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Rewilding as defined in Wikipedia is, ‘a form of ecological restoration where the emphasis is on humans stepping back and leaving an area to nature, the aim of which is to increase biodiversity. The word was coined by members of the Earth First! appearing in print in 1990 and was then refined by conservationists.’

This subject is very dear to me because  Queen Maeve of the fae has been voicing her concerns over the way humanity is treating mother earth, right from when she first connected with me many years ago. She wants us all to leave a portions of our garden wild

‘The time is now for us to return but you must create sacred spaces for us to make forays into your world and connect with your seers. These places in Nature must be wild and dedicated to the fae. Large swathes of land, wild and rugged, are already frequented by us. We see you love your gardens, your little green spaces, where you attempt to reconnect with your true natures through the natural world. We propose a liaison between the fae and yourselves, through dedicated wild spaces in your gardens. They have become too manicured and regimented and the life force is not as strong as it would be in a wild uncultivated place. Certain plants create sacred natural energies, and certain configurations upon the earth, in rock and crystal, create favourable conditions for portals where we as a race can come and go at our pleasure… and it is our vain hope that we will be able to interact with the seers of your realm and forge links into humanity’s consciousness, into the closed minds of men’.

So creating wild areas in our gardens, as well as helping to increase biodiversity and therefore support  a wider variety of wildlife, also allows the fae to inhabit our gardens – both elemental and the fae races due to its increased vitality. We probably have all experienced the completely different feel to a wild area compared to the vibe of a garden with a manicured lawn and tidy flowerbeds. Wild places are also far more revitalising for us too.

This is such a challenge for me as someone who has tidied up gardens for clients for years and finds it challenging to surrender. In fact I suspect that as well as flowing against the cultural norm of viewing neat gardens as caring and messy gardens as lazy, for me it’s also about complete surrender  and seeing what happens. As a lifelong ‘needing to be in control’, type of person this is going to be a huge challenging experience!

So I aim to give over half my garden to grow wild and the other half will be to carve out a sacred space to run circles and for a family area. The wild area will include my native mixed hedging, a wildlife pond and allowing some lawn to grow to see what wild flowers might come up. I am going to plant a native tree that is good for wildlife ( probably a mountain Ash)and grow native plants that are good for wildlife from seed. I shall be asking the fae and Queen Maeve what plants they would like me to add. They have already asked for bluebells, wild garlic and roses.

Then I am going to observe what wildlife visits my garden or takes up residence. Of course this is a slow process but that’s what I like about nature. Her cycles and seasons reminding me of mine. Being with, flowing with and gaining inspiration from. Seeing myself as nature. As I meditate in my wilder garden, I shall see if the elemental faery presence increases and hopefully at some point it may support a portal to the fae races like the Sidhe. This is beyond exciting!

For more inspiration do check out Mary Reynolds website Wearetheark.org where she talks about how we need to become guardians of our land, not gardeners and give back half of our land to nature and wildness.

I am also aware that re -wilding my garden is about re-wilding myself, since everything ‘out there’, is our mirror. I will be posting about this on my instagram @nurtureyournaturewithzorah wed 26th May 2021. If it gets too long it may well turn into a blog post!

In the portal of the Scorpio super full moon, I had a magical encounter with a faery race who referred to  themselves as the ‘ sisterhood of the fae’.

First I connected to mother earth and father sky and called forth ,’the faery within’. This aspect of myself  helps me connect more easily to the fae. This the part of me that is fae in origin; a ‘second nature’ self, past-life in origin, where I have lived as a faery. If you are reading this, you will have a, ‘faery within’ and this can also be where you were the product of a faery and human coming together. Some describe it as having faery blood.

 I then  called in Queen Maeve of the fae, who over sees all of the faery realm. She took me to a grassy landscape on a hill. The word ‘chalky downs’ came to mind, and I immediately saw a tiny blue butterfly in this alternate reality that has been  visiting my garden regularly over the last few days.

As we were sitting together on the grassy slope, a doorway opened up in the side of the hill and Queen Maeve disappeared inside, beckoning  me to follow. I followed her down an earthy tunnel that twisted this way and that and along the way met many magical creatures such as dragons and gnomes and many pairs of eyes stayed in the shadows just watching me inquisitively!

 Then the tunnel opened up into a room that glowed with golden light and there stood a tall faery, in a glittering white gown. She had a twinkling crown upon her head which signified to me that she was a faery queen.  She greeted me by placing her hands one on top of the other, at her heart, which I reciprocated. Then she opened my hands and pressed what seemed like a coin into each palm, but which in retrospect, may have been a sigil. She introduced her faery community as the ‘sisterhood of the fae’, and told me that they had been charged with keeping the line of communication open with humanity and to keep vigil over us until  such times as the seers of our realm were ready to meet. The blue butterfly in my garden was an invitation to meet with her. She also told me that she and her people were galactic in origin and showed me 3 sheaves of wheat, which I am still not sure how to interpret! Then she wrapped a silvery cloak of light around my shoulders and led me through a gateway into the land of her people.

At first I couldn’t see and so she pressed her hand against my forehead and then a whole vista opened up before me of what can only be described as the fae going about their business. I was shown many fae engaged in creating things of great beauty. I saw white faery horses adorned with tiny silver bells and silver horse shoes upon their hooves. It was explained that the silver horse shoe was originally a symbol of welcoming the fae and that this was how the fae choose to travel in their world and often in ours too. I was then shown amazing libraries with many rooms branching from revolving stairs of light, within which, was contained amongst other things, the histories of the stars and  also the history of the entwined lives of fae and humanity. During all of this I had such a feeling of peace and deep joy and it was explained to me  that I was picking up on the collective consciousness of the fae who were so content. This was because there was no need to work for money. I have previously been told this is a man-made concept invented by the ‘few’ who seek to have power and dominion over others and that Faeries can instantly manifest what they want. So  lives unfold according to the individual fae’s soul calling/ divine plan. (Money obviously can interrupt this flow).

I was then briefly shown the faery gardens. All of the trees and plants were whispering together and there was vitality and magic crackling in the air. These gardens felt enchanted and were almost disorientating to me. They felt wild in the truest sense of the word and ‘forbidden’, came to mind. The faery queen explained to me that was my cultural conditioning being triggered, where many of us repress our wild nature and correspondingly our sacral chakra. I was shown a vision of the fae coming together in these gardens and dancing in circle and that this was a source of nourishment to them. I feel the need to explore these gardens and the roles they play for the fae,  (with the faery Queens permission) and that this will be a blog for another occasion.

The faery queen then turned to me and said it was important for humanity to seek a connection with the fae,  in order to learn from them ( this is a repeating message I receive from the fae) and that it has been foretold that there will be a meeting of our worlds, where mutual honouring will occur. I asked when would that be and she answered that she couldn’t say exactly when, as much was hanging in the balance, with many time lines and negative interference influencing this convergence. However,  she explained that there is help being offered  from behind the scenes. We can play our part  in speeding up this drawing together of our worlds , by holding the vision steady within our hearts.

So when you wish to meet the fae, set this intention and call in Queen Maeve to help with this connection and to be your guide. Using your faery name will help when being introduced to the fae and a meditation to find your faery name will be on my instagram account @nurtureyournaturewithzorah (live 6pm sunday 2nd May 2021)

Shamanic journeying is said to be different to that of meditating, as part of your soul takes flight and travels along the cosmic web between the worlds of spirit and physicality.

The purpose of taking a shamanic journey is to bring back knowledge, inspiration and healing. It is especially good for finding solutions to problems in your outer reality, which have consistently eluded you.

As previously mentioned the shamanic journey takes you into subtle reality along the cosmic web of life which links the material world to the physical world. When we are in alignment and connected to this cosmic web, our life flows with ease, we are in our power  and we experience synchronicity and serendipity.

Entrance into subtle reality or the otherworld is usually via a tree but it can be anything. The druid that I created my drum with, entered it from a spring faucet along the lane from where he lived. The main point to make, is that this starting point for your shamanic journey, needs to be from a place that you know, a place that exists and has happy memories for you. This ensures that you are connected to the cosmic web as you travel and that you return to this world grounded and able to function straight away.

A journey is traditionally taken listening to a rapid steady drum beat of 205 – 220 beats per minute. This puts your brain into an altered state of awareness, harmonising both hemispheres of the brain so that you can completely disassociate from your body and fully take part in what unfolds for you. A rattle can also be used and I have even journeyed whilst flowing reiki. It is important to listen to the resonance of the drum and not the tap of the drum stick.

There are three worlds to travel to and that is why tree imagery is so useful. The branches allow you to access the upper world, a place  of  harmony and beauty where we can commune with angels and teachers of our spiritual lineage. It is associated with the future and we can gain an overview of our lives. The lower world is accessed via the roots of the tree and is the place where we can seek the wisdom of our ancestors and regain power and vitality. The middle world is accessed through the trunk of the tree and is where the spiritual dimension of nature resides including nature spirits, the green man and the goddess and from where we intuit things. We can find guidance on present issues here.

Shamanic journeys are always taken with an ally – spirit companions such as animal helpers, ancestral and spiritual teachers who ensure we do not get lost and direct us to exactly the information we need. This leads me on to the next important point about shamanic journeys. A clear intention set before the journey, gets clear answers. Often we are shown a lot of symbolism during the journey and we can gain clarification by asking our spirit companions what we are being shown.

Finally it is best to not expect too much from your journey as I find this blocks the surrender needed to gain access to subtle reality. Be curious and witness what you are being shown, in order to stay centered in your heart and not allow your mind to interfere.

I have taken part in Caitlin and John Matthews ‘walkers between the worlds ‘, programme which is Celtic shamanism and I highly recommend their books – ‘The Celtic Shaman’, by John Matthews and ‘Singing the Soul Back Home’, by Caitlin Matthews.

I first became aware of this concept when I read Michael J Roads book of the same title. In it he describes an approach to gardening which involves ‘being with’, rather than, ‘doing to’. The former is where we are mostly in our heads, not paying much too attention to what we are doing and more focussed on our minds chatter. The latter is where our awareness rests in our heart, intuiting how to carry out a given gardening task or even whether it needs carrying out at all.

This really hit home for me. I have a lot of mind chatter! Gardening for others invariably means I go into ‘doing’ mode as soon as I pick up my garden tools as I have a finite time to garden for any given client.

So in my own garden, with more time available, I started to ‘be with’, my plants. This is what I do. Firstly I really study the plant, noticing every detail, opening up all of my senses, including smelling it, touching it and tasting it, if it is edible. I then shut my eyes and drop into my heart space where the minds chatter cannot follow me. I invite the spirit of the plant to connect with me and then I just sit with it. It is important to have no expectation of what, if anything, will happen. Sometimes I see a colour or the spirit of the plant will appear clothed in the imagery taken from my subconscious ( so will be different for everyone).Sometimes the plant gives me a feeling/healing  associated with that plants medicine e.g.  feeling peaceful with lavender and now, with practise the plants  talk to me. I also invite the elemental faery of the flower/ seed /fruit and commune with it, in the same way. I then ask the plant, what can I do for it. It might ask to be watered, mulched, pruned, moved or even to be left alone.

Colours in the garden always seem more vibrant when I have been communing in this way and I sense the garden as a whole. It feels part of me and I am part of it. It feels like coming home to myself.

Entering into communion with a plant like this, is a much more fulfilling way of gardening, where it becomes a form of meditation and afterwards  I always feel more grounded, heart centred and have more enthusiasm for life’s more mundane chores.

So, if I were to define conscious gardening, it would be honouring our ‘being’ state in the process of tending our gardens and on a deeper level, opening up our senses to the spirit/fae of the plant and entering into conscious communion with it. This process of nurturing nature, nurtures our nature. You may not get much done using this approach but that’s the whole point! Gardening becomes a process of co – creation and opens us up to the multidimensional aspect of nature, as dragons, unicorns, gnomes ( to name just a few of natures beings of light), may step forward and connect with you – not to mention a fae ‘race’.* The messages I have received from these are included in my book.

* My next blog will be about the different types of faery I have come across.

Welcome to my blog on creating an ‘enchanted garden’ using a conscious gardening approach.

Here I hope to share with you the process of co – creating a garden with the nature spirits and the fae, opening your awareness up to the multi dimensional aspect of nature and bringing in the spiritual perspective to gardening. It’s going to be an exciting journey and the methods are taken from my book,’ The Enchanted Garden – Conscious Gardening with the Fae and Nature’s Elementals’, which will be published this autumn 2021 by Clairview Books.‘

My faery guardian wanted the word ‘enchanted’ used in the title as she believes it will stir long forgotten memories within humanity’s collective consciousness, to a time when we were enchanted with the world. We were literally in reverence and awe with the world and thus treated it with more respect and cherished and looked after it.’

I have recently moved in early January of this year (2021)and inherited a garden that is a fairly blank canvas. It contains mostly lawn with narrow flower beds around the edges, defined with railway sleepers. It all feels and looks very angular and uninspiring and definitely not a garden inviting wildlife to take up residence, let alone the fae – the two definitely being synonymous.

So my first step is to make a conscious connection to the spirit of the land – the Genius Loci . To introduce myself and feel in to the current state of being that the Genius Loci holds. To ask what it needs from me and whether it is happy to co – create a wildlife and fae friendly enchanted garden.

So how does one connect to the spirit of their land? I will share with you how I do it, but I’m sure there are many ways to connect -using, dance, song or shamanic ritual. It needs to feel authentic and true for you as a  unique soul. So today I sat in the sunshine, dropped into my heart space and rested here in a state of pure awareness, waiting for the chitter chatter of my mind to fall away. Then I took my awareness to my crown chakra and opened it up to Source/ The Creator and allowed pure source light to flow through my chakras, breathing it  into my heart and expanding it out into my physical body and then into my subtle energy bodies (etheric, emotional, mental and spiritual). I then visualised this Source light to continue flowing down my chakra column into the earth star chakra beneath my feet and from here I took my awareness to mother earth and her soul – Gaia. I took time to breath here with Her, heart to heart, sending Her love and gratitude. I then asked  Gaia if there were any messages for me, any guidance for my day and whether there was anything I could do for Her. Then with my breath, I flowed Her beautiful energy back up to my earth star and back up my chakra column into my heart. There it blended with pure Source light and again I breathed this out into my physical and etheric body and my subtle energy bodies. Finally I returned my awareness to my earth star beneath my feet and invited the spirit of my land to connect with me. On the first occasion I invited my guardian gnome to help with this connection.  I will write more about gnomes in a later blog – they are awesome!

And this is how I experienced the Genius Loci of my garden. ( it will be different for each of us depending on how we perceive subtle reality i:e whether your predominant sense is visual, a feeling, knowing or hearing and how happy the spirit of your land is). At first I was aware of a pulsating golden light and a feeling of deep peace. I got a sense that one of the reasons the spirit of my land feels so peaceful is that it is part of a wider circle of land that encompasses many beautiful mature trees in a nearby golf course and park, radiating out their wisdom and love.

I asked the spirit of my land whether there was anything I could do for it and it showed me the patio.

I became aware that the flow of energy was blocked here, not only by the concrete slabs but also by the railway sleeper edging. I was inspired to show it an idea of replacing the rail way sleepovers with fruit tree ‘step overs’  and planting into where each patio slab joined the next, with small creeping plants such as thyme or one of my favourites, Erigeron Karvinskianus. Into the centre of each plant and into the soil, a quartz crystal could be placed, programmed to flow out  love and light. Of course one could just place the quartz but a plant would be softer on the eye and better for wildlife. This would be a little like acupuncture for the land!

I felt that the spirit of the land approved of this!

Over subsequent weeks, as I have built up a relationship with The Genius Loci, I learnt that it’s name is Mar. I feel an easier and deeper connection when I use its name and have built a temporary crystal mandala on my lawn to honour it. I hope to replace this with something more permanent when the garden has been designed, maybe a standing stone with its name upon it or a symbol it might give me.

I shall continue to regularly connect with Mar to deepen the relationship I have to my land and to check out with it, ideas I gradually come up with, on the design of my Enchanted garden. There is a chapter about my connection with the Genius Loci of my last garden and the information it gave me, in my book.

Our true nature is often layered over with conditioning from our childhood which then shapes our adult life experiences too. We end up operating from our subconscious ego’s fears and the trapped emotions acquired throughout our lives resonate and confirm these fears, through attracting more of the same life experiences. In my case the conditioning presents itself in the form of being too busy and overly organised.

Yet we have entered Pisces season and the best way to navigate this is by surrendering -‘flowing with’, rather than ‘battling against’. In the surrendering we accept that there is something larger than ourselves which is directing our earth walk. Call it Goddess, Spirit, Universal consciousness, whatever has meaning for you. My being overly busy with an itinerary of things to do is definitely not the way to be right now, or ever, for that matter! Once we surrender we are far more likely to be aware of our soul calling us home to ourselves, facilitating a deeper connection to our true self. Calling us to take time to ‘be’, to nurture ourselves and to create something for the sheer joy it brings us and hopefully which will be of service to others too. In my case this centres around connecting to the wisdom of plants and trees and receiving messages from them. I also am planning a course/ workshops based on the information in my book, ‘The Enchanted Garden – conscious gardening with the fae and natures elementals’, (which is currently being proof read). This is my inherent nature. But I do struggle with surrendering and this is where the Emotion Code can be useful. It is extremely effective in removing blocks ( trapped emotions) in the way of how we wish to live our lives. So guess what I am doing over the next few days! By releasing the blocks to my personal challenge of surrendering, I will be more able to go with the flow and experience the blessings of experiencing life in this way.

Recently I have been working with my body elemental ( as well as Goddess, which I will post about next) addressing physical problems in my body. As well as myself, many of my friends are struggling at the moment with various symptoms which I feel is largely because we are not giving ourselves regular time to just rest and Be, which is when things rise from our subconscious and we become aware of where we are out of balance and what we need to address, so this Being time is integral to our self care. All solutions to our problems are always found within us first and then we will attract the right sort of help, if we need it, in our normal waking reality.

I invited some friends to my home, where I led them on a journey to meet there body elemental and they all received interesting information on core reasons for their issues and received healing within the journey and guidance for what to do in their waking reality.

So firstly, what is a body elemental and what does it do?

Tanis Helliwell of tanishelliwell.com says that all living beings have a body elemental, another name for which is the etheric body and that this body elemental is with us for all our lives. The body elemental is like an architect and reads the blue print of what that being wants to become and grows it into its highest potential. Our body elemental comes in at the point of conception in order to grow our body. It also knows our personality and puts that in too and our spiritual resources from past lives. So it creates the entire form in which we live and yet we are ignorant of it. The magic is that if we get in touch with our body elemental then we can heal ourselves at the cellular level and work consciously on our evolution, looking at what we need to develop in ourselves and what we need to release

Here is a guided journey to meet your body elemental for healing.

First imagine golden roots from the soles of your feet burrowing deep down into mother earth, through the soil, rock and crystals, past the inner aquifers and inner cities of light, right down to the molten core and then with intention, step through into the soul of mother earth, Gaia. Rest here a while, enveloped in Gaia’s loving energy and then breathe Her love up into your body, through your earth star, root, sacral, navel and solar plexus chakra into your heart chakra. From here breathe Her love into your physical body, into your etheric body and into your emotional, mental and spiritual subtle energy bodies. Then take your awareness to your crown chakra and travel up in your minds’ eye through the cosmos, up to Source, God/dess/All That Is. Rest here awhile and with clear intention draw this energy down through your transpersonal chakras above your head, through your stellar gateway, your soul star chakra, your crown, third eye, throat chakra and into your heart chakra. Let Source energy mingle with Gaias energy and then breathe this out into your physical body, your etheric body, your emotional, mental and spiritual subtle energy bodys. Taking awareness back into your heart chakra, feel yourself whole and complete unto yourself, the whole/holy child of mother earth and father sky.

From this balanced and centred place take your awareness down to your sacral area. Imagine that your sacral becomes a golden labyrinth and that you are standing at the entrance to it and that at the centre resides your body elemental. Take time now to walk this labyrinth with growing curiosity at every twist and turn, at meeting your body elemental. Finally you take a turn into the centre and there before is your body elemental uniquely clothed in the imagery taken from your consciousness. ( I see mine as a flame but it equally could present itself in a personified form). Take time to thank your body elemental for all that it has done for you in this lifetime and all of your life times – really feel the magnitude of this task it has undertaken for you.

Now ask your body elemental to lead your awareness to a part of your body that there is an issue with – that is out of balance or disharmonious, whether it be at the level of the physical and/or the corresponding emotional, mental or spiritual aspect. Ask your body elemental what is the underlying reason for this issue – what is it trying to communicate to you?

Then ask for an animal, plant, tree , crystal or your healing angel to step forward with medicine for this area of your body/subtle body. Allow yourself to just be in this medicine, staying aware/witnessing the feelings, colours, sensation and/or receiving guidance and clarity for a way forward with this issue in your life. Then ask for an affirmation to repeat daily that will continue with this healing.

When you have finished, thank your body elemental for all it has shown you and the healing it has facilitated and send it love. Return your awareness to your sacral area and make your way back out of the labyrinth. Take time to become aware of your surroundings and come back to normal waking reality.

This journey can be repeated as often as is needed and form part of our regular self care as well as facilitating an ever stronger conscious connection to our amazing body elemental.