The Anderson Craft Tradition: Vicia Line

by Corvia Blackthorn

Feri is an initiatory tradition of Witchcraft emphasizing "the more natural and wild forms of
human magic and sorcery."[1] It contains a multiplicity of lineages or "lines," all ultimately
tracing back to Victor and Cora Anderson. The tradition's name has been spelled in a variety
of ways. Early initiates used Fairy, Faery, or Faerie. Victor Anderson later changed the
spelling to Feri. This was done to distinguish our tradition from others using similar terms.
The change was not universally adopted, however, and some lines still use the earlier
spellings. According to the Andersons, Vicia was also a very early name for the tradition.
Feri is an oral tradition with no canonical book of liturgy or lore. It also values creativity and
individual exploration. This has naturally led to variations between the practices of different
lines. The following article provides an outline of Feri as it is known and practiced in the
Vicia line. In Vicia (pronounced vee-chee-ah), we work with a body of lore and techniques
passed from the Andersons to their personal initiates and covenmates. Vicia students are
trained in person using the apprenticeship model. We do not charge money for training, and
Vicia is not taught publicly.

Origins
The historical origin of Feri has long been debated, and it's doubtful a single account will ever
be accepted by all. Most can agree, however, that the first known modern teachers of the Feri
Tradition were Victor and Cora Anderson.
Victor Anderson sometimes referred to Feri as a devotional science. According to him, it was
first practiced by a small dark-skinned people who came out of Africa tens of thousands of
years ago. These were the original "Fairy Folk" or "Little People, " and they turn up under
different names in the legends of many cultures (the Menehune of the Hawaiian islands are
one example) . Victor linked these small dark people to the Picts of Scotland, and occasionally
referred to the tradition he taught as "the Pictish tradition."[2] The Fairies were said to be
strongly psychic and highly skilled in the magical arts. Victor considered himself a direct
descendent of these small dark people and used to say, "I was not converted, I am kin to the
Fairy race!" Because the Fairy Folk traveled so widely and lived so long ago, traces of Feri are
found all around the world. (Some Feri Witches see this as a poetic explanation; others see it
as literally true.)
The terminology can be a bit confusing because "Fairy" also refers to certain nature spirits and
inhabitants of the etheric region. According to the Andersons, the small dark humans known
as Fairies had a particularly close relationship to these spirit beings.[3] Victor said he
considered Fairy/Feri a good name for the tradition because it included nature spirits, gods,
and the ancestral race of small humans.

Modern History
Victor Henry Anderson was a gifted Craft priest, shaman, and poet. He was born in Clayton,
New Mexico, on May 21, 1917. An accident in early childhood left Victor legally blind. He
was, however, highly skilled in etheric sight and could clearly see auras and other etheric
phenomena. Victor had a beautiful speaking and singing voice, some recordings of which still
exist. He also played the accordion professionally.
Victor told of being initiated as a Witch in 1926 by a woman "of the Fairy race." An account
of this event can be found in Margot Adler's classic book on neo-Paganism, Drawing Down
the Moon. Not long afterward, Victor was introduced to Harpy Coven, a pre-Gardnerian
group practicing Witchcraft in southern Oregon. The Harpy coveners recognized Victor's
youthful talents and included him in their rituals. This coven disbanded around the beginning
of World War II. Feri lore has preserved something of their names and professions, but the
information is not public. As a teen, Victor was also brought into Vodou by a group of
Haitians who were working in southern Oregon. Victor had many teachers throughout his
life, and his memory was phenomenal. Like the bards of old, he possessed a vast store of
memorized lore, poetry, spells, and songs.
Poetry was always an important part of Victor's life and his Craft. In 1970, he published
Thorns of the Blood Rose, a collection of poetry he'd spent twenty-five years perfecting. As
Victor remarked, "Every poem is a love letter to the Goddess." Before his death in 2001,
Victor selected another set of poems for publication. These appeared in the 2005 volume,
Lilith's Garden.
Cora Anderson was born Cora Ann Cremeans in Nyota, Alabama, on January 26, 1915. Her
grandfather was a "root doctor" (herb doctor) who was also known as a "Druid." He'd been an
herbal healer in Ireland before coming to the United States. Once here, he studied with
Native Americans to learn the uses of the local plants. He cured Cora of a serious illness in her
youth, and his medicinal and magical knowledge was passed down to her. The Cremeans
family observed some interesting folkways, apparently Irish in origin. Cora also treasured the
Gypsy lineage she traced back to her maternal grandmother.
Cora was a natural psychic and an authentic kitchen Witch. She worked for years as a
hospital cook and would often infuse healing energy into the patients' food. She submitted
cooking recipes to several well-known magazines during her life, and quite a few were
published. Cora was also an author and a poet, whose writing frequently addressed themes of
everyday life. Victor referred to Cora's verse as "Brushwood poetry." In honor of their fiftieth
wedding anniversary in 1994, Cora wrote and published Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.
This book remains the definitive written work on Feri thealogy and thought.
Cora and Victor were introduced to each other in Bend, Oregon. Both immediately felt a
sense of recognition. They soon realized that their previous acquaintance had been on the
astral plane, where they'd traveled together and made love many times. They were married

three days later on May 3, 1944. The newlyweds compared notes and found they'd both
grown up in families with magical lore. One of the first things they did together was to build
an altar. In 1945, their son Elon was born. His name was given to Cora in a dream and means
"Oak" in Hebrew.
In 1948, the young family moved to Niles, California. They eventually purchased a home and
settled for good in nearby San Leandro. In the mid-1950s, Victor and Cora read Gerald
Gardner's Witchcraft Today with interest. It seemed that Witchcraft was becoming more
public. Victor was encouraged by Leo Martello and several Witches from Italy to establish the
Craft in California. The result was an early Anderson coven known as Mahealani, which is
Hawaiian for "full moon."
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Andersons initiated several people. One was Gwydion
Pendderwen (Tom DeLong) , a young man who was a friend of their son. Gwydion went on
to become a major contributor to the developing direction of the tradition. He wrote Craft
songs and poetry, and co-wrote rituals with Victor. Much was added to the existing practices
of the Andersons at this time, including some of the Welsh lore that Gwydion so loved. There
are some initiates, particularly those of Gwydion's lineage, who consider him a co-founder of
the Feri Tradition.
In the early 1970s, the Andersons formed a new coven with Gwydion and Gwydion's initiate,
Alison Harlow. When Gwydion married, his wife also joined the coven. Much of Gwydion's
beautiful liturgical poetry was written around this time. The group stopped circling together
in 1974, and most of the members went their separate ways. Gwydion continued to teach and
initiate Witches. He also began teaching something he called "Faery Shamanism."
The Andersons were initiating new students as well. One of these was Starhawk. Her
best-selling book, The Spiral Dance, was influenced by Feri Witchcraft and popularized such
Feri concepts as the Iron and Pearl Pentagrams and the Three Selves. Another of these
initiates was Gabriel Carillo (Caradoc ap Cador) . Gabriel began developing a systematized
body of written teaching materials in the late 1970s. Using these materials, he started teaching
"Faery" in a paid class setting in the early 1980s. This was a controversial step. What the
Andersons taught was a personalized oral tradition, and they didn't charge money for Craft
training. Gabriel's lineage came to be known as Bloodrose. Gabriel continued to expand and
develop his materials over the following decades, teaching internationally and via the internet.
Because of Gabriel's public accessibility, the majority of people now involved in Feri are
related to Bloodrose in one way or another.
All told, the Andersons initiated some twenty-five to thirty people over a span of forty or so
years. The Andersons' teaching method was very informal. There were no classes in an
academic sense, only conversations and the occasional ritual, usually followed by a
home-cooked meal. Discussions with Victor were non-linear and overflowing with
information. Someone once aptly remarked that talking to Victor was like to trying to drink
from a fire hose. Often the connecting threads and underlying patterns in the information

didn't become apparent until later on. There was also a non-verbal component to Victor's
teaching. He was a true shaman, and had the ability to shift the consciousness of his students
on a level well below the surface of conversation.
Victor was knowledgeable about many subjects and spoke several languages. He was
particularly interested in physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, religion, anthropology,
alchemy, and the occult. To Victor, these were neither contradictory nor unrelated fields of
study. They were instead different sources of information about the same reality. Victor often
referred to Witchcraft as a science, and he meant it literally. He taught that one should
perceive first and then decide scientifically what to believe. Cora referred to him as "an
Einstein of the occult, " and there are many who would agree.
Cora's teaching style was quieter, and she didn't mind that Victor usually had the limelight.
She was very down to earth, straightforward, and practical in her Craft. Like Victor, there
was no schism in her world between the magical and the mundane. Cora's athame was a small
kitchen knife that she frequently employed while cooking. Cora was once asked by a curious
visitor if she didn't mind having to reconsecrate her blade after using it to prepare a meal. She
replied that she wasn't desecrating the knife, she was blessing the food!
Cora sometimes referred to herself as a simple hill Witch, but under that simplicity lay a
profound understanding of both life and the Craft. One of the Andersons' early initiates put it
very well when he wrote: "...the grassroots, hands-on approach of Craft truths that many of
our hill people possess has not only preserved a more distinct honest direction to the older
wisdom, but also contains within their oral tradition a basically unspoiled core." [4]

Core Beliefs
One very important belief in Vicia concerns the structure of the human being. We are taught
that all humans have a four-fold nature: a physical body and a triune soul. In Vicia, the three
spirits of the soul are sometimes referred to as Fetch, Talker, and God Self. [5] These three
correspond in many ways to concepts found in Huna, a metaphysical system based on
Hawaiian lore. [6]
Comprehending and working with our four-fold nature is essential to Vicia practice and
magic. Extending our awareness to previously unperceived realities is also important. Vicia
teaches us in detail about the different parts of our selves, and also about the different realms
of perception. The Vicia worldview is fundamentally holistic, however. The ultimate goal is
to work with all of these elements in a very natural and integrated way.
Another important belief in Vicia is that the gods are actual beings, not psychological
constructs or inspirational ideas. Some lines of Feri focus on a pantheon of seven deities.
However, in Vicia we "don't have a set pantheon, but we do deal with groups of gods. It
depends on whom we need to deal with. We deal with the gods of the trees, the gods of the
rivers, the gods of the rocks, our own personal god." [7]

In Vicia, we're all seen as part of a single family of evolving consciousness. There's a
well-known quote from Victor and Cora that states, "God is self and self is God, and God is a
person like myself." [8] In Vicia, our ultimate destiny is seen to be joining the company of the
gods. This work is usually accomplished over the course of many lifetimes. Possession is
sometimes practiced in Feri as a method for communing with deities. In Vicia, however, the
emphasis is placed on training for self-possession. In other words, for union with one's own
God Self.
The primordial deity in Vicia is a Trinity consisting of the Star Goddess and the Twins. The
Star Goddess brought forth the Twins solely because She desired them. They are her son,
lover, and other half. As Cora wrote, "Our Goddess is God Herself. Not only does She have a
sex, but She is sex, both male and female." [9] According to Victor, "[T]o think of the Star
Goddess as just the chief head of the Feri Pantheon is not right....God was first worshipped as
the Mother and the dual Father/Son in one. Just like you have the proton in the center of the
hydrogen atom and the electron going around it. It's just as simple as that." [10]
The Twins are not strictly male, as all gods contain both male and female within themselves.
Victor taught, "Mere gender, as we think of it here, is always so restrictive. What gives rise to
what we call gender, what feminine means and what masculine really means, is like we hear
sounds in music or see colors in the spectrum." [11] The Twins may be encountered as a
male/male pair, a male/female pair, or a female/female pair. The Twins can also combine as a
single god (as two candle flames may be brought together to form a single flame) . Feri is quite
unashamedly sexual, and all of the various pairings are seen as sexually active.
This fluid approach to gender, sexuality, and deity is one of the main characteristics of our
tradition. Vicia is very open to different sexual orientations, and sexual magic is not confined
to the heterosexual model. Sex is quite literally sacred. It is the wellspring of our creation. The
universe itself is said to have been born of the Star Goddess' orgasm. [12]
Some of the core principles of Vicia are embodied in the Decagram, which is a combined
expression of the Iron and Pearl Pentagrams. [13] The points of this ten-pointed star represent:
Love, Wisdom, Knowledge, Law, Liberty, Sex, Self, Passion, Pride, and Power. Balance is
sought in each point and between all of the points. A person who has achieved this balance is
said to be "on their points."
Anyone who begins to study Vicia will soon realize that it can include elements from quite a
few places and times. This is not random eclecticism, but rather the acknowledgement of an
underlying perception of reality believed to be woven through all human cultures. The Star
Goddess is truly She of Ten Thousand Names. She is known as Isis in Egypt, Mawu in west
Africa, Kali in India, and Cerridwen in Wales. She may be encountered as a young girl, a
mature woman, or an ancient and wise crone. The Twins appear in an equally varied number
of forms. There's also a strand of Luciferianism in Vicia. As in Leland's Aradia: Gospel of the
Witches, Lucifer is seen as the bright and shining consort of the Goddess.

Polynesian lore and magic is woven through Vicia, as is Vodou. Other strands include
Kabbalah, Gaelic lore, European and American folk magic, as well as Native American
concepts. Victor's personal heritage was diverse, and included Scottish, Spanish, and Native
American ancestry (among others) . As Cora phrased it in Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition,
Victor was "a regular League of Nations." Starhawk once said that Victor, "was allied
spiritually with all the indigenous traditions of the planet; a true shaman." [14] Victor
honored all his ancestral ties and teachers. Victor also encouraged his students to explore
their own cultural roots and the magical lore of their personal heritages, as "a Witch's power
is in their blood." [15] This is not a hard-and-fast rule however. Each person is an individual,
and each person's pathway into the mysteries is unique.

Ethics and Standards of Conduct

The Andersons taught their students to develop "an impeccable inner spirituality, which is
the foundation of the Feri Tradition." [16] We work to be in right relationship with the gods
and with our fellow humans. We are expected to help our brothers and sisters in the Craft
when they are in need. We are also expected not to "coddle weakness" in ourselves or in
others. Victor spoke of the need to balance this concept with compassion for human frailty
and we do. At all times, we're encouraged to have a high regard both for ourselves and for
others. We're not blind to the presence of evil, however. Martial magic is seen as a legitimate
means of defending our selves and our communities. Vicia is not considered an easy or safe
path to follow, but as Victor said many times, "Everything worthwhile is dangerous."
There's no corollary to the Wiccan Rede in Vicia. [17] Instead, there's a focus on honor and
Kala. Kala is a word from Hawaiian, meaning "the light, luminescence, pure, bright." In
Hawaiian, it also carries the meanings "to loosen, untie, free; to forgive." Cora Anderson
wrote, "Keeping oneself Kala is extremely important in every activity of life....It means to
keep oneself clean and bright and free from complexes within and without."[18] Complexes
may be thought of as energy knotted up by guilt, shame, past trauma, or by deeply buried
limiting beliefs. Keeping oneself Kala ensures an open flow of communication and energy
between all three spirits of the soul. This is the ideal state from which to work magic.
Sexual ethics are also very important in Vicia. Victor taught that "we are a sex positive
tradition, but you must know the heart of the one you approach. No one must ever be
approached with force or poor intent." [19] Sexuality is not treated lightly nor is it seen as a
game. We honor the commitments we make to each other as lovers or spouses. A state of
sexual purity is sought, akin to the innocent sexuality of childhood. This state is known as the
Black Heart of Innocence.

Organizational Structure and Role of Clergy

Feri doesn't have a set organizational structure. Covens exist, but so do solitary practitioners
and loosely affiliated groups. The Vicia line generally favors covens and monogamous couples,
though other arrangements are certainly possible. What structures do exist are usually

non-hierarchical, and there's no separate clergy. On the other hand, Vicia does honor its
elders and those who have mastered particular skills.
Vicia has a single initiation, and we have no degree system. Initiation comes relatively early
in training and is seen as the beginning of the journey. There is no "self-initiation" into the
tradition, although it's possible to practice some aspects of Vicia as a non-initiate. Initiation is
seen as something numinous and irrevocable. It's not something to be entered into lightly.
At initiation, we are formally joined to the Goddess, the dual Consort, and the Gods. We also
receive a passing of Power, known by some as the "current." All initiates have equal rights in
Vicia. While a new initiate could technically begin initiating others right away, this is
generally discouraged. New initiates are expected to deepen their knowledge before passing
on what they've learned. As Cora wrote, "Initiation does not make you a full-blown highly
trained Witch." [20]

Ways of Worship
Vicia is a way of life, a worldview. Worship may therefore be inherent in any and every
action. Writing a poem or story, making love, singing, tending a garden, cooking a meal,
creating art; all these and more may be seen as acts of reverence. More formal worship may be
found in lunar and seasonal rituals, rites in honor of particular gods or spirits, or in various
daily practices devoted to one's God Self, the Gods, or the Ancestors.
Vicia Witches celebrate the same eight great Sabbats as Wiccans, and usually in somewhat
similar ways. At Beltane we might raise a Maypole, and at Samhain we commune with our
dead. We also observe lunar rites along with more tradition-specific holidays.
Cora Anderson writes, "Only the ignorant insist that all our rituals are handed down verbatim
from Witch to Witch. Just as the poet and musician can create great work through inspiration
so we of the Old Religion can make new rituals and services to our Gods. This religion is not a
dead fossil, but a living growing human experience." [21]

Author's Note: Any article such as this one can only provide a "Talker" sort of insight into
Vicia. This is a bit like pointing out the tip of an iceberg bobbing above the waves. Vicia is a
mystery tradition, which means it cannot be understood through words alone. Its deeper
riches can only be reached through direct experience.

Images used above: 1) Victor Anderson with crystal ball, copyright 1974 Susan Lohwasser;
2) Victor holding an ankh, copyright 2010, Victor E. Anderson; 3) Victor and Cora as
newlyweds, copyright 2010, Victor E. Anderson.

REFERENCES
* Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition by Cora Anderson. The definitive text on the Andersons' Tradition.
* Etheric Anatomy: The Three Selves and Astral Travel by Victor H. Anderson, with additional
material from Cora Anderson.
* Thorns of the Blood Rose by Victor H. Anderson. His classic book of poetry.
* Lilith's Garden by Victor H. Anderson. The further poetry of Victor Anderson.
* By Witch Eye: Selections from the Feri Uprising, Vol.1 edited by Storm Faerywolf. Contains some
interviews with Victor Anderson that are otherwise out of print, as well as writings from a variety of
Feri lines.
* People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak Out edited by Ellen Evert Hopman. Contains an
interview with Victor conducted by Ellen Hopman.
* Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler. Contains an interview with Victor Anderson and an
account of his initiation.
* The White Wand by Anaar. An exploration of the intersection of Feri and the Arts.
* The Spiral Dance by Starhawk. Contains some concepts taught by the Andersons and related exercises
and meditations.
[1] Victor Anderson, as quoted in Cora Anderson's book, Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.
[2] "Some Pictish Views on the Old Religion, " Victor H. Anderson, Gnostica, November, 1974.
[3] See Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition for more on the subject.
[4] Dennis Strand, writing in the Foreword to Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.
[5] For more information, see <http://www.lilithslantern.com/exercises.htm>.
[6] Huna was originally popularized in the writings of Max Freedom Long in the late 1940s and early
1950s. Victor knew Max Freedom Long, and was a member of his Huna Research organization. Victor
had native Hawaiian teachers in his youth, and he spoke Hawaiian fluently. Victor agreed with much
of Huna, although he felt Long had gotten some things wrong.
[7] Victor Anderson in Witch Eye #3, August 2000.
[8] Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.
[9] Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.
[10] Victor Anderson in Witch Eye #3, August 2000.
[11] Victor Anderson in Witch Eye #3, August 2000.
[12] Victor Anderson in Witch Eye #2, April 2000.
[13] Some information on the Iron and Pearl Pentagrams consistent with Victor and Cora's teaching
may be found Starhawk's book, The Spiral Dance.
[14] Writing at Victor's memorial at Witchvox.
[15] Oral teaching from Victor Anderson, via Kalessin.
[16] Dennis Strand, writing in the Foreword to Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.
[17] See <http://www.witchvox.com/basics/rede.html>.
[18] Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.
[19] From a talk given by Victor in 2001.
[20] Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.
[21] Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition.


Victor Anderson: Letters, Interviews, Poetry
August 21, 1991
Open Letter to
Aidan Kelly &
Llewellyn Publications
I am writing to address the material Aidan Kelly wrote in his book "Crafting the Art of
Magic," published by Llewellyn Press. This material is on pages 21 and 22, and is largely
incorrect. It was used without consulting me.
I don't consider myself the founder of the "fairy" tradition, but I am a Grand Master and a
fairy chief. I am the founder of the chapter of my faith on the West Coast of the United
States.
If Aidan Kelly had consulted me directly, he could have avoided repeating the stupid drivel of
those who have only a shallow grasp of their alleged research.
I was initiated in 1926, not 1932, by a priestess from Africa. The names of the members of
Harpy Coven were not to be made public. The name of our coven should have revealed to Mr.
Kelly something of the nature of our religion and practice: Harpy is a Greek word for a kind
of feminine nature spirit that appears like a bird with a woman's head and a woman's arms
and hands for its legs and feet. The name means "snatcher."
The statement that the coven did not worship the Goddess is a complete falsehood, and other
statements are also completely false.
The worship of the Goddess was the very heart of our religion and magic. Lilith was one of
the names used in our ritual worship of the Lady. Her name is derived from Lilitu, meaning a
storm or tornado. We did not think of her as merely the Goddess, but as God Herself.
We worshipped the Consort of the Goddess. We did not worship him because it was
necessary but because she brought him forth out of her divine lust. Our worship of him was
an act of love. Although the Goddess tells us that away from the sweet influence of her love,
he is the most terrible of all spirits, he is not the fallen angel or "Satan" of Christianity or
Islam. The name Setan (the vowels pronounced as in Italian) is one of his names but has
nothing to do with the Christians' name of their fallen angel: It means soul fire. He is the
same God as Ja or El.
The statement that "the coven was quite eclectic, mixing Huna with folk magic" is incorrect
for the following reasons:

I am a Kahuna. This is a fact of my racial heritage, personal experience and training. The word
Kahuna means "the secret," and is the same in the fairy tradition and the Polynesian religion
and magic. Although we were willing to learn new things, we already had a definite and
coherent body of knowledge and tradition of our own.
So we were not mainly eclectic. The fairy tradition has much in common with Voudon and
Santeria.
Our celebrations of the Sabat, moons and other rituals, and seasonal observations were much
the same as in other traditions. We were ritualistic and devotional, and we were concerned
with theology, worship and ethics. Our simple meal of bread and wine occurred only after
completing the work and worship in the circle. Ashe.
It is not my purpose to lift up self righteous skirts and kick Satanist, but for reasons I believe
to be quite obvious I resent the way Aidan Kelly links me with Satanism. I could care less
what a religion calls their God, so long as they adhere to constructive and ethical beliefs and
practices. Ashe (Ax'e).
I intend to send copies of this letter to various craft and pagan individuals and publications.
Victor H. Anderson
San Leandro, CA

Copyright 1991 Victor E. Anderson

Victor Anderson -Otter Zell expressed the hope that the Pagan community will at last find a place in the arena
of politics and American life. I agree. I am proud to have had a wonderful part in giving birth
to our segment of society.
I began my active work in the Craft in California, a short time after Gardner's first book came
out. Before that I had worked and worshipped among the then quite secret covens of my
tradition. Among ourselves we used the name Wicia, pronounced "vicha."
Our Pagan community is growing and showing much bright promise. The Craft is a tough
weed that will grow many strange flowers and bear strange fruits, so we must try and tolerate
different ways of practicing it. Learn from what we see and if we cannot use it, let the others
try, even if they eat bad fruit and go balls up!
It is my hope that Pagans everywhere will learn that the Goddess (God Herself) is the great
Mother-Father, the Womb of our Creation and the Great Breast of our nourishment. She is
not just the mere personification of nature, She is a real spirit being. She is the Holy Virgin
Mother of all things, Virgin not because she is without sex but because She is sex, both male
and female! She loves us all with the same love with which a mortal woman loves us, but
raised to the power of Divinity. I am proud to have been Her priest and lover through many
lives, including the present one. Hail Mari!
Green be your world and bright be your path.
Evo He, Blessed be.

Copyright 1993, 2001, 2004 Victor E. Anderson. First publication in Green Egg, Vol. XXVI,
No. 100, Spring 1993.


Speaking with Victor Anderson
by Inni Baruch
On a recent trip to San Francisco I had the great fortune of spending several days with Victor
and Cora Anderson in their home on the Barbary Coast. I had been introduced to Cora's book,
Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition, five or six years ago, through my work fundraising for the
Reclaiming Tradition Witchcamp in the Mid-Atlantic. This wonderful week of working
Between the Worlds is now called the Spiralheart Witchcamp and it happens in August of
each year near Baltimore and Washington DC.
A linguist, as much as a Witch, Scientist, and Shaman, Victor can talk for hours about the
things of this world, and other worlds that I do not see, where he travels frequently in the
astral body.
It is on the nature of the human being that I am most interested, and so the notes I have taken
on his talks with me, relate mostly to these questions.
This text is directly approved by Victor for publishing and this is very important. While not
yet an Initiate of Feri. I deeply respect the work of my teachers Victor and Cora Anderson
and am grateful to bring this small capsule of their vast knowledge to PNN readers.
After we spoke back and forth, and I scribed his words, Victor asked me to give you this
footnote for pronouncing the words of his Hawaiian language.
The Hawaiian vowels are the same as those in many other languages. They are "a" as in father;
"e" as in they; "i" as in police; "o" as in so; and "u" as in zulu or the double "o" in moon. In the
diphthongs the first vowel is the one accented usually unless there's a small dash over the last
vowel. This mark is usually called macron and indicates a stressed vowel.
FROM VICTOR: One of the things that I want understood about the Spanish part of my
heritage is that there are four racial strains: Arabic, Jewish, Gypsy and Basque. Now, I use
Basque in a lot of my rituals. Like the prayer that starts Eko, Eko Azarak..... which you can
find in a lot of the books on Witchcraft. There are two translations of that incantation. One of
them is cleverly woven together so that it tells the names of our Gods, the other one tells
about the festivals and their times of the month and so forth. All of those words in there, tell
the names of the Gods but, at the same time they tell other things too, that's the way the
Basque language can be done. For example Eko means "here is." And martillo is a Basque
word taken from the Spanish which means "press down and go into" and it can also mean the
first day of March; in Spanish alone it means "hammer."
The Arabic part of my heritage that has come through Arabia into Southern Spain, (one
branch went to Sicilia) is of royal origin, and it must be understood, with all of my national

origins I am directly related to the Feri People. I am not old fashioned, I am very much of the
new millennium. I spent my childhood in close contact with the medicine people of Mexico,
and the people who ran away from the Nazis. These people took me to their heart. They were
the real old German Jewish Scientists, and I know what I'm talking about.
There is a disgusting Streisfragen thing that happens when you try to talk to people about
some things. Streisfragen is German and it means a controversial question or statement that is
used to end a discussion like the question "how do you know?" This is like when they say,
"everybody's got to believe what they want to believe, you can't change people's opinions,
everybody's got a right to their own opinion." This is B.S. Why bother to teach anything if
everybody's got their own opinion? An example would be I once told another person that I
had made the estimate at 186,300 miles per second for the speed of light, the usual figure is
simply 186,000. We know by radar for example that light travels faster than 186,000 miles per
second. When I finished my argument I was told that "you have just as much right to your
opinion as they have to theirs, why don't you just write that as the speed of light." That's
ridiculous. We are all working on the velocity of "C" which is the velocity of light. Trying to
get it as exact as possible, it's not just a matter of personal opinion.
I am a little P.O.'d at all the Pagan People. For example they are taking these things like the
Guardians of the Four Quarters, and they're twisting up the meaning. The Guardians that
come to your circle are simply the Holy Ones that come to your circle, the Gods, and the
Spirits who are everywhere. They come and join your circle and They invoke the great
cosmic powers and the great Gods.
It doesn't lessen the meaning or the importance of the great Gods, but what they (the
Guardians) are there for is invoking the things that we cannot. They invoke the great Gods
themselves, just as we humans do, yet they are much older than us, and they have more
knowledge of these things.
We are free to invoke as they do because we are all of the Great Spirit/Cosmic Conscious. It's
just as if someone were singing and you were joining along with the choir. These Gods and
Spirits are living parts of nature, they are beings like ourselves.
We are supposed to advance because evolution is the natural law. However, many people are
making a mistake when speaking about God. All that this word meant in the beginning is
"that which is to be reverenced and worshiped." It never meant just one single dictator being.
Mana. This is the life force. It comes from us as living creatures. Just to call it energy is not
enough. It's got to be understood as a definite thing, a definite substance.
Now this word is not only confined in the South Seas, it occurs all over the world, even in the
bible. It's supposed to have another meaning in the bible, but it comes from the same word.
The mana that falls from the heavens actually comes down from the personal God. We send
the mana up to the God, and it sends it back down to us. Sure, when we pray to our personal

God, we are not leaving out any of the great Gods. Each one of us is a triune being. It's like
tuning a guitar, and if we can talk to each other, we can talk to the Gods; it is the same way.
For example if you're going to take a treatment with a sun lamp, you don't get out of the sun
to do it, that is you don't deny the sun's existence. It isn't for nothing that it says we're made
in the image of God. We Kahuna know how to work with all three parts of the soul separately
and also together.

At this point I asked Victor: "Why would you work with them separately?"
VICTOR: Because the soul can be afflicted, especially in cases like extreme paranoia or split
personality, and then they can become separated, and that is the real origin of the doctrine of
losing your soul. These units who are separated are real individual entities just like the atoms
of a molecule that have been broken up. The Unihipili can act much like a poltergeist. It is
always heavily charged with what we call emotion, and has the memories of the person that it
was attached to. I was once called upon to find the two parts of a man killed in an accident
and put them back together. Now his Unihipili haunted his wife and made sounds like
dripping water, and caused her to smell blood. It spoke like her husband, but without the
reasoning power that is usually associated with a fully conscious being. When I prayed to his
personal God, she found the two lower parts and put them together. One night he appeared to
his wife and said "Francis I am all right now." The word "soul" can mean all of the spirit, or it
can mean the highest part of it. This is even shown by some of the poetry of early
Christianity.
The South Sea Islands were populated much later than the rest of the world. This is because
they were the last of the land masses to be created. So those who came to inhabit them came
from many parts of the world, and brought the old wisdom with them. It is now well known
among Hawaiians and those like me who are part Hawaiian, the three names for the three
parts of the soul, as we use the word "soul" in English. The two lower parts are called,
Kinowailua which means "body of two waters." These two lower parts are: the Unihipili
which means "the sticky one." It is called that because it imparts mana to everything you
touch. For example when you shake hands with a person the mana from the Unihipili forms
fine etheric threads connecting you with that person.
Kinomalamala, which means "body of light," is the aura, especially the inner aura. The matter
that forms it is less dense than the matter of Unihipili, and more luminous. The area around
the body that is the Kinomalamala is egg shaped and vaguely follows the outlines of the body
as it surrounds it, and the body that is Unihipili is about two centimeters to one inch out from
the physical body on all sides. Then above the physical body and a part of the whole person,
is the personal God which is called Aumakua which means "I am" or "Self Parent"
One of the Hawaiian words for the complete soul is Uhane. This word means a conscious
entity that can speak or make itself known. Some of the early missionaries who were more
willing to understand Kahuna used the word Uhane for the Kinomalamala. As did Max

Freedom long many years later. One of the words for a spirit that is speaking strongly as in a
haunted place is Uhanehane. "U" means a conscious entity, and "hane" means to speak or
make yourself known. So the word can be used for the entire soul or one of its parts. In
English the Kinomalamala is usually called the middle self. We Kahuna object to the word
"self" as it is used here, because it implies that these things are just aspects of your psychology,
but really they are much more.
The real Jesus as he existed before the corruption of Christianity, said we should baptize in
the name of Father, Son, and Holy ghost. Since we are made in the divine image, the
Aumakua is your personal Holy ghost. The name "Father" does not have to mean masculine. It
means the action of the more logical part of the soul on what we think of as the more
emotional part, and can therefore be man or woman. The High Spirit is feminine in
appearance and aspect over men and women both. But this spirit can give masculine or male
energy as needed, and is therefore spoken of as Heavenly Father, as well as Heavenly Mother.
The word for the God Self is Neshama in Jewish. The other two are called Nefesh and Ruakh.
The last part is pronounced as the German word "och." Although this outline is brief, it is
necessary to contemplate and realize as the true structure of the human being. This is not just
a theory invented by Hawaiians. It's part of the knowledge of the ancient human race itself.
World Wide knowledge, no matter what other names are used.
People often ask me why I say I am Kahuna and then give other names for what I do, such as
Witch, Shaman, Medicine Man, and so on. This is because the word "Kahuna" means the same
thing, but it also means, literally translated from Hawaiian; "the Science, or the thing that you
specialize in doing." In Europe the Witch word for Unihipili is "Fetch." Use your resources
and look it up from there; these things should be contemplated and researched. All real
Witches are Scientists as we were the first Doctors and Scientists to exist on the planet, and
we must always remember this.

Copyright 2001 Inni Baruch. Reproduced here with permission. This interview with Inni
Baruch first appeared in PagaNet News (PNN), in the Imbolg 2001 issue (Volume VIII, Issue
I). It was later reprinted in the Winter 2001 issue of Connections Journal, a magazine
published by CUUPS.

STUFF TO SEE, HEAR & READ

Michele Jackson says:
Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition by Cora Anderson - a concise overview of Feri as practiced
by the Grandmaster and the clan mother. Corrects a lot of misconceptions about Feri practices
and should be required reading for anyone interested in the Feri tradition. This book is still
available from the Andersons. If I could only recommend one book on the Feri tradition, this
would be it.
* Thorns of the Blood Rose by Victor Anderson - Poetry, some of which is well suited for use
in ritual and personal devotions. This book is currently out of print, but can be found used
occasionally.
* The Divine Horseman: The Living Gods of Haiti by Maya Deren - A semi-scholarly study of
Haitian Voodoo, a religion whose deities and practices are a significant aspect of Feri as taught
by Victor and Cora Anderson.
* Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston - Another semi-scholarly study of Haitian Voodoo,
Obeah and folk magic of Jamaica.
* Huna: A Beginners Guide by Enid Hoffman - Introduction to Huna. Victor sometimes
recommends the books of Max Freedom Long, but this is an easier read (doesnt sound as
dated and Christian) and it covers a lot of the basics.
The Spiral Dance by Starhawk - Good introductory book for beginners with a lot of basic Feri
mixed with practices from other traditions.
The Dancing Wu - Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics by Gary Zukav - An easy to
follow (read that non-mathematical) explanation of Quantum Physics. Confirms a lot of
things Shamans have been saying for centuries.
Necromonicon by H.P. Lovecraft (Avon Edition Edited by Simon) - Provides background
information, comparisons and correspondences, and a brief discussion of the Necronomicon
and modern witchcraft.

Im sure these books are old hat to many Feris, but I only saw a couple in previous editions of
Witch Eye. Those with an asterisk (*) were recommended to me by Victor.