Elements of Magic is the first Reclaiming Witchcraft Core Class. It is, to my knowledge, the only one allowed to be a prerequisite for other Core Classes. lnxc;vasbabs;vh
I took my first Elements of Magic when I was 20 years old. Since then I have taken it 3 additional times. It is always a time to revitalize my practice and return to fundamentals. Now, over 15 years later, I taught my first Elements of Magic. The theme was the culmination of many years spent developing a personal practice: 4 Cardinal Demons. The great-grandfathers of our circle casting were to be invited into the class to help teach our students alongside the 4 elemental kings.
I have rarely felt so vindicated.
I placed quite a few bets on this class. My lead teacher and life partner had seen all the hours of work I poured into research and relationship building, and they placed the bet with me. They spent the hours building relationships. These spirits were as real as any other. We had the right names. We had the right arrangement. This could work.
It did work. Our Elements class felt like the others. We watched complete newcomers dive in to try ritual for the first time. We watched solitaries learn a structure that could bring them to community. We had the honor of having an elder in the practice there to build circle with us. Paralda isn’t just some name in a book anymore, he is the air I have been breathing since I was born. My bones recognized him and the other Elemental Kings as having been energies I had known since my first Elements class all those years ago, and now this spirit was teaching the rest of the class.
What this means for me was that now I have confidence leaning into Reclaiming as a truly ecstatic and community focused outpouring of the Revival. I have the magician’s sword in one hand and the witch’s knife firmly in the other.
The connection goes the other way, as well. Due to a series of questionable decisions, I read The Angel and the Abyss trilogy by Guther. In it, the author talks about the various stages of initiation in the AA, a particularly stringent and firmly mystical branch of Thelema. I also went and found references to the Golden Dawn’s initiatory track.
The first four stages of the curriculum in both? The 4 elements studied on multiple levels. The only difference is that Reclaiming gives our newcomers all the material at once and then expects them to deepen the practice by repeating the journey over and over from different angles.
I have read dozens of admonitions from mystics and magicians: don’t just read and talk about magic. Do it. Reclaiming takes this principle and teaches people by doing. We are not activists who happen to do magic. The Goddess Movement is not somehow a dilution of the current. We are witches. We are in community with each other and the nonhuman world around us.
Elements of Magic is truly a solid foundation for any spiritual seeker to stand on in our present age. I absolutely recommend it as a starting point. Feminism is not some silly add-on to the current. It is fundamental to understanding how forces shift in the Work. Teaching it has been an honor, and I look forward to retaking and reteaching it as many times as I may over the course of time.