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 Letter From the Editor
Spring 2021
Titania and Bottom by John Anster Fitzgerald. Wikimedia Commons

I
t’s been a challenging year for many of us, to say the least, and with the new year and the
new spring issue, we thought we’d celebrate taking to the forest in true (and socially distanced)
faerie queen style, with moss-soft blankets and glimmering lanterns in tow. And by faerie
queen we mean Titania, Mab, Morgan le Fay, Gloriana, the goddess Diana, and all the rest of those
ultra-magical powerful ladies who exist in folklore, myth, and, possibly, our own lives. At the heart
of our inspiration is that Shakespearean image of the incredibly glamorous Titania, sung to sleep
by faeries, with her hair splayed around her in the moss, lying on that bank “where the wild thyme
blows, / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, / Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
/ With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.” What could be more perfect than that mix of glamour,
enchantment, and the wild forest, with a woman at the center of it who might be asleep now but is
about to wake?
We did an entire A Midsummer Night’s Dream issue in 2015, and now we wanted to honor all those
queens who spread enchantment and generally take no prisoners (at least not too many). Or, as
Veronica Varlow puts it in this month’s column, queens who “stood in their power and saved
themselves.” To that end, we filled this issue with homages to the queens of old as well as ideas for
incorporating some of that faerie queen vibe into your own life, whether through glamping in the
enchanted wood, conjuring floral puddings, handcrafting perfume, performing self-love rituals, or
getting in touch with your inner faerie queen. Of course you can also follow the example of reader
Helly Blossom, who gets into a faerie queen mood by “entering the room with magical forest music
playing in my back pocket, throwing sparkly sequins all over the floor, and then telling my fiancé that
he is a good loyal subject!”

We hope this issue inspires you to not only look to the beauty of the forest and the art and literature
that imagines the enchantresses who live there, but to also look inward and, as Monica Crosson puts it,
see yourself “with fresh eyes as the beautiful warrior queen [or king] you are.”
Love,

Carolyn Turgeon

enchantedlivingmag.com 3
 VOLUME 54 | Spring 2021

FOUNDER and PUBLISHER

Kim Cross
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Carolyn Turgeon
ART DIRECTOR
Lisa Gill
PHOTO EDITOR
Steve Parke
SENIOR EDITOR
Grace Nuth
POETRY EDITOR
Mary McMyne
TRAVEL EDITOR
Jill Gleeson
COPY EDITOR
Robert Horning
ADVERTISING SALES
Sara Vesely
[email protected]

EDITORIAL CONSULTANT
Rona Berg

CONTRIBUTORS
Sara Cleto, Susann Cokal,
Monica Crosson, Theodora Goss,
Katharyn Howd Machan, Alise Marie,
Danielle Prohom Olson, Briana Saussy,
Susan Ilka Tuttle, Kirsty Stonell Walker,
Veronica Varlow, Brittany Warman,
Subscribe, buy back issues, The Wondersmith

sign up for our weekly newsletter, ARTISTS and PHOTOGRAPHERS

Mary Jane Ansell, Elizabeth Elder,
and check out our latest selection Lillian Liu, Joy Marshall,
Rebecca Moss, Ed Org,
of whimsical faerie jewelry S. Blackthorn Riddle, Tricia Saroya,
Marsha Steckling, Charles Vess,
and other sweet little gifts. Guinevere von Sneeden

CONTACT US:
[email protected]
Enchanted Living
P.O. Box 26452
Gwynn Oak, MD 21207

Visit us online at Faerie Magazine/Enchanted Living Copyright ©2021.

No portion of Enchanted Living may be reproduced, duplicated,
or reprinted without prior written permission from the Publisher.

enchantedlivingmag.com ISSN: 1554-9267, recorded with the U.S. Library of Congress.

Enchanted Living is published in the United States of America.
 Table of Contents
Spring 2021

Issue 54 Spring
FICTION, POETRY SPECIAL FEATURES
& ESSAYS 21 INVOCATION TO TITANIA
7 NINE CROWNS FOR FAERIE by Sara Cleto and
QUEENS by Grace Nuth Brittany Warman
Illustration by Guinevere
von Sneeden

36 WHICH FAERIE QUEEN

ARE YOU?
by Theodora Goss
46 FIND YOUR INNER
FAERIE QUEEN 50 THE CURSE, THE CURE,
by The Wondersmith AND THE QUEEN
52 TAM LIN REMEMBERS 72 ED ORG’S ENCHANTED WOMEN by Briana Saussy 8 ON OUR COVER: FAERIE QUEENS
THE FAERIE QUEEN by Jill Gleeson by Carolyn Turgeon
by Theodora Goss Photography by Steve Parke

59 SANS MERCI
by S. Blackthorn Riddle
71 AS BRANCHES BUD
AROUND SMALL NESTS
by Katharyn Howd Machan
54 FAERIES OF THE FOREST
105 ARC WINNER by Carolyn Turgeon
MARY JANE ANSELL Photography by Joy Marshall
60 ONE KNIGHT STAND
by Kirsty Stonell Walker
79 THE QUEEN OF DREAMS
by Monica Crosson
HOME, FASHION
& BEAUTY 22 GLAMOROUS FAERIE QUEEN
28 AT HOME: FAERIE QUEEN 64 ENCHANTED WOODS OF SANCTUARIES Text by Jill Gleeson
DECOR by Rona Berg FOLKLORE AND FABLE by Carolyn Turgeon Styling and photography by Tricia Saroya
Photography by Rebecca Moss
40 TITANIA: AN ALLURING
PERFUME OIL
by Susan Ilka Tuttle 81 SEVEN LIFE LESSONS
FROM FAERIE QUEENS
43 FEATURED FAERIE QUEEN by Susann Cokal
Photography by Lillian Liu
Model Theresa Fractale 92 MORGAN OF THE FAERIES
by Rona Berg
44 TITANIA SLEEPS
by Frank Cadogan Cowper 95 ÉTAÍN: MY PERSONAL
JOURNEY WITH A FORGOTTEN
48 BREWING PERIDOT FAERIE QUEEN
by The Wondersmith by Grace Nuth
86 FAERIE QUEEN BEAUTY
SECRETS by Alise Marie,
The Beauty Witch™ COLUMNS
97 FEATURED FAERIE QUEEN 98 LIFE OF A LOVE WITCH
Photography by
Marsha Steckling
by Veronica Varlow
100 RAIMENT FOR A FAERIE QUEEN
Model Sharron Roads 30 FLORAL MILK PUDDINGS 106 FROM OUR READERS by Carolyn Turgeon
Recipes and photography by Gather Victoria Photography by Elizabeth Elder

enchantedlivingmag.com 5
 CONTRIBUTORS
Enchanted Living’s The Faerie Queen Issue

Theodora Goss Lillian Liu Joy Marshall

Theodora Goss is the author of the Extraordinary Lillian Liu is an award-winning photographer Joy Marshall is a fantasy photographer,
Adventures of the Athena Club fantasy series, and classical pianist who currently resides in writer, and occasional self-portraitist from
starting with The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Vancouver, Canada. She’s a part of the Free Massachusetts. She can often be found curled
Daughter, as well as three collections of short Spirit humanitarian collective in Paris and up with a good book or wandering the forest
fiction and poetry. She teaches writing at Boston travels to create with incredible humans. Her dreaming of new stories. She loves using
University and in the Stonecoast MFA program. work has been featured in Vogue, Marie Claire, color and light to create imagery that wraps
She was born in Hungary and grew up on Penguin Random House, Atlantic Records, the viewer in a story and is inspired by foggy
fairy tales, including stories about the faerie and more. Liu’s goal is to bring characters mornings, classic paintings, folklore, mythology,
queen Tündér Ilona. (Tündér means “faerie” to life—and in Theresa Fractale, pictured on symbolism, and the natural world. For her shoot
in Hungarian.) “The Hungarian fairyland is page 43, she saw ancient magic manifesting in for this issue, “visions of the faerie queen’s
actually in Transylvania,” she says. “It’s the flesh. “The goal of the shoot,” she says, “was to natural habitat flowed after spending some time
land of faeries rather than vampires—and my portray matriarchal power and wisdom with a in New England forests,” she says. “What a
grandmother was born there. Coincidentally, her touch of otherworldly whimsy that can only be delight to envision faeries lounging on moss-
name was Ilona! But I think that if you believe in found within the pages of a book or in-between covered rocks and having the team to bring that
magic, any place can be fairyland.” realms.” magic to life!”

Danielle Prohom Olson Tricia Saroya Marsha Steckling

Danielle Prohom Olson, a.k.a. Gather Victoria, Tricia Saroya calls herself a “creatrix,” an Marsha Steckling is a photographer in Boulder,
weaves together ancestral food wisdom, herbal out-of-the-box artist that imagineers beauty in Colorado, specializing in pet and family
folklore, and goddess mythology while making a multitude of mediums. She loves to weave photography. She has photographed over
a culinary pilgrimage through the seasonal spells of delight and provide a magical mirror 3,300 dogs for her local animal shelter and just
celebrations of the wheel of the year. She’s where the viewer can discover their own divine completed her book, Boulder Dog Tails, about
inspired by the ancient arts of magical cookery creative muse. She’s contributed to multiple them. Steckling also enjoys photographing
and the plants, foods, and dishes at the heart issues of this magazine (including our original abandoned buildings, street scenes, and her
of our most sacred traditions. She invites A Midsummer Night’s Dream issue), as well as to mother Sharron, who is in her 80s (see page
you to join her in reviving “the old ways” of the Faerie Handbook, Mermaid Handbook, and 97). On her mother’s 80th birthday, they
food magic, the art of bringing blessings to Unicorn Handbook. For this issue Saroya created photographed her as the faerie queen, her
ourselves and our communities. In this issue, sumptuous settings to inspire the faerie queen mother’s favorite character from childhood
she explores the food folklore of the great faerie inside each of us. “We are all deserving of a stories. “We had a great time creating this image
queens of English literature. “These ethereal beautiful place where we can remember who together,” Steckling says. “And we were stopped
beings certainly loved their dessert,” she says, we truly are,” she says, “a miraculous being by a little girl who was in awe because she had
“especially anything made with cream!” deserving of love and attention.” just met a real-life faerie queen!”

6 enchantedlivingmag.com
 Nine crowns for

Faerie Queens
by GRACE NUTH
Illustration by GUINEVERE VON SNEEDEN

• Crown of Sisterhood, set with rose quartz with a design of clasped hands on the brow.
This crown is never bought, always given.
• Crown of Righteous Fury, set with bloodstone and carved with depictions of
snarling lions. A faerie queen hopes never to have to wear this crown, but
when protecting innocents or defending justice, it can be invaluable.
• Diadem of Darkest Night, set with moonstone and silver crescent moons. This faerie
queen knows that the only thing anyone should fear in the dark shadows is, perhaps, herself.
• Wreath of Nature, carved by dryads from a fallen branch given by the oldest oak tree
in the wood. The queen who wears this knows that we are one with nature around us
and that its joys and sufferings are ours as well.
• Coronet of Kindness, set in copper with sunstones that glow with an inner fire.
It is fine to be nice, but it is better to be kind.
This faerie queen has an awareness of the difference between the two.
• Laurel of Longevity, set with a large piece of amber, an ancient fern curled
and suspended at its center. This queen not only receives long life but the endurance
to do what she must for as long as she is needed.
• Circlet of Enchantment, set with iridescent labradorite, with a shimmer that can only be
seen from certain angles. This crown allows the wearer to see the magic that flows through all
things. Don’t worry, this faerie queen won’t turn you into a stag. Probably.
• Garland of Growth, made from ever entwining and growing ivy. A faerie queen
should always learn from her mistakes and strive to improve her reign.
• Tiara of Self-Worth, set with aquamarine gems cut in the shapes of hearts.
When this crown is worn, the bearer receives the epiphany that we are all faerie queens,
every one of us who wishes to be so, regardless of birth, gender,
or the judgment of anyone else.
 Text by CaRolyn TuRgeon
Photography by StevE PaRke

e’ve long been fans of the magical in coordinating youth health education and culinary

W illustrations of Arthur Rackham, especially

those from the 1908 edition of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, the faerie play (and faerie queen play)
nutrition programs in Baltimore as well as organizing
lifestyle workshops and Black wellness-focused
initiatives, with a strong emphasis on the magic of
par excellence. Our cover shoot was based on two of food—growing it, cooking it, being nourished by it.
these illustrations—Titania sleeping, which appeared When asked what magical dish she especially loves,
on the frontispiece of the edition, and the dreamy, one fit for a faerie queen, she mentions the West
blurred illustration of “Fair Helena, who more engilds African and Brazilian staple of akara made from
the night / Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light” black-eyed peas fried in palm oil. It’s a beautiful
from later in the play. Helena might not technically dish, she says, one that’s powerful with cultural and
be a faerie queen but was a love-struck Athenian who historical significance. It’s also a ritual food used as an
spent one extremely faerie-struck night in the moonlit offering in Afro-Brazilian spiritual practices. This is
dew-bedazzled enchanted forest with all the nodding what she thinks a faerie queen might eat.
violets and woodbine canopies, so we thought she was Model Emily Merrill has trained as an herbalist and
close enough. Plus she spends the night tending two has loved plants and their magic since she was a child
fae-struck suitors, and what could be more glamorous? visiting her grandparents’ West Virginia farm. How
We attempted to re-create that silvery, dreamy vibe amazing, she says, that little seeds can grow to tall
in the Baltimore woods, with a bit of help from some sunflowers. That plants can communicate with each
pale blooms, both real and less than real, as well as our other, send signals to each other in a language we can’t
two gorgeous models in diaphanous long gowns perfect understand, and that we can so easily grow our own
for woodland frolicking. We loved the idea of two magical, nourishing food. She associates faerie queens
queens, side by side, reveling in the forest and (possibly) with orchids, she says, a feminine plant that shows off
protecting each other from faerie kings, their puckish beauty, love, and fertility.
servants, and maybe an ass or two. Who would have thought that Baltimore was full of
As it happens, both of these queens make strong faerie queens, in love with the alchemy of plants, who
protectresses. Model Nicola Uatuva has a background can find each other in the enchanted wood?

Models: Emily Merrill and Nicola Uatuva

Hair and Makeup: Nikki Verdecchia of NV Salon Collective
Dresses: Edye Sanford Nicola’s hair: Solid Justice
Design consultant: Tricia Saroya
Accessories: Scarves loaned by Joi Brozek and
Jennifer Muck-Dietrich
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
—A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, Scene 1,
where Oberon describes Titania’s bower
 Invocation to Titania
BY SARA CLETO AND BRITTANY WARMAN

W hat does it mean to be a faerie

queen?
this may make her a bit more susceptible
to love potions, but it’s also the source of
falters, we can’t take our eyes off of her.
True-sight. Seeing beauty even in the
There are as many ways to answer her charisma and presence. absurd is perhaps Titania’s greatest
this as there are stories of enchantment, Friendship. Surrounded by ladies-in- power. Her dalliance with the donkey-
stagings of Romeo and Juliet, and dreamers waiting, Titania values the company of headed actor, Nick Bottom, is portrayed
who page through Spenser. her friends and misses the mortal ones as silly, shameful, even out of control ...
But Titania has always been the faerie dreadfully when they die. She remembers But there’s something beautiful and
queen closest to our hearts. them and does her best to honor them freeing about finding love in unexpected
This enchantress has beguiled mortals after they’re gone. places.
and fae alike since Shakespeare dreamed Confidence. There’s no denying Titania is a part of each of us—our
her up in 1595. Since her debut in A that Titania’s marriage to Oberon is most glamorous, passionate, enchanting
Midsummer Night’s Dream, she has lent her tempestuous. But she does not allow him self. Honor her by exuding confidence,
name to one of the moons of Uranus to dominate her. Instead she holds to her remembering to look beyond the surface,
and been depicted in media as diverse purpose and her convictions, even when and always wearing your finest ball
as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and the it leads to fights. She does not hesitate to gowns. Yes, even to the grocery store.
cartoon Gargoyles. She has dominated stand up for what she believes is right.
our collective expression of what it truly Glamour. Watch any good production N
means to be the queen of the faeries, and of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and you Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman are folklorists,
there’s so much to learn from her. just feel Titania’s glamour. She’s arresting, authors, and teachers, as well as co-founders of
Passion. Titania was a Romantic before striking, and unafraid to take center The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the
there were Romantics. Her emotions are stage both literally and figuratively. She Fantastic, which you can read more about at
not something that can be denied. Sure, commands our attention. Even when she carterhaughschool.com.

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 Glamorous Faerie Queen
SaNctuaRies
Text by JILL GLEESON
Styling and photography by TRICIA SAROYA

T
his is where we first meet Shakespeare’s Titania: deep in the ancient forest, lying on her
floral bower of sunny-hued oxlip and nodding violet, surrounded by wild thyme. A mist
creeps beneath the luscious woodbine canopy that arches over her slumbering form. Her
skin glints in the moonlight. Her eyes flit beneath her closed lids. Here and there fireflies dance like
tiny stars, sometimes landing on the luxurious foliage that surrounds and protects the sleeping queen.
Were she to awaken, she’d alight on a downy soft carpet of moss and lichen to address—and
dazzle—her faerie court. Instead she sleeps on, the light breeze bringing with it the scent of the
sweet musk roses and blooming eglantine.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have such a place for ourselves, to retreat to the enchanted (yet ultra-
glam) forest when we need a respite? Luckily, we can create our own faerie hideaways fit for a queen,
no matter where we are—and even indulge in some faerie queen glamping.
Artist Tricia Saroya is an expert at creating magical spaces on the fly (and has done so for several
previous issues of Enchanted Living, as well as for the Faerie Handbook, Mermaid Handbook, and Unicorn
Handbook, not to mention countless fairy-tale weddings). She created the two ideas you see here
as some Titania-esque inspiration, but you can use your imagination to craft your own faerie
queen vibe.
First, if you have some space in your backyard or even a corner of your city apartment, you can
conjure your own royal haven. The look and ___location are entirely up to you.
“My entire home is like the vignettes that I create,” Saroya says. “I choose to be surrounded, as
much as is humanly possible, by all things that bring me inspiration. I’m about the polar opposite
of Marie Kondo. For me, more is better. I have beautiful rugs and textiles and stacks of books and
mystical things around me. I encourage people to do whatever it is that helps them step into that
place of magical possibilities. Because that’s them, that’s their soul, that’s who they really are.”
 A faerie queen who finds inspiration in Saroya’s lush, lavish twinkle lights and gauzy fabric—in a corner of your house, in
imagery might begin building an alfresco boudoir by searching your boudoir, even in your bathroom. Light candles. Bring the
out a piece of furniture that practically demands a lazy natural world indoors with plants like climbing ivy. Let your
afternoon of luxuriating. Explore swap meets and estate sales imagination run wild as you design your queenly escape.
for some kind of outdoor chaise lounge or perhaps a fat, pillowy If you prefer your faerie glamour on the move, pack up some
wicker chair and footstool—anything that allows you to sink mosquito netting; a small, simple carpet or woven mat (rattan
within its environs and deeply relax. works well); and a few pillows and head out to a local park or
Then add layer upon layer of gauzy textiles, which can public forest. Drape the netting over a tree, scatter the pillows
be as straightforward as mosquito netting or scrim—a sheer, over the carpet, and recline, gazing at the sky as you allow your
inexpensive cotton material easily found online. If you have a thoughts to ramble in any direction they choose.
tent-type frame, festoon the fabric around and over it. Lacking That’s what Grace Nuth, Enchanted Living’s senior editor, does
that, you can staple fabric to the top of your backyard fence or when planning her ideal retreat. In her mind’s eye she sees it on
wall, pulling it out and away from the structure and fixing it to a friend’s property, which abuts the Olentangy River in Ohio.
the ground with a post. She imagines a bell tent painted in symbols and shapes sacred
The main thing, Saroya says, is to drape material everywhere to her, like foxes and hares. Celtic knots, too. Outside the tent
“so you have these rich, luxurious folds of fabric that just is a dusky, muted gray, but inside? She envisions layers of velvet
puddle on the ground. And then repeat that kind of feeling on blankets and pillows heaped upon an air mattress, with rugs
the chaise lounge or whatever you’re working with—layers of scattered beneath—all of it, every bit, in rich, vibrant hues.
fabric. Then you can find inexpensive carpets on Craigslist or “I think it would be wonderful,” Nuth says, “if the outside
in thrift stores. I put a little piece of plastic down on the ground would blend in with nature and then you open up the tent
and place the carpet on top of it.” Equally important are the doors and inside you see a jewel box of deep reds and greens
twinkle lights, of course, modern-day will-o’-the-wisps. “They’re and purples, very sumptuous, medieval colors. And obviously
magical. They take us back to being a kid, to Christmas trees, you want some twinkle lights, but I also think twining vine
to Disneyland, to faerie lights. The first time I ever saw fireflies I would be beautiful around some of the tent poles. And I’d
just about lost my mind!” Saroya says. probably have a couple of wooden, X-frame, medieval-style
You might even create an indoor sanctuary decorated with folding chairs too.”

24 enchantedlivingmag.com
 Elaborate or simple, indoors or out, crafting your faerie queen Himalayan salt balls, when warmed in a campfire, can be rolled
abode is about “being intentional about creating a magical underfoot, a treat for aching hiker’s feet. Or simply dip your toes
space,” Saroya says. “It’s being conscious about creating a space into a nearby creek for a cooling, soothing respite.
that you physically step into, so that in your awareness you take As you dress your queenly chamber, don’t forget to pay equal
a deep breath and settle in and daydream or do something that heed to how you dress yourself. This is not a place for binding
brings you joy—just taking a moment to connect in with your blue jeans or scratchy sweaters, says Enchanted Living editorial
soul.” consultant Rona Berg. “I would envision myself in a very soft,
What you do within your enchanted empire, even if nothing flowy, organic cotton nightshirt or something like that. Some
at all, is as important as the look of it. Sip tea from a lovely set gorgeous fabric that is going to drape beautifully and just
like the one in Saroya’s photographs. Write letters in longhand give me texture. You want to bring a very soft throw, maybe
to your loves. Bring faerie queen friends along, creating an entire something that is warm like an angora, or velvet. In the spring,
encampment, and tell tall tales into the night. Sing songs to maybe an organic cotton. Things that you can really wrap
the forest and each other, or simply listen to nature’s music, the yourself in and hug and cuddle yourself.”
sound of the trees as they sway in the breeze, an owl’s hoot, the Suitably adorned, tucked within the place you dreamed of,
soft padding of a night creature as it passes by just out of reach it’s time to finally and simply stop. “There’s nothing wrong with
of the campfire’s glow. Drink elderflower wine; eat small, sweet taking a moment in quiet reflection or to enjoy something,”
desserts and allow the crumbs to fall to your feet, feeding the Saroya says. “It invites a sense of calm and peace inside and
forest floor. lightens up the stress levels. It brings down your cortisols and
Lisa Gill, Enchanted Living’s art director, says she would bring allows you to breathe deeply. It gives you an opportunity to
beautifully illustrated fairy-tale books to her special space and connect with your intentions, with your intuitions, with a deeper
read them quietly to herself. “Another thing I would take,” she knowing inside yourself.”
says, “would be some seed or nuts for the squirrels and the birds. It’s in doing this, Saroya continues, that you start noticing the
And if I were lucky, I’d see a deer or something else—raccoons world around you, in all its specific beauty, and “that’s when you
or a little fox, who knows? I like to just observe and not disturb see magic. If you don’t slow down and take the time to notice
wildlife, so I would just be as quiet as possible out there in my magic, you’ll never see it. It’s there with you, all the time around
beautiful little bed with my velvet pillows, hoping to invite some you. If you want to call it faeries, God, spirit—whatever! It
magic into that scenario.” wants to play with you! This world is delightful and beautiful,
You might also consider a few precious moments of and we’re so busy running that we don’t stop to look and take it
meditation. Bring some essential oils with you, natural scents in. Creating an intentional place to do this as often as you can,
like lavender or geranium, peppermint or cinnamon, to aid to me, is just as important as exercise or brushing my teeth. It’s
in relaxation and help keep the biting insects at bay. Mist the essential for a life that’s full of love and a life well lived.”
air, or spray the oils into a silk handkerchief and inhale deeply. I

enchantedlivingmag.com 25
 f
Before creating your faerie queen hideaway in
a public space, please check regulations regarding
camping, the use of fire, alcohol, etc. Even queens
have to follow a few rules.
Don’t feel quite ready to create your own faerie
queen boudoir? There are a host of luxe camping
rentals that have done it for you.
Sandy Pines Campground
Tucked away in the chic coastal enclave of
Kennebunkport, Maine, Sandy Pines lies within a
sheltered beach forest boasting stunning sea views and
refreshing ocean breezes. Quarters include large wood-
framed glamping tents for couples and families complete
with air conditioning, lighting, fire pits, and linens. Open
mid-May through Mid-October. sandypinescamping.com

Collective Yellowstone
Glamping takes on a new meaning at this tony retreat
in Big Sky, Montana. Located in the backcountry of the
poetically named Moonlight Basin, Collective Yellowstone
offers lush amenities—including 1,500 thread-count
linens, down comforters, and designer-curated blankets
as well as private, en suite bathrooms with rain-style
showers, full flush toilets, and hot running water. In-tent
massages are also available.
collectiveretreats.com/retreat/collective-yellowstone

Dunton River Camp

This former cattle ranch in southwest Colorado offers
posh safari-style tents set mere feet from the banks of the
Dolores River. Goodies include an en suite bathroom with
a six-foot soaker tub, double vanities, and towel warmers.
Each tent comes with two mountain bikes with which to
explore the camp’s 500 acres of untrammeled meadow
and forest. duntondestinations.com/river-camp

Little Raccoon Key, Georgia

Perfect for anyone who has ever dreamed of getting
away to their own private island, Little Raccoon Key is
home to a single glamping tent on an ancient bivalve
reef off the coast of Georgia. Accommodations consist
of a 26-by-15-foot solar-powered canvas tent heated by
a wood-burning stove and featuring a memory-foam
mattress. Be sure to keep an eye out for pods of dolphins
on the boat ride to the island and back. littleraccoonkey.com

Sinya on Lone Man Creek

Perched in the heart of Texas Hill Country, Sinya on
Lone Man Creek offers a massive, safari-style tent for two.
Look for one-of-a-kind comforts like a century-old claw-
foot tub and hand-sanded pine floors, along with Turkish
cotton towels and a king-size bed lined with a goose-down
comforter and pillows. Don’t miss the spectacular hot tub
on the back deck. hillcountrysinya.com

Follow Jill Gleeson at gleesonreboots.com.

See Tricia Saroya’s creative projects at triciasaroya.com.
 At Home: Faerie QueeN DecoR
by Rona Berg

Photography by TRICIA SAROYA

itting out a faerie

K queen hideaway
demands a high
level of taste, and an eye
for enchanting objets d’art
that befit an ethereal royal.
No minimalism here: The
faerie queen abode, indoor
and out, is inspired by the
natural (and supernatural)
world and incorporates lush
elements from the forest
along with other motifs from
nature. Creating a faerie
queen environment doesn’t
have to break the bank. If you
are patient, you can unearth
inspiring finds at thrift shops,
garage sales, and estate sales.

BURNING BRIGHT LUSCIOUS LINENS

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a warm glow over any tabletop. You can also see them in the The Lindley Round Cotton Pillow Cover and Insert is a tufted
tableaux Tricia Saroya created for “Glamorous Faerie Queen floor cushion perfect for reading in front of the fire, a meditation
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Our Magic Rainbow Firesticks come in a bundle of three and
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transforms into a lovely blaze of color! enchantedlivingmag.com Follow Rona Berg on Instagram @ronaberg.

28 enchantedlivingmag.com
Floral Milk Puddings
CuliNary Magic
Fit for
A Faerie QueeN
p

RECIPES AND PHOTOGRAPHY

BY DANIELLE PROHOM OLSON
(A.K.A. GATHER VICTORIA)
Floral Milk Puddings
Gather Victoria

t’s a well understood fact of folklore that woe befalls Diana also makes an appearance in Edmund Spenser’s

I those who neglect to offer the fae folk their just

desserts—hence these old-fashioned creamy puddings.
Inspired by blancmange and flummery, two popular “milk
The Faerie Queene (1590). This poem blooms with flora, fauna,
gardens, and images of the natural world, leading many to
suggest his faerie queen is none other than “Dame Nature’’
jellies” of the Tudor and Elizabethan Ages, they are perfumed, herself. In her garden she beautifies herself with “all the weeds
colored, and adorned with flowers—most suitable offerings for that bloom and blossom there ...” She “bath’d with Roses red,
the great faerie queens of English literature and folklore. and Violets blue, / And all the sweetest Flowers that in the
Queen Mab’s fondness for dairy is well attested to. In Forest grew.”
Entertainment at Althorpe (1603) Ben Jonson describes her as Like any queen of nature, Queen Titania rules over the
gathering with her elves “about the Cream-bowls sweet.” John seasons that clearly follow her moods. In A Midsummer’s Night
Milton in “L’Allegro” (1645) writes that the “Faery Mistress Dream, her quarrel with King Oberon disrupts the coming of
Mab” favored junkets (a mixture of cream, curds, and honey). spring and the growing crops. She tartly reminds him, “I am a
Lady Margaret Newcastle’s book of poems The Pastime, and spirit of no common rate. / The summer still doth tend upon my
Recreation of the Queen of Fairies in Fairy-land (1653) tells us that state.” Shakespeare’s lines warn us of the perils that can befall us
Queen Mab’s faeries prepared her puddings and custards. if the queen of the faeries is not given her proper respect.
Queen Mab’s predilection for all things sweet and creamy So lest we risk the fertility of the coming spring, I think an
isn’t surprising considering the fae folks’ renowned obsession old-fashioned milk pudding is called for. And befitting the faerie
with milk. According to Robert Kirk in The Secret Commonwealth queen, it is infused and adorned with the spring flowers of
of Elves, Fauns and Fairies (1691), they were notorious for stealing folklore. Nodding patches of wild violets were once considered
dairy products. Three centuries later, in his classic book favored faerie haunts, primroses were called faerie cups, pansies
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (1911), Walter Evans-Wentz were ingredients in faerie love potions, and tulips were used as
documented the ongoing Irish custom of offering milk to the faerie cradles.
faeries each night at faerie mounds, knolls, and trees. It was Not quite a blancmange or a flummery, this dessert is a simple
well understood that if you wanted your cows to give milk, the and easy fusion of both. By the 17th century, both desserts were
faeries must be granted their tithe. Failure to do so could even set in decorative molds and usually made with a base of milk
result in the cow itself being “taken.”Queen Mab is believed to or cream mixed with gelatin or isinglass (sea moss). Often they
be inspired by the tales of mythical Irish Queen Medb, Maeve, were flavored with rose water or other floral water, liqueurs, and
Maev, Mave, or Maiv, names which suggest she was originally wine, and traditionally spiced with nutmeg.
an earth or “sovereignty” goddess who held a great deal of Blancmanges were often colored: pomegranate juice or berry
influence over the fertility of the land, crops, and animals— juice for pink and violet, saffron or turmeric for golden yellow,
especially the dairy. Medb is said to descend from the original and varied herbs for green. These dishes were intended to
faerie folk of Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Danann (the people entertain and delight through a fanciful appearance; many were
whose mother is Dana). Some scholars speculate that it is the served as centerpieces at grand feasts and molded in the shapes
goddess Dana who survives in myth and legend as the queen of fruits, flowers, and even astrological figures.
of the faeries. These kinds of jellied desserts fell out of vogue by the 20th
Shakespeare’s famed Queen Titania from A Midsummer’s Night century. There was a brief resurgence in the 1950s with Jell-O,
Dream (1596) is also believed to have roots in the ancient world but for the most part we no longer include milk jellies in our
and faerie folklore. Shakespeare is said to have taken the name dessert repertoire. While we would be hard-pressed to consider
Titania from the Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C. to A.D. 18); Titania them a health food today, they were once regarded as deeply
was Ovid’s collective name for the daughters of the Titans, restorative, healing and medicinal foods used for everything
a godlike race who ruled the earth in the beginning. Ovid from feeding the ill, treating kidney problems, and easing
specifically equates her with the Roman Diana, a goddess of typhoid. I’m not promising these fae puddings will do anything
nature and woodlands whose worship was linked to holy groves like that, but I’m betting they will curry a faerie queen’s favor.
and springs. During Shakespeare’s era, one of Diana’s popular To be on the safe side, I made several versions. One I flavored
epithets was Lady of the Faeries or Queen of the Faeries—and with violet liqueur, one with rose water, one with blueberry
she was commonly offered bowls of milk on her holy days. syrup, and one with lemon (which I colored golden with just a
Like Diana who lives in wild or wooded places, Shakespeare’s wee touch of turmeric). The process of making these floral milk
Queen Titania inhabits forest groves and waterways where the puddings is essentially the same, only varying with the addition
wild thyme blows, where oxlips grow and violets nod their heads. of flavors, the amount of gelatin, and the choice of coloring.
Titania sleeps in a riverbank, canopied with luscious honeysuckle The result is both creamy and slightly wobbly, a cross between
interspersed with sweet-smelling ramblers and wild roses. Jell-O and pudding and very delicious.

32 enchantedlivingmag.com
GOLDEN LEMON FAERIE PUDDING

VIOLET MOLDED FAERIE DESSERT

Floral Milk Puddings
Gather Victoria

According to folklore, faeries love to hear the tinkling of bells, so much so that they
can be conjured by a single one ringing. So go ahead, invite the fae into your kitchen—
with these puddings they’ll be sure to send some magical faerie dust your way!

Molded Faerie Dessert

(scented with violet or rose)

3 cups whole milk (or half and half cream) 1 cup sugar
½ cup heavy cream 3 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
¼ cup violet liqueur or violet syrup (or 2 tablespoons of rose water)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
A few drops of violet or red food coloring (optional)

In a medium saucepan, combine cream and 1 cup milk. Sprinkle gelatin over
top. Let stand until softened, about 5 minutes.
Gently heat gelatin, milk, and cream mixture over medium-low heat, stirring
occasionally until gelatin is dissolved, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile fill a decorative mold (4-to-4½-cup or two 2-to-2½-cup molds)
with ice water. Let sit to chill.
Remove the gelatin and milk mixture from heat. Pour into a large bowl and
add the remaining milk, then stir in your violet syrup or Violette liqueur. Add a
touch of food coloring if you wish.
Empty the ice water from your mold but do not dry it. (This makes the
pudding easier to unmold later). Pour your mixture into your mold. Refrigerate
until firm, about 6 hours or overnight.

Golden Lemon Faerie Pudding

2 cups whole milk (or half and half cream) 1 cup sugar
1½ cups heavy cream 2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons grated lemon rind 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 teaspoon (approximately) of turmeric Dash of ground nutmeg

In a medium saucepan, combine cream and 1 cup milk. Sprinkle gelatin over
top; let stand until softened, 5 minutes.
Heat milk and cream mixture over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally
until gelatin is dissolved, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, fill a 4-to-4½-cup mold or two 2-to-2½-cup molds with ice
water. Let sit to chill.
Remove milk, cream, and gelatin mixture from heat and place in a large
bowl. Stir in remaining cups of milk, lemon rind and juice, and turmeric.
Remove the ice water from the mold but do not dry it. Pour your mixture into
your mold. Refrigerate until firm, about 6 hours or overnight.
To unmold, quickly dip mold into a hot-water bath to loosen pudding from
mold. Place a serving platter over mold and quickly invert. Jiggle to loosen;
remove mold. Sprinkle with ground nutmeg to serve.

Follow Danielle Prohom Olson (a.k.a. Gather Victoria) on her blog at gathervictoria.com.
FLORAL FAERIE PUDDINGS
 WHICH

Faerie Queen
ARE YOU?
BY THEODORA GOSS

Titania sleeping in the moonlight protected by her fairies, by John Simmons

 hen Thomas the Rhymer sees the Queen of Elfland and his queen are reconciled at the end of the play when she

W riding past the Eildon tree, he hails her as “Mary,

Queen of Heaven! / For thy peer on earth I never did
see.” You can see why he is awestruck by her beauty:
agrees to give him a changeling boy in her retinue to be his
knight, but personally, I don’t think their détente will last for
long. If you’re a Titania, own your opinions and your style—be
Her skirt was o’ the grass-green silk, as flamboyant as you want to be. After all, you’re a queen.
Her mantle o’ the velvet fyne;
At ilka tett o’ her horse’s mane QUEEN MAB
Hung fifty siller bells and nine. In Mab, Shakespeare gives us a very different kind of faerie
He lives with her for seven years in fairyland and gains the queen. She is described by Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet as tiny
ability to speak only the truth, which means to prophesy— and tricksy: “She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes / In
sometimes the faeries give such gifts. shape no bigger than an agate-stone / On the fore-finger of
But Tam Lin, who is whisked away by the “Queen o’ Fairies” an alderman.” Her chariot is made from a hazelnut shell, and
to “yon green hill” after he falls from his horse while hunting, she drives it while we are asleep, giving us our nightly dreams.
begs Fair Janet to save him, for he is about to become a human Lovers dream of love, lawyers dream of their fees, soldiers
sacrifice: dream of cutting their enemies’ throats. As she passes, she “plaits
And pleasant is the fairy land the manes of horses in the night, / And bakes the elflocks in
For those that in it dwell, foul sluttish hairs, / Which once untangled, much misfortune
But ay at end of seven years bodes.” She seems to have ridden through our literature as well,
They pay a teind to hell; appearing in places as different as Susanna Clarke’s short-story
I am sae fair and fu’ o’ flesh collection The Ladies of Grade Adieu and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman
I’m fear’d ’twill be mysell. graphic novels.
When the queen finds out that Janet has stolen Tam Lin away Mab is a beautiful little trickster, and perhaps you are too. If
from her, she wishes that she had taken out his heart of flesh and you like to think up practical jokes, if you can’t help being a bit
put in one of stone, taken his bonny gray eyes and substituted wry and sarcastic, if you have a slightly wicked sense of humor,
wood. you may well be a Mab. Of all the faerie queens, she is perhaps
Who is this mysterious faerie queen, who both gives gifts and the most gamine. I imagine her with a cute bob, a sly smile, and
demands such fearful loyalty? Perhaps she is not one woman at an “I dare you” expression under an outrageous hat. If you’re a
all, and there are as many faerie queens are there are fairylands. Mab, harness your hazelnut carriage and go riding—remember
It certainly seems so from literature. Shakespeare himself has that you are the creator of dreams.
given us two very different faerie queens in Mab and Titania.
Let’s explore some of these literary faerie queens, all QUEEN NIAMH
fascinating in their different ways. And ask yourself, which do From Shakespeare, we go back in time to the origin of faerie
you resemble? If you were a queen of Elfland, what would you queens in Irish mythology. The story of Niamh, also known
be like? as Niamh Cinn Óir or Niamh of the Golden Hair, is told in a
poem by the Irish poet Mícheál Coimín. She was a daughter of
QUEEN TITANIA the king of Tir na nÓg, the Land of Youth—sometimes it is said
We could start by asking, how tempestuous are you? Titania that her father was the sea god Manannán mac Lir. One day,
is tempestuous indeed, and her consort Oberon plays a cruel she rode her horse over the sea to Ireland, where she met the
trick on her in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream when warrior poet Oisín, son of Fionn Mac Cumhail. He fell in love
he makes her fall in love with weaver and wannabe actor Nick with her and followed her back to Tir na nÓg, living there with
Bottom, who’s been given the head of a donkey by that trickster, her for three hundred years before he began to get homesick for
Puck. Oberon’s first words to her, “Ill met by moonlight, proud his own country. She told him that he could return to Ireland
Titania,” announce his displeasure and tell us a little about her as long as he never dismounted from his horse. But when he
temperament. But she responds that he’s simply jealous, and saw several men trying to move a stone that he knew his great
she may be right—Titania is, after all, a glamorous beauty with strength could easily lift, Oisín had to help. Unfortunately, as he
definite opinions of her own, an equal ruler of fairyland who leaned down to lift the stone, his horse’s saddle girth broke and
does not hesitate to challenge the faerie king.. he fell to the ground. Instantly, he turned into an old man, and
If you know what you want and are outspoken about it, if he never saw Niamh again.
you aren’t afraid to stand up for your beliefs, if you stride or W.B. Yeats retells the story of Niamh in his epic poem The
fly through the world as though you know where you’re going, Wanderings of Oisin and mentions her in “The Hosting of the
you may be a Titania (perhaps with flaming red hair or another Sidhe” as part of a faerie band that will take you away from
signature attribute that separates you from the crowd). Oberon the ordinary world: If you listen closely, you can hear “Niamh

enchantedlivingmag.com 37
calling Away, come away: / Empty your heart of its mortal
dream.” But perhaps the best description of Niamh is found in
Ethna Carbery’s poem of the same name:
Oh, who is she, and what is she?
A beauty born eternally
Of shimmering moonshine, sunset flame,
And rose-red heart of dawn;
None knows the secret ways she came—
Whither she journeys on.
Niamh is the most otherworldly of the faerie queens. Whatever
the color of your hair, if you look as though you came from
somewhere else and are never quite here—if you are just a bit
ethereal (maybe even absentminded), you may be a Niamh. I
imagine her as the sort of person who knows that her home
is elsewhere, who hears faerie bells in the distance or dances to
the music of an invisible orchestra—perhaps the Sidhe as they
pass by.

QUEEN MORGAN
Morgan le Fay is the goth girl of faerie queens. In early
versions of the Arthurian legends, such as the Vita Merlini by
Geoffrey of Monmouth, she is described as a healer who lives
on the Island of Avalon. When King Arthur is wounded by
Mordred in the Battle of Camlann, she accepts him as her
patient. Only later does she become an important antagonist
for the knights of the Round Table, taking on a darker role as
a sorceress and Arthur’s half-sister. By the time Sir Thomas
Malory wrote Le Morte d’Arthur, Morgan had become wholly
evil, a practitioner of necromancy and other dark arts bent on
destroying the goodness and purity of Camelot. However, she
still retained traces of her former identity—she is mentioned as
one of the grieving queens who comes in a funeral boat to carry
the wounded Arthur to Avalon. Companions to the Moon, 2004, by Charles Vess
Of all the faerie queens, Morgan has appeared most often
in modern literature, including T.H. White’s The Once and
Future King, where the young Wart (who will someday become pentacles, flowing black dresses and raven tresses, or the poetry
Arthur) must enter her castle to rescue his companions. This of Edgar Allan Poe, you may be a Morgan. If so, enjoy your
Morgan le Fay is presented humorously, in a faerie castle made darkness. As the poet Goethe pointed out, it is the birthplace of
of food meant to tempt Wart, but she is nevertheless a force light, and if Morgan is a necromancer, she is also the healing
to be reckoned with. When Wart confronts her with iron, she priestess of Avalon.
orders her pet griffin to attack him. Later in the book, she is
described as one of three beautiful sisters, daughters of the Earl QUEEN GALADRIEL
of Cornwall, who are all witches. The knights of the Round Galadriel is the epitome of what we might now consider a
Table must deal with the machinations of both Morgan and faerie queen: beautiful, noble, wise, and gracious. In J.R.R.
her sister Morgause, the mother of Arthur’s heir and usurper Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, she is the ruler, with her husband
Mordred. With this tangled history, it’s no wonder that modern Celeborn, of the sunlit Forest of Lothlórien. In contrast with
writers have presented her as a seductive, dangerous woman. In the proud, temperamental Titania, the trickster Mab, and
the Marvel universe, she has even become a supervillainess who the darker aspects of Morgan le Fay, she represents Tolkien’s
fights with Dr. Doom against Iron Man. attempt to return to an older, more noble conception of the
Morgan may also be one of the oldest faerie queens. She faerie queen. She resembles the Irish Tuatha Dé Danann, who
has been connected with the shape-shifting Morrígan, an Irish are gods turned faeries, like Niamh. However, while Niamh lives
goddess of war and fate who can also appear as three sisters. If in a magical land across the sea, Galadriel lives in our world and
you would choose bat wings over those of a butterfly, if you are participates in the attempt to save it. In The Fellowship of the Ring,
drawn to twilight rather than morning, if you like candles and she gives Frodo and his companions food and a safe place to rest

38 enchantedlivingmag.com
on their perilous journey. When he offers her the One Ring, she superpower is, in the end, knowing her own limitations. That is a
is briefly tempted, but her goodness is stronger than her desire faerie quality we can all relate to.
for power—she knows the ring would corrupt her. Like the more
positive aspect of Morgan, she is a healer who helps Gandalf Most of the faerie queens we find in old ballads and stories
when he has been wounded. have no names—at least none that we know of. They are
The experience of meeting such a faerie queen is described the queens of magical countries, whether inside hills, under
in Tolkien’s short story “Smith of Wootton Major,” where lakes, or right around the corner. Some are kind, helping
Smith, who has been granted the ability to travel in fairyland, unfortunate goose girls and rewarding brave knights. Some are
finally meets its ruler: “There he was brought before the Queen unpredictable, a few downright wicked. But like Titania, Mab,
herself. She wore no crown and had no throne. She stood there Niamh, Morgan, and Galadriel, they are all different—there
in her majesty and her glory, and all about her was a great host are as many faerie queens as there are fairylands, and those are
shimmering and glittering like the stars above; but she was innumerable.
taller than the points of their great spears, and upon her head To the extent such lands exist in the imagination, every
there burned a white flame.” woman is the queen of a magical country that she can visit by
This is a glorious vision worthy of Galadriel. You would have closing her eyes and dreaming, as though Mab had dusted her
to be quite a splendid person to be this faerie queen! But after eyelids with faerie dust.
the Lady of Lothlórien refuses to be tempted by the One Ring,
Frodo sees her simply as an elf-woman in a white dress, with a
N
sad, gentle voice, who has renounced ultimate power. Galadriel’s Follow Theodora Goss on Instagram @theodoragoss.

enchantedlivingmag.com 39
 Titania
AN ALLURING PERFUME OIL
c
BY SUSAN ILKA TUTTLE
(A.K.A. WHISPER IN THE WOOD)
 Her angel's face,
As the great eye of heaven, shined bright,
And made sunshine in the shady place;
Did never mortal eye behold such heavenly grace.
—fromThe Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spencer

he faerie queen’s origins can be are intimately linked to the natural Not only will the accord of these
traced to tales that run through world. She affects the weather and has delicious aromas blended together
Irish and British folklore. sway over the seasons, which reflect transport you to the land of the fae;
This bedazzling creature rules over the her every emotion and move. Titania’s the oils used will impart their inherent
fae entities that reside in the woodland energy is independent, strong-willed, magical properties to the wearer of the
realm, among delicate, fragrant determined, free-spirited, sassy, feminist, scent …
blooms in gardens and meadows, and and feisty. While she is a gracious and • Cedarwood: healing, abundance, wisdom,
in countless other resplendent places compassionate being, Titania can be cleansing negative energies
of natural beauty. Those intrigued wild, impatient, and surprisingly fierce • Amber: a balm for the nerves and the
and enchanted by these otherworldly due to her fae nature. As the most spirit; a magnet for good luck; for
beings—and especially those who are powerful spirit of the faerie realm, she is harmonizing, soothing fears, and
also lovers of art, literature, and classical arguably a beguiling sorceress—a force converting negative energy to positive
music—will recognize Shakespeare’s to be reckoned with in the world of • Vanilla: inner peace and calm, love,
Titania from A Midsummer Night’s Dream magic. happiness, luck
as an embodiment of the archetype The art of perfumery is a passion • Balsam Fir: provides strength, cleanses
of the faerie queen. Titania inspired of mine and a medium through which negativity, and fosters a powerful
future incarnations of the queen of the I like to capture, honor, and celebrate connection to the natural world
fae, most notably Edmund Spenser’s facets of life, experience, love, art, • Blackberry: healing, money, protection,
1590 epic poem The Faerie Queene, which nature, and spirit. One such perfume oil and it makes a wonderful offering for
presents her as Gloriana, a descendant I have created especially for Enchanted the fae
of Titania. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Living readers is called Titania: a hand- This perfume oil blend consists of
poem “The Lady of Shalott” (1842) crafted fragrance that embodies the high-quality, therapeutic-grade essential
drew inspiration in part from Spenser’s allure of the faerie queen and the oils, blackberry fragrance oil made
poem, which in turn inspired John mystical, captivating, and magical for crafting perfumes, and two carrier
William Waterhouse’s exquisite painting world of the fae. The initial impression oils—fractionated coconut oil and jojoba
The Lady of Shalott (1888). The faerie imparted by the perfume’s top note oil (actually a wax ester), both of which
queen is brought to life in the form of swirls with fruity blackberry while the absorb quickly into the skin, leaving it
mellifluous music by Baroque composer heart of the blend swells with a fresh velvety soft and without a greasy film.
Henry Purcell in his opera The Fairy and woodsy balsam fir, reminiscent of I recommend making 10 millimeters
Queen (1692), an adaptation of A the deep forest where the fae reside. of the perfume oil, which can be easily
Midsummer Night’s Dream. The queen of These facets of the fragrance dance with and conveniently crafted in a glass roller
the fae has made further appearances in base notes of earthy cedarwood, musky bottle. For everyday safe use, combine
visual art throughout the ages, notably and honey-like amber, and sweet, warm 10 to 12 drops of essential oil with your
in Henry Fuseli’s Prince Arthur and the vanilla. These deeper, rich scents will carrier oils in the vessel. You might wish
Fairy Queen (c. 1877) and the neoclassical be fully enjoyed during the dry-down to use a more decadent type of bottle to
work Midsummer Eve by Edward Robert period of the scent, when the heart and hold your creation. I enjoy placing my
Hughes (1908). lighter top notes will have softened and hand-crafted scents in vintage French
Titania and all her manifestations then vanished. perfume bottles.

enchantedlivingmag.com 41
Titania Perfume Oil
Susan Ilka Tuttle

I invite you to create an entire sensual Purcell’s opera The Fairy Queen softly in These woodland sprites may even decide
experience for yourself when crafting this the background. Or gather your supplies to infuse some of their magic into the
perfume oil. Enjoy the ritual of making and wander into the forest, garden, or perfume. Be sure to leave an offering
the fragrance slowly and with intention, nearby park. Find a private spot where for them to show your appreciation and
and in doing so you will infuse your own you can create your perfume blend thanks—perhaps anoint a crystal with
spirit into the potion, making it that much among the sounds, scents, and sensations your fae-inspired perfume to give them
more vibrationally potent and special. of the natural world. Invite the fae spirits as a gift. Nature spirits especially love
If concocting it indoors, set up a sacred to join you in your ritual, connecting blackberry (contained in this fragrance),
space for yourself. Light candles, read a and merging with the magical energies which has traditionally been given to
passage from The Faerie Queene, and play all around you, of which you are a part. them as an offering.

C
INGREDIENTS AND SUPPLIES:
10-millimeter glass roller bottle
Perfume pipettes and a mini funnel for filling perfume bottles
Essential oils of cedarwood, amber, vanilla, and balsam fir
Blackberry fragrance oil
Fractionated coconut oil and/or jojoba oil

HOW TO MAKE:
I recommend working on a surface that you can
easily wipe clean, as working with these oils can be a
bit messy. I simply cover a piece of cardboard with
tin foil, which can be wiped clean and used multiple
times. Some 10-millimeter bottles come with the
roller ball in place. If so, you will need to remove it
first. Place your funnel in the bottle and add a small
amount of carrier oil (either fractionated coconut oil,
jojoba oil, or a blend of the two).
Add drops of essential oil and fragrance oil in the
following amounts:
Cedarwood: 1
Amber: 1
Vanilla: 1
Balsam Fir: 5
Blackberry fragrance oil: 3
Add more carrier oil, filling your bottle to the top. Safety Note: It is important to consult with a qualified health
Press the roller ball in place. Cap it. Shake to blend. care practitioner before using essential oils, especially if you
As you apply this alluring perfume oil to your sacred are pregnant, nursing, have any medical conditions, or are
vessel on pulse points, allow it to remind you of the taking any medications (prescription or over-the-counter), or if
beauty and magic that resides within you and in the you have food or plant allergies.
natural world of which you are a part.

Susan Ilka Tuttle is an herbalist, green witch, artist, psychic medium and spirit messenger, and writer living in the woods of Maine. She is the author of the
book Green Witch Magick: Essential Plants and Crafty Spellwork for a Witch’s Cupboard, which will be released in September 2021 and is
available for preorder through Amazon, IndieBound, and Barnes & Noble. Visit her shop at inthewoodbotanicals.com, learn more about her spirit mediumship
offerings at susantuttlespiritmessenger.com, and follow her on Instagram @whisper_in_the_wood.

42 enchantedlivingmag.com
 Photography by LILLIAN LIU
Model THERESA FRACTALE
Dress + Headpiece LINDA FRIESEN
Hair REMY DUPONT
Makeup MARIE-LUCE GOLNEZ
Titania Sleeps, 1928,
by Frank Cadogan Cowper
 Find Your Inner Faerie Queen
by The Wondersmith

H ave you ever felt like your appearance or physical

limitations prevent you from looking or feeling magical?
that I’d been seeing in the mirror since I had the tube installed. I
felt absolutely magical.
I want you to know that you already are magical, and you are The response to those photos had me in tears too—so
absolutely allowed to express that part of yourself, no matter many people were messaging me to say that they also had a
what. Representation is so important, and everyone deserves feeding tube or other visible health device and had never seen
to feel like a faerie queen if they want to! If you look a little representation like this before. Many told me that they felt
different, take heart, dear one. There is space for you to be just like they had to hide, that their visible illness made people too
as magical as your soul is. uncomfortable, so they purposefully isolated themselves. How
I have a chronic health condition that makes it difficult for heartbreaking! I truly believe that this community is capable of
me to get enough calories, so my doctor and I decided it was seeing past the devices and into the magic each person carries
time for a feeding tube. Getting it was an emotional process, within. You are welcome here, exactly as you are.
especially since I’ve only ever seen images of feeding tubes taken While I’ve moved on to a PICC line for nutrition, a less visible
in hospitals and certainly never as part of a glamorous photo health aid, I still rely on mobility aids and other things that
shoot. I wanted to show myself and others that it’s absolutely provide visible signs of my illness. I’ve made a promise to myself
possible to feel beautiful with a visible health aid device, so I to not let that hold me back from expressing myself however
asked my father and my sweetheart to help me with a photo I want to. It’s delightful to don a flower crown when I go out
shoot in the garden of a good friend. (Thank you Kaden!) in my wheelchair or to decorate the armband that covers my
We worked collaboratively one early evening among the PICC line with flowers. I do it for me, and I do it so that anyone
flowers, playing with poses and shooting techniques, and I kept who sees me knows it’s possible to feel beautiful and magical no
tearing up as I was editing the photos because I knew these matter your limitations.
radiant, happy images would displace the vision of “sick person” C

Ways To Feel Like a Faerie Queen

• Don a flower crown. You can make it • Decorate your health aid. Put a pretty • Embrace beautiful scents. A little floral
yourself or buy a ready-made version! sticker over your feeding tube. Paint perfume or essential oils nearby can
No matter the day or season, a flower butterflies on your cast. Attach a little instantly transport me to fairyland.
crown always makes me feel absolutely flower to your hearing aids, or hang You deserve the pleasure of smelling
magical. If you have allergies or strings of beads from your glasses. Fill something lovely, whether you wear it
sensitivities, artificial flower crowns are your life with beauty—even the parts for others to enjoy too or not.
just as magical! that might not feel beautiful at first.
• Know that nobody has to witness your
• Highlight your mobility aid. • Remember that your flaws aren’t. Seek magic for it to be real. I still sometimes
I remember when I first got a out role models who have the same
put on sparkly makeup and a crown
wheelchair, I was really self-conscious or similar conditions as you and allow
when I’m confined to my bed, even
about it. My best friend came over yourself to see them as magical, so
though nobody else will see me. It
and painted it purple for me! Before that you can see that in yourself too.
makes me feel magical, and that is
the pandemic, she’d take me on Highlight your vitiligo. Draw flowers
reason enough.
walks in my chair, and I got loads of around your moles. Look for shapes
compliments on it. Instead of trying and constellations in your scars, • Remind yourself that you are worthy
not to draw attention to yourself, like you would find in the clouds of feeling special. It can be hard to
celebrate the things that give you a above. Notice how your body mimics get past the blocks of insecurity that
higher quality of life. That wheelchair beautiful patterns found in nature. come from visible disabilities or health
allowed me to get out into nature • Ask for help. If you don’t have the conditions, but you are just as magical
rather than staying stuck in my bed all energy or ability to dress up as the and worthy as anyone else. Remind
the time. That was definitely worthy faerie royalty you are, see if a friend yourself of that from time to time. You
of celebration! will come help you! deserve magic because you are magic.

46 enchantedlivingmag.com
 BREWING PERIDOT
The Pacific Northwest version of Chartreuse

A mysterious green liquor sparkling with clarity and infused with the healing powers of over
a hundred different herbs—it sounds like a potion out of a fairy tale, but it’s a liquor known
all over the world by the name Chartreuse. This sweet and herbal libation is mysteriously
brewed by Carthusian monks in the mountains of France.

BY THE WONDERSMITH
 HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED
An assortment of fresh and dried herbs and botanicals (see notes below)

• Soft herbs: lemon balm, wild mint, cleavers, wild ginger, spearmint, • Citrus peels (the thin outer zest only)
hyssop, angelica, pineapple weed, peppermint, lemon verbena, fennel, • High-proof vodka (Pick something
elderflower, rose petals, violet leaves thyme, sage, chamomile, bay, with a smooth finish; you don’t
and flowers, sweet cicely leaves, lemongrass, basil, rosemary, etc. want the bottom shelf option as the
thimbleberry leaves, alfalfa, bee • Whole spices: juniper berries, pine harshness of low-quality vodka will
balm, crabapple flowers, plum needles, cottonwood buds, aspen overtake your artful blend!)
blossoms, clover, wild strawberry buds, usnea, licorice fern rhizome, • Sweetener of choice—I prefer honey
leaves and flowers, yarrow leaves and cloves, nutmeg, star anise, cinnamon, or a simple sugar syrup
flowers, mallow leaves, wild hops, saffron, allspice, mace, etc.

As you gather your herbs, spices, and other botanicals, divide sometimes age really nicely, though, so if you have a bit left over
them into two sections: hardy varieties that can withstand more in the fall or winter, it makes a lovely evening treat then as well.
soaking and tender varieties that will infuse very quickly (such as A final tip: If you want to get this lovely green color, you’ll
fresh herbs and flowers). need to add a couple of special ingredients. (Most tinctures turn
Divide your vodka into quarters. In one quarter, you will some sort of tan or brown.) Saffron imparts a lovely golden-
infuse the more hardy whole spices. Fill a small jar about a yellow color as well as its famous flavor, and butterfly pea flowers
quarter of the way and then cover the rest of the way with give a blue tint with no flavor. Together, they make green.
vodka. Leave for a few days, smelling every day. When it smells You do not need either to make a delicious brew, but if the
good, it’s ready. Don’t infuse longer than a week. presentation of a sparkling green liquor is important to you, this
Infuse the citrus peels in the other three-quarters of your is a good way to get it.
vodka blend. Again, it is to taste, so use as much or as little as
you’d like. Let sit for a day or two, then strain, discarding the
C
Visit The Wondersmith online at thewondersmith.com.
citrus peels.
Wash and dry your herbs thoroughly. Assess them and create
a balanced blend from what you have. Stronger herbs (such as
sagebrush, mugwort, wormwood, thyme, or rosemary) should
be used sparingly, while sweeter herbs (such as mint, lemon
balm, fennel, or hyssop) can be used in greater amounts. Floral
flavors (like wild rose and elderflower) can be added in fairly high
amounts; since their flavors are more subtle, you’ll need more of
them to shine through in the finished blend.
Once you’ve created a balanced herbal blend you are happy
with, place it in a big jar and cover with the citrus-infused vodka.
Tender green botanicals tend to infuse fairly quickly; let the
vodka sit somewhere warmish for five to six hours, then take a
small sample. If it tastes wonderful, you’re done. If you feel it
could use a bit longer, let it continue to infuse, tasting every hour
or two. Do not infuse longer than 24 hours.
Strain your herbal blend and pour a small bit into a glass.
Add a few drops of the first spice-based infusion and taste. You
want to add some complexity to your herbal blend without
overwhelming it with the stronger spice blend, so test proportions
until you find the sweet spot. Then add your spice blend to your
herbal blend slowly until you have achieved that balance.
To turn your tincture into a true liquor, you’ll need to sweeten
it. Add honey or simple syrup to taste—around one part 2021 FAERY COURT MASQUERADE BALL
sweetener to three parts alcohol is a good starting point, then September 11, 2021 * Biloxi, MS
add more sweetener if desired. For ticket information, please visit
Serve chilled as an after-dinner digestive, or before your feast www.faery-ball.com
as an aperitif. This blend will change with aging, so enjoy it
within a few months if you’d like to preserve the flavor! It can

enchantedlivingmag.com 49
 The Fairies’ Banquet by John Anster Fitzgerald. Wikimedia Commons
The CuRse, the CuRe, and the QueeN
BY BRIANA SAUSSY

“THE CURE IS IN THE CURSE.”

M agic in the 21st century has undergone many fantastic

changes and evolutions, but its most ancient face
still appears in a few discreet patterns that hold
the test is Tam Lin changing forms from an adder to a toad to
a lion, wolf, bear, and piece of hot burning lead. The young girl
completes her task admirably and wins the knight back from
their shape across time and place. This statement is perhaps the faerie queen, who is none too pleased with the events but
one of the oldest shapes of all, the understanding that every nevertheless accepts them.
cure we seek lies hidden at the root of each curse we endure. Tam Lin is riddled with curses. This is immediately apparent
I learned this truism at the knee of the storytellers in my own in the way it is most commonly told in modern times. My
family, grandparents and a great grandmother who told it to paternal grandfather, a staunch Catholic with a good deal of
me in a hundred different tales and a thousand different ways. Scottish heritage, first told me the tale of Tam Lin, and he told it
And then I learned it in the various magical traditions I trained to me, I imagine, much as it had been told to him, as a warning
in, practice, and teach today. This notion that the cure is in not to meddle too much in the business of faeries and not to
the curse is not a rationalization for why you might become wander too far into the woods, especially as a young person, and
ill or why your lover has suddenly up and left. Rather it is an not to draw unwanted attention to oneself. I was struck then, as
observation often made with a cold eye and in a nonjudgmental I am every time I encounter the story anew, by how transgressive
manner. It is not about what is right or wrong or easy or hard the tale is on so many levels, centering on a fiercely independent
but a plain fact staring you in the face, if you are willing and able woman who does the saving instead of becoming the saved.
to pay attention. And it has ramifications that shape our stories Hanging in the background of the tale is the warning—take care
both on and off the page. or you too will draw the ire of the faerie queen, take care or you
Take the ballad of Tam Lin, a Scottish ballad that dates back too will feel her curse.
to 1549 in written form but deals with motifs and story lines that But what is the curse exactly? In the story of Tam Lin, one
are much, much older. Tam Lin deals frankly in curses. The core would be hard pressed to pick just one. Tam Lin the knight is
of the tale is straightforward: A young girl (Janet) falls in love cursed when he draws the attention of the faerie queen and
with mysterious handsome knight (Tam Lin), discovers that she is taken captive in her court … or is he? The nature of their
is pregnant with his child, then discovers he has actually been relationship is unclear, although apparently sexual, and he has
held (against his will?) by the faerie queen. To free him so that been with her a long time—seven years. Janet sees her unborn
they may live happily ever after, she must pass a test. In this case child as a curse and takes action to rid herself of it as she sees no

50 enchantedlivingmag.com
other alternative. Tam Lin is cursed again as he understands that Tam Lin the faerie queen is closely tied to the land. She may
he is about to be offered up as part of the faerie court’s payment be the living, liminal expression of the land itself. How do we
to hell. The lovers are cursed, and Janet must accomplish the know? Tam Lin is a member of her court, and he appears only
most difficult of tasks—remaining constant in the face of violent when Janet shows up and is defiling the land or (in the latter
and unceasing change—to win her beloved back. part of the ballad) seeking to remove the evidence of her own
And then the story, which climaxes with Janet’s success and fertility—a quality in men and women that is traditionally
Tam Lin’s final transformation back into his rightful shape as closely tied to the health of the land. This tells us that the faerie
a mortal man, ends with a curse uttered by the faerie queen queen’s court is activated, its attention drawn, when the land and
herself: the people on it are in some kind of duress.
“But had I kend, Tam Lin,” said she, Though Tam Lin is the emissary from the faerie realm that
“What now this night I see, actually encounters Janet, I have always been struck by the
I wad hae taen out thy twa grey een, fact that he was able to leave the faerie court in the first place.
And put in twa een o tree.” Ostensibly he would need the queen’s permission to do that,
These words mark the end of most traditional renditions of just as the queen or king would need to be the ones to tell
the ballad and give us a unique kind of curse, a speculative curse him what needed to happen for his curse to be broken and
perhaps, one that is structured as a syllogism: If I had known freedom won. Could it be that the faerie queen in Tam Lin
then, I would have … is less concerned with malevolence and more concerned with
Returning to our opening premise, if there is a possibility of a teaching something essential?
curse then there is also the possibility of a cure. But what is the Which brings us to her curse. In old stories, curses are taken
ailment here? What is the needed cure? literally. If you are cursed to never have a child live long enough
To answer this we need to go back to the beginnings of the to have it baptized, then you make a baby doll, bring it to
tale, into the woods. For it is here in the woods where Janet church, and baptize it—that breaks the curse. In Tam Lin, the
first encounters the handsome fae knight while she is doing curse that the queen would have placed on the knight at the
something very particular: picking roses, double roses to be end of the story would be to lose his gray eyes and have them
precise, and “breaking their wands”—i.e., breaking or cutting replaced with the “eyes of a tree.” Literally she would have
their stems. Moreover, when Tam Lin appears and asks her why had Tam Lin stop seeing things through the eyes of a man and
she is doing this, she claims that the land belongs to her. instead see things through the “eyes” or from the perspective
It is easy to see how the warp and weft are coming together of a tree.
in this particular pattern. Janet is not a bad person; indeed And here then is the cure. If and when we are able to put
throughout the ballad she is shown to be brave, strong, and aside our own human perspective for a moment and look at
somewhat wise. But she is young, untried, and unseasoned in this a place with the eyes and from the point of view of the other,
opening scene. She is selfish. She is claiming ownership of the nonhuman creatures that dwell there, then indeed a healing can
land and the right to pick the flowers no matter what or whom happen. The wound that has left a legacy of seeing both lands
it may hurt. But the land was understood to have guardians of and peoples as something to be conquered and divided, the hurt
a much more ancient nature. The land was understood by the that allows a young girl to rashly proclaim that a forest belongs
people at this time much as it is still understood by indigenous to her and that she may do whatever she wants in it—these
people today world over, to be animate, living, or rather to be broken beliefs, attitudes, and choices can be mended. They can
a collection of living beings—each with their own intelligence, be healed.
perception, and feeling. As we noted earlier, the faerie queen does not lay down the
Long before they were winged miniature confections, faeries final curse; she teases it. And in so doing she offers an invitation
were themselves forces of nature and a living presence in the not only for the lovers in the tale but for everyone who hears the
land. In one of the most popular origin stories about faeries, it story as well. Try looking in a different way. Try listening more
is said that they are the angels who could not decide what side deeply. Before you pick the roses, consider who and what dwells
to take when the devil challenged God and was subsequently within them, relies on them, and will be affected by your actions.
cast out of heaven. There were angels who were on the devil’s Before you stake a claim, consider what will happen next.
side and angels that could not make up their mind which side to Every queen owes allegiance to something or someone—be it
take. These angels were also cast out, also fallen, but fallen onto her country, her people, or her understanding of the divine. The
and into the earth, where they became faeries, genius loci—local faerie queen’s fealty is to the living land itself, and when we listen
spirits inhabiting everything from old oak trees to holy healing to a story like Tam Lin, she appears in the long shadows of the
wells to windswept mountainsides. And while angels are divided trees to remind us that ours is as well.
into lesser and “arch” angels, in the faerie realm what we have j
are kings and most especially queens.
There are different faerie queens in different tales, but in Find more of Briana Saussy’s work at brianasaussy.com.

enchantedlivingmag.com 51
 THE

BY THEODORA GOSS
Tam Lin Remembers
Faerie QueeN
Fairies in a Bird’s Nest by John Anster Fitzgerald. Wikimedia Commons
She had eyes like apple seeds. Sometimes she loved me, and we would ride together
on robins, or was it flowering hawthorn branches
A small, angular face that reminded me whose thorns would prick my legs through leather trousers?
of a fox’s mask. Was it a mask she wore With her strange retinue: the faerie knights
the whole time I was with her? riding on weasels, the goblin standard-bearers
holding thistle spears. They were always half something else,
The thing about faeries is, they’re not like us, with the heads of toads or owls, a bat’s black wings.
material. Indeed, they most resemble Everything there was always half something else,
assemblages constructed from our dreams. except the faerie women, wholly themselves,
Their visible forms are for our benefit. and so luminous you had to look at them
through tinted spectacles. It was the fashion
Sometimes, as we lay together in bed to sew living butterflies unto their shoulders,
under a canopy of spider-silk, so they moved in a halo of colored dust
I would turn and find she had become a tree, and panicked flapping.
branches for arms, a bird’s nest between her legs, Awkwardly, at the rear of the procession,
with three blue, speckled eggs. Were they our children? walked a stray cat she had turned into a boy,
I’d blink, and she would be a woman again, who mewed and tried to scratch me.
yawning and stretching as human women do. I was mostly unhappy, but sometimes happy. The problem
She’d smile at me with a fox’s sly, wise smile is this: I would rather be unhappy in fairyland
as though she had tricked me. than happy elsewhere.

The castle was sometimes made of rough gray stone At night, I lie beside a woman who never
covered with moss, sometimes of murky water turns into a tree, who bears me human children.
with fish swimming in the walls. When we danced, the music And all I can think of is her hard black eyes,
came from viols or the buzz of a hundred bees. which sometimes looked at me with such disdain,
I sat on chairs that were either toadstools or clouds, her small red mouth that never told me the truth
and ate from plates that stared back up at me, and laughed when I believed her.
blinking iridescent eyes. What did I eat there? That fox’s face, which was probably always a mask.
Air? Insects? Salads of delicate herbs?
The bread tasted like ashes. Sometimes I go into the forest alone
and whisper into the hollow knot of an oak:
I’d rather spend an hour in fairyland
than a lifetime elsewhere.
Then I stand in the green silence, with only the cries
of birds, the shush of the oak leaves high above,
and wonder if she’s listening.
Faeries of the Forest

By Carolyn Turgeon
Photography by Joy Marshall
 Faeries of the Forest
Carolyn Turgeon

F
or last spring’s Pre-Raphaelite issue, photographer Joy Marshall,
model and artist Tatiana Pimentel, and jeweler Jen Parrish-Hill of
Parrish Relics gathered at Parrish-Hills’s enchanted Massachusetts
abode Frog Hollow for a beautiful Pandora shoot. While there, Parrish-Hill
shared with them a beloved image styled by Rebecca Purcell for ABC Carpet
& Home of a woman lying in a velvet-strewn bed in the wood, under a
chandelier crafted from twigs. Tapestries and blankets hang from fallen limbs.
A doll sits on one battered chair, a large black bird on another. Leaves lie
scattered over a rug that’s decorated with roses.
Marshall was struck by the image’s lushness and vibrancy, its sheer
gorgeousness, and wanted to return to Frog Hollow to create images in
the same vein. And with faeries. Why not with faeries? The three started
brainstorming about the upcoming shoot (and asked Courtney Fox-Johns to
join in) and started talking about folklore and our favorite queen, Titania—
who is, as we all know, the embodiment of glamour, if faeries are in fact
embodied—and the suspiciously/aptly named Tatiana tried her hand at
making wings for the shoot.
They all gathered on a stormy June day with two cars full of costumes and
fabric and pillows to make magic of their own. They’d end up meeting three
times, but it was on the first day that a storm passed through, with lightning
overhead, fog hovering among the trees, and a strange light streaming down
through the branches and reflecting off the water and the models’ skin. As
the trees started to take on personalities of their own, the group found more
and more out-of-the-way spots to shoot in, even lugging props over boulders
and fallen branches to get to an especially lovely rock hanging over a stream.
The place had a “rare, Tolkien-esque” beauty, Marshall says, “untouched
by humans.”
We love hearing about this sort of collaboration among faerie sisters, when
the weather seems to cooperate and everything aligns. Marshall, Pimentel, and
Fox-Johns even met for a day before their second shoot for a marathon crafting
session, making crowns and wings and generally sharing ideas and inspiration.
And of course every shot featured Parrish-Hill’s exquisite handmade jewelry.
One happy offshoot of all this improvising and collaboration is Pimentel’s new
shop, Creatures Who Craft (creatureswhocraft.com), where she now sells wings
inspired by Kali, Freya, and the original faerie queen Diana—wings made for
creatures of all kinds who want to frolic in the wood and possibly surprise, and
dazzle, a passing human.

B
See more of Joy Marshall’s work on Instagram @thewitchinghourphotography.
Visit Tatiana Pimentel on Instagram @teepimentel, Parrish Relics @parrish_relics,
and Courtney Fox-Johns @thefoxandtheivy. And visit Frog Hollow @frog_hollow.

Models: Tatiana Pimentel and Courtney Fox-Johns

Wings: Creatures Who Craft
Jewelry: Parrish Relics
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, by Arthur Hughes. Wikimedia Commons

Sans Merci
S. Blackthorn Riddle

O, what can ail thee, Queen of Faery, I led him down beneath the hills
Foxglove band withered on thy crown? And fed him nectar and buttermilk.
Searching the hillside for thy knight-at-arms, He kissed my eyes as we drifted to dream,
Lace train mired on hallowed ground. Wrapped tenderly in my regalia of silk.

O, what can ail thee, Queen of Faery, My knight-at-arms, when we were through,
Melancholy gathered on furrowed brow? I set him there on that cold hillside,
The flowers spurned their bloom, my Lady, Alone, and palely-loitering,
The seed, in darkness, has forgotten how. Forever searching for his ethereal guide.

The birds grow cold in branches bare, Age has laid claim to my body, a hundred-years hence,
Singing not of sweetbriar gardens and suns, And longing poisons the well of my mind.
A blight on the village that circles the hills, There is no Spring for the loveless, see,
The waters red and the sky grown dun. Love is a curse one can never unbind!

I met a valiant knight in the meads, I did good, I did right, as all Faeries do,
With eyes dark like the Spanish glen, Living in the inverse, the Elven plight!
His smile was kind, his body strong, And now my knight grows cold in the earth,
Standing tall amongst gods and men. Lost on this hill as he wandered the night.

He laid me down in grassy knolls Thus I sojourn as he in solemn disquiet

And vowed to me his mortal life, Seeking the ghost of that which is lost.
Traced a clover down my spine, The press of the heart and the crown my penance,
Begged me thrice to be his wife. And I will bear this weight, no matter the cost!

He carried me to the kingdom’s edge

And wandered, we, while the day was long. S. Blackthorn Riddle is a freelance writer and forest punk
Blinded by the drum of a heart beguiled, living on the borderlands of New York City with a menagerie
Drunken on a Faery song. of cats, books, and imaginary friends. His work appears in
Abyss & Apex. You can find him on Twitter @Silvatiicus.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1901,
by Frank Dicksee

One Knight Stand…

BY KIRSTY STONELL WALKER

n my youth, many a story of rip-roaring adventure, unwise these escapades are. Of course, none of that knowledge
thrills, unbelievable coincidences, and misplaced shoes stops us repeating it all next Friday night, as Katy Perry would
often began with the following exchange: attest. Who knew that in cataloging possibly one of the most
“What happened to you last night? You look wrecked!” chaotic pre-weekend booze-and-bad-behavior binges, Ms. Perry
“My friend, you would not believe me if I told you …” was merely emulating the cautionary tale of a knight on the
Thence would begin a tale of misadventure involving low- town involving a faerie, some bad choices, and an elven grot?
priced cider, dubious takeaway food, and probably a National Foreshadowing all of this TGI modern malarkey is, of course,
Trust car park before going back to someone’s unpleasant flat John Keats’s beautifully enthralling poem “La Belle Dame
and then never seeing them again. Mercifully, most of us seem Sans Merci,” which is about just such a life-changing, health-
to have survived these encounters, cured by nothing more than endangering encounter with a magical one-night stand. For the
a couple of aspirin and a very hot shower, but we all know how Victorians, this poem from 1819 sparked something in them

60 enchantedlivingmag.com
 One Knight Stand
Kirsty Stonell Walker

that was both seductive and deeply troubling. Keats, a Romantic himself as if struck. Even his enormous black charger seems
poet, found a very willing audience in the Pre-Raphaelite to bow its head in submission. It’s no coincidence that the red
Brotherhood (formed thirty years after the publication of “La bridle that harnesses the horse is a similar color to the red dress
Belle Dame”), and subsequent painters and illustrators found and hair of the girl who is harnessing the bold knight. Walter
resonance in his work. Something about his wholesome, noble Crane shows an equally besotted knight, beguiled by his horse-
knight being led astray by a mystical lass struck a chord or riding love and being taken off to who knows where, while the
possibly gave them something to aspire to, as they dreamed of horse gives him definite side-eye. Similarly, Arthur Hughes has
being ruined in a similarly romantic manner. an undated painting of a love-struck knight gazing helplessly at
Our story begins with the romantically phrased question, “O an impossibly bending girl who curves, serpent-like, to hypnotize
what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, / Alone and palely loitering?” him. His horse looks down in despair. That horse knows
When Keats redrafted the poem in 1820, he changed “knight- something’s up. Like your sober best friend on a wild night out,
at-arms” to “wretched wight,” a slightly more puzzling phrase, he knows he’s going to have to carry your sorry wreckage back
bringing to mind something pale and wraithlike. However, from somewhere, for absolutely no thanks whatsoever.
it’s the 1819 version that gave illustrators the idea that the That horse is not wrong, because after pausing for a quick
life-altering encounter was had by a knight, with all its noble snack on “roots of relish sweet” together with honey and
and holy connotations, clad in shining armor or shimmering manna-dew, she whisks him off to her “elfin grot.” It’s a tribute
chainmail. From the opening description, we are told that the to how alluring our faery child is that with only one murmur
unlucky knight is haggard and gaunt, feverish and worryingly of “I love thee true,” she can entice this young man off to
close to death. Blimey, exactly what did he get up to last night? somewhere with the word grot in its name. In artists’ renderings,
The knight launches into his story without any messing we don’t tend to see her “grot,” if you excuse the expression, but
about. It begins the moment he met a woman—and not just Anning Bell comes through for us again in an 1897 G. Bell &
any woman but “a faery’s child.” She has three aspects that Sons edition of Keats’s poems. After returning to the grot and
draw him in—long hair, wild eyes, and light feet. Had I known getting up to some shenanigans that involved him kissing her
this was what it took to attract men, my teen years would have eyes while she cries, they both fall into a slumber on her mossy
been spent emulating Kate Bush in her “Wuthering Heights” floor. There are so many red flags in this encounter, I don’t
video. Indeed, in John William Waterhouse’s 1893 painting of know where to start, but, moving on, here is where we come
the meeting, the purple-dressed girl to the drama of the piece. Anning
lassoes her knight with her hair, Bell illustrated the verses with the
snaring him with her attractions, slumbering knight clutching to our
and bringing him down to her level, Belle Dame’s bosom in a cave when
completely defenseless, despite his all of a sudden, in his dream, figures
armor and sword. In Robert Anning gesture from the walls in horrific
Bell’s 1907 illustration for the poem sympathy: “I saw pale knights,
in Palgrave’s Golden Treasury (right), and princes too, / Pale warriors,
our knight is on his knees, his sword death-pale were they all; / Who
hanging awkwardly and uselessly cried—‘La belle Dame sans merci
by his side as he holds onto the / Hath thee in thrall!’ ” It’s not that
flower-clad vision of loveliness. This I’m not grateful for the heads-up or
fighting man never trained for such anything, but that is the equivalent
an opponent as this, and you know of someone leaning in after you have
things are not going to end well. drunk your second pint of sherry
Many painters focus on the and murmuring, “Now, that wasn’t a
moment that the knight lifts the wise move, was it?” Not helpful, Pale
girl onto his horse. Even if all were Warriors, not helpful at all.
not lost before, the moment she’s The horrific realization that
on your horse, it really is all over. his lovely faery girl is a mystical
In possibly the most dramatic and Bluebeard who definitely has a type
beautiful of all the depictions, Frank seems to propel our lovelorn knight
Dicksee shows us a knight paralyzed back to the reality of a cold hillside
by the sight of the girl on his horse, and a future of palely loitering. He
his arms thrown out to steady abruptly finishes his sorry tale with

enchantedlivingmag.com 61
 La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1865,
by Walter Crane

an acknowledgment that everything is rubbish now, and it will be men—kings, princes, and knights—all men who had power in
forever winter in his heart, but what has happened and why does the male sphere and thought that was enough. In the unknown,
he take it so badly? Why did all this strike such a chord with the faery female sphere, that power means nothing, and capturing
Victorians? you is as easy as picking a flower. Possibly the paintings were
The Victorians loved a femme fatale, and their art is littered there to show how close, how unseen, that danger was, and
with them, all pouting and alluring. The Pre-Raphaelite maybe some men bought those images to remind themselves
depictions of La Belle Dame with her loose hair fit nicely into that risking everything for a pretty face is definitely not worth it.
a genre of pictures containing women such as Dante Gabriel Maybe some even looked on the paintings and thought, “Look
Rossetti’s Lady Lilith (1866-8) and Frederick Sandys’s Medea at that idiot, falling for that! I’d never be such fool…” while
(1868). These are seemingly gorgeous women, but they have idly musing on a card game they had planned, that nice bottle
an ax to grind, and becoming entangled with them will be very of Scotch that waited in their study, or a mistress—as William
detrimental to your well-being. Beautiful sorceresses and ice-cold Holman Hunt immortalized it in his painting The Awakening
demon women were happily hung on the walls of successful Conscience (1853).
businessmen’s homes possibly for the same reason that “La Belle Another reading of the poem is that the Belle Dame is not
Dame Sans Merci” rang such a bell with them: It is the tale of a only a woman; she represents all the seemingly innocent choices
powerful, complacent man not seeing a hidden danger. or at least apparently harmless vices that have the potential to
At the root of the poem, a reader can see a man who has ruin you. I am reminded of the Victorian love of images of
been successful and brave, fought in many battles, and overcome flamboyant English Civil War soldiers who are corrupted by
many foes. But the thing that will destroy him is a small cards, drink, and love. I am reminded of William Shakespeare
faery girl, a little wisp who barely talks and seems harmless. Burton’s The Wounded Cavalier (1855), a Pre-Raphaelite painting
Figuratively hung on her wall are the heads of many such of a gloriously beautiful young man dying in a woodland after

62 enchantedlivingmag.com
 One Knight Stand
Kirsty Stonell Walker

being stabbed over a card game. As if to hammer home the faeries) responsible for our bad decisions rather than taking
point, the cards that are scattered by his picturesquely dying responsibility ourselves and not fetishizing the unknown and
figure are hearts. When your poor life choices are done, the desirable in the first place. Blame the goblins, not the fruit.
Victorians are reminded, you are left dying in the wilderness, The message to take from this is not to blame faeries or
listening to the silence of no birds singing. women for your prejudices and poor behavior. Honestly, I’m
Hang on, though, just one minute. Let’s just remember sorry that the knight is just sitting on a hill at the end, feeling
that this is a story being told by a ruined man. These women sorry for himself, but it’s not like he didn’t have red flags popping
in the illustrations and paintings are undoubtedly beautiful, up when he met the wild-eyed faery child who didn’t speak. His
so we quite understand why our young man is tempted away, underestimation of the poor women and mystical folk is what
but the Pre-Raphaelites were interpreting this poem during a gets him into trouble and leaves him questioning his worldview.
period of spectacular patriarchal dominance, where men were If La Belle Dame tells us anything, it is that if you are planning
creating empires, making scientific leaps, and conquering the to take advantage of someone and she looks fae, just walk away.
land and sea at an unprecedented rate. Why on earth would The moral could also very well be this: If your horse looks
they be shaken by a little, wild-haired faerie girl? The answer dubious, it’s probably a bad idea.
is manifold, starting with the female path to suffrage. During †
the 19th century, women were starting to call upon men to
give them equality. The fear this seemingly engendered in men Kirsty Stonell Walker is a writer and researcher whose passion is bringing
spilled out as an entire genre of machinating temptresses after forward the stories of women who might have otherwise vanished in history.
your power and essential manly juices, lying in wait to bring you In 2020 she published Light and Love, a biography of the remarkable
low. The more beautiful the woman, the greater the fear, and relationship between pioneering Victorian photographer Julia Margaret
the fairer sex stopped being the “Angel of the House” (as poet Cameron and her maid Mary Hillier, who between them created wonderful
Coventry Patmore patronizingly christened the perfect wife) images of beauty. Visit her on Instagram @kstonellwalker.
and started being potential Salomes, Delilahs, and Judiths, just
looking for an opportunity to lop bits of you off when you least
expected it. The Belle Dame of Keats’s poem and the Pre-
Raphaelite works is less obviously sexy in that way, but her loose
hair signaled her potentially loose morals, and her bohemian,
otherworldly glamour should be enough to warn you that this
girl is, as my Grandma would say, not better than she ought
to be.
What is it, though, that the Belle Dame does that is so awful?
As a knight, the teller of this sad tale has presumably spent his
victorious career conquering other equally ambitious men in an
all-male environment. The kings and princes who bewail their
commonly shared fate from his fever dreams all come from a
background of patriarchy, of male rule and dominance. The
fact that a woman has destroyed this noble institution should be
a warning not to allow women to get beyond themselves with all
that equal voting rights nonsense. Look at the damage they do
to great, powerful men! No, suffragettes, we are not letting you
ruin a perfectly good patriarchy, thank you very much. When
all the men cry that the beautiful, merciless woman has them
hooked but won’t give them what they want, I am reminded
of the girls in Christina Rossetti’s poem “Goblin Market” who
become addicted to the Goblin’s forbidden fruit. However,
Rossetti is a little wiser than her fellow Pre-Raphaelites. She
blames the Goblins and not the fruit for the addiction and
destruction of the girls who taste it. In other words, if we read
the poem and its associated paintings as a man destroyed by
the desire for a woman who is alluring and magical, maybe
we should be addressing the society that makes women (and

enchantedlivingmag.com 63
 ENChaNtED
WooDs
of folklore and fable
BY CAROLYN TURGEON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY REBECCA MOSS
 Enchanted Woods
Carolyn Turgeon

he places Rebecca Moss photographs seem to doesn’t hurt either.) This way you can tune into the
have sprung from some old, old faerie story, woods and become part of them. “That’s the magic
haunted by a Titania or Mab or Morgan. for me,” she says. “Being on my own and seeing what
Even though I’ve never been to a forest like happens.” Because the light has to be just right for her
the ones in her photos, I feel sure that I can remember to photograph, she spends most of her time exploring,
having visited a place like that once. Every photo is like maybe sitting for an hour or two and zoning out. She’ll
a little gateway to another world—a buried, ancient focus on all the life swarming around her, every small
memory. When I first scuba-dove I could not believe the detail—light in a web or buzzing insects, birds, the
things I saw; I couldn’t believe that such an astonishing, lines and curves of trees, branches and the shape of
magical world exists just below the stones. Her goal: “To get into that
surface of the water, that I might “I have thought about why I go to the woods headspace of being a thing in woods
have gone my whole life without and what is going on for me when I do. I rather than a person in world.”
witnessing it. These photos make go to daydream, to allow a different world The energy of the woods is very
me feel the same way. These are into my headspace. To let my mind kind powerful, she says, a beautiful fae
the wild woods where the queens of loosen its grip on human life and just energy she can tap into and get lost
we’re celebrating in this issue would acknowledge that I am part of nature too.” in. It is when she lets go of human
live. I hope one day to visit these thinking that she can “cross over”—
actual places, but for now I have— then “all of a sudden I’m aware that
and you have—Moss’s exquisite captures that fill her I’m sitting in the heart of something very alive and much
Instagram feed @one_becky_blue and, soon enough, her bigger than me. I realize that I’m actually as small, in the
online shop. scheme of things, as even the beetles and the birds.”
We’ve shared Moss’s photos for years now on our own And then the light shifts, and she picks up her camera
Instagram, but, unusually, didn’t know anything at all to capture it.
about her, this woman who stalks these ancient spaces in Later she writes to me: “I have thought about why
photos so vivid you can practically smell the moss and I go to the woods and what is going on for me when
soil. So one day this winter we scheduled a call on Skype, I do. I go to daydream, to allow a different world into
which she’d never used before, and then she appeared as my headspace. To let my mind kind of loosen its grip
I might have imagined: in her stone cottage, a fire behind on human life and just acknowledge that I am part of
her in a little stove, with a fae, delicate beauty and pale, nature too.”
glimmering hair. She lives, she explains, in Dartmoor, While some of us can visits parks and forests, not all
in the moorlands, surrounded by the footprints of parks allow wandering in this way, and not all of us have
thousands-year-old huts and twisted, moss-ridden forests the enchanted wood outside our door. Moss’s images are
that she can walk to from her front door. She did not a kind of portal, though she wishes she could capture
come from this place, though. She spent most of her “the smells of earth, the feel of wind on skin.” I tell her
childhood in Holland and grew up near the sea, and also I feel those things when I look at her images. I feel them,
spent years in the West Country and London. Dartmoor remember them.
has only been her chosen home for the past five years. For those of us who can only dream and remember
She’s been taking photographs since she was a kid, the feeling of losing ourselves in the forest, Moss advises,
but only started taking “green” photos around the time “let yourself daydream, let your imagination flow free.
she moved to Dartmoor. Once upon a time she was a It is the only thing that completely belongs to any of us,
street photographer in London, taking moody black- and it is a kind of freedom, and the forest is a beautiful
and-whites of people and developing them by hand in headspace to be in. Even if the starting place for your
the darkroom. To her, it’s not so different to photograph daydream is just a photograph, it is still a real and
Dartmoor’s forests, where every tree has its own beautiful place somewhere.”
character and personality she tries to capture. Daydreaming is not a replacement for experience,
Her lifestyle inspires jealousy. A few times a week, she but an experience in itself. “I think daydreaming is
leaves her cottage and enters the forest, immediately the beginning of many of life’s adventures,” she says.
taking herself off the pathway. This is the secret to “There is so much bombardment of stuff in the world.
forests, she says: to leave the paths and get properly Remembering that there is a beautiful natural world and
lost but to always have a properly charged phone with daydreaming into that space has got to be good for your
GPS so you can find your way back. (An extra battery head. Actually, for sure it is.”

67
 As Branches Bud
Around Small Nests
by Katharyn Howd Machan

I live where lakes gleam, calm.

Heron country. Trout.
Mornings are violets, crocus, moss.
I rise and walk to gather sky
into my simple basket, a gift
from my sister where Autumn turns
our year with pumpkins and husks.
Here in my realm crickets begin
the song they will end with her.
How glad I am to know the hare
that carries Oestre’s painted eggs!
And when a human child comes searching
I don’t whisper Come away.
I take their hand and together we find
sweet green grasses warming with sun
that comes to us sooner, stays with us longer
every softly blossoming new Spring day.

P
Katharyn Howd Machan lives in a town in central New York
resplendent with gorges and waterfalls. Author of thirty-nine
published collections of poems—most recently A Slow Bottle of
Wine, winner of the Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Competition–she
teaches creative writing in fairy-tale-based courses at Ithaca College.
 Ed Org’s Enchanted WomeN
by Jill Gleeson

it in sweet wonderment gazing at the work of British After a spell as a graphic designer, Org returned to his
artist Ed Org and you will be transported to another personal work in 1992. Today he is famed for his mysterious,
world, one of mythical, magical women—powerful, ethereal pencil drawings as well as newer art made in pen, ink,
capable, but all the more graceful for it. With a style that lies and watercolor. “I find it frees me up stylistically,” he says. “I
somewhere between Alphonse Mucha and the Art Nouveau perhaps experiment a bit more with watercolor, as I use colored
movement and Pre-Raphaelites like Edward Burne-Jones, pencils, chalk, and pastels to get the various effects. However, I
Org’s magnificent art often imagines lush woodland queens always return to the pencil ... Different pencils leave their own
enwrapped and embraced by the forest. Draped in twining distinctive mark. I use engraved strokes, smudging, graphite
greenery, they wear crowns of peacock feathers or fantastical powder mixed with gum Arabic, random squiggles, and
animal horns, their flowing hair woven with flowering blooms. hatching. It is the mosaic-like buildup of various pencil marks
Around them rest their animal subjects: swan and hare, butterfly and patterns, the finer detail, that I find interesting.”
and bird. With a home in the celebrated natural splendor of England’s
It’s fair to say that Org’s aesthetic—his fascination with both Cotswolds, Org can roam as much as he did as a child, finding
the natural world and the mystical—can be traced to a youth inspiration in what he calls “the wonderful bird life and
spent in Shropshire, England. Legends and folklore always butterflies in summer.” But his studio sets his imagination free
interested him, as did the surrounding woods that he says he as well, chock-full as it is of books on shelves and inspiring
was free to roam as he liked. “Though it was a heavily mined items like colored glass bottles draped with jewels of all kinds,
area in the early 19th and 20th centuries, nature had reclaimed vases holding beautiful peacock feathers, and mannequin heads
everything,” he says. “I could explore dappled woodlands, adorned with handmade floral headpieces. With their help,
ruined barns, secret pools and streams, disused railway lines with he says, “I can re-create a variety of themes such as medieval,
hidden apple and pear trees, and ruined cottages with secret Arabian Nights, or numerous fantasy scenes with furniture and
plum trees. Above all it was a landscape rich in wildlife, which props.”
was a paradise for village kids like us.” As he prepares to enter the third decade of the second phase
Although art didn’t precisely entice him as a child, Org’s of his career, Org says that first and foremost he “strives to
early talent must have been prodigious. Family lore has it that create and perpetuate beauty. My work may be influenced by art
his primary school headmaster told his father that Org would from a bygone era,” he adds, “but I hope that it has just as much
become an artist in adulthood. Fate took its course a decade relevance today. It will be for others to decide whether my work
or so later, and Org entered Cheltenham College of Art. has any value in the future.”
There he discovered the work of Mucha and the English book s
illustrator Arthur Rackham, as well as J.R.R. Tolkien. He was so See more of Ed Org’s work on Instagram @ed_org_art.
influenced by the Lord of the Rings novels that he based his B.A. Jill Gleeson is a travel journalist and memoirist who lives and writes in the
art show on them. mountains and valleys of Pennsylvania. Find her at gleesonreboots.com.

enchantedlivingmag.com 73
 The QueeN of DReams
REDISCOVERING SELF-LOVE by Monica Crosson

I n the spring, one should be suspicious of witches

disguised as hares—at least that’s what the woman,
who had lost faith in herself long ago, had read once
“I didn’t mean to frighten you, Miss,” the strange old crone
said.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t notice you there,” the woman replied. “I
in a book about faerie creatures. And this is what she thought was lost in a dream, I suppose.” She smiled at the frail woman.
when she spied a curious rabbit nibbling at the lettuce in her “A dream you say?”
garden one morning when the birds sang so gloriously that The woman felt silly but explained, “I have been dreaming of
the clatter woke her from the strange dream she’d been having a beautiful faerie queen who presented me with a sword from
every night for an entire week. The dream was of a faerie queen this very lake. And when the rabbit led me here … Well …” She
emerging from the water with a sword raised high in the air. blushed, as it really did sound silly. “Never mind.”
And every time the queen spied the woman watching from the The old woman smiled and then pointed to the water that
willows, the woman would awake with a start. Now she wiggled glistened under a rising moon. “Was that the sword in your
her toes in the loamy soil and thought about her dream as she dream?” she asked.
shooed the wee rabbit back to the hedgerow and gathered “Why, yes.” The woman couldn’t believe what she was seeing
radishes, asparagus, and spinach for her lunch later in the day. and pinched her arm to make certain that she was truly awake.
But that rabbit kept appearing. It was nibbling on dandelions “You’re not dreaming, my queen,” the crone said. “Take up
as she turned garden beds and planted her window boxes after your sword.”
breakfast. It rested under the rose trellis as she hung laundry just But the woman was confused because that was not how the
before lunch. So when she saw the rabbit again while sipping dream went. And besides, she was no queen. She reluctantly
tea on the porch at twilight, when the veil between the worlds picked up the sword and held it, as the woman had instructed,
thins and allows one to see the realm of the fae, she decided she high above her head. A tear streamed down her face as the
would follow the creature. weight of the sword reminded her of her unworthiness. “I have
Maybe the hare was indeed a witch, the woman thought. The done nothing to deserve this. I am not young, and I am not
rabbit seemed to sense she was there and quickly took off down strong, neither physically nor emotionally. I am not accomplished
a path that seemed carved through the bramble. And just when at anything. I am no queen. You have made a mistake.”
the woman thought she lost sight of it, the hare would reappear The crone nodded. “Look into the water and tell me what
as if it were waiting for her to catch up. you see.”
“There you are silly rabbit,” she would say and take off after The woman looked to the water and watched as her wavering
it again. Deep down she knew this was an act of a senseless reflection settled in a pool of moonlight. What reflected back
human, but following the rabbit had ignited a long-lost curiosity was the faerie queen from her dream—strong and confidant in
in her. her manner. A being who forgave herself for past mistakes and
As the path twisted and turned through a forest of white who acknowledged her own self-worth. And as she gazed into
birch and sweetly scented poplar trees, the woman began to feel the water, all the pain and self-loathing suddenly rippled away.
a strange familiarity with the area, though she knew she had “Not accomplished at anything. Not strong.” The crone
never explored it before. But as an opening through the trees clucked her tongue. “Shame on you.”
exposed a small lake, she realized this was the area she had been The woman lowered her sword. “I see now.” She smiled.
dreaming of that past week. A breezed picked up, stirring the The crone motioned for her to kneel and then placed a circlet
willow trees and drawing her further to the lake’s silky shoreline. as silver as the streaks of moonlight atop her head.
The hare slipped into the surrounding shrubs, and the “And what shall my duties be?” the woman asked.
woman’s heart quickened when she heard a splash near the The old woman smiled. “To honor yourself above all, my
water’s edge. She turned, half expecting to see the faerie queen dear, and to be a light unto others who have lost sight of their
who ruled the lake rise from the water. But the water remained own self-worth. Weave your message into their dreams and leave
still, and the woman chuckled because everyone knows dreams the rest to me.” The crone winked.
don’t really come true, especially those that haunt you at night. When the woman stood, the crone was gone, and in her place,
A loud rustle in the shrubs startled her. She clutched her chest a rabbit was nibbling on tufts of spring grass.
and stumbled toward the water as a woman, even older than The woman straightened her crown and walked home along a
she, rose from the shrubs. trail speckled with moonglow.

enchantedlivingmag.com 79
A RITUAL FOR REDISCOVERING SELF-LOVE to recapture how you looked at eighteen. Being beautiful is
One day when the sky was warm and the riverside beckoned, accepting yourself as you are now. Never mind how others
I went to the body of water that knows me best. I went, robed, think of you, never mind what the latest trends are, never
and with a long sword I used in ritual at times, to the Sauk River mind what your status is. This ritual is designed for you to see
where I have drawn down the moon and danced on her banks. yourself with fresh eyes as the beautiful warrior queen you are.
That place where I had gathered with my family and friends And in turn, you can be the light for others to do the same.
and where laughter and love have permeated the landscaped
for over twenty years. I dropped my robe, revealing to the river For this ritual you will need:
the reflection of a woman whose lined face told the story of the • A full-length mirror (if you don’t have private access to a body of water)
hard work, laughter, and tears that have shaped her into a strong • Decorated staff (directions below) or sword (if you happen to have one)
multifaceted human being. The glistening water reflected back
a particularly deep cesarean scar carved into her abdomen—the If you can perform this ritual at a body of water (lake,
battle scar of the bearing of her precious children. Every fold stream, ocean, river, pool, tub, etc.), that would be great, but
and lump and every line and crease were taken in and relished you can always do it in front of a mirror. Begin with a few
that day. I was reminded of my strength and capabilities and of moments of meditation outdoors, if possible. Use this quiet
the unique splendor that is me. time to focus on forgiveness. Forgive yourself for judging
It was that day that I ritually took the sword and raised it yourself for so many years. When you are ready, stand in front
up as a symbol of my shift in self-perception. I am beautiful, I of the mirror (or body of water) and disrobe. Look closely at
have worth, I am strong, and I am capable of creating positive your beautiful form and thank your body for its strength and
change. I am a warrior queen, I am divine. wholeness. Thank your body for honoring you. When you feel
Now it’s your turn. What is it that you see when you look into ready, raise your staff or sword high into the air and in your
that mirror? own words take back your sovereignty. You are a warrior queen
Remember, to be beautiful doesn’t mean you have to look and no one (not even yourself) can make you believe that you
like a supermodel. And if you’re older, it doesn’t mean trying are not worthy, strong, or beautiful.

A DECORATED STAFF OF POWER

This is a great representation of your own self-worth. After

you use it in ritual, place it somewhere you will see it daily as a
reminder of your warrior queen spirit.

You will need:

A four-to-five-foot stick or branch that you found or was given to you, or a
piece of straight driftwood, or even a wooden dowel from a DIY store
Permanent markers or craft paint (your choice of colors)
Ribbons, yarn, or decorative lace (in a color that is empowering to you)
Wood-burning tool (to burn symbols into the wood)

First, prepare your staff for paint by removing any loose bark
and wiping the wood down with a damp cloth. If you have a
wood-burning tool, you’ll want to burn words or symbols of
power on before adding paint. If you choose, paint your staff with
colors that are an expression of you. After the paint dries, use the
permanent marker to write words of empowerment and to draw
symbols that have meaning to you on your staff. Wrap ribbon,
yarn, or lace around the top of your staff and tie off, leaving twelve
to fourteen inches to hang freely.

Monica Crosson’s latest book is Wild Magical Soul: Untame Your

Spirit & Connect to Nature’s Wisdom. Follow her on Instagram
@monicacrosson.

80 enchantedlivingmag.com
 Diana, The Huntress,
by Guillaume Seignac

Seven Life Lessons From

©Christie's Images / Bridgeman Images

Faerie QueenS
by Susann Cokal
I
t is said that faeries are descended from the old gods who led fallible, morally ambivalent lives long before Christianity tried to
stamp out pagan deities. Or they might be rebel angels who were pushed out of heaven, landing on earth rather than in hell.
Who can say? A faerie queen is seldom just one thing. She is a healer and a killer, a friend and a traitor, a lover and an
exploiter. She murders with one hand and holds the scales of justice with the other. She is righteous in her own mind even when she
does wrong.
Call her a bad good girl or a good bad girl. Use her as an inspiration or a cautionary tale. The faeries are always with us.

Diana of The Metamorphoses In the centuries since Malory, Morgan has become more
The Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt is the original lawless and more popular than ever. In T.H. White’s Once and
faerie queen, reigning over nighttime and the forest. Perhaps the Future King, she finally adds Arthur to her list of sexual conquests,
lone virgin among the gods, she takes swift revenge when she and she becomes largely responsible for placing their child,
feels she’s been slighted. Mordred, on the throne.
Take Actaeon, a fellow hunter, who happens to find Diana So why do we love her? She rejects the rules and she still
bathing in a pond and stays to enjoy the show. (Whether he goes makes a grand gesture at the end.
beyond watching varies according to who tells the tale.) In The Life Lesson: Keep your friends close, your enemies closer,
Metamorphoses, Ovid wrote that the goddess’s nymphs try to shield and your relatives always in sight. Also: Blood really is thicker
her nakedness, but she is too tall to be easily hidden. than water, even bloodstained water.
Her wrath is quick and severe. She scoops up a handful of
water and dashes it in Actaeon’s face, challenging him to Nimue of Arthurian Legend
Tell, if thou can’st, the wond’rous sight disclos’d, Will Merlin never learn to be careful with his apprentices?
A Goddess naked to thy view expos’d. The faerie princess Nimue is not to be confused with the stay-
Actaeon never will be able to boast about what he’s seen. That in-place, waterbound Lady of the Lake, who sometimes goes by
splash transforms him into a stag, and his own dogs chase him the same name. This Nimue rides roughshod through Camelot,
down and tear him viciously apart. proving, as T.H. White wrote, that “love is a trick played on us
Was his punishment too harsh? Did Diana overreact? Ovid’s by the forces of evolution. Pleasure is the bait laid down by the
gods can’t decide. But we can. same. There is only power.”
Life Lesson: Always assume the answer is no until it is Nimue’s first power is her sexuality, and she wields it like a
clearly yes. weapon. Knowing Merlin is utterly besotted, she vamps him
with a classic cycle of flirtation, rejection, and promises. She will
Morgan le Fay of Le Morte D’Arthur bed him; he just has to teach her one more spell … and another
Faerie, witch, healer, ruler of Avalon … seductress, schemer, one … and maybe another … until she, at least, is satisfied.
murderous wife, incestuous sinner … No faerie queen is Once Nimue has had enough, she uses Merlin’s magic against
slipperier than Morgan le Fay. him to trap him in a tree or a cave (choose whatever’s scariest
Early French and British versions of the Arthurian legend to you) and congratulate herself on a job well done. In some
paint Morgan as a kindly figure who heals the sick and protects versions, Merlin doesn’t even mind what she’s done; this prison
the king; only occasionally is she his older sister. But she quickly of love is his happy place.
started to show a more malevolent side, and by the 1200s she Life Lesson: A mortal’s greatest strength might also be his
has become a moral seesaw. In the era’s epic poems, she deals weakness.
out a curse as readily as a blessing, revels in nasty tricks against
Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, and sometimes tries to kill her Gloriana of The Faerie Queene
unsuspecting husband. The primmest of the fae queens, Gloriana is neither schemer
She’s at her wicked best in Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, nor seductress. She is forever fair, aboveboard, and noble in
published in 1485. At last she comes into her own as Arthur’s spirit—but she can still be as sexy as the baddest bad girls, in that
older half-sister and his fiercest enemy. While plotting to seize his I-heart-good-government kind of way. She rules an imaginary
throne, she seduces a good number of Round Table knights and England in an epic allegory designed to please the earthly
apprentices herself to Merlin for more magic, also with sex on Gloriana herself, Queen Elizabeth I.
the side. She even sets her cap at the good Sir Lancelot, though This queen keeps her private life so private that she doesn’t
he sees her black heart and refuses her. even appear on an actual page. And yet she is everywhere, as
Morgan is nothing if not contradictory, and sometimes it’s an army of warriors, sorcerers, and damsels can think of little
for the good. In the end, although she is partially responsible but the virtues that spread around her like a farthingale. While
for Arthur’s titular death, she makes amends. She carries him praising her to the sky, courtiers such as the gallant Redcrosse
away to the afterlife in Avalon, where she will continue to rule Knight and the chaste female warrior Britomart pry evil out of
while tending his wounds. Maybe she just wanted him to love each corner of the kingdom, freeing up Gloriana’s time to work
her all long. on tax laws and stamping out Catholicism. Although we never

82 enchantedlivingmag.com
The Beguiling of Merlin, 1874,
by Edward Burne-Jones
 ©The Fine Art Society, London, UK / Bridgeman Images
Queen Mab, 19th century, by Henry Meynell Rheam

see Gloriana, we know she’s no black-toothed elder, as Elizabeth Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love.
was at the time Spenser was writing. She is luminous enough She’s also the “hag” (his word, not mine) who finds virgins
to seduce Prince Arthur, albeit only in his dreams. Just one hot lying on their backs and “presses them and learns them first to
night of imaginary passion is enough to make him tell the Red bear.” Whether Mercutio thinks this means she teaches sexual
Crosse Knight, pleasure or eases childbirth is up for interpretation.
From that day forth I lov’d that face divine; Little Mab can also be very cruel. If you are already one of
From that day forth I cast in carefull mind those ladies who “straight on kisses dream,” you’ll like as not
To seeke her out with labour, and long tyne, wake up with blistered lips. Or if you’re a soldier, her chariot
And never vowd to rest till her I find. could roll over your neck and bring on nightmares of knives,
This speech may read like a lovelorn excuse for not settling ambushes, and slitting enemy throats.
down to the task at hand—making Camelot—but it’s understood Is it less alarming to know that she’s responsible for those
that Arthur won’t lie with Gloriana again, in dream or deed, annoying mats of hair (elflocks) with which you wake up? Be
until he earns her. She makes him want to be a better man. warned that if you untangle them, you’re inviting bad luck.
Life Lesson: Delegate and inspire. Given the bloody bodies and multiple husbands that Medb/
Mab has left in her wake—sometimes including Oberon, who is
Mab of Romeo and Juliet better known as Titania’s partner—you should think twice about
Teeny-tiny Mab is the faerie queen you’re most likely to breaking out the hairbrush.
encounter, whether in dreams or in person. Blame her for Life Lesson: Personal grooming is just a dream away from
everything from tangled hair to your neighbor’s accident; though murder.
she be but little (to borrow from a different play), she is fierce.
Two thousand years ago, she started out as the cruel, beautiful Titania of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
wolf queen Medb of Irish folklore, all blue eyes and evil Shakespeare’s Titania is the most popular faerie ever to flit
intentions. For Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare shrank the legend across the stage. She is also the most humiliated and the most
down to a prankster in a chariot made of a hollow hazelnut forgiving, after having the ill fortune to fall hard for a bumpkin
and pulled by a gnat. She became the faeries’ midwife, known with the head of an ass.
especially for delivering dreams. When we meet Titania, she and her husband Oberon are in
Mercutio warns Romeo, the midst of a marital spat. Titania has adopted a changeling
… she gallops night by night child, and Oberon wants the lad for his own attendant. She says

84 enchantedlivingmag.com
 Lessons From Faerie Queens
Susann Cokal

he’s jealous. He calls her a wanton. She heads off to take a nap, a marriage.
and he orders Puck to drip faerie juice into her eyes so that she’ll Or is it so happy? Don’t we miss the Snow Queen? Haven’t
fall in love with the first person—or creature—she sees when she we longed for her all the way through? Her absence makes for a
wakes. melancholy twilight of the goddesses, the Götterdämmerung of the
That just happens to be the crude villager Bottom, onto whose faerie queens.
shoulders Puck has grafted a donkey’s head just for laughs. But twilight is brief.
Titania goes all in—loving Bottom the way we all want to be Great faerie queens are born and reincarnated in every era.
loved: Think of C.S. Lewis’s White Witch (a literary daughter of the
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again. Snow Queen), who holds Narnia in perpetual winter until the
Mine ear is much enamored of thy note. Pevensie children take her down. And Mary Poppins, the spit-
So is mine eye enthralléd to thy shape. spot governess with the bottomless carpetbag and a particularly
And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me tough form of tough love: She could give any of the noble
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. faeries a run for her money. Most recently, in graphic novels and
Who could fail to adore a queen who finds beauty in even video games, new versions of Morgan le Fay and Titania have
such a ridiculous creature? As Shakespeare wrote elsewhere in been finding ways to kick mortal ass.
the play, “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.” True, Saintly, wicked, confused, malicious, hypersensitive, and very,
Bottom’s mind is not as fine as Titania’s—but love is love. At very clever—we must have our faerie queens.
least until Oberon grabs the changeling and decides to undo Life Lesson: Childhood ends, but faerie queens do not.
the spell.
When Titania sees clearly again, she is charmingly
N
unashamed of her tryst with Bottom. She laughs at herself and Read an excerpt from Susann Cokal’s latest novel, Mermaid Moon, at
forgives Oberon for his trick, and then all’s well in the forest. enchantedlivingmagazine.com. Visit her online at susanncokal.com.
But there is the lingering problem of that little boy …
Life Lesson: Love with your whole heart.

Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen

Andersen’s longest and yet most simple moral tale is usually
given to children, though he insisted he never wrote for them.
He created a faerie queen out of basic contradictions—she’s
beguiling but not a seductress, a mother figure but not nurturing,
in the title but rarely the action. She’s an enigma clad in snow
who come-hithers a mean little boy named Kai, who rather
deserves her painful kiss and lonely castle.
But once she’s trapped her changeling, she doesn’t even stay
around to gloat; she leaves him trying to solve an endless puzzle
and drives off on a whim to freeze Vesuvius. One can only
speculate about what the volcano’s heat might do to her outfit.
Naturally, we expect a life lesson about accepting rides from
strangers. Let’s take that as read.
Why does the Snow Queen take Kai only to neglect him?
It doesn’t seem to be for the joy of bossing around something
larger than a snowflake or even because, like Titania, she longs
for a child. Maybe it’s just because she can—faerie queens do
love to flex their power. And maybe there is no answer; she
seems to lack the emotions that make faerie queens from Diana
to Morgan le Fay and Titania relatable, if not likable.
The Snow Queen is the cold universe bearing down …
random, godless, capricious.
Until, that is, Kai’s childhood friend finds him and shatters the
enchantment with a mention of Jesus. Kai and Gerda grow up
fast, and the story ends—unusually for Andersen—happily, with

enchantedlivingmag.com 85
Faerie Queen
Beauty
Secrets
BY ALISE MARIE, THE BEAUTY WITCH ™

W ith silent grace she walks the wood by day, then

transforms with the emergence of evening as she
floats through the veil of night—sun and starlight
weaving through her hair, kissing her skin, and dancing in
her eyes. A vision of beauty, she enchants, even as she works
her mischief alongside her magic. Effortless grace, radiance,
charm are her birthright.
And yet, though the queen of the fae always appears
perfect in her natural state, she does get a little help from her
forest friends: The trees extend their branches to her, the
flowers their petals, and the plants their essences to bathe
her in the beauty of nature. Celestial shimmer is naturally
captured within these offerings to give her eternal cosmic
glow, whatever mystical adventures should arise. I’ll let you
in on a little secret: If you get on her good side, she might just
share these potions with you.
Ah! What luck! You have been wonderful, I see! Here they
are, each conjured with love and light from the earth and
the heavens, representing different facets of the gem that is
the faerie queen and resplendent in her powers of beauty
and magic. Enjoy them with delight and abandonment, mes
belles fées.
 Queen Mab’s Potion

Wings by Lights In The Forest

The Titan

Beauty Witch Secret:

You can decant some of
your potion into a small,
travel-size spray bottle
for on-the-go cleansing
or for use as a hydrating
mist whenever you need
to lift your complexion
and your spirit.

Brew La Fay
 The Titan each essential oil, one at a time. As you and absorbs quickly as it provides long-
Cleansing Dew concoct, ask each ingredient for its unique lasting hydration.
Yields approximately 3 ounces magic, feeling and visualizing not only Lavender This treasured flower eases
personal power but the ability to temper inflammation, cleanses, and gently clears
Just like its namesake, this light and it. Infuse your potion with this energy, so away negativity (including blemishes)
seemingly delicate potion is actually a force of that your skin may always be protected while relieving anxiety, negative feelings,
nature. Designed to gently cleanse and tone the from emotional and elemental stresses. and even restlessness. Its magical gifts
face, it keeps balance during seasonal shifts and Last, carefully slice the vanilla bean include protection, love, and peace.
mood swings (ahem, Titania) and generally lengthwise, then gently scrape the tiny Neroli Sweetly scented, solar neroli
disrupts anything that would endanger your black seeds into your potion bottle. Cap keeps the oil in skin balanced and has
precious skin. Use it morning and night, with a it, and swirl vigorously in a clockwise potent antiseptic and regenerative powers.
washable facial pad, followed by your favorite direction. For best results, conjure this at It brings love, luck, and abundance.
serum or crème. It is suitable for all skin types the new moon and set it out in a window Cedarwood This beautiful, solar-
and smells divine. to receive the magic of the evening-into- ruled tree grants protection, abundance,
morning light. With each use, give it a healing, and the capacity for clearing
2 ounces rose water good swirl, as ingredients will settle. negativity. Its beauty magic keeps skin
1 teaspoon jojoba oil Rose Beloved bringer of beauty and youthful while soothing, repairing, and
8 drops lavender essential oil love, exquisite rose provides potent protecting from harmful bacteria.
6 drops neroli essential oil skincare powers and an opening of Vanilla Venusian vanilla is rich in
3 drops cedarwood essential oil psychic awareness. Her magic includes copper, which helps promote collagen and
Seeds of one vanilla bean strength that belies her delicate elastin production. It soothes, protects
appearance. from environmental stresses, and carries
Begin with the rose water in a 3-ounce Jojoba Similar to the skin’s natural an enchanted scent alongside powerful
glass bottle. Add the jojoba oil, then sebum, jojoba balances its production love and beauty magic.

Queen Mab’s Potion so make sure your visions and feelings are an intoxicating aphrodisiac that knows
Body Oil both powerful and optimistic. Add in the a thing about beauty. A brilliant oil for
Yields approximately 3 ounces vitamin E and then the essential oils, one reducing fine lines and strengthening
at a time, harnessing the power of each skin’s elasticity, jasmine also helps fade
For your seductress side, this body oil is not only one. Seal the bottle, and give it a good scars and hyperpigmentation.
potent but is a ritual of sensuality all its own. clockwise swirl. Whether you use it right Vetiver A time-tested witches’ herb,
Use this nightly to repair and fortify your skin all away or wait until the moment is upon vetiver brings luck and abundance, and
over, heighten your dreamtime visions, and inspire you, set it out under the stars overnight. protects that considerable wealth. Its
creativity. Better yet? Use its magic as you prepare You’re going to love this one. earthy, lushly wooded aroma calls in the
for a moonlit rendezvous deep within the enchanted Grape seed Lunar-ruled grape seed is green spirits. It also heals skin and boosts
forest. It leaves your skin irresistibly smooth, soft, rich in vitamins A and C for supreme skin cellular regeneration.
and scented for romantic intrigue. Rose, naturally, support. It moisturizes deeply, protects Patchouli Feminine and earthy,
makes a second appearance here. from damage and moisture loss, reduces patchouli is more than a ubiquitous
fine lines, and improves elasticity. festival oil; it holds strong lust magic! It
2 ounces grape-seed oil Damiana Ruled by fire, lusty damiana also brings forth creativity and abundance
1 piece cut damiana, or 1 teaspoon dried has long been revered by witches as an while providing relaxation, easing
1 teaspoon rose petals aphrodisiac. It elevates your stamina, depressive feelings, and treating dry,
.05 ounces vitamin E enhances mood, and is an excellent tonic irritated skin conditions.
8 drops jasmine essential oil for overworked kidneys. A lesser known Lime Fiery, solar lime brings love and
5 drops vetiver essential oil gift of this sexy plant is its ability to induce protection while helping skin rejuvenate
3 drops patchouli essential oil visions. with vitamin C and antioxidants.
3 drops lime essential oil Vitamin E One of the most effective
Beauty Witch Secret: A few drops
oils in any beauty potion, vitamin E heals
Beneath the full moon, pour grape-seed of this on your face will go a long way
damaged skin, including fine lines and
oil into a glass bottle. Add the damiana as an age-delaying beauty oil. Test it
wrinkles.
and then the roses. You are conjuring a Jasmine Known as the Queen of first on the inside of your forearm, as
lusty, bewitching blend kissed by beauty, the Night (à la Mab), sensual jasmine is ingredients are active.

enchantedlivingmag.com 89
Faerie Queen Beauty Secrets
Alise Marie

Brew la Fay a pot, add the flowers, and slowly heat beautiful flower calms and brings peace. It
Tea to a near boil. When the brew is ready, is a potent relaxation herb that promotes
Per cup add the lemon juice, and strain into your restful sleep.
vessel (though you can certainly leave the Lemon This cheerful lunar fruit
Sometimes even a faerie queen needs her rest. flowers in there if you like). Stir quickly brings love and happiness, lifts the spirit,
With all that healing and shape-shifting, the to dissolve. The brew will fizz wildly at balances pH, and gently detoxifies.
legendary Morgana deserves a recharge, and so first—this is the best sip of all! As you are
do you. Try this restful brew any time you feel drinking, allow the calm to wash over you Beauty Witch Secret: Though
overextended and desiring of a soothing sip. It and settle deep within. Breathe slowly and you will lose the fizz, this can also be
will also help you get the beauty sleep that so deeply as you enjoy it. Now settle into enjoyed as a cold elixir. If you can
often eludes us. your flower bed for the rest you seek. find the magnesium powder with
Magnesium Magnesium is a necessary natural raspberry-lemon flavor, I
1 cup spring water mineral that fights inflammation in the highly recommend!
1 teaspoon magnesium powder body, alleviates depression, detoxifies, and
1 teaspoon chamomile flowers promotes restful sleep.
1 teaspoon passionflowers Chamomile Solar power comes from
Squeeze of lemon gentle chamomile, added here for a Alise Marie is the author of The Beauty
soothing balance for your skin and your Witch’s Secrets: Recipes and Rituals for
As you prepare to unwind for the spirit. Besides its heavenly, calming scent, the Modern Goddess (Llewellyn, April
evening, put the magnesium citrate into a it carries the magic of love and harmony. 2022). Find her at thebeautywitch.com and on
teacup or mug. Pour the spring water into Passion Flower Ruled by Venus, this Instagram @thebeautywitchofficial.

“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,

For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the disheveled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Gustave Doré. Wikimedia Commons

―William Butler Yeats, “The Land of Heart’s Desire”

T hebeautiful.
faerie queens Titania, Queen Mab, and Morgan le Fay were
So beautiful, in fact, that they were virtually impossible to
resist. Titania, Shakespeare’s Queen of the Forest from A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, was fair and angelic-looking. Mab, the midwife, had a wispy, fragile
beauty. And Morgan le Fay, a raven-haired enchantress, had a powerful
dark allure.
All were skilled in the art of concocting potions, unguents, and elixirs from
wild herbs and delicate flowers—favorites like rose, jasmine, chamomile,
cedarwood, lavender, and neroli. And nothing could be more magical than to
use them in a delicately scented floral veil or mist, like the ones below.

Ranavat Royal Tonique Jasmine Hydrating Mist SpaRitual Geranium Cedarwood Hydrating Mist
Jasmine is a white flower with an intoxicating fragrance, Geranium is not only a beautiful bloom; it is a lovely scent.
and jasmine essential oil softens and moisturizes the skin. It Balanced beautifully with the woodsy smell of cedarwood
is also an effective hair conditioner: A few drops of jasmine and a sweet note of vanilla, it is nothing short of sublime.
essential oil mixed with argan or sweet almond oil patted Perfect after the shower: Spray a mist in front of you, walk
through the hair can tame frizz. This mist is transportive— through it, and breathe in.
spray it on the skin for a glow or the hair to coat with a sparitual.com/products/geranium-cedarwood-hydrating-mist
heady scent. ranavat.com/products/royal-tonique —Rosie Shannon

90 enchantedlivingmag.com
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 MoRgan of the FaeRies
Powerful Sorceress, High Priestess, Faerie Queen
By Rona Berg

used to love to wander through the small, winding Country, was such a consistent schemer in her efforts to
streets of Soho, in lower Manhattan, when it was a maneuver her son Gawaine onto Arthur’s throne that she
struggling artists’ enclave years ago. There was a little was pretty much one-dimensional. Viviane, the high priestess
shop I liked to visit; the windows drew me in every time. of Avalon, is bold, sometimes cruel, but nonetheless fairly
The shop’s owner, designer Liliana Casabel, was known for predictable. And the enchanted Lady of the Lake, keeper of
her floaty, ethereal fabrics, draped and cinched in ways that King Arthur’s sword Excalibur is, well, literally submerged
made the wearer feel like a warrior goddess. It was clear that the underwater. Not much to talk about there.
pieces—with names like Oracle Jacket and Gaia Dress—were But Morgan is a complicated, headstrong, fiercely
designed for strong, sexy women who were used to making independent woman, trained to inherit the mantle of high
magic: Imagine a convergence of Wonder Woman, Isadora priestess of Avalon herself. On Avalon, the high priestess
Duncan, Chrissie Hynde, Athena, and the shop’s namesake, channeled the goddess, who oversaw the cycles of nature and
Morgan le Fay, of Arthurian legend. took care of the growth of crops and fields as well as people and
The shop is still in business, and its collections, according to animals. Tremendously skilled in herbal medicine—so much so
its website, are “inspired by a new idea of beauty, oftentimes that there were rumors that she was a witch—Morgan defied her
referencing the mythical.” That is in sync with Morgan le Fay, destiny and left Avalon to live at King Arthur’s Court, showing
who, like the clothes she inspired, was a perfect mix of fairy tremendous courage.
godmother and wicked enchantress. Morgan was cunning, Morgan made choices that were unheard of for a woman in
powerful, vengeful and dark—with black hair and fierce, flashing her time. Whereas most women were married off at fifteen or
eyes. But she was also a faithful and loyal friend, a loving sister, sixteen, Morgan was still single at thirty until she was tricked
and a gifted healer. into marriage. Educated and fearless, she traversed the kingdom
Independent, unpredictable, both good and evil, Morgan is despite the bands of marauding Saxons who were not kind to
still a bit under the radar compared with more famous, light- women traveling alone. She was sexually liberated, choosing
bearing faerie queens like Titania and Queen Mab. But she is in liaisons with the most desirable men at the court without
the legendary pantheon of powerful women who haunted—and shame or remorse. And she was full of contradictions: morally
enchanted—men throughout history with Eve, Circe, Medea, compromised yet fervently loyal to the Goddess; in love with Sir
Lady Macbeth. Yet she hasn’t quite gotten her due. Lancelot but willing to use the dark arts to move him out of the
Morgan was a powerful sorceress, a necromancer, and way if she couldn’t have him; able to use her skill with “herbs
a high priestess of Avalon, which was home to an ancient and simples” for good and evil; accused of plotting to murder
female-centric religion that worshipped a powerful goddess and Merlin; and bearer of a son with Arthur, her own half-brother.
predated the Druids. Avalon was a world shrouded in mist, an Morgan had been raised in worship of the matriarchal
alternate dimension, invisible to those without the Sight. Morgan Mother Goddess, who dates back well over 8,000 years. With
inherited the gift of Sight, handed down through generations this strong female deity behind her, she never felt the need to
of women: her aunt Viviane, the high priestess of Avalon; her buckle before men. The Mother Goddess figures that have
mother Igraine; her grandmother; and back through the ages. survived from the Paleolithic times represent the power within
When she trained her Sight on it, Morgan could see the future. women to create and nourish life. But in King Arthur’s time,
She was by far the most interesting woman in King Arthur’s the idea of a strong female deity was at odds with the spread of
Court, which stretched well beyond Camelot into the outlying Christianity, which gave power to men and worshipped the male
kingdoms in the British Isles. Guinevere, Arthur’s wife and God and Jesus Christ. Unlike the paternalistic Christianity of
Lancelot’s love, was beautiful but a bit of a blonde milquetoast. the day, Morgan’s religion—and the legend of Avalon—elevated
Igraine was intelligent and gifted with the Sight but still women and put them in positions of leadership and power,
subservient to her husband Uther Pendragon, father to Morgan’s while Christian priests considered women weak, inferior, evil,
half-brother Arthur. (More on this later, it gets complicated!) or unclean. Christians regarded Goddess worship and Druidic
When Uther died, Igraine was swept away on a wave of grief religion, with their strong connection to the natural world, as
so unfathomable that she chose to, as Shakespeare would say, pagan. Though the word was intended as an insult, the followers
“Take thee to a nunnery.” And so off she went. of the old ways did not take it as such.
Morgan’s aunt Morgause, wife of King Lot in the North Morgan, like Merlin, Arthur, and Viviane, believed the two

92 enchantedlivingmag.com
“ ‘Morgan’ was not a name, but the title of a priestess, meaning no more than ‘Woman come
from the sea,’ in a religion which even the Merlin of Britain would have found a legend, and
the shadow of a legend.” —The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

Morgan-le-Fay, 1863-64,
by Frederick Sandys
Morgan of the Faeries
Rona Berg

religions could co-exist and, in fact, overlap. There are more

than a thousand examples of “ring stones” or “stone circles”
that survive in the British Isles, where Morgan’s Goddess
religion held rites. These circles were considered sacred
spaces, whose stones were often aligned to the sun or moon.
Stonehenge and Craigh na Dun, the fictional stone circle in
Outlander, are examples. In the French Alps, these are known as
pagan gardens.
In The Mists of Avalon, Morgan “recalled what Lancelet had
said in his despair, that there were neither Gods nor Goddess,
but these were the shapes mankind gives, in terror, to what they
cannot make into reason.” Morgan knew that “whether the
Goddess took the form they thought, or whether the Goddess
was only another name for the great unknown of nature,” it
represented “the way of life and thought to which she was
pledged” and which she had deserted. “She had forsaken the
great tides and rhythms of the earth.”
Morgan lived in one of the most brutal and barbaric periods
in the world’s history. War was a constant, and the Saxons from
the north could be counted on to sack and pillage the villages.
No wonder they needed magic in those days. For good or evil,
magic, at least, represented hope. Yet in legend, a code of
The Death of King Arthur, 1860, chivalry and honor ruled the lands. And anyone who has not
by James Archer been enchanted by the tales of brave knights and fair ladies; of
tournaments, heraldry and jousts; of the pageantry and honor
of the brave Knights of the Round Table, is really missing out.

The Moss Goddess In Sir Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, a 15th century
version of the Arthurian legend (retold in a modern edition by
Gerald J. Davis that is worth checking out), Morgan le Fay is
Magic wands, make-up brushes, paint brushes & said to be “as fair as any Lady may be.” Of Morgan, Mallory
other enchanted creations by The Moss Goddess writes that “she learned so much of enchantments that she
was a great scholar of Necromancy.” But in his portrayal, she’s
placed squarely in the camp of evil: betrayer of Arthur, her
half-brother and high King.
We don’t know whether King Arthur really existed or if
Morgan le Fay was as legend describes her. Scholars are
not sure whether such questions can even be answered. But
archaeologists have dug up artifacts at Tintagel, said to be the
birthplace of King Arthur, which include jewelry, artifacts,
tableware, and other potential evidence that it was inhabited at
the time when legend places the Knights of the Round Table
there. That is, we know for certain that someone lived there,
and it may as well have been King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Sir
Gawaine, Guinevere—all the gallant knights and fair ladies.
And Arthur’s sister, Morgan le Fay, would have been there
too, making life a lot more interesting, and paving the way for
Photography by
@egenskiphotos strong women. Whether or not the historical record preserves
it, I’d like to believe her magic was real.

themossgoddess.com | @themossgoddess N
Follow Rona Berg on Instagram @ronaberg.

94 enchantedlivingmag.com
Two Swans, circa 1875, by Walter Crane. Wikimedia Commons

Étaín
My Personal Journey With a Forgotten Faerie Queen
by Grace Nuth

ou would be forgiven for not knowing her name. She with no memory of who she’d been before.

Y isn’t Morgan le Fay or fair Titania. In fact, we could

find only one artwork depicting the faerie queen Étaín
to illustrate this article. But she is a faerie queen all the same and
Midir, burning with love for his beloved, searched through
land and sky for where she might have gone and finally found
her in her mortal body. But this was not before many years had
the one whose story is dearest to my heart. passed, and she had been married to a king, Eochu Airem.
Who can say why one character from myth speaks to our Midir then came to Tara to challenge Eochu to a game of
hearts more than any other? Some would follow the Morrigan fidchell, a Celtic game similar to chess. The two kings, mortal
into battle without a thought; others feel their hearts stir at the and disguised faerie, played their first game, and Midir gambled
thought of Diana. I first heard the story of Étaín from a self- a fine group of horses. That night, Midir came to Étaín in
proclaimed bard when I was in my early 20s, almost two decades her dreams, whispering to her of his love and of her true and
ago. Whatever magic awakens when a person first hears of the forgotten form as a queen of faerie. The next day, the kings
mythic archetype who will be their guide for life, I felt it then. played another game, and on it went, with Eochu proposing
Étaín first appears in Tochmarc Étaíne, or “The Wooing of outlandish stakes and Midir intentionally losing and performing
Étaín,” a story in the Irish mythological cycle. As for the magical feats like building walls and forts for the mortal king
pronunciation of her name, I have heard numerous suggestions overnight each time. And each night, Midir would come to Étaín
ranging from “Eh-tayne” (how I usually say it) to “Aydeen” to in her dreams, as she slowly began to remember the truth of
“Eh-thayne.” who she was.
Once there was a faerie king by the name of Midir, who fell Finally, Midir went to Eochu for one final game, and the stakes
in love with Étaín. He made her his wife and they were very were seemingly simple on his part. If Midir won, he could claim
happy together, but his first wife, Fuamnach, was furious about one embrace from the queen, Étaín. Of course, the king agreed,
their union. She turned Étaín into a pool of water, from which having won many previous rounds, but this time Midir showed
emerged Étaín transformed into a fly. The fly remained with his prowess and claimed his prize. The furious Eochu insisted
Midir until Fuamnach conjured a storm, which blew Étaín away that the embrace occur in his throne room, and when the day to
and buffeted her on its winds, nearly breaking her. After years of claim the prize arrived, Midir found the castle surrounded and
fighting the winds, she landed near the faerie Aengus, who made guarded by Eochu’s soldiers to prevent Midir from escaping with
her a little bower in which to rest. This respite, however, was Étaín after he claimed his rightful prize.
short, since Fuamnach again found her and conjured another Midir walked up to Étaín, and she recognized him and knew
wind, torturing her with exhaustion until she landed in the wine her own truth. When he embraced her, she kissed him, and the
glass of a mortal queen. The queen drank from the glass and two transformed into a pair of swans, flying up to a tall window
became pregnant with Étaín, who was reborn in mortal form in the chamber and away, back to their kingdom.

enchantedlivingmag.com 95
Étaín
Grace Nuth

The myth continues from They Rose Up in the Air by Stephen Reid truthfully that I don’t think I would
here, and alas, there is not a want to. Faeries are not about
happy ending. But the tale I have proof but possibility. They stand in
recounted here compelled me from the liminal place where questions
the moment that I heard it—the aren’t answered. But there is
wooing of Étaín, the love story. Of always this hiraeth for those of us
course there are some problems who feel it when we hear their
with this myth when one looks at stories or sense them near—this
it with a modern eye. Fuamnach vague and bittersweet pang of
is cast as the villain in the piece remembering, though the details
when she is rather like a Hera may slip through our grasp like fog.
character to Midir’s Zeus, the first Étaín is the archetype of hiraeth
wife who actually has every right for me. I can feel her yearning
to her anger. But just as Callisto, for a life she’s never known,
Demeter, and other goddesses—all imagine how she might have cried
unwitting “other women” who sometimes when light fell in a
©The Stapleton Collection / Bridgeman Images

caught Zeus’s eye—are still beloved certain way or laughed without

by many, so Étaín is beloved to understanding why. I had my own
me. But not for her love story. experience of this feeling when
Étaín herself pulls at my heart I went to a concert a year or so
for another reason, which can be after I first heard Étaín’s story. The
explained with a Welsh word that musician was Tori Amos, a fire-
has no English equivalent: hiraeth. haired pixie siren whose music had
Hiraeth means a longing for helped guide me through my teen
a home that no longer exists years. I sat in my seat as she wove
or never was. It is the term her spell throughout the concert,
for an inexplicable bittersweet and I cheered and laughed with
melancholy when we smell everyone else. But then she came
something and it conjures a back for a final encore, and she
memory not our own or not quite played a song I’d never heard
graspable, or see the shadows fall before. The name of the song was
across the trees in the woods in a “Etienne,” a name with a different
way that breaks our heart and we just don’t know why. What origin from my faerie queen but a very similar sound.
must it have been like, I’ve asked myself for almost two decades Amos sat down at the piano, feet bare, and began to sing.
now, to be Étaín, only knowing her one mortal life until Midir “Etienne, Etienne, hear the west wind whisper my name.
came into her dreams and reminded her of who she had been Etienne, Etienne. By the morning maybe we’ll remember who
before? What turmoil of longing and confusion must she have I am.” It felt like I didn’t breathe for the entire song. The tears
felt? This detail of Midir appearing in her dreams is not found fell silently down my face as the last notes echoed from the keys
in the original manuscript but has been added over the years and and the audience cheered and began to leave. My concert date
become a part of her mythos. To me, it is the most important turned to me and was shocked to see my expression. I didn’t
part. stand up until the concert hall was almost empty.
When I think of faeries, I feel this same sort of longing. “Maybe we’ll remember who I am.” Perhaps. And perhaps
Sometimes, those of us who love faeries are asked a question in not. But I wouldn’t trade this hiraeth, this yearning, for all the
interviews or candid conversation: “But do you really believe in objective knowledge in the world. Étaín is my faerie queen,
them?” For me, the answer is absolutely yes. I believe in them and she reminds me of what it’s like to remember without
both on the literal physical level and as a magical concept. remembering, to yearn for a place I’ve never seen.
But the main reason I believe in faeries is hiraeth. When I read
their stories or feel their magic in the woods, I feel this hiraeth, vwx
and I relish it. The important thing is not whether faeries are Grace Nuth is a writer, artist, and model living in central Ohio with her
objectively real. This is why when the first question is often husband, black cats, and a garden full of fairies. She is also co-author of
followed by a second, “Have you ever seen one?” I answer The Faerie Handbook. To follow her projects, please visit gracenuth.com.

96 enchantedlivingmag.com
 Photography by
MARSHA STECKLING
Model SHARRON ROADS
 VERONICA VARLOW

Y
ou, dear darling reader, have been the dark-edged Morgan le Fay, immortal power and saved themselves.
enchanted by your own faerie queen. queen of the fae, who was described Right now, as your eyes read these
Whether she lives inside you or exists in tales as a sorceress, a witch, and an words, there is an electricity within you
as an influence in your world, her spirit enchantress. that buzzes with your own power. It is
is what lures you to wrap your fingers Many childhood fairy tales featured your own life force, your own sorcery,
around the covers of this very magazine princesses that needed saving, damsels in your very own unique magick. It is the
and devour the pages. Perhaps at school, distress, and girls wandering by mistake. truth, and you know it is the truth, and
you tiptoed into Shakespeare’s world This was not so for the faerie queens, in this power lies something within you
with the sole purpose of meeting the not for the witches, not for the likes of that shares a common thread with the
golden-haired Titiania, the queen of the sorceress and the enchantress. No. enchantments of the greatest faerie
faeries, or perhaps you were lured by These powerful females stood in their queens. Within you lies a powerful
magick that belongs to you and you
alone, and on nights when you tilt
your head back to stand in the ghostly
illumination of the moon, something
inside you unlocks and whispers your
own legend.
I know this to be true because faerie
queens arrive in all forms, and they
enchant our lives and become part of
us, and it is our responsibility to then
enchant others and pass that powerful
magick on, so that the spirit of the faerie
queen lives on immortal.
I pass on these words of encouragement
and magick because they were taught to
me by my own version of a faerie queen,
my Grandma Helen! If you’re a regular
reader of my column, you recognize
that name, and in fall of this year, my
book Bohemian Magick will be released,
spilling all the secrets of Grandma
Helen’s magick and spells that she
raised me with. Grandma Helen’s
presence radiated with the energy of
a true faerie queen as her magick was
rooted in the enchantments of the forest
and nature. Here’s a spell for getting
secret messages from trees that she
taught me, that I would like to pass on
to you. I added a special incantation
that I wrote for the ritual, so that my
Grandma Helen’s magick and my
magick is combined!

98 enchantedlivingmag.com
Dreaming With Trees
Before beginning this ritual, it will help to get in touch
with your inner faerie queen. Adornment magick works
wonders and will help you walk into an enchanted world.
Adornment magick is simply wearing or decorating yourself
with purpose for your ritual. What makes you feel beautiful?
Do you have a flower crown that you adore? Or perhaps a
special amulet, like a bracelet, ring, or necklace that holds
meaning to you? Perhaps just by the simple act of painting
your nails a shimmering bold color will do. I love to put on
my red velvet hooded cloak that my witch sister, designer
Vanessa Mercedes, made for me. Whatever you put on, do it
with intention, as clothing, jewelry, and adornments add to
your enchantment.
Begin by going on a silent walk in the woods or a local
park. Allow yourself to slip into the mindset of imagination
that came so easily to you as a child. The dress-up of your Corkies by Steph
adornment magick should help you with that! When you are
ready, stamp your right foot down three times on the earth.
Handcrafted Cork Creations
Place your feet powerfully shoulder-width apart on the m
ground and imagine strong roots growing out of the bottom
of your feet. Hold your arms up like strong branches etsy.com/shop/CorkiesBySteph
growing to the sky. Say the following aloud three times with Follow on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest
your voice increasing from a whisper the first time to a [email protected]
powerfully voiced incantation by the third time:

“Oak, willow, birch, and elm

I knock on the door of the faerie realm DIVINATION with
On this walk, I ask the faerie queen
To enchant my nights with a magick dream, the SACRED HAGS
Gift me a stick, or a fallen piece of bark,
To open secret worlds when the sky grows dark,
A gift from the trees to place under my pillow at night,
To give me strength and power and second sight.”

Finish by saying, “See it. Be it. So be it!” Then clap your

hands loudly once and hold your hands out as if the spell is
being cast like a wide net from your fingertips.
Keep your eyes open and your senses alert. The right
fallen piece of bark or stick shall call to you. Take it home,
and sleep with it beneath your pillow for seven days straight.
Write down the magickal dreams and communication
you receive from the wise tree. At the end of the seven
days, return the piece of tree to the forest or turn it into a “This epic oracle deck will empower you to reclaim
powerful wand, just like a faerie queen would! your divine heritage via the power of the Sacred Hag.”
N
creatrix of The Girl God anthologies
Veronica Varlow’s book Bohemian Magick will be released in the
autumn of 2021 by HarperDesign—and packed with secret spells and
rituals passed down from Grandma Helen. Read more about Veronica
Varlow’s Witch Camp and Love Witch Tarot School on lovewitch.com. www.newworldlibrary.com
Find her on Instagram @veronicavarlow.

enchantedlivingmag.com 99
 Raiment for a
FaeRie QueeN
BY CAROLYN TURGEON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELIZABETH ELDER

hat better way to end an an homage to faerie queens than with a

W magical, glittering queen riding on a unicorn? In fact, when said queen

(model Courtney Allegra) and her enchanted helpers—photographer
Elizabeth Elder, gown designer JoEllen Elam Conway (a.k.a. Firefly
Path), and headdress designer Caley Johnson (a.k.a. Miss G Designs)—gathered in
a park near San Diego to capture these images, a group of hikers crossed their path
and one little girl ran ahead of the group not believing her eyes. We imagine that
humans have always felt this way when coming upon queens in the forest, and luckily
(or unluckily) for the little girl, this benevolent queen did not snatch her away like the
queens of myth and instead left some of her faerie magic behind.
Every faerie queen needs a crown, you included. For this queen, Johnson imagined
something light and airy and whimsical. A unicorn-riding queen especially would need
a crown she could wear while jumping on and off her steed and flitting through forest
pathways, something with wings (by HelloFaerie). When she saw Elam’s inspiration
fabric, a gorgeous beaded pink trim, she knew she wanted to have sparkle and made a
wreath-style crown with crystals hanging down the front.
To make your own crown, she suggests fashioning some crafting foam into a wreath
that fits your head and then deciding what kind of faerie you want to be: What is your
magic? Are you a more earthy queen, with moss and mushrooms on your crown? Or a
more decadent one, all about crystals and sunshine? And then get out your glue gun
and go wild. Her reason for making headpieces—extravagant and wonderful—comes
from a place of pure joy: Anyone at all can wear them and feel amazing. “No matter
your age, sex, or body shape, there is a headdress for you,” she says. “You can put one
on and say, ‘I’m a badass.’ You just become magical.”
Elam has advice too for nourishing your inner faerie queen. “It can be difficult to
feel like a faerie queen,” she says, “with the state of the world right now. But when I
put effort into small things, it gives me a boost of magic and escapism.” Among those
things are filling her home and studio with beautiful creations and having fresh flowers
and candles. She’s even decided to make drinking water beautiful: “Lately, I’ve been
cutting star fruit and freezing the slices, then adding them and raspberries into my
flavored sparkling water, a faerie flourish to a daily necessity.”
And sometimes she’ll wear her elf ears on a rare trip to the grocery store. “The
reactions are mixed between confusion and delight,” she says. “But this is for me, not
them! I choose these tiny details to spark a little magic in my life.”
Perhaps you might take some inspiration from these images and this issue and
embrace some faerie queen magic, whether by festooning your drinks with fruit or
donning a magical headdress or pair of elf ears when venturing into the word at large.
As Elam asks, “What little fantasy choices keep you dreaming and moving forward?”

Follow photographer Elizabeth Elder on Instagram @emackphoto. Find model Courtney Allegra
on Instagram @itscourtneyallegra. Visit the designers on Instagram—Firefly Path @fireflypath,
Miss G Designs @missgdesigns, and wing maker L Marie @hellofaerie.
 Mary Jane Ansell
Floralia II
2020. Oil on Aluminium
20 inch diameter

This Year's Enchanted Living Award Winner

The Art Renewal Center (ARC) Salon is the largest competition in the world for representational art, receiving
approximately 5,000 entries from eighty-three countries this past year. We at Enchanted Living are excited to showcase this oil
painting by Mary Jane Ansell, Floralia II, which is lush and undoubtedly faerie queen-esque and the winner of ARC’s special
Enchanted Living Award for 2021. “Floralia II and the series of works she comes from has been such a joy to work on,” Ansell
says, “especially during the uncertainty and upset of the last year. I know I am not alone in finding huge comfort in nature
more than ever during this period, and I’ve found myself increasingly welcoming its beauty into my work.”
The 15th International ARC Salon Exhibition, consisting of approximately 100 works from the competition, will first open
at Sotheby’s NY this July and then travel to the European Museum of Modern Art, in Barcelona, from October 8 to December
12, 2021. The Art Renewal Center will be accepting entries for its next Salon competition from November 1, 2021, through
February 16, 2022.

enchantedlivingmag.com 105
 �FRom our

Illustrations ©Guinevere von Sneeden

REaDERs
For this issue we asked our readers:
How do you make yourself feel like a faerie queen?

I love Queen Titania, so Making dandelion crowns with my baby girl, wearing gold shimmer on my eyes,
I find ways to incorporate drinking flower tea, and learning fairy tales by heart. —Jessica Pritchard
elements into my daily
routine that draw on the
Taking long walks in the forest in I feel like a faerie queen when festival
legends surrounding Titania,
the early morning when there’s season starts! All year long I am a
like honey-hued nails and
still a thin layer of mist clinging regular human, but as festival season
gossamer fabrics. I always
to the ground. Being alone approaches my creative juices start
imagine that she really
with the trees and the flurry of flowing and my faerie alter ego itches
enjoyed things from India, so
activity among the fauna makes to come out. I love creating my new
I often make Indian food too.
me feel privy to another ___domain, costume for the upcoming season,
—Jennifer Zahra Zeaiter
in between one world and and it is so rewarding to see the
another. —Clodagh Johnston vision in my mind come to life. The
How do I make myself feel like ultimate feel-good moment is the
those all-powerful, super magical
The multisensory experience: Forest
reaction I get when I unveil my faerie
ladies of lore? By reading. I read
books set in fantastical worlds throw over the quilt, houseplants, queen alter ego at festival. There is
in which strong fiery woman set lush music, spicy teas, and lots of no better feeling in the world to me.
forth on adventures, traveling layers of earthy colors, even if I’m —@ forest_fairy_20
across magical lands filled with just at home. Spoil yourself, just for
the strange and wild, overcoming you. —@blackmoonbellydance Glitter! —Paula Kilpatrick
challenges and emerging
victorious. I immerse myself I enter the room with magical forest music playing in my back pocket, throw
completely and empathize so sparkly sequins all over the floor, and then tell my fiancé that he is a good loyal
strongly with a beloved female subject! —@hellyblossom
heroine that for a short time, she
is me. —Rhiannon Hartley When I am restless and seek enchantment, I feel like a faerie queen when I put
I go out to dance upon grass with my on a pretty dress or outfit for no
Wearing an ensemble that makes lovely silver dance wings. As I spin and other reason than to feel pretty and
me feel connected to the element whirl, they make beautiful curved paths good about myself, and handmade
of air (to feel as free and light as in the air, and they catch the winds and
jewelry that holds a special meaning
these winged beings), luxuriating glitter in the sunlight. They make me
to take with me wherever I go.
in the outdoors with a picnic, feel wild and fierce, part of nature and
some enchanted reading at peace. —Helen Marsden —@art.of.jen
material, and sprightly Celtic
music. It is vital to wear slip-on I am writing a novel about a faerie queen, and to channel her energy, I like to put
shoes for maximum skin to earth on my flower crown. I won it at the Renaissance Faire for my fiftieth birthday, so
connection! —@moonpagan.magick you know it must be magic! —Kimberly Bea

I love alone time in nature! On a hike, in a flower field, paddling out on a surf board ... but I also
feel like a faerie queen through small acts of kindness toward Mother Earth! For example, when I
help reorient a lost turtle who is in the middle of the road going away from his home in the pond.
—@seafairysarah
R ead all about fairies, mermaids, and unicorns in this dazzling
trilogy from the team at Enchanted Living. These stunning
compendiums cover fashion and beauty; arts and culture; and home,
food, and entertaining with step-by-step crafts and recipes.

Available at EnchantedLivingMag.com and wherever books are sold.