Celebrating Deity: The Pantheon of the Shrine!

The Altar of the Arcane Song celebrates its chosen Matrons and Patrons of the Celtic and Native American Pantheons. My Soul-Sister Selene and I met a small conundrum when it came to shared ritual. I work solely with the Slavic pantheon while she works with the Sumerian one.

Together we agreed that because our Shrine falls under the imperium of the Temple of the Celtic Cross, which in turn falls under the imperium of the Correllian Nativist Wicca Tradition, and there are both Celtic and Native Deities to whom we are drawn, that we would work with the Celtic and Native American pantheons in our Shine as we share in ritual together before the Altar.

The chosen Matrons of the Altar of the Arcane Song are Blodeuwedd, Arianrhod, Danu, Cailleach, Sedna and Grandmother Spider. The Patrons of the Altar are The Green Knight, Lugh, and The Dagda. You can merry meet with all of them below!

Altogether they are a collective of two maiden goddesses, two mothers, two crones, and one Youth, one King and one Sage. Serendipitously and synergetically they are nine deities in all, and as nine is the number sacred to primordial Goddess, we can't think of anything that is more pure perfection than this. As Selene says there are no coincidences. Blessed be!

Faemore

Brighid

Blodeuwedd

Blodeuwedd, maiden Goddess of the Owl

Blodeuwedd is the Welsh Goddess of Spring. She was created from the flowers of the Oak, the Broom and Meadowsweet, by the magician, hero and trickster Gywdion, uncle of Lleu, the Welsh equivalent of the Shrine's own Lugh, and brother of Arianrhod. Due to the nature of Her birth, Blodeuwedd, whose name means “Flower Face” - the ancient name for Owl - represents the mythic, maiden Earth in full bloom. Blodeuwedd was created for the purpose of another - to be Lleu’s wife - and it is due to these circumstances of Her birth, that Her actions may be seen in a more sympathetic light. She was created from the flowers of a very powerful tree - the oak - flowers of a clearly healing nature in order to give power to Lleu, to continually heal and renew him and to assure his right to rule the land. She was never asked whether She loved him or desired to marry him. She was never asked anything at all.

One day, when Blodeuwedd was left alone with Her ladies in the castle, it chanced that a stag hunt passed and was spotted near by. Blodeuwedd, sends a messenger offering the party hospitality for the night. As soon as she meets and beholds its leader, a young huntsman who seeks shelter, She deeply experiences love at first sight. Wanting nothing more than to be with him, Blodeuwedd seeks to discover the improbably circumstances surrounding Lleu’s death, that She may kill him, for Her own desire is impossible to attain while he lives. She feigns anxiety concerning him meeting his untimely death one day, and eventually Her pleading to show Her that he could not be easily slain and that his death could not be easily accomplished, persuades Lleu to demonstrate the very circumstances that would lead to it.

Blodeuwedd takes flight across the night sky and away from Gwydion, who turns her into an Owl as punishment for the death of Lleu, decreeing that she will never show her face again in the light of day. A path of white flowers springs up in her wake, which we know today as The Milky Way. Throughout Celtic legend otherworldly women are created and used to represent the Land, which is definitely feminine in nature. Owl, the totemic representation of Blodeuwedd, signifies the complete transformation of the initiate. She is a Goddess of emotions, representing the matrix that reforms universal and transpersonal energies into well-defined life force. Blodeuwedd is also the Maiden Goddess of initiation ceremonies and is also known as the Ninefold Goddess of the Western Isles of Paradise. Flowers, the wisdom of innocence, Lunar Mysteries and initiation are Her provinces.




The story of Blodeuwedd is one choice. We are who we make ourselves. We may be fashioned from certain elements by certain elements, and those who create us may have the finest intentions, but in the end - we are the ones who choose our path. Blodeuwedd is the blossoming Earth Goddess of the summer, She is the sovereign Goddess of the land, whom the Sacred King must marry if he is to rule. Her two lovers are seasonal Gods or annual Sacred Kings, rivals for her hand. She is betrothed at Beltane, falls in love with another at Litha and is transformed for it at Lughnasadh.

Blodeuwedd is the youthful maiden goddess of summer. She indicates blossoming and flowering, growth and expansion. She is the goddess of becoming, of the self realisation that cannot come through another, but only through the paradox of realising that you are individuated and unique, yet a part of the greater whole. Though she was created by a man to become the bride of another, she rebelled against the role chosen for her, and far from being a pawn created to serve them, Blodeuwedd is a source of power, the earth goddess. Her two lovers represent summer and winter who must battle for her hand at the equinoxes.

Blodeuwedd was magickally conjured by Gywdion from the essence of flowers. Among other floral essences Meadowsweet, broom flower and oak were used to create her magnificence. Meadowsweet symbolises grace, refinement and elegance. Broom flower, to form her beauty, is attributed with energy, vitality and warmth and lastly oak, to make her lovelier than any other, has the quality of integrity, honesty and truth. Blodeuwedd above all had the integrity to reach for her purpose and place in a world which would dictate them for her. She was honest about feelings and her heart. She was true to herself.



Blodeuwedd is the maiden goddess of the Owl, elusive creature of the night. In the parable of Blodeuwedd the Owl is symbolic of transformation and darkness. She is nocturnal and a symbol of the night and all things that come alive under the cloak of darkness.

Owl expands vision, allowing one to see the landscape of one’s life with new eyes. The moral of Blodeuwedd is that sometimes darkness can reveal more than light. We all have seasons of bright blooming, but we each must sail the night sky for perspective as well. Owl is symbolic of that transition from one perspective to another. Blodeuwedd is the Welsh word for Owl.

She is the white maiden Goddess of Life and Death in Her May-aspect and part of a triad consisting of Arianrhod, the red mother, and Cerridwen, the black crone. Blodeuwedd represents temporary beauty and the bright blooming that must come full circle through death: She is the promise of autumn visible in spring. She is enchanting.

Faemore

Arianrhod

Arianrhod, mother Goddess of the Moon and Stars

Arianrhod is the Celtic Moon-Mother Goddess. She derives her name from the Milky Way, the zodiac and the moon. Her name means Silver Wheel, Arian meaning Silver, and Rhod meaning Wheel. She is called the Silver Wheel that Descends into the Sea. Arianrhod is the mistress of Caer Sidi, a magickal realm in the north, depicted as a great, turning island surrounded by Sea, where she was worshipped as priestess of the moon. She is the beloved silver sky-lady coming down from the firmament in her pale, white chariot, to watch more closely over the tides she rules.

A star and moon goddess, Arianrhod was also called the Silver Wheel because the dead were carried on her Oar Wheel to Emania, the moon-land or land of death, which belonged to her as a deity of reincarnation, karma, weaving, cosmic time and fate. She is the mother aspect of the triple goddess, and is therefore honoured at the time of the full moon. The palace of Arianrhod is Caer Arianrhod, the Aurora Borealis, the revolving castle that spins and swirls and spirals, the secret center of each initiate's spiritual being, which souls withdraw to between incarnations.

The moon, the archetypal female symbol, represents the Mother Goddess, connects the womb, death, rebirth and creation. Her position in the night sky and progress in relation to the stars is known as the starry wheel of Arianrhod. Arianrhod is signified by silver, wheels, stars, nets, webs, owls and the full moon. She is a Goddess of Beauty, who weaves peoples' lives, past and present, into the fabric of the afterlife, sending them onto other realms or returning them for another life. Arianrhod's sacred plant is ivy, and spiders are also associated with her, for she is seen as a weaver of fate.

Arianrhod is the center around which the universe wheels. Arianrhod is the goddess of the Wheeling Stars. She is a celestial goddess, imaging spiral movement around a central star or spark, in the turning of the labyrinth and its inhabitant. She signifies the still point in the middle of motion, the paradoxical position at the center of the wheel where one is moving yet still.

Arianrhod is able to shapeshift into a large Owl, and through her great Owl-eyes, sees even into the darkness of the human subconscious and soul. Owl symbolises death and renewal, wisdom, magick and initiations. She moves with strength and purpose through the night, her wings of comfort and healing spread to give solace to those who seek her, and she is Faemore's totem!

Arianrhod's festival is celebrated on the 2nd of December.

Faemore


Arianrhod, Lady of the Silver Wheel

Danu

Danu, ancestral Mother Goddess of the Ancient Celts



Cerridwen

Cerridwen, the Celtic Goddess of Rebirth

Cerridwen is the Celtic Goddess of rebirth, transformation and inspiration. She is an enchantress, a sorceress, who possesses the Cauldron of Wisdom and Knowledge. Cerridwen is one of the Old Ones, one of the great megalithic Goddesses of the Celtic World. Although, in her story, she embodies all three lunar aspects of the Goddess - Maiden, Mother and Crone - she is primarily honoured in her aspect as the Dark Lady, and through her cauldron of destruction and creation, transformation and rebirth.

The cauldron has an intimate connection with femininity, together with the cave, the cup, the chalice and the mortar, and the correspondence of femininity with inspiration, karma and metamorphosis, harkening back to very ancient times. Cerridwen's cauldron is an ancient feminine symbol of renewal, rebirth, transformation and inexhaustible plenty. It is the primordial feminine symbol of the pagan world, and symbolises the womb of the great Goddess, from which all things are born and reborn again. 

The symbol of Cerridwen's Cauldron is the mythical origin of the Halloween image of the cauldron-stirring hag, concocting her witch's brew. In Cerridwen's mythos her brew had to simmer for a year and a day, a common passage of time in Celtic lore, and the traditional length of time before magickal initiation. Cerridwen's power to transform symbolises the different degrees of Druidic initiation rites, as well as the many changes our souls must make into different human forms, and over different human lifetimes, to experience and to learn, to evolve and to return; to exist. The potent nature of her Cauldron's brew has transformed Cerridwen herself into a Goddess of fertility and harvest, creativity and luck.

The story of Cerridwen is a metaphor for the teacher and the student. Cerridwen is The Teacher, and we are the Student. She challenges us, when we are ready. Her witch's brew is knowledge, which, when we drink it, runs through us like wild fire, exploding with sudden meaning. Cerridwen forces us to acquire new wisdom, forces us to use the knowledge we acquire. In the end she devours us, to bestow upon us a new and greater identity. Thus we are initiated into the mysteries.

Transformation is an integral part of Cerridwen's mythology, and at the center of this mythical element is the cauldron. In the Celtic Mystery Tradition, there are three types of cauldrons. The Cauldron of Transformation, the Cauldron of Rebirth and the Cauldron of Inspiration. Cerridwen's cauldron symbolises the merging together of all three of these mythical elements into one archetypal cauldron. The Celtic afterworld is called The Land of Youth, and the secret to opening its doors is found in Cerridwen's Cauldron. The secret in immortality lies in seeing death as an integral part of life, and that every death brings rebirth, and that every ending brings beginning. 

Cerridwen's witch's brew symbolises greatness and inspiration. It is an encryption of primeval creative power. It transforms us several times, and we are reborn in human form to assimilate the knowledge we already possess. The ancient cauldron of the Goddess Cerridwen is a symbol of enlightenment and spiritual transformation.

Cerridwen is a crafty one, keeping her cauldron of inspiration. She is called the "Sacred Lady of Inspiration and Death", ritualistically pursuing us, symbolised by the changing of the seasons. The brew contained in her cauldron is called awen, the Divine Spirit, and it is pure poetic and prophetic inspiration. However, Cerridwen as the Mother of Poetry, signifies chaotic inspiration, the kind that knocks plans off course, changes projects and shapes a person according to their true will. 

Cerridwen is a Nature Goddess. She lived on an island in a lake, just as Mother Earth exists as an island in the sky. Like Mother Earth, the Goddess Cerridwen is beautiful and reminds us that we all come from that beauty. As women we are born of Her blood, beautiful in Her image and blessed with all the magick and wisdom of Her cauldron. When we turn to Her, our light grows and becomes empowered, transforming us into sacred beings, and the Sacred Lady, Goddess.

Faemore


Cerridwen, Sacred Lady of Inspiration and Death.

Cailleach

Cailleach, creatrix Crone Goddess

Cailleach is the divine hag, the creatrix crone, and the ancestral goddess of Scottish mythology. Also known as Cailleach Bheur and Beira, Queen of Winter, she made the mountains and hills, forming them from rocks dropped from her apron when she strode across the land. They are her stepping stones. She carries a hammer for shaping those hills and their valleys. She is the mother of all goddesses and gods.

The Cailleach, as a seasonal deity, is the personification of Winter itself: she herds deer and fights Spring. Her staff freezes the ground it strikes. Cailleach ushers in the winter by washing her great plaid kilt in the whirlpool of Coire Bhreacain. The cleansing takes three days, during which the roar of the coming Winter is heard inland, from far away. When it is finished, her plaid is pure white and snow covers the land.

The word Cailleach comes from the old Irish word caillech meaning 'Veiled One'. She is the Ancient Earth herself; the lichen-covered rocks and the mountain peaks. She is the bare earth covered with snow and frost.; the Deep Ancestress, veiled by the passage of time. Cailleach is the Goddess of Transformation, the one who watches over the culling of the old growth. She is the Death Goddess, who let's die what is no longer needed.

In the debris of the passing season she finds gems, the seeds for the season to come. She is the guardian of the seed, the keeper of the essential life force. She holds the power of life in her palm. She is the hag of Winter, oft portrayed as a grotesque giantess leaping from mountaintop to mountaintop. The rocks dropping from her apron become the hills.

Cailleach has a blue-black face with only one eye in the center of her forehead. Her teeth are red, and her hair is matted brushwood covered with frost. She wears grey clothes, and a great plaid is wrapped around her shoulders. When the winter storms rage through the hills, Cailleach is tramping her blankets. It is clear that the Cailleach is one with the land, clothes in the snow of winter, with brushwood growing on her body. Her one eye shows that she sees beyond duality to the ultimate unity of all things in the Web of Life.

In Celtic mythos and legend the hag is the Sovereignty of the land, and life. Fierce though the power might be, it dwells within us all. Cailleach gives us the wisdom to let go of what is no longer needed, and holds dear the seeds of what is yet to come, standing on the cusp of Life and Death.


Cailleach, The blue Hag-Goddess of Winter

Cailleach is the great unknowable, mysterious and terrifying. She is vastly ancient. The early Celts savoured the dark side of life. Darkness was associated with new beginnings, the potential of the seed below the ground. In Celtic mythology and folklore, the wisdom of darkness is often expressed by powerful goddess figures, whose role is to catalyze change through the transformative power of darkness, to lead through death into new life.

Cailleach is a Dark Goddess of Nature, belonging to hidden worlds. She is the divine Old Woman, a deity who is both transcendent and immanent. She personifies the cutting winds and harshness of the northern winter. She is the guardian spirit of the Owl, the Deer, the Cat and the Wolf; connected with lakes, wells, marshes, seas and storms; with boulders, rocks, mountains, megalithic temples and standing stones, and with owls, wolves, cats, deer and trees. She is the Old Wife of Thunder.

The Cailleach rambles the hills followed by troops of wild deer, as she leaps from hilltop to hilltop. She created the mountains and lakes, and birthed the archaic cairns and megaliths. She is a tremendous mythic figure, the elemental power of winter, of the cold, the wind and tempests. She comes into power as the days shorten and the sun courses low in the skies. Along with her hammer, she carries a slachdan (a wand of power) with which she shapes the land and controls the weather. She strikes the ground with it, making the earth harden with frost. Wherever the Cailleach throws her slachdan, nothing grows.

Cailleach hurls her slachdan into the root of the holly and gorse, plants symbolic of winter, and sacred to her, storing the power of the cold and the dark there until the advent of winter. During the light half of the year she metamorphoses into a grey boulder, always moist, because it contains the substance of life. She is the Old Goddess that sits on the rocks, looking out to sea, her face the blue black lustre of coal, her bone-tufted teeth the red of rust, in her head one pool-like eye, swifter than a star in the wintry skies.

Cailleach existed from the long eternity of the world. She is a being of immense antiquity who is able to renew her vitality in wells of virtue and who outlasts generations of her offspring. Her age is revered. Cailleach is the shaper of the world. In many places standing stones are said to be people and animals that she transformed. She is the spirit of the wilderness and the protector of wild animals. She is the old woman who ranges the mountains and glens.

As the days grow shorter and autumn turns to winter, cold winds, the breath of the Cailleach, the blue hag-goddess of winter, scour the land. Her association with stone and the cairns and the mounds reveals her connection with the underworld and ancestral realms, with death and rebirth. The Owl, also associated with death, the underworld, magick and the ability to see spirits, is sacred to her.

The Cailleach's great age signifies her position as keeper of the mysteries, and as gateway to the infinite. She holds the seeds of the new, warm and safe in her lap beneath the earth, hinting of the new life that will eventually come after the long sleep that is winter. Peer into the darkness to find the old and ancient bones. What do they cage? What new thing can they support? Is the Cailleach holding beautiful Spring captive, or will time transform the Hag into Spring Herself? Hail the Cailleach! Ancestral Hag of Winter. Unveil yourself before us, that we may see the worlds.

Faemore


Cailleach, The Divine Ancestral Hag 

The Greenman

The Greenman, youthful Lover God

Lugh

Lugh, heroic King God

The Dagda

The Dagda, fatherly Sorcerer God and protector of the Shrine

Thank you for keeping us aware of the magick and the mystery, the joy of the wonder of each day and of all life. Because of you we walk our path without fear. Blessed be!

Brightly-spun breezes,
Faemore Lorei and Selene Lilitu

Dragon: Faemore's Mythic Totem

Dragon has been with me since childhood. He warmly wrapped his wings around me as I devoured Patricia C. Wrede’s Dragon Series when I was a little girl. I wanted very much to be Princess Cimorene, and to live in the Enchanted Forest, and to have a dragon like Kazul as my very best friend for life. When I was much older and I actually did meet my best friend for life, Rivenis Black, I fondly recall him referring to himself as a dragon during our earlier encounters. Looking back on it now, it feels so right that this man, whom I have since claimed as a brother, identified himself this way. It reaffirms what I already knew as a child. Dragon is family.

Whenever I have need of comfort, I imagine the wings of Dragon, mammoth and membranous and webbed, wrapping themselves around me from head to heart with warmth and with love. Whenever I describe this vision to others, they are uncomfortable with being that close to his heat. I however, have always run hot. My natural body temperature has always been warmer than that of other people, and because of this I do not register heat in the atmosphere the same as most other people do. I fancy that this is because I am Dragon-Born. Recently, Dragon has lifted his head, stretched his wings and, with a deep breath of fire, reminded me that he is still in my heart.

Dragon totem is a powerful guardian and guide. He brings to me messages of might and of magick, but also messages of balance and receptivity. He is a creature of mystery and wonder, and he teaches me to look upon the worlds with his ancient eyes. Dragon is the embodiment of primordial power and creative energy; as such he reigns over all the elements and is ruler of stone, sky, star, sea, and soul. Beyond elemental magick, Dragon is a totem of the spiritual powers of metamorphosis and transmutation, and of fierce protection as well. He is a symbol of high nature, of infinity itself, and as such he has potent restorative powers.

My Dragon is an Earth Dragon. I won’t describe exactly how he looks, for that is a private matter I wouldn’t want manifesting in someone else’s dream, so it is sufficient enough to say I think that he is a totem of power, potential and riches. That is what he shows me, my potential and my riches, what I am capable of. With him I discover the beauty and power that lie deep within me, just as he lies deep within the earth. When I call, he comes slow and heavy, unhurried in his approach, knowing time is an illusion and we have all of infinity to get our work done. I feel his weight around me, within my work, within my being. He grounds and nurtures my energy in the soil of Spirit in the same way Mother Earth does.

Dragon totem gives me the strongest protection from dark intent, for safe within the silence and secrets of his cave, wrapped within the warmth of his wings, what could harm me? His power is also shedding his skin, teaching me to shed mine, and emerging a newly transformed, and changed individual. Above all Dragon is faithful. I know he will never leave me, especially in the darkest night of my soul. The same as Goddess, his energies are the energies of the earth and the multiverse.  But beyond being protective, Dragon is also extremely possessive. Never touch a dragon’s possessions, least of all its gold. The parts of you that are not roasted and eaten will be squished and dropped from a great height :)

Dragon connects me to my Ancestors, and to their wisdom, that I may deepen my own understanding. Dragon-born individuals possess knowledge that always seems to surpass what they have learned, for they can connect to the infinite intelligence of their totem, of Dragon, who is the lore keeper of the Earth. They are mighty, have a righteous temper and are fiercely loyal to those they consider family and friends. Dragon-borns are also pack rats, keeping things that they no longer use and hording odds and ends that they might need some day. They are able to dispel their own sorrow and fear and to become invulnerable for others, so they may lead them out of the trouble of their lives as well. I have done this myself many times for the souls in my life that I love.

My relationship with Dragon is a private affair I share with no one. He came to me as a solitary creature, blazing his trail all on his own and he demands no less from me. We reside in our secrets and solitude, him and I, walking our path alone. Just like the Crone, Dragon is the Keeper of Silence and Secrets. Just like Baba Yaga, my Arch-Patroness Deity, Dragon is a Creator Destroyer. The same way she grinds me up in her mortar and pestle to transform and change me, so too does Dragon burn me and set me on fire, that I may be recreated … that I may be as a child, as a god … that I may be eternal and infinite – as he is.

With whimsy,

Reverend Faemore Lorei
Shrine Head and Director
Altar of the Arcane Song

In the woods I deeply walk … with Dragon

Deity of Interest: Spider Grandmother

Spider Grandmother, creatrix Crone Goddess

Spider Grandmother is creator of the world in Native American religions and myths. According to mythology she was responsible for the stars in the sky. She took a web she had spun, laced it with dew, threw it into the sky and the dew became the stars. Spider Woman is a metaphor for she who creates from a central source. One day it is she who will pull all of her creation back to her source. Her webs represent the grid and the matrix of our reality - The Spiderweb Effect.

The Spiderweb Effect means that all things originate from a central source, spiral out in a matrix, a grid, a lattice, and a web, following the same sacred geometric patterns, and are connected to each other and that source. If something affects one part of the web, it affects everything. Spider Woman's web links you to everything and everybody in our reality. It is how we learn to be psychic and to communicate telepathically.

Spider Woman is also linked with dream catchers. During dream time we remove part of our consciousness from physical reality and venture off through her web, to experience that which we cannot understand with our physical consciousness. Native Americans believe in the legend of Spider Woman, she who sits at the great, galactic center. She is the female force of all creation, who joins all nations, all tribes, all galactic families and all realities together in her web.

The Navaho revere Grandmother Spider Woman because she taught them how to read, and is the divine spinner amongst Native Americans in the South West. Her web is a shining web of spiritual, human and ecological relationships that has become invisible in the contemporary world. That's why her mask weeps. When we work with Spider Woman, we are inviting her to weave us back into the Web, strand by strand, story by story, remembering our connections, finding our way back to the Center.

They says that when Spider Woman returns, the world will enter a new age. Here, stretched exactly across from our line of vision, is a perfect spider web, spun so that, unless we look in a certain way, it is invisible. But if we shift our viewpoint, there it is overlaid on our horizons, our landscapes, our days. A shimmering, transparent web. Spider Woman's reminder, her gift, her blessing.

Whimsically yours,

Rev. Faemore Lorei,
Shrine Head and Director
Altar of the Arcane Song

The Chant of Goddess Across the Worlds ...

Devotional Song

Devotional Song is the sacred art of revering Goddess or Spirit through the act of music, singing and song. Through hymn and refrain, mantra and chant, drumming and dance we venerate our deities and the Divine. Devotional Song is done in rites, rituals and religious observances, but it can also be done when you are cleaning the house or washing the dishes, hanging the laundry or driving in the car, thus making every mundane act sacred and one of devotion.

Wicca has had its own tradition of devotional songs, and chanting has always been an integral part of pagan liturgy, since its earliest days. Devotional songs aid in the shifting of consciousness from ordinary awareness to astral trance or second sight. Chanting especially is an important key in raising energy, and can really effect the vibrations and frequency of the magickal energies being raised in circle. Beyond this chants can bring a beautiful enjoyment to the rite being enacted.

Devotional Song acts much as a spell, prayer in action, and can be both meditative and energizing as it pleases. When sung or chanted over a sustained length of time, the energetic effects tend to linger, and in the moment can lead one to profound and intense mystical experiences. Many other traditions beyond Wicca and paganism use Devotional Song as ornamental and transcendental art including Hinduism, Sikhism, Sufism and the Ba'hai Faith.



All of nature devotes to Goddess in Song. The sun roars in the firmament. The waves crest and crash on the shore. The earth hums gently to herself, while the wind howls like wolf and whispers like faerie. The birds sing a song of plumage and spirit, the whale sings a song of feeling and fins. The Owl hoots while the frog croaks, and all the world is a symphony on the stage of life herself. The grasses and the flowers, the leaves of the trees all rustle as the breeze blows by them, carrying lingering stories and secrets in the sound and with the seed. The stars sing us their sweetest lullaby in the dark of the night.

Every aspect of earth, each part, is singing its own song, regardless of whether we have the ears to hear it. For those of us who have the ears, however, we do hear. We hear the rhythm of the rain, the percussion of the thunder and the beat of the hailstorm. We hear the trickling of the stream, the babbling of the brook and the gushing of the river. We hear the fizzing of the sea foam, the break of the waves upon the ocean surf and the bubbling in the pond. We hear the music of the animals in the forest, from the chirping cricket and the hissing snake, to the cawing toucan and the snarling panther.

We too make our own songs, the sweetest of which is our own rich, deeply heart-felt laughter. The heart is the most significant conduit for Devotional Song, for it connect us to our highest selves, the powers of our soul and Goddess. When we open our mouths to sing in veneration and awe, honour and praise, worship and love, it is really our hearts that open, and allow our devotion to soar in song to Spirit, and allows Her own abundant, boundless, eternal love to flow back to us in return. Even more important than spiritual evolution and self-actualisation is the pure magick of true oneness with Goddess Divine.
 

In the beginning Goddess sung the God into being. Her voice was the buzzing of bees as she cast her spell, causing the cosmos to come gushing forth. The cadence of her chant cascaded across the worlds as her music manifested the universe of physical matter. Air is the clarity of her note. Fire is the passion in her pitch. Water is the emotion making her voice break. Earth is the deep wisdom unwavering in every word sung.

When I sing my favourite pagan songs I do so with this knowing. From Deity by Wendy Rule to This New Day by Kellianna, from Witch in the Woods by Louisa John-Krol to Veil of Elphame by Stephanie, I sing, focussed on the clarity of my notes and the passion in my pitch, the emotion making my voice break, and the deep widsom unwavering in every word. I sing, focussed on what my song is creating within me, and without.

Above all I focus on the devotion. And in that moment I find myself at one with nature and Goddess. My song of devotion draws me ever closer to her mother's love for me, and for all of my siblings across the seven spheres of existence. Above all I find Devotional Song connects me, through my heart, to spirit and to truth. And it is in this connection that I actualise and evolve. It is in this connection that I best sing my song ... my song of bliss and of love. 


Whimsically yours,


Rev. Faemore Lorei,
Altar of the Arcane Song,
The Chant of Goddess Across the Worlds ...

The Faeries' Oracle

Our frontiers are made of mists and dreams and tender waters: thresholds are crossed from time to time.

I love my deck. If, Goddess forbid, there were fire or flood, landslide or hurricane, it is one of the first things I would grab to keep and to carry. It is not a personal possession to protect, but a sacred one. It is imbued with my heartfelt adoration of Faerie, and with the deep magick of Home. Whenever I think of it, whenever I touch it, I return there. Not just to my childhood, or even to Mother, but to my first Home, and my last. I am Faerie. This has been my personal Truth for all my life.

I say it, when really I should say them. For there are denizens within my deck, just as there are denizens within my soul, and they are the same People. My People. My magickal name is Faemore, because Faerie is my namesake. My magickal name is Faemore, because I am an ambassador of Faerie. However, I am not the only one. The creator of my Oracle, Brian Froud, is another, so is his wife Wendy, and so is their son Toby too. Other ambassadors of Faerie are Ted Andrews and Jessica Macbeth.


All Faeries appear at the threshold of what is and what is to be.

When I explore the worlds of their works for a deeper relationship to my own inner knowing it is an incredible experience. It strengthens my bond to Faerie manifold. It is serendipitous and synergetic and surreal, the way Brian knows the landscape of my soul. If you have ever had the tremendous honour of viewing his artwork, believe me when I say it looks exactly like that in here. His art aids in parting the veil and clarifying the vision, but above all it is a mirror reflecting the Faerie within. His creations are keys.

With a key you can open the duirwaigh. With a key you can shift consciousness. With my Faeries’ Oracle I can access my Faerie consciousness. And the more I divine with my deck, the more second nature my true nature becomes. The cards are not simply stunning symbols and exquisite imagery. They are unearthly and ethereal, eerie and eldritch. True to faerie form. They connect me to my otherworldly self, that aspect of me which is not human, but something far more feral and fierce, boundless and free.

Keep your eyes and your heart wide open. Only thus is Faerie revealed.

Through their breath-taking beauty and meaningful messages, I search and I seek and I find myself. Through their significant stories and wondrous whimsy, they guide and they teach and they reveal themselves to me. Their stretched ears reminisce of the stretching of my soul as it evolves and expands. Their tattered wings echo the experiences of my incarnations as I learn lessons and embrace existence. Their sharp claws tell me that no matter how intelligent, I am an animal, and a part of nature. Their shimmering dust shows me how the light of my own Divine spark can shine.

My Faeries’ Oracle has a spirit of their own, and they are as fond of me as I am of them. I greet them with kisses. They greet me with joy. We greet each other in ecstasy. With each shuffle they smile and wave, laugh and dance with anticipation. They get especially excited when I lay down the golden clothe upon which I spread my readings. They want to know who I will pull. The music of their sphere is very high and hard to hear, purely energetic and intuitional, and yet hear it I do. I hum along. A thrill and a charm, a delight and a song rush through them when I draw the first card. It stirs my own tenderness, for they are the darlings of my bosom, come to play with me again, at last.

The Faeries’ Oracle is dedicated to the Faeries of course! The cover of the companion book is magickal and mysterious, dreamy and enchanted. It makes me feel wistful and nostalgic, the way you feel after waking from a recurring dream that has no ending. It is the story of Gwenhwyfar from the Good Faeries/Bad Faeries book illustrated by Brian. Liberally sprinkled like faerie dust through the pages are fanciful quotes and prints of the Folk. Waifish stains on the aged leaf of the page are an illusory trick of the turning light.

Faeries cannot be pinned down to a page, a list, a single definition. To grasp their elusive nature requires direct experience, personal engagement.

There are 66 cards in the deck, divided into five groups of thirteen, with an additional card for my personal Faerie Guide – direct communication with Faerie. Her name is Faemore too, for she is my Faerie self. The numerology of the cards and the groups is uncanny. Sixty six is a master number, called the Master Regenerator. It is the number of rebirth and regeneration, the number of transcendence and rising above the mundane world to embrace a deeper state of being … Faerie. Five is the number of communication, movement and speed – A very fitting number for a Faeries’ oracle, and indeed for Faerie itself. Thirteen reduces to four, the number of practicality and stability, life lessons and working things true – it is very well suited to the nature and purpose of an Oracle.

The first group of Faerie are the Singers. They are the angelic devas of Faerie, the great ones whose wings span all eternity and existence. They are the singers of the music of the spheres. They are the Unity of all into one, the Ecstasy of the song of the soul, the Guardian at the Gate of Goddess herself. It is my belief that the singers are monads. The Divine Sparks of life who move the worlds and motivate their inhabitants, who remember the time when all was one, and the reason why we unfold and unfurl.

The second group of Faerie are the Sidhe. They are the lords and ladies of Faerie, the Ancient Ones. Where the Singers sing, the Sidhe dance to their song, and the dance carries the cosmos forward. They dance the Dance of Life. It is my belief that the Sidhe are souls, powerful and pure. Older than we are, they are an elder expression of the manifestation that we now are.

The third group of Faerie are the Guides and Guardians. They are the nature spirits, the custodians and caretakers of natural magick. They are the joy we feel when entrenched in nature, the life we live when we walk through the parted veil. They are the harmony to the melody of the Singers, the rhythm to the dance of the Sidhe. They are the consciousness of nature Herself, overflowing and intoxicating with Her bountiful, beautiful energies. It is my belief that the Guides and Guardians are Astral beings. The causal beings that myth would see as meddling in mortal affairs, but who really determine our destiny, the things we choose to experience, the lessons we need to learn. They are our Higher Selves, the ones who set the pattern of life, weave the weft of it, and create the tapestry. It is important to be in their good graces. When we move with the flow of their desires, we create our own fortune; for they are the waking dreamers, the magicians and the majesties of Faerie.

Faeries hide what you want, and reveal what you need.

The fourth group of Faerie are the Help-Line Troupe. These are the “wee folk” of Faerie, large and small, whose touch and presence we feel in our daily lives. They interact with us through our thoughts and aid us through our conscience. At times their potent energies can confuse our thinking, but more often their energies are the moments of clear insight and inspiration that is their gift to us. These faeries are associated with the five elements of earth, air, fire, water, and the fifth Faerie element of moonlight. Some of them work as solitaries, and others band together as trouping faeries. They are the fully aware Human Consciousness that stands before the unparted Veil, but not yet ready to step beyond. They are fun and full of life, impish and inquisitive. They are the ones behind the thoughts that don’t seem to come from ourselves; the irrational thoughts and the inspired ones, the poetic thoughts and the paranoid ones, the absurd thoughts and the wise.

Whereas the Help-Line Troupe are faerie creatures of feeling thoughts, and thinking hearts, intuitive and insightful, the fifth and final group of Faerie are simply feeling creatures through and through. They are the Challengers. The ones who bring us face to face with our fears and our denials, our inner traumas and our outer delusions, our confusions and our insecurities. They challenge our perceptions and test our awareness, our insights and wisdom, our devotion to our own personal growth. We learn and experience with their testing our own potential for success. The Challengers are Initiators into the Mysteries. They might want us to win, but in our moments of deepest despair and subconscious self-conflict we can never really know this for sure. It is my belief that the Challengers are creatures of emotion, inhabiting the waters of our feeling and our unconsciousness, influencing our reactions and our power to become integrated with and within our own existence.

Faeries trip you up to give you a new perspective on the world.

My favourite Singer is Ekstasis. It signifies rapture and delight, joy and ecstasy. It is the song, the power and energy that fills the Universe. It is the rhapsody, the bliss that powers the cosmos, and gives it harmony and order. It is the great joy that holds atoms together, and galaxies apart and stars in their spirals. It keeps our hearts beating, and it is the love and trust that flow them. The song flows through everything – the wind in the trees, the radiance of the distant stars, the beat of a mouse’s heart, the quiet burble of a babbling brook, the deep, unheard hum of the Earth.

Everything is connected; and everything is part of the one song, the Ekstasis. It is something we seek, something that flows through us when we open ourselves to it. It fills us with power and with the inspiration to grow, to become what we have the positive potential of being, to fulfil our purpose in being here and now on this sphere. It says great joy and great accomplishment are within your reach. All you have to do is hold out your hand, and take it. I love Ekstasis. I love its soft, dreamy greens and gentle golds and tender turquoise. I love the dazzling points of starlight scattered throughout its form and the delicate skeletal structure of its body and the fragile filament of its wings, so reminiscent of my spirit guide, Dragonfly, who signifies the harmony that Ekstasis brings.

In Faerie, secrets are whispered in the shape of a wing or a faerie's hue.

My favourite Sidhe is Himself. He signifies natural law, life force, magick and shamanic power. He is guardian of both the hunter and the hunted. The living bond between all life, he is the breath that moves, the atom that dances, the magick in pure being – in life and in love. This Sidhe has the magick of procreation, of dancing the spark of life into being. He is the Great Father. Himself is the one who dances the great dance of life and death, and who dances open the gate between the worlds so that the dead may pass beyond. He is the one who is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of those whom he protects. His family is all of us, human and animal. He is wild power held and channelled for the good of all by will, and he is the preserver of the natural world and its balances.

I love his crown of shining stars and antlers of broken bone. I love the browns of his shaggy, unshorn hair and the fallen autumnal leaves therein entwined, naturally, so much a part of him. I love his eyes, intense with erotic energy, with such penetrative magnetic allure, yet startlingly gentle. I love the planes and protrusions of his face, potent and passionate, the knowing lines etched by time, the angles of his slightly smirking lips. I love the bronze of his lean muscles, gently sloping into crevices and contours, manly and made to explore. The shimmering glow of his third eye and heart chakras show me to think with my heart and feel with my head. Ensconced in a card coloured the brown of the moist, mother Earth, He is the beauty of nature Himself; the God of the natural world.

Faeries are seen not by the eyes but through the heart.

My favourite Guardians and Guides are Losgunna, the Frog Queen, and the Faun. Losgunna signifies sunken treasure, the discovery of self and adventure. She is the Frog Queen, and her realm is immense, both above and below. Faerie waters are made up of human emotions, sometimes beautiful, clear and sparkling, sometimes repulsive, murky and dull. Losgunna knows, that there are treasures to be found in the murkiest of waters. Her explorations however, are not restricted to the realm of emotion, but also extend to include the world. Losgunna often tells me that life is always adventurous and thrilling for adventurous, thrilling people, and boring and dull for boring, dull people. She also tells me to attend to the worlds being created by the thoughts in my mind, to listen to the songs being sung silently around me, to notice the patterns within the stories being woven in the tapestry of life, to heed the cycles, cycles both distant and high, near and close, cycles of the music of the spheres, both amongst the stars and time, and across the earth and waters. I love Losgunna. I love her luminous crown of flowers and prismatic wings of light. I love her mottled flippers and speckled toadstool. I love the way she squats, ready to leap into the unknown, ensconced in frolick and fun, stillness and peace.

The Faun like Losgunna tells me to take care of myself, to explore places I’ve never been, try things I’ve never done, and above all to explore Faerie. He signifies understanding the nature of Nature, natural wisdom and natural magick. He is merry and irrepressible, dancing in the garden, frolicking in the woods, playing in the meadows. He sings “Come dance with me!” and I cannot refuse him. It is he who knows the secrets of nature. It is he who knows where the robin’s nestlings are hidden, where the mice like to play, who lives down that gnome hole in the tree, and where the faeries frolick. He teaches me to understand, appreciate and express the part of myself that dances in the moonlight with the faeries, sings to the dawn stars with the birds, and hums with the blossoming flowers. The Faun sings “Come with me! Come follow me!” He tugs my hand and gambols away. I must go. The Faun says “Dance with me! Play with me!” He frisks and romps. I must dance.

To engage with Faerie, stay open and let the faeries speak to you. Let them enfold you in faerie light.

My favourite Help-Line Troupe Faerie are The Oak Men. They signify strength, ancient wisdom and depth. The Oak Men tell me to look slowly and deeply into the heart of a matter and to see past the superficialities on the surface. They tell me to learn from the past, and to learn from the wisdom of the elders, both those available to me personally, and those whom I encounter in books and elsewhere. They tell me to take action only after thorough deliberation, and that haste may be my greatest enemy. They tell me to learn from the trees, to consider the trees and their wisdom, to connect with the wise old ones and ask for any assistance of which I might have need. I love the Oak Men. I love the brambly bark of their bodies, crooked and contorted, knobbly and gnarled. I love their small, sharp, snaggly teeth. I love their warm, brown eyes, trusting and full of kindness, naughty and full of play. Such strength and fragility, all at once.

When we dance with the faeries, we dance with the reflections of our true selves and the true inner self of the world.

Lastly my favourite Challenger is Dorcha, Epona’s Wild Daughter. She signifies inner shadows, nightmare, depression, despair and madness. In the blackest part of the night, Dorcha comes, wearing her diaphanous crown of faerie stars. She kneels on my soul totem, the ancient Owl, bearer of the wisdom of the night. Unwavering, she forces the weary back to bend. Relentless, she forces the heavy head to hang between legs, until despair recedes, until release takes place, until Will returns. She does not pity me, and therefore I cannot pity myself. In her mercilessness, there is such grace and such compassion. Facing into the past with a clear, unflinching gaze, Dorcha holds me. I am often held immobile, inwardly focussed, by her comforting yet implacable light-filled hands. She asks me riddles that often seem impossible to answer at first – and yet she will not let me go until I find the resolution within myself. Dorcha is one of the great teachers of Faerie. Her lessons are about the shadow side of the self – the things I fear, my traumas, my nightmares, my delusions. Dorcha is the Wild Daughter of Epona, Lady of the Horse and the Moon. She takes me through the dark, hidden side of myself and into healing and fulfilment, no matter how long it takes.

From the temporary madness of fury, to the deeper and longer psychoses, she drives me on the journey through my own interior hells. Dorcha wears an iridescent crown of stars - a mark of service, compassion and great wisdom. Her element is moonlight, the fifth element of Faerie, which tempers and tests the spirit. Through her teaching, my inner conflict and struggles become, as they are resolved, my greatest strengths. She is the sphinx, whose riddles are messages which must be answered lest I otherwise be destroyed by my own internal conflicts. She tells me that I cannot move soul-forward until I have faced and conquered something buried deeply within myself that is holding me back. Dorcha urges me to heal the unresolved issues about who I really am and what I truly want to be. She encourages me to transform myself. She tucks me tenderly in her gossamer wings of silver moonlight. And she wishes me well in solving her riddles with all of her heart.

Listen to the voice of the wind in the trees; it has a message for you. Remember, each journey into Faerie is complete only when we come Home again. 

To establish direct contact with Faerie I must first shift consciousness and slip myself into a deep meditative state. The wondrous sounds of instrumental Faerie music by Gary Stadler, clear and chiming, whimsical and wistful, otherworldly and strange, lead me onwards and inwards to seek I know not what, and whomever else I may find. In the Otherwhere and Otherwhen of Faerie, I know no answers, because I am the answers and I do not yet know myself. But the deeper I fall, the higher I fly, I find her. I know her. I claim her. I am her. One day I will have all the answers. One day they will be here. Right now however, I seek to reach, reconnect and reunite with the Otherkin through the Faeries Oracle and faerie music, faerie books and faerie journals, faerie figurines and faerie dolls, faerie artwork and faerie adventures, faerie experiences and faerie encounters, faerie sensibilities and scents, sounds and sightings, and of course, Faeries themselves. I wouldn’t want to do without them, and I couldn’t. For they are my friends and my family … My heart and my home … My namesake and my other self ... My existence and my everything … My Faerie.

Whimsically yours,

Rev. Faemore Lorei
Altar of the Arcane Song
The Chant of Goddess Across the Worlds …


My Faeries' Oracle Reading for this week, and also for this article:

30 - The Laume - Unconditional giving. Unconditional receiving.
23 - The Green Woman - Wildness. Natural magick.
03 - The Guardian at the Gate -  Passage to new life. Openings.
54 - Epona's Wild Daughter -  Inner shadows. Nightmare.
51 - The Topsie Turvets - New perspective. Fresh viewpoint.

Give to others freely, generously and unconditionally and try a few random acts of kindness. You will fill up again, much faster than you might expect. Where the ground is fertile, something will grow. Nurture what you want within yourself and count your blessings. Wait patiently with expectant gratitude and keep growing. Care for your growing ground and practice your own innate magick. Enhance the growth of your talents. Trust yourself and the process of growth. A passage is being made to the beginning of something new in your life. It always leads to a adventure, and to significant, irrevocable change within your life, as well as within yourself. You are embarking on a new phase of your life, and there will be no going back once this gate has been passed. Look again and change the way you see things. See things from a different point of view. Back up, question your assumptions and try to see things from the viewpoints of others.

Welcome to Dragonfly: Faemore's Faerie Totem!

I've always been fascinated by dragonflies, and thought them the messengers of Faerie. Their wings of diaphanous, iridescent, prismatic light told me they were not native to the world, but from a realm in between and far away and quite around the bend. Their slender, segmented bodies spoke to me of grace and clarity and the wisdom of recognising an end, and a beginning. All-seeing, multifaceted eyes see all the worlds, without and within, and their inhabitants and their stories and their times. Dragonfly reminds me of Purpose more than any other of my totems. Let's get to know him better together.

Dragonfly symbolises the power of pure light. He inhabits three realms: air and water and Faerie, and the influences of these three elements are felt by Dragonfly people like myself. I was very emotional and passionate during my earlier years because of the influence of water, but now, I find myself more balanced with greater mental clarity as I mature because of the influence of air. Dragonfly is the essence of the winds of change, the messages of wisdom and enlightenment, and the communication from the elemental world. He beckons me to seek out the parts of myself that need changing. I call on him to guide me through the mists of illusion to the pathway of transformation.

The number two is important to Dragonfly. In our Correllian Nativist Wicca Tradition two is symbolic of assistance, partnership and peace. Dragonfly brings the light and colour of balance, transformation and serenity into my life.



Dragonfly babies are called nymphs. This is beautiful to me, for nymphs are the daughters of water. These nymphs live nearly two years at the bottom of ponds and streams. When they become adults they transform into dragonflies and ascend to the air. They travel on wings that sparkle and shimmer with spectacular colours, reflecting and refracting light. No insect can maneuver like Dragonfly on his wings. He can twist, turn, move up and then down, fly backwards and change directions instantaneously, and still spot movement from great distances away with his eyes of many facets.

The power of Dragonfly lies in his ability to see around things by looking at them from different angles. His ability to transform colours and light by reflecting and refracting them, shows me that life, like light, can bend and shift and transform in myriad ways, making life's appearance, never what it appears to be. Dragonfly magick helps me to see through life's illusions, and find my very own true vision. It calls me, just like Baba Yaga, to transform within my life, and reminds me to feel deeply so that I may have the compassion to help others and myself.



As a creature of the wind, Dragonfly represents change. His iridescent wings are incredibly sensitive to the slightest breeze, and tells me to heed where the wind blows. As a creature of the water, he symbolises the subconscious and dreaming, mind and thoughts. Meditate on his meaning for you. For the Asians and the Native Americans, Dragonfly represents prosperity, good luck, strength, peace, harmony and purity. For me he means "think deeper", for he carries messages of deeper thought, and ask that I pay attention to mine, and to my desires. As Dragonfly skitters across the surface of waters, he tells me that my deeper thoughts are surfacing, and that I must be mindful of the outcome I wish to have.

Dragonfly reminds me that when my deeper thoughts rise to the surface I must pay attention, for there are lessons to be learned. I am also reminded that what I think is a reflection of what I "see" on the surface; that my thoughts are responsible for what I see manifest in my life and my surroundings; physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and magickally. Above all because of his short life span, Dragonfly reminds me to live life to the fullest with what I have!



Dragonfly is one of nature's shape shifters. As my magickal totemic guide, he signifies my ability to transform myself as I travel onward on my path of self-knowing, towards enlightenment, which his wings represent. His iridescent and shifting colours lift me into dreamtime, where I understand that "reality" is but an illusion. My inner visions are channeled through my unconscious mind, ever connected to The Great Mystery that is life - Goddess. Dragonfly remind me to celebrate Spirit in all living beings, to dig deeper, to lift the illusion of suffering and to believe in our own boundless Divinity.

It is said that Dragonfly was once Dragon, covered with beautiful, shimmering scales, and wielding great inner strength. He could change form at will and light the darkness with the fires of his breath. But he was tricked into changing form and believing himself a tiny dragonfly. Dragon got caught in his own illusion, just as we are forever accepting our facade as our true selves. We have forgotten that we too can change form at will, wield great inner powers, and can light our darkness with the fires of our faith and will, resolve and knowing. Dragonfly teaches me to take the time to develop properly and pierce my self-made illusions.



In flight, Dragonfly mates, hunts, feeds and lays eggs on the wing. Because of this he is associated with nature spirits, devas and faeries. His wings, like theirs, are clear but can appeared coloured in different light. Likewise, our emotions colour our reality. Dragonfly is one of the animal spirit guides to the Goddess Freya, and just like with her, he teaches me refinement and relentlessness and creativity. He never gives up, never rests for more than a few moments, and neither do I. He is relentless, as I am. It is how I've always developed my life - relentlessly, unwavering, in constant motion, but with clear vision.

One of the most magickal sights on a summer evening is that of the dragonfly. With his shimmering wings and graceful form, he seems a creature from the land of Faerie, and indeed he is. He is a powerful animal, who aids me in communing with nature spirits. His magick breaks illusions, especially those illusions that prevent growth and maturity. Dragonfly is the bringer of visions of power. Flighty and carefree, he symbolises whirlwind swiftness and action. He is of the dreamtime and the illusory facade we accept as physical reality. His iridescent wings remind me of colours not found in our everyday experience. Dragonfly's shifting of colour and energy, form and movement explodes into my mind, bringing back memories and musings reminiscent of a time and place where magick reigns - ... Faerie ...



The elemental world is composed of the tiny spirits of plants, air, fire, water and earth. It is a world full of nature spirits. It is my home, a Faerie place, and it is Dragonfly's home. Part of his magick is his ability to play amongst the air currents here, dazzling others with his light. He warns me not to fool myself as he had, and to break down the illusions that have restricted my actions and ideas. Dragonfly inspires me spend time outdoors with him, in the sunlight with him, soaking up the streaming rays of its warmth and light and love.

Dragonfly incites me to question the illusion which I can call reality, particularly the part of that reality which limits my ability to grow and create transformation in my life. He speaks of greater, deeper dimensions of reality and helps me to travel to a realm of light and colour in which spiritual evolution and expansion are possible. His rainbow, prismatic wings encourage me to live in a world of magick. I am a dreamer, absorbing light and energy, flitting from new creation to new creation, new story to new story, new beginning to new beginning. I never forget to ground and earth, for Earth is my very essence, as Capricorn and as Faerie, but I also never forget to fly, all because of Dragonfly ... totemic guide of my spirit.

Whimsically yours,
Rev. Faemore Lorei.

Tween Times

As Faerie, the tween times have always been mine. I have always belonged to the dusky twilight and the late autumn, the blustery, stormy days filled with a dark blue ocean of clouds and to the sunsets and dawns wonder-woven with bright golds and flamingo tangerines, richly-bruised by purple and periwinkle with the settling night and the oncoming day. I have always belonged to these times. They shape my senses and sentiments, connecting me to the spheres, the spiral and the Goddess. Their quiet, windswept, shimmering song fills me with love and life, spirit and power, serenity and joy. It has always inspired me to dance deeply upon the spiral, and it has always been my own.

Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons, and my favourite. It is the cusp of the shifting from summer into winter, and the time of year that the arrival of night and the setting of the sun become noticeably earlier. The autumnal season was once called "the harvest", before the word harvest lost its connection to the time of year, and came to connote the actually activity of reaping during this time only. The word autumn as well as fall began to replace its connection to this seasonal time. The alternative word fall is a contraction of Middle English expressions meaning "fall from a height", "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year". It is the exhaled breath of the Crone, unlike the inhaled breath of the Maiden, or the full, held breath of the Mother, or the empty, suspended breath of the Dark Lady.



Autumn is associated with the change from warm weather to cold weather. It is the season of the harvest. Personifications of autumn are usually beautiful, voluptuous females, well-fed and well-endowed, amply adorned with the fruits, vegetables and grains that ripen at this time. Many cultures feature autumnal harvest festivals, and extant echoes of these celebrations include the mid-autumn Thanksgiving holiday and also the many North American Indian festivals tied to the harvesting of autumnnally ripe foods gathered in the wilds. While most foods are harvested during the autumn, foods especially associated with the season include pumpkins and apples, which are used to make seasonal foods and beverages such as apple cider and pumpkin pie, and are integral and prevalent parts of both Thanksgiving and Halloween, or Samhain, the third and final harvest festival in the Wiccan wheel of the year.

It is little wonder then that I adore pumpkin-pecan and apple pies, liberally laced with cinnamon of course, and spiced apple cider and nutty honey mead, and any candle, incense or oil that carries the scent of them. Any faerie would, and all faeries do. The pervasive mood of these autumnal festivals is also one of my favourite tween times. It is a gladness for the fruits of the earth coalescing with a melancholia connected to the imminent arrival of a harsh winter. It is a perspective presented in the English poet John Keats' poem To Autumn, describing the season as a time of bounteous fecundity and a time of mellow fruitfulness. It is bittersweet and heavily nostalgic, poignant and raw, piercing and beautiful.



Autumn in poetry has often been associated with melancholy. The possibilities of summer are gone and the chill of winter is in the air. Skies turn grey, and many people turn inward, physically and mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The song of Autumn is characterised by strong, painful feelings of sorrow, where the maturation of the world has reached its prime and it now must look ahead to the inevitability of old age and death. The autumnal season is a tween time, emphasising and echoing both lushness and abundance, but also a sense of melancholia and reflection.

Autumn is also associated with the Halloween holiday, which in turn was influenced by Samhain, a Celtic autumnal festival and a seasonal sabbat of the Wiccan wheel of the year. Samhain is my favourite Sabbat followed by Litha and Yule. The thing I love most about these tween times in the changing of the colours of the leaves, and the colourful autumnal foliage - from the lustrous golds and bright oranges to the burnished titian reds and dark earthen browns. They are redolent and resonant of the colours of my soul's tapestry. In indian mythology, autumn is considered to be the season for the Goddess of learning, Saraswati, who is also known by the name Sharada, Goddess of Autumn.



Twilight is one of my favourite words. It is so shimmering and surreal, so whimsical and ... Faerie. It is the time between dawn and sunrise or between sunset and dusk, during which sun's light scatters in the upper atmosphere, illuminating the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark. The sun itself is not visible to the eye because it is below the horizon. The special energy of the ambient light at this tween time, like a mantle over the lands, is powerful and beautiful, magickal and motherly, whimsical and wondrous, eerie and still. These tween times are the season of Witch, She who exists in places not places, and times not times, and realms within realms, and beyond. Twilight is sacred in Hinduism. It is called cow dust time. Many rituals including Sandhyavandanam and Puja are done at twilight. Just like with autumn and in Indian mythology, Hindus believe that this time is ideal for study and education.

I love overcast days. It feels like the world has turned topsy-turvy upside down on its head, draped over with a veil of mist and fog, so that the sky is an ocean of clouds, and the sea is a sky of dark waters, and all is blustery and stormy and grey. Overcast is that wonder time when the clouds, dark and heavy with unfelled rain, obscure the bright heat of the sun with a pale, muted, haze of grey. It is neither hot nor cold, but cool. It is neither bright nor dark, but dull. It is neither sharp nor blinding, but indistinct. It is like the Dreaming. It is like Otherworld. It is like home.



Dawn in the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is herald by the presence of pale sunlight, though the sun itself is still below the horizon. Many Indo-European mythologies have a goddess of the dawn, separate from the male Solar deity, derivations of which include Greek Eos, Roman Aurora, Indian Ushas, the Hindu male dawn deity Aruna, the Native American Anpao, entity with two faces, and hailing from my very own pantheon, the Slavic Zorya or Zornitsa.

In Slavic mythology The Zorya are ancient Slavic sky and light goddesses, honoured particularly in Russia. They are three Slavic dawn goddesses. They are also guardian goddesses, known as the Auroras. They guard and watch over the doomsday hound, Simargl, who is chained to the star Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor, the "little bear". If the chain ever breaks, and the hound should ever get loose, it will devour the constellation and the universe will end. The Zorya represent the Morning Star, the Evening Star and the Midnight Star.



Sunset is the daily disappearance of the sun beneath the horizon. The brightly-spun apricot and auburn hues are stunning, and the afterglow of the setting sun sinking into the blues where the sea and sky kiss is exquisite. Little can compare to its beauty, for it is the beauty of Goddess herself, and it is divine. Sometimes just after sunset a flash of green can be seen across the face of the still waters. This is a moment of power and of wonder and of magick. To make a wish on the green flash is to move the entire universe to do your bidding. You are blessed to lay eyes on it even once in a lifetime.

These tween times - the times between summer and winter, between day and night, between sun and rain, dawn and sunrise, sunset and dusk, ekstasis and melancholia, are mine. They are mine because they are Faerie and because I am Faerie and because they are home. I belong to their fallen leaf wishes and lovely spicy scents, to their melancholic moods and colourful tones that cause me to reflect on my nature, and on the nature of the Divine. I belong to their beauty and their bluster, to their energies and their enigmas. They are my own.

Brightly-spun, wonder-woven,
Lady Faemore Lorei