FAIRY MAGIC FOR BELTANE

Hi all!  I will be back at the Triple Goddess tomorrow to demonstrate some uses for fairy cards, in honor of the great fairy festival of Beltane.  In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about ways that we can enjoy a good relationship with the fairy folk.

When we look at the role the fairies play in so many different cultural traditions, we see that the fairies’ activities raise the vital energy that enlivens the universe.  Or maybe I should say, “multiverse.”  Actually, I like the Buddhist convention of talking in terms of “the ten thousand world systems.”  When viewed from that perspective, there can also be many different types of fairy realms, and other realms that can feel the influence of fairy magic.

 

So, if so much of fairy magic is spreading well being, what can we do to generate some good energy to keep the fairies going?  Well, traditionally, some of the most basic things are 1) acknowledging the fairies and their good work through greetings and ritual, 2) setting out suitable offerings, 3) creating beauty--as beautiful words, gestures, things, and places give fairies delight, and 4) engaging in celebrational activities, because festive energies revitalize fairy life.  Of course, in planning your celebrations, be sure to acknowledge the fairies by inviting their participation, set out foodstuffs such as miniature sweets or pour libations in their honor, and be creative about ways to bring beauty and grace into the festivities.

Of course, working with the different fairy decks is another way of acknowledging fairies.  So, now I have something personal to relate.  After drafting the above three paragraphs, I got up to read some fairy cards for myself, as I am about to go out on a walk, and wanted something to muse over, as well as some fairy companions to accompany me.  Well, seconds after pulling cards from assorted decks—and I’m talking seconds, because I don’t think even a minute had passed—I found my little gold mano cornuta necklace & pendant, which I have been looking for for two weeks, and had given up for lost, figuring it had fallen off during one of my walks.  I think the little folk are trying to tell me something, in affirming their existence.  Incidentally, some of the cards I drew were the Brownie from the Mason-Franklin “Fairy Ring” deck, and “Gawtcha,” a fairy type that catches you unawares, from the Froud “Faeries Oracle.”   So, one of my errands today will be to buy a fancy cupcake to set out as an offering, since fairy magic should always be acknowledged with gratitude.

Deck Mixing with Faery/Fairy Oracles

At last Sunday’s workshop, we looked at ways that fairy energies can be experienced in everyday life.  To do this, each person had first drawn a “faery friend,” from Brian Froud’s Faeries Oracle.  (Refer to the last post on doing a little greeting ritual to enlist the faery friend’s helpful energies.)  Next, we took out different tarot decks or other types of oracle decks, while posing questions like, “Please show me how my faery friend can be active in my life.”  Then, one inserts the faery card into the deck, anywhere, then pulls it out again along with the cards to either side of it. That nature of the flanking cards can tell you something about the area of life where you have the potential to encounter some fairy magic. 

As discussed elsewhere in this blog, areas of life where a person can experience some fairy magic include anything we do to commune with nature, engaging the spirits of one’s home and land, Ancestor World connections, creative work and craftsmanship, and the life of dreams and the imagination.  Some other things to think about while contemplating your reading include: Do the fairy’s energies harmonize with the flanking cards?  If the overall reading is positive, how can you turn it into a spell to manifest those good energies?  If the overall reading is negative, how can you alter your dream of reality to bring in more positive influences?

You can also frame your questions for advice, such as, “Please show me how I can activate some fairy magic in my life.”  In that case, you would interpret the cards as offering suggestions for things you can do to access those fairy world energies.

This technique of inserting a card from one type of deck into a quite different type of deck in order to enlarge your understanding can be used for a number of other purposes beside fairy readings.  For example, if you have a particular tarot card that keeps recurring in your readings, to learn more about how that particular card’s qualities are active in your life, you could get out a different type of oracle deck, and insert your tarot card into it while shuffling and posing the question, “How do the energies of such-and-such-a-card operate in my life?”

Fun with Faery Friends

On Sunday I will be demonstrating some things you can do with fairy-themed oracle decks, particularly with Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Oracle, and, if time permits with Mason and Franklin’s Fairy Ring deck.  On previous occasions when I have taken people through exercises with these decks, some people have told me that they already own the decks, but never actually use them.  (A lot of people buy decks as collectors, or just because they like the art.)  One of the things I have been hoping to accomplish through my workshops and through my writing is to offer ways that we can add a little bit of enchantment to daily life, and at the same time get more use and pleasure out of our card decks and other materia magica.  (This includes putting everyday objects to magical uses.)

By the way, you don’t have to own or purchase any of the fairy decks or other decks to participate in the activities planned for Sunday’s session, but I will be giving out “Faery Friends,” (cards from the Froud deck), for people to take home as talismans.  (I get a supply of extra cards to use as give-aways by buying used decks in good condition; if you like the idea of handing out talismanic cards to friends, this is something that could also be done with spare tarot decks and other types of decks.)  When giving out the Faery Friends, I have people go through a little ritual, because some of the faeries in the Froud deck (as well as other fairy-themed decks) can be tricksters.  Others are associated with the darker side of nature, though the Frouds emphasize that all of their faerie personalities—even the scary ones—are there to serve as teachers.

The ritual is a simple greeting.  As you pull a card from the deck, say something like, “I greet you friends in the world of Faery.  Show me your friendly faces, show me your happy faces.  Come and be my friends today.”  When you perform this ritual, even the dark fairies or trickster fairies will use their unique talents to help you.  Fairies will help people when politely asked for help, because it’s part of the Fairy Code—and because asking for help is in itself a magical act.

Upcoming themes: Faery World and the Magic of Flowering

Looking forward to my next workshop: because the month of May opens with Beltane, which is an important festival in fairy lore, I turn my thoughts to special things we can do with fairy-themed tarot decks and oracle cards.  My magical chat session for May will be on the 6^th, (the first Sunday in May), at the Triple Goddess, from 1pm to 3pm.

I particularly like to work with Brian Froud’s “Faeries' Oracle” cards, because the faery personalities portrayed more directly engage the viewer.  (Some of the Froud faeries are from traditional lore, while others are “revealed” faeries.)  I also use the “Fairy Ring” oracle by Paul Mason and Anna Franklin, which portrays fairy types from the British Isles.  Along with these, we might bring in some tarot decks that work fairies into tarot illustrations.

Another theme for May is “the magic of flowering,” because this is when so many wild flowers as well as other flowers are in bloom.  (This follows the “magic of opening,” which we discussed in relation to the beginning of April.)  Faeries are concerned with flowering because traditionally, the good energies raised by their dances, revels, and processions enhance Nature’s fertility.  Because fairies appreciate beauty, laughter, and celebration, anything you do to generate these qualities energizes the fairies, which in turn sends more good energy to the green-sphere and to what my friend Fred Adams called “the Imagination of the Earth,” Gaia Chthon.  There are all kinds of theories about who or what fairies are, but I believe a number of fairy encounters are contacts between human minds and various intelligences in Nature, including the Imagination of the Earth.

So, among other things, I’m planning the usual exercises for May, which include giving out “Faery Friends” (Froud cards) as talismans to keep, pairing the Faery Friends with Doreen Virtue “Fairy Messages” cards to give the faeries a voice, and inserting the faery cards into regular tarot decks and other decks, to see how Faery World energies might open/blossom out into other areas of our lives.  Even if you’ve seen these techniques demonstrated before, there is always something new to learn about cultivating relationship with Faerie.

Faeries and Flowering on May 1st

This Sunday is May 1st, popularly known as May Day or Beltane. Because it is the first Sunday of the month, I will be back at the Triple Goddess from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Because Beltane is a big day for the powers of Faerie, I will be demonstrating techniques using various faery oracle cards, and ways that we can relate to our faery friends. As with all of my “magical chats,” even if you came out for previous sessions, feel free to come back, because the cards are always leading us to new discoveries.

The other theme for the day is “the magic of flowering,” as May is a month when the woodland wildflowers, as well as many of our favorite garden flowers, are at their prime, plus the time around May 1st is the Floralia celebration honoring the goddess of flowers. Some people may think that a goddess of flowers would be kind of frivolous, and something of an afterthought in pagan religion, but this is not the case, as this was one of the Romans’ most ancient festivals, and they took this six-day festival quite seriously. According to E. O. James, “there is every indication that it began as a rustic feast connected perhaps with Aphrodite as the goddess of flowering plants (Antheia), held at the appropriate season at the end of April” [170].

Floral imagery is used extensively in the RWS versions of the tarot. In psychological symbolism, flowers can represent processes of growth within the psyche. For example, in discussing the fairy tale “Jorinda and Joringel,” Jungian analyst Sibylle Birkhauser-Oeri discusses how the hero dreams of a blood-red flower which provides a solution to his problem, explaining, “The flower thus represents a natural process of growth which takes place somewhere in the psyche without the conscious mind initially being aware of it” [“The Mother” 54]. In folk magic, (particularly in Mexican and South American shamanism), the idea of flowering relates to manifesting good luck. So, we shall also do tarot readings to discover areas of life where we can experience the magic of flowering.

By the way, I was going through Arthur Edward Waite’s book, “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot,” to see what he says about floral symbolism, when I glanced at his write-up on The Empress card, and saw something related to the magic of opening as discussed in the previous post, but also ties in with the current topic: “In another order of ideas, the card of the Empress signifies the door or gate by which an entrance is obtained into this life, as into the Garden of Venus … ” [83].

Now, I’m sorry to have to announce that there will be no Triple Goddess session for the month of June, because I am going to have to make a trip to California to attend to some family concerns. However, if the plan should change, I will announce that here.