Three Twisted Knots

I admit it: I slept in after my night of dancing and (almost) carousing in Lucentia. When I awoke, sometime in the afternoon, I found myself clad completely in flowers, cherry blossoms. What a lovely complement to my planned visit to Serenity.

Serenity is almost a mythological Realm, at least to Fae children in some worlds. I’ve heard some of the stories since starting this year’s Faire adventure, and I’d spent almost a whole day in Serenity, just shopping. But today I wanted to explore more of the sense of the Realm, its interior life, so to speak.

This cherry blossom outfit was crafted by Naminoke, who also created the magical wings. Wing magicians are some of the most fanciful magicians out there: I love to have new wings crafted, and I make sure to find the best ones every year at the Faire.

I began to investigate the buildings, the trees. Serenity, the Realm, lives up to its name. It’s a place I feel I could just be myself. Even flitting around so uncovered and exposed, clad only in the cherry blossoms, I did not feel self-conscious or even really all that connected to my body. No, Serenity is an adventure for the mind and the heart.

There were so many beautiful monuments. This one is so very tall, like a spire into the highest realms of consciousness. I leapt. And then I went off to explore the harbour, which I’d only seen from the steps earlier when I disembarked the ship.

Well, the fact is, I danced my way to the harbour. It’s funny, how such a quiet and spiritual place inspired me to dance. I was almost unaware of my body. I experienced a feeling of detachment, as if I was watching myself from a distance—but at the same time, I was aware of every candle spark, every leaf. I wonder if Serenity itself is a plane of higher consciousness.

After I dove in to the harbour, I flew up and discovered I was surrounded by lily pads! What exhilaration! I felt buoyed by both the water and the blossoms surrounding my body.

Once I found the base of lily pads, it was easy to become one with the water and just dance. In my home Realm, it’s almost possible to forget that my element is Water, living in the sky as I do.

And such a dance! Beginning with discovery and ending with ecstasy, and then a feeling of oneness with the water that I’d not felt in so very long. Around me, the cherry blossoms were droplets of water, droplets of light, little thoughts that floated and flew and became part of the world, as I was part of the world, as water flowed through the world.

Oh, water, heartbeat of the world. I felt like Venus reborn, shell-less and awakened to a world both spatial and sensual. I thanked the goddess for my life, my uncountable blessings, and I realised that although I was completely alone in the harbour, I was surrounded by life on all sides. Life that was part of me, through the water we shared.

Life that was part of me, through the water we shared. Life of the lilies. Life of the fish. Life of the water itself, flowing and flowing always moving and always home.

How far away from my source I have been drifting, I thought. And I promised to spend more time in our cottage, by the water. I shall come out of the sky for a time, leave the bower for a little while, flirt with the mermaids, sing with the water-sprites, share water with my beloved Consort.

So much to think about. In some way, each time I visit the Great Faire, it changes me. And in a voyage as much like coming home as any other, Serenity changed me today.

I rested for a long time, there on the lily pads, and it was as much about my mind as my body.

But I could not stop my mind from wandering back to the water, all the things it fed.

I found myself closing my eyes and dreaming of the water, all around us, in our bloodstreams, in our drinks and sweat and love, and of the trees and grasses, pulling it directly from the source, and of the great tree above the Serenity Harbour.

Serenity seems to be always in a state of dawn or maybe dusk: the pink sky changes only as the clouds course across; it is as if there is no sun to move there. All the sky is quiet but for the clouds.

But I could imagine that tree at night, how the moon would light the leaves.

And I could imagine it in full summer, beneath a perfect picture book sky.

And I could imagine it as it is, pink sky behind and flickering lights below, roots exposed and reaching downward.

Have I grown? Have I changed? There are so many stories of the unchanging Sidhe, our resistance to evolution in every form. But I, raised by mortals in a city full of social climbers and eclectics, want to embrace change. I settled in to the lily pad, became comfortable, flickered my fingers down to touch the closest fish.

What if I am the sea? What if I am the milk that feeds Wylds? What if I am the ever-changing, ever flowing source?

What if we all are?

Then, I rose out of the water and into the air. I was met by a sea of candles, and my thought extended: What if I am the sky? What if we all are the sky?

And up I rose, and I let my body arch back so that I could see the cliff, the tree. And I thought, what if I am the land? What if we all are the land?

Then, just for a moment, I felt so close to a candle I thought it might burn me, but there was no heat from it, though it was alight. We know there are Three Realms: Land, Sea, and Sky. We know there is a creative Initiator, and that is Fire. What if I am also fire? What if I am everything at once?

What if we all are?

Style Card:
Body: Maitreya
Head: Catwa Jessica
Ears: BentBox, Sylvan Ears
Skin: Lumae Eirtae, Tone 1
Hair: Analog Dog (natch), Chi
Clothes and Wings: Naminoke, Sakura Petal (Available at the Fantasy Faire!)
Circlet: Junbug, The Sabrina Circlet
Setting: Serenity, Designed by Kaelis Ember

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never explore the Fairelands without it!