a healer and Reiki Master with seasoned counseling, hypnotherapy, bodywork, and breath release skills. She is an ordained minister of the Reformed Congregation of the Goddess, International and an initiate of the Reclaiming tradition. Wilow is a compassionate, grounded teacher, priestess, and activist who teaches Reiki, energetic and magical skills, and herbal healing throughout North America. Her long involvement with Reclaiming includes over 13 years teaching at Reclaiming Summer Intensives. She is available by appointment for readings, consultation, rituals, and healing sessions and may be contacted at mawilow@aol.com.

Urania

I make my home north of San Francisco in the rolling hills of San Rafael with my beloved family. I came to Reclaiming in 1991 and began to teach Reclaiming core classes and priestess in 1993. In 1998 I was ordained as an interfaith minister. My practice of Witchcraft is informed by Taoist principles and the estatic practices of all faiths. My daily practices vary but I am particularly fond of gardening, cooking, Tarot and divination, sex magic, making offerings to the fey that live in my neighborhood and moon bathing. I consider myself to be one of Hecate's Daughters and as such love crossroads, thresholds and moon rivers. I believe in the power of timing, destiny and free will -- paradox is what I use most often to explore the Mystery. I love Reclaiming -- paradox that it is.

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