Kirsten Clark talks to a high priestess and dispels the mystique about witchery.
Wicca is a nature-based, shamanistic spiritual belief system that is based on the credo of “harm none”. Wiccans use crystals, herbs, divination and natural healing to work with the environment, animals and people. They believe everything is made of energy which can be gently manipulated to bring about positive change.
One expert on the subject is Valley of 1000 Hills local Fey Fand, who describes the practice of magic as “a touch of quantum physics mixed in with old fashioned kitchen witchery and common sense!”
Quantum physics, she explains, is now proving magical practitioners correct in their belief in the interconnectedness of all things.
Fey Fand was raised in Durban North, the tow-haired daughter of liberal and open-minded parents. Her father was a hotelier and Fey spent her teenage years at the Edward Hotel. Now in her 40s, she is the High Priestess of the Celestine Circle and says: “I believe we’re on the threshold of an exciting time in human history – people are becoming aware of the environmental, political, financial and spiritual crisis that we are experiencing. The challenges are real but by inspiring others and being actively aware of our responsibility towards Mother Earth, we can make a difference.”
Fey has been a teacher of the craft for more than nine years, and practicing magic for more than two decades. She regards her students ‘as being like family’.
“We share a strong sense of community and those who live nearby celebrate our Sabbats together.” Sabbats are celebrated every six weeks or so and are a Wiccan’s way of connecting with nature and acknowledging the change in seasons. Important days for Wiccans are the equinoxes, solstices and monthly full moon circles.
The Celestine Circle will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on the April 4 next year and boasts 276 members from as far afield as Germany, the UK, Thailand, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Malawi and Botswana. Fey jokes that there are so many Wiccans living in the Highway area, “you could throw a stone around here and you can be sure it will hit a Wiccan!”
Fey is assisted with circle duties by the Circle of Elders, who include John Dee Styles, Tracy Shuttleworth and Jan Botha.
She’s passionate about the environment and has been involved with green issues from since she was a child. She was also instrumental in the campaign to stop the dune mining in St Lucia, serving on the executive committee of the Campaign for St Lucia. At the moment Fey is compiling a book on the history of the St Lucia campaign. A voracious reader and an avid cook who loves using herb, she’s also a prolific writer and poet, “when the muse is feeling kind”.
Fey is an executive member of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance and the SA Pagan Council as well as a member of the SA Faith Communities Environmental Institute (SAFCEI) and co-ordinator of the KwaZulu-Natal Pagan Freedom Day celebrations, which have been held in April every year since 2005.
“Pagan Freedom Day is a wonderful opportunity to enlighten people about Wicca and other Pagan practices,” she says.
Apart from leading the circle and serving the pagan community through her committee and community work, Fey offers tarot and rune readings, astrology profiles, compatibility reports and a variety of workshops (herbal healing, tarot reading, psychic development, practical magic). And she offers a correspondence course called the Wiccan Way, which encourages personal growth, spiritual enlightenment and the practice of positive magic.
e-mail Fey Fand or telephone 073 803 2195
or see www.celestinecircle.za.net