Genuine living 'little people' or are they spirit beings?
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Earthealer
1antique
mia
shayn
Violet
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Are Fairies?
Violet- Admin
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Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
shayn- Member
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somewhere in between spirits and physical beings, but they are real!
mia- Member
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Yup ............... what Shayn says :)
I believe they are in a dimension next door, through the veil so to speak :)
I believe they are in a dimension next door, through the veil so to speak :)
Violet- Admin
Number of posts : 24568
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Oh I don't doubt they're real, I just wondered what kind of being they were
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
mia- Member
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They are elementals xx
1antique- Elite
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Some common beliefs:
Folk beliefs
Dead
One popular belief was that they were the dead, or some subclass of the dead.[12] The Irish banshee (Irish Gaelic bean sí or Scottish Gaelic bean shìth, which both mean "fairy woman") is sometimes described as a ghost.[13] The northern English Cauld Lad of Hylton, though described as a murdered boy, is also described as a household sprite like a brownie,[14] much of the time a Barghest or Elf.[15] One tale recounted a man caught by the fairies, who found that whenever he looked steadily at one, the fairy was a dead neighbor of his.[16] This was among the most common views expressed by those who believed in fairies, although many of the informants would express the view with some doubts.[17]
Elementals
Another view held that the fairies were an intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels.[18] In alchemy in particular they were regarded as elementals, such as gnomes and sylphs, as described by Paracelsus.[19] This is uncommon in folklore, but accounts describing the fairies as "spirits of the air" have been found popularly.[20]
Demoted angels
A third belief held that they were a class of "demoted" angels.[21] One popular story held that when the angels revolted, God ordered the gates shut; those still in heaven remained angels, those in hell became devils, and those caught in between became fairies.[22] Others held that they had been thrown out of heaven, not being good enough, but they were not evil enough for hell.[23] This may explain the tradition that they had to pay a "teind" or tithe to Hell. As fallen angels, though not quite devils, they could be seen as subject of the Devil.[24] For a similar concept in Persian mythology, see Peri.
Demons
A fourth belief was the fairies were devils entirely.[25] This belief became much more popular with the growth of Puritanism.[26] The hobgoblin, once a friendly household spirit, became a wicked goblin.[27] Dealing with fairies was in some cases considered a form of witchcraft and punished as such in this era.[28] Disassociating himself from such evils may be why Oberon, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, carefully observed that neither he nor his court feared the church bells.[29]
The belief in their angelic nature was less common than that they were the dead, but still found popularity, especially in Theosophist circles.[30][31] Informants who described their nature sometimes held aspects of both the third and the fourth view, or observed that the matter was disputed.[30]
Humans
A less-common belief was that the fairies were actually humans; one folktale recounts how a woman had hidden some of her children from God, and then looked for them in vain, because they had become the hidden people, the fairies. This is parallel to a more developed tale, of the origin of the Scandinavian huldra.[30]
Babies' laughs
A story of the origin of fairies appears in a chapter about Peter Pan in J. M. Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird, and was incorporated into his later works about the character. Barrie wrote, "...when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."[32]
Dead Children
A popular story -'Fairy Dust' by Karen McCombie- implies that fairies are dead children. Children are said to be 'Bundles of Joy' and when a child dies, that joy is believed to form a fairy. The fairy is kept alive by the memory of a child so as long as the dead child is remembered, the fairy stays alive. However, if the fairy's real name that they had when they were alive is found out by any other fairy, that certain fairy starts fading, gets very sick and eventually disappears. The book also says fairies love chocolate.
Pagan deities
Many of the Irish tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann refer to these beings as fairies, though in more ancient times they were regarded as Goddesses and Gods. The Tuatha Dé were spoken of as having come from Islands in the north of the world, or, in other sources, from the sky. After being defeated in a series of battles with other Otherworldly beings, and then by the ancestors of the current Irish people, they were said to have withdrawn to the sídhe (fairy mounds), where they lived on in popular imagination as "fairies."
Sources of beliefs
A hidden people
One common theme found among the Celtic nations describes a race of diminutive people who had been driven into hiding by invading humans. They came to be seen as another race, or possibly spirits, and were believed to live in an Otherworld that was variously described as existing underground, in hidden hills (many of which were ancient burial mounds), or across the Western Sea.[4]
In old Celtic faery lore the sidhe (fairy folk) are immortals living in the ancient barrows and cairns. The Tuatha de Danaan are associated with several Otherworld realms including Mag Mell (the Pleasant Plain), Emain Ablach (the Fortress of Apples or the Land of Promise or the Isle of Women), and the Tir na nÓg (the Land of Youth).[33]
The concept of the Otherworld is also associated with the Isle of Apples, known as Avalon in the Arthurian mythos (often equated with Ablach Emain). Here we find the Silver Bough that allowed a living mortal to enter and withdraw from the Otherworld. According to legend, the Faery Queen sometimes offered the branch to worthy mortals, granting them safe passage and food during their stay.
Some 19th century archaeologists thought they had found underground rooms in the Orkney islands resembling the Elfland in Childe Rowland.[34] In popular folklore, flint arrowheads from the Stone Age were attributed to the fairies as "elf-shot".[35] The fairies' fear of iron was attributed to the invaders having iron weapons, whereas the inhabitants had only flint and were therefore easily defeated in physical battle. Their green clothing and underground homes were credited to their need to hide and camouflage themselves from hostile humans, and their use of magic a necessary skill for combating those with superior weaponry.[4] In Victorian beliefs of evolution, cannibalism among "ogres" was attributed to memories of more savage races, still practicing it alongside "superior" races that had abandoned it.[36] Selkies, described in fairy tales as shapeshifting seal people, were attributed to memories of skin-clad "primitive" people traveling in kayaks.[4] African pygmies were put forth as an example of a race that had previously existed over larger stretches of territory, but come to be scarce and semi-mythical with the passage of time and prominence of other tribes and races.[37]
Christianised pagan deities
Another theory is that the fairies were originally worshiped as gods, but with the coming of Christianity, they lived on, in a dwindled state of power, in folk belief. In this particular time, fairies were reputed by the church as being 'evil' beings. Many beings who are described as deities in older tales are described as "fairies" in more recent writings.[5] Victorian explanations of mythology, which accounted for all gods as metaphors for natural events that had come to be taken literally, explained them as metaphors for the night sky and stars.[38] According to this theory, fairies are personified aspects of nature and deified abstract concepts such as ‘love’ and ‘victory’ in the pantheon of the particular form of animistic nature worship reconstructed as the religion of Ancient Western Europe.[39]
Spirits of the dead
A third theory was that the fairies were a folkloric belief concerning the dead. This noted many common points of belief, such as the same legends being told of ghosts and fairies, the sídhe in actuality being burial mounds, it being dangerous to eat food in both Fairyland and Hades, and both the dead and fairies living underground.[40]
Read more on fairies here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy
Folk beliefs
Dead
One popular belief was that they were the dead, or some subclass of the dead.[12] The Irish banshee (Irish Gaelic bean sí or Scottish Gaelic bean shìth, which both mean "fairy woman") is sometimes described as a ghost.[13] The northern English Cauld Lad of Hylton, though described as a murdered boy, is also described as a household sprite like a brownie,[14] much of the time a Barghest or Elf.[15] One tale recounted a man caught by the fairies, who found that whenever he looked steadily at one, the fairy was a dead neighbor of his.[16] This was among the most common views expressed by those who believed in fairies, although many of the informants would express the view with some doubts.[17]
Elementals
Another view held that the fairies were an intelligent species, distinct from humans and angels.[18] In alchemy in particular they were regarded as elementals, such as gnomes and sylphs, as described by Paracelsus.[19] This is uncommon in folklore, but accounts describing the fairies as "spirits of the air" have been found popularly.[20]
Demoted angels
A third belief held that they were a class of "demoted" angels.[21] One popular story held that when the angels revolted, God ordered the gates shut; those still in heaven remained angels, those in hell became devils, and those caught in between became fairies.[22] Others held that they had been thrown out of heaven, not being good enough, but they were not evil enough for hell.[23] This may explain the tradition that they had to pay a "teind" or tithe to Hell. As fallen angels, though not quite devils, they could be seen as subject of the Devil.[24] For a similar concept in Persian mythology, see Peri.
Demons
A fourth belief was the fairies were devils entirely.[25] This belief became much more popular with the growth of Puritanism.[26] The hobgoblin, once a friendly household spirit, became a wicked goblin.[27] Dealing with fairies was in some cases considered a form of witchcraft and punished as such in this era.[28] Disassociating himself from such evils may be why Oberon, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, carefully observed that neither he nor his court feared the church bells.[29]
The belief in their angelic nature was less common than that they were the dead, but still found popularity, especially in Theosophist circles.[30][31] Informants who described their nature sometimes held aspects of both the third and the fourth view, or observed that the matter was disputed.[30]
Humans
A less-common belief was that the fairies were actually humans; one folktale recounts how a woman had hidden some of her children from God, and then looked for them in vain, because they had become the hidden people, the fairies. This is parallel to a more developed tale, of the origin of the Scandinavian huldra.[30]
Babies' laughs
A story of the origin of fairies appears in a chapter about Peter Pan in J. M. Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird, and was incorporated into his later works about the character. Barrie wrote, "...when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."[32]
Dead Children
A popular story -'Fairy Dust' by Karen McCombie- implies that fairies are dead children. Children are said to be 'Bundles of Joy' and when a child dies, that joy is believed to form a fairy. The fairy is kept alive by the memory of a child so as long as the dead child is remembered, the fairy stays alive. However, if the fairy's real name that they had when they were alive is found out by any other fairy, that certain fairy starts fading, gets very sick and eventually disappears. The book also says fairies love chocolate.
Pagan deities
Many of the Irish tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann refer to these beings as fairies, though in more ancient times they were regarded as Goddesses and Gods. The Tuatha Dé were spoken of as having come from Islands in the north of the world, or, in other sources, from the sky. After being defeated in a series of battles with other Otherworldly beings, and then by the ancestors of the current Irish people, they were said to have withdrawn to the sídhe (fairy mounds), where they lived on in popular imagination as "fairies."
Sources of beliefs
A hidden people
One common theme found among the Celtic nations describes a race of diminutive people who had been driven into hiding by invading humans. They came to be seen as another race, or possibly spirits, and were believed to live in an Otherworld that was variously described as existing underground, in hidden hills (many of which were ancient burial mounds), or across the Western Sea.[4]
In old Celtic faery lore the sidhe (fairy folk) are immortals living in the ancient barrows and cairns. The Tuatha de Danaan are associated with several Otherworld realms including Mag Mell (the Pleasant Plain), Emain Ablach (the Fortress of Apples or the Land of Promise or the Isle of Women), and the Tir na nÓg (the Land of Youth).[33]
The concept of the Otherworld is also associated with the Isle of Apples, known as Avalon in the Arthurian mythos (often equated with Ablach Emain). Here we find the Silver Bough that allowed a living mortal to enter and withdraw from the Otherworld. According to legend, the Faery Queen sometimes offered the branch to worthy mortals, granting them safe passage and food during their stay.
Some 19th century archaeologists thought they had found underground rooms in the Orkney islands resembling the Elfland in Childe Rowland.[34] In popular folklore, flint arrowheads from the Stone Age were attributed to the fairies as "elf-shot".[35] The fairies' fear of iron was attributed to the invaders having iron weapons, whereas the inhabitants had only flint and were therefore easily defeated in physical battle. Their green clothing and underground homes were credited to their need to hide and camouflage themselves from hostile humans, and their use of magic a necessary skill for combating those with superior weaponry.[4] In Victorian beliefs of evolution, cannibalism among "ogres" was attributed to memories of more savage races, still practicing it alongside "superior" races that had abandoned it.[36] Selkies, described in fairy tales as shapeshifting seal people, were attributed to memories of skin-clad "primitive" people traveling in kayaks.[4] African pygmies were put forth as an example of a race that had previously existed over larger stretches of territory, but come to be scarce and semi-mythical with the passage of time and prominence of other tribes and races.[37]
Christianised pagan deities
Another theory is that the fairies were originally worshiped as gods, but with the coming of Christianity, they lived on, in a dwindled state of power, in folk belief. In this particular time, fairies were reputed by the church as being 'evil' beings. Many beings who are described as deities in older tales are described as "fairies" in more recent writings.[5] Victorian explanations of mythology, which accounted for all gods as metaphors for natural events that had come to be taken literally, explained them as metaphors for the night sky and stars.[38] According to this theory, fairies are personified aspects of nature and deified abstract concepts such as ‘love’ and ‘victory’ in the pantheon of the particular form of animistic nature worship reconstructed as the religion of Ancient Western Europe.[39]
Spirits of the dead
A third theory was that the fairies were a folkloric belief concerning the dead. This noted many common points of belief, such as the same legends being told of ghosts and fairies, the sídhe in actuality being burial mounds, it being dangerous to eat food in both Fairyland and Hades, and both the dead and fairies living underground.[40]
Read more on fairies here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy
Violet- Admin
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Location : UK
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Thanks for this Allen
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
Earthealer- Member
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I personally believe there are different types of faeries, though some may say their energies are different to that of spirit. For example the other night I seen an air faerie. A blue light in a wild garden, with an ivy hedge and an overgrown honeysuckle and had a white image flash of the faerie in my mind. It depends where you are with what you see though, though the best time to see faeries or smell the cinnnamon smell is near beltane. Leaving them a traditional gift of milk or a crystal that you are drawn to give will enlist their help. Faeries bring me inspiration, I love them. 
wyldeflower- Member
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I believe in fairys i have many fairy books and also collect fairys .I think they are energy in and around the garden ,woods and home.I also think they are delightful beings.
Cassie- Member
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mia wrote:They are elementals xx
I must disagree with you Mia.
There is a huge difference between elementals and Fairies.
A elemental help control the element they hold. Such as stopping a forest fire or a flood.
A Fairy controls nature and the seasons. They make it snow and rain. They make the grass grow and they flowers bloom.
That is what i have learned from my years of study.
~Cassie
Earthealer- Member
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Differences between faeries and elementals. Yes I call them faeries as that is what my fae friend has asked me to call them.
Elements I would have to say can be found in and around the elements, I have seen an air elemental once, out in public, and a water elemental (an undine) has met me in meditation.
Faeries, though, there are different types. For example, garden pixies who like wild gardens....etc. Usually come in on a smell of sweet cinnamon toast I find.
Fire elementals such as salamanders can be found in caves, I once had a cave meditation where a female salamander bless her soul, actually gave me a mini reading in the cave. Course I didn't know what she was saying because I had trouble hearing them. But working with faeries and elementals is a beautiful gift to be blessed with.
Elements I would have to say can be found in and around the elements, I have seen an air elemental once, out in public, and a water elemental (an undine) has met me in meditation.
Faeries, though, there are different types. For example, garden pixies who like wild gardens....etc. Usually come in on a smell of sweet cinnamon toast I find.
Fire elementals such as salamanders can be found in caves, I once had a cave meditation where a female salamander bless her soul, actually gave me a mini reading in the cave. Course I didn't know what she was saying because I had trouble hearing them. But working with faeries and elementals is a beautiful gift to be blessed with.
Detlef- Member
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this is an old post, but if someone is interested, they are expressions of the Fae energy.Violet wrote:Genuine living 'little people' or are they spirit beings?
The Fae energy holds all that is physical in balance.
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