than that, a fey person was one who communed with Nature, with Gods
or spirits, and could still live in the world of humans. These people had a
foot in "two worlds," so to speak. Are you an artist, a gardener, a poet,
I .!This thwry camr through his own work and practice and may have also been influenced, as much
nf his grnrration's thinking was, by anthropologist Margarrt Murray.
36
Bvolutionury witchccuft
dancer, or intuitive? You are well on your way to being fey and to having
the ability to gather information from one realm and offer it to another.
We can communicate with the other realms, should we so desire. We
just cannot live there, nor, I feel, should we wish to. The other realms can
be intoxicating to those of us who have trouble living in the here and now.
While we can gather information from nonordinary states and places, we
can also get lost there if we wish to use it as an evasion of responsibility.
We were born into these bodies, into this world, for a reason, and as we
honor Nature, we should embrace our lives as humans. It is our work to
live where we are, as human beings, doing the very best that we can.
Just as creative humans have different ways in which they are fey, they
also have many different experiences with the realms of the Fey, the realms
of Faery. The Fey are of help to cooks, poets, artists, dancers, and singers.
Gardeners will often work with the smaller Fey, the Nature spirits who live
among the plants. Warrior types, or those involved in the bardic arts will
often encounter the towering Sidhe. 13 If you are interested, you can learn
to sense these beings and communicate with them. First though, let us
look at our own fey natures.
FINDING You R FEYNEss
You, too, can be fey. To be fey is to be fully alive in the world you live in
right now. Feyness is in the gift of walking down a city street and sensing
the trees you pass, and the people, and the sky above. It is to feel connected
rather than lost within your own little world, encased in your thoughts and
1-'S,dhr is Gaelic and pronounced "shee." Looking for information on the Tuatha de Danann, literally "proplr of thr Goddrss Danu," also known as the Faery folk, might give you interesting informal ion on dw lt·grnds associated with t hcsc beings.
The suued sp hefe: custin<s with Fefi Fife
.3 7
divorced from your body moving through space and time. To be fey is to
be charged with life force and to see the world with new eyes.
To be fey is to be open. To be open is to celebrate abundance-to see
the world as a gift and a blessing. Magic is within us, may we thrive.
This exercise helps you notice the ways in which you may already have
a fey sensibility, a quality of something a little "extra" in your life, something not quite ordinary.
Divide a piece rf paper into three sections and begin to answer the following questions,
one for each section: What in your life makes you feel "different"? What fears keep you from
cultivating the sense rf walking "in-between"? What changes would you m ake in your life
to cultivate the fey point rf view--to dance, to dream, to stand tall, to have deep knowing?
Make a list rf all these things in your three sections. Check back with them in a Jew months.
Are your answers different, or the same?
LISTENING FOR THE OTHER REALMS
The previous exercise showed us our own fey natures and the following
will help us open ourselves to the Fey beings who live in the unseen realms,
often meeting us in wild spaces. Let us listen for those beings who have inspired poets and artists for hundreds of years.
Go to a garden or park, to the forest or a field. Walk slowly,Jeel yourself open out. Feel
your feet beneath you, like you did in the grounding and centering exercise. Begin to notice
the small sounds around you. You may begin to notice movement in the corners rf your eyes,
or to 'Jeel" presences. Slow your breathing. Quiet yourself and be aware. Reach out with
your senses. lf you notice something tugging at the edge rf your vision, turn and bring that
edge into the center. What do you perceive now? You m ay ask to be more open to the presence
rf the spirits rf Nature and to the Fey that live in a realm just sideways from our own. This
38
Euolutionufv witchcfaft
lj you wish, you may leave an offering: tie a ribbon to a tree, pour some cream upon
the ground, or sing a song. You can leave spit or a strand ?f your hair. Clean, clear water
is also appreciated. Thank the spirits ?f the place, and any ?f the Faery beings that may be
present. It is good to pick up any garbage you m ay see. This is a sign ?f good faith and respect,jor it shows that you care for all ?f the realms.
As you cultivate these relationships, you may find yourself wanting to
set out offerings in your home or garden. Just make sure any offerings in a
natural setting are biodegradable. Listen internally for what the beings you
are trying to sense may want. Set up a pretty spot and leave your offerings
there. You may find that your creative projects Bow more smoothly and become more inspired as your relationship with the other realms grows.
Once you have begun this, take care to continue, or you may find that
some of the legends about the Fey taking shiny objects or breaking glasses
may be true! When such things happen, I pause and ask, "What is trying
to get my attention and why?" Sometimes I have become caught up in my
own ideas of how the world should work and I need to listen more deeply
and take more care with the world that is actually around me.
Through the active practice of presence and attention, I've found that
those instances of keys being misplaced or glasses shattering when no one
was near them have dwindled to nothing. I am paying attention and living
more connected with the multiverse, so the other realms don't need to grab
me by the collar anymore.
This sort of awareness of the other realms also serves to make me more
fey mysel£ I am no longer just locked into an industrialized, computerized
world-! have access to Nature, to poetry, to wild beauty, and a tingling
up my spine or a glimmer in the corner of my eye. I am open to the child's
imagination and all of the possibilities that holds.
The sa.cred sphere: ca.stin<s with Feri Fire
39
unfoldin<s Your power
You have cast the sacred sphere and begun to notice your physical body
and your own fey nature, now is the time to open the gateways to your
power, the power that lies within you and the power you can share with
others. This may take many forms and can affect the way you work or
function in your family.
In Feri Tradition, our power is contained within the concept of magic
being multicolored rather than "black" or "white;'14 though Victor was
known to quip, "White magic is poetry. Black magic is anything that
works!" With multicolored magic, there are no set rules: you must make
decisions based upon your inner knowing, self-examination, and awareness. In other words, you take responsibility, which is an acknowledgment that you do hold power and have accepted accountability for your actions.
We
will begin this process by taking a journey into ourselves. This is
a meditation into our own place of power. I recommend that you read
this first, then get a friend to lead you through the exercise. You can also
tape yourself reading if that feels more comfortable. Take it slowly. You
have time.
Set up a space where you can sit or stand or even lie down comfortably.
I prefer to do these sorts of meditations, called trance journeys, standing,
so I can engage more of my body by walking or gently rocking or moving
my hands and arms if I need to. I recommend trying this, especially if you
have the tendency to fall asleep when you relax. Some people take these
journeys without ever really "seeing" anything. This is fine. I myself can
take long trance journeys and get a great deal of information while only
having flashes of sight. The rest sinks in where it will. Some people "hear;'
14Multicolorrd magic also avoids the traditional categorizing of "white" magic as "good" and
"black" magic as "bad," which can be considered racist.
40
Bvolutionufv witchuuft
others "taste" or "sense:' Still others just "know" somehow. Whatever
your experience, don't worry about it. Your way is your own. 15
Take a deep breath. Ground and center yourself and then cast the sacred sphere. You are
s'!fe in the blue bubble of energy. Take another breath, filling yourself with air as you begin
to relax. Feel any tensions you carry flow out of your body, imagining them sinking into
the earth below the floor you stand upon. Continue to breathe. Continue to relax. Imagine that
a path opens up in front of you. Step onto that path. As you travel down it, notice its curves
and bends and feel the air around you. What do you see? What do you notice? What do you
hear? Take a deep breath. Keep walking until you notice a clearing or opening up ahead of
you. Walk toward that opening and step inside. This is your place of power. Feel the air here.
Feel the size of the place. Let your feet sink into the ground here. This is your home.
Standing in your place of power, turn toward the East, the place of air, dawn, and intellect. What is there for you? Take some time here. Breathe.
Turn toward the South, the place of fire, will, and desire. What is here? Take your time.
Breathe.
When you are ready, turn toward the T#st, the place of water, emotion, and dreams.
What lies in this direction? Take as much time as you need. Breathe.
Turn toward the North, the place of earth, body, and dark stillness. What is here? Take
your time. Explore. Breathe.
When you are ready, take another big breath, and turn toward the Center, the place of
spirit and connection. What is there, in the middle of the swirl of all of the elements that
make up your place of power? Take a deep breath. Close your eyes for a moment. Now is
the time when, if an ally or a gift is going to come, it will appear. If you wish for a Faery
ally or a gift to help you in your spiritual work, say a prayer for one now. Take another
breath. Open your inner eyes. Do you see anything? Or do you feel d!fferently than before?
Perhaps your gift lies within you. Or perhaps a Fey ally stands in front of you. Take some
time here. Breathe.
1.1Thtre is a short version of this exercise in Srarhawk's Thr Spiral Dancr (HarperCollins, I 979). This
((·c/mi<Jlll' has he,·n passed to me orally from many years both in Reclaiming and Feri.
The sacred sphere: custin� with Feri Fire
4 1
Remember that this is your place; you know the way here and can always return. When
you are ready to go, thank your ally, or give thanks for your gift. Sometimes it is good to
make a promise here by way if thanks. Is there something you can give or cffer in return
for what you have learned today?
Take a deep breath and thank the Center. Turn North and say thanks. Turning again,
thank the West. Turning again, thank the South. One last time, thank the East and turn
toward the entrance to your place if power.
Take a breath and start back on the path. This time the path leads you up, back up into
your ordinary self, your waking self Let each turn take you closer and closer to ordinary
consciousness. T%lk more quickly. Your sacred body calls your spirit back to the room you
started in. Take a deep breath. Feel your body, solid around you. Feel your feet on the floor
if your room. Open your eyes. Let breath fill you.
Take a drink if water. Pat the edges if your body. Give thanks for your journey. Thank
the sacred sphere and release it back, to reenchant the world. 16
Standing in the Feri sphere, cleansed and open to your power, you are
ready for the next step, you are ready to call upon divinity within you and
within the world. Turn the page.
1"Thanks to lvo Dominguez, Jr., found�r and eld�r of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel. for the
roncrpt of letting circle or sphere energy Row out as a spell of reenchantment.
•
•
•
Invocation: Reco�nizin�
the nivine within
God is self and self is God and God is a person like mysel£
-VICTOR ANDERSON
eri Tradition honors the Star Goddess first, before any of the Elements of Life, Guardians, or other Deities are called into the sacred sphere. She is acknowledged, not called, for she is always with us, and we
open all Feri workings with this prayer: "Holy Mother, in whom we live,
move, and have our being, from you all things emerge and unto you all
things return:'1
Unlike religious traditions that posit a God outside the physical earth,
the Star Goddess may transcend the earth, but not our cosmos. With intimate connection, she is woven into the fabric of the natural world, in space, time, stars, and green growing grass. This is immanence, the divine
1This prayer is traditional to Feri Craft and came through Victor. You can hear in it echoes of other
n·ligious traditions.
44
Evolutionunl witchuuft
in all things. In her vastness, the Star Goddess may feel transcendent, but
God-out-there is not separate from the immanent God-in-all-things that
many call Goddess, and Victor and Cora called God Hersel£ She is akin
to Egypt's Nuit, Babylon's Ishtar, Hine Turama of the Maori, and the
Welsh Arianrhod-lovers, creators, and Star Goddesses all. She creates
from lust and bears from her womb, messy, sticky, and full of life. Hers is
not the creation from pure intellect, birthed only by wind and word. Feri
Tradition names her Quakoralina.2
A Feri practitioner's beliefs can range from the pure polytheism of
many Gods,3 to an adapted monism, in which God Herself functions as
the unifying force of all life. The Gods and Goddesses who embody particular energies that work in the world are said to have spiraled out from her creative impulse. Victor would say that 'The Supreme Being is God
Hersel£ She needs no-one to help her. She is male and female. The male is
translated out through the female:'
As hers was the first act of creation, God Herself-the Star Goddess-is present in all of creation. Immanent, she fills the interstices of our lives with mystery and beauty: in the pineapple weed pushing through
the sidewalk cracks or the flash of lightning shattering the sky. Immanence
is the voice of the breeze in th
e trees and the pounding of the waves on
sand. Immanence is a kiss, a touch, a breath. It is your body sliding across
your lover in lust and celebration.
Witches believe that the natural world is sacred, sex is holy, and the human body is beautiful and must be cared for. A Witch's sense of self is linked to the earth and this divinity. The divine in the world is also in us
2See Victor Anderson, Thorns if the Blood Rose (Cora Anderson, 2003 ).
3I use upper case here to indicate that I am talking of Deity. It is standard to use lower case for
polytheistic forms of the divine, but I do not want to reinforce the prejudice that my Gods are
somehow lesser for having multiple expressions. To reserve an uppercase G for monotheistic Deity
denigrat<'S all polytheistic religions. Nature, being divine, is also capitalized.
mvoca.tion: Reco'?nizin'? the oivine within
4 5
and establishes a relationship with all that surrounds us. The Feri practitioner, through direct contact with this divinity, becomes an everyday mystic. In Nature, we experience multiplicity: Nature is the face from which our pluralism flows. Things can be one, but they are also many, varied, and
beautiful. Thus, there is unity in the connection of immanence and the realization that there are many Gods and Goddesses. There are also spirits local to where you live: in the parks, the streams, the fields. The unseen
realms are as varied as the seen.
Though there are many realms, our religion does not aspire to some
higher realm that exists beyond the scope of the material world. The realms
are all accessible on earth. For us, the goal is not to leave the human for the
divine, but rather to become more divine as humans. We are of the earth,
and of divinity. Immanence then, is that within each human that makes us
part of the divine, and ensures the possibility of our becoming more divine.
Let us now meet our own sacred souls.
t:ncountefincs Youf Tfiple soul
Many Gods have three faces, or aspects. Feri Tradition reminds us that we,
too, are a trinity. Our soul is made up of three distinct parts. These can
work together in harmony or become disconnected, causing imbalances
within. Though Feri is the only tradition of Witchcraft to use the concept