Faeries, Angels, Unicorns, Dragons, Mermaids – These are a few of the types of magical creatures I’ve encountered in my spiritual path. The idea that there could be all kinds of different spirits and energies out there has fascinated me since I was a teenager, and I had delved into the spirit world wholeheartedly determined to experience their magic, gain from their wisdom and try to make sense of it all. Today, I see myself as an urban shaman, living my life in between reality and fantasy as I go about my daily activities interpreting signs, making prophesies and assigning meaning to the tiniest of details. One of the greatest gifts I’ve received as a result of working with spiritual entities and particularly the faeries has been a heightened sense of inspiration and creativity, especially when it comes to my writing. Every time I start writing something I can feel the faeries’ delicate energy winding its way through my fingers and inspiring me with words and expressions I’ve never used before. Humbled by the gift they’ve bestowed upon me, I was curious to find out Signe’s perspective about it.

What does the word inspiration mean to you?

I truly believe that inspiration comes from spirit, whatever you believe spirit to be. This is a very old belief, and I think the ancients were on the right track. Embedded in our modern word is the old Latin “inspirare” which means to “inflame or blow into.” The ancient Romans believed that one wasn’t a “genius” as we say today; a genius was a spirit or being that watched over a person that could inspire them with ideas, bless them with insight and protect them. The ideas that carry a spark of excitement, the ideas that we are burning to get to work on creating, that’s the trademark feeling that comes when we’ve been gifted with inspiration. It’s important then to realize that these ideas don’t belong to us. We are merely a conduit, and with inspiration comes a challenge. We’ve been given a gift, and now we have to honor it by making sure that we are being the best conduit we can be.

This means hard work. Sharpening the skills needed to give the inspired work its very best chance of succeeding in its mission- for me, this means a lot of studying of the writing craft, and usually a great deal of research on history, which is a subject I’m passionate about. I’m constantly working on improving my writing tools, improving my knowledge base, honing the craft, and I never feel quite good enough to deserve the inspiration in the first place! Some might say we should be easier on ourselves, but for me, inspiration isn’t something I take lightly. I think it’s important to work to deserve it, to take our egos out of it and remain humble.

When we don’t, I think that’s often when we end up getting stuck. When I get stuck in a project and forward progress gets impeded, I’ve learned that this is because I don’t have all the information needed to move forward. I have to simply be receptive, go about my business and be open, wait for the inspiration to come. If no inspiration arrives on how to fix my particular problem or sticking point, I’ve learned that it’s a sign that the particular project isn’t meant to be. This was a tough lesson to learn – it was something I actually experienced over several long months this past year. It resulted in me putting down the book I thought I was going to write, and, in listening to my inspiration, beginning a new project altogether. The energy of this new project feels 100% different than the project I put down. I feel charged up, excited, I can’t wait to sit down and research. I can’t read enough volumes on the related subject! This is how inspiration should feel.

In the process of doing the actual writing for the book, would you say that your experience and new found intimacy with the faeries influenced your writing style and process in any respect? In other words, did the faeries inspire your writing in any way that would’ve been different had you not experience them in your travels?

No, throughout the process I understood and felt pretty clearly that the writing was my job. My responsibility, and I felt a lot of pressure to do the experience justice. I still think I could have done better, and that’s what makes me strive to polish my writing craft. More than anything, it was the death of my father and my grief over it that pushed me to write. It was something he always wanted to do but never could, and I simply couldn’t go on carrying the weight of my sorrow over the loss of him on my shoulders. It had begun to feel like a disease. That’s why my father is such an integral part of the book. Some readers don’t get it, but most of them do. In many ways, I’m not sure if I ever would have had the guts to write if he hadn’t passed away – I was doing it because I had to. There was no other way out than through. Now I think my father’s presence guides me most when I’m writing. It was that the inspiration, the ideas concerning what to write about, that came from that enchanted, unknowable place. That’s the partnership between creator and “muse,” and I don’t think it’s changed since time immemorial. That’s why we need each other, humans and spirit.

I do think they might have helped out in a multitude of other ways, though. I was on a very crazy deadline to finish the book (I wrote the bulk of it in less than three months) and I often felt I had this unusual energy that kept me going. Typically I could never really pull all-nighters, but writing Faery Tale, I remember sitting and typing and realizing it was five in the morning. I also had the unmistakable feeling throughout the writing process that someone tall was standing over my shoulder, making sure I got things right. The rational side of me explained it away – sleep deprivation and way too much caffeine, but at the same time, my intuition told me it was just that: someone who was making sure things were going as planned. There might have been a moment when I got creeped out enough to turn around and say, “Listen. I know why you’re here, but I can feel your energy and you’re freaking me out. I can’t work like this. I’m going to need you to back off.” (But that’s between you, me, and the wall).

I think faerie energies helped in other ways, like helping me to meet the people I needed to meet along my journey, giving me signs that they were there when I was doubting the most. The day my book proposal went to auction, I found this bizarre brown plastic tree with rose quartz crystals for leaves on the discarded books pile at Penguin. I’d never seen any object there before on passing, it was where people left books that were up for grabs. But there was this crazy-looking tree. I took it and put it in my office. Even though that was before my journey began, something in me understood that this was a sign: All would be well, the book would end up getting published and it would sell to a good house.

Now, I’ve come to believe that the unseen worlds around us are trying to communicate all the time. Not just faeries, but everything – nature itself, our ancestors, divinity, whatever your spiritual beliefs, there is a something out there that is loving and guiding. It’s our job to learn all the ways in which we can listen.

An unexpected visit

While taking in Signe’s endearing perspective on inspiration and the spirit world as well as realizing how much both of our lives have been influenced as a result of our work with the faeries, I couldn’t help but wonder: Why us? Why are spiritual entities trying to communicate with us? What is there about our ontology that makes us special in this way? Looking back on my life I was amazed to recognize how much time I had devoted to thinking about the spirit world and most importantly, how many times the spirit world had interfered in my life – either through sending me signs, orchestrating circumstances, or coming into my dreams and meditations to give me all kind of information that I would later use to my benefit.

While pondering on these questions I kept hearing a particular word over and over again and even though it didn’t make much sense, it urged me to think outside the box. Creativity – The voice inside my head was clear and absolute. To be honest, every time I would sit down to write this article I would be overtaken by an insurmountable surge of blurriness that clouded my mind and debilitated my sense of inspiration, preventing me from shaping the article in the way that I had planned. Two days of no progress later, I came to realize that the blurriness I was feeling was actually a channeling invitation from the faeries. Excited by what I knew would follow, I embraced the blur, took a deep breath and allowed them to take over:

Thank you for providing a clear channel for us. We have been trying to convey our message to you for quite some time now but your ability to channel us was hindered by your stressful determination to make the best out of this project. We would like to playfully interfere in this article and express the following to you and your readers:

Before you incarnated into these physical bodies you were non-physical Source Energy, living a life of pure-positive, all-loving perfection. You reveled in the realization of your perfection and you reveled in the knowing of your creative abilities to use the Law of Attraction to expand consciousness. You understood that by expanding your non-physical perspective into a physical time-space reality you would provide yourself with a platform of infinite diversity and contrast – the perfect platform for you to mold a personality, identify your preferences and interact with the others like you with the aim of discerning desires and using your creative abilities to manifest them in your life. The physical manifestation of all of your desires, from the most insignificant ones to the most important ones, would be of tremendous value to you but also to your non-physical counterparts, including us.

You are Creators and you came into this physical planet to create all kinds of experiences; to push the boundaries of what has been experienced and therefore take consciousness to places it has never been before. Your leading edge perspective provides a conduit for us to delight and rejoice in the expansion of consciousness that all  of your actions and experiences bring. Your leading edge perspective in expanding universal consciousness is the primary factor for making you humans one of the most fascinating forms of consciousness.

Even though we are also Source Energy consciousness, just like you are, our non-physical perspective is general in a way that prevents us from focusing consciousness in the same degree that you can. The reason we are so eager and exhilarated to communicating with you, guiding you and living through you is because we want to help you in your purpose of creating life and expanding who we all are. We rejoice in your ability to focus your consciousness onto specific desires and we enthuse in the expansion of the universe that occurs as a result of that.

Our nature is one of pure-positive, all-consuming love and so is yours. For this reason you get to experience the totality of who we are (and therefore you are) and benefit from the totality of our infinite intelligence, when you are in alignment with the vibrational frequency of love and appreciation – the vibrational frequency of who you really are. It is at these peak moments of your life that your creativity reaches its maximum potential. You feel excited and frisky and you are eager to live life to its fullest. It is at these peak moments of your life experience that inspiration best flows through you, for at these peak moments you are in alignment with the non-physical perspective that is who we are, and therefore who you really are.  Therefore, it is at these peak moments that we most flow through you and inflame you with exciting ideas, intuitive glimpses and guidance.

It is our aim to help you be the powerful creators that you came here to be, and we urge you to take a look at the big picture and keep yourself open and receptive to the infinite amounts of creativity and inspiration that we are so eager to offering you. Open your hearts to the infinite amounts of love, beauty and wonder that make up your planet. See yourself as who you really are and don’t pay too much attention to all the insignificant details of your life that pinch you off from the naturally positive person you are. You are love, you are happiness, you are freedom, you are ecstatic, you are all-loving, powerful creators and you were born to thrive. We invite you to awaken to your true nature and join us into joining you in your fascinating ride on planet earth.    

I came out of trance feeling enthralled and puzzled at the same time. In all my channeling experiences so far I have always managed to keep myself in a semi-trance state, so that I was conscious enough to make sense of what I have been receiving – consider my shock when I came out of it completely unaware of what I had been writing. Two glasses of water later and after my bewilderment had worn off, I decided it was time to go back and read what the faeries were so eager to convey.

Impressed by their depth and clarity, I was pleased to notice how perfectly their teachings resonated with, and added to Signe’s perspective and experience. Apart from reacquainting us with the truth of who we really are, their words shed some light on how to best prepare ourselves to receiving inspiration and benefit from the creativity that must come as a result. Revisiting Signe’s answers I could see how the faeries and her father’s spirit had been interfering in her journey, guiding her through every step of the process; and judging by the amount of creativity that is so deeply embedded in the book, I could tell that she had successfully managed to facilitate that blending of human/spirit consciousness that inspiration really is.

I finish writing this article feeling enlightened, uplifted as well as a deep sense of appreciation for Signe, the faeries and all of you for participating in this magical co-creating communion that has taken thought to a new level. Humbled by what has came out of this project I conclude with a powerful statement from the faeries: You are love, you are happiness, you are freedom, you are ecstatic, you are all-loving, powerful creators and you were born to thrive.

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FAERY TALE earned a “Best of 2010” nod from Kirkus Reviews in addition to receiving glowing reviews from  Harper’s Bazaar, Women’s Adventure Magazine, and New York Times bestselling author Marianne Williamson. Pike has been featured on National Public Radio’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge” along with Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman, and A.S. Byatt. Her first poetry collection, Native Water, published in Spring 2012. To find out more about Signe and her work, please visit her website at www.signepike.com