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Early Registration Extended!
We have extended the early registration date to June 10.
Get 3 days of workshops and ceremonies for $235. Price goes up after June 10.
click for registration info
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It's our 10th Anniversary!
This is our 10th annual Congress devoted to promoting Communication and Co-creation with nature spirits, devas and the faery realms. and there's nothing like this...anywhere!
This year Brooke Medicine Eagle, RJ Stewart (the foremost writer and teacher on the Faery and Underworld tradition), and David Spangler (from Findhorn) will be joining us.
Workshops range from teachings in the Celtic Faery tradition, Weather Shamanism, Plant Spirit Medicine, Faery & Crossroads Magic, Co-Creative Gardening, Nature Communication, Despacho Ceremony, to Nature Constellation work ...and more.
The theme for this year:
Expanding our Capacities as Conduits of Loving Energy
This is a unique annual gathering that brings together people on the pathways of Perelandra, Findhorn, Faery Underworld, Celtic Faery Tradition, Shamanism, Flower Essences, Herbalism and Wildcrafting, Biodynamic Gardening, Plant Spirit Medicine, Geomancy, Earth Healing, Animal and Plant Communication, Faery Doctoring, Permaculture, and Deep Ecology.
Through the years, we have brought together amazing presenters such as Peter Tompkins (Secret Life of Plants), Findhorn co-founders Dorothy Maclean and David Spangler, Celtic Faery teachers Caitlin Matthews, RJ Stewart, and Orion Foxwood (he’ll be back in 2011), flower essence specialists, animal and plant communicators, shamanic practitioners and herbalists, biodynamic gardeners, wildcrafters, fairy seers, intuitives, musicians, geomancers and earth healers, Bards and Druids, and Native American storytellers.
We continue to stay committed to our mission!
www.fairycongress.com
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New this year!
Workshops for Teens and Young Adults
This year we have tailored some workshops specifically towards young adults and teens:
- Shamanic Journeying
- Who were the Witches?
- Faery scents and Aromatherapy
- Dragons and Mermaids and Fae - Oh My!
"The Second Sight" with RJ Stewart
Join us for a special workshop on Monday following the Congress:
The Second Sight is transferred by laying-on of hands, in a traditional ceremony known in various forms in Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia. RJ will share this ancient tradition with us, and you can choose to have your Second Sight activated or enhanced in the traditional manner. You can also attend the workshop if you do not choose to have your Second Sight activated, but want to learn about the tradition. RJ Stewart has been teaching this class since 1988, when he first taught it in Britain and this is the first time at the Fairy Congress.
All are welcome. You must be over 18 to attend this workshop: no exceptions!
There is a $65 fee for this half-day course (includes meals through Monday lunch). more infoCelebratory Experience with Morgan Brent
We'll be ending Sunday night with a thrivalistic experience of Tribal Talk, Songs from Singing Alive, and a surrender into Plant Trance Dance. Fairy and Human Tribes Unite! Celebrate!
Children's Area
We have a structure set up in main camp for the children, which is supplied with toys and craft materials. There will be children's funshops for various age groups (led by parents and volunteers) during adult workshop times. Parents may drop off children ages 4 and up during these times. Parents sign up to volunteer in the children's area for approximately 2 hours per child during one of the available time slots. What this means is that parents volunteer for 1 workshop timeslot and the kids can be left at the kids' tent for all 6 workshop times. While we do offer these activities, parents are still responsible for their children and should keep an eye on them throughout the weekend.
complete listing of workshops
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Donations for the raffle
Help us keep the ticket prices low!
We are having a raffle to create seed money with which to use for each year’s start up and advertising costs for the Congress. For the raffle we have received donations of items such as flower essences, herbal tinctures, books, CD's, gemstones and more.
Contact Suki, our Raffle Coordinator at magikdancer@gmail.com
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The Green Teachings of the Fairies
Article by Herbalist Julie Charette Nunn
It was just over five years ago that my husband Taddeusz and I came here to this land on Whidbey Island in Washington. We moved here from the rentals we had lived in for 7 years after selling our house in Seattle. Because we had moved so much, lived in so many places around Puget Sound, getting here to this place didn’t seem that significant at first. Another place to live, to discover, another adventure. What was to unfold as winter turned into spring could not have been known, but perhaps in the holy darkness of my psyche, I knew about the enchantment that was calling me forward.
I offered an herbal class at our farm the spring after moving here. As we walked on the land to discover the wild plant populations, one participant walked ahead of the rest of us. I saw her looking down at the ground and pointing. She said, “Look at this.” I came to the place where she stood and saw an old dead tree stump, quite small actually, with shelf mushrooms growing out of it. I knew immediately that this was the place where fairies dwelled. A gateway into their underworld sanctuary.
This place on our land became known as “The Fairy Dell” As spring came into her fullness, we discovered that “The Fairy Dell” was in the middle of a great thicket of wild roses. We told everyone who came to the land that this fairy sanctuary was off limits to humans, showing everyone where they could walk no further.
I didn’t know much about fairy lore. I had attended some talks given by RJ Stewart and Dorothy Maclean at the Fairy and Human Relations Congress and listened intently. I read stories. And then I began to offer herbal mentorships for girls here at the farm. I did my journey work to discover what I could offer the girls. The fairies appeared in my journeys, giving me shamanic exercises in which the girls could connect with the unseen realm of these enchanted beings. The girls, ages 6-13 years old, understood the fairy language. They were delighted and seriously indulged in these experiences.
We listened, offered trinkets, libations and blessings. When the old tree fell over in a storm we created a staff with ribbons, herbs and beads to mark its place. It was this relationship that the girls had with the fairies that created a place in me to believe and to listen.
The fairy realm is intricatedly connected with the green world. A deva is a plant in its true and entire essence. Offered here are a few shamanic exercises in which you can discover the teachings of the fairies first hand right where you live.
This First Meditation/Journey can be done in a comfortable chair in your home:
- Close your eyes and find yourself at home outside in your garden or yard.
- Within this space, go to a plant with which you feel a connection.
- Notice your breath.
- Breathe in and out 3 time naturally.
- Now breathe and imagine you are breathing in the breath of this plant. Breathe out and offer your breath to the plant.
- Ask your plant, this plant, “What have you for me?” and listen.
- Now look down at the base of the plant where it comes out of the ground. Look for movement, as if you can see the wind.
- Acknowledge this as the fairy beings that dwell around this plant.
- Watch this energy move, and see if you can sense this energy communicating with you. What might it be telling you? Listen.
- When you sense this is complete, step back from the plant and acknowledge it by saying thank you.
- Open your eyes.
Activating the Fairy~Plant Connection:
You are going to be activating the fairy~plant connection. The Devic realm will be honored and blessed. The magical realm of the plants will be activated. Fairies and Devas work together in the magical realm of the plants. This ceremony will open these realms. It can be done in each season.
- Fill a bowl with water, and place plants in it.
- Choose plants with which you feel a strong connection. Ask permission before gathering these plants and offer gratitude.
- Hold the bowl of water and plants in your hands.
- Breathe in and out, allowing the entireness of the plant to be breathed into you. As you breathe out, offer your entire self to the plant. Do this for 21 breaths.
- When this is complete, offer this water at the base of an old tree and offer gratitude to the fairies~devas~plants~water.
Song of the Birds: The fairies say that when you breath the song of the birds into your body, when you are in the garden or surrounded by plants, that you go to the place where plants walk around like humans and speak in the language you can understand.
- Find a place where you can sit and listen to the song of the birds.
- Close your eyes.
- Listen to the songs, breathe the songs into your body, feel it enter you body.
- Allow the song of the birds to take you to the unseen realm of the plants. And see what you discover.
- When you are home, cooking in your kitchen, open the window and allow the bird song into your kitchen. Breathe it in. This will bring the fairy energy into your home.
The connections with the fairy realm are not always light and fanciful. The fairies are powerful beings with strong intentions and will ask you to do things for them. Be strong in your own intentions as you begin this connection and trust your own intuition always.
May it be in Beauty.
First Printed in The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries, Spring 2009. Julie will be offering a couple of workshops at the Congress.
www.crowsdaughter.com
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Support our Sponsors!
In July 2009, this website was visited by over 8000 unique visitors. Our mailing list contains over 1800 subscribers. It pays to be a sponsor!! Be a sponsor next year! Check out the website for more details!
"The Way of the Fairies"
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July 12-25: Permaculture Design Course with Michael Pilarski, Skalitude
A two-week intensive Permaculture Design Course
Instructors:
Michael Pilarski, Andrew Millison, Josho Somine, Deston Denniston, David Sansone & other guests
Permaculture is the premier design system for high productivity and ecologically-sound, food systems. In addition to the plant landscape, permaculture also considers transportation, energy, buildings, water supply, community economics and governance.
Tuition includes instruction, permaculture design certificate, camping, meals, and curriculum material. Graduates are entitled to use the term "Permaculture" in pursuit of livelihood and for educational purposes.
COURSE TOPICS
- Permaculture principles & methodology
- Observation skills
- Zones and sectors
- Site analysis
- Ecosystem restoration
- Home food production
- Fruits, berries, nuts
- Edible landscaping
- Soils, fertilizers, mulches, inoculants
- Edible and useful native plants, wildcrafting
- Multi-story, food forests
- Vegetable and crop selection
- Sources for seed and nursery stock
- Plant propagation & seed saving
- Agroforestry & forestry
- Windbreaks, hedgerows
- Ethnobotany & ethnoecology
- Livestock and wildlife
- Urban permaculture
- Water in the landscape
- Swales, keyline, ponds & aquaculture
- Rain water harvesting
- Grey water & bioremediation
- Dry land strategies
- Natural building
- Alternative energy and fuels
- Intentional communities & ecovillages
- Local economies/barter systems
- Decentralized governance systems
- Large-scale design for cities, counties and islands
- and much, much more!
The word 'Permaculture' was originally coined in Australia in the 1970's by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Over the last 30 years, permaculture has become a global grassroots movement involving hundreds of thousands of people. Permaculture offers a huge storehouse of solutions, strategies and practical techniques gathered from around the globe and throughout history. If permaculture designs were implemented on a planetary scale in cities, farms and homes the world would become a garden of Eden.
This course will impart permaculture principles and methodologies which can be applied anywhere in the world. Through lecture, slide shows, discussion, observation, field trips and hands-on activities, permaculture design students will develop the practical skills and knowledge necessary to design and implement sustainable systems that are in harmony with the natural world.
This course will be useful for gardeners, farmers, community food organizers, natural resource managers and anyone interested in self employment and local economies.
Some partial work trades and scholarships available.
download PDF for more info... |
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Sept 3-6 - Singing Alive
A teaching gathering for ceremonial/devotional singing circles, dancing, and music. We change the world as we transform ourselves with songs of light, love, peace on earth, and goodwill to all beings
more info... |
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Sept 23-27: Primitive Skills Gathering, Skalitude
Saskatoon Circle - a Gathering for Primitive Skills and Sustainable Living
Learn hide tanning, friction fire, wildcrafting edible and medicinal plants, cordage, basketry, basic tool skills, knots, felting and more!
more info...
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How the Fairy Congress started...
Daphne Charters, who lived in England, wrote down her adventures with the fairies over a span of four decades. She could see the fairies and carry on long conversations with them. The fairies told Daphne about their lives, their exploits, their work and their spiritual development. As such, they are stories about the lives of the fairies told in their own words.
One of the most far-reaching outcomes of the friendship between Daphne and the fairies was the establishment of their annual Fairy & Human Relations Congress. The story of the beginnings of the Congress is found in Chapter 3 of "A True Fairy Tale" and in Daphne's preface to the Report on the 1985 Fairy & Human Relations Congress. The Congress was a success from the very first one, (held sometime in the early 1950s) which 3,000 fairies from around the world attended, along with the high devas assigned to help keep it organized. The only humans present were not in their physical form with the exception of Daphne.
Daphne passed on from the Earth plane in 1991, after asking Michael Pilarski to publish her Collected Manuscripts. In 2001, the first Fairy & Human Relations Congress on the earthly plane was held at Skalitude. It has been an annual event ever since.
more on Daphne Charters... |
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Co-creation from a Native American perspective
In his book, Coyote Medicine, Louis Mehl-Madrona, a Native American M.D., relays what the Lakota elders tell us about co-creation. They say that when humans take action and create from a space of honoring all of creation, allowing input and participation from the spirit world and all beings that will be affected, our creations are in harmony with the whole. They bring only positive results. When humans try to short cut the process and act from personal will, the resulting creation is out of harmony with the whole and creates only more problems. Co-creation seems like the long road. It takes extra time and patience, just like working with a committee that operates through group consensus. However, because it honors the cycles of life, all beings, and the great mystery, the resulting creations are harmonious, healing
and life enhancing.
The bold part is what we are teaching at the Congress! We are teaching people how to communicate and co-create with all the beings in the spirit realms.
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Skalitude Retreat Center
Skalalitude - a Salish word which translates as
"When people and Nature are in harmony, then magic and beauty are everywhere"
Skalitude is perfect for the Congress! It's a 160-acre site surrounded by National Forest on 4 sides! It'ss nestled at the end of a remote mountain valley in the North Cascades in the Methow Valley watershed in Washington State. The inhabitants are ponderosa pines, douglas firs, aspens, bunchgrasses, countless wildflowers, deer, some coyotes, and an occasional wolf, cougar, rattlesnake, and bear; and many fairies.
www.skalitude.com |
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