The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

For those who know me, it doesn’t come as a surprise to to see witches of all shapes and sizes showing up all over my home in October. Let me say this…I Love Halloween!  It is also known as All Hallows Eve, Samhain, Spirit Night, and Hallow E’en, just to name a few. It doesn’t matter what you call it, I still love it, all of it, the customs and traditions, the history, the funky facts, the art. I love it so much that I was married on Samhain.

Now that it is October, I find myself looking for all sorts of Halloween information and I found an excellent site just this morning, it is The Halloween News Network. Much  to my delight, It has links to everything. Of course there are my wonderful artist friends,  Carolee Clark is right there at the top of my favorites. Her paintings are to die (no pun intended!) for. Carolee and other artists attend an event called Ghoultide Gathering, where you can find the most fiendishly clever artwork, all original I might add. Stephanie Rawson, an artist and one of the organizers said the event is billed as the Halloween Artist Spectacular. If you are on Face Book add Carolee as a friend. Pictured is one of Carolee’s creations (I love this box!)

Arial has told me that the faerie realm isn’t without their own version of witches. The difference being that the faerie witches don’t need brooms to fly!

There is one more site that I would love you all to visit, it is “The Fantastical World of Holidays” . I think you will agree that it is a treasure trove of art.

All this month I will be bringing other goodies to you, but right now here are a few rhymes from early nineteenth century Halloween postcards (a special thanks to Silver Ravenwolf for including them in her book, “Halloween”).

~~***~~

Come with me

All Hallow’s night

We’ll frighten everyone in sight

Such pranks, for once

are justified

And fun and frolic amplified

~~***~~

On Hallowe’en the thing

you must do

Is pretend that nothing

can frighten you

An’ if somethin’ scares you

and you must run

Jus’ let on like

it’s Hallowe’en fun.

“I knew you could do it!” Arial whipped around my head, giggling and tweaking my cheeks on each pass. “I knew it, I knew it, well done.”

My head was spinning. Traveling magically though time and space isn’t something that I do everyday, not on my own anyway. “Is it always this way?” Arial stopped buzzing around my head. She tilted her head to one side and stared at me with her huge luminous. ‘Is what always this way?”

I found a flat rock and quickly sat down, holding my head to stop the spinning that threatened to tip me over. “You know, fairy travel. When you pop in and out, do you feel like your being sucked down a worm hole? I felt like I was in one of those spinning tunnels in the fun house. It was more colorful though, like someone had taken all the colors ever imagined and swirled them all together.” I closed my eyes and pressed on the top of my head again.

Arial landed on my left shoulder, took my ear lobe between both of her tiny hands and pinched. “In the beginning there are some side effects.”  I felt a tug on the opposite ear. “There, feel better now?” I sat for a moment, taking stock of my general well being and decided that, everything considered, I was as well as could be expected. I mean, after all, this was nothing compared to my little feline escapade, or getting caught in the middle of the blasts from two fairy wands and ending up in a dark forest. ” Yes, I do believe I am beginning to feel a little more like myself,  thanks.”

The palace doors were thrown wide to the sound of crackling electricity, a flood of orange, red, and yellow faeries poured out of the opening. The winged masses rolled down the steps like a tidal wave and streaked toward us. Within seconds we were surrounded and all I could see were scintillating wings and large gleaming eyes. There was so much electricity around us that my hair was pulled straight out away from my head.

I wish I could describe the feeling that comes over me when I am surrounded by the Fae. It is a warm, comforting feeling, like being snuggled in a fuzzy blanket on a cold winters night, and even though the faeries of each season do things a little differently, they always make me feel as though I have come home.

I noticed that Arial had risen above the crowd of excited faeries and was performing a deep,  respectful, mid-air curtsy. I craned my neck and looked in the direction of the palace doors. Standing on the flag stone steps was Litha, queen of the fire faeries. Her gown was a deep glittering red, it floated around her like a cloud. Her hair looked like a flame, red turning to orange, turning to bright yellow at the tips and her crown was a circle of  flashing lightening bolts. I had only seen her once before, in the elvenwood with Elendain and I had forgotten what a striking presence she commanded.

A silence fell over the crowd of faeries and they parted as she floated toward  toward me. Litha stopped, flashed a bright beautiful smile, then addressed Arial.

“Welcome, daughter of  Orlaith, Queen of the Winter Faeries, come and stand at my right hand.” Arial floated gracefully to the ground, growing in height, and took her place by Litha.

The High Queen of summer is much more proper than the other queens I have met, so when she turned to face me I offered a deep curtsy, following Arial’s example. “Queen Litha, I have come in response to your summons. I hope that I haven’t kept you waiting.”

Her laugh wasn’t high and musical like I would have expected, but low and throaty. Litha’s laugh sounded like the far off rumble of thunder, and her eyes sparkled like diamonds under a bright light.

She took both of my hands in hers. “Daughter of Summer, you who have become a beacon of hope for the world of the Fae. Do not carry the fear of disappointment, but rejoice in the light that you bring to the realm. It is I that have kept you waiting. Waiting far to long since my court arrived, and for that I apologize. I have had urgent matters to attend to. It seems that there are those forces who would take the magic from our world to do evil in yours.”

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

The note simply read: By Order of Queen Litha, your presence is requested at the Royal Court of the Summer Faeries. I found it lying by my pillow this morning, tied with a fiery red ribbon from which dangled a tiny golden crown.

I have been summoned to the palace before, but not quite so formally. Usually Arial dashes up to me, points her wand at my head, and as we dissolve in a cascading shower of sparkles, says something like “We must hurry, the queen has asked to see you.” I have never been left a mysterious note, wondering how I’m supposed to get from the ivy hedge to the palace by myself.

I made my way downstairs, mumbling, “I guess I could look through the opening in the ivy again…” Bill was in the kitchen and turned to greet me with a cup of coffee in his hand.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear what you were saying. Hey, would you like a cup?” He shook an empty mug at me. I pulled out a stool and sat at the counter. “Sure, I’ll take a cup, thanks.” My attention returned to the note in my hand. “I didn’t know I was talking out loud.”

Bill walked over, handed me my coffee, smiled and patted me on the back. “I hate to tell you this, but you talk to yourself a lot. It’s just one of the quirky little things that I love about you.  So, what do you have there?”

He stood patiently waiting. I handed the note to him with a little smirk on my face. “Well, I can show you, but you won’t remember. ” He took the proffered  missive and said, “Hey! give me a little credit, I’m not that old.”  I smiled up at him and let the paper slipped from my fingers, “your memory isn’t the problem hon.”

His eyes widened a little as he read Litha’s command. “Faeries again huh.” I nodded. “Yep. Litha does things differently though. In the past the other queens have either come to me, or Arial took me to them. I don’t know how I am supposed to get there this time.” I waved my hand at the note. “I just have this.”

Arial popped in just as Bill was handing the parchment back to me. “Oh good, you have found Queen Litha’s invitation. It is very important that we do not keep her waiting, come.” I stood and held my arms out. “Would you like me to go in my night gown?

Arial tilted her head to one side and held her wand forward. “No, that would never do, allow me.” With that, she waved her wand and my pj’s were instantly replaced with a long floral skirt and a pale green pleasant blouse. My hair was brushed to a copper sheen and my make-up was expertly applied.

“Wow, I have to get me one of those!” I reached toward Arial as if to take her wand. She glided backward in quick retreat, holding the wand behind her. “Faeries only!”

“Come on Arial, I was only teasing you, don’t be so serious.” I swirled the long skirt around my ankles. ” Not to change the subject, but, before you showed up I was wondering how Litha expected me to get to the palace. I had no idea if you were aware that I had been summoned.” Arial tucked her wand securely under her belt and darted forward. “I can take you, or…” She started drifting casually back and forth. I didn’t like her tone, I have come to be very suspicious of sentences that trail away with “or”, especially when the sentences come from the mouths of magical creatures.

“Or what?” I forgot that Bill was standing  just a few feet away, Arial had my complete attention. He chuckled and shook his head as he walked past me, giving me a look that told me he thought I was talking to myself again. I repeated, “Or what, Arial?” I emphasized Arial’s name so that Bill would realize that I was talking to her, not to myself. Arial buzzed around his head and tweaked his ear for emphasis.

“Ouch! All right, all right! I see her, okay?” He made a face in her general direction, sticking out his tongue and pulling the corners of his eyes up, then disappeared into the library.

Arial flew around to sit on my shoulder. “Or…I could show you how to get there by yourself. Remember the pink stone I gave you? The one with the hole in the center?” I nodded. My hand found the stone that I carried with me, deep in the pocket of my robe. The stone was the only thing I remembered about Midsummer.

Arial continued. “Fix in your mind a clear picture of where you want to go,  hold the stone up to your eye so that you can see through it and say ‘take me to’, then say where you want to go. It is really quite simple. Shall we try?”

I looked at Arial with what could only be described as total abject fear. “I, I, I…don’t think so!” Pushing the stone deep into my pocket, I backed away from the door. Not that getting away from any mortal opening would stop any magical mode of transportation, but I felt better.  “I haven’t even seen the summer palace, I could end up somewhere so totally wrong Arial, totally wrong!”

Arial stood and put her hands on her hips. “Well, if others can manage, I’m sure you can, come on now, try it.” She rustled down into my pocket before I knew what she was doing and came out with the smooth pink stone. My thoughts were on what she had said. “Wait a minute, wait a minute, what do you mean by “others”?

She darted toward my face with the charm held out in front of her. Sliding to a abrupt stop, she pushed the stone up to my eye, winked and said “you don’t think you are the only one do you? Now, think of the meadow and see it in the center of the stone.”

Thoughts of others with faerie blood vaporized and a picture of the grassy meadow and the palace it surrounded rose up from the depth of my memory, and for one shinning moment, I saw it in the center of the stone.

All I did was blink,  it felt like I was being squeezed through a tunnel, then, the memory of the clearing in the center of the stone became a reality. I found myself standing in tall grass that was waving gently in the breeze, the cheerful little stream that cut a path across the meadow from the forest to the palace, wandered back and forth finally ending  in a cool blue pond. I turned to see the magnificent spires of Litha’s summer court rising up before me.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.