I'm Fawn Iris Thunders or (Faeryvoid). I'm a 23yo queer, disabled, folk singer, and poet. I'm also a co-founder of The Fence Cats, a Buffalo NY based folk band. I dabble in all sorts of arts. This blog is for sharing my art and creative projects. You'll find I explore my queerness, otherkinity, witchcraft practice, spirituality, etc.
I'm Fawn Iris Thunders or (Faeryvoid) A queer, disabled, folk singer, and poet. I also co-founded The Fence Cats, a Buffalo NY based alternative folk band.
This blog is for sharing my art and creative projects. You'll find I explore my queerness, otherkinity, witchcraft practice, spirituality, etc.
About Me
First, I'm Fawn or Faeryvoid. (It/fae/star/they)
I'm 23 years old.
I'm nonbinary trans and I've been out for around 10 years.
I express my gender identity through a myriad of different terminology. For me, I don't really see (insert gender identity label) as my gender per se. I recognize that I have a sense of gender identity and use different words to describe aspects of that identity. For example, I'm stargender in the sense that I identify with stargender as a of describing a part of my gender identity. Stargender is a part of my gender identity, but I wouldn't say my gender is stargender. I identify with a lot of different gender labels but wouldn't necessarily consider myself multigender, pangender, polygender, etc. I don't feel like I'm experiencing multiple different genders at the same time, their words I use to describe parts of my gender identity itself.
I love expressing my gender identity artistically and speaking of xenogenders like stargender, I coined a xenogender called wiccegender.
I'm also a lesbian aligned aroace, and my queerness is a central part of my art.
My spirituality also has a significant influence on my art. I'm a Sanatani, an eclectic contemporary Pagan, practice witchcraft and folk magic that's tied to my ancestral cultures, and am alterhuman.
I'm a witch and primarily study and practice Celtic folk magic, English folk magic, and Slavic folk magic as I have Welsh, Scottish, English, and Polish ancestry.
To dive a little deeper. You could consider me an Omnist in the sense that I believe all religions contain truth and that each path offers valid spiritual experiences, etc, etc, etc. That being said, I don't strongly identify with the label Omnist. Because of this understanding, I've developed a strong interest in studying religions. ( a special interest, if you will, because I'm autistic. ) For example, I'm not Muslim, but I do have an appreciation for Islam and think I can learn from reading the Quran. I also have a very eclectic spirituality, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend to everyone because you have to be extremely conscientious to make sure you're keeping everything within its cultural context and not being appropriative. A lot of folks who identify as spiritually eclectic act as if it's a free-for-all and give eclectic spirituality a bad rep. I don't endorse cultural appropriation or the New Age movement at all. That being said, I'm both an eclectic contemporary Pagan and follow Sanatana Dharma. These are obviously separate practices and shouldn't be Frankensteined together, but Sanatana Dharma does kind of inform my Paganism as it informs my whole life and understanding of reality.
I'm a folk singer. I co-founded The Fence Cats, and I also perform under and plan to release music under Faeryvoid, too.
I'm also polykin, polytherian, and otherhearted/animalhearted. I would go deeper into that, but then I would be here writing this post all day long.
I'm a poet. I both write and perform poetry. I'm also working on a poetry zine right now. ( fun fact I'm dyslexic too )
I really enjoy counterculture. I'm a part of and interested in a lot of music based subcultures and alternative fashion movements.
Also, I grew up in a conservative Christian family, but in spite of that, I've always been drawn to things that rival conservative Christian values. I've always been fixated on the occult and the macabre much to my mother's dismay.
Wiccegender is a noungender that encapsulates a gender identity with a significant connection to identifying as a witch, practicing witchcraft, and concepts like the witch archetype within literature and pop culture while also simultaneously encapsulating a gender identity with a significant connection to concepts like womenhood or femmeness. You don't have to blanketly identify as a woman to identify as wiccegender, though. A wiccegender person may identify with womenhood but not explicitly call themselves a woman or may not identify as a woman or with womanhood, but does identify as a femme and with femmeness. A wiccegender person may also feel that being a lesbian or sapphic is a significant part of their gender identity. A significant part of wiccegender is recognizing how the patriarchy has used the word witch and the witch archetype as a weapon and reclaiming that. Wiccegender doesn't exclude people who express themselves/dress in a way that's stereotypically masculine, but as an identity does decenter men and manhood. Wicce is actually the Old English term for a woman who practiced magic. Though to re-clarify, you don't need to in any way identify as a woman to identify as wiccegender. For me, a big appeal of xenogenders is reconstructing gender identity in a way that decenters the language of the gender binary.
I'm finally coining a xenogender. I'm witchgender and even wrote a zine about being witchgender. That being said, I define witchgender a little differently for myself than how the original coiner described it. I think that's completely fine, but I've always been interested in creating a xenogender because I think xenogenders are really cool. I guess you could say wiccegender falls under the witchgender umbrella. Anyhow, this is what I've got so far. I haven't created a flag yet, but probably will within the next couple of days. Let's please not take this too seriously. For me, xenogenders are all about imagination and expressing your identity.
Wiccegender
(pronounced witch-eh gender)
Wiccegender is a noungender that encapsulates a gender identity with a significant connection to identifying as a witch, practicing witchcraft, and concepts like the witch archetype within literature and pop culture while also simultaneously encapsulating a gender identity with a significant connection to concepts like womenhood or femmeness. You don't have to blanketly identify as a woman to identify as wiccegender, though. A wiccegender person may identify with womenhood but not explicitly call themselves a woman or may not identify as a woman or with womanhood, but does identify as a femme and with femmeness. A wiccegender person may also feel that being a lesbian or sapphic is a significant part of their gender identity. A significant part of wiccegender is recognizing how the patriarchy has used the word witch and the witch archetype as a weapon and reclaiming that. Wiccegender doesn't exclude people who express themselves/dress in a way that's stereotypically masculine, but as an identity does decenter men and manhood. Wicce is actually the Old English term for a woman who practiced magic. Though to re-clarify, you don't need to in any way identify as a woman to identify as wiccegender. For me, a big appeal of xenogenders is reconstructing gender identity in a way that decenters the language of the gender binary.
Here's a video and a picture from our second show, which was on May 26th. We played with Faerot, Hucksters and Minstrels, KiT BAKE, RatHazard.EXE, and Cardboard Homestead. The show was organized by our banjo player, who is also the vocalist and guitarist of Hucksters and Minstrels. I don't believe they have any music out as a Duo yet, but he previously released his music under the name of Stinky Pete.
KiT BAKE also gave me one of her shirts at the show!
Sketch I did a week or so ago of a dragon or like serpent lady. She's veiling her head to protect her deratonic energy. I did the gradient in the background a while back, and I just decided to sketch over it. She's supposed to be in, like grayscale, and I haven't actually fully designed a character around this. I imagine I'd give her either purple or green scales or maybe even keep the grayscale. I don't know, just like sketching mystical women and nonbinary folks.
(Afterthought, just for clarifications sake. That statement wasn't me trying to imply that nonbinary folks are just women. I'm nonbinary, I know that sentiment is infuriating. I just don't sketch a lot of men, especially binary men, unless it's a specific character of mine, like from my paracosm. I'm honestly trying to decenter men in my life, so I focus more on nonbinary folks and women in my art.)
a gender relating to, or influenced by, being a witch purposefully without a coven.
[IMAGE ID: three rectangular flags, each with nine horizontal stripes. the leftmost and rightmost flags are identical, while the middle flag has a dark red witch hat, with a warm light grey outline, on it. the colors, from top to bottom, are as follows: desaturated blue, desaturated purple, medium grey, neon light blue, and warm light grey. the remaining four stripes are mirrored from the previous ones. the third and seventh stripes are thicker than the others, while the fourth and sixth stripes are thinner. END ID.]
I just finished watching The Owl House for the 3rd or 4th time today. Those last few episodes always make me so emotional. Anyhow, I saw this a few days ago and thought it was neat.
Lunarchthonicgender or chthonicgender is a gender identity label I recently discovered that I find really intriguing.
Lunarchthonicgender is a gender identity that is strongly influenced by deities, spirits, or a whole archetypical set of concepts relating to underworld, night, vegetation of plants, fertility, relationship between life and death. One may feel their gender alignment influenced by chthonic element, or it may be gender identity on its own.
The term describes especially deities and spirits in Ancient Greek religion, but can be used relating to other gods.
I think this is really intriguing.
Also, as a Pagan/theist myself, I particularly like the wording of this. Sometimes, I find the way that some religigender and mythogender were worded a bit off-putting. I really like how lunarchthonicgender was described as an influence. Personally, my practice, deities/entities/spirits, myth, and folklore have influenced my gender identity, and I like this wording over other wordings because it doesn't imply that gender itself is anything much deeper than a social construct. (like it doesn't imply that the gender itself comes from the divine literally) I identify as witchgender and even wrote a zine about it, but I personally don't care for how the original coiner says it's a magic gender rather than a gender influenced by magic. When I was writing my witchgender zine, I was really struggling to figure out the wording, and this is what I wanted. I'm also stargender, and I personally described that as otherworldly, etc, but that's mostly metaphorical or a way of expressing my otherkinity. (I'm angelkin) Which is another nuanced aspect of xenogenders, I think a lot of them are often written from the perspective of otherkin. Anyhow, I just really like this wording, and it's helped me conceptualize how to describe things I've been trying to describe.
Here's another poem, which is also an upcoming song I wrote for The Fence Cats called Chamomile Tea. Like how the Convoluted Gravy poem differs from the song, the Camomile Tea poem differs from the song as well. I'm able to explore different wording in the poem than I am in the song if that makes sense. I find adding diversity between the poem version and the song version to be an interesting artistic outlet. The song Camomile Tea is planned to be on our upcoming EP, which should be out later this year. For now, stream our two track single Fence Cats Boogie and stay tuned for more poetry.
Here's the poem version of an upcoming song I wrote for The Fence Cats called Convoluted Gravy. The song is a little different. For one thing, it's longer than the poem version. It'll be on our upcoming EP, which we'll hopefully be releasing this year.
My father called up yesterday in a chaotic fashion. One of the things he spontaneously started waffling about was Easter plans. He asked if I was going to go to church with them on Easter. I said no and said that I thought it would be a little weird, considering I'm not Christian anymore. He seemed very surprised that I'm not a Christian, yet I haven't been a Christian for like five years now. Granted, I was still a Christian when I first started practicing witchcraft, but I've been openly practicing witchcraft around him for years. Anyhow, I'd like to decorate eggs this year, though.
Also, if one of my relatives gives me another chocolate cross, I'm going to be so put off. Like, I appreciate the gift, but chocolate crosses are such a morbid product of capitalism. I love the Macabre, but holy shit. Last Easter, I said to my aunt, "Would you give me a chocolate electric chair?"
I wanna update this by saying that Raven and I actually did end up celebrating Easter with my family. I had mentioned to my aunt how I wanted to dye eggs this year, but I probably wouldn't be able to because eggs are expensive, and she invited us over. It was honestly very cathartic. I have a lot of trauma related to my family and religious trauma from Christianity being weaponized against me, but this was a good experience.
Hiya, I'm Fawn Iris Thunders or Faeryvoid. This is my latest zine, Exploring Witchgender. Admittedly, I've been struggling to keep this blog updated. I finished this zine, like two weeks.
New concept for a Faeryvoid logo thingy. I don't intend it to be like a pfp, like the Faeryvoid persona used to be. I want to use it more like Juni/Raven uses the Faerot logo. Might coincide album artwork and poetry releases, maybe patches, etc.
My father called up yesterday in a chaotic fashion. One of the things he spontaneously started waffling about was Easter plans. He asked if I was going to go to church with them on Easter. I said no and said that I thought it would be a little weird, considering I'm not Christian anymore. He seemed very surprised that I'm not a Christian, yet I haven't been a Christian for like five years now. Granted, I was still a Christian when I first started practicing witchcraft, but I've been openly practicing witchcraft around him for years. Anyhow, I'd like to decorate eggs this year, though.
Also, if one of my relatives gives me another chocolate cross, I'm going to be so put off. Like, I appreciate the gift, but chocolate crosses are such a morbid product of capitalism. I love the Macabre, but holy shit. Last Easter, I said to my aunt, "Would you give me a chocolate electric chair?"
I've been really busy lately and have neglected keeping this blog updated, so I have a lot of updates. First and foremost, my band The Fence Cats released our first single Fence Cats Boogie last month. It's a two track single featuring title track, Fence Cats Boogie, and I'm Not Full of Hate You're Full of Shit. Also, since last updating. Regarding my solo art projects, I'm probably going to be focusing more on writing. I recently started attending a poetry open mic and am more inspired to write poetry than ever before. I'm also working on writing a poetry book. It'll be a mixture of both poetry and lyrics. Speaking of which, besides The Fence Cats, I'll probably be releasing music under Faeryvoid or a similar name. I'm not completely sure if I'm still satisfied with the name Faeryvoid, and honestly, the only reason why I'm hesitant about changing it is because it's already on my zine. It's not too big of a deal, though. Speaking of which, I'm also working on a new zine. The new zine will be a short digital zine similar to Exploring Stargender. That's mostly it. I'd also like to work on something involving my paracosm, but I'm not sure what I'm doing with that.
Okay, so change of pace, actually. We went to Stinky Pete's yesterday morning after breakfast. We went to a local Greek diner Raven, and I really like, and went back to his place after so him and Morticia (RatHazard.EXE) could practice for their features on our first release. The Fence Cats is releasing a two-track single soon and then, hopefully, an EP later this year. Anyway, the practice went so well The Fence Cats naturally evolved from a Duo to a full band. Welcome our new members Morticia on bass/washboard, Stinky Pete (Eli) on banjo/slide guitar/guitar, and Stephanie on Clarinet and maybe Flute too. Also, there's Raven and I, too, of course. My wife Raven @thundersstarfae on lead guitar and vocals and me, Fawn on vocals and a little tambourine. Also, if I have it my way, maybe some cowbell in the future, lol. That's us, The Fence Cats screamin into the night.