How to build a diva hostel

"Fairy Bed"  - free form construction on a shelf.

To the left is a photo of the shelf above my computer from a couple of years ago. The installation has changed. I called this one a "Fairy Bed". The basket was filled with lavender and dried rose petals combined with little rocks, feathers and crystals. The two folks in front are photo cut-outs of my friends Don and Sherry who play wonderful Irish music. They are standing on top of my computer monitor which was right below the fairy bed.

I did have a visitor once many years ago and it was quite a magical experience.  I was sitting quietly late at night and all of a sudden the whole room filled with the essence of a wild mountain stream.  It was a feeling I had only experienced while hiking in the mountains and had always assumed that I felt it because I was out of the city and the mountains just felt that way.  When I put up the hostel I was thinking of nature spirits who had been rousted out of their homes by developers tearing up the land and building houses.  I felt sad that they would loose their homes and thought that if they were wandering and needed a place to rest I would create a little hotel for them.  I don't know if I really expected to get a visitor, but when I did, there was no doubt about it!  And, afterward I realized that all of the times I had been hiking and feeling that wonderful sense of aliveness and freshness in the air, especially around mountains streams, I had actually been sensing the presence of a nature spirit.  Now when I go out hiking, I say "Hello" and know that I am in communion with an elemental.

I took my friend Georgette to meet a water sprite up on Mt Tamalpais and both of us started to get goosebumps while we were standing by her stream.  Georgette named her "Tingle" because of that.  I went back to visit Tingle last year and she was no longer there.  Looking up I saw that developers had built four houses overlooking her stream.  She must have moved some place else.  I hope she is happy.  Maybe she'll visit my hostel some day.

"Wedding Path" - encaustic on paper

Building Instructions:

To make a diva hostel, fairy bed or garden be sure to find a place in your house that can be dedicated to peace and will not be disturbed. Set the intention that the space is dedicated to peace and harmony and then put together some objects for fun and delight that you think a fairy might like to visit. You can go out into nature and collect things like leaves and twigs. You can dry flowers and add them to the mix. Get a basket to hold things or just lay them out on a table or shelf. I like to put out a crystal goblet filled with spring water and a little bit of grain to symbolize food.

I heard a very sad tale about a large hillside in Arizona that used to be the home of a water Kachina.  The Hopi who cared for the place had been going to the little spring at the top of the hill for thousands of years; untold generations.  A man bought the hill and wanted to turn it into gravel.  The Hopi took him to court to get a ruling on religous grounds to stop the decimation of the hillside.  While the case was in court, the man went out and got a gravel digger and razed the hillside right out from under the court, the Hopi and their Kachinas.  The Hopi were devastated.  Nothing can replace that hillside.  No fine, no court ruling, not even a jail sentance would make up for the devastation that took place there.  When I walk along the roads here in the city I see bits of gravel now and again and wonder if it is part of the Kachina's old hill.  I have picked up a few pieces and put them in my hostel along with an invitation to the Kachina to stay here as long as he/she needs to.  I do have a visitor in the hostel.  She/he is very quiet, just a pleasant sense of beingness.  I would take a photo of the hostel, but she/he is very shy and would not like to be photographed.  This diva home touches the sacred.  I am honored to have such a guest and I hope I can live up to maintaining a pure space for him/her.

The important thing in building a hostel is intention, peace and harmony and then gathering a small amount of natural objects that you think the diva would enjoy.  If you set the intention for love and peace and set an intention also as an invitation to divas and fairy folk, they just may bless you with a visit.

The whole idea and the process is a bit similar to what people in the Orient, or the Ancient Egyptians (I have read), do to create homes for the ancestors.

I saw a very interesting Spirit House at an Indonesian import shop and have seen many home alters to various divinities that are little houses at my Asian friend's homes. The idea is that in case the ancestors wish to drop by, there is a place that has been created and reserved for them. It doesn't mean that they are actually there at any given moment, but, rather, it is an invitation for them to be present and perhaps they might stop by.

We live in a society that has removed itself from nature and dedicated itself to scientific material atheism and it is hard for people to believe that there are realms of consciousness beyond those which ordinary perception can recognize.  Angels exist.  I know because unseen hands have pulled me out of the path of danger on more than one occasion.  Divas exist.  I know because I have met them.  I have not yet met an elf.  That would be great good fun and I hope some day I may.  The tunnel under the ocean may not yet be finished.  :-)