 Feraferia religious symbol | |
| Formation | 1967 |
|---|---|
| Type | New religious movement |
| Headquarters | Cotati, California |
Official language | English |
Founder | Frederick Adams |
| Affiliations | Goddess movement |
| Website | feraferia |
Feraferia is aNeopagan religion with a community that began in Southern California and now spans the United States and parts of Europe. Members of this community practiceHellenic-inspiredGoddess worship.[1]
The founder of the group, Fredrick McLaren Charles Adams II, experienced an ecstatic religious conversion in 1956 when he became viscerally certain of the primacy of the Goddess. Among many other intellectuals with whom he corresponded and exchanged ideas, Adams met and was deeply influenced byRobert Graves and his bookThe White Goddess. In 1957, Adams founded the classically inspired Fellowship of Hesperides and in 1959, he started a multi-familyintentional community in Sierra Madre, California.
Following on the Fellowship of Hesperides, Feraferia was established in 1967 as a nonprofit corporation in the State of California, and as such, is one of the oldest organizations ofNeopaganism in the United States.[1][2] The name Feraferia is a combination of the Latin root wordsfera, denoting “wild” or “feral,” andferia, or “festival.” The religion is based on the celebration of wild nature with a focus on the maiden Goddess Kore. For six years, Adams published the newsletterKorythalia once a month with inspiration and updates for Feraferians.
During the 1970s, Adams, withCarroll "Poke" Runyon of theOrdo Templi Astartes, and Oberon Zell of theChurch of All Worlds formed The Council of Themis, the first attempt to unite varioushermetic, Neopagan, andceremonial magic groups in theUnited States. Adams, and Feraferia, were represented in Runyon's early Neopagan magazine,The 7th Ray, with Adams illustrating as well as writing expositions on the Feraferia approach to what later became known as theGoddess movement.
In 1989, Feraferia member and award-winning filmmaker Jo Carson began shooting and directing the documentary filmDancing With Gaia[3] to explore the meaning of Feraferia through words and images. The film features interviews with Adams and other prominent Neopagans and visits to sacred sites around the world.
Adams died in August 2008, followed by his wife and co-founder of Feraferia, Lady Svetlana of Feraferia (Svetlana Butyrin) in 2010. Adams named Jo Carson as literary executor of his estate and charged her with the mission of disseminating the messages of Feraferia to other Neopagan communities and the world.
Carson has since publishedCelebrate Wildness: Magic, Mirth and Love on the Feraferia Path,[4] a handbook of Feraferia and a showcase for Adams’ prolific artwork. Carson has presented on aspects of Feraferia numerous times at the Neopagan conference PantheaCon, and maintains a physical library for and about Feraferia as well as an extensive website[5] with more than 150 articles. Currently, Carson is working on a new publication,The Green Pulse Oracle: A Tool for Eco-Psychic Insight, based on a system of oracular glyphs first developed by Adams.
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