Faery Craft: Weaving Connections with the Enchanted Realm (4 page)
Read Faery Craft: Weaving Connections with the Enchanted Realm Online
Authors: Emily Carding
Tags: #guidebook, #spirituality, #guidance, #nature, #faery, #enchanted, #craft, #realms, #illustrations, #Faery spirituality, #magical beings, #zodiac, #fae
The name Freyr, or Frey, translates as “lord,” and the name of his twin sister of the Vanir, Freya, translates as “lady,” but it is unclear whether there is any connection to the title sometimes given to the trooping faeries of lords and ladies or, indeed, the titles of the Wiccan God and Goddess, who are often referred to as Lord and Lady; it would appear to be no more than a curious coincidence. However, Freya also has some definite parallels with Faery, being the psychopomp queen of the Valkyries, who, with their connection to battle and the dead, as well as an association with ravens, display some strong connections to the Irish Morrigan.
Freyr is sometimes referred to as a horned god, and like horned gods of other traditions, he is strongly associated with fertility, both of humans and the land itself. Indeed, most deities that are considered to be kings of Faery are depicted as horned and have this same association with fertility. Like Pan of Greek mythology, many display a
voracious
sexual appetite and priapic qualities, which are normally combined with a lack of morality as we would understand it; so, ladies, be warned! These are real and very powerful energies.
Other horned gods who are considered kings of Faery include Cernunnos of Celtic tradition, Herne the Hunter of English folklore, and Gwyn ap Nudd and his earlier counterpart Arawn of Welsh mythology. Veles, or Volos, of the Slavic culture is another horned god who, though not overtly linked to the Faery lore of that land, is seen as ruler of the underworld and the dead. Similarly, the ram-horned god of ancient Egypt, Khnum, was associated with fertility and the underworld. This chthonic role is strongly associated with Faery, as both the ancestors and the Faery race may be found in the underworld.
When we look at deities who are considered to be Faery queens, we can also see some striking commonality. Goddesses who rule over Faery are usually associated with war and battle, and quite often take a psychopomp role in that they can travel between worlds and guide the souls of the slain on their journey to the underworld. They invariably are considered sorceresses and shapeshifters, with powerful skills in the magickal arts, and usually with similar animal associations, such as ravens, horses, serpents, wolves, or dogs. A gift that these goddesses also seem to have in common is the gift of prophecy, often playing a hand in the fates they predict for mortals. This is particularly interesting when we consider that the name
faery
comes from the Latin
fata
, meaning “fate.”
Professor Ari Berk on Faeries and the Dead
We would much
prefer to see tiny fairies in floral dresses and so on, but the truth behind this idea of fairies as little children is part of an older, dark tradition that people are really not too excited to hear about. When you start talking about Faery lore and the disposition of the souls of unbaptised children, a lot of people are ready to turn off. That’s it—back to the Disney Channel! But really this is where so much of the lore originates: in loss, in mourning, in wanting to know the dead remain close to us, in our desire to continue our conversations with those we love. In this branch of lore, Faerieland becomes a kind of earthly limbo. But this is only one aspect of Faery.
If you ask me what a Faery is, it’s impossible to answer in one breath. It’s a word that has so many meanings and many incarnations. Is a faery the house Lar of the ancient Roman household? That’s one version, one mask, and a very old one that still has resonance. Is a faery a spirit of the dead? Yes, absolutely. That is one area of Faery lore that is much ignored now, in favour of a fluffier kind of faery. That’s because we don’t like obligation, as a society. Faery lore is filled with obligation. You are resident in this place or that place, and many, many successive generations of people have lived there before you. What is your obligation to these people
who are most likely nameless? From their earliest appearances in story and lore, faeries have represented the nameless dead of the land. We have lineage ancestors whom we know, but then there are the—may I call them “landcestors”? These are the oldest spirits of place whose names are often forgotten but who still must be acknowledged. Sometimes these come to us as faeries.
Faeries as the ancient dead should be really relevant to us, because most of us do not live in the same town or village where we were born, so lore that tries to bridge the gap between newcomers and the local landcestors (it’s an official word now), the past residents of a place, is vitally important. We tend to look forward only, and that means we lose our sense of obligation to a place. That means at a town council meeting, we’re more likely to vote to put the new parking lot over the ancient burial mound, because we’ve forgotten or refuse to learn the stories of the places where we choose to reside…
Faery lore is about interdimensional respect—respect between people and their past. It helps to not think about yourself purely as yourself. Our edges appear to be finite, but they’re not; we’re interconnected in a thousand ways with our environment, but we forget that so easily! This kind of lore helps one to reestablish those links.
Ari Berk
in an interview with the author in 2011. Ari Berk is a world-renowned expert on folklore and mythology, with a large number of published titles to his name, including
The Runes of Elfland
(with artist Brian Froud),
The Secret History of Giants
, and
Coyote Speaks: Wonders of the Native American World
(with Carolyn Dunn). He is also an accomplished writer of fiction and is the author of
Death Watch
(book one of The Undertaken Trilogy). Dr. Berk is Professor of English at Central Michigan University, teaching courses in mythology, folklore, American Indian studies, and medieval literature. He is also the former editor of the
Realms of Fantasy
magazine’s Folkroots section and sits on the board of directors of the Mythic Imagination Institute. His work can be explored via his website at www.ariberk.com.
The Ancestors and Spirits of the Dead
“In the Western Isles of Scotland the Sluagh, or fairy host, was regarded as composed of the souls of the dead flying through the air, and the feast of the dead at Hallowe’en was likewise the festival of the fairies.”
Lewis Spence,
The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain
Faeries and the spirits of the dead have long been associated in Celtic folklore and mystical belief. Whereas most see the faeries as a race of beings in their own right, they are undeniably connected to the realm of the dead, and there are some who believe them to be one and the same. The sidhe of Ireland are named for the same burial mounds in which the ancestors rest, and the Banshee, or Bean-Sidhe (Faery Woman), who gives an eerie scream into the night when a member of a particular family is about to die, is often referred to as a ghost or ancestral spirit. Folklore is replete with tales of departed relatives being sighted in the company of faeries, and there are numerous mentions of precognitive visions of this nature, with the person spotted in the company of the faeries dying a short time afterwards.
Akin to the belief that Faery beings may, in fact, be the spirits of the restless dead is the theory that they are a memory of our ancient ancestors, who lived in turf-
covered
homes and were short and dark. Perhaps in some cases this may be true, and this memory has been passed down through folklore. Indeed, some places may hold strong memories of earlier times and people that we may witness as echoes in the energy of the land, but this theory comes nowhere near to explaining the wide variety of beings that may be encountered within Faery, nor the powers that they undoubtedly hold.
As to the association with days such as Samhain, a festival in which the dead may be invited to feast with us and share their tales, this also is no clear evidence for faeries being interchangeable with the ancestors or recently deceased, but, again, it does show a connection. Both faeries and the dead dwell on the other side of the veil, between the worlds, where all is mysterious to us. At times such as Samhain, other cross-quarter days, and the solstices and equinoxes, the veil grows thin, and visions of both Faery and the spirits of the dead are more likely.
If indeed they inhabit the same realm, is it any wonder they are sometimes seen together? It has already been noted that many goddesses who are also Faery queens rule over both Faery and the dead, but it is not implied that they are the same. It makes sense that if a queen is ruling a realm, she will rule all the inhabitants of that realm, even if their natures are different. As R. J. Stewart, the respected teacher of Faery tradition, notes, “There is a crossover between the idea of the dead and the faery beings, but they really are quite distinct—the key thing being that the faery beings have never been human…”
Another notable difference is that generally once a spirit has passed over, they will not return to the land of the living, whereas Faery beings have the ability to pass between worlds as they wish. Most instances of “ghosts” are either energetic recordings imprinted on the atmosphere or restless dead who have not passed over for some reason. Spiritual contact via mediums with those who have passed over can be compared to shamanic work, with the medium being literally that: a mediator between the worlds. Considering the nature of Faery and how we perceive energetically through a number of filters, including memory, preconceived ideas, and other impressions from around us, it seems very possible that we might, for instance, see trooping faeries appear as soldiers in period uniform if a battle took place where there is also faery activity. This may well add to the confusion between the two!
It is an accepted part of Faery lore that human souls may be taken into Faery after death (or sometimes physically whilst still alive), so we may well encounter human spirits acting as guides or envoys in our dealings with Faery. This is often the case if someone has had a strong interest and connection with Faery in life, as with the Reverend Robert Kirk, who was famously taken into Faery in 1692 and has been seen in vision and meditation by many since as an otherworldly envoy. It is also a considerable possibility, therefore, that Faery beings may take the journey in the other direction and be born into human bodies.
These are all mysteries from which we may receive insights, fleeting visions, and flashes of inspiration, but the ultimate knowledge remains obscured. Our astral selves may pay a fleeting visit to the otherworld in journey, meditation, or dreams, but we will never truly experience it until we ourselves fully pass over, as those who walk between the worlds must always keep one foot on solid ground. However, through the contact that we do have, we can easily ascertain that though there is indeed a strong connection, there is much more to Faery beings than simply the departed souls of humans and our ancestors.
Aliens
A very modern theory about the origin of Faery beings is that they are actually visitors from another world (as opposed to the otherworld). Advocates of this theory propose that before the days of science fiction, moon landings, and television, the only explanation people could think of for strange lights in the sky and strange-looking people with unusual clothing is that they were a race of magickal beings, i.e., faeries.
There are many intriguing parallels. Crop circles are associated with both faeries dancing and with UFOs landing, though whether either of these is actually responsible is difficult to say. Descriptions of alien sightings often fit exactly with certain kinds of Faery beings, from slender, delicate, and almond-eyed to extremely large and hairy! Also, there is the frequently reported “loss of time” phenomenon, a well-known symptom of Faery contact, and, of course, abduction, which is a huge part of both ancient Faery folklore and the modern folklore of alien visitation. Interestingly, many sightings of UFOs report that they originated not in the sky but from under the ground or the sea.
In fact, this theory is of much more interest when looked at the other way around. Although in this vast and unknowable universe it is not impossible that we would be visited by sentient beings from another world, from what we already know of Faery we can easily see that many modern sightings of aliens and UFOs could, in fact, be Faery experiences. Since Faery beings often take their appearance from the human mind, in addition to the filters within the mind that influence how one perceives energy beings, it is highly possible that in these times of technology and popular science fiction, a Faery being could be interpreted as an alien visitation.
Perhaps both explanations have some truth in them. Who is to say we are not perhaps sometimes visited by the astral forms of Faery beings from other worlds? Or, indeed, that the many instances of similar occurrences may all have different origins and explanations? There are many mysteries in this world.
There are a number of respected authors who claim that ancient civilisations were visited by ancient astronauts, who brought with them knowledge of stellar cartography. The Dogon people of Mali, which is in Western Africa, claim to have been visited in ancient times by tribes from among the stars, who taught them much about mathematics and the movements of the stars and planets. Early accounts of the Tuatha de Danann’s arrival in Ireland talk of them arriving in flying ships or great clouds, so if you believe in alien visitation, it is not such a wild theory. Certainly the idea that the Faery race that dwells in the earth has cosmic origins is a very ancient one, with its roots in Celtic folklore.
Fallen Angels
“Not of the seed of Adam are we, nor is Abraham our father; but of the seed of the Proud Angel, driven forth from Heaven.”
W. Y. Evans-Wentz,
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
Celtic folklore tells us that faeries are the angels who were pulled down with Lucifer when he left heaven and were unable to return, the doors to heaven being shut after them to prevent any more angels from following. Since they did not wish to live in hell either, they made a home in earth’s hollow places. Since this lore is passed down through obviously biased Christian priests, to whom the Faery race were, for the most part, devils and at best to be pitied, it is easy to dismiss this origin theory as being simply anti-Pagan propaganda. It is interesting to note, however, that there is a very similar tale within Muslim culture of the origin of the djinn, a race of fiery, airy beings who are the Arabic equivalent of the faerie race and the origin of the wish-granting genie we are all familiar with. When God orders the angels in heaven to bow down and worship the newly created man, the leader of the angels, Iblis (the Islamic equivalent to Lucifer), refuses and is cast out to become the leader of the Shaytan, the race of fallen djinn from whom the name
Satan
derives.