Fairy Godmothers of The Four Directions Read online

  FAIRY

  GODMOTHERS

  OF THE FOUR

  DIRECTIONS

  By Jennifer Morse

  Copyright © 2015 by Jennifer E. Morse, MS, PhD.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

  First Ebook Edition: December 2015

  ISBN 978-0-9909069-6-4

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One: Prelude to the Fairy Godmothers

  Chapter Two: Finding Cinderella

  Chapter Three: Reunion

  Chapter Four: The Fairy Godmother of the West

  Chapter Five: Tools of the West

  Chapter Six: The Sacred Zero

  Chapter Seven: Dreaming

  Chapter Eight: Moon Woman

  Chapter Nine: North

  Chapter Ten: Life on Life’s Terms

  Chapter Eleven: The Fairy Godmother of the North

  Chapter Twelve: A Quest for Strength and Wisdom

  Chapter Thirteen: Conquering Fears in the North

  Chapter Fourteen: The Metaphysics of a Slippery Slope

  Chapter Fifteen: Wood Burl or Troll?

  Chapter Sixteen: The Fairy Godmother of the East

  Chapter Seventeen: Deer Fly Fever

  Chapter Eighteen: Qualities of the East

  Chapter Nineteen: The Tibetan Mountain Dog

  Chapter Twenty: The Fairy Godmother of the South

  Chapter Twenty-One: The Tools of the South

  Chapter Twenty-Two: The Chimera

  Chapter Twenty-Three: A Chimera’s Sticky Web

  Chapter Twenty-Four: The Cradle of Life

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Ceremony

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Prelude to the Fairy Godmothers

  Life is like a fairytale filled with insurmountable obstacles, enormous burdens, and heart breaking tragedies. Prior to the arrival of the Fairy Godmother Cinderella’s story is composed of unfathomable grief and mind-numbing monotony…or is it?

  If fairytales are templates for living a life of wonder and happiness…And who doesn’t believe in fairytales? Be honest. We are all awaiting our happy ending.

  So what exactly went on in Cinderella’s life before the arrival of the Fairy Godmother? How many years did she scrub the house, run errands, cook meals, take care of the animals and gardens while living with a wicked stepmother? What goes on inside Cinderella to prepare her for the Fairy Godmother’s arrival? Are impossible circumstances the fertile ground required before the arrival of beneficent-supernatural-aide?

  Here is what I think happened. After the death of her parents Cinderella was lost within her grief. She fell into The Great Silence. She scrubbed floors, dusted the furniture and washed the dishes. All the while she felt she was walking across the ocean floor in cement boots.

  Cinderella’s solace was time in the woods with her dog Blackie. Together they searched for herbs and cooking mushrooms. Cinderella’s father had taught her to avoid the poisonous. Her mother pointed out wild onions they used in soup. Bay trees, hundreds of years old, offered thick branches Cinderella climbed. She always brought down enough leaves for a wreath at the door or surrounding a single candle as the table’s centerpiece.

  Working in her mother’s gardens she planted and harvested the vegetable patch and herbs. The rose garden was her mother’s favorite meditation spot. It was in these flower beds Cinderella sought her presence and maintained her mother’s established routines. Colorful blooms scented their home. Dried rose petals freshened linens. Oils were the fragrance added to soap and candles. Rose hips were blended in winter teas designed to heal.

  With Blackie laying in the shade of the apple trees Cinderella pruned and weeded. Bees hummed, dancing around her as she worked. Once a year in the fall, after lulling the bees to sleep with smoke, Cinderella extracted enough honeycomb to sweeten tea throughout the winter.

  It was several seasons of pruning roses and canning vegetables before The Great Silence loosened its grip. Until then soft summer days carried rose fragrance on the hint of breeze while bees hummed around Cinderella’s still blank features.

  Five times early spring trees renew their green canopy under blue skies and thickened with summer’s heat. Five times the seasons changed revealing winter’s bare branches, pristine and stark under the grey sky. Cinderella feels a kindred spirit with the tree’s loss of foliage. She too has lost the comforts of her outer life. Trapped in The Great Silence it is at once hard to care or feel and simultaneously the anguish is overwhelming.

  Slowly Cinderella begins conversing with the garden and cadre of farm animals. Beginning with the stirring of power in spring, while feeding and grooming the animals, she finds she can laugh at their gentle bumps. Goats, lambs, cows, horse and pig all have their distinctive nudging. They press and snuffle against pockets looking for apples and carrots she brings them from the garden.

  Slowly returning to the beauty in life, on days bright-edged after rain, Cinderella follows mountain streams. Gathering moss she stores nature’s bandages in her mother’s leather bag, rescued from the trash, thrown out by her stepmother. The leather’s decorative flowers embedded and dyed are now faded. One day she promises herself she’ll repaint the flowers. She’ll follow the lines and curves of her mother’s design. Lost in reverie, imagining colors, sometimes she feels her mother looking over her shoulder with a smile. It makes her heart beat fast. The moment passes in a flash leaving her shaken and so alone. But Cinderella would never trade the split-second communion for the renewed loss.

  As The Great Silence slowly loosens its grip she breathes freely. Sitting with her back against the trees at the edge of the stream Cinderella sighs and dozes. She drifts along the edge of sleep pulling her toward a destiny she can barely remember. The warmth of summer sun softens her stiff muscles. Dappled shade fragrant with Bay Laurel, the abundant leaves and tree arms create a lattice. Light shines through in greens and hazy gold. In the safety, the congruency of life embracing her, Cinderella dream walks with the Fairy Godmother. In the dream’s depths she prunes shaping them with her Deepest Desires.

  It is her Deepest Desires that buffer her from the gut wrenching pain of living with people who will destroy genuine love without a backwards glance. Cinderella’s antidote to her stepmother’s cruelty is beauty and love. She weeds the gardens with love. Inside scrubbing and polishing she remembers conversations, time spent together as a family. She cleans her parent’s home to maintain its beauty, in honor of their memory. She walks Blackie, in the forest communing with Mother Nature. Although “communing” is a laughable offense under her stepmother’s task-urgent-time-sensitive demands.

  After enduring fives seasons of The Great Silence something has changed. By calling on her strengths each day; morning, noon and night she waits on her wicked family. But now Cinderella does not focus on who she serves. She is engaged in giving and receiving love. She is filled to overflowing with her Deepest Desires to love well. The kitchen is scrubbed. Furniture is polished. Rugs are beaten free of dust. Food is prepared with a prayer. The world under Cinderella’s care shines with love. In this way she is preparing to meet her Fairy Godmother.

  Have we forgotten fairytales are designed to impart wisdom? They are a map to living a life filled with wonder.
But who, exactly, is the Fairy Godmother?

  Some say she is a magical creature. For her, prolonged exposure to the toxicity of modern life is lethal. Negativity, pollution, deceit, conflict and duplicity are deadly for the Fairy Godmother and you too. Her home is in the ether realm of Fairy. But out of her abiding commitment to share the qualities of love, beauty and virtue she occasionally penetrates the mortal world to teach us.

  Cinderella’s first encounter with the Fairy Godmother takes place in the lush rows of the vegetable garden. In early evening the air begins to cool. Shadows lengthen. Colors bend. The garden reflects the deepening palate of plants and trees saturated in twilight. Within the balance of light and dark, transitioning day to night, night to day, sunlight and moon light, while the trees sigh and take their breath, the Fairy Godmother slides into the mortal world.

  Cinderella’s eyes pass over the Fairy Godmother and back track. Startled by the Fairy Godmother’s perfection Cinderella is jarred out of her lingering gloom. Why? The Fairy Godmother is complete in herself. She is whole, in a totality, both unique and magical. Practical and specific to her goals and dreams, she is unshakable in her optimism. The light and color of a million rainbows fragment surrounding her.

  Cinderella’s eyes fall on the Fairy Godmother standing within the green leaves and tassels of golden corn. How many times had Cinderella’s eyes slid over the Fairy Godmother before she was able to hold her vision steady? She knows society will say the Fairy Godmother does not exist. Rational people do not see Fairy Godmothers hanging out in the vegetable patch.

  Have you ever noticed when you are shocked or terrified suddenly your priorities change? Cinderella’s world tilted. When she looked again the Fairy Godmother stood next to her wearing a dress made from the silk of fairy dust spun together into living oscillating threads of light. Her face filled with ineffable beauty takes Cinderella’s breath away.

  Do you wonder, how does the Fairy Godmother teach? We each vibrate at the frequency of our thoughts, feelings and behavior. The Fairy Godmother is incontrovertibly positive. For generations, millennium after millenniums, she lives an uncompromising, radiant happiness while creating acts of beauty. Her life is dangerously optimistic. As a result she expedites miraculous outcomes. Can you imagine being in the company of this woman?

  She teaches as she lives; authentically. In her presence Cinderella hears the ring of truth. Knowing the sound she will never forget to listen for its reverberation. The Fairy Godmother is aligned mind-body-spirit-action. Understanding this congruency Cinderella can achieve it. In the future she will look for discrepancies, incongruence like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

  In the presence of the Fairy Godmother Cinderella is jolted into self awareness. When we are in the presence of someone like the Fairy Godmother, who knows her strength, knows their skills and engages these resources to manifest Positive Possibilities; hope awakens within us. We no longer vibrate at the frequency of our problems. Instead we vibrate at the frequency of hope.

  The Fairy Godmother paid no attention to Cinderella’s difficulties or ugliness in her life. She shifts Cinderella’s attention from what’s wrong with her life (for example; living with a wicked stepmother and two selfish stepsisters with their never-ending demands sucking Cinderella dry of every ounce of life each day.) Instead the Fairy Godmother asks Cinderella, “Define your Deepest Desires.”

  Shaking her head Cinderella is confused. “Why?”

  A Fairy Godmother’s laughter is rain and sunshine. She says, “The seeds of your happiness are embedded in your Deepest Desires.” Pointing her staff, tinged with violet light at Cinderella, she adds, “There is a time to grieve the past, calm and soothe trauma, comfort and explore the depths of pain. But when you are ready for change and a Fairy Godmother appears it’s time for you focus on the future. It’s time to find and define your Deepest Desires.”

  Stamping her staff on the ground creates a flash of lightning. Thunder rolls in the north, she says, “Entwining your Deepest Desires with personal strengths ushers you into a state of absorption and flow. You are lost in the pleasure of your growing mastery.”

  Cinderella shakes her head with ever-increasing confusion. The Fairy Godmother adds, “Our Deepest Desires ground us in our essential self and the beneficence in our dreams is larger than our problems.”

  Blackie stands, bowing to the Fairy Godmother. His hind legs high his head and chest low. When the Fairy Godmother laughs, a low rumble felt in the earth beneath their feet, he walks toward her and carefully sniffs the air. The Fairy Godmother rubs his chest, the white star encased in his black fur.

  Turning to Cinderella she continues, “When we are disconnected from our Deepest Desires life is a cardboard imitation of happiness. Think of people, like your stepmother, living in beautiful homes, with full access to opportunities, and yet they are unhappy.

  “All women want to become Queen. Your stepsisters are in a competition to become Queen. For them becoming Queen means they will not have to do any work. People will line up to do them favors and bring them gifts. They will have the most beautiful clothes and their jewelry will outshine every woman in the land.”

  Cinderella moves to her mother’s favorite garden bench. The Fairy Godmother floats, sitting beside her. Cinderella asks, is it my imagination or is the air around you cleaner?”

  She rubs her shoe in the dirt and says, “I don’t want to be Queen in the ‘I’m more powerful than you’ sense. Isn’t it better Fairy Godmother to be Queen by fulfilling our Deepest Desires? We live within the warm glow of realizing our ambitions. I want to live life in my strengths.”

  The Fairy Godmother nods. Cinderella continues, “I want my actions to touch the lives of those I love with beauty. Is true power is our skill, our capacity to choreograph, while engaging our strengths, a life of well-being?”

  This is what Cinderella means when she wants to be Queen. She wants to give and share love in a mutually beneficial loop of reciprocity. She wants to share her strengths with her Prince. Their strengths will dovetail. Together they are more powerful than when they are apart.

  Returning to the garden landing with a jolt in the here and now, Cinderella sighs. “It seems impossible….Look at me dressed in rags.”

  The Fairy Godmother startles Cinderella with her laughter. “This is what Deepest Desires look like to everyone! They seem unattainable. The obstacles are insurmountable. The burdens are enormous.” The Fairy Godmother smiles at Cinderella, “By clarifying your Deepest Desires, a relationship with the Prince, Cinderella, you make contact with your authentic self.”

  Creating beauty and positive outcomes in the midst of stress is at the heart of the Fairy Godmother’s teachings. The Fairy Godmother is in her way a transcendent quintessential radical. Yes, her teachings are revolutionary. Awaken to the teachings of the Fairy Godmother and prepare yourself. You too, may stumble into transcendent happiness.

  Chapter Two

  Finding Cinderella

  Did you ever wonder how the Prince discovered Cinderella? She was hidden in her stepmother’s illusions. In plain sight, on the fireplace hearth, Cinderella was invisible.

  Maybe you didn’t know Cinderella and the Prince grew up together. Their parents played Bridge, a strategic card game. Tournaments hosted by the King and Queen went on for days. Their play was so intense, they were lost. Absorbed by the challenge they were oblivious to the adventures of Charlotte and the Prince. Yes, Cinderella’s real name is Charlotte.

  While the adults played cards the Prince and Charlotte explored the castle. They played hide and seek in the gardens and basements. The Prince taught Charlotte to play the drums. Soon she played at his skill level. They began challenging each other tapping out sophisticated rhythmic patterns. Music became one of their shared passions.

  On rainy days they explored the palace attics. Opening trunks they found elaborate gowns and uniforms. Dressing up, they danced. Already they shared the joy of music. Dance was a natural evolution of their part
nership. Swaying, fast stepping, kicking and turning they moved with easy elegance.

  Sometimes they even brought meals up to the attic, to eat in full costume. Late in the evening they raided the kitchen for molasses cookies dusted in extra fine baker’s sugar. They found an empty guest room and shared stories Charlotte heard in the marketplace. The Prince picked up his stories hanging around the guard’s break room. They embellished with voice, gestures and facial expressions, always ending in laughter.

  After Charlotte’s father won the pick of the litter from the palace kennel, Charlotte’s puppy Blackie became their constant companion. They raced through gardens. In winter months they used warrior’s shields to slide down the snowy hills. Blackie stumbled and rolled in pursuit, until he stole Charlotte’s fur hat.

  The Prince laughed until he was doubled over watching Charlotte chase Blackie across the frozen lake. He finally dropped the hat, a little the worse for wear. The ear flap was torn and the fur clumped together with drool. Charlotte treasured that hat even with the holes left by Blackie’s sharp puppy teeth.

  Charlotte and the Prince both wore a network of nearly-invisible-interlacing-scars from Blackie’s puppy desire to hold hands in his mouth simultaneously levitating and tugging them across the room.

  Evenings, filled with food and adventures, they settled with Blackie on thick rugs and oversized pillows. They dreamed of a life shared, planning good works for the Palace and Kingdom. Energized with the combination of hope and imagination one vision led to another until starry-eyed they fell asleep with Blackie between them. They never guessed their carefully planned future would be torn apart by the death of Charlotte’s parents.

  Very few people know it was the Prince’s idea to stage a ball. Returning home after studying diplomacy abroad he was appalled to find his beautiful Charlotte renamed Cinderella. He gathered his advisors for a meeting. Included among them were the Fairy Godmother and the Fairy Godmothers of the Four Directions. When the Prince decided to create a celebration as a distraction the Fairy Godmother offered to meet with Cinderella and help her find a way to the dance.