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Victor and Cora Anderson Library

 Collection
Collection number: MS-150-7

Scope and Contents

This collection is a portion of the Anderson's library having been selected based on titles that were not currently in its parent collection New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library. A bibliography of the full library as well as the disposition of the items is planned. All titles in this collection have been cataloged separately.

Dates

  • Created: 1921-1998

Creator

Biographical or Historical Information

Victor Henry Anderson was born in Seneca just north of Clayton, New Mexico, May 21, 1917 to Hilbert Alexander Anderson (1883-1952), a cattle rancher, and Mary Francis Smith Anderson (1886-1973), who cooked for the ranch hands. During his childhood, Victor was exposed to many cultures and religious practices living in New Mexico. These influences range from Native Americans indigenous to the area, but also migrant workers form Hawaii and Guatemala all interacting and sharing their spiritual knowledge with a young boy. At age two, his sister dropped him and may have caused him to go blind via the development of Internal Cataracts. For the first three months after the accident, Victor was totally blind. The local Curanderos, Brujas, and Brujos prayed over him and he eventually was able to have partial vision (3%). They also taught him to develop his etheric abilities as a different form of sight. Victor's dropping accident may have been coincidental to his developing Internal Cataracts. Regardless, according to Victor there were no known procedures to address it and was left untreated, which physically left him almost complete blind. A tragic accident occurred with Victor's oldest brother Robert subsequently dying from severe burns. His mother had a very difficult time with the loss of her son. As such the family left New Mexico, moving frequently as Victor's father found work. His family would eventually move to Dead Indian Mount, Oregon around 1926, which is north of Ashland, when he was about nine years old. Later they would move to Ashland, Oregon sometime between 1940 and 1943. The family eventually moved to Bend, Oregon due to flooding of their Ashland home. Contrary to what Margo Adler says in her book Drawing Down the Moon, Victor more than likely had has initiation in Oklahoma and not Oregon. According to Victor, in 1926 aged nine, he was sexually initiated into the witchcraft tradition in a tribal rite manner by an Congolese African woman named Simgoma. This was followed by etheric visions of floating in the air with the Congolese witch and despite Victor's blindness was a very vivid picture of the stars, moon, and jungle. When the visions ended, he was instructed on the ritual uses of the herbs sitting in bowls before him. The result of this initial initiation would be the start of the "reawakening" and evolution of his faith. Reawakening in the sense that across all cultures are universal truths that have existed since the time of the proto-humans. The Feri Tradition is simply another name for what has always existed. As such, Victor's argument that he borrowed from this culture or this faith, such as Huna from Max Freedom Long, is false because these tenets that share similarities existed long before those labels were added to them. There is a single source that is expressed in many ways. His family would move frequently after New Mexico. Leaving Oklahoma in 1926, the Anderson's would lived in numerous places in Oregon. Victor would encounter many different people of many different cultures that continued to cultivate his religious knowledge. When Victor was between the ages of twelve and twenty-six, he studied Druidism. During this time, he referred to his beliefs as Vicia, his thoughts were to "go back and use the word 'Vicha' it was known as the Feri Tradition. In Italian it is la vecchia religione", or Old Religion. Feri can be broken down into two components: Fe, to have psychic power, and ri, a variant of ry, or rie, meaning in this context to practice or to build. Feri then, is actively developing in one's psychic abilities. Feri is an ecstatic tradition that seeks to obtain a deep connection with deity. Unlike other nature-based religions, Feri is not a fertility cult. In Victor's own words "Now, our Feri Tradition is a nature way, it's the way of Nature, and it's a way of accepting and developing all your talents, all of your nature in such a way that you are worthy to be called a god in the making." According to Victor, Feri Tradition has its roots in the shamanistic African tradition of which he was initiated by the Congolese woman. Anderson considered Feri to be an "authentic" Tradition that "simply takes on a different perspective of the same [universal] truth". One of his analogies compares Giuseppe Verdi and Joe Green; same name, same person, different language. The move to Bend, Oregon in 1943 would be a significant home for Victor. It is here that me meets he future wife, Cora. Cora Ann Cremeans Anderson was born on January 26, 1915 on a farm Nyota, Blount County, Alabama. Her grandfather was a root doctor who had immigrated from Ireland. Cora was gifted with psychic abilities, having communed with faerie-like people on numerous occasions as a child. She met Victor Anderson in 1944 and they married in three days on May 3, having met him before on the Astral Plane. Realizing they both had magical backgrounds they soon established an altar together in their home. In 1945, their son, Victor Elon, was born. Victor and Cora would live in Bend, Oregon until 1948 when they moved to Niles, California. Sometime in or before 1959, they would relocate to San Leandro, California. Cora worked as a cook in various hospitals in the East Bay area. The Anderson's would break up a fight between their son and a neighboring, Tom DeLong (1946-1982). DeLong became friends with the family and studied under Victor eventually being initiated into Feri. He would later chang his name to Gwydion Pendderwyn. Pendderwyn, having studied Alexandrian introduced elements of this tradition into Feri. Other influences in the tradition include Huna, Vodou, Kabbalah, Hoodoo, Tantra, and Gnosticism. Victor Anderson would pass away September 20, 2001 and Cora Anderson in May 1, 2008, both in San Leandro, California.

Note written by Frost, Guy

Extent

0.00 Linear Feet

Language

English

Additional Description

Arrangement Note

Organized by Broad Subject

Custodial History

The contents of Victor and Cora Anderson's library have been in storage for a number of years. Anaar made the decision to bring them out of storage and donate a portion to the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel's New Alexandrain Library, in Georgetown, Delaware, and establshing the Victor and Cora Anderson Archives.

Source of Acquisition

Guy V. Frost

Method of Acquisition

Purchased by Guy Frost from Anaar, Grandmaster of the Feri Tradition

Subjects

Classifications

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Archon Finding Aid Title
Author
Frost, Guy
Description rules
Other Unmapped
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
eng

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections Repository

http://www.valdosta.edu/archives/
Contact:
Valdosta State University Archives, Odum Library
1500 N. Patterson St.
Valdosta GA 30601 United States
7063728116
229-259-5055 (Fax)