Monday 25 August 2014

The Faeries have come to town!


The Radical Faerie Community is growing in Brighton.
GS interviews Brighton Faerie Mushoom about the Faeries and how they are busying themselves changing the world!

When and how did you identify as a Radical Faerie?

My first Faerie gathering was at Featherstone Castle just 5 years ago. I was lucky to have made friends with a guy who had already been to a few Faerie gatherings. He reckoned that I’d love the Faeries.
He was right. For me, as a lifelong secretly self-identified freak, Featherstone Castle was a magical home-coming to my very own tribe of misfits and marginals. The love of all things natural, the embrace of chaos, the acceptance of all shapes and sizes, the seam of deep spirituality yet the absence of proselytizing and hierarchy made for a very welcoming and nurturing space. It was my first taste of Faerie Sanctuary where I could begin the process of establishing my divinely intended purpose. Since then I have been back to Featherstone every year and I’ve also made a habit of staying at the Folleterre Faerie Sanctuary in Eastern France for a week or two every year as well.
I have always been profoundly affected by each and every gathering I’ve attended, learning about my gender, my sexuality, my undernourished appetites, my woundings, my capacity to self-heal and my previously unseen personal obstacles to self-love, the love of others and ultimately the love of the universe. 

 What do the Radical Faeries mean to you?

To me the Radical Faeries are a deeply rooted international network of divinely inspired beings. As a development of human consciousness, the Faeries have a natural intrinsic intent to nurture the sacred within. The Faeries  do this by generating magical faerie-space, encouraging physical, emotional and spiritual authenticity in all who encounter it directly. Once manifested this authenticity changes the world irrevocably!

What do you understand by the terms ‘Gay’ and ‘Queer’? Which do you identify with, as a Faerie, and why?

Back in 2009 I was a successfully assimilated ‘out’ Gay Man. I was a homeowner in a longterm monogamous same-sex partnership with 2.4 cats! My whole life had been an exercise in demonstrating to the wider society that I deserved equal rights.  For my generation of assimilationists, the prize we ultimately won for the LGBT community was a range of human rights- rights to civil partnership, rights to be able to foster and adopt, rights to an equal age of consent, rights even to join the army if we’d wanted to. 
Trouble was, that once I’d been fully shoehorned into my assimilated box I really couldn’t breath. I felt ungrateful. It felt unsafe to be losing the gift of my outsider status. I didn’t really enjoy my begrudgingly accepted life-style. The Church, who had caused me to throw out the ‘baby’ of my spiritual identity with the corrupt ‘bathwater’ of organized religion continued to disapprove of my nature.

That’s when I met the Faeries. They gave me permission to find a source of spiritual growth in the full cultivation of my sexuality. They invited me to discover the divine purpose of my bi-gendered nature and to reject assimilation as a bad deal. I was afforded intimate exposure, in heart-circle space, to the divine feminine (both within myself and in others)  Happily I have traveled away from the restrictive box of ‘Gay Man’ and I have arrived at the much gentler and less divisive identity of Queer Spirit. This brings me great joy!

What do you think about the rituals in the Radical Faerie community? How do they affect you personally?

1 In my experience, the most profound and transformative ritual in the Radical Faerie Community is the ritual of the Heart Circle. Revealing my heart-felt self to non-judgmental, lovingly accepting Faeries has been both challenging and rewarding. Bearing witness to the revelation of heart-felt truths in a non-judgmental and lovingly accepting way has revealed some surprising shared experiences and also enabled the cultivation of that gift of experiencing the vicarious feel of another Faerie’s moccasins as they go on their own journey. The most potent experience I have had of the powerfully transformative and healing influence of the Heart Circle Ritual was the Folleterre 2013 Sex Magick workshop. 7 days of continuous heart circling with a closed group of Faeries with the intention to create sacred ritual space for the authentic expression of loving touch. I was so impressed by its impact both on myself and others that I’m planning to attend another in October.

2 I also see the ‘Know (or No) Talent Show’ as a wonderful exercise in almost unacknowledged Ritual Space capable of promoting profound personal transformation for those in both ‘performer’ and ‘witness’ roles. As a performer I offer my creative self in total vulnerability. In the role of witness I am able to appreciate, as a practice in unconditional love, the channeled beauty of creation. I’m amazed at the growth I feel from the acknowledgement of my offering. I am enchanted and delighted by the offerings of others.

3 The Faerie Gathering itself is an extended ritual space with its opening ritual invoking the magical healing energies which will nurture the cultivation of our authentic selves. And also its closing rituals helping us to acknowledge the power of the transformative energies we have manifested but also their potential limitations to influence beyond the immediate environment of Faerie Space. 

Do you see the Radical Faeries fulfilling a role in the greater human community? 

Yes! 

What do you think it is? 

The unfurling and fluttering of a single Faerie’s wings in Faerie Space is enough to create a revolutionary wind of change for the planet!

There are now regular Faerie drum circles at the Brighton Unitarian Church.
Request details by joining the Brighton Faerie email group: brightonfaerie@gmail.com

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful fluid writing, you make it look & sound so easy. I'm so glad we were together in SM 269 last week!

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    1. Thanks for your comment Silvercloud. You are now my loving companion and I am now your loving companion. It's magick!

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