Stolen Lives – 2004 SF Vigil

Photos from a 2004 vigil outside the SF Metreon called Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement – a forerunner of Black Lives Matter. Reclaiming folks helped create a living altar.

Click here to see slide show

Stolen Lives was organized by community activists from Hunters Point neighborhoods.

Reclaiming folks including Kevyn, Bill, Starhawk, and others brought potted plants to create a living altar. You can see the Pagan Cluster circled up to the left in the shot below, and creating altars in others in the slide show.

Photos by George Franklin/Reclaiming Quarterly

Youtube – A Brief History of Direct Action!

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Direct action has a long and honored place in American history – from the revolution itself through abolitionists, suffragists, union organizers, civil rights advocates, feminist and gay rights activists, and on to today’s vibrant climate and social justice organizing.

Click here for A Brief History of Direct Action

Join author Luke Hauser for a profusely illustrated 25-minute journey through our past. We’ll focus especially on organizing from 1980 to the present, with sections on the 1980s anti-nuke movement and 2011’s Occupy actions.

Originally created around 2000, the show has been updated with a revised text and many new images. Co-created by Groundwork and Reclaiming Quarterly.

So make a big bowl of popcorn, pull up your beanbag chair, and get ready for a journey through our history!

Photo by Janet Delaney

Dancing the Spiral: A Companion to the Writings of Starhawk

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Welcome to Reclaiming Quarterly’s latest project – a companion text to accompany Starhawk’s voluminous writings, featuring dozens of magical workings, ritual ideas, activist skills, pagan history, and more. The draft is now available for free download – print edition planned for 2021.

Dancing the Spiral – free download and more info.

Created in cooperation with Starhawk and Teen Earth Magic witchcamp, the goals are: (1) an exciting and challenging book for people working alone or with friends; (2) inspiration for folks to form a circle so they can do these workings with others; and (3) a fun book to flip through and get inspired!

The book also features pages of magical and activist resources – books, music, websites, free downloads, and more.This initial mock-up already contains much of the material, including the just-completed history essays.

We hope to complete and publish this book as a PDF and print edition sometime in 2021. Meanwhile, we’ll post drafts as they develop.

Dancing the Spiral – free download and more info.

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Earth Activism with Starhawk

Earth Activism Training – Restoration Intensive

February 23 – March 2, 2020

New Paradigm College – Lucerne, Lake County, CA

with Starhawk & Lindsey Dailey

This new long-term program is designed to give you the skills, experience and confidence to run a farm, ranch, retreat center or urban farm in ways that heal damaged ecosystems and sequester carbon.

Based around two ten-day intensives, ongoing internships, online resources and real-world experiences, the RLMT Program is designed to be flexible, credit work you’ve already done, while connecting you with land and career opportunities.

More info and registration: earthactivisttraining.org/

Click here to download brochure

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Shut It Down – by Lisa Fithian

Pagan Cluster activist Lisa Fithian has released a new book of activist skills and stories, ranging from Seattle in 1999 to the present. Check it out:

Lisa’s Website – ShutItDownNow.org

Online Ordering – various options

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Back Cover Description

A veteran activist’s guide to direct action and strategic civil disobedience as the most radical and rapid means to social change

For decades, Lisa Fithian’s work as an advocate for civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action has put her on the frontlines of change. Described by Mother Jones as “the nation’s best-known protest consultant,” Fithian has supported countless movements including the Battle of Seattle in 1999, rebuilding and defending communities following Hurricane Katrina, Occupy Wall Street, and the uprisings at Standing Rock and in Ferguson. For anyone who wants to become more active in resistance or is just feeling overwhelmed or hopeless, Shut It Down offers strategies and actions you can take right now to promote justice and incite change in your own community.

In Shut It Down Fithian shares historic, behind-the-scenes stories from some of the most important people-powered movements of the past several decades. She shows how movements that embrace direct action have always been, and continue to be, the most radical and rapid means for transforming the ills of our society. Shut It Down is filled with instructions and inspiration for how movements can evolve as the struggle for social justice continues in the Trump era and beyond.

While recognizing that electoral politics, legislation, and policy are all important pathways to change, Shut It Down argues that civil disobedience is not just one of the only actions that remains when all else fails, but a spiritual pursuit that protects our deepest selves and allows us to reclaim our humanity. Change can come, but only if we’re open to creatively, lovingly, and strategically standing up, sometimes at great risk to ourselves, to protect what we love.

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Pagan Cluster Joins Extinction Rebellion Actions – Photos

Several hundreds people gathered at San Francisco’s Civic Center on October 16, 2019 for a solemn procession punctuated by die-ins, as part of a day of Climate Justice protests.
The action, organized by Bay Area Extinction Rebellion as part of international protests during October 2019, included people from Red Rebels, Decolonization, Playful Animal Parade, Mindful Direct Action, the Climate Anxiety Tent, DAWG, and WICCA (Witches Invoking Creative Climate Action – our Bay Area Pagan Cluster!).
The actions focused attention on California government and Governor Newsom, and demanded that the state:
–  Declare a climate emergency
–  Commit to fossil-free California by 2025
–  Empower communities through citizen’s assemblies
–  Work for a just transition
Future Actions and Events: extinctionrebellionsfbay.org
WICCA/Pagan Cluster – contact and join our googlegroup
Photo by Luke Hauser.
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Pagan Cluster – Ritual for Climate Justice

Several thousand Bay Area activists shut down the central financial district of San Francisco, known as Wall Street West.

Click here for photos

The September 25 actions were part of international climate justice events, including the global student strike on September 20.

Reclaiming’s Bay Area Pagan Cluster – Witches Invoking Creative Climate Action, or WICCA – organized a ritual for mid-afternoon. We processed down California Street singing We Are the Rising Sun, then did a short Equinox ritual in the middle of the “mural district” of Montgomery Street, ending with a spiral dance to Our Hands Will Work for Peace and Justice (Harvest Chant).

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Global Youth Strike for Climate Justice

Young people around the world rallied, struck, and took direct action for Climate Justice on Friday, September 20.

Anchored by the Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, and other groups, this day of action challenged people and governments to take action now.

Photos from San Francisco youth march

For details, visit BayAreaClimateStrike.net and GlobalClimateStrike.net

Reclaiming’s Bay Area Pagan Cluster, WICCA (Witches Invoking Creative Climate Action!), will participate and support this day of actions in downtown San Francisco

Other Reclaiming folks will be active in other locales.

On Wednesday Sept 25, WICCA hosted an Equinox Ritual as part of a global day for Climate Justice.

See poster below for details, or email ReclaimingEastBay@gmail.com for info and to join our WICCA googlegroup!

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