Administrator September, 2010

Faery Oils

Dryad Oil

musk (main  scent)
oakmoss (minor scent)
civet (trace)
vanilla (trace)
An  excellent blend for pursuing the arts of natural magick, this
preparation was  specially designed for contacting the elemental spirits of the
earth.

Faerie  Enchantment Oil

10 drops rose
5 drops thyme
1 drop evening primrose  oil

Faerie Fire Oil

(Useful  in contacting Faeries connected with the Fire element: Will o'
the wisps, Flame  Dancers, etc.)

1/4 oz. almond oil
12 drops peach oil
5 drops ylang  ylang
4 drops new-mown hay oil
4 drops dark musk
2 drops chamomile
2  drops poppy oil
2 drops dragons blood oil
chamomile  flowers
oatstraw
peridot
garnet

Gnome's Cap Oil

(useful in  contacting Faeries connected with the Earth element:
Gnomes,
Dwarfs,  etc.)

1/4 oz. almond oil
10 drops cypress e.o.
5 drops lilac  oil
25 drops Siberian fir oil
10 drops dark musk oil
2 drops narcissus  oil
cedarwood
fir needles
tiger's eye

Gossamer Wings  Oil

(useful for contacting Faeries connected with the Air element:  Sylphs,
Elves, etc.)

1/4 oz. almond oil
12 drops violet oil
20  drops lavender oil
10 drops lemon oil
5 drops cajeput oil
lavender  buds
clear quartz

Siren Song Oil

(useful in contacting Faeries  connected with the Water element:
Undines,
Naiads, Sirens, etc.)

1/4 oz.  almond oil
4 drops lavender
15 drops camphor oil
3 drops lemon
3  drops primrose oil
3 drops rose geranium
geranium petals
rose  buds
iolite
amethyst

Tags: fae, faery, fairy

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Kathryn Cranston August, 2010

Nixies

Nixies are shape-changing fresh water spirits originating in Germanic myths and legends.  The term nixie (or neck) is English in origin, while nix, nyx and nixe are the German equivalents.  Nixies usually shape shift into human form, both male and female, but some can change into dragons (wyrms), horses, fish, or snakes.  Nixies can be benevolent, malicious or merely harmless.

English versions of the nixie include:

• The Knucker, a dragon-like “water monster” that lived in a pool near the village of Lyminster and was known to kill both livestock and people;
• Jenny Greenteeth, a green-skinned, sharp-toothed, long-haired river hag that pulls in and drowns children and the elderly;
• Peg Powler, another green-skinned, sharp-toothed, long-haired hag from the River Tees who enjoys the same pursuits as Jenny Greenteeth, albeit with a narrower range of activity;
• The grindylow (which may have originated from Grendel of Beowolf fame), who also is partial to pulling in and drowning children with his long, sinewy arms;
• A type of mischievous bogeyman known as a Shellycoat, which wears a rattling coat of shells and likes to mislead wanderers who happen upon its particular river or stream; and
• The brag, a shape shifting water spirit in the form of a horse or donkey that tricks unwary travelers into riding on its back, only to throw them off into the nearest pond of water while running off laughing madly.

Scandinavian versions include:

• Male water spirits who play enchanted songs on the violin, luring women and children, and sometimes men, to drown in lakes or streams.  Known as näck, nøkk, nøkken, strömkarl, Grim or FosseGrim, these entities were not intentionally malevolent.  Usually portrayed as beautiful young men very scantily clad and lonely, their heartbreaking music causes humans to fall in love with him and become as unaware of their surroundings as is the FosseGrim himself, leading to unlooked-for fatalities.
• The brook horse (bäckahästen or bækhesten) is a beautiful, bright white horse that appears near rivers in foggy weather.  Like the Scottish kelpie, once a person climbed upon its back they would be unable to dismount and the brook horse would plunge into the river, instantly drowning the rider.

German versions include:

• River mermaids (nixe) that are similar to salt water mermaids in that they are beautiful women with the tail of a fish, but can also assume human shape; river mermen (nix) can assume many different shapes, including that of a human, fish, and snake.  These water spirits are particularly fond of music, song and dancing, and use these talents to lure humans.  Some stories of nixes are malicious, but some show them as friendly and harmless.

  The two most well-known types of German nixe are:

  • Rhinemaidens:

    The most famously known reference to the Rhinemaidens appears in Richard Wagner’s opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.  Three water nymphs (Rheintöchter or “Rhine daughters”) appear in this epic, but of all the characters in the Ring cycle, they are the only ones who did not originate in the Old Norse Eddas; instead, they most likely have their origin in the German Nibelungenlied, which contains stories about nixies.

    In one part of the Nibelungenlied narrative, the Burgundian warrior, Hagen, and Gunther, the semi-legendary king of Burgundy, encounter three “wise women,” afterwards described as water-sprites, bathing in the waters of the Danube.  Hagen steals their clothes and extracts a false promise from one that the two men will find honor and glory when they enter Etzel’s (aka Attila the Hun) kingdom.  Upon return of their clothes, another of the sprites tells Hagen that her sister has lied; if they go to Etzel’s land, they will die there.

    The German legend of Lorelei may also have figured in the creation of the Rhinemaidens (more about her later).  Further possible sources lie in Greek mythology and literature.  Similarities exist between the maiden guardians in the Hesperides myth and the Rhinemaidens, in which three females guard a highly desired golden treasure that is stolen in the telling of each tale.

  • Lorelei:

    This is by far my favorite nixie of all time.

    “Loreley” is a common, alternate spelling for this fey creature.  Like the Rhinemaidens, whose form came into being over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874, during which Wagner wrote his epic cycle of operas, The Ring of the Nibelung, the Lorelei is also a recent addition to nixie lore, but is no less fascinating for it.

    There are many legends surrounding the “birth” of the Lorelei and just as many ballads about her.  One such ballad says she was so lovely a maiden that men had but only to look into her eyes to be smitten and was thus taken for a sorceress.  Claiming her one true love had abandoned her, she was committed to a nunnery and as she travelled to the convent along a narrow path above the Rhine, she espied a fisherman far below.  Crying that he was her long-lost love, she leapt into the water, never to be seen again in mortal form.

    Some say the Lorelei is the queen of the waters who’s voice “propagated the profound music of the universal soul” (Dubois, p.118), while others say she sits on the cliffs above the River Rhine, combing her hair and singing sailors to their deaths on the rocks below (McCoy, p.266).

    The name Lorelei is derived from two words from an ancient Rhine dialect: lureln, meaning murmuring or lurking, and ley, meaning rock.  There is, in fact, a 435-foot tall rock on the Rhine River called the Lorelei that is located in a particularly hazardous junction of treacherous and swift currents where many fishermen and sailors have drowned.

    She was immortalized by Heinrich Heine in 1831 in his poem Die Lorelei, which proved to be so popular during the Nazi regime they did not ban it for its Jewish authorship.  Sylvia Plath’s poem Lorelei honored her in 1956.  Ballads continue to be written and sung about this elusive water spirit, my personal favorite of which was recorded by Blackmore’s Night and released in 2003 on their CD, Ghost of a Rose:

Loreley

Merrily we sailed along
Though the waves were plenty strong
Down the twisting river Rhine
Following a song…

Oh, the song of Loreley
Charms the moon right from the sky…
She will get inside your mind, loveley Loreley…
When she cries “Be with me until the end of time”
You know you will ever be with your Loreley…

Bibliography and Works Cited/Recommended Reading:

• Blackmore’s Night, Ghost of a Rose, Hunter, 2003
• Briggs, Katharine, An Encyclopedia of Faeries, Pantheon , 1976
• Cooke, Deryck, I Saw The World End, Oxford University Press, 1979
• “Dragons & Serpents in Sussex,” http://www.sussexarch.org.uk/saaf/dragon.html
• Dubois, Pierre, The Great Encyclopedia of Faeries, Simon & Schuster, English Translation 1999
• Franklin, Anna, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies, Paper Tiger, 2002
• Grimm, Jacob, Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology (1888), online at http://www.northvegr.org/
• Harland, John and Wilkinson, T.T., Lancashire Folk-lore Illustrative of the Superstitious Beliefs and Practices, Local Customs, BiblioLife, Nov 2009
• Moorey, Teresa, The Fairy Bible, Sterling Publishing Co., 2008
• “Mythical Creatures and Beings,” http://www.windlegends.org/mythical.htm
• O’Donnell, Elliott, Ghosts, Helpful and Harmful, Kessinger Publishing, Aug 2003
• Silver, Carol G., Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness, Oxford University Press, Oct 2000

Tags: faery, fairy

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Kathryn Cranston July, 2010

Tags: faery, fairy, Poetry

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Kathryn Cranston June, 2010

Tags: faery, fairy, Festival, midsummer, sabbat

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Kathryn Cranston March, 2010

Other Kin:  The Banshee

The banshee, from the Irish bean sídhe meaning “faerie woman” or “woman of the faerie mounds,” is a troublesome being when it comes to classification.  Although it would seem the banshee should clearly be classified as a faerie based on the meaning of the name alone, it isn’t that simple, although the banshee is clearly of the same “Other World” to which the faeries belong.

The origin of the banshee may be the Morrigan herself, a triple Goddess and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann.  Banshees have been called a “Badbh,” the death and battle aspect of the Morrigan, and legends say if a warrior heard the Morrigan’s song, he was destined to die in battle.  The Morrigan was also said to wash the entrails of those about to die in a stream and to choose only the loveliest maidens to become banshees.

When the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated in battle by the Milesians, they agreed to retreat and dwell underground in the sídhe, the earthen burial mounds found throughout the Irish landscape.  They became the aes sídhe, a powerful, supernatural race comparable to the faeries or elves.  Today we use the word sídhe to refer to both the mounds and the people of the mounds.  However, the word correctly refers specifically to “the palaces, courts, halls or residences” only.  Thus does the classification of the banshee as a faerie become problematic if the meaning of bean sídhe is changed to be simply “woman of the mounds” and if the women of the mounds are comparable to the faeries, but are not actually faeries.

It is tradition in an Irish or Scottish village for a woman to sing a lament at the funeral of someone who has died. The keening of these women is said to be a combination of a wild goose’s screech, a wolf’s howl and the cry of an abandoned child, mimicking the banshee’s wail.  Legend says a “faerie” woman will sing this lament for Irish and Scottish families of pure Milesian descent, or only for the O’Grady, O’Neill, O’Brien, O’Connor, and Kavanagh families, or for families gifted with song and music.  The family may know the name of their banshee and the banshee may even follow the family overseas, despite the prohibition that the banshee cannot cross running water (a prohibition shared by many faerie entities).  Some families, however, believe their banshee is the spirit of a dead friend or family member, often a virgin, sometimes a murder victim, usually someone who died young.

The banshee may appear in various forms, including:

• An old woman dressed in green with a grey cloak
• A deathly pale woman dressed in white with long, wild red hair
• A beautiful woman, veiled in white with long white hair
• A shimmery, silvery woman with long, beautifully abundant silver-grey hair
• A headless woman, naked from the waist up
• A tall white veil in the shape of a woman with long grey hair

One visual aspect these forms share (except for the headless woman, of course) is eyes fiery red from weeping.  The banshee may appear crouched beneath trees near the house, flying past the dying person’s window, or while combing her long hair.  She may appear with the cóiste bodhar, the faeries’ hearse, an immense black coach with a coffin in it.  She may not appear at all, only be heard.

Hollywood has spread the misconception that the banshee’s voice causes death; far from it.  The banshee wails when a person is about to die or has died.  When several keen together, it foretells the death of someone very great or holy.  The banshee is actually a comfort to the family rather than an omen of ill; the banshee signals the passing of the soul and often acts as a personal escort.  This concept is illustrated in the tale, “Banshee Comes for Dying Man,” collected by Eddie Lenihan, a master Irish folklorist.  The latch on the back door lifts and the door opens of its own accord three times while a woman (banshee) cries in the back yard and the old man of the house is dying upstairs.  When they stop trying to close the door, the old man dies and the crying fades off, up the hill, leading his spirit into the Other World.

Spirit or faerie?  The banshee seems to straddle the line of being partly both.  And like any being of the Other World, her nature is dual.  Let to go about her business, she is benign and even helpful, a part of the cycle of life and death.  Interrupt her, though, and pay the penalty, as did one cheeky young man who grabbed the shoulder of “The Barefield Banshee” while she was combing her hair; she “hit him a slap across his face and set him flying.”  As told to Lenihan, “When they healed up the four scars were there, the mark o’ the four fingers…stayed with him for as long as he lived.  That boy went strange after.”

Bibliography and Works Cited/Recommended Reading:

Briggs, Katharine, An Encyclopedia of Faeries, Pantheon , 1976

Dubois, Pierre, The Great Encyclopedia of Faeries, Simon & Schuster, English Translation 1999

Franklin, Anna, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies, Paper Tiger, 2002

Illes, Judika, Encyclopedia of Spirits, Harper One, 2009

Lenihan, Eddie, Meeting the Other Crowd:  The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland, Penguin Putnam, 2003

Moorey, Teresa, The Fairy Bible, Sterling Publishing Co., 2008

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banshee, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos_s%C3%AD

Tags: banshee, faery, fairy

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Kathryn Cranston February, 2010

Tags: faery, fairy, imbolc

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Kathryn Cranston December, 2009

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Kathryn Cranston November, 2009

Tags: faery, fairy

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Kathryn Cranston October, 2009

Fairies and the Wild Hunt

There are many versions of the Wild Hunt, most originating among the Germanic peoples.  While the Scandinavian traditions and medieval stories of Woden, Berchta, Odin or others leading the Wild Hunt are of inestimable worth, for the purposes of this article I am going to concentrate on legends and ballads in which the hunters are from the realm of fairy.

In both Germanic and Celtic pagan belief systems, the souls of the dead are gathered up by the Wild Hunt in November.  For the Celtic peoples, this coincided with the appearance of the Pleiades.  In modern times, we celebrate this time of year as All Hallow’s Eve, All Hallows, Hallow E’en, Halloween, Last Harvest, Blood Harvest, Ancestor Night, or Feast of the Dead.  In Welsh, the night is Nos Calan Gaeaf and in Gaelic, it is Samhain.

At Samhain, the veil between the realm of fairy and the human realm, between the land of the dead and the living, thins and travel between the two becomes much easier, which greatly facilitates rescue or recovery of those stolen by the fae.  Three Scottish magical ballads have survived from the 13th century to instruct us in the dangers and rewards of performing such actions:  Tam Lin, Sir Orfeo, and Thomas the Rhymer.

I first heard the ballad Tam Lin, as sung by the lovely Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span, in 1975.  Since then, I have discovered many versions of the ballad, some nearly identical and some just barely recognizable with many somewhere in between.  However, when you take the time to compile a few of the different versions of the ballad, a cohesive story emerges (I will use the Steeleye Span version for illustrative purposes because of its simplicity of language):

The opening stanza expressly forbids virgin females of noble birth to enter Carterhaugh, an ancient forest, because of the forest’s guardian, an elven knight named Tam Lin.  This guardian is known to demand a fee for intruding in the forest, particularly the young woman’s green cloak (green being the color of fairy, the color of the forest and camouflage, and also the color of fertility, and cloaks being the most highly prized article of clothing as well as an indicator of status).  Fail to pay the knight’s toll and he will take the young woman’s maidenhood instead.

Oh, I forbid you maidens all
That wear gold in your hair.
To come or go by Carterhaugh
For young Tam Lin is there.

If you go by Carterhaugh
You must leave him a wad.
Either your rings or green mantle
Or else your maidenhead.

Despite the clear warning, the hero of the ballad, young Janet, dresses seductively and hurries off into the wood.  As soon as she plucks a rose (an easily identified symbol of romantic love), Tam Lin appears, as if summoned by magic.  He lays claim to the forest and challenges her right to be there without his permission.  Janet immediately lays claim to the forest for herself or on behalf of her father, and refuses to request his permission.  Since Janet has not paid the fee nor gained permission, Tam Lin takes her maidenhood.  There is much debate over where or not the sex was consensual.  Given Janet’s seductive and aggressive attitude, and her outright defiance of the warning, along with her subsequent actions, I have to conclude she must have anticipated, perhaps even sought, the outcome.

She’s away o’er gravel green
And o’er the gravel brown.
She’s away to Carterhaugh
To flower herself a gown.

She had not pulled a rosy rose
A rose but barely one.
When by came this brisk young man
Says, Lady let alone.

How dare you pull my rose, madam?
How dare you break my tree?
How dare you come to Carterhaugh
Without the leave of me?

Well may I pull the rose, she said
Well may I break the tree.
For Carterhaugh is my father’s
I’ll ask no leave of thee.

He’s taken her by the milk-white hand
And there he’s laid her down.
And there he asked no leave of her
As she lay on the ground.

Janet’s next words kick off the magical elements of the ballad, for Janet asks Tam Lin to tell her the truth about his origins.  Not only does she gain personal information about Tam Lin (which is essential to working magic), this is a break in Tam Lin’s cycle as the forest guardian.  Janet is the first person to express concern and interest in him, and indeed Janet is not content to be a Leannain Sith, or fairy leman, for she is in love with Tam Lin (as evidenced by her seductive dress, her fearlessness, the pulling of the rose, her challenge, and her willing sexual participation).  As it turns out, however, Tam Lin is not an elven knight.  He is a human male enchanted by the Fairy Queen, living in the fairy realm and acting under her compulsion.

Oh tell me, tell me, then she said
Oh tell me who art thee.
My name it is Tam Lin, he said
And this is my story.

As it fell out upon a day
A-hunting I did ride.
There came a wind out of the north
And pulled at me betide.

And drowsy, drowsy as I was
The sleep upon me fell.
The Queen of Fairies she was there
And took me to herself.

He tells Janet he fears the Fairy Queen plans to sacrifice him to pay her “tithe to Hell,” which must be paid every seven years.  He then instructs Janet in the methods necessary to free him from his doom, which can only she can do at a crossroad on Samhain when the fairy host rides forth on the Wild Hunt.  In medieval ages, the number seven appears quite frequently as a length of servitude or penalty.  The number may have been an important blending of pagan and Christian values:  the four seasons, four directions, or four elements combined with the Christian trinity.  By the 12th century, the Church was firmly entrenched in Scotland, but at least the extensive collection of saints contained a great many Gaels.  Thus, while the pagan beliefs and superstitions persisted, Christian ideas crept in inevitably, such as hell.  One could argue that fairies, being either immortal or so long-lived as to seem to be immortal, maintain their status through the transformative enactment of the death portion of the Wheel of Life.  By sacrificing one life every seven years, which life will return to the beginning of the Wheel, the rest of the fairy realm continues untouched.  Combining this argument with the knowledge that fairies are underground inhabitants, or “underworld” creatures, but not of the Christian creed and thus not inhabitants of Hell itself, it is easy to see how Christianity could twist the Fairy Queen into a position of debt to Satan in this ballad.

At the end of every seven years
They pay a tithe to hell.
And I’m so fair and full of flesh
I’m feared ’twill be myself.

Tonight it is good Halloween
The fairy court will ride.
And if you would your true love win
At Miles Cross, you must bide.

There is much disagreement among the various versions as to timing, but nearly all of the other ballads have Janet confronted by her family about her pregnancy.  What is most interesting about these segments is Janet’s refusal to name the father as someone in her father’s court or household, hinting that the father is unearthly.  With one exception, the confrontations are mild and the family does not act very concerned; nor does Janet herself.  In the one exception, a female relative counsels her to abort the child, and she does indeed return to the wood to pull the necessary herb.  However, it appears she does this only to get Tam Lin’s attention (as she did when she pulled the rose), at which point she questions his origins and the tale continues from there.

Janet hides at the crossroads of Miles Cross to await the passing of the fairy host on Samhain.  I cannot stress the importance of the crossroads enough. Crossroads and stiles draw or call to the dead on Samhain.  Crossroads are thresholds where worlds meet and are symbols of choice.  They are also sacred to ancient gods and goddesses, such as the Goddess Hecate, and many crossroads had small shrines to which passing travelers could make propitiatory offerings.  Janet also consecrates the crossroads deosil (albeit with holy water, another instance of Christian influence), enhancing the protection of the sacred space.  She lets pass the higher levels of fairy society until she sees Tam Lin riding a white horse (for purity), marked with a gold star on his forehead (as the ritual sacrifice).  She pulls him down and wraps her arms tightly around him as he had instructed her previously.

Gloomy was the night
And eerie was the way.
This Lady in her green mantle
To Miles Cross she did go.

With the holy water in her hand
She cast the compass round.
At twelve o’clock the fairy court
Came riding o’er the mound.

First came by the black steed
And then came by the brown.
Then Tam Lin on the milk-white steed
With a gold star in his crown.

She’s pulled him down into her arms
And let the bridle fall.
The Queen of Fairies she cried out
Young Tam Lin is awa’.

Janet defiantly holds onto Tam Lin as the fairies turn him into forms designed to either frighten Janet or physically harm her.  In the final transformation, he is “a naked man” (is reborn as naked as a baby back into the mortal realm) and Janet hides him away in her camouflaging and fertile green cloak.  The significance of the “green mantle” from the second stanza now takes on even greater meaning.  Through action and will, i.e., magic (not prayer or priests, i.e., religion), Janet has won Tam Lin away from the Queen of Fairies.

They’ve shaped him in her arms
An adder or a snake.
She’s held him fast and feared him not
To be her earthly mate.

They’ve shaped him in her arms again
Fire burning bold.
She’s held him fast and feared him not
Till he was iron cold.

They’ve shaped him in her arms
To a wood black dog so wild.
She’s held him fast and feared him not
The father of her child.

They’ve shaped him in her arms at last
Into a naked man.
She’s wrapped him in the green mantle
And knew that she had him won.

This turn of events is not at all to the Queen of Fairy’s’ liking and she flings a series of curses at Tam Lin as she departs.  The first is that she would have given him a heart of stone so that he could never have loved (or been loved in return).  The second is that she would have given him eyes of wood so he would no longer have fairy sight (once granted fairy sight, it must be revoked before leaving the realm, or else one can spy on the fairies).  The third and last is that she would have sacrificed him earlier…if only she had known what was going to happen.  Her curses, however, are ineffectual and she has been bested.

The Queen of Fairies she cried out
Young Tam Lin is awa’.

Had I known, had I known, Tam Lin
Long before, Long before you came from home.
Had I known, I would have taken out your heart
And put in a heart of stone.

Had I known, had I known, Tam Lin
That a Lady, a Lady would steal thee.
Had I known, I would have taken out your eyes
And put in two from a tree.

Had I known, had I known, Tam Lin
That I would lose, that I would lose the day.
Had I known, I would have paid my tithe to hell
Before you’d been won away.

This analysis is but a small sampling of the wonderful symbolism and lessons that await us within the magical fairy ballads of old.  I am not alone in my admiration of the creativity of our ancestors in preserving their beliefs and customs through oral tradition; http://tam-lin.org/ is one website dedicated to the collection and study of the ballad of Tam Lin.

Bibliography and Works Cited/Recommended Reading:

W. Macneil Dixon, Thomas the Rhymer, James MacLehose and Sons, Glasglow (1911)

R.J. Stewart, The Underworld Initiation:  A Journey Towards Psychic Transformation, Mercury Publishing (1998)

Tags: faery, fairy, tam lin, the hunt

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Administrator September, 2009

Your Own Faery Garden

Faeries aren’t as cute and innocent as authors like Shakespeare has made them
out to be. Granted, there are good faeries but with the good, you always have
to expect the dark side ) If you believe and love faeries, then you may
want to attract them into your home at times other than Midsummer.  A good
way to attract faeries to you is to give them their own little garden.  It
doesn’t have to be elaborate (keep in mind they don’t like metals, iron,
etc.). As a matter of fact, a small container garden would do just fine.
Here’s a list of flowers that are said to attract them and why.

Foxglove - Name is derived from “Little Folks’ Glove”. They use the blossoms
for hats and boots
Campanile-they use for drinking vessels
Bleeding Hearts – they use to store faerie dust and other treasures
Tulips – are used as cradles for their young
Monkshood-are worn as helmets by faerie guards and knights
Lily of the Valley – it said their little bells rings when faeries are
singing
Ferns-make excellent privacy screens
Moss and thyme are favorites for bedding material.
Primroses–make the invisible visible. Eating them lets you see faeries. If
one touches a faerie rock with the correct number of primroses in a posy, the
way to faerieland and faerie gifts is made clear. The wrong number means
certain doom.
Ragwort-used as makeshift horses by the faerie.

Wild Thyme-part of a recipe for a brew to make one see the faeries. The tops
of the Wild Thyme must be gathered near the side of a faerie hill.
Cowslips-these are loved and protected by the faeries. They help one to find
hidden faerie gold.
Pansies-the flower that was used as a love potion by Oberon, a faerie king
thought to have been invented by Shakespeare.
Bluebell-one who hears a bluebell ring will soon die. A field of bluebells
is especially dangerous, as it is intricately interwoven with faerie
enchantments.
Clover-a four-leafed one may be used to break a faerie spell.
Hazel-Celtic legend says it is the receptacle of knowledge; the hazelnut is
a symbol of fertility in England.
Rowan-protects against bad spirits. Used in butter churns so that the butter
would not be overlooked by faeries. Bewitched horses may be controlled by a
rowan whip. Druids used rowan wood for fires with which they called up
spirits whom could be forced to answer questions when rowan berries were
spread over the flayed hides of bulls.

Fairy Ring Mushroom-marks the boundaries of faerie rings.

Plants and the Fae who are attracted to it:

Basil- The Fae of the Basil help us awaken greater discipline and devotion
Buttercup- This flower and its Faerie bring healing energies, They help us
rediscover our self worth
Carnation- Their energy is healing to the body, contact with them strengthens
the aura
Clover- The clover Faeries assist in finding love and fidelity
Daisy- The daisy is a favorite of Dryads (wood nymphs) The Faeries help
awaken creativity
Gardenia- This special Faerie stimulates feelings of peace, The Fae of this
flower are VERY protective towards children
Heather-The Fae of this flower are drawn to humans who are shy
Jasmine- These Fae love to invoke pleasant dreams, They have also been known
to help develop mental clarity
Lily- These Faeries help in the development of purity and humility
Rose- The Faerie of the rose can help in all aspects of love and fertility
Sage- They awaken a sense of wisdom in your life
Snapdragon- These bring humans great protection
Thyme- Thyme draws the wee Folk into your sleeping chambers

Some more flowers that Fae are attracted to:

Achillea millefolium (common yarrow)
Aster novi-belgii (New York aster)
Chrysanthemum maximum (shasta daisy)
Coreopsis grandiflora/verticillata (coreopsis)
Agastache occidentalis (western giant hyssop or horsemint)
Lavendula dentata (French lavender)
Rosemarinus officinalis (rosemary)
Thymus (thyme)
Buddleia alternifolia (fountain butterfly bush)
Buddleia davidii (orange-eye butterfly bush, summer lilac)
Potentilla fruitiosa (shrubby cinquefoil)
Petunia hybrida (common garden petunia)
Verbena (verbenas, vervains)
Scabiosa caucasica (pincushion flowers)
Cosmos bipinnatus (cosmos)
Zinnia elegans (common zinnia)

Light

Faeries also love light so putting many bright white flowers would also
welcome them into your little garden.

If you want to attract water spirtes
Incorporating the sound of water somehow (like a little fountain statue)
would definitely make them happy. And also, pay attention ) Work with them,
make them your allies. . .learn about the elemental realms and learn to work
with energy

Here’s a little ritual to make faerie allies:

Air Fairy– Nature: Cloud, Storm  Elemental: Slyph

The power of the eagle
the power of the storm
And the hand of valor
Which a blade well becomes~
Come now breath of Dana

The air fairy is easiset to make contact with during sunset, or on a foggy or
misty day. To connect with this ally means allowing time for cloud watching.
The air fairy is the sculptor of the imaginary world and will
reveal itself through the a cloud formation, in a thunder cloud or a
glittering glimpse from the corner of the eye. To call this ally, you must go
outside in an open space, turn 3 times in a deosil circle, each time throwing
up a handful of glitter into the air. On the completion of the third round,
lay down and say the chant above while looking at the clouds. The use of a
flute or whistle will help call the slyph. They love music and vibrations.
The whistle or flute will help you attune yourself with the air fairy. Once
an Air ally has been found, theirs is the energy of inspiration. They will
help free the mind by drawing you into the imaginary realm, floating you into
unfettered territory so the mind disengages the ego, and your inner
child can dance freely. You will know you have made an ally if you return
from your day dream feeling refreshed and inspired. Don’t forget to ask the
air fairy to identify themselves, providing instructions on how to further
communicate with it. It is also important to present their realm with a gift
(the glitter won’t work).
I would encourage leaving a decorated feather which is to be tossed in the
air and left behind for your new Ally.

Tags: fae, faeries, faery, fairies, fairy, garden

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