Interwoven with Folklore

categorizing nature spirits by element and calling them elementals came of age in the 1880s through the work of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891).15 Blavatsky was a Russian émigré, occultist, philosopher, and one of the co-founders of the Theosophical Society. From here, the concept of elementals became intertwined with folklore and literature, and provided a wellspring of new ideas for the Victorian fairy mania. Theosophist ideas and nomenclature also took root in modern Paganism.

According to some theories, elementals are sentient beings, not spirits; others claim the opposite. Regardless of what they may be, their presence can be felt and occasionally seen. In my own experience, I can understand why they have been regarded as tricksters or mischievous sprites. One of my most memorable events with them took place when I was in Ireland. After a stormy night, my friends and I were enjoying a warm, sunny day and tried to perform a ritual in the ruins of an ancient hill fort. Honoring the forces of the weather, Germaine began by saying, “Hail, wind and rain,” meaning a salutation of “hail and welcome” to simply acknowledge the rain and wind of the previous night. Before anything further could be said, we were pelted with hail and rain and nearly blown off the hill. As fast as it started, the sky was clear and blue again without a trace of the storm. Coincidence? We didn’t think so.

Despite this experience, I do not believe that the elementals were being vindictive or mischievous. Being mostly of one element—comprised of, living in it, or whatever—I think they lack a balanced perspective or understanding and simply delivered what they may have believed we were requesting. Because of this, I think it is very challenging to enlist their aid in magic or ritual. When I sense their presence, I simply acknowledge them and wish them well. The decision to work with elementals is a personal one, of course.

Origin Theories

Through the centuries, there have been a number of theories as to where the faeries came from. One prevalent notion is that they descended from Celtic deities. According to legend, when the Tuatha Dé Danann, people of the God-

15. Silver, Strange and Secret Peoples, 39.

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dess Danu, arrived in Ireland, they conquered the earlier inhabitants, the Firbolgs. In turn, the Tuatha Dé Danann later retreated underground into old burial mounds and to magical islands in the west when the Milesians conquered them. A related theory notes that the Dé Danann were not the original faeries, but joined them as a separate class of their own.16 The original faeries were said to have been the Firbolgs who had migrated to the Western Isles. While these theories relate to Ireland, they do not explain the existence of faeries elsewhere in the world.

Seventeenth-century Puritans believed in faeries and that they were associated with the Devil.17 Faeries were also reputed to be ghosts and sometimes specifically those of Pagans who were trapped between heaven and earth. A number of other theories linked them with the Pagan dead in one way or another.18 Faeries also became associated with various forms of the Wild Hunt, a spectral cavalcade of the dead that traveled across the night sky during midwinter, led by either the Norse god Wodan or a powerful huntsman.19

In Scotland, a belief persisted in the Highlands that the ancestors dwelled within the faery hills. Elsewhere, faeries were similarly associated with the underworld and the realm of the dead as legends became entangled with ancient mythology. An example found in medieval literature is Chaucer’s reference to Pluto, Greek god of the dead, as the king of the faeries.20 Also, just as Persephone was told not to partake of food in the underworld, eating or drinking in faeryland was a taboo that would prevent a person from returning home. Ancient burial tombs, cairns, and dolmens became associated with the fae and were believed to be entrances to faeryland.

16. Mahon, Ireland’s Fairy Lore, 18. 17. Briggs, The Fairies in Tradition and Literature, 66. 18. Henderson and Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief, 19. 19. Briggs, The Fairies in Tradition and Literature, 63. 20. Phillpotts, The Faeryland Companion, 8.

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