Serendipities

The Less Mystical Side of Fairy Witching

March 22, 2023
by Alexandra

The last couple of posts I’ve made about my work with the Fair Folk have been pretty woo, so I thought I’d share another anecdote that’s decidedly more… mundane.

It’s spring now by most people’s reckoning (though I personally tend to see the equinoxes as the midpoints of their respective seasons), and as I write this it certainly feels like it, too – 65 and sunny and breezy. Which means I now need to fulfill a promise I made last year to my local Fairy Queen.

When we moved to our current house at the very beginning of the pandemic (no joke, our closing was three days before the governor shut the state down), there was a flowering cherry tree in the front yard that was clearly on the wane. Some of the branches were dead and there was a hole in the trunk that revealed rotten wood inside. Still, that spring, it flowered. And again, in 2021. And again, in 2022. We trimmed away some of the dead branches, and tried to prune it gently each year, but when it failed to put out a full crown of leaves last spring, we got a notice from the HOA – dead trees weren’t allowed, particularly not in front yards, and it would need to be cut down asap. I had hoped we’d be able to let the tree die gracefully over a winter, but despite the few leaves it did have, there was no convincing the HOA it was still “alive enough” so we conceded.

The poor little stump, all that is left of the tree we had to take down

As I usually do when I have to make major changes to my yard, I explained what had transpired to both the land spirits and our local fae — and was met with disapproval. I understood — I didn’t really like it, either — but caught between the two powers, I attempted to negotiate a fine price for the tree, instead. I was told I would need to replace the tree the following spring, before a year and a day had gone by, and that it would need to be a tree that bore both flowers and fruits, and should be in the Rose family, as wild roses are the symbol of my Local Queen.

So this week’s fairy witching task was calling several local tree nurseries and garden centers to find one that has something like a crabapple or wild cherry or upright serviceberry, that will plant it for us, and has some kind of guarantee to replace the tree if it dies… that fits my somewhat small budget. And once I do, I’ll need to schedule the tree to be planted before the beginning of June.

I think I’ve decided which nursery, I just want to go in to select the tree (likely a crabapple), and then I think they should be able to schedule the planting sometime before Bealtaine, which would be ideal! And then the lonesome stump in the front yard will have a friend, and hopefully the Fair Folk won’t blight my vegetable garden.

But yeah, word to the wise… these connections and agreements do have measurable effects on my personal mundane life as well. So keep that in mind, if you’re interested in doing this work.

Lenormand Deck Review: Bluebird

Deck: The Bluebird Lenormand
Publisher: US Games Systems, Inc
Writer: Stuart R. Kaplan
Artist: Various historical artists, artwork is all in the creative commons
Overall Rating: 5/10

Cardstock: The cardstock is fairly standard, like what you’d expect from a similar pack of poker cards. Easy to riffle shuffle, neither too matte nor too slick.

Artwork: The artwork is in an illustration style with muted colors to mimic the paintings that are paired with each person card. All the paintings are from the 1700s I believe, and they’re all portraits of white people as one might expect, but the Lady and Gentleman cards do have two options, one older and one younger. One interesting thing about these cards is that they also each feature a little snippet of poetry, which hints at the meaning of the card.

Book: This deck has a fairly standard Little White Booklet, with a list of keywords for each card, and a few descriptions of spreads. The booklet also includes a short biography of Mademoiselle Lenormand, who created this system in the late 1700s.

Likes: I like the little bits of poetry and the illustrations are well done, but this deck doesn’t really draw me in – I don’t find myself reaching for it very often.

Dislikes: I’m not sure the portraits really add much beyond a certain historical flair. Between the portraits and in-set cards and the poetry, half the card face is taken up with things other than the illustrations, and to me it looks a bit cluttered and makes it a little harder to focus on the reading.

Overall Recommendation

While this deck doesn’t particularly speak to me, I imagine for people who like in-set cards or who are coming from a cartomancy system that uses poker cards, this would be an excellent deck to learn on. I was already familiar with the system before I bought it, and I bought it more as a historical curiosity (as it’s a reprinted vintage deck). I do tend to use this one as my second deck when I’m using a spread with Houses, though, because of the clear card titles I can let peek out from under the primary deck.

Kemetic Sailing Holiday

This is the last of the big liturgies that I am writing for Bast and Sekhmet as I wrap up my work for them, my oaths fulfilled. I’ve said before that I’m being released from their service, and while I will probably still post on tumblr for Wep Ronpet and reblog the occasional post, I expect this to be the last Kemetic blog post here.

I’ve done the sailing holiday a couple of different ways in the past, but after really digging into The Ancient Egyptian Daybook, a volume of research by Tamara L. Suida (of Kemetic Orthodoxy/House of Netjer) which includes information from a ton of ancient sources all gathered into one place, I decided to use a set of festivals with spring timing, and sort of condense them into four nights/four days (which ends up being five calendar days) in the early spring. Or, in the Kemetic calendar, IV month of Peret, days 1-5. Since the Kemetic calendar starts with the heliacal rise of Sirius heralding the new year, IV Peret generally starts the first week of March around here. On IV Peret 1 (March 7th) I celebrated the Feast of Ra and the Presentation of the Boat, and I wrote a prayer for the occasion:

FEAST-PRAYER TO RA FOR THE PRESENTATION OF THE BOAT

Ra, Lord of the Sun!
Guardian of the Heavens, Ruler of the Netjeru!
Ra, Lord of the Horizon!
We call upon you,
Mighty in your glory as the sun sets!
Magnificent in your splendor as the sky fills with fire!
Each evening you descend to do battle with the forces of isfet,
And each morning you rise again, triumphant!

Ra, your powerful Daughters,
Bast and Sekhmet: your Avenging Eyes,
They join you in the barque this night,
They join you sailing into the Duat.
We have prepared this boat for your going,
We have prepared this food and drink
For a feast before you embark.
We will revel as the sun sets!

Great Ra, you will triumph during the night,
And in the morning we will search for your boat on the horizon,
As you and your Eye-Daughters sail in your boat to other places
As you three are honored and feasted again and again!

Most Glorious Ra, in three days’ time
When you return on the boat with your Eye-Daughters
When you come back to this Temple with Bast and Sekhmet
We will welcome you back with more feasting and revels!

The “boat” I presented was a red origami boat, a votive offering, though the bread for the feast I baked from scratch! I offered that with a cup of red wine for the Feast of the Presentation of the Boat, and my family then ate the bread with dinner to revert the offering and receive the blessings.

*My shrine, with a bread loaf that was tasty and gluten free but not very pretty, a cup of red wine, the statues of Bast and Sekhmet, and the Red Paper Boat.*

After the feast, I covered my statues, to represent the goddesses leaving on the boat. For the next four mornings, I moved the boat to a new location in my shrine room, moving sunwise as it left the shrine and then on the last day, came closer. I’m posting this today in the morning, but tonight I’ll move the boat all the way back to the shrine, and remove the covering from my statues, to represent their return.

As I’ve also incorporated the historical holidays “Chewing Onions for Bast” and “Chewing Cucumbers for Sekhmet” into the return feast, tonight with dinner I’ll be making a cucumber salad with onions, goat cheese, fresh herbs, and a homemade vinaigrette dressing, and I’ll offer that along with more wine and the following prayer I wrote:

PRAYER FOR THE RETURN FEAST OF CUCUMBERS AND ONIONS

Eyes of Ra, Daughters of the Sun!
Great Ladies of the East and West!
We welcome you home to your temple,
Triumphantly returning as the sun sets!

For four nights you have travelled on the solar barque
You have sailed with Ra into the Duat
At his side, as his Avengers and Protectors
You have fought isfet and you have been victorious!

For four days you have sailed to other lands
To be welcomed and feasted by others
And now you return to your temple
And we will feast and revel this night!

We have prepared food and drink for you;
We feast to celebrate your returning
Vegetables and cheese, herbs and vinegar,
We have made a special meal for this occasion.

Bast, we chew onions for you!
Sekhmet we chew cucumbers for you!

Please feel free to use these prayers in your own practice! I just ask that you give me credit if you’re using them for a group ritual, and please don’t reproduce them elsewhere without a link. If you want to show your appreciation by tipping me, you can always Buy Me a Coffee!

Suggestions for Protection During Otherworldly High Tides

March 3, 2023
by Alexandra

This blog is a sort of sequel to my last one, because while Irene Glasse covered how to fight for Hope in the human world better than I could, when Morgan Daimler wrote about their own experiences with the Otherworldly War, they included some advice their Folk had given them regarding protection, and I realized I hadn’t touched on that at all! Oops!

Morgan wrote:

For my own part my Other have strongly emphasized the power of solar symbols and things like gold, amber, red stones, for protection. They have repeatedly encouraged heavy duty cleansing of a spiritual nature and to stay on guard against unseen spirit dangers.

And while I can’t now recall if I first heard the solar advice from them or from Seo Helrune, it’s definitely something I’ve since incorporated into my protection work, particularly last summer after I got elf-shot and ended up with Covid. But I’ll come back to that. First, let’s talk about generally recommended apotropaic items and substances (the word “apotropaic” means “able to avert evil influence and bad luck”) and how spirit relationships can help protect you. Ha, people who read my series on home protection are not surprised to see that second part, I’m sure! This blog is also sort of a sequel to that, but focused on personal protection, instead.

First the big three: Iron, Salt, and Fire. These are traditional, they’re fairly cross-cultural though fire is by far more universal as it’s been used around the globe. Iron is considered the best protection against fairies in Irish lore, and you’ll see the term “cold iron” sometimes with a variety of explanations as to what that means, but really it’s just an old way of saying “cold steel” which is nowadays a gun but really just means “a weapon made of steel”. So “cold iron” is just any sharp thing made of iron or steel. I do find that stainless steel blades work just fine, but in my personal experience there seems to be something a bit more potent in something made by hand. I have a collection of hand-forged nails — which are pointy enough to be a deterrent but not obviously-a-weapon enough to be offensive to my Locals if they’re kept in my bag — that I can use to set up a circle or barrier if needed, and my spouse has a ritual knife we bought from an artisan blacksmith made out of a railroad tie. My favorite example of fire as a purification and protection is probably the traditions of driving cattle through a fire or between two fires to protect from disease and enchantment, but most people are familiar with the uses of salt and fire, and there’s a ton of information out there on them, so I’m sort of going to just leave it there and move on instead of repeating what other people have explained more in depth.

Other common materials include: silver, certain crystals, hagstones, and protective and purifying plants. Silver is of course well known from pop-culture, being effective against werewolves, some vampires, and a host of other movie and video game monsters. Depending on whom you ask, it is associated with either moonlight or starlight as well, and on a scientific level, silver has some antimicrobial properties. Personally, silver is one of the materials I used to always reach for first, because I also find that it works well with my personal magic style. Again depending on whom you ask, there are dozens of protective crystals and semi-precious gemstones, and I don’t have space to really talk about all of them in depth here, but a few of my favorites are: obsidian, black tourmaline, tiger’s eye/tiger iron, and hematite (although that’s easier to find if you look for lab-grown, and I don’t find there to be much of a difference magically, as most of the stones I find are a little disoriented from being dug up and transported around the world anyhow). Hagstones (also called “holey stones”) are any type of stone with a natural hole formation going all the way through — these are commonly found on beaches and riverbanks (though you shouldn’t take them from anywhere it’s not permitted, like a national park), but they can also be purchased online. They’ve got a long history of lore in Ireland and Britain, and again I’m going to suggest you go read about that elsewhere as I’m trying to be brief! There is again a huge possible list of plants, but I tend to use plants that are known for being both protective and purifying, like mugwort and juniper. Generally I burn them and use the smoke, but I’ve also made oil infusions and tinctures and water-based sprays, depending on what I’m doing. When I’m settling into a new house, I like to clean the windows with a water and vinegar based spray that has a little sea salt and an herb sprig in it, just to cover my bases. Some plants are said to be both used by witches/fairies and also to protect against baneful magic when they’re prepared a certain way, like rowan twig crosses made with red thread, which are said to ward off the Fair Folk.

Similar to the rowan crosses, there are also apotropaic items that get their power from their form and not the material they are made from. Some examples of these are the nazar (also known as the “evil eye”, which is commonly seen as jewelry), Pennsylvania Dutch barn hex signs, and blessed religious jewelry (such as Catholic saint medallions). We pagans can of course make our own amulets and blessed jewelry with the imagery of our own faith(s).

However — and here’s the point at which we move back into the Otherworldly Tides discussion and UPG-land — some of these seem not to work well against the unhael newcomers. Which is where the solar suggestions come in. Instead of iron or silver, think gold (especially yellow gold). Use solar-aligned gemstones and minerals like rutile quartz, amber, carnelian, and pyrite. For solar-aligned plants, think yellow or orange flowers or anything heliotropic, or look for solar plants in Culpeper’s Herbal (Project Gutenberg version available here) or other magical herb books. I suggest starting with angelica, St John’s wort, bay laurel, rue, sunflowers, or marigolds. I’ve acquired a few gold-plated sun charms, like might be used as pendants for necklaces, or on charm bracelets, and that’s an inexpensive way to acquire a little gold jewelry to bless or enchant into an amulet. I think it might work even better on a gold-plated chain, and if a charm of the sun isn’t really your aesthetic, consider sunflowers or bees instead.

Alas, I have a lot of metal sensitivities, and I can’t usually wear gold unless it’s very low carat white gold because that’s usually blended with one of the metals I can tolerate: rhodium. But that’s not solar-aligned, and neither is copper, so I went off to look for more solar help and ended up reading notes on some old alchemical correspondences, and as it turns out Platinum was thought to be a combination of gold and silver back then and was therefore associated with both the sun and the moon! So I went looking for a (relatively) inexpensive platinum plated chain, and I found one, bought it, enchanted it into a shield, and started doing experiments. I wore it while wandering around in the Otherworlds and when I was called on to do some guardian work and when I ran into some unhael beings, and while I can’t say if it’ll work well for anyone else, it worked really well for me! Gold doesn’t work well with my magic, either (which may or may not be related to my metal sensitivity) but platinum worked just as well for me as silver does, which was very exciting. And while I was doing the guardian work one of the times I got elf-shot at again and that time — instead of piercing all my shielding, making me nearly faint and have convulsions, and leaving me vulnerable to Covid — the arrow itself got lodged in the platinum necklace where it was easy for me to remove and repair the enchantment. It seemed like it was drawn there almost magnetically, and I was pretty amazed!

And then the last part — if you find yourself getting drawn into the Otherworldly part of this Great War, I really think the best way to protect yourself is to throw your lot in with allies who are also fighting and who are willing to protect you. (If you can stay out of it, though, do that!) I mentioned in the first blog that I’ve been drawn in through relationships with my Local Fair Folk, and despite that I still think I’d prefer to have those relationships rather than not. It’s no walk in the park, but trucking with the Fair Folk rarely is. There are sublime moments, but there’s also a lot of difficulty. I tend to give the same warning about this kind of work as I gave above: if you’re not being drawn in, stay out! That’s easier and safer, if you have a choice. I didn’t really have a choice (or rather, the choice was to look into paganism and witchcraft in the first place, and then I believe all roads would have inevitably led here) so I’m making the best of the hand I was dealt.

Hopefully some of the above suggestions will work for ya’ll, and I hope everyone manages to stay safe out there, even when the tides of the Otherworldly War are rising to new levels and spilling over the bulwarks and into our neighborhoods and daily lives.

The Otherworldly Tides of the Great War

When I first saw the title of Irene Glasse’s most recent blog post (which you should go read now before continuing if you haven’t yet), I immediately thought of the Otherworldly Wars that I’ve been on the edge of, these past few years. That was not Irene’s main focus (seriously go read that first), but it’s a parallel stream of mythic awareness. While no words really convey the fullness of the conflict, I generally agree with Irene’s choice to label the two sides as “Pain” and “Hope”. They’re succinct, and cut into the importance of this struggle, at least on the human side. The Great War between these two is a story, a narrative, a Myth that we’re watching play out as a bloody struggle on a battlefield. Irene goes on to explain the ways we can help join the fight on the side of Hope, and some of those ways are things I have heard from the deities in my life – and some of the messages I’ve heard are things I have shared, like the messages from Na Morrigna or Bast and Sekhmet that I’ve been asked to pass along to my community. Irene’s suggestions are good and helpful ideas, ways to make our lives a little better, ways to perhaps make the future a little brighter, and for the most part they are solidly grounded in mundane reality. This is one of Irene’s strengths that I most admire: she’s a beacon of light and guidance in our community, a mystic and cleric who always has a good answer when people turn to her in tears and ask, “What now?” There’s not really anything I can add to that besides repetition or emphasis, so I’m just going to suggest you go read that! (For the third time, lol!)

Instead, my thoughts turned to the Otherworldly battles I’ve witnessed, so if you’d like to hear more about that, take a side step with me, pass beyond the hawthorn hedge and walk beside me down the thistle-lined path of my UPG, into Fairy. All of the following is my experience; none of the following has any claim on being The Only Truth, but I share in case there is one reading who might find it helpful. Still with me?

In the watershed I live in, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, it is my experience that the European Fairies seem to be organized into courts or territories that follow streams and rivers, with small courts around small bodies of water existing under the domain of the larger courts from the larger streams, and the rivers seem to have their own courts in attendance to the River Divinities (who existed here long before the first humans of European descent arrived), and there is something like a territorial Monarch, though my experience with them is that there are two, who share power and change with the seasons at the equinoxes. I can (and may well) explore that in more depth later, but that’s sufficient background information to explain my own relationships, I think. My local stream court (that is, the watershed within which I reside) has a queen that I call the Rosegay Queen, as she indicated to me that the wild roses growing along the stream in a place near to my house were Hers, and she uses roses as her symbol in her dealings with me. Out of necessity, she and I have become allies, and part of our agreement is that she will ward away and warn me of any incoming forces with clear malevolent intent against me, and in return when she is under attack from other forces, I am required to help defend her territory when she asks it of me.

When we made that agreement, I did not expect it would be asked of me as often as it has. While humanity has been fighting the pandemic, and in the US (and elsewhere, but I speak only for myself) we’ve been fighting against destructive cultural forces (the forces of “Pain”) , the Otherworlds have been embroiled in their own Great War, and while I do not have a wide enough field of vision to see the whole picture (even more so than in the mundane sphere, this is a conflict on a large timescale), from what I have seen, it seems to run along similar lines, though I might perhaps name them “Extinction” and “Evolution”. I have come to understand that there are beings and forces that believe Humanity is a lost cause, or not worth preserving, or that have no interest in us at all, or dislike for our species at best. There are also beings and forces that live in something like symbiosis with us, and have done so for a long time – whether it’s because they wish to guide us or (perhaps more likely considering the folklore) because they find us to be useful pets and tasty snacks, they would prefer to assist in our preservation, and our transformation if that’s what it takes to avoid extinction as the worlds change around us. I think of it more as a cultural evolution, not a physical one, where we will hopefully learn to live in better balance with our environments before climate change and our own conflicts push us to the brink of extinction, but the two words make a poetic mirror.

I’ve been taught some battle sorcery by both Gods and Fairies, and I’ve been using it to the best of my abilities when called upon, and the beings and forces I have seen on the other side of the battles make my skin crawl with wrongness. It’s difficult to describe, but I’ve been using the term unhael, meaning “unwhole, unhealthy, unsound” but it also seems to have that same connotation of wrongness, in a Heathen context. They’re not meant to be here, wandering our world; they’re inimical to humanity but also I believe to the biomes we inhabit. Their magic feels like contagion, and I don’t think it’s entirely a coincidence (though who can say whether it’s cause, effect, or correlation) that the first battles I witnessed occurred as my local area was shut down in the early stages of the pandemic. I’m no theologian or philosopher – I don’t have a well developed and concise theory about all of this. I can only describe what I’ve experienced, I have only half-developed thoughts to share.

But I think the Great War of Extinction vs Evolution is the challenge of Tower Time, the battles of the Storm that John Beckett was warned of, and the initiatory challenge Gwendolyn Reece has spoken of for about a decade. A Great War, in which not only human people are participating, and I think it’s likely that the fate of our species hangs in the balance – though the timeline here is longer than most of us are used to working with, because even sudden climate change isn’t going to destroy everything all at once. It’s how we react to it that really matters, I think – we may survive through natural disasters only to fight over resources and then escalate into a nuclear conflict, which may well mean the extinction or near-extinction of our species (and thousands if not millions of others). I’m not trying to be alarmist and there’s no call to take this idea and run straight into fascism or eugenics. I’m thinking about the conflict on a Mythic scale, with the protagonist being our species, and I hope that we survive the challenges along our Hero’s Journey without losing sight of Hope. Not every individual human will survive, but each of us should be trying to help out our communities as much as we can, because the local communities are the real crucible for cultural and societal change, and if Hope is to prevail over Pain, to continue prevailing over Pain along down the winding road of the future, things need to change.

So: figure out what you can do to help, in small ways. Not everything has to be big, and while we should not put off the work, there is no fast-approaching deadline, either. Rest when you need to. Fight when you can. Support others when they are the ones fighting. And I’ll leave you with this quote from The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien:

‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.

‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’

Tarot Deck Review: Shadowscapes

Deck: Shadowscapes Tarot
Artist: Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Writer: Barbara Moore
Publisher: Llewellyn
Overall Rating: 9/10

Cardstock: These are standard tarot size and shape, with Llewellyn’s standard semi-gloss texture, and they riffle shuffle pretty well. The borders are a pretty silver, but not fully metallic, and this doesn’t have the glittery edges that have become all the rage for indie decks.

Artwork: The artwork is the main selling point for this deck: Stephanie Pui-Mun Law’s watercolors are fantastical, exquisitely detailed, and very expressive. There are threads of color schemes and imagery themes going through the minor suits in this deck, but nothing is very monochrome or repetitive. The artwork is excellent for intuitive reading, and that’s the main reason it was on my list – I got this deck as a gift several years back!

Book: The edition I have of this deck did not come with a tuck box or a booklet, but just came with a full sized book. The book spends more time describing the scene than describing the keywords, but the meaning can be gleaned from those descriptions in an intuitive way as well, and I always enjoy having insight into the artist’s symbolism!

Likes: I really like both the artwork and the book, and I even actually like the borders – though I know a couple of people who’ve cut them off of their own decks! This is a really solid deck that I ought to reach for more, and I’m glad I finally got it into my latest shop update. [Check it out here!]

Dislikes: The only thing I dislike about this deck is that I wish it had come with a different kind of box – some of the Llewellyn decks with full sized books come in magnetic boxes now and I tend to like those, but I think I sort of forget about this deck when it’s in a bag and not with the rest of my tarot collection! Maybe I’ll have to get a bag with some of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law’s art on it from somewhere!

Overall Recommendation

I would recommend this deck for intuitive readers, and basically any intermediate reader who feels drawn to it. Since the book is somewhat minimal on traditional card meanings and the art doesn’t reflect the Rider-Waite-Smith, new readers may want to get a reference book to use along with it until they get their bearings.

Love & Relationship Divination Spread for Multiple Partners

I’ve been considering making a listing for this type of spread for a while, because while I can certainly design a custom reading with any number of cards for any situation, I think there’s just a lack of non-monogamous relationship spreads in the community in general and I thought it might be helpful to outline the one I use. This one can be used equally well for a triad or a V where the two partners have a platonic relationship with each other – or you could leave out cards 9 and 10 if you don’t want to explore that. This can also be expanded and adapted to be used for a lot of other relationship maps – with one card for each person represented, and two cards for each relationship that’s explored. Laying out the cards in this kind of manner might get difficult with more than three people, though, so I would suggest drawing a diagram and labeling it with the card numbers and then just laying the cards out in rows to look at them!

The State of the Polycule: How are the relationships functioning together as a whole?
You: your needs, wants, and concerns about the relationships
Partner #1: their needs, wants, and concerns about the relationships
Partner #2: their needs, wants, and concerns about the relationships
The relationship between you and P#1: places you can improve
The relationship between you and P#1: things that are going well
The relationship between you and P#2: places you can improve
The relationship between you and P#2: things that are going well
The relationship between P#1 & P#2: ways you can help what isn’t working
The relationship between P#1 & P#2: ways you can support what is going well

If you do this spread yourself, I’d love to hear how well it worked for you! And feel free to share this post with other readers!

This spread is available in my shop now, as well, and is currently on sale – 40% off through the end of the month!

Dryads and Wood-Wives: A Question of Categorization

February 1, 2023
by Alexandra

I got an interesting question on tumblr last week, and while I’m not going to copy the entire thing over here, nor my entire rambling response, I thought it brought up two important worldview questions that might illuminate my practice a bit for ya’ll, and may help out others who are new to walking the path of a fairy witch.

The first question was, basically: is a Germanic wood-wife the same thing as a Greek dryad? Are these just two names for the same exact thing? On the surface, it does sort of seem that way; they’re described in very similar terms. But one of the trickiest things about the realms of Fairy (and one that I think is the hardest for people to wrap their heads around) is that we can’t cleanly separate fairies into specific species. There’s a lot of evidence in the Scottish Witch Trial manuscripts that the difference between a devil and an imp and a fairy and an elf was pretty much a difference of attitude, and that the same being might be called two or more of these terms even by the same person.(1) And there’s plenty of folkloric evidence that these beings can change their appearance, or at least deceive our senses. So we just can’t quantify and identify them as we do with animals and plants, and just because they seem similar doesn’t necessarily mean they are the same.

On top of that, we have to add the complexities of culture – both ours and theirs. I think it’s reasonable to say that some of the Fair Folk seem to have a sort of symbiotic relationship with nearby humans, to the point that there’s some cultural bleed between the two groups.(2) So it would make sense to me that the dryads would have more Greek sensibilities and prefer offerings of common Greek foodstuffs, whereas wood-wives would have more Germanic sensibilities and prefer more common Germanic foodstuffs – and that seems to be born out in the folklore about what to offer and how to give it. So it doesn’t make sense to me to try and force a pattern on that – there’s no way to reduce them all, to the point where you can say “all feminine forest spirits should be offered [some kind of food]”. I think it’s better to just not worry about whether wood-wives and dryads are the same “species” and instead of highlighting the similarities, learn about the differences, so that you don’t accidentally offend anyone.(3) When I encounter new beings in the landscape, either Over Here, or Over There, as I’m going about my business, one of the things I ask is what they call themselves – not their Name or even name, but what type of a being they want me to know them as. They are usually willing to either show or tell me enough that I can at least figure out what paradigm will work best in my interactions with them, and I then move forward treating them as the folklore surrounding that being suggests that I should.(4)

That brings me to the second question: do fairy beings travel to places other than where their original folklore is from? I think they do. I think it would be strange to think that only humans travel across our world, when plants and animals have done their best to migrate (with and without our help) as well. I also think that the symbiosis I spoke about in the last section plays a roll, but this time on a more macro scale. I’ve heard stories of brownies and nisser traveling with their families on boats to the Americas, and there are stories of fairy beings being “chased out” of certain areas (often by Christian priests). I don’t think it’s a stretch to think that some of them might’ve come that way to the Americas or Australia or wherever. Personally, I’ve met a lot of fairy beings who, when I ask them what type of being they are, identify themselves as something from European folklore. Near where I live, it’s been mainly beings known from Celtic or British or Germanic cultural folklore, and I think that makes sense given the colonial history of this area. (I’ve met some indigenous otherworldly beings as well, but they’re usually fairly shy, and so far none of them are specifically symbiotic to the indigenous cultures of that side of my family, but I’m nowhere near the traditional homelands, either.) I wouldn’t be super surprised, either, to find beings from Central American or Islamic or Korean folklore nearby, either, considering the current demographics of the area, but I also can’t say that I would necessarily recognize them if I did, as I’m not as well versed in those. Generally though, I think it’s not impossible to find beings from any culture that is currently represented in your area or has ever lived there, because these beings are usually believed to be both powerful and long-lived, and it’s therefore a good idea to just learn as much as you can about anyone you might encounter.

When I ask fairy-like otherworldly beings(5) what kind of a being they are, I’m not looking to categorize them, to check them off in a field guide, or to decide what “species” they belong to – I’m trying to gain context. How they present themselves tells me a little about their expectations, their likes and dislikes, and their sensibilities. And then I’ll use that information, and offer Dryads clean water, diluted wine, and olive oil, and offer wood-wives bread or other things made of grain, and perhaps a bit of milk. I’m a witch looking to create relationships, not a scientist trying to answer questions that might just be unanswerable.

See Emma Wilby’s Cunningfolk and Familiar Spirits (Sussex Academic Press, 2005), and Seo Helrune (www.seohelrune.com) has talked about the same in the Nordic sphere, with alfe vs jotnar, in some of their classes.
“Symbiotic” here not necessarily meaning “mutualistic” (benefitting both parties) on a micro scale. I think it’s likely that it’s mutualistic on a macro scale of our two populations, but on a micro scale yeah some humans definitely get fucked over, more along the lines of commensalism or straight-up predation.
Really, learning as much as you can in order to avoid giving accidental offence is probably my #1 Fairy Witchcraft rule.
To an extent: there’s plenty of folklore that says “don’t ever fucking talk to these omg just leave quickly and pretend you didn’t see them”. That’s fairly wise for those wishing not to end up in deep water with the Fair Folk but as I’m already fully submerged, I don’t always look away – I trust that my bargains and roles and allies will keep me safe in most normal situations, and I don’t try to mess around with things above my pay grade. A lot of my discernment has been just figuring out what is and is not within my pay grade, and while I might not rush inside and barricade the door if I see a kelpie, I’m not likely to touch it or try to banish it, either. To quote Morgan Daimler, “I like my liver on the inside.”
There’s some disagreement about whether “fairy” includes non-European folkloric otherworldly beings, and more about whether it should, so just to be clear, when I use “fairy” I do mean it in the more general “folkloric otherworldly being” sense. But I try to use “fairy-like” when I’m explicitly talking about non-European folkloric otherworldly beings, out of respect for people in their source cultures who might not feel like the word “fairy” is appropriate. Some of that, I find, is because of a misunderstanding of what a “fairy” is, based on popculture, though – I had a long discussion with a Persian friend about fairies and djinn where at the end we basically decided both terms covered the same basic category, but she originally had thought all fairies were small Tinkerbell types which did not seem at all like her understanding of djinn!

Imbolc Sunrise: a three-card spread

January 26, 2023
by Alexandra

Brigid and the holiday of Imbolc (or Lá Fhéile Bríde/Là Fhèill Brìghde in Irish and Scottish Gàidhlig, respectively) have been close to my heart ever since I first met them in a Catholic context as a child. My birthday is very close to Imbolc, and I’m sure that was part of the appeal early on, but it’s also such a hopeful holiday that it’s hard not to like! Later, when I first began exploring paganism and reaching out, it was the Goddess Brigid who responded — though it took me years to identify her. Brigid was my bridge back to the Tuatha Dé Danann, which truly felt like a homecoming to me. And now, though she is no longer the most important deity in my practice, she still holds a place on honor on my shrines, and I honor her every Imbolc.

I was thinking of Brigid’s three aspects of Smith, Healer, and Poet as I designed this spread — and of the alchemy of fire and water becoming the illumination of inspiration and creation. There is one card for each aspect, and I hope this spread will help you gain some insight and illumination of your own.

Brigid the Smith asks: What in your life is ready to be reforged?
Brigid the Healer asks: What are you willing to let go of, to be healed?
Brigid the Poet asks: What can you change, to make space for new inspiration?

If you try out this spread, I’d love to hear how it worked for you! But when I did it, I got massively called out, so just be aware that it might not pull the punches, lol!

Crow Folks: Continue Defending

January 21, 2023
by Alexandra

This month, as I went to journey to Na Morrigna for the Dark Moon, I took my usual path, but instead of taking me to the usual cauldron outside a small house, the path swung left and continued until it emerged out of the forest, and led to a broad road. Beside this road, a horse stood waiting for me, and I swung on as I heard riders approaching from my left. I saw Macha, on a red mare, riding at the front, and her two sisters flanking her, one on either side. I joined the company of riders, and we rode together on further, across a plain and then up a large hill to a fort with impressively tall walls. We were hailed, and then let inside, festooned with ribbons and silk flowers on our way, through the winding streets to a large hill on the far side of the fort. Everywhere there were decorations, and I knew instinctively they had been made both in preparation for our coming and in preparation for the festival. As we dismounted and got our horses settled into the stables, we each made our own way into the large hall. Inside, there was food to eat, mead to drink, and much talking and laughing and even some gambling. As the night went on, however, the merriment gave way to more serious conversations and strategizing, preparation for the coming season. Always we must look onward, keep preparing for the next season, the next battle, but there is still time for celebration.

My vision then shifted forward in time, and I saw the warriors I had ridden in with defending the fort from the walls, making repairs, and keeping a watchful eye out across the plain, which was laid out before us on all sides, as the fort was on a lone hill. Another shift – and now a large force had been spotted coming towards the fort, and our warriors were preparing to go and meet the challenge, the most energetic and fierce preparing to engage in battle outside the walls, while others planned to shoot arrows and offer other support from behind the walls. “Two things are needed,” I was told, “to defend a fort soundly: blood-frenzied warriors, and stout walls.” This then, is the lesson I was meant to impart to my community, the advice for the coming months when I will not be journeying to meet Na Morrigna at the Dark Moon: we must continue to defend our walls.

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