An Introduction to Fayerie Traditionalism
"Studying the relations that our remote ancestors maintained with their environment is one means of better understanding humanity, for we are inscribed within history like links of a chain, and if we want to understand our world and that of our ancestors, we have to look back."
-Claude Lecouteux
A Brief Overview
Fayerie Traditionalism (also called Fayerieism, The Ancient Fayerie Faith, or the True Old Ways) is a term used to describe the organic, non-institutionalized, and animistic spiritual practices and beliefs of two groups of people. The first is a widespread historical collection of people from different cultures across Europe and Eurasia. The second is a modern group of people whose practices and beliefs are informed by various strands of history, folklore, and myth that emerged from these historical cultures.
The majority of the historical people who manifested the cultural practices and beliefs that inform modern Fayerie Traditionalism lived in the British Isles and Western Europe, but cultures in Scandinavia, all of continental Europe, and some parts of Eurasia also had practices and customs that folklorists and scholars consider to be in the same vein of similarity. A clear aesthetic kinship exists between the folk-animism of Fayerieism and the generally observed patterns of animistic spirit-veneration around the world.
Modern Fayerie Traditionalists are not attempting to revive a historical Pagan religion. They are attempting to enter into direct relationships with the other-than-human persons (called Fayerie beings or spirits) that inhabit or indwell the landscapes and places where they live, and to create relationships with the souls of deceased relatives, friends, and ancestors, who are also believed to transform into Fayerie beings or spirits at some point after death.
This effort is not part of an attempt to revive the specific Paganism of a pre-Christian culture; it is an attempt to re-awaken the natural interanimistic dimension of life within this world and culture at present, as it relates to an individual life or an individual family or group of people. The idea that this "re-awakening" may positively transform the lives of individuals or groups, or birth new subcultures and local expressions of animistic reverence and relationship, is accepted as a desirable outcome.
Historical Fayerieism in the British Isles and Europe was a multi-layered phenomenon born from remnant animistic beliefs and practices, and from some Pagan beliefs and practices as they survived into Christian cultural times. The worship of (or the conducting of relationships with) Wights, Elves, and Hulda-folk in Iceland and Scandinavia, or the Sidhe-beings in Ireland, or the Fées in Brittany are all examples of local historical expressions of what Fayerie Traditionalists would call the Fayerie Faith.
By entering into reverent relationships with the spirits of a land, and with the souls or spirits of Ancestors, Fayerie Traditionalists believe that good fortune and blessings will naturally emerge within people's lives, and deeper connections can be had with places and the friends and families that share those places. This can be accomplished by anyone who lives anywhere on any land.
Sources
There are nearly endless literary sources that describe Fayerie-related activities and beliefs from the British Isles and Western Europe, and corollary practices and beliefs around other parts of Europe.
Collections of fairy tales and stories from Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Brittany, and Cornwall (such as those collected by Joseph Jacobs, W.B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde, T. Crofton Croker, Donald Mackenzie, William Bottrell, Robert Hunt, Patrick Kennedy, Elsie Masson, and many others) begin the list of sources.
Collections and studies of British Isles folktales, traditional ballads, and fairy beliefs/folk supernaturalism (as done by Katharine Briggs, Lowry Charles Wimberly, Lewis Spence, Anne Ross, Francis James Child, Alwyn and Brinley Rees, Emma Wilby, Lizanne Henderson and Edward Cowan, among others) help to create a historical and academic understanding for the characteristic metaphysical picture of Fayerie beliefs that emerge from the past.
One of the seminal works outlining historical sources for the worldview of Fayerieism- and the source of the historical term "Fairy Faith"- is The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by Walter Evans-Wentz.
The collected tales of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and the many collected fairy and folk-tales from Central Europe and Eastern Europe (Such as the Bavarian Tales collected by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, and A.H. Wratislaw's collection of Slavic folktales) contribute to the historical fund of lore and present the beliefs of historical common folk which clearly included ideas with animistic and pre-Christian origins.
The French historian Claude Lecouteux has written many books about traditional beliefs and practices in pre-Modern Europe that were of pre-Christian origin, and has pointed out their importance with regard to understanding our cultures and histories. His work is another source of insight and inspiration for practitioners of Fayerie Traditionalism. The works of the modern scholar John Grigsby, and his insights regarding how ancient cultures and their beliefs influence and structure our own today, are likewise seen as invaluable.
Modern occult writer Robin Artisson is the founder/originator of modern Fayerie Traditionalism as a spiritual practice. It was Artisson who coined the terms "Ancient Fayerie Faith" and "True Old Ways." His book An Carow Gwyn describes the core worldview of Fayerieism and practices related to it, according to his own understanding.
There may be other modern people believing in line with what Evan-Wentz described in his work as "The Fairy Faith", but Fayerie Traditionalism refers specifically to Robin Artisson's efforts at bringing together historical fairy-related metaphysics and traditional beliefs into a cohesive spiritual expression and practice, and to the community of people who have joined in that effort. The community of Fayerie Traditionalists is called Cylgh An Carow Gwyn (The Circle of the White Stag).
Gods and Other Beings
Fayerie Traditionalism is a form of Spiritual Ecology or Deep Ecology. It embraces an animistic cosmological perspective, and is fundamentally shaped by the modern discipline of Systems Theory and the philosophy of Phenomenology. The writings of Gregory Bateson, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Joanna Macy, Stephen Jenkinson, Derrick Jensen, and David Abram are some of its chief sources for these understandings.
The animistic worldview of Fayerie Traditionalism posits that reality or "the world" is an infinite, living, relational, and co-creating community of persons. Some of these persons are human beings, and others are the many other-than-human animals and life-forms that humans share the world with.
Every other discrete phenomenon that humans may encounter is considered to be a person (or potentially a person) as well: winds, landforms, waters, rivers, lakes, storms, trees, plants, stones, and so forth. Other forms of sentience or personhood that we cannot ordinarily perceive are believed to exist- called spirits or Fayerie-beings- though the realities of ordinarily-sensed phenomenon (like trees, lakes, or mountains) are believed to be indwelled by spirit-persons as well.
Certain spirits are seen to be more influential or powerful than others, and at various times in the past, powerful spirits may have been worshiped by human cultures as "Gods" or "Goddesses." Fayerie Traditionalists do not tend to use the terms God or Goddess when referring to powerful spirits. These terms are seen as political cultural artifacts which aren't often relevant to modern people who were born outside of polytheistic cultures.
There is no belief in Fayerie Traditionalism that a singular "supreme being" exists, and no belief that a single supreme being either created or controls Nature, the universe, or the world. The universe or nature is believed to be timeless and eternal, and to always have existed in some form. Spirits and all other persons are believed to have organically emerged from nature at some point in the past, or in some mysterious manner in defiance of ordinary understanding.
The emergence of people, persons, spirits, natural systems, and other such things from Nature is believed to be the result of spontaneous and intelligent organic processes. The cosmos or world is seen to be an enormous variety of ancient families and communities of living powers and forces (some visible, some hidden) who combine or relate often to create and destroy things.
There is no belief in Fayerie Traditionalism that an over-arching "divine plan" exists for everyone or everything, and there is no belief in some ultimate "end" to this massive system of living relationships, whose creative and destructive potential is experienced by humans in various ways throughout life. There is an acceptance of the fact that countless forces and conditions beyond human understanding or control influence all outcomes in any person's life.
The purpose of human life within this situation and within this chain of natural relationships is realized by humans cooperating to create harmonious and carefully negotiated life-ways between themselves and other forces and persons, which better their chances for living healthy and full lives. The world is not believed to have been created for humans, and humans are not believed to be the most important beings on earth, nor the masters of the earth.
Human intelligence has given humans the power to be very destructive to the earth and the many other persons that dwell upon it, but this is seen as a great failure of wisdom on the parts of humans, and a grave offense to the wider community of life that ultimately shaped and gave birth to human beings.
Many figures and characters that emerge from historical folklore and Fayerie-tales are believed to be cultural expressions of existing spirit-beings that might still be met or encountered, or understood as expressions of an ancient animistic relationship-encounter or ecology. The folkloric figures of the various Fayerie Kings and the Fayerie Queens are believed to be extremely powerful spirit-persons who have a timeless quality of presence that can still be experienced by people alive today. They are seen, in a certain sense, as mediators of the more primordial ancient powers who were the origins of human beings, many spirit-beings, and all other living beings on earth.
These Queenly and Kingly figures, and the Great Ancestral forces that stand more anciently behind them, are not thought of as simply "good" beings; they, like other spirits, are ambiguous in their behavior (sometimes helpful, sometimes harmful) and almost always strange to ordinary human perceptions. They are not often met directly or "in person", though certain legends tell of times when human men and women did meet them. One such story, which is key to the spiritual understanding of Fayerie Traditionalism, is the 13th century Romance of Thomas Rhymer.
These beings are believed to be surrounded by other spirits who act (in some regards) as their servants or helpers, or as mediators of their will and their presence, and those spirits are thought to be responsive at times to respectful human requests for communion or help.
The "Host of the Dead"- the collective of dead humans and animals that once lived on earth- is believed to wander about, particularly at certain times of the year, often led by powerful other spirits. This Host can be encountered for good or for ill, depending on the approach or luck of those who encounter them. The powerful or influential spirits who dwell in certain places or locations are believed to be capable of friendship with humans, or to be able to harm them if they become angry or offended.
The Word "Fayerie"
The historical word "fairy" is an ambiguous word with many shades of meaning. Most scholars believe it to be derived from the Latin word Fatum or Fatae, which refers to the power of Fate; the word fairy in all of its different forms (including the form fay-erie) came to suggest the power of an enchantment, a glamour, or an illusion. Later this power was applied to fays or beings who occupied an Unseen realm, wielding fateful powers to influence events in the human world.
Many kinds of entities were historically called "fairy" or associated with this term. Countless sources point to the once-widespread belief that the departed souls of the dead become fairy-entities after death. Aside from this "fairy as post-mortem existence of the human separable soul" idea (which is the most common idea that emerges from the body of historical fairy folklore), diminished Gods and Goddesses from former Pagan cultures, nature spirits (such as those connected to bodies of water, hills, trees, etc.) the tutelary spirits of persons and places, and the powers and spirits that influence Fate and fortunes in the human world have likewise been called "fairies" in historical accounts.
In Fayerie Traditionalist thinking, the term "fairy" is a general term for a spirit or an otherworldly being. It is the equivalent of the Greek term daimon, used in its original meaning as a fate-related spirit entity, or a manifestation of the daimonic (divine or preternatural) aspect of a place, a person, or a phenomenon.
Fayerie Traditionalism uses the archaic spelling "Fayerie" instead of "Fairy" to distance itself from the way modern culture has diminished the dignity of the word "fairy", both by associating fairies with Tinkerbell-like images, and associating them with a certain kind of story (modern "fairy tales") which are seen as childish, dismissable, false, and invented.
Our Ancestors had a very nuanced view of Fayerie beings, and an enormous amount of respect (and fear) for them. They represented, on some level, the inexorable power of the Unseen world, and could be disruptive, dangerous, seductive, or benevolent. They could control the fertility of the land. They could kidnap human beings, or kill them. They were ultimately very mysterious and their motivations were often beyond human understanding.
To use the spelling Fayerie is to encourage both the Fayerie Traditionalist and the outsider to Fayerie Traditionalism to question how culture thinks of "fairies", to remember these historical facts, and to reconsider what they believe they know about Fayerie beings.
Fayerie Traditionalism (also called Fayerieism, The Ancient Fayerie Faith, or the True Old Ways) is a term used to describe the organic, non-institutionalized, and animistic spiritual practices and beliefs of two groups of people. The first is a widespread historical collection of people from different cultures across Europe and Eurasia. The second is a modern group of people whose practices and beliefs are informed by various strands of history, folklore, and myth that emerged from these historical cultures.
The majority of the historical people who manifested the cultural practices and beliefs that inform modern Fayerie Traditionalism lived in the British Isles and Western Europe, but cultures in Scandinavia, all of continental Europe, and some parts of Eurasia also had practices and customs that folklorists and scholars consider to be in the same vein of similarity. A clear aesthetic kinship exists between the folk-animism of Fayerieism and the generally observed patterns of animistic spirit-veneration around the world.
Modern Fayerie Traditionalists are not attempting to revive a historical Pagan religion. They are attempting to enter into direct relationships with the other-than-human persons (called Fayerie beings or spirits) that inhabit or indwell the landscapes and places where they live, and to create relationships with the souls of deceased relatives, friends, and ancestors, who are also believed to transform into Fayerie beings or spirits at some point after death.
This effort is not part of an attempt to revive the specific Paganism of a pre-Christian culture; it is an attempt to re-awaken the natural interanimistic dimension of life within this world and culture at present, as it relates to an individual life or an individual family or group of people. The idea that this "re-awakening" may positively transform the lives of individuals or groups, or birth new subcultures and local expressions of animistic reverence and relationship, is accepted as a desirable outcome.
Historical Fayerieism in the British Isles and Europe was a multi-layered phenomenon born from remnant animistic beliefs and practices, and from some Pagan beliefs and practices as they survived into Christian cultural times. The worship of (or the conducting of relationships with) Wights, Elves, and Hulda-folk in Iceland and Scandinavia, or the Sidhe-beings in Ireland, or the Fées in Brittany are all examples of local historical expressions of what Fayerie Traditionalists would call the Fayerie Faith.
By entering into reverent relationships with the spirits of a land, and with the souls or spirits of Ancestors, Fayerie Traditionalists believe that good fortune and blessings will naturally emerge within people's lives, and deeper connections can be had with places and the friends and families that share those places. This can be accomplished by anyone who lives anywhere on any land.
Sources
There are nearly endless literary sources that describe Fayerie-related activities and beliefs from the British Isles and Western Europe, and corollary practices and beliefs around other parts of Europe.
Collections of fairy tales and stories from Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Brittany, and Cornwall (such as those collected by Joseph Jacobs, W.B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde, T. Crofton Croker, Donald Mackenzie, William Bottrell, Robert Hunt, Patrick Kennedy, Elsie Masson, and many others) begin the list of sources.
Collections and studies of British Isles folktales, traditional ballads, and fairy beliefs/folk supernaturalism (as done by Katharine Briggs, Lowry Charles Wimberly, Lewis Spence, Anne Ross, Francis James Child, Alwyn and Brinley Rees, Emma Wilby, Lizanne Henderson and Edward Cowan, among others) help to create a historical and academic understanding for the characteristic metaphysical picture of Fayerie beliefs that emerge from the past.
One of the seminal works outlining historical sources for the worldview of Fayerieism- and the source of the historical term "Fairy Faith"- is The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by Walter Evans-Wentz.
The collected tales of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and the many collected fairy and folk-tales from Central Europe and Eastern Europe (Such as the Bavarian Tales collected by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, and A.H. Wratislaw's collection of Slavic folktales) contribute to the historical fund of lore and present the beliefs of historical common folk which clearly included ideas with animistic and pre-Christian origins.
The French historian Claude Lecouteux has written many books about traditional beliefs and practices in pre-Modern Europe that were of pre-Christian origin, and has pointed out their importance with regard to understanding our cultures and histories. His work is another source of insight and inspiration for practitioners of Fayerie Traditionalism. The works of the modern scholar John Grigsby, and his insights regarding how ancient cultures and their beliefs influence and structure our own today, are likewise seen as invaluable.
Modern occult writer Robin Artisson is the founder/originator of modern Fayerie Traditionalism as a spiritual practice. It was Artisson who coined the terms "Ancient Fayerie Faith" and "True Old Ways." His book An Carow Gwyn describes the core worldview of Fayerieism and practices related to it, according to his own understanding.
There may be other modern people believing in line with what Evan-Wentz described in his work as "The Fairy Faith", but Fayerie Traditionalism refers specifically to Robin Artisson's efforts at bringing together historical fairy-related metaphysics and traditional beliefs into a cohesive spiritual expression and practice, and to the community of people who have joined in that effort. The community of Fayerie Traditionalists is called Cylgh An Carow Gwyn (The Circle of the White Stag).
Gods and Other Beings
Fayerie Traditionalism is a form of Spiritual Ecology or Deep Ecology. It embraces an animistic cosmological perspective, and is fundamentally shaped by the modern discipline of Systems Theory and the philosophy of Phenomenology. The writings of Gregory Bateson, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Joanna Macy, Stephen Jenkinson, Derrick Jensen, and David Abram are some of its chief sources for these understandings.
The animistic worldview of Fayerie Traditionalism posits that reality or "the world" is an infinite, living, relational, and co-creating community of persons. Some of these persons are human beings, and others are the many other-than-human animals and life-forms that humans share the world with.
Every other discrete phenomenon that humans may encounter is considered to be a person (or potentially a person) as well: winds, landforms, waters, rivers, lakes, storms, trees, plants, stones, and so forth. Other forms of sentience or personhood that we cannot ordinarily perceive are believed to exist- called spirits or Fayerie-beings- though the realities of ordinarily-sensed phenomenon (like trees, lakes, or mountains) are believed to be indwelled by spirit-persons as well.
Certain spirits are seen to be more influential or powerful than others, and at various times in the past, powerful spirits may have been worshiped by human cultures as "Gods" or "Goddesses." Fayerie Traditionalists do not tend to use the terms God or Goddess when referring to powerful spirits. These terms are seen as political cultural artifacts which aren't often relevant to modern people who were born outside of polytheistic cultures.
There is no belief in Fayerie Traditionalism that a singular "supreme being" exists, and no belief that a single supreme being either created or controls Nature, the universe, or the world. The universe or nature is believed to be timeless and eternal, and to always have existed in some form. Spirits and all other persons are believed to have organically emerged from nature at some point in the past, or in some mysterious manner in defiance of ordinary understanding.
The emergence of people, persons, spirits, natural systems, and other such things from Nature is believed to be the result of spontaneous and intelligent organic processes. The cosmos or world is seen to be an enormous variety of ancient families and communities of living powers and forces (some visible, some hidden) who combine or relate often to create and destroy things.
There is no belief in Fayerie Traditionalism that an over-arching "divine plan" exists for everyone or everything, and there is no belief in some ultimate "end" to this massive system of living relationships, whose creative and destructive potential is experienced by humans in various ways throughout life. There is an acceptance of the fact that countless forces and conditions beyond human understanding or control influence all outcomes in any person's life.
The purpose of human life within this situation and within this chain of natural relationships is realized by humans cooperating to create harmonious and carefully negotiated life-ways between themselves and other forces and persons, which better their chances for living healthy and full lives. The world is not believed to have been created for humans, and humans are not believed to be the most important beings on earth, nor the masters of the earth.
Human intelligence has given humans the power to be very destructive to the earth and the many other persons that dwell upon it, but this is seen as a great failure of wisdom on the parts of humans, and a grave offense to the wider community of life that ultimately shaped and gave birth to human beings.
Many figures and characters that emerge from historical folklore and Fayerie-tales are believed to be cultural expressions of existing spirit-beings that might still be met or encountered, or understood as expressions of an ancient animistic relationship-encounter or ecology. The folkloric figures of the various Fayerie Kings and the Fayerie Queens are believed to be extremely powerful spirit-persons who have a timeless quality of presence that can still be experienced by people alive today. They are seen, in a certain sense, as mediators of the more primordial ancient powers who were the origins of human beings, many spirit-beings, and all other living beings on earth.
These Queenly and Kingly figures, and the Great Ancestral forces that stand more anciently behind them, are not thought of as simply "good" beings; they, like other spirits, are ambiguous in their behavior (sometimes helpful, sometimes harmful) and almost always strange to ordinary human perceptions. They are not often met directly or "in person", though certain legends tell of times when human men and women did meet them. One such story, which is key to the spiritual understanding of Fayerie Traditionalism, is the 13th century Romance of Thomas Rhymer.
These beings are believed to be surrounded by other spirits who act (in some regards) as their servants or helpers, or as mediators of their will and their presence, and those spirits are thought to be responsive at times to respectful human requests for communion or help.
The "Host of the Dead"- the collective of dead humans and animals that once lived on earth- is believed to wander about, particularly at certain times of the year, often led by powerful other spirits. This Host can be encountered for good or for ill, depending on the approach or luck of those who encounter them. The powerful or influential spirits who dwell in certain places or locations are believed to be capable of friendship with humans, or to be able to harm them if they become angry or offended.
The Word "Fayerie"
The historical word "fairy" is an ambiguous word with many shades of meaning. Most scholars believe it to be derived from the Latin word Fatum or Fatae, which refers to the power of Fate; the word fairy in all of its different forms (including the form fay-erie) came to suggest the power of an enchantment, a glamour, or an illusion. Later this power was applied to fays or beings who occupied an Unseen realm, wielding fateful powers to influence events in the human world.
Many kinds of entities were historically called "fairy" or associated with this term. Countless sources point to the once-widespread belief that the departed souls of the dead become fairy-entities after death. Aside from this "fairy as post-mortem existence of the human separable soul" idea (which is the most common idea that emerges from the body of historical fairy folklore), diminished Gods and Goddesses from former Pagan cultures, nature spirits (such as those connected to bodies of water, hills, trees, etc.) the tutelary spirits of persons and places, and the powers and spirits that influence Fate and fortunes in the human world have likewise been called "fairies" in historical accounts.
In Fayerie Traditionalist thinking, the term "fairy" is a general term for a spirit or an otherworldly being. It is the equivalent of the Greek term daimon, used in its original meaning as a fate-related spirit entity, or a manifestation of the daimonic (divine or preternatural) aspect of a place, a person, or a phenomenon.
Fayerie Traditionalism uses the archaic spelling "Fayerie" instead of "Fairy" to distance itself from the way modern culture has diminished the dignity of the word "fairy", both by associating fairies with Tinkerbell-like images, and associating them with a certain kind of story (modern "fairy tales") which are seen as childish, dismissable, false, and invented.
Our Ancestors had a very nuanced view of Fayerie beings, and an enormous amount of respect (and fear) for them. They represented, on some level, the inexorable power of the Unseen world, and could be disruptive, dangerous, seductive, or benevolent. They could control the fertility of the land. They could kidnap human beings, or kill them. They were ultimately very mysterious and their motivations were often beyond human understanding.
To use the spelling Fayerie is to encourage both the Fayerie Traditionalist and the outsider to Fayerie Traditionalism to question how culture thinks of "fairies", to remember these historical facts, and to reconsider what they believe they know about Fayerie beings.
Structure
Fayerie Traditionalism is an organic belief and practice system. It has no central authorities, nor any person or persons who can instruct others in how to "properly" practice any rituals or observances related to it. Cylgh An Carow Gwyn has a small group of members who plan its events and keep its community interactions positive and safe for all other members, and who use a special process of divination to determine oath-names for members of the community who take the Oath of Belonging (described below.)
Fayerie Traditionalism relies heavily upon its practitioners creating connections with the spiritual realities and persons of the lands where they live and the places they frequent. The practitioners also usually seek to revere or honor deceased kin, family, and friends. How a person creates these connections and relationships, and how they maintain them, is largely up to their personal understanding and individual life-situation.
Groups of Fayerie Traditionalists working together in a local area will call their groupings Hearths, Kinships, Kin Circles, or use no formal name for themselves at all.
Rites, Festivals and Practices
Fayerie Traditionalists can regularly or semi-regularly perform any number of historically-inspired rituals for giving offerings of gratitude and reverence to spirits, to the dead or ancestors, or even to the great persons of the Fayerie rulers themselves.
Aside from those sorts of rituals, which can be as simple or elaborate as the practitioner likes, there are three basic "ritual" type customs or practices that all Fayerie Traditionalists will engage with on some level: The Oath of Belonging, The Ritual of the Elf Cup or Fayerie Cup, and a practice of Repayment or Requiting.
The Oath of Belonging is a special ritual through which a man or woman pledges themselves to the wider community of the Unseen world, and becomes one of the Fayerie Faithful, or a Fayerie-Friend. So long as the oath-taker abides by the promises made in that oath, they are considered to be Justified, or a spiritual ally to the other-than-human community of life. A person may abide by the oath- and thus remain one of the Fayerie Faithful- for a lifetime, or until they decide for personal reasons to cease their oath.
A special name- an oath name- is given to men and women of Cylgh An Carow Gwyn who take the Oath of Belonging. No one is forced or expected to take the Oath of Belonging at any certain time; Fayerie Traditionalists may choose to do so for personal reasons, or to deepen their relationships with beings in the Unseen world.
Elf Cups or Fayerie Cups are special places (which can be indoors or outdoors) that are set aside to give offerings to the Fayerie people or to spirits. Offerings ordinarily include things like milk and cream, honey, ale, whiskey, bread, fruit, eggs, or even small amounts of blood given from the person making the offering. The creation of these "cups", their maintenance and the regular offerings given to them, represents one of the central acts of devotion and relationship-keeping with the Unseen beings and powers.
The practice of Repaying or Requiting is a personal penance-type activity that Fayerie Traditionalists may choose to engage in, if they feel like they have wronged spirits or other living beings through unfair or thoughtless behavior. The act of making a repayment can be very private, or public as the practitioner chooses. It can involve giving large gifts or offerings, or any range of other special activities.
There is a ritual observance called the Nine Nights ritual, which is done by some Fayerie Traditionalists for the souls of deceased humans or other-than-human friends or kin. This ritual calls for nine offerings to be given on the nine nights following the death of the person in question. The nine nights period is believed to be symbolic of the time it takes for a soul to transition away from the ordinary world and into whatever condition it will occupy beyond this life. The offerings are believed to comfort the traveling soul and give it the strength to arrive at its destination safely.
In the same manner that Fayerie Traditionalists rely upon local areas, locations, and their immediate living environment to dictate or shape what kinds of spirits or other-than-human persons they may seek relationships with, the local life environment has a lot to do with how Fayerie Traditionalists will deal with yearly festivals, if they choose to engage in such a thing.
A historical festival (generally speaking) was a collective event for a community or several communities, at which large seasonal transitions or other important events (like harvests) were celebrated. Fayerie Traditionalists may choose to gather with like-minded others at times that are parallel to important and festive days to the culture or place within which they live.
There are no formal "Fayerie Traditionalist" festivals, no official "wheel of the year" that requires certain rituals, but individual members might choose special days that reflect seasonal changes in their area to have ritual observations. The rationale behind the importance of seasonal changes lies in how a seasonal shift alters the aesthetic experience of one's land, and how it changes the ways humans relate to the persons and locations on the land. These kinds of shifts can provoke natural feelings of joy, dread, appreciation, or introspection. The land co-creates with a person or a people the larger background of their living story in this way.
Metaphysically speaking, solstices are seen as very significant times, particularly the Winter Solstice. For most Fayerie Traditionalists living in the northern hemisphere, the time of late autumn and the time around the winter solstice is believed to be a time of special closeness for spirits and the souls of the departed.
Ethics and Beliefs
The ethical vision of Fayerie Traditionalism is found in the concept of relationship. The entire connective and creative force of Nature is viewed as relational, and all persons or forces are believed to exist in some form of relationship. To make relationships of mutual benefit with others, and to avoid over-taking on any level (so that the well-being of other persons will not be imperiled) is the basic approach to ethical or moral living.
Relationships, and the power, capabilities, and other benefits that can be transferred from person to person through them, are the key to making a good life and helping others to have good lives as well. This applies to relationships between human beings (kin or otherwise) as well as to relationships between humans and other-than-human persons and powers.
Beings that over-take, or who form harmful or one-sided relationships, are viewed as undesirable and it is thought wise to avoid them. Selfishness and greed are seen as the deepest failures in human character. Co-creating strong and healthy communities, families, and friend-groups is seen as the best and wisest pursuit of human beings.
Taking the Oath of Belonging and becoming one of the Fayerie Faithful is intended to ultimately bring about a blessed state called Cysolath or Cesoleth- meaning peace, tranquility, or concord. To feel at peace with one's life and one's belonging to the wide system and community of greater life is seen as the deepest fulfillment for a human being.
After Death
Fayerie Traditionalists believe that living beings in our world have a portion of their entities that survives the transition of death and continues to exist in some kind of timeless way. This portion of their beings can undergo many kinds of transformations or metamorphosis beyond life. Kinship bonds- or any deep emotional bonds- can influence a deceased being to remain metaphysically "close" to living kin or loved ones, or to special places. Where remains are stored or interred can create bonds between a deceased person and a place, as well.
If a human being lived at extreme odds with the natural relationship systems that create and sustain humans and other life- if they were actively and maliciously harmful to other beings or persons- it is thought that their transformation beyond this life can be painful or otherwise challenging in nature, as the connected system of relationship works to "right" itself or discharge the debts and hindrances created by this vicious behavior.
The fate of the most harmful people is very ambiguous. The idea of souls creating debts to other persons or powers through bad or vicious behavior is not the same as a belief in "karma" or other such ideas. The forces that govern debts and relationships are ultimately very mysterious, and cannot be rationally completely explained or laid bare.
Otherwise, the majority of people who lived ordinary lives are thought to pass back into the Ancestral dimension of the Unseen World, and enjoy a timeless or strange condition beyond the ability of most living people to understand. Traditional depictions of the deceased who have joined the Fayerie-host show this condition as enjoyable and celebratory. This "Ancestral dimension" is thought to be the origin-point of the souls of humans and other beings, and so death is a return to the condition from which everyone and everything originally came. In a very real manner, this Ancestral or interior dimension of life is tied to (or metaphysically resident within) the lands upon which people and cultures live.
The extent to which the dead or deceased can contact the living, or influence them consciously, is often hindered by the great difficulty that modern living people have in opening themselves to the strange condition of the dead, or overcoming modern skepticism enough to even believe that such a thing is possible. The dead are still often seen as desiring to influence the living in various ways, and are often given memory, honor, and offerings.
The idea that some of the dead can live again as humans at some future point, or even as other life-forms, is found in ancient ballads and beliefs, but Fayerie Traditionalists are not required to have a belief or opinion on this matter. Death is viewed as ultimately natural yet very mysterious, and aside from genuine reverence for the dead, Fayerie Traditionalists don't have to have or share other beliefs or feelings about death.
Fayerie Traditionalism is an organic belief and practice system. It has no central authorities, nor any person or persons who can instruct others in how to "properly" practice any rituals or observances related to it. Cylgh An Carow Gwyn has a small group of members who plan its events and keep its community interactions positive and safe for all other members, and who use a special process of divination to determine oath-names for members of the community who take the Oath of Belonging (described below.)
Fayerie Traditionalism relies heavily upon its practitioners creating connections with the spiritual realities and persons of the lands where they live and the places they frequent. The practitioners also usually seek to revere or honor deceased kin, family, and friends. How a person creates these connections and relationships, and how they maintain them, is largely up to their personal understanding and individual life-situation.
Groups of Fayerie Traditionalists working together in a local area will call their groupings Hearths, Kinships, Kin Circles, or use no formal name for themselves at all.
Rites, Festivals and Practices
Fayerie Traditionalists can regularly or semi-regularly perform any number of historically-inspired rituals for giving offerings of gratitude and reverence to spirits, to the dead or ancestors, or even to the great persons of the Fayerie rulers themselves.
Aside from those sorts of rituals, which can be as simple or elaborate as the practitioner likes, there are three basic "ritual" type customs or practices that all Fayerie Traditionalists will engage with on some level: The Oath of Belonging, The Ritual of the Elf Cup or Fayerie Cup, and a practice of Repayment or Requiting.
The Oath of Belonging is a special ritual through which a man or woman pledges themselves to the wider community of the Unseen world, and becomes one of the Fayerie Faithful, or a Fayerie-Friend. So long as the oath-taker abides by the promises made in that oath, they are considered to be Justified, or a spiritual ally to the other-than-human community of life. A person may abide by the oath- and thus remain one of the Fayerie Faithful- for a lifetime, or until they decide for personal reasons to cease their oath.
A special name- an oath name- is given to men and women of Cylgh An Carow Gwyn who take the Oath of Belonging. No one is forced or expected to take the Oath of Belonging at any certain time; Fayerie Traditionalists may choose to do so for personal reasons, or to deepen their relationships with beings in the Unseen world.
Elf Cups or Fayerie Cups are special places (which can be indoors or outdoors) that are set aside to give offerings to the Fayerie people or to spirits. Offerings ordinarily include things like milk and cream, honey, ale, whiskey, bread, fruit, eggs, or even small amounts of blood given from the person making the offering. The creation of these "cups", their maintenance and the regular offerings given to them, represents one of the central acts of devotion and relationship-keeping with the Unseen beings and powers.
The practice of Repaying or Requiting is a personal penance-type activity that Fayerie Traditionalists may choose to engage in, if they feel like they have wronged spirits or other living beings through unfair or thoughtless behavior. The act of making a repayment can be very private, or public as the practitioner chooses. It can involve giving large gifts or offerings, or any range of other special activities.
There is a ritual observance called the Nine Nights ritual, which is done by some Fayerie Traditionalists for the souls of deceased humans or other-than-human friends or kin. This ritual calls for nine offerings to be given on the nine nights following the death of the person in question. The nine nights period is believed to be symbolic of the time it takes for a soul to transition away from the ordinary world and into whatever condition it will occupy beyond this life. The offerings are believed to comfort the traveling soul and give it the strength to arrive at its destination safely.
In the same manner that Fayerie Traditionalists rely upon local areas, locations, and their immediate living environment to dictate or shape what kinds of spirits or other-than-human persons they may seek relationships with, the local life environment has a lot to do with how Fayerie Traditionalists will deal with yearly festivals, if they choose to engage in such a thing.
A historical festival (generally speaking) was a collective event for a community or several communities, at which large seasonal transitions or other important events (like harvests) were celebrated. Fayerie Traditionalists may choose to gather with like-minded others at times that are parallel to important and festive days to the culture or place within which they live.
There are no formal "Fayerie Traditionalist" festivals, no official "wheel of the year" that requires certain rituals, but individual members might choose special days that reflect seasonal changes in their area to have ritual observations. The rationale behind the importance of seasonal changes lies in how a seasonal shift alters the aesthetic experience of one's land, and how it changes the ways humans relate to the persons and locations on the land. These kinds of shifts can provoke natural feelings of joy, dread, appreciation, or introspection. The land co-creates with a person or a people the larger background of their living story in this way.
Metaphysically speaking, solstices are seen as very significant times, particularly the Winter Solstice. For most Fayerie Traditionalists living in the northern hemisphere, the time of late autumn and the time around the winter solstice is believed to be a time of special closeness for spirits and the souls of the departed.
Ethics and Beliefs
The ethical vision of Fayerie Traditionalism is found in the concept of relationship. The entire connective and creative force of Nature is viewed as relational, and all persons or forces are believed to exist in some form of relationship. To make relationships of mutual benefit with others, and to avoid over-taking on any level (so that the well-being of other persons will not be imperiled) is the basic approach to ethical or moral living.
Relationships, and the power, capabilities, and other benefits that can be transferred from person to person through them, are the key to making a good life and helping others to have good lives as well. This applies to relationships between human beings (kin or otherwise) as well as to relationships between humans and other-than-human persons and powers.
Beings that over-take, or who form harmful or one-sided relationships, are viewed as undesirable and it is thought wise to avoid them. Selfishness and greed are seen as the deepest failures in human character. Co-creating strong and healthy communities, families, and friend-groups is seen as the best and wisest pursuit of human beings.
Taking the Oath of Belonging and becoming one of the Fayerie Faithful is intended to ultimately bring about a blessed state called Cysolath or Cesoleth- meaning peace, tranquility, or concord. To feel at peace with one's life and one's belonging to the wide system and community of greater life is seen as the deepest fulfillment for a human being.
After Death
Fayerie Traditionalists believe that living beings in our world have a portion of their entities that survives the transition of death and continues to exist in some kind of timeless way. This portion of their beings can undergo many kinds of transformations or metamorphosis beyond life. Kinship bonds- or any deep emotional bonds- can influence a deceased being to remain metaphysically "close" to living kin or loved ones, or to special places. Where remains are stored or interred can create bonds between a deceased person and a place, as well.
If a human being lived at extreme odds with the natural relationship systems that create and sustain humans and other life- if they were actively and maliciously harmful to other beings or persons- it is thought that their transformation beyond this life can be painful or otherwise challenging in nature, as the connected system of relationship works to "right" itself or discharge the debts and hindrances created by this vicious behavior.
The fate of the most harmful people is very ambiguous. The idea of souls creating debts to other persons or powers through bad or vicious behavior is not the same as a belief in "karma" or other such ideas. The forces that govern debts and relationships are ultimately very mysterious, and cannot be rationally completely explained or laid bare.
Otherwise, the majority of people who lived ordinary lives are thought to pass back into the Ancestral dimension of the Unseen World, and enjoy a timeless or strange condition beyond the ability of most living people to understand. Traditional depictions of the deceased who have joined the Fayerie-host show this condition as enjoyable and celebratory. This "Ancestral dimension" is thought to be the origin-point of the souls of humans and other beings, and so death is a return to the condition from which everyone and everything originally came. In a very real manner, this Ancestral or interior dimension of life is tied to (or metaphysically resident within) the lands upon which people and cultures live.
The extent to which the dead or deceased can contact the living, or influence them consciously, is often hindered by the great difficulty that modern living people have in opening themselves to the strange condition of the dead, or overcoming modern skepticism enough to even believe that such a thing is possible. The dead are still often seen as desiring to influence the living in various ways, and are often given memory, honor, and offerings.
The idea that some of the dead can live again as humans at some future point, or even as other life-forms, is found in ancient ballads and beliefs, but Fayerie Traditionalists are not required to have a belief or opinion on this matter. Death is viewed as ultimately natural yet very mysterious, and aside from genuine reverence for the dead, Fayerie Traditionalists don't have to have or share other beliefs or feelings about death.
Fayerie Traditionalism and other contemporary alternative spiritualities
Fayerie Traditionalism is a living organic spirituality. It is not an outgrowth of the Neopagan movement; by this, we mean to say that Fayerie Traditionalism does not have roots in, nor any influences from, Theosophy, Spiritualism, Eastern religious ideas or beliefs, Gnosticism, Western astrology, the theories of Margaret Murray, Platonism, ceremonial magic, neo-shamanism, Jungianism, Masonry, Wicca, or the "Western Mystery Tradition." It is also not a reconstructed Pagan religion.
Fayerie Traditionalism might be considered a form of neo-animism, or animistic revivalism, at least with regards to the modern practitioners and the worldview of Deep Ecology. Its entire metaphysical structure and value system is born from traditional balladry, folktales, and Fayerie-stories from the past, as these things are believed to contain elements that reflect deep animistic knowledge and wisdom. The rest of its structure and rationale for belief or ritual is born from Phenomenology and the field of deep ecology.
Fayerie Traditionalism isn't a "standard" religion with a list of beliefs and commandments; it is a dynamic and adaptive life-way informed by the concept of ecological relationalism. It embraces the spiritual and historical aesthetics of fairy-related beliefs because aesthetics are seen as emotionally and spiritually important for human beings. Certain aesthetics can help us to awaken or maintain a connection with the past, or with other, deeper realities.
Fayerie Traditionalism does join other modern Neopagan spiritual movements (and certain Reconstructionist Pagan groups) in having a deep veneration for Nature, deep ecological concerns, and a respect for certain features of the pre-Christian past.
Practitioners of Fayerie Traditionalism are not all witches or sorcerers or people who use magic. Individual believers or practitioners may pursue those things, but the basic belief in the animistic worldview, the belief in spirits, and the organic practice of worshiping spirits, is not seen as sorcerous or magical.
Those who pursue deeper relationships with spirits, and desire for those spirits to teach them extraordinary insights or skills, or who seek for those spirits to empower them in extraordinary ways, can be said to be pursuing sorcerous abilities or even witchcraft.
Sorcerous practitioners existed in every primal culture, including in the cultures whose historical members practiced forms of animistic spirit-worship which came to inform modern Fayerieism. Sorcery is seen as a special and rare vocation that some people may manage to actualize or achieve, but it is not a goal or expectation for everyone. Sorcery or witchcraft (they are seen as the same spiritual reality) is not considered good or evil, but spiritually ambiguous. The outcomes created by a person given special abilities or insights by spirits will largely depend on that person's character and life-situation.
Fayerie Traditionalism is a living organic spirituality. It is not an outgrowth of the Neopagan movement; by this, we mean to say that Fayerie Traditionalism does not have roots in, nor any influences from, Theosophy, Spiritualism, Eastern religious ideas or beliefs, Gnosticism, Western astrology, the theories of Margaret Murray, Platonism, ceremonial magic, neo-shamanism, Jungianism, Masonry, Wicca, or the "Western Mystery Tradition." It is also not a reconstructed Pagan religion.
Fayerie Traditionalism might be considered a form of neo-animism, or animistic revivalism, at least with regards to the modern practitioners and the worldview of Deep Ecology. Its entire metaphysical structure and value system is born from traditional balladry, folktales, and Fayerie-stories from the past, as these things are believed to contain elements that reflect deep animistic knowledge and wisdom. The rest of its structure and rationale for belief or ritual is born from Phenomenology and the field of deep ecology.
Fayerie Traditionalism isn't a "standard" religion with a list of beliefs and commandments; it is a dynamic and adaptive life-way informed by the concept of ecological relationalism. It embraces the spiritual and historical aesthetics of fairy-related beliefs because aesthetics are seen as emotionally and spiritually important for human beings. Certain aesthetics can help us to awaken or maintain a connection with the past, or with other, deeper realities.
Fayerie Traditionalism does join other modern Neopagan spiritual movements (and certain Reconstructionist Pagan groups) in having a deep veneration for Nature, deep ecological concerns, and a respect for certain features of the pre-Christian past.
Practitioners of Fayerie Traditionalism are not all witches or sorcerers or people who use magic. Individual believers or practitioners may pursue those things, but the basic belief in the animistic worldview, the belief in spirits, and the organic practice of worshiping spirits, is not seen as sorcerous or magical.
Those who pursue deeper relationships with spirits, and desire for those spirits to teach them extraordinary insights or skills, or who seek for those spirits to empower them in extraordinary ways, can be said to be pursuing sorcerous abilities or even witchcraft.
Sorcerous practitioners existed in every primal culture, including in the cultures whose historical members practiced forms of animistic spirit-worship which came to inform modern Fayerieism. Sorcery is seen as a special and rare vocation that some people may manage to actualize or achieve, but it is not a goal or expectation for everyone. Sorcery or witchcraft (they are seen as the same spiritual reality) is not considered good or evil, but spiritually ambiguous. The outcomes created by a person given special abilities or insights by spirits will largely depend on that person's character and life-situation.
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This Article is Copyright © 2018 by Robin Artisson and Cylgh An Carow Gwyn.
The images in this article are by Jesseca Trainham.
This Article is Copyright © 2018 by Robin Artisson and Cylgh An Carow Gwyn.
The images in this article are by Jesseca Trainham.
For more information on Cylgh An Carow Gwyn, click here.
