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Cerridwen Fallingstar (born Cheri Lesh, November 15, 1952), is an American
Wiccan
Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and ...
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
ess,
shamanic
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiri ...
witch
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...
, and
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
. Since the late 1970s she has written, taught, and lectured about magic, ritual, and metaphysics, and is considered a leading authority on pagan witchcraft.
[ ''MoreMarin''. September 10, 2009.]
She is the author of three
historical novel
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...
s, which she refers to as "posthumous autobiographies" – memories from
previous lives.
In 2020, she published a memoir, ''Broth from the Cauldron''.
Early life and education
Cerridwen Fallingstar was born Cheri A. Lesh, in 1952 in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
. Her father was an aerospace engineer for
Aerospace Corporation
The Aerospace Corporation is an American nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in El Segundo, California. The corporation provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space mi ...
, 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."
She attended
Beloit College
Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and ...
from 1970–1974, receiving a degree in English literature and English composition. She obtained a master's degree in English literature from
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
in 1976.
Career
Journalism and early Wiccanism
In the mid to late 1970s, Fallingstar pursued a career as a
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
, writing mainly for the
alternative press
Alternative press may refer to:
Individual publications
* ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine
Alternative journalism
* Alternative media
** Alternative media (U.S. political left)
** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...
. Still using her birth name, she wrote often on
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, feminist sexuality, and related matters.
In early 1975, she was writing for a feminist newsletter at the time Wiccan pioneer
Zsuzsanna Budapest
Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay (born 30 January 1940 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian author, activist, journalist, playwright and songwriter living in America who writes about feminist spirituality and Dianic Wicca under the pen name Zsuzsanna Bud ...
was arrested in Los Angeles for fortune-telling from reading tarot cards.
[Beck, John]
"Fallingstar's One Witchy Woman"
''Marin Independent Journal
The ''Marin Independent Journal'' is the main newspaper of Marin County, California. The paper is owned by California Newspapers Partnership which is in turn mostly owned by MediaNews Group. ''. October 16, 2009. 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;
[Holzer, Hans]
''Witches: True Encounters with Wicca, Wizards, Covens, Cults, and Magick''.
Black Dog Publishing, 2005. p. 85. and she began publishing poetry and literature under her
Craft name
A craft name, also referred to as a magical name, is a secondary religious name often adopted by practitioners of Wicca and other forms of Neopagan witchcraft or magic. Craft names may be adopted as a means of protecting one's privacy (especially ...
, Cerridwen Fallingstar – from
Cerridwen
Ceridwen or Cerridwen ( ''Ke-RID-wen'') was an enchantress in Welsh medieval legend. She was the mother of a hideous son, Afagddu, and a beautiful daughter, Creirwy. Her husband was Tegid Foel and they lived near Bala Lake () in north Wales. Med ...
, the Celtic goddess of rebirth and transformation. Her journalism also began reflecting her involvement in
feminist spirituality
Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religion ...
and
paganism.
She studied also with noted Wiccan teacher and author
Starhawk
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and author. She is known as a theorist of feminist Neopaganism and ecofeminism.
In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...
, 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
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
, from 1980 to 1986.
She was also an early member, Minister, and Elder of the Wiccan fellowship
Covenant of the Goddess
The Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) is a cross-traditional Wiccan group of solitary Wiccan practitioners and over one hundred affiliated covens (or congregations). It was founded in 1975 in order to increase co-operation among witches and to secure ...
.
In an academic paper in the early 1980s, she wrote:
Women within this religion iccahave 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
Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...
,
Reiki
is a Japanese form of energy healing, a type of alternative medicine. Reiki practitioners use a technique called ''palm healing'' or ''hands-on healing'' through which a " universal energy" is said to be transferred through the palms of the ...
,
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
,
Kundalini Yoga, and
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
teachings.
First book
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''.
In 2009, she was one of the 14 authorities on Goddess culture who expound on the subject in the feature-length
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
, ''Dancing with Gaia''. She has also been featured on and in numerous media outlets, which range from ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine to
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
,
the
Oxygen Channel,
''
Pacific Sun'',
and
FoxNews.com
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative cable television, cable List of news televisi ...
, and in various alternative magazines such as ''New Dawn''.
She 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 regression
Age regression in therapy is a psycho-therapeutic process that aims to facilitate access to childhood memories, thoughts, and feelings. Age regression can be induced by hypnotherapy, which is a process where patients move their focus to memori ...
s, and trance journeys, which she describes as
hypnotherapy in a
shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...
ic context.
According to Fallingstar:
She also states, regarding Wiccanism and witchcraft:
Books
Fallingstar has written three
historical novels
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ...
. 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, she published her first book, ''The Heart of the Fire'' – about a young witch named Fiona McNair and her coven, in rural 16th-century Scotland, during the time of the
witch trials
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The Witch trials in the early modern period, classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and European Colon ...
. The book was well received by many alternative press journals, including ''
Yoga Journal
''Yoga Journal'' is a website and digital journal, formerly a print magazine, on yoga as exercise founded in California in 1975 with the goal of combining the essence of traditional yoga with scientific understanding. It has produced live events ...
'' and ''
Green Egg
''Green Egg'' is a Neopagan magazine published by the Church of All Worlds intermittently since 1968. The '' Encyclopedia of American Religions'' described it as a significant periodical.
First version, 1968–1976
''Green Egg'' was created by ...
''.
[Reviews of ''The Heart of the Fire''.]
''Witches' Voice''. ''
New Directions for Women'' wrote:
''The Heart of the Fire'' became a staple of Wiccan literature, and
Merlin Stone
Merlin Stone (born Marilyn Jacobson, September 27, 1931 – February 23, 2011) was an American author, artist and academic. She was an important thinker of the feminist theology and Goddess movements and is known for her book ''When God Was a ...
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
Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
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
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...
to the warlike Shogunate period, as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Seiko Fujiwara. Seiko's father is an erudite court poet, and her mother is an
Inari
Inari may refer to:
Shinto
* Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit
** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari
** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari
* Inari-zushi, a type of sushi
Places
* Inari, ...
priestess.
[Interview with Cerridwen Fallingstar.]
Historical Novel Review. November 25, 2009.
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, established in 1976, produces nine book-review publications per month.
Organization
Midwest Book Review was established in 1976. The editor-in-chief of the organization is James A. Cox. The review puts out nine publications on ...
'' 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'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
History
''The Japan Times'' was launched b ...
'' 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 was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459.
The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no ...
. The history of Japanese religion forms a large part of the story: Shinto gods (
kami
are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...
),
Fujiyama
, or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highes ...
, the sun goddess
Amaterasu, tanuki and
Inari
Inari may refer to:
Shinto
* Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit
** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari
** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari
* Inari-zushi, a type of sushi
Places
* 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:
''Broth from the Cauldron''
In 2020, Fallingstar published a memoir, ''Broth from the Cauldron: A Wisdom Journey Through Everyday Magic''. The book is a series of vignettes about her experiences and development as a shamanic witch, and draws on themes of spirituality, history, and psychology, while also addressing social and political issues.
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 the town of
San Geronimo in
Marin County, California.
[Mara, Janis]
"'Outraged': Anti-Trump protesters thunder in San Rafael"
''Marin Independent Journal
The ''Marin Independent Journal'' is the main newspaper of Marin County, California. The paper is owned by California Newspapers Partnership which is in turn mostly owned by MediaNews Group. ''. November 20, 2016.
Bibliography
*Fallingstar, Cerridwen. ''The Heart of the Fire''. Cauldron Publications, 1990.
*Fallingstar, Cerridwen. ''White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Fox Sorceress''. Cauldron Publications, 2009.
*Fallingstar, Cerridwen. ''White as Bone, Red as Blood: The Storm God''. Cauldron Publications, 2011.
*Fallingstar, Cerridwen. ''Broth from the Cauldron: A Wisdom Journey through Everyday Magic''. She Writes Press, 2020.
References
External links
Official siteSelected television appearances(video)
22-minute interview (2009)(audio)
Trailer for the 2009 documentary ''Dancing with Gaia''featuring Cerridwen Fallingstar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fallingstar, Cerridwen
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American historical novelists
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American feminist writers
American occultists
American spiritual writers
American women poets
Wiccan feminists
Wiccan priestesses
Beloit College alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period
Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages
American alternative journalists
American freelance journalists
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American activist journalists
Writers from Los Angeles
People from Marin County, California
Living people
1952 births
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American poets
21st-century American poets
Women historical novelists
Journalists from California
Activists from California
Novelists from California
Wiccan novelists
Modern pagan poets
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers