Her Grace Lady Seraphina the Eldritch

Lately I'm using Privoxy for the Internet ad-blocking, and like it more than all the ad-blocking methods I had tried before. It has very flexible pattern-matching which allows to filter out different kinds of ads - based on the domain names (e.g. ad*.example.com), URL names (e.g. example.com/banners/*) and even images of standard sizes most often used for banners. There's a ton of already preconfigured rules, which are fully customizable, it's possible to relax the rules for specific sites or to define some sites as an exception. Privoxy can also block cookies, fix the javascript and CSS annoyances (resized/moving windows, scrolling, popups), webbugs (user tracking), animated gifs etc.

It works as a server, so one installation can serve all the browsers and all the computers in the network, which makes it very useful as opposed to the browser-based ad-blockers (user/browser-specific) and ad-blocking host file (machine-specific). Previously I've tried Squid proxy, but while it also has pattern-matching, it's not nearly as customizable as Privoxy (at least where the ads are concerned), and in general is overkill for those users who need only filtering capabilities but not caching.

Oh btw: a nice link stolen from admiralmemo : Why Monetizing Social Media Through Advertising Is Doomed To Failure (parts 2 and 3 are linked at the end of the post).

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080908

The Girl Genius comic for Monday, September 08, 2008 has been posted.

Fandom: CSI
Title: 02. Blood and 03. Cat
Author: Lexus
Theme(s): Thrillers, 02, Blood, 03, Cat
Pairing/Characters: Catherine Willows/Sara Sidle (eventually)
Rating: PG-13 for now
Disclaimer/claimer: I do not own CSI or any of the characters herein. I am not making money from this fanfic!
Critiques: Sure!
Summary: Sara checks out Catherine's attic.

02. Blood

03. Cat

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/142933.html

"Meeting the Peacock Lord" Sept 26, 2008 with Dominic Elemirion

Wytchwood Feri Workshops: Meeting the Peacock Lord
pre-registration is required - go here
http://www.wytchwood.com/FeriFridays.htm

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/142723.html

hi everyone,
I wanted to let you all know that I just finished the 9th issue of my zine StarFrosting. This issue has a lot of sex, magic, and poetry. While I don't reference the Iron Pentacle directly in its pages, this is a ferrous, fey-touched work through and through. It’s about the iron in our human blood, the bright burning iron of the spinning stars, the molten iron pulsing at the Earth’s core. I thought some of you Feris would

If you would like a copy, please send $3 to cover printing and shipping costs. If you are using Paypal, my email is oli.esti at gmail dot com. If you'd prefer to send concealed cash, get in touch via lj comment or an email and we can exchange mailing addresses. Either way be sure to give me your address along with the payment so I know where to send your zine!

Thanks and blessings,
Oli

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/142497.html

STONE CITY FOUNDATION
Benefit Show & Charity Auction

Saturday, September 6 2008, 6-11 PM
El Mundo Bueno Studios
5427 Telegraph Ave, Suite M, Oakland CA

Tickets are $10.00 at the door - but feel free to donate a higher amount.
Doors will open around 5:30, and we encourage you to arrive by 6 so you don't miss any of the gorgeous performances we have lined up starting around 6:15.

Charity Auction
In addition to the performances, we'll also be holding a silent auction to raise funds for Stone City.

Other delights...
Henna body art designs will be on offer to raise funds, as well as some delicious edibles and handcrafted brews for your pleasure.

Performers:
Sharon Knight & Winter - www.sharonknight.net
Acoustic Celtic and original Pagan-inspired music. With a special screening of the "Song of the Sea" music video which features Stone City's Henge as one of its locations!

Anaar - www.anaar.info
Gothic belly dance

Polly Moller & Co. - www.myspace.com/pollymoller
Unique electroacoustic sound, music and spoken word

Amelia Hogan - www.myspace.com/ameliaisaverb
Celtic songstress in the traditional Sean Nos a capella style

DJ Speakeasy aka Kenneth Winter - www.myspace.com/dj_ire
Blending electronica, house and world beat rhythms

Morpheus Anima - ecstatic belly dance

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/142325.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46487034@N00/sets/72157607030344560/

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/141952.html

please to welcome philip (</a></b></a>southernpm on livejournal), who was initiated into feri yesterday by the following personnel:
</a></b></a>veedub, </a></b></a>dbananza, the Fabulous Tim, </a></b></a>the_misha,and special guest stars </a></b></a>faerywolf and </a></b></a>carnivalia.

special commendations to colin, who drove from sacramento while in the middle of moving to seattle, diana for invaluable cleanup help, storm and chas for lore and wonderful singing, and tim, for the white wig (don't ask). the vibe was the way the feri community should be--lots of laughter and lore, and fooooooood (more commendations to colin for the incredible fruit tart from safeway of all places) and wiiiiiine.

and an extra shout-out to ron, for giving us the space and going off to have a good time in the napa valley, in spite of the traffic.

w00-h00!!

v

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/141777.html

Can any of you recommend any good factual books dealing specifically with the subject of the Yezidis and Yezidi beliefs?

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/141228.html

http://www.phaedrus.dds.nl/fera8.htm

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/140919.html

Hello,

Spurred on by the mighty Onyx, some of us are plotting to have quarterly Feri gatherings to get together, eat pie in honor of Cora, and talk about things Feri, or just about whatever we feel like talking about! Students and initiates are all welcome. We encourage people to organize meetings wherever in the world you may be.

In the SF Bay Area we will meet at Willard Park in Berkeley, 2pm PST on Saturday, September 20th.

If you could coordinate your local event around that date, that would be wonderful.

Willard Park is walkable from either Berkeley BART or Ashby BART.
From Ashby BART:
Right at Ashby Ave 0.5 mi
Turn left at Telegraph Ave 0.4 mi
Turn right at Derby St 0.1 mi
Park is at corner of Derby and Hillegass.

blessings - Thorn

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/140750.html

bye

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/140139.html

I keep telling people that it's all really simple. I also like to say that initiation is like the ruby slippers.

You know, like in The Wizard of Oz. Baum was a Theosophist, which is why Dorothy's journey is a lot like the Fool's Journey from the Tarot (and the little dog, too!) which is a type of the Hero's Journey. She is accompanied by an avatar of Air/the Mind (the Scarecrow), Fire/Will (the Cowardly Lion), and Water/Emotions (the Tin Man, as well as Earth/the Body (Toto).

At the end, when she finds out that she can return home via the shoes she's been wearing throughout the journey and therefore always had the power to do so, she asks, "Why didn't you tell me?" Glinda replies, "You wouldn't have believed me." There's also the fact that if Dorothy had gone straight home, she would never have become the hero she did become.

That's what a magical secret is. Or one of the things. It's something you knew all along, but have a new perspective on. It's also completely secondary to the process of getting there.

If you go straight home, you don't save Oz. You do not become the person you are meant to become on the journey. And there is no benefit, because you won't even gain the tools. Dorothy didn't get to keep the ruby slippers. You can't use the tools unless you understand them, anyhow. Merely having them is useless.

There's another thing: If you want to understand Feri, consider that one of our pieces of liturgy evokes the story of the Fairies' Midwife. You know, the one where the midwife is called to attend the birth of a strange woman, is given ointment to put on the baby's eyes, and accidentally rubs some on her own eye. She is then able to see through all of the fairies' illusions. Later on she sees the husband at the market, and asks how his wife is doing. He replies, "By which eye do you see me?" and when she answers, he puts it out.

Sometimes fairies aren't very nice. They will do things like that, give you a handful of leaves that look like money, poisonous toadstools that look like good bread, or poke your eye out so that you can only see the illusions.

Some folks just won't believe what I am saying above, and they think the slippers are the real point, and they are going to get those slippers. Any way they can. And, not just in Feri, but in the Pagan world at large, there is always someone who is willing to feed that.

Another thing about fairy stories: Greed is always punished. Often quite viciously. Act greedy, focus on the thing rather than the journey and kindness along the way, and you may wind up with toads and spiders falling out of your mouth. Or any number of worse fates.

There's a lot of truth in fairy tales.

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/139026.html

happy birthday, dominic!!

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/138959.html

we visited Brian Dragon and it was so frickin' awesome. i loved it. i was especially glad that both newly initiated and soon-to-be were there.

i hope that we can all, locally and then (depending on time and $) nationally and INTERnationally, meet each other. it is so illuminating and fun, and (the more teachers/practitioners i meet, i find) we are ALL different, with differing ways of Doing This, yet with a certain esprit in common. i can't emphasise that enough. it seems to be qualitative.

the idea that i can evolve into an Elf after i die has me incredibly excited. :)

if you don't know who this is, go visit http://www.pictdom.org/ for his particular obsessive and beautiful vision of Feri. The tree of life, in particular, is something ya need to see, if only because it's beautiful.

he told us the story of being in 8th grade and being hit with these Robert Howard stories like a sledgehammer. I, too, have had certain things strike me right to the core. What is your list of fetish, obsession, secret dreams?

By words & images are all powers awakened and reawakened. But also by sound, action, color, texture, sensation, sex.

anyway i love everyone that takes the essence and quality of what they are personally ga ga over and obsessed with, especially if it's an obsession of youth, and not only makes it sacred, but makes it work. Victor did that, Chumbley did that, Drgn does that, i have many friends that do that, and I (now inspired) allow myself to do that more and more these days.

yay!!

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/138547.html

I believe Cora was known to say something like that...she called it the Craft.  The Craft is really very simple.  I agree with her.

The core of Feri is very simple.  The practice of Feri is doing those few simple things, over and over again until they transform you.  When the transformation reaches a certain stage, we (meaning the Feri initiates) try to bring you the rest of the way through the door. 

It may take a long time; that doesn't matter.  Feri is dream time.  It's your whole life.  It doesn't matter when you start, and it doesn't matter how long it takes you to reach the door, and it definitely doesn't end there.

Books and words can only point the way, and only a limited part of the way.   There is no secret to be discovered, that you can find somewhere; at least, the secret isn't anywhere but in you, in your own breath, the rise and fall of power in your own blood.

The purpose of working with an initiate...I dislike the word teacher, because it creates an illusion of information to be gained...the worth of that is in their breath, their energy, the fact that they've been through the gate and returned to tell the tale, that they embody that energy.   Knowledge is again, not the issue, it's experience.  One that can't be conveyed through words, only through contact and connection

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/138449.html

I think it could be argued that Victor Anderson's Feri has a lot less to do with British-derived Wicca than it does with the American liberal religious traditions. In short, I think what Victor taught is in a tradition that is uniquely American, and that it could be argued that his roots could be traced back to a very American balance between hoodoo/folk magic and Emerson/Whitman.

It can also be argued that the current practice of Wicca in the U.S. has a lot more to do with American Free Thought, New Thought, and Transcendentalism than Gerald Gardner. There's a long history of what Leigh Eric Schmidt called the "liberal religious traditions" in the United States. These liberal religious traditions have a lot of roots in the deism of the founding fathers and the mysticism of the Friends (Quakers). These liberal spiritual traditions in the United States argued for religious tolerance, women's rights, and the abolitionist movement long before these concepts were popular or even respectable.

It could be argued that Gardner's Wicca, was quite solidly tied to British middle-class values and beliefs, in spite of the sensational nudism and flagellation. British witchcraft is still very much male-dominated in the British isles and the majority of Britons who say they practice witchcraft still seem to be male at last count, whereas exactly the reverse is true in the United States.

When the Witchcraft traditions were exported to America they came in contact with a long American tradition of free thought. The American free thought or "liberal religious" movement was continuing, and had been influenced in the 1960s by the study of Buddhism and Hinduism (ongoing since the 19th century) and the budding (or perhaps blooming) feminist movement (which itself was an outgrowth of various free thought and women's suffrage movements). Theosophy and Spiritualism were also very influential in the United States, and the effects of those movements were still carried on down to the 1960s.

When the Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions came to the United States, it could be argued that they immediately impacted on people who were influenced for the past 150 years by a movement that began with Emerson, Whitman, and the Transcendentalists, as well as all the liberal spiritualities outlined above. It could also be argued that upon impact, Wicca changed radically and rapidly from Gardnerian or Alexandrian ideals and mores, themselves a product of a British cultural mindset. The grimoires and teachings were taken by Americans who were influenced by the liberal spiritual traditions, and were transformed.

Gardner's rather old fashioned ideas about the dominance of the God over the Goddess, which he incorporated into his tradition more and more as he grew older and fell out with Doreen Valiente, were entirely discarded in favor of a robustly feminist and female-centered view. Women who were troubled by the patriarchalism of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism as they were practiced in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s responded powerfully to the idea of the Great Goddess.

"I am the Gracious Goddess, who gives the gift of joy unto the heart of men," She announces in Doreen Valiente's Charge of the Goddess. "Upon Earth, I give knowledge of the spirit eternal, and beyond death, I give peace and freedom...nor do I demand aught in sacrifice, for I am the Mother of all things, and My Love is poured out upon all the earth." These words struck a powerful chord in those who felt constrained by the legalism and conservatism of mainstream Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and who felt marginalized by the heavy male focus and patriarchalism found even in the Buddhist and Hindu movements of the 1950s and 1960s.

Valiente herself was perhaps the first person to strip away the patriarchalism that Gardner had imposed on his version of Wicca, but Americans discarded it almost entirely.

But before Wicca came to the United States, it can be argued that Victor and Cora Anderson were actively teaching witchcraft. The records on this are scattered and not conclusive but it appears that they taught Tom DeLong (later Gwydion Pendderwen), and perhaps other students, elements of their witchcraft system long before Wicca came to the United States, and it is certain from the historical knowledge that we have that the Andersons were practicing a singularly American style of witchcraft personally for many years before Gardnerian witchcraft ever came to America.

This Andersonian Craft (it came to be called "Feri" only much later) had its influences. Victor himself never made any secret of the fact that he was initiated in the 1930s by a group that he called the "Harpy Coven," and that he received teachings from this group. He also stated that he received teachings on the astral level, and never claimed to be the creator of Feri; instead, he stated that it was the indigenous religion of the "small dark people" of prehistoric times. His work shows that he was a highly intelligent and widely read man, who must have been a voracious reader in spite of the fact that he was legally blind. He was unashamed of incorporating elements of indigenous practices of various cultures into his work. Indeed, there were indigenous practitioners who, upon meeting him, accepted him as one of their own.

The element of Feri that is "poetic," a concept that is extremely important to Feri practice, combined with the concept that Feri is a shamanic tradition.* This being the case, it was and is important for the individual Feri practitioner to work on and develop his or her own relationship with God Herself, often through personal spiritual experiences, study, and meditation. As a result, it seems that some of Victor's students, when confronted with Gardnerian or Alexandrian Wicca, ** were happy to incorporate the elements of British witchcraft that worked for them and exclude the parts that didn't. These students were also happy to draw parallels between the Feri teachings and British Wicca, and indeed, some Feri traditions now incorporate certain British Wicca elements to such an extent that people assume that Feri was a post-British Wicca development.

However, from the historical evidence that is public (given that some historic material is oathbound and rightfully so) it appears that Feri pre-dates Wicca, and that many of its essential practices are deeply rooted in folk magic and liberal spiritual traditions that are unique to the United States. I would also speculate that Victor, as someone who was extensively self-taught, had encountered the American tradition of liberal spiritual thought that found its first real focus in figures like Emerson and Whitman, and like those people, he focused the various sorts of light he found into a ray that was unique in its intensity.


*

**

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/137927.html

A New Tradition: Feri Thanksgiving @ Casa Vesperus

After asking around a bit, we are stepping in to fill the gap left by the departure of Cora. We offer our home as a gathering place for Feri folk and their friends. Our intention is to do this annually, as part of our Feri house project. We want this to be a community project, so it will be more potluck-y than Thanksgivings past. To that end, we have created a wiki for people to state that they are coming, and what they will bring. The link:
http://casavesperus.pbwiki.com/thanksgiving-2008

To edit the wiki page (in other words, tell us you are coming and what you will bring) you need to log in using the user name “casavesperus” and the password “lucifera”.

This event is for community-building, and to that end, we are instating “Cora Rules”. This means all are welcome and hospitality will be shown. It will be considered rude and unacceptable to parade political and personal differences during this community gathering. We leave that to the inter-web.

For those of you who really don’t know, Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 27th and it falls on the new moon this year. Woo! We are gathering starting at 1 pm, and it will go until who knows when. We hope to see you there, or at the Cora birthday brunch in January (our next event).

Casa Vesperus is near the 580 and 880 and airport. If you need transit from BART, please contact us via comments. If you wanna come in from out of town for the shindig and need a place to stay, we have room for a few, including a full sized futon, a couch, and floor space.

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/137665.html

Karina Blackheart teaches you...

2009, Sat. 12 April—Sun. 13 April

Denver, CO

A Weekend Intensive...

Two Handed Magic: The Crooked Path, Left and Right Handed Magic in the Feri Tradition, led by Karina Blackheart...

Feri's walk a crooked, star-lit path along a razor’s edge, between Will and Surrender, the Iron and the Pearl, Divine as eminent and immanent. In this weekend intensive, we will examine and enter fully into the paradox that is Feri Magic. Working with the Creation Story, the Divine Twins, Soul Alignment, the Iron and the Pearl Pentacles, we will explore both esoteric and mundane topics such as suffering, sexuality, desire, passion and compassion, healing and hexing.

An adept magician must know when to exert will and when to surrender. We gain this wisdom through knowledge of Self in all our parts—even those parts we might consider weak or selfish.

In a carefully constructed container for this work, we will more clearly define the work of our Personal God through ritual, discussion, song, journaling, trance-journeying and divination. Healing the fear, shame and guilt which keep us from our Truth is powerful. Defining our Will is powerful. Walking the star-lit path takes courage, dedication and sometimes, blind faith.

Are you up for it?

Bring to this Class...

• A journal and pen

• A (sacred) Kala cup

• 1 white and 1 black taper candle with holders

• A brief definition (15 words or less) of Your Highest Will

About Karina...

Karina began studying the Craft in 1991 and entered Feri training in 1994. She attained a Third Road Initiation in 1997, her Feri Initiation in 2002 and in October of 2007, she received the honor of the Black Wand blessed by Anaar, Storm Faerywolf and Michele Jackson. A Feri teacher, healer, ecstatic poet/writer, a Mother, lover, warrior and Master of the Black Arts, she walks the razor's edge in pride and wonderment. Karina emphasizes ecstatic embodiment of Feri principles and practices in her life and her teachings.

What is Black Heart Feri?

Feri, Faerie, Faery, Fierce, Ferocious, Fearsome, Fey,

A Tradition. A Craft. A Path. A way of Being. Shamanic. Ecstatic.

Paradoxical. Simplistic and complex.

A current. Power. A Danger. A Blessing.

Sensual. Sexual. Natural.

Definitions fall short

Feri cannot be defined in terms we understand through intellect alone. Feri is understood and integrated through poetry and experience, possession and passion, discipline and dreaming. Here is a taste, a morsel, a tease, a scent.

If you are Wise you will Know. Other-Wise, enjoy the poetry and think me a fool.

In Love and Power, Be Thou Blessed.

—Karina

www.blackheartferi.com

 

Two Handed Magic, 2009!

Saturday 12 Apr 10am – 9pm

Sunday 13 April 10am–2pm

Held At Spirit Wise

6590 South Broadway

Centennial, CO 80121

At Arapaho and Broadway

To attend this workshop you must have personal experience in the Feri Tradition of Witchcraft.

Your payment must be completed or postmarked by the date indicated below in order to ensure your price and place in this workshop. Attendance is limited so sign up today!

Pricing

Date Price

If Paid by Oct. 31st ................. $90.00

If Paid by Jan. 31th ............... $110.00

If Paid by Apr. 12th ............... $130.00

Donation........................... _______.__

Total _______.__

If you pay using a PayPal Account - make payment in full to COTW@att.net account.

Return Mail-in inquiries to...

Covenant of the Wiccæ

9028 West Plymouth Avenue

Littleton, CO 80128

Sponsored by: Covenant of the Wiccæ...

Web: www.cotw.us

Phone: 720.394.5050

Email: COTW@att.net

Address: 9028 West Plymouth Avenue

Littleton, CO 80128

(Denver Metro Area)

Get your COTW and Liber 76 Gear from CafePress!

www.cafepress.com/liber76

About: Covenant of the Wiccæ celebrates a blend of paths, holding open and closed Circles. We are a teaching coven, offering entry level Witchcraft casual courses for students seeking Dedication, 1st year studies and Initiation into our Coven, and Priest[ess] training at its Esbat and Sabbat celebrations. We seek new ways to serve the community and expand our services as we grow. Building Your Temple.

To be held at: Spirit Wise...

Web: www.spiritwisegifts.com

Phone: 303.730.2974

Email: constanceb@spiritwisegifts.com

Address: 6590 South Broadway

Centennial, CO 80121

At Arapaho and Broadway

(Denver Metro Area)

About: Spirit Wise is a full service metaphysical center, gift and book store located in Centennial , Colorado, at Arapaho and South Broadway. Spirit Wise has been serving the Denver south metro area for over twenty years. They offer classes, workshops, Reiki, massage, Tarot readings, astrological charts, energy work and more. In past years Spirit Wise/Conference Room has been graced by many respected authors and teachers. To learn about coming events, check out Spirit Wise Newsletter online, or call.

Two Handed Magic

http://community.livejournal.com/feri/137374.html

http://www.tengerism.org/table_of_contents.html

Enjoy this one. I have no idea how accurate this information is, but it is, at the very least, interesting.