Faeries

[deathcomes_onsilentwings]

I know alot of Pagans have seen them, but I haven't. Can anyone give me some advice on making myself more prone to seeing them?
If you have ever seen one, feel free to share your story.  

[iolitefire]

Fae are one of the most varied groups on earth. Nearly every culture has its own types of fae. Many times people may have seen some kind of fae but they don't know it was fae (people tend to think of fae as cute lil pixie types).
To try and interact with fae, you should take into account your environment. If you live in a dry, desert area than the only fae there will be desert type fae. Also consider the different ethnicites that live nearby. If there are a lot of Irish people in your hometown then you'll be more likely to see irish fae.
I'd advise that you pin down what type of fae you want to see and do some research on it. That way you can learn what will attract it and how to treat it.  

[Seira Relur]

I haven't seen them since I was young. I'd see them all the time around the creek near my house.  

[Starlock]

Heh. Yes, this reminds me of a topic I wanted to post. Thanks for the reminder I guess. But no. I haven't. (goes to compose new topic)  

[Jezehbelle]

"The Secret Life of Nature" by Peter Tompkins is a good book (in my opinion) on nature spirits (and I found it at my library).

-throws that out there-

But, me myself, I haven't.  

[The Bookwyrm]

I don't know if I've ever seen the fae per se, but I know I've seen signs of them; I've seen things move when there was nothing there, sort of a ball of light or a little ball similar to the way a wave of heat looks when it rises off the pavement (denser air, if that makes any sense sweatdrop ). I've meditated and worked with certain individual or groups of fae, and that's always been wonderful.

There are a lot of ways to try and see them. A natural setting is usually the best place to start, somewhere outdoors. I know I have yet to see one in my house, though I've felt them flit through. Also, I've heard that the best time of day is at twilight. Twilight on Midsummer's Eve is supposed to be a very powerful time, as is Samhain; that's when the Celtic Fae move court.  

[Starlock]

Here's a question. What exactly is one supposed to be seeing if one sees fairies anyway?

'Cause if the seeing relates to the otherworlds (ie, mind's eye and inner journeys) than I see a whole lot of things all the time (laughs). Typically not fairies, though.  

[WebenBanu]

I'm with the Bookwyrm- mostly I've seen evidence of their presence, rather than seeing them directly, and I am also more likely to feel presences when invoking spiritual beings (just in general) than to actually see them. But I believe Arcane has seen fae directly at least once- and from what I know of him, I believe him. That's not to say that I don't believe anyone else, btw- but I think sometimes folks feel pressured into saying that they've seen things so that they won't seem lame or lacking to other magical folk (which is really unfortunate, you don't have to see or feel any particular thing in order to "be magical"). When that happens, our whole perception of how common certain phenomena actually are gets skewed, because everyone's saying that they've experienced it when in fact only a few truly have. Then we start thinking it's common, and newcomers feel even more pressured to manifest these abilities in some way- and the story grows with every repetition.

I'd be very interested in hearing the response to Starlock's question, though. I think that in the vast majority of cases such spiritual beings are seen with spiritual eyes- i.e. your mind's eye, and other subtle senses. But there are situations, such as when you're in a trance state, when the lines between various modes of perception are blurred and you may honestly feel as though you've seen them with your physical eyes. This happens to me sometimes in rituals where it really seems as if my statues are moving. Obviously I know that they're not, but I'm in a trance at the time and perhaps my brain is getting more of a direct feed from my subtle senses. It tries to interpret that information in a way which makes sense, and the result is my visual perception of the statues "moving." I wonder if the conditions under which one is most likely to "see" fae, aren't also conditions which are favorable to spontaneously induced altered states?  

[The Bookwyrm]

Alright, I'm skeptical about the source, but in a nut shell, here's what Ted Andrews has to say about seeing Faeries:

Quote:

Initially, their presence is translated through the five senses. This may come to you as a scent. You may catch a sparkle out of the corner of your eye. You may find your eyes start to tear a little. You may hear a soft tinkling...

Most techniques for establishing any kind of spirit contact are simple. They depend upon effective meditative abilities. If we are wanting to open to vision, we must learn how to shift eye dominance when in this meditative state. This often happens automatically when we use any kind of altered consciousness...

Of the three, the cretive imagination is most important. Its proper development will open the spiritual background of physical life. We beging to see the spiritual essences and energies surrounding and interplaying with the world at all times. Energy translated from the supersensible to the sensible realm of physical life must take the form of images for us to begin to work with them...

 

[Nihilistic Seraph]

I'll share a couple experiences I've had seeing some spirit that may have been fae. I'm more inclined just to see them as nature spirits, but then again that depends on your definition of the fae.

New-fallen snow. Tons of them. The tricky part is distinguishing between the sun making sparkles on the snow and the spirits themselves. While the sparkles are in various hues contained in the rainbow, the fae all seem to be a uniform silvery spark that just around. If it was in an eratic fassion, I'd be inclined to blame it on the subtle moving of my eyes, but they seem a lot more...smooth?

A forest at night. Little sparks of dark blue light with a golden corona about them. There can be only a few, or flocks of them. My own proof is that when I did the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram in a forest, they all left for a small duration of time, then drifted back in.  

[ILuvEire]

I see them, but only near the water, like a pair of eyes looking out from the water, and I have heard them singing. I also had one run across the path in my garden and it looked like this little silver blur...but I have never actually seen one strait out.