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 Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:34 pm
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Faeries
Forenote
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I am guessing since you are here, you want to read and/or look at this topic. I wish to inform that the information is only my knowledge and thoughts backed up by the wonderful Wikipedia. I am not trying to force feed anyone any information, and please keep an open mind while reading what I have to tell.
Thank you.
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Intro
A faerie is a spirit (supernatural being) found in the legends, folklore, and mythology of many cultures. They are generally humanoid in form, though of a higher, spiritual nature and so possessed of preternatural abilities. They are often depicted with wings and an ethereal glow, lithe and beautiful. They are also regarded as aloof, ephemeral, mercurial, puerile and whimsical, among other qualities that place them outside of a human scope and have a tendency to make them associated or confused with other mythological creatures.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:36 pm
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Etymology
The words fay and faerie came to English from French and, ultimately, Latin. ( The increasing use of "fey" for "fay" is due to a confusion with "fey", a word derived from Old English and meaning "doomed to die" and related meanings. It has no historical connection with Old French f�e or English fay, and is not a plural form of the latter.) The Latin root fata, meaning fate in the sense of one of the Parcae, is an indication that fays have abilities associated with knowledge (foresight) and manipulation (luck, blessing, cursing) of fate, both of which are qualities of faeries in myth.
Fata influenced modern Italian's fata and Spanish's hada, both of which mean fay, and the Old French f�e, which gained the meaning "enchanter." By adding the ending -rie, we get f�erie, meaning a "state of f�e" or "enchantment." This also befits fays, who are known for casting illusions and altering emotions, particularly so as to make themselves alluring, frightening, or unseen.
Modern English inherited the two terms "fay" and "fairy," along with all the associations attached to them. Since the subjects of the words are somewhat alien and ethereal, the terms are often used interchangeably and have well established spellings which are sometimes varied for effect by authors. Common ones include the following:
Fay: Fae and Fey (Infrequent historically.)
Fairy: Faerie, Fairie, Faery. (Well established historically.)
Other spellings are rarer but do exist.
There is, however, a slight distinction between the two. Properly, "fay" is a noun referring to a specific race of otherworldly beings exercising mystical abilities (either the elves [or equivalent thereof] in mythology or their insect-winged, floral descendents in English folklore), while "faerie" is an adjective meaning "of, like, or associated with fays, their otherworldly home, their activities, and their produced goods and effects." Thus, a leprechaun and a ring of mushrooms are both faerie things (a fairy leprechaun and a fairy ring.)
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:41 pm
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Elemental Spirits
For each of the four main elements there is a ruling faerie spirit.
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Salamanders
Salamanders are nature�s pyrotechnicians, exploring every aspect of fire, from the magma at the molten core of the earth to the electricity of a lightning bolt. Their quest is to connect with the secret fire that lies at the heart of all things in the natural world.
Danger of Combustion
Salamanders are the most highly charged and dangerous of all elemental spirits. They are dangerous because they are malevolently disposed toward humans but because they are so far removed from our level of being. To commune with salamanders is to risk total destruction. Any fears or unresolved emotions can combust like gasoline in the white-hot presence of a salamander. To identify with any negativity is to stand like a dead pine in the face of a forest fire. However, humans can learn a great deal from salamanders. Fire is the primary element that acts upon others, turning solids into liquids, and liquids into gases by the action of its heat. The sun is the material reflection of the divine fire. Its light and hear provide the vital dynamic acting upon our planet. Salamanders were born when the first volcano spewed forth the vast amount of vapor that established the atmosphere and oceans, which in turn provided the matrix for planetary life. They have been exploring the transforming nature of fire ever since.
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Sylphs
Sylphs are endowed with all the qualities of the element of air. They sigh on the breeze that hisses through cornfields, whisper on the winds that rustle through trees, whip up the dust devils that presage a sandstorm, and shriek with the gales that lash the great seas. In summer, they slumber on languorous air, heavy with perfume and the buzzing of bees.
Spirits of Inspiration
Although sylphs can be tempestuous, essentially they are light, harmonious, expressive, and inspirational. To commune with a sylph is to experience amazing clarity of vision, enabling you to view the world with the crisp focus of an eagle, while the inner eye of your intellect sees things are they really are. Air is also the medium of hearing and smelling, since sounds and scents are carried by the air. Sylphs are highly musical, creating wonderful symphonies from all the sounds that are borne on the breeze. To listen to a sylphs� melodies is to be inspired---literally, for the word inspire comes from the Latin inspirare, meaning to breath in. They breathe inspiration into us, connecting us with the great mind they inhabit, for just as the element earth represents the body, water the soul, fire the spirit, air represents the mind.
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Undines
Water is psychic and intuitive like its ruler, the moon. It has a connecting, magnetic quality to it. It conducts sounds and currents, and has powers of meditation and communication. Undines are therefore the most empathetic of the elemental beings and many people find them the easiest to relate to.
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Gnomes
A gnome�s main sphere of interest is the mineral world. Gnomes do not govern the formation of metals and minerals--that is the work of the mineral devas--but they seek to understand how the building blocks of physical life work. This is why alchemists and magicians have always sought their assistance. Alchemists wish to penetrate the very nature of matter in order to manipulate and exalt it. Magicians want to know how atoms combine to create forms so that they can conjure things from thin air and increase their power over nature.
Diamond Watchers
Gnomes are, naturally, very down-to-earth. They are serious, practical, industrious, critical, single-minded, and patient. Magicians use elaborate rituals and incantations to summon and command gnomes to do their will. Gnomes evoked in this way have the appearance of tiny, wizened old men with weak eyes and narrow, pointed noses. Gnomes that have been summoned against their will appear taciturn and grumpy because they hate being dragged into our time and space, which is very uncomfortable for them. They operate at much lower frequencies than humans. What seems to us an eon is just a short time to gnomes. They can inhabit the space between atoms and patiently observe a lump of coal turning into a diamond.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:42 pm
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Nature Spirits
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Devas
While biologists are still trying to find out how matter created life, ancient tradition affirms that life created matter. In the beginning there was consciousness. Consciousness is the need o be. In order to satisfy this need, consciousness created life, and in order to evolve, life created matter.
Organizing Intelligences
The world deva means god or divinity in Sanskrit. Devas are the shining ones of Buddhist and Hindu tradition, sentient spiritual beings, like angels, the act as the organizing intelligences for everything that exists. It is they who are responsible for the so-called evolution of nature. When William Blake, in his famous poem, asks of the tiger "What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?" the answer is the tiger deva manifesting an idea formed in the mind of nature.
Everything Has a Spirit
Devas are the vitalizing spiritual mirror of the material world. They provide matter with organization and cohesion. Every atom and molecule has its spirit, without which it would have no cohesion. Devas are the glue that binds the fabric of the universe together. Every individual being has its own deva, which acts as its instinctual mechanism. This provides the tiger with its instinct to survive and ensures that everything it absorbs from food turns into tiger. Every species of tiger has its own deva, while a higher deva presides over tigers in general, and an even higher deva over the whole cat family. A yet higher deva presides over all mammals and so on. In the plant kingdom it is the devas that preside over the activities of the flower faeries and other lesser plant spirits.
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Flower Faeries
Tiny and graceful with gauzy dragonfly wings, flower faeries have the delightful task of tending to the blooms of all the flowering plants of the world. Under the ruler ship of the devas, the ruling spirits of nature, they work ceaselessly throughout the day to make sure that their flowers produce the right colours, scents, and organs to attract insects and ensure successful pollination.
Seeing a Flower Faerie
Dressed in the same apparel as their flowers, these faeries are among the easiest of the faerie fold to visualize and actually see. The best time to do so is between sunrise and midday when they are engaged in the opening of flowers and the attracting of insects. You cannot see them by looking at them directly, but those darting, shimmering lights that you sometimes catch out of the corner of your eye ...who can really say what they are.
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Nymphs
UNDER CONSTRUZIONE.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:45 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:48 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:49 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:50 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:51 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:52 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:53 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:54 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:57 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:58 pm
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