Hi Steve,
>>Have you ever tried to contact them, or is your interest just academic?<<
When I was fervently interested in fairies (still am, but have been
distracted by other topics) it was a few years ago. Does it sound at all
believable that I actually cannot remember if I did attempt to contact
fairies back then? (I have interests in lots of areas and so when on a new
topic tend to forget what I did regards the old topic). But if I did try and
contact them (it would have been once or twice, if at all), I can't
remember, which probably suggests that I did not try and contact them, or
did not try very hard.... or thought I'd get around to doing it later or was
not succssful or whatever.... Its a blur.
My interest in fairies is not at all simply academic. I would be very
interested in *more* than a theoretical knowledge of fairies. I do recall,
from years ago, hoping to find out more about 'Fairy healers / witches' -
people who seemed to have gotten their "job" or talent as a fairy healer
(dealer) from the fairies themselves - so that I could possibly adopt that
kind of identity for myself in regards to a type of Witchcraft identity /
practice. I was hoping to research people like Biddy Early (which I didn't
get very far with), or to find someone living who could act as "one who went
before", to guide me in this matter. I know people just say these days, "Oh,
just go listen to the fairies" etc, and I know that say, in the UK, a woman
called Alicen Geddes-Ward has become (according to her own publicity)
"Britain's leading expert on fairies" - I'm not really familiar with her
work regards fairies, but I do know that she comes from a Spiritualist
background so was succeptible to hearing "things" talking to her anyway,
which she eventually interpreted as fairies.
However, its all fine and well relying on some sort of encounter with a
fairy to then assume the job of fairy healer, but I think that people who
did this in the past, did it within a cultural framework where nearly
everybody, or enough people to matter, believed in fairies. I'd feel
somewhat possibly self-conscious or "inauthentic" if I just took it upon
myself (after meeting with, or thinking I'd met with) a fairy and then
calling myself a fairy healer - I believe, from my reading, that fairy
healers sought their diagnoses from the fairies, or were able to diagnose
from what they knew *of* the fairies behaviour etc. I'd love to learn some
sort of "authentic" (whatever that means) fairy-relationship-tradition,
possibly from a British / Irish angle. I'm not sure I think that fairies are
actually *safe* enough for me to just do-it-myself... I'd like at least some
sort of mentor to bounce things off of.
Funnily, although I'm likely to equate Greek Nymphs with what I think of as
fairies, I don't have the same superstitious dread of Nymphs as I think I do
of British / Irish fairies. (I've just read a lof of creepy things about
fairies - whether this was really people using fairies as a euphamism for
"bad things", as Dianne Purkiss would say, or whether that's how fairies
really are, I don't know yet.) Now why Birtish / Irish fairies should be
scarier than Greek Nymphs I don't know. I probably need to re-read the
section in Jennifer Larson's book "Greek Nymphs" on the Greek Nymph's
survival into modern Greek folklore.. and see if they are as malevolent as
British / Irish fairies. I know fairies aren't always malevolent, but I'm
not prepared to waltz into relationship with them without some serious
preparation.
I'm certainly interested in hearing about *your* expereinces though.
~Caroline.
|