Perhaps the fae had a plan, but they didn't tell me what it was. Or perhaps they just saw opportunities and encouraged me to take them. In fact, that seems more likely - we were learning together. They are just quicker than I am to see where we are going, so they have to nudge me in the right direction.

First, there was the fortuitous finding of the land while trying to help my old friend, Lee, find a place for himself. In the process of looking, I connected with the most wonderful realtor, Jan Garing of Windermere in Port Townsend. (No, I don't get a commission for saying that - she really is the most wonderful and helpful person - http://www.JanGaring.com if you need to buy or sell in this area.) She found a property that she thought Lee might like. It happened to be next door to This Place, which was also for sale. I fell in love with This Place at first sight. As it happened, Lee fell in love with the place next door, which is how we came to be neighbors again after 40-some years. You can see how good Jan is at this - I wasn't even looking and yet she found the right place for me, as well as the right place for Lee, who was looking.

After that, things happened at long intervals. Bulldozers came and went. A well was drilled.Things like that. Finally, we needed a real driveway. Marty-with-the-bulldozer (Landmark Excavating) wanted to know where he should put the dirt that had to be removed to make the driveway. It was going to be a lot of digging. I didn't know what to do with the dirt, but "over there" felt right. I thought I could have it moved later if I wanted to. The fae were very pleased with this huge pile of earth and stones. They had sesquijillions of ideas about what to do with it.

We could grow sunflowers to make more sunlight in the winter. (Who said they had to be realistic about this? That is perfectly good fae logic.) We could plant apples to feed to the deer. We could grow even more brambles than we already have - and we have a lot. Both deer and birds like the berries. Or we could plant a rowan to serve a double purpose - keep evil away and feed the birds. Or we could cover the entire mound with glitter. Or make tunnels in it for small creatures. We could erect a whole city of birdhouses on it.

But then...

Then our little Sylvie Butterbrain died suddenly and unexpectedly. Sylvie didn't seem especially bothered by this, but the other cats and I were very saddened. The fae were very quiet too - they they understood that we missed her a lot, even though her spirit was very present. I decided that I wanted to bury her somewhere on my land so that she could be the first of us to actually move over there.

When I went over to the land to find a place to bury her, the fae were adamant that she should be "near the top of the cairn." At first, I didn't know where they meant - I didn't have a cairn, which is a pile of stones - there are literally tons of stones on the land, yes, but a pile of them, no. They said, "There are a lot of stones in the dirt mound here, and we can put more stones on top, where you put her." We choose a place near the top of the mound, and I started digging. Sylvie was buried there, under a cat-sized jade standing stone. She was buried with her favorite toy, her blanket, and her "letters of reference" - copies of the poems and stories and letters people wrote about her. She was a widely-loved little cat.

It seemed like once I started digging, it was hard to stop. Beside where Silvie was, there was a flattish space and I dug a more-or-less circle in it, about five feet across and eight inches deep. In the center of this, I put a concrete ring and lined the bottom of it with stones. In the space around the ring, I put topsoil and peat moss to fill in where I'd just dug out. Then I planted Irish moss and low-growing flowering plants. There are also two sea pinks and a heather. And there are snowdrops and crocuses to bloom every year around the time Sylvie died. My thought at the time was that this was Sylvie's memorial garden and that I'd put a sundial or something in the center. The fae had other ideas by then, as I was soon to discover.

A friend had a problem and wanted healing energy sent for it. The fae said, "Put a stone on the cairn for her; we'll send energy too." It seemed like a good idea to me, and while I was there I put stones on the cairn for a few other people as well - and one for myself, in gratitude. When I stood back to look at it, I realized that this, under the subtle guidance of the fae, had become a blessing cairn, in process.

There is plenty of space for more stones for everyone who wants one there.

Back to the first page
What Happens Here
An Lios - the Garden
Creating Your Own Sacred Space
Friends of the Blessing Cairn
How You Can Give to the Fae
Thanks to the Fae
Jesa's Coracle Pages with boatloads of stuff,
including more on Faery and the Faeries' Oracle.
Jesa's Faeries' Oracle readings by phone