[contents]
chapter two
Connection
Now that we have started to assimilate some background knowledge and experience, it is time to start building connection. This crucial quality is linked to the direction of above and the stars. The stars represent the wisdom of the Divine, the power of destiny, and our own cosmic origins. We all gaze at the same sky in wonder, and hence the stars connect us all.
In this chapter we will learn about why connection is so important and how to involve all our senses in our Faery work. We will spend time on strengthening and balancing our energy in the Becoming the Faery Tree exercise, as well as learning the importance of the voice as a tool and how to use it. We will spend some time learning about the elements and elemental beings, including contemplations performed out in nature in order to increase our awareness and connection. Then, through exploration of the completely original Faery zodiac, we will apply this understanding of the elements and elemental beings to our own personalities, giving us a stronger idea of where our elemental strengths and weaknesses lie, and what manner of beings we might best collaborate with in our Faery Craft.
The Importance of Connection
“If ordinary people really knew that consciousness and not matter is the link that connects us with each other and the world, then their views about war and peace, environmental pollution, social justice, religious values, and all other human endeavors would change radically.”
Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe
One of the most common questions asked about Faery is how to see them. We live in a very visually oriented culture, so it is only natural that we wish to see with our eyes in order to truly believe. Many understand the elusiveness of Faery beings and believe in them regardless, but even so the emphasis on needing to see and the implication that only a chosen few are allowed to can lead to disappointment or, worse, the desperate creation of illusory experience.
Brian Froud, “Connection”
(www.worldoffroud.com)
Illusion is a glamorous and tempting slippery slope, and since it creates experiences from the mind that are designed to make us feel better about ourselves, it is a difficult trap to escape. This is why our approach should be to seek to strengthen our connection with the invisible without placing undue emphasis on making it visible. If you were to go out into the woods and desperately try to see a faerie, you would be unconsciously closing off the perceptive possibilities of the other senses and their mystical extensions, making it less likely that you would directly experience their energies. On the other hand, if you were to work on all of the senses in heightened awareness and use your energy to reach out and perceive the subtle energies around you, you are, in fact, much more likely to experience those energies, and the experience in time may lead to visual as well as auditory and empathic sensations.
In my experience, the true path to Faery is through the heart, not the eyes or head. If we approach with an open heart, free from distrust and the ravages of scientific cynicism, then we will soon feel the presence of the spirit within the land. When we do see Faery, we see it not simply through our eyes but through our whole selves. We see through our hearts, through all our senses, and through all our experiences in life. Thus Faery beings, being of fluid energy and not tied to linear time and physicality as we are, may take on wildly differing appearances from individual to individual, according not only to their nature and what they wish to communicate but also to our perceptive ability, which can be influenced by preconceived ideas.
To hone this ability, learn to connect and perceive through the heart. When we can allow our hearts to become a clear channel of perception—in other words, get ourselves out of the way—those initial emotive and energetic sensations can be translated into communication and images through our trained visual imaginations and mystical senses. Like any explorative rather than dictated spiritual path, it is a thin line to walk, and we must always keep a check on ourselves so that we do not descend into delusion. However, if we form a strong connection with the land, learn to trust and root our experience in practical results and pure intentions, the path before us will remain clear of illusory weeds.
Exercise: Becoming the Faery Tree
The following exercise, which can be performed anywhere, is designed to open up your awareness to the flow of energy within your body and your connection to your surroundings. It will enhance not only your sensitivity to the otherworld, as well as the beings that inhabit it, but with repeated practice will also help you to feel rooted as a part of the landscape, bringing balance and control. It can help connect you to any specific sites in which you perform it, creating sacred space around you.
This is a useful exercise to help ground and focus before any magickal work, especially outdoors, and you can incorporate more elements as you become fluent with the procedure. For example, if you are undertaking magickal work within the landscape or at a sacred site, you may wish to incorporate a call to the spirits of the land at the peak of the exercise as your energies open (suggestions for how to go about this may be found elsewhere in the book). You will find a more advanced version of this exercise later in the book, called Walking in Awareness, but it is wise to become familiar with this simple yet effective version first.
While this may also be performed sitting, standing is preferable. Find a flat and even space to stand, with your feet slightly apart
