Monday, April 5, 2010

Who Are the Green Ladies?



Green Ladies Fairies that protect the wilds and are found to live in trees, green lady fairies are mostly associated with the yew tree, oak, willow, holly and elm. One must ask permission of Green Ladies before cutting down a tree or it will anger her into seeking fairy retribution. The Green Lady is also a fairy ghost in Scotland that haunts a family right before a death is to occur.

Also called the Ghlaistig uaine, or ‘Green Ghlaistig,’ she is related to Highland spirits and categorized with brownies or Gruagachs. When she appears she is wearing a bewitching green gown that hides her feet which are the cloven feet of a goat. The Green Ghlaistig is considered a sort of a demon and should be avoided. Traveling alone, the Green lady is seldom seen and is repelled by hounds or dogs. She will put weak-minded individuals under her enchantment and lead the sick into their graves.

Green Ladies haunt areas of Scotland, mainly estates and castles such as Donolly Castle, Skipness Castle, and Crathes Castle where the fairy ghost emerges by the fireplace and picks up a spectral infant. She also appears in the ruins of a castle at Caerphilly near Cardiff in Wales.

The Green Lady is one good example that in the Britain, fairies and ghosts are very much entwined. Fairies are very much allied with “hauntings” in the United Kingdom, a surprising concept in the United States where fairies are associated with daylight, mushrooms, fairy dust and flowers. In Scotland certain roads or bypasses are called “fairy roads” or “spoke roads” and are considered very haunted.

Green ladies can often appear in the shape of rambling ivy. This is how she hides in the daylight. If watched long enough, witnesses claim to see her stir slightly in the greenery and once she is sure her presence is known, she will emerge and extend her hand to witnesses. Once she does this, the Green Lady always fades.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Dream 22: Sitting On a Nest of Swans


1. The Swans

I was afraid I had hurt something.
Maybe even killed it.
When I sat down, something struggled hard against me.
So I stepped back to watch the floral pattern shimmer,
Then, the cushion lift like a lid from a boxed gift. Beneath me,

The two swans were sleeping, graceful
As an urn. The long handles of their throats
Curved into each other, warm and incubated
Against the snowy-white.
Near the shepherd’s staff of their necks,
Were the rose-tinged feathers
Charged with bright blood.
The glow of a sunset disappearing into
The disorder of a dark forest.

Softly, I tried to waken them.
Their mouths opened and wagged with black tongues.
The swans spat at me. The nest hissed.


2. The Black Pond

As the seduction of water finally took leave
Of its senses, a burning eye
Set fire to the woods, roused

The elegiac stomach of the pond
Into heaving until its vapors spiraled upward
To expire inside the skein of a cloud.

In the dream, I am walking. There is the black pond
And nothing else. There is the black pond, the swans
And nothing else. There is the black pond, the exhalation
Of stars, the swans and nothing else. There are the swans,
Their reed voices fencing in the woods, there is the pond,
A littering of stars and nothing else. Truly this is the way,

Drifting into blackness, listening to the low
Rustle of swans across the clearing, the slow
Unfolding of their wings like paper wrappings,
Revealing themselves as flushed bodies
Which never touch the surface, the swans never waking
To the gold leprosy of starlight on the water
Its fathoms wrestling them down
As the only way out.

3. The Sleeper

Something flies from my body.
Outside in the clearing, angels wrestle
Slabs of granite. Their feathers are the black of magpie
Wings. From their temples pours the irreversible
Light. It is the way water leaves, recovers itself, moves on
As if nothing went wrong.

The angels walk among the darkened headstones,
Their figures thick with a fullness of light
They wear like armor. Beneath the long ripple
Of skins, bodies go to gases in the ground.
And still they work, lugging the burden
Of crouched lambs, crosses, polishing
The plain upturned faces of the dead.

I am a lamp at the window. The moon
In a white sling glides behind the closed
Shutter of clouds. Now angels rest
Beyond the black periphery of the pond.

Some light in trees and wear velvet slippers.
Others laugh, choke, smoke
Opium cigarettes. Their fingers are a blur
Of hummingbirds.

There is one I recognize. His alabaster shoulders
Smoothed by feathers, snakes of tangled
Hair, dark eyes lit by tapers. The way
He looks at me stirs my face
Into many disguises.

The angel draws close with breath
Of lilacs and icy air against my brow.
As he presses my lips through the glass
I fear I must surrender to gladness.
If I grant your wish, you must never tell,
The angel whispers in a man’s voice
And takes back his smoking hand.

-- Susan A. Sheppard

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Fairies, Divas, Angels & Other Misunderstood Beings


Spiritual beings, whether those that haunt us as ghosts or bring blessings into our lives such as angels, permeate our existence, often surrounding us at critical times. Such spiritual beings will make themselves known as soon as they see a need to make contact with living persons. And usually not until, unless you are already a psychic medium or somehow spiritually attuned. But not all spirits are spirits of deceased relatives or resident ghosts. Not all spirits involve hauntings or possessed places and people. In fact, only a some of them do.

There is a realm parallel to the earth’s atmosphere that teems with spirits we have learned to refer to as fairies, elementals, angels, divas and even demons. There are also darker aspects to these spirit realms, such as vampires in folklore, 20th century mothmen or even a frightening experience called the “Night Hag,” or “Old Hag” which may be psychological or paranormal in nature.

Although spirits such as fairies are often portrayed as miniature or winged human beings they are not exactly human. It does seem they have a consciousness and an intelligence that wishes communication with other life forms such as mortal human beings. In fact, such beings often work as helpers to us even though we may not realize it.

“Fairy” or “faerie” comes from the latin-word fata or fate. The name was earliest associated with enchantment and also the witches powers of glamoury or bewitchment. The Celtic peoples and their descendants in the British Isles have the most dramatic and developed fairy lore or fairy faith of any other people on earth. But there are places, such as Japan, China, India and the Middle East that have their own supernatural beings similar to fairies.

Many of the fairy faiths and belief in fairies belong to the small island country off the coast of Great Britain. It is impossible to delve into European fairy lore and beliefs without looking into Ireland. It is also difficult to understand the complexity of fairy lore without considering that green, misty place with the brogue.

But fairies weren’t always called fairies—at least not in Ireland, Scotland or Wales. Fairy is relatively recent term, which at first enjoyed popularity in France as faerie. In the ancient Celtic tongue, fairies were referred to as the Sidhe, which is pronounced as Shee.

In modern day, our understanding of fairies is far from accurate. It is only very recently that fairies are portrayed as tiny dolls that are identical to young girls only with diaphanous wings. In earlier times, not all fairies were small, and like angels in the Middle East, were not thought to have wings. In fact, some fairies were giants and could be menacing, and many were feared. After all, fairy luck could be bad luck just as it could be good luck. It depended upon the mind-set of the fairies.

Irish legend taught that fairies were originally the “Tuatha de Danann,” or rather the “People of the Goddess Danu.” At one time, the Tuatha de Dannan, or the “sidhe” were considered actual human beings who pre-dated the Celts in the British Isles by centuries.

Excavations revealed gravesites with remains of people who were not the Celts, the Saxons or Nordic types. Many of the skeletons were beneath five feet tall. It was thought that the ghosts of the Tuatha de Danann could visit curses or blessings on people in the countryside. Also, some isolated people in the British Isles claimed these small people as their ancestors.


Fairies as a Race of People

When the Celtic population of the British Isles spoke of the “Little People,” “the Little Darlings,” or the “Wee FoIk,” or sometimes just as “Themselves” in prayers or blessings, they may have meant just that: little people, or rather a race of humans that were diminutive, a group who no longer existed, except in the tales that were told about them, in the stone art or cairns they left behind, and like the fairies the race became mythical, and to this day, still largely unknown.

In her book the “God of Witches,” anthropologist Margaret Murray pointed out links between British fairy lore and a strong fairy connection to a more ancient hereditary witchcraft, a connection now very slim in the mists of time, with a people who had almost entirely vanished and a magic that was inspired by an earlier race who probably did not speak an Indo-European language. Unlike the Celts and the Saxons who came later, they were a group that was mostly matrilineal or mother-based.

Such mysterious people tended to be small in stature and their skin may have been dark or dusky compared the Germanic or Norwegian types who came into the British Isles later. They are thought to have used their own skin as a canvas for their art since it was reported they were covered from head to toe with tattoos. This group was said to have painted their faces blue and their name holds the very essence of the word “picture” as it relates to their art of tattooing. The race is known as the Picts.

The Picts were one of the earlier groups in what is now modem Scotland, known then as Caledonia and Pictiand, although they inhabited other areas of the British Isles, especially Ireland. The Picts were in mainly Scotland as long as 1500 years ago but became converted to Christianity between the years 300 to 800 A.D. and then seemed to vanish entirely.

A 12th Century Icelander described the native Picts as “pygmies who did wonders in the morning and evenings as workers but who lost all strength in the midday sun.” The Romans referred to the Picts as “picti” which meant painted although many believe pict was probably a Celtic word originally.

The Picts were referred to later by the Celts as the Pict Sidhe. Translated, this simply means “painted fairy.” It is quite easy to see the evolution of the words Pict Sidhe into Pict-shee and later as “pixie.”

Later, other fairies in Scotland were called Pechs, which, of course, sounds a great deal like Picts. Like the Picts it was said the Pech fairies could not bear the sunlight and so had to do their work at night or very early morning. They were said to live in earthen mounds and fairy hills and only came out after dusk. Yet fairies seemed very much a composite of the ancestors, and such is written by later Scots that as a people and as a race the “Pechs were unco wee bodies, but terrible strang.”

Whenever one group moves into an area where there is evidence of some former culture dominated such as in stonework or stone art, the earlier race remains mysterious, and begin to have a divine status as select children of the Gods. Such seems to be the case with the Picts in the British Isles.

Since the Picts were matrilineal they were encouraged to take Irish brides, the Pictish influence faded in the British Isles around 800 A.D. And yet, the history of these painted and tattooed people are firmly rooted in the fairy lore of Ireland, Scotland and other parts of the British Isles.

There is little doubt the Tuatha de Danann once existed as people. So, in a sense, our memories of fairies may be remnants of a race of people, such as the Picts and earlier the Tuatha de Dannan, mostly mysterious and almost forgotten.

Fairies as Souls of the Pagan Dead

Centuries after the Picts faded into oblivion the now Christian population of the British Isles began to view fairies somewhat as ghosts, since fairies were thought to be the un-baptized souls of the pagan dead. Much superstition surrounded fairies, and thus, they were not entirely trusted. In fact, fairies, such as banshees, thought to be the souls of women that died in during childbirth without given the proper rites by a priest, would visit curses on certain families. This was especially true of the families who did not honor the memories of these souls of the pagan dead.

Like the ghosts that haunted houses, it was believed fairies were not pure enough to get into heaven but were still too good for hell. Also, the souls of human beings were considered to be small and could crawl out of the body at night. Thus, fairies like ghosts might appear as small.

Yet the fairies could be terrifying. In Devonshire houses began to be by haunted what inhabitants concluded were Pixies. The Pixies and the Fauni (nature spirits) were reported to throw great stones, pieces of wood and clods of earth at inhabitants to drive them away from sacred groves and fairy mounds.

Fairies became associated with ghosts and spirits of the dead in other ways. It was thought the fairies, in a realm exactly parallel to our own, were helpers who assisted human souls into reaching the Otherworld, or Land of Eternal Youth after dying. Upon each human death, a disturbance would take place in the astral realms that the fairies could readily feel. When Celtic persons died the first spirits they were to meet were fairies coming to their aid for a peaceful transition. Fairies were also thought to attend births and christenings.

During Elizabethan times, the role of fairies grew diminished and the fae folk were shut inside the broom closet with witches, both no longer believed in. However, literary works, such as those by William Shakespeare continued to draw upon fairy lore as inspiration, even though the fairies were no longer the magical children of the pagan gods, or the fairy races as sentient beings. Fairies were no longer taken seriously.

Around this time, fairies began to shrink further in size. They weren’t giants or any where near to human size. In fact, fairies could be held in a teacup and people seemed immune to their blessings and curses. Fairies began to lose their power over the human imagination. By this time, it was thought if fairies were real, only children could see them.

Fairyland and the Dead

I have learned that whenever I dream of fairies, I know someone is going to die. This may startle some who still view fairies as airy, winged sprites or as miniature angels, however, throughout history most especially in the British Isles fairies have long been associated witches and spirits of the dead. Yet the idea that links fairies with spirits of the dead should not cause alarm. It is all a part of the natural transition such beings have a part in.

Tales of human entry into Fairyland, mostly in Scotland, held that fairies attended to the dead, and were sometimes responsible for a number of hauntings in homes, or ghostly visits, acting as witch’s familiars. To some, fairies were souls from pre-Christian days cloaked in some astral form, not knowing how or deserving to get into a Christian heaven.

In Celtic belief, it was thought Fairyland was the very first place souls would visit after death before moving on to an astral realm, guided by fairies into Summerland or Celtic Otherworld and the Netherworld of the Egyptians.

But in popular culture, this link has been largely forgotten. Death, and anything associated with it, such as ghosts or spirits of the dead, is an area of cultural and religious taboo. New age circles are not always so comfortable with the idea of ghosts or haunted places. We revere fairies while we fear the dead. The concept of ghosts remains disturbing to many and is erroneously associated with evil. It may seem hard to see fairies in such a place, but people in the past believed some fairies were in the land of the forgotten dead.

Some say that the communications with spirits upsets the dead and such spiritual interference should only be allowed during Samhain. In some respects, this very well may be true. But there are many spirits who still want to communicate with the living, and they will make their presence known until their message is received. This is what causes hauntings. Thus in our modern day, like the Banshee fairy that washes out the bloody clothes of her dead along waterways, fairies and their connections to ghosts have been rinsed of their powers.

Long ago, fairies and ghosts were viewed as much as the same, spirits neither good nor bad but something in-between. Even human beings were thought to be fairies if they showed special powers or unusual ugliness or beauty — much the same as witches. In Scotland, it was considered great esteem for a man to marry a woman who was a “fairy witch.” This could be dangerous as well since fairy witches were often blamed for blights and bad luck.

Yet in Ireland, where the ghosts were called Thevshi or Tash, Finarva, the King of the Fairies ruled over the dead. Again, there was danger that was associated with fairies and haunting ghosts. If not treated with proper respect, they might come back to wreak havoc on the living, thus, all fairies were referred to as “the little people” or the “wee folk” and the names of the dead were rarely spoken.

It was believed in the Celtic realm that when a soul leaves the body it can be enticed away, at times, by fairies looking for a new soul to join them in Fairyland. Very small children were susceptible to this, because they fairies themselves are much like children themselves, open and natural to the world. In western Ireland, in Christian times, when a small child died, blood from a chicken would be sprinkled on the threshold so spirits or fairies would be enticed away from the body.

According to Lady Wilde, in her 1897 book Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland that starting on All Hallows Eve, “the dead would spring up in their shrouds and rush out into the moonlight with mad laughter to join the fairies.” On the last night of November, it was especially tenuous between the living, souls of the dead, and the fairies. It was this last night (believed by the Irish) that fairies would dance with souls of the dead on hillsides before they must return to the chilled, cold earth. Certain tales indicate fairy witches joined them in their dance.

Individuals who died at twilight would find themselves in Fairyland and could visit the living as ghosts. It is interesting to note that modern ghost researchers say the most opportune time to investigate ghosts and hauntings, is to start around dusk since this is the time spirits tend to show themselves to mortal human beings. Once again, with the coming of night pulls us into a twilight world, a ghostly dreamtime.

-- Susan A. Sheppard