Hello all,

As I mentioned in the "Faerie Tales" thread, my partner has been making some incredible contact with the elemental/nature-spirit realm. Usually, though, its been with the fauns, or in-dwelling tree spirits.

Recently, however, she was taken into the slyph's plane. I wanted very much to see if we could communicate with the dwarves or gnomes (BTW, are they the same? Are they both Earth elementals?), so instead of touching a tree, I urged her to lay against a large stone or boulder. There are a few questions I want to ask about the sylphs, but first, I also have a few questions concerning the Earth elementals.

The first time with a rock was very interesting. A downward flow of energy (as opposed to the downward-spiralling energy in the root-system of a tree that always preceeds any tree-spirit communication) was the first thing felt, and then there were a few things that occurred, that I won’t go into here, which led us to believe that perhaps large stones and boulders can be used as a sort of long-distance communication portal, with each stone and rock on the planet being connected to all others through the Earth, the Earth being a large stone unto itself. Has anyone else ever felt something similar?

Anyway, as we have yet to make succesful contact with the Earth elementals, I wanted to ask if anyone knows another way to make contact besides stone. I thought perhaps that the dwarves would be in-dwelling like the tree-spirits, but perhaps not, or its just not time yet, but we will try again with the stone (something tells me it was her physical position the second time that led to contact with the sylphs). Also, there is a large pit on top of the Mt. here, with a deep and narrow crack in the earth. But I’ve always felt that that was an entrance to the underworld, and not to the Earth elemental realm (in warmer weather, we plan to hike up to that and she will try making a spirit-journey into the small chasm there). Does anyone know how the two planes are related? In my head, I keep associating the two, but then remind myself that they are probably different.

The second time, she laid down on a different boulder, belly up, facing the sky, and was taken to the realm of the sylphs. As usual, there was a vision of the flowing of energy, but this time, it was an upward rush of billions of particles that she was carried on. The story she relayed afterward was incredible. What was really amazing was that she encountered her own sort of personal sylph (which helped her get back to her body when she got stuck in this one place), like it is a part of her, or is somehow always connected to her, even though it resides on another plane.

Afterwards, I thought that if she sought it out again, and asked for its name, she could always ask it for assistance whenever she needed. What also came to mind was to have it come into a magickal instrument, like a dagger, so she could use it when she needed. But she wasn’t keen on that. She said she wanted to let it be free, and not trap or dominate it, CM style. She could however, invite it, and ask it if it wanted to come into the dagger, but that it was free to leave if it wanted to. My question concerning this, is how useful the sylph would be in other planes. If she went into the Earth elemental plane, would the sylph have no real power or influence there? What about the underworld? Could it be any assistance to her there? I’ve read about shamans bringing magical tools and spirit-helpers with them when they journey. However, book-knowledge only brings inspiration and ideas, but not any real understanding.

Is it possible to “invite” a sylph into a tool, yet still allow it to be free? And what would be the benefit of it as opposed to just letting it remain in its realm? Sorry for all the different questions, but even though I’ve been studying the occult and shamanism for a long time, I realize I know nothing when it comes to the real thing.

(Man…the envy I feel…that she can just go there whenever she wants. And the weird thing is, I’m the keener about it all. She’s willing, but she’s not obsessed like I am, which I guess is a good thing (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) ).