You stoop down to enter the low mouth of the dark cave. Inside, there is a firepit, and an iron tripod with a small iron pot suspended from it, over the fire.
A very old woman dressed in mostly grey woolen clothing and a brown and red shawl is stirring something in the pot. This must be Old Isobel, you think to yourself. When you walk in, she turns and greets you.
“Hello again! I see you have come as I knew you must. Please, sit.”
You muse to yourself a bit about how you’ve changed since you came to this shire. The old you would have asked her questions ranging from “What do you mean, hello again? We’ve never met!” to “How did you know I was coming?” But you know better than that now. You just smile, nod your head once, and sit.
“I have one thing to tell you, and one thing only.” She says. “The secret to crossing the hedge.”
“The hedge?” you wonder aloud to her.
“The Hedge is the great barrier that separates this world from the worlds beyond. Those whose minds can cross it, become more than human, for their own minds travel outside the boundaries of the “human” condition. You wish to know how to cross the hedge? To get into the other worlds?
The hedge is not a physical thing…it is a mental barrier. It is the line you have drawn between what is “this world” and the “next” and between what is “reality” and “dream. Well,” She laughs, “Such distinctions are foolish and very limiting. Both of these notions, the “real” and the “dream”…they both root from the same common reality. So one is just as “real” as the other.
“You” my dear, are not seperate from everything else, like you think you are. “You” are not an individual in a “world” trying to get into another “world”. “You” ARE those worlds, you ARE interwoven with them, and you must accept this, and allow yourself to come to awareness of these other states that you already dwell in. It is not your location that changes, it is “you” that changes.
In the Old Faith of those who dwell below the Hollow Hills, Certain techniques are taught that allow one to alter their awareness, to move it across the Hedge, and put it in touch with Elfhame. Those techniques are powerful, but let me tell you, there is one added element that will make them ten-fold powerful. This element is the delyva.
The delyva is an image that you choose, normally a powerful yet simple image, one that you can see clearly with both your inner eyes and your outer eyes…that is, an image that you can clearly see with your eyes open or closed.”
She takes a cord from around her neck. At the end of it, there is a flat piece of wood, and on the wood, a Witches Foot is carved.
“See how simple the image is? Three lines, all meeting at the center, making a hex…Surely you can picture this in your head! Look at the image for a bit, and then try.”
After very little effort, you find that you can see the simple geometric figure in your mind’s eye easily.
“This is my delyva. For most, their delyva is the face of their Familiar Spirit. Now, how do you use it? It is easy.
When you sit or lie down to go oot and aboot into Elfhame- say you are using the Faery Arts to gain visions of that place- after you have come to twilyte sleep and become comfortable, bring up your delyva in your mind, and think on nothing else. Only see it, and concentrate on it. The mind becomes powerful when it concentrates on one thing to the exclusion of all else. After you try, you will see.
While you are dwelling on the delyva, allow the images of the Faery Art to begin taking place. See yourself entering the well, or climbing down into the Sidhe hill, but see it as though it were happening out of the corners of your eyes. Keep your main focus on your delyva. Just know, beyond a pale of a doubt, that the journey is taking place. This technique allows you to cut down on the amount of visualization your mind must maintain, and allows it freedom to change its state swifter. For never forget, that the Witches Foot, or the Face of the Familiar Spirit, are both powerful symbols of that change of state that leads from this world to the Underworld.
So while focusing on the simple visualization, your deep mind will be changing…and changing…so long as you are still doing the Faery Art visualization. When you achieve the deep trance, and arrive at the point where your mind is in touch with the Deep Current of Elfhame, you may drop the delyva-image, and then allow what will be, to be. For no two journeys to Elfhame
are the same.
You will see, soon enough that what the Faery Arts induce is like a waking dream, in which you have control, and in which you may interact with the forces that shape outer reality.”
She puts the Witches Foot pendant around your neck.
“I give you my blessing. I will guide you and teach you. I will be there, waiting for you, when you need to come to me again. For I am the Serpent, that coiled power that encompasses all, and we will never be apart. I will always be the Owl on your shoulder.”
You suddenly wake up, and find yourself sleeping outside the mouth of a cave. There is no fire-pit inside, and no Isobel. The pendant is not around your neck, but you can easily picture it in your mind’s eye. You wonder if anyone really lives in this cave, when suddenly you realize how foolish of a question that is. For the first time, you truly understand that “reality” is quite a flexible term. Old Isobel is there. She always will be. And you need not come back to this cave to see her. You look around once, hear an owl call from deep in the forest, and then walk away, smiling.