Fairy Hollow

03/05/2020

The Fairy/Nymph Water Spirit MELUSINE--often confused with the MERMAID, although she is the denizen of fresh water and sacred springs. Her stories take place on a different and much older branch of the tree of legend. Often pilgrimage to a holy well or a sacred spring was undertaken to make a VOW and in the story of Melusine--despite the peace and riches she brought to her land--the king breaks his vow to her. It is one of the magical bride stories ending with tragic human failure and loss of nature's blessing. This particular image is from the Pooley Gate in Liverpool, and perhaps its curious and somewhat malevolent history should be considered. This gate, originally established before the Liverpool Sailor's Home, survived an 1860 inferno of the original stucture, and subsequently killed two people by falling from it's elevated opening. The gates wandered after WWII into storage and were only restored in Liverpool, on Paradise Street, in 2011. Perhaps due to accidental proximity to one of the old wells of Liverpool, the gates have become an anodyne historical relic with no further associations with fatality.

04/27/2019

What if instead of one place on Summer Solstice this year there were Fairy Hollows all over our fair city? In the little, low, dark places of the creeks and streams? Wouldn't that be lovely.

WHO ARE THE FAIRIES?
There are numerous theories about how the fairies came to be. One turns to the apocryphal story of THE SECRET CHILDREN OF EVE. Whether through parthenogenesis or other paternity, Eve, the first woman, secretly gave birth to many children who were not descended from Adam. Eve hid them in the woods and wild places of Eden so Adam would not find them. These were her first offspring, before Cain and Abel, before what is known as The Fall, when Adam and Eve were turned out, and Gates of Paradise were closed. After The Fall her lonely children strayed from their hiding places looking for their mother who could nowhere be found. The Angel of the Gate finally took pity on them and allowed them passage--as long as they let no earthly creature see them on their excursions. Alas, their time is not like ours, and their mother Eve had been dead and buried for hundreds of years by the time this privilege was granted. So they are a little like people are when they did not have their mother to raise them and do not know quite what they are looking for. They were never taught that it is wrong to lie or steal, and they love anything that shines. As wicked as they can sometimes be, they do not kill: they carry the magic of Eden and any living thing they love will thrive. Sometimes they show us their light, but never more. They make singing sounds that people used to hear, but not so much anymore.

04/27/2019

WHO ARE THE FAIRIES?
There are numerous theories about how the fairies came to be. One turns to the apocryphal story of THE SECRET CHILDREN OF EVE. Whether through parthenogenesis or other paternity, Eve, the first woman, secretly gave birth to many children who were not descended from Adam. Eve hid them in the woods and wild places of Eden so Adam would not find them. These were her first offspring, before Cain and Abel, before what is known as The Fall, when Adam and Eve were turned out, and Gates of Paradise were closed. After The Fall her lonely children strayed from their hiding places looking for their mother who could nowhere be found. The Angel of the Gate finally took pity on them and allowed them passage--as long as they let no earthly creature see them on their excursions. Alas, their time is not like ours, and their mother Eve had been dead and buried for hundreds of years by the time this privilege was granted. So they are a little like people are when they did not have their mother to raise them and do not know quite what they are looking for. They were never taught that it is wrong to lie or steal, and they love anything that shines. As wicked as they can sometimes be, they do not kill: they carry the magic of Eden and any living thing they love will thrive. Sometimes they show us their light, but never more. They make singing sounds that people used to hear, but not so much anymore.

07/29/2018

This is an apology for my administration of Fairy Hollow in 2016, when several things were done that damaged the Fairy/Human interface. First, I allowed a volunteer to place signage that depicted 'fairies' (little girls with wings). I had always prevented this in the past, knowing that nothing is more insulting to the fairies than these insipid images, but the signs included 'safety information.' We'd established that the path was much safer traveled in a counter-clockwise direction because of a badly sloped area, and the signs gave that as the 'correct' route. I should have considered this 'widdershins' matter more carefully, studied it to some degree. Now I know that the association of the counterclockwise direction (against the movement of the sun) with negative and dark forms of magic appears in almost every tradition on Earth. In the course of that night over 100 well-meaning people would obey the signs and trod Fairy Hollow Widdershins. This was on Summer Solstice. Within days, the damage began. First, Duke Power arrived and destroyed all the small trees across the front of the hollow, including the mimosa. Then a gigantic limb crashed down. I, who had labored so athletically in Fairy Hollow arranging dead wood and carting gravel, was laid low by a hellish combination of a torn hip ligament and lumbar disk issues. Someone stole the green and blue glass orbs that were an important year round feature. Over the following year the area, technically a storm water easement, flooded to within two feet of the sidewalk, washing out the path. A tree fell, crossing the entire area and yanking out a remaining segment of the path. Basically, I am not sure if we are wanted back. I am posting this to ask the Friends of Fairy Hollow for their wisdom and advice.

03/08/2018

"Consider ​springs, those ​hidden seeps ​and sources of ​water from the ​inside of the ​earth that rise ​from the core ​to the ground, ​and even to the ​ocean floor, to ​feed our ​puddles, ponds, ​lakes, streams ​and rivers, our ​swamps and ​coastal marshes,​ our bays and ​seas. From ​these tiny ​fonts comes a ​flow that like ​a skein of ​veins and ​arteries ​distributes ​water into our ​bodies, our ​foods, our ​manufacturing ​systems, and ​all the other ​social and ​financial ​dynamics of our ​lives. What ​starts so small ​ends up so vast.​ By the shore ​we see the ​fulsome expanse ​of open water, ​but inland we ​may never know ​even where the ​spring sources ​lie, where they ​come and go, ​where they ​should be ​mapped, studied ​and protected, ​where they fit ​into this ​enormous water ​cycle that ​sustains us." --Peter Neill (see https://thewaternetwork.com/blog-Jl6/hide-and-seep-citizen-science-and-the-fresh-water-cycle-x4FImZVjc_PUcMzSbA1fsQ)

Springs are the point of origin for all that follows in terms of study, protection, and sustainability of the world’s ocean and fresh water resources. credit: Fresh Water Habitats Our ...

10/06/2017

Bill Dowdy painting Conjuring space/time

02/02/2017

The Green Lady or Lady Greensleeves is a special kind of benevolent ghost or denizen of certain places, mostly in Scotland. She is always beautiful and protective of the residents, materializing to touch and heal the sick, or to frighten away enemies.