Date: May 29, 2007 11:40 AM
The Fae can be found in Mushroom circles in Pine forests, in Hollows of Oak trees and amongst the Acorns, Pine cones and Autumn leaves. Milkweed pods are sure to lead you to the wee ones. Dew drops, primroses, running streams are regular homes for the Fae & Gnome.
Dusk
"At a time that is not a time,
in a place that is not a place,
on a day that is not a day..."
A Recipe to See the Fae
On a Dawn morn or dusk eve, find a special bottle, a pretty one the Fae would like that is.
And pour into it
1 cup gathered spring or rain water
1 teaspoon of Pink Rose petals
½ teaspoon Lavender flowers
Add 3 Quartz crystals
Add 3 Amethyst Chips
1 pinch of Faery sugar (see recipe below)
Nine inch piece of pink ribbon
Now hide this away in a dark cool place for three days. On the third day, again at dawn or dusk, in a place you think you might spot the Fae, like an Oak tree, backyard or mushroom patch in the forest. Even a potted plant, herb or Flower will do. Tie a nine inch piece of Pink ribbon arond bottle neck. Next, close your eyes and sprinkle 9 drops over each eyelid of your “Faery Potion Water”, careful not to get it IN your eyes! Next recite this Faery incantation and watch for the Fae.
Fairies came out of their fairy hills at Halloween, Celtic folk said, because the hills themselves were tomb-wombs of rebirth according to the ancient belief, and Halloween was only a new name for Samhain, when the dead returned to earth with the help of the priestesses - who, under Christianity, were newly described as witches. Respect for the pagan dead endured to a remarkably late date, even among Christians whose church taught them that the old deities were devils. Cornish miners refused to make the sign of the cross when down in a mine, for fear of offending the fairies in their own subterranean territory by making a gesture that invoked their enemy.
In the "Book of the Dun Cow", the fairy queen described her realm as "the land of the ever-living, a place where there is neither death, nor sin, nor transgression. We have continual feasts: we practice every benevolent work without contention. We dwell in a large Shee (sidh); and hence we are called the people of the Fairy-Mound."
The pagan after-world was a golden "dream-time" of long ago, when heroes were deified by sacred marriage with the Goddess. The Great God Lug(h), father of Ireland's dying savior, Cu Chulainn, came "out of the chambered undergrounds of Tara where dwell the fourth race of gods who settled Ireland. They are the glorious and golden giants, Tuatha Dé Danann. These people of the goddess Dana first used gold and silver in an Age of Bronze. They first cleared the land, first drained the swamps. They built the great temples of stone like the one they sent to Britain - Stonehenge. When conquered, they retired to their underground barrows or Sidhe where they still live today."
Fairy mounds were entrances to the pagan paradise, which might be located underground, or under water, or under hills on distant islands across the western sea where the sun died.
The Fairy Queen was obviously the ancient fertility-mother, like Demeter or Ceres. William of Auvergne said in the 13th century she was called Abundia, or Dame Abonde: "Abundance." She was also called Diana, Venus, Hecate, Sybil, or Titania - a title of Cretan Rhea as ruler of the earth-spirits called Titans, predecessors of the Olympian Gods. She had pulled all three personae of the Triple Goddess, including the death-dealing Crone - which is why an Irish title Bean-Sidhe, "Woman of the Fairy Mounds", was corrupted into banshee, the shrieking demoness whose voice brought death. In the form of the triple Morrigan, she sang of blood sacrifices related to springtime renewal of vegetation. A variation on her title was the notorious Morgan le Fay or Morgan the Fairy, also known as the death-goddess, "Morgue la faye." Hence the word for our dead or morgue.
The Romance of Lancelot du Lac spoke of the fairy queen in another incarnation as Lady of the Lake: "The damsel who carried Lancelot to the lake was a fay, and in those times all those women were called fays who had to do with enchantments and charms - and there were many of them then, principally in Great Britain - and knew the power of virtues and words, of stones and of herbs." Their knights were forbidden to speak their names, for fear of betraying them to Christian persecutors.
Secrecy attended many aspects of the fairy-religion, for the very reason it was carried on clandestinely under a dominant religious system that threatened its practitioners with torture and death. One of the charges that sent Joan of Arc to the stake was that she "adored the Fairies and did them reverence."
A legend repeated by the gypsies said if a man found the statue of a naked fate (fairy) in the ruins of pagan temples or tombs, he should embrace it with love and eject semen on it. Then, like Pygmalion's Galatea, the fate would come to life in his dreams and tell her lover where to find buried treasure, and she would become his "fortune". He would be happy with her forevermore, provided he agreed never to set foot in a Christian church again as long as he lived.
This idea of the fairy-fortune might be traced all the way back to ancient customs of matralineal inheritance and matralocal marriage, characteristic both of the Bronze Age myths and of fairy tales. The fairy tale hero rarely brought a bride to his own home; instead, he left home to seek his "fortune," which usually turned out to be a foreign princess won by trial and wedded in her own country, which the hero afterward helped rule. As in the pre-patriarchal system, a woman was the "fortune" or "fate" of the young man, words which also meant "fairy", through such intermediates as Fata, Fay, Le Fée, or the "fey" one. Fairy and Fate were further related through fear and fair: medieval Latin fatare, "to enchant," became French faer or féer.
Many believed fairies lived in the deep woods where their sacred groves had been hidden from priestly interference. Rumanians still speak of the Fata Padourii, Girl of the Woods, a fairy similar to the Irish banshee. At night she makes eerie sounds that portend death to the hearer. In Brittany, where there were many groves dedicated to the Moon Goddess throughout the middle ages, fairies were societies called an-decent, "Moon Goddesses".
It seems the fairy religion was practiced secretly through most of the Christian era, especially by women, whose goddess the patriarchal church kept trying to take away, giving them no substitute but Mary, who lacked the old Goddess's powers.
Certain French leaders of the Old Religion were described as "great princesses who, having refused to embrace Christianity.... were struck by the curse of God. Hence it is that they are said to be animated by a violent hatred of the Christian religion and of the clergy." Sometimes they were called Korrigen, Korrig, or Korr, perhaps devotees of the Virgin Kore. A Breton lay said: "There are nine Korrigen, who dance, with flowers in their hair, and robes of white wool, around the fountain, by the light of the full moon." They seem to have been old women who used masks or makeup: "Seen at night, or in the dusk of the evening, their beauty is great; but in the daylight their eyes appear red, their hair white and their faces wrinkled; hence they rarely let themselves be seen by day."
As late as the 17th century it was said there were shrines kept by "a thousand old women" who taught the rites of Venus to young maidens, and instructed them in fairy feats like shape-shifting and raising storms. They were known as fatuae or fatidicae, "seeresses," or sometimes bonnes filles, "good girls".
Norwegian, Scottish, and Irish Christians claimed the fairies were offspring of the fallen angels. Like the non-fallen angels, they carried off souls of the dead. Any who happened to die at twilight, the fairies' hour between day and night, would find themselves in fairyland between life and death, or between heaven and hell. Such legends reflect ancient views of the after world as without either punishment or reward but only a way-station in the Karmic cycle, which is why fairies were like the un-dead - able to emerge from their tombs at will. As psychopomps, they were the same as Valkyries or Hindu apsaras, the heavenly nymphs who became Peris, "fairies", in Middle-Eastern countries where the Old Religion was also maintained as a sub-current in patriarchal culture.
Certainly one of the strongest attractions of the fairy religion was its permissive view of sexuality, typical of ancient matriarchal societies, living on in contrast to the harsh anti-sexual attitudes of orthodoxy. Fairyland was the heaven of sexy angels, as opposed to the Christian heaven where "bliss" was specifically not sexual, not even in matrimony (Matthew 22:30). The fairyland called Torelore in the romance of Aucassin and Nicolette was a home for lovers, as opposed to the Christian heaven of "old priests, and halt old men and maimed". The fairy king lay in bed pretending to give birth to a child, in the ancient rite of couvade. The queen led an army against their enemies in a bloodless battle, the combatants pelting each other with symbolic foods such as apples, eggs, and cheeses. The king said, "it is nowise our custom to slay each other."
Toward this paradise the Fairy Queen led her lovers on a "broad, broad road across the lily lea," as Thomas Rhymer's ballad said, which some called the road to heaven, and others the road to hell: a prototype of the famous Primrose Path. The Queen herself was addressed as Queen of Heaven. Sometimes her earthly angels were more spirit than mortal, like the fairies called Little Wood Women (wudu-maer) in Bavaria, to whom dumplings and other foodstuffs were offered. Yet most sources admitted that the fairies were real live women. Prior wrote, "In Danish ballads fairies are full grown women and not the diminutive beings of our English tales." Said Andrew Lang, "There seems little in the characteristics of these fairies of romance to distinguish them from human beings, except their supernatural knowledge and power. They are.... usually of ordinary stature, indeed not to be recognized as varying from mankind except by their proceedings."
“Ribbon of pink, I just might think.
I would like to see the Fae today.
Special sight of Faery’s flight,
Send to me the way today.
A sprinkle here a sprinkle there,
A secret spell I say today.
Wispy wings and little things,
Are what I’d like to see today.”
PLEASE note this may need to be repeated to see the Fae, as they are VERY cautious little creatures!
Faery Sugar
3 cups fine white sugar
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract (the good stuff)
1/8 teaspoon red food coloring
Glass container
Lay sugar on wax paper & sprinkle on the Vanilla; stir into the sugar till all mixed in. Next sprinkle on the red food coloring and also incorporate in till sugar turns “Faery pink”. Save in glass container, you have labeled “Faery Sugar”; you can now use this special treat in the recipe above & for Faery cookies, cakes and offerings to the Fae. You can eat some your self, but remember the recipe is a secret!
= Written by Barbara Morris
The Oak leaf Fairy Spell
If a maid that is deep in love will go with her suitor to a lonely place in the meadows or the woods, or to the moors, and place within her own and her lover's shoe a single oakleaf; and if they both will wait there and contemplate their love, and speak it to one another as evening falls and the stars come out, they will, if their patience is good, behold the fairy host as they come to gambol and sport in the wilds.
The four leaf clover spell
If a maid will slip a four~leaf clover into her left shoe, and tie a garland of myrtle and clover around her brow, she will see the fairies as the moon comes up.
= by Claire Nahmad
Faerie Magick
Fairies and Pixies, elves and gnomes.
Spinning some magic,spells for our homes.
Their wishes are happy, of joys to share.
Join in their revelry, if only you dare.
Carefree of spirit, their happiness impart
Sending you Magick, to store in your heart.
= Unknown
Faery Trees
* Elder *
Elder is said to offer protection to the faeries from negative spirits.
* Hawthorn *
Hawthorn, also known as Witches' Tree, is one part of the sacred triad of trees that are said to be sacred to the Faery. Oak, Ash, and Thorn, when growing naturally together, create a place where it is easy to see the Fey. Hawthorns were once believed to be the transformed bodies of Witches, who had shapeshifted into tree form. It is more likely that the spirit seen in the Hawthorn was that of a dryad or tree faery.
* Oak *
Legend tells us that "Faery folks are in the oaks". Oak trees are believed to provide safe havens and homes for many varieties of faery.
* Apple *
The bark of apple trees or the fruits themselves have the power to transport a true-hearted seeker to the Otherworld. Burn the bark as an offering to the Good Folk on Midsummer's night. Also used in faery love spells. Cut an apple open to reveal the five pointed natural star.
Jasmine
This is one of my favorite plants, the tiny white flowers hold the MOST bewitching fragrance. I use the flowers in magical workings with the Fae.
Faery Herbs & Flowers
* Bluebells *Said to attract faeries to dance in your garden. On Beltane eve, make an ankle braclet of "Bluebells" and "jingle" bells to attract helpful fae folk to you.
* Clover *A sacred faery plant, clovers of all kinds will attract them. Lay seven grains of wheat on a four-leafed clover to see the Faery.
* Elderberry *Used to make Faery wine, these berries can be burned on a fire to invite the Good Folk to a gathering. Make a homemade brew of Elderberry Wine and you are sure to have some thirsty visitors. It is said that if a human drinks the wine, she will be able to see the Faery. If a human should drink Elderberry wine from the same goblet as a Faery being, he will be able to see them forever after.
* Elecampagne *Also known as Elfswort. This root can be scattered around the home to attract the Sidhe. It can be added to any magick or spell to invoke Faery blessing.
* Foxglove *The source of the modern heart drug Digitalis, Foxglove can have seriously dangerous results if taken internally. DO NOT INGEST!! Instead, plant Foxglove near your front door to invite the Faery in. Put a dried sprig of Foxglove in a talisman to keep you surrounded in Faery light.
* Heather *
Heather is said to ignite faery passions and open portals between their world and our own. Make an offering of Heather on "Beltane" eve to attract good fae to your garden
* Lilac *The sweet scent is said to draw Fae spirits to your garden. Lilac and primroses for midsummers eve, will please the Fae.
* Mistletoe *The most sacred herb of the Druids. Mistletoe is a magickal activator. In Faery spells, use a dash of Mistletoe taken on Summer Solstice to empower your workings with Faery magick.
* Milkweed *Both Monarch butterflies and fairies like milkweed. If Milkweed is planted in a Witches garden, the fey will always be in the area. The silky tassels of the Milkweed pods can be added to a dream pillow to not only make it softer but also to make you dream of fairies. In the Autumn when the pods are bursting and the fluffy seeds are flying across the fields, a wish is granted for each seed that can be caught and then released again.
* Peony *
Peony seeds were once used to protect children from faeries. A garland of the seeds were placed around the child's neck to keep them safe from kidnapping. In this day and age, with faery contact so drastically diminished, I doubt that anyone would want to don this faery banishing herb unless they were living smack dab in the middle of a circle of crazed Fae!!
* Poppies *
Said to invoke the faery into your dreams Make a dream pillow of fresh poppies to entice the fae to your dreams.
* Primrose *
When planted in a garden or hung dried on the front door, primroses will attract the company of Faeries. If you have them growing under your care, do not let them die! The Faery will be deeply offended by your carelessness. Primroses are great in container gardens. Tie a pink ribbon around your container of Primroses while chanting;
"Sacred roses, hear my cry
for your protection, this I tie"
* Roses *Roses attract the Faery to a garden. Their sweet scent will lure elemental spirits to take up residence close by. Roses can be used in Faery love spells. When performing the spell, sprinkle rose petals under your feet and dance softly upon them while asking the Faery for their blessing on your magick. Roses are loved by the fey so you can plant Roses in your garden to attract fairies. Wild Roses are best for this purpose and you need to say the following spell as you plant your baby Rose bush:
"I ask a fairy from the wild,
To come and tend this wee rose-child.
A babe of air she thrives today,
Root her soul in the Goddesses' good clay.
Fairies make this twig your bower,
By your magic shall time see her flower!"
* Thyme *Wearing thyme will increase your ability to see the Sidhe. Sprinkle it at the base of your door, and on window sills to invite the Faery to enter your home.
Fae of the World
* Pixies *
Cheerful and mischievous. They often take the form of a hedgehog. They are also well known for their pranks. They adore music and dancing. Sing or play music for their favor.
* Goblins *
Vicious little creatures that can appear as animals. Make a scary carving in a squash or celery root glowing with candle lite, to keep them away from your home on Samhain.
* Leprechauns *
Irish fairies that are very cunning. Usually found among the clover. An offering of Ale is most welcome.
* Elves *
The Scandinavian form of fairies. Rich sweets as an offering will bring you abudance to come.
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