Numerous years ago I was given the idea of putting together a trip to Scotland in connection with the Fairy and Human Relations Congress. I say I was ‘given’ the idea as I am frequently not sure where the origin of these ideas lie, whether with me entirely or perhaps from the Fairies themselves.
The idea was to experience the historic Fairy Sites of Scotland with the presence of Michael Dunning and Orion Foxwood to help open the doorways to the hidden realms. Michael is a Scottish native and Yew Shaman, and Orion Foxwood is a Faery Seer whose Appalachian roots also connect him to the Old Country. Part of the intention was to let the Beings in Scotland know that there are some people in other parts of the world who are still actively working with the Fae, who recognize and honor their existence.
During the trip, Orion shared that it was also our bones calling us back to the land to awaken our ancestry. Most of us felt that strongly throughout the trip.
We engaged Jamie George of Gothic Image tours out of Glastonbury to help us set the itinerary and take care of logistics. Jamie has several decades of experience leading tours to the Sacred Sites of the British Isles and was a wonderful guide.
Our tour group of about 20 people met up in Edinburgh. Several of us arrived two days before to have time to recover from the plane ride before starting the official tour. It was well worth it to have that time, it gave some of us an opportunity to climb Arthur’s Seat, an ancient volcano that overlooks the city, as well as experience the Edinburgh Castle and other historic sites around the city.
The following report conveys my personal experiences on the trip, as I tuned in to each of the various stops we visited. Other people would likely have received different information, which doesn’t make any of it wrong, just different sides to one integrated coin. In interest of brevity I have not included much specific history of each site, which is easily available on the internet.
DAY 1
The first morning of the official tour I took a few moments on my own to visit Gayfield Square, a small park in downtown Edinburgh, to introduce myself to the spirits of Scotland and convey my intent for my time there. I went to the Crossroads, a meditative place where humans and their allies can meet between the Realms. I stated that my intent is to Strengthen the Webs of Connection between the Realms, to assist the Earth as it ascends and evolves to a new level.
I said I wanted to assist the Earth express itself, to come out of hiding, and move beyond being the passive recipient of human greed and destruction. I felt some ambivalence about this in return, the spirits weren’t sure they were on board with something that perhaps had a violent undertone. So I re-worked the intent, and reached out to connect with the stars and Stellar Realm to help in this process of Earth Ascension. The goal then became to help the planet Earth to connect with Star-peers elsewhere to gain self-knowledge through interaction and reflection.
Just like we humans learn and gain perspective from interacting with our peers, so could the Earth learn of its potential as a fully-realized being by connecting with other planets. This strengthened the field, and was accepted by the spirits. I left a piece of milky quartz partially hidden at the base of a tree, which is my calling card and the way I anchor my meditative work in the physical world.
That afternoon after many delays getting the group together we made it out to visit the Ormiston Yew. This is a huge magnificent being, with numerous smaller and younger yews in the vicinity. According to Michael Dunning, who has worked with the yew trees for over 25 years, the Ormiston is not super outgoing so it was hard for me to really feel a close connection or have a deep exchange with it. I did feel it reaching out to me as we approached, like it was checking me out. I brought up the topic of climate change and it didn’t seem too bothered by it. The time scale of the yew is so long, they can live for thousands of years, so their perspective is quite different than ours!
DAY 2
The next morning we went to Roslyn Chapel, which has a rich history and is said to be one of the finest in terms of architecture and stone work. It has lots of
intricately carved detail, with gargoyles and Green Man faces just about everywhere. I did not feel anything of great import until someone told me about the two power spots, the first being underneath the ‘cap stone’, at the center of the main archway running the length of the chapel.
I went and stood there, and immediately felt a rush of energy coming down that pushed me back on my heels. I tend to stand more on the front of my feet, having the energy shift my balance more towards the back of my feet allowed my spine to straighten and the energy could flow more freely through my body. It felt like I got something of a chiropractic adjustment that allowed me to stand taller in a more supported alignment.
The second power spot is the front left corner of the chapel. When I stood and meditated there, it was very easy to ground and send very large roots down into the ground, with a smooth flow of Earth energy up and Star energy down. I felt my chakras open and spin, it felt like they were ‘unlocked’, and big angel wings sprouted out of my shoulder blades, with a sense of vines growing and twining all around my body. It felt very enlivening and energizing!
During our lunch break I went down into the Glen where there was very strong Fairy energy and lots of really beautiful big trees. At home when I come across strong fairy energy I like to leave little offerings, here I wanted to leave offerings EVERYwhere there was so much Fairy presence. Since I had nothing to give I just gave love and took photos.
After lunch we went with Michael Dunning to the Roslyn yew. This yew is known as the Mother yew and has very different energy than the Ormiston yew. She is very nurturing, I kept wanting to ask questions to get to know her better but she always said ‘Shush! Just receive!’ as she sent me lovely warm energy. We all felt her nurturing strongly, I think just about everyone in the group had a meaningful connection with her. I gave her some essence made at the 2018 Fairy Congress, and I felt a joyful response at the gift.
Going to the two different yews two days in a row was a real affirmation of their different energies, or ‘personalities’ (yes, they are Tree People!) After the Ormiston I tended to doubt my communication abilities, to think it was my fault that I didn’t have a huge response from it, but after meeting the Mother yew I could tell it was more due to the difference between the trees themselves.
DAY 3
The next morning I made a date to go for an early walk with Louise, another participant. The schedule of the whole trip was very full, so we arranged to meet at 6am to get a good walk in and get back to pack before breakfast. I woke around 4:40am to the words ‘I am so glad I came!’ It was part of a longer dream, but that phrase was the important message.
The weather was windy and stormy and it was still very dark right up until about 5:45am. I am not normally a morning person, much less a 6am person, but I knew that dream message was for me, if I follow through and go on the walk I will be very glad that I did.
The sky was clearing and lightening as we left the hotel. We walked for a while and found some nice old trees, along with some smaller yew trees. I gave an offering of some Fairy Congress essence that was very much appreciated. Louise was standing next to the tree as I gave it and she could feel its energy brighten and enliven as a response.
At one point we were walking along a trail and a tree below the trail called out strongly to me. It was large and had an even bigger presence. We determined that is was a Scots Pine, after the month in Scotland I grew to know these trees as amazing gorgeous beings with very strong spirits. This tree had strong dragon energy, we could see dragon heads in its trunk and branches. The sun peaked out from behind the clouds as we were admiring it.
Across from the dragon tree was an amazing archway, it looked like it was two beech trees that grew together to form an arch about 4 feet high. It definitely resembled an entrance to the Other World!! Unfortunately we did not have time to meditate or go through it or investigate further, but its visual appearance gave off a strong sense of magic on its own.
In the end, I was VERY glad that I went on that walk!!
The first stop that day was at Aberfoyle, where Robert Kirk was a minister in the 1600s. He wrote the book Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies in 1691, and said that the local Doon Hill is the gateway to the land of fairies. (Here is a great little article about him: http://www.lounoir.co.uk/post/the-genius-scholar-who-lost-his-life-to-fairies). We all found the fairy energy here to be very strong. Orion said Aberfoyle could be considered the Mecca of the fairy tradition.
As we made our way up the hill, on the left there is a tree stump that has been decorated and carved with a fairy door. At first I was very judgemental about it, put off by all the shiny plastic offerings. Other people were having their photos taken next to it so I joined in and sat next to it for a photo op too. As I got close to it I could feel the happiness of the resident Fae, and realized that they appreciated all the decoration, plastic or not, they just like that people are acknowledging and interacting with them.
Further up the trail on the right were some rocks that formed a very clear dragon head looking straight down the trail. It felt like a younger rather than an older dragon, we determined that this is a sentinel being, s/he checks out everyone coming up the trail, more out of curiosity than out of judgement or fear. We offered greetings and blessings and continued on.
The hill is more or less conical in shape. At the very top is a circular clearing of oak trees mixed with some holly, and at the very center grows a huge Scots Pine.
It feels like an axis mundi, or world tree. The tree has lots of cloth offerings and wishing ‘clooties’ tied to it.
I sat down and tuned in, and felt a huge dragon coiled up under the hill. I introduced myself and told it I was here to Strengthen the Web of Connections between the Realms. ‘But what do you want?’ it asked. I said I don’t want anything, I am here to serve. It was kind of surprised by this, disbelieving – ‘Is this true, you’re not asking for something?’ I again said no, I came on this trip to serve and strengthen the connection between the realms. It felt like most people who visit Doon Hill are asking for blessings or other prayers to be answered, so the dragon had a hard time believing that I wasn’t asking for something!
It then asked to see my true form. I was born in 1964, a Dragon year according to Chinese astrology, and have seen my ‘psychic’ self on a few occasions so I showed him what I have learned – it is taller than I am, shiny, with wings and a blue-green hue. I then asked him to show me his true form, he had sparkly light scattered throughout his dark green and black serpent body.
I then called on all my spiritual allies to join with me to send healing and blessing energy into the hill to feed the dragon. It was definitely the strongest, clearest Earth Being I have ever encountered.
At the end I said ‘you know, the one I thing I would ask for is a small momento from here’, as I didn’t have a camera with me to take photos. I got an ‘ok’ to that. I then got up to start back down the hill, right at the edge of the oak circle I found a piece of milky quartz in the shape of a triangular mountain. It resembles the outline of Panchenmama, the hill at the north end of the Skalitude meadow. As I said earlier, milky quartz is my calling card, so I immediately felt that this was my momento, it felt perfect and I was very grateful.
On the way back down I saw another tree with a fairy door in the bottom of it, I hadn’t noticed it on the way up. I gave them some Fairy Congress essence and they were so excited by it, they wanted to know more about this energy and where it came from. I gave them some images of the Congress and they said they want to come next year. It felt too complicated to bring them back with me right then, so I said that right before Congress next year I would put out a call to ‘my fairy friends of Aberfoyle’ and they should come on over.
I stopped again at the decorated stump that I had been put off by on the way up. I felt more attuned now so I did a meditative exercise where you roll your eyes down into the underworld to take a look around. When I did this, the underworld was full of green mist (creative energy) and it felt like a party full of joyful energy.
As I stepped away from the stump, I saw a piece of white quartz right by the trail, so I picked it up and placed it on the stump in an appropriate cubby as an offering. I got the feeling the Fae had placed the quartz there just so I could then place it on the stump, they knew I like doing that! It was a simple way to share joy and appreciation.
Further down the path, I could sense the energy of the young sentinel dragon even before I got there. It was interesting to feel how much more attuned my aura had become by the visit on top of the hill.
Then it was back on the bus and off to the Fortingall Yew. This is the oldest Yew tree, thought to be around 9000 years old, and documented as being 56 feet across back in the 1700s. Some teenagers back in the 1800s lit a fire in the hollow at its center so now it is no longer fully round and is enclosed in a wall to protect it.
Michael Dunning always talks about the yew as being the ‘tree of eternity’ and this is the first time I really got a sense of that eternal being. It was so spacious and serene, it felt almost angelic. It has seen so many climatic shifts through the centuries, it felt like the still point at the center of a wheel, not caught up in the drama going on all around it.
We did not have Michael’s yew song to sing to it, so several of us sang the Angel Wash song and it loved that. It was a beautiful moment to share between humans and Nature.
At dinner that night in Inverness, one of our party had a deck of Oracle card so we each pulled one. I got the Bridge Mender – yes, I was there to heal rifts, to mend bridges. Nice confirmation!
DAY 4
The next morning we went to Clava Cairns, an ancient (2500 BCE) sacred site consisting of three chambered tombs in a line oriented Northwest to Southeast. I found a nice rock to sit on to meditate, it looked granitic with chunky clear quartz and feldspar. I opened the four directions, all were powerful but the North especially so. It was much easier to send roots down than normal, it felt like they went farther than usual, even as far as the center of the Earth, and they also spread wide. I could easily tap into my expanded Self.
I felt a circle of Beings join me, some of them felt like Sidhe. My connection upwards to the Stellar and Solar Realms became strengthened, it felt thick, as if it was woven from numerous smaller cords, like crochet. I received the message that it’s the time and place to bring ‘mega-stellar energy’ down. I had an image of a water spigot being opened and a full-force stream of Stellar energy coming down into the Earth. I was told to leave this connection open as I wandered the site further.
I went across the site to a cairn at the other side (to the south-east). I tried to do the eyes-rolling down exercise, I couldn’t really see anything, only felt a sense of busyness, of high vibration.
I relocated and tried an exercise from Marco Pogacnik where you send multiple roots down and imagine eyeballs at the end of each root. Doing this I got the sense of a large cone of super-charged ground under the site, like there was an expanse of pure gold underneath.
We then gathered as a group in a circle and Jamie explained a bit about the site. The three cairns are oriented to the winter solstice. The center cairn has radial lines of stone and is thought to be associated with solar rituals. Putting this together with my meditative experiences leads me to believe that the site was used to call in the sun at each winter solstice. Over the years, much solar (golden) energy has been stored in this land so now it is a portal or connection point between the Earth and sun and stars.
That afternoon we went to the Fairy Glen at Rosemarkie. This is a lovely wooded glen or valley along a stream with two waterfalls at the top. There are faces everywhere, the fairy presence was palpable. Often there were numerous faces overlapping in one tree or rock.
At the uppermost pool I tuned in to commune. I again stated my purpose of strengthening the web of connection between the realms. When we first got this theme for the Fairy Congress, my impression was that we were aiming to strengthen the connections between humans and fairies, with the idea that humans would then be more open to Fairy input and perspective.
The Fairies of Rosemarkie said they weren’t very interested in strengthening connections with humans. They meet plenty of humans who visit the glen, many of the humans are of lower vibration and consciousness and the fairies aren’t very impressed. They have no desire to venture out of the glen, the glen feels a bit like a refuge where they can retreat from humanity. Even though the Fae were very evident for those of us who were interested in seeing them, they ones I talked with almost prefer NOT being seen by many of their visitors.
So I said, what about strengthening the connection between the Gaian realm of Fairies and Devas with the off-planet Lunar, Solar and Stellar realms? They were very interested in this. They felt that connecting especially to Stellar realms would be very helpful to the planet at this time so I focused on that for a few moments.
I asked about climate change and they weren’t too worried. The fairies will adapt, it’s the humans that will have a hard time with it. They said ‘Civilizations come and go. The current one has lasted around 5000 – 7000 years, that’s not a bad run!’
That evening some of us took a walk in the vicinity of the hotel in Smithton, just outside of Inverness. There are some lovely carvings of fairies and dragons and other mythical beasts, as well as wonderful fantastical murals on an underpass. It was encouraging to see that there is still an openness and interest in the Fairy realm 
of planetary being, although at the same time
there was so much litter everywhere of soda bottles and sweet (candy) wrappers that one wonders how deep this interest runs.
On the walk we also went by the President’s Seat, an old oak tree with a turtle-rock at its base, where the local nobleman of the 18th century used to go to sit and meditate on his concerns. From there we visited St Mary’s well, a Fairy well where people leave ‘clootie’ offerings for the fairies. I gave an offering of Fairy Congress essence, we sang some rounds of ‘Fae, We Love You!’ and I sent some stellar energy dripping down through the layers of rock. It was in a forest of smaller, younger trees, but just about every tree had a fairy face on it. On the way back from the well we felt appreciation coming from the President’s Seat, they could hear and feel our chanting from their location a quarter-mile away.
DAY 5
Today we drove to the isle of Skye to visit the Fairy Glen at Uig. It was yet another amazing day of fairy connection.
The bus couldn’t make it up the small country road to the glen so we walked from
the main road, about half an hour. It was a good preparatory time. To reach the glen we left the road and walked up a small valley lined with Aspen trees full of faces. We greeted them and made offerings.
I climbed a small ridge in the main Glen area and was met by a strong wind. I felt the wind stop me from going further as it sussed me out and checked to see who I was. It also gave me a cleansing before I was given clearance to go forward.
I was drawn to a tree overhanging a grassy area. I went in once to make an offering, then backed myself out in proper fairy etiquette. I stood for a moment, unable to move on, and was then called back in to meditate. On the second time I noticed a large crystal under the tree, placed in the shelter of two other rocks. It was obviously placed by a human, but was a nice affirmation for me that I was not alone in sensing this as a power spot. I did various forms of meditation, connection and sharing energy here. I asked how I could help, the response was that the act of tuning in and sending love and light to the Fairy realm as I have been doing is much appreciated.
I then went to the top of the Castle, another area of the Glen, it seems like a large rock but I guess it is also the remains of an ancient castle or fort. I rolled my eyes down and had to stretch myself tall and thin in order to get down into the Earth, beyond the bottom of the Castle outcropping. There is a large crystal cavern down there, it is a gathering place, sometimes for ‘Council’ but other times just to party and enjoy company. The King and Queen were sitting on their thrones, as an offering and honoring I did a dance with a colorful veil of light. I sensed my offering was accepted and returned to the surface world.
I made my way back down from the Castle to the labyrinth, where I tuned in again and saw colors of blue and yellow, jaggedy lines, with blue fading into light. I was thinking perhaps I could draw this and was given the gift of help with my art, which I am so thrilled about. It is the best gift I could receive, and not one I would have thought to ask for.
It was fascinating to feel the difference between the three fairy sites we had visited so far – Aberfoyle, Rosemarkie and Uig. Uig felt the most celebratory and outgoing, it is more of a gathering place than the other two.
DAY 6
After many days of intense Fairy connection, today was a mellower day. We stopped at a small crystal museum called Treasures of the Earth where I connected with a large, three foot linear amethyst. Once at the Fairy Congress we did a meditation to meet our fairy buddies, I just got the color purple. I realized later that this was referring to the Violet Ray of healing, so I re-affirmed this connection through the amethyst.
There was a blue light exhibit, there was one crystal in there that had a very clear face show up under the blue light, it wasn’t visible under regular light. We
communed for a few moments and I got a sense of the inherent life in everything, whether or not it is ‘alive’ according to our accepted definition.
In the afternoon we arrived at Inchree, our evening’s lodgings, with enough time for a nice walk up to the nearby waterfalls. For some reason I was really wound up and did not go to bed until 2am. The side benefit of this was that I went outside to do my normal daily meditation about 1am.
The moon was close to full and shining brightly, so of course I had to take a photo of it. In the first photo, the clouds appeared as birds taking flight. In a subsequent photo I could sense dragon energy coming in to I started to talk to them, telling them how beautiful they are and how much we enjoy taking their photographs, and then the next photo a dynamic, dramatic dragon showed up, grinning away!
Then I meditated at the Crossroads and felt many ancestors drawing near, interested in what was happening. I knew there was a history of battles and discord in the area, I felt a little nervous so was very clear in calling in my allies. Once I was set I asked all ancestors who were ready to leave to come forward, and asked for assistance from their allies above. I said ‘you might as well move on, find something new and exciting to do!’ Psychopomp work is not part of my regular practice so I was pretty much making things up as I went. But they did seem to move on and things felt better.
I checked in with my allies to see if there was anything else I should do but it felt like that was enough so I closed the meditation. As I lay down in bed, I saw a string of faces flashing before my eyes. Some looked like ancestors, some were more Fae, some were a little creepy. But the last sequence was an interesting progression, it seemed like one face that started twisted and dark but evolved to a geometric goddess. I got the sense that it was an aspect of the Deva of Iona, our next major destination.
DAY 7
Today we moved onto Oban, the portal for Iona. I went for a walk before dinner with another participant, we came across a huge tower of a rock all on its own. We saw many faces and beings in it and started talking to them the same way I speak
to my dogs, in a playful, affectionate tone, for some reason it felt like it had dog energy. We sang them the Fairy Congress chant of ‘I feel better!!’, then had them say it with us, they loved it!
We walked around to the other side of it and found a sign that explains its history. It turns out it’s called the Dog Stone, the giant Fingal tied his dog Bran there, and Bran wore the stone down by pulling at his ropes!
We then felt called into the woods uphill from the trail to meditate and tune in. I had a hard time focusing at first, but finally settled and did Marco’s exercise sending roots down with eyeballs at the end. There were many happy beings down below. After I made visual contact with them all, the eyeballs turned to hands so I could reach out to everyone and give them pets and greetings, then the hands turned into two arms so I could hug them all, then we were all so joyous with each other’s company the arms turned into mouths so I could kiss them all!
On the path back towards town was a series of caves with strong portal energy in the side of large rock wall. Peering into one I saw a face with pale eyes in dark features and an elongated forehead peering back at me. I sat down to meditate, offered some Fairy Congress essence and said that I wanted to always feel this connection to the Fairy realm. We went up to the Stellar realms and put out a call to other planets: “if anyone has Light energy to spare we could use it over here!” Then we gathered up all this light, brought it down to Earth, put it in a syringe and injected it into the planet. The light was distributed through the energetic Grid to weave a web around the whole planet.
DAY 8
Getting to Iona and back from Oban is a long day. We were on the bus by 6:30am to catch the first ferry at 7:30. It’s an hour ferry ride to the island of Mull, then an hour’s drive across Mull, then another short ferry over to Iona, so we didn’t reach Iona until almost 11am. We had to start the journey back around 4pm so we didn’t have a lot of time on the island.
I doubt I can find words to fully express the magic that is Iona. It has been recognized as a special place where the veil is thin for centuries already. It is known as a Floating Island, it’s rocks and geology are very different from those of neighboring Mull. During the day there I kept asking myself, “Where am I? What planet am I on?”, it just did not feel like Earth. The colors are particularly intense, the green grass, blue water, white sand, and the rocks that are a combination of pink and light green, both colors associated with the heart chakra.
There was so much to see and do I didn’t get to meditate deeply, but when I briefly connected with the Deva of Iona, I got that sense of geometry that I had had in Inchree. It felt distinctly feminine with a very high vibration of pure love, much more angelic than other landscape Devas I have connected with. In writing this up I was reminded that geometry is associated with the 7th Spiritual Dimension, which is also considered the level of angels so that all makes sense now.
Overall the island reminded me of a fish I met in 1997 in an animal communication workshop that was held in someone’s house near SeaTac. The fish was quite small, about an inch or two across, plain black in color, living by itself in a plain tank with no plants or toys or anything, It was not in the main part of the house either, off by itself in a spare bedroom. I thought it must be a very boring existence and was curious if it would have anything to say.
So I was tremendously surprised to hear that it was in fact a huge stellar being that just used this little fish body as an anchor point on Planet Earth. It was a way for it to maintain a presence in 3D reality without being fully involved.
Iona felt like that fish to me – just a small part of a much larger Stellar or Galactic presence, that used this land as a way to anchor its presence on this planet.
I have been on one other supposedly ‘floating’ island – the island of Delos, off of Mykonos in Greece. This was the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis and also had very interesting high vibrations despite its small size and barren landscape.
DAY 9
On our last day we stopped in the Kilmartin Valley on our way back to Glasgow. I went into a cairn and meditated and met what felt like a community of Druids that had lived in the valley in previous centuries and had kept a connection to the land after death. They felt very peaceful and seemed to be farming the valley lands still. I had lost my favorite hat the day before on the way back from Iona, I shared my sorrow with them and they gave me a healing. Then at our lunch stop soon after I was very happy to find a new hat! It definitely felt like their healing helped open the way for that to manifest so quickly, as I am picky about hat styles.
POST-TOUR
This marked the end of the official tour, but happily I had planned to spend two more weeks in Scotland exploring with a friend. The landscape still showed us its magic in various ways, I will just share a few of the highlights.
The first Place of Power we came across was by a small lake called Glen Lochan, near the village of Glencoe. There were two large trees that formed a gateway into a circular depression with a large stone in the center. It felt and appeared as an ancient gravesite. There was a small cave under the stone with a face visible. Before meditating I offered some Congress essence to open the ways.
In my meditation I met a Druid Priest who had lived in this area centuries ago, this was his gravesite. He explained to me that the Druids worked very closely with the Nature Realms in
their lifetime, so when they died instead of ascending to ‘heaven’ or other dimensions they often chose to merge with the realm of nature where they lived. This is what the community in Kilmartin did, and a few days later I met other Druids near Oban who had also chosen to stay.
Another highlight was the isle of Orkney, off the north end of the mainland of Scotland. The land here feels filled with light, despite the fact that it is so far north. The landscape is green and fertile, although there aren’t many trees as the wind makes it hard for them to get established.
There are numerous sacred sites here, the Ring of Brogdar and the Stones of Stenness are two of the most central. When I meditated at the Stones and rolled my eyes down to feel into the land, I ended up in the Void, or outer space, with a sense of spacious stillness.
At nearby Maes Howe, a well-preserved chambered tomb, I again felt the Void and within it a funnel or vortex of light, with the point of the funnel being in the tomb.
At the Ring of Brogdar I did a Crossroads meditation and was joined by many beings. I kept getting the image of a lightening bolt zapping into the center of the Ring – stellar energy impulsed down into the planet. When I felt down below the Ring I sensed a huge cavern with light radiating out. I couldn’t see any beings there, I did get the sense that there are beings there, but they are so large that I couldn’t actually tune into them.
Back behind the Stone of Stenness is an archeological site called Barnhouse village. In my mediation there I sensed that this is where the priests and priestesses lived, central to all the ceremony sites. I was able to converse with someone (non-physical) there, I asked how did the people of 3000 BCE know to build these amazing monuments? It felt like there was a burst of stellar energy into the planet here and since the humans lived close to nature they were sensitive enough to feel it and respond. Orkney is also on the Rose Ley Line that goes through many sacred sites in Great Britain, including Roslyn Chapel, but I have no idea which came first, whether the ley line was also a response to the stellar impulse, or perhaps it attracted the stellar impulse.
I did not feel as many Nature beings or Fairies in Orkney, but the ones I did tune into were all large beings who were very happy to be somewhere with wind and rugged coastline where they felt free to express their wild nature.
On our last morning in Orkney I had an interesting dream, in which I am riding a bicycle and take off up into the air. I am really nervous because this is ‘for real’, and I could get hurt trying to land. I fly around for a bit before I discover that if I keep moving forward as I land then the impact isn’t as bad. I take this to mean that yes, the vibrations on Orkney are very high, so much so that I feel like I’m taking off, but if I keep moving forward then I can integrate this experience without harm.
Our last stop before leaving Scotland was in Aviemore, where there is a small stone circle situated right in a residential neighborhood. To one side there is a lovely Rowan tree with many branching trunks.
I felt down into the underworld and had a sense of joy and celebration. This stone circle was not a place for serious ritual, rather a place for the community to come together for various seasonal celebrations. I also felt a wave of gratitude and appreciation from the Fairies of Scotland to myself, for coming to visit and offering my gifts. I was very touched to be thanked in this way.
Our final walk was to a nature reserve just behind the hostel where we were staying. It was getting late so I didn’t make it to the top of the mountain, but I made it to a secondary summit that felt like the appropriate place to leave my final offering, my last milky quartz crystal that I had brought from home. I tuned into the right place to leave it and was drawn to a rocky outcropping to the left. As I walked toward it, about three feet in front of it, I spied on the ground a small piece of milky quartz! I sensed that we were to do a trade, this quartz piece was an offering to me from the Fae, in exchange for the piece that I left on the outcrop.
When I lived at Skalitude, I found that reciprocity was a very important element of my relationship with the Fae. I was always careful to give and offer something anytime I asked for help with anything. This exchange at Aviemore helped me see that the Fairies recognized and valued this relationship of reciprocity.
I have since added the sense of Joy and Delight as important elements to my relationship with the Fae, and I feel that they appreciate this, and are happy to reciprocate with that too!
THE RETURN HOME
On returning home to the States I have found there to be a lasting shift in my sensitivity to Fae energies. I can see and feel them with much more clarity now, being in Scotland helped attune me to their vibrations and even though here in Eastern Washington they aren’t as evocative or apparent, I see the landscape with fresh perspective and can hear and see them with more clarity and less doubt.
I started to wonder, why are they so much stronger in Scotland than here? Is it just because the landscape is older, or is there something more?
My current hypothesis is that it’s a bit of both. Certainly the landscape in Scotland is much older than here. Much of this area was swept by huge floods when an ice dam broke around 10,000 years ago, essentially the whole landscape was stripped. Before that there were extensive basalt flows from volcanoes, so both the landforms and vegetation here are relatively young. Fairies evolve just like humans do but on a much longer time scale, so the ones around here are younger and not as well developed. Scotland on the other hand has rocks that are hundreds of millions of years old and trees that are many hundreds or even thousands of years old.
I also believe the work the Druids did to build the web of connection between humans and Fae centuries ago still holds a resonance there. Most humans have lost touch with this connection, but nature consciousness lives in a much longer, slower time span and they still remember. This memory is in the land, the rocks and the trees, and allows the Fae to be more present and accessible there today. According to my meditations, there are also Druids still present in the land, perhaps they are also helping keep the channels open!
I have come to understand that this work we do in connecting with the Fairy realm really is vitally important, for both them and us. Scientists have been finding that touch is supremely important in the development of a healthy nervous system, in both humans and animals. Parents need to hold their babies, animal moms lick their offspring to stimulate their nervous systems. There was even a recent research project that showed that whale mothers also use touch to nurture their babies.
My sense is that this sense of touch is important for the relationship between humans and nature as well. It has also been shown that ‘forest bathing’, spending time in nature, is very helpful for human nervous systems. Places like Findhorn, Perelandra and Skalitude show that nature can also benefit from nurturing human energetic touch and engagement. On the land where I am currently living in Wenatchee, I have been working with the Fae for less than a year but it has already led to an energetic revitalization. It’s not that I’m doing physical labor, gardening or anything, it is through meditating and connecting, recognizing and honoring the presence of the Fae. This nurtures their essence and enables them to express themselves more strongly in the physical realm.
If it is true that the work the Druids did in honoring the nature realms still supports the Fae hundreds of years later, then the work that we do now can have lasting influence on these newer lands.
THE FUTURE
With the current climate crisis and overuse of fossil fuels my tendency is to not travel anymore, to try to minimize my impact on the planet. But after this trip I recognize that travel can be very rewarding in many ways and in some cases well worth the cost and effort.
I can also see the benefit of traveling in a group with a shared intent. There are some sacrifices and loss of freedom as compared to traveling alone, but it felt like with 20 of us all coming with open hearts and an interest in the Fae, the Fae responded to us more readily, made themselves more available and accessible than they might have otherwise. When we work in groups our energetic offering is magnified exponentially.
This trip has inspired me to envision some further Fairy Field Trips, hopefully in Summer of 2020. They will be more local to begin with; Vancouver Island holds a strong draw, as does Baker Lake. There are caves near Mount Saint Helens that could be very interesting to visit with a Fairy-full intent. I welcome suggestions for other nearby destinations!
Who knows, depending on what the world looks like, maybe another trip to the Old Country in 2021. Scotland again, or Wales? Let me know your interest, (at register@fairycongress.com) and stay tuned for updates!
To see more photos from the trip, visit this a google album:
http://photos.app.goo.gl/FzQFWJZLmMTcq1FeA
