Reclaiming Kicked Our Butt

by Peter

Some Faeries might be familiar with Michael Thomas Ford’s book The Path of the Green Man (Citadel Press, 2005). In it, Mike outlines what he hopes will be a new Wiccan tradition for gay men. The book was relatively popular: It sold out of its initial print run, and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. Stories written for it also appeared here in RFD. Mike mentions both Reclaiming and the Radical Faeries in Path, but I want to share my own memories about how these two spiritual currents came together to create both the book and the Green Men, a Boston Faerie ritual circle.

In September 1998, Gwo held a heart circle at his house in Cambridge, a circle that was important to me for many reasons. It was the first time I met Gwo, who is now a good friend, and the first time I was in his amazing house, which he has opened many times since to the Faeries. It was also the day that firmly set me on my current spiritual path as a pagan. I recorded an interesting synchronicity that day in my journal. During the circle, someone mentioned the rare blood disease hemochromatosis. Oddly, I had encountered the word for the first time the day before when I randomly opened a dictionary. I wouldn’t ordinarily view something like this as a good omen, but I guess it was.

Among many notable things that day (including someone who walked several miles to Gwo’s house barefoot and wearing a sarong), I first met Mike Ford. During the circle, he told us he had been to Reclaiming’s Witch Camp in Vermont that summer, where he encountered Endora. While discussing gay men and paganism, Endora suggested Mike could find kindred spirits among the Radical Faeries in Boston. Mike finished his story by asking if any of the Faeries wanted to form a pagan ritual group.

I had been looking for a more structured outlet for my pagan urges, and was definitely interested. Although I had been in a Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans group at Arlington Street Church when I first came to Boston, I had drifted away, and the Boston Faeries at the time weren’t really focused on ritual. Mike brought up the same topic again in November at Prettyurban’s house, and told us he wanted to call the group the Green Men. Some more Faeries expressed interest.

The Green Men had our first ritual on December 20, 1998, at a big old Victorian house in Jamaica Plain. In The Path of the Green Man, Mike writes that nine men participated, and that one of us was a Radical Faerie. By my count, though, at least ritual, with Layla dressed in veils invoking the goddess Brigid, prophesying and blessing us with cubes of cheese. We started to meet every pagan Sabbat, and we’re still meeting ten years later. In retrospect, I’m amazed we made it work, but I think our Faerie spirit has carried us forward. Reclaiming may have directed Mike Ford to Boston, but our rituals had a playful Radical Faerie energy. No Maypole for Beltane? Tie ribbons around the neck of your tallest member and dance around him. Celebrating Samhain? Run through your host’s house, howling like the loosened souls of the dead to bless each room, including the closets. four of us were Faeries: Shimmer, Layla, Darren and myself. The others were friends of Mike’s. The ritual was a success, even though we didn’t quite know what we were doing. Candles, camaraderie and a masked horned god compensated for our lack of experience. Arriving at the ritual, I was tired and overdressed from an elegant holiday party in the South End. Leaving, I was energized. In my dreams that night I traveled through deep subterranean caverns.

Leadership and structure were hotly discussed in the spring of 1999, but again Faerie energy carried the day. At a planning meeting heavily attended by the Faerie members, we decided against having a leader. Mike had proposed some principles of unity, but they never influenced what we did. Instead, the Green Men proceeded organically, based on our members’ needs and desires.

As the wheel of the year turned from that initial Yule, the non-Faerie Green Men dropped out one by one. We added more members from the Boston Faeries, including Gwo at Ostara 1999, and later Prettyurban. Eventually, we were all Radical Faeries except for Mike, and he left at our second Yule. Now we’re just a happy bunch of Radical Faeries, with occasional guests.

We gathered again for Imbolc in February 1999. Our Radical Faerie spirit infused the

The Path of the Green Man came out in 2005, and those of us still in the Green Men were surprised and a little nostalgic, since it described our first year together. But it didn’t talk about the following six: the hieroglyphic body-painting for Ostara, the intoxicated Dionysian drumming with dildos to celebrate Lammas, or how to wear purple gloves and eat lettuce in celebration of Set and Horus. Reading it was like looking fondly at an old photograph.

As I look back at the events of 1998, I think of Reclaiming as a fabulous volcanic planet, shooting Mike Ford across the galaxy into the fertile primordial goop of the Boston Faeries. The Green Men don’t look like the Reclaiming mother planet, and we probably don’t look like Mike’s original vision, but we evolved because of both.

Author, Peter, lives in Boston, where he has been involved with the Radical Faeries since the mid-‘90s.

One Faerie’s View

by JP Hartsong

Of the many intersections of the Reclaiming and Radical Faerie communities, I’ve witnessed a strong connection between the Wolf Creek Sanctuary and the Free Activist Witchcamp.

Free Activist Witchcamp (FAWC), now in its 5th year, is a Reclaiming sanctioned Witchcamp located in the Pacific Northwest created to be accessible to activists. Donation-based and designed to connect various activist communities together, it makes space for children and well-behaved pets. This camp serves as a container for a week of networking and ritual for the healing and renewal of the earth. There have been five FAWCs, and each is a thread in the tapestry we are weaving together.

During its first year, thirteen Wolf Creek faeries attended FAWC which was held in the National Forest. The theme was “Answering the Call of the Wild.” The camp was constructed as a temporary eco-village in the woods, and called forth those who would answer the call of the earth. Held in the logging-ravaged forest in Southern Oregon, the scars from the deforestation were very present in the rituals and story of this gathering.

I wasn’t part of the 2nd year. I heard that the 2nd year FAWC had a very small percentage of fae attendance, and told the story of Coyote’s trick.

Third Year Witchcamp occurred in south central Washington with the theme of weaving our stories together. Happening immediately after Queerruption, a Do-It-Yourself gathering for anarchist queers which takes place in a different international city each year, again about 13 faes attended this FAWC, along with a crew of anarchist queers. What ensued were many in-depth discussion topics including gender identity and pronouns, camp organization, and food consciousness. Several traditions were challenged and transformed during this camp, letting the attendees shape the magic as theirs.

During this camp, gender identities of particular invocations were shifted, and even eliminated as the camp progressed. Many traditional forms were explored, challenged, and altered. I was personally amazed by some of the bonds that had formed between attendees, and learned that many participants had attended Earth Activist Training, a permaculture design course taught by Starhawk which combines permaculture with political activism and ritual. With this inspiration and the desire to connect more deeply to the earth, in January 2008 I attended EAT and obtained my permaculture design certificate. (www. earthactivisttraining.org)

The fourth year of FAWC immersed several different cultures in the container of the Nomenus Radical Faerie Sanctuary in Wolf Creek, Oregon. Rainbows, Witches, Faeries, and more came together for the Pentacle of the Great Turning, a pentacle with five points which moved from Desire, to Surrender, to Transformation, to Solidarity, to Manifestation. As per our intent, we lived this pentacle in the container of this gathering.

There was friction of various intensities as the communities started to integrate. Challenges included how children and pets were stewarded, hygiene issues, a 24-hour bug, and a lack of participation from some people present in the container. Initially, it seemed the witches and faeries gelled well, and most issues were attributed to the rainbows. As the gathering moved and the pentacle of the great turning shifted, so did our relationships with each other. As the witches and faeries started to find family in the rainbow tribe, it became evident that the shadow were we seeing in their community had roots in all of ours. There seemed to be an aspect present intent on consuming resources without really participating in the Witchcamp.

This gathering was a living, co-created experience, with challenges and blessings available for everyone. For instance, at a clowny fire early on (during Surrender day), a chant was raised “it’s okay if you’re not gay, we’ll suck your dick anyway!” During Solidarity day near the closing of the Witchcamp, the faeries in attendance shared a faerie ritual with the camp as an offering to the community, which culminated in a play party with Male + Male, Female + Male, and Female + Female (and don’t forget the Trans!) loving in The Temple of Love, a manifestation of the Cosmic Tribe. During Transformation day, the organizing and facilitation Cells of the Witchcamp met with the Sanctuary’s stewarding community to discuss challenges that were occurring. There was discussion about how it seemed that there were multiple gatherings occurring in the same space; both a Witchcamp and a faerie gathering, sharing the kitchen and FAWC’s resources. From this and further conversations, FAWC’s organizers decided to gatekeep the next gathering. Next year’s FAWC will return to the wild, as per the facilitation cell’s agreement when considering Wolf Creek to begin with.

FAWC at Wolf Creek brought many lessons to our communities. It connected several tribes in ritual to heal each other and the land. It illustrated the necessity of having a stronger “gate” present. It showed us the many challenges presented by creating an inclusive container for multiples cultures to participate and interact. It illustrated the challenges and advantages of open container gatherings. This experience has helped the 2009 organizers shape the container of this upcoming year’s FAWC. FAWC 2009 will be held in the National Forest outside of Portland. Its theme/ story will be the Gaea Evolution Story. We invite activist Faeries to come and immerse themselves in a container of magic with others who share vision of the healing and renewal of the earth. If you are one of these faeries, please attend. www.freewitchcamp.org