Essay and Photo by Freya Secrest
I was privileged to participate in the recent guided tour to Ireland, co-sponsored by Soren Hauge and Lorian Association, to explore our history and connections with the Sidhe. Our framework for this journey was the work of two 20th century Irish theosophists: poet William Butler Yeats and his colleague, the artist and social activist, George William Russell or AE. Using their work as a historical backdrop we also drew upon more recent expressions of connection with the Sidhe, including the Sidhe books and Card Deck by David Spangler and artist Jeremy Berg, Soren’s book, The Wild Alliance, as well as the wealth of insights from trip participants themselves.
Our travels took us through Ireland’s northwest coast land where we had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the environment which offered Yeats and AE a doorway for their experiences and insights. Their poetry and art were inspiring, but for me it was the landscape we traveled through that touched my heart and helped to open my own unique doorways to the “People of Peace”. It is easy to feel how AE and Yeats were drawn into magical, underlying Sidhe realms of life and intelligence. I was too.
The wild beauty of the area was deeply uplifting. We hiked rugged cliffs with wide vistas and open peat and heather countryside. We listened to wind and rain and singing streams that emerged magically from the boggy land to tumble and flow, and over time, carve green valleys. My sense of awe and magic was stretched and extended by this week of immersion in the bed-rock essence that underlay green fields and sandy shores. Here the grand forces that work to shape our evolving planetary landscape were evident. We as humans are only one stream among the many forces that impact our world. I was and am humbled by the clear and dancing elements that shape a planet.
In this context, it was easy for me to sense that there are many realms of intelligence engaged with our planet. I could imagine a Faerie troupe emerging from Ben Bulben, the Faerie Fort, to inspire awe through legends shared around the hearth. It was easy to imagine the subtle intelligence of the green natural world at work in misty glen waterfalls and the hill and heather countryside. They sang their songs to me as I walked their paths. The phrase from a New Troubadour song, “Let new worlds grow from us” comes to mind. I could sense the deep power of the land itself in tumbled boulders and wild winds. Come. Stand up, step forward and link in. Join us in shaping wholeness in our world.
This trip drew together a new understanding of partnership for me. I will continue to explore my relationships with nature and my understandings of the subtle half of planetary life but with a new sense of fellowship, of comradery. After spending time with others who acknowledge the Sidhe as allies and partners, I now feel more alert to the notes of a Sidhe connection in my own life. Making a “home visit” so to speak, I have a more direct experience of the qualities that link me to them, a shared love of nature and commitment to our Gaian home, a common draw to creativity and shaping, a mutual home in joy. In all this I am aware of not only my Sidhe connection, but of a three-way interaction of human, Sidhe and nature working together on behalf of our shared Gaian world. This awareness brings more meaning to my idea of partnership - with Nature, with the Sidhe, with other people in my life.
As my friend and colleague, Rue Hass would say in our manifestation work, “That is a BIG bite! Can you break it into smaller ones?” The “how” of all this new awareness is indeed unfolding its possibilities in small steps. Since I have returned home, I am going out to my local parks to be present to my nearby natural world, to share in the breath of wind and wood and soil and water right around me. I am more consciously holding myself and my life with love and honor. I am bringing new attention to the things that bring me joy so I can stay alive in my own acts of whole-making. And I am inviting the idea of Allies: from the Sidhe, from Nature, from my work world and in my human community by staying open to, and welcoming, the diversity around me with a loving touch.
In Ireland the veil between the worlds was thin. It was easier to hear the music of earth and life outside of my everyday rhythms and the values of social/cultural progress in human history. I am grateful to the rock, the hills, the wind, the water and to the People of Peace that welcomed me into their home and shared the beauty of their corner of the earth. They reminded me of the fellowship that I can foster here in my own everyday life. And so, I am called to begin another "guided" tour right here in my own home neighborhood. To quote Walt Whitman, “Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road” - looking to discover and celebrate the beauty and comradery of my own local corner of the earth.