Announcing: A Parcel of Pixie Kisses!

Hello Feylings!

If you’ve been following this blog and the Feyhearted project for the past few months, you’ll have seen the Pixie Kisses – weekly posts of suggestions for inviting enchantment into your life…

I am delighted to announce that these posts have been collected into a book, alongside the letters to my mailing list which accompanied them, paintings and photos from my own feyhearted explorations, and some extra material written especially for the project.

And it is up on Lulu now! Here it is:

Do you long for enchantment?

Do you revel in delight?

Are you drawn to the Fey?

Choose, now, to walk in a world of beauty, of delight. Choose, now, to be enchanted by life!

Suggestions, musings and explorations of enchantment in bite-sized kisses in a dainty book, ready to wing its way into your life and guide you through play to the magic that surrounds you every day.

Be enchanted!

Happy thoughts and Pixie Dust,
~Halo x

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.

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.

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!

Faery Mythology – A Story – With Cards

This is a story I have written myself. A story of an imaginary history, a mythology of the separation of human and fey, both as beings and as natures within ourselves. This is a story which I translated into 8 images, 8 cards, cards which can be shuffled and laid out again as the events of this story can happen, really, in any order. It began here, travelled through here, and is now brought together right here…

Are you sitting comfortably?

Love Song to the Faery Queen

Sometimes, our hearts sing.

Sometimes, although the sound may not be clear, and our skill may not be great, sometimes we take a chance and share.

Sometimes, we sing love songs to our ladies, and we know they listen.

Some times, we share our songs in the hopes that somewhere, some time, some one is out there singing too.

(Be gentle, I’m not interested in technical critique, just the spirit of sharing. Thank you.)

Faery light

Standing on the land as the sun rises, beneath your feet you feel a ripple, a gentle pulsing of warmth, growing stronger.

You listen, feeling the vibrations, watching the world become lighter.

You find yourself reminded of a giant heartbeat…

A distant heart in the heart of the world…

Can you feel it?

***********************************************************************

A few days ago I was with a beautiful group of people and, on the last day we were together, we walked across the land before breakfast for one last ritual. Our intention was to connect with the light of Faeryland, and to learn a way in which we could carry this light into the world. Inspired by R. J. Stewart‘s Exercise, The Rising Light Below, I led us all in a trance together as the light of the land rose within us.

Before I share the vision, first, a little theory:

I’ve come across theories on Faeryland, I’ve heard it called the place where nothing changes, the place where every rose is the essence of a rose, rather than a rose itself. R. J. Stewart describes it as though it were a blueprint for our world, and one which we have ignored in the execution of our lives. Instead of working in harmony with the world, we have separated ourselves off and isolated our selves.

I, then, propose that Faeryland and our human world were once the same, whole, together, connected. Over time, we humans learnt ways of manipulating the world around us, ways which got us great power very quickly, and before we realised the damage this would do, we had taken our toys and run off with them, leading to a separation between the land of the Fey, the magical, primal energies of the land, and the world we inhabit wherein we see each thing as an individual, as separate, to be used.

Our world became soulless, because we stopped seeing its heart.

The Faery world drifted away, because we could no longer see life as an interconnected web of beauty in the way we once did. This ‘once upon a time’ may, possibly, have been merely mythological, but given that I know from experience that we are capable of seeing the world as ensouled, and that life is so much better, for me at least, when I do, I figure it matters little whether this was a mythological once upon a time, or a literal one.

Faeryland, then, is the archetype of the world, its heart.

We are disconnected from the heart of the world, and so we see the world as merely something to be used up.

Using up the world, as we are becoming increasingly more aware, leads to pain, suffering, illness, death. Certainly we have had many short term gains, but our livestyles are unsustainable.

Perhaps, I feel, if we are able to remember the heart of the world, to heal the separation between the human world and the Faery world, to reunite body and soul, we may see how to live our lives in a way which does not destroy our beautiful planet, or our spirits.

And yes, I am aware that I have Western privilages, including internet access, and the like. This is one reason I know I need to learn this too.

And so, to the vision…

*********************************************

Go outside.

Feel your feet upon the land.

Feel the heart of the earth, beating.

Feel your heart, beating in time with the earth’s heart.

Feel the heart beat glow, warm and bright, deep within the land.

Feel the light begin to rise, come closer, grow bright.

Feel it flow up and up, the light of Faery within the land, coming close to our world.

Closer and closer.

Until they kiss.

And in the kiss the light flows up into your body and around you, up through your feet, legs, torso, and into your head.

Hold it here, feel it fill you, feel yourself becoming more attuned to the light of Faery.

And then, let it flow gently back down into the earth, leaving a shard of light in your heart.

Just a piece of light, however much or little you can hold easily.

Now let this light grow and feel it throughout your body.

This light in your heart is connected with the light in the land.

Listen, sense, feel.

What do the Fey have to tell you?

What small job do they have for you to do to help heal the separation between the worlds?

Wait until you know, something concrete, simple, doable, practical, precise.

Wait, holding the feeling of the light within you until there is something you can agree to, commit to.

And send an answer to the Fey, the Faery Queen, tell them that you agree to the task they have set you.

Accept, and bid them farewell.

Now let the light dim down to a level you are able to hold comfortably today.

Each morning you can check this light and see if it is at the right level for you, in that day.

If it is too bright, let it dim, and if too dim, let a little light flow from the earth up into your heart to strengthen it.

If ever it feels like you should not be carrying the light at all, or if it is too much to keep it, then let it all flow back into the earth.

Remember your commitment.

Move out into the world carrying the light with you.

Bring the world of Faery and the human world back together.

And remember, you are not alone, all around the world, others are working to heal the separation between the worlds also.

Journalling – HeartSpace

Walking on this path we have promised to be honest, we have begun to make space for our hearts in our lives, and we have learnt how to open the Faery senses.

Let us now put these things together.

Find somewhere comfortable to sit and play.

Open your Faery senses in the way the Faery Queen told you.

Feel the mists between the worlds descend and feel your senses open. Know that you can see with Faery sight, hear with Faery ears, feel with Faery senses.

Sit with your journal and your Heart-Space – your box or bag or whatever called you – and feel what belongs in this bag. Meditate or muse while open on these questions:

What is in my heart?

What fills my heart with love and joy and delight?

What fills my heart with warmth, but I won’t let myself hold?

And what am I holding onto in my heart that I no longer need?

You might want to write or draw or doodle in your journal around these thoughts. You may suddenly realise you have the perfect thing to represent something you would like to hold in your heart and feel compelled to go get it and see how it feels to place it in there.

Feel how your Heart-Space feels to you. Is it missing things? Is it overflowing with love? Is it a little leaky? Are there some things you feel you would never put in there, but would like to just the same?

Allow insights to arise, take your time and come back to this later and see how the answers have changed.

If you would like to, I include some suggestions for journaling below.

Mark out a heart shape in your journal.

What fills your heart?

Fill the shape with images of things that fill your heart with warm/love/Faery

Collage, draw, write, doodle, whatever feels good to you.

What fills you with love?

What would you like to hold in your heart, but are scared to? What do you know fills you with love, but you resist taking it in?

What supports you in bringign your heart into your life?

Surround the heart with things that support your heart/bringing your heart into the world.

You can keep adding to this over time, allowing images to come to you in magazines or leaflets, or drawing them directly onto the page. Allowing words to arise, painting over images, cutting holes… anything that feels like it expresses what you feel would best fill your heart, and that surrounds you with a safe place to express your heart.

Be honest. Be as gentle with yourself as you need to be. Play!

You may want to scan these images and print them out at card size so you can make them into a deck of cards, carry them with you easily, or keep them visible around your home or workplace. You can make these images into wallpaper for your desktop, or posters for your room, or anything that helps you remember who you are. You may want instead to sit with the journal pages and condense them down directly onto a card, drawing or writing out the bits that most resonate into something that can remind you of the whole.

Experiment. Play. Enjoy.

The Next Step: A Full Moon Faery Ritual

The Heart Layout

I developed this card layout in order to help us figure out where we are in ourselves, and how much in tune with our heart our lives are. The idea is to pull three cards, on for each of the words: I Am Here. And to lay them in the shape of a heart, like so:

‘I’ represents your core, the state of your heart now, and/or what is in your heart right now.

‘Am’ represents how you are expressing your heart.

‘Here’ represents your life and situation, the state of the world around you.

Once you have the cards, turn them over and contemplate them, meditate with them, read them however you find best. Play a little. See what they say to you about each part, your essence, your expression, and your life-situation. See if they are working together or in balance, or if something needs to shift.

Then pull a fourth card and lay it over the top of the others.

This card is: Changing.

This card is either that which needs to change in order for the first three points to come into balance, or, if they are already in balance, it points to the next movement, the next cycle, the next direction to keep in balance, in flow.

Now read the fourth card in relation to the first three and contemplate.

Be Honest.

The Next Step: Journalling Around Your Heart