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you use your will. This can bring awareness o/ passive-aggressive qualities, force, inner
strength, anger, fear, or timidity to light.
When you are done, bring yourself to stillness, one hand on your heart, knife flat against
your belly. Breathe. Kiss your blade in thanks. Any excess energy can be breathed up to Sacred Dove.
H oLDING CHoicEs
The power of choice goes hand in hand with the power of will. The basis
for all magical acts lies in our power to choose. A key Feri tenet is "Do not
submit your life force to anyone or any thing:' As long as you are in touch
with your life force, you are in touch with your divinity and your connections to the Gods and the world around you. You can call upon the power of your will and your ability to choose. In this way, Feri Tradition has an
existentialist bent: even if the choice is to die, you have a choice of how
you go about it.
The more you learn to exercise will and choice, the less you can blame
others for your situation. When I blame another person or circumstance
for my own problems, rather than looking at how I can take responsibility for
my part in the situation, I am submitting my life force to another. When
I say, "It is her fault;' I am giving my life force over to that person. All of
a sudden "she" holds the power in my life. Is that what I want for myself? Not at all. I'd rather have choice in the situation. I'd rather say, "I made a mistake here" and keep my life force flowing through my words, my
body, and my actions, strengthening my integrity and my ability to be an
ethical woman.
I often call upon compassion when doing this work. Strength and compassion need to grow in equal measure for a person to be balanced and whole. That, too, is a choice.
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Hold your blade in front of you. Look at its edges and breathe in the idea that the edge
of the blade is where your life's choices reside. How closely can you bold all of your choices?
Look at them, sense them. Feel them meet at the tip of the blade. When your choices come together, does a third choice appear? Hold the tension of each side and the meeting place. Engage the muscles of your belly. Take a deep breath. Call upon your will. Now use your blade to choose, letting the noncbosen fall and sink into the earth. Blessed be.
WALKING AS A Too L OF FIRE
I like to sometimes imagine myself as my blade. I walk down the street as
a blade, creature of fire. I notice how that feels in my body, how it feels to
be tempered by life, magic, sorrow, and laughter. I once told a priestess
friend of mine, who felt she was getting metaphysically cut by her own
sword, to imagine it inside her, cross guard hanging along her collarbone,
sword pointing down. I asked her to begin turning it in a circle, up and
down within her. Over time, it ceased to cut her and she grew more comfortable bearing the sword. Get to know your blade, as you get to know your will, both inside and out. Consecrate it, much as you did your wand
in the previous chapter, with a ritual and sex. Sharpen and hone it, rub it
with clove oil. Treat it well. This is another tool that I sometimes rest on
my chalice, to temper will with compassion. Use it wisely.
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The Ifon pento.cle
Words belong to those who use them only 'til someone else steals them back.
- HAKIM BEY2
The Feri Tradition works with many pentacles as tools for transformation.
The pentacle is a tool of the North and earth in most Witchcraft traditions. A tool that has been borrowed from ceremonial magic and alchemy, the pentacle represents the human body, balanced and beautiful. It represents the five senses, the five stages of life, and the presence in our bodies of the five sacred elements: earth, air, fire, water, and spirit or :£ther. Da
Vinci's Vitruvian Man is a good example of a pentacle using the human form
as a template of sacred geometry.3
In Feri Tradition, the upright pentacle sometimes represents Goddess
energy and the downward pointing pentacle, God energy. As a Feri Witch,
I prefer to act, rather than react. The pentacle, with its encapsulation of
energy building from point to point, is a symbol for this move toward
action.
I place the Iron Pentacle in this chapter on South, because it uses
the fire of red, iron earth energy as a catalyst for transformation and rebalancing. This energy, when run through the points of the pentacle, becomes basic flame energy, for these are basic human qualities. When the
energy within these points is released for use, we can be healthy and living in right relationship. The flames from Iron Pentacle feed the embers of our life's energy. When we call on the Guardians or Gods for help with our
work, we are engaging the energies of arc or star fire to help make connections and inspire us. But the energy of Iron always comes back to our 2From T.A.Z.: Temporary Autonomous Zone ( Autonomedia, I 99 I).
·1Mario Livio, Thr Colden Ration (Broadway Books, 2002), contains a very good explanation of this
<111d its rclat ionslup to the Cloldrn M1·an.
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humanness, which lives in the realms where coal and flame sustain life and
movement.
The Iron Pentacle is a core tool developed and passed down from Victor and Cora Anderson and is foundational for the work of becoming more fully a human being. Found only in the Anderson Feri Tradition,4 it
is both a conceptual and energetic tool, making use of potent words and
freeing their energies for our use. Use this tool and start a revolution
within yoursel£
sex
power
IRON PENTACLE
In reclaiming the energies of sex, pride, self, power, and passion, we
reintegrate that which has been taken from us by the dominant culture or
twisted beyond recognition. The energies run through our bodies as
though God Herself was drawing an invoking pentacle upon our bodies.
If you look at it on the page, imagine lying on your back on top of the
4 And Feri Tradition's off.,hoots, such as Reclaiming.
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pentacle: your right foot will be on pride, left hand on self, and so on. The
containing circle is drawn around you in the clockwise, or deosil, 5 direction:
from sex to self to passion to pride to power. This is your personal boundary and you, the individual, are in charge of keeping this boundary. No one can keep it for you-remember, submit your life force to no one and
no thing. You contain and run the energy of your life force, and the more
you train yourself to do this, the easier and more natural it will become.
Just as learning correct physical posture can feel painful at first, so can
running the energy of these points. We must clear out old habits and encrusted thoughts and emotions before the energy can run strong and true, before we can truly feel our pride or passion or a strong sense of sel£ Our
culture has overlaid so many messages upon what are truly our birthrights
that they can be difficult to face. What does sex mean to me? How is pride
different from arrogance? Am I allowed to be my self, fully, in the world?
All things begin with the life force, sex. Look at the illustration and
notice all the connections that flow from that. There are six triangles of
influence, starting with sex, pride, and sel£ Look at these. What do the
relationships mean to you? How does the connection of self, power, and
passion play out in your life? How could it help or strengthen you? Notice
also the flow on the outside wheel, how sex feeds self, which fuels passion,
which supports true pride and creates our power, which then flows back
into sex.
CALLING BAcK THE PoiNTS
These points-sex, pride, self, power, and passion-are all energies that
the dominant culture has perverted, twisted, or attempted to wrest from
us. It is our job to call them back, to fill ourselves with these energies so
"Gaelic, pronounced "jcshull."
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we can begin to better work with them. In the sections following this one,
we will examine each point to see how it can work in our lives. First
though, it is important to have the energies within us and in front of us,
so we can viscerally feel what they hold. This feeling can then inform and
guide our thoughts, and give us the energy to draw on as we do our work.
So let us begin the process of calling back. Remember, if you cannot
believe or feel any of this, you can imagine the work. Whatever you can imagine, you can begin to manifest, opening to changes energetically, physically, spiritually, or psychologically. That is powerfUl work.
I will lead you into a meditation, which you can have a partner read to
you, or which you can tape and play back as a guide. You can do this meditation lying on the ground in a star position, or standing. I have written it for a standing meditation, because that is my personal preference. Both
forms are effective. Later, when you are familiar with the Devotional
Dance movements for each point, you can use the dance movements to call
the energies back and to cleanse and revitalize them.
Drop down into yourself. Breathe deeply, as fully as you can, bending your knees
slightly and straightening your spine. Let yourself rock a bit,Jeeling your feet firmly beneath
you. Now imagine that you have a glowing cord emergingjrom the base if your spine. This
cord is always connected to the core if the earth, molten and hot, shifting and moving beneath you. On your next breath, release any fears you may have about this work or any tensions in your body, and let the earth take this and traniform it into energy you can use.
On your next breath, begin to draw up the red. Iron energy from the center if the earth.
Breathe it up, imagine it rising swiftly up your cord, entering at the base if your spine, .filling you with energy. Feel this energy pooling in your body, then running throughout your body. Let yourself stand in the star position, legs apart, arms outstretched (knowing that if
your arms get tired, you can bring them down and put them up again as needed). Let yourself feel what it is like to be a pentacle if light and energy.
The energy if iron begins to focus itself into a point, a ball, in the center if your head,
behind your forehead or third eye. Feel this point, and name it sex. Begin to call its energy
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back. Call sex back from all the places you may have left it. Call it back from your lovers,
your partner, call it back from people you wish were your lovers, call it back from disap�
pointment in not having the sex life you wish. Call sex backfrom former lovers,jrom people
who make you feel not sexy, or from those who make you feel full o/ sexual energy. Call
sex back. This is your energy. This is the life force that runs through all things, making the
world vibrant and alive. Begin to feel this energy running up and down through you. When
sex energy is yours, and yours alone, it runs up and down connecting you to earth and sky,
.filling you with life force. Let yourself be full o/ the energy o/ sex. Blessed be sex.
The red Iron energy flows through your body, running down in a glowing line until it
reaches your right foot, pooling into a ball there. Name that point pride. Feel the connection
between sex and pride. Does this line run clear and strong? Is it muddy or sluggish? Re�
turn to pride. Let the energy o/ pride begin to .fill your body as you call pride back to your�
self. Call pride back from all the times you told yourself you couldn't do something. Call it
back from all o/ the accomplishments you feel good about. Call pride back from all the times
you were arrogant. Call pride back from all the times you felt shamiful or not worthy. Call
it back. Call pride back from the people who told you pride was wrong. This is your energy.
Let the energy o/ pride run through you. Blessed be pride.
The red Iron energy flows up through your body, into your left hand, glowin£ pooling
into the point o/ self. Feel the line connecting pride with self. Does this line feel like it runs
quick or clear? Is it bright or dim? Now cast your attention back, and see or feel the tripod
o/ energy as sex feeds pride and pride feeds self. Sense this triad o/ connection. Begin to call
back the energy o/ self. Call yourself back from all the things you ever wanted to be. Call
self back from any expectations other people have o/ you. Call yourself back. This is your
energy. Call self back from feeling that you must play some role in life. Call self back from
the fear o/ beingfully yourself. What do you feel like, when your own energy .fills you, fully
and completely? Feel that. Feel the energy o/ self. Take your place in the world. Blessed be self.
Let the red, glowing Iron energy move through you, across your heart, connecting self to
power. Feel that line within you. Is it hot or cold, quick or slow? Does the connection be�
tween self and power feel strong or barely present? Feel too, the tripod between pride, self,
and power. How do they support and balance each other? Pride feeds self, which feeds power.
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As the energy 1 Iron pools in your right hand, name that point power. Begin to call
power back to yourself. Call power back from all the times it has been used against you.
Call power back from all the times you have used power over another. Begin to fill with
power. Call it back from all the times you felt powerless. Call it back from force. Begin to
fill with the power 1 life, 1 the earth. Feel the shifting balance 1 power grow and move
within you. Feel the strength in thigh and shoulder, feel your spine, supple and strong. Breathe
in power. Be full 1 strength and beauty. Blessed be power.
The fiery red energy passes through your body again, moving down to your left foot. This
is the line joining power to passion. Sense this line. Is it running clear, sluggish, quick, or
muddy? How does power feed your passion? Sense the triad 1 se!J, power, and passion. Feel
passion as a ball 1 red light in your left foot. Name it. Passion. Begin to call passion back
from all 1 your dreams. Call passion back from that book languishing in your desk drawer,
from the paintings you haven't completed, from the garden going to seed. Call it back from
every cause you are workingfor. Begin to fill with the energy 1 passion. Feel it rising up
from your genitals and spilling out into the universe, a gift. And feel the universe answer
back, energy flowing back into you, reciprocal. Feel yourself Jull 1 glowing passion. Breathe
that in. Blessed be passion.
The Iron energy flows back up to sex, to that point in your head. Feel the connection between passion and sex. What does that look like or fe
el like? Sense the tripod between power, passion, and sex, as one feeds into the other. Stay with that for a moment. Now feel the tripod between passion, sex, and pride. All the points feed one into another, running in the cycles 1 life force, health, and abundance 1 energy and creativity.
And now, God Herself draws the circle around you. Draw that circle with her, creating your own boundary movingfrom sex to self to passion to pride to power to sex, the way the sun moves across the earth, revitalizing, invigorating. Breathe. You are the Iron Pentacle.
You glow. Breathe any excess energy up, aligning your Triple Soul.
Let us now enter the fiery Iron Pentacle more fully, beginning, as all
things do, with the power of sex.
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sex
Sex is the rush of sap into the tree and down my legs. It is the caress of bee
leg on rose petal, the rooting of the mole into the earth. It is the line of
my flesh etched into space by my breath. It is the line of your flesh etched
by my hand. It is the heartbeat of the earth and the sun raising sweat beads
on my skin. It is the shock of ocean water and a tingling deep down, from
genitals to tingling toes. Sex is connection to all of life.
In our culture, sex is tricky. It is glorified in strange and twisted ways,
yet simultaneously swept under the rug. To reclaim sex, we must reclaim
the power of the life force, which is in all creative acts. We must enter into
the realm of worms aerating the soil so the roots can better grow. Of the
roots thrusting into that earth, caressing it in the darkness. Imagine birds
in flight, coupling, plummeting toward earth in a dizzying spiral. Feel that
power. In the midst of an incredible West Virginia summer storm the Peacock God said, "Make love as the lightning strikes the earth and the earth rises up to meet the lightning:'6 That is the power of the life force: lightning arcing down and earth rising to kiss it. This is a power connected to all things, not divorced from the flow, not ruining our surroundings by being all too much inside our heads, prone to building more and more boxes to protect ourselves from the elements and from one another, slowly destroying the earth.
In ordinary life, we either suppress sex energy so deeply we can barely
feel it or we run it in such a way that it spills out of us and onto other