I’ve been involved in the Reclaiming tradition for about 7 years now, and one of the tools which is taught as a ‘core class’ in Reclaiming is the Iron Pentacle. Paired with the Pearl Pentacle, this meditational tool came from Feri and has evolved within Reclaiming into something slightly different, and just as useful. I shan’t be talking about the history, or much about the differences, here, but I would like to share some thoughts about these pentacles over the next few weeks.

The Iron pentacle rewards repeated work. It has as its points topics which hold a great deal of power for people in our culture, and which our society has denigrated and damaged and made taboo. The words themselves have power, and were chosen for this reason; if we can reclaim them in a healthy way, we can heal the divisions within ourselves that denying parts of our birthright has caused.

The points of the Iron Pentacle are:

Sex

Pride

Self

Power

Passion

Why Iron? Well, the earth has a core of iron, and we are of the earth, made of starstuff which has settled into a planet and lives. Our blood contains iron, iron strengthens us, keeps us alive. Iron is also an irritant; it scratches and stimulates and brings things to the surface. When red hot iron energy flows through us it burns away blocks, releasing energy which we have bound up in those places, which has not been allowed to flow.

We start with Iron to cleanse and strengthen our foundations as human beings. As human we are alive and sensual, we all have something we can be proud of, we have selves which are worthy of care and love, we hold the power in ourselves to act in the world and shape our lives, and we have passions and feel. Our culture has denigrated all these things. We are alive, we are blessed to walk this earth, and we have a right to delight in being alive, in community with other embodied beings. I intend to write a series of posts exploring each of these points from the perspective of the Reclaiming tradition.

At its heart, the Iron Pentacle is about healing ourselves and becoming strong in ourselves, in order to heal our community, our culture, the world. As everything is connected, healing one part heals part of the whole, and this ripples out…

 

Further Reading:

Reclaiming’s Principles of Unity

Starhawk, Spiral Dance

T. Thorn Coyle, Evolutionary Witchcraft