What is the Faerie Faith?
by Linda Kerr
A lot of people have expressed curiosity about the Faerie Faith: what is
it; is it the same as the Fairy Tradition of Starhawk; is it similar to the teachings of Victor
Anderson and Francesca Dubie; is it what we've read about in the current crop of books on fairy
wicca?
To all of the above, no, the Faerie Faith is not the same as any of these. There are many
similarities, especially with Victor Anderson's tradition, but so far the southern brand of the
Faerie Faith seems to be unique.
About the Faerie Faith
The Faerie Faith is both a belief system and a tradition. In its most basic form, it is a belief in,
and almost a symbiotic relationship with, the Faerie Folk or Little People. This belief does not
conflict with the following of other religions or traditions, any more than a child's belief in Santa
Claus or the Tooth Fairy prevents that child from going to church each week and learning bible
stories. Being thus a belief system, the Faerie Faith does not demand or need followers, or
leaders, or rituals. It also does not have a pantheon of deities, such as Norse or Egyptian
traditions do. The Celtic gods you may be familiar with, including Bridget, the Dagda, and Lugh,
are actually Faerie Folk themselves, who have been elevated to the status of gods over the
centuries by the Celtic peoples. These gods can be looked on as archetypes more than actual
deities, but they are no more and no less real than the other Little People, the spirits of the earth,
the nature spirits.
Over time, however, the Faerie Faith evolved from simply a belief system to a pagan tradition,
complete with its own rituals, training, and initiatory system. It is still a very simple system, and
can be practiced hand-in-hand with other traditions, if one so desires, or can be followed entirely
by itself.
Our tenets:
The main component of, and most unique thing about the Faerie Faith as a tradition are the
energies of the year, and how these energies affect us. These energies can be correlated to the 13
lunar months of the Celtic Lunar Tree Calendar. These lunar months begin shortly after the
Winter Solstice, and continue until the next Winter Solstice. Each of these lunations, the period
from new moon to new moon, has a different energy, personality, or mood, and each of them
have effects on us, whether we believe in them or not, whether we are Faerie Faith, Gardnerian,
or Christian. It doesn't matter what path we're on; the effects are real.
I cannot explain why there are energies to the different lunations of the year. There seems to be
no physical reason for it that I can see. But they do exist, and their effects on us are quite real.
We find validation for this system of energies in the Bach Flower Remedies. In this system of
healing, the 38 remedies are made from trees or other plants. Each remedy heals certain
emotional states, such as despondency, resentment, jealousy, etc. What is most interesting about
this system of healing is how many of the tree remedies correspond to the trees of the Celtic
Lunar Tree Calendar and their energies. For instance, the Willow Bach Flower Remedy cures
resentment, and during the Willow lunation, we tend to feel resentful. The Oak Remedy is for
strength and endurance, for feeling tired, but still carrying on in spite of it all. The energies of
Oak moon are strength and endurance. The Bach Flower Remedies thus contain the essence, or
spirit, of the tree, and heal our negative emotional states.
Dr. Bach discovered his remedies
by first feeling the negative emotional state, then going out to
the plants and listening to them. His sensitivity was so highly attuned he could tell the energy of
a plant and what it would cure simply by placing a leaf or flower petal of it on his tongue. Dr.
Bach didn't invent these remedies; he simply discovered them and made use of them. He tapped
into a system that already existed, and has probably existed since the earth was formed. We don't
know why this system exists, only that it does.
We of the Faerie Faith study the different properties of these energies, and have developed an
understanding of them and how they affect us in real life. We speak of the "mysteries" of the
trees, and truly, they are mysteries, for they are not easily explained. There is no written
information on them at all; the closest I have found are the books on the Bach Flower Remedies,
and of course these only cover the 38 Remedies, and leave out several of the 13 lunar trees. Apart
from this article that you are reading now, if you wanted to research the energies of the 13 lunar
trees, you'd pretty much be out of luck. In the book on the Faerie Faith that I am writing, I've
covered each of the 13 lunar trees from several angles, including physical description, food uses,
medicinal properties, and folklore, Bach Flowers that correspond to the trees, the glyphs of the
trees, and of course the energies of the trees. But you can only learn so much about the energies
of the trees from reading about them. To fully understand them, they must be lived and
experienced yearly. Each new cycle brings about a deeper understanding of the energies, and
there is no substitute for personal training as a student under a High Priest or High Priestess of
the Faerie Faith.
Other Aspects of the Faerie Faith
If the belief in the Little People can be looked on as one leg of a 3-legged stool, and the energies
of the 13 lunar trees as another leg, then the Huna system, as written
about by Max Freedom Long,
would be the third leg. This is so
important to a student's training in the Faerie Faith that we often require these be the first books
read. Once you gain an understanding of this rather simple and
very
logical system, it can be applied to almost every aspect of your life. As there is currently a good
bit of written information on this system, I won't cover it here, but rather will leave it to you to
discover.
Other topics essential to a well-rounded education in the Faerie Faith include Jungian
psychology, particularly the anima and animus, and bringing the two into balance in ourselves;
dowsing and divining; earth energies and ley lines; Native American spirituality; women's
mysteries and spirituality. We also place a strong emphasis on ethics and morality, as well as (or
especially) personal transformation.
Origins of the Faerie Faith
We've worked to sift out the truth from the wonderful but not necessarily true stories of the
origins of our tradition. The version of our
history, as told to Epona by the late Mark Roberts, was that he was
given the mysteries of the Faerie Faith by Margaret Lumley Brown, and returned to
the States to
spread these teachings. Much of what Mark claimed has now been cast in doubt. Below is what
we had been told by Mark, and below that is what we have been able to research and figure out
on our own.
Mark Roberts' version: (see Imre's history)
Mark Roberts was in England in 1961, pursuing his interests in archaeology and
studying
with Thomas Maughan, Arch Druid of the Druid Order, when he met Margaret Lumley Brown
at a 'social-metaphysical' gathering. Mark told Margaret that he had seminary training with the
Methodists as a minister, been initiated in a New Orleans Coven, was in personal training with
the Arch Druid, had married Valerie Melhuish, who was part of a Wiccan family trad in England.
Margaret told Mark about the Faerie Faith, and he began visiting her at Chalice Hill Cottage,
which had been Margaret and Dion Fortune's home. In 1963, he was given the Mysteries and the
three prime lessons of the Faerie Faith, which were written by Margaret, and then taken through
a ritual. Margaret then instructed Mark to take the Faerie Faith to the States. He returned to the
U.S. and met Morgan
McFarland, and initiated her into part of his background, but kept the
Faerie Faith a secret until after he and Morgan separated.
The history as we have gotten it from other people:
In 1971, Morgan
McFarland, in Dallas, TX, met Mark
Roberts. He told Morgan that
he had
only practiced within a coven with his ex-wife, Valerie Melhuish, who had initiated him into her
family tradition in England. Mark and Morgan began working together, and she became a very
public Craft figure. They called their tradition Dianic, from a reference to "Dianic cults" in
Margaret Murray's The Witch Cult in Western Europe. In the late summer of 1971,
Morgan began for the first time to write down her oral lessons, which she had gleaned from her
years of solitary working prior to meeting Mark. Around 1976, Mark created a written, mail
order series of lessons based on both Dianic lessons and Nature-oriented ideas, called "Footsteps
on a Dianic Path." Mark Roberts served as High Priest for Morgan McFarland until early 1977,
when Mark announced that he was moving on to another path called Hyperborea, which in turn
begat Faerie Faith. Mark later claimed to have been learned about the Faerie Faith in 1963 in
England from Margaret Lumley Brown. However, unlike the Melhuish Family Tradition, he had
never mentioned the existence of this tradition to Morgan. (Morgan retired in the summer of
1979, but the Dianic Tradition she helped create is still in existence, having been re-named
McFarland Dianic.)
Between 1977-1979, Mark had traveled to New York, and finally to Georgia, where in
1979, he met Epona in Atlanta. He
initiated her into the path of Hyperborea, and gave her the
teachings of the Faerie Faith (the three lessons supposedly written by Margaret Lumely Brown),
the concept of Dianic witchcraft, and also the rituals that Morgan had written down starting in
1971 (Mark claimed to have practiced similar rituals when he was married to Valerie, but never
showed any written Dianic or Melhuish rituals to Morgan). Mark and Epona worked together for
two years, until their paths split over the vision of Hyperborea, but the teachings of the Faerie
Faith fell on fertile ground with Epona. After Mark left Atlanta in 1981 to eventually move back
to Dallas, Epona continued in her exploration of the Faerie Faith, developing greater insights into
its mysteries.
The Garden Club
Epona stayed in Atlanta, and formed a coven called The Garden Club in
1987 (she had other students in the years between 1979 and 1987), whom she trained in the
Faerie Faith tradition. With Epona as the High Priestess, the group
had 6 other regular members for a period of about 5 years. After the Garden Club disbanded as a
coven on Winter Solstice, 1992, the name The Garden Club became an umbrella/community
name, encompassing both inner and outer court folks and other friends in Atlanta, GA and
Auburn, AL.
Where Are We Now?
We of the Faerie Faith feel that
there is no better way to learn than to teach, therefore it is our tradition that a senior student take
on a student of his/her own when they feel ready. In 1991, Linda Kerr started teaching her own
students, while still studying under Epona in The Garden Club in Atlanta. At Winter Solstice,
1992, she was given her Fifth Solar by Epona, which is analogous to other traditions'
3rd degree initiation; and became a Faerie Faith High Priestess. Over the years many students
have come and gone. Although she taught many, Linda has only "graduated," or given the Fifth
Solar to, four students: Imr‚ on Litha of 1999; Cliff on Yule of 2006; Marsha on Yule of 2008;
and Krys on Litha of 2009. Linda has now retired from teaching, and her former students Cliff
and skippy both have students of their own.
Pages by Other Faerie Faith Folks
Copyright © 2003 by Linda Kerr. All rights reserved.
Revised July 24, 2003.