PORTAL is the teaching cell of Portland Reclaiming. Each of the members of PORTAL call themselves Reclaiming Tradition teachers based on experience teaching Reclaiming classes, adherence to the Principles of Unity, and the process of obtaining written feedback from students and co-teachers. The members of PORTAL sit down annually to give and receive feedback from their co-teachers.
For information on how to become a member of PORTAL, please see the bottom of this page.
Craig
I’ve been
actively involved in the local Reclaiming community since 1997. I am a founding
member of the public ritual group, Hands of the Mother, and regularly plan and
participate in public ritual. I recently joined Portal in 2003 and am
co-teaching Reclaiming classes with other Portal members. I consider myself a
healer and a community builder. I am a longtime California Witchcamper. Much of
my magical work centers around energy work, emotional healing, and transforming
thoughts and beliefs to help people grow and progress in their lives. In the
mundane world, I am a therapist, father, gardener, and Mac geek.
Dawn Isidora
I first came to Reclaiming
in 1983 while living in San Francisco. After reading Starhawk's The Spiral Dance,
I began my magical training with Rose May Dance, Arachne (aka Rocky) and Robin,
members of the original Reclaiming collective. Other strong influences upon
my magical training have been T. Thorn Coyle, Oak, Reya and the members of my
Feri coven. I am Reclaiming and Feri initiated and have been a Reclaiming a
witch for over two decades. I've been teaching Reclaiming Tradition Magic in
Portland, Oregon since 1993. I also teach weekend workshops in various communities
throughout the North, South and Mid West. I am a founding member of both Hands
of the Mother (Portland's public ritual cell), and Portal (Portland Reclaiming
Teachers' Alliance). I am a witchcamp teacher and organizer. My witchcamp affiliations
include BCWC, Mid West, Cascadia Village Camp and New York.
My teaching interests include the core Reclaiming classes (Elements of Magic, Rites of Passage, Iron Pentacle and Pearl Pentacle), Reclaiming Leadership (a class developed with Lilith), The Sexual Soul (a non- Reclaiming style class where we explore sexual energy), as well as working with the Triple Soul and the Black Heart of Innocence.I live in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood of SE Portland with my two teenage sons and work as a spiritual counselor.
Flint
Inanna
Lilith
I am a native Oregonian,
a founding member of Portland's Hands of the Mother, and a member of PORTAL.
I have been teaching at witchcamps since 1999, including Texas, California and
SpiralHeart. I am interested in building strong and lasting communities and
teaching/mentoring the real skills and personal responsibility that make this
possible. In addition to this, my practice focuses on devotion and relationships,
connecting with Ancestors, Fey and the Gods through dream, trance, altars &
offerings. I live in NE Portland with my husband Scott and have a day job in
drug-development research.
Teaching interests: "Core" Classes: Elements of Magic, Rites of Passage, and Iron Pentacle. Skills for growing communities: A weekend intensive in leadership skills and empowered learning models. Ritual planning. Mentoring for all skill and experience levels. Trance: A step-by-step look at the skills and tools for creating and leading effective, open-imagery trances, including voice, language, drum and energy for trance for pairs to large public rituals.
Ravyn
I am a wyld tree huggin', shower singin' witch recently
transplanted from the desert mesas of New Mexico. I am passionately dedicated to
becoming the change I want to see in the world, through activism, erotic
revolution, conflict resolution, alternative community building and my practice
of Chinese medicine. I am an acupuncturist and herbalist. I have been a
practicing witch for twelve years and came to Reclaiming in1996. I am a
co-founder of the Enchanted Spiral, New Mexico’s Reclaiming community. I have
been an organizer for the Midwest Witchcamp since 2001 and I am a community and
witchcamp teacher. I am a student of the Feri tradition. I am involved with the
Pagan Cluster and work to bring inexhaustible joy into my mischief and activism.
Teaching interests: sex magic, sacred voice, conflict resolution, compassionate feedback, erotic ecology, ritual and priestessing skills, community leadership, magical activism, cultivating ecstasy. I also love teaching Reclaiming core classes including Elements, Rites of Passage and the Iron and Pearl Pentacles. I love to help mentor new teachers and have taught in various communities in all corners of the country. I live in SE Portland with my partner and I compost compulsively.
Rowan
I've been
a Reclaiming witch since 1989, and also work in the Feri tradition. My first
and strongest passion is geomancy, which cuts across all boundaries of tradition
or practice. This work includes dowsing, building earthworks and labyrinths,
singing, and connecting points of power to each other to enhance magical work.
I work with Ancestral spirits, the Beloved Dead, song as a portal to the sacred,
outrageous laughter, and increasingly strange forms of magical activism on behalf
of peace and justice. Part of my practice focuses on working with birds, Celtic
mythological and historical material, and cultivating mystery.
In 1995, I co-founded Portland's first Reclaiming Tradition public ritual group, the Strand by Strand Collective. This group, which became inactive in 1999, helped spark the formation of Portland Reclaiming. I'm a former member of Hands of the Mother, a co-founder of the Magical Activism Cluster, and a member of PORTAL. In my spare time I am a well-dressed member of the Billionaires for Bush, a political parody group. I make my living as a research librarian.
Scott
I am an
Oriental medicine practitioner, researcher, teacher, and burgeoning banjo
player. Currently, I am working on a finishing a Ph.D. in system sciences in
Portland, Oregon. (I have been happily called a science geek.) I am an initiated
priest of the Reclaiming and Feri traditions and have been teaching in the
Reclaiming tradition since the early 90's. My magical practice is strongly
influenced by myth, movement, my connection to the Gods and personal practice. I
love to question the status quo. I am interested in teaching relationship
building with the Gods, the Ancestors and the Elements. I have a vision of our
community answering and honoring our myriad sacred callings that reflect the
diversity of our practices.
Dear Community members, The members of Portal are interested in providing clear information about the role which our cell of Portland Reclaiming plays in the local community. We aim to set fair and reasonable expectations for all who work with us, whether through taking a class or joining the group.
Portal (Portland Oregon Reclaiming Teachers' Alliance) is currently comprised of six members (in alphabetical order): Dawn Isidora, Flint, Inanna, Lilith, Rowan Phillips, and Scott Mist. We each have between eight and twenty years of experience in the Reclaiming Tradition. Most of us have day jobs. We are also parents, students, activists, artists -- as well as priest/esses and teachers. We donate our time and money to a variety of community and global concerns, besides Reclaiming. We keep daily spiritual practice and often work in covens or other groups. We take virtually every class available to us, sometimes traveling to distant communities to receive training. Often we'll do the organizational work to bring a teacher here so that the larger community can benefit from additional training and teachers as well. We open our homes for meetings and classes, often displacing family and loved ones for the duration. We tithe 10% of our earnings back to the community, frequently in support of scholarships which make our classes more accessible. We have all formally committed to solicit feedback from our students, and give and receive feedback from our peers on a regular basis. We do our best to balance the needs of the community with our own interests and limitations in time and resources, and we attempt to make the core Reclaiming classes available on a regular basis.
The following is the Portal entry process. What it does not and cannot address, is the importance of taking time to digest the work. Spiritual training is not like college course work -- where you get through, get your degree, then get the job. Spiritual training is more like your garden or a vineyard -- it takes time to mature before it bears fruit. This process of digesting and maturing is personal and dependent upon the individual. We have come up with no way to legislate it; it falls under the code of personal responsibility.
THE PORTAL ENTRY PROCESS:
To become a PORTAL member you must:
1) adhere to the Principles of Unity and identify yourself as Reclaiming
2) have co-taught a Reclaiming-style class twice within the last 3 years, from
which you bring written feedback from your students and your co-teacher. (A
Reclaiming style class adheres to the Principles of Unity, is participatory, and
teaches Reclaiming magical content.)
3) have taken Elements of Magic, Iron Pentacle, and either Rites of Passage or a
course on trance techniques. (If finances are an obstacle to taking these
classes, please contact us.)
4) contact us, as soon as you know that joining PORTAL is your goal, so that we
can mentor and/or facilitate you through the process. We encourage you to meet
the teaching requirement by co-teaching with a PORTAL member. No PORTAL member
is ever required to teach with someone with whom they feel uncomfortable.
In love and trust, the Portland Oregon Reclaiming Teachers' Alliance