Elaine Clayton - A Little Bit of Fairies: An Introduction to Fairy Magic

How now, spirit? Whither wander you?

Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough brier,

Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire;

I do wander everywhere.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM,

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Fairies are known to be a good people, a hidden and ethereal race of beings who appear as 3-D as any human or as hologram-like (colorful and mostly transparent) forms of all sizes. Luminous and airy, they may even appear quite fully human, although often smaller or in some subtle way a bit different than an average human (with very pointed elfin ears or large, mesmerizing eyes). Fairies are somewhere in a spiritual stratosphere between humans and angels, and by somewhere I mean we cant quite be certain as to where they are in relation to us. Yet just as you read in the poem on the previous page, they do wander everywhere. We might sense them but not see them, or see them and question whether we actually did see them. They confound us!

Fairies are intelligent, blithe, and fluid entities of light and color. Since they can manifest presence of physical matter (appear to have a body) they are still able to flummox humans by disappearing at will. Folklore is rich in tales of such spirits among us. Theirs is a pure energy, infused in nature not limited to but often emphasized and expressed through growing plant life, infusing the elements and almost any aspect of our universe.

The path to knowledge of fairies is to approach all of nature with a deep sense of appreciation, gratitude with an affinity for the furtive, transcendental pulse of life permeating our natural world. It is to enter the dreamier, more mysterious aspects of who we are as living beings and what our universe is made of in its enigmatic greatness. Glimpsing into fairydom is to wish to perceive the fathoms of sea and sky; peer into the tiniest specks of pollen, pistons, and stamens; gaze upon the prismatic wings of the dragonfly; to consider the ways we humans are in awe of how all this life came to be.

Outside in the quiet of the day, whether youre in a city park or out in the wilderness, in a small garden or countryside, fairies abound. In soft rays of sunlight illuminating tender tips of green leaves, a magical osmosis is underway. Verdant life spins life and the hum of bees among birdsong coalesces with the mysterious and ethereal. Humans are born of Earth and call it home, but it is also a place where fairies dwell, at the edge of our sense of time and space, of solid matter and light energy, in the mystifying forces of life as it continually expands. No wonder so many children recognize this otherness, this parallel fairy world when theyre out playing; it is spellbinding and strange, yet it is ours; we grasp it and, alternatively, do not grasp it.

Children sense that life is not all as it seems on the surface, until we coax and condition them to more practical applications. They understand immediately and naturally that our propensity and habit of labeling and identifying nature is superficial and may not be the actual most important aspect of experiencing the world. They feel the exciting air of enchantment, of unseen fairy folk. They may shout gleefully at bubbly sea foam tickling their toes, knowing each drop of mist is a kiss from the Fairy Queen of the Sea, and frolic with mermaids they sense are right there with them. Or theyll leap outside into a simple backyard with the undeniable, thrilling feeling that something amazing is about to happen, something magical. They are aligned completely with their imaginations, knowing it is very much a part of this great expansion of the life force and the pathway to the playscape of fairies. They know that there is a dream happening, and we are in it.

Step outside into the dream that we call just an ordinary day, watch the arabesque of a silky petal, fluttering like a ballerinas skirt, and hear the soft whisper of the pines as you are beckoned to the threshold of enchanted terrain. You may only be thinking of internal woes or plans, or how good or bad the grass looks, or how many weeds need pulling, but you are in the presence of fairies and have entered their domain. You may sense this and fall silent unto yourself, looking around as if being observed somehow; a peculiar feeling may surround you. Open all your senses and allow yourself to sense the question lingering in the air. Breathing, feeling the way Wind Fairies play at mischief. Gathering bluster, tree branches sway; their leaves tremble as they quietly rustle or sensationally roar a fresh and hypnotic message to youthrough you. Fairies of trees, wind, leaves, flowers, and branches are in your midst and in your hair! Theyre moving through you, playing with you, reveling in their mysteries ways, and youre invited to the celebration.

Being in and with nature nurtures us as we, too, are creatures of life meant to thrive. Simply being in and with this alchemistic, instinctive world might be enough if we did not sense the deeper mystery in it, opening us to the feeling of exciting potential and wonderment. The unanswered question we sense is the stirring of our innate curiosity and a longing within our soul. That part of who we are wishes to know how to intuit the spiritual messages of the wind and trees, the tiny grass blades and the leaves unfurling, reaching for sunlight. Isnt there something more we cannot quite grasp? Dont we want to envelop the meaning held within the darkened bark of trees? Dont we wish to come to know the lovely contours of richly green moss patches on rocks? In our curiosity, we see life burgeoning as we ourselves ought to. The fairies seem to hold life-sustaining energy that supports us as we live and breathe. Fairies are part of this continual unfolding of life in ways we know not, or rather, we realize there is much we do not truly understand, but we can feel it and sense it.