PaganSquare.com - WitchesAndPagans.com

One of the questions I am asked fairly regularly is what books I recommend for people interested in studying Irish Paganism, as there is so much confusion out there about what's good and what's not. Obviously different people will have their own suggestions here but I wanted to write a bit about how I judge sources and also offer a selection of good books (and a few websites) that I have found to be useful for people studying Irish Paganism. 

Basic Suggestions for Judging Sources

The Fair Folk are once again seeing a surge in popularity across paganism and with this higher profile has come an array of conversations about them and particularly the risk they may represent. For myself I am thrilled to see many of the younger witches out there advocating caution or even fear around the Gentry, but I have seen some people pushing back against that, particularly in the witchcraft community. Its an interesting thing to watch, as someone who grew up with a healthy caution around these beings and who has worked for years to speak about that caution and respect in every possible forum. 

I suspect that the disconnect here is both generational and cultural. If you are part of a culture that still believes in and understands these beings through the lens of older belief then you likely grew up with an understanding that they were or could be dangerous. If you are in the newest generation of witches and pagans then you may have started to run across more accurate folklore as well, as more urban fantasy¹ takes inspiration from older folklore and as more advocates for traditional fairy views are speaking up. However there was a period in the 1990's and 2000's especially where most witchcraft books in the US discussed the Good Neighbours in very different terms, usually through the post-Victorian lens of guides and minor spirits. That era has produced a view among some which still persists that these beings shouldn't be feared but seen as natural friends of a witch. It isn't entirely wrong but it does lend itself to gross oversimplification and confusion, and sadly to a continued emphasis on anthropocentrism and diminishment of the fairies. 

The most pernicious thing about racism and white supremacy may be the way that they get into absolutely everything in US culture, even things we might assume – or want to assume – are impervious to such influences. This is true of the fairy faith, that set of beliefs and practices connected to the fey folk which were brought to the US with Europeans and can be found in parallels of native American beliefs. Sadly I have seen this expressed over the years in various ways, usually intended to uphold the idea of white as normative and to push out people of colour who may be interested in fairylore or fairy based spirituality. I’ve always been a vocal opponent of such attitudes and today I’d like to tackle this directly.

One question I am often asked is what to do if you’ve angered the fairies. There’s a variety of ways this can happen from trespassing in there places, causing damage to those same places, taking something you shouldn’t from them, destroying a fairy ring, tossing water out when they are passing by, or even speaking badly of them where they happen to hear it. The Fair Folk are not subtle in their anger and if you have annoyed them you will generally know it. On the milder end you may experience sudden terrible luck, on the medium end bruising, muscle cramps, or feeling like you are being pinched, on the more severe end blindness, or serious permanent physical harm (and of course any physical symptoms you should have checked by a medical professional).

So, then, if you think you have done something that you know annoys the fairies or feel like you are on the receiving end of their anger for any reason what do you do? Here is a list of suggestions, although I’ll say up front that you may need to try a couple things until you find one that works to appease them.

Annotated Reading List

I’ve been asked recently to provide a more indepth recommended reading list for people interested in researching fairies from a more academic angle. I have previously in various places offered short lists but never a longer one, so it did seem like a good suggestion. Today I’m going to write about many of the books I have found valuable in my own personal studies, and I hope that will in turn be helpful to others. These are specifically academically focused works, rather than more general sources, which means they were written by people working within the field they were writing about (or a closely related one) or published by university presses, as far as I am aware.

I wrote this in 2016 but it seems like something that needs to be shared now, so I wanted to offer it here. 

Brighid is the modern name of the pagan goddess Brig and also the name of a Christian saint, bot of which are associated with healing. Brighid is a complex figure whose stories are woven through Irish mythology and folklore but who can often be hard to pin down. She appears as a member of the Tuatha De Danann in the Lebor Gabala Erenn and the Cath Maige Tuired, and is referenced as a goddess in the Sanas Cormaic. There are several pseduohistorical figures in the Ulster cycle which are thought to possibly be Brighid by scholars like Kim McCone. And Saint Brighid is found across an array of material and in the modern catholic faith. These figure and stories intertwine among each other and blur together in both history and myth. So this prayer calls on Brighid in all her many forms. 

  I tend to write quite a bit about the more dangerous Otherworldly beings and dangers more generally of interacting with the Otherworld. Some people find that off putting and I understand why but I feel its' important to offer a counterbalance to the more widespread view out there, which is decidedly in favour of a kinder, gentler, more helpful view. In a perfect world we would see balance and an understanding that the Other, like anything here in the human world, is about the potential to help or harm based on a huge array of factors; unfortunately that isn't the world we live in. For too many people it is easy to justify ignoring the potential risks in favour of focusing only on the potential advantages. So today I want to talk about some of the factors that are involved in how these interactions go.

Firstly to be clear, yes the Good Folk can be helpful and can take a liking to humans without any clear reason. There are many examples in folklore and modern accounts of encounters with the fey folk that end well or are inexplicably beneficial. I want to start with that up front so there's no confusion that I'm only saying they are dangerous.