Frolicking
with Fairies
an article by Susun S. Weed
My
friend Elsa always talked to plants. I thought she
was crazy. Safely insane, but definitely disassociated
from reality. Until the plants laughed at me.
Autumn of 1980, returning home from a rare dinner
out after a healing intensive at my land in the
Catskills, I stopped to get my mail. An unusual
envelope contained a $500 money order, signed "Mother
Nature" and this note: "It's my birthday and I could
think of no better gift than giving you the means
to build a shelter for your teaching."
How wonderful. How perplexing. Even way back then,
$500 would not put down a floor, let alone walls
or a roof! What building could I create with such
a large gift of such a small sum? In a waking dream
I saw the answer.
I bought a tipi. It arrived. I put it up. I decided
to sleep in it, at least until it got too cold.
Have you ever slept outside? If so, you know it
is very noisy outside at night. The dark is filled
with sounds: mosquitoes and katydids, crickets and
frogs, geckos and bats, whippoorwills and coyotes.
Those sounds soon became background noise to my
nights in the tipi.
Background to the thunderous noises made by the
monsters just outside the tipi. It's amazing how
loud a small animal moving in the dark is. No monsters
were out there, of course, just the night shift:
possums, skunks, raccoons, flying squirrels, and
the occasional deer. As I began to recognize the
"monster" sounds, they became business-as-usual
noises, and I relaxed even more. That's when the
laughter began.
At first it was a quiet chuckle, mirth contained.
Then it grew and swelled until it was a belly laugh.
Like the rolling of thunder across my mountains,
the laughter spread and reverberated.
"Who
is laughing?" I thought. "We are," came the reply
in my mind.
"Who?"
"Us, the plants."
"Wow!
I am." "That's how people learned to use us. They
listened to us. Just as you are."
Thus began my lessons from the plants. They have
continued until this very day. And will, most likely,
continue at least until my death.
"I
want everyone to be able to hear you," I told the
plants one summer. "No problem," the plants replied.
"Remove
your shoes and socks; allow the energy of the earth
and the energy of the stars to mingle in your body.
Take off your glasses and contact lenses; allow
yourself to see as you see, not as you are supposed
to see. Spend less time at high speeds in metal
containers; allow your timing to be set by the sun
and the moon, the season and the weather. Sleep
in a round structure. Our voices get caught in corners."
Do you want to contact the devic realm? Find the
fairies? Talk with the plants?
The simple answer is: "Be in Nature, not on your
terms, but on Hers. Put your bare feet on the ground.
Be quiet. Be receptive."
The slightly more complicated answer is: "Choose
one wild plant, small or large. Breathe with it
for at least ten minutes every day. Be barefoot.
Be quiet. Be receptive."
As you open, you will discover chaos. When asked
how to distinguish a wild plant from a cultivated
one, I say: "Cultivated plants are neatly planted;
wild plants flourish in chaos."
Chaos is a treat to fairies and a threat to humans.
We like fixity, and dislike change. Nature knows
that fixity is death. Life is change. Balance is
the step before death. Life is dynamic disequilibrium,
never static. Life grows, changes, ages, gets diseased,
rots, molds, and is recycled into more life; it
is never perfect, never done. Life is chaotic. Death
is rigid. It resists and refuses to interact; it
holds itself aloof; it is in control.
Nature is chaotic. It doesn't like straight lines.
When I am in the woods, the path curves, the trees
have fallen helter-skelter, the wildflowers bloom
in impossible, improbable places, there is always
a miracle. To describe the living presence of Nature
in her creative chaotic wholeness, we can use the
words "deva" and "fairy". Fairies flee gardens planted
in neat rows. To attract fairies, practice being
at ease with being a little out of control.
Are fairies and devas different? Fairies are in
the middle of it all; devas are "above it all".
Fairies are local; devas are international. Fairies
are flighty, flirty, changeable; devas are responsible,
staid, dependable. Fairies sparkle; devas emanate.
Fairies party; devas oversee. Fairies may be invited
into one's garden; no one would dare ask a deva
to do anything. (A deva may well ask you to do something,
however.)
Lore and legend have it that the fairies spend half
the year underground and half the year above ground.
The fairy gate opens May 1, on May Day. It closes
October 31, on the Day of the Dead. Fairies only
frolic in wild places, so leave a little corner
of your cultivated land wild - a "Fairy Corner"
where chaos can reign.
To invite the fairies: On or near to May Day Eve,
eat delicious foods, drink ravishing drinks, enjoy
stirring music - better yet - make intoxicating
music, sing, dance, take off your clothes, expand
your senses, fall in love. If you invite fairies
to your home and grounds, remember: Fairies love
fun, best to laugh at what they do. Fairies love
to confuse things, best to delight in it. For fairies
can be mean, and if you're sullen, they can cause
all number of small ills. It is said that fairies
like milk and pineapples. It is not unwise to leave
them small gifts.
"We
are the devas. We are the fairies. We are the trees.
We are the rocks. We are the blooming plants and
the floating spoors. We are the voice of Nature.
We are Green Blessings."
Susun
Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com
and www.ashtreepublishing.com
For
permission to reprint this article, contact us at:
susunweed@herbshealing.com
Vibrant,
passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered
an international reputation for her groundbreaking
lectures, teachings, and writings on health and
nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches
with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic
knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman,
her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging
and often profoundly provocative.
Susun
is one of America's best-known authorities on herbal
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This
article is © copyright Susun
S. Weed Republished here with kind permission. |