Faeries & Elementals for Beginners: Learn About & Communicate With Nature Spirits (9 page)

are rarely friendly, and often times will try to eat humans.

Some ogres may possess magical powers that are harmful,

such as the ability to turn people into stone. Ogres are usually solitary and keep to themselves in the wilderness or in caves, so if you should see one, your best move would be to run away.

Ottermaaner—Water

Originating in the Netherlands, ottermaaner are night creatures that dance under the full moon while wearing otter

skins. They travel by generating a bubble of water that

floats through the air. They always live near the water and avoid showing themselves to humans. They are benevolent

creatures as long as you leave their wetlands in peace and do not destroy their environment.

In order to work with an ottermaaner, try planting a

night-blooming garden near a body of water that has no

fish. Fish eat ottermaaner, and they will avoid them fear-

fully. They love flowers very much. Do not pick the flowers yourself, as ottermaaner become angry at those who show

any destruction toward their homes. Contact them at night

during a full moon.

Peg Leg Jack/The Fachan—Air

There may be only one of this Scottish faerie. It is not only one leg that he has, but also one eye, arm, toe, and finger.

64 • Chapter One

He has many hairs and feathers all over his body. When

seen, he carries a spiked club. He lives in the mountains

and, when disturbed, can be quite vicious. Peg Leg Jack is an envious creature and not friendly to any living being,

especially humans. He should be avoided if you ever see his ghastly visage.

Pixies—Earth and Air

Pixies hail from the Southeast of England, acquiring the

name around the time when Christianity was taking over.

The unbaptized Pagan children, or “Picts,” were called

pixies. Pixies were at first characterized as diminutive red-headed people, about four feet high. Those people may

simply have been human children in those days. As time

passed, the descriptions of pixies in myth and lore became smaller and smaller. Eventually they looked a lot like the classic creatures of faerietales, frolicking about in nature with short hair, pointy ears, cute little upturned noses, and raggedy green clothes with pointed hats. They may, however, also be hairy all over their bodies. Some myths and

legends claim they turned into modern day ants. Heather

pixies or moor pixies are a specific variant that live in Scotland as well as England. Appearing as golden orbs or small people with translucent wings, heather pixies love to spin flax.

Pixies are usually troublesome creatures, and not to be

counted upon for hard work that needs to be done. They

would rather be destroying or stealing food or crops, souring milk, or simply pinching people and causing general

trouble. A metallic substance called “pixie dust” is used

Getting started with Faeries • 65

by pixies for either good magic or trouble-making. Pixies

are notorious for leading people astray, or causing them to become lost or turned around in the forest.

If they do help people, they do so only at their own

choosing, rarely if asked. When a pixie is given an article of clothing or thanked for help, he or she disappears. What you can do to attract pixies is to make sure that your home is swept to welcome them. In lieu of thanks or clothing

gifts, an offering of water can be given to the pixies. The water offering should be placed near a candle or the hearth fire of a home. Pixies love horses, so if you have horses

yourself, you may find the pixies more likely to come near.

But be sure to lock your horse up at night so that the pixies don’t make off with it! Evidence that pixies are around your home include seeing pixie dust, mushrooms, and ants.

Poltersprites/Cobalds/Heinzelmannchens/Hutchens/

Kobaulds/Koboldes/Kolbalds—Earth

Poltersprites are short faerie people found in Germany and Scandinavia. They wear brown shorts and brown or red felt

hats. They carry pipes but do not smoke them. They can be

either friends or enemies depending upon whether they feel they are getting enough attention and respect. In nature,

they live in hollow trees, and if seen you should leave an offering of food and milk and take care not to let one follow you home.

If a home becomes infested with a poltersprite or a

group of them, they will demand your constant attention.

If you ignore them or are rude to them, they may angrily

throw objects and make a terrible racket. The best way to

66 • Chapter One

move them is by filling the rooms with smoky incense so

that they become irritated and leave of their own accord.

Queens—Earth

In mythology around the world, faerie royalty is frequently mentioned. You may recall Queen Mab from Shakespearian

reference. It is said that faeries are governed by monarchy, and that faerie kings exist as well, but certainly faerie queens receive more attention in mythology. Another example

is Queen Aine, an Irish faerie queen of the summertime,

fertility, relationships, gardens, and abundance. Another

Irish faerie queen is Dana, who rules over wisdom, peace,

insights, solutions, abundance, fertility, and power. A third Irish faerie queen, Oonagh, rules over the hair on your head as well as the concepts of monogamous marriage. Greeks

and Romans were not without their faerie queens as well.

Flora was a Greek and Roman queen of spring flowers and

fertility. Here are a few more queens and their domains.

•
Queen Cordelia:
Flowers, gardens, spring and summer

•
Queen Maev:
Femininity, menstruation and menopause

•
Queen Nemetona:
Trees, gardens, prayer, meditation

•
The Snow Queen:
Cold, cruelty, power, energy

Faerie queens sometimes reach the cultural status of

Goddesses, receiving prayer and petitions that would not be offered to other faerie beings. Some faerie queens that have strayed into the deity archetype are listed below along with those things over which they hold dominion.

Getting started with Faeries • 67

•
Epona:
Celtic queen of protection, healing, equestri-ans, and guidance.

In order to best work with the faerie queens, treat them

as if they are goddesses in their own right, even if they have not earned the title in mythology and lore. Instead of trying to make friends with them, or to trick them, be certain to give them offerings. Lift up your voice to them in prayer

if you would like to ask for their assistance with any matter. Know that they won’t show up in droves to clean your

house like other faeries, but they may grace you with mag-

ical solutions to your problems. You may find that your

troubles simply disappear, or you may find that you have

acquired the wisdom in your own mind to solve the issue.

Either way, if you pray to a faerie queen for help, be sure to thank them when your issue is resolved, no matter how the

road block may have been removed from your life.

Rat Boys/Fir Darrigs—Water

Nobody knows whether rat boys came from Ireland or

Scotland first, but they seem to have infested many human

homes. They are not rats, but these faeries are definitely hairy, with tails and long noses. They wear clothes from

the middle ages that are torn and worn through, and may

carry a short walking stick with a skull on the end to scare people. They can also be recognized by their terrible smell, since they feed on carrion and seafood.

They may come into human homes from their natu-

ral homes in wetland places in order to find a warm place

to dry near the fire. They are not helpful and may be quite
68 • Chapter One

mean, so they should be evicted from the house as soon as

possible.

Sirens/Havfrues/Loreleis/Mary Players/

Meerweibers/Merewipers—Water

Sirens, from the seas around Europe and the Mediterra-

nean, are always female. They appear as the most beauti-

ful women when they emerge from the water, but may take

on more of a mermaid form in water. Sirens are known for

climbing to the top of rocky islands in the middle of the sea and singing beautiful and haunting songs. Sailors, driven

mad by the sight and sound of them, will steer their ships straight into the rocks and wreck them. The only way to

avoid a siren’s cruel trap is to restrain oneself from hearing or looking upon them.

Sprites—Earth and AIr

Faerie or elf type sprites originate in European folklore, and may refer to several different types of creatures, including pixies and any or all other faeries and even elves. Elves are generally to be warned against, since they aren’t necessarily the beautiful people seen in the movies and games of modern popular culture. Elves, though not winged creatures,

are often depicted as people with pointed ears and dimin-

utive in stature. Though the earliest Germanic accounts

of human interactions with elves showed them as either

friends or foes, elves gradually began to take on a more

mischievous and downright malicious role in folklore. In

general, solitary elves were good and elves that banded

together were nasty.

Getting started with Faeries • 69

Many annoyances from hiccups to nightmares were

said to be caused by elves. Elves should not be counted

upon to solve a problem, or they might turn the situation

into a riddle that is impossible to solve. Elves have been blamed for stealing human babies and even kidnapping

full grown adults to take them away to a secret elf land. In numerous legends, the person would escape back to the

human world after a very short time in the elf land, only to find that everyone he or she had known had aged because

many human years had passed. Dark elves, or
huldrafolk
in Scandinavia, can lick people with their black tongues

in order to cause deformities. The image of a pentagram,

also called an “elf cross” can be worn or inscribed to protect against the effects of malicious, elvish sprites.

Another sprite that lacks physical description is the

buttery sprite from England, which has never been seen.

Infesting butteries, inns, and abbeys, buttery sprites cause mischief, to be sure, but only to people who deserve it. Buttery sprites steal food from and get even with people who

lie and cheat. They are, of course, particularly given to

stealing butter, which can be made as an offering by some-

one feeling guilty of hypocrisy.

The word “sprite” comes from the Latin word for spirit,

spiritus
. Sprites can refer to ghosts as well, which should never be neglected in any treatise on faeries. Ghosts are

found across cultures and in both ancient history and mod-

ern times, and many attribute the phenomenon commonly

associated with faeries to spirits of deceased ancestors

instead. In Japan, creatures called
yosei
, meaning “bewitch-ing spirit” can raise the dead. Ghosts can be pictured as

70 • Chapter One

skeletal, shadowy, white, translucent, or even as perfect

images of the deceased. The notions that people have of

ghosts can be as varied as individual people themselves.

However, it can be helpful to work with one’s ancestral

sprites, since everything we do in life is made possible by our ancestors having given us life in the first place.

To gain the favor of ghostly sprites, you can create an

altar with photographs of deceased relatives. Take care

not to include any living people on your ancestral altar. If you have a picture of yourself hugging a person who later

died, for example, cut yourself out of the picture. Offerings made on the altar can be glasses of water or food the person would have liked during life. Even if you never knew a deceased ancestor, such as a great-great-great-great grand-mother from Brazil, you can offer her traditional Brazilian food from her era. Ghostly sprites dearly love to be remembered, so you can include them in your prayers or rituals

by naming them specifically, and also offering your honor

and respect to all those whose names have been lost or forgotten.

Waterbirds/Boobries/Waterhorses—Water

This Scottish faerie creature is not humanoid, but looks

like a bird. Waterbirds stand about a foot tall and have

black feathers. They can swim as well as fly and are active at night. You can tell a mythological waterbird from some

other water fowl by the unnaturally long beak that extends away from its body three times its height. If you were to

look closely at its feet, instead of webbed water fowl feet you’d see terrifying human hands that are deformed with

Getting started with Faeries • 71

long claws. It makes a sound like a bull when startled or

distressed. A waterbird can shapeshift into a horse that runs atop the water.

Waterbirds eat fish in the wild, but can be harmful to

passing boats that carry livestock. Sneaking aboard, a waterbird will make a call that sounds exactly like its prey in order to sneak close enough to seize it and take it under the water to drown. In order to prevent being raided by a waterbird, you can either offer beef or mutton, or simply stay on land where the boobrie cannot fly or tread.

Water Mannikins/Klaboutermannikins—Air

Old ships used to have a figurehead on the front that was

carved to be as lifelike as possible. Water mannikans are

German faeries that have no corporeal bodies, so they will find a ship’s figurehead in which to dwell. A ship that has a water mannikin residing within it will avoid rocks, winds, storms, and rampant disease. If a ship should sink with a