Tag: magic

Hi there,

It’s nice to meet you, my name is Shannon and I am a river fairy. I live deep in an old Oak woodland where three rivers meet. One river, my birth river, flows clear and blue, her waters fed by a chalk spring that you can only find by walking through the mists of the Sacred Isles. This is the river of Salmon, and like Salmon, I can always feel the pull in my heart that one day I will need to make that final long trip upstream and find my way through Her mists. Another river is rather dry, she hails in from arid lands, of pine trees and the cicadas endless buzzing in the summer heat, her waters slightly salty as she embraces the turquoise Sea. This Sea guided me towards my wings, they too are salty in nature, the glimmering turquoise where Sun and Sea dance. This Sea and her Rivers are the place I call home, the Lands that shaped my heart and soul, who first showed me the meaning of belonging. The third River is brown and muddy, hailing in from flat and wet lands as far as the eye can see. She knows of willows and cows, of herons and goldfinches. This River has fostered me, taken me in, and given me the safety for my wings to develop as I became vulnerable, sick, and lost. It hasn’t always been easy to live at this intersection, feeling like I belong everywhere and nowhere at all but as I have grown and come to know myself as fairy, I have learnt to appreciate the beauty in the many waters that flow within me. Magic happens at intersections, at confluences, and I can feel that magic growing deep within me.

But you’re probably thinking: a river fairy, with wings?! Sounds rather unlikely, perhaps even preposterous. A few years ago, I would have tended to agree, see, I haven’t always been a fairy it’s actually a rather recent event. I used to be a regular human: city life, sitting at a desk all day, getting drunk on the weekend, you know how it goes. That was until someone, somewhere, maybe some Goddess or God, Mother Nature herself, or perhaps my inner self who knew my true form as fairy, decided that it was time. Then, the Earth opened up and swallowed me whole and I fought and I fought until everything was dark and all that I knew, all that I once was, was gone. So I, whatever essence of I that was left, lay suspended in a formless timeless limbo drifting in that empty space with nothing but shadows of a hopeful dream until I felt it. A singular ray of sunshine shining upon my face and illuminating the dark womb in which I was being re-created. It was then that I could grasp, in some distant corner of my subconscious mind, the fairy form I would one day take to heed Nature’s call and walk in the world of magic. It sowed the seeds of intention in my conscious mind and so I changed into fish and began to swim.

I have taken many forms since then knowing and not knowing where it was leading me only being able to follow the deepest longing in my soul for connection with Mother Nature. In my transformation, I have been Salmon learning to navigate against upstream current, a Spider weaving her new world of silk, a Worm buried and protected deep in the soil, and an Adder shedding her skin and reawakening the power within. Back then, I was always changing, perpetually churning in life’s great washing-machine, until a few months ago something changed. I awoke in a somewhat human form once more, but this form was soft and vulnerable, not quite fully formed, as if I had emerged from a chrysalis with half-formed wings that I had seen only in dreams before. As time has passed, the contours of my Self have become defined, my wings grown from some small grey flaps into big and beautiful works of art. Painted in the translucent blue-green colours of my Rivers and the pink blooming flowers of my inner realm. I finally have something I haven’t felt my entire life: comfort within my body and certainty on the path being created as feet kiss Earth.

Which leads me to this, to you, I feel like part of my path is to create a space where we can figure out what it means to live with magic, with reverence for Nature, in this modern world. A world not really made for people like me, or us – perhaps you too are fairy. I have come to believe that we all have wings within and a soul’s desire to connect and celebrate the magic of the Earth from which we all come. To be fairy reminds me of the absurdity of what is made ‘normal’ in this world. It is much harder to imagine normalising a fairy forced to live far away from the enchanted forests and more-than-human friends spending all day under blue lights, sat alone in front of screens. Yet for us humans, this is all too normal, indeed, it is those who seek out Nature and magic who are deemed rather odd. I have come to see, to experience, that reality is rather upside down and, perhaps, this blog my way of normalising how I experience the world. It is really only sat on the grass, watching the swifts in the sky or the wind in the trees that I feel I can fully breathe. My body, through chronic illness or maybe because now I am fairy, does not function very well if I participate in a ‘normal’ person’s life. Maybe you feel the same too. Maybe you too feel like something is off, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Maybe you too can hear Nature’s siren song calling us home. However, I must point out, that to be fairy is less about not fitting in, but much more about celebrating everywhere and everyone with whom we do fit in. To be fairy is expansive, joyful, and alive with all more-than-human kin, and they are all just outside our doorstep waiting for us to return home. To be fairy is a lens of love, gratitude, and plenty that expands beyond the narrow confines of human towards all of living beings. Maybe you too feel the joy and recognition in Mother Nature’s magic and want to encounter stories of optimism, love, and reverence. If so, welcome to my page, it’s so great to have you here! The path is always more fun when walked with friends.

So, what is this page about? In this page, I will share essays, poems, or general musings on what it means to live in reverence and relationship with the magical Natural world. I will share, with a pinch of fairytale, my path to finding connection and wholeness. I hope that by sharing what helped me, it might help you too if you find yourself also somewhat lost. Importantly, this blog is one of my offerings to Nature, to us, to join my voice to our shared Dreaming of a world that nourishes and heals. So I will also share here my thoughts, troubles, and inspirations with the world at large on how we can shift our intentions to work with Nature in a way that is meaningful and find our way back to one another. Too often in my line of work do I hear that those who are made up of European culture do not know how to listen, speak, and engage with Nature as an animate friend or kin. But I have found that we do, so I want to share these teachings from a British Druidic tradition, as someone still very much learning, and how we can integrate this wisdom into our modern age. But even better, perhaps, is that together we can explore some of the questions unanswered, those not yet figured out, and weave our tapestry through collective learning.

Thank you for being here, I’m so excited for the journey upon which we are about to embark. I wonder which twists and turns this new path will make, which joys and trials it will bring, and where we will be by the end of it. So many unknowns, but as they say, the unknown is just space for infinite possibility and that gives me courage to dive into the deep River and see where it will lead, will you follow me?