During the Goldenrod Gathering this past weekend, some Honorary Earth Children helped fairies find their home in the Willow Grove by following clues from one medicinal plant to the next. The children lit up when we began to talk about the fairy folk. They shared stories about their encounters and were happy to help them.
The next herbal fairy scavenger hunt will be taking place at Berea Urban farm, most likely on September 23rd @ 10am. All ages are welcome to investigate and gather healing herbs.
I am currently back in Minnesota where I was born and raised. Every time I return, I am reminded of the once-magical forest of my youth. Now in its place stand oversized houses and black pavement. I felt myself become like concrete as I grew up, but somewhere within my 20s that concrete began to split, and wild plants began to erupt out of me. These wild plants were my lifelines to guide me back to myself.
My spirit has grown much wilder than in my youth, and now we hold the greatest honor to care for a little one as she grows within a biodiverse place. This place that we have fondly called Plantasia is where we proudly hold our role as fierce guardians, and co-creators with this absolutely gorgeous land. I am in awe as my husband sees visions of planting diverse fruit trees and shrubs, and as I continue to receive sight for growing flowers and herbal medicine gardens.
What fascinates my interest are those who create deeply spiritual relationships with the land. These include Dorothy Maclean who spoke with the Nature Spirits to grow robust gardens at Findhorn Gardens; Pam Montgomery and Elliot Cowan who have popularized plant spirit medicine within the United States; and peoples still connected within an intact culture who are deeply enmeshed with the life and spirits around them.
I too want to do right in honoring the land and the spirits who dwell with us at Plantasia.
This past season I had found a hand-sized fairy stone - a stone with a hole through it. I wanted to find a special place to gift this stone to the fairies/nature spirits of the land. I felt guided to a sacred spot, in front of an Oak Tree. While there I felt an impulse to speak with the Earth-loving, forest-dwelling creature known as Pan. I asked, “How do I know if I am truly communing with you and the nature spirits?”
In my mind a response came that surprised me, and I don’t find myself witty enough to make it up, so it must have come in another way. Where do any of our thoughts arise from anyway?
A story came through. It went something like this.
There once was a man who believed in nothing. It didn’t matter what he did or what he said, and he preferred it this way. He went from place to place doing as he pleased and he didn’t stop for anything. He ended up ravaging and bringing about great destructive forces. And when he didn’t have anywhere else to go he eventually turned on himself.
There was another man who did believe in something. What it was I couldn’t tell you, but he believed. And in his belief he knew he had to keep his heart pure and loving. He made adorning offerings to this and to that, and so wherever he went, beauty followed him. The Earth was richer due to his faith and when he took his last breath, there was a smile across his face.
Since the New Moon, I have been realizing the power of staying connected with an inner divine energy—this peacefulness at our essence of being. It is here where we can feel the loving communing energy with those around us. It is here from which the greatest insights emerge.
I heard on a podcast the other day how thoughts and external circumstances are much like clouds. They pass by. We do not have to cling to them. This Earthly existence is temporal, but there is a greater eternal power we are all connected with. By attaching to this greater internal/eternal rhythm rather than the temporary circumstances, we are able to live more closely to the latter man in the story. And so I have been taking this idea into my own practices, and I find myself feeling steadier.
This inner divine feeling reminds me of how I feel when sitting with the bees as though I am embraced by a strong loving essence. In various traditions bees are known as being connected with the physical and spiritual planes of existence. There is a Celtic ritual in which one shares with the bees when a holy event occurs known as “Telling the Bees.” So before I left I told them all about my brother’s wedding we are about to attend. Yes, Aurora is the flower girl!
It also seems that flowers are embedded into every great transition within our lives that connects us with a holy moment, so I reckon if there’s any place to start believing in something, I believe it’s in the garden. No wonder Eden was called a garden. It is truly a divine place to bee.
With love,
Sacha Louise and the bees