As the fairy kingdom is a realm of all possibilities, what can we learn from this world of enchantments? How do our encounters with fairies help us experience life in new ways? What do these encounters teach us about time and space? Should you or I be blessed to meet a fairy, why would we not share this moment with others of like mind, with our precious children? Why wouldn’t we infuse their lives with delight? Who would have thought that an Uncle relating his fairy experiences would awaken a world of undreamt-of possibilities in his great-neice, as Canadian deb svanefelt tells.
I guess you could say my adventures first began when I was a child, visiting with my Danish great-uncle Chris in Toronto, Canada. Each time we visited, he’d tell us about how, as a young boy growing up in Denmark, he’d fallen asleep one day on a mossy pillow near the edge of a forest … and had awakened to the Little People making him small, so he could go with them, right into their tree for a lovely cuppa tea.
Totally entranced, we begged him to see the wee cup and saucer he’d been given by them, but he could never find it to show us. My mother also told us how she’d been on a Toronto streetcar as a young girl, and had seen a faerie on a small, round-topped bridge, in the middle of a small park in downtown Toronto. These stories deeply nourished my world of possibilities, as did my reading of fantasy books once I became a pre-teen.
Then, in the late 1970’s I was given a book about the Findhorn community in northern Scotland, and was first introduced to Robert Ogilvie Crombie’s work there with the faeries, devas, elementals and Pan. I felt an immediate, powerful attraction to his work, and desperately wanted to meet him (not knowing he had already crossed over). My childhood ‘stories’ were re-awakened in me. Somehow, I just knew I’d go to Findhorn one day!
On my 60th birthday, I was living in England for a while… and was drawn again to Findhorn, for a couple of weeks’ stay. At the beginning of the second week, I met a woman who was working with faeries. Again, I felt an uncommonly strong connection with her work.
Mesmerized, just as when I was a child, I listened to her sharing that we each have a faerie friend, and how she’d found a way to help us all connect with our faerie friends. At the end of her talk, I lingered as she spoke with another woman about the Faerie Flag (which I’d never heard of). She was going to the Isle of Skye in a couple of days to see the Flag. I found myself spontaneously asking if I could join her. And that’s how I ended up, quite unexpectedly, taking the train to Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye.
Not only did I see the Faery Flag, I also got to hear the story of how the Flag came to Dunvegan Castle… how it’s continued to protect the McLeod clan… and to hear the lullaby sung to her hafling son (half human, half faery) by his faery mother, way back in the 1500’s, when the Flag was first given to the McLeod clan. Words cannot describe how hauntingly beautiful this song was!
Since then, I’ve also discovered the Faerie world ‘withdrew’ long ago from our increasingly unbalanced human world, as their Earth holds a different vibration to ours, one that’s still balanced. Because of this, fairies and their world hold an important key for us, in healing the disrupted, chaotic vibrations apparent on our human Earth.
In our brief time together on the Isle, I was to discover that my work with my faerie friend would focus on planting seeds of peace in the world, by participating in opening portals between the faerie and human Earths. This facilitates travel back and forth, for those of us working with our faerie friends.
But first there was another powerful faerie experience waiting to unfold for me. Before dawn the day we were to leave Skye, I awoke and felt a powerful urge to go once more to one of the Castle’s gardens where the waterfalls are. Camera in hand (but no flashlight), off I went feeling my way forward along the unfamiliar paths in the dark. Arriving just outside the garden, I thought I’d take a photo of the plants near the entry, in the quiet of twilight.
The light blazed brightly as I took the photo. Then my camera battery died completely. Though disheartened, I decided to keep going.
Once inside the garden, it was only just beginning to get light. The earlier shadowy plant shapes were becoming more clearly visible. Intuitively going to one of the bridges, to watch the waterfalls crashing down nearby, I glanced at the plant to one side of the bridge. Honestly, never was I so astonished! The leaves on that plant were humungous – huge beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I could easily have laid on each leaf and not been able to reach the top or bottom of it. Each leaf was much bigger than my 5’6” height!
I was mesmerized, and stood staring for some time, then walked to another side of the plant. My head just couldn’t seem to understand how a plant could be so huge. No matter which side or angle, or how long I looked, the leaves were all so much bigger than me! I remember pinching my arm, blinking my eyes, and shaking my head several times. How could they be so large?
The daylight was coming. I decided to go back to the cottage to recharge my battery, so I could take some pictures of this astonishing plant. But by the time I returned the plant, though still a large-leafed variety, was back to ‘normal’ size. This too was unbelievable, yet I knew what I’d seen earlier had been real.
Afterwards I wondered whether I’d been gifted with a short journey inside the borders of the world of Faery. That still feels right to me, and I’m so grateful.
Since that extraordinary visit, my faerie friend and I have participated in a number of portal openings – a handful in the UK, and some here in Ontario.
This past Spring, I felt called to offer others an opportunity, through my Project Peace Orillia meet-up group, to hear most of my story, and to learn how to meet their faerie friend. I felt some initial anxiety and trepidation about how this work, which had until then been private to me, would be received in my community. Yet, the message to share was strong and persistent.
So I did. The results were varied that first time for participants – some experienced astonishing, powerful success; some only received a piece of what was offered.
I was reminded how subtle this work with the fey and elementals can be, and how ill-prepared most of us are to notice and trust these subtleties. Our culture just doesn’t promote or accept this, in general.
So, based on feedback from that one meeting, I was next gifted with the information and structure of a 7 week group program – “The Fellowship of the Faerie Ring” – teaching the underlying subtle skills, preparatory to having people meet their faerie friend. That first group program has just completed this week. And each person in the group has now successfully met their faerie friend, and discerned their work together. Success for all!!
I plan to run another local “Fellowship” group, and then offer it online – there are many who seem interested in this work!
I’ve found so many awesome new experiences as a result of my initial sharing. I learned once again – at some point we all need to stand in our Truth, in our Light, and risk being seen. And to trust in our Truth.
This world of ours desperately needs new solutions to our age-old, divisive problems and suffering patterns. So for me, I’m committed to continuing my work with my faerie friend, planting seeds for peace wherever we can, and to meet and share with others about their and our work with the faerie realm.
Maybe together, each in our own way, we can shift first our own hearts, then our human family and our planet, back into greater harmony, into peace on Earth.
