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.
9 comments:
if you don't like the Lore, go out and make some of your own. --me
I find it interesting that in many different contexts, those who are least at peace with their own beliefs/practices/whatever have a strong tendency to criticize the different-ness of others. (A person who is 100% secure in their Christianity may try to convert me, or pray for my soul, or whatever, but they aren't going to go nuts and feel threatened because I believe something completely different.)
I've seen this in a variety of religious settings (e.g. one type of protestant v. another; protestant v. catholic; christian v. muslim; muslim v. animist; feri v. feri; thelemite v. thelemite; tradcraft v. wicca...) but also academic contexts, legal contexts, sexual contexts...and worse, people try to make those who resemble Switzerland choose up sides. It's like when two people engage in a bitter divorce and each tell a distorted version of truth, and expect to divide up the friends like old silverware.
So crazy. I'm just going to be over here, Be-ing and Live-ing my Truth, my Will, and my Self.
Thank you! This feels like a good and necessary comment on these things.
bb*
Gwydion
A schism a day keeps the doldrums away.
I guess I should go and read all of those email posts that have been accumulating in my feri lists. Looks like I missed a party.
Thanks for your comments, Storm.
My own personal opinion on this subject is that people who spend all of their time trying to define themselves in terms of who or what they are NOT really don't seem all that sure of or comfortable with what they ARE. Those who sit on high issuing pronouncements generally appear to be too busy straining at gnats (or at the stool) to do any actual work. Their own lives and practices are often in shambles because they spend too much time trying to argue or prove why all those other people are just so, so fucked up. In other words, they should focus on their own shit and let others focus on theirs. Anyway, my advice is take the high road, walk the talk, do right by your students, your friends, your family, your community, and your Gods, and let (to paraphrase Spiro Agnew) the "nattering naysayers" deal with their own shit.
I am sorry that they are yanking chains of people that have been working hard and sincerely at the real deal for many years now. And I am sorry that those folks feel so stung that they must explain themselves yet again.
I am sorry that all this is going on, and that people won't recognize a genuine practitioner and teacher when they see one. I am sorry that people do not recognize or feel their own mastery of themselves, let alone others' mastery of skills, of themselves.
But it appears to be a smear campaign, and has little to do with genuine preservation of a treasured tradition of secrecy, since it's, you know, ON THE INTERNET. Just keep on doin' your thing brother.
^ this, a thousand times this
Feri Tradition
Thanks for all that you taught me in my brief period as one of your students. Keep up the good work.
"May the Beauty we love be what we do, there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." ~Rumi
And I won't criticize you for putting your left knee in front of your right knee or having them exactly even.
Love You!
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