Radical Faerie space is counter-cultural to the mainstream gay/queer culture and the concrete world. It is a place to freely explore who you are and who you could be. Discovering and exploring new models of how humans can thrive in harmony with nature.

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Radical Faeries are part of a world-wide network of Radical Faeries with a history dating back to the 1970’s and the Gay Liberation Front.

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This is as a sacred, shared space for the creation of a thriving culture based on radical honesty, brother/sisterhood, inclusivity, and sustainability.

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Nevertheless, it can be challenging for both facilitators to hold the space and for attendees to experience it. Through transparent communication, encouraging radical faerie led initiatives and building trust between you and others.

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We seek to promote freedom, self-acceptance, healing, playfulness, creativity, magic, and growth; to reclaim our spiritual role as queer individuals and community; and develop loving, healthy relationships with ourselves, nature, our community, and with humanity as a whole throughout the generations.

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Hadas del Sol History

In the summer of 2018, it was clear to the faeries of Folleterre that the French sanctuary was becoming too small for a growing community. They also wanted to find a place where faeries could gather during winter, as Folleterre is closed from November 1st to mid-April. 

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It was for these reasons that, with funds raised from the community, that summer of 2018 a group of faeries left Folleterre for Iberia on a mission to find a land on which to create a new sanctuary. The story of that comical and eventful journey is told in this issue of RFD magazine. 

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That first search failed to find a sanctuary, although a Canaan faerie from that first group continued searching until he found Alto das Fadas (the space that hosted the faeries in Portugal from 2019 to 2022). During that first trip through Iberia, what the faeries discovered was the Valle de Sensaciones in the Alpujarra of Granada. At first the faeries didn't take much notice because they were looking for land to buy and Valle was only available for rent. 

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It wasn't until the spring of 2019 that one of the faeries who had taken part in that first trip joined efforts with a small group of faeries from Barcelona to facilitate the first gathering in Iberia at Valle de las Sensaciones. This gathering, which received financial support from the Eurofaeries fund, was called Spring Reconnection.  A diverse group of faeries both local and from all over Europe felt the call of the land at that gathering and planted the first seeds for a faerie community in southern Iberia. 

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Later, during covid, a new gathering was held in the summer of 2021 and it was decided to name the community Hadas del Sol. That winter of 2021-22, for the first time Valle was rented for three months and a full season of gatherings took place with Yule, New Year, Imbolc, etc. In the past winter of 2022-23 the faeries have returned to Valle for a new season of gatherings. We are a young community and there is still a lot of history to write!

 

Faerie History In Europe

The seeds of the European Faerie community were planted in 1994 when three individuals, Habibi Ding, Eilendes Wasser, and Junis–inspired by the faerie spirit in North America–came together to host the very first faerie gathering on the island of Terschelling, off the coast of the Netherlands.

 

From 1995 to 2005 these international summer gatherings grew wings to embrace a growing community and the dream of a European faerie sanctuary took root. A search for land lasting four years was undertaken until– FOLLETERRE – in northeastern France called to the faerie spirit and was made a Faerie home.

 

The creation of a sanctuary in Europe is an expression of what friendship, group magic, and group energy can accomplish. Many thanks are owed to Habibi, Eilendes Wasser, Deetale, Franny, Lanai, Beebalm, Blanche, and all the other individuals who contributed much during the vulnerable early years of Folleterre and laid the foundation for the sanctuary of today.

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Welcome to Folleterre: part of the global network of radical faerie communities.

Folleterre aims to be a “pink lighthouse” where queers expand their special gifts and nature, explore the relationship between sexuality and spirit, and aims to provide a place of safety, homecoming, inspiration – a home for an ever-growing family of kindred souls.

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Folleterre is a sanctuary from the materialism and consumerism of much of gay life: a place for respite and healing in the beauty of nature. This is a home where faeries can be gentle and intimate together and also as wild and creative as their spirits move them to be.

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Folleterre was founded in 2005 following ten years of Eurofaerie gatherings and four years of searching for land. The local forest already had the perfect name: “bois de la folleterre,” translatable as “land of the queers” or “land of the crazies.”

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The Folleterre Sanctuary consists of several hectares of land within a nature reserve in the Vosges Mountains of eastern France. The land features mountain trails, forests, streams, meadows, gardens, fruit trees, a farmhouse, and a barn.

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The ceremonial opening of Folleterre took place on the Autumn equinox of 2005, with 30 queers gathering from several countries – Holland, France, Germany, UK, Spain and the USA – to ignite a fire of passion, healing and love. Since then, hundreds of faeries have visited the land during gatherings and at quieter times. People have started living on the land consistently during the summer months.

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Sanctuary life involves living, working and playing together–in the kitchen, chopping wood, growing and harvesting fruit and vegetables, constructing and improving the property, going with the natural flow of life on the land and simply being. Much skill sharing happens at the sanctuary, with faeries learning from each other in areas such as massage, building, cooking, gardening, make up, performance and more. We foster stewardship of the land of Folleterre sanctuary and honor our natural environment as we do our sacred Faerie natures.

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Gatherings are the liveliest times at the sanctuary, when you can meet people from many cultures, join in workshops, hold parties, share in heart circles, enjoy vegetarian feasts and revel in unlimited glamour!

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Folleterre is a multi-lingual space and the best possible accommodations are made for all abilities and disabilities. The sanctuary is dedicated to providing welcoming hospitality to all who come. More info in www.folleterre.org

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Faerie Roots

The first call to ‘radical faeries’ was made in the late 1970s by veterans of the gay liberation movement including Harry Hay, his lover John Burnside, and activists Don Kilhefner and Mitch Walker.

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Their call went out to those who “…know that there is more to us than hetero-imitation.. who are ready to move on.. who have broken through and are ready to share those breakthroughs”.

Called ‘spiritual conferences’, and held in the desert in the southwestern United States, the first faerie gatherings had as their aims:

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“To share new insights about ourselves;

To dance in the moonlight;

To renew our oaths against patriarchy/corporations/racism;

To hold, protect, nurture and caress one another;

To talk about the politics of gay enspiritment/the enspiritment of gay politics;

To soar like an eagle;

To rediscover/re-invent our myths;

To talk about gay living/loving alternatives;

To experience the groundedness of the calamus root;

To share our gay visions;

To sing, sing, sing;

TO EVOKE A GREAT FAIRY CIRCLE”

 

Early faeries saw that with increased acceptance, urban gay culture was drifting towards increased assimilation. Growth of the radical faerie community led to the creation of spaces for queerkind to focus and develop its special and unique characteristics. Though the history of the radical faeries is closely tied to that of gay liberation, faeries have grown to welcome queers of all genders and all sexualities at faerie gatherings and sanctuaries.

 

Faeries…

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…are queers of all ages, genders, shapes and sizes of all races, nationalities, and faiths who connect to life and to each other through the blessings of nature, the power of the heart, through listening and sharing our stories through our bodies and spirits and through humor, drag, song, good food, drumming, trance, massage, ritual, play, sensuality, spirituality and sexuality.

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…are queer people exploring tribal life, sustainability, and harmony with nature, queer people finding non-judgmental cooperation and discovering subject-subject consciousness.

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…have no religious dogma but are full of spirit.

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…refuse hierarchy and embrace consensus and are passionate about empowerment.

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…meet in cities, on beaches, in forests and on mountains. Wherever they are, they create community of the heart and welcome all who wish to explore living and being this way.

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This is how we get organize 

The statutes of Hadas del Sol can be found here.

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We continuously call upon all fairies who want to contribute to the development of Hadas del Sol to step forward as active members of the association and as Stewardsites.

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Active members of Hadas del Sol association are fairies who are willing to participate in the annual consensus that takes place in the Great Circle.

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At each year's Great Circle, the members

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- elect the members who make up the Stewards' Circle and facilitate the day-to-day running of the association

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- approve the financial report and the annual budget of the association

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- decide on any amendments to the statutes and by-laws of the association, as well as other important decisions that the members propose to the Grand Circle.

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Stewardsites are members who wish to be part of the Stewards' Circle, the day-to-day working committee of the association. They commit time and energy and meet regularly to do things on the ground and in the community.

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Stewardsites are accountable to the membership through the Great Circle. Stewardsites are empowered by the members to make things work among the Great Circles. No one will ever be kicked out of the Sanctuary, out of membership, out of any Circle, or out of any event on earth for lack of funds.

 

Do Hadas del Sol have permanent residents?

No, the Fairies are present at Hadas del Sol for most of the months of December to April, when we have rented the sanctuary and hold meetings. There are fairies who choose to look after our beloved sanctuary and spend long periods of time during these months.