On the dangers of Faery.

[heartssdesire]

This Beltaine's ritual, and some stuff I was reading, got me thinking. A lot of the old stories and traditions relating to the Faery folk seem to be mainly focused on how to avoid interacting with them, or at least how to protect oneself from them if you can't avoid them. Charms to keep them away from one's house. Gifts to appease them. Places not

Comments

[arethinn]

"I find myself seduced and I get these wild urges to run outside and get lost in the twilight. And it seems strange because it's counter to the prevailing tone of the lore about Faerie"

It might be counter to the *wisdom*, but it seems to me that's exactly what much of the lore is trying to protect you from... that you will feel this impulse, now here's how to protect yourself from it. I guess the difference is, as you note, that you are much more interested in yielding to it than protecting yourself from it.

"What I've been thinking is that the defensiveness of the lore doesn't necessarily mean that there is something wrong with you if you aren't inclined toward avoiding the Faery experience."

I think it's RJ Stewart who talks about some of this being conscious suppression of the "old ways" -- the prohibitions against faery lovers, eating faery food and drink, and the like are at least partly because these are initiatory, they are ways to power and spiritual understanding not got from the Church, and we can't have people having that! The one on food and drink particularly I'm pretty sure I've seen him say is prohibited because it is exactly what you ARE supposed to do (at least if you expect to get anywhere), and if such a gift is offered by the Fey, it were best to take it before it is withdrawn.

[heartssdesire]

Right, that makes a lot of sense, especially in light of the amount of lore that was transcribed by Christians. Don't eat the food because you'll never make a good member of the flock after that... Reminds me of one of my favorite Terence McKenna quotes, along the lines of 'once you've touched the core of your soul, you can't be led into product-fetishism...' He was talking about psychedelic experience making you unfit for consumer society, but I think the effect is the same... Ecstatic experience makes you unfit for conformity.