Victor Henry Anderson

Anderson was born on May 21, 1917 at the Buffalo Horn Ranch in Clayton, New Mexico.[1] His parents were Hilbart Alexander Anderson (1883–1952) and Mary Frances Anderson (née Smith, 1886–1973).[2] Regarding his ethnic ancestry, he later stated that "I am mostly Irish and Spanish with some Native American, including Polynesian".[3] He also claimed that his maternal great-grandmother had been one of the Blue Fugates, a community living in Appalachia whose skin had a blueish coloration due to methemoglobinemia.[4] Anderson became almost completely blind when he was two years old, either because of an accident or untreated diabetes.[5] By 1920, the family were living in Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas, where a sister, Elsie Glenan Anderson, was born in February.[6] Here, Hilbart worked as a floor worker on some of the many oil rigs in the town.[6] From there they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they were recorded as living in the 1923–24 directory, and where Anderson later claimed that he had made many friends among Mexican migrant children.[6] Anderson's later wife claimed that he was also instructed in how to use his etheric vision by "Mexican Witches" during childhood.[7] The family next moved to Olustee, Oklahoma, where Hilbart's brother resided.[6]

Anderson was born in Clayton, New Mexico, in the early 20th century (pictured)

After several months in Oklahoma they proceeded to the area around Ashland, Oregon, where Anderson claimed to have befriended Hawaiian and Haitian migrant families who were working as fruit pickers.[6] Anderson often claimed that he had been instructed in the magical practices of Hawaiian Kahuna and Haitian Vodou,[8] with his later wife referring to him as both "one of the last Kahuna" and "a priest of Voudou".[9] He claimed to have been instructed in Vodou by Haitians who were working in southern Oregon.[10] While living in that state he attended a school for the blind,[11] although despite this was largely self-educated.[2] The family moved around the state in the coming years; in August 1928 they were living in Pinehurst, where Hilbert was recorded as working as an engineer at a lumber mill in the 1930 census.[6] By the 1940 census, the family were recorded as living in East Phoenix, Jackson county, Oregon, with Higbert adding that he had also been living there in 1935. At this point, Hilbert was working as a millwright and Mary as a trained nurse.[6] In 1942 they were recorded as living in Ashland, and it was here that they attended the First Baptist Church, before relocating to Bend prior to 1944.[6]

Anderson claimed to be initiated into a tradition of witchcraft in 1926 by a woman "of the Fairy race",[10] whom he elsewhere referred to as "a priestess from Africa".[6] Anderson informed the journalist Margot Adler that when he was nine years old he encountered a small old woman sitting in the centre of a circle containing brass bowls of herbs. He alleged that he instinctively stripped naked and that she then sexually initiated him into a witchcraft tradition, during which he had a vision of a goddess and a horned god.[12] After the vision, he claimed that they sat in the circle and she instructed him in the magical use of the various herbs, after which he was washed in butter, oil, and salt, before putting his clothes on and returning home.[13] The Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White described this as being "difficult to accept as a literal account", but suggested that Anderson may have undergone a significant spiritual experience with an older woman in 1926, which was subsequently "embellished into the later tale" that he told Adler.[14] A woman who knew Anderson, Cornelia Benavidez, later stated that "He says that he became friends with a woman in the circus who was a fire dancer and when she got older worked the stands. She somehow joined the circus in South Africa and made her way to the US. When he first met her she was 60 years old and he was a nine-year-old boy. He knew her for 15 years".[6] Researcher WIlliam Wallworth provided potential supporting evidence for this claim when he noted that a number of the circuses that performed in Oregon during the 1920s and 1930s had Africans in their travelling retinues.[15]

Anderson claimed that in 1932 he was initiated into a witchcraft group in Ashland that he called the Harpy Coven,[16] although remains the only source testifying to the group's existence.[17] Research into the coven was later conducted by Valerie Voigt, the coordinator of the Pagan, Occult, and Witchcraft Special Interest Group of the United States branch of Mensa, who was also one of Anderson's students and who asked him about the group.[18] According to her claims, the group were led by two figures, known as Maybelle "Cardea" Warren and Jerome Warren,[19] with other members being Jim Murdoch, Patricia Fern, Tom C. ("Arven"), and Ruth D., the latter of whom was a preacher's wife.[19] As related by Voigt, most of them had been immigrants from the Southern states, mainly from Alabama.[20]

According to Voigt, the coven placed an emphasis on practical magic rather than worship, theology, ethics, or ritual, and were eclectic in their practices, mixing Huna with forms of American folk magic.[21] She noted that they did not worship a goddess but held to a belief in a god who was opposed to the God of Christianity.[22] Moreover she claimed that they met together for both outdoor and indoor meetings, according to the phases of the moon.[20] According to Voigt's account, Anderson also claimed that on occasion, the coven used a naked woman as their altar,[20] and that the group disbanded after World War II broke out.[23]

After the Pagan studies scholar Aidan A. Kelly published a summary of Voigt's research, Anderson released an open letter dated to August 21, 1991, refuting many of Kelly's claims and referring to it as "the stupid drivel of those who have only a shallow grasp of their alleged research."[24] He stated that contrary to Kelly's assertions, the Harpy Coven had worshiped a goddess, who was known as Lilith, and that "we did not think of her as merely the Goddess, but as God Herself".[24] He added that the coven also venerated a consort of the Goddess, who was known as Setan, but "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".[24] Kelly later stated that the Harpy Coven might "have been self-trained or may have descended from an earlier person or group".[20]

Over the next four decades, the Andersons would initiate between twenty-five and thirty people into their tradition.[10] Anderson has been described as one of the "founding teachers" and the "seminal voice" of the Feri tradition,[2] although – according to Feri initiate Storm Faerywolf – he preferred to refer to himself as "Grand Master and a fairy chief".[35] The original word that the Andersons used for their tradition was Vicia, "pronounced as in Italian."[36] She added that "the name Fairy became accidentally attached to our tradition because Victor so often mentioned that word in speaking of nature spirits and Celtic magic".[37] Early initiates alternately spelled the name of the tradition as Fairy, Faery, or Faerie, although Anderson began using the spelling Feri during the 1990s to differentiate it from other witchcraft traditions of the same name; not all practitioners followed his example.[38] Cora claimed that Feri was the word's original spelling, adding that it meant "the things of magic".[39] Anderson also referred to his form of Wicca as the Pictish tradition.[40] In their writing, the Andersons mixed terminology adopted from Huna, Gardnerian Wicca, and Voodoo, believing that all reflected the same underlying magico-religious tradition.[41] It drew heavily upon the huna system developed by Max Freedom Long.[42] According to one Feri initiate, Corvia Blackthorn:

"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."[10]

According to Kelly:

"Studying with Victor presented some unusual problems. He demanded as much respect as any working-class grandfather might. One could ask for clarification, but to even hint that one disagreed with him, or worse yet, to contradict him, would result in an immediate and permanent order to leave. One was tempted to ask such forbidden questions because Victor lived in mythic time and was totally uninterested in other people's concepts of logic or consistency ... Another student told me that when Victor read a new book and believed it was true, then he considered it to have always been true and would rethink his history accordingly."[43]

According to one initiate, Jim Schuette, Anderson was "a taskmaster. He took pride in testing his students."[44] One of those initiated into the Anderson's Feri tradition was Starhawk,[45] who incorporated ideas from the Feri tradition when creating Reclaiming.[46] She also included aspects from it in her 1979 book, The Spiral Dance, including mention of the Iron and Pearl Pentagram and the three souls, all of which originated within Feri Wicca.[10] Another prominent initiate was Gabriel Carillo (Caradoc ap Cador), who in the late 1970s developed a written body of Feri teachings, and began offering paid classes in the tradition in the 1980s, generating the Bloodrose lineage; doing so generated controversy among Feri initiates, with critics believing that it was morally wrong to charge for teaching.[10]

In 1970 Anderson privately published Thorns of the Blood Rose, which contained poems that he had authored over the previous 25 years.[48] He stated that "every poem is a love letter to the Goddess".[10] Money to publish the book had come from Cora's savings, with sales barely covering the costs of publication, so a second printing was not possible at that time.[49] In 1975, this book received the Clover International Poetry Competition Award,[30] and in 1980 it was republished by Pendderwen, who also put some of Anderson's poems to music for his own 1975 album, Songs for the Old Religion.[41] Anderson also contributed work to Pagan magazines like Witch Eye, Green Egg, and Nemeton.[30] Anderson had assembled a group of poems to be published as a second book, released posthumously as Lilith's Garden in 2005.[10]

To honor her fiftieth wedding anniversary, in 1994 Cora authored a book titled Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition, deeming it a tribute to her husband.[50] It has been termed "the definitive written work on Feri thealogy and thought".[10] In 1998, Cora suffered a stroke and was left largely bedridden by its effects.[51]

At the time of his death, he was still running a coven, which was known as Nostos or Blue Circle.[2] He died at his home on September 20, 2001.[30] He was survived by his wife, son, and various grandchildren and great-grandchildren.[52] Cora then appointed a woman named Anaar, or April Niino, to be the new Grandmaster of the Feri tradition in summer 2003.[53] The tradition itself survived, with various publications appearing that discussed the practice of magic from a Feri perspective.[54]