The Lightness of the Sidhe
By Olivia Robertson
Oh the heaviness of theologians! The pomposity of patriarchal Druids. The doctrinal dreariness of occultists. Long have I been bored stiff by harangues from 'Masters' of ? Of What? Wisdom of course. For a thousand years or more we women have provided congregations for men holding forth on our Motherhood, our marriages, our children, our destiny in the next world - either hell or heaven according to their own prescription.
What a relief to have a faery web! Yes, you may spell it 'fairy'. Or 'Sidhe'. Or Devic. Words are the bugbear of happiness. The 19th Century Poets of the Celtic Revival used the spelling 'Faery'. Both are valid and acceptable.
So in the Druid Clan of Dana my own hope - with my brother - was to found a happy, friendly, easy sphere for people to be their true selves, uninhibited by logic, facts, dogmas, criticisms. Facts? So-called facts. Remember, our theologians for centuries taught that the sun went round the earth, and burnt those who disagreed with them. Scientists created nuclear bombs to benefit their countries. They haven't.
So when we describe personal encounters with Deities, Angels, Sidhe, Faeries, we need to put aside prejudice, fear, dislike and "scientific" opinion. Note that when 'alive', we are at least respected by materialists as being materially there. The moment we die, we are non-persons, with no rights, privilege or respect. We are prey to being exorcised by the clergy, banished by esotericists and ignored by the majority of the educated world.
Yes, I will be honest and tell of my own few encounters with fairies, in this my first article. I shall present an Elf, a Triton and talking Squirrel-field-mice.
The Elf I met in full consciousness, when I was projected out of my body at night ... Here I must emphasise that faery folk exist on a higher frequency than we do - there is a feeling of the speed you notice in early films. This elf was friendly and had come to help me back to my body. He was about 3 feet tall and was supernaturally thin. But what struck me most was his hair. He had a very long thin pigtail that reached to his knees, like a fine rope.
Some years later I was describing him to a faery contactee in Estara's group. To my delight she also had seen an elf with hair like that. Oddly, some months later I saw a young man with his hair braided in like fashion. But who started the fashion - elf or human?
The Triton I met looked like those green renaissance sculptured tritons, depicted with ornamental fountains. He was very large, green and looked like a kind of underseas scaly fish. I was aware of the extraordinary speed of the dimension in which he existed. He manifested in a rushing stream. I liked him.
The most extraordinary creatures I have ever met were red squirrel-cum-field-mice animals in my bedroom, when I was out of my body at night. What was so unusual, was that they had human-like intelligence, and could therefore talk with me. They had come to help me back to my body.
At that time I still had embarrassment at conversing with intelligent animal spirits, so I was immensely relieved at reassurance brought by my friend, and Priest of Isis. He had called in from Cork and we were having tea. He suddenly said: "A strange thing happened to me yesterday. I saw these squirrel-like creatures - spirits - and they could talk!" "Thank you, thank you!" I exclaimed.
May this start more accounts from our Druid members and friends! By the way, animal spirits are classified as 'Sidhe.' I have yet to tell of the White Rabbit - Pasicola the Trickster, and how I met him, as did Alice in Wonderland. Yes, it's true ***
This article by Olivia was written near Beltane, 2007 to honor the work of Minette Quick, Hon. Sec. of the Circle of Brigid.