Fairies are small, magical creatures endowed with the powers of shape-changing and invisibility, who are found in one form or another in almost every culture. 'Fairy" comes from the Latin fata or fate. The Fates were three women who spun and controlled the webs of life. Fairies are especially associated with the Celtic tradition of Wales, Ireland, Brittany and Cornwall, Northern Europe, Scandinavia and in Iceland.

There are several explanations for fairies. They are variously believed to be nature spirits, Lucifer's fallen angels, or guardians of the souls of the dead. They are invisible except to those who have second sight or when they choose to reveal themselves. They live either in plants or under the earth in a land where there is no time. They pester human beings who have messy houses or do not leave food or drink for them.

However, they can reward mortals with gifts and wishes for kindness offered to a fairy in disguise for they are masters of shape-shifting. Many fairy stories center around the theme of a poor boy who helped a poor old woman who was really a fairy in disguise and was rewarded with magical gifts that enabled him to make a fortune and marry a princess. Fairies also assume the form of crows, usually if they are up to mischief.

A Historical Explanation

In Northern European tradition, fairies are believed to descend from the small, dark, Neolithic people who retreated to remote areas, especially islands, to escape from the Iron Age invaders. Here they could carry on their agriculture and the hunter/gatherer way of life from their round earth homes, using their flinted-tipped arrows and flint knives and spears, sometimes known as elven or fairy shafts.

They carried with them the traditionof worshipping the Goddess and became so ellusive that tales grew up of their fairy kingdom and powers of invisibility. These peoples became known as 'the little people', the fairies, and their reaction to the metal sword-wielding invaders is reflected in their legendary fear of metal, especially iron.

The deities of the Old Religion were also either demonized or translated into fairies. The Goddess survived in myth and secret worship as the Good Fairy, the Fairy Godmother, or Queen of the Fairies. The Celtic Maeve, Queen of Connaught and warrior Queen, became Mab, Queen of the Fairies, or Titania, described in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The horned God became the Fairy King Oberon, while the trickster-god role, for example Loki in the Norse tradition, became the mischievous Puck of Shakespeare's play.

Different Kinds Of Fairy Folk

There are two main types of fairies. One belongs to a nation of fairies who live in Fairyland with a king and queen. There is no concept of time in Fairyland. No one grows old or dies. The second sort of fairies often attach themselves to a household and are very independent. They choose a family they like and move in.

Brownies		From Scotland, brownies are a friendly species of fairy folk. They live with families and work around the house when the family is asleep.
Elves		They are said to have no souls. They originated in Germany and can be mischievous, although they can prove helpful to those they see as deserving or in need.
Land Wights or Landvaetir		These are guardians of the Earth. They are recognized especially in Northern Europe and Iceland where certain fields and hills were sacred to them. No living creature or plant could be destroyed within the hallowed ground. Equally, no one could look upon the sacred land with an unwashed face.
Goblins & Gnomes		Both are bad-tempered creatures who were originally French household spirits. They like to live in dark places, but can be helpful around houses, especially those attached to a work place. Gnomes are very fond of mines and like working underground, digging for treasure.
Leprechauns		They come from Ireland, are 2 feet high, work as shoemakers and are very wealthy. They can be mean with their money and have crocks of gold that they will not give up. They often bury their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow so that no one can find them. They disappear at the slightest disturbance.
Dwarfs		They are good blacksmiths and skilled at baking, tailoring, and making prophecies. They do give good advice but they are light-fingered, especially where gems are concerned. If a dwarf likes you, he may give you a present which will turn into gold. They usually dwell in caves and are guardians of precious minerals and metals.
The Will o' the Wisp or Friar's Lanthorn		This is not a fairy at all -- at least not according to scientists. This flame-like phosphorescence floating over marshy ground is due to the spontaneous combustion of decaying vegetable matter. But folklore experts say that Will 'o the Wisp guard lost treasures. They elude all who attempt to follow them and lure many lost travelers to their end on marshes and bogs.
Trolls		They can be either dwarfs or giants and live in caves by the sea or in mountains. Fishermen are terrified of them. The Norwegian composer Grieg immortalized them with the Hall of the Mountain King in his Peer Gynt Suite.

Fairy Rings

Fairy rings are circles of inedible fungi, often red with white spots, that feature in all the best fairy stories. They grow naturally in grassy places in Europe, Britain, and North America and often spring up after rain. According to magical lore, they provide convenient magical circles where fairies and witches meet, dance, and sing at night. In Britain, fairy rings are also called hag rings because, according to lore, they are created by the dancing feet of witches.

Legend says that if someone stands in a fairy ring under a full moon and makes a wish, it will come true. Another belief is that to see fairies, who are usually invisible except to those with second sight, one must run around a fairy ring nine times under a full moon. But do not attempt this on May Eve or All Hallow's Eve, the two major fairy festivals, because the fairies will be offended and carry you off to Elfland.

A Fairy Ring Empowering Ritual

You may be lucky and find a real fairy ring or ring of mushrooms in the woods. If not, take into a clearing in the woods or a secluded corner of a park, nine red and nine white crystals or stones. Put them on the ground, starting at the twelve o'clock position and forming a circle going round clockwise. If you are in a safe place, you can carry out this ritual after dark with the full moon casting light into your circle.

Begin in a position outside the crystal circle where you are facing the moon. Walk nine times clockwise around the circle, saying nine times in your mind or out loud if you are alone, your desire or the particular strength you need to succeed or find happiness. Leave the circle for a while and sit quietly in the moonlight. Then walk around the circle anti-clockwise to pick up first your red crystals and then a second time to pick up your white stones, burying one of each color in the center of the original circle to renew the energies of the earth you have used in your ritual. Before you go to sleep, write a step-by-step plan of how you will attain your goal. Leave blanks if there are any difficulties and you will find when you wake up that you can fill in the gaps, as if by magic.

A Fairy Wish Ritual

Fairies are said to fly as butterflies, dandelion seeds, or thistledown. Although gardeners and farmers do not welcome the practice, from time immemorial children and young lovers have blown dandelion clocks and sent fairies on their way, at the same time seeking the answers to questions about love and good fortune.

You can use soap bubbles, either the ordinary children's kind or by making them from liquid detergent and water. Use a big bubble blower. Find a symbol of whatever it is you want: a key for a new house, a toy car for a new vehicle, a coin for money, a flower for love, a toy plane for travel, for example. Place the symbol on a tree stump, preferably a hawthorn (the fairy tree) or between two oaks, which are said to be a gateway to fairy worlds. Blow your bubbles in a circle around your symbol, higher and higher, all the time seeing your ambitions coming true. In each bubble you may see a fairy carrying your wishes.

On the way home, if you see thistledown or a dandelion clock, blow it and help fairies on their way. Take your symbol home and place it on your window ledge. At night, leave a little gift, a flower or a ribbon, for the fairies next to your symbol. Each morning hold it before you begin the day, then go out and make your dream come true!

Are Fairies Real?

J.M. Barrie wrote in Peter Pan that when the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and that was the beginning of fairies. Tinkerbell, the fairy who first found Peter and took care of him in Never Never Land, also warned that every time someone says he or she does not believe in fairies, a fairy dies.

The Neolithic theory is just one explanation of fairies and the tales that grew up about them. In that case, they would have died out or merged with other peoples and lived on only in myth. But there are many people in the modern world who claim to have seen fairies. Julie, who is now a medium, claims that as a child she had a big garden and in part of it where she played were little spirit friends who were like fairies. To Julie, they were not just pretend friends. In fact, she says that she has seen them in adult life, especially in a particular place in Devon. "My own children have seen them too. Once when we were together we all saw them, when my son was nine and the youngest only about four." She described them as "very fleeting, like butterflies, but not as small, about the size of squirrels."

Felicity, a psychology student, remembers a field near her house in the country where "as a child I used to see fairies in the long grass. They were typical fairies, a sort of greeny blue, the kind you see in Flower Fairy Books. They used to talk to me. At the time I never told anyone. I was convinced they were real at the time. When we moved after my parents divorced, there wasn't a field so I did not see them anymore."

Pat, who is now 50 years old, also saw fairies when she was about four at the bottom of the garden belonging to the old lady who helped to bring her up: "It was a big garden with a stream running at the bottom. They were very tiny, dressed in pink gossamer and used to play around by the stream. I told them my wildest dreams. They used to fly and hover with their tiny wings. I did not tell anyone as I knew they would have laughed."