Elfin Altar

I received a catalog in the mail from Plow and Hearth. This particular catalog caught my attention because it had all kinds of garden stuff on the front, which hooked my gardening addiction. When I came upon a page showing elfin doors, windows and porch light, I screamed. I had to have it; there was no doubt about it. My inner child was jumping up and down with the fun of it, and my goddess self thought it would be a great way to honor some of our land spirits. And believe me, when we first moved into our home in the fall of 2003, they were very unhappy with humans. In fact, they didn’t want us there at all.
How do I know? Well, after all the commotion of moving in, I started noticing really negative energy coming from the back of our garage. The garage is not attached to the house and had extra length to it. There was room to park our cars and then a smaller room beyond that with a refrigerator and extra storage. Frankly, the place always creeped me out and I never wanted to go in there. Little did I know what was hanging out in there.
Everyday I passed the garage for one reason or another, and felt really uncomfortable. And it got worse when I started hearing hostile voices.
“We don’t like you.”
“We’re going to get rid of you like we did the last people.”
“Get out of here.”
This went on for a few weeks, and I felt intimidated. Frankly, I questioned whether I was making it up. I finally tuned in and got the impression it was coming from “little people,” such as elves or dwarfs. They seemed located in the back part of the garage, but when I looked more closely, they were behind the garage right where a pile of rubbish was left. I knew I had to turn this around.
The next time I walked by the garage, I heard it again, “We hate you.”
This time I stopped, sent an energy ball of love in their direction and said, “I don’t hate you.” I sent more love.
“We don’t want you here. We’ll get rid of you like the last people.”
The previous owners bought the house, remodeled it and then the husband was transferred out of the area. They were bummed, and I can understand why. They had gone through all the hard work and now had to walk away. I wondered if these elves did get rid of them?
I asked, “Why don’t you want me here? Why do you hate me?”
They responded, “Look what they did to our tree! Look what they did!” They were whipped up in rage by now.
I admit to being a dense human being at times. I couldn’t figure out what they meant. What tree? What are they talking about?
“What tree? Where?” I asked. I felt like they were jumping up and down with fury. “That tree, look at it!”
I started to examine the tree closest to the garage. It sits approximately in the middle of our third acre, right next to the garage. When we moved in, my husband Sam noticed the tree was “bleeding” sap at the base and said it didn’t look very healthy. And Sam ought to know, he used to own a tree company.
My eye suddenly caught sight of what the elves were talking about. The previous owner decided to build a dog run right next to the garage, and to do so they cut off one-third of the roots of the tree for a retaining wall. This had clearly done some damage. And one thing I do know about earth spirits, they love their trees! Seriously, trees are very important to them and people need to be very careful about cutting them down or damaging them. Look how important trees are in the Lord of the Rings and Avatar. But that’s another blog.
I told the elves I would do a healing ceremony for the tree. As soon as I spoke my intention, the energy lightened up. They seemed excited and happy that I would help their tree. They softened towards me and I felt their acceptance. If you love what they love – trees, flowers, rocks, water -- they love you. It’s very simple.
Whenever I work with land, I always start with a clearing of all human ‘debris.’ People not only leave a carbon footprint, they also leave emotions and thoughtforms. Earth spirits are not equipped to deal with these energies. People leave sorrow, anger, hatred, as well as the energetic patterns of their life. If a homeowner was abusive to their pets, all of that energy sits there. If there was a death, there might be a ghost walking around. These human energies stifle the earth spirits in being able to do their work, which is to maintain the natural energies of the landscape.
For this particular ceremony, I started by clearing off the previous owners’ energy, which included their thoughts of disregard for the land as well as their frustration at having to move. I invoked the Overlighting Angel of our area, a powerful earth angel designed to oversee a part of the landscape, as well as the Overlighting Angel of this type of tree. I asked the elves to join in, which they did, and we focused love and healing towards the tree. I left the small altar for the ceremony at the base of tree for several weeks. The elves would often ask me to please do another ceremony, which I would do. Then Sam trimmed all the dead wood off the tree and gave it a beautiful shape. The tree looked like it ‘perked up.’
Finally, it seemed as if the tree recovered. There was no more sap coming out, and the elves seemed to stop talking to me. They just seemed to have gone about their business.
So when I saw this “fairy house” set up in the catalog, I knew I wanted to place it on their special tree to honor them on our property. I set it up my elf house on the New Moon before the Spring Equinox, and I performed another ceremony to thank them for their help in making our yard so peaceful and beautiful. It’s a healing place.
This was easy to put together. The windows and door attach easily to the tree with small nails. By the front door I placed some lumps of wild moss that grow in our yard. The pathway I made from small rustic tiles that a friend had given to me when we retiled our bathrooms. I planted a very cool groundcover called Cymbelaria (Aequitriloba) that I hope will grow in between the tiles. I really love this groundcover because it blooms with teeny, tiny purple and white flowers that look like violets. I planted Armeria to the left of Mr. Dwarf and also near the little arbor. They send up a tall pink flower and are very hardy. The arbor is made of wire and is planted with a delicate vine of some kind, but I can’t remember the name.
To get your own dwarf accessories, just go to http://www.plowhearth.com/ and type in “elfin” in the product box in the upper right hand corner. They also have a wizard door and windows. I will continue to work on my elfin altar. I have only just begun.