An interview with Starhawk Origins of the Spiral Dance October 31, 2009 marked the 30th anniversary of the San Francisco Spiral Dance ritual. The first ritual was organized in 1979 as a book-release event for “The Spiral Dance” by Starhawk. As part of our “Anniversary Archives” work, RQ talked with Starhawk about what led her to organize the first ritual, and the eventual decision to make it an annual event.

RQ: How did you first come to Witchcraft and the Goddess? The first time I met witches was when I was reading tarot cards at a Renaissance Faire when I was around 15, in Los Angeles. There was a booth of witches next to us. I didn’t know what they were about, but they were selling herbs and potions and stuff. although that didn’t last long. We had a went in. There was Z Budapest. She When I was at UCLA in 1967, my little coven going, but we didn’t really had a shop and a coven in her Dianic friend Patty and I did an anthropology know what we were doing, we were just Tradition. project looking into witches, and experimenting. I got very excited, and went to eventually we met up with these same I was like 17 or 18 at the time. one of her rituals – she was having big people. They were from the American There were a lot of other things going rituals, with 75-100 women. Celtic tradition, their names were Fred on, and I kind of drifted away from and Martha. They talked about the Old spirituality. RQ: So this got you started with Religion and the Goddess. Several years later, in the early organizing rituals? This was the first time I had ever 70s, I got involved with a women’s No. Right after that my relationship heard of the Goddess in that kind of consciousness-raising group, around ended, I dropped out of school, and I context. I had never thought of seeing ’72-73. We met for a number of years, left L.A. and went traveling around on a spirit as female. My images of spirit and got very close. A couple of times we bicycle. had always been in terms of nature got together and did rituals. I ended up spending a winter in and sexuality. These witches said this But in the feminist movement at New York. I went there to be a writer, was the Old Religion, that nature and that time, there was sort of an anti- but New York wasn’t right for me. I sexuality are sacred. spiritual bias – I always thought there decided to come back to the west coast I said, “Wow, that’s what I’ve was a connection between feminism and always believed.” And from that time on spirituality, but it seemed like no one continued on next page I was hooked. else did. Then one day I was driving through Images ©2009 by Michael Rauner RQ: What were your first steps? L.A. and I saw a shop called Feminist We started training with these people, Wicca. I immediately stopped and www.michaelrauner.com

18 Re c l a i m i n g Qu a r t e r l y • i s s u e #100 The Spiral Dance continued from preceding page and move to Northern California. This was around ’75. I imagined living in Bolinas and reading fortunes and writing books. But I wound up in San Francisco.

RQ: What were your hopes and dreams at that time? When I moved here, I wanted to be a writer. I really wanted to write fiction. I’d written some novels that I wasn’t able to get published. An agent I talked with suggested nonfiction was a lot easier to get published. I started to write about my spiritual quest and what I saw as a new approach to spirituality. Gradually this focused on the Goddess tradition and turned into tions and get chased around campus by involvement in activism. You The Spiral Dance. the police. But I didn’t see myself as a mentioned Vietnam-era protests, So I wanted to write that book and leader. which I remember you wrote about get it published – and I wanted to make Way back in nursery school, my in Walking to Mercury. Where did a living as a writer. lowest mark was in leadership quality. I your connection and commitment to I didn’t foresee that this would lead guess I’ve been overcompensating ever activism come from? to public organizing. I was teaching since. Partly from my family background. My and reading at psychic fairs as a way I am by nature shy and quiet. If I father was an activist and communist in to develop material for the book. But I were naturally outgoing and extroverted, the 1930s. He died when I was five, so didn’t see myself as an organizer. my whole life might have been different. I didn’t really know him directly. But I In the 60s, I had been politically heard stories about him and his activism. active. I would show up at demonstra- RQ: Let’s talk about your early It also came from living in the Bay Area. There has always been a strong activist community in San Francisco. Groups of witches got involved in rituals at Take Back the Night marches, anti-nuclear marches, and other events. And I had my own sense of connection to the Earth and the Goddess. It seemed to me that this was part of the work of creating liberation for women and men – shifting our perception of the sacred.

RQ: Was this a common view at the time? No — at the beginning it seemed totally nuts to a lot of people. As I mentioned, a lot of feminists were anti-religion. There were a few people like Z Budapest who were doing feminist Wicca, but it

Images ©2009 by Michael Rauner • www.michaelrauner.com continued on next page

Re c l a i m i n g Qu a r t e r l y • i s s u e #100 • 19 and see where we can take this.” night, there were 500 people. It was so The Spiral Dance packed that we turned people away. RQ: How did the first Spiral Dance continued from preceding page ritual originate? RQ: Let’s talk about a few details was a very small group who was saying I had been writing The Spiral Dance from the early days. I’ve always “all this political stuff has a bearing pretty much from the time I arrived in wondered about the source of the on feminism” — that creating our own San Francisco in 1975, writing early spiral dance itself — the dance, not rituals and exploring our own spiritual drafts and getting a lot of rejection the ritual. nature can be part of our political work. notices. To be honest, I don’t know the source. I helped start a coven called I would guess as a form that it goes RQ: Had you helped organize public Compost Coven, women and men. A way back, although not necessarily as a rituals prior to the 1979 Spiral mixed coven was not unusual at the continuous, unbroken tradition. Many Dance? time. What was unusual was a mixed different cultures have versions of it. Not really. I had been to some public coven with an explicitly feminist And the spiral as a symbol goes way rituals of NROOGD (the New Reformed point of view — feminist covens were back, to cave art. Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn). typically women-only. In 1975, when I moved up to San And I mentioned doing rituals connected During this time we started an all- Francisco, I saw NROOGD do a version to Take Back the Night marches that women’s circle called Raving – that of the dance. They had everyone start were politically focused. circle, including myself, Kevyn Lutton, facing outward. They spiraled out, made The 1979 book-release for The Susan Stern, Lauren Liebling, and Diane one turn, then spiraled in to finish. Spiral Dance was the first big public Baker – this group formed the core of At a 1975 Women’s Summer event. the first Spiral Dance ritual. Solstice at one of the rivers in Northern Really, the book release was the When Harper decided to publish California, other organizers seemed to excuse for doing a big ritual. It was The Spiral Dance in 1979, they gave be dropping out. I felt like if we said we more like an aesthetic experiment – I us money for a book party. We decided were going to do something, we should had friends, different artists, poets, to use it to organize a ritual. We invited make it happen. I have a hard time musicians, and we wanted to create a friends who were artists, dancers, poets letting go of that sense of responsibility. big spectacle and see what happened. and more, to create this amazing ritual. Others were laying around saying, I was thinking about how to bring That first ritual was two nights “Whatever happens, happens.” I was together music, dance, art – the way art – the first included the media and saying, “Let’s make things happen.” and music are brought together in other photographers, the second was more One of those things was a spiral traditions. I said, “Let’s start our own private. It was free, since Harper put up dance. At that ritual, I started the dance money. It was held at Fort Mason, in a facing in, and spiraled inward to start. space that no longer exists. The second continued on next page The Last Wild Witch by Starhawk • illustrations by Lindy Kehoe An eco-fable for kids and other free spir- its. In the heart of the last magic forest lived the last wild Witch. This is the story of how the children of the perfect town let a little wildness get inside of them, find their joy and courage, and save the last wild Witch and the last magic for- est from disappear- ing.

“Thought- ful, moving and beauti- ful” — Alice Walker

20 Re c l a i m i n g Qu a r t e r l y • i s s u e #100 The Spiral Dance continued from preceding page I don’t remember how I knew it. It just seemed right.

RQ: Did you see the Spiral Dance as an ongoing event? No, we didn’t imagine we would ever do it again. We thought it was a one- time thing we were doing. But we hoped that it might open some other doors. We wanted to push the intersection of ritual and art, push it to an edge and see what came out of it. At that time there weren’t a lot of people doing public rituals. tickets. People were There was very always pressuring us to little that was “out” get in, that part of the or public about organizing was a living Wicca. So the big hell. ritual was unusual. In 1989 (the tenth In 1980, anniversary of The Spiral Gwydion Dance and the first Pendderwen, ritual), I wanted to do a who was part ritual for 1000 people... of NROOGD, organized a To Be Continued... Witches’ Ball. See next page for He asked us to Starhawk on the “Music do another Spiral of the Spiral Dance.” Dance ritual in conjunction with the Witches’ Ball. It and organized the ritual, the first at This interview and the was not quite as elaborate as the first, the Women’s Building (a multi-use next about Reclaiming music conducted but it included the chorus. building in the Mission District of San in Fall 2009 by George Franklin ©2009 In 1981, a lot of us were down Francisco), where it was held until the by RQ. at Diablo Canyon (construction site tenth anniversary in 1989. for a nuclear power plant in southern The Women’s Building was not Images ©2009 by Michael Rauner California) most of September. Macha that large (it held about 300 people NightMare and others stepped up when packed), so there was a limit on www.michaelrauner.com

Re c l a i m i n g Qu a r t e r l y • i s s u e #100 • 21 Music from the Spiral Dance ritual

Where did the songs come from?

While talking with Starhawk about The ritual circle would spiral slowly on the Let It Begin Now CD.) the history of the Spiral Dance (see inward to these litanies, and then spiral In the 1990s, Deborah Hamouris preceding pages), we asked about the out to more positive litanies. Of course, wrote a new version of the “Goddess music for the ritual, which has evolved it never worked exactly right. Song” (which incorporates much of the steadily over the years. As I recall, we used “The Gates,” older song — available on Reclaiming’s with music by Bonnie Barnett, and the Witches Brew CD). RQ: Where did the music for the refrain “What is remembered lives.” The Spiral Dance come from? Which of spoken litanies were done over this. RQ: It seems like the early the songs on Let It Begin Now are It wasn’t until 1989, for the tenth Reclaiming days were a very rich time from the first few Samhain rituals? anniversary, that I wrote the Quatrain for pagan chants. Tell us where some (“Let it begin with each step we take / of yours came from. The “Let It Begin Now” litany, the Let it begin with each change we make earliest version, is from the first Spiral A lot of people were writing new / Let it begin with each chain we break / Dance. Some of us had gone to a poetry chants and songs at that time. I Let it begin every time we awake”). The reading by Diane Di Prima, and she read remember writing “Demeter’s Song song was still changing at that time. a long poem with the refrain “May It (I Am the Wealthy One)” at a time In the mid-80s, we also added the Continue,” a very Buddhist feel. That when I was really broke, and singing, first version of the “Goddess Song.” gave me the idea for the refrain “Let It “There is no end to my abundance, no People also wanted a new God song, Begin Now.” end.” I wrote it and forgot about it, but because they felt “Honor to the Untamed In the original version, there were someone found the words and liked it. God” didn’t have enough energy. four spoken litanies: one for people we Eventually, we included it in the Spiral I went out in the back yard at Black knew who had died; one for endangered Dance. Cat house and asked: “What do you or extinct species; one for heroes and “Weave and Spin” was written for want us to say?” From there I came up heroines; and one for victims of violence. the multi-cultural ritual in 1992, at the with the words, and Michael Charnes We ended by remembering the added the music. (All of these songs are continued on next page witches who had been killed.

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22 Re c l a i m i n g Qu a r t e r l y • i s s u e #100 We were working with Spiral Dance Music different pentacles. For continued from preceding page the Pentacle of Death night we needed a song. County Fair Building. We had I loved the music from altars to different traditions the Chieftans, so I wrote and ancestors. The idea was new words to it. that people would take a strip “We Are the Power of colored cloth from each of in Everyone” is from the altars, then weave them the Livermore 1982 into a big basket – “Weave anti-nuclear protest, held and Spin” was written for that on Summer Solstice. It working. was also a full moon, so The “strand by strand” that’s the part about the descant came from a song “dance of the moon and some of us wrote at BC sun.” (British Columbia) Witchcamp called “Powerful Song,” and Note — most of we noticed it worked with these songs are on “Weave and Spin” too. Reclaiming’s Let It “Weaver, Weaver” is Begin Now or Chants: written to the tune of an old Ritual Music CDs. lament to Bonnie Prince These and other CDs Charlie. The Chieftans recorded are available on the RQ it on an album one year when website, where you can Hypnotherapy & Reiki we were doing SpiralHeart hear samples and order for your Mind, Body & Soul Witchcamp in West Virginia. CDs or downloads. Ewa Litauer

415.364.1853 [email protected] www.sfhypnotherapy.com San Francisco Mission District

Re c l a i m i n g Qu a r t e r l y • i s s u e #100 • 23