Faery Craft: Weaving Connections with the Enchanted Realm

About the Author

Emily Carding (Cornwall, United Kingdom) is an author, artist, and priestess. An initiate of Alexandrian Wicca and a member of the Starstone Network, Carding has been working with inner world Faery contacts since childhood. She has been trained in techniques of Celtic shamanism by John and Caitlín Matthews, and has worked with renowned Faery teachers R. J. Stewart and Brian and Wendy Froud. A respected and active member of the Faery and tarot community, Carding’s work has received international recognition.

Visit her online at ChildOfAvalon.com.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Faery Craft: Weaving Connections with the Enchanted Realm
© 2012 by Emily Carding.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition © 2012

E-book ISBN: 9780738731599

Book design and edit by Rebecca Zins

Cover and color page design by Lisa Novak

Cover images: grunge weathered circular: iStockphoto.com/Roy Konitzer,
grunge spring frame: iStockphoto.com/Megan Tamaccio, grunge swirls
background: iStockphoto.com/Aleksandar Velasevic, grunge corners,
Arabesque decoration, textured background: iStockphoto.com/David Crooks

Interior photos and illustrations are credited by individual pieces;
floral and Celtic ornaments are from Dover Publications

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to that Faery being
who is reading over your left shoulder right now…

Contents

The Faery Prince

Preface

Introduction

chapter one
:
Knowledge

chapter two
:
Connection

chapter three
:
Trust

chapter four
:
Honour

chapter five
:
Magick

chapter six
:
Joy

chapter seven
:
Inspiration

chapter eight
:
Balance

The Raven King’s Daughter

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

The Faery Prince

A Faery Prince has snared my heart

Hiding it deep within his own

From all things mortal kept apart

Where roots and brambles overgrown

Guard it well against the light

And keep it green and shadowed there

Though I have searched by starry night

And in the spring sun warm and fair

Not prince nor heart may yet be found

But promised whispers on the breeze

And sweetest music in the ground

Lead my senses with their tease

So I must venture in between

Where dusky rose sings her lament

And seek by twilight what lies unseen

With hope to heal what has been rent…

Emily Carding, 2011

Preface

I
was honoured when I was asked by Llewellyn to write a book about Faery lifestyle and practices, but I was also daunted. How could I convey to others a connection and way of life that has always been so instinctive and natural to me?

As a child I would go on missions for the faeries in my dreams, passing through a little wooden door in a hill and visiting a magnificent underworld realm of vivid colours and magickal creatures both menacing and benign. It was not until much later in life that I would learn of the truth behind these visions and the legacy of the Faery tradition, in which the Faery beings dwelt in the hollow hills. How fascinated I was to learn that my dreams had revealed this realm to me! The diminutive flower fairies of English lore had never held the same kind of wonder.

My connection with this realm led to an aura of otherworldliness that made many people uncomfortable, including my parents, when I would spend the longest time simply contemplating a blade of grass in the garden, admiring its microcosmic magnitude!

Upon leaving home for university, I was soon able to develop my fascination for magick and the otherworld with the discovery of a local magickal community. As my college was within the grounds of a nature reserve, most of my time was spent by the lake in the company of trees rather than in class, but it was there where I learnt the lessons of most value.

My connection with the Faery realm has strengthened still more over the years, and I have felt their presence with me through life’s many ups and downs. Divorce and motherhood set me on a completely new path, one I never could have planned for, as it has seen me leave my work in theatre for a new career as an artist and author, creating work with the aid of my guides and allies that opens gateways to the otherworld. This includes the groundbreaking
Transparent Tarot
(Schiffer Books, 2008) and its sister deck
The Transparent Oracle
(Schiffer Books, 2010), which brings together aspects of shamanism, Faery lore, and ceremonial magick in an original structure based on the seven directions. Though published more recently, my first creation of this kind was
The Tarot of the Sidhe
(Schiffer Books, 2011), a series of seventy-eight visionary paintings created over a year and a day using methods of trance channelling.

Over the last few years, I have discovered and immersed myself in the vibrant Faery community through festivals and events. Upon first glance it can seem flaky and superficial, but there is so much love and genuine magick to be found within! A large section of this book is dedicated to the beautiful, creative, and inspirational people of this community.

At the same time, I am equally involved in the magickal community as an initiate of Alexandrian Wicca and member of the Starstone Network, a network of Wiccan covens and groves founded by Sorita D’Este and David Rankine. I have a keen interest in varied aspects of magickal practice, including Qabalah and Western Mystery tradition, and have trained in Celtic shamanic techniques with renowned teachers Caitlín and John Matthews. I am also a torchbearer in the Covenant of Hekate.

I have pieced together the advice and exercises within this book through analysing my own experiences and with the guidance of my own inner contacts. My goal is to help the reader, with time and patience, to create and strengthen a connection to nature and her hidden inhabitants. I have attempted to consciously re-create those simple yet powerful moments in which connection and magick may be found. Alongside these lifestyle building blocks, if you will, is as much information about the different paths and various ways people have of expressing their love and commitment to Faery as I could possibly fit into one book, so that you may find what inspires you. May it be a torch to light your way.

This book can be what you want or need it to be. The simply curious may just read through it to catch a glimpse of the lives of others. Those who are truly called to work with Faery and wish to deepen their connection may find within the contents of these pages a labyrinthine map with many routes. It is not my intention to spoon-feed—rather, I prefer to open the door to an adventure. It is your choice to pass through; indeed, which path will you take? Follow your heart, and your own true path to the hidden realms will reveal itself to you…

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