According to Italian physicist Giuliana Conforto, 90% of the total calculated mass of the universe is “dark matter”, and unobservable. While we observe 10% through the infinite rainbow which is light. How one accesses this non-observable substance requires intention, passion, allowing our intuition to guide us, shifting awareness and interacting with the aliveness of nature.
While teaching an herbal workshop at the Montana Herbalists Gathering a few years ago, I met a man, Michael Pilarski, who captured my attention. He had long white hair and a flowing white beard, sparkly eyes that spoke volumes and claimed to be an emissary for the fairie world. Being a plant person, I have always had an affinity for the Devic realm, that unseen world that is absorbed in the care of nature.
This highly animated man with cackling laughter, that looked rather like a large elf himself, was teaching a class on how to access the fairie realms and their connections to the land. The workshop title was The Plant Devas. While it seemed a bit woo woo to me in the sense of, who is making this up, who really is in touch with this mysterious plane of existence, and how would one know the difference, I still went, curious to know what he knew.
What I learned is there are plant, tree, meadow, hill, valley and mountain collected energies that are conscious of their role in nature. They encourage growth, death, rebirth, and beauty and are responsible and very aware of their existence. They can also interact with humans when plugged in to their world. We were given simple tools to access this world behind the curtains.
As I was leaving the workshop that was very informative and entertaining, he singled me out of the crowd and without even having met yet, asked me if I would like to take two fairies home with me to Colorado. He said he was being instructed to do so. Without thinking I didn’t hesitate to say yes. He asked me to sign a piece of paper that was full of names. There was one line left at the bottom of the page and after I signed it, I caught a glimpse of light shining through all the names on the page. As soon as I signed it, I felt a movement of energy around me like a soft breeze. I also felt this same movement of energy inside my body, a filling up of space like someone bringing furniture into the house and finding room for the new pieces. It was gentle and comfortable so I made room. It dawned on me and I quickly realized I had signed a contract, unspoken but binding.
The contents of this contract soon made itself clear, I was to be responsible for my thoughts, actions, and even my environment. I was to realize there was more than myself to consider in any given situation. The mental image I was given as a tool for access to the fairie realm and to my assigned charges was to envision a house with a family room and several bedrooms. When I wanted to contact my fairie friends, I would call them and wait in the family room for them to show up which could take a while or be immediate.
It took me a long time and a concerted effort to figure out how to communicate with them, a mental aerobic exercise of listening without constantly questioning my abilities to do so. I was determined and without any more guidance than I had been given, it was like strenuous work. After a session of trying to ask a question and getting the answer, I would be visibly glistening with sweat. Something akin to crawling through a tunnel that is a bit too tight for all the clothes you have on.
I must say they continually un-teach me all the things I thought I knew. After about a month with the two of them, I asked them their names. The wise one with a feminine grace about her is Alaria. She can anticipate my questions even before I have them solidified enough to ask but is patient with me none the less. The other one is definitely male and named Puk. He is playful and daring, always ready to try new things.
The first time I knew they were real, my cat was sick and dying. There was nothing I or the vet could do and I asked my fairie friends to keep her company on her passing. That night I went to bed, I could tell she was checking out. However the next morning, she was sitting on my bed staring at me waiting for breakfast and to be petted, as if she had been coaxed and made a decision in the night to stay a while longer.
Another time, I was speaking at the Human Fairie Relations Congress in Washington State. This annual gathering hosts 400 like minded people and 3000 fairies. My teenage daughter, Topaz called me from Colorado on my cell, which up to that point, I had no reception being at the dead end of a dirt road miles from any town on a piece of private wild land. She was crying as she just broke up with her boyfriend of two years and just wanted to ask me if I could send Alaria back home to be with her. Topaz has always had this natural gift of communication and took to the fairies immediately. I mentally called Alaria and she sweetly told me she was already on her way, getting the message before me. My daughter called me again the next morning to thank me for sending her and she was happy that she stayed and was still present with her. I got confused as I felt Alaria was right there with me also. Alaria quickly announced to me she had assigned Topaz her own fairie as this was the easiest remedy. Topaz said she knew the fairies were there because she was getting ready to make popcorn in the popper and the kitchen/dining room chimes went off. We have no breeze running through there to cause them to ring and the only way to make them ring, is to raise your arm walking through one room to next.
Another crazy time, I wanted to visit a casino and make some quick cash. Whimsically, I asked Puk to come with me and help me double my $40, he said ok. I lost it all in about 5 minutes and we left. When I questioned him, he said we needed to depart. He described the energy as “riding bareback on a wild dragonfly through a thorny thicket”! I got it.
They have since tapped me on the shoulder to show me something remarkable, including how to find the right wild plants for my medicines, how to ask questions of the plants and trees themselves about their nature. An excellent example is the Arizona Cypress that grows all around the high desert and as the drought continues to dominate the landscape, the Cypress is loosing some of its ability to fight the bark beetle. Although I felt saddened from this loss of a mighty tree, the tree tells a different story, that its place in the landscape is changing, that we can not hold on to the past and embrace the present and be grateful for what we have right now. According to one of my students, Joan Perrier that is acutely aware and connected to nature, even the fires that raged through here recently were met by exhilaration from the trees. An accepting of what is given and finding the ability to transform.
The fairie folk and plant devas still amaze me with their gifts and lessons. I’m never sure what I am giving them except my appreciation and love. They have told me if anyone ever asks what those gifts are, I am to share them completely. Here they are:
… Trust your first impressions, they are usually the right ones. Science tells us we have more neurotransmitters running from our gut to our brain than we do from our brain to our gut. Think about gut instincts.
… Eat healthy, nuture yourself. Our immune systems need nourishment to keep the healthy barriers up in a stressful world.
… Do ceremony everyday. It shuts down the rational mind, pulls you out of the control mechanisms that run your life. You can create your own simple ceremony at home by yourself. Start there.
… Ask why you need something before you act on your desires. Intention motivates the process, be clear. The Iroquois teach us that our actions ripple through time even unto seven generations. It is explained to me that thoughts and beliefs create the world we live in.
… Create full moon paper. When the full moon comes, set a piece of blank paper outside under the moon to get charged. I usually set mine out on my deck and put a crystal on top of it so it doesn’t blow away. In the morning, put it away until the new moon comes two weeks later. Then write on your paper what you want to manifest in your life. The paper is conditioned, fulfilled and complete just waiting for your words.
… Find the joy in your life and have fun. My mentors have imprinted on me that there are only two reasons to be on this planet. One is to create with consciousness, being aware and accountable of your every action. The other is to have fun doing it!
“Life can take many forms. Look at the forms life can take on this planet alone. Here in the bush, there are insects you could easily mistake for rocks or for pieces of bark until one of them stings you, that is. Life does not have to consist of bipeds who move and breathe and smoke cigars as we do. I have said it before and I say it again the universe is a gigantic chamber of possibility where everything has the chance and the right to happen, and so we must not have cut-and-dry theories regarding just how life should look. Life could surprise us!”
Credo Mutwa
The official historian of the Zulu ation, in his book, Song of the Stars