Faerie-Madonna Mother Nature’s
Human Elementals
© 2001 Laurel Airica

“It is a curious sensation when a young person realizes she or he is not altogether the child of that person’s natural parents. Freud reduced such a sensation to ‘the changeling fantasy,’ in which you imagine you are a faery child, plucked away by adoptive parents who then masquerade as a natural mother and father. But is it only a fantasy to locate, in the self, a magical or occult element, older than any other component of the self?” — Harold Bloom, Omens of the Millennium

How many little girls pre-tend to be faerie princesses? How many gay men declare themselves ‘fairies’ and ‘queens?’ And how many conservative people turn their homes and gardens into glittering dwellings of magic and light at holiday time? What powerful glimmer of primordial memory works its magic upon us all?

There are rumors about the dark and light natures and hidden activities of faeries and other supernatural elementals in many disparate cultures. For instance, most of us have heard tales of the Arabian jinnie — or genies — who inhabit empty bottles yet possess enormous powers that can be put to good or ill use by those who command them. In China, floral scents are said to be spread by lovely young faeries clothed in the silk of the flowers they are created to protect.

The Hawaiians have Menehune, who purportedly build roads and bridges at night. In Italy, the Monaciello lead the poor and needy to buried treasure. The Alps-dwelling Vilas are healers and fortunetellers. And the Wan-agemeswah live among the Penobscot Indians of Maine.

Walter Evans-Wentz, famous for his translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, chose to write his doctoral thesis at the dawn of the 20th century on The Faerie Faith in Celtic Countries. This faith is still very active in Iceland — among the intelligentsia as well as the less educated. In fact, Iceland’s Public Roads Administration often routes new roads around reputed dwelling places of the Huldrefolk, or gives these ‘hidden folk’ time and notice before taking action near a sacred site.

We Are All Mother Nature’s ‘Little People’
Despite the universality of the ‘faerie faith,’ many people today still believe that the rarely seen tiny beings we refer to as ‘faeries’ are merely products of a childish imagination. Yet, when looking up at a large sequoia, or down from any tall building or low-flying airplane, it is easy to see just how diminutive the scale on which we also live.

We humans are really very tiny beings, ourselves. So why should it be so hard to imagine a realm beyond our powers of perception in which entities of another scale altogether live their lives and perform their roles?

In truth, faeries come in all sizes and genders and exist on all levels of expression. They are instruments of expression of Mother Nature, Herself, designed to assist in the fullest flowering of every being and the harmonious interweaving of all elements in Creation.

At one end of the spectrum are the “microangels — a specific group of angels or devas who live and work in the cellular dimensions,” according to workshop leaders Mary Christopher and Diana Douglas. On our plane, there are human faerie-angels whose job it is to facilitate the divine unfoldment of Human Nature and the protection of our Mother Earth. Perhaps you are one such being yourself.

Out of the Closet
Have you received a personal call from Mother Nature at this crucial moment in human evolution? Over the last several decades, faeries of every sort have been coming out of hiding to reveal their unorthodox identities. We are transmitters of love and light and span the full spectrum of the esoteric, healing, creative and popular arts and crafts. Perhaps our most salient faerie-like quality is the sense of wonder we retain throughout our lives, which grants us the ability to recognize our Mother’s magical enchantment in every creature, leaf and stone. But this ability can also lead to an identity crisis.

In my early thirties I had a strong, uncomfortable sense of myself as a human being from the plant family. I felt like an exile who had been literally uprooted from the Nature Kingdom, perhaps through some flaw in my character.

 I sought solace and guidance from the waving wands of trees, from the tumbling waves of the ocean, and from the sparkles of light that dance upon the surface of the sea. I wanted to know how I might find my way back hOMe again, even while wearing my human disguise.

Gradually, I came to see myself as a human-faerie emissary “hooked upon addictionary.” My incarnational purpose, as I now understand it, is to help inspire our collective evolution of the English language so that it resonates harmoniously with planetary energy and helps reintegrate human consciousness with Natural intelligence.

 I call this part of my work WordMagic, which Webster’s defines as, “Magic involving the use of words in a manner determined by a belief that the very act of uttering a word summons or directly affects the person or thing that the word refers to.”  I employ WordMagic both as a performance artist and a psychic reader/healer.

In the early nineties, after several people for whom I gave intuitive readings made unprecedented progress in the direction of their dreams, I came out of the closet as a WishFaerie and subsequently experienced an unexpected, on-the-job initiation into this new vocation directly from Mother Nature, Herself. I have since met several other humanly-incarnate faeries, all of whom share a close association with Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy and compassion.

Through my extensive education and expression as an elemental being, I have come to recognize that we are all small but significant instruments through which Mother Nature endeavors to share her abundant nurturance, love and beauty. In the little kindnesses we do for others — as well as in the intentional healing rituals we perform upon the Earth — we are serving the Goddess Gaia. And just as every creature has a role to play that keeps the whole system in balance, so we can contribute to the harmony of the Universe simply by attuning to and fulfilling our own divinely-human nature.

Words for the Wise
Here are a few precious yet forgotten words that may help you to remember that you, too, are a sacred child of Mother Earth with elemental gifts to share that are essential for the healing of human consciousness.

Parousia: n. The presence in anything of the idea after which it was formed. The Second Coming. There is a divine pattern and plan within us all that the Earth has need of now and that we incarnated to reveal and express. The Second Coming will occur as we each Come To.

Omnificent: adj. having unlimited powers of creation. We were born to be prolific and unique creators — yet if our precious gifts were scorned or overlooked in childhood or later, we may not even recall what they are.

Xenogenesis: n. Biol. The supposed generation of offspring completely and permanently different from the parent. There were reasons why we faced the particular set of challenges that have shaped us — and prepared us to fulfill our soul purposes in life.

Theodicy: n. A vindication of the goodness of God in relation to the existence of evil. We have the inherent power to triumph over every adversity we will ever encounter.

Entelechy: n. a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality; a vital agent or force directing growth and life. There is an evolutionary impulse within us to attain and express our highest potential and to serve Mother Earth in the manner we alone can accomplish.

Hydromancy: n. divination by means of the motions or appearance of water. Since we, like the Earth, are bodies of water and consciousness, we can sense echoes and reflections of our body, mind and spirit in the mirroring patterns of ocean waves, glassy lakes, murmuring streams and water crystals.

Rhapsodomancy: n. fortune telling with poetry. By tapping into the rhythm and rhyme of our own life journey, we can find and sound our SINGular note in the UniVerse.

Euphelicia: n. healthiness resulting from having all one’s wishes granted. To be clearly seen by a WishFaerie is to put wings on your deepest desires and accelerate the REAL-EYESation of your passion and your purpose on the Planet.

Laurel Airica is a spiritual counselor and performance artist who draws upon the Nature Kingdom for insights into human nature. She can be reached for WishFaerie readings and WordMagic performances at (310) 395-7177 or e-mail her at   WordMagic@earthlink.net

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