How to contact Faerie

Faerie Wicca is a system of techniques used to connect the human and Faerie domains through activating what is known as the Second Sight. This is the spirit vision, the inner sight, the faculty used in the performance of scrying or crystal gazing on the one hand, and astral travelling on the other. Everybody has this ability, in some it is developed and in others it is latent. With practice the Second Sight can be activated and strengthened.

Second Sight Exercise

1. Find an Elder, Willow or Hazel tree and cut yourself a Faerie wand. The wand should be approximately the same length as your forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Leave an offering of pure water for the tree as thanks.

2. Go to a quiet place and inscribe a circle around yourself with your wand and then chant seven times:

Oy-thear,
Too-ay-skeert,
Ee-ar,
Dess.

3. Sit down, place the wand on your lap and close your eyes. Visualise your third eye, situated in between and slightly above your brows and see it opening wide. Try to see through this eye, look at your hands and feet, look about you, take note of your surroundings. What can you see? Take as long as you like, with practice you will begin to see between the worlds and be able to use the Second Sight at will, eventually using it along with your normal sight.

Faerie Offering Ritual

Before trying to enter the Faerie Realm, it is wise to first make contact with them by leaving offerings to show your good will. The Faeries love foods such as wholemeal breads and cakes, they relish cow or goat’s milk, cream, cheese and butter. They also love milk, honey and saffron mixed together.

1. Go to one of the Faeries’ favourite haunts such as a ring, a hill, the bottom of the garden or another place where you intuitively feel Faeries, and find a flat surface on which to place your offering. Your gift could consist of, for example, of a bowl of milk and a cake or piece of bread. 2. Consecrate the offering with these words:

I offer this drink and this bread to Oonagh, the Queen of Elphame, and to Finvarra, the King of Faerie, royal rulers of the Daoine Sidhe (pronounced ‘Theena Shee’). My name is (say your name), as a Witch I seek to make contact with your tribe and to learn the secrets of Faerie.

3. With your wand, trace a star over the offering and say:

Blessed Be those who live in the Hollow Hills. Blessed Be the Faerie race within the Earth and the Faerie Blessing be upon me.

4. Leave the offering and walk away without looking back. You can return to the site the next day and if any or all of the offering has gone, you will know that it is safe to continue on and enter the Sidhe. If the offering is still there, take it away and try again another time with a fresh gift.

Entering Faerie

Timing is an essential ingredient when attempting to contact Faerie. The best time of day for Faerie sightings is either dawn, noon, sunset or midnight. These liminal times mark a transition from light to dark or vice versa. Full Moon is also a good time, as are the Greater Sabbats, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasad and Samhain. The Faeries move house on these days, legend tells us that for thousands of years they have changed their abodes on the Cross Quarter days and in the process have created magical pathways, or Ley Lines, between their residences. The whole Earth is covered with these paths running between what humans call ‘sacred sites’.

The following Faerie-contact techniques can be used as many times as you like, start off with practice runs and then when you feel confident you can make actual journeys. You might be successful at the first attempt, or may have to try several times before you gain access to the Faerie Kingdom. With all of these adventures be sure to remember all that happens and to write down any important information when you return.

Faerie Ring Spell

1. If you choose a Faerie Ring as your entrance place to the Sidhe, sit in the center of it holding your wand, close your eyes, open your third eye and when you feel ready say:

Upon the green,
Betwixt and between,
I go with a laugh
to the Faerie’s hearth.
Through land and sea
I have the key.
As I do will
So mote it be.

2. Using the Second Sight, see yourself descending into the Earth, becoming ‘one’ with the ring site, co- terminus as it were, with the actual soil. In this case the Faerie Ring being a bit like a mossy elevator going down to the Under- world Realm. All round you is the dark Earth, you can even see worms and other bugs in the dirt.

Look up and see the sky receding as you go further down. Soon you will find yourself in the Faerie Kingdom.

3. Greet the beings who you meet there and tell them who you are and where you are from. You will probably be taken to meet the Faerie Court and offered food, drink and perhaps gifts. Before accepting any of these things, formally state your purpose in visiting, be it to seek knowledge, a special skill, a blessing, fertility or to form permanent alliances with Faerie, and when that is done you may accept their offerings.

4. To leave the Land of Faerie, will yourself back up to the light of day the same way as you entered.

Faerie Hill Spell

This method of entering Faerie is via a Hollow Hill, it can be a mound in a suburban park or a hill in the country. You just need to intuitively discover a mound or hill which you believe holds Faeries.

1. At one of the auspicious Faerie-contact times, go to the hill and walk nine times deosil around it.

2. Sit down at the bottom of the hill and close your eyes. Using the Second Sight find the entrance to the hill. It may appear as a dark tunnel or as a wooden door.

3. Knock three times upon the ground outside the tunnel or upon the door if there is one, and then enter the passageway into the heart of the hill. The passage turns to the left and descends spirally. Following the passage you move downward ever more deeply until you begin to enter the Faerie world. As in the previous spell, greet the beings you meet and explain who you are and what you seek.

4. To leave the Hill, find the passage you entered by and return to the surface.

Precautions

Faeries are not always pleasant, sometimes they do not want to be seen by mortals and some Faeries are bad tempered. In 1555 a Witch called Joan Tyrrye said that she had lost the sight in one eye after catching a glimpse of a Faerie at a market. Just like in the human realm the majority of beings will be friendly, but you may run into the ocassional malevolent character. Despite the storybook image of cute, cuddly faeries, they are not all sweetness and light. In the 17th century many people believed that it was risky to even say the word ‘Faerie’ and used such euphemisms as ‘Good Neighbours’ instead. It is wise to maintain a healthy respect for the Faeries, just as you would if you were encountering the inhabitants of any foreign country.

Be careful about accepting Faerie food and drink, it can be a means whereby you become trapped in the Otherworld. Remember the story of Persephone eating just one pomegranate seed in Hades? Also be aware that, in Faerie, time passes differently from time in our world and a traveller to that realm might find that in what seems the blink of an eye, many years have passed on Earth, or that what seemed aeons in Faerie was really only a few minutes.

Faeries do not like iron therefore it makes sense to use iron as a protective amulet when visiting them. (Other protective devices are: turning your clothes inside out, bells, running water, salt, a red ribbon, daisy chains, stones with holes, horseshoes, St John’s Wort, a twig of Broom, Rowan or a combination of Oak, Ash and Thorn).

Valerie Worth’s Iron Charm.

Take an iron nail and place it upon a small flat stone, and with a hammer strike it three times, at each stroke saying:

Clavus ferrus
Malleus ferreus
Ferrum rufulum
Ferrum nobilis.

Score the stone thrice across with the nail’s point, then take the stone away and bury it in the Earth. The nail should afterwards be carried with you during all Faerie dealings.

Banishing malevolent Faeries

If you find yourself in a sticky situation with a rather mean Elf, hold your chosen protective device, such as the iron nail, wave it towards them and say:

If of air the grey mist fold thee,
if of earth the swart mine hold thee,
if a Pixie sink thy ring
if a Nixie seek thy spring.

A Last Word

Faerie magick is a fascinating part of Witchery and one well worth aquainting yourself with. Faeries are far more interesting than their public image suggests and the Witch who forms a good relationship with them will find herself well rewarded. Much of Faerie Wicca is taught by the Faeries themselves and is usually tailored to the requirements of the individual Witch. Some Faeries will specialise in specific forms of magick such as healing, divination or glamour and others will be masters of many techniques. It is by forming a familial relationship with the members of a Sidhe that you can find the right partner/teacher for yourself. Faeries can be powerful allies and such a close working relationship can often result in a deep affection between the Witch and the Faerie. It is perfectly fine to have a Faerie lover, husband or wife and was actually quite common amongst Witches in the past. But first you must set out upon the Third Road, the road that leads to Elphame, initially you must make friends with the Faeries before expecting any teachings from them.

Further Reading

1. The Burning of Bridget Cleary by Angela Bourke
2. The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wendz
3. Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee
4. Call of the Horned Piper by Nigel Aldcroft Jackson
5. The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk
6. The God of the Witches by Margaret Murray
7. The Good People by Peter Narvaez (Ed).
8. Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
9. At the Bottom of the Garden by Diane Purkiss
10. Strange @ Secret Peoples by Carole Silver
11. Fairy @ Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by W. B. Yeats
12. From the Beast to the Blonde by Marina Warner
13. No Go the Bogey Man by Marina Warner

Illustrations on this page are by: Ida Rentoul Outhwaite; Frances Griffiths; Richard Dadd; and Richard Doyle.