If you believe that the Fair Folk exist, by whatever name and through whatever cultural lens, it is a good idea to stop and sit and really think about how much agency - how much of a capacity for independent action and power - you believe they have.
Fairies as shown in a lot of mainstream media do not have much agency. They are often either shown only responding to human actions or requiring humans to act for them. These fairies are effectively impotent and rely on humans to do what they cannot, which in some stories is nearly everything. We see this in tales of environmentally concerned fairies who are powerless to save their endangered homes but instead must get some human champion to fight for them. We see this in stories of fairies who are dependant on human kindness to save them from destruction. Even the infamous Tinkerbell could not act against Wendy directly in the Disney movie but needed to manipulate others into acting for her. This deeply ingrained idea that fairies are reliant on humans often seems to shape how humans in modern western culture are forming their understandings of fairies, to the great detriment of the fairies involved.
How mortifying to go from a nearly divine being given propitiatory offerings to ensure a good harvest to an insignificant pretty thing that needs humans to accomplish any simple task!
Magical practitioners are not exempt from this, and perhaps more than others should stop and reflect on their own assumptions. Sloppy or nonexistent training have led to those who should know better suggesting that fairies are simply thought forms created by humans, and therefore at the whim of humans. A pox on that occult book which suggests a witch may create a fairy and task it to their bidding; what you create is certainly not a fairy.
Witches today need to reflect on who and what fairies are and how much independence the witch believes they have. I see so much entitlement out there based in assumptions that fairies exist to serve humans and that all any witch needs do is ask for a thing and some fairy will rush to do it. As if fairies were the metaphysical equivalent of Siri or Alexa, existing to aid humans however they need it.
How insulting a thought for beings that were once so feared and respected that humans considered the places of the Shining Ones sacred!
It is true that there is a history of fairies being commanded through ceremonial magic, but that is based on an understanding that they do have power and agency and must therefore be properly compelled or bound to do what the mage wishes.
It is true that fairies have a long history with witches, but that is based on a very different power dynamic in which the fairy has power over the witch, or the witch owes fealty to a fairy Queen.
If humans had such firm power over the Good Folk and if fairies were indeed so powerless there would not, I don't think, be so very many stories about humans dying at the hands of the fairies or being stolen away or blinded or driven mad.
A millennia of human belief tells you that fairies are powerful beings who can bring madness, illness, death...or luck, health, and fortune. But these gifts and curses are born of the fairies' agency and their will not of human compulsion. Offend the Good Folk and they may punish you very harshly for it. Please them, even unwittingly, and they may reward you greatly for it. And as much as humans often dislike hearing this, sometimes the consequences that befall them from the Otherfolk have nothing at all to do with what the human has or hasn't done and is simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Slua Sí is random in its maliciousness as often as not, and offerings to the People of Peace do not guarantee a good harvest only reduce the chances of a bad one. Look to cultures that still have this respect and still understand who and what the fairies are and you will begin to understand.
There has been a long and deep campaign to reduce and disempower the fey folk. Some of the names that we see fairies being called - wee ones, little folk - reinforce this idea. Even the way that modern urban fantasy depicts the Unseelie court shows this, with dangerous beings who in folklore would be the death of a rude human instead being shown as misunderstood creatures seeking love and understanding; poor Unseelie prince just needs the right human to love him and he'll change, as if that has ever worked for a human relationship. It is these powerless fairies that some humans think of now and imagine interacting with, and that truly is a shame.
Humans like to believe they control their world and are the apex of all things. The modern western world raises the individual above all others and tells them that everything should revolve around them, and so we see anthropocentrism melded with the idea that any non-human being should and does exist not only for humanity but for the individual's benefit. Those that deal with the Shining Ones should reflect on this idea and how it can intersect with and warp their dealings with spirit beings.
I imagine the gods would agree with the Fair Folk on this one.
Do you believe that fairies have their own agency and power to affect you?
Or do you not believe this?
Think on that and look deeply into your own reasoning.
 |
| La Belle Dame sans Merci did not get the memo about humans being in charge |
No comments:
Post a Comment