Connor Beauty

Dear my little friend,

May you always remember your beauty as you grow into a man, and into yourself.
May you remember the magician in you, who holds crystals in his fingers, memories of his spirit brother in his mind, and a fierce intent to heal and know others in the curl of his palm.
May you remember the fairy in you, who wears wings on his tricycle, who dances under rainbow umbrellas, who makes the world a song and dance.
May you remember the joy you create with your golden eyes and hilariously insightful one-liners and cherub lips.
May you know just how deeply you are loved from all who are around you.
It is an honour to know you, to dance with you, to watch you take in the world with your sensitive, sweet soul.
Thank you for teaching us.

Love,
your friend,
Leonie

Wild Fairie Adventure Picnic

While I was in Brisbane a few weeks ago, I wanted to connect with some of the goddesses in my life that I have met from so many parts of my journey: high school dearhearts, internet un-met lovelies, womens circle sisters. Instead of meeting each of them for different cups of tea, I decided to Create an Event. Something a little bit wild, a little bit delicious, gentle but surprising. I considered having a Turkish banquet: too boring. A midnight rendezvous on a mountain: adventurous, but I'm more awake during the sunshine hours. A wild fairie adventure picnic: just perfect.



Now, I only needed to find a place for it!
I woke on the day of the picnic just as the sun was rising, my two sisters still slumbering. I slung on a long green skirt emblazoned with elephants, and a black singlet, and out into the morning I walked. I journeyed north, and found a park: it was bare, with small trees and traffic on all four sides. I journeyed on. I wanted to find the river, but didn't know where it was. I followed no map but the gentle pulling of my innards over sloping hills made of crumbling concrete and tropical jungle.



Down past a large white house, I found the river: wide and rumbling with skiers, hedged with mangroves. I clambered into the mangroves, and cried for a while. The distance of weeks since has blurred my memory of what pushed the tears forth. It could have been tears of joy at finding the river, and gratitude of being guided there. It could have been tears of gentle sadness at feeling all the emotions of a human with a fractured, precious heart. It could have been all of these. I only know is I cried with gratitude and honouring of the tears. And then I looked up, and the mangrove leaves were shaped like hearts. I smeared mangrove mud on my legs. I walked on.



I spoke to the fairies as I walked:

Dear Fairies,
I would like to find a pretty-ish bit of wildnerness* to co-create a magical event with. I would so love to create a space for goddesses to connect with mama earth and each other. If you could please help me find this place, I would be so grateful.
(P&P reference, for those of you playing at home)





As I gave my request, I decided that in return, I would do something for the fairies to thank them, and to make it a true energy exchange. After reading Doreen Virtue's "Healing with the Fairies", I know that fairies are custodians of the natural world, and need help in nourishing and protecting the earth.





A few minutes later, I looked down into the mangroves and saw an abandoned shopping trolley stuck halfway in the mud of the river. I looked back up the steep rocky incline to the road. Not an easy hike. I decided that a wild adventure fairie picnic is worth fighting for, so I hitched my skirt up and made my way down to the mangroves and mud. I hauled that shopping trolley inch by inch up the rocks, giggling away to myself, reminding myself all the way "I'm doing this for the fairies... doing it for the fairies..." Once up on the road again, I fixed the shopping trolley to a handrail, and high-fived myself.



I walked on. And on. And on.
Past pandanas trees and kayakers and large green leaves piled in gutters. Past huge sporting ovals and cute cottages. And then, just over a tiny creek, I found a little green space between the houses. I couldn't see where it ended, so I walked in. Past purple jacaranda trees and green jungles. Golden flowers sang and butterflies danced. I swore I saw fairies.



Past a well loved basketball hoop and a handmade pizza oven. Past voluptuous trees, into a clearing that was hemmed by a river and jungle. There were lizards and blue kingfisher birds and brown wild turkeys. It was a piece of wilderness in the suburbs, a well-loved but unowned slice of magic. Someone had mowed the clearing in a circle, forming a beautiful spiral in the grass. I had found it. The place. The one I trusted existed, even if I didn't know its name. Even though it wasn't on the maps. I had found it using my heart, and it was just what I wanted it to be.





So I sent out the call, giving wild and elaborate directions for a place that didn't exist. I wonder even if it would be there if I went to look again, or if it existed only for that short space of time, like the secret garden, or the place behind the grandfather clock.





That afternoon, we gathered there. Women and children and a tiny puppy named Bella. Goddesses of all different flavours, all stunningly beautiful in their own ways. Friends of friends meeting friends. Women finding each other and sharing. Eating and laughing and speaking. Soaking in the fairie magic. Painting wildly. Throwing the canvas as far as we could across the spiral oval. Getting hands and feet and noses and faces glistening with rainbow paint. Wearing paper tiaras. Being just as we are.





I don't know how to express just how much sacred and sublime gatherings fill me up now. Just how much I have learned that when you take the path less travelled, adventure and magic flow in as easily as breath. I see the glistening, shimmering beauty in every soul I meet. I feel blessed beyond belief. And onwards I walk, knowing there is more work to be done, more life to be lived, more joyous celebrating to be had.






Onwards I walk, to a new place, and to a new self.
I journey onwards now, to India, to dreams come true, to lotus flowers and Kali Ma.
I kiss the palm of all I meet, and hold my own.



I am off on a journey ~~~
I return in a month.





Until then, may your journey be blessed with light.
May you have magical, sublime, sweet times.



May your eyes fill up with goodness.
May you dare to be your own wild adventure fairie.

Namaste,
Leonie

P.S. Remember: Magic can happen anywhere at any time. Ya just gotta give it the space to enter.

Dear One

this came out just after i wrote this...


Dear Clinty,

I've been dreaming about you lately.

You've been in my dreams and close to my skin, and when I awake I find you're not just around me but inside me now.

I think, "you are my biggest brother" - not only my oldest, but the biggest - the man who is bigger than the stars and clusters of planets and a field lying yellow in the summer. You are bigger than exquisite possibilities and truth and body, and you teach us that.

A few weeks ago, a boy I knew when I was a teenager died. And he made me think of you. He would have been nearly the same age as you when you died. I turn your eternal age of 25 in a few short weeks. I used to think you were old enough to die - that 25 years is a good go at life. And yet, here I am on the birthing precipice of that age, and there is still so much to do. So much to live and feel and experience and know and do.

I dreamed that you died again, and I began to wail that I was losing you all over again. And the stars came out, and I stopped wailing, and I realised I knew how to grieve now.

My grieving made me yearn to dance, my bare feet thrashing the gravel, my sweat becoming stars, my heart pumping long, loving bursts of blood through me. I wanted to dance you into heaven, I wanted to celebrate you in the ways I now know how to.

I didn't want everyone to go home, to sit in our silent rooms on our own and cry, to not know what to say, to feel that the experience was too uncomfortable to sit with. So I gathered our family and friends together in a big circle near the shed. And we drummed, we sang, we danced, we prayed, we spoke, guiding you home to Great Spirit.

I danced you into me, in that dream.

I danced until my arms were a-swirl and every precious possibility, every piece of love, every dream, every promise, every lifetime was awake.

Today, I wake up and you are with me.

Today, I wake up and something I want falls through, but I feel you beside me, smiling down a thousand lifetimes on me, telling me that everything is sacred, everything is real, everything is new, and everything will happen.

I want to photograph you today. I will photograph the stars and the grass and the great looming trees instead. You are in them.

All My Love,

Bony


And then the sun came out and glowed through the rain
and the whole world looked like a miracle...

tweet song

I've been a (chinese silk dragon embroidered) fan of Magpie Girl since I found her online patch of grass & roosting palace a few moons ago. Her sharings about interfaith, sacred and communal gatherings and soulful living make little red flames in my heart.

Not only is she a priestess of Monkfish Abbey, an urban mama goddess, a vintage cloths connossieur, and a sacred jewels maker ~ she is a writer:artist:photographer who alchemises this trinity of talents into the gold of Zine.



Her newest zine is a delicious mini book ~ 36 sumptuous pages of colour to dive into and soak up for a while. "Tweet" is an honouring of the summer months: all the ways to sparkle and shine in the sun. Precisely what I need really, considering over this side of the planet, we are in winter.

And in winter tradition of the alpine country, I've managed to pick up a flu named Pharyngitis, which sounds like some kind of exotic spanish dance. I like to make up little songs in my head about fa-fa-farangitis, imagining it to be cocoa-skinned, wearing a dress with many fru-frus. I've been spending inordinate amounts of time lying on a beanbag watching my dog as he falls asleep, then letting him watch me fall asleep. If there was ever a way to get me to stop doing everything at a thousand miles an hour, fa-fa-farangitis is the way.

Needless to say, I've been reading Tweet while soaking up all the droplets of sunshine that fall on my bed. A perfect balmy sunkissed fruit concoction for my wintertouched spirit.



Stories, prayers, saint goddess collecting cards, recipes and sweet surprises:
I think Tweet (and zines in general) might just be playbooks for us adult children.
Maybe they should hand them out on airplanes as adult activity packs!

You can get yourself some Tweet-a-lage at Magpie Girl's etsy store!

In the meantime, I am off to make myself another cup of steaming healing fruit tea (inspired by my healing herbal wise woman friend Sone)...

For you in winter, and you in summer ~
dream this baby up!

Healing Magical Unicorns Fruit Soother

* Three quarters a glass of orange, passionfruit or apple juice (or combination of all three... combo is extra ju-ju magical)
* Tablespoon of honey
* Three whole cloves
* Six cardomom
* Splash of water

Warm, savour, enjoy and melt all resistance away...

Blessings to you, from me,
with gifts of warmth and joy,
Leonie

Surrounded by Love

Surrounded by Love
original painting available on Etsy

Sometimes
she felt a little bit achy,
a little bit like a tiny soul boat
lost at sea.

But then...
if she remembered...
she would close her eyes
and find herself
in the embrace of the Mama Goddess.

Mama Goddess would hold her,
deep and gentle in her star~jewelled bosom,
stroking her hair,
whispering silent words into her ear.

You are surrounded by love.

You are surrounded by love.

You are surrounded by love.

Like a fish in the ocean,
you are surrounded by love.

Like a woman in the sweetness of air,
you are surrounded by love.

You bring light into this world

You bring light into this world, acrylic & mixed media on canvas

I painted this artwork some months ago, and it is only now that I am beginning to understand her message and hear her truth.

For me, my artworks are messages from Spirit, and each one is brought into my life to teach me a story and touch me with her presence. I have learned to hold onto my paintings until she becomes a part of me. The paintings will tell me when it is time for them to take wings and fly out into the world.

For me, "You bring light into this world" is a healing goddess. She is a swirl of rainbows, a sparkle across the water. She is a channel for guiding starlight in the cosmos. She is the woman in all of us who creates miracles with her hands, and touches the world with her glow.

Lately I have been learning her messages:

Trust in your healing ability.

Trust in your intuition.

Trust in the wisdom that is inside you already.

With massage, reflexology, oracle cards, crystal healing...
I don't need to focus on knowing the "right" way to do it ~
I only need to just let healing speak to me and through me,
unfolding through my hands just as it needs to be.

Last night I witnessed and was part of a miracle ~
and my house sung with women~sisters healing each other with their hands, so I share this with deep faith and belief in the possibilities of intuitive healing.

I don't need all the books to know in my belly where my hands need to go ~ to touch, to hold, to heal, to bring light.

This is my lesson, this is me trusting the High Priestess inside me.

We know everything already, it's just a case of remembering.

Have you given yourself the gift of crystal healing?
Pick a crystal up. And do what it tells you to do.
How does it speak to you? What does it say? What miracles do you allow inside today?

We are born healers.
We are born gods and goddesses.
We are born divine.

You bring light into this world.

The story of a painting unfolds...

in shining amethyst,
Leonie