My Sidhe Awakening
I realized recently that I've had a life-long, but unconscious, relationship with the Sidhe. It exhibits through my deep love of nature and my passion for the conservation and care of our mother earth.
During my childhood, nature manifested joy in my life when I lived along Nomini Creek, a tidal estuary on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. Birds, fish, crabs, snakes, raccoons, muskrats, beavers were the loves of my life when I was 12 years old. This love of the natural world continued through my college years. I recall boating around a bend and coming upon thousands of ducks floating on the river for as far as I could see.
Struck with awe and wonder, I was transported up into the sky looking down at a scene of exquisitely beautiful woods, reflecting water, and myself with a friend motoring slowly under a canopy of these thousands of ducks. Suddenly, from a state of complete bliss, I knew three truths:
• The Universe is Love.
• We are all connected, and all One.
• And I am a small, but important, part of this Universe.
Then I thought to myself, "Wow! Isn't this cool!" Then whomp! There I was driving the boat again.
I don't think I ever shared my out-of-body experience or insights with anyone at the time. A few years later I came across The Transformation: A Guide to the Inevitable Changes in Humankind, by George Leonard, a key figure in the human potential movement. Leonard's descriptions turned the key that unlocked and opened me to understanding my previous life-changing mystical insights. A portal opened, expanded, and consciousness poured into me. I was off and running to learn more, to experience more, to share more.
A few years ago, I participated in the New Year's "white stone" ritual at my church. We each picked a stone and held it. Meditating upon it, we invited a word to come to mind -to be the touchstone for the coming year. The word I received was "glyph."
This was before I knew of the Sidhe, but not before I knew glyphs! In travels to Hopi, Navaho, and Ancestral Puebloan areas of the American West, I've sought out petroglyphs for communing and appreciation. I especially love "the man in the maze"--which seems akin to the Great Glyph, and to a labyrinth. So, imagine my delight in finding John Matthews' Great Glyph of Gortnasheen exercise when I first explored the website (PortalsConnect.com). There it is - right in the Portals Connect name - the glyph "secret handshake" for connecting with the Sidhe. Once again, it has taken me a few years of further earthly explorations to catch up in the conscious awareness with the intuitive wisdom that bubbled up from my unconscious depths that New Year’s Eve.
My early experiences initiated a life-long search to discover other mystical knowledge and experiences. During the summer of 2020, I enrolled in a course taught by Rue Hass of the Lorian Association: "2020 Conversations with the Sidhe Book Club". Though I knew little of the Sidhe, I was drawn to David Spangler's Card Deck of the Sidhe and thought this class may help me engage with it.
As I read the David Spangler’s Conversations with the Sidhe, specific images of my fine art photographs would come into my mind at various passages. The impulse was so strong that, just for fun, I posted some images and the quotes from the book that brought them to mind. Many of my classmates expressed their delight, and Rue suggested that this would make a wonderful eBook. She connected me with Jeremy Berg, the publisher of Lorian Press.
Normally, I procrastinate when it comes to a challenging project like this. Yet for this one, my passion was aflame. I worked on it steadily until I felt it was complete enough to send to Jeremy for consideration. Along the way, I invited assistance from the Sidhe in matching images with quotes, in drafting the book proposal, and in opening the way for its publication. I'm certain that the Sidhe spurred me on and facilitated the creation of my eBook. Although Lorian Press was booked up with current and scheduled projects, Jeremy gave me permission to use the David Spangler's quotes from Conversations and to offer the eBook through other channels. Later, he suggested Ron Hays and Portals Connect website as a possible place to present it... and here we are!
While I feel my conscious connecting with the Sidhe is in the very early stages, I'm open and inviting more contact and collaboration. Though I can’t confirm it, I'm thinking that I've had Sidhe supporters all through my life as I connected powerfully with Nature, with the land around Nomini Creek, and as I rose out of the boat above thousands of ducks!
A good friend with powerful psychic and intuitive insights agrees with my statement in Paths to the Sidhe that I "unconsciously might have been working (playing) for many years to illustrate David's book." Seen this way, I was preparing my whole life to begin this conscious collaboration with the Sidhe. certainly never imagined that my first photography book would be one illustrating messages written by my long-time spiritual mentor, David Spangler, about a subtle but powerful kindred arm of humanity and Gaia called the Sidhe!