Witch Eye returns...

I posted this elsewhere, but then realized I hadn't done it here, so...

We are happy to announce that Witch Eye has returned as an annual publication!



We have expanded from 48 to 84 pages, full of art, articles, rituals, and lore about the various practices from different lines of the Feri tradition of witchcraft.

Retail price is $15 plus shipping, but if you buy it from the website then you get 20% off. Check out our NEW website at www.witcheye.com to purchase or for more info!

Take four!

Well... if you haven't read the accusations against me then you wont be able to here. The rebuttal post that I just posted was suspended for violation of copyrights in that I reposted the public posts that the user Elorie posted in accusing me of various absurdities. So... you will all just have to read my response without the benefit of reading her ranting posts unless you want to go to her journal directly and read them yourself. They are still public at the time of this writing.

So here is my rebuttal, stripped of quotes and obvious snark (while funny and good-feeling in the moment had lost it's charm and I just want to be done with it). Let's see how long this post can stay up.

Feri is...

A couple of new websites have sprung up espousing the face of non-public Feri. While I do not agree with everything that they have said, I support the right of everyone to speak from their heart about what Feri is for them. I have put links to these sites on the links page at FeriTradition.com.

I do, however, wish to comment on one part of the statement posted at FaeryTradition.org:

"We dissociate and emphatically disconnect ourselves from the practice of those who seek to define the name “Feri” exclusively to themselves and from the public face they have created."

I want to make it clear that I do not seek to define Feri for anyone other than myself. I never have... while what I practice and teach is traditional for me, I recognize that other lines feel differently. This was actually one of the things that drew me to Feri in the first place; wild diversity and ecstatic practice. While some have sought to define what I do as being "not Feri", "disrespectful", "whorish", or worse, these are really just tools of the ego designed to drive further wedges in our extended family.

The division of public vs. mystery tradition is a false one. While I offer Feri training to the public this should not be assumed to mean that I do not honor the Mystery; even my long distance students enter into an intimate relationship with me in which we work with the exercises, lore, and the Gods & spirits in order to cultivate a deep relationship with them. This is not simply "reading a handout" or having a light chat... this is deep, personal work that is --first and foremost-- a way to help the individual cultivate their own divine authority and to evolve spiritually... and secondly as a means to see if they are even candidates for our priesthood. Those who have reported that I will never initiate those who take my long distance courses are sadly mistaken; while the training itself does not lead there, once the training is done all bets are off and if the person is a candidate --long distances or not-- we will find a way to make it happen. This might be a local initiate taking the role of initiator... this might mean the student coming out to visit me... or me visiting them.. who knows? I can't know from the beginning that everyone is going to go on to initiation... part of my classes are about finding that out along the way, but only PART. The main thrust of my classes is THE WORK, which is why I say that they do not lead to initiation. Let's just focus on the work and see where it takes you, shall we? Anything less invites a sort of "cookie cutter" approach to the work that I think is not helpful.

It's sad that some feel threatened by others who practice Feri differently than they do. For the record, I do not require nor expect (or even want!) others to practice Feri as I see it; Feri is a wild and tough thing and will survive the current nastiness and false divisions. These "splits" have occurred before and --wouldn't you know it?-- eventually they become meaningless. People who were once banished or reviled are invited to the parties... distinctions that once seemed integral are seen in a new light... Feri goes on, and will continue to do so as long as our hearts are in the right place.

"Feri is the power that rises from the earth and fills our bodies with wonder and magick. Feri has infused every single magical religion on the planet throughout time. It predates human consciousness and will exist after we are all gone. If every initiate were to die tomorrow, Feri would endure. Not through books or revealed practices.. but through the wind in the trees... the marrow in our bones... our life, our sex, our breath, our death. Feri is. Feri was. Feri will be. What that means for each of us is what we are here to find out. Certainly our experiences of Feri will differ. Some will do so radically. That's the beauty of it. That's what keeps it alive." --Storm Faerywolf, 2005.

The F(a)eri(e) Tradition Nonunion Tour (Now in it's 40th year!)

I am again hearing about a split in the Feri tradition. "Public" vs. "Mystery Tradition" Feri. Since I am one of those at the forefront of Feri in the public eye I can just imagine that this has at least a little to do with the work that I have been doing, namely in providing Feri tools to a wider audience.

This is nothing new. When I first came into Feri there was a "split": "Old Feri" vs. "New Feri". Later there was another, what I call "Red vs. Blue" (or, "those who initiate sexually vs. those who don't"). And there were others: those who charge money for classes vs. those who don't... those who initiate and then offer training vs. those who do it the other way round... those who use angelic names for the Guardians vs. those who use animal totems... those who teach the Iron Pentacle first and then the Pearl ("Oh, no! You must teach them together!", "No! It's Pearl first!")... those who teach Liberty on the Pearl Pentacle rather than "Power" (I actually heard a then-student bemoan the fact that Thorn taught "Liberty", adding that he "tolerated" her doing so). Really? Really? And the list goes on and on, and on, and on, and on... it never ends. It's kind of like Cher's consistent farewell tours only far more predictable and far less exciting. It seems that practically from the beginnings of the Feri tradition there have been those who are predicting, perpetuating, or bemoaning this "split" in the tradition. We seem to be pretty good at amputating ourselves and giving away our power.

An old argument that has been brought up again recently is in regards to those of us who offer training over long distances. I can assume that this is the thought behind a recent website (called "FaeryRoads"... you can find it on the links page at FeriTradition.com). Regardless of the thinking behind this particular website, it is being stated that it is impossible to train someone without physical proximity. Nevermind that Victor Anderson sometimes offered this type of training (he offered to teach me this way). And when it is begrudgingly accepted as possible it is quickly dismissed as being less potent than in-person training. Again with the ego. ("My way is just so much better than your way...")

What's kind of funny to me is that the people who are stating that you simply cannot teach Feri over long distances are really just showing their own lack of imagination. I can't exactly blame them; at first I was in that camp; thinking (as I was told to) that the Feri tradition needed to be taught hand to hand, eye to eye, heart to heart. It wasn't until I attended a "phone tele-conference ritual" (which, I admit, I agreed to participate in only as a lark!) that I realized that there was a lot more going on than was previously reported. Contrary to what many may have held as belief, I learned that this was all real. Witchcraft... magic... all of it. Absolutely real. If I could feel the energy over a freaking phone call then there was something extra potent going on. I learned that energy did not require physical proximity in order to cause the changes necessary for a ritual to be effective... it just took concentration, determination, and a little imagination. Ahh... imagination. A resource apparently in short supply in the current Feri community.

Those who have consistently reported that it is impossible to transmit Feri over long distances have absolutely no idea what I am doing in those sessions. And not a single one of them has bothered to ask me... they just assume that because they lack the insight necessary to pull it off then it can't be done. (At one time I made it public that I would speak to any Feri initiate and take the time to explain in detail exactly how I am teaching these classes... now I require that you be nice to me. And a few of you can just suck it.)

So to those of you who feel that Feri tools and training shared publicly are anathema to our tradition: I get that perhaps you think that you are "defending the tradition"... but I think you are doing the very thing that is causing it to be dumbed down. Feri is alive. It is authentic. It invites change, and adaptation, and evolution. By doing what I am doing I am defending the tradition too; Feri as a tradition of bardic diversity and cultivating one's divine authority. We are all Gods; shimmering reflections of God Herself.

I am God. And in realizing this fact I must accept that you are too. I just wish you'd learn that same lesson and get off your high horse long enough to realize it's been dead for years. (And really, the stench is overpowering.) Wouldn't you all rather get back to the business of communing with the Gods? Or is it really better to try and beat each other down with dividing lines and false accusations?

So go ahead and talk of your little "split". It wont last long. It never does. You'll find something else to bemoan. Perhaps you'd like to start talking about the Wand system again and how it goes against everything you think Feri to be (I got mine from Cora Anderson, mind you)... or how Feri doesn't have a Grandmaster (I've met her... she's nice)... or any of the other topics that you use in order to drive further wedges in between people who really should be working together to help transform the world into a better place. But then, that would require imagination. Better yet to get back to your previously scheduled egos and proclaim yourselves the one right and true way of Feri (TM). But I don't have much time for it... I have real work to do.