"Keep your eyes and your heart wide open.
Only thus is Faery revealed".
_Brian Froud
"Faeries are seen not through the eyes but through the heart"
The Mask of Truth. True dreaming.
"Faeries show us flow and the possibilities of change. They show us clarity and insight and the fact that everything is connected and that we are all part of one another!"
_Brian
The Faery
_"Faery" is an old term that embraces all the elves and gnomes and fairies and other folk, small and large of the otherworld. It includes the angels whose wings spread across the cosmos, and the wee things that go bump in the night while they scrub your kitchen, tie your shoes neatly to each other, and knot elf locks in your hair as you sleep.
The word faery also means the place_ Faery, the land of all the faeries, also known as the otherworld. Faery is alongside our everyday world, almost but not quite in synchronization with us, overlapping in some ways, different in others, and operating on a different level of energy.
The Magic is in You
Many people in this modern, unenlightened age have a hard time believing in faeries, but
far more people find it impossible to believe that there is magic in themselves.
Natural magic is simple. We are full of it and the more we are true to our own nature, the more we have access to our own magic. When we are caught up in believing in limitations and imposed by ourselves or our culture, we inhibit the flow of energy, which is the melody of Ekstasis's song of the cosmos as it sweeps through us.
"The wings of flying faeries are symbolic of air, and their human or animal legs of earth.
A shimmering , luminous quality is their fire aspect! The fluid aspect of shape-shifting represents water.
Thus they make balanced connections among the four earthly elements and the four directions of the mystical winds.
To all these, however, they add the magic of moonlight, the fifth faery element".
" Faeries hide what you want
and reveal what you need."
"Dreamweaver"
Connecting with the Faery
" To engage with Faery, stay open and let the faeries speak to you. Let them enfold you in faery light. If you desire an emotional or physical healing,direct that thought through the imagery to the light energy of the faery realm. Remember, as each man and woman is a microcosm reflecting the larger natural world, so healing of the self is also a healing for the world. As above,so below!"
For connecting, each of us must discover our own best path.
Just as there are two ways of connecting with the earth, through our feet and through our energy tails-there are two ways of connecting with our sources of guidance, the faeries: through our minds and through our hearts. A way of connecting through the heart is to use our wings. Faeries have wings, but do you realize that you have them, too?
They are part of the human energy structure, just as our tails are. This tells us that we are more like the faeries that many people suppose. Our wings open and close in responce to how we are feeling. Have you ever consciously tried to spread your wings out? They are naturally spreadable to the extend that our hearts are open-and spreading them out helps our hearts to open more widely.
Faeries of Greek mythology.
Perhaps the earliest form of faeries can be found loosely in the mythical beings in Greek mythology, such as the nymphs, satyrsand sileni. The nymphs from ancient Greek myths can be considered as fairies and they existed as early as the time of Homer writing the Iliad and the Odyssey. Even the river gods in Greek myths can be classified as fairies. These are spirits or minor deities of nature or of the natural phenomena.
The idea that the world is full of spirit beings both bad and good is one we find in the oldest myths and tales from cultures the world over. In ancient Greece, the Neo-Platonist Porphyry (c. 232-c. 305 A.D.) wrote that the air was inhabited by good and bad spirits with fluid bodies of no fixed shape, creatures who change their form at will. These were certainly faeries. Porphyry explained that the bad spirits were composed of turbulent malignity and created disruptions whenever humans failed to address them with respect.
In ancient Greek literature, the sirens in Homer's Odyssey are fairies, and a number of the heroes in his Iliad have fairy lovers in the form of nymphs.
A nymph in Greek mythology is a female minor nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing; their amorous freedom sets them apart from the restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polis. They dwell in mountains and groves, by springs and rivers, and also in trees and in valleys and cool grottoes. Although they would never die of old age nor illness, and could give birth to fully immortal children if mated to a god, they themselves were not necessarily immortal, and could be beholden to death in various forms.
Other nymphs, always in the shape of young maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally the huntress Artemis. Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs. They are frequently associated with the superior divinities: the huntress Artemis; the prophetic Apollo; the reveller and god of wine, Dionysus; and rustic gods such as Pan and Hermes.
source: http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Νύμφες
Nymphs are divited into types:
Acheloids(from the river Achelous)
Alseids(groves)
Dryads(forests)
Hamadryads(trees)
The children of Hamadryads
Hamadryad by Waterhouse
Midsummer's night Eve
"Now it is the time of night
That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide.
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate's team
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic. Not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallowed house.
I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door.
(from A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare)
Oberon,Titania and Pulk dancing with Fairies in circle, 1786
On Midsummer's Night (also known as Midsummer Eve) the fairies are at their gayest, dancing merrily around and occasionally stealing beautiful maidens. In at least one Welsh tale, the tale of Einion Las, the fairies would sometimes allow mortals to join in their revel for that one night, and they need not fear the normal dangers associated with dealing with the Fae until the next sunrise.
In one sence, Faery is a land of the past
where the spirit world and the human world once worked
in closer harmony
In the faeries' presence, we experience
a nostalgic yearning for that time
and for all the lost hopes and all the lost dreams,all that
once was or might have been, and may someday
be again
Faeries dwell in the twilight, between day and night, between spirit and matter
between the conscious and the unconscious ...
where all things are possible,where the past and the future meet
where we meet ourselves coming back
When we dance with Faeries, we dance with the reflections of our"
"true inner self of the world
Brian Froud _
All contents (except the Greek myths) are taken from the magical book
of Brian Froud's :" The Faeries Oracle".
Official Brian's & Wendy's Froud website:
Brian Froud's biography and more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Froud
Wishing you a Magical Midsummer night Eve !!
Hope we will pass the veil and we'll all meet there that
Hugs and Kisseees :o))))