LilAc

Although technically a tree, the blossoms of the lilac are filled with faerie and elf activity. The flower is fragrant and powerful, and as you learn to attune to the nature spirits associated with it, you will find the fragrance also has a musical harmony to it. The sweet scent is said to draw Fae spirits to your garden. These faeries can help harmonize our life and activate greater clairvoyance. They also can reveal to you past lives and how they are harmonized with your present. Lilac and primroses for midsummer’s eve will please the Fae.....

Midsummer

Midsummer Night's Eve is supposed to be a good time to commune with field and forest sprites and faeries. The faeries abound at this time and it is customary to leave offerings - such as food or herbs - for them in the evening.

Midsummer's Eve at midnight, Midsummer's Day at dawn and Midsummer noon are prime times to collect plants sacred to the sun or special to the fey.
Midsummer is a fey time, both by tradition and observation. The scent of the air is thick, green and juicy; it's lost its spring astringency and is simply lush. The whole world is stretching its limbs and frolicking. The fey are big on that. Especially for charms of love, gardening and magickal abilities, the fey are a great help in herb collecting. In exchange, they like gifts of milk and honey, cookies, sweet liqueurs, or any sweet food, drink or liquor. They also like baubles, particularly pretty or shiny. Or cold hard cash -- but in coin, not paper, and it's best if shiny.

To stay in good with the fey and the herbs you collect from, leave enough of the plant or other plants of the type that the herb survives in the spot collected from. Remember too to always ask the plant before taking a cutting, and to wait for an answer.

Fey charms: To see the fey, pick flowers from a patch of wild thyme where the little folk live and place the flowers on your eyes. A four-leafed clover not only grants you a wish but also, carried in your pocket or a charm, gives you the power to see fairies dancing in rings. A good place to look is by oaks, said in Germany to be a favourite place for fey dances. To penetrate fey glamour, make and wear an ointment including four leaved clovers.

St. John's wort, also known as ragwort, has a strong connection to the fey and transportation. You might add it to charms to travel quickly. The Irish call the plant the fairy's horse, and the fey are said to ride it through the air. But beware: The Manx say if you step on a ragwort plant on Midsummer's Eve after sunset, a fairy horse springs out of the earth and carries you off till sunrise, leaving you wherever you happen to be when the sun comes up.

(various authors - unknown to me)

summer solstice fun...

In the Northern Hemisphere, Summer Solstice this year, falls on June 21, just after midnight in the UK.... here is a little fun thing to do....

Your fairy is called Fire Rainbowfilter

She is a fortune bringer.

She lives where fireflies mate and breed.

She is only seen on midsummer's eve.

Her dresses glow with fiery colours. She has multicoloured wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here!

The Fairy Tulips - An English Folk Tale

Once upon a time there was a good old woman who lived in a little house. She had in her garden a bed of beautiful striped tulips.

One night she was wakened by the sounds of sweet singing and of babies laughing. She looked out at the window. The sounds seemed to come from the tulip bed, but she could see nothing.

The next morning she walked among her flowers, but there were no signs of any one having been there the night before.

On the following night she was again wakened by sweet singing and babies laughing. She rose and stole softly through her garden. The moon was shining brightly on the tulip bed, and the flowers were swaying to and fro. The old woman looked closely and she saw, standing by each tulip, a little Fairy mother who was crooning and rocking the flower like a cradle, while in each tulip-cup lay a little Fairy baby laughing and playing.

The good old woman stole quietly back to her house, and from that time on she never picked a tulip, nor did she allow her neighbors to touch the flowers.

The tulips grew daily brighter in color and larger in size, and they gave out a delicious perfume like that of roses. They began, too, to bloom all the year round. And every night the little Fairy mothers caressed their babies and rocked them to sleep in the flower-cups.

The day came when the good old woman died, and the tulip-bed was torn up by folks who did not know about the Fairies, and parsley was planted there instead of the flowers. But the parsley withered, and so did all the other plants in the garden, and from that time nothing would grow there.

But the good old woman's grave grew beautiful, for the Fairies sang above it, and kept it green; while on the grave and all around it there sprang up tulips, daffodils, and violets, and other lovely flowers of spring.

I'd Love to be A Fairy's Child

Children born of fairy stock
Never need for shirt or frock,
Never want for food or fire,
Always get their hearts desire:
Jingle pockets full of gold,
Marry when they're seven years old.
Every fairy child may keep
Two ponies and ten sheep;
All have houses, each his own,
Built of brick or granite stone;
They live on cherries, they run wild--
I'd love to be a Fairy's child.

Robert Graves

Daisy

in honour of my gorgeous friend...

Daisy [Venus & The Sun]:The daisy is a favorite of Dryads {wood nymphs}. This flower is drawing to all faeries, elves and nature spirits. Where it is found, nature spirits will also be found. It is one of the best flowers to work with to begin communication with the faerie kingdom, as its faeries have no fear of humans and are very open to contact. They stimulate great physical awareness of the presence of nature spirits. simply sitting among the flowers invites contact. Daisy faeries help awaken creativity and inner strength. Daisies are used in fairy magic, for working with elves or fairies. Putting a daisy chain on a child is said to prevent fairies from beguiling the child and carrying her or him away.

"Presents for fairies - as a child I dug little nests in the grass under the lilac trees, and left little scraps of fine material for them, such as chiffon or pieces of ribbon, I even remember leaving a small bright metal coloured thimble, also shells and pretty little stones. Now in the summer at the right times, I leave something sweet for them, as they are supposed to have notoriously sweet tongues. Marshmallows, a spoonful of honey in a little milk. I leave it on the end of the garden wall, where the hedge starts above the wall. [The land behind my house is about three foot higher than my garden, so the roots of my hedge which is planted in that land lie just behind my garden wall]." love and Hugs Daisy xx

MuShRooMs & ToAdStoolS

in keeping with Friday 13th....

Mushrooms and toadstools with knobbed caps are said to be used as stools and umbrellas by small fairies. Some of the folk names for various types of fungi reflect this belief: Fairy Club, Elf Cap, Pixie Hood, Dryad's Saddle, Elf's Stool. A circle of mushrooms on a lawn is called a Fairy Ring, Fairy Circle, Fairy Dance, or Fairy Court. Fairy rings were believed to be places of dangerous enchantment that formed where fairies danced.

Toadstools - Some have poisonous hallucinogenic properties. The Vikings ate it and gained their reputations as berserkers. In Celtic lore, they are among the food of the gods, as with many red plants. Some toadstools associated with the faerie are Fly Agaric, Yellow Fairy Club, Slender Elf Cap, Dune Pixie-Hood, and Dryad's Saddle

The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames--
These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all

By Robert Louis Stevenson

oAk

Fairies cherish the Great Oak and use the acorns for decoration, celebrations and use the tops for hats. Magic oak leaves are used in the autumn celebrations. Legend tells us "Faery folks are in the oaks". Oak trees are believed to provide safe havens and homes for many varieties of faery. Hundreds of faeries have been found to live in the oldest Oaks. The health and energy of the surrounding fairy garden plays a major role in determining how many fairies actually live in the Great Oak. Try placing crystals in the ground surrounding the Great Oak if you feel that the energy needs lifting. It wasn't for naught that the druids set such store by oaks. They contain faerie magic! The fruit of the oak tree, acorns, can be made into faerie talismans if found and gathered by the light of the full moon.

Gnomes

Gnomes are found throughout the world. They are dwarf faeries who appear to be quite old because they mature very young though they live about a thousand years. They stand about 12 inches tall. They wear old fashioned costumes such as small pointed red hats and blue or green clothing. They are also kind hearted and always take care of sick or frightened animals. They are active all year round. They live deep in ancient forests under old oak trees and make their dwellings in their intricate root systems. Their main job is the protection and healing of wildlife, though they occasionally help humans along their spiritual quest. Their only known enemies are martens, owls, and humans that destroy their homes. They can be found on the physical plane and in the astral. Their element is earth. To contact them simply invite them to you. This works especially well in astral travel. Gnomes can lend their help in spells and rituals, especially that of protection, healing animals and people. Since they are expert healers, they may be willing to teach one the secrets of magical herbalism. They love to dance and lend their energies to rituals celebrating the forest gods and goddesses.

BLuEbellS

BLUEBELL~ the most potent plant for fairy magic. Fields of bluebells are said to be so dangerously enchanted by fairies that a child who wanders into one may be held captive there by the fae, and adults who enter bluebell patches may become so enchanted that they are unable to leave until other humans come to lead them out. Plant bluebells to attract fairies to your garden, they are called to their midnight revels by the sound of bluebells chiming. If you hear a bluebell ringing, this indicates the presence of a malicious fairy. On Beltane eve, make an ankle braclet of "Bluebells" and "jingle" bells to attract helpful fae folk to you.

BLUEBELLS

Where the bluebells and the wind are,
Fairies in a ring I spied,
And I heard a little linnet
Singing near beside.

Where the primrose and the dew are,
Soon were sped the fairies all:
Only now the green turf freshens,
And the linnets call.

By Walter de la Mare

If You See A Fairy Ring

If you see a fairy ring
In a field of grass,
Very lightly step around,
Tiptoe as you pass;
Last night fairies frolicked there,
And they're sleeping somewhere near.

If you see a tiny fay
Lying fast asleep,
Shut your eyes and run away,
Do not stay or peep;
And be sure you never tell,
Or you'll break a fairy spell.

William Shakespeare

AnGeLicA

The flower faeries of angelica are very beautiful. The plant is from the wild carrot family, and though many see it as not that beautiful, the faeries and elves belie such impressions. For anyone wishing to connect more fully with the angelic kingdom, this is a wonderful flower to learn to commune with. The faeries of angelica strengthen the aura and they bring good fortune and strong energy. They hold knowledge of how to radiate more joy in all circumstances. They can reveal the nature and cause of problems in your life. They will stimulate intuition, and they will even leave the flower and follow individuals they are attracted to for brief periods, serving as friends and temporary guardians.