Fairy Paganism

The old-fable existences are no more
The fascinating race has emigrated
The fair humanities of old religions
That had their haunt in date or piny mountain
Or chasms and watery depths —
all, these have vanished
They live no longer in, the age of reason
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s translation of lines by Friedrich Schiller

I do not believe in fairies, but I took a class that ended up being fairies and fairy portraits.  You have probably seen my winged beings showing up in some of my art lately.  I lost interest, before finishing the course, but I did learn new techniques in the course, so, at least, I did get some portrait practice in.  I learned a few things about the Fey world, as well.

I think that the belief in fairies has a great deal to do with enjoying Mother Nature and being conscious of one’s environment as having spiritual connections.  I do believe that every living thing does have a spirit and all living things have creation energy.

I believe in the medicine of Nature and the very ground we live on.  I believe that, by watching Nature, we connect to metaphorical knowledge.  Some see this as Astral Other Worlds/Realms.  Early ancestors truly believed in little spirits/people. Especially the Norse, First Nations, and Celtic peoples.  Many mysteries were assigned Other Realm characteristics for there were so many things in Nature that could not be scientifically explained.  Some of these beliefs still reign today.  

With Christianity, came the ideology of angels, of little spirits, of negative beings, that harken back to the earlier ideologies of little people.  People moved into more understanding of little mysteries yet they clung/cling to mythology in many ways.  For the most part, we do not celebrate the changes of seasons, the sense that, somehow, we are protected by some form of little people; that we have some sort of guardian(s) around us, and that mysteries may be magic.

Fairy paganism believe that there are little people who can shape-shift into any person, place or thing, including environmental kinds of fogs, mists, rains, winds, etc.  In movies, you see mists, breezes, movement of plants, trees, etc., as portraying magic.  This ‘magic’ seems to be mostly powerful, divine, and/or beautiful.  The world of many kinds of little people has the idea that human beings were not cast out of paradise but born into it.  Humans are seen as those beings who are innocent and in need of being taught lessons by little people since they are innocent and are, also, being taught about choices, not some predestination ideology.  Bottom line, they believe that we are what we, ourselves, have created; we are our choices, not some Higher Being or, as I said, predestination.  

Another part of fairy paganism is the belief that we have all lived previous lives and are constantly reborn to learn the lessons we did not live in a life before.  It is in the living of many lives that we are connected to the eternal world and to all living things.  It is believed Mother Earth came from the explosion of stars.  In fact, the Celts called these first beings on earth as Tuadha De Dannon.  They were said to be created before human beings.  When humans began to come to earth, the fairies moved in to an alternate reality, the Fairy Realm.  They are said to always been able to cross over to our realm, and some of us can cross over into theirs.    As well, the crossing over by either is done out of teaching, loving and beauty.

Bottom line, Fairy Paganism is all about the goodness of human beings, of things that enchant us, of things that tease us, teach us, and try us so that we might remain ‘good’ and as well, the Fairies are said to have taught us the healing of working with “do no Harm” attitudes.  Our craving to grow or have flowers, to walk out in Nature’s beautiful scenery, to work the soil, to gather rocks, and many more natural curiosities are connected to Fairy Paganism.  

We were all brought up on fairy tales; the Peter Pan Tinker Bell; the Lord of the rings; Maleficent; But, somehow, we were not taught the possibilities of different realms, unless they had religious connotations of angels, guardian angels, ghost, evil spirits, etc.  I love to research ideologies that belong to the ancients.  I do not know why I am drawn to this, but am.

Do you believe in enchantments, magic of earth and stars and moon and seas and skies?  What do you call the unexplained?  

©Carol Desjarlais 7.12.20

Further Research:

https://aminoapps.com/c/pagans-witches/page/item/types-of-fae/X0PL_nN8IXIRoxJjd2mqax4K5Nr64XJ303Z