Explantions of the Faery people of folklore

Looking at the folklore of the British Isle's it is full of accounts of Faeries, Boggarts, Brownies and other such supernatural beings. This has many parallels with the indigenous folklore of other countries which all have a common theme of interaction with non human entities. Focusing specifically on British folklore I would like to invite speculation on the possible origins of these once widely held beliefs.

There are several oft repeated explanations for the belief in Faery beings:

The classical Christian explanation equates all Faery beings with 'Fallen Angels' who where condemned to exist on Earth.

A more modern view is that these beings are Christianised depictions of the older Pagan Gods or deities reduced to 'good luck' spirits associated with superstition and certain geographical areas associated with 'bad luck' (e.g. fairy rings and mounds) or 'mischievous spirits' belaying a far greater significance they once had in pre Christian times.

Another explanation that they may be ancestral memories of a race of proto humans or an earlier civilisation lost to antiquity. The mythical Irish civilisation of the 'Tuatha De Danann' could be an example of this who where said to be a magical race of beings who retreated to the hollow mounds after the oncoming of other people's and who subsequently became the 'Sídhe' of Irish folklore.

Another belief was that fairies where the souls of the dead.

Something that always interested me was the dependency the faery people seemed to have on human beings for instance in the case of fairy midwives and replacing human offspring with changelings. Also stories of people entering the fairy realm and upon leaving discover that years have elapsed or being warned by a mysterious figure known as the 'Far Darrig' not to eat faery food.

There seem to be two distinct class of Faeries 'trooping fairies' who existed in a society presided over by the fairy Queen and 'solitary fairies' which would include 'leprechauns', 'boggarts' and 'brownies'.

It seemed that the fairy people could be capable of helping certain humans but also of malice (afflictions such as 'elf-shot') and one story is that the Scottish folklorist Robert Kirk was abducted by the Faeries for revealing their secrets in his book 'The Secret Commonwealth'. His body was found on a hill in a well known fairy locality.

en.wikipedia.org...(folklorist)#Death

I also remember that the great Irish poet W.B Yeats was said to have a met a congregation of trooping faeries in Ireland and was warned 'be careful not to know to much about us'.

For myself I've often wondered if there could be a metaphysical origin of faery beliefs could it be that our ancestors more attuned with the natural world had some insight which permitted them to see these elemental spirits or beings whose existence is now hidden from us. Could it be that at one time the pineal gland was much more active which allowed these beings to be seen?

The Fey could be a singular manifestation of an extra-dimensional energy / force or intelligence* that uses human emotions such as fear / love / hatred / jealousy / regret / loneliness / desire in the same way we use natural resources.

They may have always existed in symbiosis with us.

They might have appeared to distant humans as horned men / animal human hybrids / or "gods." They may have manifested 200 years ago as Vampyr, or Werewolf. They might have once appeared as pilots of immense "airships." They might be appearing today as UFO's, ghosts or gray aliens.

They can probably appear to "come from space" / "come from the center of the earth" / "come from Narnia / Oz" as whim suits them.

None of these things are necessarily "true."

I think the trees in the forest put the illusion of these fairies in our minds. They use these illusions to try to show us things. I'm training my trees to talk english so I can understand them. I don't really think I am doing fairy well at that though.

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s
The Fey could be a singular manifestation of an extra-dimensional energy / force or intelligence* that uses human emotions such as fear / love / hatred / jealousy / regret / loneliness / desire in the same way we use natural resources.

They may have always existed in symbiosis with us.

They might have appeared to distant humans as horned men / animal human hybrids / or "gods." They may have manifested 200 years ago as Vampyr, or Werewolf. They might have once appeared as pilots of immense "airships." They might be appearing today as UFO's, ghosts or gray aliens.

They can probably appear to "come from space" / "come from the center of the earth" / "come from Narnia / Oz" as whim suits them.

None of these things are necessarily "true."

Yes that's a fascinating idea and reminds me of the Jacques Vallee train of thought.

Also saying that they have always existed in symbiosis with us is an intriguing idea and reminds of something I once read about dark plasma theory and that supernatural visitations could be manifestations of some metaphysical state of existence which exists parallel to our own.

I've often been struck by the similarity between folklore and modern ufo sightings and abductions.

reply to post by 0zzymand0s


mindsets of the times, curious to imagine ten thousand years into the future, i wonder if our storeys will become "myths"

ginnungaBox

reply to post by fadedface


I borrowed the concept from Valle and added my own take on the "why" they need to feed on us. I would highly recommend his book "Passport to Magonia" to any interested parties who can find a copy. I first read it when I was 19 and I have read it once every 4 or 5 years since because it is brilliant.

I've also read that the Fair Folk might have been ETs, read the Tuatha Dedannan of Celtic folklore, also covered in another thread

Tuatha de Dannan

They were said to land in Ireland on a mountain in "ships of the sky"(UFO's?) that blotted out the sun for three days. Once they landed they burned their ships determined to stay in this land and conquered much of Ireland.

And in the spirit of this theory, I couldnt resist making this:

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s
borrowed the concept from Valle and added my own take on the "why" they need to feed on us. I would highly recommend his book "Passport to Magonia" to any interested parties who can find a copy. I first read it when I was 19 and I have read it once every 4 or 5 years since because it is brilliant.

Yes these entities using human emotions the same way we use natural resources is a thought provoking premise and something which suggests a whole raft of ideas which I can see correlations with in the work of say David Icke and his malevolent reptilian entities(they could be another expression of the "extra-dimensional energy / force or intelligence") which thrive on negative human emotions.

I've heard about 'Passport to Magonia' but not had the chance to read it I must really track down some of Valle's books but my library is so inadequately stocked with the truly great works on these matters.

reply to post by fadedface


If we follow this (admittedly -- off the cuff) notion, several correlations present themselves (and not just from UFOlogy or fringe theory). For example: Recall the movie "Monsters Inc." in which the Monsters who inhabit an alternate dimension overlaid upon our own earth use "scare" energy (fear) to power their technology. In the end - the heroes of the film discover they can use laughter just as well, and in fact - laughter provides more energy per episode.

Now I know Monsters Inc. is "just" a children's story, and I am not attempting to claim any kind of special knowledge or "true secrets," but it occurs to me that these beings could, for example, mine "awe" as well as they mine "fear." In fact -- the ability to mine curiosity would explain the persistent myth of the curious child who through persistence discovers a "secret world."

Similarly, the ability to "mine" desire would correlate with ancient Greek myths of nymphs and dryads, while the ability to mine / harvest "loneliness or desire" would correlate with mariners tales of mermaids....

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s
If we follow this (admittedly -- off the cuff) notion, several correlations present themselves (and not just from UFOlogy or fringe theory). For example: Recall the movie "Monsters Inc." in which the Monsters who inhabit an alternate dimension overlaid upon our own earth use "scare" energy (fear) to power their technology. In the end - the heroes of the film discover they can use laughter just as well, and in fact - laughter provides more energy per episode.

Now I know Monsters Inc. is "just" a children's story, and I am not attempting to claim any kind of special knowledge or "true secrets," but it occurs to me that these beings could, for example, mine "awe" as well as they mine "fear." In fact -- the ability to mine curiosity would explain the persistent myth of the curious child who through persistence discovers a "secret world."

Similarly, the ability to "mine" desire would correlate with ancient Greek myths of nymphs and dryads, while the ability to mine / harvest "loneliness or desire" would correlate with mariners tales of mermaids....

I haven't seen the film you mention but I do see a recurring literary motif here and a allegorical theme prevalent in mythology and folklore in the form of unforefilled or lost desire. While these entities mine our emotions they also give us inspiration and allow us to explore facets and dimensions of our inner emotions or internal selves almost as if this drama like symbiosis we exist in with them is not only vital in creating them or giving them some state of being (or allowing them some form of life experienced through us) but also creating ourselves and forming our own consciousness, being and shared experiences in the same instance.

reply to post by HomerinNC


I had a look at the Tuatha de Dannan thread and while the notion that they could be extra terrestrial in origin is an interesting one I prefer to think that they where indigenous to this planet but from a different state of existence the Earth possibly once existed in. I would make a comparison between the Tuatha de Dannan and the 'root races' Blavatsky wrote about. As the human state of consciousness prevailed upon Earth the Tuatha de Dannan retreated beneath hollow mounds (entrances to hollow earth?) or the 'otherworld' and excursions to the surface became rarer as these beings dwindled to become the Sidhe of Irish folk legend.

reply to post by fadedface


Exactly! If such a symbiosis exists, it is certainly benefiting both ourselves and our "invaders" in many ways. Valle's work suggests a potential for contact on an industrial scale, given the tens of thousands of sightings reported each year going back decades or even hundreds (or thousands) of years. (Think about how much "data" we gather from a single "probe" on Mars, for example). If it is true that we are being penetrated by some other dimension, we are permeated by it at the edge of our experience. The same must be true for the outsider-species in symbiosis with us.

What forms must this contact take? Can we use this permeation to explain other reported (and difficult to prove or verify) phenomena, such as telepathy, synchronicity or imagination / creativity itself?

Valle (and Mckenna) both speculate that our science and technology cannot cope with these intrusions because our science is a product of human rationality, and that this intrusion might represent something closer to our unconsciousness and arise from our Id / consciousness in a form that is shared through dreams, mythology or psychic phenomena.

Note: Neither have ever said UFO's or Faeries have no physical reality. In fact - they both take care to point out that these are physical, emotional and psychological, but appear to posses properties exclusive to one or the other, as needed, and -- at will -- because they operate outside our scientific conception of space / time.

The symbiosis certainly seems to exist or work at a level which impresses upon the subconscious and the imagination perhaps indicating why science and rational thought processes can't explain these 'invaders'? If the symbiosis works in a balanced way in that our emotions might bring them into being in a sense giving them a recognisable definition and this in turn shapes and moulds our own creative imagination and sensibilities. Is it even appropriate to assume that we are independent of these beings or could they represent some part of the recesses of our unconsciousness which exist at some fundamental level of things?

I don't want to attribute some psychological explanation here or saying that they represent our 'higher selves' because I do think these entities are separate from us but I want to try and get more of an understanding of the exact nature of the symbiosis. Can we exist without them and they without us? It certainly doesn't seem so.

reply to post by 0zzymand0s


So the symbiotic arrangement between us and them is mutually beneficial we've established that but is their vested interest in human consciousness purely to mine our emotions or are they guiding and teaching us as well through their interactions helping us to grow and evolve back to some moment of clarity or comprehension to some state comparable to how they exist?

reply to post by fadedface


I have no idea, but while I agree that it is possible that they are guiding us, I think it is just as likely that they are "feeding"* on us, and have as little understanding of our perceptions / progress as we do theirs.

*Feeding sounds like a pejorative here, but it's possible they don't see it that way. Do we worry much over what the wheat feels about our cultivation of it? Yes, we worry that our resources may run out (oil comes to mind) but we don't consider the dreams and aspirations of oil in our harvesting of it as a resource).

It's a huge can of worms, and one I find fascinating, but I can't pretend I am any closer to an answer than you or anyone else. What I do believe is that Faeries and UFO's are related phenomena, and there is a physical, psychological and perhaps even spiritual aspect to the phenomena itself, but these are just my impressions, sampled from inside my limited human head-space.

Valle / McKenna proposed that these visitations may be a manifestation of the earth itself, guiding us multidimensionally. It's as good an explanation as my "feeding" analogy, if quite a bit less disturbing.