This article was written for and published in ‘The Cottingley Fairy Photographs: New Approaches to Fairies, Fakes, and Folklore’. After the book’s publication it was released on academia.edu and shared for patrons only on my Patreon. I am now making it public on both my patreon and my blog. I encourage people who find this subject interesting to read the book which contains a variety of…
7 Signs of a Good Fairy Book
Several years ago I wrote about 7 Signs of a Bad Fairy Source so I thought today I’d take a look at the opposite and talk about things to look for in good books on the subject. With, of course, the understanding that ‘bad’ and ‘good’ are subjective and that this is my opinion on what can constitute a good source of information.Young’s ‘The Boggart’ is an excellent source for boggart…
Mystic South 2024
cool door in the hotelThis past weekend I attended the Mystic South conference for the second time (the first time was in 2017). Mystic South is a large esoteric/pagan/witchcraft/occult conference that takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA each summer and features a wide range of workshops, some rituals, and a dance – the Phoenix Ball – as well as a market area. It offers a great chance for…
Fairy Facts: Bean Sidhe
For this installment of fairy facts I wanted to discuss a popular but often misunderstood being, the Bean sidhe. I will note at the start that there is an ongoing debate about whether or not the Bean sidhe is a fairy or a separate type of being, but I am including her here because of the long standing translation of bean sidhe as fairy woman and her wider association with the Otherworld. I…
Fairy Facts: Redcaps
For this instalment of fairy facts we’re looking at one of the more infamous Otherworldly beings, the Redcap or Red Cap. Name: Redcaps or Red CapsDescription: a short, older man with long thin arms ending in eagle-like talons, wearing faded clothes, iron tipped boots, and the requisite red cap. The cap may be the color of dried blood or coated in fresh, dripping blood. Found:…
Book Review: Sacred Bones, Magic Bones
Today I’d like to offer another book review, this one for Ness Bosch’s ‘Sacred Bones, Magic Bones’. As someone who has worked with bones for a long time the topic of this book immediately got my attention and I was curious to see what the author’s take on the subject was. First, this book is not a simple look at bones in a spiritual context. Instead it weaves together several…
Fairy Facts: Selkies
In this installment of fairy facts we’re looking at a popular one – selkies.Name: Selkie, Silkie, Selchie, RónThe name literally means ‘seal’ and may appear in English as selkie-folk or seal-folk to differentiate from the animalDescription: Selkies appear as seals in the water, like any wild seal except for their eyes which are said to be particularly human-like. They may go on land and…
Fairy Facts: Slua Sidhe
For this installment of fairy facts we’re going to take a look at the Slua Sidhe, beings found in folklore as well as incorporated into modern Role Playing Games (RPGs). Åsgårdsreien by Peter Nicolai ArboName: Slua Sidhe (Irish) or Sluagh Sìthe (Scottish)In Irish the name translates to the Fairy Host or Army. In Gaidhlig the terms means Fairy People, Fairy HostIn Scotland the term may…
Book Review: A Fairy Path
Today I wanted to do a book review on a book that recently came out that I particularly liked: A Fairy Path by Daniela Simina. I really liked the author’s previous book Where Fairies Meet which is a comparison of Irish and Romanian folk belief around fairies so I was excited to see this one come out as well.One of the best things about Simina’s work is that it fills a gap in the English…
Fairy Facts: Changelings
For our next installment of fairy facts I thought we’d tackle one of the most widely misunderstood subjects: changelings. To be fair a changeling isn’t a type of fairy, per se,; we have stories of a wide array of specific types of beings that leave changelings from the aos sidhe to trolls. They are called changelings instead of by a specific term because they are something that has been…