Feraferia is a Neopagan religion that originated in Southern California and later expanded across the United States and into parts of Europe. Formally incorporated as a nonprofit church in California on August 2, 1967, it is one of the oldest Modern Pagan organizations in the U.S. The tradition is centered on Hellenic-inspired Goddess worship, the celebration of wild nature, and an intimate relationship with the earth.
The origins of the religion trace back to 1956, when artist Fredrick McLaren Charles Adams II experienced what he described as an ecstatic religious conversion while walking across the campus of Los Angeles City College. Adams became convinced of the primal nature of the divine feminine, which he envisioned as a “Maiden Goddess of the Wilderness” identified as Kore or Persephone.
Seeking to share this vision, Adams gathered friends from the local Beat scene and founded the classically inspired Fellowship of Hesperides in 1957. Two years later, the group established a multi-family intentional community in Sierra Madre. The community focused on communal living, wilderness exploration, and the development of what Adams called “landscape yoga,” a practice intended to connect participants with the living spirits of the land.
During this early period, Adams corresponded with several intellectuals, most notably poet and author Robert Graves, whose book The White Goddess influenced the development of his theology. While lecturing on his spiritual ideas, Adams met Svetlana Butyrin, who became both his domestic partner and co-founder of the movement.
Known within the community as Lady Svetlana, Butyrin shared Adams’s interest in spirits, tree culture, and the divine feminine as both the center of the cosmos and the earth goddess Gaia. They concluded that the Fellowship of Hesperides required a new identity that reflected a deeper spiritual focus. They chose the name “Feraferia,” combining the Latin roots “fera,” meaning wild or feral, and “feria,” meaning festival or celebration.
During the 1970s, Adams and Feraferia participated in efforts to connect emerging American Neopagan and esoteric groups. Alongside Carroll “Poke” Runyon of the Ordo Templi Astartes and Oberon Zell of the Church of All Worlds, Adams helped establish the Council of Themis. The council represented the first major attempt to unite hermetic, Neopagan, and ceremonial magic organizations in the U.S.
The core theology of Feraferia emphasizes an ecospiritual and ecosexual relationship with nature, viewing the earth as a living body. The tradition follows a liturgical calendar of nine seasonal celebrations known as “The 9 Royal Passions,” which symbolically trace a courtship and sacred marriage between the Sun and Moon throughout the year.
Ritual practices often involve the construction of henges, circular structures aligned with local topography and used as seasonal and astronomical calendars. The tradition also employs oracular glyphs and a plant mandala symbol known as the “Phytala.” In its early years, the founders incorporated public advocacy for social nudity into their philosophy, regarding it as a practice that strengthened human connection with the natural world.
In 1970, film student Jo Carson met Adams and Svetlana through Runyon. Carson subsequently filmed a poetic, time-lapse documentary that captured four of Feraferia’s seasonal celebrations before being initiated into the group. In 1989, Carson began directing a broader documentary project titled “Dancing With Gaia,” which premiered at the Fairfax Documentary Film Festival in April 2009. The film explored Feraferian principles, sacred sexuality, and earth energy through interviews with Adams and other prominent Neopagans, alongside footage of sacred sites around the world.
Adams died in August 2008, and Svetlana died in 2010. Before his death, Adams appointed Carson as the literary executor of his estate and entrusted her with disseminating Feraferia’s teachings to a wider audience. Carson subsequently became president of the Feraferia Board of Directors.
In an effort to make the tradition more accessible to contemporary readers, Carson authored the introductory handbook Celebrate Wildness: Magic, Mirth and Love on the Feraferia Path. The book featured Adams’ extensive artwork and published the tradition’s core rituals in book form for the first time.
In addition to managing an extensive digital archive and physical library, Carson has continued to present Feraferian concepts at modern Pagan conferences such as PantheaCon and to develop new publications based on Adams’ original oracular systems.
Key Sources:
Carson, J. (2015). Celebrate Wildness: Magic, Mirth and Love on the Feraferia Path.
Ellwood, R. (1971). Notes on a Neopagan Religious Group in America. History of Religions.
Mankey, J. (2015, July 27). American paganisms: Feraferia. Patheos.