Gardening with the Elementals and Faery Folk Book One : Building Relationships

Who I am My name is Jennifer Jones, I have lived on the Big Island of Hawaii for over a decade and in that time I have taken all I knew before, laid it aside, and allowed the land to talk. I found a lot of teachers on the way, and another book about them sometime, but with my teacher's help and my inner guidance system kicking in, I was led to write this book for the Faery Folk Interested, Elemental Enthused, and Earthbound Star Seeds, to help you learn the basics of working with, specifically gardening with Faery Folk and Elementals as well as other Allies, but will stick mostly to Faery Folk and Elementals. In this Book, I will take you step by step on how to begin today. Why gardening with the Elementals and Faery Folk? Gardening with the Elementals and Faery Folk can be a magical and rewarding experience. It is important to remember that the Elementals and Faery Folk are living and breathing entities and need to be respected and treated with kindness. To get started, research the Elementals and Faery Folk associated with your region and the type of plants you wish to grow. Connect with their energy and create a sacred space in your garden with oerings such as flowers, crystals, and incense. Invite them in and ask for their help and guidance. When planting, use organic seeds and soil, and connect with the energy of each plant as you nurture it. As you tend to your garden, keep in mind that the Elementals and Faery Folk are always present, and thank them for their assistance. We will cover what each of these steps looks like in the following Books, starting with this one, Building Relationships. Building Relationships with your Land Step 1, go get a journal, right now, before you go any further, there will be exercises later on that you will need to make sure you have a journal. Before working with the Elementals and Faery Folk in your Yard first you must build relationships. To understand where relationships are going you need to take notes, make sure that your needs and those of the Earth are being honored. It begins with getting to know your land intimately. Here are some questions to get started on that process, open your journal now and answer these questions as best as you can today. Journal Prompt Where do things naturally decompose? Where does water naturally puddle? Take note not to build your garden or compost there. What living beings are in your yard? Lizards?Ants? Butterflies? Etc.. Exercises to help you Build Relationships Take oerings out to the land each time you ask questions of it. ( A cup of tea, some tobacco or other natural grown herbs, a part of dinner you made, a poem, a song, a dance, a prayer said to yourself) On your next walk outside take your time and say hello to the East, South, West and North and just allow yourself to listen without any expectations for as long as you are able.

Over time you will see the benefits of these oerings as you observe the land while you take the time to make these oerings. Who are the Elementals and Faery Folk? Elementals and Faery Folk are dierent by definition. The alchemist, Paracelsus, classed gnomes and sylphs as elementals, meaning magical entities who personify a particular force of nature, and exert powers over these forces. Faery Folk also known as Fae are considered by many to be dierent than Fairies, I am going to refer to the two together as I will help you intuitively understand later how to tell the dierence of who you are working with, regardless if Fairy or Faery, there are many types of both, but I will call them all Faery Folk and yes they are considered ancestors of a number of cultures including Slavic, English, Persian, French, German and Celtic, and what a fairy was and what it was called in each of these cultures was dierent, this author is Irish British German descent and will refer to them as Faery Folk for consistency sake, their existence is written of across time and are as real as you and I, they are not imaginary. I will help you discover their dierences and how you can work with them if they and you choose. Both Elementals and Faery Folk live everywhere and if you are a descendant of Faery Folk you have a direct lineage connection to them and it is your responsibility to get to know them. Elementals are beings that literally are part of all the elements of the Earth, you feel them and see them out of the corner of your eye and now it is time to build relationships with them. There are also in addition to the Elementals all the Elements of the Earth, Animals, Plant Kingdom, yes, Air and Water as well as the Earth itself to build relationship with, and the reason I write this book is to help you find your Earth Guardian allies that will help guide you through your process of getting to know yourself and any land you step foot on, as you build your relationship with them, they may negotiate on your behalf when enter unfamiliar territories and and begin to work with other beings. Journal Prompt What is my understanding of Faery Folk? Are my ancestors Faery Folk? Who do I see as my Allies right now? Exercises to help you learn more about Elementals and Faery Folk Learn your ancestor's tales and folklore Seek places on your property or in your community that feel special to you, and journal freely about why this space feels special to you.

Ten Practices to help you Build Relationships with the Elementals and Faery Folk Using the information provided in this book and research from your ancestor lineage, or from your own intuitive practices begin to establish how you will incorporate these into getting to know the land you live on or nearby. Building relationships means finding your Allies, in all forms they take. It is not hard but it does require humility, observance and practice. An Ally could be an ancestor, another spirit that has agreed to help you, or a Faery folk, which again there are many types, at least dozens upon dozens. Just be patient and know that one day your ally will greet you. You may use the following practices to assist you in finding your Allies and to help you build and maintain those relationships. 1 Guided Meditations to Invite your ally to show themselves The first step after getting to know your land intimately is to invite your ally in to show themselves. You can sit cross-legged on the floor or lie down and in your mind's eye, take a journey to meet your Ally. You can schedule a session with this author to guide you through her ancestral Celtic practices of inviting your elemental and Faery folk in. This is a half-hour meditation that you can then use over and over again to connect with your Ally. If you are not Celtic , it does not mean this guided meditation will not help you as it walks you through your mind using your intuition and is not specific to Celtic ancestors. Once you have met your Ally you then begin working with them more intimately using more of the following practices. 2 Discover Yourself As mentioned above, your relationship with the land is the first step, your participation is required, the land will be there but you must be active and intentional with your relationship with the land. One of my teachers refers to the origins of the word human and it's from the Latin word humus which means Earth. We are the Earth, Earth is us, so our relationship with Earth begins with ourselves. We are not out there to conquer nature, we are there to commune and work, and live with Earth, with ourselves. 3 Walking the Land Meditation

When you have about 15 to 30 mins use this practice, set out on a walking meditation to simply become more aware of your land, the surroundings you are in, and notice the subtle communications occurring. Imagine that you are a part of everything around you and that every step matters, you are connected to earth, now look around you as you walk is nature responding? Did a bird fly over? A bee? Did you brush a flower with your hand? Did you run into a spider web? This is the ultimate example of the web of life that connects us all. As you take these Walking Meditations be sure to return to your journal and make note of your observations. 4 Natural Divination Kit As you gain insights into the land around you, you will find special items along the way, you will just know in your gut as your relationship grows closer to the land, your ally and the spirit world. As you pick up little stones, marbles, fallen nuts, seashells, moss, animal teeth and claws, Seed pods, Safety pins, copper pieces, burnt stick, red leaf, sea glass, the list is endless as you build your kit place it in a safe place. Be sure to thank the spirts each time you receive an item into your Divination Kit. When ready to use your Divination Kit , (once you have more than one item), you will use it very much like Runes, Tarot and Oracle Decks. Ask questions and interpret the answers as you identify with each of your objects. You will have developed relationships with each of these pieces, as you foraged and found these items. You can speak to your Ally and Spirit Guides through this method. To learn more, you may book a session with this author to discover your path to build and use your own divination kits to connect further to your Ally Team. 5 Build a Fairy Altar in your Garden Fairies, which are a bit dierent than Faeres, do have an enphinany for little nooks and crannies, they like things that hang, that are soft that are just everything you think of when you hear the word Faiy initially. To work with these beings you do want to invite them to your space, the garden. They love lush things, make them treats, dance for them, they delight in human happiness. 6 Build a Brownie Altar in your Garden I will provide more details in a later book about all the dierent kinds of Faires, and how you can work with them, but I must mention for this Book that you will need to build a dierent altar to work with Fairies that specifically help you with garden work and household chores and that is the Brownies. Their altar will be not as frilly, they like wooden log, a nice stone just as long as you tell them it is for them and leave them oerings of items, like fruit from the trees in the garden or part of a meal from the food they help grow in the garden. But whatever you do, tales say to not leave them clothes, they will take oense. 7 Ancestor Altar Create a space to get to your know your ancestral lineage, as you learn more, print photos, make art work, or place items you find that connect you to your lineage. Develop a relationship with this space, this will help you connect to the other elementals. 8 Discover Animal Guide/Ally This practice will be similar to your Faery Ally meditation to seek your animal guide/Ally. Take time to ask yourself, what animal do I love the most? What animals show up in my dreams? What tattoos have I gotten that represent certain animals? 9 Seek a Wand or Sta This practice will also be further described in a future book, however, to help you begin, when on your

walking meditations, ask permission of the land and ask the land to oer to you a sta or wand. It will come easily to you and not be something you break from a tree, it will appear as if out of nowhere. 10 Forage Herbs from Your Garden and use in Herbal Remedies This practice will also be further defined in a future book, but to begin to find your connection to the elementals, forage from your property, or one that you have permission to do so. As you forage ask the plants for permission, thank them, and do not over-harvest any one item. Never take a whole plant, and try to leave some flowers for the bees, harvest only what you need. Gardening and Composting with the Faery Folk and Elementals After following the practices to connect to your land you are ready to begin honoring your work with the Elementals and begin gardening and composting. We will cover how to start Composting in the next book. For now, use this first book to begin working with your land and develop a routine in which you observe your land, you want to ensure that you have an intimate relationship prior to building your garden and compost systems I will see in you in Book Two: Starting your Garden. Book Three will go into more depth about the dierent types of Faery Folk and Elementals.