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Then What to Their Wondering Eyes Should Appear
This magickal Yuletide rendition of one of the most famous Christmas poems has become a favorite of mine. When it was originally shared with me in 2018 by a sweet friend, I did post it here on my blog. Today, I share it again with all of my friends, new and old, to ignite an extra bit of enchantment to stir in your heart as we edge to the end of 2020. The poem speaks to the spirit of the season and reminds us of its true nature and reason. It’s thought to be written by C.C. Williford.
Since Christmas Eve holds a most wondrous place in my heart and happens to be Joy’s birthday – my rabbit companion now a star in the bright sky – I felt to share it today, accompanied by a visual delight of our seasonal lights and simple, nature-inspired decorations here in our cozy mountain home on the forest. I’m also adding photos of the office and creative space I share with Astrid – however these lights are what enchant our room year-round. Hehe! Astrid and I love having wonder as our daily partner.
Wonder is a dear friend who has been with me through thick and thin. I never ever take for granted an encounter or experience no matter how often it happens. Every time the snow falls is the first time. Every time a squirrel runs by is a tender moment. Every time I see a tree, plant, landscape, way the light hits is always a sacred encounter. Every time I come across another being is a remembrance igniting a new depth of love. May wonder wander through life with you, enchanting each moment with possibility.
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE YULETIDE
Twas the night before Yuletide and all through the glen
Not a creature was stirring, not a fox, not a hen.
A mantle of snow shone brightly that night
As it lay on the ground, reflecting moonlight.
The faeries were nestled all snug in their trees,
Unmindful of flurries and a chilly north breeze.
The elves and the gnomes were down in their burrows,
Sleeping like babes in their soft earthen furrows.
When low! The earth moved with a thunderous quake,
Causing chairs to fall over and dishes to break.
The Little Folk scrambled to get on their feet
Then raced to the river where they usually meet.
“What happened?” they wondered, they questioned, they probed,
As they shivered in night clothes, some bare-armed, some robed.
“What caused the earth’s shudder? What caused her to shiver?”
They all spoke at once as they stood by the river.
Then what to their wondering eyes should appear
But a shining gold light in the shape of a sphere.
It blinked and it twinkled, it winked like an eye,
Then it flew straight up and was lost in the sky.
Before they could murmur, before they could bustle,
There emerged from the crowd, with a swish and a rustle,
A stately old crone with her hand on a cane,
Resplendent in green with a flowing white mane.
As she passed by them the old crone’s perfume,
Smelling of meadows and flowers abloom,
Made each of the fey folk think of the spring
When the earth wakes from slumber and the birds start to sing.
“My name is Gaia,” the old crone proclaimed
in a voice that at once was both wild and tamed,
“I’ve come to remind you, for you seem to forget,
that Yule is the time of re-birth, and yet…”
“I see no hearth fires, hear no music, no bells,
The air isn’t filled with rich fragrant smells
Of baking and roasting, and simmering stews,
Of cider that’s mulled or other hot brews.”
“There aren’t any children at play in the snow,
Or houses lit up by candles’ glow.
Have you forgotten, my children, the fun
Of celebrating the rebirth of the sun?”
She looked at the fey folk, her eyes going round,
As they shuffled their feet and stared at the ground.
Then she smiled the smile that brings light to the day,
“Come, my children,” she said, “Let’s play.”
They gathered the mistletoe, gathered the holly,
Threw off the drab and drew on the jolly.
They lit a big bonfire, and they danced and they sang.
They brought out the bells and clapped when they rang.
They strung lights on the trees, and bows, oh so merry,
In colors of cranberry, bayberry, cherry.
They built giant snowmen and adorned them with hats,
Then surrounded them with snow birds, and snow cats and bats.
Then just before dawn, at the end of their fest,
Before they went homeward to seek out their rest,
The fey folk they gathered ‘round their favorite oak tree
And welcomed the sun ‘neath the tree’s finery.
They were just reaching home when it suddenly came,
The gold light returned like an arrow-shot flame.
It lit on the tree top where they could see from afar
The golden-like sphere turned into a star.
The old crone just smiled at the beautiful sight,
“Happy Yuletide, my children,” she whispered. “Good night.”
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: Where Heaven & Earth Meet – A Story of Becoming
Let me tell you a little story about a girl who was born looking human like many of you, but what pulsed through her blood was something quite different. Her brother always told her she was more animal (amongst other things) and it made sense given her connection with them. He also used to play telepathic games with her to test his intuition about these “other” parts he felt her to be. It was a bit unnerving when she discovered the game.
At age 12 her first rabbit companion came into her life and this changed everything. No longer did she feel quite so alone when looking at the stars. Her rapid heart rate when under duress or moving her body physically, mirrored that of rabbit. In rabbit, she found solace. Where there had not been an anchor to Earth, rabbit became the way shower to deepen into her chosen embodiment.
Life grew more challenging and at every turn of greater intensity and needed transformation, another rabbit companion would find her. The relationships deepened beyond outside human understanding. And it made sense to the little girl, now woman, that these souls in rabbit bodies were the only ones who could reach her.
Their starry essence was disguised to outsiders, but to the woman stardust was all she saw. And although quite Cosmic, these rabbits were so connected to Earth’s womb that it supported the woman’s journey to the union of spirit and body.
As the years went on, and through deep loss of her soul family in rabbit bodies, she came to know herself even more. Through pain she grew. To her surprise, her heart expanded with every trauma and, again, it was rabbit that taught her the gift within every experience.
When offered the invitation to be with them forever, she chose to stay and be as they had been for her – a way shower to unify spirit and body and bridge peace and harmony on Earth. Through that choice life changed in every way, beyond what she could have imagined possible.
Through that choice, I found her, and was also supported into greater alignment I had been waiting for.
Nature became the cathedral where essence was easily accessible. Here she could hear the whispers of all remnants of stars within every creation before her. And that included herself.
It became easy to drop into her own nature, by listening to the stories within every cycle unraveling before her. And as rabbits do, she found her joy playing in Earth’s realm. Her senses heightened, her body strengthened, and agility of being increased. There were times to go deeper underground and times to leap with elation. Times to be on high alert and times to lay still and listen. Even the foods she ate and loved, mirrored her rabbit friends and her world made sense through these new eyes.
Rabbit and woman were one.
It’s been incredible to watch this unfolding and with every day of her transformation comes a deepening to our bond as well.
I am able to go with her on every adventure she takes because we have merged through this evolution, too.
There is no separation. Essence brings Unity.
I love the journeys she takes me on daily in the mountainous forests where we live. I can feel the snowflakes on my nose, as they kiss hers. I hear the chickadees in my large ears, as they sing to her. I smell the fresh pine through my twitching nose, as she luxuriates in their aroma. I binky with joy when she becomes elated with wonder. I feel nurtured by the vibrations beneath my large thumpers, as she walks with deliberate and present footsteps.
And most of all my heart expands as hers does, every time she drops into essence and becomes both Heaven and Earth.
~Astrid
Monday Musings ~ The Writer’s Corner: Magickal Rituals & Tales from the Forest Portal
While I’m immersed in painting portal flow working on an author’s book cover, creative writing has been coming through me in small channeled snippets during a mini novel break. I love how everything interweaves together and supports the other. So, in my own short book hiatus, I’m still very much writing and book focused, with simple musings and artistic inspirations. These are two recent channelings that came through, inspired by the forest and my enchanted garden, which I shared on Instagram and compiled together for my sweet blog friends. I hope you enjoy and/or find your own inspirations from them. One friend called the tree channeling a magickal spell in ritual. In both musings, the words glided through me, but were both me and not me. Enjoy.
INVITATION TO THE GRAND SUMMER BALL
The flower faeries are beginning to appear and invitations to the Grand Summer Ball have gone out.
Some can hardly wait and have thrown on their gowns while they make preparations.
They are the way-showers for all the new faeries of this realm and ensure pollinator guests for when they make their appearance.
The mainstay perennial hosts have returned with vigor and in some cases multiplied with glee. They are cycling in intervals with many yet to bloom and others taking the plunge into early brilliance. They encircle the enchanted garden bed – the ballroom stage for this yearly celebration – awaiting the tiny green shoots newly seeded this year that carpet the realm.
You can’t make them out, but I assure you they sprout with glee to reach the sunshine and join the dance. Sparkling butterfly and dragonfly guardians decided to watch over the garden this year too, and send out beacons to all their family, inviting them to what could likely be the biggest celebration this realm has yet to see.
There’s even been an addition to the serving stations to ensure all forest creatures can easily hydrate during the jubilee. Alongside the larger standing water bowl and bath anchored with a quartz crystal center, there’s now a small sunflower dish with bird hosts watched over by a pair of rabbits with solar succulents that light the way for forest creatures of the in between hours. In this way the ground dwellers like rabbits and mice can sip of its contents, while the birds, chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, and opposums can continue enjoying the higher water station.
There is much excitement and many whispers throughout the land, calling in the seen and unseen creatures of the forest portal.
Summer Solstice is near and everyone is doing their part to make it a beautiful celebration.
* * * * * * * * * *
GREAT TREE
Oh Great Tree your roots carry the whispers of times forgotten, your branches see times yet to come, and yet your strength is in the presence you bear witness to unconditionally.
You are a portal to your Mother, The Cosmic Tree, through which multidimensional experience is woven.
Pressing my heart to yours I remember.
The Stuff Faery Tales Are Made Of
Faery tales embody the simple and complex at the same time and are a way to communicate truths through wonder and to bring magick to the child within who holds the keys to alchemy. Faery tales, in my book, do matter and I have made it a focus to bring my own version of them to life in one way or another, as I believe there is an unseen world where other realities exist and are available to experience here and now. What we discover is how our imagination is the doorway to live the enchantment that exists, as the essence of the universe at large.
Faery tales journey us through challenges, fears, and dangers, while revealing that things aren’t always as they seem and connecting us with our deepest desires through transformational adventures.
I’ve definitely experienced all of this and find myself with a better understanding of my life through discovery of spiritual insights uncovered along the twists and turns that revealed the fantastical as real.
So, do I believe in Faery tales?
Indeed I do and I believe we are all living and creating one – each our own – with shared themes playing out creatively across the collective.
Where things are unclear and hard to understand, I believe magick explains the why’s. After all, we are the greatest miracle embodied, and it’s hard to imagine we aren’t living magickal lives because of that. I do believe a wizard lies within each of us to remember.
And although my life may look or seem more Faery tale-like now, I assure you that all the tragedy, so-called villains, brushes with death, and character arcs that truly make the full gamut of a true Faery tale, have been journeyed through more than their fair share along my adventures in humanity on Earth. And even those experiences were filled with the miraculous and magickal, despite the less than desired ideals we gravitate toward because, after all, everything is part of the divine and sacred oneness that we are.
This is the inner journey of alchemy – some call it the hero’s or heroine’s journey – Deepak Chopra calls it “The Way of the Wizard,” sharing my own feeling on the magickal you, you’ve forgotten that you are.
It’s become more obvious to me, how I’m consciously creating a reality that breathes of Faery tales and whispers of enchantment, which has included the duality that every tale travels through.
And while the villains and tragedies are no longer the focal point of my story, I still get the opportunity to live out the actualization of what I’ve learned and discovered along the way in how I process and maintain my Faery tale peace within the collective kingdom at large – invoking more of the wizard within to step forth so I may see through her eyes of trust and experience the oneness of my own being – the end becoming the beginning.
Saturday felt like another layer added to my Faery tale, and as you can see in the photos of me in the forest, I was feeling the magick indeed.
Something about wearing this gown was very shifting and we decided to capture a photo in our backyard forest before heading out. So, I walked out barefoot and these two photos were taken in the two minutes we had to spare before leaving.
When I saw the photo at the end of this post, I noted that difference I felt, coming through in the visual of embodiment. I did, in fact, feel the totality of my Faery tale and this additional character arc that is taking me on a new beginning from a naturally culminating end.
It was my parent’s 50th golden anniversary, which is a Faery tale story and milestone, in and of itself, and I felt called to wear a long gown that featured a giraffe couple – perfect for this celebration with their gentleness of spirit, beauty, gracefulness, elegance, and tenderness. I’m so grateful to have them as parents and feel blessed to be able to witness these years their love has been a guiding force in our lives.
They have definitely been living their full gamut Faery tale that all began once upon a time when a young, beautiful girl living in an old village of cobbled streets nestled at the foot of a castle in southern France was sent off to college in England by her poor family where she met her Italian prince charming from Hoboken, New Jersey who was sent overseas by his working-class family to complete his education too.
The rest is history.
They are true twin souls journeying the Cosmos together eternally, as this photo so perfectly captures.
I haven’t followed in their exact footsteps for sure, but the foundation they created has been a stabilizing and guiding factor for all that my spirit had in mind for me.
Perhaps it’s because I step out in my own version of Faery tale shoes. 😉
Can you say bunny love? (Despite my giraffe gown, I stay true to my rabbit roots)
And every morning I’m greeted by this enchanted Forest Portal we live on, and an enchanted office named Wonderland, with an extraordinarily enchanted bunny named Astrid, awaiting me.
While I do many mundane, seemingly unextraordinary things each day, they are made possible because of the miracle body I live in, and enhanced by the magickal surroundings I’ve dreamed up and created for myself.
I continue to watch my office evolve into more and more of the whimsical imagination within my child heart and can’t tell you how happy I feel and supported by all of the energies and beings that inhabit it with Astrid and me.
Every single thing has meaning, purpose, and carries a specific frequency of energy that speaks to the Faery tale story of my life and every experience I’ve had or am creating from the “future” backwards.
It is the 45 year old, adult version of my inner child, revered and cherished. And it is from this place of whimsy embodied that I dream up the new and bring my book and any other dreams alive.
I don’t know what the future holds with anything. I just know that I’ll live fully every interesting twist to the path in the forest, where ever they may lead. It’s my Faery tale to create and so it is that I will!
And Faery tales wouldn’t be complete without a Faery wand!
Meet Harmony.
I recently had the opportunity to channel a new Mystery Magick Crystal Wand for a sweet and magickal spirit in Romania, and this is what came through.
Harmony is such a pure and, of course, harmonious embodiment of cosmic love, empowerment, transformation, self-awareness, creative birthing, and bringing forth gifts of the heart for humanity.
This is the only wand I’ve created outside in Nature. I created half of it while on the shore of Fallen Leaf Lake – the birth place of its beautiful wood branch. And the forest and waters there infused it with their song. I then completed the rest on the forest and garden of our home.
It’s quite a unique wand with a Triple Goddess Lemurian Phantom Quartz as a point! Woah! Can you say wow?! I had no idea that the crystal choosing to be the focal point had all of this going on until I looked and felt deeper into it.
It is a 5-sided Isis crystal as well and with three faces having 5 sides, we get that Triple Goddess effect. It actually has only 3 faces, which is unusual, as the other three triangular sides do not create faces, but simply create triangular points.
And you can see the phantom very clearly. A phantom looks like another crystal inside mirroring the shape, but ethereal (white or colored material – in this case gray). These phantoms provide indication of the experiences and transformations of the crystal’s evolution, represent the many phases of life you experience in a lifetime, helps to break through limitations, and grow beyond fear and blocks. They also help bring humanity together to support the planet.
Then along the shaft we have 3 Super Seven crystals that are super magickal little worlds of their own, one double terminated Rose Quartz, and one double terminated Chevron Amethyst, as you can see in these photos at the lake just after I completed that phase of the creation.
Super Seven creates a powerhouse of healing crystal energy to the wand’s embodiment bringing together the seven stones within it in combination with the other three types of crystals found on this creation. It can assist in all endeavors and helps to bring conscious awareness to the most challenging things that have been hidden or repressed within you. It is very protective and enhances psychic energies, while being energizing and expansive.
Rose Quartz creates the wand’s embodiment and focus of universal, unconditional love and helps restore harmony and trust, balances and opens the heart chakra, promotes all levels of love including self-love, brings calm and peace to healing, and encourages forgiveness and self-worth.
Chevron Amethyst creates the wand’s embodiment of peace, inner strength and courage, promotes self-discovery, helps remove resistance to change and helping oneself, dissipates negative energies, builds trust in intuition, cleanses, supports meditation and crown chakra illumination, amplifies energies for manifestation, and helps diminish potential addictive tendencies and recovery of any present addictions.
All entwined with rose gold wire enhanced by rose satin cord (that creates little rosettes throughout where knots are needed), and then anchored with two larger and perfect, darker twin Goose feathers, with one pure white Goose feather at center of the two – all silky and luminescent in quality.
The Goose and its feathers embody loyalty, forging ahead with bravery and confidence, teamwork and comradery, protection, clear communication, determination, dedication, fellowship, fidelity, fertility, the balance of knowing when to lead or follow, compassionate keepers of the community and embody the sacred circle and sanctity of the cycles of life, astute navigation, discernment of life path and choices, teamwork, protection, and committed responsibility. Geese never leave one of their own behind for any reason. They will stay with the sick and injured until they are either well again, or to support them as they transition.
The twin energy of the two larger Goose feathers brings together that which is within, merged, so that that without will reflect this integration and harmony. The white feather is the transmutational bridge that integrates it all with grace and purity. I have the white feather anchored strongly at center, while the two twin feathers are free flowing to the sides.
They ask you to remember your origins, to trust your intuition, communicate your needs and vulnerabilities, and honor and protect what is most of value.
Having a wand is a perfect and active way to focus energies while also a way of waving magick infusions into everything you are creating.
It was the perfect project for me to channel right now during my in-between book journey while I work on preparing the next phases after my editor returns it to me. It helps me to percolate the energies and keep momentum, as I want to preserve that enchantment and creative imagination to be ready for the leap to come. This is one of the things that has kept that going.
And in the meantime, I continue to imagine with great clarity, dream big, surround myself with everything that speaks to my essence, imbibe the frequencies I intend for the story of life I’m creating, and live as boldly and courageously as possible, as the character of my own Faery tale.
There’s definitely been an increased awareness around waking dreams and seeing how every part of the journey is a part of the creative story being woven.
We are the story tellers and story keepers of life unfolding. Faery tales have many twists and turns and are filled with imagination creating the embodiment of experiences that encompass the alchemy of you.
I Haven’t Forgotten the Way, Have You?
Faery light – taken at the Getty gardens
“There is such a place as fairyland – but only children can find the way to it. And they do not know that it is fairyland until they have grown so old that they forget the way. One bitter day, when they seek it and cannot find it, they realize what they have lost; and that is the tragedy of life. On that day the gates of Eden are shut behind them and the age of gold is over. Henceforth they must dwell in the common light of common day. Only a few, who remain children at heart, can ever find that fair, lost path again; and blessed are they above mortals. They, and only they, can bring us tidings from that dear country where we once sojourned and from which we must evermore be exiles. The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and story-tellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.” ~L.M. Montgomery, The Story Girl
Enchanted Lily Tree in the Getty gardens – a Faery delight to linger in
Tania Marie 