Why I Believe in Fairies
As I'm getting older my spiritual beliefs have become more nativistic and inclined towards an ancestral understanding of things. I am much less influenced by the religious monoculture of today, much less by the television and what people tell me is acceptable for me to believe.
Modern people are removed from nature and so I think they are less likely to witness a fairie or nature spirit. Their spiritual senses have become dimmed as the material world has taken over. This was not true for ancient peoples. I think it's like comparing a domesticated dog to a wolf. While a dog retains natural instincts, these instincts have been curtailed and do not remain to the same extent as his cousin the wolf. The wolf continues to live in a natural environment where senses are crucial for survival. Similarly, humans have been domesticated and despite all the advances made in science and intellect, I believe modern man is less in tune with the natural world around us. As a consequence we are less aware of spiritual phenomena (or those things existing just outside visible light).
As a child I wasn't led to believe in Santa Clause but I did believe in the tooth fairie. I'd always leave my tooth under my pillow. I'd awake to find 25 cents and my tooth gone. A tradition mom instigated. I do know that the Tooth Fairie appears very early in Northern European belief going back to the Poetic Eddas.
Tooth Fairy
Fairy / Faerie / Fairie
I'm not sure if some fairies are simply imaginative while others remain real. What I am describing is spirits that attach themselves to places, and sometimes, to people or families. They live just outside of our reality and perception; just outside our range of light and vibration. They are just as diverse as people; some good, some bad, some just plain mischievous.
Tooth Fairy
Fairy / Faerie / Fairie
I'm not sure if some fairies are simply imaginative while others remain real. What I am describing is spirits that attach themselves to places, and sometimes, to people or families. They live just outside of our reality and perception; just outside our range of light and vibration. They are just as diverse as people; some good, some bad, some just plain mischievous.
Fairy Flag of MacLeod - Click on this link for more info.
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For the MacLeod's, belief in fairies has been maintained for centuries, down to the present day for some. This alliance with the fairies has reputedly won battles for Clan MacLeod. We have the Fairy Flag, which I saw in 2002 while visiting Dunvegan in Skye. This association with the fairies is very meaningful to me, as it is full of so much lore and possibility. I am not the only MacLeod who feels this way. In World War II our 28th Chief, Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod would cut off pieces from the Fairy Flag and give these remnants to MacLeod soldiers and airmen fighting on the front. Of those who carried pieces of the flag, all are believed to have survived. Perhaps the battle standard of our Norse Viking ancestor Harald Hardrada, the infamous 'Land Ravager,' there is nevertheless some kind of connection with the fairies and this flag and our ability to win battles.
In the 1860's my great-great uncle Daniel MacAskill MacLeod wrote a poem for his adolescent son Murdoch Daniel who had just died. He refers to his son having gone to "Fairy climes." This belief in the fairies was a very prevalent belief for MacLeod's and other Gaelic Islanders as well.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH THE FAIRIES
When I was a small child in Charlotte, North Carolina in the late 1970's I would see what I described as "monkeys" or small little men throughout the house. This went on for some time. While my memory is limited this many years later, I do remember small, hairy men. After my mother having the experience of one little hairy man crawling onto the edge of her bed as she lay awake on the bed. She was a religious zealot and with the best of intentions summoned the church minster who visited the house, anointed the house with oil and performed a form of exorcism. After many years, I have come to believe these were fairy beings, attached to my ancestors, as to me. The Christian explanation of things was either angel or demon. There wasn't anything else, or in between. No grey area of course.
When I was a small child in Charlotte, North Carolina in the late 1970's I would see what I described as "monkeys" or small little men throughout the house. This went on for some time. While my memory is limited this many years later, I do remember small, hairy men. After my mother having the experience of one little hairy man crawling onto the edge of her bed as she lay awake on the bed. She was a religious zealot and with the best of intentions summoned the church minster who visited the house, anointed the house with oil and performed a form of exorcism. After many years, I have come to believe these were fairy beings, attached to my ancestors, as to me. The Christian explanation of things was either angel or demon. There wasn't anything else, or in between. No grey area of course.
As I mentioned I saw the Fairy flag while at Dunvegan Castle in 2002. In 2008 I was swimming in the middle of a lake and had my wallet in my pocket. I have always carried a picture of the Fairy Flag in my wallet for good luck. I felt the wallet sink past my leg on its way to the bottom of the lake. My wallet was unrecoverable. Later the next evening there was a knock at my door as someone handed me my wallet and told me they had found it floating on the surface of the water. My money, credit cards and pictures of my daughter were intact and dry! They had recovered my wallet and followed the address on my driver's license.
Fairy Faith (Part 2) 08:50 - Fairy Flag of MacLeod
Fairy Faith (Part 3)
Fairy Faith (Part 4)
Fairy Faith (Part 5)
Fairy Faith (Part 6 of 6)
Fairy Faith (Part 3)
Fairy Faith (Part 4)
Fairy Faith (Part 5)
Fairy Faith (Part 6 of 6)
