Marin witch puts a spell on her readers

"All that is above, and all that is below, and all that is betwixt and between. Stay if you will, go if you must."

Hands raised and holding a twisted stick, Cerridwen Fallingstar chants the incantation in all four directions.  Three other woman--Sandra, Pat and Laurin--stand behind her chanting as well.  A couple of them could be mistaken for soccer moms and one is a grandmother.

Cerridwen herself, is a soft-spoken woman with light, wavy hair and dressed in a feminine white blouse and skirt, she slightly resembles a flower child.

But Cerridwen is a witch.  Or a pagan. Or a Wiccan. Or a shaman. 

She practices earth-based worship, something that has been around for centuries, and long before more conventional religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam. 

Cerridwen is also an author and has just released her second book, White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Fox Sorceress which she says, is based on a past life in 12th-century Japan. 

But right now, in 2009, she's leading her female followers in a ritual ceremony in her front yard in West Marin.

Cerridwen finishes blessing the sacred space she has drawn with the stick in all four directions. She explains that she usually worships outside in nature, and that by motioning in the four directions, she creates a 'church' in which to worship.

Paganism--which began in prehistoric time--is based on the polytheistic worship of multiple deities usually named for elements in nature; the sun, fertility, crops, death, renewal.  Nature is a central theme in witchcraft as well.

"In nature you see everything gets recycled.  The water gets pulled up from the lake and it forms clouds and it rains back down.  You see that tree loses its fruit and its leaves," she says, "but then the leaves come back and the fruit comes back. Things always return."

After blessing the nearby altar, which is heaped with fruit, flowers and ritual objects, all four women stand in a circle and each gives thanks for something in their lives. 

They may be pagans, but some invocations are distinctly 21st-century; Sandra is thankful for her bounty of new property and glad to be in escrow, while Pat gives thanks for two new grandchildren, good health and getting "the last child into college."

At the end of the thanks, Cerridwen pours water from a chalice onto the ground, watering the earth.  She performs the blessing in four directions again--dismissing the sacred space--ending the ritual ceremony.

The woman gather to laugh and talk a bit after the ritual.  They all look like they're having a great time.

"Let's face it, someone has to put the fun back in fundamentalism!," Cerridwen quips, "We like to have fun.  It doesn't mean we don't take what we do seriously, but serious and somber are two different things."

Even if what they do appears perfectly harmless, a lot of people don't like it.

When Cerridwen went on the book tour for her first book, The Heart of Fire, there were protesters at some of the locations and she even got death threats.  That's why, she says, "a lot of us are still in the broom closet."

As a writer, Cerridwen says she relies on memories of past life experiences as inspiration for her books.  She claims she has always had them.

"I've always had spontaneous past life memories starting from when I was a little child.  And I would tell my parents."

Her parents weren't quite sure what to make of it. 

"My father was an aerospace engineer; my parents weren't even spiritual or religious. They were scientific people."

Cerridwen, who was born in 1952, is considered a leading authority on witchcraft.  She has taught classes on ritual and magic for thirty years, and has founded three covens. She leads workshops, gives lectures and offers private sessions on past life regression.  Her books are published through her own company, Cauldron Publications.

The first book, which was released in 1990, was based on Cerridwen's past life as a Scottish witch in 16th-century Scotland.  It took a full fifteen years before she released her current book, White as Bone, a compelling read about a sorceress in the royal palace in Japan during the mid-1100s.

Why so long?

Cerridwen says it takes a long time to cultivate the memories and even longer to do the research.  She says she is able to enter a trance, summon the memories and put them to tape. After transcribing them, she'll research them by conventional means; by reading as much as she can find on that particular time in history, and by visiting the locales.  

She says she has to enter trance states dozens of times in order to remember people, places and things in detail. 

"It doesn't necessarily happen in order," she says, "but as I research it, some of the history comes in very handy because historically there is a time line and I can say, oh this battle happened then." 

We ask her if it is a physically strenuous process but she says it is much more emotionally strenuous.

"I often start with my death first and that is rather unpleasant at times. It depends on what it was like," she laughs.

Cerridwen also runs an apprentice program for women who wish to become witches.  One of those is Laurin who participated earlier in the ritual.

Laurin, in her early 40s, is single with a son and lives in Marin.

She has been studying with Cerridwen for several months as part of the "A Year and a Day" apprentice program. Laurin hasn't really hidden her beliefs, but she hasn't told anyone either.

"I haven't felt the need to because there is stigma still attached to the word witch, so I just say I'm learning an earth-based, spiritual practice."

"I'm not really sure how it evolved, the pagan path," she continues.  Lauren also happens to worship at a traditional church in Marin.  She doesn't feel her two beliefs are in conflict either. 

One thing that appeals to both Laurin and Cerridwen, is the lack of rules.  Unlike Catholicism or Islam, paganism doesn't include a strict set of rules to be followed.  In fact, Cerridwen says "there's very little dogma in what I do." They pretty much follow the Golden Rule.

"Harm none, do as you will," she says smiling, "You can do what you want as long as it doesn't hurt someone else." 

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Cerridwen will have a book signing for White As Bone, Red As Blood on October 20 at Open Secret bookstore in San Rafael.  The event begins at 7:30 p.m. and will include a reading and a mini-past life regression.

For more information on Cerridwen Fallingstar, click here.  To buy her new book, click here.

(All photos are by MoreMarin except the two Beltane ceremony photos which are courtesy of Cerridwen Fallingstar)

Comments

[Renata Burnham]

Blessesd Be!
From the Bible Belt here in Atlanta,Ga.
We have a flourishing Pagan Community here!
May the Gods smile upon you!
Siobhan-Asherah

[Rick Brown]

Aliester Crowley and "Scientology" practice the same past life regression technique. Both L. Ron hubbard and Crowley were good friends and completly evil. I know i've researched them both. Fallingstar seems like a decent human though and I am not lumping her in with these two egomaniacs just letting people know whats what. In fact after being involved directly with "Scientology" and finding out the hard way i.e. lots of money spent and total harrassment when I defected I might be willing to check out Fallingstars teaching since I am searching for a spirtual awakening and seem to get lied to by a number of other religions. So feed back concerning Fallingstars teachings would be appreciated. Peace and happiness people!

[Spellbinding Sherry]

My favorite book is The Heart of the Fire,
which came to me on a library bookcart,
and cost me .25!
When the horrors began, I was too involved,
too committed to the protagonist to stop reading. I felt committed to witnessing her,
to let her know I was supporting her.
Fabulously well written.

Rick, I pray that you
open your heart to your own Path.
Your teacher will arrive when you are
truly ready to learn.

Blessed Be.