Belief in Faeries and creatures of the woodland

[Spiderman]

I had a dream about Faeries last night. The belief that there are mythical spirits of nature that care for the flowers, plants, and trees intrigues me. I had an experience last April 28 that lead me to believe in the fae folk. I forgot what that experience was.

Anyhow, the vivid dream reminded me of these unseen creatures that some people claim to have seen, summon, or been victimized by.

Do you believe in the Fae? Have you made any attempt to contact them, seen them, experienced them, summoned them, left offerings for them, or been the subject of one of their pranks? Have you met anyone that had the gift of seeing these spirits of nature?

Can belief in the Fae be reconciled with Christian Theology, or would you consider that culture theft?

 

[Akivah]

I believe in the Fae every Thursday when I play AD&D.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Do you believe in the Fae? Have you made any attempt to contact them, seen them, experienced them, summoned them, left offerings for them, or been the subject of one of their pranks? Have you met anyone that had the gift of seeing these spirits of nature?

Can belief in the Fae be reconciled with Christian Theology, or would you consider that culture theft?

Yes, I believe in "the Fae," although they aren't anything like your picture, as far as my experience goes. They exist everywhere, all the time, and mostly do whatever things it is they are supposed to do. You don't want to mess with them; it's best to be respectful towards them.

I don't know, nor do I care, if they can be reconciled with Christian theology.

 

[Spiderman]

Yes, I believe in "the Fae," although they aren't anything like your picture, as far as my experience goes. They exist everywhere, all the time, and mostly do whatever things it is they are supposed to do. You don't want to mess with them; it's best to be respectful towards them.

I don't know, nor do I care, if they can be reconciled with Christian theology.

In my dream they were like Tinkerbell, but I guess that isn't a good description of them.

Yeah, you don't wanna tick them off. I've heard stories from people victimized and horrified of the Fae.

Aren't you the one who has a son that can see them?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

In my dream they were like Tinkerbell, but I guess that isn't a good description of them.

Yeah, you don't wanna tick them off. I've heard stories from people victimized and horrified of the Fae.

Aren't you the one who has a son that can see them?

Yeah, he sees our local spirits, I'm sure better than I do. He seems to see full faces at least; I generally just see glimpses of shapes and motions, and the occasionally do things we can see, hear, or otherwise detect.

Reminds me that equinox is Monday, so it's time for a ritual or two...

EDIT: How we visualize them is up to us--and mainly our subconscious. I wouldn't think most of them have wings, because they mostly aren't aerial creatures, as far as I can tell. What you dreamed is a common cultural vision in the West. But things like the Tomten aren't like that.

 

[Quintessence]

I'm never sure how to approach this question. It's easier to explain it in the terms of my tradition.

My tradition focuses on developing relationships with non-human persons that I share my world with. Whether we call these "gods" or "spirits" or "aspects of nature" or "elementals" or "fae" isn't really important to me. The substance is I honor and revere (aka, worship) these non-human persons with a devotional equivalence that a Christian might display towards their god. One can't avoid interacting with these non-human persons. They are all around us, every day, at every moment. Most in my culture don't see them as persons, they see them as "just animals" or "just plants" or "just rocks" and so on. All it takes to "see the fae" in my tradition is to stop treating the non-human world impersonally. See all of those things as creatures you can develop a relationship with and deep understanding of. There's nothing particularly supernatural about it, and as a non-dualist I reject the whole "supernatural vs natural" dichotomy anyway.

All of this means that I don't work with the fae in the sense you probably mean, @PopeADope. But it seems quite possible to me that the mythos of the fae arose from the sort of animistic core that I hold to and seeing the word "person" apply to more than just humans. Then the stories dramatize things as a way of attempting to express some of the more numinous elements of those relationships and persons.

 

[Spiderman]

When we think we are alone, we are surrounded by Spirits. They influence us more than we are aware.

 

[allfoak]

I had a dream about Faeries last night. The belief that there are mythical spirits of nature that care for the flowers, plants, and trees intrigues me. I had an experience last April 28 that lead me to believe in the fae folk. I forgot what that experience was.

Anyhow, the vivid dream reminded me of these unseen creatures that some people claim to have seen, summon, or been victimized by.

Do you believe in the Fae? Have you made any attempt to contact them, seen them, experienced them, summoned them, left offerings for them, or been the subject of one of their pranks? Have you met anyone that had the gift of seeing these spirits of nature?

Can belief in the Fae be reconciled with Christian Theology, or would you consider that culture theft?

There are many levels of consciousness.
Some are not able accept what i just said and therefore have no basis for experiencing these levels of consciousness of which you speak.

 

[rocala]

Yeah, you don't wanna tick them off.

You certainly do not. An Irish friend once told me that as a young man in Ireland he saw sheep being led down a road on their way to be slaughtered. A boy was throwing stones at the sheep until an old lady spoke harshly to him, pointing out that the animals were on there way to die.

Later that night the boy became ill and later died. Nobody in that road recognized the old lady but many in the community were convinced that she was one of the fairy folk and that the boy had offended her and paid the price

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Broadly, such nature spirits are under the umbrella of animism, which is perfectly reconcilable with Christianity. After all, there was a belief that Angels basically manage aspects of God's creation. I'm an animist.

 

[psychoslice]

For me personally they certainly don't exist, but they are fun to imagine, we never really grow up and clinging to imaginary things such as fairies or even religious myths keeps us childlike, that is until we fight over them being real or not, this isn't being childlike its being childish.

 

[VioletVortex]

I think that certain spirits in nature exist, though generally, I personify them as Alfs (Elves). Some are malevolent, and others are benevolent, and still, many more are unpredictable.