San Francisco Shamans: Faery Tradition

Faerie Beings as Shape Shifters
Many faery beings are perceived as having the ability to shape shift, being that they are non material, They are believed to psychically read humans minds and are able to change into a shape that conforms to the human expectations.

Sasquatch - a North American Fairy Being

Therefore a faery being in Ireland may appear as a little leprechaun with a green coat, red hair and pipe, whereas in native North American traditions, one of the traditional native faery beings is the Sasquatch . Also, in he USA the faery being may appear as a gray alien with a big head coming out of a space ship. Faery beings appear to shape shift according to the particular land and people where they reside.

Human Faery Creature Alliance
RJ Stewart, in his books, The Living World of Faery, Earthlight, and Power within the Land emphasizes the faery underworld view that are three kinds of life or consciousness upon the Earth: The Human Beings, the Faery Beings, and the Creature beings (all living beings other than human and faery which includes animals trees, plants, etc.)

According to RJ Stewart, The Faery Tradition's core beliefs involve the need for the preservation of the Earth, of alliance and communion between the three orders of life that human beings, the fairy beings, and the creature beings. In this tradition all powerful magic and spiritual work must include a communion and collaboration between these three orders of life. It is the belief of the modern faery tradition that our major spiritual work is the rebuilding of the cosmic web and through the rebuilding and reawakening of the alliance between the humans, faeries and creatures. Shamanism worldwide emphasizes the same necessary goal. The most important rituals and magic must be done outdoors within a grove of trees under the sky, stars and moon so that the faeries and creatures can be fully present to ally with the humans present.

Daemons
In European, Mediterranean and African traditions, faeries are frequently referred to as the "daemon". A daemon is perceived as a kind of demigod. They are immortal and of a spiritual rather than of a physical nature. They have many godlike powers of foreknowledge and magic. The Daemons are believed to mate with human partners and create humans who have godlike superhuman abilities. The Greek and Roman examples of gods mating with humans and creating mortals who have super human powers are good examples of this tradition. Many outstanding human beings in ancient history according to myth and legend are purported to have daemon fathers, including Socrates, Merlin , Alexander the Great, King Arthur and Jesus.

The God Mannanan Mac Lir - The Irish UnderSea God	Bridgid - the Tri-partite Godess (Mother Maiden and Crone)
Dogda - the Earth Father God

Confusion occurs in terms of faery lore because there are a multitude of different beings called "Faery". Some of these beings are really primitive elemental spirits who inhabit particular trees, streams or land. They may be of the four different elements, Earth, Air, Fire, And Water. The most powerful faery beings are the ones referred to in the Irish Tradition as the Tuatha De Danann, the high faery, the Luminous Ones, and the Shining Ones. These faery consciousness are closer to the ancient gods and goddesses in their nature, and involve a great deal more magical power than an elemental spirit. The daemons of Europe are analogous to the Tuatha De Danann.

Fairy Marriage
The Celtic tradition, like the Daemon tradition of Europe, has numerous myths concerning outstanding humans such as the Irish warrior hero, Cuchilean (sp), who have faery fathers and have inherited the faery gifts. Such individuals are referred to as "Half-lings". Many Celtic families retain myths that have faery ancestors and a history of faery marriages. Dr. Karr himself has such a tradition in his father's family. Based upon numerous legends, it is hypothesized that in order for a human being who is material in this world to have a faery parent one must have a faery father and a human mother because the faery are not material and in order to be born in a material form we require a material mother. The half humans in myth who have physical form in the material world, appear to have faery or daemon fathers, not faery mothers.

There are also many stories and legends about human beings going into the faery realm and mating with the faery beings. A classic example lies in the poem, Tam Lin, in which a young handsome man is taken by a faery queen into her realm of faeries, to be her lover. It is hypothesized that the children produced in the faery realm must be of the mating of a male human and a faery woman because the faery realm because the faery realm is non material, but rather spiritual and that one must be born of a spiritual nature rather than of a material nature in the material realm. The myths of faery maidens in the faery realm seem to be concerning a young man and a faery woman.

The concept of the fairy marriage in Celtic tradition is related to another concept, the faery cousin. The concept of the fairy cousin involves the belief that human families which have a history of fairy marriage also have as a result, fairy cousins are fairy beings related by marriage. They might be the ancestral fairy father of ones halfling line, or fairy beings related to ones faery father. Fairy cousins are faery beings who form close bonds with particular families or lines and maintain this relationship for thousand of years, being that faeries are relatively immortal. There are many stories regarding faery cousins who even migrate across the ocean to America with their human families. This is part of Dr. Karr's family mythos as well as many other Celtic families who have immigrated to America. Faery cousins bring many gifts to their human families. These gifts include the gift of mediating second sight of foreknowledge for members of their human family. It is common for members of such faery-human families to have the gift of second sight. Dr Karr's mother, for example, developed extensive, psychic gifts.

Faery Cousins
Fairy cousins in such families often intervene in crisis situations for the benefit of their human cousins. For example, when Dr. Karr's aunt was accidentally about to administer poison instead of medicine to her sick daughter, the poison was knocked from her hand by a faery cousin, saving the life of her daughter. There are classic faery cousin stories in Scotland in which faery cousins deflected bullets aimed at their human cousins.

Faery Immortality
A strange and interesting aspect of faery beliefs is the concept of relative immortality of the faery beings. The faery beings are perceived as almost immortal. This connects to the viewpoint that they are much closer to archetypal perfection than humans, but not quite there. It is believed that the faeries have a little way to go before becoming once again gods and goddesses (fully immortal). This concept is explored in The Lord of the Rings when the ring of power tempted the elf queen, and she overcame the temptation and passed the test. The Elf Queen, Galadriel, after passing this test, the elf queen and the other elves prepared to leave the world and go to a higher realm. An important part of the fairy tradition is the belief that under certain specific conditions, faery beings may be killed or destroyed. It is believed that faery beings are extremely uncomfortable with iron or steel. It is believed that they may be made weak or ill by weapons of iron or steel. There are also other magical rites which may destroy faery beings in faery traditions. Given the above, humans working with the faery tradition do not use or have around objects or tool of iron or steel when performing faery workings. Rather sacred tools of copper, silver, gold, stone wood, (anything but iron or steel must be used).

Faery Time
A related issue to faery beings near immortality and great age is the belief that faery time is very different than human time. The faery beings, being nearly immortal, have experience millions of years upon this planet and therefore, one year is experienced by them as les than a second of our time. Many of the myths concerning humans entering the faery world undergo a profound shift in their experience of time. For example in the myth of Rip Van Winkle, he goes into the faery world and thinks that he has been gone a few months, and when he returns, over a 100 years has passed in the human world. Related to this difference in time is that because faery beings exist in such a long time and a year appears as just a moment to them, they perceive us humans not individually, but as an ancestral line. They therefore relate to a Rodney Karr as a Karr, not as a Rodney Karr.

Faery Hive Consciousness
Another kind of faery consciousness involves a kind of hive consciousness, which is a collective consciousness. A multitude of faery beings may form a collective consciousness in which all are connected psychically. The trooping fairies are one of these types of faeries. This collective faery consciousness creates and manifests a faery queen who represents and speaks for the collective consciousness of the hive. A collective faery consciousness is extremely different from the individuated high faery known as the Tuatha De Danann. It is believed in many faery traditions, that when the current era of Christianity came, that the high faery withdrew into the Earth or went away far out to sea in ships, to Avalon, and that the old gods of the elder tradition became the high faery. The gods and goddess are archetypal energies which live exist and feed upon their worship and honoring by human beings. They are not exactly immortal. When their people lose faith lose memory and forget them they can no longer exist and manifest heir power in the middle world (material world). They then retreat and wait within the Earth or out to sea and await the time when they may be honored and remembered again and brought to life. The elder tradition believes that there are great cosmic cycles similar to the seasons, which come and go and return. These cycles may last thousands of years. The elder tradition believes that the cycle will cycle back and that there will be the time of return. The faeries and elder gods and goddess have been patiently awaiting their time of returning which is at hand. A big part of the faery tradition is the mythos of the faery beings (gods and goddesses) leaving the middle Earth because of the changes and shifts in human consciousness. This theme is clearly expressed in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy when the Elves get upon the boats and go out to sea, to the west, to Avalon. It is the purpose of the modern faery tradition as well as the pagan revival movements to reawaken and re-enliven the old beliefs of the old traditions of the Gods Goddess and high faery to build the bridges for their return in this time of ecological, social, political, and spiritual crisis and destruction.

Threefold Alliance
In faery tradition, each of the three kind of consciousness human, have different abilities and gifts. There are many gifts, which faery beings have which include second sight, seeing through time and space, which seem godlike to us human beings. Whereas we humans have many abilities which are as foreign and impossible for a faery being, such as building a castle, of moving a rock or tree. It is incumbent upon us humans to open the gateways for the faery beings and God and Goddess to return. They cannot do so by themselves.

The Four Cities
There are four cities* that no mortal eye has seen but that the soul knows; these are Gorias that is in the East; and Finials that is in the South, and Murias that is in the West; and Falias that is in the North. And the symbol of Falias is the stone of death, which is crowned with pale fire. And the symbol of Gorias is the Dividing sword. And the symbol of Fineas is a spear. And the Symbol of Murias is a hollow that is filled with water and light.

Fiona Macleod (William Sharp, 1855-1905) used an obscure model of four cities in several poems. These are said to be the original dwellings of the Tuatha De Danann, and are listed in early Irish poetry. The concept is closely related to the ancient provinces of Ireland (see fig 6) and the Four Implements or magical weapons of the Tuatha De Danann, the ancient Irish gods and goddesses who in later oral and written traditions became identified with the High Faery race (Wentz, 1911).

In ancient Irish tradition their gods and goddesses, the Tuatha De Danann, came to Ireland from four sacred cities associated with the four elements (earth air fire and water) and the four directions. In some mythos it is believed that the Tuatha De Danann came from the stars located in the four directions of the sky..

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Wind comes from the spring star in the East; fire from the summer star in the South; water from the autumn star in the West; wisdom, silence, and death from the winter star in the North. -from The Divine Adventurer, by Fiona Macleod

The ancient Irish gods and goddesses, at a later point during the Christian era, became the High Faery of the Irish traditions. They retreated into the faery mounds, and the underworld.

Part of this tradition is the belief that the fairy people of each of the elements and directions brought with them from the stars a sacred tool of power. These sacred tools are known as the sword of the element of air and the direction of the East, the spear of the element of fire and the South, the cup or cauldron of the element of water and the West, and the stone of the element of Earth and stone and the direction of the North.

RJ Stewart in his book, Earthlight, recommends the using of the four fairy cities or realms in visualizations in order to lead one to experience deeper levels of the fairy realm and connect to powerful forces within the sacred land.

In neo-fairy traditions, the four fairy realms are used extensively. All of the four fairy realms are associated with categories or groups of faery beings or tribes, which are connected and manifest each of the four directions and elements.

Gorias
Fairy city of the east and the element of air and wind. The fairy sylphs, or air fairies, are associated with this realm. They are characterized often as having wings. The high fairies are often associated with this realm and element. The sacred tool of the realm of Gorias is the sword. Excaliber, the sword of Arthur, is a prime example of this tool.