Gray stone stories

When Humans Enter The Fairy Otherworld.

When Humans Enter The Fairy Otherworld.






The fairy Otherworld is remarkably similar no matter where we find accounts of those who have been taken there.
Even as far back as the Orphic cults of 600 BCE, those captured described a shining place where they were often made to dance until they were driven mad or became paralyzed. Some stories, of course, tell of those who did not return alive at all.
Again, we have many parallels to such tales within Irish folklore and mythology.




According to the Rev Robert Kirk, fairies moved from one fairy mound to another, following the cycle of solstices and equinoxes. This is an interesting link between fairies and ancestral guardians and spirits.
Many of our ancient structures are aligned to particular times of the year and frame the sun, moon and constellations.
And yet these periods are indeed also associated with the movement of fairies and the dead, as well as easier passage to the Otherworld.
Writing in their paper, Small Gods, Small Demons: Remnants of an Archaic Fairy Cult in Central and South-Eastern Europe, Professor Éva Pócs, explains, "The typical fairy communication known from folklore accounts usually takes place in a characteristic space-time structure that is also a form typical of possession by the dead as it appears in this region."





Professor Pócs goes on to explain how the universe was considered to be divided between the human world and the realm of the dead and how it was possible for the fairy beings to inhabit both places and people during these periods.
(This is remarkably similar to the Irish experience but we shouldn't be too surprised at that unless we are proposing that human geographical boundaries are also observed by fairies!)





Also worth noting is Professor Póc's point regarding fairies inflicting diseases upon, and abducting those, who trespass into their territory at these auspicious times.
We can observe this belief throughout the world, in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere, with the rise of certain constellations in the sky also being a sign that a person should avoid a taboo area or sacred site unless ritually prepared.






Sometimes a site is specifically constructed in order to create a liminal space between the human world and the Otherworld.
The 5'000 year old Orkney site, Maeshowe, for example, is now believed to be a place where the Otherworld could be accessed using ritualised construction techniques.
https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/5000-year-old-tomb-orkney-designed-ease-passage-afterlife-research-finds-2964197



J van der Reijden, of the University of Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, describes the oppositional nature of the side-chambers within the mound as being where the membrane between the human world and the spirit world is breached.
We have then entered the realm of the Otherworld and our consciousness is irrevocably changed.
And, has been argued over, was this a place where only the deceased had access to the non-physical realms, or was it a place where the spiritual leaders and initiates were brought to, as well?





Another fascinating concept is the reappraisal of the dating of crannógs.
The oldest of these artificial islands have now been proven to date to at least 3'500 BCE, meaning they are older than Newgrange and Stonehenge.
This exciting change is challenging how we view our ancestors, their building skills, as well as notions of community and the spirit world.
Speculation by some archaeologists note that the concept of separating the islands from the mainland may have been to create a division between the human world and the Otherworld, and the decorated pots and vessels that have been discovered in the water may have had a ritualistic purpose.
https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-artificial-islands-in-scotland-are-thousands-of-years-older-than-we-knew




If this is true, then how do we redress previous views of such people when they had both the ability and desire to build such places upon the boundary of land and water in order to navigate a way to the non-physical places of spirits?
We observe similar examples of monumental projects with such purposes when we view the pyramids from such a perspective, of course.
The Heb Sed festival of ancient Egypt was a way for the king to renew his land and commune with the gods and goddesses in the Duat, the realm of the ancestors and spirits.
Dr. Jeremy Naydler's study, Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts, is an excellent book for those interested in reading on this further.
https://www.amazon.com/Shamanic-Wisdom-Pyramid-Texts-2004-12-09/dp/B01FGOKTTQ



The association between fairies and such ancient places can often be overlooked.
Ancestral spirits can seem an easier fit and a way in which to accept a legacy of Otherworld associations without having to acknowledge the myriad forms of non-human consciousness written about and handed down in oral traditions for thousands of years.




(C.) David Halpin.

Photo credit: Krismaya Maya.

The Banshee and La Llorona: White Ladies of Folklore, and Goddesses of Birth and Death.

It's just one controversial post after another here at Circle Stories (!) but I hope people can understand the interest in comparing the many cultural and, indeed, religious identities imposed upon the anomalous appearances of strange beings over the millennia.
I would hazard a guess that it will continue to be the case going forward into the next thousand years as well, and who knows what we may have discovered about ourselves, our universe, and consciousness itself by that point.

The Bright Lady, or White Woman, is a figure who appears on all continents and is associated with the Otherworld.
It might surprise you to learn that she is not always so benevolent, or, then again, if you are a long-time reader of this page, you will not be surprised at all.
A recent trend is to associate the Hispanic 'White Lady', La Llorona, with the Banshee and the Welsh spirit woman, The Cyhyraeth.
One thing I will say about this is that we have little documentation to date the story of La Llorona before the 16th century, specifically, although there are interesting pathways to ancient indigenous Goddesses as we shall see.
There are strong arguments for her roots to extend from the lore and mythology of some indigenous American people to parallel similar figures of mainland Europe once we peer a little deeper.

The Bean Sídhe, in a literal context, is a fairy woman, so her origins would seem to be a less tangled path?
Both are associated with wailing, but La Llorona has one specific reason for crying which is mourning the death of her children.
In the most common form of her tale, she wanders the world, having drowned her own offspring. She is doomed to search for their souls here on earth by stealing the children of others only to ultimately drown them as well when she discovers that they are not hers.
(There are variations on this outline, but that's a rough archetype of the tale.)

The Bean Sídhe, on the other hand, can also be associated with specific families, but is not, as far as I have heard, linked to kidnapping children.
What she does have in common with La Llorona are the motifs of foreshadowing death and, of course, the mournful and terrifying cry!

An interesting avenue of thought is how a lady in white does indeed appear to children in European folklore, although post 10th century she tends to be associated with Marian apparitions and is usually benevolent.
That said, the White Lady who appeared to children at Massabielle in France was said to have gestured to the children to follow her over the edge of a rocky cliff as she floated, orb-like, above them.
Sites such as Fatima and Lourdes were also long associated with fairy women and bright ladies long before the apparitions were Christianised. There is also a strong link to caves, natural springs and trees held sacred in Pagan folklore, which we also find in Irish folklore.

Within Irish and European folklore there is a shape-changing woman who shares some traits with La Llorona.
She is said to have either been betrayed by her lover or killed by him and now wanders the earth in the form of a white hare, haunting him, and sometimes his entire family, until he too is driven mad and perishes.
https://folkrealmstudies.weebly.com/a-legend-of-the-white-hare.html

And, here is a specifically Irish take on this theme from the folklore archives.
"In Ballinacártan near Newcastle west Co. Limerick there lived a family of the O Sullivans. They lived where John Healy lives now. They were his mother's people. Whenever any misfortune was going to happen to the family or any death a white hare was seen..."
https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4613721/4612842/4658791

La Llorona also takes the form of an animal although it is usually a cat as opposed to a hare.
https://www.exploringtraditions.com/legend-of-the-la-llorona/



Within Germanic folklore we find the White Lady as Die Weisse Frau, who, again, wanders the countryside searching for her dead children.
Here we have an accepted lineage dating back to German Paganism and Elves but, perhaps, we have an even more important clue as to the identity and distortion of who these women originally were.
The Ljósálfar (The Light Elves) were said to be as bright as the sun and to look upon them was almost impossible because of their shining nature.
Just to add that many scholars see the distinction between light and dark elves as a Christian concept.
Is this related to the ambiguity in which Irish interpretations of fairies are understood, I wonder?
This might suggest that there is no real separation, only how these beings are encountered.
Jacob Grimm wrote in his work, Teutonic Mythology, "The enchantment under which they suffer may be a symbol of the ban laid by Christianity on the divinities of the older faith."

This is important because the Dutch version of these beings are 'Wise Women' as opposed to 'White Ladies' , which is attributed to a mistranslation of ‘wit’ in the folkloric record.
This would also correspond and support the idea put forward by some scholars that it was the Christian demonisation of these women which created the evil nature of their later incarnations and which repressed their Goddess-like original nature.

Certainly, one of the indigenous American Goddesses believed to be a possible root for La Llorona is Cihaucoatl, the Aztec Goddess associated with childbirth, serpents and wisdom. She is also a Goddess of harvested crops, fertility, and the crossroads between life and death, so there are some interesting parallels to the Cailleach here, but most importantly we can see how by being associated with the souls of children and women who died during childbirth her role may have been manipulated by those wanting to suppress indigenous beliefs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cihuac%C5%8D%C4%81tl

All of these connections make it interesting to think of our own Irish bright Goddess, Brigid.
But, that's probably a post for another day!

(C.) David Halpin.

Image credit : The Night Mare by Gerald Brom.