- Gwydion Pendderwen
Thomas deLong (born
Berkeley, California , 21 May 1946 - died 9 Nov 1982), better known as Gwydion Pendderwen, was an Americanmusician ,writer ,poet ,conservationist andwitch .Pendderwen became a student and "craft-son" to Victor Anderson and Cora Anderson, learned the Feri tradition of witchcraft from them, and helped popularize it in the
Neopagan community. In addition to being credited with naming the tradition (originally spelled "Faerie"), he wrote many poems and liturgical materials for the tradition, as well as initiating many others into the tradition. His "descendants" have come to be known as the Watchmaker line of Feri.He was a co-founder of two other organizations with Alison Harlow. One was ‘Nemeton’ (Welsh for “sacred grove”) a Neopagan networking group,. Nemeton quickly spread opening regional offices all across the United States, forming a huge networking organization that played an important key role in the early growth of Pagan and
Wiccan networking in America. in 1977 Oberon Zell, Morning Glory and Alison Harlow co-founded the “Holy Order of Mother Earth” (HOME) as a monastic sanctuary dedicated to nature. Other pagans soon began to arrive and join them, amongst them:Anodea Judith , Eldri Littlewolf and Anna Korn. They formed a pagan-based magical working group representing many differing traditions, including: Feri, Dianic, British Traditional, the New and Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA), Celtic/Shamanic Wicca,Church of All Worlds (CAW),Strega and elements ofceremonial magic . Later in 1978 Nemeton merged with the Church of All Worlds and became its publishing arm [ [http://www.controverscial.com/Gwydion%20Pendderwen.htm Biography of Gwydion Pendderwen Controversial.Com Website] ] ..The other was ‘Forever Forests’, an ecological mission dedicated to healing the planet through reforestation and other methods of addressing ecological issues. They held annual tree planting festivals on the land at Annwfn; since then tens of thousands of trees such as
Cedar ,Pine ,Douglas Fir andRedwood have been planted all over Northern California [ [http://www.controverscial.com/Gwydion%20Pendderwen.htm Biography of Gwydion Pendderwen Controversial.Com Website] ] .He released his first album, "Songs for the Old Religion", in 1975, followed by a book of his music and lyrics titled "Wheel of the Year" in 1979. His second album, "The Faery Shaman", was released in 1982. Both albums and the songbook were well-received by the Pagan community; the songbook included many songs which became classics within the community, and the two albums have since been collected as a two-CD set titled "The Music of Gwydion", available from [http://www.serpentinemusic.com Serpentine Music] . Gwydion also served for a time as a court
bard to the West Kingdom of theSociety for Creative Anachronism .After being recognized for his music at a celebration in
Wales in 1976, Pendderwen returned toCalifornia , quit his job with theInternal Revenue Service , and purchased a plot of the Greenfield Ranch in Mendocino County. Naming his parcel Annwfn after the Welsh underworld, he later gift-deeded the property to theChurch of All Worlds with which he had long been involved.Gwydion Pendderwen died in a car accident in November 1982.
References
External links
* [http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/Gwydion.html Gwydion's Life]
* [http://www.controverscial.com/Gwydion%20Pendderwen.htm Biography of Gwydion Pendderwen]
* [http://www.annwfn.org/ Website for Annwfn and Forever Forests]
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