RJ Stewart: Pan Gaia Article: Faery Realm

The Faery Realm

Article (1) written for and published in PanGaia Magazine
By R J Stewart © November 27th 2000

What is the faery realm, who or what lives there, and why should we concern ourselves with it?

This is a question that I have addressed in a series of books over the last 12 years or more, and I am still discovering new answers (1). Such answers are best discovered by practical experience of the faery realm and the subtle energies therein, but we can go a long way towards a basic set of definitions in this article. We will also explore one of the more effective ways of experiencing the faery consciousness and contact, so fasten your sporrans tightly. Please note that I am using the spelling “faery” intentionally, to distinguish these spirit beings, widely reported in ancestral tradition, from the trivialized fairy images of modern entertainment. It is a small but helpful distinction.

The best way to begin is with the basic essential definitions handed down to us from folkloric and ancestral tradition. These are surprisingly simple, and are found in close variants worldwide; in this discussion, however, we will focus mainly on the British and European beliefs (2). Why? Because these are the ones I know best, and, more significantly, because they act as a working model for the tradition. Once you have the basics, you can discover for yourself how they share a planetary tradition, by researching comparative folklore, mythology, and ethnic magical traditions.

So here is a brief Question and Answer sequence, which covers the absolutely fundamental basics of the faery tradition, by any name, in any culture.

Q: What is the Faery realm?

     A: A prototypical land within and beneath the surface land; an archetype of the natural world; a timeless place of regeneration, beauty, and allure.
Hmm, sounds good already, does it not?

Q: Who or What lives there?

     A: The many faery races, some human beings and certain ancestors, and a host of creatures that are the spirit counterparts of animals, birds, fishes, insects, trees and plants, and the multitude of planetary life forms from the most minute to the most immense.

     Plus Others, deeper in, that we know less about. These Others are, in old mythological traditions, called titans (from Greek) or giants (Latin and Germanic), and are large beings associated with mountains, volcanoes, fault lines, forests, glaciers, oceans, and planetary zones and planetary weather. As someone said to me: “it is never humans that rule the planet, it is the weather that rules it”.

     Many of the occupants are friendly towards their human cousins, but not all. Which is hardly surprising, when we consider how blindly destructive we have been. So maybe we need some caution and respect in this realm, rather than romantic wishful thinking?

Q: Why should we concern ourselves with the faery realm?

     A: Because it is a place of regeneration and transformation. And, as primal traditions advise us, because we live in a complex interactive world of many interconnected beings, and not in an artificial world of self-referring antagonistic humanity striving against everything else.

     Such are the basics of the faery tradition, as found in folklore, faery tales, myths and legends worldwide.
But there is more, a great deal more. The faery tradition is the foundation of all spirituality, religion, and all magic. Thus, if we are to work to transform our depleted and abused planet, it is a good tradition to explore, and the faery realm is a good place to start. Faery tradition is full of very detailed methods of relating to our faery cousins, and to the spiritual creatures.

     Far from being a whimsical escapist tripping-through-the-daisies tradition, it deals with shape -changing, large powerful spirit beings, seeing and sensing at a distance, potent and dramatic healing arts, weather changing, prophecy, and sexual magic. Oh yes, sexual magic…which is only one reason why orthodox religions do not approve of faery and human contacts. Both Christianity and Islam, for example, share the same prohibitions against consorting with Faeries and Jinn…with the ageless old ones who were in the world before humanity, and who will be in the world again when humanity is gone.

     Let us digress, for a moment, into the cozy realm of the skeptic, and pose a “what if” argument. What if, despite much hardheaded materialistic life experience, there truly are spirits of the land and sea, invisible but powerful energetic forces that shape up as independent consciousness, often inaccessible to humans. Would you want to contact them, especially if you could help one another to improve the parlous state of our mutual world?

     I guess the answer depends on how concerned we are about the health of the land, the continent, and the planet. If we are happy to merely plunder and pollute, then those fairies can take a hike…who needs ‘em anyway? If we are seriously considering any and all ways towards an increased awareness of the interaction, the holism, of all living beings on the planet, then this old ancestral world-view is at least worth a try…is it not?
If the faery tradition is about beings inherent within the subtle life of the land, just as we are inherent, and if it truly offers working methods whereby we can come into a friendly and creative relationship with such beings, then we may even feel a responsibility to try it, as well as an inspiration.
Very well: here is what you do…

     1 Find a quiet place free of interruption. Now there is a major spiritual exercise in itself!
     2 Sit and be still, breathing gently. Draw in your random thoughts and feelings, and focus on the ground beneath you. If you are outdoors, sit on the grass or earth…if you are indoors, reach through the substance of the building down into the ground.
     3 With your inner vision, your imagination, see sense and feel a Well opening just in front of your feet. See a soft shifting light deep in the Well.
     4 Dive down into the well in your inner vision and subtle senses. You emerge in a grassy place, lit from below, by radiant Earth Light. You are at a tall standing stone, in the middle of a wide grassy plain.
     5 Here you give a spontaneous gift, something that just comes into your hands, your vision, and your thoughts, to give unconditionally. You place it at the foot of the stone.
     6 Now beings come towards you from the Four Directions: some come softly, others are more direct, even abrupt. Try to sense, see, feel, what they are like. They will take many forms.
     7 Commune in silence with them for a while: what intimations, hints, or questions do they offer you… what visions of the human world do you offer them?
     8 Now you return to the surface world. The rising radiance of the Earth Light lifts you up, and you rise back out of the Well.
     9 You find yourself back in the surface world: for a few moments you sense it differently, as the faery cousins see it and feel it. Gradually your human perceptions return.
     10 Write a short account of what happened, make a song or a poem. Plant a seed, or in true hippy fashion, embrace a tree. Remember, the faery realm is sexual, exchanging and sharing subtle life forces. Embrace two trees.

Some do's and don'ts
     There are many prohibitions or taboos in the older faery traditions. Here are a few that apply today, with some reasons for them. You will probably know of others, or discover them in faery tales and folklore (3).

     1. Never cut any flowers, nor have cut flowers in your dwelling. Why? The flowers are the sexual organs of the plant…you mutilate and kill them when you cut them…how would you feel?

     2. Leave small tasty sweet offerings in the same place each day…nothing too lavish… but high-energy stuff of all sorts. Throw it away the next day, for it has had the subtle energy taken from it by the spirit or faery beings. They do not require the substance as we do. They love sugar and chocolate, just as we do, but presumably do not suffer so much from its over use. Be cautious about leaving them whisky or strong beer…traditionally faeries love alcohol, but can become rowdy and dangerous. I report this from direct experience, not from a source book.

     3. If you are offered food or drink in the faery realm, TAKE IT!!! Traditionally we are told not to take it, which means TAKE IT QUICKLY before they withdraw the courteous and wonderful offer.

     4. Be cautious with repeated visions or subtle experiences of sex with faery lovers… not because it is bad or wrong, but because (like all sensuous activity) it can become highly addictive. Moderation is a word seldom found in the faery vocabulary.

     5. Never cut branches or plants with steel or iron. You should pick or pull by hand if you have to. Everyone debates this tradition, but I think it means simply that you must have loving contact to break a branch, through your hand, rather than with a cold unfeeling blade. Gardeners all know how deeply satisfying it is to pull weeds rather than cut them up…that is the very essence of it…touching and pulling, not slicing and dividing.

     6. Always keep promises that you make in the faery realm… the spirit of intention is everything. The worst thing you could do is to break a promise made in that archetypal and sacred place.

     7. Always be respectful to the Cousins: they are not “helpers”. Join with me, sisters and brothers, in despising the popular notion that faeries are “helpers”…how insulting. I suppose the faeries must, therefore, call us “hinderers”.

     8. Expect the unexpected.

     Good luck in the faery realm…tell them that I have not given up, though I may not be back for tea at the time originally expected.

You can email your experiences to me. contact us : replies may take a while to reach you…

Notes:
1: Earth Light; Power within the Land; The Living World of Faery; The UnderWorld Initiation: Various editions 1985-1990, R J Stewart. Most recent US editions: Mercury Publishing, 1998/9

2: The Faery Faith in Celtic Countries, W Y Evans Wentz; The Faery Encyclopedia, Kathleen Briggs. There are many editions of these major reference books. You can often find them second hand by using on-line book searches.
3: Robert Kirk, Walker Between Worlds, a new edition of the Secret Commonwealth of Elves Fauns and Faeries. From the 17th century notebook of the Rev. Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle. Edited with commentary by
R J Stewart, first published Element Books, UK, 1989. Currently available as a free book on-line at this website

Other Articles Published in PanGaia
Deeper into the UnderWorld
Faeries, Nature Spirits and Elementals
Titans and Giants