The Painful Side of Spirit Interactions*

I hear much talk around relationships with spirits and how humans believe they are giving to and getting back from these beings. What I don't see however is any acceptance or acknowledgement of things that have been done in the past by culturally dominant forces in the West - harmful things that have been done - that must be redressed, of debts owed, or of responsibility. Especially among those who claim to work strongly and closely with the Good People there can be a disconnect between the reality and agency of fairies and the idea of these beings as allies.

The fact is there are many spirits and fairy beings that are angry with humans, particularly humans rooted in western Europe or Christianity, that do not wish them anything but ill. Actions have consequences. Widespread actions have widespread consequences, which often hit at the most vulnerable, even when they aren't the source of the problem.
When it comes to the Other there's more than a millennia of problematic actions specifically in Western cultures that go mostly unacknowledged and unmitigated. The Good Folk and spirits have been systematically attacked and driven out, literally turned into the monsters of the new religion or reduced to children's toys. The punchlines of jokes, focus of fantasies in fiction, and the playthings of gaudy imagery. Beings that were once viewed as Gods or God-adjacent, who were respected and rightfully feared, turned into glittery servants to human egos. Driven out now by ignorance and entitlement as much as iron and salted words. 

Actions have consequences. 

The fey folk move on a time scale that eludes humans and in ways that are often just as elusive. Humans live in moments and forget quickly, but the memories of the folk are long, and patience is a hallmark of those who live for millennia. Offenses are not forgotten, spirits merely bide their time to retaliate at the ideal moment. 

There are many in Western culture who are quick to claim that the current human pandemic has no connection to the spirits, perhaps because they don't like the idea that spirits would do such a thing. Or perhaps because they don't truly believe spirits can do such a thing. And I do not claim to know if the ultimate source that sparked the illness was spirit-born or the confluence of random factors; what I do know is that however it started there are spirit beings tangled up with it now. Amplifying it. Empowering it. 

While some fairies and spirits may be helping humans against this plague, others are certainly encouraging it to spread and be as deadly as possible. And others either see it as inconsequential to them or amusing. Does that offend you? To think that some fairies find human suffering and death entertaining? You should remember that humans are not the center of all things, something that some cultures and spiritualities still remember but which has been lost to others.

The problem with too many humans right now is rampant anthropocentrism. Some humans make everything about them and leave no room for anything else. Western culture is so anthropocentric they can't even conceive of spirits retaliating on this scale for widespread offenses. Some can't even conceive that all spirit beings aren't helping to fight the battles humans fight, especially around health. They have forgotten, I suppose, a thousand years of human-folk on the receiving end of elfshot and elf-stroke - even though the arrows are just as sharp as ever. And unfortunately, as has been the case across the centuries, the innocent are being hit along with those who actively act against the Good Folk, in the same ways that climate change is striking the demographics least responsible for it the hardest - because it isn't necessarily those who cause the problems who are impacted by it. 

Not all humans are the problem. There are Buddhists who understand about angered spirits and the widespread consequences that are occurring from that. They are even encouraging people to engage in appeasing practices, a kind of repayment to the offended spirits and acknowledgement of the harm caused to them. In the same way in Japan the yokai Amabie is being invoked to fight against this illness and in parts of India a goddess being called 'Corona' is being prayed to. This is the right way, the best way, to approach these things. Invoke spirits to fight spirits. Live in right relationship with the unseen world.
 For those particularly coming from that Western cultural mindset its important to acknowledge the connection you may have to what has been and is being done to the spirit-folk and do what little you can to restore balance with the spirit world.

And let me be perfectly clear: this applies equally to witches and pagans and those who claim to be close to fairies. Just because you are a witch doesn't exempt you from consequences when the spirits are angered on a large scale, not unless you yourself are actively making amends. As witches/pagans/etc not only are you not exempt from this but you're much more obligated to be aware of it and address it properly because you should know better. If you claim to work with fairies and related spirits then you should know better than to treat them like your personal vending machines and servants. You should understand their power and not reduce them any further in how you approach them.
You should respect them, and treat them with respect.

Humans must - MUST - stop thinking all spirits are just fancy nature-spirit-guardian-angels who want humans to be the best humans they can be. Implicit in that idea is that they really wouldn't hurt a human or only specific individuals who directly hurt them. No. Some human communities have done the Otherfolk great harm and humans, collectively, are seeing the result of that on several fronts. The pandemic is only one. 

Some humans believe they are in an interconnected relationship with fairies and spirits, and that is true in its own way. But connection doesn't mean only goodness for you, especially when you are doing precious little good for the Good Folk. Connection means you receive the negative consequences of your species' actions as fully as anything else. A relationship is the good and the bad, and the scale is not tipped in the favour of humans right now. Much can be learned by moving outside the Western cultural, Christian dominated view and looking at how cultures/spiritualities that try to live in balance with the spirits are approaching things around this. And try to understand why spirits in places where the Good Folk have been actively attacked, banished, diminished, and dominated - places where Christian dominionism has labeled them demons and waged war against them - try to understand why these fairy beings are angry and how that anger plays out in ways that humans will see as unfair. 

If you want to change this, look at the non-Western cultural examples: be respectful of the spirits true power, acknowledge the harm done, and make appeasement offerings. 
As the saying goes 'be the change you want to see in the world' and in this case that change means moving away from existing systems in order to return to previous non-Christian/non-western cultural paradigms of spirit engagement.

* 7/1/23 the messenger would like to add a small disclaimer here that this material is what would be referred to as 'channelled' and is presented as directly as possible; it must be understood in the context of spirits who are particularly frustrated at specific groups of humans but are lashing out at humans collectively. Is this fair? No. But just as hurt humans pass that hurt on to innocent people so hurt spirits attack those who aren't directly responsible for that hurt. Its a mess and the only way to get through it is to understand that spirits can be traumatized by human actions and that their responses can seem disproportionate to humans, and seek to personally live in a more balanced way with these beings.