Jamie Wood - The Faeries Guide to Green Magick from the Garden

The information in this book is not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician or other licensed health-care provider. Any attempt to diagnose and treat an illness or condition should be done under the direction of a health-care professional. The publisher and authors are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences resulting from the use of any of the suggestions or preparations discussed in this book

Copyright 2010 by Jamie Wood and Lisa Steinke
Illustrations 2010 by Lisa Steinke

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Celestial Arts, a division of Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Celestial Arts and the Celestial Arts colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wood, Jamie.
The faeries guide to green magick from the garden / Jamie Wood ;
illustrated by Lisa Steinke. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Magic. 2. GardeningMiscellanea. 3. HerbsMiscellanea. 4. Recipes. 5. Fairies. I. Title.

BF1623.G37W66 2010
133.258163dc22

2010002824

eISBN: 978-1-58761-385-2

v3.1

I dedicate this book to the fae whom I refer to as nature shamans, and whose essence is the guiding force, power, and beauty of all things wild.

Jamie Wood

Dedicated to my family who keeps the magick alive in my heart, and to Robert Gould who keeps the magick alive in my art.

Lisa Steinke

T hroughout time, people of every society have turned to the earth and attuned themselves to the web of life that pulses through all living things and found the means to sustain themselves. Whether they sought comfort from lavender or mending a broken bone with comfrey, ancient people knew that the way to ensure their health, survival, and security was to call upon the rich supply of the earths herbs, plants, and trees.

And yet, our ancestors did not stop at the point of just receiving. They developed and carefully cultivated a symbiotic, give-and-take, stewardship with the earth. They tended to the healing and nourishing of plant life as tenderly as they took care of their own children, all the while understanding it was they who were dependent upon the earth and not the other way around. Their humility helped them forge a reverential relationship with the life force that vibrated within each plant and tree. And by tapping into the earths pulsing life, they were part of the green magick that expanded the positive energy and vitality of the earth itself, which in turn increased the health of humans, animals, insects, and all plant life.

As we carelessly and often unconsciously, deplete the earths resources, we have lost touch with the magick that was once at our fingertips. Many look aside as wild, verdant lands, and animal and plant species essential to the delicate balance of life, disappear at an alarming rate. By distancing from nature, we have essentially denied ourselves the connection that would bring wholeness, abundance, and peace to our lives. In fact, our innate ability to heal ourselves has become a nearly lost art. When we forgot the heart of nature is our own heart, we created a way of life that taxes the earths precious resources and created the need to manufacture what was once organic and easily available. The result has created fierce competition, fear of dominance, and overwhelming feelings of lack.

Ask yourself, when did nature become something to avoid, and why? We are nature, like a giraffe, a butterfly, a river, lichen, or chamomile. We just need to remember. We need to piece ourselves back together by reestablishing our connection to the earth. We need to reclaim the magick of our bond with the life force that unites us all. There has been no other time in the age of humanity in which the importance of cultivating an ongoing relationship with Mother Earth has taken on such vital importance. This back-to-nature perspective, todays green movement, is at once practical and spiritual, as everyday life used to be.

Being eco-friendly is much more than buying halogen lightbulbs or using cloth bags. It means we once again form a friendship with our ecosystem. This is no ordinary friendship, but a sacred relationship with the life force teeming through plants, herbs, and trees. This life forcethe sentient energy that exists at the heart of each plantis the faerie or deva of each plant. The synergy of our sacred relationship with this energy is the green magick, the healing serendipity, and the wonder found when we develop a bond with nature. When we truly understand, recognize, and believe in the living soul within each being, within fauna and flora, one by one our collective compassion awakens and it becomes essential to preserve and protect the earthour home.

When you draw from botanical resources, whether you are flavoring food or working with essential oils for healing, you are tapping into an intelligent life force. When you cultivate a garden you are tending to a living being, whose response to your attention is seen in its growth pattern and increased potency in your recipes. The more you become aware of the consciousness of the botanical realm and the deeper your respect of the life in each plant, the better cook, healer, or gardener you will become because the plants give you an exact exchange for the energy you give them. Your acknowledgment of the plants true essence helps carry the highest potentiality into every concoction you will make. The time has come to develop a culture of interconnection and communion with the earth energythe faeries.

Each faerie has an individual personality, which can appear as a reflection of the plant, tree, or natural element where it resides. Fae or devic energy can also take on abstract forms, such as a blanket of color or the oscillating energy of heat rising from asphalt in hundred-degree weather. Fae can appear as a chorus of winged creatures or as a beautiful woman or man. It may shift from an individual to a collective form and back again. Most certainly, faeries will shake up whatever you thought you knew about them. Consider how long plants have been around. Their intelligence far exceeds our own, and so it is to them that we turn for healing.

The unique expression of each fae as captured by the text and paintings in this book speaks to the intrinsic qualities, traits, and behavior of each herb or tree. Faeries are beings in and of themselves, as humans are beings. Faeries are a separate race, coexisting alongside us, like the birds bringing food to their young or the bees pollinating the flowers as you walk to work. The images of faerie essences found in this book will bring us closer to their feeling rather than their form. The paintings of our faeries are an experiential interpretation of the faerie, or life force energy, of each herb or tree. The images represent sensation, as if you could put a picture to the taste that bounces around in your mouth when you eat an herb or smell a flower. When you give faeries the respect and acknowledgment as the living essence of plant life, whole new vistas of possibilities open up for you, and then the true magick can begin.