The Iron Pentacle

There's something about sleeping, living, breathing between the worlds. I haven't been sleeping well lately but last night? I slept! I woke up and my body was all cosy, comfy and content. I woke up an hour before my alarm was set and didn't feel the need to roll over and go back to sleep. There is something about living in ritual space for days on end that enlivens me.

Today marks the first day of what is known as Path at WitchCamp and probably one of the biggest reasons I am so pulled to attend camp to begin with. I am a lover of learning and that is what Path is about. It is essentially a three hour immersive and experiential learning experiencing. For me, this is the part where the transformation happens. This is the part where I expand, I grow, I stretch beyond where I thought my edges were and I reach outward to see what else might be available to me in my lived experience.

There are four Paths over the course of the long weekend and this camp's theme is Iron into Pearl so the four paths are:

** Elements - a core class that is required before all others. I got to experience this one last year and it was amazing. It encompasses all the basics, how to cast a circle, the order Reclaiming does it in. As with all Reclaiming experiences, there was chanting, trancing and experientials. It delves deeply into Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit and the foundations of the Reclaiming Tradition.

** The Iron Pentacle - this is another core class in the Reclaiming Tradition and this is the Path I am choosing for this camp! As such, I don't know a lot about it yet but I'll share what I learn along the way. Exploring the points of Sex, Self, Passion, Pride and Power.

        

** The Pearl Pentacle - yet another core class and this one usually comes after doing at least some of the work held within the Iron Pentacle, like the next level up if you will. Again, this one I know very little about but maybe one day in the future I will be able to share. Exploring the points of Love, Liberty, Law, Knowledge and Wisdom.

** The Community Path - I do not know much about this one, I am not particularly drawn to it this time but my vague understanding is it is about doing the work out in the community. Exploring collaboration, leadership and justice amongst other things.

I will speak to the workings of my Path a little further down, I just wanted to share that I pulled a card from the beautiful Moonology oracle deck this morning, to find a card to anchor me to the day, something I could keep present and look at whenever I felt called to, to help me remain present and open to what is to come and when I pulled it, I laughed and scoffed and rolled my eyes because:

I have to say, that expectation was already sitting in my body! It's interesting that the cards almost always tell me what I already know, they just want to make sure I get the message and that the message is loud and clear and in my current awareness. It's confirming, in it's way. It's validating and reassures me that I know the way. I always know the way.

THE IRON PENTACLE                                                        

As you can see by the image above, the iron pentacle has 5 points and each point is a point of energy that we work with as we utilise this tool for personal growth and healing. After having spent 3 hours with the Ah-mazing SusanneRae and the Wonderful Tracey Cathcart I have already dived deep and had moments of realisation and understanding. Doing any of this work is always going to reveal layers and bring about moments of clarity and - more-often-than-not - bring up some raw, tender parts for witnessing, exploration, acknowledgement and holding. So I just want to give a gentle warning that I tend not to hold back with my personal sharing. I will give you, Dear Reader, all that I have. I will allow you access into my deepest world so if you choose to read on, do so with caution and tread gently for MY stuff might trigger YOUR OWN stuff as we are all interconnected and as I heal, so shall you, so shall the world. We can be in this together, if we so choose.

To start with, after creating sacred space within the confines of the Iron Pentacle Path, we then did a process known as to "run the iron pentacle" and what that means is, we connected to the iron of the dead stars that have spread their iron through space ever outward coalescing and forming iron particles, we tapped into the iron core of our glorious planet, we drew the iron in to us and allowed it to connect with the iron that runs through our bodies via our blood, we tapped into our own iron cores and that core was then moved around the body in a pentagram fashion connecting to each point of the Iron Pentacle. We start with the head, where the point of Sex lay. We moved down then to our right foot, to the point of Pride, from there we moved up and across to our left hand, the point of Self. Across the body to the right hand and we connected to the point of Power, travelling down and across now to the left foot, the point of Passion and back up to the point of Sex to complete the Pentacle. We ran through this three times and sealed it by going around in a circle. Already I could feel the energy building and thrumming in me.

For those interested in exploring this further, the Iron Pentacle originates in the Feri Tradition and is an initiatory process and was introduced into the Reclaiming Tradition in Australia around 2011/2012. Google will help you find your way if you wish to know more.

Today's point of focus was Sex. We were invited to offer up a word that comes to mind when you think of Sex. I would invite you to let me know in the comments what word comes to you. There were many different words offered, empowering words, gentle words, edgy words, interesting and seemingly unrelated words. My offering: SHAME. 

Interestingly enough, I felt shame at voicing that word, like there was something wrong with me. Yet I aim to be authentic, real, open and as honest as I can be while I am between the worlds, otherwise, why do the work, you know? And Shame is the word that came through to me loud and clear and left no room for anything else. As I was waiting my turn to have to speak up and voice that word I caught myself trying desperately to think of another word, any other word but my mind refused to oblige me. Shame. Shame. Shame, my inner mind cried. So I said it and I sat with my shame at voicing shame in relation to sex and as I sat with it I asked myself, what? What is this that is emerging? What is this arising and what is it I need to look at here?

So I looked and I saw. I saw me as a young girl, being raised by her obligated grandparents with their deeply entrenched misogynistic and patriarchal values and worldviews. My grandparents birthed 3 boys and nary a daughter in sight until I, their granddaughter, was placed in their lives to raise. I saw the undercurrent of shame around anything to do with sex that I was raised from. Nothing was really explicitly said that I remember but it was always there, always implied, always floating just beneath the surface. I was raised and conditioned through my childhood by people who were still deeply entrenched in the oppression of women. While we do still have a ways to go, I would like to pause here and acknowledge that we have come far. Women can vote now. Women can get a job outside the family home. Women can go to school and get a formal education. Women can be doctor's, lawyers, CEOs. Women can have their own bank account. We have come a long way and yet my grandparents still very much had a foot stuck in that paradigm and it bled through into my childhood.

Yet, I am woman, hear me roar. It has never and will never be in my nature to just rollover. I identify strongly with the Rebel Archetype. I am a non-traditionalist. I am a non-conformist. I might go with the flow but eventually, I tend to forge my own path and move to the beat of my own drum and thus, I ran away from my grandparents when I was 13 and after a whirlwind 3 days running wild, I landed with my mother. My mother who is also considered the black sheep of the family, the rebel, the non-conformist - no wonder my grandparents didn't want me to have anything to do with her! She was a free-loving hippy nymphomaniac. In fact, I'm almost certain nymphomania can be hereditary (tongue-in-cheek) as it runs pretty true along my female line, let me tell you!

So here I am with two conflicting voices in me. Sex bad. Sex good. Sex bad. Sex good. What working with the point of Sex in the Iron Pentacle has shown me today though, is that I am holding a lot of weight around Sex in my body and that the aspect of shame has been hidden, suppressed, pushed aside all these years as I rejoiced in my sexuality and my enjoyment of sexual energy. My mother gave me permission to be a sexual creature, not overtly but much as my grandparent's introduced sex as shameful covertly so too did my mother introduce sex as powerful, a good thing, a human right covertly. Yet as much as I have a hold of the beauty and power of sex, I have come to realise there is always this undercurrent of shame travelling along beneath it. As I breathe into that I acknowledge this as something for me to sit with and explore and look at over the coming years. Yes years, no need to overwhelm and rush the process. Healing and change take time.

As much as we did some processes, trancework and chanting around the point of Sex in the Iron Pentacle, just that realisation alone is a really big takeaway for me and will be the beginning of a potentially crucial and welcome transformation. This is the base ingredient for the powerful change my oracle card is portending. Interestingly, something else came up during the Path that seems unrelated to the point of sex but is it? I don't know, maybe that is a blog for another time as this one has become long enough. I think I will save the musings and insights and experience of tonight's group ritual and the meeting of the Affinity group members for another blog post another time. Definitely more to come as I am finding blogging about this journey even more deepening for me, as, after all, I am a writer in my heart of hearts.

One last thing I will mention though is the web that keeps calling to me, it has all year so far, perhaps for me, 2021 is the year of the Spider. Along came a Spider and sat down beside me and mended the loose threads of the web, helping the disconnect to reconnect. Piece by piece, the web might become whole but it's also OK if it doesn't. The web is beautiful no matter what state it exists in. As Spider as Healer showed up for me during trance today I decided I'd put on my spider ring and both acknowledge and honour the journey I'm on with it.

Spiders are Sacred!