A PRIMER ON FAIRIES AND HELPFUL SPIRITS
There are many kinds of Fairies and many different ways to reach them and petition them for help. Everyone should try to form a bond with at least one kind of helpful Fairy or Spirit ally. The best way to begin is to read widely. Look for traditional stories and folktales, especially those related to your own ancestry or the land where you now reside. See if one particular Spirit calls out to you. Be patient—this can take time. Your familiar Spirit could be a household Fairy (Brownie, Hobgoblin, etc.), the genius loci of a natural place, an ancestor who wants to help you and guide you, a plant ally, or an animal familiar.
Traveling to the Land of Fairy
During the day imagine yourself traveling to the Fairy realm under a hill, on a high mountaintop, within the roots of a large tree, in a deep cave, under a lake, or beneath the sea. At night before you go to sleep picture the same scene. Keep a notebook and pen by your bedside. As soon as you wake, write down any dream you had. If you can’t remember a dream just write down: “I do not remember my dreams from last night.”
It will help if you leave an offering on your Fairy altar or in the dining room, just for the Spirits. You may also have a Fairy altar in the garden or on a balcony. If you are honored with a Fairy dream be sure to thank them in the morning. Offer them food at least once a week to build up a close family relationship.
Fairy Magicians and Fairy Doctors
There are individuals who from early childhood are “taken” by the Fairies and taught medicinal herb lore, often after a serious illness. The way this happens is usually through a music-induced trance, a dream, or while dancing. I personally know of a fiddler who was playing in an Irish pub at a furious pace when a local man came up to him and warned him to stop or he would be taken by the Fairies. Depending on your point of view, being taken is either a good thing or a very serious matter!
In Serbian reports an individual approaches the Fairy tree of the village and spontaneously starts to dance. Or an individual might start dancing anywhere and not be able to stop for nine days and nights. Persons chosen this way become Fairy doctors and healers for their community.
I can recall a similar experience when I was at the Findhorn community in Scotland. A group of us were thrown together for “experience week,” right before we were to take part in a two-week healing intensive. We were taught traditional circle dances, mostly to old Irish, Greek, or Hungarian music, but our favorite was always the Irish tune “The King of the Fairies.” According to tradition when that melody is played three times, the King of the Fairies must appear. But he only stays if he approves of the gathering. Every time our group was taken on an excursion to a forest or ancient sacred site we spontaneously began to dance, even when there was no music to be heard. We just couldn’t help ourselves! I remember that the group facilitators were quite mystified.
Those who work with the Fairies leave offerings at sacred places—in a meadow, at a spring, within a circle drawn around a sick person, at the base of a Fairy tree (usually a Hawthorn in Serbia and in many Celtic areas, or a Rose in Transylvania), or at the place where a person first fell ill. These offerings are made at regular intervals: every week, month, or year after the onset of the illness. The standard gifts are milk, honey, bread, cake, or wine.
While being treated, the sick person dresses in white, and the Fairy doctor draws a circle around them, chants charms, and asks the Fairies to undo any harm and bring health to the sufferer.1
Fairies and Spirits With Whom You Can Bond
Wandering alone on a full moon night or when sleeping or meditating near the hearth or beneath a blooming Elder or Apple tree, you may experience an unexpected Fairy encounter. It’s always nice to have some familiarity with the Spirits who are out there, just in case you meet one.
Weiße Frauen (White Women, German), Witte Wieven (Dutch), White Ladies (England), Dames Blanches (France)
The Weiße Frauen are Germanic Elf Spirits or Light Elves (Old Norse: Ljósálfar) who often appear at high noon, dressed in white and sitting by the water combing their long hair. They are a type of Nature Spirit who likes to guard castles, and they may require you to dance with them before they let you pass. Be sure to do what they ask, because if you don’t, they will torment you.2
Kobold
Kobolds are Germanic House Spirits who look like little wizened men dressed in peasant garb, but they can also appear as an animal, a fire, a feather, a candle, or some other object. They come and go by the chimney and may appear at your door in the guise of a pitiful, wet creature.
If you take them in, they will move into the house. They help with the household chores but play tricks on you if they feel neglected. Some of them live in mines and help miners; others live on ships and aid sailors. People used to carve statues of them out of Boxwood or Mandrake root and store the images in glass or wooden containers in the house. It was said that the kobold would inhabit the statue.
Kobolds like to be fed at the same place and time every day. They may bring great luck to the household if they receive a daily portion of your supper: beer, milk and biscuits, or grits. Treat them with respect or they will become insulted and may cause fights and fires.3
Benandanti (Good Walkers)
Benandanti are male and female Italian Witches who leave their body at night and travel in the form of mice, cats, rabbits, butterflies, or wolves to struggle against evil forces that could harm the community. Marked at birth with a caul on their head, they are trained by their mothers to fight noxious forces that could blight the crops or harm the children. They also help heal those harmed by sorcery and protect the community from any ill-intentioned magic.4
Benandanti men fight with Fennel stalks against evil Witches armed with Sorghum stalks (Sorghum stalks are used to make Witches’ brooms). If the men win, the harvest will be plentiful. Female Benandanti travel out of body to a feast where they eat, drink, and dance with Fairies, Spirits, and animals. The feast is presided over by a Goddess.
Bwcca (Brownie)
Bwccas are one- to two-foot-tall creatures usually found in Scotland or in the homes of those whose ancestors emigrated from there. They will help with the household chores once the housewife has gone to sleep. They also help on the farm, where they shapeshift into a crowing rooster at dawn (or enlist a rooster to crow and tell them when to end their labors). They prefer kind and industrious households where they will select a cupboard or high shelf as their residence. Leave them regular offerings of milk, bread, honey, and beer, but never give them clothing, or they will leave the house, never to return.
Bean-Tighe (Irish Brownie)
The Bean-Tighe is a small, elderly, and kindly female House Elf. She wears old-fashioned dresses and is very protective of the animals and children of the family. She will even babysit if treated well. Offerings to her include berries and cream.
Hobgoblin
In British areas the hobgoblin is a small, hairy man who helps with chores around the house and likes to stay near the hearth. He works while the family sleeps, typically dusting and ironing, threshing grain, and performing other domestic tasks. Easily annoyed, he may play tricks and even become dangerous. When irritated he might mix the grain with the chaff again, kick over the milk pail, or douse the hearth fire. Adept at shapeshifting, he may appear in the form of a horse, pig, or even a wisp of smoke. He will leave the house if offered new clothes but will follow the family when they move if he likes them. To keep him happy supply him with cream and other food offerings.5
Robin Goodfellow, a Hobgoblin. Image from Robin Goodfellow: His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests (1629).
Bwbach, Welsh House Fairy, Cottager, Booaker
The Bwbach is a male Spirit dressed in a red cap and loincloth. He is protective of the home but not likely to help with the chores. He may even chase off persons who he feels are a threat to the house, including friends, neighbors, and relations! Feed him bread and milk or cream and keep the house warm, because he appreciates a well-kept hearth. He particularly dislikes clergymen and teetotalers, upon whom he will play relentless pranks.
Monaciello (Little Monk)
A Monaciello is an Italian wine cellar Elf from the region of Naples. He will be very protective of your wine cellar as long as you offer him regular gifts of wine. He dresses in a red, hooded cloak and appears to have a friendly, drunken disposition (usually). He may also guard a treasure. If you manage to steal his hood you can take the treasure.
Clurichaun
A Clurichaun is a relative of the Irish leprechaun. He wears red, and although he appears drunk, he is always well groomed. Like the Monaciello, he also likes to live in wine cellars, where he keeps the wine from spoiling and protects it from thieves. Make regular offerings of wine to him and all will be well, but if you ignore or abuse him, he will destroy your wine stores.6
Spirits Who Protect the Farm
In ancient times the Spirits around the farm were respected. For example, the first milking always went to the Fairies. In those times farm animals were loved and respected, and many were even thought of as family members. Now we live in the age of industrial farms where abuse of animals and the land are all too common. Perhaps a return to the old ways of caring for the lives on the farm, both the seen and the unseen, would help us become a more civilized society.
Hogboon, Hogboy, Hugboy, Haugbúi (Old Norse)
A Hogboon is a northern European guardian Spirit who inhabits burial mounds. While these Spirits are helpful to those who offer them gifts such as wine, ale, or milk, they resent interference with their mounds, such as children playing on them or cows grazing on them (not to mention the intrusions of archaeologists and tourists!). They especially resent those who come to steal treasure.
It can be good luck to set up housekeeping near a Hogboon burial mound, provided the proper offerings are made on a regular basis. The best offerings are a rooster or cow, the milk from a cow right after she calves (colastrum), or the first jug of new ale. A Hogboon who is well cared for will help with the farm chores and even accompany the family when they move. Neglecting a Hogboon, however, can lead to sick cows, lost possessions, or a haunted house.7
Gruagach
A Gruagach is the wandering Spirit of a mother who has died in childbirth or the Spirit of a woman who has been stolen by the Fairies. Most common in Scotland, she is tied to a particular piece of land rather than to a family. She helps in the home and dairy, especially if offerings of milk are left for her regularly. She is easily offended if not given her due and will retaliate by letting loose the cows, spilling or spoiling the milk, or ruining the grain. After each milking, offerings of milk should be left for her on a clach na Gruagach (gruagach stone). She will appear happy when a family is about to get good news and sad and weepy if bad news is coming.
In these modern times not everyone has a cow. I like to pour a large milk offering onto stones for her and for other protective Spirits at least once a year, with apologies and expressions of gratitude for their help. My area of New England was settled by Scottish sheep herders who brought the local Spirits with them.
Nisse (Danish, Norwegian), Tomte (Swedish), Tomtenisse or Tonttu (Finnish)
The Nisse is another northern Spirit who has the appearance of a garden gnome and inhabits mounds and farms. Nisser live in the house or barn, which they secretly guard from misfortune, and help with the farm chores and housework. If well cared for they will follow the family when they move. They do not like swearing, rudeness, or urinating on farm buildings or equipment, and they cannot abide laziness. If offended they may play tricks or even harm the herds. They can also make themselves invisible, which is why they are almost never seen.
A Nisse on a Yule card from 1885
(from the National Library of Norway, Wikimedia Commons license CC BY 2.0)
Their favorite animal is the horse, and sometimes they will braid the horse’s tail or mane at night. Their preferred offering is porridge with a nice pat of butter melted on top, especially at the winter solstice.8
Plant Spirit Charms
These herb charms are traditional German folk magic fetishes, usually made of Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) root. They may also be made from Ash root (Fraxinus spp.), Dandelion root (Taraxacum officinale), or White Bryony (Bryonia alba) root. Other herbs may be used if the practitioner feels strongly drawn to them. (In my case it was a large Osha root that called to me.)
Following are a few simple steps to make your own charm.
- Introduce yourself to the plant Spirit and ask it if it wants to work with you. If it says no then move on to a different plant. Respectful offerings of food and drink will make it more likely that the Spirit will say yes. (I suggest using a pendulum to determine if it’s a yes or a no.)
- On a Friday, at the dark moon or at the new moon, go out before sunrise and face west. Inscribe a circle around your plant three times, using your index finger to alert the plant Spirit that something is about to happen. Then dig a circle around the roots so the plant can be easily pulled out of the ground.
- Once you have extracted the root, wash it in fresh, clean water and then gently trim or carve it to look like a human form of the opposite sex.
- Any cut pieces or shavings should be returned to the hole from which the plant was pulled. Leave a bent silver coin in the hole and then re-fill the hole with dirt. Make offerings to the Earth of Vervain (Verbena officinalis), Apple (Malus domestica) cider, milk, or honey to recompense her for her loss.
- Bury the root in the earth again at a place of power such as a crossroad, a place where three streams meet, or in or near a graveyard.
- On the next Friday that is a dark moon or a new moon “feed” the root with milk and then dig it up.
- While your root is incubating in the soil, prepare a beautiful container such as a carved or painted box. Smudge it with Sage (Salvia spp.) or Juniper ( Juniperus communis) to sanctify and purify it for your root.
- When the root is extracted from its burial place, take it home and wash it with wine. Then dry it thoroughly in a warm oven or near the hearth.
- Wrap the completely dried root in a clean white cloth and lay it in its special “coffin.” Take it out at least once a month and feed it with a sprinkling of honey, milk, or wine. Treat it with all respect.
- If its time of use is finished it should be reburied in the same hole from which it was taken, or as close to that as possible.
Plant charms can also be carefully preserved and honored and then gifted from parent to child over generations and will continue to aid the practitioner as long as they are fed and treated with reverence.9