Goddess of the Week

This week's Goddess isn't exactly a Goddess, is She? She is Faerie, meaning, representative of all of the magical wild ones of this earth; though I was thinking specifically of the Celtic tradition, which is rich in fairy lore. Per that tradition, She has leaves of the oak, ash and (haw)thorn in Her hair; and She is green, representing the thriving and flourishing forces of Nature.

The word 'fairy' ultimately derives from the Latin fata, the Fates; interestingly enough it seems the word was used first to describe a land of magic and enchantment, in other words Elfland, before it was used on the inhabitants of that land.

This land, this Otherworld, is commonly said to have different rules than the human world; and while it seems that way on a surface level, I have always found (from what I've read, anyway) that their rules make perfect sense, on the level of dreams and intuition. Maybe, that level is the level that is wilder, closer to the land and an 'uncivilized' way of being, one we humans have nearly forgotten; I think we are being reminded to remember it now.

I think this is a call, one that invites us off the boring, beaten path, both the broad broad road and the one beset with thorns and briars, to that bonny bonny road, as they say, the one deep in ferns and bracken.

Did you make any New Year's resolutions this week? How many of them are far too sensible and stifling? This card warns against the, well, not exactly the practical things, but the little dreams, the things you think you have to get in order before you allow yourself to get to the real dreams, the magnificent, wild, gorgeous and startling ones.

We are wild, underneath it all, we humans; we are after all just another kind of animal. We think we are not. This will probably be our downfall; this hubris, and this Othering of a world we are not separate from.

I think we are being advised to shake things up; and it comes with a not-so-subtle warning that if we don't, things will be shaken up for us. This is how faeries operate, or so I've heard.

Take time this week to listen, and to be; pay especial attention to both day dreams and night dreams, and look into the shadows and uncertain places for the little faces peering out. There is something rich to be found there. Some strand has looped close to the surface this week, though it is not the traditional time (in the North, anyway; in the South it absolutely is, having just passed Midsummer's Day); pay attention. A gift is being offered, I think. Not that I can be sure; and anyway it is for you to judge. Keep your wits about you, but think from the heart and that deep dreaming place, and always, always, remember compassion.

I don't know what I shall get if I ask for Her, Their, advice this week, but let's see:

We love you. You are beautiful, and good. You are in alignment already; you do not have to try so hard. You know. You are taking the iron away; we would love you for that alone. But you are lovely too, and make such pretty things!

Plant flowers. Plant a garden, and do not weed it too much. Let it all thrive, the invited and the uninvited. Now? Look at seed catalogs and dream. Now is the time to plant the seeds in your soul; you know this already. So what? Do we have to tell you? Listen to us, don't listen, yes we are the butterfly, you know it, read that book again, read the books that make the child of you happy, the magical ones, the in-between ones. We love in-between. Dig out the old, the forgotten, the magical, find that space again, that twilight realm, the numinous, liminal, all those fancy Roman words, the spirits in the trees and the grass and the nematodes in the soil. Find them, imagine them into being in this dark time, this time just perfect for dreaming.

And make merry. Always make merry.

I think They are right; I've certainly been hankering to read The Last Unicorn again recently (I always had such a crush on Schmendrick, with those long green eyes of his). Find a memory of yours of a magical time, and see if you can't find a way to, if not inhabit that place again, to look in on it a little.

What do you think?