Starhawk's Pagan Chants - stories & lore

 

Starhawk's Pagan Chants: Reclaiming Sings Ritual Music by Starhawk - released Spring 2025 - includes ten classic chants going back to 1994's Second Chants,  all five songs from 2016's Campfire Chants, plus our latest electronic, disco, and samba remixes!

 

Visit this page during mid-2025 for stories, lore, and cautionary tales about each chant! All chants are already live in streaming services - links above.

 

Chants Lore - She Changes Everything by Starhawk

 

Starhawk: She Changes Everything was the first chant I wrote. In 1975, a friend in LA who was in my women’s consciousness raising group was dying of breast cancer, and we wanted to do a ritual for her. 

 

So I created a ritual with some friends that went through the different stages of grief and loss, an all-night ritual centered around the myth of Demeter and Persephone. I was young then - now I’m at a stage of my life where I don’t create all-night rituals!

 

As part of it, we put people to sleep in the underworld. I created a tape beforehand that told the story of Demeter and Persephone. As I recorded it, I started chanting things about Persephone, “She changes everything she touches, and everything She touches changes,” chanting that over and over. The tune is so simple because it comes out of the rhythm and music of speech.

 

The Kore words (which are recorded on Reclaiming's Chants: Ritual Music album) were written for this ritual.

 

 

[The chant often gets sung at Spring Equinox rituals.] It seems to fit that time of year - although the Eleusinian Mysteries were actually performed in the Fall. The “dead” time of year [in Greece] is Summer - things are hot and dry, and everything is dormant. Then the rains come in the Fall and everything is alive again.

 

But they also had rites in the Spring, and it seems to fit here in California when everything is green and we have regeneration.

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Next: Rise with the Fire (Funky Samba Version)

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Coming soon - chant is live on streaming services!

 

Got chants stories?

 

You can join the conversation by Replying with your own stories, anecdotes, questions, musings, etc. Let's share\ how these chants get sung! Email us at the contact just below.

CONTACT

ReclaimingQuarterly@gmail.com

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