Another taboo that we see among many of the Good People relates to names. Names have power and we find in many cases both an aversion to saying the names of certain types of the Daoine Maithe as well as an avoidance of personal names. Even nicknames have power and when we look at anecdotal evidence we find that often rather than giving a name to a fairy that a person might have regular encounters…
Author Archives: Lairbhan
The Morrigan is not my Sex Goddess
I want to start off by acknowledging that we all see the Gods differently and I know that sometimes a person can relate to a deity in a way that is unusual (comparatively) or unique to them; maybe this is how they need to see that deity for personal reasons. What I want to address here is something that I’ve seen more and more often among people discussing the Morrigan, and that is the idea that…
Fairy Taboos – #2 Privacy
Having looked at the common (but not ubiquitous) prohibition of the fairies against humans saying thank you to them, now let’s turn to another even more prevalent fairy taboo, that of secrecy. The idea with this one is that the Good People do not like to find out they have been seen, unless they are choosing to show themselves, and they prefer people not to talk too freely about benefits they…
Spirituality and Modern Sacred Prohibitions
I’ve talked before about the way that spirituality can sometimes end up affecting the way we live our lives in a blog called ‘Reshaped Living’ and I think it’s important to understand the way that personal gnosis can directly influence us. Another way that spirituality can influence our lives is with the taking on of spiritual prohibitions or directives, which may be related to our spirituality…
Selling Your Soul to the Fairies
Most of us are familiar with the idea of classical witches selling their souls to the Devil, but there is another concept we see as well in folkloric sources: a person selling their soul to the fairies. The implication in the wider narrative is that the soul is being pledged to the Queen of Fairy but it is rarely spelled out as such. This is usually done as a combination of a required…
Fairy Taboos – # 1 Saying Thank You
I’d like to do a series focusing on specific geasa, or taboos, that relate to how humans interact with fairies. These are things that you either should do or should never do when dealing with the fey folk. I’m hoping that doing this as a series of shorter posts might be more engaging for readers and make the points easier to remember than having a wall of information thrown at you.
I thought it…
Embracing Joy in Spirituality
I talk often, I know, about the work that goes into my spirituality – and I think that’s fair enough because it is work and we shouldn’t underestimate that. But there’s joy in what we do as well, or their should be, its just easier often times to focus on the effort instead of the fun.
When I first began on my spiritual path I think I had the idea that it would all be fun and adventure, that…
Excerpt from ‘Travelling the Fairy Path’
I have a new book coming out in September of this year, called ‘Travelling the Fairy Path’ so today I’d like to offer an excerpt from it. Its going to focus on the more experiential side of my own spirituality but it also includes some discussion of things I’ve learned from the folklore, with a chapter on the ballad material. This excerpt is from that chapter.
The Queen of
Elfan’s…
Movie Review: Bright
This is a first for me, a movie review, but I really want to do this one for two reasons: I hardly ever find decent urban fantasy as a movie and the mainstream critics have eviscerated this one which I think deserves a response. As an author of urban fantasy this genre is one that is obviously very close to my heart and I have been excited since I first saw ads for Bright because it looked like…
Why Do Elves Have Pointed Ears?
It’s generally assumed in Western culture today that elves, and more widely many types of fairies, have pointed ears and the image has become so ingrained in popular culture as to be a trope. Yet why do we picture elves and fairies with pointed ears, when most descriptions from European folklore^ emphasize how human-like these beings appear?
Arthur Rackham illustration, public domain
When we…