Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a Garden and One Incredible Family who all worked together. They had a vision that got clearer each day as they put into practice the deep listening, putting love into everything and cherishing the divine in all its expressions, seen and unseen.

There came a point when they had achieved a lot and had grown quite big, with family members working on many different facets and living in many different places, even all over the world. Then, as if under an evil spell, separation started to set in, it became difficult to stay connected with all the groups and dimensions. It was becoming All Too Much and They Couldn’t Handle it and so – like a spell – sleepiness set it.

Thus, in a Garden near here not so long ago, folk lived well but were more or less asleep, more or less of the time, going about their daily business as best as they could. A little robin flew amongst them and sang his warning song: Is it really enough for nice people to do good things living in a beautiful place?! Some sleepwalkers thought ‘surely that’s good enough!’ Others paid heed and felt that perhaps that was true for many places but surely not in this Garden, here, there is more to it.

Evil Wizard from Uncle Grandpa Wiki on Fandom by Mother-zombie aka Nac/Pizza

And then disaster struck! Pestilence spread and fire destroyed the sacred places, and everything became even more difficult, disjointed and dark. Was there an Evil Wizard whose spell was getting more powerful? Now it was even more difficult to connect, and the separation and sleepiness grew stronger. Everyone tried to stay calm and carry on, but things were just so hard – It was All Too Much and They Couldn’t Handle It!

Members of the family dwelling in distant lands suddenly woke up and heard the call to come home. They came and brought their gifts, the tools of their trade and they got to work, much like the dwarves of legends. They found each other and beavered away bringing their skills and mastery to bear. Soon beautiful gems and jewels filled their cavern and as they glittered and shone they delighted the few who were able to behold them. Yet much of it remained hidden from most of the Garden dwellers.

Some folk joined them, one by one, or in little groups, but all the rest of the Garden dwellers stayed under the spell of sleepiness most of the time. Occasionally a few came out to look at what the dwarves were doing, added their voice, sat in meditation, cleared the land, and collected some treasures but it was never enough. The spell was strong and made them drift off, it was so hard to keep the focus on things, their gaze slid off – it was All just Too Much and They Couldn’t Handle It.

Just Transition – Scottish Government initiative 2023

The untiring dwarves called in the Powers of Transition and got a lot more treasures to create more gems and the treasure trove grew immensely, much of it out of sight of the Garden dwellers and even when they caught a glimpse, it was hard for many of them to really see and understand.

The dwarves also invited cousins from distant caves to help them polish the gems and take them to where they needed to go. The cousins worked really hard to engage the Garden dwellers. They created beautiful scrolls and boards, brought folk together to talk, went away and wrote some more…. Bards wrote songs and spread the word but still the spell of sleepiness was hard to overcome. Slowly, one by one, folk started to engage and sent their comments and ideas, often not knowing what others thought or had written, not seeing the whole picture, yet feeling a growing urgency to have their voice heard and then ….. suddenly the floodgates opened. The dwarf cousins were inundated with pages and pages of a multitude of ideas and a realisation that there was no clear mechanism in place in the Garden to make decisions.

And all throughout, the elves in the Garden experienced great turbulences. For 5 eons they had served the  Garden in so many ways: big and small, in house and gardens, in building and learning, in treasury and ruling, they looked after it all. But their powers were waning and they could no longer do it all, they were spread out too thin and too far and wide. With heavy hearts they decided to refocus and try to make it work up on the hill.

The Angel – by Lesley Downie ©Mark Richards @AuroraFindhorn 2022

Whilst all that was going on, the King of the Land in his castle had made a momentous decision. He’d decided to bring change, to give the people and communities of the Land the opportunity to make their own plans for the Land and the Call for Ideas went forth. It all came in from left field for the dwarves but they pivoted bravely and stepped out answering the Call for Ideas.

This sent another shockwave through the Garden and more of the dwellers woke up, suddenly their eyes could focus and they realised that they needed to hurry to get their own ideas formed and sent in to the King. But time was too short, there was too much to do, stress levels rose and tempers frayed and they worked so hard in little bands here and there to get it all done.

And this is where Magic happened … one of the Garden beings, a fleet-footed deer, was part of the King’s council. He was very good at listening and had noticed the stress in his Garden, as well as in other parts of the Land. He took that news to the King and the King gave a month’s reprieve to make it more possible for all the Ideas from Everyone about Everything Everywhere to be collected.

That galvanised the Garden more and now most folk managed to shake off the spell. They came together, formed groups, wrote reports, held meetings big and small, and finally started to see more of the whole. The scrolls for the Call for Ideas grew and grew and kept on growing. There were many clear and shining strands which cheered up everyone. There were areas of muddy ponds and weedy patches that needed more work. And there were lots of bits and pieces that hadn’t even been looked at yet. But there was a tangible optimism and lightness in the Garden, a sense that they may just be able to do this. So finally they realised that Many Hands Make Light Work and the dreaded sense of overwhelm and disconnect lessened.

The final wake-up call came when the elves announced that the mothership was departing, that they no longer could serve in the way they had done for so long. No one in the Garden knew how all of this would work out. Many were upset as they felt that the ground was shaking and there was no safety in sight. Others admitted that somehow they had thought, underneath it all, that someone somewhere would sort it all out. In one corner of the Garden a torn piece of a scroll was found with a message in an ancient script. What could it all mean?!

In the end they answered the King’s Call for Ideas and they strode forward together to tackle the even bigger job that lay ahead. The clever King had put a challenge to all of the Land: once all the ideas were gathered, he wanted each community to work together and make a plan for their own place, a plan everyone in the place could agree on. Well, what a tall order for our Garden dwellers!!! They will have to learn a lot more about the many bits and pieces. They will have to reach out and connect all the different tribes in the Garden. That won’t be easy as some of them are quite far apart and have quite different concerns, even speak different languages. There are unicorns and fairies, little people and green thumbs, elders and youngers thinkers and feelers, richers and poorers and for a very long time now, they have been growing apart from each other even though initially they had all been a part of the One Incredible Family. For a long time now they haven’t had a culture of turning to each other with their concerns, to share them openly and brainstorm all possible options with all of the Garden dwellers. The ways of tapping into the wisdom of the Whole had been forgotten, indeed the sleepiness spell had taken away a lot of the skills and meeting places were rare.

But they did have the gift from the Oracle, the Game Deva, one of the gifts from the Garden, and the dwellers had actually consulted her less than a year previously. There they had faced the shadow that was preventing cohesion: All is Too Much, I can’t Handle It. They got many glimpses of how to go about overcoming this shadow, they witnessed miracles and got loads of Awareness. And in the end along came the Angel of Play to help them integrate it all.

Now, with the Awakening caused by the three big challenges they have another chance to create new ways of becoming One, on all levels: the different Garden dwellers, the beings seen and unseen, and also those further afield who feel part of the Garden.

And if they succeed they can win three great prizes: a Local Place Plan where they can determine together, in harmony and cohesion, what is going to happen in their beloved Garden. The even greater prize of each and everyone able to feel part of One Incredible Family once again. And with it all they may yet realise the Holo Grail and serve the world.

The Holo Grail – Wake Up Grow Up Clean Up Show Up Link Up Lift Up

The End
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This Fairy Tale presented itself to me in the context of significant community events in the months since January 2023. If you want to know more about the ‘real life’ behind the tale, I am offering the following connections, just click on the arrow on the right to expand the text:

Original-garden, Original caravan photo Findhorn Foundation

Cornelia Featherstone

Originally German, I came to Findhorn in the search of ‘It’. I found ‘It’ in our way of sharing our spirituality in our daily lives, privileged to work with my focus on Healing in the widest sense.