Tag Archives: Pentacle of Community

CloudCatcher 2017 Community Path Day 4

This is our last day of the Pentacle of Community path and as a group we are settling in with one another as we absorb quite a chunk of concepts, information and techniques. All of these are woven into the Reclaiming fabric so that we can be conscious of how we relate to each other. That at least is the biggest message for me so far.

A lot has been written about power within Reclaiming and we concluded with the pentacle point of Power today. It is impossible at this CloudCatcher camp to separate discussions of power here in the path to the unfolding theme and magic of the camp. Decolonisation has emerged as a strong theme and whilst I think it is going to take me a long time to fully appreciate and unpack this concept, it is present here in discussion in this path. For me, I do have a sense of my privilege. I am 6’5”, white, male bodied, had a middle-class upbringing, have been to University and so on. There are also many aspects of my being that undercut some of this privilege and while I can identify moments when these have actively prejudiced me, the privilege of my being is undeniable. A big teaching in today’s path was to keep acknowledging power and privilege and to always find ways to make this work available to all and to give every voice a place to speak.

Service is the last point on the Pentacle of Community and I think I can best sum this up by sharing some of how we explored it today. Each of the pentacle points has a shadow side and service is no exception. The shadow here is burn out and it was suggested to us that 3 core things lead to this. These are not being seen for the service we give, not being thanked and not managing our physical, emotional and spiritual energy when giving service. Service is of course many things to different people. And so we were asked to sit with some questions about areas of life in which we are potentially giving service and to then identify what these acts were. One by one, we stepped into the pentacle and were thanked, seen and acknowledged. I found this exercise to be very touching and that the intention behind it is all too true within the greater world. For example, how many of us are truly acknowledged for the service we give in the workplace.

All in all, this has been a rich experience. Like every core Reclaiming class, this does not feel like a check off for the list of trainings done. I feel like this is a lifetime’s work and even then, the bottom would not be reached. This work will just keep unpacking and unfolding as my journey with this community does. I think the best path forward for me is to start with one thing from here or even one thing from each pentacle point. Happily, I don’t have a sense of what next. Rather, I have some clear steps to take.

CloudCatcher 2017 Community Path Day 3

It’s day 3 of Path and I am feeling a lot lighter. Last night I spoke to Gwydion about some of my concerns and I gained a great deal of ease through his response. I think what I really learned is key to this Pentacle of Community. I suspect that in the past I may have sat with my misgivings and allowed them to bubble and even ruin my experience. Everything I have learned about group work has taught me to speak up and to bring myself forward. That the teachings of this pentacle support and encourage this through well thought out techniques and models has been demonstrated in how Gwydion responded to my concerns. I feel safer and more held within the container having had my concerns expressed and responded to.

The pentacle point of Common Good was one of the primary teachings for today and we unpacked and played with 3 major techniques that we use in Reclaiming to support the good of all of us. The first of these is Consensus Decision Making. As we looked at this tool a lot of memories flooded back to me because In the 80s I was involved in a housing co-op for about 5 years, working from its inception to planning, lobbying, gaining funding and so on. We used the Consensus model and all trained in it to use it as best practice. I clearly remembered big long meetings on sticky points of difference facilitated by experienced practitioners. The feeling of nursing a community through big differences of opinion and out the other side to consensus was deepening for us as a community. It was beautiful to have this memory provoked and I am planning to look for classes on Consensus Decision Making as it was once a real passion for me.

We also explored the Principles of Unity and I really get how for Reclaiming witches this is a sacred text. The PoU is a remarkable document and one that I have on my altar to constantly remind me of the deep thought gone into this tradition.

In order to examine another aspect of the point of Common Good we played with some small group exercises using core concepts of Non Violent Communication. The practice allowed us to move from a story we currently had going on in our lives to seeing into what our need actually was. So, as I told a story about how my partner’s move to Alice Springs is affecting me, group members listened and then selected what needs they thought I might have. They chose security, trust and consideration and these all resonated with me. Getting down to these needs allowed me to feel much more deeply what is going on for me and to feel truly seen and heard.

We began the transition into the point of Power today with a role playing game called Werewolves. It is kind of like ‘Murder in the Dark’ but with a few more twists. It is amazing just how ruthless we can get to stay ‘in the game’! My fellow werewolf sold me out to the villagers to stay alive and there was nothing I could say to stop from being lynched. It was an incredible reflection of how easily voices are taken away when blame is laid or untruths are told, not dissimilar to how our society works at all.

CloudCatcher 2017 Community Path Day 2

Well, day 2 of this Pentacle of Community path is done and I am left a little unsettled. We are weaving our way through a huge amount of concepts. That is not to say that things are rushed but it is true to say that as the points unfold the depth of the layers with which we approach community in Reclaiming is revealing itself. Through the first point of Collaboration we have already touched on many ideas. A couple of key pieces have left me with strong impressions and reflections. The first is the unpacking of Tuckman’s model of group dynamics which states that all groups go through a process of Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. I have sat quiet in the group with my critiques of this model which in group work is considered to be simplistic, poorly researched and inadequate to describe what actually happens in groups. I just don’t want to be that student who starts to unpick the teaching but I know of other better theories that could contribute to this discussion but there isn’t really the time to unpack it all. I have a similar hit around ‘active listening’ as I see it as just the beginning point of quality communication in groups and so much more intimacy is possible when people respond to each other but I also know it has taken me years of training to learn these useful responding techniques and so it feels best to stay shtum. Mmm, there is some irony in my choosing to staying silent in this community class!

Two other pieces within the Collaboration point have really lit exciting fires within me. One is the question from Gwydion about who the collaborators were. My mind instantly jumped to the Second World War and to those who supported the Nazis in occupied countries. It gave me a real glimpse of how language can become distorted and that something as community weaving as collaboration can become a dirty word. I actually felt a shock run through me as Gwydion unpacked this. Another beautiful piece from the collaboration point were these words from Kate and I find them to be so reflective of my Reclaiming experience; “Everybody has a place in the circle, we each have a piece to bring”.

Honour is the second point in the Community Pentacle and this has an ancestral twist to it for me. My family crest has the motto ‘Death before Dishonour’ on it and I am now really curious about the intergenerational effects of that. We explored the Honour point further and investigated how we need to show up for this work in integrity and accountability and how it requires personal introspection to continually take inventory. I sit well with this and have learned a lot recently on such shadow and mirror work in Axis Mundi. Another key piece that we are exploring here in Honour is feedback and I have experienced this way of doing feedback in Reclaiming before. It makes my heart sing knowing that we have a clear process for something that can so easily flip and become criticism.

The big takeaway for me today is to take my concerns about some of the content directly to Gwydion or Kate and to speak about them using some of what I have learned today to express myself. I think this would be me stepping into both collaboration and honour by doing so.