The Gnomes' Yuletide Advent Mystery

Part 1

Deep inside Mother Earth where the root babies sleep, the gnomes are working all year long, tending the root babies, gathering the stones, making sure all is well.  All of the gnome kingdoms over the Earth work together by taking care of their own space and enjoying their own inner work of gaining wisdom.  King Melchizedek, the king of the forest gnomes, was kind and wise. He led the gnomes to do their work with great care and helped them to gain all the wisdom they came to this earth to gain.   

 

Each year the king issued a wisdom challenge to all the gnomes. The Creator picks three of the wisest gnomes to come before the king for the challenge.  If they complete the challenge, they move up to help in other parts of the kingdom. 

 

Knock, knock, knock went King Melchizedek’s crystal gavel as he called the gnomes to order.   “My dear brothers and sisters, please come to order. We have much business to cover on this first day of Advent.”

 

All the gnomes filed into the great crystal meeting hall and took a seat on their amber benches.  King Melchizedek gave a signal to Alpha and Omega, the wisest of the number gnomes, and all at once the space was lit to splendor, including a large beautiful pine tree adorned with beautiful lights and shapes from nature. 

 

“Three of you have been called by our Creator to take the wisdom challenge, if you are one of these three please step forward.” said the king.

 

Out of the corners of the hall came three gnomes, one was a boy gnome, and two young girl gnomes.  The boy was William, a young gnome who was born in the forest. He was wise for his age with sandy brown hair.   The girls were, Sariah and Imani, both were wise and feisty! Sariah was born in the forest, she had long golden braids. Imani was born in a land far away, she had skin dark as cocoa and wore her hair short under her gnome cap.  The three approached the king, walking brave and tall. The king looked very pleased for he knew these young gnomes well, they had been wonderful at tending the root babies and had shown great potential at knowing just where to gather the prettiest of stones. 

 

“Are you three ready for your challenge?” asked the King.

 

“We are,” said the three as they looked at one another with excitement, remembering to also be reverent.

 

“Then let us begin,” announced the King.  “You can see our tree has many symbols from nature on it. Your first challenge is to bring me something from the mineral kingdom.  It must be something that is a symbol of strength and stability.” 

 

The king excused the three from the hall to start their challenge and the remaining gnomes finished their meeting by singing winter songs.

 

“In the Advent garden,

Dark the night below,

Earth is waiting, waiting, waiting,

For the stars to glow.”

 

William, Sariah and Imani walked into the forest and talked about what they were to find. 

 

Sariah spoke first, “There are so many stones it could be!  Chrysocolla is a great stone for strength but isn’t known for its stability.”

 

“Perhaps,” pondered William, “we should take a walk in the night air and that will help.”  The girls agreed. The air was brisk and quiet.  Only the owls could be heard and even they were low.  It was the first night of advent, all the creatures of the Earth waited in anticipation for the Winter Solstice and the return of the sun.  The days had grown so short and even though the first snow had just fallen, everyone in the forest seemed to look forward to the arrival of spring.

 

Imani walked meditatively and then suddenly squealed with delight.  Her happy sound could be heard across the whole forest, even the trees groaned as their sleep was disturbed. 

 

“What is it?” asked William.  “Have you solved the mystery already?”

 

“Yes! I think I have!” she shouted.  Again, the trees around her groaned as if to tell her to quiet down, but Imani was a happy gnome, she was never calm, never quiet and the trees knew they would just have to wait until she went back to her home before they would get proper rest. 

 

“Carnelian is a perfect stone. It clears negative energy and sorrows, it protects against fear and anger and it helps to stabilize energies...” she paused and said, “My mother is always sending them to me to help me with my outbursts.”

 

The other two gnomes giggled.  They both loved Imani very much and knew that her outburst was part of who she was, she was just energetic and happy, like a butterfly jumping from task to task until she was done.

 

“Why don’t we meet near Hematite’s cave tomorrow and ask him for some guidance in mining carnelian, so we can take it to the king at our next meeting?” asked Sariah. The three gnomes agreed and parted for the evening.

 

 

From our family…

A wreath is sometimes the most fun part of Advent. Since my childhood, I remember lighting the candles each week in anticipation of what was to come. Sometimes our wreaths were elaborate and sometimes simple. Recently, we have utilized a birthday ring. These are popular in Waldorf traditions and help mark seasons, holidays and birthdays. In preparation for this book, we decided to make a new wreath. Our family is changing as our older children grow up and we are looking to carry on some new things for those we are still actively walking through childhood with each day.

 

 

 

Wooden Advent Wreath  

Materials:

1 round piece of wood, can be a fallen piece of a log, approximately 10 inches across. Ours is about 2 inches thick. We wanted to accommodate the thickness needed to attach the screws from the candle cups.

 

4, 1 ¼ inch candle cups. Ours had a 5/8” hole. They also each had a hole in the bottom.

 

Lightly sand your surface and then cover with the watercolor design of your choice. If your piece of wood was purchased (verses fallen) as ours was, then you will want to take great care in bringing moisture back to it. We covered the surface with several coats of water before applying the paint. In hindsight, I could have soaked it in water for a few days as well.

 

While your wood is drying, paint your candle cups. Once everything is dry, wax with furniture wax.  Use screws (or glue) and attach your candle cups.

 

 

Favorite Hot Cocoa Mix

This is a favorite here.  We spent many long winters in Idaho and later Utah nursing a mug of this cocoa. The original recipe came from Martha Stewart. I like to make this at the beginning of our Advent season and put it in a glass jar, easy for us to all get to. The kids always know that it must be winter if the cocoa is being made.

 

3 ½ cups sugar

2 ¼ cups cocoa

1 T salt

 

Mix together in a bowl and then store in an airtight container. When you are ready to make a cup, warm a cup of milk and add 2 tablespoons of the mix. Enjoy!