I can't believe summer is already, what a busy time it was for Fairy Hollow Gift Shop. I have added so many products to the store, mostly Personalized Wedding and Baby Shower Favors, Baptism Favors, Invitations...it keeps me very busy, but I love it!  I have a sale going on right now on all my Seed Packet Favors, sale ends on November 1st.

I have also joined FaceBook and have a site for Fairy Hollow Gift Shop. If you would like to join, please click on the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coulterville-CA/Fairy-Hollow-Gift-Shop/165556670775#

Have a great day...and Fairy Blessings to you!

Greetings to all that come across this blog...your portal to the Fairy Realm...welcome!
It's been awhile since I last posted, life is very busy lately.  I hope you like the topic, Modern Fairy Encounters..

Modern Fairy Encounters

Author J. R. R. Tolkien’s fairy encounters began in the trenches of World War I, where he experienced unusual nature energies that opened the doorway into the world of the fairy.  In 1692, Robert Kirk, the minister of  Aberfoyle, Scotland, encountered fairies while he was walking on their hill, a short distance from the parsonage.  This experience had a profound effect on his life.  Nobel laureate author W.B. Yeats, who had several fairy encounters of his own, said “Only we who have neither simplicity nor wisdom have denied them (the fairies), and the simple of all times, and the wise ones of ancient times have seen them and even spoken to them.”

Each of these people had fairy experiences that had a profound effect on their lives. 

In 1976 Brian Froud’s  life changed forever when he moved to the small country village of Chagford in Devon, England. Up until that time he had lived in London and worked as a graphic artist.  London is a huge city with lots of buildings and people, and being a graphic artist was about drawing and painting what other people pay you to draw or paint.  These assignments often took him outside.  As Brian walked through the forests of oak and ivy across the wild expanses of Dartmoor, he began to hear words and stories whispered by the land with its wealth of folklore and myth. These encounters with nature began opening him up to the realm of the fairy.  He began to draw the images of the magical beings he encountered, producing the fascinating books Faeries and Good Faeries, Bad Faeries.

“They were all around me, tangible pulses of energy, spirit, emotion, and light.  They took on form as they stepped into my art, cloaked in shapes of nature and myth,” reflects Froud.  These fairy creatures guided, disrupted, enchanted, and plagued his daily life while visibly inspiring his pictures in every way.

Nothing is made up in his fairy art; the images come from direct fairy communications.

Brian Froud’s experience is similar to the modern fairy encounters.  These encounters occur more often in a natural setting, where the land is wild and undeveloped.  In addition, folklore says that the fairies only bestow their magic on those who are sincere, good at heart, kind and gentle, truthful, open-minded and relaxed, and most of all respectful.

Fairy encounters happen at places and times when two points or elements come together.  Examples include between the sea and the land, where mountains meet the flatlands, where woodlands blend into meadowlands, where a tree trunk meets the earth, and where a river winds through its stone and earthen riverbed.  Magical encounters also frequently occur during times when light and dark converge such as at dawn and dusk. Optimum sites for encounters include fairy circles and mounds (In a later blogg I will teach you how to make a faerie ring), wondrous caves, and bubbling creeks that speak to your inner spirit.

When you encounter fairies, elves, and other magical creatures it feels like no other experience,  It can either bring an immense amount of magic or mischief, depending on you, your attitude, and the fairies themselves.  When it brings magic, the encounter takes on divine proportions, and at that point, anything is possible.  What qualifies as a miracle or act of magic is a matter of who induced the event. 

When God creates a rainstorm in a drought it is called a miracle, but if a fairy or elf creates the same rainstorm, it would be call magic.  The difference is in how you perceive it.  Miracles have divine implications, whereas magic is viewed as slight of hand or something that is not as it seems because it attempts to deceive onlookers.  Miracles and magic (in my opinion) are basically the same thing.  They are extraordinary events that are very much real.

The journey to fairyland and the magic of the fairies can have a profound effect on your life.  Fairy encounters open the doorway to other kinds of experiences that can have a creative and healing influence.

Blessings to You and Yours
Bliss

Creating Fairy Rings

Through fairy rings you can connect and work with the energy of elves and fairies.  Also called fairy circles, dancing elves, and lightning strike, a traditional fairy ring appears as a circle of tall grass within a ring of toadstools, surrounded by a ring of darker earth or dark stones.  These favorite dancing places of the fairies, where music and merry revelry lure mortals into fairyland on full moons, can bring good or bad luch, healing or illness, pleasant dreams or nightmares.  It all depends on your intention.

The reason for making your own fairy ring is to attract helpful elves and fairies.  When you craft your own fairy ring for ritual, meditation, or prayers, your create a vortex of light.  You have complete control over this sacred space so it;s safe, unlike fairy rings in nature which are often extremely dangerous.  This personally crafted fairy ring is one in which you stand, sit, relax, or even sleep.  It is akin to a stargate, a portal to the Otherworld of fairyland.

I thought since it was springtime, I would show you how to create a Fairy Flower Ring.

Follow these steps to create a fairy flower ring

1.  Mark out the fairy flower ring in an area that gets full sun.  The ring can be any size you like, depending on the number of bulbs (this can also be done with plants or seeds)you plant.  Plant the bulbs in autumn.  Use a bulb-planting trowel to dig small holes at the proper depth around the edge of the ring. Plant a daffodial bulb in each hole,. following the directions provided on the package, add a bit of bone meal, and fill planted holes with potting soil. Water as needed.

2.  Walk three times clockwise or sunwise around the planted fairy flower ring, and sing a happy song or hum a favorite uplifing tune aloud.  Dedicate your fairy flower ring to the helpful fairies, including the flower fairies and woodland elves.

3.  In early spring, the bulbs will transform into beautiful yellow and white blooms in a perfectly natural fairy ring.  You can lay, site, stand, sing, dance, paint, sculpt, make wishes, dream or meditate in your golden fairy flower ring,  Every year the bulbs will mulitiply and your fairy flower ring will be larger, thicker, and slightly different.

It's now to late in the season to plant daffodial bulbs, but there are other nice perennials you can plant..such as Geraniums (they flower all summer and most of winter) or what ever your favorite perennial is that you know does well in your area.  Then when Autumn comes around you can plant your border of daffodial bulbs around your existing plants...it will be beautiful next spring!

The Nature of Elves and Fairies

The original depiction of the race of elves comes from Norse mythology.  Created before humans, elves possess extraordinary powers and are associated with nature, particularly woodland and forest settings.

The way J.R.R. Tolkien depicts elves in his epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings is consistent with these Norse descriptions.  Somewhere between mortal and divine, elves are anywhere from five to seven feet tall with catlike ears.  They are said to be thin, strong, flexible, and quick.  In early mythology, elves and humans forged an eternal bond that has remained strong through the ages.

The basic concept of fairies originates from Irish mytholoty.  They were originally the acient people of Ireland, who when defeted in battle became assimilated into the hills and nature features of the land.  At first they became the Celtic gods and godesses, but in time, they evolved into the many types of fairies described in folklore and literature.

In their early forms, fairies were magical creatures that embodied the various aspects of nature and life.  Often with supernatural powers, they portrayed as being both helpful and harmful, depending on what kind of fairy they are and how you treat them.  This is why when dealing with fairies it's good to be able to identify the kind of fairy, and what the proper etiquette is in asking for what you want.  Give a fairy what it wants, and it will help you.  Mess with a fairy, and it will hinder everything you do.

Greetings Fairy Believers!

Just a quick beginning post to let you know whats ahead in this Blog.  My name is Bliss and I do believe in Fairies.  They are all around us, just as our Angels protect us...so do they.  In future posts I will teach you how to attract fairies, good fairies that is.  What foods they enjoy, what type items attract them etc etc.  I will also throw in a few crafting ideas and fairy history tid bits.  We at Fairy Hollow Gift Shop are here for you..the customer, bringing you only the highest quality  Fairy related gift items.  I hope you enjoy this blog..and please send me a comment or email to let me know what you might enjoy learing about in the Fairy World.

Fairy Blessings

May all your paths in life lead you home

Bliss