Radical Faerie Gatherings: The Cultivation of Queerness

Radical Faeries have been gathering together and creating transient pop-up queer community for more than 40 years-ever since the very first call to gather in early September 1979. 

These pre-Covid19 Gatherings (which until recently had become a regular global phenomenon) would often be held on the occasion of pagan earth-appreciating festivals as a way of tuning into natural seasonal rhythms. Some Faeries might say that the fundamental purpose of these gatherings was to enable an energy (which could be named as 'The Queer') to heal itself from the destructive attacks of those who felt threatened by it and who, for many and varied reasons, would wish to establish themselves as 'Non-Queer'

By creating community-encouraging-of-Queerness, Faeries have been able to develop their consciousness around power dynamics and the mechanisms of persecution, seeing their positioning and roles in the complex intersectionality of oppression as it manifests in the various -isms (sexism/misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism). And to also appreciate the potential world-healing value of this natural-Faerie-propensity to engage in this particular kind of work!

I've been attending gatherings for over 10 years now, and during this time I've been able to acknowledge the homophobic inflicted pain and suffering I've had to endure as a same-sex-loving Human Being. However I also see that this horribleness of experience is just a 'drop in the ocean' of what it might have been had I not been identifiable as a member of the most privileged classes (i.e. white, educated, middle class, cis-seeming-male, and able-bodied/ able-minded).

This realisation hasn't made my own pain and suffering any less and it hasn't meant I've been able to avoid a whole lot of work to understand its far reaching effects on my personality (particularly the extent to which I'm hampered in my ability to engage in intimacy with others).

But I'm now tuned into the way homophobia is just one facet of the many-faced invisible oppressive forces constantly directed towards women, towards the undereducated, towards the non-white, towards the colonised, towards the differently abled and towards my dear queer trans siblings.

It's interesting to see how, within our various Faerie communities, once the intention of creating a queer-nurturing environment and ethos is set, the forces which seem to oppose this intention begin to assemble. The microcosm begins to manifest elements of those oppressive forces from the macrocosm. Shock! Horror! A group of predominantly able-middle-class-cis-white-gay-men unintentionally/unthinkingly behave in ways which are uncomfortable for women, non-white, poor, disabled, trans etc. folk!

Thankfully Faerie Gatherings are becoming increasingly more inclusive and this has meant more work to do in understanding our relative privileges and the ways in which these might be contributing to the ongoing oppression of others, or alternatively, how they might be engaged with constructively to raise awareness and to work towards the redressing of unfairnesses and inequities.

Hope Along the Wind: A Film About the Sussex Man who Started Two Queer Revolutions in the USA!

Gay Socrates talks to Harry Hay's friend and carer Joey Cain about Hay, the man, and the movie made about his life, coming to the Brighton Fringe next month.

Harry Hay (1912-2002) was born in Worthing. As an adult he became a gay activist in the US and founded the first Gay Liberation movement (The Mattachine Society) in 1950. He then went on to co-found the Radical Faeries.

'Hope Along the Wind...' is a lovely movie which sets this unlikely story in its historic context and captures rare interview footage of this iconic character in his later years.

Joey Cain knew Harry in person and was one of the devoted band of 'Loving Companions' who tended to the care of Harry and his partner in their closing years. For the 100th anniversary of Harry’s birth in 2012, he curated a major exhibition about his life and times in San Francisco and co-organized a conference about Harry in New York City.

Joey is flying from his home in San Francisco to present a screening of this movie as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival next month. 

GS: Who was Harry Hay to you?

JC: Harry was a dear friend, political comrade and gay visionary the likes of which we probably won’t see again. Without his tenacity, deep thinking and integrity, the LGBT revolution, at least as far as the USA goes, would have been a much longer time coming. He traversed many worlds, as Gay people often do.

A Communist activist and great music lover who was a trained baritone, he read long and deep in history and anthropology to find the hidden history of our People.

GS: Why are you bringing Harry Hay's story to the Brighton Fringe?

JC: Harry was born in Worthing, his birth house still stands, and we thought it would be a lovely idea to “bring Harry back” to this part of England, where he started out. This whole area is so rich in Queer history what with Edward Carpenter being born in Brighton, Oscar Wilde writing “The Importance of being Ernest” practically around the corner from where Harry was born. And that’s just scratching the surface.

GS: Why do you think conceiving of the Radical Faeries was important to Harry?

JC: Harry always said that the Radical Fairies was the realization of the dream he had when he started The Mattachine Society in 1950. The essence lies in the 3 questions he posed to be answered by both groups: Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? For Harry, the Fairies were about answering those questions and acting on the answers.

'Hope Along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay' is showing at the Fabrica Gallery, Tuesday May 8 7.30pm 

Tickets: https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/harry-hay-founder-of-the-radical-faeries-124999/

The Epiphany as Magical Radical Politico-Spiritual Direct Action

I’ve had a few major Epiphanies during my life so far.

That dawning realisation at a time of crisis. The seeing of the truth of something unproven. That sudden recognition of purpose…

There’s always a numinous sense of ‘Higher Power’. An alliance of self with ethereal.

My first Epiphany was when I could see no other way than to be true to myself and my sexuality when I (finally) came out at the age of 20. I was depressed, hopeless and in despair at the time, and, 'coming out' was this profoundly religious resolution for what had become a totally fucked up unhappy life. And thus was created a reality receptive to my starved appetite for sexual encounters with men.

Subsequently, taking ‘coming-out’ to it’s logical political conclusion I became one of the Stonewall supporters pushing for assimilation (accept us please because we’re just the same as you apart from our sexuality) and basic equality rights. At the time I never imagined that there would ever be rights for LGBTQ+ers to adopt children or to marry in my lifetime. The very fact of this immense socio-political shift in the course of just a few years, for me, is testament to the existence of Magick: the art of changing consciousness at will by the setting of intention (against all odds!)

I’ve had other sizeable Epiphanies but my most recent one- around 10 years ago- happened after I had cornered myself into a heteronormative assimilationist lifestyle. Ostensibly monogamous and middle class, locked into a busy professional career, partnered to a lover who had become asexual and was suffering from chronic fatigue. I was thoroughly miserable! Once again the Epiphany came to the rescue. 

Thankfully my openness to that leap of imagination, into something unestablished, unproven, messy and chaotic- my spirituality- allowed The Faerie Tribe to enter into my life and in this way I entered into the Faerie Tribe.

On reflection, whenever the chips have been down and there has been nowhere else to turn, suddenly from out of the blue comes this unfolding of what hadn’t been there before: the offering of a future “Warp” to what is seemingly the meaningless ‘Weft’ of my life until now. And there it is again: the glimmering promise of future purpose!

As an Intersectional Radical Faerie I’m beginning to realise that my queer politico-spiritual purpose is to remain as open as I can be to this very act of Epiphanizing: to keep re-imagining an inclusive future. It isn’t present just yet, but it will become that future allowing our uniquenesses to keep eroding at the intersectionalities of heterosexism, gender binary-ism, ageism, classism, racism and ableism.

Faeries can find the ways for our diverse tribe to keep growing, flourishing and thriving together in harmonious and mutually supportive ways! So Mote It Be!

Which comes first for me? Being Queer or being British? Are you serious?

How is it that 'identity' can cause so much grief?

It’s probably all about our current phase of psychic evolutionary development.

We have grown from reptilian lust-driven Id-centered creatures into mammalian, socially co-operative beings, capable of empathy but also, increasingly, developing a sense of egoic separateness. In the not too distant past, we have struggled to transcend the fleshly demands of our physical selves.

As animals we have always been forced to keep warm and dry, to ensure that we are fed and watered, and to satisfy the hormonally driven impulse to get our rocks off!

Consequently, in a starvation economy, we have needed to gang together and squabble with each other for territory, resources and nookie!

Maybe, as queer-folk, on the margins of all this carry-on, with the perspective of the ‘insider-outsider’, we have found ourselves in the vanguard of those insisting on respect for others and cautioning against the arbitrary identification of otherness as a cynical means of consolidating patriotic allegiances.

I am queer. My family is the international tribe of Faeries. Faeries are LGBTQ and, little by little, straight people too. We are lovers of Nature and she has no geopolitical boundaries.

As a global village we are reaching a tipping point. The numbers of us who are stuck in the lower- necessarily self-focused- reaches of primitive motivation are dwindling and more and more of us have reached a level of self-understanding. We can recognize the damaging consequences both to the planet and to each other of perpetuating the myth that we are separate from nature, from each other and from the divine.

The sooner we ditch those divisive identities tied to national separateness the better. Let us celebrate that “we are simply children of the universe dancing on the edge of time”!

St George’s Day 23/4/2014

The land of Albion shall rise!

The spirit of Albion shall fly!

The people of Albion awaken

To a brand new dream in the making

From beneath the concrete and the suits

There will emerge drumbeats and flutes

Despite the grasp of iron police fists

Freedom will come by turns and by twists

Never mind the bureaucracy and manipulation

Britannia’s giving birth to a rainbow nation

The people of Albion will feel it in their bones

This is our land, it was always our home

Not English, Scottish nor Welsh

The whole of this land is our wealth

Land rich in history, steeped in blood, so much loved

Land full of promise, she gave us her wealth

Albion’s power spread round the globe

Red was the colour of Britannia’s robe

Empire fallen the Brits fumble their way

Slaves to the economy, doped by the media

Lives lived on Facebook Twitter and Wikipedia

But Britons are not slaves to money or machine

We are not here to serve the dark dream

The spirit of Albion shall rise

And illuminate the lies

The people of Albion shall rise!

Be prepared for a big surprise!

Shokti Lovestar  (Albion Faerie)

What’s it like to be away with the Faeries?

Novice  Faerie, Wood Pigeon, returns to Brighton after a weekend Faerie Gathering camping in the middle of the Glastonbury countryside. He is a young man in his early thirties. He’s a little tired, but excited and also a bit emotional with that happy/sad feeling of someone recently parted from a found experience, which had long been sought. He agrees to talk about his experience with GS

GS: So how long have you been involved with the Faeries?

WP: About 4 days!

GS: How did you first hear about the Faeries and what was it that drew you towards the Faerie Movement?

WP: My boyfriend went away to the February 2013 Featherstone Castle gathering in Northumberland and came back as Faerie Magnoose. He was like a completely different person!  The way the experience shone through him and filled him with love, confidence, happiness and joy was incredible.  I had to go on the next faerie gathering and so organised to travel to Glastonbury Tor for the 2013 Summer Solstice weekend.

GS: Can you describe what took place?

When we arrived there was an opening circle and a practical circle where we were given a quick intro to the layout of the accommodation, camping areas, timings for food etc and then we all affirmed our names as a group in a triumphant chorus of faerie voices. 

We then tucked into a sumptuous feast prepared by Kitchen Mum Teal for everyone (about 50 of us), which was wholesome, vegetarian and very welcome.  As the dishes were being washed the banging of drums and lighting of a fire led us all around into another circle.- this time to open the four directions of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water.  I guess this was a Pagan element to the gathering, which I really liked; deepening our connection to nature and to each other.  Some of the faeries danced round the fire, dressed in various costumes and drag, and others sat supping cider and chatting.  

The first night was a lovely long night of making new connections, hearing other people's stories, understanding their journeys, who they were and appreciating their unique faerie spirits.  One of the faeries performed a beautiful healing for me, which allowed something to move deep inside and present itself. It felt great to be able to drop life, let go, and immerse myself in a totally new and wonderful experience of human harmony. 

The next morning, as the day broke, I climbed up to the Tor to get some air and perspective on what was unfurling below me.  Walking alone to the top of this sacred, spiritual monument I already began to miss the energy of the gathering below.  Sat atop in the rain with dark clouds swirling I understand what I would learn this weekend was not a solo journey but one spent with this new family of queer spirited brothers and sisters. I descended and rejoined the group for breakfast.  Slightly fuzzy from the night before I was excited about what the rest of the weekend would hold. 

It turned out to be a roller-coaster of new experiences! We started off with a Faerie Heart Circle then there was a workshop called "How to bring your faerie life into your ordinary life" and that was followed in the afternoon by a kundalini yoga workshop.

The final evening workshop was essentially a tantric massage workshop, with faeries naked and massaging each other. There was an option for us all to be clothed but it seemed like an unnecessary obstacle to intimacy.   I felt totally relaxed, at home, safe and comfortable being unclothed within the group. The one thing that struck me, as the workshop was unfolding, was that it wasn't a carnal, sexual experience. It was tantric and I absolutely loved it! The session went on into personal exploration with different people, evolving into hugging and kissing, reassuring and cradling.  It was deeply moving, powerful, exciting, comforting, loving.  By then end of the night I was in a whole new space. A place I'd never been before.  Too often encounters with others are based on quick, furtive, sexual explosions that leave you with less than you came with.  This gave me more.  Filled me with warmth and energy and a longing for more.

GS: So do you think this gathering has changed you?

WP: It’s funny but I've always wanted to wear a ring and for years have never been able to do it.  I suppose I’d never felt that comfortable with the idea of it.  But now I have one!  And a necklace!  I spent £2.80 and put them on and felt this incredible lightness across my heart.  It almost sang out when I laid some bright orange beads across my chest.  As if to say YES!  Thank you!  I am free!  To be a faerie!  To love others without the burden of a life not of my making, or of my wishing. I felt so nervous leaving the shop, with a ring on.  RIDICULOUS!  It's just a butterfly ring, come on Wood Pigeon you can do it!  And do you know what? I now know I certainly can!

If you want to read the unedited version of Wood Pigeon’s Faerie adventures or to get to know more about Albion Faeries check out the webpage @

http://albionfaeries.wordpress.com/ or email Brightonfaerie@gmail.com to join the elist

Away with the Faeries!

I’ve just returned from a Faerie Gathering in Berlin. It was my third one this year so I guess I’ve become pretty addicted to Faerie Magick! Each event was a spontaneous gathering-together in virtual sanctuary of a fascinating bunch of weird and wonderful queer creative souls with spiritual growth, sexual healing and transformational affirmation all in abundance.
I was introduced to my first gathering at Featherstone Castle in Northumberland back in February by a Faerie I’d met at a Laurieston Edward Carpenter ‘Tantric Sex Workshop’ at the end of last year. Featherstone is a wonderful, secluded, ancient castle where we celebrated the Pagan festival of Imbolic. Forty-odd gay men, a couple of bisexual women, a trans man and a trans woman came together [literally] in a ten day ecstasy of fraternal love and polyamory.
My second gathering was in June at Folleterre in Eastern France- the permanent home of the Eurofaeries. An old, secluded farmhouse in an ancient forest provided the backdrop for an intimate group of 20 of us to explore the concept of Rewilding [the opposite of domestication]. Every day for an hour we’d find our favourite sit-spot and would silently absorb the amazing-ness of nature without fear of interruption. Informal workshops on Trans-, consent, patriarchy, sex and permaculture were fitted around cooking, wood chopping, swimming, sunbathing, fire making, drumming, singing, dancing and dressing-up.
The gathering in Berlin was exclusively for male identified Faeries. Thirty-five men from across Europe and a couple of Americans ranging in age from 25 to 78 got the chance to get to know each other on an emotionally intimate level. Daily ‘Heart Circles’ allowed us to speak totally honestly from our hearts about what was happening in our lives, our trials and tribulations in general and our specific issues in the moment. What a vivid tapestry of authentic subject-to-subject relationships we found ourselves weaving together! And what a refreshing change from the less honest relationships that so often surround us.
By this third gathering I had learned to trust and be trusted by my Faerie friends. I awakened an awareness that my journey towards becoming an assimilated straight-acting gay man began with me as the sissy boy who hung around with the girls, skipping, roller-skating and talking about boys. I realised back then that the feminine aspect of my nature signalled to the bullies who policed the patriarchal status quo that my sexuality was other than totally straight. I learned to slap back any hints of femininity in my behaviour and I became a macho closet case determined not to be emotionally annihilated like the sissies in my school who either couldn’t or wouldn’t conform.
Gender role and sexuality stereotype expectations are writ large in the Sports Arena. The changing-rooms, showers and sports field have always been uniquely hostile environments to those of us who didn’t fit in.
Is this why sport and sissy sensibility don’t sit pretty together?
Write to me: gaysocrates@gmail.com