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The Elf ½ (elfwreck) wrote in feri,
@ 2008-04-07 20:39:00

Entry tags:

feri basics, training

Feri year-long intensive
These are the topics I intend to cover in the (intended) year-long Feri intensive. Won't be dealing with them in any pre-arranged order, although there'll probably be a bit more planning than "hey, we're here; which one do we tackle tonight?"

Pentacles (Iron, Pearl, others)
Guardians & elements
(Lemniscate) Gods and ritual practices
Kala
3 Souls
Black Heart of Innocence
Blue fire & Feri magic(k)
Demon work--self-transformation
History of the tradition; different lines; related traditions; common practices (i.e. wand systems)

A year of weekly sessions gives 5 sessions per, with a handful of sessions left over for review for those who missed a week, or extra discussion, or planning for future sessions. In those 5 sessions (which may not be anytime near each other), I want to make sure we cover:

An essay or article explaining and exploring the topic in depth.
An exercise for individuals to practice--"running the IP," kala rite, 3 souls alignment, etc.
A group exercise to be done during class--might be the same exercise, but would probably be at least slightly re-worked for a group. Might be a *lot* different.
An activity/field trip that requires leaving the house & going out into the world.

A discussion session. Maybe more than one.
A movie or TV show that features the topic in action (This is specific to my group; we're fond of finding deep truths in pop movies. Cap'n Jack Sparrow as the Black Heart of Innocence is one of my favorite examples. And Bull Durham makes a wonderful three souls study.)
A long-term "activity" to make part of one's life... this could be a three souls altar, or an iron pentacle music mix, or a Stargoddess ritual outfit that's assembled over some time.
Suggested reading/further exploration list.

Eight things to cover in five sessions, which involves some juggling. But I expect that generally, we'll do the group exercise, explain how to modify it for individual use, and give a handout of an article or a few articles; the next session (whenever that is), we'd have the discussion, and potentially decide on a long-term activity involving the topic. "Suggested reading" might not take up any time at all in a meeting session.

Looking over my collection of materials, I find I have a swarm and a half of pentacle stuff, exactly two articles on the Black Heart of Innocence, and nothing at all that I identify as "demon work." I'm pondering whether this means I'm just very short on written material about some topics (except in places like email lists, where I have saved archives but haven't dredged them for individual topic threads), or whether this isn't really the balance of Feri I want to teach.

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pen
2008-04-08 03:58 am UTC (link)

I'm wondering what the structure is... From a non magickal perspective & YMMV:

Have you thought about doing it with a 5 week intro in all of your topic areas, and then coming back through for a month on each topic? That will bring you to half a year with a good sense of where individual students are strong and where they are weak. What their natural proclivities are.

Then you can look at tailoring the next six months to their strengths and weaknesses? Devising outside assignments that make them explore what they need, and take another look at something they get instantly. Depends on the experience you need them to get before initiation.

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elfwreck
2008-04-08 04:20 am UTC (link)

Don't need to do an overview first, not for this set. We've been having weekly Feri-related meetings at our home for ~~a couple of~~ several years now, with me & Eldri theoretically facilitating.

Eldri doesn't do structure. Not at all. Doesn't object to it (at least, not in general; doesn't like some that she's seen). So we've wandered far from anything resembling "training," in an identifiable sense, but we talk about various issues, and sometimes do exercises, and watch movies & eat dinner and talk about how the movies do or don't show various feri qualities, and gossip about the feri community and all that.

So... we've got a good sense of these students (all, umm, four of them, two of whom are newer than the others, and studying with another Feri teacher), and don't need to ease into the work or do evaluations first.

Might each topic as a month; might mix them up more than that. I intend to keep a spreadsheet and check off each thing as we do it so I can keep track. For one thing, the "outdoors" exercises might be easier to do in summer, and we might want to do several of those in a row.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	pen 2008-04-08 04:03 am UTC (link)
	BTW, I wouldn't judge your interest by how much information you have. I have a lot more information from movement than a lot of other classes I took in undergrad. It was new to me and I needed more notes to get it. Other things, I have fewer notes, but what I have is more specialist. (Reply to this) (Thread)

elfwreck
2008-04-08 04:25 am UTC (link)

I know some of that is true--I have lots of notes on pentacles because everybody writes about the pentacles, and making new pentacles is a common and fun Feri practice. I have only a couple on the Black Heart because it's something we shy away from trying to define in words. I'm kinda happy there's not much about it on the web; it helps us identify the scammers when they show up.

I've got no articles or exercises labeled "DEMON WORK," but that doesn't mean I don't have any, just that it might be labeled differently. I might have "the rite of the dark spirit-lover" or several email discussions about self-transformation that belong in that category, and I just haven't sorted them out yet.

I also haven't moved outside of Definitely Absolutely Feri materials yet--so far, I've just sorted stuff I've gotten from/by various Feri teachers, used in their own classes. I know there's other stuff I want to include, but I decided to start with the Feri-specific stuff, and then add the "adapted to Feri" materials (like the Temporary Autonomous Zone, and some of Spare's works, and some of Chumbley's).

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BHOI
(Anonymous)
2008-04-11 02:57 pm UTC (link)

i have been working on a couple of diagrams of the BHOI which i can email you if you like. not processed sufficiently by talker (yet) to be actual written-down discussions, just preliminary thoughts which might send you down some interesting paths that haven't occurred to me. talked to blossom yesterday and he told me you were assembling materials. good luck to it!! organized (or even semi-organized) teaching is at times a logistical nightmare, as oftentimes you have to pull stuff out of your astralplane for lack of others' lore. and i think you might find that there are logical orders for some things which are inherent in the subject matter itself. BHOI stuph, IMO, is little-covered because it's something that needs a lot of background in the other lore to even begin to be comprehensible by talker. fetch might get it way earlier, but it's difficult to pass these intuitions along in a literal/verbal way. which is why i always start out by drawing pictures and/or making altars or other "art" pieces.

veedub

v dot weatherwax at gmaiol dot com

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Re: BHOI

elfwreck
2008-04-11 04:37 pm UTC (link)

I'd love to see them. Am collecting materials from all over, and would especially like more that aren't part of the structured-coursework approach to Feri.

I don't need complete working diagrams with explanations; I'm collecting loose pieces to arrange for the specific people I'm working with, and since I'm not compiling a textbook, I don't need detailed background material & references for everything--I can just say "here's the picture; you got questions, ask."

I kinda like that there's a dearth of public BHOI material; it makes it one of the few aspects of Feri that people can't claim to have mastered by reading a website. (It also makes it really really easy to spot fake "feri teaching covens" when they show up... they grab the phrase, 'cos it sounds pretty, and come up with an utterly mangled explanation of it.)

Dominic was saying there are no BHOI "exercises;" that you reach the BHOI by getting your souls in balance and invoking the Iron Pent. Or something like that; I may be mangling his explanation. Which may be true; I can't think of any specific "now I will manifest the Black Heart" activities (other then something like "you, me, waterbed, chocolate syrup... now?"), so the "exercises" parts for the BHOI may be things like "run the pents and then cast a circle without using any words or tools."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: BHOI nytemuse 2008-04-11 07:06 pm UTC (link)
	I can't think of any specific "now I will manifest the Black Heart" activities (other then something like "you, me, waterbed, chocolate syrup... now?"), dies laughing Now that there's some good witchcraft! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	pjvj 2008-04-11 02:59 pm UTC (link)
	It sounds wonderful and I hope it goes fabulously well! (Reply to this)