In a parallel world, alongside
humankind, live the children of Nature – the faery folks. Everyone is familiar
with fairy tales and fantasies based on myth and folklore. However, what we are
about to investigate are those that do exist. It is the history and truth of
peoples whose documented records spans a time long before ours began. It is a
dark history so ancient that the real became legend and truths turned to myth.
What proof is there that the legendary faeries existed and still do?
There are very few ruins
remaining, but there are some. And just because we have no great old faery
cities to explore doesn’t mean they never existed at all. We have found no
scrolls because they had no need to write. We have no fossilized bones to examine
for these being are immortal. A strong belief in some tradition is that the
faeries are fallen angels or the souls of unbaptized babies unable to enter
heaven but have not yet sinned to be thrown to hell: that is why they are
called the spirit people. The word faery itself is synonymous with enchantment,
originates from the Latin word ‘fata’, meaning fate, a magical being or one
with magical power.
Gaelic is the language of the
ancient Celts, and thus the official faery language. Unless, of course, one encounters
the Jinn (Genie) of Persia,
in which case communication would likely take place in Arabic. But most our
knowledge of the faery world has come to us from such Celtic lands as Ireland, Scotland,
Wales, the Isle of Man, Brittany, Devon, and Cornwall, and it is within these
Gaelic-speaking countries that the very heart of Faeryland resides, and
flourishes into the new millennium.
Not long ago, a young woman from Galway
told me the traditional Midsummer’s Eve bonfire she had attended, and how the next
day she and her family found a faery ring where none had been before. This is
not surprising as faeries are quite active around the ancient Celtic, or Pagan,
holidays they celebrate.
These include:
Samhain (commemorating the start
of winter and the new year, on November 1)
Yule (festival of winter solstice
on December 21; a good time to look for Holly King)
Beltane (celebration of spring on
May 1)
Midsummer’s Eve (the most magical
day of the year, on June 24).
Every solstice and equinox is
celebrated. All of these holidays are a time when the curtain between our world
and the faery otherworld is thinnest. They are the best occasions to catch
sight a faeries, make wishes, and witness or make magic. If you’re lucky enough
to be in one of the countries where the Celts made their homes especially Ireland, Scotland,
Wales, and British Isles,
and France, Belgium, and Northern Italy, which one comprised
ancient Gaul-during a faery holiday, look for
a faery ring. This may be a circle of grass darker than those blades around it,
a ring of flowers or toadstools, or either of those surrounding a round dark
green patch of grass. It is said these rings are formed by the faeries dancing
about in circle.
