Our newest family member...

Everyone please welcome the newest member of our little family...  We've decided to call her 'Shaylee'. She's a 3 month old Labrador/Pit Bull mix. We rescued her from the pound and she came home to us today. She's a real love.



I think I'm in love.

Witch Eye #15: Call for Submissions

I think it can be agreed by all of us that Feri witches are a creative, opinionated bunch. So you'd think that we'd have *hundreds* of submissions for the next Witch Eye, right?

Well... we have a few... but it's not coming together yet, so here's what we want you to do...

Send us something. A ritual. A review. A piece of art. A story. Humor! Send us your really cool experience in trance that you feel like sharing... tell us what the Gods are inspiring in you. We're still interested in cool poetry, but keep in mind that we get mostly poetry as it is. But an essay... an article... a well mannered rant... Bring 'em on! Whatever little Feri thing you'd like to address, do it and send it in!

Or... if you just can't think of where to start, how about pondering some of these?

• The Mighty Dead: Ancestral Reverence and Practice in Feri Magic
• Love and the Craft: How has Feri impacted your relationships?
• The Dangers of Feri. What exactly are they? And why does it sound so cool?
• Art & Feri. Has Feri impacted your creative life? Are you dancing more? Making music? Are you suddenly creating art for the first time? Tell us!
• You may have aligned your Three Souls, but you still can't use the car-pool lane.
• Initiation. What it is. What it isn't. And why you may never need one. Or want one.
• Dreams... We've collected dreams from folks that involve the late Victor Anderson. Do you have one?
• Cursing. C'mon... you know you want to.
• Ethics. Lost teachings of the tradition found!
• Seeking the Black Heart. Exercises and Stories on the search for Feri's Holy Grail
• Outside Looking In: Feri from a non-Feri Perspective
• Witch Eye: The Swimsuit Issue. Send us your pictures! No, I'm not kidding...
• The Divine Twins. Cornerstone of the Feri mythos and I still can't tell them apart.
• Kala and the Pearl Pentacle: Is the community doing enough?
• Classroom vs. the Coven, or why you are wrong to practice as you do

Our next theme, if we have one, will depend on what I get a lot of. But I love diversity, so send us whatever you want to write about! You can do it. We want material from all aspects of the Feri community: initiates, teachers, students, practitioners, and even educated seekers. You have over three months. Deadline isn't until September 1st! No excuses! Flex those Pride points!

Guidelines can be found here: http://www.feritradition.org/witcheye/submissions.htm
Send all submissions and questions to: witcheye@feritradition.org

A Poem... a Spell... a Teaching... a Prayer

The Sacred Fire
©2007 Storm Faerywolf

Like a fire so it shines
Bright against the empty dark
Dividing into perfect two
And with light, so then color
A splendid texture rich with hue.

This flame it burns against the cold
Against the snapping madness of the unknown
It warms the blood and stills the mind
And calls the trance upon our kind.

A dance... around the fire
Sweat slick thick upon my skin
I take a torch and place it in.

Taking fire from the gods
I hold aloft the sacred flame
A lantern in the velvet night
And so I learn the ancient dark terrain.

Triple Will my compass true
My life a vessel for Your power
Descend with heart of coal aflame
And let me come to know this flower.

High above it blooms so bright
Like a beacon in the night
To hold at bay all shade and fright
And grant the power of the sight.

Beyond the Outer Darkness comes,
the wraith, like curled gray smoke appears
into the mirror of midnight
I scry what lies beyond our fears.

And now I dance again around
This growing fire of which we tend
That seeds a hundred little flames
As next they come with torch in hand.

And soon one day they dance away,
With lanterns set against the night
To carry then their precious flame
To share their sacred light.

And though they’ve come, and though they’ve gone
A hundred times upon and more
And though they’ve lit their darkened homes
Still we tend this sacred fire.

Wash once, rinse twice...

This is a very filtered post, only for Feri initiates, and certainly not all of them.

I just had the weirdest interaction with another Feri student/practitioner. He asked me to not "go public" with it, but dude... this is just too weird to pass up.

Last night on the Witch Eye list a certain someone who has been espousing the Tribal/Family model of Feri cryptically posted that someone very close to me was an example of someone not right for the tradition being officially a part of it. I racked my brains... Could they be talking about a student of mine? We were talking about charging money for classes, and the like, and I had mentioned having to let some students go because of their lack of work. Certainly I have a couple of students who I am currently "on the fence" about and waiting to see if I will let them go, or not, but I couldn't figure out who and so I asked them privately.

Well, I got the response today and it was... (drum roll, please)...  Chas! Apparently because Chas doesn't automatically equate the Feri priesthood with a family that means (according to this person) that Chas' initiation didn't "take". Jesus fucking Christ on a pogo-stick! I laughed out loud!

Chas is very reserved about whom he shares his most intimate insights on Feri with, so I can understand that this person might have no clue as to what Chas is really about... but it's extra weird because this person has never met Chas... And a little weirder because this person is not an initiate, although his wife is, but that's a whole other story.

I just shake my head. I know that Chas is a powerful Feri witch who has an amazing grasp of the Gods who speak to him directly. It's just weird to have my husband maligned in such a way, and then to hear that there's an entire group that apparently holds this idea to be true as well. **EDIT: In a suprising positive development I am now told that his group told him he was off base with his accusation. That's good news, right? ;)

I'm off to make Kala... not because I'm angry (I was briefly, but that moved through me) but more because I am sad; sad that this person's view of Feri is so limited that other ways of practicing/believing seem to threaten their practice, and that as such it translates into judgment, a distraction from the larger Work, I feel.

Instead of washing once, or twice, or even rinsing at all, I sometimes feel I'd rather just hold their heads under the water.

More Kala! :)

Back from Camp...

I've been back from teaching at Feri Camp for a few days now. It's taken me awhile to get back into the routine of my daily life, and thankfully Chas has been very supportive in that area. I've actually gotten a lot of work done since I returned, but I have also had a lot of my attention on all things Feri, making plans, talking to friends, and contemplating what I think is a very healthy future for the tradition.

Camp this year was an incredible experience. I was impressed by the level of sincere commitment to this path, and by the fierce openheartedness of the participants. A lot of energy was raised, and when that happens our complexes tend to arise into view. The result was a lot of cleansing work, and whole lot of sharing... of joy, of pain, of fear, and of laughter. I felt truly blessed to have the opportunity to be in such an environment where we could come together as friends, as lovers, as family, to face both our beauty and our darkness, seeing both as holy.

I learned a lot during this trip. From the beginning I felt that this was about claiming more fully my own power, and I walk away feeling powerful; alive, charged, and changed. More of who I already am. A tremendous amount of energy was raised during our few days there, through trance... through ritual... through drumming... through dance... A common theme being the quest for the Black Heart that really did shine brightly in the eyes and smiles of those present. We did serious work! But also did we laugh... sometimes to the point of tears; the kind of laughter that hurts your cheeks and your belly and reminds you just how wonderful it is to be alive. That we were able to share that, and so much more with each other, is a blessing into itself.

I led some trance work with the Guardians, which always leaves me buzzing, but it was my session with the Amethyst Pentacle that really surprised me. When Chas and I wrote it back in '02 we knew that it was powerful, but going into trance with it and running its power with the participants at camp was nothing short of astounding. I was impressed by the willingness of those present to look into the face of their own pain and --still feeling it-- claim back their power from its clutches. Certainly this is work that will need to be done repeatedly, but that first step is most often the most frightful and that so many looked into that dark mirror of the self and met its gaze so evenly, is an inspiring sight to behold. All this along with reverence, determination, and laughter made the atmosphere both casual and relaxing, as well as focused and filled with deep purpose. As I said in another forum, if this is the future of Feri, then it is something that we can all be proud of. I know I certainly am.

I am also proud to have worked with so many fabulous teachers. This was my first time working with Karina of the BlackHeart line, and it was a tremendously satisfying experience. She really knows her stuff, and has a great command of the Faery current. I am proud to call her a sister of the Craft. Anaar I worked with last year, but it was this year that showed me another facet of her own commitment to the Gods; her connection to them is deep, real, and above all, personal. You show me a Witch who can yell in anger at the Goddess, and I'll show you one who walks the walk. And finally Michele. Her attention is like a surgical instrument, cutting right to the heart of the matter. She doesn't waste time with her words, but lest you might think her harsh because of it let me tell you she is one of the kindest people I know. And one of the funniest. That final night there she and I stayed up all night long just talking about life, about Feri, and just telling each other silly stories. We finally had to leave to try and let Anaar and Karina sleep. We paid for it that final day... in the form of dropped shields and no filters at all... but it was worth it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Now I am home and my life is shifting. People are contacting me and asking if I might travel to their area to teach. It comes at a good time because it is something that I have contemplated for awhile, so I find myself looking into how it might work both in terms of finances, but also in terms of energy; my time here at home is important, as Chas needs to take care of his mom when I am away. But he is also very supportive of me following my bliss, so it looks like I will be traveling at least some in the future. It's a great feeling: to be exactly where you are supposed to be.

With that in mind I shall end this with a blessing to all of you reading this: May you find yourself exactly where you need to be. And may you have the presence of mind to recognize it.