The Fair Folk
Hilaria Benavidez (8)
If you heard of a fairy, I’m sure you would imagine small people with wings and glitter– the Fairy Godmother or Tinkerbell. But I’m also sure you’re aware of the mischievous tales of the malevolent Fae, a common archetype in children’s tales or general tales. Such as Rumpelstiltskin, the troll from the three Billy Goat Gruff, Philoctetes from Hercules, and many other tales following the trickster antagonist trope. They are known to be humorous tricksters who are masters of words and speak through riddles. They can be kind, giving you trinkets or advances in your life, or on the contrary they can trick you, scare you, and worsen your daily life. With one slip up, or a mistaken phrase, it could all go downhill. Though, would you be surprised if I’ve told you people have claimed to see, and work with these creatures in real life? Probably not–this world couldn’t get crazier. Nonetheless, if you love, or are curious of the offbeat, absurd, and fantastical, This is the article to get you in the know.
Fae is just another term for fairy. They have many names like, faerie, fay, the Good neighbors, Good folk, Fair folk etc. As much as I could go into the fairy tales and oral stories, I quite enjoy the unexplainable and bizarre stories, and how the unique egregore is ever changing and formed today. In order to grasp the modern day Fae concept, you must know that most people who tell the new tales are mostly pagans, and those who are associated with the occult to some extent. Going into this material unprepared, people can easily go into spirals of mania and psychosis, so please take this information with a grain of salt, and harmless fun.
How To Get In Touch
Firstly How do you communicate with these creatures? Mostly, these communications are indirect interactions surrounded by cycles of offerings and favors. Though, by a splinter of chance, people have claimed to have clairvoyant sightings, unexplainable yet aligning. Though, if you think you could be an average friend to our good old neighbors—you’d be REALLY wrong. You see, these folk have a different way of going about. While us humans prioritize things like friends, family, and community, these fellows follow a simple way of life; Gain, trade, and gain. When interacting with humans, they prioritize their hustler skills. Trying to get as much from the transaction as possible. And if there’s no trade involved, they always get a kick out of human scares. However, If you were to be seeking a relationship with the faerie first you’d have to understand it takes time and trial. Again, when working with the supernatural, communication doesn’t work as we do with humans. You’d have to give them effort, work and offerings even if they don’t respond. Sometimes, it can take weeks or even months to get signs or general contact from the fae. And, they might not even want to work with you at all! This can apply to deity work as well, In Hellism, Roman polytheism, Egyptian polytheism, etc. As well, a lot of these deities are not omnipresent, unlike Arab based religions, Buddhism, Hinduism and more. The fae won’t always be watching you, They have a life too!
But now that you know not to talk to a wall, here’s how you start. What do they like? How do you get their attention? Like I’ve mentioned, to go to is offerings. Offerings, offerings, and offerings! Their favorite kinds are delectable foods and drinks, like cake, milk, baked goods, fruit, and alcoholic beverages, (Which I recommend being of drinking age before handling, thank you!) But what they like most is HONEY. Throughout history and modern day, you’ll see that the majority of eclectics, pagans, and witches all together report that honey is the most effective offering, in initiations general work and peacefully parting ways. If you want an extra boost to get things done, honey. Not only do they like food, but things of nature and currency! Gems, flowers, coins, pinecones, dollars, and things of the sort. The Fae usually dwell in nature, so they enjoy things of growth whether it be of the Earth, or finance. However, once you know your folk and their preferences, you can get creative based on their likings.
Rules and Etiquette
Now that you know the very basics, you gotta know how to talk to the fae, like I’ve mentioned before, they have a sort of intercultural communication. Many things that you might think are just fine are insulting to them, things you might take as gifts could bring you in debt!
We take so many phrases for granted, primarily sayings like “Thank you”, or “I’m sorry”. To put it frankly the Fae hate this. We go around saying these words, every. Single. Day. Most of the time we don’t even mean it! The most genuine words are ingenuine.
Again, the Fae are tricky with words. You have to be the utmost mindful and respectful, because they can get mad so easily.
Their Whereabouts, Their Dimension
Though the faerie can see us, interact with us, they’re not exactly here. You see, In fairytales there is a common place known as fairy land, fairy world, and in eclectic terms, you could even say our parallel dimension, it isn’t another planet rather parts of different, more complex dimension that overlap with ours, That’s why if you were to ever see something an entity you couldn’t explain, that was a sphere of light, changing in shapes and colors, that could very well be a Fae! Now, the concept of fairy land is much more common In modern media than the accurate Fae. This place has been a part of popular stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, Pans Labyrinth, and Stranger Things. A place where time is distorted, it is said that just being there for a few hours can become years in our plane. This environment is never as it seems. You can usually get to this plane through types of portals, mushroom rings, Trees, making arches out of sticks, A crawl space in between tree roots, Anything that looks like it was made by funny creatures in the woods. Again, with all the time warps and the faeries trickery, best be not to go through these unless you never wanna see your loved ones again!
Conclusion
The Fae is a tricky topic, It’s one thing to learn about it, another thing to let alone believe it! Of course you don’t have to, you could even think it’s crazy! But it’s interesting to keep in mind that people can live to find magic in the simple nature that we have! You can learn more about the Fae, just by looking into Paga communities and eclectic practitioners that still engage in these beliefs and practices today!