by Ellen Dugan
One night I was folding laundry in the living room and I stopped to put the kids to bed. It was one of those wild nights only a parent of several small children could appreciate. Children, toys, and clean laundry scattered all over the floor. The kids were trying to “help,” which of course only made it twice as much work.
I hustled the kids into bed and with the three of them safely tucked in, and our old orange tabby cat to keep me company, I started to put away the laundry.
As I walked back into the living room, the laundry basket was gone. I turned around to find it on top of the television. I can honestly say that I had never put the basket up there before. It had been on the rug in the middle of the floor. My heart thudded hard in my throat. I looked down at the cat, who looked up at me as if to say, “Don’t look at me.”
I scooped up the cat, left the basket untouched and backed out of the room. I walked down the hall to find the kids all still in bed. That was weird, it couldn’t have been the kids. I would have seen or heard the kids if they had gotten up. They couldn’t have reached the top of the TV at that age, let alone put a full basket up there. My husband worked nights so that left him out, and obviously the cat hadn’t done it . . .
Why was the basket on top of the TV? When I walked back into the room to double-check, the basket had moved; it was now on the floor, centered in front of the TV.
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned in time to see something brown and small dart across the floor. The cat in my arms tracked the movement and swung her tail lazily around, but showed no signs of distress. I could feel waves of mischief and fun in the living room. And I knew . . . we had brownies.
During this time we were in the process of building a garden on the side of the house and were besieged with bad luck during our project. We hired someone to remove one hundred feet of old driveway and put in a new, smaller one, a new back porch, and a sidewalk. The kids thought it was great and we were excited . . . I guess the brownies were as well.
The first crew we hired crushed our shed in the backyard and then got mad when we asked them to either pay for a replacement or deduct the cost of the shed from our bill. With hurled obscenities, they walked off the job, leaving the concrete half torn out and our yard looking like a war zone, or a miniature of the Grand Canyon.
After reporting them to the Better Business Bureau, I had to go hire a new, reliable contractor. We found one but had to wait three weeks until he was able to work us in. After he arrived and surveyed the site, he told us we would also have to bring in three dump trucks full of soil for the new side yard, an expense we hadn’t planned on.
On the first day the new concrete workers arrived to finish the tear out, they pulled up to get started, only to have to stop an hour later as they mysteriously had two flat tires on their equipment truck. Not one flat tire, but two.
They were embarrassed and had to call a special tow truck to haul away their truck. They left with the promise to return the next day as soon as possible. The owner apologized again for the delay, and repeated how he had never in all his years seen anything like it. Was I cursed or something? he asked.
No, I assured him. But I was beginning to get really suspicious of our “guests.” Disappointed and frustrated, I herded the kids back into the house. As the kids and I went back inside, I saw the cat fly down the hall in hot pursuit of something. The kids took off happily after the cat. I sat down and cried.
That night after I put the kids to bed, I looked up ways to counteract faery mischief. There was the theory that they were repelled by iron, and that they disliked cats. I dismissed the latter one, as the brownies didn’t seem to mind the cat so far . . . in fact, some texts claimed that cats were faery creatures. Faeries and brownies supposedly love kids and action. We had plenty of that.
I read up on banishing unwanted entities, but that seemed like overkill . . . after all, I had invited them in. So I followed my instincts and sat down to have a little heart-to-heart talk with our brownies. I left them some small crystals by the hearth as a thank-you gift for all their hard work in guarding the house and yard. Then I told them all about the great garden I was planning for them. (Should have done that in the first place.)
I believe that they were only trying to do what I had asked them to do: protect the house and yard. Even though we were in the middle of a landscaping job, the early stages involved a lot of tear-out work. I’m sure to the brownies it seemed like the destruction of our and their home. They probably weren’t too thrilled with all that noise and equipment on their turf.
I also did a spell to counteract any bad luck, and then went outside and blessed the yard. To avoid any more equipment problems, I doused any equipment the concrete crew had left behind with sea salt. It worked. The concrete guys finished their work without incident, except they kept accusing each other of eating crackers or pretzels on the truck. The only problem left was to find the dirt for the yard.
When I had given up on finding any affordable topsoil, a neighbor suggested a friend who owned a backhoe. I called him and he quoted me a price that was very inexpensive. The three tons of topsoil was scheduled to arrive the next day, so the concrete workers could move some of it for us with a Bobcat.
Right on time, Mr. Phillips dropped off the first and second dump truck loads. Then he climbed out of the cab, resplendent in his overalls and with a toothpick clenched in his teeth, to inform me that he would be back with the final load later in the afternoon. Before he could return, he had to go to the dentist and then go dig three graves.
The concrete guys stopped working and did a double take; all my neighbors, who had been watching, fell silent; and I just stood there trying not to grin. Mr. Phillips looked uncomfortable and started for the dump truck.
“Hey, Mr. Phillips!” I called after him before he could drive away.
“Yes?” He turned to look at me as I climbed up on the side of the truck so I could see him better.
“By any chance, this dirt wouldn’t be graveyard dirt . . . would it?” I asked him.
He turned off the radio and adjusted his cap. He took a deep breath before answering. “Would it bother you if it was?”
“Are you kidding?” I laughed. “As long as there are no body parts in it, bring it on in!” He smiled, relieved, and I climbed down from the truck and waved as he drove away.
My neighbors thought I was taking it awfully well. I thought it was hysterically funny. The concrete guys thought it was great quality dirt at an affordable price, and wanted his name for other jobs. I was happy to pass it along.
My husband said to me when he came home that day, “Well, honey, that kind of goes with the theme, doesn’t it?” In a way, I guess it did. I planted the beginnings of my gardens about a week later.
I bet you’re wondering if anyone else ever saw the brownies? Actually, yes. Close friends of ours came over to visit and I was telling them about the flat tire incident. As we were sitting around the table visiting, Skippy, our cat, decided to grace us with her presence by jumping on the middle of the kitchen table. She knew she wasn’t allowed to do this but, like most cats, she really didn’t care about house rules.
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and, as my husband turned his head to look, our guests both yanked their feet up off the floor in alarm. My friend, Paula, looked at us and said, “Did you guys get another cat?”
“Well, no,” I told her. “I think you’ve just met the brownies.”
Her husband, Craig, looked at me and smiled. “You’re not talking about the Girl Scouts, are you?”
Faeries in the garden are a wonderful thing. They help care for your plants and protect the garden. If you had invited them into the house and want them to go into the garden instead, they will be more than happy to go. Just politely invite them to move to the garden. Make it a special place for them. Leave gifts, such as crystals
, in the garden. Or leave a circle of bread or cookie crumbs under a full moon in thanks for their assistance in the yard.
How will you know if the faeries have moved in the garden? The plants will start to grow more luxuriantly and you will probably find a faery ring in your yard. The circle of mushrooms can be anywhere from three feet wide to much bigger. We had one once that was twenty feet across.
Faery folks are in old oaks.
Old Rhyme
Faery Plants and Garden Plans for Sun and Shade
To attract the flower faeries, try adding these plants to your garden. For the shady garden try ferns, columbine, foxglove, meadowsweet with its wonderful vanilla scent, and lily of the valley. As mentioned before, foxglove and lily of the valley are poisonous plants. You may want to wait until your kids are older before planting these. That’s what I did. Forget-me-nots are a faery plant that are rumored to help you in your search for hidden treasures. Violets and lady’s mantle are also great shade perennials for a faery garden. Violets are a main faery flower. A chaplet of violets are a charm for love and a shelter from treachery.
For your sunny faery gardens, plant these: lavender, betony (that’s lambs ears), yarrow, and rosemary. Train an annual morning glory vine up a trellis and stand back. They grow up to fifteen feet tall in one season. Morning glories are used for all kinds of garden witch spells. Remember, this is another plant you want to make sure your kids don’t eat. All parts of the vine, blooms, and the seeds are mildly toxic. You can always try a honeysuckle if you prefer; it’s equally favored by the faeries. The lilac shrub is another popular flower with the Fae. There is nothing like the scent of lilacs in the garden.
Add roses in all varieties and colors, the more heavily scented the better. For your children, try growing the miniature variety of roses, sometimes called “fairy roses.” They come in all different colors, even green! Add some cherry-scented heliotrope, daisies, and allysum, and what a lovely faery flower garden you’ll have!
A Full Sun or Faery Garden Layout
1 Annuals for color (Petunias or Allysum)
2 Lamb's Ears
3 Dwarf Lilac
4 Heliotrope
5 Yarrow
6 Coneflower
7 Rosemary
8 Lavender
9 Rose
Enter those enchanted woods,
You who dare.
George Meredith
Faery Times and Places
A charm to call the flower faeries into your garden should be worked on a full moon. The full moon in May is traditionally a opportune time to introduce yourself to the faeries. Other favorable faery days include all the sabbats, with your best times being Ostara, Beltane, and Midsummer.
There is a tradition of working in the between times and places. For example, the beach is neither the ocean nor the land. Likewise a riverbank, or at a crossroads, where two rivers meet . . . are you following me here? We should also mention that places such as natural springs, waterfalls, meadows of wildflowers, pristine woods and wildernesses are the most likely to have faery activity. Faery times of day are just before sunrise, noon, twilight, and midnight.
Suitable oils to be employed in faery spells are lilac and violet. However, the scent of violets makes some people a little queasy. Use it sparingly until you find out how you handle the scent.
There are many deities associated with both the garden and the faeries. You could call on Flora, Roman goddess of flowers; Demeter, the goddess of the harvest; or the trinity of moon goddesses, Artemis, Selene, and Hecate. Feeling romantic? Try the faery queen Titania, or the God in his aspect as the Green Man, or Pan. Behave yourself, now, if you invoke Pan. This lusty god is associated with the nymphs and the satyrs, after all. If you’re not comfortable with any of those suggestions, then call on the Great Mother or the Earth Angel to assist you.
I imagine that someone is probably grumbling about my not having included the Goddess Rhiannon or Morgan le Fay. Rhiannon, a faery bride, endured years of torment and hard labor from her own husband and his court from being falsely accused of the murder of their infant son. Eventually Rhiannon was exonerated and restored to her rightful place when the boy was discovered alive and well.
Morgan le Fay was the older sister of King Arthur and the mother of Arthur’s only son, the ambitious Mordred. Morgan or Morgaine was either hailed as a priestess and a tragic hero of Avalon, or as an evil temptress with designs for the throne, depending on whose version of the story you believe. So you may want to think carefully about it before you work with these goddesses, as neither of these archetypes led carefree, happy lives.
If you choose to try faery magick, you could build a small altar in the garden. A faery statue nestled into your flowers with a large flat stone in a garden clearing or a small bench is ideal for such a purpose. Make absolutely sure it is a safe place for an open flame. For outside rituals, I like to use tealights with a drop of essential oil on them. I arrange these on a plate when I’m working outside. The flames are small, the candles don’t attract unwanted attention from neighbors, and they are portable (I bring the plate inside when I am finished). Never leave a burning candle unattended, especially outdoors.
To begin your get-acquainted ritual, invoke your chosen deity. Leave an offering to the flower faeries, such as a garland of violets, a rose, or small cakes, on your garden altar. Light your candles and speak the following:
Gentle flower faeries from near and far, come watch over my backyard.
Bless these herbs and fragrant flowers, fill them with your loving power.
Late at night when fireflies glow, use your magick to make them grow.
By the power of the stars, moon, and sun, do as I will and it harm none.
When finished, you may choose to meditate for a while or just lie back, sip some wine, and observe the moon and the night sky. Don’t forget to bring your candles in when you are finished. Let nature claim the flowers or the food that you left on your altar as an offering.
When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
Sir James Barrie, Peter Pan
Faery Magick and Kids
When you work with the faeries for any length of time, you may start to notice a certain amount of faery mischief in your home. This can be benign or troublesome, depending on the level of faery interest you are receiving. Bottom line, if you practice magick and you have kids, you are going to attract the attention of the faeries. If you have children who have a natural flair for magick, you’re in for even more interesting times.
When our old orange tabby cat died a few years ago, the whole family was heartbroken, my daughter especially, as Skippy had been “her cat.” Our other cat, a young gray and black tabby, was lonely without Skippy, but we all decided to wait a while before adopting another animal into the family.
My daughter, Kat, was not so patient. After a few weeks it seemed like every time I opened the door, a different friendly stray cat would be sitting on my front porch—harmless, cute, curious, and wanting a good scratch. My daughter was only too happy to oblige. I warned the kids to be careful and not to feed any strays, and assumed that would be the end of it. A few days later I arrived home from work to find my daughter sitting in the back yard with a big fluffy orange cat on her lap. After the initial double-take, when I assured myself that it was not our Skippy, I went outside to ask her about her new friend.
The cat had a collar and actually belonged to a family down the street. No, we could not keep him, I told her. However now that he had found a soft touch, that fluffy cat was back every day. For a month this neighbor would sit outside under the kitchen window and meow loudly until Kat came outside to hold him and play with him. This continued all summer until the family that he belonged to moved away. When t
he parade of strays suddenly resumed once again, I took my daughter aside and reminded her that it was okay to miss her pet. I then gently asked her if she had been working any magick.
Her face turned red, and she started to laugh nervously at her spell’s success. Kat admitted that she had asked the faeries to send us another cat. And they certainly had, every stray in the neighborhood. “What do we do now?” she asked me.
That evening, the two of us performed a small ritual to thank the faeries for helping, but to please stop sending any more cats to us for now. The parade of strays stopped immediately.
I bet you’re wondering if my daughter ever managed to get another pet? Yes, she did. About a year later, my family adopted a stray kitten from the animal shelter in our neighborhood. We ended up with a sleek, solid black feline with bright yellow eyes. She adores my daughter and follows Kat everywhere.
Sometimes faery mischief gets a little out of hand. Signs to look for are a suspicious string of small annoyances or bad luck—missing jewelry that will then turn up in odd places, skittish household pets, and a house that never seems at rest or calm, even after the kids go to sleep.
A witch that I know, Crystal, has a young daughter who possesses a real knack for calling in the faeries. Missy is a natural. At the tender age of eleven, this young girl possesses as much information and experience of working with faery energy as most adult practitioners that I know.
Unfortunately, it tended to create havoc with any and all spells that her mother performed. The entire house and yard was a hotbed of mischievous faery activity. Guest’s car keys would disappear, and the house had an unsettled, jumpy feeling, way beyond what you would expect in a house full of small children. When our group put their heads together, we came up with a way to minimize the trouble her daughter was causing, albeit unknowingly.