The Thirteenth Fairy 

Sleeping Beauty - or not. 

In the fairy tale, there is a naming ceremony, and all the fairies are invited, except one. She comes anyway, and instead of giving the princess a blessing she curses her, the curse is that on her 16th birthday she will prick her finger and die. Luckily for all concerned there is one last fairy who has not yet given her blessing, so, although she cannot remove the curse, she can lessen it, and as a result of her work, Sleeping Beauty does not die, she - and all the people in the castle, fall into a deep sleep, which will last for a hundred years.  I'm sure you know the story. 

I feel that at this moment on Earth, certainly in The West, we are all asleep. Or at least most of us are asleep. I believe that there are some of us who, at this moment, have the capacity to embody that last fairy - the one who turned the curse into something altogether less awful. As a society we are sleeping, oblivious to the terrible things that are happening to our Earth. Oblivious of the fact that if we carry on sleeping the world will hold no future for our children.  We - the ones who can embody The Thirteenth Fairy, the ones who are not only awake to what is happening now on this planet, but willing to do something about it - we can, and must ACT. 

I invite you to join me in a weekly magical act. An act where the potent trinity of Breath, Will and Imagination are combined in partnership with the inherent divinity of  Water to create a ceremony (or ritual - call it what you will) to change 'what is'.  When we change 'what is', we will also change 'what could be'.  Ceremony and ritual are ways of being in reciprocity with Life, of 'giving back', by 'feeding' The Divine/The Spirits. Usually it is these very beings that feed us, certainly this is the case with water, so to 'feed' them is right and fair. It is widely acknowledged among the most ancient peoples of the Earth that this  is our job as humans, as children of Earth; to be beautiful, to create beauty, to enact gratitude for the many gifts that we receive, not least the gift of our lives. And that one of the most potent ways to offer this gratitude and beauty back is through song. This song of gratitude, when offered to Water, brings about a healing and cleansing state for both the singer and the sung to. Water has the power to wash away obstacles and blockages, to cleanse and to purify. It is as powerful and destructive as the greatest tsunami, as essential as itself and as healing as rain in the desert. One  small drop (repeatedly) can wear a hole through even the hardest stone. To my way of seeing it is no coincidence that the names of our most ancient Goddesses are the names of our rivers, I feel sure that our most ancient ancestors saw that water quite literally IS life.

I believe that there is a great deal of power in repetition; so the same magical act will be undertaken each week (or daily if you can)  until it is clearly having an effect, and then we will adjust  it, to take the next step. 

I hope you will join me. 

The First Step: Go to Water. Ask The Spirit of Water to please help you, (this is no harder than walking up to a stranger and asking for help. As with the stranger, your encounter will be less strained if you introduce yourself first. Remember that all of life on Earth originally came from water - in many ways she is our most Ancient Mother. ) the answer will certainly be YES, there are seers and visionaries all over the world telling us that water wants to help, can help, is willing and able to help us out of our current predicament. 

Step two; Sing to the water. Sing a song of love, of gratitude, of holiness, a song of whatever comes up for you, it doesn't have to be tuneful or rhyme, it doesn't even need to sound anything like what you usually think of as a song. It just needs to be coming out of your mouth, audibly, and be offered to the water.  Along with love and gratitude sing a song of asking the water to ensure that every drop that flows from where you are on-wards, carries the message to all who engage with it that "Water IS Life"; that caring for and cleaning the water is essential to our survival (not just humans, all of us), and that if we (humans) carry on polluting  water with plastics, agricultural run-off, industrial waste and human effluent we (too many of us, human and otherwise) won't have a future. 

Don't focus on the negative (the fear part, the 'oh no we're all doomed' part), focus instead on the 'Water is life, water is sacred,' and the 'I love water' stories within you. Remember that you and I and much of life is made of water, that we all depend on water, that water is alive, that water is helping, and that water has the power to transmute and change energy - which is what everything is made of.  

When you have finished your song/prayer/conversation, say thank you. 

Repeat. 

And repeat. 

And repeat again. 

Until there is a significant change in the global attitude to water. 

If we do this, that significant change WILL come. 

So may it be.