It always starts the same way for me - a growing sense that something is missing, something is needed. Then I find the "something" - or at least a hint of it - and the fae become all excited and I know I'm on track again.

In this case, the sense of something missing gnawed at me for quite a while before I found the stone. Then, suddenly, there it was - coming out of the earth where we were digging the foundation for the well house. I recognized it at once, but I still didn't know where they wanted it. So the stone sat, resting, for a while.

There is a lower drive and an upper driveway, and where they meet is just beyond the blessing cairn itself. I can see this would be easier to explain if you had a map - I'll make one as soon as I can. (See rather crude map.) Anyway, there is a corner, just across the upper drive from the little meditation garden (which is opposite the blessing cairn) that I'd know for a while "needed something". I'd thought perhaps it was a really nice plant that was wanted - a big colorful bush or a small flowering tree...

Finally, I stood there one day looking at the corner, and a voice patiently said, "That's where the stone goes, you know." I immediately recognized the correctness of this. I don't know why I don't see these things for myself more and need to be told, but it all works out in the end.

The next time I had access to Jon's backhoe and a little time, I dug a hole for the stone and moved it over into position. As these things happen, my neighbor, Lee Ehrheart was there with a friend. Just what I needed - two strong men to raise the stone. (I am not clever enough with the backhoe to do this by myself or else this backhoe (Tommy) isn't big enough - possibly both are true).

Lee is the one in the cap, and the other is Bam Bam - or in his more formal moments, Mr. B. Bam. Or Ikem when he is feeling especially gentle. Over Bam Bam's shoulder, you can sort of see where the zen meditation circle will be someday, when I find enough big stones for it.

Here you see them hoisting the stone up and getting it in just the right position and at the precisely correct angle. When it goes exactly in place, you can feel the energy of the whole area shift, like something clicking heavily into where it fits. It's a very solid feeling, as if the area were suddenly much stronger and somehow more right.

Lee holds the stone in place (or it holds Lee - it's a little hard to tell) while Bam Bam packs smaller stones in around the base to keep it from shifting. After they were done, I climbed up onto the backhoe, and shoveled more dirt in around the base and packed it solidly.

That makes two standing stones now - one in the meditation garden and this one. (I'm not counting the two very small ones that are on each side of the path that goes to the top of the Blessing Cairn itself - although as I write this I hear someone saying, "They do count, you know - that's why we had you put them there!")

And, of course, there are the three "sitting stones" in the meditation garden, and one up on the blessing cairn itself. Each one, as it has gone into place, has made a similar energy shift around it. So do some of the plants. Not all of the plants do that, and it is sometimes surprising to me which ones do. Thinking in human terms, I guess I expect it to be the very noticable ones, but sometimes it is just a little thing tucked in between larger ones that changes the energy significantly.

So, now the stone sits there, looking and feeling very solid and strong. We don't do really big stones like the ancient people who put up those huge megaliths, but ours also work. They do the job, transforming and stabilizing and strengthening the energy. This one needs plants around the base of it. I'm thinking perhaps some of the periwinkles that are overflowing on the top of the blessing cairn would do well here. We'll see what the fae have to say about it. I know they want some of the periwinkles for the Gnome Ghome Wall, but there are lots.

Updates:

September 2003 The Gnome Ghome

March 2003 The First Day of Spring

Back to the first page
How the Blessing Cairn Came To Be
What Happens Here
An Lios - the Garden -back to the Garden Page
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