Lough Graney © Gina Dean
I have met and spoken with others who have seen the Faeries. One man told me that he was strolling through the woodlands that border Lough Graney, (Lake of the Sun) in Co. Clare, when he saw colourful, lithe figures swinging in the branches of the trees. He said that some were as small as children, others as large as himself (he was about 5ft 6") and most were much larger. As he neared to them they swiftly vanished except for the feeling that the air felt as if it were electrically charged.
One night during a ritual a friend and myself became aware of a stream of miniature, multi-coloured lights flowing up and out of an old boreen to fix on to the branches of a hawthorn tree. Those lights twinkled away throughout the ceremony and only disappeared when we were finished.
Faery Paths are very like ley-lines in that they carry energy and respond to a divining rod or to a pendulum. It is not a good idea to build on them for very often people who move into such homes live a very disturbed life and generally end up moving elsewhere. There is an old place a few miles from me that has been sold at least twice and nobody lives in it more than a few weeks. It has now stood empty for several years.
During the recent building boom a new property was built in our locality. The architects visited me to talk about water and whilst we were conversing I told them about a faery path that runs diagonally through the field the new house was to be built in. I actually showed them its route and a few strange looks passed between them, although they did say to me they would try to avoid the path.
Well, by the time the ground floor was built my wife had seen figures moving about at night time and when the top floor was erected I too saw figures moving past the window openings and also heard doors being slammed from inside the building, all very well except that there were not any doors in the place at that stage and nor was the roof on.
This is the third winter now the completed house has stood empty and that is bad luck, more so because the builder was taken ill just after he had finished building and has since died.
In similar fashion faery trees ought never to be cut down because it is said the person who does so will have bad luck. I have been told that years ago if one of those trees needed to be cut then a man from England would be invited over and paid extremely well to do the job!
Today we, who are pagans, have no fear of the faerie. In fact rather the opposite is true, for we welcome them to be with us when doing ritual, accepting and acknowledging their presence as being part of the normal order of nature as much as the birds that fly overhead. Consequently we have no iron or steel in our rituals or in the circle for the faerie abhors that metal and I will never do anything which is against them.
This is so interesting. I am vaguely aware of the faery tradition in your part of the world but it is fascinating to learn more and also to link it to the traditions in this country. My Wise Old Rosicrucian Friend has talked to me about ley lines and her late husband was a doswer extraordinaire. Although I have no formal training in this I often 'feel' these energy grids or systems when I am out in nature. The Australian Aboriginals are very aware and traditionally walked these ley-lines or 'songlines'. They say that they must walk these tracks to keep the spirits alive and I think they are right because they are no longer able to do it - fences and change of lifestyle - and their culture has undergone traumatic change. I might do some blogs about this subject.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! Perhaps, we adults train ourselves out of "seeing" them as easily as we did when we were children, before we learned "there was no such thing".
ReplyDeleteAlways love hearing about faeries and Janes' picture is awesome!!!
ReplyDeleteMF: There is a similarity between the way that the Aboriginals used the Song Lines and the ancient druids of this lands use of Ley- lines. In that both would stand on one leg with an arm in the air to send messages down the lines.
ReplyDeleteCarol: I think that there is something in what you say, also when people travelled the land at a natural pace by either walking or riding a horse they were in closer communication with the fae and you will rarely see or meet a faery when speeding along in a car.
Debs: Thank you !
Birgit Huvendieck said: Dear Mel, great blog.
ReplyDeleteI don´t have often the honour to meet fairies as I don´t really can sense them that good. But sometimes I have the feeling on a place we use for our training that there is a small fairy folk around that is nosie and kind of tugging clothes. I feel like snowwithe when I´m there as this folk feels to be small like beeing something about my kneehight. Then I also had the experience once in sligo of a very fast female entity that moved towards me when I was about to start working on a crosspoint of leylines.
She was first kind of angry, disturbed, about my presense at this place but then she settled down and seems just to wonder in absolute curiosity that there are humans existing doing this things. There was also a very big fellow there If I one day can be as fast and precise in this dimensions as she was I would be very very happy.
There are also places my teacher sais that fairies live there but not always I can sense them properly.
Have a great day my friend!
Love
Birgit
How very interesting, I did enjoy reading.
ReplyDeleteAs you know there are hundreds of ley lines converging here in Glastonbury, although according to the leylines map, our house is not on one.
I have heard it said Glastonbury chooses who stays here. I don't know about that but I have met people who experienced a run of bad luck and could not settle here and moved away, conversely folk who have been living here happily for many years. I for one could not imagine living anywhere else.
You do tend to meet a lot of people who like us, longed to come here and evenutally got here.
Those people say they feel they have "come home".
In Thailand Heron, when a new home is built, a small house is built for the 'spirits of the land' who are being ousted by the new construction. The home owner is then responsible for placing offerings of flowers, food and inscense in the spirit house every day, thus keeping the peace.
ReplyDeleteYgraine said:
ReplyDeleteI found this post really interesting' It is amazing how much you are teaching me on the subject!
I adore the Faery Tree painting too. It is mesmerising.
I also believe that every tree has its resident Spirit, and have often felt their presence.
Blessings,
Ygraine
As a bean Draoi who works in the construction industry, mel I love this important article. Many builders, architect know this stuff deep within but it has been trained out of them, or greed has blinded their true vision. Although they may have looked at you strangly, you have given the gift of rememberance (one day they will hear those stories again and it will make a difference). I am the eternal optomist. keep blogging;-)
ReplyDeleteÁine Máíre :Thank you and I do so very much hope that this information will raise the awareness of not just the builders/architects but also the very important home owners too!
ReplyDeleteFellow Bloggers & readers of this blog I need to elucidate this that AnneMarie's words "As a bean Draoi" is telling us in As Gaeilge that she is A woman Druid !
Thank you for sharing this story with us. It makes you aware again of all that is around us. So many times we forget to properly look around and use our senses. I've been to Ireland twice now and I feel very much at home there. Maybe it has something to do with being a gingerhead ;P My husband has never been to Ireland before, one day I'll take him there. With Scotisch ancestors and being a proper Gingerhead, he should be feeling at home I presume. I won't let him cut down one of your trees though, although he is very English ;P I would like him to stick around a bit longer if you don't mind. I've been offline for a while, but it's nice to find your kind comment on my blog and read interesting posts on yours. Thanks for keeping me educated.
ReplyDeleteHi Mel,
ReplyDeleteI loved reading more on this subject. It does make me wonder if there are faeries in other cultures, and whether they can also be found in the lore of the old French celts, which go back on my mother's paternal line. Time to do some reading up, I think. I love the painting, and the gaelic spelling of my name from the other AM.
xx
AM
Thank you for your comment Anne-Marie. I am certain that you will find faeries in other cultures and most definitely they have a presence in all of the Celtic Countries of which there are at least six with a celtic language to my limited knowledge and other european countries that the celts inhabited.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that for while I was getting confused as to which A-M I was writing too :)
I very much loved this post but hadn't a chance to come by and say so! There are some good books on the subject of building in the wrong places...i.e. on a Faerie Path and there are many tales of the wee folk being in the US - at least in the Native American culture. We definitely have them on the North Coast of California.
ReplyDeleteLove this statement below as it is so true and a good way to look at the relationship.
"Today we, who are pagans, have no fear of the faerie. In fact rather the opposite is true, for we welcome them to be with us when doing ritual, accepting and acknowledging their presence as being part of the normal order of nature as much as the birds that fly overhead."
Again another fascinating post, Heron!
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to read about faerie energy in the half built house. I know Ireland has plenty of faerie magic in the land.
Having moved home quite frequently, I have noticed different energies in different dwellings.
The old farmhouse we are in at the moment has a very odd energy and some would say it's not a very lucky house at all. Almost everyday something breaks or goes wrong, but the house is also a bit weird and wonderful too! ;-)
P.S. Thank you for your email. Jane's work is insightful and beautiful. Do you both know R.J Stewart who wrote the Merlin Tarot and a few other books about faeries?
Hello String!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. Re faeries in the USA: it is believed that when people from Ireland travelled over by sea that their faeries went with them and so did some of the Banshee.
Hi Joanne, Interesting to read about your farmhouse home, have you had a dowser come and check out the energy lines, because sometimes a damaged line can cause problems.
I have most certainly heard go R.J. Stewart yes and read a few of his books. Our home-grown expert on Faeries is the author, storyteller & broadcaster Eddie Lenihan who lives in Co. Clare.
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ReplyDeleteHi! A very interesting article! I've often seen faery folk, though mostly out of the corner of my eye :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Maori have traditions of the faery folk too- they called them Patu-paiarehe.
Mel, are there faeiries in the United States or just in Ireland? I'm very interested.
ReplyDeleteI gave a spirit house (which has been discussed by one of your readers in her comments) to my daughter and her husband for Christmas last year and in fact I have one but I didn't know what it was for a very long time. I don't know if they really understood it when they received it.
A very interesting post and beautiful painting. I hope you had a lovely Yule and look forward to reading more blog posts from you in 2012. Happy New Year! xxx
ReplyDeleteThis subject continues to fascinate me. It is so nice to check in and "catch up" on the latest information and lore.
ReplyDelete;^)
Thank you for sharing.
What an interesting post and thank you for using my photo. My husband has painted that view in his first painting since he did art at school! I loved reading your 'fairy stories' and only wish I had seen them.
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