Celtic Fae Mythology
INTRODUCTION
The host is rushing ‘twixt night and day
And where is there hope or deed as fair?
Caoilte tossing his burning hair
And Niamh calling Away, come away
Yeats, The Hosting of the Sidhe
The entrance to the World of Faerie are elusive and, if we once find one, we may return on a cold morning to find it gone, leaving us in the greyness of our mortality. And yet there are many Faerie portals: in the twisted claw of a tree-root, shimmering where a sunbeam earth itself amid beech tress, around the other side of the barrow-mound – always around the other side. We catch echoes faery of music or glimpse the grace of their movements from the corner of the eye, for only to rare mortals and at rare times do the Fair Folk manifest in their brilliance. Our ‘reality’ is too stodgy a medium for their delicacy.
Tales about Faeries, and discussions of what they may truly be, are many and varied. Stories also recount how they are departing from the Earth, for since the time of Chaucer their numbers have been declining. In A Book of Fairies Katherine Briggs, tells how faeries left the Lowlands of Scotland in the nineteenth century, for the last time. In Scottish hamlet, one Sunday, when most of the villagers were at church, a boy and his sister spotted a diminutive cavalcade winding its way down the hills and heading southward. They watched in astonishment as tiny riders on miniature ponies paraded soundlessly past them. At length the boy cried out to the last rider, ‘Who are ye, and where go ye?’ ‘I am not of the race of Adam,’ came the reply, ‘and he People of Peace shall never more be seen in Scotland.’
However, the Celts do not readily relinquish their faeries and there are countless tales worldwide of faery encounters. To the Irish, faeries are a part of life and always have been. Our adoption of nationalistic outlook has put blinkers on us, but fashions change and people are now seeing and sensing faeries in growing numbers, as consciousness alters. Some believe these beings are the spirits of Nature, with whom we need to work, to heal our world. Others say they are aliens, coming with important messages from other civilizations. Still others regard them as angels, demons or figments of the imagination. However, whether we speak of inner or outer reality, faeries are not to be ignored. Their characteristics seems to have changed little down the ages.
Faeries may be helpful and benevolent, puckish and unpredictable, wise, enchanting, terrifying and remote. Can we bring ourselves closer to the Faerie realm? And is this a desirable thing to attempt? What have been the experience of the traditional travelers to Faerie? What can we learn about our world, by contact with Otherworld?
In the followings pages we shall be looking at faeries in their many moods and manifestations, exploring what they may be and where they can be found. One thing is certain: faeries have not disappeared from the world, only from our eyes. If we seek to expand our perceptions we must go back to that oldest and simplest of sources, Nature itself for our sight is given depth and clarity by contact with soil, leaf, root, streams, and breeze.
Contact with the faeries starts within the soul. Please note: The spelling ‘faery’ is preferred in this book, because it denotes real beings as opposed to the fairies of children’s fiction. ‘Faerie’ is a term for the Other world, the Land of the Faeries. The spelling ‘fairy’ is retained where it is quoted in sayings, poems, case studies (e.g. the Cottingley Fairies) and titles of films, books, etc.. and in place names.
ENCOUNTERS WITH THE FAERY FOLK
Lip the airy mountain
Down the rush glen
We daren’t go a-hunting
For fear of little men
William Allinghan, The Fairies
‘Do you believe in fairies?’ There are many people who would answer a definite ‘yes’ because they have actually seen them. If we are honest, most of us who have spent time alone and aware, in nature, have felt their presence and glimpsed them. However, we are taught these days to believe in only one reality, the down-to-earth material reality, that we believe is unchanging and reliable – until it is touched by faery fingers. If we are to make sense of our knowledge of fairies we need to examine the available possibilities, not with an eye to ‘proving’ they exist, for I do not believe we can ever do that to the confirmed skeptic, but wit a view to being clear about what we mean and alive to the many different types of possible faery and being that may appear faery-like but are something different.
Here is a review of possible definitions of faeries.
They are merely a product of the Imagination in the most frivolous sense, being at best a diversion and at worst a dangerous delusion for minds that can’t or won’t cope with reality. In this category we might include accounts of faeries that are quite consciously ‘made-up’ in order to get attention and faeries spotted on the stagger back from the local bar!
They are ‘imaginary’ in a more positive sense and, as such, useful to Jungian psychologist wo see them as powerful symbols arising from the Collective Unconscious. Thus, when these symbols enter our lives in some form, they have important meanings for us that we can and should examine creatively.
They are, in face, the should of the dead, ghosts and shad3s of the departed. This idea, in itself, has several ramifications. Many tales recount people taken bodily into Faerieland, who thus became as ghosts, riding with the faeries and passing into hollow hills with the faery host. The studies of Evans Wentz (see Further Reading) indicated that, in Celtic areas, the domain of the dead was very often equated with Faerie. The other, simpler view is that accounts of faeries are encounters with those who have departed this life but have not ‘moved on’ to other realms, remaining instead Earthbound. This takes us into the complex question of what exactly is a ghost…
They are angels, often at the lower end of the angelic hierarchy, here to watch over us, to bless and guard us.
They are devils in disguise, primed to tempt and corrupt, to entrap the soul so it may never enter paradise, and to cause all manner of mischief.
They are either angel or devil, but something in between (although rather closer to the devilish than the angelic) that got ‘caught’ on this Earth plane and are best avoided.
They are beings inhabiting parallel dimension (although often, for some reason, having a great interest in our world) that appear form time to time, when an interdimensional ‘warp’ occurs.
They are beings from other planets, that land in UFOs.
They are nature spirits, subtle being within the world of Nature that look after plants, trees and the natural world in general.
They are elementals, which is similar to the above, but not quite the same, for the elementals are ore the outbreath of natural energies, a living embodiment on the subtle planes of the states of matter.
They are pagan god, goddesses, heroes, and heroines. If you are a pagan you will probably see these being as possessing a reality. If t, the old ways may be sn as surviving faery lore.
They are/were real, sold creatures, similar to pygmies. Folklore accounts arise from times when these beings still survived. Possibly a handful do still live in remote areas (here we are in the same territory as Bigfoot and the Yeti). Thisis a possibility, but to date archaeologaical evidence does not support the idea of an earlier, diminutive race inhabiting Britain and Ireland. However, the pygmy tribes who still in some parts of the world do have their own ‘faery tradition’.
They are animals, or birds seen in a half-light by someone who is fearful, fanciful or drugged
Although this is quite a long list, there may be other possibilities. In addition, many faery tales are, no doubt, a spinning together of several categories. Let us now look at a selection of real encounters with faeries.
LADY FANSHAW AND THE BANSHEE
The banshee is an eerie figure from Irish lore. Her hair is long, her cloak is green and her eyes a a livid red, from endless weeping. More properly spelt bean sidhe she is of the people of the Sidhe (pronounced ‘shee’). The Sidhe are Irish faeries, who some say are the pre-Celtic peoples who slid mysteriously into another dimension, leaving behind their magical heritage. These are also called Tuatha de Danaan, the people of the Goddess Dana – a powerful and enchanted race who inhabited Eire before the Milesians landed and who subsequently struggled with, seduced and inspired their Celtic heirs. On winter nights, when the wind keened around the hilltop where we lived, I would block my ears against the wail of the banshee that my Irish father told me could be heard crying when a family member was about to die. On hearing of the death of my uncle, my father said sadly, ‘It was the banshee I heard that night.’ The banshee is still heard by certain Irish families, including some who have emigrated to the United States and elsewhere, for the land of Faerie is a little bit closer to those with Celtic heritage, wherever they may be.
JELADEVATA
Amore up-to-date encounter occurred in 1992 in west Bengal. A boy of five called Bhagavat was lost while swimming in a river with companions. Frantic to find him, his family searched everywhere until one of them spotted him, where the current was moving swiftly, just his finger sticking up out of the water. They dragged him out and fount him quite unharmed, although he had been under the water for ten minutes.
His mother, relieved and amazed, asked him what had happened, and he replied, ‘I was swept under by the current bur a beautiful lady held me up until I was rescued. She was dressed like a princess, wearing a crown and earrings.’
In the area there is an ancient tradition of an elfin creature wo dwells in rivers and lakes and protects those in danger of drowning, called a Jeladevata. A similar in accident happened in Peru in 1977 when Jorge Alvarez fell in to a swamp and gave himself up for lost. But as he sank, four little beings appeared, looking like humans of about a metre (3 feet) in height, but with only three fingers and covered in green scales. They held out branches to him and pulled him to safety but, by the time he had recovered, they had vanished. These stories, given in Alien Impact by Michael Craft (St. Martine’s, 1996) are in contrast to certain tales that tell of the dangerous seductiveness of water-spirits who in the tradition of the sirens, lure the unwary to a watery grave through tricks and wiles or the transcendent beauty of their singing.
UFO ENTITIES
A detailed report comes from the experience of Mrs. Hingley on 4 January 1979, in Rowley Regis, England and is reported by Janet Bord (see Further Reading). After seeing her husband off to work at 6:0 a.m. Mrs. Hingley went to investigate a strange orange light and saw a large sphere suspended over the garden. ‘Three small figures shot past her into the house: they were about 1 metre (3.5 feet) tall, wore silvery tunics and transparent helmets “like goldfish bowls” and also had large oval “wings” seemingly made of thin paper and decorated with glittering dots.’ These creatures had halos and their limbs were silvery green, ending in tapering points with no hands or feet. They told Mrs. Hingley that they came from the sky, everything they said was in unison, and they pressed buttons on their tunics as if they were a translation device. They kept shining a light at her but assured her that they meant her no harm. Things they touched lifted up. When they asked for water Mrs. Hingley gave it to them and, although the glasses were returned empty, they were not seen to drink. Taking one of the mince-pies also offered to them, they returned to their craft and shot off. For the rest of the day Mrs. Hingley felt very ill and she suffered from headaches for some time after the incident. Electrical items in the house that the creature had touched were damaged, some irreparably, as if they had been in contact with a strong magnetic field and marks were left o the grass where the ‘craft’ had been stationed.
Although the above account sounds bizarre, there is no reason to regard it as a fabrication. Indeed it could ot be entirely, because of the evidence left by the encounter. There are any number of similar accounts of encounters with ‘extra-terrestrials’ to the point where the modern ‘close encounter’ has become the, marginally, acceptable side of faery lore. The above description of the beings, small, diaphanous and flying has much in common with the traditional faery and there is much in the vast body of ufology that resembles faery descriptions. Small stature, green colour and the ability to fly, or at least ‘glide’, are common descriptions of the entities. ‘Little green men’ may be a cliché, but they do figure in numerous accounts.
Another feature not, apparently, applicable in the above tale but very common in both faery and UFO encounters is that of time-distortion, where the contactee or abductee finds they have ‘lost’ hours, or even days. This was immortalized in Washington Irving’s story of Rip Van Winkle, where a lazy farmer joins the dwarves at play, drinks their liquor and falls asleep. When he wakes up, his beard is long and grey and he is old. He returns to his village to find a generation has passed and he has been forgotten. This story was based on local legends of little men, although these can hardly be said to be confined to the Hudson Valley.
Therefore, the old accounts of faeries could be stories of extra-terrestrials, misinterpreted by the primitive peasantry of yesteryear. Or current accounts of extra-terrestrials could be merely a description of faeries that is more acceptable to modern thought. Possibly both and true. Who are we to limit and circumscribe the possibilities of faery entities?
MORE ENCOUNTERS
The connection of faeries with dancing is well known, for they are often to be seen dancing in ‘faery-rings’ and humans were reputed to be lured to their destruction by faeries who danced them to death in their circle. Once account given by Evans Wentz (see Further Reading) has a rather different twist, in that the woman in question died while dancing on her wedding night. Soon after her death she appeared to her husband telling him she was not really dead but taken away from him for a period of time. She told him that she could see him but he did not see her and that if he wished to get her back he must stand at the gap near the house and catch her as she went by. Because he loved her he went straight to the gap, where a company of stranger were just coming out. His wife appeared soon, quite plainly, but he found himself unable to stir, hand or foot. She gave a scream and was gone, lost to him forever. He never married again. Two more cheerful accounts are given by Janet Bord. One woman who ran a Post Office in Wales had an unseen helper, who tidied the shop for her every night. Being, no doubt, a truly wise Welshwoman, this lady did not question what was happening, but just thanked the ‘helper’ out loud, each morning. She called ‘him’ Billy and he never once let her down, only leaving when she retired and had no further need for him.
Another account from Somerset reflects the beauty of the faery kingdom. In 1977 a lady, whom we may call C.M., was in her garden with her mother, who was showing her how to take cuttings from rose tress. She and her mother stood facing each other with the rose tree between them, when her mother put her finger to her lips and pointed to one of the flowers, ‘With astonishment I saw what she was seeing – a little figure about 6 inches (15 centimetres) high, in the perfect shape of a woman and with brilliantly coloured diaphanous wings resembling those of a dragonfly. The figure held a little wand and was pointing it a the heart of a rose. At the tip of the wand there was a little light, like a star. The figure’s limbs were a very pale pink and visible through her clothes. Shad long silvery hair that resembled an aura. She hover3d near the rose for at least two minutes, her wings vibrating rapidly like those of a humming-bird and then she disappeared.’
What surprised both the women was how like this figure was, in almost every respect, to the standard type of faery in children’s stories. However, perhaps this is not so outstanding. We are apt to dismiss such mental pictures as ‘mere imagination’ forgetting how creative and insightful the imagination is. Far from ‘dreaming up’ the essentially impossible, we may see with the eye of imagination things which are invisible to the dense, physical eye. Besides, if faeries are creatures from another dimension or spiritual beings, we can only perceive them in ways we can understand. Globes of shining energy, which is what such beings may be, may be turned into human figures by the brain in order that we may perceive them meaningfully. Yet again perhaps the faeries are appearing to us in the way they wish to be seen, and what could be more beautiful than the rose faery?
2021, A Beginner’s Guide: Faeries and Nature Spirits By Teresa Moorey