by valerie walker

TheoryEverything You Know is Wrong:a personal vision of the Craft

A personal vision of the Craft: Over the last thirty years, whenever I have spoken about"the Craft," I have frequently used the term as a shorthand description of Witchcraft ingeneral. More recently, however, I have come to think of it specifically in reference to theFaery/Feri Tradition. This is due to the influence of Cora Anderson, widow of its founder,Victor Anderson, and retired Grandmaster. I was Cora's weekend caregiver for five of thenine years she has been disabled physically by a stroke, and have found her to be not onlya delightful person, but also a mine of information about the Tradition. She has been theprimary influence on me in both writing about Feri, and in my progress in the Craft.

There are those who think of Feri primarily as a faith or an art; but Feri to me is a tool-kitfor dealing with paradox... and I am doing my best to deal with the paradoxes that comewith the tool-kit. It is not easy to express much of what I have learned, because most ofthe secrets of Feri are secrets in that they are inexpressible. However, there are enoughpieces of lore that can be passed on in words and pictures that I do not simply shrug andgive up trying to pass them on to the interested student or inquirer. I think that honestquestions deserve answers, as much as it is within my ability to give them. And, as SergeKahili King said, "Knowledge held secret is about as useful as money under a miser'smattress."

What do Feris believe? is often the first question I hear, and the answer is not at all simple.We human beings get too hung up in our metaphors, forgetting that the map is not theterritory. Reality and belief also have their own gradations:

Ultimate reality: unknowable. You just have to trust that things are. This is the area ofMystery. I don't talk much about this, because it's really not a subject that the Englishlanguage is constructed to talk about.

Memetic/consensus reality: there are memes which have become very powerful over timeand with increased numbers of believers, so that they have assumed an almost physicalreality (this level of reality is where I see the gods living; Neil Gaiman's novel AmericanGods takes this view and expresses it very well).

Physical reality: If I bang my head into the wall, I will get a headache and establish thatthe wall exists. However, for a quantum physicist that wall is made up of teeny littlepackets of something which may or may not be there, so in theory it might be possible towalk through the wall. Perhaps physical reality is also faith-based.Personal reality: my own particular mishmash of beliefs in memes, things, objects, statesof being, and so on. I can't communicate it to anyone else except through metaphor. And Ican never be quite sure that they are getting it in the same way I get it. As Buddha said inthe Shurangama Sutra, "a person pointing his finger at the moon... should see the moon. If

he looks at the finger instead and mistakes it for the moon, he loses not only the moon butthe finger also."

This is where we all run into trouble, because it's so easy to forget that personal reality isnot necessarily physical reality is not necessarily memetic reality, even though all aresubsumed under ultimate reality. It's all true. It's all lies. It's all sacred. It's all bullshit. It'sall based on where you stand. "Your doubt is your faith if necessary in your particular caseperhaps," as the Morgan Tarot puts it.

And since it's all based on where you stand, you can take that hypothetical wall ofphysical reality and paint it, decorate it, knock it down, find windows and doors in it, sitin its shade, jump over it, tunnel under it, go around it, walk along the top of it if yourbalance is good and you happen to be headed in that direction... or even walk rightthrough it. So. Here's my take on the core Feri beliefs.

What is the Feri Tradition? In the (nonexistent until some fortunate future date)Encyclopedia of Paganism, my entry for Feri would read something like this:

Feri (also spelled Faery, and occasionally Fairy) is a non-Gardnerian tradition ofWitchcraft which derives some of its tone and teachings from such widely-scatteredorigins as Hawaiian Huna, Haitian Voudon, Qabala, and British Traditional Witchcraft,among others; there are also some apparent Thelemic influences as well. Victor Anderson(1917-2001) is credited with being the main advocate of a Feri approach, but heapparently did not admit to being the creator of the tradition, but rather the transmitterof knowledge that he'd received himself.

Victor was an autodidact, a shaman and a charismatic teacher whose influence is still felt.His private library contains many books on occult subjects by authors ranging from MaxFreedom Long to R. J. Stewart, Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey, and Robert Graves (just toname a few), with several of whom he corresponded, and whose influence can be seen inhis teachings. In an open letter that he wrote to Llewellyn publishers over 10 years ago,Victor Anderson stated [his spellings and punctuation are retained]:

August 21, 1991...

I don't consider myself the founder of the "fairy" tradition, but I am a Grand Master and afairy chief. I am the founder of the chapter of my faith on the West Coast of the UnitedStates.... I was initiated in 1926... by a priestess from Africa.... The worship of the Goddesswas the very heart of our religion and magic....I am a Kahuna. This is a fact of my racial heritage, personal experience and training. Theword Kahuna means "the secret," and is the same in the fairy tradition and the Polynesianreligion and magic. Although we were willing to learn new things, we already had adefinite and coherent body of knowledge and tradition of our own.So we were not mainly eclectic. The fairy tradition has much in common with Voudonand Santeria.

.... Ashe....

Oathbound material: Remarkably little is actually oathbound material, according toCora Anderson, Victor's earliest initiate: the Names of the Feri deities and Guardians, andthe inexpressible current of energy which is passed from teacher to student at initiation.However, as Victor's initiates initiated others, and these others initiated still others, thepractices, lore, theology, and viewpoints of the various branches departed farther andfarther from Victor's original teachings, although his pronouncements were still takenvery seriously. (And, of course, as Victor's own way of thinking evolved, it changedsomewhat -- although not in the essentials.)

As in other religious groups, the interpretations and reinterpretations of the founder'sstatements became more and more baroque, giving rise to a veritable Midrash ofoften-conflicting views. Adding to this trend was the habit of most initiators to regard theproprietary lore of their particular line as "oathbound material," i.e., not to be passed toanyone except initiates into that particular line of initiation descended from VictorAnderson. And since the lines talked to each other less and less as the years passed, theresult was a tendency in recent years to regard more and more information as oathbound.Ironically, some material which was originally quite secret, such as the Iron Pentacle, isnow widely disseminated.

Naturally, in such a secretive, brilliant, cranky group of people, the revealing ofinformation was looked on as a supreme evil, even in cases where this information hadbeen spread all over the Internet for years. The politics of Feri is much like the politics ofany occult group; one has only to look at the squabbles among Aleister Crowley and hisfellow-Thelemics to get a sense of the intensity of the fireworks which greeted theappearance of every piece of writing from an acknowledged Feri.

What I am trying to do in Feri: I have been attempting to take the incredibly baroqueversion of ritual and lore given to me by my second Feri initiators and others, andsimplify it, while still keeping the flavor, the important things, and not denying the truthsthat I have painstakingly garnered in the years since my first Faery initiation. I think it'spossible, like reducing a sauce in cooking -- you don't have to add a lot of ingredients, butyou have to cook it slowly and with care and patient attention for a long time. And giventhat time and care, there's a transformation of what may have been simple ingredientsinto something wonderful. It's like inner alchemy, or any of the really important bits fromthe Western magickal tradition. You don't need to keep adding and adding. And that's themistake I think people have been making with it. Cora Anderson has told me repeatedlythat "it's really simple."

The reader should understand that my version of Feri is not quite like anyone else's...which makes me just like every other Feri. We are all cranky, highly individual, fiercelydevoted to our own personal vision; the difference is merely that I don't claim to have allthe truth, and have never stopped asking embarrassing questions at "inappropriate"moments.

Feri FAQscompiled and answered by veedub (valerie walker)

[Valerie Walker, initiate of Starhawk (1976), initiate of Niklas Gander and Willow Moon(2001), informal student of Cora Anderson (2001-2008); founder, DustBunny line]

N.B.: This material has been processed through my personal filter, and reflects my own takeon the Feri Faith. If anyone should have major substantive disagreements with any of thismaterial, have alternate observations to make on any of the topics, or have suggestions fortopics not covered here, feel free to email me at v.weatherwax@gmail.com. This is a work inprogress, as is Feri itself. My sources include archives of several Feri e-lists, personalconversations with a number of Feri elders including Grandmaster Cora Anderson, thetraining materials developed by Niklas Gander and Willow Moon for NightHares, a great dealof Internet research, and online discussions with Corvia Blackthorn and many other Feriinitiates, students, and friendly observers. Many thanks to all of you.

What is the Feri tradition?

All Feris are part of the same initiatory lineage and share knowledge of certain secret Namesafter initiation. ... I think we probably share an emphasis on direct personal interaction withdeities/spirits/powers and other realms of being; an emphasis on the development of the Self;an emphasis on ecstasy and the fluidly sexual nature of, well...everything! There's often ahigh level of creativity and a love of things wild, beautiful, and poetic. I think there's a sharedwillingness to face the darkness along with the light within ourselves and our gods. Also acomfort-zone with Lucifer not found among most neo-Pagans and Wiccans.--Corvia Blackthorn (CB), email[I am told that this comfort-zone is not universal among Feris.--vw]

The Feri Tradition reveres the Goddess and the Divine Twins (who are Her son, brother andlover) as the primary Creative forces. The Gods are seen as real spirit beings like ourselves,not merely aspects of our psyche.--Soul Fire(SF)

For more of the Vicia point of view as represented by Soul Fire, Corvia Blackthorn, and theirassociates, see their website at http://www.lilithslantern.com

It is an ecstatic, rather than fertility tradition, emphasizing polytheism, practical magic,self-development and theurgy. Strong emphasis is placed on sensual experience andawareness, including sexual mysticism, which is not limited to heterosexual expression. Thisis a mystery tradition of power, mystery, danger, ecstasy, and direct communication withdivinity--Anna Korn, http://www.cog.org/wicca/trads/faery.html.

Who created Feri?

Victor Anderson (1917-2001) is credited with being the main advocate of a Feri approach, butI don't think he'd admit to being the creator, but rather the transmitter of knowledge that he'dreceived himself. Victor was perpetuating an approach, but was not dogmatic about specificlore he was taught.-- Niklas Gander (NG), phone conversation

There has been much discussion about where Feri originated. Several versions of the storyhave been circulated:1. that Victor was initiated individually by an old woman of either Gypsy or African stock.This happened in 1926 or 1927 when Victor was living in either New Mexico, Ashland,Oregon or Bend, Oregon (accounts differ);2. that Victor was initiated and given the Mysteries in 1929 by Harpy Coven in Oregon, andthat this coven was formed by migrants from Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Accounts of Victor's original teachers differ. Gwydion Pendderwen describes some of Victor'steachers in the first (hardback) edition of Thorns of the Bloodrose: In the Oregon of his youthwere many strange and wonderful persons who became his teachers. An Indian who barelyspoke English, a band of gypsies who seemed never to grow old, and the ever-present cronewho lived in a decrepit hovel on the edge of town....

Cora Anderson mentioned that Victor had a Hawaiian girlfriend when he was in his earlyteens (to whom one of the poems in Thorns was dedicated), and was presumably exposed toHuna at that time.

In an open letter that Victor wrote to Llewellyn publishers over 10 years ago, Victor Andersonstated [his spellings and punctuation are retained]:(letter courtesy of SF)

August 21, 1991...

I don't consider myself the founder of the "fairy" tradition, but I am a Grand Master and afairy chief. I am the founder of the chapter of my faith on the West Coast of the UnitedStates....

I was initiated in 1926, not 1932, by a priestess from Africa. The names of the members ofHarpy Coven were not to be made public. The name of our coven should have revealed ...something of the nature of our religion and practice: Harpy is a Greek word for a kind offeminine nature spirit that appears like a bird with a woman's head and a woman's arms andhands for its legs and feet. The name means "snatcher."...

The worship of the Goddess was the very heart of our religion and magic. Lilith was one ofthe names used in our ritual worship of the Lady. Her name is derived from Lilitu, meaning a

storm or tornado. We did not think of her as merely the Goddess, but as God Herself.We worshipped the Consort of the Goddess. We did not worship him because it was necessarybut because she brought him forth out of her divine lust. Our worship of him was an act oflove. Although the Goddess tells us that away from the sweet influence of her love, he is themost terrible of all spirits, he is not the fallen angel or "Satan" of Christianity or Islam. Thename Setan (the vowels pronounced as in Italian) is one of his names but has nothing to dowith the Christians' name of their fallen angel: It means soul fire. He is the same God as Ja orEl.

The statement that "the coven was quite eclectic, mixing Huna with folk magic" is incorrectfor the following reasons: I am a Kahuna. This is a fact of my racial heritage, personalexperience and training. The word Kahuna means "the secret," and is the same in the fairytradition and the Polynesian religion and magic. Although we were willing to learn new things,we already had a definite and coherent body of knowledge and tradition of our own.

So we were not mainly eclectic. The fairy tradition has much in common with Voudon andSanteria.

Our celebrations of the Sabat, moons and other rituals, and seasonal observations were muchthe same as in other traditions. We were ritualistic and devotional, and we were concernedwith theology, worship and ethics. Our simple meal of bread and wine occurred only aftercompleting the work and worship in the circle. Ashe.

It is not my purpose to lift up self righteous skirts and kick Satanist, but for reasons I believeto be quite obvious I resent [being linked] with Satanism. I could care less what a religioncalls their God, so long as they adhere to constructive and ethical beliefs and practices.

Phoenix Willow says:Victor taught that that Feri was a religion/magical science dating back to a primordial "smallslender dark people" who came out of Africa many thousands of years ago. These are theoriginal "fairies" and they turn up in the legends of many cultures under different names.

What's the history of Feri? What are some of the lineages?

Victor Anderson started creating the Feri trad more-or-less as we know it in the 1940s. Hebegan initiating people on an individual basis into the tradition before the 1950's. Accordingto Cora, Victor received a letter in 1960 [other accounts say it was a phone call] from severalwitches in Italy, among them Leo Martello, asking him to form a coven in California.

Gwydion Pendderwen/Watchmaker - During the 1950's and 60's, Victor's Craft"foster-son," Gwydion Pendderwen (Tom deLong) worked with him, and helped to edit andpublish Victor's book, Thorns of the Blood Rose. Gwydion emphasized Celtic origins almostexclusively in his own practice, with a smattering of Voudoun; other teachers haveemphasized the Hawaiian, the African-diaspora, or even traced the lineage back to the

Attacotti, who were small dark possibly southern European settlers in Scotland thousands ofyears ago. Gwydion later moved north to Annwfn (Witch-owned land in Mendocino county),and worked psychedelic group shamanic and Voudon rituals. Gwydion produced a largenumber of articles, rituals, poems, and songs before his death in 1982. There is a line of Feridescended from Gwydion, known as Watchmaker. Not much is known about this line, as itspractitioners are quite reclusive.

Vanthi - The late Alison Harlow, initiated by Victor Anderson and Gwydion Pendderwen inthe early 1970s, brought in a taste of Gardnerianism to her coven/lineage, Vanthi. She wasmade 3rd degree Gardnerian many years after her Feri initiation and training. Somedescendants of Vanthi still teach as a coven. Other descendants teach as individuals. Some ofthe Vanthi line lore is quite different from the lines of Feri that descend from the Bloodroseline. --J'te, August 2008

Bloodrose - Eldri Littlewolf met Victor and Cora in 1969 but didn't get initiated into Feri untilfive years later; she, Gabriel Carillo, Tony Spurlock, and Stephen Hewell were the basis ofcoven Silver Wheel, [later Korythalia, and finally Bloodrose]. Silver Wheel was formed in theWinter of 1975-76, and ceased in 1980. ...Gabriel taught his first classes under the name ofBloodrose.... (Stephen Hewell, email) Gabriel's line became known as Bloodrose, and hasmany descendants who are still teaching, as is Gabriel.

Compost Feri - Compost Coven was formed in the early 1970s.... The founding HighPriestess, Starhawk, had been initiated into the Faery tradition; but strands of many traditions,learned both from personal contact with Witches and from books, added to the archetypalmaterials which arose from dreams and group trancework, were woven by the originalComposters to form a web of unique design, unlike that of any other group.(Note that the teachings on the compostcoven site range from Feri to purest Eclectic,depending on the author.)

The Compost Tradition lives on in the DustBunny group, my ongoing class, and in thenewly-formed coven of its Feri initiates, GoldenThread. Over the years, I had passed theFaery Mysteries to several Composters, Willow Moon among them. Willow (with his partnerNiklas Gander) later adopted me into their NightHares line, downline from BloodRose, whilestill considering my earlier initiation to be valid. At first highly influenced by NightHarespractice and lore, I have gradually departed from their way of doing Feri, seeking a morestreamlined version of ritual practice. Under the influence of Cora Anderson, the people ofher Vicia line, and my own researches into Feri, I am developing a set of my own teachingand devotional materials, and teach them both online and in person to the DustBunniesgroup and its initiates. Thus the Feri stream in Compost resurfaces as a Feri lineage.

Mandorla/Vicia - Mandorla Coven, to which Corvia Blackthorn belongs, was founded byinitiates of Victor and Cora Anderson, and practices a form of Feri known as Vicia. This lineuses material taught by the Andersons in the 1980s and '90s and differs somewhat from themajority of Feri being taught today. They trace their lineage directly to Victor and Cora. They

tend to initiate first and teach afterward, and are more improvisational and less scripted thanBloodrose-descended lines. Their website and bookstore, through which works by Victor andCora can be ordered, is at http://www.lilithslantern.com.

Phoenix says, My primary teachers are initiates of Victor and Cora. What I'm learning areinitiatory teachings from Victor and Cora, plus my teachers' personal experiences andapproaches. When asked what makes Vicia different from the other Feri lineages, she said: I'dsay that we're more improvisational and less scripted. Definitely more kitchenwitchy and lesshigh church in ritual than folks downline from Bloodrose..... We don't work with a closedpantheon. If anything, I'd say the emphasis is probably on the Star Goddess and the Twins(different from the Twins found in other branches)... We don't do Empowerment/Quickening.Instead there's a single initiation that includes a passing of power. We don't do the 'demonwork' that originated with Bloodrose, nor do we use their Lead pentacle. ... Initiation usuallycomes near the beginning of training, rather than after many years of study. We don't chargemoney for Feri training, just as the Andersons never did. On the other hand, training isnormally in a coven/apprenticeship setting--so there's a lot less opportunity for folks to do it.We tend to be very reclusive.

Which other Pagan traditions seem most compatible with Feri? Which don't seem tomix well?

Many Feris hold dual membership in both Feri and other religions such as UnitarianUniversalist, Buddhist, Vodoun, Hindu, Santeria, Subud, Ifa, and many others. There are Feriswho have no problem being both Feri and Gardnerian, Feri and Eclectic, Feri and Sabbatic,Feri and Thelemic, and so on. Each individual Feri is responsible for hir own path, since Feriis not merely a set of doctrines, but a way of being. Traditions that don't mix well would beany tradition which does not allow the practitioner the freedom to disagree. I suppose thereare Pagan trads like this, but the worst examples are generally found among thefundamentalist branches of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim religions. However, there is still someoverlap possible even in these sects. For example, Cora's family was quite Christian, but shewas able to remain a sincere churchgoer and still be a vital force in Feri, or "the Craft", as shecalls it.

Why is it called Feri rather than Faery or Fairy?

According to Corvia Blackthorn:Cora says the name Faerie became attached to the tradition "by accident." Later on, Victorbegan using the spelling Feri in order to distinguish our tradition from other groups using theterms fairy or faerie (R.J. Stewart, Kisma Stepanich, etc.). Various other names were usedover time--including Vicia and possibly Pictish. FWIW, I've never heard either Victor or Corausing the word Feri in casual conversation, it's always just "the Craft."

According to Niklas Gander, Victor explained the word "Feri" as "Fe-Ri", meaning "workersof the Fey (power)."

How is Feri different from other forms of the Craft?

Niklas Gander wrote an article for Witch Eyemagazine that summed it up pretty neatly, atleast from the point of view of the Bloodrose lines. Salient points, with my comments:

-- A number of variously sexual gods as opposed to a divine male-female dyad.-- Non-subscription to the Wiccan Rede and Law of Threefold Return; instead, individualresponsibility for the consequences of one's actions is accepted.-- "the essence of Feri is not found in a shared liturgy as much as in a shared approach tomagic and the Craft" [although some lines are much more "high-church" than others, withmore set liturgy--vw].-- Emphasis on spiritosexual ecstasy leading to personal development rather thanmale-femalesexual polarity leading to fertility or healing. [also, there is an emphasis on bringing energyused in magickal workings back into the practitioner,rather than "grounding"--vw]-- Oral tradition rather than dependent on a written tradition kept in a Book of Shadows.[Each practitioner is expected to add hir own material, so a practitioner downline from anyparticular teacher will have branched out into new directions.--vw]-- Single initiation rather than two- or three-degree system. [This, however, has beensomewhat diluted in some lines by the addition of empowerment/quickening ceremonies atthe beginning of training. Different lines vary widely in the timenecessary before anindividual can be initiated, some lines initiating first and training later, and other taking yearsto train before initiation.--vw].-- "Feri initiations vary widely... as long as certain core lore is passed during the course ofinitiation. In this way, rites of initiation are often tailored to the specific individual beinginitiated."

Another view is available in which Leah Samul interviewed Anna Korn and which appearedin the Compost NewsLetter.

Is Feri a Wiccan tradition?

Feri does not subscribe to the Wiccan Rede, which is an important criterion for inclusionunder the Wiccan classification. The word "Wiccan" has become a pejorative in recent years,mainly because of the proliferation of "fluff-bunny" groups who are self-taught from suchwatered-down sources as the Llewellyn books. However, these groups do not comprise theentirety of Wicca: aside from eclectic/inclusive groups such as Compost, there are many othertraditions in the greater Craft community which share beliefs, lore, and even practice withFeri, among them 1734 (Robert Cochrane), Church and School of Wicca (Gavin and YvonneFrost), sabbatic witchcraft (Andrew Chumbley), and others.

Does Feri tie to an ethnic heritage? Or focus on a specific cultural identity?

Victor, who saw Feri as a universal current and borrowed shamelessly from here, there andeverywhere, was in the habit of emphasizing the cultural connections of each individual

student, and having them "ask their ancestors." But he wasn't hidebound about it; although hefelt that Magick is in the blood, and one must follow one's own genetic heritage, he wasrealistic enough to know that many people either may not know much about their bloodancestors or may want nothing to do with them; so he sensibly went with the student'sindividual leanings.

What do Feris believe?

According to an article by Anna Korn: The Faery Tradition, in common with initiatorylineages of the Craft which practice possession, is a mystery tradition of power, mystery,danger, ecstasy, and direct communication with divinity. This is in contrast to traditions whichpracticepsychodrama or psychotherapy through ritual. [The complete article is athttp://www.cog.org/wicca/trads/faery.html, and it answers many of the questions askedhere.--vw][This article is no longer available.]

Feri is distinguished by some specific beliefs and practices; some of the core concepts are theBlack Heart of Innocence, the warrior ethic, the Three Souls (derived from Huna), and theFeri deities. There are particular deities, who are each regarded as discrete individuals whoare not interchangeable with similar deities from other pantheons; simultaneously, the StarGoddess, the source of all, is all of these, and all of us. (Anna did say it's a mysteryreligion!!;)

What deities do Feris worship?

The Star GoddessThe lemniscate gods (not all lines)The GuardiansOther deities

What are the basic Feri practices?

Some specifically Feri tools used to accomplish self-development work are:a.) Alignment of the Three Soulsb.) The Pentaclesc.) Elemental Balancingd.) EnergyWork (Blue Fire in some lines)e.) Kala Ritef.) Deity workg.) Shadow Lover/Frevachi (Demon work in some lines, not used in all lines)

The Three Souls

We are a trinity. We have a soul that stores the life-force and speaks in symbols and throughplay. We have a soul that communicates through speech and listening, through words andenergy. We have a soul that is Divine, that is ancestor and teacher.--Thorn Coyle

In Feri, each of the three souls is thought to use a different type of energy. (This is prettymuch identical to traditional Huna teachings.) The Fetch/Unihipili uses a basic form of energycalled mana. In Sanskrit this energy is referred to as prana, in Chinese it's called chi. BothFeri and Huna agree that mana is the fundamental energy of life present in everything. OurFetch gathers mana from food, air, etc. to create and maintain our material existence. TheTalker/Uhane amplifies mana into mana-mana. Mana-mana is used to create and maintain ourconscious thought and ability to reason. The God-Self/ Aumakua uses an exponentially morepowerful form of energy known as mana-loa. Through practices like the Ha Prayer, we cangather up and send mana to our God-Self through the Fetch. The God-Self then converts itinto mana-loa and uses it to create/heal/etc. on our behalf. In Huna it is said that the kahunascould instantly heal major injuries and perform other miraculous feats through the power ofmana-loa. --Corvia Blackthorn

The Pentacles of Feri: are a set of meditational devices which are characteristic of, but notexclusively confined to, Feri. All pentacles below are listed in order deosil from the toparound the points, though they can all be worked through the pentacle (i.e., Sex, Pride, Self,Power, Passion for the IP). There are many different ways of running the Pentacles. Starhawktaught the roundways method, but many Feris use the throughway method primarily.

Some good links to further study include: http://www.faerywolf.com/essay_ironpentacle.htm,an article by Storm Faerywolfhttp://www.reclaiming.org/newsletter/67/pentacle.html The Iron Pentacle as a meditative tool,by Hilary Valentine of Reclaiminghttp://www.tejasweb.org/html/writings/epistepentacle.html Epistemology and the Pentacles ofFeri, an article by Mike Rock. [This article is no longer available.]

EnergyWork

About the use of Blue Fire in Feri.

Many years ago, Gabriel introduced a series of exercises for working with "Blue Fire" intoFeri. These exercises were based on prana yoga techniques. This form of Blue Fire issynonymous with mana. So when someone of Bloodrose-derived lineage talks about "BlueFire," they are usually referring to prana/mana/chi. The same is true of Reclaiming, as manyReclaiming folks have trained off-and-on in Bloodrose-derived Feri. These groups have manyexcellent exercises for perceiving and working with this energy.

Victor, however, used the term "Blue Fire" to refer to mana-loa, the "fire of the gods." This ishow the term is used in Cora's book (Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition, pages 39- 40). TheBloodrose lineages usually recognize a mana-loa type of energy as well, but refer to it as"White Fire" or sometimes "Baraka"--an Arabic term of roughly similar meaning to mana-loa.(There may be other terms in use as well.) --Phoenix Willow

There are many ways of raising energy; some specifically Feri methods are the Ka-Ba-Zameditation of Nighthares and the Ladder of Hestia in my own practice, in both of which theenergy of each soul is envisioned while chanting; the Ha Prayer, which sends energy to theGodself by way of the Fetch; energy purifications such as the Kala rite, and others. ThePentacles are another category of energy work.

The Kala Rite

This is a method using a cup of water for purifying energy and reclaiming bound-up life force.Kala is Hawaiian for "to loosen, untie, free; to forgive, pardon, excuse; to proclaim," and tobe kala is to be pure, clean, focused, and clear in intent.

What does it take to be a Feri?

-- Black Heart of Innocence: "the innocent, sexual state found in the child before her forcewas constrained and perverted, and in the animal still roaming in the wild"--Thorn Coyle.-- Warrior ethic: since Feris do not subscribe to the Wiccan Rede, they each have to work outa code of ethics for themselves, one which takes personal responsibility for every act andjudges what is correct action by each situation individually. A lot of discipline is necessary inorder to overcome the temptation to regard one's wants and needs as paramount, supercedingthose of anyone else.-- Ability to face one's own personal demons and come to terms with them-- Ability to "cross over" into the Faerie realm-- Ability to work with the Feri "current"-- Psychological strength and flexibility-- Initiation by a Feri initiate during which the Mysteries are passed-- Ability to develop actual personal relationships with the Gods, up to andoccasionally including actual possession -- Courage enough to go into the wild places of theheart

Adialogue about distance trainingand some student questionsby valerie walker and students

Q.: Would you work with me as a distance teacher? From what I understand, there are twoFeri initiates in [my country] but neither is likely to teach for quite a time because they arefairly new. I also want to work through Thorn's book. Is there likely to be problems doingboth?

My online classes are for beginners in Feri, but students should have some knowledge (andconversation) with other forms of the craft or other areas of the western mystical tradition.Graduates of other distance classes such as Thorn's or Storm's are welcome. (I'm notprejudiced against complete n00bs, but it might be difficult for them to follow without somebackground.)

There is a private Yahoo list in existence for file-swapping and student discussion, and I planto email lessons to students once a month. These will be the exact same lessons I teach inMeatSpace. If you have a hard time keeping up, that's no reason to bediscouraged--everyone's in a different place when it comes to previous studies, emotional andspiritual readiness, and ability to contribute to the online discussions, I would hope that eachstudent will be active on the e-list (to which invitations will be sent out once you sign up), andactually do the work of each lesson (yes, there are assignments for reading, discussion, andsolitary work).

Text (required): The Dustbunnies' Big Damn Handout Book by Valerie Walker, available onlulu.com (free pdf also available for download) Cost is, as always, free. Duration is eighteenmonths, and after that, we'll see. I think that after the first eleven lessons, different studentsmay choose to stick around for more advanced work, or find another teacher, or... It's up to theindividual. And I am fine with students in this class taking classes from other Feri teachers; infact I encourage it.

I believe that the more views a student gets of the Feri tradition, and the more ways s/he hasto work the energy, the better. I never met Victor Anderson, but I'm told by people close tohim that he'd give people the things he felt they needed, and this was different in each case.Plus, Cora Anderson (who I take care of on weekends and have for several years) once toldme "there are a thousand ways to do Feri." When I asked if I could quote her on that she saidwith an impish smile, "well, a hundred."

Let me know if you are interested in the next iteration of the class (they begin each March).You can reach me by sendfing me a personal message at my Facebook page here or onLiveJournal here.

Q: I am reading through Thorn's book and then intend on working through some exercises.Can you suggest some other useful reading? Also, what would you recommend as a beginningpractice? The one on your website or something simpler?

A.: I'd say start working with Thorn's book exercises, and also with my web pages. It's aboutas simple as you will find, I'm afraid. Begin with the Daily practice I page, adding a new itemevery few days or so. Use the circle script as a framework. Save the complicated things, likethe Ladder of Hestia or the full Daily Practice, for a little later. In fact, why don't you trygoing by the curriculum I have set out?

Also, check out the Vicia site at http://www.lilithslantern.com. You will find some interestingessays, good links, and a bookstore for Feri-related writings. (Caveat: everyone is all enthusedabout Thorns of the Blood Rose and 50 Years in the Feri Tradition, but if you are a linearthinker they will just drive you nuts. You have to read them with a poetic eye. 50 Years waswritten by Cora, and she used the same style that Victor did, which is leaping wildly fromsubject to subject, answering questions which were not asked, etc. Maddening. But there is awealth of lore in 50 Years, if you can take the time to read and re-read it.)

Q.: Am I right in saying there isn't a lot of ritual as such in Feri since I don't really see muchmention of it on Feri sites or in Thorn's book? Also, does the same go for festivals?

A.: No, there is a ton of ritual, but most Feris are loath to make it public. If you begin with thebasic circle, which is a much-simplified version of one I was given by my second initiators,you can add on and elaborate as you discover new things which excite you. The main thing isto be excited about what you are doing. A rule of thumb I use for myself: if I find that (after agood try) I am incapable of memorizing a ritual or some other work, that means that deepdown I don't want to remember it, and I should listen to that feeling and substitute somethingwhich does grab me. I don't mean you should indulge in gratuitous importation of bits andpieces from all over the place; you will get a feel for the Feri "taste" and will be able to findother exercises, chants, specific ritual practices, etc. that match that "taste". Sorry to be sovague, but Feri is a very non-linear study. What Victor used to do, according to all theaccounts I've heard, was to tell the individual to look at the practices of his/her ancestors. Soif an African-American person came to him, he'd give her a lot of things about the Africanheritage to study. If the person was Jewish, he'd turn him toward the Kabalah, and so on. Thiswas because he felt that Feri is in the blood, literally, and that we should each be lookingtoward what our ancestors did for clues. Your ancestral heritage might be a good place for youto begin looking.

Festivals are celebrated pretty much as other Wiccan- and Pagan-based trads do. TheAndersons themselves only celebrated things like Xmas, Easter, and Samhain, the holidaysthat made it into the general American secular calendar; but you can feel free to celebrate allor none of the eight wheel-of-the-year holidays. I have attended a Brigid celebration put on byFeris, and the main differences from anyone else's Brigid rite were the particular beginninginvocations and endings.

There was an all-Feri ritual organized by Thorn at Pantheacon 2006, for which I opened andclosed the circle, and Feris from a lot of different lines took different parts. The program blurb

read: A Feri Ritual of Love and Creation: Journey into ritual space, floating in darkness withthe Star Goddess. Make love to yourself, giving birth to paradox, the Divine Twins who arebrothers and lovers. Together they - and you - form something new and beautiful, neitherearth nor air, light nor shadow. This being is the Peacock, beautiful and proud. Dance, shakeyour tail, and fill the seven heavens with thunder! Dress in your finest garb and come ready tojourney. It was the high point of the Con for plenty of people. One participant described it as"a pivotal moment in Feri," when it all came together.

Q.: Sorry to ask such a lot of questions but witchcraft in [my country] is very different in thatit is very traditional Wiccan based.

A.: Well, there aren't that many Feris here in the US either, most being on the West Coast inthe San Francisco Bay area, where I live. Lots of students are learning through Thorn'straveling teaching, but many people aren't anywhere near a live teacher.

If you want to communicate with other Feris, I have an email list on Yahoo. The freeformcrafte-list is an open list, and Witch Eye has a Yahoo list as well.

Q.: I had a look through the curriculum you put up. I presume this is based on weeklylessons?

A.: As if ;) No, the way I've been teaching it is as monthly lessons. I think weekly is a littletoo often. One lunation is a nice significant chunk of time in which to digest each bite andmake it part of you.

Q.: I suppose my question would be if I worked through the curriculum and supplemented thatwith other material, what would be next?

A.: Coming up with your own stuff. The curriculum should give you the basic toolkit. Andthat's really what Feri is in my view, a toolkit. The things you decide to build with it are yourown personal choices, based on your own individual needs and insights. I wouldn't presumeto tell anyone what to build with the toolkit; I simply show examples of things I've come upwith and hope the example rubs off.

Q.: I get the feeling from reading around that Feri seems to be a process that culminates ininitiation after a few years but initiation is not necessarily the aim of it.

A.: Since the following things are true:a) there are very few Feri teachers available for students in far-flung areas;b) there is no self-initiation in this trad;c) there are many many MANYways to "do" Feri;d) not everyone is called to marriage with the gods (which is what initiation is);therefore, not everyone who studies Feri ends up initiated. However, you should never ruleanything out. It might happen some day, if you want it to. And I don't consider initiates a

higher class of being than students, so I can't see that anyone really NEEDS to be initiatedinto Feri unless they sincerely feel called to it. I've initiated several people myself, and it'sbeen very interesting to see how it "took" in the various cases. Some were the better andstronger for it, and some weren't.

Q.: I spent a bit of time this afternoon working through some of Thorn's exercises and theFlower Prayer. I did a water cleansing as Thorn suggested followed by the Flower Prayerand then practiced Expanding Attention and then what she calls the Aligning Prayer, whichseems like a yogic breathing exercise. I have to admit I felt very at ease afterwards but alsofull of energy. Would this seem a good collection of exercises to start with?

A.: Sure. Try doing them in different order and see what the effects are. Try also doing someof them one day and others the next. Record your reactions and thoughts in a journal (or blogif you feel like letting others in on your thoughts). Try skipping a day after you've been doingthese exercises for a while. How does that feel? Keep tinkering with the exercises, trying newways to do them, new places to do them in, new times of day, new words to use. Elaborate.Simplify. Play with them. You might find that you feel better doing a lot more or a lot fewerthings as daily practice. Everyone's different. Make whatever you decide to do your own,however you can. One person made a sort of magickal rosary with sets of beads of differentkinds that stand for the various exercises and prayers she uses. I thought that was particularlyclever. I myself made an altar and various magickal implements. If there's an art form youfavor, definitely do some work in it. Even if you aren't particularly gifted in the visual arts, it'sa good way of involving Fetch as well as Talker and Godself. And you might want to readAnaar's little booklet, The White Wand. She's very right-brained in her approach to Feri. Youcan get her book through her website.

Q.: I wasn't sure what to do with the flower prayer, I can understand what it means but is itmeant as a meditation or a chant or just a statement?

A.: It's the opening statement of the practice as well as the first bit of the meditation; it can bea chant, and it's also a conundrum to puzzle over. Just who IS this flower above us? and whatIS the work of this god? The rest of the practice is, or should be (I think), dedicated to findingthe answers to these questions. That's why I do the flower prayer at the beginning and theKala exercise a little further along in the process.

Q.: I was reading Thorn's book ahead of the exercises I am practicing and came across thesection about consecrating the wand. I wouldn't describe myself as being particularlyrepressed sexually but I found the idea of using my own "juice" to empower a wand difficult todeal with. Is this a regular part of Feri or is it Thorn's particular take on it? Is this somethingthat I should just learn to deal with or could it present a problem in the future?

A.: You can use any "juice" you like. Saliva works. I think it's just using some DNA-bearingsubstance to establish a powerful connection / aka thread with the wand or whatever toolyou're empowering.

There is a recurrent theme in Feri online communications and writings about howtransgressive and out there it is to be Feri, and this is usually taken to mean sexually. However,if you look at the truly transgressive nature of the Andersons, they were actually quiterestrained in terms of physical sex. I think the "transgressive" element came in when lots ofgay and lesbian people were attracted to Feri, and the attempt was made in some quarters todefine Feri as being primarily "queer craft", which was not Victor's idea. Victor's genius wasmore in combining so very many ritual and mythic elements into a reasonably coherent whole,in claiming racial kinship with just about anyone, in making amazing blanket statementswhich couldn't be proven or denied, and in giving a much larger meaning to sexual terms thanmerely physical actions. The Andersons insist that, for example, they had met and had sex foryears on the astral plane before they ever met physically; when they met in person, theyrecognized each other instantly and were married three days later. Now that's transgressive....

Q.: Should I be casting a circle each time I do a practice?

A.: Not unless you feel like it. I don't usually for my daily practice. That way, casting a circle,while familiar, becomes more of a special thing that I share with other people.

Q.: Do you know of any rituals that would work well as a solitary for the full moon that relyon visualization or trance?

A.: Solitary work is best done by either adapting things you like from group work or makingup your own. (At least, this has been true for me. YMMV.) There are so many variations ofvisualization or trance -- here's a pdf of a Chaos magickian's take on the subject. that ought tokeep you busy for a while!

Q.: What I don't really understand is how these exercises really work. I can sense a change invibration but don't understand why visualization and breathwork has this effect. I find I workbetter chanting the KA ZA BA mentally rather than aloud, mainly because I don't want toalarm the neighbors. Will this still have the same effect?

A.: Breathwork and visualization are mysterious things. They definitely work, otherwise theywouldn't be spread all around the world in zillions of different cultures' spiritual practices theyway they are. I think they're hardwired into the human body/brain. It's more fun to do thingsaloud, but a good intense whisper can rock too. I usually do my daily practice in a whisper soas not to disturb my housemate; but when nobody's there I do it out loud. Different but cool inboth circumstances.

Q.: In my daily life I try to be conscious of my Three Selves and do HA prayers. I have apretty good idea of the Three Selves and have done quite a bit of work already. Anything inparticular or in addition I need to focus on?

A.: Look at the functions of the Three Souls AND the body. Four is the number of completion,

and the HA prayer is four breaths, not three. So when you do the HA prayer, bring one out ofthe body and one out of each soul, thus:(breath from feet) HA from the roots: my feet are on the earth(breath from genitals) HA from the stem: my loins are in the moon(breath from heart) HA from the leaves: my heart is in the sun(breath from entire body to above the head, looking up) HA to the flower: my head is in thestars[The plant analogy is mine, the epigraphs are ganked from R. J. Stewart]

Also, look at the way each number generates the next. One (the Star Goddess) generates Two(the Twins). Two generates Three (the Three Souls). Three generates Four (the four planardirections). Four generates Five (the Pentacle). Five generates six (the six directions withAbove and Below) which generates Seven (adding the Center). This is reminiscent of theformation of the Sephiroth in Qabala, or Pythagorean number theory. Go as far with this asyou care to, if you are mathematically inclined. Everything is connected to everything, as LonMilo Duquette proclaimed in his Chicken Qabala.

Q.: On the Feri Circle: are we to simply read over this or actually do it? I haven't done workwith the Guardians yet, and am unsure about the setup, as with the candles. Elementalcandles, I'm assuming. As for the Star Goddess one, would white work?

A.: Do it. Refer to the script as long as you need to until you have it memorized. Then startadding your own little touches. About candles: for the SG I use either white (contains allcolors) or purple (contains red, white and blue, one color system Victor used for the ThreeSouls), or black (contains no colors, the black of the space between the stars). Your choice, orwhichever is easiest to find. But white is default for any candle for which you don't have the"correct" color. These rules are simply more methods to get your psyche attuned to theconcepts behind them. If you have more of a SG association with, say, puce, use that.Personal correspondences trump traditional, in my view.

Q.: On the KA-BA-ZA exercise: I love this! Did you come up with this? It's especially effectivefor me. Why the x9, though? I mean, I know that repetitions are no new thing, but howimportant is it to do it that many times? I don't know if I'd be able to handle it. Just doing itonce leaves me reeling for a good while.

A.: The KA-BA-ZA is not my original creation, but was passed to me by my second initiators,who also recommended the 1-3-6-9 repetitions (probably because 3 is the number of theMaiden, 6 the Mother, and 9 the Crone, I'm guessing). For myself, I do it once to awaken theFetch, focus the Talker, and ask the aid of the Godself, then (usually, unless I am particularlyrushed and need to do a quick-n-dirty practice) follow up with the Ladder of Hestia. Butdoing the KA-BA-ZA full-out nine times is a great way of running energy through the system.

Q.: Something that's bothered me for some time now: I tend to get really sexually arousedduring practice for no reason and my energy gets "stuck" there and doesn't flow evenly

throughout my body. I've learned to ground, which helps, but at times it becomes reallyintense and then painful when I'm stuck on edge for hours when I'm at work.

A.: An interesting reaction, and not uncommon. All energy originating in the root chakramanifests as sexual. Rather than grounding it see if you can return it upward, modulating it asyou go into healing, creative force, courage, openheartedness, truth, clarity, understanding,and stillness (the steps of the Ladder of Hestia). This is where a chakra working such as theLadder can be useful, because the modulations are more gradual than those of a simplethree-step KA-BA-ZA. Follow up with a prayer to the Star Goddess to take the energy andthen a four-breath release (HA prayer). Then reverse directions, use the Kala rite to take inpurified energy from the Star Goddess from above to below, purifying spirit, thought, feeling,and action, thus replacing the volatile energy you just released to the Goddess with the HAprayer with workable energy which you can keep in your body without knocking yourself fora loop. You feed Her and She'll feed you.