5

268.png

Nature Spirits of the Air

Spirits of the air are most often with wings; they are light, ethereal, and generally less fixed to the earth than other nature spirits. Frequently, they live in windy places such as hillsides, mountains, open plains, meadows, or grasslands.

Just as fire spirits are the most volatile of the nature essences, air spirits are by their elemental nature the fastest moving in nature and form, changeable in mood, and unpredictable. Air spirits are movers of energy, carrying seeds for germination, stripping dead leaves from trees, and assisting birds on their migratory paths. They may frequently assume the form of birds or butterflies, for example the Italian and Mexican folletti that shape-shift into butterflies to travel on the wind, sometimes causing dust clouds (see page 113 in this chapter).1

A notable example of a noble air spirit is sielulintu, the golden Finnish “soul-bird,” on whose behalf small birds carry the souls of unborn children to their new families and return souls on death to the heavens.2

You may come across nature essences who are nothing like the ones I describe in this book, or varieties you read about elsewhere. Note down what you see, sense or hear with times and dates in your special notebook or journal and you may find that you become aware, for example, of sparkly air spirits when there is imminent change in your life.

The Power of the Air Spirits

Air spirits are empowered by the energy of the clouds, mountains, hills, and flowers in a meadow or on cold frosty mornings when the ice shimmers. A Celtic legend was told to me by an old lady many years ago when I was visiting the Isle of Skye in the days before the road bridge. It described fabulous rainbow butterflies that would settle like a cloud over fields of summer flowers and then disappear upward as if drawn by an air vortex. She said she had seen them as a child and that her grandma said the sky people were blessing the harvest.

Attracting Air Spirits

Because air spirits, like all fey creatures, exist on the astral or spiritual plane, you can work with any kind regardless of where you live in the world. If you grow lavender, fennel, or any of the air fey plants listed below, you will attract benign air spirits. They will not stay long but stir the air wonderfully. They love any trees that are tall and whose tops sway in the wind, but you may get pelted with acorns or nuts as you walk through a plantation.

Air-spirit Magical Associations

Archetypal elemental spirit: Sylphs, winged air spirits who live for hundreds of years and can, it is said, attain an immortal soul through good deeds. They reside on mountain tops. Sylphs may assume human form for short periods of time and vary in size from being as large as a human to being much smaller; they are usually seen in or as the effects of wind, for example a pile of leaves flying high in the air or sudden swirling mists.

Air spirits ruler: A mysterious misty being called Paralda who is said to dwell on the highest mountain on Earth.

Favourite time of day: dawn

Favourite season: spring

Energy: active

Air-spirit characteristic: initiator and inventor

Elemental tool: blade

Air spirit ritual substance: incense or smudge

Favourite colours: yellow, purple, and pearly grey

Psychic gifts they offer: clairaudience

Polarity: God

Air-spirit energy-raiser: music, song, and chanting

Deities: maiden, spring, and flower goddesses; gods of light; sky father gods; messenger and healing deities; and star deities (also sometimes ruled by fire)

Archangel: Raphael, the traveler and healing archangel and ruler of the four winds carries a golden vial of medicine with a traveler’s staff; he is dressed in the colours of early morning sunlight, a green healing ray emanating from his halo.

Air-spirit crystals: amethyst, angelite, blue opal or angel aura, blue lace agate, clear crystal quartz, citrine, danburite, diamond, sapphire, lapis lazuli, sodalite, sugilite, and turquoise

Air-spirit animals and birds: bees, butterflies, birds of prey, moths, white doves, flocks of silvery or blue birds, and swallows

Air-spirit fragrances: acacia, almond, anise, benzoin, bergamot, dill, fennel, lavender, lemongrass, lemon verbena, lily-of-the-valley, marjoram, meadowsweet, papyrus flower, peppermint, and sage

Ailments and body parts especially healed by air spirits: illnesses and injuries related to the breasts, chest, lungs, throat, brain, immune system, metabolism, thyroid, adrenal and pituitary glands; anxiety, depression, and other illnesses

Sense: speech, smell, and hearing

Positive qualities and strengths offered by air spirits: clear focus, impetus for positive change, ability to communicate clearly, concentration, versatility, spontaneity, positivity in new beginnings and expanding horizons, persuasiveness, intelligence, fair-mindedness, logic, independence, clarity, good memory, mental dexterity, optimism, teaching abilities, poetic and musical gifts, commercial and technological acumen, healing gifts through orthodox medicine or from higher spiritual sources

Less desirable qualities: sarcasm, spite, gossip, fickleness, superficiality, emotional coldness, dishonesty, pedantry, unwise speculation or gambling.

Air-spirit places: mountaintops, hills, towers, the sky, pyramids, open plains, tall buildings, balconies, roof gardens, clouds, wind

Materials for attracting air spirits: feathers, feathery grasses, ceiling mobiles, long, trailing scarves, wind chimes, fragrances, clouds, mist, and bird-call music

Astrological signs: Aquarius, Gemini, Libra

Planets: Mercury, Jupiter, and Uranus

Empowerment to call the power of the air spirits: “Fly free and carry me to places of beauty that I may soar and rise through the skies.”

Use air-spirit magick for: new beginnings, safe and happy travel, house moves, learning, passing tests and examinations, career, interviewing, money making through initiative, speeding up slow-moving matters, justice through the legal system, inventions, medicine or conventional healing and surgery, self-employment, wishing well for young people, successful buying and selling, protection against road or travel accidents, learning languages, success in writing, and jobs in the media.

Discovering Spirits of the Air

Sylphs

Sylphs are described in the ancient Greek and Roman tradition but are found in many lands as winged air spirits or sprites.3 The Classical sylphs are very slender and graceful, like transparent ballerinas, constantly moving as they float just above the ground or fly through the sky, creating wispy trails of light or mist. Some say they were seen by early people who thought they were deities; later, they were thought to be angels. They differ from angels in that they are much mistier and transparent and do not focus on human concerns or act as guardians.

It has been speculated that the Butterfly Goddess of Minoan Crete, whose images date from about 4000 BCE, was in fact an evolved nature being of the air. The fabulous winged butterfly is a form sylphs frequently adopt. Of course this is just one theory.

They are sometimes depicted with huge wings, their bodies the size of a human body but far more ethereal and slender. Once believed to control the weather and direct the winds, they have also been described from classical times onward as taking the form of huge, white graceful birds, like gigantic swallows. Sylphs sometimes appear in bird or butterfly form or as streaks in the sky just before a storm, leaving grey trails behind them.

You will find sylphs in wide-open spaces, wilderness areas, and meadows as well as higher ground. They protect their own areas of land or a particular mountain or hill and may sometimes cause mists that shroud a place even if the area all around is clear. Sylphs do not communicate directly with humans, though those who have seen them, usually very fleetingly, talk about being touched by a breeze that stirs the soul with happiness and brings a sense of freedom to try new avenues.

They carry new seeds for germination and oversee cross-pollination of species as well as ensuring that the insect world continues to flourish and remain in balance. If a place is under threat, sylph activity and sightings will increase. One example is a mountain on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides off the West Coast of Scotland known as Na Mointeach, “the Old Woman of the Moors”; it is also known as “Sleeping Beauty,” “Sleeping Mother,” or “Sleeping Goddess.” The mountain is so called because it appears like a sleeping goddess when it is seen from the local Callanish stone circle. Every 18.6 years, the moon appears to be born from the Goddess figure when the moon emerges from between her legs. A proposed wind farm would destroy the sacred site.

Jenny’s Sylph Encounter

Jenny comes from the South of England every year to Lewis, an island that is full of sacred places. She told me,

I had visited the mountain many times and loved watching from the centre of the Callanish Circle the goddess resting on the mountain.

I had heard about the problems with the proposed wind farm and so was specially determined to visit the unspoiled spot once more in case the appeals against the destruction did not succeed.

It was a clear, blue day. Suddenly the mountain was surrounded by what I can only describe as spirals of mist that seemed to whirl in the air like flocks of birds, except they were transparent. The mist spirals rose and seemed to dance around the mountain top. Then they were gone. The area was deserted, but someone else must have seen them. Or was it just me? I looked in the local paper and there was nothing unusual reported.

Sylph Encounters

Like much air-spirit magick, sylph magick is less structured than that of other elemental spirits, though they respond well to bubbles, kites, prayer flags, and feathers (see page 125 in this chapter for these forms of air-spirit magick). Use only natural fabrics.

Sylphs will make you lighthearted, spontaneous, and joyous if you flow with their energies. As a result, your mindset will be looser, much more open to new ideas, and welcoming to change. After a sylph encounter, anything seems more possible. This might be making plans to see a place to which you long to travel or doing something amazingly out of character (at least the character others impose on you) that brings you sudden, spontaneous happiness in a previously dull world.

Sylphs as Birds

Swooping birds that are blue, white, grey, or silver, especially flocks of swallows or doves, are also special sylph birds. If you find it hard to connect with sylph power or any other air-spirit energy because you are very logical, try the following exercise to relax your mind into seeing what logic finds it hard to accept. Migratory times in your region are especially good. In Central France where I often stay, the autumn sky is filled with calling black cranes migrating back from Africa through Spain and returning south in the summer.

Other Sylphlike Beings

In Italy and Mexico, the folletti (plural also for male and female) and the male counterparts, the folletto, resemble mischievous six-year-old children when earthbound. They are very slight with backward-pointing feet and are almost transparent. Males and females alike travel on the wind, creating mini dust storms or sudden uprushes of petals even when the air is still, as they fly suddenly upward in their flock, the usual mode of travel.4 Depending on whether they are in a good mood or not determines whether they shower passing mortals in petals or dust for fun. There are different varieties of folletti, for example the Abruzzo Mazamarelle, a folleto about two feet high, wearing a flower or covered with flowers, or in the form of a grasshopper.

Folletti are also perceived as butterflies, though most are generally benign. Like all earth spirits, they are ambivalent to humans and some can be vicious. More aggressive folletti travel in whirlwinds, called wind knots, and create storms that destroy crops and property and bring floods just for the sake of it. Others are like the incubus and succubus, sexual predator spirits, for example the Machinge, a Sicilian folletto who violates women. Malevolent folletti are also said to try to induce madness. It may be as with other apparently vicious nature spirits, they were blamed for human crimes or natural disasters, in more superstitious times. Saints were invoked to protect against the nastier aspects of folletti and brown-haired women seem able to banish them also.

Air Spirits as Butterflies

Folletti butterflies are tinier and more transparent than sylph ones, but both kinds will be brilliantly coloured.

I have already mentioned the Butterfly Goddess who appeared as a Crowned Butterfly around 4000 BCE in Minoan Crete, a centre of goddess and bull worship. But an equally important traditional Butterfly Goddess who also is a form of higher air spirit is Hina from the Polynesian tradition of the Pacific Islands. Hina is called the Creatrix of the world, Lady of the Moon, and her spirit is said to be contained in every woman, for she was the first woman. These deity associations make sylphs and folletti and any other air spirit who takes butterfly form an important icon for women, especially for any regeneration, new opportunities, and new beginnings.

The Light Elves

In Norse cosmology, light elves are the higher forms of elves, characterized by their light blond or golden hair and are the true air-spirit elves. Gandalf, immortalized by Tolkien as the master wizard, was an elven king. From Tolkien we also learn of Galadriel, the lovely elven queen who rules over all earth spirits, but is herself a being of the air. Elves also appear throughout the folklore of northern and western Europe.

In Scandinavia, light elves—like their darker brothers, the earth spirits, whom I write about in chapter 6—are the same size as humans but slender and perfectly formed with delicate, pointed features. They alone among the fey people seem to have maintained a form of immortality and freedom from aging.

The Viking fertility god Freyr, considered one of the race of Vanir or nature gods or higher air spirits, was Lord of the Elves and of Alfheim, the home of the light elves at the top of the Norse World Tree, close to the realms of the deities. Freyr had two elven attendants called Byggvir and Beyla.5

In pre-Christian times in Scandinavia, at the beginning of winter around the autumn equinox, the woman of the house would initiate a ceremony dedicated to the elves and ancestors to bring fertility and prosperity through the winter. No strangers were admitted and few details are known of this ancient practice.

Marriages between elves and mortals were much prized in the Scandinavian world. For example, the Viking hero Hagni had a human mother who was a queen and his father was the elf Aldrian. As a result the hero inherited the qualities of nobility, courage, and leadership through the maternal line; from his father he acquired the skill of magic, archery, and the ability to understand all the creatures of the earth and even speak to the trees. In addition, elven armour and a helmet rendered him invincible and invisible when necessary. In later times, the light elves became known for being beautiful female elves with an elven king to care for them.

Elven Beings

In northern and western Europe, elves tend to be smaller. Like the Scandinavian elves, they are always beautiful young men and women, invariably with wings, and live in forest glades and flower meadows. They are creatures of the sun and of moonlight and are famed for wondrous pipe and fiddle music, singing and dancing, and skill with a bow.

Prehistoric flint arrowheads were called “elf shot.” In folklore through to the 1900s, these were thought to be faery arrows used to enchant humans. This may be a memory carried in myth that the Neolithic tribes were very small and may have hidden in the forest and fired arrows at the tall invaders. The elf shot was attributed with many healing properties as well as the power to grant invisibility to the wearer and the ability to see elves.

Circles of small edible mushrooms rather than inedible toadstools like lesser elves and faeries indicate places where these elves dance at full moonlight. At dawn on the morning after a full moon, a mortal might run clockwise around the circle nine times, cast a pure white pebble into the middle, and make a wish aloud; it is said that the wish would be granted by the next full moon.

The elves could turn nasty if offended and could destroy cattle, spoil hunting or even, in old legends, spirit away humans who came upon their revels and accepted elven food. Were any human to come across the elves dancing and join in (or even pause to watch), he or she would dance for what seemed like a whole night; but when morning came many years would have passed. A special tune called “The Elf King Song” was said to be the most wonderful tune in the world, but if mortal musicians played it they would have to play until they dropped, unless someone cut the fiddle strings.

Danish elves would take newly risen dough and food from larders and stores. Unlike faeries that borrow from humans but repay, generally, the elves would not leave gifts or favours in return for what they took. The elves in Denmark were described as being only two dimensional, being hollow when seen from behind. Scandinavian Huldre folk were also described sometimes with a similar hollow appearance, an illusion since fey people are not made of material substance anyway.6

Elven energies are inspirational and excellent for all creative ventures, whether music, dancing, singing, art, or writing—and also for any sporting activities. Even if you do not consider yourself talented, you may find reviving an old interest opens up a new source of income or leads to new friendships as a result of elven inspiration.

Air Sprites

Some air spirits are hard to define or categorise and are called sprites. Air sprites flash in and out of vision like dancing sunbeams and are almost always greyish to silvery white with iridescent shimmers like bubbles. This is why bubble magick is so effective.

Air-Nature Bubble Spell

You can send wishes into the air in the form of bubbles. These rise high and can carry them to the air sprites who will transform your dreams and desires into actuality. You can choose any wish, not only in those areas traditionally ruled by air. Wednesday and Thursday are especially good days for air-sprite wish magick.

You will need:

Time and place:

Bubbles blow best on a cloudy day or after rain when it is not too cold.

The spell:

Dandelion Clock Travel or Expansion Spell

When we release spores from dandelions, we are launching young faery forms into the air and they will carry our wishes into the ether where they can be transformed into reality. Dandelion spores spells or any other thistle-borne air-sprite spells are particularly good for travel and relocation as well as for launching new businesses or creative ventures.

Timing

Whenever you find a dandelion clock or another thistle with spores.

The spell:

When you find a dandelion, name your dream and say, “You sprites of air as you fly free, make this dream true by [name your time frame].”

Blow the dandelion clock as hard as you can, and keep on blowing until all the spores are gone.

Air-Sprite Spell
for Travel Plan or Journey

You will need:

Four dandelion clocks, a small neck or waist pouch to carry them in, and a directional compass (optional).

Timing

On a Wednesday morning.

The spell:

The Spirits of the Winds

Wind spirits, former deities, feature in myths from ancient Greece to native North America. In Iroquois myth, Gaob, the Lord of the Winds, appointed animal guardians for each of the four winds so that the winds’ power would not overwhelm the world. He called the bear and tied him with a leash to control the herds of the north winter winds. The moose became protector of the herds of the eastern stormy skies. The panther was tethered to be guardian of the rainy west winds. The gentle fawn led the herds of the warm south winds out to graze on sunny days.

The four winds were given names and personalities in Greek and Roman myth where they were four brothers, sons of Eos or Aurora (the Goddess of the Dawn). Aeolus or Aiolos was keeper and father of the winds and lived on the floating island of Aiolia. He released the winds on instructions of the deities. The north wind ruler is called Boreas; he has brown wings, a dragon’s tail, a rain cloud cloak and streaming white hair, and he was very tempestuous. The east wind’s ruler is called Apheliotes, the youngest of the brothers and is always impatient to be away, flying through the sky scattering clouds. The ruler of the south wind is called Notus, most amiable of the winds, filled with sunlight and he emits sparkling light beams in his wake. Finally, Zephyrus rules the west wind. He is a gentle wind, married to Iris, goddess spirit of the rainbow, and fills the sails of boats with breezes when they become becalmed.

Making an Air-Fey Wish and Prayer Tree

Prayer sticks or trees consist of feathers or written messages attached to a stick or a branch fixed in the ground in an open space. They release petitions, entreaties, or blessings as the feathers or paper blow away in the wind. Prayer trees are found in cultures from Tibet to native North America; in more recent years, they have become a focus for collective peace rituals as well as private use worldwide. If you do want to use prayer sticks or trees in a more authentic manner, there are a number of excellent Native American websites belonging to specific nations you can contact.7

We will use this practice to work with the four main wind spirits to release wishes, blessings, or requests to the cosmos. They are especially effective for long-term projects or plans that usually take longer to come to fruition.

Each wind spirit is accompanied by numerous wind sprites, not identified by name.

Wind-Spirit Magick Using a Prayer Tree

Making Your Air-Spirit Prayer Tree

Air-spirit prayer trees traditionally vary in size from a large, forked staff that is shoulder height; a tall, uprooted branch with several smaller branches; or an actual growing tree. There is no reason a living leafy tree cannot be a prayer tree.

For magick of the four wind spirits, you will need four distinctive branch offshoots on your prayer tree so that you can have these smaller branches in approximately the four directions for the four winds on which to hang the wind feathers or messages.

Use a compass to find your directions. You can of course change the wind guardian based on the hemisphere and qualities of the winds; for example, if the wind blowing from the south is colder, as in places in the Southern Hemisphere like Australia, Notus then takes on the qualities of the fierce, banishing north winds. If you have an ocean immediately to the east as in eastern Australia, you could make your eastern air spirit the watery one. If easier, use my directions as all magick is on the astral plane and the physical matters less; it is most important to be consistent.

Before you begin, strip off the foliage from a large, dead branch or use one that has been lying a while and is quite dry.

Preparing the Four-Winds Air-Spirit Spell

Calling on the Wind Spirits for Faster Changes

In the next chapter we will encounter the spirits of the earth.

Chapter 5 Sources

  1. Folletti, http://www.oocities.org/pookaplace/misc/home/folletti.htm
  2. Snunit, Michal. The Soul Bird. New York: Hyperion, 1999.
  3. http://www.crystalinks.com/sylphs.html
  4. Lindow, John. Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press, 2002.
  5. Mack, Carol K., and D. Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Vampires, Fallen Angels, and Other Subversive Spirits. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2011.
  6. www.shamanicvisions.com/sacredplaces_folder/prayertree.html. Comprehensive and well-illustrated site on prayer trees and sticks.
  7. Eason, Cassandra. Complete Guide to Natural Magick. Slough: Quantum/Foulsham, Kindle, 2011.
  8. www.geocities.com/felicitax/magic.htm. The Feathers site, all about feathers and feather magick.

[contents]