1% Inspiration - 99% Perspiration

When the concept of Elven Gates came to me, I was soaring. Dare I allow myself to consider creating portals to another realm? There’s another 1 to 99 ratio. One percent reality and ninety-nine percent fantasy. That’s the realm my ideas inhabited in those days. Admitting this private reverie publicly is a bit embarrassing. Nonetheless I was captivated by the idea of creating portals or gateways to a deeper inner connection with the subtle realms and manifesting them physically. 

Though I called this new endeavor Elven Gates I envisioned creating portals. I find that there is a subtle difference between a gate and a portal. Gates delineate and separate. They tend to keep you apart. While portals are beckoning. They invite you to pass through them.  This is inherent in the root of the word portal. It has a long and rich history. Looking up portal on the online etymology site I found: 

“...the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit parayati "carries over;" Greek poros "journey, passage, way," peirein "to pierce, pass through, run through;" Latin portare "to carry," porta "gate, door,"

These roots fit my initial inspiration to create a gateway in which a person, who when holding the appropriate intent, can pass through and experience a shift in their inner perceptions which become more enlivened and attuned to the subtle dimensions.

Brimming with this enthusiasm, I shared my ideas with a friend. From this conversation my first project emerged. She was considering a new entrance for her clinic. We traded ideas. She dreamt of the gate. We brainstormed more. I made sketches. We both agreed on the design. 

However — between the creative inspiration and the manifestation of perspiration come the rocks of cost. Many a project has foundered on this rocky cost. And so it was for this gate.

But — I thought, why do I need a client. Why not build this gate for myself. I need a new entrance for my home and I can adopt what we designed together to be more in line with my connection with the Sidhe. Thus I began my first large portal which I have named the Entry Portal.

The common expression, “It looks simple on paper,'' was all too true. The sketch showed two arches in a hyperbolic arrangement supported by two posts. Mentally envisioning this, I realized that energetically the arches would have to be continuous and pass through the five sided posts. Challenging but doable. What I could not foresee was that once I inserted one arch through both posts, the other arch would not pass through both posts. The geometry was wrong. After sweating this out for a while, I was able to come up with a remedy for the issue. 

This was but one of the many challenges that I encountered crafting this portal. I realized that water would seep through the holes in the columns where the arches passed through. Fungus follows water and soon the portal would rot away. How would I seal the gap and also attach the arches to the columns? Not wanting to use any iron in a “Sidhe” gate, I settled on making a copper bracket and attaching it with brass screws. To the original design I added the Sidhe glyph that John Matthew’s describes in The Sidhe: Wisdom from the Celtic Otherworld. 

I was not prepared for the amount of time it would take me to fashion this first portal. Approximately two years would elapse from the time I sketched it out until it was installed. There were changes in design and placement. It required “wings” at its base to keep it from toppling over. This crafting with the Sidhe as I came to call it was a dynamic process. 

The key understanding that emerged from my work with this initial portal arose from my work with the arches. I learned that the energetic pathway through form has more importance than its visual design. I could have could have cut the arches and affixed them to the inside and outside of the posts and visually the arch would look the same. But the energy would not flow through it properly. It was an important first lesson for me. In continuing my work with the Sidhe, I have discerned that this principle is in line with how they shape the substance of their realm.

I mostly stumbled upon this understanding as I crafted this Entry Portal. Later I would discover that I could call upon the Sidhe and discuss the flow subtle energy flow through a portal and we could collaboratively come up with creative solutions.