Feraferia is a Nevada City, California

Nevada City, California

-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Nevada City had a population of 3,068. The population density was 1,399.7 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Nevada City was 2,837 White, 26 African American, 28 Native American, 46 Asian, 0 Pacific Islander, 40 from other races,...

-based Neopagan community, practicing Hellenic-inspired Goddess worship

Goddess

A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....

.

The founder of the group, Frederick McLaren Charles Adams II, met and was deeply influenced by Robert Graves

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...

 and his book The White Goddess

The White Goddess

The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales magazine, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961...

. In 1957, Adams founded the classically-inspired Fellowship of Hesperides and in 1959, he started a multi-family intentional community

Intentional community

An intentional community is a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They...

 in Sierra Madre, California. Feraferia was established 1967 in southern California as a continuation of the Fellowship of Hesperides, and as such, it is one of the oldest organizations of Neopaganism in the United States

Neopaganism in the United States

Neopaganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest Neopagan religion is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions were introduced during the 1950s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in...

.

During the 1970s, Adams, with Carroll "Poke" Runyon of the Ordo Templi Astartes, and Oberon Zell of the Church of All Worlds

Church of All Worlds

The Church of All Worlds is a neopagan religious group whose stated mission is to evolve a network of information, mythology, and experience that provides a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaia and reuniting her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship and...

 formed The Council of Themis, the first attempt to unite various hermetic

Hermeticism

Hermeticism or the Western Hermetic Tradition is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus...

, Neopagan, and ceremonial magic

Ceremonial magic

Ceremonial magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic, is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by...

 groups in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Adams, and Feraferia, were represented in Runyon's early Neopagan magazine, The 7th Ray, with Adams illustrating as well as writing, expositions on the Feraferia approach to what later became known as the Goddess movement

Goddess movement

The Goddess movement is an overall trend in religious or spiritual beliefs or practices which emerged out of second-wave feminism, predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s...

.

Adams died in August 2008.