Azhdaya Botanicals

Azhdaya Botanicals Custom Aromatherapy Blends & Natural Perfumes My physical brick & mortar space in Salinas is closed . . .

However, you can still find my products & services at my Etsy Shop:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/AzhdayaBotanicals

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06/20/2025

Good morning beautiful people.

Woken up thinking about our wonderful reiki share last night.

It's a beautiful group where we all send group healing to people who request it and then healing to each other.

Last night there were so many angels, guides, Ascended Masters and a new guide that came through for someone. Oh and faeries, dragons and unicorns.

Beautiful energy healing received alongside power messages. I just love it.

If you'd like to join us in a future one I hold it online, every 2nd Tues of the month

Mentioning faeries too, I'm holding a powerful evening of Abundance to connect with the Faeries this Tuesday!

There will healing, meditation and an abundance activation come join us on International Fairy Day. Message For details.

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday today.

Sarah Joanne
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06/20/2025

Good morning beautiful people, tonight and tomorrow faeries will be celebrating everywhere across the land to celebrate the solstice. It officially happens at 3.42am Saturday morning but the party starts tonight and continues until tomorrow night into early Sunday.

Below is one of my favourite faery paintings and I like to think this is how they'll all look from tonight celebrating with the faery queen.

Tell me do you believe?
Have you ever had a faery encounter?
Maybe you believed as a child then came to believe it was literally a faery tale and not real.

They are as real as you and me and there has never been a more powerful time to connect with them.

Come join me on International Fairy Day on Tuesday to for an evening of Abundance with the Faeries.

There will be healing, meditation and an abundance activation.

Message me to book or check out the link tagged in this post 💖🧚‍♂️.

If your in the UK like me enjoy Solstice Eve and the beautiful weather 🌞

Wishing you a fabulous Friday.

Sarah Joanne
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06/20/2025

Good morning beautiful soul.

What a powerful week ahead, its the week of the summer solstice a powerful time to connect with the fairy kingdom.

Then next Tuesday its international fairy day too!

This time of year more than any other you are more likely to experience a faery sighting or receive a sign.

🧚‍♀️Do you believe in the Faery Realm?

🧚‍♂️Would you love to connect with them?

Connecting with the faeries can be an amazing co-creative experience as we support them and they support us.

Next time you're out in nature this week say hello to the fae, let them know you'd like to know them and show you are serious by leaving a silver coin or picking up some rubbish and taking it home to recycle.

The faeries are protectors of our planet and love it when we help too.

If you'd like to connect deeper with the faeries and increase the abundance in your life.

Then join me a week tomorrow for Abundance With The Faeries 7.30pm-9pm. Check out the event tagged in this post.

Wishing you a beautiful Monday and week ahead. 💖🧚‍♀️

Sarah Joanne
X

06/20/2025

"We all have an amazing gift to present. The heart space is the source of this genius. To go to the heart center is to go to the stillness that connects us all and where all information is present. From there, the brain and the intellect can interpret and apply it in a beautiful way. The heart is the fundamental space for our evolution. The heart is the place from which our society will transcend our current difficulties."
- Nassim Haramein

Image:

06/20/2025
In honor of upcoming Fairy Day (6/24) . . .
06/20/2025

In honor of upcoming Fairy Day (6/24) . . .

The Secret Fire of Faeries and Spirits.



After Christianity became the dominant religious paradigm, faeries and spirits of place developed a more sinful origin in folklore, and a spiritual context influenced by a monotheistic point of view.
The new ambiguity of their status meant that the good people occupied a type of neutral space between something that could benefit and something that could harm, but now those outcomes were more simply defined as good and evil.
The sidhe, depending on who you asked, might be agents of either side.
From the Christian perspective, faeries were seen as existing in a type of ‘not quite evil enough for hell, not quite good enough for heaven’ state.
Many Christian stories explained the faeries as fallen angels who had rebelled against god but then regretted their actions.


After the 16th century the church seemed quite content with promoting the idea that faeries were diminutive sprites emanating from the imagination of children and superstitious elements of the rural population. Much like the takeover of pagan sacred sites, the cloaking of older folkloric beliefs and animism subjugated fairies, ancestors and spirits to newer Christian saints and holy powers.
Miracles and relics began to replace amulets and cures. Ancestors, once venerated and considered part of the otherworld, became more dangerous spectres, perhaps caught in a twilight limbo between heaven and hell, much like the Christian view of faeries themselves.
Personal experiences and encounters with faeries took on sinister connotations and a person might be considered evil or a witch for speaking about such matters.

A comparable and perhaps notorious anecdote relating to this is that of the Rev Robert Kirk who was a Scottish scholar and clergyman. Kirk’s book The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies was published in 1691 and collected many instances of encounters with faeries and provided instructions on how best to avoid or, indeed, make contact with them.
However, at this time the Inquisition was still in full force across Europe so Kirk’s interest in what many perceived to be Demonic entities placed him at odds with many of his own religious colleagues.

Some, in fact, speculated that Kirk himself might be a changeling sent by the devil in order to corrupt the faith of his parishioners and to lead them back to ancient pagan ways.
The fact that Kirk was also a seventh son, according to some sources, lent him an aura of the otherworldly, as this was a particular sign of association with second sight and affiliation with the faery folk.
Of course, the supposed fate of Kirk was another warning to those who might try to dabble in the old ways and venture to places associated with faeries.
One summer evening, Kirk, while out walking, collapsed and died upon a faery hill.
Or so it seemed.

In the days following his funeral, a cousin of Kirk’s had a strange dream in which the reverend pleaded with him to rescue him from faeryland. Kirk told his cousin in the dream that he was not dead at all but was in a magical swoon caused by his supernatural captors. Kirk had promised his cousin that he would be able to appear for just one moment at the baptism of his child and when this occurred his cousin was to throw a ceremonial knife over his apparition.
This would have the effect of releasing Kirk from the faeries’ spell.

At the baptism, Kirk was true to his word and appeared in the doorway of the church.
Alas, his cousin was so shocked at seeing this ghostly apparition that he forgot the instructions about the knife and Kirk remained cursed.
He then vanished, doomed to live in faeryland for eternity.

Was Kirk really taken by the faeries he had spent his later life documenting or did he die a natural death only to have his passing used as a way to propagandise the evils and dangers of pagan ways?
Local folklore posits that Kirk’s coffin was interred empty or, in other versions, full of stones. Rev. William M. Taylor popularised this belief by writing that people of the time believed Kirk had been physically captured by the faeries because he had been, “…prying too deeply into their secrets."


Dr. Jeffey Kripal has also written about this ancient acknowledgment of the danger inherent in contacting gods and spirits. Perhaps the most famous example in this context is when Moses is instructed to tell his followers to stand back from the mountain when Yahweh appears as it will result in their death as these excepts demonstrate.
“And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.” Exodus 19:1: 13.
“On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.” Exodus: 19: 1: 19.

An odd consequence of his time in the presence of God is that Moses must then wear a veil as his face is ‘shining’ and disturbs those who see him.
“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” Exodus 34:29: 4.

Returning to Robert Kirk, and his description of the interior of fairy mounds we discover that he wrote, "Their ‘places’ are large and fair, and unless at some odd occasions are unperceivable by vulgar eyes. Have continual Lamps, and Fires, often seen without Fuel to sustain them."
Is Kirk speaking about the same phenomenon which created a fire on Mt .Sinai?

Looking at a quick and odd similarity to the Irish legend of the blind druid Mog Ruith, we are told that he flew in a machine called an oared wheel named Roth Ramach.
It was said that inside the wheel night was as bright as day and it could blind those who looked at it and deafen those who heard it.

Considering previous posts which discussed the relationship between the colored lights, rainbows, and the appearance of shining beings, perhaps there is also a connection to actual mechanisms of otherworldly manifestation.

(C.) David Halpin.

Photo Credit: Alex Stoddard.

https://www.instagram.com/alexbstoddard

06/20/2025

Summer Solstice and Midsummer Folklore.

As we know from previous posts, for many cultures around the world midsummer’s eve is a time when fairies and spirits are said cross more easily into the human world.
One famous piece of writing which brought this liminal time to wider attention is William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Nights Dream, whose characters include both the king of the fairies, Oberon, and the fairy queen, Titania.

In the 8th century, the writer, Bede, included a list of old Anglo-Saxon names for the pagan festivals and months, including the name Litha for midsummer.
Today, some pagans and witches use this name to refer to the summer solstice as part of the wheel of the year.

As far as traditional folklore is concerned, observing the time of midsummer and the solstice draws attention to the cyclical nature of life and time. The fairy lore and spiritual aspects allow people to see beyond these earthly bonds and into the realm of eternity and timelessness.
Of course, there was also a connected magical element to the fires lit on midsummer as they banished bad luck and evil spirits: this is a time when a person might inadvertently cause offence to the good people without even realising it.
The wearing of flowers in a persons hair and hanging garlands upon doorways was a way to thwart bad luck in this respect.

In Irish lore the cycle of life is often represented by turning, spinning and circular motion.
There are many other variants of this custom of making wishes while walking in a circle. Sometimes people walked around a fire or a well but in other cases it might be a fairy tree or wooden pole.
Another custom in the same vein is where a person would walk around the midsummer bonfire three times holding a stone in their hand and whispering a wish they wanted to come true to themselves.
Then, after the last loop they threw the pebble into the flames.

In some Scandinavian countries a type of decorated Maypole is the central focus of the dancing and rituals.
When you look at the mythology of spider-goddesses, spinning and webs you also notice these archetypal patterns.
I would recommend Barbara Tedlock’s excellent book, The Woman in the Shaman’s Body, for more on this.
I have a short video review I recorded here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4DT_ikxxac

Another circular motif used at this time of the year is a sunwheel. Depending upon where you live these may take the form of huge balls of straw or tangles of wood which are set on fire and rolled down a hill at sunset.
The ashes of the sunwheel were then used to protect homes and animals from evil spirits.
A similar fire custom which includes prophecy is jumping over the bonfire with your love. If you let go their hand during the jump the relationship was said to be doomed, though!

An interesting form of divination used in Northern Europe at midsummer is one where young girls float garlands containing their wishes, either whispered to the flowers or written on paper, on the surface of a river or lake. Depending on how the garland moves or whether it sinks was said to predict the outcome of the request.
Some versions of this custom say you are not meant to look at the garland or even go back to the offering as you are handing your wishes to the gods, goddesses and spirits to determine.

I think there is probably a connection here to the tradition of placing problems on a rag tree and allowing the material to deteriorate in the hope that the problem will too.
You can also notice similarities to various Irish practices at Holy Wells in this custom.
The circling and water rituals carried out at Holy Well’s, which, of course, were old pagan sites long before they were Christianised have that same context of leaving things in the hands of higher powers.
In fact, for many in Ireland today, midsummer is more associated with St. John, and many of the ancient pagan practices and lore have either been forgotten or ‘updated’ with Christian names and themes.
It's strange to sometimes hear people refer to some of the oldest customs as 'neo-pagan' when they have such an ancient lineage

Fire, prophecy, fairies, ancestors and feasting are the motifs that run through all of the lore associated with this time of the year.
We find parallels between South American customs and Russian lore, Irish traditions and those of North American indigenous tribes. It really is a treasure trove of comparative archetypes.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/summer-soltice-history-around-world/

You can also notice some similarities to the Bealtaine traditions here as both of these rituals are acknowledging the long, summer days, purification and the prospect of new life in all of its manifestations.
Biologically this makes sense. We are more energised having been exposed to longer hours of daylight and psychologically this is a good explanation for many of the customs involving resolutions and promises made at this time of the year.
(As an aside, it’s probably easier to feel more positive about the future in the summer than the later custom of making resolutions on January the 1st during the depths of winter!)

One Irish custom which is very easy to maintain and continue is that of lighting a candle on solstice morning and letting it burn all day in recognition of the sun and in remembrance of our ancestors. Always be careful where you place the candle, though!

(C.) David Halpin.
Image: Dark Temptation Photo (Instagram)

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