Queen of Swords

For several years now, I've enjoyed the music of Heather Alexander (including having the pleasure of seeing her live at a local Ren Faire), but until today I had not sought out the performances 'she' has done since becoming Alexander James Adams.

This afternoon, however, I finally found myself on his webpage and watched a video of a live performance of "He of the Sidhe", which is a kind of companion piece to Heather's "The Faerie Queen". I enjoyed the performance, and will be obtaining some of his CD's the next time I get paid, but what fascinated me the most was how he talked about Heather as a separate person, a changeling who was summoned back to faeryland.

I also enjoyed his description of her as a red-headed troublemaker, which made me smile and think of a particular friend of mine. I could imagine her brother saying similar things of her.





Like Heather, Alexander is quite a good fiddler -- although I don't think his fast playing has the musicality of the best that I've heard.

It's been quite a while since I've had a spontaneous inner journey, but two nights ago I had an extremely vivid experience.

It started when my attention was caught by the Isis candle holder that sits on my marriage altar. I seldom light those candles anymore, and when I do it's usually in the context of work with LM -- but she was definitely calling to me, so I lit those candles, then lit the other ones as well: candles for Ereshkigal, Freyja and others.

There were now three candles burning on the marriage altar: two with Isis, one with Freyja, and for a while I just looked at the altar, absorbing the light, the significance of the various objects, the energy. . . and suddenly I found myself on my knees thanking the gods for the blessing of LM and his love for me, for our relationship, and for me starting to become all I've yearned to be.

I'd had just a touch too much alcohol earlier, so I wasn't sure how well my hermetic practices were going to go -- but I did know that skipping them wasn't an option. To my surprise, by the time I finished my head felt much more clear. (I wouldn't have tested my sobriety by driving, but I definitely felt more awake and focused.)

All day I'd felt pulled toward the inner -- which had been especially frustrating at work. Now, I moved all the candles to the nonflammable marble surface of the marriage altar, asked my daughter to come in and blow the candles out at bedtime if I fell asleep, and then settled down on the bed to find out who wanted to talk to me, and what about.

( Through the Gate )
Then Isis asked me what I was going to do with all this crackling power -- and I realized that very few situations call for hurling lighting around. Most of the time electricity is most useful when it's a measured current flowing along a specific path. The comparison to my daily hermetic practices was obvious -- but I was also shown myself meeting with clients, people who didn't need to be blasted by "lightning" but met with a different kind of energy. There are time for blasts of lightning, but I am not to scorn the smaller, gentler uses of power.

(Somewhere in the background, a goddess or ally -- Freyja, perhaps? -- smiled slyly and suggested that LM might enjoy playing with the lighting.)

I was still crackling with energy and felt myself sinking down into and through the earth, into the Otherworld, where I shared my excess energy with some of the dwellers there (in accord with Orion Foxwood's teachings about the importance of sharing energy back and forth with faery).

Then Ereshkigal joined me. This is the first time I've encountered Her on a journey outside of Her throne room or her "office." She was dressed in a more elegant style than her usual robes, and she and the fae greeted each other respectfully. She took me for a walk and spoke to me at length, but I was starting to lose parts of myself to dream -- something I was aware of off and on as She spoke with me. I was frustrated by my inability to retain Her words, but She didn't seem bothered.

Suddenly my body felt more solid and my awareness shifted decisively but smoothly out of trance and back to normal awareness.

I still can't remember what Ereshkigal said to me, but my teacher assures me that some part of me did hear and remember, and the knowledge will be there when I need it.