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Mother Earth needs to heal herself.  She’s tried to tell us in so many ways, but to no avail. Finally, she has sent us to our rooms.

She is such a good nurturing Mother and we can trust her love. She’ll nurture us, no matter what.

While we’re shut off from our usual routines, we may find time to rediscover the things that make our hearts sing. And we might decide to keep them close or share them with the world. For some, they’ll find that it’s helping others that makes them shine. For others it will be crochet that brings peace…or singing that makes them feel alive. Great experiments with cooking, a depth to your meditation, discovering new ways to code, excelling at journal writing, the fulfilment of yoga, devouring literature, finding ever more enjoyable ways to make love, playing video games…whatever it is, absorb yourself in this beautiful self-spun cocoon.

All the while, we’re sharing this experience with whomever we live with. Maybe we’ve had no choice about who we live with, or perhaps we’re living alone. Either way, we might now feel the urge to reach out to family and loved ones, because we’ve had time and space to remember how much we care.

Some will have the opportunity to straighten out misunderstandings or even decide that their differences aren’t really that important after all. Or they may realise, how much someone means to them, now that seeing them is not so easy.

Whatever the situation, feel the love between you all.

In this time, you may realise that the work you’re doing just isn’t really what you love doing. Perhaps you now have time to explore other options? Maybe the activity that makes your heart sing is what you’ll choose to pursue as your daily job.

When we do emerge from our cocoons into the world again, Mother Earth will be transformed. And each of us will also have changed forever.

A new decade and a new era for Scarlett of the Fae and Modern Fairy Sightings. Our family was blessed with the coming of a tiny new human in November 2018, which has kept us very busy.  Modern Fairy Sightings (an FB group dedicated to the discussion and sharing of personal fairy experiences) remains a place where people can openly discuss their experiences without fear of being ridiculed. We continue to learn from each other and some members are happy to discuss their encounters with me as part of my ongoing research. While my own contributions to the page have been minimal during the last year or so, I’ve noted with great interest the increasing requests to join and share within this group.

Fairies and magic have popped up in other popular media. There are now a great many podcasts dedicated to fairies and if anyone watched the new BBC TV adaptation of Worzel Gummidge, they will have been treated to a sense of real magic.  TV and film rarely get it right, but the first episode’s portrayal of ritual Earth magic was spot on. It captured a genuine essence of enchantment and Fae energy.

It seems that portals are opening all around us.  My feeling is that human hearts are opening and that this marks a shift in our evolution.  Our love and connection with the land and our beautiful, nurturing, Earth is being rekindled. These are hard times for many people – that is certainly recognised. Many humans and creatures are suffering. The transition to open heartedness is also proving difficult for those who depend on the negative qualities of the old Solar Plexus consciousness: power, ego, “I am more…you are less…”, the drawing of boundaries and ownership over land and over people. Many of us can recognise or instinctively sense that humanity is progressing to Heart consciousness: love, acceptance, “I am you, you are me, we are one”.  Around the world we see many examples of toxic leadership, power grabs, ego-driven behaviours.  Yet we also see open-hearted, emotionally intelligent, honest leaders emerging and being recognised as progressive.

I sense that we’re seeing the last gasps of the unbalanced Solar Plexus consciousness before it gives birth to Heart consciousness*, or the Age of Aquarius as it’s also known. But it’s proving to be a difficult birth. We’re witnessing struggles between these two energy polarities everywhere. Rich and poor (the gap has never been wider in Britain), left and right politics, men and women (#metoo, attacks on feminism, abortion rights stripped away by groups of old rich white male politicians, calling out on toxic masculinity) young and old (views on environment-related issues and politics are particularly polarised between young and old), Brexit vs Remain. Love vs fear is apparent to me in the way that ethnic minorities, immigrants, refugees and poor people are demonised.  So many souls have lost their lives in all the upheaval. We’re experiencing great change and it’s traumatic to witness. Destruction is ravaged upon the environment: pollution, forest clearance, global-warming-related bushfires and flooding, all of which are being fuelled by right-wing egocentric political leaders.

But take another look. We are being called by nature itself and so many of us have responded.  At the micro level, from foraging, growing our own produce and clearing rubbish from local parks, to the mass emergence of Extinction Rebellion and leaders like Greta Thunberg, environmental consciousness is ascending.  Similarly, we’re seeing support for fellow humanity in the rise of volunteer-run community groups and generously crowdfunded social projects, mass demonstrations to protect people’s freedoms and rights. Even platforms like Facebook and other social media sites, though they have their own issues, provide a space to join together, support and advise each other through all sorts of difficulties.  We’re doing this every day in every part of the world.  People are birthing it themselves. Heart consciousness is emerging through us.

Though it looks like recent events and movements appear to be pushing us down dangerous paths we’ve been down before, I feel certain that those forces will not succeed this time.  I see that too many of us are awake and ready to fight back with love. Our hearts and souls are open and our connection to the All and to each other is stronger than any attempts driven by those peddling fear with weak, fragile egos. Their ‘way of being’ is dying out.

In this time of great change, as our hearts continue to open, many of us are experiencing nature spirits, fairies or other elemental spirits in lucid flashes of lightheartedness and love for the land.  I feel certain these experiences are increasing everywhere and indicate that humanity is moving in the right direction but we need to keep listening and taking positive action in any way we can.

I’m looking forward to spending this year, talking to many who have encountered the Fae and piecing together their experiences in order to understand a little more about how and why some of us can sometimes see beyond the veil. My hope for this decade is that we witness real change…that the balance finally tips into widespread heart consciousness: the energy that I feel connects us with nature and the Fair Folk.

Main image credit: Daria Hlazatova

*For more information about the energies of different chakras and how the global consciousness is evolving through these energies, see Martin Brofman’s book, Anything Can Be Healed.

I’ve been interested in ritual and the ideas of magic since attending Roman Catholic school as a small child. Each festival, I watched our classroom transform into a place of ritual worship. Immaculate white tablecloths covered the teacher’s desk, adorned with polished gold chalice and magical paraphernalia, crucifixes and candelabra. As we sat, hushed and waiting, our senses filled with Frankincense, the gentle priest would enter. Familiar in his white robes and jewel coloured stole, he’d stand before us at our newly created altar.

This was my introduction to ritual and I soaked it up, giddy with incense and absolute recognition that higher forces were being invoked.

When the opportunity arose, I recreated this enchantment for myself at home. Having managed to dodge church on a Sunday morning due to sickness, I assured my dad that I’d watch a televised service. When he’d driven off, I asked my mother for the folding table and her best tablecloth then keenly searched our home for the correct utensils.

I held my very own ritual that day with the TV mass muted. I was in my element. A biscuit and goblet of Ribena before me and surrounded by carefully chosen symbols, I uttered my own incantation. It was instinctive and meaningful. I was around nine or ten years old and I felt wholly accomplished.

When my father returned and berated me for blasphemy, I was shocked. His reaction didn’t make sense to me. At my core, I knew that ritual is an innately human compulsion. I remained sure of this and would continue to meddle privately in my own ways.

Over the years, the most powerful rituals I have taken part in are the ones I’ve conducted alone. I adore joining with others in mutual intention, sharing of occasion and the wonderment of experiencing ritual translated through others’ perspectives. Yet, when I’m presented with undisturbed time and space to explore ritual using familiar objects in my own home, the effect is exceptionally potent.

People often avoid creating their own ritual for fear of getting something wrong. I say resist your mind and listen to your heart. What do you feel impelled to say thank you for, release from your life, protect, or honour? Go with that. Which gods and goddesses, Lords and Ladies, angels or elementals are you drawn to? Don’t depend on A-Zs or Google. If a sacred name occurs to you then use it. There are no mistakes, simply trust your own truth.

Let choosing your implements be a playful and revealing process in itself. By using your imagination you can create anything you need. You don’t need to be an artist to roughly sketch a representation of anything you wish to draw upon. Everyday objects contain a particular potency because they directly resonate with your life – employ them! Trust yourself to instinctively use what you have to hand and avoid the distraction of restrictive dogma.

Within your home you will most certainly find practical objects: string, ribbon, paper, figurines, candles, incense and cooking utensils. Whether you live in a bustling city or a secluded valley, you only need to step outside your door to find leaves, flowers, herbs, stones, wood and feathers. Add a pinch of playing cards in lieu of tarot, a sprinkling of photos, snippets of words and pictures from newspapers and magazines, and a personal trinket or two.

Or use none of those things…as you wish. Choose what you will, because it makes sense to you and for no other reason.

A focused intention is the most important ingredient. So it’s useful to make a few notes in the hours or days leading up to your ritual. You’ll have been weaving ideas naturally as you go about your daily business, but the simple act of writing them down can be their first real invitation into existence.

Once you’ve set up with clear intent and applied protection in a style that feels right to you (circle casting, white light or your own means) give yourself time to enjoy each moment. You may find you’re stirred to sing, dance or move. There’s no performance, just an exploration, so let the occasion unfurl and allow yourself to be guided by it.

Knowing that you will not be disturbed is paramount. There’s nothing worse than having to clock watch if you’ve only one toe in the earthly realm. Equally, you will eventually feel the ritual flowing towards its natural end. Be grateful for your time and accept that your workings will continue to reverberate in the hours, days and weeks after the ritual.

Five years ago, I applied the DIY ritual concept on a most important occasion. My husband and I were hand-fasted on a beach just after the turn of the tide. The symbolism and words were created just for us. Witnessed by a small group of loved ones, the person that most remarked on its beauty and real sense of meaning was my dad. He’d felt it, that same awareness I’d experienced as a child. I think we both knew that he always had.

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Interested in developing your own toolkit for effective ritual?
Upcoming workshop: Ritual and Magic with Marian Green
Saturday 8^th July 2017, Southville Centre, Bristol.
Limited spaces. Contact: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com

Image: Thanks to Peter Hall Studio