Fairy Faith, Fairy Fear (Part 3)

In the conclusion to this series, we ruminate on the possible origins and psychological/ metaphysical implications of faerie belief.  Are these creatures a product of the mind, real, or somewhere in between? This episode also includes more mystifying encounters with these beings. 

Transcript

What is the significance of fairy lore? How did such a strange concept become a part of human consciousness? In the conclusion to this series, we explore some possible explanations for its genesis, as well as what it might say about ourselves and the nature of reality itself. Like all supernatural phenomena, we inevitable run into the question of whether or not it comes from within us, or without us. Perhaps it is both. In some ineffible way, imagination informs us of reality. It seems the more we discover more of our inner nature, the nature of reality, in turn, reveals itself to us, in a never-ending process of mutual disclosure. To understand it, we must mold ourselves to it, and in a sense, become it. Welcome to The Hidden Passage. 

Aside from scientific explanations, there are also sociological ones. The first is that the changeling wasn’t so much an actual belief as it was an excuse to commit infanticide against children who were deemed a drain on resources to poor families.  Aside from changelings, 

There is also a theory that suggests such creatures were invented by parents as a means of keeping their children out of danger. This invented monster is known as the bogeyman, a type of hyperbolic representation of a terrestrial threat. Referring back to water fairies like Jenny Greenteeth, this could have been a way to scare children from venturing into rivers where they could drown. It seems, however, that if the intent was to scare children into obedience, it could have been just as easily done by saying if they go into the river they will drown. This prospect is frightening enough on its own. The invention of such a creature seems like an unnecessary extra step.

An interesting lens through which we can view the fairy phenomenon is psychology. If they are a symbol created by us, what do they represent? It is possible that fairies could be a personification of nature itself, a metaphor for its ability to both sustain our lives with sustenance and materials for shelter, while at the same time wreak havoc on us through pestilence and the elements? This metaphor could sensibly explain their dualistic nature. Some evidence for this theory can be seen in the lore surrounding The Hag of the British Isles, a fairy which transformed from a hideous old woman in winter, to a beautiful young maiden in spring. Its dark side was known as the Black Annis, a cannibalistic, evil fairy. The connection to nature is further emphasized by the fact that many fairies were believed to be shapeshifters, often taking the form of animals and having the ability to change to and from this state at will. The Cornish small people were said to diminish in size over the course of their lives, their final form being that of an ant, so it was considered taboo in their culture to kill ants. The Hyter Sprites of East Anglia had the ability to transform into birds. Ancient humans had a much more direct relationship to nature without modern technology to insulate them. The well being of humans was directly dependent on nature’s cooperation. Perhaps the invention of the fairy, much like the gods, was a way to make sense of complex ecological and biological systems that they otherwise did not have the means to explain. A belief in the fairy world would have given them an ability to identify a problem, which in turn would have afforded them some sense of control. There was now at least the belief that recourse was possible through appeasement and diplomacy towards otherwise fickle and random forces. 

As much as they can represent our external reality, they can also represent a part of ourselves. After all they do take a form in our likeness. Just as their physical appearance is almost a caricature of humans, so too may be their internal nature. Maybe they represent the part of us that wishes to be free from the constraints of our society and rediscover our wild instincts and youth. On the other side of the coin, the fairy can also suggest regressive behavior and escapism, such as is depicted in Peter Pan and his companion Tinker Bell, who as a projection herself, could not survive once the children left the sheltered fantasy of Neverland.

Fairies could represent the unknown part of our psyche. Someone with an eccentric personality or who had suffered a mental breakdown was often described as being away with the fairies or “touched” by the devil. They may, like many supernatural forces, be an attempt to explain the darker, more mysterious aspects of our psyche which spontaneously surface and then vanish, not easily explained, unconscious elements of our own selves that we seemingly have little or no control over, as we have not pulled them into the conscious mind, and this may sometimes feel like an external force acting upon us. As the psychologist Carl Jung theorized, when we repress elements of our psyche into our shadow, or unconscious mind, and fail to integrate them into our identity, they will eventually spring to the surface in an adversarial form as neuroses. The trope that fairies reside in the deep places of the earth, underground and underwater, could signify the connection to our own unconscious, as it lies beneath the surface of our awareness. If we begin to view the fairy as more of a projection than an actual external reality, the association of the fairy with illusion begins to make more sense. The connection between fairies and humans is also illustrated in stories of fairy kings, who were at one point human but became fairy, such as King Oberon, who was cursed with a dwarf-like stature, and O’Donoghue, who relinquished his kingdom to retire at the lake bottom. Myths like these were perhaps symbolic of a loss of humanity that occurs when we sever our ties to society. 40 minutes

From a broader archetypal perspective, the fairy represents the trickster. Jung described archetypes as ideas describing universal truths which emanate from the collective unconscious, a repository of information based on the sum of all human experience and knowledge. They often take the form of roles and events that have lasting effect on us and have recurred through time. The trickster is considered to be the rule breaker of both physical and social law, a playful, cunning character who by his nature runs against and upsets the established order. The trickster uses his intelligence to engage in various pranks and antics. In Jungian terms, the trickster is synonymous with the fool, a youthful character, who, while intelligent and vibrant, is naïve and lacking the wisdom and sense of responsibility that comes from worldly experience. This archetype represents an early stage of development within the psyche as one goes through life. There are many parallels that we can draw between this archetype and the fairy, which seems to remain in a perpetual childlike state, outside of and immune to the hardening effects of the world. At his worst, the trickster is immature, a force of disarray and destruction, but at his best, he is possibly a necessary antidote to stagnation and suppression that comes from societal rigidity, revealing new possibilities.

The idea of the fairy might have the same effect on our own minds, challenging our view of the world, and spurring our imaginations. Like all things paranormal, it represents mystery and that which is beyond our control or understanding. The specific form in which the archetype manifests changes with the cultural context, but the underlying structure remains unchanged. For instance, some would suggest that as humanity developed technologically, fairies were replaced with aliens to fit the cultural context. As we were more dependent on and connected to the land, before we were masters of this frontier, it represented a great unknown, and we populated the land with personifications of our hopes and fears of it. As we conquered the world, if only in our minds, we banished the spirits from it. As scientific pursuit advanced our technology and capability, we drew our attention outward to a new frontier, the stars, and a new wonder arose.  A technologically superior being from another planet was more relatable to a scientifically minded people than something mystical. However, to equate the modern extraterrestrial as a reinvention of the trickster archetype does not exactly line up, as aliens are described as being rather cold, calculated, and agenda-driven, but this change could also reflect our attitudes towards “progress”, or fear of losing our humanity. 

While these theories sound plausible, it does not explain why, to this day, people of sound mind have very real encounters with fairies. These experiences seem to be random and unsolicited under plain circumstances. The possibility must be considered that these are actual living entities. It is highly unlikely that fairies were flesh and blood creatures that existed on Earth, though some have speculated that they were possibly a race of small relic small hominids, such as the homo floresiensis, but this species became extinct 50,000 years ago. The timeline does not fit, and while one could make the argument that fairy myths were based on such hominids and passed down from a time when they did exist, exaggerated and fictionalized over time, the descriptions of their magical ability, alien appearance, and wit, simply do not align with relatively unintelligent and unsophisticated pre-human species. This theory is considered outdated by modern scholars.  

A more plausible explanation is that these beings may exist in another dimension or parallel universe as theorized in quantum physics. Through mathematics and studying the anomalous behavior of accelerated subatomic particles, which seem to blink into and out of existence, scientists are finding it increasingly likely that at least 11 dimensions exist, and a virtually infinite number of parallel universes that may exist in these higher dimensions, versions of reality which range from similar to wholly unique, the sum of all possible combinations of matter, energy, and events, some even abiding by completely different laws of physics. Some scientist think that the closest extra dimension could be separated from ours by merely a million trillion trillionth of a centimeter. While the chances of life outside Earth in this universe may be limited, an infinite number of universes would guarantee the development of other life forms. Astronomer and mathematician Bernard Carr believes that these dimensions are somehow linked to and interact with our consciousness, being responsible for various paranormal phenomena, and that so called mental entities have to exist in some sort of space if they are thought about. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that these realities may somehow make contact with one another. An anomalous cold spot in outer space discovered by NASA, is speculated to have been created from a possible collision between two different universes. Stephen Hawking theorized that black holes may be portals to another universe, some of the latest experiments conducted with particle accelerators are attempting to send these particles into an alternate reality. 

While concrete evidence of these hidden worlds or the ability to travel between them has yet to be proven, it certainly raises many possibilities with profound implications. If fairies exist in one of these places, it seems that either they have the ability to travel between worlds, or that human beings under certain conditions have the ability to perceive beyond our three-dimensional senses. An interesting piece of evidence that suggests the latter is that in many accounts of fairy sightings, the entity is surprised when it realizes that the person can see them. It is also worth noting that these beings don’t seem to exist as purely spirits. They seem to have some physical form, at least while they are in this world, and are able to interact with and manipulate the environment to a level beyond that which is associated with spirit activity.

An interesting link has been made by modern paranormal researchers between fairies and extra-terrestrials, both of which involved abduction phenomena, and abductees have often reported seeing human-alien hybrids. Aliens and fairies even use the same alibis in their explanation of why they abduct humans, stating it necessary for the survival of their species. This has led some to suggest that aliens are in fact fairies or vice versa. 

There are many firsthand witness accounts of fairies which continue to this day.
The late British author Marjorie T. Johnson devoted many years of her life to collecting authentic accounts of fairy encounters, specifically by witnesses who were not enthusiasts of the subject or believers in fairies before their encounters occurred. Johnson amassed over four hundred witness testimonies which span from the late 18-1900’s. The witnesses were of various ages and walks of life, and the beings they describe run the gamut of characteristics, some with wings some without, some large and some small, some more elfin and some more human-like, some even appearing to me made of plants and tree roots, more elemental in nature. In one account, a military commander named Thomas Powell was fishing in a wooded stream in Wales. He hooked onto a fish, and as he did, he heard a high pitch voice call out from behind him, “Catch him, Tommy; I like to eat trouts, Tommy man; give him to me, Tommy!” Startled, Powell looked up to see a small old man in bright green trousers dancing about and waving his arms. He replied that he hadn’t even caught the fish yet, but the strange old man paid no mind to his remark, continuing on with his excited chatter. As Powell looked back down to pull in his fish, the commotion stopped, and a few seconds later, he looked back up to see that the old man had disappeared, which to his mind was impossible in such an open space. To add to the mystery, this man whom Powell had never seen before in his life, somehow knew his name.

One correspondent who lives in Mexico recounted a story that had been told by his father. He stated that one night he had driven out with some friends to a remote area outside a small town in Mexico. They walk a few minutes from the car to a secluded spot. After socializing for some time late into the night, they decide to get ready to leave. One of the friends returns to the car ahead of the rest of the group to start the engine and warm it up. Sitting there in the passenger seat, he reaches for the keyhole to start the car, when suddenly he hears a small, strange voice say to him, “ Are we leaving already?”. He looks in the direction of the voice to see a small humanoid staring at him. “Are we leaving already?” the being asks him again. Panicked, the witness jumps into the driver’s seat and throws the car into reverse. The brother flags him down and after the witness tells him what he saw, they all leave in a hurry. The legend of “el duende” is the Spanish equivalent of the fairy and is well documented within their folklore.

Another report came to me from Serbia. The person who relayed the story to me had been told about the events by their grandparents. They grew up in a rural part of the country, where the fairies are commonly referred to in Slavic folklore as the Vila. Their version of fairy rings were known as “Vilina kola”, the world kola meaning a traditional Serbian dance. According to legend, the Vila would dance around in circles, forming circular indentations of matted down grass. The Vilina Kola would appear overnight, in the forests, near villages, and most commonly along the roads between them. These circles range in size from small to as large as a few meters in diameter. According to them, this was a common phenomenon, and they had known many people who had observed the Vila Kola personally. Another correlation between fairies and modern ET phenomena can be made here, as these circles bear an uncanny similarity to what most modern day UFO researchers would refer to as crop circles. As the subject of paranormal research, fairies present a challenge to investigators, again fulfilling the role of the trickster. The fairy’s ability to conceal itself as well as choose its appearance makes identification based on observation virtually impossible. There is much overlap in phenomena which causes obfuscation. For instance, many would describe phenomena such as light orbs as characteristic of UFO’s and spirits, when this is also typical of fairies. In Ireland, they were well known to take the form of orbs of light which which were seen floating through the air at night.  This was known as will o’ the wisp. Another phenomenon that was commonly considered to be the work of the Vila was the appearance of hundreds of small braids in horses’ manes, which, like the circles, would inexplicably appear overnight, while the horses were kept in their stables. According to the witnesses, these braids were so small and tightly wound that they could not be untied, but just as mysteriously as they appeared, the next day they would be undone.

The fairy continues to manifest worldwide across cultures. Even in my area of New England, there are native American legends of the puckwudgie, one of many small humanoids known to them which they refer to collectively in English as “the little people.” In one account close to where I live, a homeowner who had heard strange noises and tapping on his walls at night, awoke to find tiny handprints on the windows of his house the next day. 

What is it about the legends of fairies that endures? While most people no longer believe in them, we still find these myths appealing and hold a space for them in our consciousness and in our art. Even something as benign as gnome lawn ornaments, may be speak our longing to connect to our past. Such things are part of our cultural heritage, a lost part of our identity, which can add value and meaning to our lives, enriching our view of the world.  And even now, in some places, the belief in fairies persists. As an old man from Donegal once said “We don’t believe in them because we don’t have to. They’re here whether we believe in them or not”. And so, the mystery remains, somewhere beyond the edge of the forest in the twilight hours, between the darkening shadows of the trees.