§983

‘In an earlier experience when I was four or five this might have been a faery, at least I was sure then it was a fairy. A light flit across my completely dark bedroom, skirting the wall and out toward the window. It was of white light, smaller than a baseball, changed its shape continuously, was somewhat angular. But another event was when I was seven. It was 1961, spring, just before we [American nationals] returned to America from Beirut, Lebanon where we had lived six years. What is it that makes a moment significant? We all seek to make sense of the world and find a place for ourselves in it. An undeniable change occurs in your being from which there is no turning back. Our world interacts with us. This event was like something out of a story, but it happened to me. I cherished the memory. I was near the age of seven. My family had left America when I was eighteen months old, to live for a while in Beirut, Lebanon. At that time Lebanon was a beautiful country. It was spring, my parents and I went on a picnic. A basket held our simple lunch and a bottle of new wine from a nearby monastery. We climbed a hill overlooking a stream sacred to Adonis, God of Spring and rebirth. At the first spot we chose, we were annoyed by flies. My father suggested that we relocate to the nearby hilltop where the ruins of an ancient shrine remained. The floor was now green grass, and inside the circle sparsely outlined by the tumbled and broken columns, no flies came. In gratitude and romantic whimsy, my mother suggested that I pour a libation of the wine in thanks before we began our picnic. ‘Maybe’, she said, ‘it has been a long time since the god was brought offerings, he might be thirsty.’ I remember pouring wine upon the earth in silence. Later, uninterested in my parents’ conversation and having enough picnic, I wandered off to pick wildflowers. As I came closer to the edge of the hilltop, I could see the stream below. Scattered along the stream were the rounded, wide backs of women in the voluminous dress of the mountain people – their head scarves covering to their shoulders gave them an even rounder appearance, bent in timeless gathering, watercress perhaps. Beckoned on by wildflowers, I made my way down the hillside, and my hands became filled, timeless gathering. My path was along the side of the hill which was on my right with the stream on my left. Curious to see more, I came to where the stream divided and narrowed into rivulets. At the bottom I remember stepping-stones, but I didn’t cross, and the walls of the ravine became high. There was a small clean ledge about chest high to me and near the water. This portion of the hillside seemed only rock and water. I decided to place my bouquet on the ledge, as a second offering to a forgotten god. I stood there, listening to the sounds of the river and looking at the bright flowers on the buff colored stone. Out of a crevice in the rock, at the back of the ledge, a large caterpillar crawled and went straight to the flowers. I may have been only a child, but I was not a foolish one. What was a caterpillar doing inside a rock crevice over a stream far from plants? It completely amazed me, and I never forgot it! Like an arrow of awareness, I perceived that my offering was accepted. Moreover, that communication occurs, and understanding could be received other than from people. If there had been no caterpillar, all would have been only a pretty gesture. Was it from this that I began to look at the possibility of the extraordinary in the ordinary appearance? Where a caterpillar serves as celebrant of a god of spring, or a devotee may appear as a caterpillar? I felt that I had been let in on a remarkable point of view that gave insight to my existence. This belief became a reference point for understanding, influencing my perceptions of other events. From then on, I saw myself as part of the great world; its accessible mystery contains unseen forces that interact with us. You who are reading this may be dismissing the experience because it was of an ancient god. But at that time and for years after, I thought Adonis was by fact of being a god, part of the pantheon that included Pan, a god of the wild and part of the magical hidden realm, a god always associated with Fairy beings. This experience gifted more to me than the flowers I gave. That summer we left Lebanon and returned to where I was born, ***, on *** Island. More remarkable things to follow.’ ‘In 2005, An orb of light about six inches in diameter floating about six inches above the floor in our hallway one afternoon. It floated beside me and disappeared before passing near my husband’s shin. We were stunned and I wish I said or greeted this white light ball which seemed to have brighter light planes within it. My husband saw it also, but he only saw it glowing and didn’t notice the planes of brighter or denser light moving within. I had been addressing the faeries of the place (land/home) for quite some time before this happened.’ ‘I heard a voice quite different than all the other times I had been talked to. Before it was always only a word, maybe two, or an impression. This time, I was caulking a cupboard thinking to myself ‘ha ha! No bugs (cockroaches) are going to get in here!’ When I distinctly heard about six and a half or seven feet in the air, to my left, a man’s voice matter of factly say, ‘Fairies don’t mind beetles.’ (!!!) No way that popped out of my head. I have never before that referred to cockroaches as beetles. (We live in *** and cockroaches come in and we get rid of them.)’ ‘I felt there was extra light closer to the ceiling. Once a psychic lady came by and she looked to the corner of the ceiling where I first felt the happiness coming from and she said on her own without me having told her anything.’ ‘That evening after I heard, ‘Fairies don’t mind beetles’ (that happened in the kitchen) I was ready for sleep and stuck a book I was reading, horizontally under a shelf near the bed for safekeeping. In the morning on top the cover right in the middle was a tiny dead baby cockroach. (I mean beetle) Like, ‘Haha!’ ‘I don’t know why they are obviously here but not visible and why they are interacting more frequently with people.’ ‘My fairy wish: that they do whatever is necessary to elevate human consciousness.’