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Sunday, October 18, 2020

Fairy Rings and Wishful Things

 The current new hobby here on the Unseelie Side is to get a drink and a bag of crisps and watch humans fruitlessly hurling themselves into fairy rings, walking away disappointed when nothing happens. 

Did you really think it worked that way? That you could just find some hapless mycelium, jump, and poof! you're in Fairy?
Mmmmmm. We think not. 
As with all things Fairy its both more complicated and less straightforward than that. 

It is true, of course, that fairy rings have a long association with the fae folk through the history of several cultures. Step into a fairy ring and be caught up in the dancing for a night, only to walk away in the morning and find that a hundred years have passed. Sit outside and watch fairies dancing in a fairy ring and it might cost you a few years too. What can I say? Even the so-called good fairies guard their privacy. Offend the dancers in a ring and you might find yourself forced to dance to exhaustion or death. So many fun possibilities really. But you may perhaps have noticed that in every case the key is that the circle is in use when you stumble into it. An empty fairy ring is a sign of fairy activity but not necessarily of current fairy presence. Which means 99% of the time when you jump in, its to an empty abandoned space. 
Luckily for you.

What really amuses the fairies who have taken up this pass time, this new hobby, though is the sheer hubris of it. Humans believing that all they have to do is find a mushroom ring and leap in and that for some unknown, unknowable, reason the fairies would have to take the human back to Fairy, to a life that is better than the one they have now. As if all the power and control was with the human.
Hahahahahaha.
No.
The power is and always was with the fair folk, to choose who is taken for sundry uses and who is ignored.
The best outcome in many stories is being pulled out of your mortal life for a night of fun only to wake in the morning to find that everyone you knew and loved has died in the hundred years you've been gone. then crumbling to dust and ash after a few minutes to contemplate how truly alone you are. The worst case, as mentioned, is dancing yourself to death. Although perhaps best and worst here are a matter of perspective.
You know the real irony of this? If what you want most is to be taken away to Fairy than the cruelest thing that can be done is leave you standing cold on mortal ground. 

Oh yes, we've heard the excuses and explanations, the humans loudly declaring life as a chamber pot scrubber in Fairy is better than what they have now, while secretly believing they'd wed a Queen or King or Elfin Knight. So many humans saying they don't care about terrible fates because their world is already terrible - as if being hunted through a tangled nightmare wood, your shape twisted to a deer, by hunters without mercy or pity who will kill you, eat you, and raise you up the next day to do it all over again, forever, is worse than angst and ennui and a pervasive sense of impending Doom. 
Of course the human world in many places is terrible and bleak and dangerous right now. But - gentle suggestion - there are much worse things than living in a world that needs major improvements. Even one confronting generational racism, political corruption, and a plague. 

If you find your world so unbearable then perhaps study some history and current events in other parts of the human world and see what unbearable can be.  See what 'worse' in a human context can be. Syria for example. Then do what you can to change things where you are. Make it better instead of wishing for rescue from beings that do not mean you well anyway. Not a one-size-fits all solution but fit in whatever bits you can apply to yourself. Vote. Sign petitions. Speak out against injustices (if you can safely). Don't tolerate hate. Do tolerate humans who are different. Teach love. Buy local, support local businesses. Be kind. Reduce your impact on earth's environment in Every. Single. Little. way you can. Make art. Make beauty - and try to see beauty wherever you can find it. Fight for the world you want to live in by doing whatever wholesome thing you can to create it. 
Also, we've heard self-care is nice. 


We'd like to say we stole this image off the wilds of the internet, because it seems more on brand, but it was made by a friend of a friend who released it into the public domain. 


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