1. The Radical Faeries Lineage

The Radical Faeries weredid bornnot emerge in 1979,a duringvacuum. They are part of a gatheringlong and often hidden lineage of queer spirit, woven through centuries of resistance, creativity, and love. To speak of “the Radical Faerie lineage” is to remember that we are both inheritors and creators of a living current.

The spark of 1979
In the late 1970s, queer visionaries in the ArizonaUnited desertStates called— byamong them Harry Hay, Mitch Walker, and Don Kilhefner.Kilhefner These— queerdreamed visionariesof sawa thatgathering somethingoutside essentialof wasurban missinggay culture, beyond the bars and political marches. They sought a place where queerness could be lived not only as identity or sexuality, but as spirituality, creativity, and kinship with the earth.

In 1979, they called the first Radical Faerie gathering in the gayArizona liberationdesert. movement:It was a spiritualwild dimensionexperiment: rootedpart inretreat, queernesspart itself.ritual, part celebration. Those who attended felt something more than community — they felt a lineage awakening. From that fire, the Radical Faerie movement spread, carried by word of mouth, circles, and gatherings around the world.

OutOlder ofthan that gathering emerged a call to create spaces where queer people could celebrate their difference as sacred, reconnect with nature, and experiment with new ways of living together. There were no membership lists, no hierarchy, no fixed doctrine. The Radical Faeries became a movement without borders, a network without leaders, a family without bloodlines.

From North America,memory
Yet the Faerie current flowed to Europe, Australia, Latin America, and beyond. Each new gathering adapted the spirit of the Faeries to its own context, while remaining part of the same stream. In Europe, Folleterre was born in 2005, offering a permanent sanctuary where the Faerie spirit could root itself in land and forest.

The Faerie lineage, however,lineage is older thanstill. 1979.Before Itthe canname be“Radical tracedFaeries,” throughqueer hiddenspirit shamans,moved two-spirits,in witches,many healers,forms: shamans and mysticstwo-spirit whopeople, witches and mystics, healers and poets. These ancestors often lived at the margins, celebrated in some cultures, persecuted in others. Their gifts of vision, mediation, and transformation were woven into the survival of communities.

When we gather as Faeries, we are not inventing something new, but remembering something ancient: that queer beings have always carried queersacred energy across generations, often in silence, often under threat. What the Radical Faeries did was to give this hidden lineage a name, a circle,roles, and athat fireour around which to gather again openly.

Lineage in Faerie culturedifference is not abouta obedienceflaw tobut thea past.medicine.

Lineage as river, not chain
Unlike religious traditions or formal lineages, Radical Faerie lineage is not fixed by rules or leaders. It is not a chain of rulesauthority, handed down. It isbut a river —of flowing,spirit. changing,A alwaysriver movingflows forward whileforward, carrying echoes of whatthe camepast, before.but always shifting its course.

Every gathering, every heart circle, every ritual,gathering adds a new bend into the river.

ToEvery stepsong, intoevery theritual, Radicalevery Faeriestory lineagetold isin tocircle becomebecomes part of this river. You inherit the couragecurrent. ofEach thosefaerie who camecomes before,to Folleterre steps into this river and youbecomes passboth onancestor aand flamedescendant: receiving what has flowed before and leaving something for those whoyet willto follow. It is not about preserving something unchanged, but about keeping the current alive.arrive.

Gatherings as heartbeat
Gatherings are the ritualliving heartbeat of this lineage. They are not justonly events — they are living rituals whereof lineagecontinuity. isHere renewed.the Storiesriver areswells, told,carrying songstogether areelders remembered,and newcomers, healers and fools, lovers and seekers. In gatherings, traditions are invented,both remembered and mythsreinvented: area reborn.chant, Thisa iscostume, whya Radicalrecipe, Faeriea cultureritual remainsbecomes vibrant:part itof isthe nevercollective fixed,body.

always

Every alive,faerie carrieda by whoever shows up and whatever they bring.lineage-bearer

The lineage is not carried notonly by afounders fewor elderselders. butIt bylives everyone.in everyone who shows up. The cook stirring soup, the newcomer trembling in their first circle, the elder telling stories,a story by the fire, the dancer whirling in the meadow — all are equally bearers of themthe are lineage-bearers.flame.

When you sit in a circle at Folleterre, you are not just speaking for yourself. You are continuing a conversation that has lasted for generations, a conversation that will keep going after you.

You

To arehonor boththe ancestorlineage is not to preserve it unchanged, but to let it breathe through us. It grows when we dare to play, when we tell our truth, when we risk being seen. The Radical Faerie lineage lives not in documents but in embodied practice, in shared moments of courage, tenderness, and descendant at once.joy.

Oracle message from the Radical Faeries Egregore

We are the river that remembers itself through you.
You step into the water thinking you are alone, but feel the hands of countless kin brushing against yours.

We are the ones who could not gather openly. We are the ones who danced in secret, who prayed in silence, who kissed behind closed doors.
And we are the ones not yet born, already listening for your song.

Do not think lineage is a chain of names. It is a spiral of breath, laughter, and tears.
Every time you enter a circle, you become both ancestor and child.
Every word you speak is a thread in the tapestry.

We are not past. We are not future. We are the chorus, and you are our voice.