Feri is a pre-Gardnerian initiatory witchcraft tradition founded in the United States by Victor and Cora Anderson. Victor was a member of the Harpy coven, a pre-Gardnerian witchcraft group practicing during the 1920s and ’30s in southern Oregon. Cora was born in rural Alabama, and her family were known to practice folk-magic, her grandfather being a cunning man and her aunt a herbalist and midwife. Shortly after their marriage in 1944, Victor initiated Cora and the foundations of the Feri tradition began. They started teaching as early as the 1950s. The tradition was originally called Vicia (pronounced as in Italian: vee-chyah not related to the word vecchia, but to vitka), was then called Pictish (not to be confused with Scottish reconstructionism or Picti-Wicca), and has also gone through the various spellings of Feri (Fairy, Faery, Faerie). The Feri tradition is essentially an oral tradition based on the unique combination of indigenous folk religions, Vodou and hoodoo practices, American folk-magic, fairy-faith, shamanism, and witchcraft. While outsiders may view this as eclecticism, Victor saw it as incorporating parts of his cultural heritage, focusing on the similarities instead of the differences.
Working with his wife Cora, the two of them initiated some famous personalities including Starhawk and Gwydion Pendderwen, as well as many others, with the tradition expanding and evolving over the course of time. The Andersons continued teaching until Victor’s death on September 20th of 2001 and Cora’s passing seven years later on Beltaine of 2008.
“Feri is an oral tradition with no canonical book of rituals and lore. It also places a high value on poetic creativity and individual exploration. This has naturally led to variations between the practices of different lines.” (Phoenix Willow, “The Feri Tradition“)
In 1994 on their 50th wedding anniversary Cora published her labour of love, Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition. Victor’s poetry was published in two books: Thorns of the Blood Rose, originally in 1970, and Lilith’s Garden, posthumously in 2005. His book Etheric Anatomy: The Three Selves and Astral Travel was published by Acorn Guild Press in 2004.
Books in PDF format to read:
Michael Night Sky - Oberon Zell Interview A Wizard VisionMarcus Cordey - Magical Theory And Tradition
John Moore - A Modern Master Extract
Bylaws - Unicorn Tradition Of Wicca
Franceska De Grandis - Goddess Initiation
