The Faery Faith
“Faeidry / Faeidism”
By Leaf McGowan
Faery faith comes easily and unbidden to many, especially in the Celtic countries, as a matter of fact, but one that many will not fully disclose to the first enquirer. The belief in Faery counters the scientific basis in earthly realms of matter that is composed up of atoms. Both belief systems exist, and both are based on presumed faith.
The Faery faith is a belief in an invisible dimension that is layered over the dimension where humans dwell. Within this dimension exist transformed souls and spirits of the ancient dead, spirits of plants and trees, and elementals that dwell in the realms of the sky, sea, and land. These beings are able to interact with humans who wander through gateways that exist between the Earthly human realm and that of the Fae. These gateways seem to be located in lonely enchanted landscapes that offer portals between the realms in question. Faery travelers and earthly wanderers stumble upon these gates and experience amazing encounters. Human babies are said to be stolen and replaced by changelings and taken through these gates and raised amongst the fae. Humans wandering into these realms sense they’ve spent only a few days in the otherworld and upon their return seem to have had years pass by. How do these realms co-exist? Where are these gateways? As British biochemist J.B.S. Haldane places it “The world is not only stranger than we suppose, it is stranger than we can suppose.” It is with this that we introduce you to the Faery faith, “Faeidry” or “Faeidism”. It is left up to Faery wanderers, both human and Faery to investigate these elements of our worlds as science has dropped the ball. The world today is in disbelief of the unknown. The years of knowledge we’ve gathered is steadily being lost. The corners of the world where these realms exist lie in the human mind and its dreams, its imagination and its rituals. Science offers no model or explanation for our states of consciousness nor these faery experiences that are statistically a low rate of occurrence, yet explosively expansive around the globe of the Earthly, human realms.
Do you believe in faeries? This famous question is pondered of the audiences of “Peter Pan” with children renewing their faith in Tinkerbell for another year by yelling “yes”. (Fairy Faith, Wentz) The same question if asked to the Irish would usually result in “well of course I don’t believe in fairies. But I know they exist!” and to the Neo-pagan, one would get a plethora of responses. To the anthropologist, folklorist, or historian – it is a very improper question as they’ve been gathering fairy lore for years and still have no sound theory as to understanding the phenomena.
Those who believe and tell the stories about the Faerie realm have quite a different impression on us than those who simply collect the lore and retell it with disbelief. This is the biggest difference between science and religion. Faith vs fact. To many, it is one thing to collect fairy tales, it is a whole different experience to believe in them. To the academic, it could result in loss of validity and employment. It’s a fine line of walking between two cliffs. To understand the Faery Faith or Faeidism, is to first answer the question, “What are Faeries?”
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