Cerridwen Fallingstar
Encyclopedia
Cerridwen Fallingstar is an American Wiccan Priestess, Shamanic Witch, and author
. Since the late 1970s she has written, taught, and lectured about magic, ritual, and metaphysics, and is considered a leading authority on pagan Witchcraft. She is also the author of three historical novel
s, which she refers to as "posthumous autobiographies" — memories from previous lives
.
. Her father was an aerospace engineer for Aerospace Corporation, and her mother was a librarian. According to Fallingstar, "As a tiny kid, I was always remembering adventures from other lives, trying to remind my parents of various other places we had lived .... I also spoke constantly, as soon as I could talk, about Witches, herbs and spells, a development which made my agnostic parents slightly uneasy."
Fallingstar attended Beloit College
from 1970–1974, receiving a degree in English Literature and English Composition. She obtained a Masters Degree in English Literature from UCLA in 1976.
in Los Angeles
, writing mainly for the alternative press
. Still using her birth name, she wrote often on feminism
, feminist sexuality, and related matters.
In early 1975, Fallingstar was writing for a feminist newsletter at the time Wiccan pioneer Zsuzsanna Budapest
was arrested in Los Angeles for fortune-telling from reading tarot cards. Budapest asserted that this was an arrest for witchcraft, and that it violated her right to freedom of religion. Fallingstar did a lengthy interview with Budapest, and subsequently studied extensively with her, joining Budapest's all-women Susan B. Anthony coven
. Fallingstar founded her own first coven, Kallisti, in 1975; and she began publishing poetry and literature under her Craft name, Cerridwen Fallingstar — from Cerridwen, the Celtic goddess of rebirth and transformation. Her journalism also began reflecting her involvement in feminist spirituality and paganism
.
Fallingstar studied also with noted Wiccan teacher and author Starhawk
, and in 1980 was a founding member of a coven called the Holy Terrors, along with fellow Starhawk students Bone Blossom, Sophia Sparks, and M. Macha NightMare
. She worked closely with Starhawk on the Reclaiming Collective
, a ritual and teaching organization in the San Francisco Bay Area
, from 1980 to 1986. Fallingstar was also an early member, Minister, and Elder of the Wiccan fellowship Covenant of the Goddess
.
In an academic paper in the early 1980s, she wrote:
In the 1980s, living in Marin County in Northern California, Fallingstar continued her professional work in the areas of shamanism, Witchcraft, trancework, healing, and psychic work. She also studied with spiritual teachers from various other traditions, including Native American, West African, Tantra
, Reiki
, Zen
, Kundalini Yoga
, and New Age
teachings.
Following the publication of her 1990 book, The Heart of the Fire, seen as an authentic look at 16th-century Celtic paganism, Fallingstar became an established voice for Wicca, Witchcraft, and Paganism. In 1991 she founded an organization called EarthRite, which offered public rituals in Northern California for 12 years, and that year she also founded her third coven, Eye of the Crescent. She was interviewed for the 1995 compendium book, People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak Out, and was featured on its cover.
In 2009, Fallingstar was one of the 14 authorities on Goddess culture who expound on the subject in the feature-length documentary film
, Dancing with Gaia. She has also been featured on and in numerous media outlets, which range from CNN
to the Oxygen Channel to Pacific Sun to FoxNews.com, and in various alternative magazines such as New Dawn.
Fallingstar lectures and teaches classes and workshops, including a year-long apprenticeship program, and has also led spiritual journeys to sacred sites in Scotland. Additionally, she works as a professional psychic. She also provides past-life hypnotic regressions, and trance journeys, which she describes as hypnotherapy
in a shamanic context.
According to Fallingstar:
She also states, regarding Wiccanism and Witchcraft:
, during the time of the witch trials
. The book was well received by many alternative press journals, including Yoga Journal
and Green Egg
. New Directions for Women
wrote:
The Heart of the Fire became a staple of Wiccan literature, and Merlin Stone
wrote of it, "Cerridwen Fallingstar is a brilliant writer. The power of the Goddess shines through all that she does." Portions of it have also been anthologized in other books.
priestess, poet, and imperial companion in classical 12th-century Japan
, was published in 2009 as White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Fox Sorceress. It was followed in 2011 by White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Storm God. Together, these two books chronicle the transition of Japanese culture from the refined and poetic Heian period
to the warlike Shogunate period, as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Seiko Fujiwara.
The San Francisco Book Review wrote of the first volume: "Cerridwen Fallingstar’s second historical novel, White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Fox Sorceress, is by far one of the best reads to come along in a while, historical fiction or otherwise.... With action from page one, The Fox Sorceress is an engaging tale with awing intricate historic detail. Though character and plot drive, the book has what any reader wants in a story: love, loyalty, deceit, betrayal, murder, passion, and even erotica." The Midwest Book Review
wrote of it: "The rise of the Samurai in Japan was not a peaceful occurrence.... Seiko Fujiwara, a potential sorceress, may just hold the key to the salvation of her country. But fulfilling the prophecy is never an easy thing. White as Bone, Red as Blood is an interesting and excellent read ...." The Japan Times
reviewer reported that: "The Heian Period is portrayed as balanced and civilized before the onslaught of the samurai and the overthrow of the emperor by the Kamakura shogunate
. The history of Japanese religion forms a large part of the story: Shinto gods (kami
), Fujiyama, the sun goddess Amaterasu
, tanuki
and Inari deities all have narrative space. The author imagines a mostly realistic 12th-century Japan ... contrasting the world of the court, poetry and tradition with that of superstition, fancy and ritual."
Apex Reviews had this to say about the first volume:
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. Since the late 1970s she has written, taught, and lectured about magic, ritual, and metaphysics, and is considered a leading authority on pagan Witchcraft. She is also the author of three historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
s, which she refers to as "posthumous autobiographies" — memories from previous lives
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
.
Early life and education
Cerridwen Fallingstar was born Cheri A. Lesh, in 1952 in Southern CaliforniaSouthern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. Her father was an aerospace engineer for Aerospace Corporation, and her mother was a librarian. According to Fallingstar, "As a tiny kid, I was always remembering adventures from other lives, trying to remind my parents of various other places we had lived .... I also spoke constantly, as soon as I could talk, about Witches, herbs and spells, a development which made my agnostic parents slightly uneasy."
Fallingstar attended Beloit College
Beloit College
Beloit College is a liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and has an enrollment of roughly 1,300 undergraduate students. Beloit is the oldest continuously operated college in Wisconsin, and has the oldest building of any college...
from 1970–1974, receiving a degree in English Literature and English Composition. She obtained a Masters Degree in English Literature from UCLA in 1976.
Career
In the mid to late 1970s, Fallingstar pursued a career as a journalistJournalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, writing mainly for the alternative press
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
. Still using her birth name, she wrote often on feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, feminist sexuality, and related matters.
In early 1975, Fallingstar was writing for a feminist newsletter at the time Wiccan pioneer Zsuzsanna Budapest
Zsuzsanna Budapest
Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay is an American author of Hungarian origin who writes on feminist spirituality and Dianic Wicca under the pen name and religious name Zsuzsanna Budapest or Z. Budapest. She is the High Priestess and the founding mother of the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, the first feminist,...
was arrested in Los Angeles for fortune-telling from reading tarot cards. Budapest asserted that this was an arrest for witchcraft, and that it violated her right to freedom of religion. Fallingstar did a lengthy interview with Budapest, and subsequently studied extensively with her, joining Budapest's all-women Susan B. Anthony coven
Coven
A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....
. Fallingstar founded her own first coven, Kallisti, in 1975; and she began publishing poetry and literature under her Craft name, Cerridwen Fallingstar — from Cerridwen, the Celtic goddess of rebirth and transformation. Her journalism also began reflecting her involvement in feminist spirituality and paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
.
Fallingstar studied also with noted Wiccan teacher and author Starhawk
Starhawk
Starhawk is an American writer and activist. She is well known as a theorist of Paganism, and is one of the foremost popular voices of ecofeminism. She is a columnist for Beliefnet.com and On Faith, the Newsweek/Washington Post online forum on religion...
, and in 1980 was a founding member of a coven called the Holy Terrors, along with fellow Starhawk students Bone Blossom, Sophia Sparks, and M. Macha NightMare
M. Macha Nightmare
M. Macha NightMare , a priestess and witch, is an author, teacher and ritualist, with a penchant for collaboration. An initiate, and among the founders of, Reclaiming Tradition Witchcraft, as well as Faery/Feri Tradition, Macha holds Elder credentials through The Covenant of the Goddess , the...
. She worked closely with Starhawk on the Reclaiming Collective
Reclaiming (neopaganism)
Reclaiming is an international community of women and men working to combine earth-based spirituality and political activism. Its predecessor organization, the Reclaiming Collective, was founded in 1979 by two Neopagan women of Jewish descent, Starhawk and Diane Baker, in order to explore and...
, a ritual and teaching organization in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
, from 1980 to 1986. Fallingstar was also an early member, Minister, and Elder of the Wiccan fellowship Covenant of the Goddess
Covenant of the Goddess
The Covenant of the Goddess is a cross-traditional Wiccan group of solitary Wiccan practitioners and over one hundred affiliated covens . It was founded in 1975 in order to increase co-operation among Witches and to secure for Witches and covens the legal protection enjoyed by members of other...
.
In an academic paper in the early 1980s, she wrote:
Women within this religion [Wicca] have a positive feminine principle to relate to, a mirror in which to find validation, self-worth and self-love. The Goddess possesses all the best aspects and attributes of femaleness.... Wicca is the most Goddess-oriented of the pagan faiths, and places the most
emphasis on developing the intuitional psychic side of the personality — the side that has to do with
the craft of magic. Wicca emphasizes the power of the individual, and in a society where women
have been denied access to power, this is a crucial concept indeed.
In the 1980s, living in Marin County in Northern California, Fallingstar continued her professional work in the areas of shamanism, Witchcraft, trancework, healing, and psychic work. She also studied with spiritual teachers from various other traditions, including Native American, West African, Tantra
Neotantra
Neotantra, or Tantric sex, is a term used for the modern, western variations of Tantra. The term refers to both the New Age and modern Western interpretations of traditional Indian and Buddhist tantra...
, Reiki
Reiki
is a spiritual practice developed in 1922 by Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui. The teaching was continued and adapted by various teachers. It uses a technique commonly called palm healing as a form of complementary and alternative medicine and is sometimes classified as oriental medicine by some...
, Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
, Kundalini Yoga
Kundalini yoga
Kundalini yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual discipline for developing strength, awareness, character, and consciousness. Practitioners call Kundalini yoga the yoga of awareness because it focuses primarily on practices that expand sensory awareness and intuition in order to raise individual...
, and New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
teachings.
Following the publication of her 1990 book, The Heart of the Fire, seen as an authentic look at 16th-century Celtic paganism, Fallingstar became an established voice for Wicca, Witchcraft, and Paganism. In 1991 she founded an organization called EarthRite, which offered public rituals in Northern California for 12 years, and that year she also founded her third coven, Eye of the Crescent. She was interviewed for the 1995 compendium book, People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak Out, and was featured on its cover.
In 2009, Fallingstar was one of the 14 authorities on Goddess culture who expound on the subject in the feature-length documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, Dancing with Gaia. She has also been featured on and in numerous media outlets, which range from CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
to the Oxygen Channel to Pacific Sun to FoxNews.com, and in various alternative magazines such as New Dawn.
Fallingstar lectures and teaches classes and workshops, including a year-long apprenticeship program, and has also led spiritual journeys to sacred sites in Scotland. Additionally, she works as a professional psychic. She also provides past-life hypnotic regressions, and trance journeys, which she describes as hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.The word "hypnosis" is an abbreviation of James Braid's term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system"....
in a shamanic context.
According to Fallingstar:
She also states, regarding Wiccanism and Witchcraft:
Books
Fallingstar has written three historical novels. According to her, these books are descriptions of her own past lives, accessed via a form of hypnotic regression, which she combines with historical research.The Heart of the Fire
In 1990, Fallingstar published her first book, The Heart of the Fire — about a young Witch named Fiona McNair and her coven, in rural 16th-century ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, during the time of the witch trials
Witch trials in Early Modern Europe
The Witch trials in the Early Modern period were a period of witch hunts between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, when across Early Modern Europe, and to some extent in the European colonies in North America, there was a widespread hysteria that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as...
. The book was well received by many alternative press journals, including Yoga Journal
Yoga Journal
Yoga Journal is an American based media company that publishes a magazine, a website, DVDs, and puts on conferences all devoted to yoga, food and nutrition, fitness, wellness, and fashion and beauty.-Beginnings and Growth:...
and Green Egg
Green Egg
Green Egg is a Neopagan magazine published by the Church of All Worlds from 1968 through 1976 and 1988 through 2000, and restarted in 2007. It was created and edited for most of its existence by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart....
. New Directions for Women
New Directions for Women
New Directions for Women was an important early feminist newspaper. It began as a mimeographed newsletter in 1972 in New Jersey, but soon expanded into a tabloid-sized quarterly newspaper. It was the first feminist newspaper in the United States...
wrote:
The Heart of the Fire became a staple of Wiccan literature, and Merlin Stone
Merlin Stone
Merlin Stone was an author, sculptor, and professor of art and art history. She is best-known for her book, When God Was a Woman.-Biography:...
wrote of it, "Cerridwen Fallingstar is a brilliant writer. The power of the Goddess shines through all that she does." Portions of it have also been anthologized in other books.
White as Bone, Red as Blood
Fallingstar's second historical novel, about a ShintoShinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
priestess, poet, and imperial companion in classical 12th-century Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, was published in 2009 as White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Fox Sorceress. It was followed in 2011 by White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Storm God. Together, these two books chronicle the transition of Japanese culture from the refined and poetic Heian period
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
to the warlike Shogunate period, as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Seiko Fujiwara.
The San Francisco Book Review wrote of the first volume: "Cerridwen Fallingstar’s second historical novel, White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Fox Sorceress, is by far one of the best reads to come along in a while, historical fiction or otherwise.... With action from page one, The Fox Sorceress is an engaging tale with awing intricate historic detail. Though character and plot drive, the book has what any reader wants in a story: love, loyalty, deceit, betrayal, murder, passion, and even erotica." The Midwest Book Review
Midwest Book Review
Midwest Book Review is an organization which maintains several book review publications. Established in 1976, the organization's Editor-in-Chief is James A. Cox. Midwest Book Review produces several book review publications per month, with a goal of encouraging small press and increasing literacy....
wrote of it: "The rise of the Samurai in Japan was not a peaceful occurrence.... Seiko Fujiwara, a potential sorceress, may just hold the key to the salvation of her country. But fulfilling the prophecy is never an easy thing. White as Bone, Red as Blood is an interesting and excellent read ...." The Japan Times
The Japan Times
The Japan Times is an English language newspaper published in Japan. Unlike its competitors, the Daily Yomiuri and the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, it is not affiliated with a Japanese language media organization...
reviewer reported that: "The Heian Period is portrayed as balanced and civilized before the onslaught of the samurai and the overthrow of the emperor by the Kamakura shogunate
Kamakura shogunate
The Kamakura shogunate was a military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura. The Kamakura period draws its name from the capital of the shogunate...
. The history of Japanese religion forms a large part of the story: Shinto gods (kami
Kami
is the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity", some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term...
), Fujiyama, the sun goddess Amaterasu
Amaterasu
, or is apart of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe. the name Amaterasu derived from Amateru meaning "shining in heaven." The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great August kami who...
, tanuki
Tanuki
is the common Japanese name for the Japanese raccoon dog . They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times...
and Inari deities all have narrative space. The author imagines a mostly realistic 12th-century Japan ... contrasting the world of the court, poetry and tradition with that of superstition, fancy and ritual."
Apex Reviews had this to say about the first volume:
Personal life
Fallingstar was married to Elie Demers, a psychiatric nurse, for 25 years, until his sudden death in 1996 at the age of 44. They have one son, Zachary, born in 1982. Fallingstar lives in Marin County, California.External links
- Official Site
- Selected television appearances (video)
- 22-minute interview (2009) (audio)
- Virato Live! radio interview (2009)
- Trailer for the 2009 documentary Dancing with Gaia featuring Cerridwen Fallingstar