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A Special Post from The New Forest Fairy Festival
The only thing more special than finding your own magical self is finding a community of other magically minded people to be a part of. Dragonspace is a place where dragon-lovers, Wiccans, occultists, artists, clairvoyants and more meet and collide, but there are communities all over the world that come together to celebrate, bond and believe in the unbelievable.
One of our Dragonspace staff members had the chance to visit one such place over in England last weekend. Nestled amongst the trees of the New Forest in southern England (home to over 3000 gorgeous wild ponies) was the annual New Forest Fairy Festival, a celebration of all things fairy.
From market stalls selling Dragonspace-esque goods (wands, incense, jewelry, altar supplies) to live music and healing workshops, the Fairy Festival was a place where magic really came alive. Here are some of the highlights:
Meeting Josephine Wall herself
In our last post, we wrote about some of our favourite fantasy artists, of which the whimsical Josephine Wall was one. What a delight it was to meet Josephine at her stall at the festival, looking stunning in a long green gown with threads of gold woven through her hair. We told Josephine that her artworks are loved all the way over in Vancouver, and she was pleased to hear! She was selling prints, notebooks, calendars, oracle decks and gift cards, and we got some merchandise personalised signed. A spell-binding experience!
Learning lesser known facts about Tarot and Runes
The festival workshops were held in a cosy colourful tent, featuring interactive talks by practitioners in various mystical arts. The tarot workshop, run by Rudi, cut through a lot of the noise about tarot and really got stuck into the history and the symbolism. Rudi explained how the cards of the Major Arcana beautifully articulate the human experience - from The Fool staggering naively through the world as a child, to the turmoil of The Lovers, and the cyclical nature of Death. Even those sceptical about divination would have enjoyed Rudi’s explanations.
The Runes workshop was run by Glenn, who took us on a journey through the runes, not only explaining their history and symbolism, but how runes appear in everyday life. For example, you’ve probably seen the Gebo rune ('X') meaning “gift” at the bottom of greeting cards, letters or emails from loved ones, likely in the form of “xoxo”. And we’ve actually got a rune on our cell phones - a bind rune, in fact! Take a look at your Bluetooth symbol now. That symbol is actually two runes - the one for ‘H’ and the one for ‘B’ - bound, or merged, together. It was the signature of Harald Bluetooth, a 10th-century king who united Denmark under his rule, and so the Bluetooth function is named for him as it unites two electronic devices together. The more you know!
We couldn’t help but notice that the Fairy Festival wasn’t the only magical thing about Burley, the charming village in the middle of the New Forest where the festival was held. The village itself was full of shops selling magical goods, including the iconic Coven of Witches. Apparently, during the 1950s a famous white witch lived in Burley named Sybil Leek, who had a pet jackdaw and would walk the village in a long black cloak. It’s no wonder magical folk flock to the New Forest - with its ancient woodland, open moors and wild ponies that wander the land freely. We highly recommend a visit if you’re in England!
It’s just not a festival without music. From Celtic jigs to medieval marketplace music, Irish folk ballads to Enya, you’re always surrounded by music in Dragonspace, and the Fairy Festival was no different! The main stage saw an eclectic mix of live bands set the scene - country rock, dreamy folk, New Age and more - always with a crowd of little fairies dancing in the front row. The cosy Acoustic Tent was a great place to sit and take a breather for a few moments, serenaded by acoustic sets. There were also belly dancing and drumming workshops, and a wonderful Elemental Dance tent which invited festival-goers to just let it all go and dance...sometimes the best form of healing.
We have to mention the abundance of fairy dogs walking around the festival. These furry friends seemed to love sporting glittery fairy wings or tutus, enjoying the magical atmosphere (or maybe the scraps of food dropped under picnic tables). And of course, we can’t forget the famous New Forest wild ponies! While they didn’t make it into the festival grounds, these majestic free-roaming creatures are found all over the New Forest - they can cause quite the traffic jam on the winding roads! If you’re lucky enough to pay a visit to the Forest, appreciate these beautiful beasts, but keep your distance - while gentle, they are wild and shouldn’t be petted or fed. Just like a unicorn, of course.
And there you have all the ingredients for a truly spell-binding weekend! It was also lovely to see all the parallels between our Dragonspace community and a community all the way across the ocean. Britain and its European neighbours are the original home of much of the myth and magic we trade in at the store - Celtic wisdom, Irish fairy stories, Viking lore, medieval dragon tales. We love that the magic lives on at the New Forest Fairy Festival and we can't wait until next year!
Some of our favourite fairy forest treasures here at Dragonspace:
Spotlight on Fantasy Artists
Stepping into Dragonspace is a sensory experience, with visuals, scent and sound all coming together to create our little fantasy world. A lot of the visual wonder is thanks to the talented fantasy artists whose works line our shelves, adorning gift cards, art books, t-shirts, tarot decks, statuettes and more. These artists bring our imaginations to visual life, from the Gothic realms of Anne Stokes to the vivid wonderlands of Josephine Wall.
Here’s a bit more about the artists you’ll find as you roam the store:
Amy Brown
American artist Amy Brown is known for her fairies, which she’s been painting since 1992. Amy predominantly uses watercolours in subdued hues that remind us of the changing seasons. We particularly love the eclectic fashions on Amy’s fairies, which are clearly inspired by fashions throughout history - Victorian corsets, striped stockings, medieval gowns, white furs and Steampunk goggles. There's a real sense of story to Amy's often wistful fairies, and you can't help but want to know more about them as you peek inside their worlds.
Amy is also the artist behind our fantastic fairy teacup collection (which sold out quickly - but let us know if you want us to notify you when we get more in!)
Browse our full collection of Amy Brown products here.
Anne Stokes
Anne Stokes is a well-known British fantasy artist with a penchant for the Gothic. Her work is easily identified by its striking subjects and moody aesthetic, from fallen angels and vampire queens to dragons with their princesses. Her art also litters the world of pop culture - her illustrations have been featured in the Dungeons & Dragons books, and in the early days of her career, she designed tour merchandise for bands like Queen and the Rolling Stones, and fashioned jewelry lines for Discword and Harry Potter brands (what an enviable resume!) We love the boldness of Anne’s art, and the way she shows the shadowy side of the fantasy world without being sinister.
Browse our full collection of Anne Stokes products here.
Josephine Wall
Who doesn’t love visiting the surreal rainbow landscapes of Josephine Wall’s imagination? Josephine’s art is a dream come to life, recognisable for its gorgeous use of light and colour, with a heavy focus on purples, pinks, bright blues and yellows. You have to stare at Josephine's pieces for a while to truly appreciate them, as they’re often a collection of images that blend into one another to form a larger whole. British-born Josephine is heavily inspired by nature, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a piece of her art that doesn’t have some kind of natural element in it - curved shells, bright flowers, shimmering moons, dancing butterflies, sprawling trees, the list goes on and on.
If you’re in England, you might actually get a chance to visit Josephine. Her magical gallery is in Dorset and she welcomes visitors by booking.
Browse our full collection of Josephine Wall products here.
Nene Thomas
American artist Nene Thomas’s art is Romantic and intriguingly realistic, even if the content is mythical. Her fairies have a real human quality and intricate fashions that you can admire for ages. Like Anne Stokes, Nene Thomas has also contributed art to fantasy role-playing games, working with Magic: The Gathering at the start of her career. While early on she favoured watercolours, Nene now creates all her art digitally - adding a modern aesthetic to traditional fantasy. Nene’s work spans the dark and light ends of the magical world, featuring Gothic fairies, whimsical forest scenes, romantic embraces, snowscapes, oceanscapes, beauties and beasts of all kinds.
Browse our full collection of Nene Thomas products here.
Brian Froud
While all our featured artists have large followings, Brian Froud's work has probably had the biggest influence on popular culture. If you've seen cult fantasy films The Dark Crystal or The Labyrinth (and who hasn't?) then you've come across Brian's art - he was a conceptual designer on both films. His work is quirky and gloriously grotesque, with his most famed illustration collections including Goblins, Trolls, Good Faeries/Bad Faeries and Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. There's a huge sense of humour and playfulness to Brian's art, and his partnership with Jim Henson's Creature Shop (responsible for The Muppet and Sesame Street) seems only natural. His wife, Wendy Froud, is also a talented fantasy artist and puppet-maker. We'd love to see what their dinner parties are like!
Browse our full collection of Brian Froud products here.
We're forever in awe of the artists that help make Dragonspace even more magical with their spell-binding creations. Do you have another favourite fantasy artist you think we should check out? Let us know in the comments below!
Of Feathers and Fur
If you’re a practitioner of magic or other esoteric arts, chances are you feel a deep connection to the animal world. You might have a ‘familiar’ or have found your animal spirit guide, and you probably watch out for powerful animal omens in nature, like crows in certain numbers and cats crossing your path.
We’re huge animal lovers here at Dragonspace. Some of you might remember our dear old familiar, Harry the black cat who was as much a member of staff as we were! Many of the treasures in our little shoppe pay tribute to the animal world, be they magical creatures, wild beasts or domestic companions.
The concept of the ‘familiar’ comes from European folklore. Familiars were believed to be supernatural entities guised in animal form that assisted witches and folk healers in their magical practice. In the days of the witch trials, familiars were incorrectly believed to be incarnations of demons or the devil, but we know now that this is far from true. In modern Wiccan practice, familiars are commonly domestic companions - cats, dogs, birds, or rodents - who are fundamentally attuned to nature and thus help us connect.
But there are also animals out in the wild that we might feel a connection to - an owl who comforts on a dark night, or a wolf admired from afar. There are certain animals that have always straddled the threshold between our world and the next, and these animals tend to be common motifs in spiritual communities. Let’s take a look at some.
THE CAT
Ask someone to picture a witch’s familiar, and a cat probably springs to mind. Cats have a strange magical energy; a glint in their eye that’s seeing something we can’t. In Ancient Egypt, cats were considered sacred, with associations to the goddesses Bast and Sekhmet. The maneki-neko cat in Japanese culture - also known as the Beckoning Cat or Happy Cat - with its paw raised in a sign of welcome is a symbol of good fortune in the home. Then of course there are superstitions about black cats being ill luck, or that our feline friends can predict the weather and sense when a person is going to die. Whatever your belief, the cat - loyal yet solitary, playful yet fierce - has an undeniable link to the magical world.
THE DOG AND THE WOLF
Dogs aren’t as commonly seen as magical familiars in popular culture and myth as cats are, but they are no less worthy. Dogs make steadfast pets, and are also attuned to the spiritual world - there are many stories of dogs becoming visibly restless in mystical or 'haunted' locations. Again in Ancient Egypt belief, the dog manifests as Anubis, the jackal-headed guardian of the underworld, and in Ancient Greek legend, the three-headed dog Cerberus also guarded the gates to the afterlife.
And then there's the dog’s wild original form. The wolf is a sacred animal in cultures the world over, particular those with an animistic spiritual system. Wolves are considered fierce protectors and spiritual guides, steadily navigating wild territories both in the real world and its more magical layers. In Clarissa Pinkola Estés' famed book ‘Women Who Run with the Wolves’, the wolf symbolises the inner wild woman inside us - a fierce creature, a loyal creature, and a deeply intuitive and mystical creature. The ‘shapeshifting’ concept of the wolf, which manifests in werewolf legend, reflects this.
THE DEER AND THE STAG
The deer plays a role in many mythologies, particular that of the Celts - a culture we have a deep connection to here at Dragonspace. In old Celtic belief, the ‘feminine’ deer was called Hind or 'Eilid' in the Gaelic tongue, and symbolised subtlety and grace. Her male counterpart, Damh the Stag, represented independence and pride. In old Scottish and Irish lore, otherwordly beings like fairies and deities often chose to morph into the form of a deer when they walked this earth. Being a woodland creature, the deer is also associated with many woodland gods - Cernunnon, the great Celtic Horned god of fertility, bore deer or stag antlers on his head, and tales of Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting and wilderness, frequently feature deer or stags. Graceful yet strong, it’s no wonder cultures throughout history have bowed their heads to the deer.
THE OWL AND THE RAVEN
Heading into the avian world, owls often appear in tales of witches and fairies, age-old symbols for wise ones. But why is the owl considered so wise? After all, there are smarter creatures in the animal kingdom. It’s oft-debated, but many trace the association back to Greek mythology, as the Ancient Greek goddess of Wisdom, Athena, had an owl companion. The famous British nurse, Florence Nightingale, notably had a pet owlet named Athena that she carried around in her pocket - her familiar, perhaps?
The raven is another feathered creature often associated with magic. Whether it’s Huginn and Muninn (a.k.a Thought and Memory), Odin’s ravens in Norse mythology, or the Celtic goddess Morrighan who appeared in raven form, these black birds pop up in many mythologies throughout the ages. In other cultures, ravens are considered tricksters and harbingers of death. There are actually a group of captive ravens ever-present at the Tower of London to protect the city, following the old superstition that “if the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it.”
THE SNAKE
The splendid snake tends to get a bad rap in many old tales. In the biblical creation myth, the serpent represents the devil, and the snake-headed Medusa of Greek mythology isn’t the most pleasant of figures. But other belief systems hold the snake in a more favourable light. The snake is one of the symbols of the Chinese zodiac, celebrating transformation and agility with the shedding of skin. In the Dreamtime stories of Indigenous Australian culture, the Rainbow Serpent is a great creator god, giver of life and maker of mountains. And of course, there are the associations between serpents and our friends the dragons, with the same coiled bodies and reptilian skin - some even speculate that the ‘fiery’ venom from a snake’s fangs inspired the legend of the fire-breathing beasts that we now know.
Be they furry or feathered, scaled or slimy, we’ve all got an animal that we feel a spiritual connection to. Maybe it stems from your culture or spiritual belief system; maybe it’s because you see glimmers of your own personality reflected in that of your animal companion; or maybe certain creatures strengthen you, and help forge that connection to unseen worlds. We’d like to know - who’s your familiar or animal guide? And what’s their story? Tell us in the comments below!
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