An Uncommon Bestiary: The Occult Natural Catalogue
An Uncommon Bestiary: The Occult Natural Catalogue
The Weird has spun out and weaved the shapes of many powers, all encountered in many different ways- as many different powers as there are places or even men and women. Weird is such that, in our perception of it, it never spins the same way perfectly twice. Every combination of forces that we can identify with our minds shows great uniqueness, or even a hidden uniqueness that we cannot easily see with our given limitations.
One will encounter spiritual powers and other living powers every day of life, and all day- and all night, even while one sleeps. Most will not be aware that they have entered into the presence of certain powers; such that we are, we are dullards to the subtle reaches of reality. But the wise can sharpen the mind, and see their “true companions” in the great Weird.
What follows are simple notes about some of the shapes and names given by the ancients, and by folklore, to how many of the weird-powers can be experienced. This is a catalogue of the past and the present; but it is not full and complete- you may experience things that do not fall into any neat list. But it is good to know some of the “marks” of the wisdom-tradition, so that you can (perhaps) feel the comfort of knowing where you have been, in whose presence you may have stood, and find some meaning that way.
Truly, the greatest “meaning” will only be written down by you, based on your own experience. But the catalogue is a starting point, and more than that, an orientation to how the sorcerer should “see” the world of Weird. It is a community of living beings, some seen, many unseen, every bit as rich and powerful as any fantastic mythology or tale. Our world is not empty; it is sorcerous and potent beyond description.
I have often stated that, contrary to what most think, the call to witchcraft and sorcery is not automatically a call back to pantheonic Paganism. Of course, nothing stops a person whose heart is motivated to worship Pagan Gods and Goddesses from doing so; but today, our relationships have changed in many ways with those Weird-powers that were once accorded universal respect as deities, and one must not feel pressured into any sort of model of relationship with them. Only one rule is ever required for relating to any power, from the perceptually greatest to the least- and that is the rule of respect. One must have the right amount of awe, acceptance, and caution for most of the weird-powers, and only the deepest respect for the greatest.
These powers are as real as you or I, or as real as the tree outside your door. They are vast, pervasive, mysterious, and still capable of acting within your life on a very deep level. It would appear that you decide the level of your involvement- though you will no doubt discover as I have that Fate has other plans for our lives, and what we are driven to respect and to love and to pursue are often not our conscious choices. No sorcerer, whatever their tastes in religion, can afford to be anything other than respectful to other sentient powers- especially those great powers that still hover darkly within our world, shaping so many of our ends- nor anything other than honest to what the Weird manifests in them.
For me, the life of knowing Weird and living on the Land aside its many powers is religion enough- and at any rate, religion cannot live our lives for us; whoever we are and whatever we believe, we have to work at relating well and being wise.
Spirits and Powers Given the Honor of Gods by the Ancients
The Binding Weird and the Weird-Sisters
Captured in the lore and myths of the most ancient lands and peoples, the Weird itself cannot fail to appear to the soul-eyes of human beings. When she appears- the veritable manifestation of the totality itself, she is mysterious and beyond even the ken of other spirits that were called Gods- they being subject to her inexorable will. She appears in older lore in a triple form, as sisters weaving fate, or as a singular “fate” herself- Old Fate, in fact.
The appearances of the “Fates” or “Norns” in folklore and even in the personal dreams or visions of people alive today have a special character- they are not so much “actors” that stop by for chats or tea- they are icons of abstract and awe-full concepts, normally only appearing to signify that some deeper motion or power has been set thereupon by the great Law itself. An entire class of lesser “norns” or weirds- perhaps folk-memories of witch-women in the past that acted as human mediators of the inexorable power, as well as their continuing living presence in this very moment- have appeared in folklore, and these have been somewhat more conversational, if no less deadly or powerful.
The Pale Faced Woman
The mystery of this spiritual power is truly beyond us; but she is found at all levels of mythology and folklore from the past, and she is an ongoing presence this very day, for those who are fortunate- or unfortunate- enough to meet her, or know the way to her dwelling. Whether one is fortunate or unfortunate really rather depends on their own character- for lazy, malicious, selfish, or spoiled rotten people never seem to come away well from her.
She is the “hidden” spirit, the “hulda” being of goddess-like power that maintains great authority in the Underworld, over the dead, deep below the hills and ground, and within the unseen generally. She appears to be the ultimate source of storms and snow and other weather- and the decider of the destinies of unborn children, drawn from a pond of souls that she maintains- the very pool of living essences that are “asleep” or wandering about in the underworld, destined for further wanderings. Owls seem to be the birds that are her “animal badge”- a living symbol of her presence, though geese fulfill this role, too.
The deeper questions of this being are many- what is her relationship, precisely, to the figure of “Old Fate” or the Weird, broadly? Is she an embodiment of the Weird, like the iconographic figures of the Fate-sisters? It seems that she wields great power as a weird-weaver, and yet, she appears very personal and communicative in tales told about her. These questions cannot really be answered, as everyone will have a different experience of her, if they experience her in this life. There are some- this author included- who believe her to be the “inner earth goddess” or spirit who is also the “earth mother”, one and the same being (perhaps an “inner” and an “outer” face for the same power), though this being can take on many masks or guises if she likes.
The “Green Gown”- or the “Old Lady”- to be detailed soon- is believed by me to be this same power. Others disagree for various reasons. As to the subject of whether or not she is identical to the Weird, or the “Weird embodied”, one must recall that every thing that exists- from leaves to human beings to rocks or shrews- anything- is an “embodiment” of Weird, of the totality, in a way. The rest is mysterious.
This “pale faced woman”, the “hell-queen”, the great Dame, was (and is) a chief tutelary power of witch-cults, as well as many other cults in antiquity, and has done her part as more than one saint in Roman Catholicism, along with her other guises. She is perhaps best well known to children the world over as “Mother Goose”. Hints to her nature and powers can be found in Grimm’s folktale “Mother Hulda”. The Pale-Faced Woman and the Green Gown/Earth Mother seem to be positioned to be “elder” to nearly all of the other spiritual beings recorded in lore- even their mother. She is certainly a fore-mother to mankind, whose bodies and blood are drawn from the earth and water, and whose souls- being rivers of natural power- are also drawn from nature.
The Elfin Queen or Princess of Glamours
Where hares run and roam, you will know the presence of this spirit, well-attested to as a lady among the Elfin people (the Hill-people or Faeries, the inhabitants of the inner world). She is the enchantress par excellence, Venusian and running untamed, like the hares whose forms she apparently takes when she desires it. Cats- also malkins- are the other “animal badge” that she wears, and at times, rides along with her six sisters. She is the Godda of legend, thought by some to be another hypostasis of the earth mother, but again, these things are hard to compare or know for certain. Roses are her sacred flowers, and she is about in spring and summer, like her boxing hares and fertile malkins. This would mark her as part of the “seelie” court, the bright-crown company, though one must not get too attached to such easy designations- her dark side runs deeper than the ocean. Anyone who has felt the infatuation of love and the dark depths of desire already knows something of it.
The Quicksilver Prince of Elves, Master of Sorcery
The unseen world has produced a prince among princes- and his presence has been known throughout all times by all peoples. The original teacher and awakener of man to his potentials, the quicksilver-spirit of this Master being has appeared in the deeps of forests in the north, down to the streets of glittering cities in the south of the ancient world. It is his rural appearance among the peoples of Britain and the north that I specialize in researching, though entire books could be written about his omnipresent and ongoing activities.
He, more than any other being, was assaulted and vilified by Christian powers all over Europe and the Near East, called “The devil”- likely due to his association with serpents and the awakening of mankind- an awakening that ancient Judaism and Christianity associated with the first sin. “Devil” may be seen, in retrospect, as yet another title for this master shape-shifter, whose great wisdom is mixed freely with his great and mysterious nature, his penchant for trickery and trouble, and his inscrutable methods and motivations.
There is no way to know the truth about this power’s true and ultimate origin, anymore than we can know it for anything- but he has been called “artificer”, the teacher of metalworking to human beings (and other civilizing technologies) and is worshipped as “Tubal Cain” by one famous group of witches to this day. He is the ploughman- the teacher of agriculture, the “Tas” or “Tascio”, the “Daxa” of the rural countries, guardian of fields and farms. He is the “Bucca”, the goatish spirit that takes us into a series of folkloric characters, such as local land-powers called “pucks”, to the great kingly-spirit of the land and sky who was also (as we shall see) associated with goats at times. This spirit is not those spirits, however much they seem to overlap in a surface-level reading.
As a master shape-shifter, and a supremely wise spirit, this Master could appear as anything- the turnskin lord- appearing as human or beast, male or female, muscular and sooty, or young and beautiful, or just androgynous. He is Firebringer and Witchfather, in days long past and today. The enlightener of mankind and guide of souls of the dead, he was the Apollonian and Mercurial power enshrined by the Greeks and Romans. Wolves and ravens, alongside goats and serpents, were his animal badges. The winds were especially potent signs of his presence and power, a power of aerial spiritual liberation or spirit-flight.
The Lordly Thunder Spirit
Captured in every European mythology as the Drighten, the High Thunderer- the God of sky and thunder, of rain and oak trees, and sometimes of the solar-disk cross, representing the magnificence of the power of order over wicked powers and chaotic weird, this spirit- remote though he is- is still out and about. One of his most ancient names is Induru. He is killer of wicked powers, one before whom they all tremble. Today, he is largely prayed to by Christians who call him “Lord”, though the character of their God is based on primitive Semitic myths and not representative of the whole character of this powerful being. He is far too remote to be the personal God of church-going folk, but he is active in the skies of this world- and also in the forest and wild places, for this masculine force is not limited to just the sky.
An older guise of the same power was known from the far Harrapa and Indus valleys, all the way to Britain- the earth-bound and savage power of this fatherly and lordly spirit, given to wildness and chaos as much as to the protection of natural places and the sanctification of the earth- known in very old times as Rudara, and in later folklore perhaps as Edric. This power is not a simple one- it is the closest thing most people today imagine when they imagine “God”, the masculine power that over-arches the formed natural world, and indwells it- and he wears antlers and horns in his many ancient and modern depictions (at least in his earth-concerned guises) and is the God of many a modern neo-pagan today. They seldom realize how vast and dangerous his power really is, being as ancient and wild as it is, and thus, seldom really tap into it.
For all his primal and forceful nature, he is a trustworthy protector of mankind and the world as a whole and all its creatures, and responds well to respectful offerings, and expects right, respectful behavior from humans, both to the land, the unseen world, and between one another.
That the High Thunderer should have a “chthonic” or earth-bound aspect is not new; the Greeks likewise prayed to a “Chthonic Zeus”, associated with a great serpent in the land, and the Roman Jupiter was originally an oak-spirit. Mate to the Earth-mother, he is father to many if not all. He has influence over weather and hunts wicked powers, and even the souls of the wicked who become earth-bound at death and are foolish enough to cross paths with his hunt. He has his own sorcery, which strips us bare of civilization and takes us back to the deepest places in ourselves.
He is master of beasts, and grants familiar spirits to sorcerers who dare approach him. He, like the goatish puck, was associated with “the devil”, though the mistake in that logic is far too clear to dignify much response. He is the spirit of the arousal of life-force and fertility/sexuality. Bulls, goats, serpents, and stags all passed as his animal badges in the past. He is mighty in the land, and even the People of the Hill still fear and respect him- though he is seldom seen directly, dwelling as he does in deeper- and higher- places than most can venture. Such as these “high level” beings are, to “see” them in their entirety- which would include the heights and depths of Weird- would likely overpower or destroy a mortal being, or any being bound to confusion and limitation.
The Shriekers
Normally appearing as women, these weeping, wailing, or shrieking beings are very frightening, and only appeared in ancient lores as choosers of people who had to die in battles or natural disasters. They are tied to the fate of each person and family, and follow each person and family throughout time. They are tied completely to the inner-world dwelling folk, the People of the Hill, and to the strange out-workings of Weird, which they seem to have some insight into.
The Old Wise Woman, Grandmother Green-Gown
The “green gown” worn by this ancient being is, of course, the verdure of the earth, the green of fields and forests and plowed land. She is the “earth-mother”, so well known from many mythologies, and (apparently) very active once in giving the gifts of law and culture to human beings, as well as oracles and mysteries. Her giving nature is fully and perfectly balanced by an ambivalent “taking” nature, though she is still motherly. Those who experience her or encounter her (like all these powerful beings, usually in a vision or dream) need to consider the reasons for her emergence. She demands that we remember our source and live well and wisely in our interactions with the vast pool and web of living forces that make up her body, and ourselves. Whatever elements or material we human beings are made of, they are from her, the common mother.
We owe much to her, all of the food we eat and the water we drink, and she responds well to our gifts given to her, buried in her body or cast into her waters. Any large bonfire made and charmed properly can receive offerings and send them to any power- fire becomes a burning doorway into the unseen, and anything cast on a funeral pyre enters the world of the dead alongside the dead person or beast.
Sun-weird and Moon-weird
It is no secret that the sun and moon have been worshipped by all humans in some form or fashion, and given many different roles and powers in the play of mythology. When one looks deeper, one sees that the sun and moon, far from being simple deities in mythologies, are often symbols of other powers- the sun, for instance, is often the spiritual icon of the bright, life-giving order of the sky and the triumph of human cunning and wisdom over dark powers. In the distant past, the solar-force, in its representation as the "equal armed cross" was given wholly over to the sky-god as a sign of his power. The moon was a symbol of the dark feminine powers that hearkened back to older times, when perhaps feminine divinities may have been supreme in the eyes of early humans. The moon is associated chiefly with sorcery and access into the underworld; the sun with the source of life and victory.
They have been called divinities- though different people have seen them alternately as Gods or Goddesses. They certainly have a weird-force of great might, though it is their impact on human minds and imaginations that is their true power. They are doors to deeper understandings. They are also the weirds of “time keeping” and the ordering of seasons, showing one of Weird’s most pervasive faces: that of a cycling power. Both the light of day (the sun) and the light of night (the moon) are badges of Weird’s activity at a very high level, both keys to deeper doors, whether "godly" or otherwise. Like all Weird-forces, they can appear in many ways, showing many different levels of interaction.
The Serpent in the Land
The great dragon or wyrm, the Land-serpent, is a latent and active stream of power that flows through the entire land, and through human bodies as life-force. In some way, it is another image of the great Weird, though an image that is tied to the earth-mother and the kingly spirit of the land and sky, for they apparently “wield” this power to their own ends. Human sorcerers can wield it as well, as it is as natural to our bodies as it is to the hills or winds. Any being in myth or lore who is associated with serpents is associated with sorcery, and thus, this natural and omnipresent power. It “sleeps” in certain seasons of the year- the cold seasons, and its awakening is the herald of summer.
Other Beings and Powers, More Commonly Met or Found Through Occult Exploration
The confused minds of any and all beings can wander through many “ways of being”, many limited forms of life, throughout “time”, for time has no beginning or ending. It is true that perhaps we have all been many “things” in our time, many expressions of life in both the seen and the unseen world- the shape-shifting “cycle of the soul” or, more properly, “cycle of the spirit” is a natural conclusion and article of belief in the deepest strands of the old way. Any of the following powers are more related to humanity than we realize- for many-though not all- may have been humans before. Naturally, even without “cyclic existence binding”, weird-powers arise themselves naturally and spontaneously from the power of Weird, and are uniquely, perfectly what they happen to be. The real mystery of any being- what supports it and what originated it- is often (if not always) too complex to really be known by mortals.
Wort Weirds
Word weirds are the genii of plants, the non-ordinary aspect (revealing the possible sentient inner-worldly power) of all green growing things, as well as mosses, fungi, and the like, which are not trees. A plant-weird or a wort-weird- like any weird- is not an easy thing to categorize; they seem, at times, and to various perceptions, like strange cycles or processes of power; sometimes living, at other times seemingly unaware; at other times they can appear as beings, even humanoid beings or theriomorphs (animal shaped beings). The key rule that should govern your interaction with plant-weirds is respect; whatever they are, whoever they are, they are essential parts of the entire web of Weird, the totality.
Collecting parts of simples and worts or herbs has to be done with a mind to both respect the weird of the plant, and to preserve its power- without that subtle power, which can flee or drain out of a part of a plant, or the plant as a whole (if its roots are removed from the ground) the plant’s part or body is useless to sorcery.
Making a furrow around the plant, setting apart from others, and making offerings of dried oats, milk, bread, small coins, or part of your own body- hair and/or blood- is the first step, as the weird will be increased by this treatment. A conjury to the weird- using the understanding of the three-pronged fork of sorcery is next, communicating precisely what it is you intend to do with the part, and showing respect to the weird and promising it rewards. Taking the part with a quick slice or pluck- always careful to use clean blades, as not to infect the plant- is third. Always doing this under a full moon, or on a day or night of a sacred day or season is better. If you know the planetary stream that the plant belongs to- Venusian, Saturnian, etc. you should only do this on the corresponding day. Storing the plant-part has to be done carefully- do not let it touch the ground, and keep it in a clean cloth or bottle or box. Use it within a few days, that same night or the next day being better- and if you must dry the parts to keep them, know that the power may remain, but it gets weaker over time.
Tree Coils or Wood Guardians
The spirits or weirds of the mighty trees are a “step up” from their smaller growing counterparts, and they evidence more power and seeming intelligence. Some of the most developed weirds of trees are as concerned with their own well-being as humans are, and have access to great powers. Many are resentful to human beings, after many ages of abuse and misuse, so proceed with caution in dealings with them, making certain that you demonstrate your benevolence and wisdom to them, that they recognize you as not just another human who litters their roots or snaps their branches for frivolous reasons.
Tree-coils, or Tree-Weirds often join consciously into a form of solidarity with other powers around them- nowhere is this more apparent than with the case of the Willow-weird and nearby weirds of waters or streams, and with the Oak-weirds and the mistletoe-weirds that sometimes take purchase in their branches. Forests as a whole become like a community of powers, and they actively guard and resist intrusions from powers and people that they consider dangerous, or sense danger in.
They have a strong power in the wholeness of things, though humans normally only see or sense these things as “Innerworldly” potencies- and if you believe that trees cannot be dangerous if aroused or threatened, you are fatally mistaken. While they are not likely- often- to reach down and choke you with their branches, they can do terrible “weird damage” to a person- approximating what some may call a “curse”, and they can affect the world in other ways, besides. Together or singularly, they can change the atmosphere of a place into one that is very welcoming and fortunate or very dark, disturbing, or repellent. If befriended, they can offer and teach limitless wisdom to human beings.
Like other weirds, they can appear to the inner senses of humans in many ways- they can appear as animals or as other humans, or just as trees, or other more bizarre things, like lights or odd creatures. It is truly not possible to perform sorcery or have any depth experience of the inner-world in a forest of tree-weirds that are actively resistant to one’s activities.
Wards
Any power- including living humans (or the spiritual presence of a dead human) can become a “ward”, a guardian of a natural location. Some wards choose to merge with an area’s inner region to protect it; others are bound or forced to do so through misdeeds or harm to a place, or through other circumstances or powers. Wards, like sufficiently powerful tree-coils, are “doorkeepers” between a natural place and the unseen reaches of Weird beyond. No one spiritually transitions through that place from one state of awareness to another without the ward’s permission and blessing. Damaging or disrespecting a natural area that happens to be warded is the fastest and most disastrous way of bringing down their attentions. Wards may persist for very long perceptual amounts of time, and others, after a time, mysteriously fade or leave. Their usual method of defending a place- any place- is to cause nightmares for people they don’t desire there, or cause accidents, some of which can be lethal. They can also cause an area to be permeated with a sense of dread.
Water Weirds
The spirits of streams, pools, springs, rivers, lakes, and even the vast oceans- these weirds are sometimes (though not often) encountered alone, and other times in communal groupings, just like Land-weirds or land-spirits. Water weirds of great age often take on a feminine appearance, and can be very alluring. They despise people polluting their homes, and are more often than not dangerous- they will drown unsuspecting people of any age, and I suspect this is more of a function of their frustration with mankind than anything else- though they are also pictured as “vampiric”- they can feast on the released life-force of a drowned victim.
Water weirds were often given regular sacrifices and gifts- cast directlty into their homes- by ancient people, and some, especially the weirds of wells and thermal springs, were elevated to the status of Goddesses, due to their great involvement with giving human beings life-preserving water and healing therapy. They deserved to be thanked, then and now. These ancients may be dangerous, too- especially the spirits of old rivers and springs that were the centers of cults in Pagan times; they are starved for attention and offerings.
The fastest way to become protected by their benevolence is to make large offerings to them, but don’t ever become fooled into thinking that they will never be harmful to you- always keep a measure of respect and wariness. All natural bodies of water can be used as gateways into the Underworld by the dead, or by sorcerers who wish to lower their consciousness into that deep place- but guardian water weirds can block this passage, if not appeased. All water weirds have a beguiling power.
Land-Weirds or Land Wights
Chiefly responsible for the fertility of the land, or should I say, able to withhold the fertility of the land if offended, these powers overlap completely with the “green people” and “white people” that I will discuss shortly. Like water weirds, they can and often do appear as groups of powers, as opposed to an individual power. Pagan people spent a good deal of time propitiating these powers, for good harvests and yields. They hate church bells and drawing the power of the underworld up through a hazel staff, mounted with a horse-skull- a “blasting pole” or “scorn pole”- will scatter them and cause them to change locations, leaving a wasteland- either physically or spiritually- behind. The fleeing land-weirds may vent their wrath on any who live nearby, or towards whose home the horses’ eye sockets gaze.
This sort of curse is very dark, and likely disastrous to the long-term destiny of the person who does it, unless they had a very justifiable reason. Land wights desire blood, honey, and milk, and would prefer to have it poured on natural stones that may jut out of their land. If not, directly onto the ground will suffice. Some extremely powerful land-weirds almost seem to rule over areas like a local god. Very malicious land-weirds- called Yarthkins in some areas- can cause great harm if they desire, or if they are disturbed.
Ice and Stone Giants
These are the non-ordinary aspects or weird-force of glaciers and mountains. They seldom, if ever, speak or communicate, for they are of a “giant” character that overwhelms mortal senses- inner or outer, though their presence can surely be felt- and it can be majestic or terrifying.
Spuks or Spooks- Haunts and Hungry Ghosts
All manner of fates may await a deceased person or animal, or even another power that “lives” and “dies” in its own way- but the notion of a ghost or a haunt is well-captured in human history, and refers specifically to those spirits of the dead who refuse- or resist somehow, through powerful will or sorcery- to follow the natural cycle of the spirit and wander about, often causing fear and trouble where they go.
Some may say that the “wandering spirit” is another part of the cycle, and just as necessary as any other being, but folklore unanimously accords these powers dread and pity- and always is the notion that they are stepping wrong, somehow, or violating some natural imperative. I’ll leave that discussion to better philosophers than myself; all I need say is that greed, anger, rage, hate, sorrow, and fear can create these beings, and they are often bound to a person or a place, and sometimes bound to cyclically repeat certain actions, deeds, or activities. The “repeating cycle” of some is a manifestation of their own fixation on certain thoughts or feelings- they seldom have the memory to realize that they have been in the same place for sometimes centuries (from the perspective of us mortals) doing the same thing over and over again.
Often, they will be bound by a deed they left undone, or an object they stole or somehow hid- and the way to dispel them is to find their hidden things and show them to the light of the sun. Excessive weeping for a lost loved one can “wet their shroud” or “wet their winding sheet” and cause them to remain behind- a sad state of affairs if there ever was one. Helping grieving people to overcome their grief, in this case, is the way to allow those poor souls peace.
Other haunts must be frightened away by the power of greater spirits- chiefly the Lordly Spirit described in the first part of this essay- or by showing them evidence of their deaths, as many refuse to believe that they have died. Any smell that re-creates the smell of rot or burning flesh or decay can also drive them away, as it (somehow) forces them to face their own deaths. Haunts often cause disturbances in sleep, fires, house-accidents (if they are bound to a house) feelings of dread, and (sometimes, rarely) the theft of items.
The Green People
Showing the overlap between the human dead and the “land weirds”, the term “green people” refers to those who have died, and been buried- and have merged with the land, becoming some sort of presence in that place. They can be thought of as land-weirds, but they maintain a sleep-like, dream-like state of merging, and can sometimes be sources of information about their own lives, and sources of impressions that they receive from deeper powers.
The White People, the People of the Hill
Again, showing a well-attested to overlap between the human dead and the Faery-world, the “White people” are the faery-dead, or just the people of the Innerworld of Faery or Elfhame- the “elf-home”, for the dead were believed to become “elven”. Thus, “faery” and “elf” are two cultural terms for the same type of being. Whether or not all of the white people in the unseen world were once “living” humans is not known, but many from folklore clearly were. Unlike the “green people” who die and merge with the perceptual “surface level” of the ground, the white people are turned towards the inner, deeper world and wide awake- in their own strange sense of wakefulness, and can appear as humanoids that are sometimes perceived as much smaller than human beings, and sometimes just as people, dressed oddly.
They can be deadly to living mortals- they can “elf strike” them and cause strokes, heart attacks, and diseases, and they can cause a state of death that allows them to leave a person’s body behind, but takes the person’s soul or spirit into their own world, trapping it there. For all their dangers, they are not all malicious, though some can be. They tend to be captured in folklore as somewhere between indifferent or ambivalent, and mischievous, at least from the human perspective. They are clearly bound to new and secret “rules” of behavior or social and mental norms that belong to the unseen world, and therefore are hard to judge from human perspectives.
The “elfin dead” or the faeries are all a supremely magical category of sentient life- they specialize in illusions or glamours, and seem to have a strange dependency on human beings, at least in certain situations. They hate being spied on, and they always tend to reward human kindness or hospitality. While they spend most of their time in their own native world, they do emerge into the human world, perceptually, at sacred times of the year, to do their “rides” or “rades”, moving across the countryside at intervals and between certain faery-haunted places, a procession that can be dangerous to encounter for the ordinary person.
The Faery people can clearly sometimes remember their former lives, sometimes from ages before on earth, and often live in states of longing or fading passion for those old times and their old lives. They also clearly have ways of maintaining their existence in the faery-state, sometimes through very dark sacrifices. They represent a community of beings that share the wholeness of things and our world with us, so understanding them- and the study of the faery faith and faery folklore could take up a lifetime- is very important for sorcerers of the old traditions.
The most important understanding of the faery world is, of course, the understanding that unifies it with the mortal world- for in a real and immediate way, the white people are the “other half” of the life we all lead; they are doing what we once did before we wandered into the human world, and what they are doing is what most of us will do after we die- at least according to the old thinking. Before it sounds too exciting, recall that some regions of the unseen world were not very happy places at all; faery and the heathen notion of “Hell” or Hades are the same place, and contained their own regions of suffering- though it would appear that one’s destiny with respect to one’s new condition of existence was determined very much by how they lived and how wise they became now.
Red Men and Cold Weirds
Unconscious or semi-conscious powers that are malicious, or at least passively harmful to human life, are called “the Red men”, and of course, the weird-power that spins into freezes, frost, snow, and cold are the cold-weirds. The red men can be weird powers of disease and plague, or of mental dis-eases, or just presences that inspire anger and destructive feelings among human beings. They don’t tend to be very responsive to communication in the inner world, and instead show themselves in some threatening manner, some threatening monstrous form, or some threatening animal form. Cold-weirds are likewise very non-responsive, though like with any weird, nearly anything is possible. These powers are really mostly known through their presence- as the naturally chaotic forces in nature, natural diseases, and the natural colds that come and choke the life out of lands in winter, and help cause the deaths of elderly or sick people. Aside from the predations of malicious faeries, these “red men” are the powers that protective charms are designed for. You learned many of those charms in the essay on the powers, potencies, and virtues of trees. The power of fire is the only power that can ward away cold-weirds.
House-weirds
Houses are sacred places in their own right, for many power-interactions take place in homes that are the most vital interactions within human society: the creation of new family members, eating meals, sheltering from rain and foul weather, and safety from the outside world. Such interactions taking place within wooden or stone frames and piles and rooms, under beams of wood, cause homes to become impregnated with vast amounts of concentrations of Weird- and thus, attract sentient powers, some of whom may arise through the interactions of humans and these places. Other house-weirds may have been land-weirds or wights inhabiting the area that the house was built on, who “moved in” as it were. Either way, every house also has a spirit- or at least most do- and these powers need recognition and respect, as well, and they will yield many blessings for the house.
When we look to folklore for guidance, we see many stories of the human relationship with the spirits of their homes. The stories of the spirits called "brownies" from England, Scotland, and Northwestern Europe are clear manifestations in lore of weirds that entered into relationships with humans, and worked for them in their homes and on their farms, in exchange for gifts of food and recognition. As a bit of trivia, the fact that the little brown cakes that we call "brownies" are called "brownies" in the first place is because of these spirits- the little cakes and bowls of milk left out at night to feed the house-spirit actually took on the name of the spirit- a brownie.
With linguistic variation, "brownie" becomes "bodach" in the Scottish Highlands, and "fenodoree" on the Isle of Man, and all refer to house guardian spirits. Fairy-type folklore can teach us something important about the human relationship to these beings. If offended, these beings became "boggarts", and became harmful to the human inhabitants of their places of dwelling. This is likely a reflection of the idea that wights can be harmful if offended or not appeased. Brownies specialized in doing house-work and protecting the home, and milk was typically left out for them, as well as bread or cakes- but there was an almost universal warning included. Brownies could never be offered a reward for its services or its labors on behalf of the home.
If they were offered a reward, they would usually flee or become harmful. This taboo seems odd, but the old folklore says that these beings were too free-spirited to be "bound" to humans through the acceptance of payment. It seems that they would accept praise and they would take the offerings left out, but if the humans said "Take this in exchange for what you have done for us", the spirit balked at the bond that accepting such a gift would entail.
Heathens believed that "a gift demanded a gift"- There was and is a bond created between two people who give gifts to each other. There is an expectation that follows this act. The house-spirit desires communion, recognition and participation with human beings, but it doesn't desire to be bound as a servant. It is enough to leave gifts for the house-weird, which it will accept, and to thank the spirit through recognizing its presence and praising its good deeds for the home, but to offer it a reward for this is something that the wise should not do.
As an aside, the one offered reward that drove house-spirits away more than any other was clothing. To offer a brownie or house-spirit clothing as a reward would drive it way, infallibly. It is also worth noting that brownies and other types of house-guardians and spirits hate Christian religious symbols. I don't expect most sorcerers to have such things in their houses, but those who do can be certain that the house-weirds have long since departed.
Theriomorphs
Weirds encountered in the shape of birds and animals are more common than one might expect- and some are legendary, such as the “black shuck” dogs, the big bargests and black spirit-hounds that are regarded as omens of approaching death or disaster, and the legendary huge cats that are sometimes spotted around rural areas. Theriomorphic weirds are as varied as the “ordinary” animal world, and related to them, somehow. They often do appear as they do, in the shape they are in, to symbolize certain Weird-realities that humans are best to take note of. Part of the fear, in so many cultures, of ravens and owls is likely because it was never known if an owl that landed on someone’s rooftop- thought in some places to be a sign of coming death- was just an ordinary owl, or a spirit appearing that way to show a sign. In this sense, theriomorphs seem to be like the “shriekers” or the death and fate-omens that come through the forms of the crying or weeping women.
Justified Men and The Hidden Company
Some human beings finally manage to achieve enough wisdom and insight into the wholeness of things, that they are freed from the rounds of wandering and confusion that characterize other people, and they enter into a new order of being. These “hidden companies” of formerly humans but now “ascended” spirits are called the companies of the “Justified Men”- and, when they appear as females, the “Grey Women”. They are the arch-sages and teachers of the entire fund of the ancient wisdom and all wisdom, besides- for they have broken through to the perennial wisdom that is true in all times and places, seeing as they have the deepest mysteries of existence, and attaining a perpetual freedom through which they can continue to interact with people from all eras.
Fetch Powers
Each human being is “followed” through life by unseen powers- none so intimate or essential to them as their “fetch” powers, or the unseen “other aspects” of their personhood. Tied to them ancestrally, the “fetch forces” usually appear in two forms- the beast-fetch or animal fetch, (called a Puckril by some) and as a human figure, normally contrasexual, who acts normally only at death to guide this person “over” into new experiences. Sorcerers, however, can awaken awareness of fetch-powers and win their company in this life, and utilize the many things they can teach to perform great acts of magical potency.
The “fetch bride” or “fetch husband”- the human form of the fetch-follower- is hard even for sorcerers to see or capture, seemingly coming and going as it will- though union with it and its teachings is the key to the “justification” that leads to conscious perpetuity of existence and lasting peace. The “fetch mate” may, in fact, be one of the “hidden company” themselves, though this is speculation. One thing is for certain- the fetch-mate can change into the fetch-beast, so one form- the beast- appears to be “closer” to the human mind and soul, easier to contact, though the beast (the legendary familiar of the witches) performs “lower” duties, such as protection from wicked powers, guidance through unseen landscapes, and sometimes acts as a divination-empowerer. The lore of the fetch is very deep and recondite, and should be sought out in more detail.
Murk-people, Pechts, Dark Elves or Dwarfs
A final category of land-weirds, these beings seem to be encountered “deeper” in the earth, and are associated with artifice, the riches below the earth, and the constant, dark, unconscious milling about of deeper processes of weird. They tend to be disrespectful or hateful to human beings. They may be classed among the “white people” as more inhabitants of the inner world- the deep underworld, specifically- but they represent a less conscious and more malicious strain of beings, at least from human perspectives. They are guardians of the treasures under the earth, and no doubt delight in cursing humans who have been ripping those treasures out of the ground without recognizing their hegemony over these deep realms for the last 2000 years.
