Create
Which of the symbols do you feel most drawn to? Practice drawing all the different symbols and see which seems to resonate most with you. You don’t need to be a great artist! When you have one or more symbols that you feel a connection with, you can paint or embroider it in the colours of you choice, as simply or as elaborately as you like, on a piece of natural material—for example, cloth, wood, clay, glass, or stone. You could, of course, use copper, silver, or gold if you’re feeling flash, but other metals may be inappropriate, especially if they contain any amount of iron. You could also use leather, but if using any kind of animal skin, give due thought to the source. The energy of the kind of animal, the life it led, and how it died will all be contained within its skin.
When you have your completed item, take good care of it. You may choose to use it as a focus for meditations or simply keep it in view in a special place, maybe lighting a candle or burning incense near it. This item will become important later on as the centrepiece of your Faery shrine.
Practice
Perform the meditative exercise as suggested on page 43 at least once during this first month, preferably more. This will help to prepare you for later work, building both your connection with the otherworld and your visualising skills.
[contents]
chapter two
Connection
Now that we have started to assimilate some background knowledge and experience, it is time to start building connection. This crucial quality is linked to the direction of above and the stars. The stars represent the wisdom of the Divine, the power of destiny, and our own cosmic origins. We all gaze at the same sky in wonder, and hence the stars connect us all.
In this chapter we will learn about why connection is so important and how to involve all our senses in our Faery work. We will spend time on strengthening and balancing our energy in the Becoming the Faery Tree exercise, as well as learning the importance of the voice as a tool and how to use it. We will spend some time learning about the elements and elemental beings, including contemplations performed out in nature in order to increase our awareness and connection. Then, through exploration of the completely original Faery zodiac, we will apply this understanding of the elements and elemental beings to our own personalities, giving us a stronger idea of where our elemental strengths and weaknesses lie, and what manner of beings we might best collaborate with in our Faery Craft.
The Importance of Connection
“If ordinary people really knew that consciousness and not matter is the link that connects us with each other and the world, then their views about war and peace, environmental pollution, social justice, religious values, and all other human endeavors would change radically.”
Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe
One of the most common questions asked about Faery is how to see them. We live in a very visually oriented culture, so it is only natural that we wish to see with our eyes in order to truly believe. Many understand the elusiveness of Faery beings and believe in them regardless, but even so the emphasis on needing to see and the implication that only a chosen few are allowed to can lead to disappointment or, worse, the desperate creation of illusory experience.
Brian Froud, “Connection”
(www.worldoffroud.com)
Illusion is a glamorous and tempting slippery slope, and since it creates experiences from the mind that are designed to make us feel better about ourselves, it is a difficult trap to escape. This is why our approach should be to seek to strengthen our connection with the invisible without placing undue emphasis on making it visible. If you were to go out into the woods and desperately try to see a faerie, you would be unconsciously closing off the perceptive possibilities of the other senses and their mystical extensions, making it less likely that you would directly experience their energies. On the other hand, if you were to work on all of the senses in heightened awareness and use your energy to reach out and perceive the subtle energies around you, you are, in fact, much more likely to experience those energies, and the experience in time may lead to visual as well as auditory and empathic sensations.
In my experience, the true path to Faery is through the heart, not the eyes or head. If we approach with an open heart, free from distrust and the ravages of scientific cynicism, then we will soon feel the presence of the spirit within the land. When we do see Faery, we see it not simply through our eyes but through our whole selves. We see through our hearts, through all our senses, and through all our experiences in life. Thus Faery beings, being of fluid energy and not tied to linear time and physicality as we are, may take on wildly differing appearances from individual to individual, according not only to their nature and what they wish to communicate but also to our perceptive ability, which can be influenced by preconceived ideas.
To hone this ability, learn to connect and perceive through the heart. When we can allow our hearts to become a clear channel of perception—in other words, get ourselves out of the way—those initial emotive and energetic sensations can be translated into communication and images through our trained visual imaginations and mystical senses. Like any explorative rather than dictated spiritual path, it is a thin line to walk, and we must always keep a check on ourselves so that we do not descend into delusion. However, if we form a strong connection with the land, learn to trust and root our experience in practical results and pure intentions, the path before us will remain clear of illusory weeds.
Exercise: Becoming the Faery Tree
The following exercise, which can be performed anywhere, is designed to open up your awareness to the flow of energy within your body and your connection to your surroundings. It will enhance not only your sensitivity to the otherworld, as well as the beings that inhabit it, but with repeated practice will also help you to feel rooted as a part of the landscape, bringing balance and control. It can help connect you to any specific sites in which you perform it, creating sacred space around you.
This is a useful exercise to help ground and focus before any magickal work, especially outdoors, and you can incorporate more elements as you become fluent with the procedure. For example, if you are undertaking magickal work within the landscape or at a sacred site, you may wish to incorporate a call to the spirits of the land at the peak of the exercise as your energies open (suggestions for how to go about this may be found elsewhere in the book). You will find a more advanced version of this exercise later in the book, called Walking in Awareness, but it is wise to become familiar with this simple yet effective version first.
While this may also be performed sitting, standing is preferable. Find a flat and even space to stand, with your feet slightly apart so that you feel strong and stable. If possible, barefoot is best. With your hands by your sides and palms facing down to the ground, focus on your breathing, and use it to calm your mind. As you breathe out, release any worries or tensions of the day. As you breathe in, remember your focus and intent of connection.
If you can, breathe in steadily and deeply for the count of seven, hold for three, and then out again over seven, wait for three, then breathe in again for seven and continue. Three and seven are sacred numbers in Faery Craft. Don’t worry if you find this difficult; simply breathe steadily. It will become easier with practice.
Maintaining steady breathing, visualize your feet sinking into the ground. You are as solid and immovable as a tree. From your feet imagine strong roots growing, sinking deep into the ground. Take your time to feel the roots growing and drawing the energy from the ground. You are strong, vital, and stable.
Once you can feel your roots in the earth beneath your feet, keeping your arms straight, slowly raise your hands until they form a V shape above your head.
Remember your breathing—slowly and deeply, in and out.
Keeping your hands raised, imagine your arms as your branches, reaching high into the sky, just as your roots reach deep into
the ground. Leafy shoots grow from your fingers and stretch into great tree limbs, strong and graceful.
Hold this image in your mind as you keep your breathing slow, deep, and steady.
When you are ready, with your next breath in, imagine you are drawing light from the inner earth up through your roots. The light and energy moves up your body slowly and surely with each inward breath, through your roots, into your legs, and finally into your torso. Draw the energy up into your heart and feel it opening your energy centre.
Now, holding that energy in your centre, focus on your branches. Feel the light coming from the sky above—the power of the sun and stars—as it flows into you. With every breath, feel the cosmic energy move down through your branches and into your body. Allow the energy from above to meet with the energy of below in your heart. Feel the power of the two forces meeting in your centre, how you are connected to all worlds, bridging the gap between.
Maintain this connection for seven breaths, breathing in for seven, holding for three, and releasing over a count of seven. (With practice, you may hold this longer and use this state for further work.)
When you are ready, release the energy back to the source with every outward breath, first back up through the branches. Once the cosmic energy is released, on your next breath out, slowly lower your arms so that the palms of your hands once more face the floor. As you do so, release the energy back into the ground.
Your energies have now been mixed with both the underworld and upperworld. Give thanks to the powers of place and sit or stand in silence for a while to process your experience. Make any notes you wish when convenient.
The Voice
“Deep as the sea we sing, as high as the moon we sing…”
Emily Carding, The Song of the Sidhe
A valuable tool that the vast majority of us have at our disposal is the voice. Voice has the power to carry the energy of emotion or intent into the surroundings, mixing with other sounds and vibrations, echoing off surfaces, instantly connecting our energy with the world around us. Voice can carry the power of words, bringing the internal into outward expression. Be careful that such words are always carefully chosen, for there are always beings who may take meanings literally or intentionally trip you up to teach a lesson! However, allowing wordless song to emerge from our spiritual centre is a powerful way to send out a call to the powers of the inner landscape as well as access our own innate wisdom.
By going out into the wild places and allowing energy to rise out of us as song, we honour the spirits of place as well as announce our intent to commune with them. It’s not important to be a strong singer, but it doesn’t help to be fearful of being heard. If the note or notes come direct from you and with pure intent, then not only will they will be effective, but in time your voice will become stronger. When we combine this simple technique with journey work and meditation, we can find particular musical phrases and vowel sounds for different tasks. For example, I have a musical phrase that acts as an invocation, calling the sidhe to meet with me. I also have phrases that I use to honour the ancestors, to clear space, or when giving offerings, as well as simply allowing notes to emerge spontaneously as they will. I advise singing to trees, wells, rivers, animals…whenever you feel moved by nature, allow the feeling to emerge through your voice. One day you may hear them singing back to you.
Exercise: Finding Your Voice
First let the feeling come. You may find it helpful to perform the Faery Tree exercise until the energies are meeting in your centre. Allow your internal focus to settle on the space just below the centre of your rib cage—this is where a sheet of muscle called the diaphragm lies and where your voice needs to be coming from. Try putting your hand over this part of your body and panting lightly to a “ha” sound, and you will feel the muscle working. This muscle is the foundation of your voice. Relax and breathe deeply, breathing right into the full capacity of your lungs and expanding your rib cage. When your rib cage is expanded, your diaphragm has more strength and so is able to lend more support to your voice.
Practice breathing in deeply and releasing your breath slowly with a hissing sound, allowing the breath to exit the bottom of your lungs first, leaving the rib cage expanded until the last of the air is expelled. Now try this again, but with a humming sound. Settle on a note that feels comfortable and resonant within your body. You may feel your back and chest or perhaps even other parts of your body vibrate. When you have found this note, allow your humming to become stronger and increase in volume. This can all happen over as many breaths as you need it to, but remember to take good, deep breaths and keep your rib cage expanded. When you are ready, open your mouth and allow the humming sound to expand into a vowel sound, any vowel sound that comes.
When you are confident in this technique, allow the note and vowel sounds to vary, and you’ll soon find yourself bringing through simple and powerful melodies. However, you don’t need to use your voice to sing tunes; the act of finding your true resonant note is a powerful exercise in itself. All things in existence vibrate at different frequencies and join together to create the harmony of the song of the universe. By performing this exercise we are consciously joining the song and expressing our true spiritual self.
When you have found your voice, allow it to emerge out in nature, carrying the intent of connection. Picture your voice carrying a golden light from your centre that extends out like a web to touch all the life around you. Know that you are a part of the land and that the land is part of you, and allow your voice to celebrate this knowledge.
The Elements and Elemental Beings
Different cultures around the world have interpreted, categorised, and divided the elements in different ways according to their understanding. The Western Mystery tradition, which is based on the teachings of ancient Greece and Egypt, uses a system of four elements. These elements are air, fire, water, and earth, and they are considered to be the building blocks of physical existence.
Although many Faery beings are often slightly inaccurately referred to in a number of modern works as elementals, like us, they are normally composed of more than one element (although they may show strong inclinations towards one in particular). The true elementals are the spiritual expression of the elements in their purest form. They were first called elementals by the medieval scholar and occultist Paracelsus, but the recognition of spiritual beings of the elements dates back to ancient history. The elementals are not part of the Faery races as such, but connection and awareness of them and the interaction of elements both around and within you are important parts of Faery Craft, as they are an intrinsic part of the natural world. Awareness of the elemental beings, who are immanent and active in our physical realm, can lead to greater awareness of our mutual Faery cousins.
Laura Daligan, “The Lady of the Lake”
(www.lauradaligan-art.com)
Sylphs
Sylphs are the elementals of air and are often described as taking a beautiful, winged humanoid form. In fact, sylphs are closer in appearance to the popular idea of Faery beings than most faeries themselves! The energy of the sylphs can be most keenly felt in high places, where the earth meets the sky, or in the great winds of a storm. Keeping personal safety in consideration, standing in a storm and allowing the elements to rage around you is a powerful way to feel the presence of these elementals. Sylphs enjoy the sound of woodwind instruments and the human voice, so this is one way you could try to attract their energies. Morning is the most favourable time of day to contact this elemental.
Salamanders
The elementals of fire are known as salamanders, yet they should not be confused with their physical amphibian counterparts. Though they have been known to take reptilian, almost draconic, form, they can appear in various guises. You may experience them as sparks, tongues or balls of fire, or even as I once did: as incredibly ornate wings with beautiful patterns of fiery colours.
Open your awareness whilst standing in the presence of a mighty bonfire to experience the power of these elementals. One way of attracting the attention of salamanders is to sing or play a stringed instrument whilst sitting by the fire or in the midday sun. Something simple, like an Appalachian dulcimer, can make lovely sounds even if you have no musical training. Sometimes simple is best!
Undines
Undines, also known as nymphs, are the elementals of water. Like sylphs, they take the appearance of beautiful humanoids (though wingless) and are generally female and seductive in nature. In folklore there are many tales of their kind interacting with and even marrying humans, this romantic element seeming appropriate for a being that consists entirely of the element associated with our emotions. Since most of the human body is water, perhaps this is why we can relate so intimately with them?
If you can find time to sit by a rushing river or a waterfall, listen and pay close attention to feel the presence of the beautiful undines. If you can sit by water at sunset and play bells or perhaps a singing bowl, this is a good way to attract the attention of undines. Like sylphs, they also love song.
Gnomes
Gnomes are the elementals of earth, and in my experience they are the closest among the elementals to Faery beings, sharing many of the same qualities and in practice being often indistinguishable to the point of wondering why we try to distinguish at all between them. Theirs is the underground realm of soil, stone, and minerals, as well as the roots of growing things. You may experience their presence when spending time in peace and stillness in the roots of a tree surrounded by woodland, or on the side of a mountain where the heartbeat of earth can be most profoundly felt. To attract the attention of gnomes, try playing a drum out in the woods at dusk or at night.
Faery Craft: Weaving Connections with the Enchanted Realm Page 6