This is a question from social media, and also a topic I see a lot of misinformation floating around about so it seems like a good topic to dive into today. What exactly are the origins of the word fairy and fae? How do they relate to each other and what do they mean?Fae – also spelled fay* – is from the 12th century old French, likely from the older Latin Fata, meaning spirits of fate, and…
Category Archives: Living Liminally
The Benefits of Fairy Work
I will be the first to admit much of what I write is aimed at sharing the more dangerous sides of fairies and fairy work with people, even those interested in connecting to them, because I think many are coming to this subject with an ingrained sense of human superiority and fairy diminishment. But of course there is a beneficial side to this connection and that’s also worth discussing. There’s a…
Fairy Help, Fairy Harm
Modern paganism, and perhaps more broadly mainstream Western culture, seems to constantly be trapped in a mobius strip argument about the potential help or harm caused by fairies. There is one side that argues, staunchly, that the Good Folk are entirely benevolent and benign to humans. In contrast there is another side that argues just as fervently that the Othercrowd should be entirely avoided…
Book Review: Royal Roads
So time for another book review. Today I want to write about my friend* Dana Corby’s book ‘royal Roads: Pilgrimages through the Four Elements and Beyond’ co-authored with Bjeon-Erik Hartsfvang. I’m friends with Dana on social media and became aware of this book when I saw her posting about it. Its a bit outside my usual purview but I think it overlaps enough with my own witchcraft practices that…
Black Eyed Children
One of several topics that I couldn’t fit into my new fairies dictionary was the Black Eyed Children so I thought I’d write about them here today. They present a fascinating piece of more modern folklore, somewhere between urban legend and ghost story yet with sightings across America and Britain. For myself I tend to believe they are either a kind of fairy or a form put on by fairies.
Black…
Sources for Working with Fairies
Since I am asked pretty regularly for opinions on specific books relating to Fairies or more generally recommendations on the wider subject I thought I’d do a full blog on it.
My main resources are folklore, mythology, folk practice, and academic articles and books. I encourage everyone to start there. There’s a large number of books I could recommend here but for a half dozen suggestions:
Elf…
Book Review: Breaking Silence by Mercedes Lackey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is a sequel to ‘Silence’ and continuation of the SERRAted Edge series.
It is a significant improvement on the last book: the plot is tighter, the characters have more depth, and the book feels more a part of the wider series.
First things I liked. The book is written in limited third person and like most others in the series does offer glimpses into other…
A Critical Look at Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries
One of the most commonly recommended books I see in groups and on reading lists is the 1911 work ‘The Fairy Faith In Celtic Countries’ by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. The book is often hailed as the benchmark in fairylore and a staple of study in the field or for anyone interested in the subject. I also personally suspect its rampant popularity in modern pagan groups is due in part to it being in the…
New Liminal God: The Queen of Apples
Earlier this year there was some talk in a Fairy Witchcraft group on Facebook about a liminal god called the Queen of Apples. Several people felt like they were connecting to her and shared their thoughts on who she was. I was asked what my impression of her was.
It’s important to understand here that the particular type of Fairy witchcraft I practice gets very messy when it comes to Gods….
The Return of the Otherfolk and the Puritan Egregore
For several years now there has been talk among some practitioners (of various sorts) in North America suggesting both that the Otherworldly energy present here has been increasing and that the Otherfolk themselves have been pushing through into the human world more strongly. I wrote about it on my Patheos blog in a piece titled ‘Return of the Othercrowd’ and Seo Helrune and John Beckett have…