Everything Under the Moon

I'm convinced that I have a faery ring in my front yard. I noticed it during the spring and it was the only part of the yard to have any kind of green on it before the rest of the grass grew back in. Now it has mushrooms around half of the ring that is constantly there and ALWAYS after mowing the inner part of the circle is taller than the rest of the grass around it. There's also a really happy feeling around that area, at least for me, and also a lot more bees there than the rest of the yard too.

Super excited and don't even know what to do with myself or with this discovery. Haha!

Leave some pinecones out there for them! Fairies seem to love them. By any chance do you identify mushrooms? Those look like small Gymnopilus junonius. By the way they grow in clusters, and the starting shades of brown up top. If they grow larger and start to get an orangy/brown color you may have Gymnopilus junonius on your hands. A "magic" mushroom, gifts from fairys indeed. ( I wouldn't go eating them unless you have them positively identified by a mycologist. there's forums for that if your so inclined )

I'm not but my neighbor actually is! Haha~ Maybe I can call her over and have her look at them for me. (: I don't have any pinecones, though, so I can't really leave that but perhaps this is where I'll take some of my fae offerings from now on. Thanks for the input! I'm going to have to go out tomorrow and take a look at them to see.

It's funny you mention a faerie ring. They're usually caused by decaying organic matter, generally a tree stump. Many types of fungi have symbiotic relationships with tree roots and mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of such fungus. So, if a huge old tree was cut down, you’ll often find faerie rings. They can last for years and years as the earth reabsorbs all the nutrients left behind by the beautiful tree.

In a way, they're basically marking the graves of trees. And if folklore has taught us anything, it’s that fairies and other spirits usually occupy trees, or have them as their life force. And that’s to say nothing of the folklore of trees being spirits in and of themselves, or kitsunes that live in tree hollows, or dryads, etc. If it’s disrespectful or feels like a slight to step on human graves, wouldn’t that logic transfer to stepping inside the FaerieCircle, AKA, the tree’s grave?

Yes, I have heard this! Thanks for sharing, Siris! However, I've lived here for a year and it only just showed up now. So I'm not entirely sure there used to be a tree there, which makes this even more interesting to me.

I really like the idea of that, though. Thinking of it as the tree's grave. That's a really good way to look at it for those situations. Having been working with the fae and nature spirits as long as I have I can say for certainty that this would be a very good rule to live by. (:

Thank you! I think I'm going to, for sure~ I'm very happy that they decided to stick around even though I haven't done much with them recently.

I live in a shared house so I'm not sure how I'm going to do it but I'll figure it out, I'm sure!