A central tenet of faerie lore is that there is no single definition of faerie. Faerie is a self-assumed identity-permeable, mutable, contradictory. Unfixed. Individual. So, no strict definitions here. Just an out-line, much transgressed, sketched in my own, very idiosyncratic hand.
Some would place the starting of the faerie movement as a Labor Day weekend gathering in 1979 in Arizona. But I would say this was just one event, a festive blip, in a line going infinitely back, infinitely forward.
Whenever you have a society that constructs distinct gender behaviors -- what it means to be a gal, what it means to be a guy -- there will be a people who don't conform to those behaviors. Society never disregards this nonconformance. However, it can respond to the nonconformists in two ways. Society can vilify them, call them names, see them as corrupting decency, purity, and the glory of the reign of father ruler, father god. Or society can sanctify the nonconformist, call them names, see them as gifted edge walkers between the worlds of male and female, new and old, spirit shadow and spirit light.
I can give you lists of boundary crossers, but why? Their story is integral to your deepest being. Those who have come before you are with you now.
They are present in you.
The radical faeries lay claim to the role of sacred boundary crosser in this place and in this time. To be sure, faeries have their own boundaries, which are continually questioned and crossed. To be blunt, faeries are mostly gay men. The other boundary is geographic: North America. As such, faeries draw from the cultural traditions that come together on that part of the planet: euro-pa, diaspora black, native american, hispanic, asian. The faeries are rife with contradictions and tensions, and can be exasperating. But there is a spirit in the faeries of withholding judgment and going on with the show. The intent is magical -- transforming ourselves and the world through spirit. And that's how we're radical in the root sense of the word .
from the ground, from the earth, at the basewhere the matter is the most dense.
You can't make a ballgown from a pattern for a three piece suit. Cultures live within the repetition of patterns. Since I believe that faerie-ness is fundamentally a matter of remaking culture, the best way to understand faeries is to look at the patterns we play with.
Circles: Fundamentally, faeries are a group of people who have agreed to listen to each other. This listening, this talking, occurs in the most elemental of faerie forms-the circle. People sit=8Aaround. A talisman is passed. Whoever holds the talisman is listened to.
Gatherings: A lived experience of communal faerie culture: usually over several days; usually in the country. Faeries conceptualize gatherings in many different ways. Some see them as performance, or a healing rite, or a tribal meeting, or a vacation. Aside from contributing to the pool for running the gathering, money is not used: food, clothing, shelter is freely given and taken: abundance reigns. Time becomes a matter of riding the rhythm of the day. Faeries relax, and smile more. They touch each other a lot.
Sanctuary: Faeries are far from real estate mavens. Land cannot be owned, really. However, land can become a focused repository of faerie culture and energy. As of this writing, there are four faerie sanctuaries: Short Mountain in Tennessee, Kawashaway in Minnesota, Amber =46ox in Ontario and Wolf Creek in Oregon. But then, there are many other faerie sanctuaries: city apartments, small farms, a knoll in the park. It's all in the living.
Ritual: There is no single faerie spirituality. I have been at gatherings with Catholic priests, staunch agnostics, and pagan witches. However, there is a faerie spirtual urge, which is to unite queerness with the sacred.
That is, we are sacred because we are queer.
Most gatherings include at least one group ritual. Not every faerie believes rituals to be central to the gathering experience; many faeries don't even go. It is true that faerie rituals usually follow a neopagan formula: a circle is cast, energy is raised through chanting and dancing, excess energy is "earthed," the circle is reopened. But no matter how many ceremonial magick queens get together, faerie rituals always get gate crashed by the trickster spirits of Anar-she and X-hileration. A chant is spontaneously changed; a dance breaks out; a new goddess is named.
Every faerie communes with the sacred as an ontological fact. We don't need a recognized priesthood or a tradition to guide us.
Drag: You can call "yoo-hoo" and "hey girl" to death, but the surest way to get a group of faeries together is to empty out a big plastic garbage bag of fabulous thrift store finds. Changing drag, changing self presentation, changing self: a faerie putting together a new outfit-paisley scarf, metallic blouse, prized skirt- is not demonstrating conformity, not dressing for the office. She is exploring a new dimension to herself, dancing the edge between male and female, the alleged sacred and supposed profane, the lavendar fantastic and the lavendar present. She is being fabulous.
Hissing: Snakes shed their skin like faeries shed their drag. Snakes crawl on the ground, close to the mother, like faeries value the state of being grounded, close to the mother. Snakes hiss like faeries hiss: to say we're near. Sssssssssss.
The faeries are a coming together within a queer context of other strands of oppositional North American culture. Within the patterns of faerie culture, all these strands get woven, cut, sewn and accessorized. Since I am a witch, and think in terms of spells, I would like to name those strands, and braid them together into a sacred lavendar cord:
Anarchism. For a movement toward decentralism and small communities where the individual is prized. Non-dogmatic, leaderless.
Feminism. For a value of women and womanly qualities and stance against the patriarchy.
Anti-racism. For an appreciation of the value of diversity and the excitement of many cultural traditions.
Gay Liberation. For an exploration of the radical potential of gay identity.
Hippies. For spontaneous mass cultural transformation, communalism, and good drag.
Neopaganism. For new forms of ritual and a realization of the immanent spirit.
Ecology. For a respect for nature
Mens Movement. For men coming together and examining the conditions of their lives.
At the end of this cord I would tie a bead. The bead would be stone bead, ancient, sacred, and heavy. Very heavy. The bead would be the weight of a pendulum swinging across time, connecting me to the sissie priests and shamans of the past and the future. The bead would be my marking amulet, so others may know me. The bead would be a condensation of energy, a source of knowledge and power.
The bead would be a faerie bead.
-- Trixie X (nèe Glamourama)