Crazy lace agate cut by Gary WilsonWood Fairy Brooch
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The wood fairy in this unusual crazy lace agate is sitting in the notch of a tree, laughing, perhaps because we walk on by without noticing her. She offers a breath of fresh air, sitting there on your suit collar in a meeting, a breath of woodland sweetness. She recalls us to Malidoma's extraordinary story of his encounter with the yila tree during his traditional initiation. Like ourselves, Malidoma sat before the tree and saw... a tree. Not even this tree. Just a tree. His thoughts wandered. His supervisor sang an old healing melody over and over: "He thought he was not blind and was proud to see..." After the first long day of failure, he lied on the second day, and of course his supervisor knew it immediately. Poor Malidoma was humiliated to be caught in a lie, disgusted with himself for having lied and feeling a crushing sense of failure when he finally began speaking to the tree, respectfully, in humility and then... well, perhaps you will read his marvelous book (below) to learn his incredible story.
Or we could talk about Pogacnik's "nature temples" which is his term for areas with high concentrations of elementals. He speaks of finding his first nature temple area, and says, "I went there to find out if there were still any fairies at the fairy pond. And in fact I was able to perceive the focal point of a host of fairies of place by an American copper oak where it leaned towards the centre of the park." He goes on to describe a list of other elementals and where he found them within this nature temple area. He makes remarkable observations like this, "The devic focus is found where two water lines meet which both have a clockwise quality." If you have any interest in ley lines, you already are aware of Underwood's amazingly painstaking and fascinating work (see below).
It seems so sad to me that we live in a time when the divide between Christianity and Paganism seems so utterly impenetrable. Why is this the case? How can it be sinful (that is, how can it be "missing the mark") to honor and respect all of God's creation? The Findhorn community continues to show us the benefits of working with the nature spirits instead of with Monsanto (oh dear, my environmentalist roots are showing). How could this possibly be antithetical to Divine Will since after all our Bible tells us God placed the Adam in the Garden "to dress it and keep it." The Talmud says that "Every blade of grass has an angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow! Grow.'" How have we forgotten all of this and relegated these beings to a children's fantasy story?
Whatever your belief system is, I hope you can suspend disbelief for a moment and gaze in wonder at the lovely fairy whose picture magically appeared in this pretty stone. Perhaps she will encourage you to talk with the plant divas who watch over your garden, or even to get out your dowsing rods to seek spots where water lines meet and see what you may find there. Whatever adventure you embark upon, I hope you will enjoy her companionship.
