A Scottish woman recalls her encounters with Faeries and other Fae Folk, including the Bean Sidhes, which is a harbinger of death in the family. Very interesting account.
The following account was forwarded to me by my friends Cam & Kyle at Expanded Perspectives:
"My sister and I accidentally ended up on a fairy road when walking on paths in the public park (in Scotland). I was nineteen at the time and she was thirteen. We were accompanied by her dog. After about fifteen minutes walking we got lost and she used her GPS on her phone to find we were miles away from where we had started. In the path behind us, the sunlight shimmered oddly, but no forms were distinct. I apologised aloud for having used their path and gave an offering of the cool rocks and leaves I had picked up along the way, and my sister and I walked back the way we came. It took longer, more like twenty minutes, but we returned to the park after having been gone less than an hour.
I have never encountered that path again, though I have visited the park many times since.’ Fairies are ‘flesh and blood entities with the abilities to hide thoroughly and bend spacetime.’ ‘My supernatural experiences occasionally involve fairies (for instance, mushroom rings appearing), but it isn’t common. Usually, I just get a sense of otherness that could be fairies but could be other entities.’
I am rather old now and have been engaged with fairy beings as long as I can remember, generally in a positive, admiring, and respectful manner which has always been returned. They have been helpful, and I am grateful. My earliest memories of fairy beings are when I was still in my crib and several of the lighthearted sort used to line up along the walls, shine rather like little yellow birthday candles, and sit swinging their feet and watching me curiously. They were neither young nor old, neither adults nor children. I somehow knew without being told not to talk about them. It seemed to me that older and busier people could have seen them if they liked but chose to ignore them, particularly if they were the sort of hurried people who enjoyed creating drama and conflict. Our elderly Boston Bull Terrier had more sense and got on well with them. In fact, there were several elf-like beings, floor dwellers, who used to sneak titbits to him and stroke his ears.
We were fortunate enough to have brownie helpers. My father told me stories about them while being careful not to cause offense by addressing them directly. I tried to learn by example. Although encouraged in my beliefs by my father and his family (who were from Renfrewshire in Scotland) I had my troubles because of the fairy beings too. My allowance was taken away when it was discovered I was leaving the coins for the fairies. I had several ‘invisible playmates’ and whenever my mother heard more than one voice in the playroom she used to come and stare at me with disapproval and end the game. And I was very frightened at first by the Bean Sidhes who came to me when my family died, I do not know why but I didn’t need to be told what they were or what was happening. To my ears, their wailing sounded like the 118 howling of dogs or on several occasions the calls of a hawk and I quickly lost my fear. They still come to me now."
NOTE: Bean Sidhes is a figure from Irish folklore. A fairy woman who foretells the death of a family member. To hear her keening is a sign that a member of your family will die that night. According to folklore, she is usually dressed in a gray cloak and green dress, and her eyes are red from weeping. If one were to catch a bean sidhe, the person could force her to tell him who will die. Lon
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