Things to Research Before Working with the Fae

Research is the most important thing to do before heading into Faery work and witchcraft. You want to have a lot of in depth and versatile knowledge covering many areas of the topic so you’ll be able to understand and interact with the Fair Folk! If you don’t want to work with the Fair Folk you can use this list to help yourself understand them and take the proper measure if you ever stumble upon them. I know the list could go on forever but I’m compiling the topics I find build a good foundation of understanding. I have compiled this list to give those interested guidance and a push in the right direction, it is best you do your own research before asking other’s personal knowledge and opinions!!

The Basics

*Bonus if you learn Celtic Culture

Getting into Working with Them

Some Good Books :) 

The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, by W. Y. Evans Wentz  

Encyclopedia of Spirits by Judika Illes 

Enchantment of the Faerie Realm by Ted Andrews 

Faery Craft by Morgan Daimler 

Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes by Phillip Freeman

**if you have more topics, books or anything else feel free to add some!

🔮 Scrying🔮

🔮 Scrying is the term for gazing into mediums with a reflective or polished surface such as crystals balls, water, scrying mirrors made from obsidian, or into fire or smoke. The art of gazing is an extremely powerful thing. It relaxes your mind and allows your psychic abilities to see visions, images and messages. These can give you insights into problems that you might be considering and can answer questions about the futures of yourself and others. You must let the images and visions come to you. Don’t force it- it will come naturally with time and practice. There visions can be received in different ways; some people have them appear fairly clearly in their minds while gazing at the medium, some see visions in the reflections and others make out shapes and images within the medium that they are using- for example, in fire you could, briefly, see the face of someone familiar in the flames.

🔮 The best way that I have had scrying described to me is that it is similar  to when you’re lying in the dark, looking around your room, if you focus enough, you can organize what you see into shapes, objects and muted colours. Or you can do a similar thing if you close your eyes and concentrate on looking into the darkness behind your eyes.

🔮 Seeing a situation from the perspective of a reflection is very effective for use in meditation, necromancy and also accessing other realms. It is difficult to work with and can take some getting used to. Meditation is a wonderful way to relax you into your subconscious if this is easier for you.

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🔮 Source: A Modern Guide To Witchcraft & Magic By: Harmony Nice

🔮 Art By :  0073.uv on instagram !!!

Changeling Lore

Changelings were perhaps the most well known faeries during the medieval times. It was widely believed that if a newborn baby was left alone or unwatched before he is baptised,the faeries might steal him and leave a changeling in his place (the use of male pronoun is intentional;in most of the legends and tales, the faeries steal male babies). In some of the folklore this changeling was said to be made out of wood and earth, with a spell cast on it so that it would look and act as a real baby. More often the faeries would leave an unhealthy, ugly faerie child who would die in a few years or an old faerie, who would remain in the cradle, eating much but never growing.

The faeries’ reasons for stealing babies vary greatly between different legends. One of the most common reasons seems to be that the stolen babies were married (naturally after growing up) to members of the faerie nobility. Another, quite curious reason is introduced in some post-Christian legends; once every decade (or seven years) the faeries needed to pay a tithe of one child to Hell, and the faeries try to evade this by stealing human children whom they send as the tithe.

Methods of Seeing Faeries

There are several methods to see past a faerie’s glamour. Wearing your clothing turned inside-out, closing your right eye and looking only through the left, wearing a posy of primroses or carrying a four-leaf clover is said to enable one to see into Fairyland.

There are also certain places where one may stand in order to gain vision of fairies, but these are often dangerous at best. For instance, one may stand inside of a fairy ring, or touch certain standing stones.

People endowed with the “Second Sight” are said to be able to see the fairies, though the fairies are invisible to all others. The seventh son of a seventh son almost always has such power. People born in the morning have no power to see the fairies, while people born at night can often communicate with spirits of the dead, and see the fairies as they move about.

The surest means to see invisible fairies is to apply fairy ointment to one or both of one’s eyes

The Fairy Way - Margaret Tarrant

In folklore, brownies are household Fae, said to resemble hobs or hobgoblins. They are of small stature, usually donning a brown cap and mantle, and like to aid the home with household tasks. They like to do their work at night, and will accept gifts such as porridge or honey. However, should these gifts be intended as payment, the brownie will be very offended, and will leave.

Brownies have been described as living in England and Scotland. They make their homes in unused parts of the house, attics and holes in the wall, and every manor’s kitchen next to the fire, a seat will be left unoccupied just for him.

Folklorist John Gregorson Campbell distinguishes between the English brownie, which lived in houses, and the Scottish ùruisg [oor-isk] or urisk, which lived outside in streams and waterfalls and was less likely to offer domestic help.The ùruisg would usually be more sociable around the end of the harvest, as he was said to enjoy dairy products, and the company of milkmaids. His company was usually warded off with libations of cream and milk. He was usually seen only by those who possessed second sight, though there were instances when he made himself visible to ordinary people as well.