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Feranimism was founded by Mary Spencer in 1998. Mary was born in Omaha, Nebraska on April 4th, 1977. The only daughter of two respected zoologists, Terry and Shannon Spencer, Mary always had a fondness for all living creatures; the Spencer family housed numerous exotic pets in their Omaha apartment, including one ring tailed lemur, two squirrels, five white lipped tree frogs, two ferrets and one dwarfed pony.
Mary excelled in school and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1995 with the third highest GPA in her class. She spent the next two years working in different local retail outlets, but felt unsatisfied with the overall monotony of her job. When her friend Donna Ericson told Mary that she was moving to San Francisco, Mary jumped at the opportunity to break out of her ordinary routine. The two moved out to San Francisco in 1997 and stayed with several friends who referred to themselves as the Peace Birds.
It was here that Mary discovered that she was endowed with an incredible telepathy that allowed her to communicate with animals. On May 2nd, 1997, Mary was on a walk in Golden Gate Park when she was approached by a small grey squirrel who initiated a extrasensory conversation with Mary. The squirrel revealed herself as Kee Teppa, the delegate of the Park Squirrels. Mary had always had a gift for understanding animals; she was well schooled in methods of animal psychology by her zoologist parents and had been well known for training many of her neighbor’s disobedient and, at times, dangerous pets in her hometown. Mary could only attribute the sudden onset of this extraordinary telepathic power to the keen ability of animals to recognize an individual of extreme psychological sensitivity; recognizing that Mary could understand them, the animals entrusted her with the responsibility of relaying their wishes and beliefs to the human population.
After her first conversation with the squirrel in Golden Gate Park, many other animals began approaching Mary in order to relay messages to rest of the human race. At first, Mary was somewhat terrified at the prospect of communicating with animals. In fact, she tried on two separate occasions to visit a doctor to check her state of mental health; both attempts were thwarted by animals, the first by a runaway police horse who bucked his officer into a bush; the second by two bull mastiffs who also managed to briefly escape the control of their human master. These animals maintained that the previous individuals chosen by the animals to communicate had sought the help of mental health professionals and been locked up for the rest of their lives; the animals suspected that the government had been involved in their detainment.
Mary soon became accustomed to her new powers and she was greatly reassured by the fact that other people affirmed her telepathic connectedness with animals. Wherever Mary went, friends were amazed at the friendliness of the animals who were always approaching her. While walking down the street she was constantly bombarded by flocks of pigeons and individual grey squirrels, dogs on walks with their humans and stray cats. She began writing the messages of these animals in a book that came to be known as Revelations of Kee Teppa. the writings that constitute the fundamental beliefs and practices of Feranimism. The book is written entirely in Labu-Se, the language of interspecies telepathy, and is decipherable only to those who are well schooled in Feranimist doctrine and at peace with their inner animal.
After establishing the main principles of Feranimism in Revelations, Mary began her new life as religious leader, dramatically altering her lifestyle to coincide with the messages and wishes of the animals who spoke to her. She moved out of her apartment, taking a vow to live in a manner similar to that of her animal counterparts, and started living on the streets of San Francisco, preaching on street corners. While she was able to convert a small but devout group of followers—Donna Ericson being the most noteworthy— for the most part the movement in San Francisco was met with a great deal of disdain by unbelievers who were too afraid to confront the horrid consequences of their wasteful human centric existence.
The cold reception of Feranimism in San Francisco prompted Spencer and nine other Feranimists to move to New Mexico in 1999 in order to spread Feranimism and live more devoutly in accordance with the Feranimist ideals. It was here that many Feranimists realized that they could much more easily connect with their animal spirits if they were free of the human constraints of clothing. In addition to restraining personal contact with one’s animal spirit, fabric is often made from materials that come from animals or substances serving as animal habitats. Unfortunately, because current government understanding prohibits human nudity, we have been forced to return to our captive state until there is more enlightenment in the world.
In New Mexico, the group formed a community of believers in an earthship they built from the region’s mud and reusable materials. Mary and her followers continued to proclaim the Feranimist beliefs to those who were not yet enlightened, and established the current Stages of Enlightenment. The group successfully converted a number of stalwart advocates, including the first High Templar, Rudy Karloff.
Feranimism was beginning to develop a stronger connection with its animal brethren in its rural surroundings, when on February 2nd, 2001 our beloved Mary’s inner animal, the arctic fox, was released from her body as she obtained the highest Stage of Enlightenment, or Za. In accordance with Feranimist beliefs, her followers held a green burial several days after her death. There was a fortnight of solemn remembrance, and despair at the incompleteness of Mary’s transcription of Revelations. Feranimists now await the day when the reincarnation of Mary’s fox is born again and the transcription can be completed.
It was shortly after Mary’s departure that Karloff and Donna Ericson moved to Western Pennsylvania to further spread the word of Kee Teppa. They have practiced Feranimism faithfully and been the leaders of the spiritual stronghold for the past five years.