Pixie Kiss # 16 – The Faery Queen’s Blessing

This is the sixteenth post in a series of suggestions for re-enchanting your life, one pixie kiss at a time. The introduction is here, and you can watch the path unfold here.

She who goes by many names, who wears so many faces…

The embodiment of Faery itself, The Faery Queen is the consciousness behind the patterns, the weaver of the web that underlies the natural world. Faeryland is the world of the spirit, the world of blueprints from which our world manifests, and she is the one that directs the creation of these blueprints.

And she is calling…

 

Sit for a time in the space you have made for yourself, with the tools you have created, with the stories and artworks you have collected. Ask your guide to be with you, as witness and guardian.

Muse on who you are and why you want to bring more enchantment into your life, into the world.

Cast a circle in the faery mists, a circle of blessing which will move with you, breathe in and allow it to settle around your body and go to a wild place of beauty.

Breathe out and let the circle of mists expand around you. Hold your musings in your mind…

Why do you want to enchant your life, the world?

Stand under the open sky and allow your senses to soften…

Let your heart call out to the Queen of Faery and, perhaps, she will come with the sound of bells or music or the scent of wildflowers to bless your choice to walk the path of enchantment.

Spend some time with her, in honour of her.

Maybe you feel called to make a pledge, maybe you simply feel her kiss on your forehead in blessing.

When you are ready to leave, thank the Queen and your guide, and allow the circle to sink into the earth, blessing the land beneath your feet. Leave an offering for the spirits of the place and return home.

Eat, drink water, do something mundane and get grounded!

 

 

I’ll be posting Pixie Kisses each week, if you’d like to subscribe to these suggestions for re-enchanting your life and to receive the occasional extra sparkle in your inbox which won’t be posted here, email me at: craftyhalo@gmail.com with ‘Pixie Kisses’ in the subject line.

An Enchantress Muses

Recently I’ve been using the label enchantress/enchanter to refer to myself, and the Pixie Kiss project is all about enchantment, so perhaps it is time to elucidate what I mean by this!

What is an Enchanter?

An enchanter enchants; makes something enchanted; spreads enchantment.

Enchantment implies wonder, delight, beauty, joy and magic… and also: seeing what is not there. I grew up being accused of watching things that weren’t there, things which include faeries, magic, wonder and spirit, according to the greyer parts of our overculture. Anything beyond the material realm is not really there…

The glimpses I’ve had of that grey world, devoid of spirit, life, and wonder, are terrible things. Its no real wonder that depression and numbness are strong currencies in the world! The more I see of the world, the more I come to see how this greyness permeates so many lives, and how much this harms people. Disconnection,* that which prevents a life lived fully, comes from disillusionment, disenchantment, distrust and disinterest in the world around us, so let us reconnect, re-enchant and re-invigorate our lives!

If being enchanted allows us to see past the cold hard facts of a world disconnected from its heart, then perhaps seeing what is normally unseen is the key to feeling the warm feelings of love and joy and delight, and being enchanted will fill us with wonder which we can then share!

For me, to be enchanted is to walk in a state of delighted wonder at the magic in the world. Not ignoring the problems, but choosing how we engage with the world and our lives. To be enchanted is to see the beauty of life, and to enchant others is to encourage beauty and delight in the world. Facing the truth is important, and I certainly don’t advocate ignoring pain and betrayal, in the world at large or our personal lives. However, acknowledging the hurt and harm happening and done, doing what you can to help, and not wallowing in the pain but choosing to heal and move on is more helpful than falling into misery.** Recognising that there is wonder in the world even when everything hurts can help us to get through the pain and keep motivated to help to heal the parts of the world we can.

Enchantment does not blind us to the bad, but it does help us see the good. It does not numb us, but it does open us to living more fully. Enchantment is not a way of hiding, it is a way of seeing and choosing where our focus, and therefore our energies, go.

This is what it means to be an Enchanter; to be enchanted by life, and to help others, wherever possible, to be enchanted too.

 

*Pace and Kyeli have written a marvelous document on why disconnection is the root of all the ills in the world, you can check it out here: The Connection Manifesto.

** Easier said than done sometimes, so there is help out there if you are sinking rather than swimming. For those times, ask for help. Acknowledging the beauty in the world includes acknowledging that there are many people out there who can and will help you… and remembering that we can ask for help.

Pixie Kiss 11.5 – For the Festival of Love

In honour of the modern Festival of Love, I offer here a bonus post in a series of suggestions for re-enchanting your life, one pixie kiss at a time. The introduction is here, and you can watch the path unfold here.

Isn’t it lovely to have a day devoted to love? A day set aside specifically for connecting to loved ones, for being romantic?

Tomorrow is Valentine’s day.

Don’t forget, you too are worthy of love.

Sometime this week, treat yourself. Take yourself on a date, even if its just an hour to yourself for a candlelit bath, or your favourite warm drink and a cozy armchair.

Living in enchantment means loving life, loving the world, and loving ourselves. Use the week of hearts and flowers to remind yourself that a little luxury is good for the soul… the Faeries know this well, that is why so many of them feast and dance and celebrate whenever the opportunity arises; life is worth a little living!

Happy Valentine’s day sweethearts!

I’ll be posting Pixie Kisses each week, if you’d like to subscribe to these suggestions for re-enchanting your life and to receive the occasional extra sparkle in your inbox which won’t be posted here, email me at: craftyhalo@gmail.com with ‘Pixie Kisses’ in the subject line.

Pixie Kiss 9 – Keys to open Faery Doors

This is the ninth of a series of suggestions for re-enchanting your life, one pixie kiss at a time. The introduction is here, and you can watch the path unfold here.

Inspired by Cat Valente’s Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making this kiss is about keys.

Keys are important. With keys we lock secrets away in private journals, we open doors, we mark a rite of passage in which we receive the ability to choose when we enter and leave our own homes. Locking and unlocking, closing and opening, protecting and revealing… keys mean so much.

Keys are symbolic, and real.

What doors are open to you?

What doors are closed?

What doors do you hold the key to, but have not yet unlocked?

Find an old key and decorate it. Use coloured wire or thread or ribbon. Use paint or clay or beads. Use whatever comes to hand, or special materials you buy just for this.

All the time you are decorating your key, know that you are doing more than just making it pretty… decorate it with intention, with the intention of enchanting it.

Transform your key into a magical tool for opening the doors to enchantment, opening the way to Faery.

All you really need is attention, but if you like you can mark out a magic circle, light a candle and say a prayer…

Faery folk come gather round,

Bless this key that I have found!

Let it now become enchanted

To open doors where it is planted!

Thread a ribbon through the hole in the top and wear it round your neck when you want to invite more magic in, to remind yourself to be aware of the Fae folk, the kissing of magic and mundane worlds, as you move through your life.

Hang it above the entrance to your home to encourage enchantment to flow in.

Use it to draw doors in the earth outside, to open the way for magic to come through.

Place it before you, light a candle, and muse on the question of what doors you wish to open, and what doors you wish to close in your life. Then hold the key and turn it in each lock as you imagine them before you, one way to open, the other to close. Wear your key as you take steps to help the magic open and close the doors you’ve asked it to, and sleep with it under your pillow to open the doors of enchantment in your dreams.

May doors open for you and let beauty and delight flow into your life where you most need it.

I’ll be posting Pixie Kisses each week, if you’d like to subscribe to these suggestions for re-enchanting your life and to receive the occasional extra sparkle in your inbox which won’t be posted here, email me at: craftyhalo@gmail.com with ‘Pixie Kisses’ in the subject line.

Pixie Kiss #8 – Listen to the Faery Music

This is the eighth  post in a series of suggestions for re-enchanting your life, one pixie kiss at a time. The introduction is here, and you can watch the path unfold here.

This week, take your camera for a walk.

Pick a day when you have an hour or two to wander and go for a walk. In the Northern Hemisphere it is still cold this time of year, so respect the powers of Jack Frost and wrap up warm… and go out anyway.

Look around you.

Breathe in the beauty of the world.

Notice the little pieces of nature that peeks through the cracks in the pavement, or the majestic sweep of tall buildings, or the charming creepiness of abandoned buildings. Notice the expanse of sky above, or the crumbling stone beneath your feet. Notice the smells and sights and sounds, and take pictures. Really focus on the world around you.

Opening to the world opens you to the layers of magic in the world, the realms which lie just below sight, just below the obvious.

Open to beauty, open to noticing, open to wonder.

Use your camera to focus your self on the world… and open to the possibility of the Fey beings that surround you. The conscious blueprints of nature, the souls of the world.

If everything is a vibration, and vibration is sound, can you feel, in your bones, in your heart, the song of the Fey?

 

Invite your Faery guide to join you as you wander and wonder. Be open to their presence. See what happens.

 

When you get home, I’d love to see your pictures, hear your stories… come play in the garden, if you’d like to, leave me a footprint in the comments.

 

 

 

 

I’ll be posting Pixie Kisses each week, if you’d like to subscribe to these suggestions for re-enchanting your life and to receive the occasional extra sparkle in your inbox which won’t be posted here, email me at: craftyhalo@gmail.com with ‘Pixie Kisses’ in the subject line.

 

Pixie Kiss #2 – Stories

This is the second of a series of suggestions for re-enchanting your life, one pixie kiss at a time. The introduction is here, and you can watch the path unfold here.
We started by making some space. Space for enchantment, space for the Fae.

Now we can continue this process, making more space in our lives and our minds, and charming ourselves with what we choose to attract.

Following the principle of magic that like attracts like, fill your life with the kinds of wonder and stories of the magic you choose to tap into.

Collect stories, poetry and art about the Fae, about enchantment, about wonder.

Surround yourself with beauty, with enchantment, and become enchanted. Share what you find with friends, post links here if you like… better though, to meet with soemone in the flesh and share what you have found and loved! Enchant each other!

Then, take your favourite words – poems, songs, stories – out to somewhere beautiful and dedicate them to the Fae. Speak them aloud, with feeling, tell the stories to those beings you may not see but can feel nonetheless. They love a good story!

Telling stories is, in itself, a magical act. We live our lives through stories, absorbing images of the world, telling ourselves stories of ourselves and our world. We take on board the stories that the news tells us, that our friends repeat, that we learnt as children. We live our lives by these stories. And we can choose new stories for ourselves. Stories full of beauty and wonder and magic.

How many times do we say to ourselves…

I’m too…

I can’t…

The world is horrible.

Life sucks.

Its too hard.

And so on? Sometimes its true, I am too big for size 8 jeans (or size 12 for that matter). As soon as this story becomes ‘I’m too big.’ however, there is a problem. ‘I’m too… anything’ can lead to guilt, shame, disappointment, bitterness. All unnecessary and unhelpful.  My point here is not to go into important discussions about body image, but to illustrate how the stories we tell ourselves effect the way we think and feel. Plenty of people are able to help you if you’re dealing with these kinds of harmful thought patterns, here we’re going to choose to shift focus.

Collect enchantment, and begin to re-enchant yourself with words and pictures. Choose the nature of the stories in your life…

 

Let me know how you get on!

 

I’ll be posting Pixie Kisses each week, if you’d like to subscribe to these suggestions for re-enchanting your life and to receive the occasional extra sparkle in your inbox which won’t be posted here, email me at: craftyhalo@gmail.com with ‘Pixie Kisses’ in the subject line.

In the meantime… may I recommend:

Goblin Fruit – a delectable online treasure trove of fantastical poetry, make your choices with care as some of the fruit bites back…

Oliver Hunter – The artist who adorns Goblin Fruit has some wonderful words and pictures about wonder… when I read his words about ’embroidering everyday life with jeweled colours’ and finding enchantment in everyday life I was enthralled.

Brian Froud – a well known favourite of many, the Fae are known to pose for his paintings, and can easily be seen in his wife’s work too!

Paul Rucker – rich colours, divine inspirations, gods and spirit beings populate his art and his life as he adorns himself with fantasy and steps into the world.

Havi and Selma – Havi writes about getting unstuck, noticing and working on thought patterns and using metaphor to transform ‘grown-up’ bits of life into playtime. Selma is a duck.

Scarlet Imprint – Actually a publisher, the writings Scarlet Imprint publish are well worth hunting down if you can. Their recent poetry anthology in particular contains some gems of enchantment…

Victor Anderson – One of the founders of the Feri tradition, along with Cora Anderson, Victor wrote poetry as love songs to the goddess, and she sang back. What better endorsement do you need?

 

Pixie Kiss #1 – Making Space

This is the first of a series of suggestions for re-enchanting your life, one pixie kiss at a time. The introduction is here, and you can watch the path unfold here.

For something to enter your life, there must be space for it.

For enchantment to enter your life, you must make space to be enchanted.

So lets make space. Lets make our space enchanting. Lets provide a home in our hearts and our houses for the Fae to dance…

Even if all you can manage is a picture hanging on a wall, a postcard tucked in the corner of the bathroom mirror, a pendant, or a pocket-sized tin full of tiny pebbles and dried flowers, making an actual, physical place for enchantment tells your deep self, your subconscious, your child self, that this is something you want to give space to in your life.

Every time you see it, you will remember.

Every time you give attention to it, the emotions and energies it invokes will ripple out into your life. Psychologically it will remind you of your dreams of an enchanted life. Magically, like attracts like, so you encourage wonder by depicting wonder. And, in a very real way, you are offering hospitality to those that would help you reach the state of enchantment.

If you want more faery magic in your life, make space for it, and they will come…

Enchant yourself.

Tips:

A small symbol is a place to start, a full-blown altar or faery garden is even more potent because the amount of time and energy you put into creating it echoes through your life. If you don’t know how to begin, think of images that evoke enchantment in you, track some down. Find sculptures, toys, images and objects that remind you of the fae. Choose gorgeous fabrics (ones that you like, gorgeous to you is the important bit!) to drape over a shelf, light candles in glass holders, burn incense that makes you think of wild places. Collect natural objects, leaves falling in the autumn, flowers gently picked, stones with patterns or holes… arrange these in a way that you enjoy! Coloured pebbles and sea-glass are lovely in pretty jars or a bowl, none of this has to be obvious to anyone else, its just between you and the Fae. Mirrors and sparkly things are good too… and you’d do well to leave an offering for the Fae if you can. Inviting guests in and then not offering a cuppa is often considered rude when dealing with other humans, and in the same way, the Fae appreciate offerings too. Cookies, cakes, fruit, chocolate, or poetry, stories and dedicated acts… generally speaking, its nice to share, and something biodegradable which can be left safely outside for them to enjoy is always good. We’ll talk more about offerings later, I expect!

Use what feels right, those things that enchant you are what will work best. Make a beautiful space for enchantment in your life and see what happens!

I’ll be posting Pixie Kisses each week, if you’d like to subscribe to these suggestions for re-enchanting your life and to receive the occasional extra sparkle in your inbox which won’t be posted here, email me at: craftyhalo@gmail.com with ‘Pixie Kisses’ in the subject line.

FeyHearted Book Is Go!

Today I finally put the finishing touches to the book inspired by the work done on this blog.

I realised as I was writing it that I haven’t seen anything quite like this anywhere before, so I feel rather proud of myself.

It is illustrated, and I have a beautiful cover painting currently waiting to caress the cover of my brain-child!

So now remains the final stages of working out how I am to set this free into the world. I would very much like to make a limited run of really nice books for people to buy that can, in themselves, be special. And then to branch out into paperbacks and ebooks for it to be available to a wider audience. I am always impatient with these things, so close to finishing it is tempting to simply stick it up and have it out there, but it is important to me for this to not just be lost amoung the many thousands of pages of information.

Part of the reason I’ve written this is to share with others the way I’ve walked along this FeyHearted path, and part of the reason is as a devotional act for the Fey, the Faery Queen, and Himself, and so it feels important to do this right, in a way that does them honour.

Besides, I’ve put a lot of time and energy into this, so I’d like a nice copy too!

It is interesting to think over our culture’s fascination with Fairies, especially the fascination of young girls! Historically, I’ve been reading, this has been true as well, Fey beings were important to the female members of humanity more than to the men… the stories do tell of faery women enchanting the menfolk though, so they weren’t entirely immune to their charms! Despite this, there is less written on finding the Fey parts of ourselves, and this is what my book speaks to. Weaving between an exploration of what being Fey means and suggestions for coming closer to knowing your own Fey Heartand the Fey themselves, I hope this book has something for everyone.

I suppose the identification of women with Fey beings, (and often gender-queer or magical individuals for that matter, think over the number of times queer and Sighted individuals are called Fey) is to do with the understanding of power. For those that have little power in the over-culture’s world, it makes sense to find power in another world. For those that risk their lives in the process of giving birth, or know that they will one day, those beings that are on the edges of life hold a great deal of power to help and to harm. And then again, the identification of themselves as Fey affords individuals with a measure of power in their own lives.

And then, of course, we come back to the fact that the Fey are, simply, enchanting.

I am excited to help bring a little more of that enchantment back into the world… and I will keep you all posted on how the book is coming along!