Deep in the beliefs and cultures of the world, dwell faeries. What are your first impressions of this statement? Fascination? Amusement, perhaps. To some, The Little People are nothing but a story or tale, told to children on a cold winters' night. To others, they are something a lot more tangible.

I don't think there is a person alive that hasn't heard of faeries. You were probably told fairy tales when you were a child, and recently there has been a spate of Hollywood films on the subject. Throughout history, people have been fascinated by The Little Folk. The Victorians were obsessed with fairies - the classical 'flower fairies' that are seen as tiny, winged, bright-eyes children that dance at the bottom of your garden in the early-morning dew. But their history goes back much further than the past few centuries.

The Faery Faith - as it is - was originally a Pagan tradition that was born out of native Ireland. Later, it was taken up by the Christian faith as this religion came to the land, before all but disappearing as the Catholic church began its crusade in the Middle Ages. If you travel to Ireland now, you may be surprised at the wealth of knowledge and history of the Sidhe (pronounced, shee), particularly at the older inhabitants of that sacred Isle, many of which may even have had first-hand experience of The Little Folk.

FERI TRADITION

Victor Anderson's Feri Tradition

Part One: A General Introduction

from the old British folk-song,
Thomas the Rhymer

There are many Neopagan religious traditions. One of the best known is Gardnerian Wicca, founded by Gerald Gardner. There are, however, many other paths. You can even find several very different traditions with similar names. A currently popular name for Neopagan traditions is Fairy, Faery, or Faerie. One Faery Tradition, also spelled Feri, was founded by Victor Anderson, and developed by Victor and his wife Cora, and several important Feri teachers, largely in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Victor was born in 1917 and became blind at the age of two. He claims spiritual descent from Hawaiian Kahuna and African Vodoun. Victor was initiated into Harpy Coven in Bend, Oregon, as a teen. This group of people worked with the energy in the 1920's and '30's which eventually became the source of the Faerie Tradition. While very different from Gardnerian and other Neopagan Wicca, it was initiatory and magical, working on the phases of the Moon. The group broke up around the time of World War II. In 1944 Victor married Cora. Cora was a Southerner, as had been most of the members of Harpy Coven. She brought Southern folk magic to the practice she and Victor shared and developed. When Gardnerian and Alexandrian materials were published in the 1960's and 1970's, Victor incorporated some of them into his practice.

In the 1960's, the family befriended a boy who grew to became the man known as Gwydion Pendderwen. As a bard sometimes called the Faerie Shaman, Gwydion became one of Victor's best known initiates, spreading some Faerie knowledge through the Neopagan community in the 1970's, and recording his stirring songs, until he died in an automobile accident in 1981. Gwydion added much of the Celtic, particularly Welsh, material, which was absent from Victor's earlier practice.

In fact, the Faerie Tradition is not necessarily Celtic, although some initiated practitioners personally have and teach a chiefly Celtic orientation. According to Cora, in the book Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition, the original name of our tradition was Vicia (pronounced Vee-chya), related to the Italian term La Vecchia.

As Faerie initiates teach others, they each add something of their own interests to the Tradition. Thus, someone trained by one teacher may well learn things that are not taught by another teacher, even though each teacher is a valid initiate. Currently within various authentic branches of Faerie are elements from such diverse sources as Arica, Eckankar, Tibetan Buddhism, Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca, Hawaiian Huna as reinvented by Max Freedom Long, H. P. Lovecraft, Greek mythology, Mesopotamian mythology, Basque mythology, Native American practices, Kaballah, Santeria, Satanism, Sufism, Welsh mythology, and Yezidi traditions, among others. Starhawk is another well-known initiate, who gave her branch of Feri a political focus.

Over the last couple decades, even the spelling of the tradition has varied. Genuine initiates may spell it Fairy, Faery, Faerie, or, as Victor currently spells it, Feri.

So what is the Faerie Tradition? Besides being this very particular blend of mythos and ideologies, it contains certain things that can only be learned through training, practice, and personal experience. While there is a bit of variation from branch to branch, there are some basics which most initiates and teachers agree upon.

Part Two: General Faerie Principles

There is a particular Faerie power or energy current
This energy tends to be:
sensual and sexual,
ecstatic and mystical,
creative and eclectic,
invocatory and trance-possessory,
imbued with a respect for the wisdom of Nature and a love of beauty
The sexual and gender orientation is not limited to heterosexuality.

While we are responsible for what we do, the Faerie Tradition does not have such typically Wiccan rules as "The Wiccan Rede" or "The Threefold Law".

When in an enchanted, fey state, we are perhaps a bit mad, shape shifting, not completely human, or at least inspired by our gods and guardians, on the road to Faerie.

There is a particular Faerie initiatory lineage
The lineage is ultimately traceable back to Victor or Cora, sometimes through Gwydion.

There are particular secret names known to initiates.

There are certain exercises to develop and strengthen the Faerie energy current, including:
the Iron Pentacle,
the Pearl Pentacle,
the Lead Pentacle,
Blue Fire visualization and use

There is a set of deities -- while some of these deities may be found in other traditions, the grouping of the deities and their relationships with each other is unique to Faerie.

There is a unique set of guardians and invocations. The guardians may be associated with the quarters or with the elements. Each is not necessarily associated at all times with both a quarter and an element.

Work is based on the knowledge of the Three Selves.

The initiate gets a cord, or cingulum, of a particular color.

The initiate is passed a body of poetic and liturgical material, although exactly what it consists of varies a bit from one branch to another.

There are particular Faerie customs and practices

Some are explicitly taught and passed, other aspects are generally understood as part of the Faerie energy. Among these are:

The use of the horned pentagram (i.e., the 5-pointed star with two points up)

Primarily solitary or small group working

The Faerie Warrior Code, which includes the Black Heart of Innocence