Faerie Friday - What does it mean to believe in Faeries?

As I am taking the Fairyologist course and reading many books about Faeries and working with them, my own understanding of them is deepening and expanding.  In discussing Faeries with others, I am often asked the question; What are the faeries?  Well, I think they can be different to everyone!  Depending on what your beliefs are, your experiences with them, and what your preconceived notions of faeries are - your experience of them will be different.  The first step in experiencing the Faeries, is believing in them!  Here is a journal entry I wrote yesterday as I meditated on the concept of believing in faeries.

What Does It Mean To Believe in Faeries?

     To believe in faeries is to believe in the unseen spirit world of plants, animals, water, air, earth, and fire.  It involves a basic animistic belief system which defines all of nature as having spirits - humans, trees, animals, and even rocks - and then a step further from animism even, to acknowledge the existence of other Nature Spirits; unseen entities who are closely bonded with the natural world, yet separate from it in the sense that they lack physical bodies.  These etheric beings can interact with the natural world, yet exist in a slightly different vibrational realm from what we see and know on this physical plane. I should note that I use the word "faeries" as an umbrella term for many different kinds of unseen Nature Spirits, and am not solely referring to beings known as "fairies".
     Believing in Faeries is to awaken and embrace your Inner Child - seeing magic and wonder in all things around you.  For it is with this sense of wonder and mystery that we experience the world of faeries.  Believeing in faeries is to embrace the stories, myths, and legends - knowing that not only is there a grain of truth to all the old fairytales; but that the stories themselves give a shape and pathway for all the spirit beings to come to us and interact with us.

     The tiny Nature Spirits that watch over flowers existed long before the popular artistic images of tiny human-shaped beings with butterfly wings.  But the human imagination and capacity for story telling encountered these beings and felt their presence - and likened the essence of that presence to the image of a light, fluttering and delicate butterfly on the breeze, flying from flower to flower.  Through stories and art the "picture" of a Flower Fairy grew.  The image aligned itself with other people's intuitive encounters, and then became broadly accepted because it worked!  The imagery fit with what others' intuitive and empathic encounters with these Nature Spirits felt like.  So, through story and art; a fairy-shaped niche appeared in the cosmic consciousness and these Flower Fairies (Nature Spirits of flowering plants) found a relationship with humans. 
     The same pattern can be applied to all the Elementals or common Nature Spirits of the Faerie Realm.  The Faerie Royalty felt similar to our Gods and Goddesses, so those Fae took on the shape and form of Gods and Goddesses.  The dragons spirit form existed before humans, and indeed before humans described them as large, powerful, reptilian creatures.  Encounters with Dragon Energy leave people feeling awestruck; something that could only be described as "Big, powerful, wise", maybe "temperamental," and certainly "not human" - thus the dinousaur/reptile shape of the story rather than the small, humanoid story.  And thus, a dragon-shaped niche entered the human consciousness and gave us a way to describe yet another kind of Nature Spirit we encountered.
     As the human relationship with nature has changed, so did how we see the Nature Spirits.  When nature was something wild and untamable and humans struggled to survive vast forests, harsh winters, and were still heavily connected to agriculture and farming or hunting - this was refleceted in the way people saw Faeries / nature Spirits.  They were beautiful, respected, revered; and also feared.  The forest is beautiful and enchanting - but if you don't respect it and understand it - you can easily become lost, wounded or even die. (That sentence almost perfectly describes many ancient tales of the faeries)  With the growth and expansion of Christianity, our relationship with nature changed.  It became popular belief that the salvation of your body from the harsh winter was less important than the salvation of your eternal soul; and that salvation came not from your relationship with the land and an animistic view, but from the forgiveness of a far-away God.  As Christianity spread, the old beliefs were frowned upon so the darker side of the faerie stories were used as "proof" that the Fey were demonic beings doing the workings of the Devil.  What may have once been a story of a deep connection and respect for the land and nature, became twisted into a warning to not stray from the emerging Monotheistic faith and it's sole ability to save your soul. 
     Then as humanity advanced further into an industrialized world with technology and science - we further separated our consciousness from Nature and the natural world.  I think it is very interesting that as nature became something humans "conquered" with massive agricultural growth, shelter from the elements, and less direct dependence of the land (we still need the land, but our consciousness has separated from it as we can go to the grocery store for food instead of hunting for it) ; this is when the popular image of fairies as small, delicate creatures of flowers and wings became popular.  Nature became something we saw as under our control or less harmful and needing our care instead of something mysterious and even dangerous.
     Today, I think our relationship with nature should be a blend of respectful reverence and nurturing caretakers.  Thus, the way we see Faeries and relate to the Nature Spirits should also reflect this.  If we allow ourselves to experience the broad range of nature's moods and personas we should encounter an equally broad range of types of nature spirits.  As we garden and care for the land in loving, nurturing ways, we will encounter the small Flower Fairies, pixies, and nymphs.  As we walk in wonder and reverence in a wild place such as a forest or mountain, we can encounter larger beings that share the wild deep untamed nature of that forest or mountain - such as Faerie Queens, Green Man, Dragons and Elves.
     To believe in Faeries is to look at the fairytales, myths, and legends in a new light - to see the truth and magick in them - and to make and tell our own stories!  Recognizing that story-telling and creating art is another way of communing with these spirit beings and welcoming them into our lives though imagination and inspiration. 

     To believe in faeries is the see and experience faeries!  Our beliefs shape our reality, and someone who doesn't believe in faeries or says; "those are just stories and myths" will likely not experience encounters with the fae - as logic and ego can explain away the movement in the trees as a "breeze" and the light in the corner of our vision as "just a bug".  But those who believe in faeries will see these things - Bugs and Breezes - as part of how the spirit world interacts with the physical world.  When you expect magic and believe in magic, you'll see it and feel it all around you!
     Mostly the fae will appear to you in the way you believe that these encounters will happen.  Some people report actually seeing fairies, gnomes, leprachauns etc - an image that they swear is a being right there in front of them!  Some people may feel the presence of faeries and see them in their mind's eye, or encounter them in meditations and dreams.  Other people may see faeries as encounters with nature itself; the feeling roused by a certain breeze, a feather or leaf falling in their path at a certain moment, a bird swooping close overhead or some other animal encounter.  All of these are valid and real ways of seeing and encountering faeries - and believing in faeries will mean that you are aware and in-tune enough with the natural world and the unseen Spirit realm that you will see, feel, and hear the faeries often!