Who Are The Faeries?

Faerie is a general term and is interchangeable with elf in all it's variants, as a name to describe all the beings who dwell in Faerie Land. The faeries are known to be divided into four distinct groups, which are:

Enchanters And Enchantresses, sometimes known as Tempters and Temptresses and in modern times, I have renamed them as faerie priests and priestesses. These are human beings who are aligned to the faerie race by way of their destiny. Faerie ambassadors in the human world, who are bestowed with psychic or empathic gifts from the faeries. They are believed to rest in Faerie Land after their death and in life they are sensitive, creative people who invariably learn the arts of magic at sometime during their lives.

Creatures And Demons, are also thought to be aligned to the faerie race and some have a magical connection to faeries. This includes a wide spectrum of beasts including unicorns, centaurs, trolls, The Loch Ness Monster, urchins and dragons. These creatures display characteristics, ranging from the innately spiritual, beautiful and benevolent, to the downright nasty.

The Elemental Faeries; the spirits of nature which dwell in every living thing and habitat upon the earth. These are namely; the sylphs of air, the undines of water, the salamanders of fire and the gnomes of the earth.

The FaerieOr Elfin People, these are a race of magical beings who dwell in subterraneous mounds, rocks or faerie islands that are shrouded from view under water. They are said to be invisible and silent most of the time, unless they choose otherwise. They live in organised societies governed by kings and queens, presiding in faerie courts. The faerie race is divided into two types of fey; the Trooping Faeries, who are the aristocracy, so-called because they travel in processional form and are believed to be descendants of ancient, demoted pagan gods. Solitary faeries are of a more wild nature than their Trooping cousins and are the peasantry beings of Faerie Land.

The Elemental faeries

Faeries are the intrinsic inhabitants of nature, thus reflecting the natural world in their appearance, culture and personalities. The faeries are a race of fully sentient beings with feelings and rights similar to our own. They dwell in natural places such as trees, root systems, gushing streams and woodland groves to name but a few.

All elemental faeries belong to either; air, fire, water or earth. There are thousands of different types of faeries all belonging to many countries and cultures, but they will always be related to one of the four elements. Occasionally there is an elemental that does not easily sit in a category, as for example, I have encountered an electricity elemental, when our woodland ritual site happened to be in close proximity to an electricity pylon. These beings would belong to the element of fire and there are many modern elementals who need some thought as to which sphere of nature they belong.

There are many differing opinions, but witches and pagans generally agree that elementals can be described as spirit or astral beings, belonging to one of the four elements. It is important to become familiar with these types of faeries, so that you can address them properly and work with them on a deeper level. The sixteenth-century alchemist, doctor and philosopher Paracelsus gave the faeries of the four elements their names that we still use today. The sylphs or sylvestres are the faeries of air, the salamanders or newts are the fire feys, the undines or nymphs are the water faeries and the gnomes or gnomus are the earth dwelling faeries.