This copyrighted selection is from my forthcoming book In Harmony.
A few are dismissive of my personal beliefs. My relatives do not care to hear that our ancestors are having regular sit-down chats with me. Physical evidence should be harder to dismiss you would think.
Last year a protective symbol appeared in my backyard and wasn’t put there by human hands. It was a large triangle pointed toward my house in parallel lines of mixed stones. Ninety-six to be exact. Some were river rocks, one was a white rock shaped like a femur bone, a few were ruby zoisite, which is the stone of patience and transforming negative energy to positive energy. The beautiful polished stone originated from Tanzania, which is far, far from my yard. The zoisite is also a calming stone, which I may have needed because my new neighbors and their aggressive canines were ruining my backyard for me.
Animals are my thing, but these dogs were far from friendly. One appeared in my side yard and tried to attack me. My neighbors finally got a fence they attached to my own, but that did little to calm down the hounds. They were outside all the time and constantly barking at me, or any family member who dared to venture outside. Whenever my aged pooch came outside, they went crazy. Somehow, they bit one of the other neighbor’s yorkies through the fence putting permanent punctures in the tiny dog’s ears. No one was a fan of these dogs.
The yard had been my natural sanctuary. After long winter months, there was nothing I liked better than tilling the soil and planting seeds. My husband and I used to sit in our lawn chairs and watch the birds at the feeders. Even the birds were disturbed by the dogs’ constant barking and hurling themselves against the fence. The fence panel came loose after one of the crazed dogs consistently hurled itself against the it. I found myself inches away from the dog’s snapping snout. The possibility it had been trained to attack liberals crossed my mind. More likely it had roamed free over several acres of land and assumed it was guarding its territory.
In retrospect, I’d like to pretend I handled the moment in a mature, serene matter. I did not. A series of curse words flew from my mouth some directed at the snapping dog as I pushed the sagging fence in place. Then, I screamed for my husband to bring the hammer and nails. We hammered the fence back in place, but couldn’t do the same for the serenity that have been ripped from my backyard natural sanctuary.
It was a summer without fire pits because we could barely hear ourselves talk with the dogs constantly baying, howling, and throwing themselves against the fence. The neighbor whose dog was bit moved. The neighbor on the other side of me moved, too. It was as if they couldn’t wait to get away. A feeling I understood. My husband did his best to serve as a buffer between the neighbor and me by asking the neighbor not to spray his toxic chemicals near the fence line since I had wild flowers growing on the other side.
Retreat was my only option. Instead of enjoying the summer in my yard, I watched the birds from inside the house and the occasional park. During this time, I asked the fairies to help me. Not with the dogs because I hadn’t thought of that, but with the various plants and wildlife that took shelter in our yard.
While waiting for a time when I could use the yard for myself and for rituals, I put out gnome statues to attract gnomes. I also scattered quartz crystal in the flower gardens hoping to attract the fairies. Fairies is a general name that covers over two hundred different entities. My goal was to bring out the gnomes. Traditionally, gnomes are caretakers of the garden. They are also believed to protect minerals or buried treasure. They will often draw crystals into the ground since they love them so much. Some beliefs center on gnomes being both good luck and guardians. This is why the statues are placed in gardens, houses, even barns.
The day I discovered the stones I was cutting grass. I may have discovered the femur stone first since it was white and stood out against the grass. Afraid I might run over them with a lawnmower, I picked up a couple stones and put them in a bucket. There were dozens of stones all in a pattern in the tall spring grass. I took a photo of them, then picked them up. When my husband arrived home, I asked him if this was an elaborate trick of his---not like this behavior was part of his nature.
He hadn’t done it. We have a six-foot privacy fence and the gate is locked from the inside. There was no rational explanation. After we threw out normal possibilities, we had to accept it was a mystical occurrence and my husband urged me to put out the rocks as I found them. I did.
Since I did not consider myself an expert on natural phenomenon, I carried my photo around and asked those with more expertise to examine it. Powerful, protective magic one described it. Another told me I definitely had fairies in the yard, most likely gnomes since the stones had been selected and pushed up through the ground as opposed to being laid on the grass. At a crystal workshop I attended, the instructor laid out a similar stone grid to provide psychic protection. The grid in the backyard was for me, my household, and all who were in the yard.
Strange things started happening. The neighbors with the obnoxious dogs often put up their dogs whenever they spotted me in the yard filling up the bird feeders. They also put up a barrier around their back porch where I couldn’t see them. Their attitude struck me as fearful as they all scurried into the house whenever they saw me. It was that crazy woman who sang to the flowers and tied ribbons to the trees. They were ribbons with intentions. I didn’t care what they said. What I wanted was things to go back to the way they were.
One day on my walk through the neighborhood, I noticed my annoying neighbor had put up a for sale sign. The next day their house sold causing me to wonder if they had underpriced it. A week later they were gone as were their dogs. The new neighbors were a quiet couple that had a garage full of boxes as opposed to Trump flags.
Odd that the neighbors would move, especially since the wife told me this was their last home. There would be no more moving for her. Since a year had come and gone, it was spring again. This time when my husband went to mow. All the stones were missing possibly because they’d accomplish what they were supposed to do.
My witchy friends asked me if I put a spell on the neighbors to get them to leave. I did not. The yard is my magical place and many spells had been done there as well as charging of crystals. Maybe my energy was incompatible with the recently departed neighbor’s. All I truly know is gnomes are great to have on your side. Now, it is time to select the perfect thank you gift. I’m thinking crystals with a scattering of silver coins.