That's how they write it, it's either feri or faerie or maybe faeri or ferie... I think they should just write it phonetically and be done with it.

I have read some stuff recently about this path. I've found that it was started by Victor Anderson and it seems very much focused on sex magic and spirituality through sexual pleasure. It's also a path that you apparently have to be initiated into, rather than taking up on your own, and I have seen sites with people charging to teach it, which makes me suspicious (it's not very expensive and on a sliding scale, but still). I was wondering if anyone here knows anything about it, and what people's opinions were?

Kristofski x

Kristofski, you send us kisses!
How it's spelled? Does it matter? It SOUNDS good.
How it works/pans out? Hmmm. Not at all au fait with this,but you have given me food for thoughts. I wonder, I wonder.

I do know that the "system" ( for want of a better blanket term, for so-called sex-magic is generally termed "Tantra" and has been on the go for a very long time. (Look up Indian sub-continent & others for more details) and also that it appears to be a valid and workable way to access certain aspects of spiritual ( and physiological) growth.

As for my viewpoint? That would depend on me having any parameters within which I had worked: I could thereby offer a valid opinion. So, sorry can't help - but I am fascinated to discover more...

What a great topic to start - your brain is obviously much more up to speed than mine is at the moment! Too much Yuletide bevvy!

Evermorelong is the local expert on faeries!

Things like this always get dubious when people start claiming to have 'invented' them. Your description sounds a lot like any Wiccan or ritual magic path. Tends to be men who write these things, usually divorsed or unhappily married ones (ouch, cheep shot). Take it we're not talking about the Green Party's Victor Anderson?

A quick etymological search lists: "1590, var. of fairy (q.v.), probably existing in M.E., but first attested in Spenser's "Faery Queene," where he used it in his own sense, to mean "the realm of fairies," in a dignified and poetic sense divorced from the common folk tales."

So then I looked up 'fairy':

"c.1300, "enchantment, magic," from O.Fr. faerie "land of fairies, meeting of fairies, enchantment, magic," from fae "fay," from L. fata (pl.) "the Fates." In ref. to a class of supernatural beings, the word is used from 1393."

So both words appearing to be of Latin origin. Be interesting to see what the Celtic vocabulary would have been. The closes I can think is sidhe, as in 'bean sidhe/banshee', recorded from the 1700s. However the word for fairy itself is probably much older.

The reason I suggest looking back to the Celtic route is that Fairy Lore was, until not long ago, incredibly strong in Western Ireland, however you'll find it as the basis of pretty much all superstitions and folklore of Ireland, Cornwall, Scotland and many rural areas of England. It pre-dates the Roman Empire for sure, although I belive the word 'goblin' or 'gremlin' derives from Latin or Greek for a house spirit, a sort of fairy. Professor Ken Dowden wrote about this I think (as I heard him explaine this one at a PA conference in 2005.)

Back to fairies though...there's a story that as the Irish gods like Lugh and Lir were dying out and growing weak, they sought shelter from the coming invaders by running off into the hills and hiding in caves and streams. Their power was much depleted but, being magical beings, they didn't just die and lived on as 'sidhe folk', or as we call them 'elves'. So an elf in Ireland basically the ancestor of the Tuatha de Danann. That's part of what 'fairies' are there.

The concept of fairies underwent a huge revival and overhaul in the Victorian era (as did much of Britain’s geography, morality and common sense). Conan Doyle, the Theosophists and all sorts of people helped feed the notion on 'flower fairies' and so forth. Not a bad image but a slightly twee one of many.

If you want a really brilliant introduction on the root origins of fairies, I highly recommend this book. Yes, it's beautiful to look at, but the introduction is very well written. The guy has looked into the origins of fairies/nature spirits/imps/pixies/you name it all over the world in many different cultures. It's interesting stuff. These are the basic spirits of the land and the genius loci of humanity, not just a British phenomena. Often fairy lore is strongly hooked up with local sites and traditions, especially wells - a lot of books on wells and springs will mention fairy lore/folk lore and it's often possible to determine by the Christian name of the well/spring what the place was used for before.

Fairy lore is part of all rural folk customs and folklore, has been for hundreds of years, possibly thousands. May seem nice and light but it's pretty primordial and very earthy. I think the guy you mention sounds a lot like a modern revivalist trying to make a name for himself in the occult field. But I’ve never read any of his work so there we are then, perhaps I’m wrong and he's a pretty genuine fella

Best wishes,

Marion.

it's the FERI tradition and . to my knowledge, it's a mainly american trad. i came across references to it in StarHawk's 'Spiral Dance'. ( i think it was in relation to a series of pentagram themed meditations/exercises)

a google for 'FERI tradition' yields some interesting stuff.

http://www.carnivalia.com/books_feri.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feri_Tradition




LUMI
(all hail Wikipedia!)

Hmmm... the Wiki entry explains a bit...slightly biased report perhaps

Guess I was right in saying 'sounds wiccan' LOL - usually is where sex rites play a major role, always written by men, even the women's parts LOL I think if a woman wrote a decent sex rite the men would be so scared their balls'd drop off LOL. Perhaps we should have a competition

I'm probably going to regret saying this, but I think I might actually go and have a squiz at some of his work. It's the sort of area that could be quite good if written well but a cursory glance I’m thinking it's probably more neo-wiccan-spiritualist-pagan clap-trap. Never know though, live to be surprised. Seems mainly to be poetry though.

The parts that sound almost interesting are the concept of the 'divine twins', which is universally shamanic and strongly present in African traditions (Ibéjì). Then there's the bit: "One of the foundational concepts of the Feri tradition is that of the Three Souls" (all this from Wiki) - which is classic binary soul doctrine (Peter Novak stuff) and again universally shamanic, however it's usually two souls and the mud, rather than three distinct spiritual sections. "It is an ecstatic, rather than a fertility, tradition" - which is interesting, very Buddhist (hmmm, and so check out those lovely book covers in LUMI's links...)

There's some further interesting snippets in there but it smells like much of the rest - 0 out of 10 for originality and a round of applause for taking quite legitimate concepts and frucking them up into some new-age neo-revivalist drivel. It's like religion meets Dungeons & Dragons (or is D&D a religion?)

Sorry... nah actually I’m not. LOL Anyway, I hadn't heard of it before so thanks for bringing it up, shall go have a nose and thanks for the links LUMI.

ttfn,

Marion.

Actually, hold up a minute "foundational concepts"... is that a legit term? Shouldn't it be 'founding concepts'?

Mind you, what do you expect from a group who can't even work out what to call themselves.

Huh?

Thinair of course D&D is a religion. It makes much more sense than some I could mention and it doesn't have any of this an it harm none rubbish either.

Well Hail to that

Well, at least to me you seem well informed in our previous discussions of such mystery folk.

Thanx for the complement Quasi, it was the word "expert" that threw me a bit! I do recall our discusion though! Im not familiar with victor Andersons work, but I would recommend Andrew lang, Rudyard kipling and Oscar Wildes grandma, whose name i cannot recall at present! or even visiting spots said to be inhabitted by those feyfolk!