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Halo's Journal

~ Enchantment, Philosophy & Fairies – Magic and the mundane, kissing.

Halo's Journal

Tag Archives: Faeosophy

Faeosophy; Just Another Spiritworker?

15 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by Haloquin in Enchanted, Faery, Reflections

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Faeosophy, Faeries, Faery, Feyhearted path, Magic, musings, process, Spirit work, spirits, spiritwork

Faeosophy – the philosophising of and about faeries and fae-ness.

Back in this post I shared some questions I’ve been pondering in my development of a Faerie philosophy. I began with asking who and what the Fae might be, and, based on the approach that I take to Fae-work, the Fae are spirits. Our experience of them means that they are a real part of our world (for those of us that share our world with spirits or whose world-view allows for spirits, at least) and they exist in a world populated by spirits generally. In which case;

Is the Faery work I do (just) another form of spirit-work?

To be clear, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with this. I’m not using “just” in a derogatory way, and, in fact, it will make life easier if I am taking a simple, easily defined path.

As with most of my ponderings, however, I have to say here;

Yes and no.

Two crab shells, facing each other, on old wood.

These things are rarely straightforward, except that they are. Its always about relationships and how we grow within and from them.

Working with faeries is working with spirits, yes, and all that entails (learning their rules, learning how to listen/hear them, opening/closing gates, discretion, consistency, commitment, offerings, reciprocity, service, mediation…) and the way I approach Faery work is through the Path I call FeyHearted – in which we learn about our own fey nature.

If we are to work with and develop a relationship with them then we must have a strong sense of ourselves and an ability to tap into the magic in us which is akin to theirs.

Also, for me, it is about embodying the lessons they teach about creativity, connection and magic – or, put simply, Enchantment.

As a modern European, I’ve been brought up in a materialistic culture. As an academic I’ve spent a lot of time in my head. As a dancer I’ve learnt to climb back into my body and as an Enchantress – a Fae Witch – I’ve learnt to find the enchantment in the world.

Faery magic is spirit work of a particular kind, one that encourages full, embodied presence in the world and a steady, creative re-enchantment of our lives. In working with them we get bigger and clearer, rooting deep in the earth and blossoming in the sky.

Although, of course, whichever spirits you work with will change how you are in the world, won’t it? So the short answer, really, is yes. Faery work, the way I do it, is just a spirit-work with a particular branch of “nature”-based spirits.

 

Do you work with spirits? Do you work with Fae spirits? How does this work shape you and your life? How has it changed the way you relate to the world?

Halo Quin, with pixie ears and knitted wings, signing a copy of her book by candlelight.

By the way, there are more (coherent) ponderings and exercises for working with the Fae in my book, “Pagan Portals: Your Faery Magic”. Available on Amazon and from all good book shops!

 

Faeosophy; Faeries and Other Spirits

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by Haloquin in Enchanted, Faery, Magic, Philosophy, Reflections

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alfar, Faeosophy, Faery, Feyhearted path, Landwights, Magic, musings, pagan theology, paganism, Philosophy, process, Spirit work, spirits, Thealogy

Faeosophy – the philosophising of and about faeries and fae-ness.

Back in this post I shared some questions I’ve been pondering in my development of a Faerie philosophy. I began with asking who and what the Fae might be, and, based on the approach that I take to Fae-work, the Fae are spirits, our experience of them mean that they are a real part of our world (for those of us that share our world with spirits or whose world-view allows for spirits, at least) and they exist in a world populated by spirits generally. In which case;

How do the Fae relate to other spirits?

(There isn’t a straightforward answer to this, really, so what follows are some of my thoughts in exploring this!)

… “Spirits” is such a broad term, and under that label of potential spirits to work with I’m including;

  • Ancestors and beloved dead

    A dark skinned lady sat holding a honeysuckle flower, with skirts covering her legs. Clothed in greens and deep red.

    There are many kinds of spirits and none of them are clear-cut… it is more like finding families of related beings with similar energies and functions than defining them strictly.

  • Deities
  • Angels
  • Totems
  • Power Animals
  • Guides
  • Guardians
  • Genuis Locii/Spirits of a place/Landwights
  • and so on.

I also often include living beings on that list, mentally, as incarnate spirits. The Fae are generally not incarnate, not in this context anyway, so I’ll focus on discarnate beings for today!

When we start to explore these categories we find it gets even more complicated;

Ancestors; dead humans and other species, once incarnate, now not. You’d be hard pressed to find a tradition that doesn’t work with or honour the dead in some way.

Deities; a tricky one when it comes to definitions. Different traditions define deities rather differently, ranging from archetypes in our unconscious mind, through to independent beings with personalities and lives completely separate from ours. This is a whole branch of study in its own right, but for the purposes of this post I’ll broadly describe them as non-incarnate beings which hold more power than we do, normally linked to a particular kind of energy (eg. love, knowledge, painting, etc.) or a range of related energies. They generally have their own story/stories and manifest in various ways for different people.

Angels; cosmic messengers or intermediaries between ourselves and larger beings/powers. Normally within the Judeo-Christian traditions as I understand it, but not limited to them.

Guides; this describes a job rather than a type of spirit – i.e., a Guide is a spirit-being that has the role of guiding people in some way.

And so on…

The Fae seem to me to be most similar to Genius Locii or Landwights – spirits belonging to or expressing the Being/existence/essence of a particular place. They may be more or less approachable. Some of them act as guides. Some deities have Fae characteristics, such as Rhiannon, a magical woman of the otherworld who appears near a particular place (Gorsedd Narbeth). Faeries are not necessarily tied to a specific location, however, so perhaps some Fae are spirits of a particular place – those that are beings of particular lakes, trees, hills and so on – but others are not.

There are travelling Fae, that troop across wide areas, those that act as guides and those that live among us. Perhaps, though, they are simply connected to counties, countries, or families, rather than a single rock or tree.

The land of the Fae and the land of the dead

The land of the Fae and the land of the dead are often seen as the same place, and often described as reachable through water or mounds, into the earth itself.

There are also stories that conflate the Faery Realm with the realm of the Dead. The Nordic myths describe Frey as the Lord of the Alfar, and the Alfar as both Elves and Ancestors. In Irish myth Faeryland and the land of the Ancestors were both called “The Summerlands”. I take connection to mean that they are a similar energetic vibration to ancestor spirits, close enough to the material realm to overlap with our existence, hence their roles as manifestations of the non-human natural world. Perhaps the Fae are the ancestral spirits of the non-human realms, as viewed through our anthro-centric filters to allow us to relate to them?

For me this all ties in with our nature as somewhat-fey, or potentially so. We are part of nature, we are domesticated, but underneath that is the wild magic. If the Fae and our ancestors are connected, that points to be to their relation to us as part of nature.

Returning to the question at hand, however, the Fae and other spirits seem to me to be parts of a spectrum. Goddesses can be Faery Queens, Faeries can be ancestors or Genius Locii or both, and so on. Although some would, many deities would not be described as Fae, even if some would… and angels generally aren’t considered to be Fae. In some of the stories of the fall of angels, however, faeries were the angels that got left behind on earth when Heaven closed its gates and Hell became full, and those angels took up residence in the land and became Faeries. So Faeries are spirits that are intimately linked to the land and the natural world. Not all spirits that match that description are faeries, but that’s a pretty good place to start.

In short, my answer to this question is that they are a type of nature spirit, and that “spirit” covers such a wide range of beings that Faeries can fit into many categories. In terms of spirit working it will be linked very much to the land, to relating to and responding to natural currents and generally working outside of strict structures that are imposed over those currents. More often than not I define some being as Fae based on a feeling, but the pattern that has emerged for me is that that feeling often links in to the “natural” or “untamed” roots of those beings, so I try to track those connections and draw a map that makes some kind of sense!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on where Faeries sit in your understanding of spirits.

And next time I post it will be a little shorter than this!

Happy thoughts,

~ Halo x

Faeosophy; Are Faeries Real?

06 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by Haloquin in Enchanted, Faery, Philosophy, Reflections

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Faeosophy, Faeries, Faery, Faery philosoper, fairies, Fairy, Feyhearted path, Magic, musings, Pagan, paganism, Philosophy, Stories

Faeosophy – the philosophising of and about faeries and fae-ness.

Back in this post I shared some questions I’ve been pondering in my development of a Faerie philosophy. Of the questions listed I though these were a good place to start:

“Who and what are the Fae? How metaphorical are they? How metaphorical is our relationship to them?”

enchanted-grove-header-small.jpg

On the path of working with faeries, it’s useful to know what they are…

When working with faeries this is a kinda fundamental question on the one hand, and completely irrelevant on the other. My bottom line is that this work works for me, and it works best when I act as-if they are real. From a pragmatic perspective, then, I will continue to act as-if, and to believe that, faeries are literal, non-metaphorical beings.

One other thing – your mileage may well vary. Just because I encounter Faeries in this way does not mean that this is the only way of doing it, or that I’m right! Faeries are notoriously tricky to pin down. They are known for living in liminal spaces, for being betwixt and between, for leading us astray. They are perfectly capable of being kind and cruel, tangible and otherworldly, here and not both at once.

In which case – one answer to the question “what are the Fae?” is “paradoxical, illogical and variable.”

That’s not quite the kind of answer I was looking for though, so I’ll try again.

Little Lilith

They are the magical consciousness of nature.

In the stories they are a people with a different ethic and attitude to us. Or they are creatures intent on leading us away from human civilisation. They live in wilder places than we are used to. They can offer us help and unexpected wealth. They are uncompromising when their rules are broken. They are powerful, but subject to certain rules. They are beings of the natural world, but beings with magical powers.

 

In which case, they are the magical consciousness of nature.

But is this just a metaphor? Are they actual beings or are they stories we tell ourselves about the natural world but actually we don’t mean it?

When we encounter anything we have an experience, which we then understand in a certain way. We hear laughter – soundwaves are generated by someone, they enter our ears and are interpreted by our brain as laughter – just as we feel that something otherworldly is at play in the depths of the wildwood. When the laughter does not come from another human but we still hear it, echoing like bells over the waves, or when we are unsettled and certain something fae is watching us, whatever the tangible facts, we are experiencing faeries. The experience is not a metaphor, it is very real.

And, as I’ve said before, when I act as-if, when I believe that something more than what I would expect is possible, magic happens. I see or hear things that don’t make sense until I tell myself the story of faeries. They are a real something, there is a reality to them, and they make the most sense to me when I approach these experiences as faeries.

If they were just metaphors, however, they’d still be useful. If I told you a tale of dryads as a metaphor for the ways in which trees communicate through fungi and care for seedlings and stumps, and if you listened to that tale and treated trees better for it, then the metaphor would have given you a healthier way of relating to the world.

This is different to saying they have a reality independent of our stories – I and others have definitely encountered something when we’ve gone looking for faeries. When I say “I’ve seen a faery.” I don’t mean I’ve seen a flower do something I can’t explain, or that I’ve run across a natural process which I’ve needed to respect according to it’s rules. I mean I’ve had an experience, a real experience, which I understand as seeing a faerie.

Waiting for the Sun

The have a reality which is based in our personal and direct experience and so they walk alongside us, as family.

When I say “Faery”, I’m not talking metaphorically, I really mean “Faery”, because that is how I experience them. Ultimately, there is a reality here, it is my reality, and it works for me.

And perhaps that’s part of the magic of faeries; our relationship with them, our connection to them, is inherently and essentially personal and direct. We meet them, for the most part, one-to-one. They are not distant beings directing things from afar, they are walking beside us through the woods. Those that work with us are holding our hands, tripping us up, pointing out shiny things… like cousins ready for a giggle at our expense, but also, often, ready to be our family.

 

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