1. The Radical Faeries Lineage
The Radical Faeries did not emerge in a vacuum. They are part of a long 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 United States — among them Harry Hay, Mitch Walker, and Don Kilhefner — dreamed of a gathering outside of urban gay 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 Arizona desert. It was a wild experiment: part retreat, part 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.
Older than memory
Yet the lineage is older still. Before the name “Radical Faeries,” queer spirit moved in many forms: shamans and two-spirit people, 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 sacred roles, and that our difference is not a flaw but a 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 authority, but a river of spirit. A river flows forward, carrying echoes of the past, but always shifting its course.
Every gathering adds a new bend to the river. Every song, every ritual, every story told in circle becomes part of the current. Each faerie who comes to Folleterre steps into this river and becomes both ancestor and descendant: receiving what has flowed before and leaving something for those yet to arrive.
Gatherings as heartbeat
Gatherings are the living heartbeat of this lineage. They are not only events — they are rituals of continuity. Here the river swells, carrying together elders and newcomers, healers and fools, lovers and seekers. In gatherings, traditions are both remembered and reinvented: a chant, a costume, a recipe, a ritual becomes part of the collective body.
Every faerie a lineage-bearer
The lineage is not carried only by founders or elders. It lives in everyone who shows up. The cook stirring soup, the newcomer trembling in their first circle, the elder telling a story by the fire, the dancer whirling in the meadow — all are equally bearers of the 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.
To honor the lineage 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 joy.
 | Oracle message from the Radical Faeries Egregore
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