Faeries & Elementals for Beginners: Learn About & Communicate With Nature Spirits (20 page)

yourself.

For your love drawing meditation, you’ll be singing in

the shower. So, I suggest that you initially cast this meditation on a Friday during a waxing or full moon, but you can renew it any time you take a shower if you like. Your circle casting skills may be put to the test if you’d like to cast a circle around your shower for extra potency, so remember

that you can draw invisible lines with your mind that can

go through walls. In fact, you can visualize the entire circle casting in your mind without using tools and have it still be effective for containing your energy.

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Once in the shower, face west and ask the undines to

bathe you with the characteristics you need to draw love

into your life. Sing your enchanting song as loudly as you practically can and let the water from your shower wash

every part of your body from head to toe. When you are

done, don’t forget to thank the undines and close any magic circle you may have cast.

Now that you’ve mindfully offered a song to the

undines, you can use it as a secret cue to them when you

want to put your love drawing powers to work. Hum the

tune in order to awaken the undines to heed your call

during social situations or whenever you might feel ready

to bring new love into your life. You’ll find that those who are drawn to the characteristics you named will sit up and take notice of you. Since this is a gentle and not forceful meditation, take your time to enjoy the attention, and don’t forget to do your part to establish friendships and relationships with the people whose eyes you catch.

Endings

Just as the undines hold sway over the loving emotions

that overpower us when we first enter into a partnership,

undines dwell in the deeper waters that make us rage and

cry when relationships have to end. I’ve already provided

you with a ritual to perform upon the death of somebody

for whom you care, but this ritual is one that can help you when a relationship itself dies. This ritual can be especially helpful when a partnership or other relationship ends with-162 • Chapter Five

out a sense of closure, leaving you with a flood of emotions that seems to have no outlet.

This ritual enlists in the help of the undines as well as

the power of the written word, and variations upon it have been found in many cultures, including ancient Egypt. You

will need a pen with black, water-soluble ink, a piece of

porous paper like a coffee filter or napkin and a bowl or

cauldron of water. You may wish to also use a photograph

or any other memento from your relationship in order to

bring up emotions during your ritual.

Cast your magic circle and face west to ask the undines

to help you bid farewell to your relationship. If you are

having a mutual parting, it is perfectly fine to have your ex participate in the ritual with you, but this rite is designed to help you say goodbye if you are lacking that sort of closure. Write a farewell letter to your relationship on the

piece of paper. Evoke as much emotion in yourself that you can, letting tears fall on the letter if possible, including any memories that you cherish as well as regrets that you may

have. When you’ve communicated all that you have to say,

immerse the paper in the water and stir it counterclock-

wise, allowing the ink to dissolve from the paper.

The idea behind this simple exercise is that written

words are extremely powerful thought forms. As you cre-

ate the words on paper, you give life to your memories

and regrets on the astral plane. Once immersed in water,

with the help of the undines, those strong emotions are

dispersed to their rightful places in your life so that you can move on in a healthy way. Thank the undines for their

help. To dispose of the materials, you can bury or dry out
Undines—Elementals of Water • 163

and burn the paper. Pour the water into a body of running

water. Ideally, you would go to a natural river or stream to dispose of the water, but in a pinch you can use a sink with the faucet turned on.

Dreams

Water is the element of dreams and psychic visions. Before performing this ritual, which is designed to find answers

and understanding from your dreams, you may need some

preparation if you have never done spiritual work with

dreams before. First, I recommend performing the scrying

meditation discussed in this chapter in order to see how

undines appear to you as well as to get the visual psychic part of your brain working. Second, and this part is con-siderably harder, I’d advise starting a dream journal at least several days in advance of your ritual.

Keeping a dream journal is one of the first pieces of

advice that I give to anyone who wants to work with his or her own psychic power, but I admit it is very hard. You’ll need the discipline and presence of mind to awaken fully

after a dream, even in the middle of the night, turn on the light and write it down in a physical journal before the

memories begin to swim away from your mind. It is so

much easier to roll over and go back to sleep. Rather than to insult the undines by ignoring a dream message they may

send to you, I recommend starting the habit of keeping a

regular dream journal before asking for their assistance. All elementals are very quick to feel insulted, and emotional

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undines are especially so. If you are unable to make yourself keep a dream journal, put this ritual off until you can.

This ritual is best performed if you want to find spir-

itual communication with the undines in your world of

dreams, such as if you have questions about an emotional

matter in life. You can also use this ritual to gain more control of your dreams if you are finding yourself prone to

nightmares. If you think that you are unable to dream, or if you find your sleep disrupted or not restful, you may need to discuss this problem with your doctor before you throw

undines into the mix.

To invite the undines into your dreams, you can quite

simply have a relaxing bath before bed. Draw a bath and add a bit of salt and lavender to make the water holy, purifying, and relaxing. Light a few candles and dim the lighting in the bathroom. I also recommend a hot mug of chamomile tea

to help relax and hydrate yourself during a long soak. If you want to try scrying in your bathwater, I recommend avoiding adding anything else like bubble bath solution.

You can visualize casting a circle around your bathtub

without any tools, similar to the suggestion in the ritual centered around the shower. Sink into the tub as low as you can, so that your eyes are nearly level with the water. Ask the undines for their help understanding whatever issue it is that you wish to confront in your dreams. Think strongly about what sort of answers or insight you would like to

receive, and what emotions you would like to feel after solving your problem.

Open your eyes and gaze with a soft focus across the

top of the water in the bathtub. Allow your eyes to wan-

Undines—Elementals of Water • 165

der to any flickers of light you may see, such as reflections of the candle-light on the surface of the water. You may

be able to scry and catch sight of the undines giving you a sign that they will come to your aid. Hold this state of quiet reflection as long as you can keep your mind from wandering and your body from becoming uncomfortable in the

tub. Close your magic circle and extinguish the candles.

After your bath, go to bed as soon as you can. If you still feel up to it, you may want to cast a circle around your bed, though you should use representations other than incense

or candles for the elements of air and fire, since you don’t want to leave any of those burning while you are sleeping.

It is recommended that you sleep alone unless you have a

bedmate who is committed as you to not break the circle

until morning. Pets can move freely in and out of a magic

circle. It might be a good idea to cast your circle so large so that it includes the closest bathroom.

When you awaken from a dream, even if it is in the mid-

dle of the night, be sure to write down all memory of the

dream into your dream journal right away, even if it does not seem like a message from the undines. Dream messages may

seem more clear when you read them later on, or you may

find that the first dream only makes sense within the context of other dreams that you will have later in the night. Resume your sleep and record any dream that you have upon waking, rather than waiting until the morning. When morning

arrives and all dreams have been dutifully logged, you may take down any magic circle if you chose to cast one. Remember to thank the undines for their help.

six

Gnomes—

Elementals of Earth

Ancient people may not have thought of the earth as a

planet, but rather as our home and an ever-present

force below our feet. How mysterious it must have been

to see giant boulders in the forest and beautiful crystals peeking out from the matte surface of gray rocks. It must

have been unimaginably terrifying to sense an earthquake

shaking the foundation with a force that could only be

attributed to the supernatural power of gnomes.

Mythology

Gnomes as elementals are not to be confused with the

cheerful, imaginary characters of popular culture. Though

it is true they love gardening, it is more because they love
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everything growing out of the earth, and assist its energies from underneath rather than kneeling down with gloves in

the garden bed. We may have all seen depictions of garden

gnomes with their pointy hats and big smiles, usually frolicking with plants and animals. Although short in stature

like their cartoon counterparts (and often male and elderly looking regardless of age) elemental gnomes in mythology

were not happy to be around human homes, preferring to

live out of sight underground. Their eyes are small, and

their noses are pointy and narrow.

Perhaps because the earth is where jewels are born, it

has been thought that gnomes desire and fiercely guard

gemstones and precious metals. Some believe that gnomes

exist in every sparkle of every crystal, and that it is the magic of the elemental gnome that gives value to gold,

silver and gems. It is, indeed, a magical mystery that substances like gold have gained and retained value in every

culture in the world throughout human history. Gnomes

can help you understand the material value of things. While sylphs are the intellectual communicators of the elemental world, gnomes are the brooding scientists that seek to understand the nature of the molecules of the earth, and

with it they perform their own magic and alchemy.

So focused are gnomes on the material, that they may

seem unfriendly to humans or uninterested at best. One

reason for this may be that gnomes experience time and

space in a different way than we do, which affords them the time and attention to monitor prolonged earth processes.

A spiritual understanding of this is energetic “vibration.”

Creatures with a lower energetic vibration than humans

Gnomes—Elementals of Earth • 169

may experience our years or lifetimes as short blips in their own minds. Incidentally, it is a higher vibration that allows sylphs to carry messages so quickly through the air in our perception.

Gnome Meditation for Restful Sleep

Normally, it is the goal of meditation to resist the urge to go to sleep, and instead keep your brain processing at a relaxed level of function. However, this meditation is designed to promote healthy sleep, as well as to allow one to get in tune with the earth through its elemental. If you struggle with being able to get to sleep, practicing this meditation every night may be a key that you can use to unlock sleep for

your own body. After getting used to the meditation, you

may only need to start meditating in this way to fall asleep almost instantly. The essential nature of earth is its relative stillness and stability when compared with the other three elements. By allowing your body to come to rest in its own stillness, you connect with the earth elementals within.

Sometimes sleep feels hard to do because it feels like

one is losing control as consciousness slips away during the normal early stages of sleep. Since this meditation is a sort of spirit journey down to the earth elementals, if you fear this loss of control and feeling of slipping away from your body, those feelings may be intensified during the meditation. If you wish, you can hold a rock in your dominant