ABSTRACT

The public appearance of ritualizing women, men and children in urban areas in the western world is no longer unusual. For example, an occasional Sunday walker in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California, may one day have observed the following: thirteen women of many ages, all dressed up in red party clothes, are gathered for the ritual celebration of a teenage girl’s menstruation. As it happens, these women belong to the Reclaiming Witchcraft community.The girl, Sonia, has just had her first period. She is excited and nervous and keeps her mother, grandmother and friend Nicole close at hand. Nicole, who is now eighteen years old, had a similar celebration when she started menstruating five years ago.