Jacky Newcomb

‘Fairies are invisible and inaudible like angels.
But their magic sparkles in nature.’
 Lynn Holland

When you are visiting the Land of Faerie no luggage is required, no passport or travel insurance needed. Check-in time is nil and arrival time is…just a wish away. But are the natives friendly? If folklore is to believed then the faeries are to be feared and you would not venture there unless you were marked by them. However, many of these old customs associated with the fey, we can now recognize as part of a scarily superstitious age.

All faeries are known to love dancing and favourite haunts are under the full moon, in woodland, fields and meadows. They are thought to leave behind them as a mark of their dancing faerie rings of mushrooms or dark green rings of grass. If ever invited to dance with the faeries it’s a real no go area and one of the first fundamental rules of faerie lore still to be respected. It is said that if one dances with the faeries you may die of exhaustion or you may never be the same again.

Do Faeries Eat?

It is thought that faeries do eat because they are known to have favourite types of food being; honey, cake, bread, milk, cream and mead. They are also thought to have all-night revelries where they enjoy lavish fey feasts. However, being not entirely of a physical form they do not take in the food in the same way as we do, but absorb the food’s energy or essence into their beings.

Can a Faerie be my Spirit Guide?

We all have spirit guides, advanced human souls who steer and protect us, as well as angel guardians. But we also interact with spirits who specialise in a wide range of skills. Faeries can often work with humans who are interested in faeries, gardening and the environment for example and also children can have faeries as guides.

If you are interested in ‘green issues’ and caring for our world, you might want to seek out specific faeries to help you. Faeries are particularly interested in working with humans for anything to do with protection and care of the planet, which might be why more people seem to be aware of the fay at this moment in time.

One reader told us: ‘…I talk to my faerie guide a lot. I ask him to show me how he can help me at the moment and how I can enjoy myself more. I ask him to bring me images of things which will help me in my life…although I always expect the images to appear like they do in Harry Potter!’
Modern day story books will certainly help us to open up to the idea of real magic in our lives.

Mischief Makers

The faeries have been accused of much mischief making in the past and some particular ailments were commonly blamed on them. According to folklore, cramps are thought to be an affliction for avoiding the attentions of the faeries. A stroke is a faerie penalty and even takes its name from they fey; elf stroke. Other illnesses such as tuberculosis, rheumatism, impetigo, lice, and infant death are also fey attributed as well as nightmares. Some faerie types even specialize in all different sorts of nightmares! Bruising was thought to be a penance for troubling the faeries. It is also a chilling thought that mischievous fey are meant to be able to steal a person’s shadow. This belief is still held in modern society. If your shadow is stolen you will fade away and die, supposedly because if you don’t possess a shadow you cannot exist anyway….not in a physical body anyway.

What is a Faerie?

If angels are the celestial guardians of the universe, then the faeries are the angels of the Earth. They are the spiritual manifestations and magical consciousness of every living thing on our planet. The role of a faerie is many and varied and they come in many different forms, but essentially their function is to guard, guide, and nurture the living planet …and us.

Is it true that Faeries can look like Plants, Flowers, Leaves and so on?

As faeries belong to the natural world they can mirror nature in their appearance. This applies to the elemental faeries or devas who are the guardians of particular elements and plants. They also take on personality characteristics of the plant they belong to as well.

Some faeries can ‘shape-shift’ into different forms at will, so can easily blend into the nature all around them, especially to disguise themselves from human eyes.

Copyright image of Author Jacky Newcomb
Photo Credit: Charles Francis Artwork: Alan Clough

• Wearing your clothes inside out
• Running water
• The sound of bells (church bells in particular)
• Carrying (or wearing) a piece of iron
• Primroses are said to repel faeries

The Fae Steal my Shirt

‘My husband and I were living and working at a Renaissance Festival (where people dress up like they're in the Middle Ages and play around all weekend). We were packing for a few days at a family reunion and I tried on one shirt, took it off and placed it on the bed, tried another one, decided on the first, and when I turned back to the bed where it had been set, it was gone!

I blamed my husband of course, but he denied it and I realized he hadn't even been near the bed. I looked for the shirt EVERYWHERE. It was nowhere to be seen. I knew then that we were experiencing a bit of faerie mischief, so as we left we placed a few bits of chocolate on our table and said aloud, ‘I would like my shirt back sometime because I really like that shirt… and I've left you some chocolate to exchange for it.’
We left a while later, pondering the likelihood of my shirt ever returning. We arrived at the reunion, set up our tent and sleeping bags, chatted with family, and no more than two hours later, I went into the tent to finish setting things up inside. Lo and behold, my shirt was sitting on top of my clothes bag, gently placed there. I thanked them, of course, for returning it and brought it out to show my husband, who was utterly perplexed.’

Faerie in the Kitchen

‘I was cleaning out my kitchen once and I saw a small, male-looking faerie (about 4inches high), wearing overalls and a red shirt. He just peeked at me from behind a pan on the stove. I only saw him briefly and thought nothing of it except, ‘…what a funny place for a faerie to hang out!’ This made me stop and look again, but he was gone of course. I laughed out loud and called my husband to tell him about it. That was the first time I ever actually SAW a faerie!’

Faeries are called many things the world over. In some cultures it was thought of as bad luck to mention their names at all – hence the phrases ‘the little people’ and so on. Here are a few of the more common ones.

Fairy
Fairie
Faerie
Pixie (sometimes interchangeable with the word fairy)
Fay
Fae
Fee
Elf
Gods people
Little People
The hidden ones
The Strangers
The Wee Ones
The Good Neighbours

Disney included a fair few fairies in his films. Here is a quick list.

• Beck
• Bess
• Fawn
• Fira
• Iris
• Iridessa
• Lily
• Luna
• Mother Dove
• Peter Pan
• Prilla
• Rani
• Rosetta
• Silvermist
• Terence
• Tinkerbell
• Vidia
• Violet

Samhain 31st October and the Celtic New Year, (Hallow’een).
Midwinter Solstice/Yule 21st December
Imbolc 2nd February
Spring Equinox 21st March
Beltaine/May Eve   30th April
Midsummer Solstice 21st June
Lughnasadh 31st July
Autumn Equinox 21st September