Our Forum…

The first happening that I ever had with faeries was about twenty or thirty years ago when I was in my late twenties. I was freshly out of my graduate program and had the opportunity to attend a Historical Teachers Conference in Dublin, Ireland. I had never been out of the country before, and due to my particular field of study, jumped at the chance to actually go and experience Ireland for myself. I wanted to see Teamhair na Rí (Tower na roi/The Hill of Tara), Newgrange, Skellig Michael, the Rock of Cashel, and many other famous places that I had only the pleasure of reading about in text books.

I did not believe in faeries then, though I studied the great Tuatha de Danann lords that ruled the island many thousands of years ago, they were just legends and a complicated mythology to me. There is no hard proof that faeries exist, or that the Tuatha de Danann exist or existed, only primitive writings, paintings on stonewalls and stories that remain today because of word of mouth. It almost can be equated to the “big fish story”, as what started out as a very small fish, soon becomes a gigantic whale depending on how many people it’s told to. In an example: Eochaidh Ollathair, the Great All-Father of the Tuatha de Danann was rumored to have a club that with one end could kill nine men in one swing and with the other, could resurrect the same nine men. There are no magical weapons such as this that even humans today could create, and therefore, no chance that primitive men such as them could have. Chances are, this club was just extraordinarily large and larger than any other man owned.

Once in Ireland, I did get to see many of the places that I had always wished to, but at the same time, I also did not. Newgrange was a hike, but one of the Irish professors had a car and offered to take me. I did not make it out to Rock of Cashel on this trip, though eventually managed to on another one. Most of the trip was spent listening to lectures and conference meetings, and while I am certain you would love to hear all the details concerning those meetings, I will do well to spare you, as I cannot remember them.

Anyway, near the end of my trip, I was sitting in a local pub having a beer, when one of the other Irish teachers came to sit down beside me. He ordered a whiskey and asked me if I had been out to look for faeries yet. I told him flatly that I didn’t believe in faeries, and he asked me why. I said that there was no foundation for such a belief. He said that there was no true foundation for a belief in God either, yet thousands of people around the world do and hence wars have been started over whose side God’s on. Technically, he intended on sending me on a wild goose chase, much like how when young boys dare each other to go out into the woods and bring back a live snipe. Snipes do not exist, but when you are young, you don’t take that into consideration. However, Ireland has a way of surprising you.

A lady friend of mine once stated that there are two things about Ireland you must take into consideration: Ireland is a living being and if she does not want you on her land, she will make your trip miserable, and humans who do not normally manifest psychic abilities may suddenly very well have them in Ireland. Some may keep these abilities or have them awakened in Ireland, and they will die down or become quiet outside the Island, and some will return home being something else than when they arrived.

So, this fellow professor dared me to go hunt down the faeries and see if I could actually find one. A friend I told this story to at a later date asked me if it was similar to Geisha hunting in Japan. That’s another story for a different day though. He told me that faeries enjoyed milk and honey or honey bread, and because I was dared, I went. Once dared, you should never back down, unless it is something utterly stupid and dangerous and then most definitely back down. But, to a twenty-something year old new adult, being dared to find faeries was perfectly reasonable, especially since I did not actually think that I would find any. I thought that I would just traipse around the countryside seeing new and interesting aspects of Ireland.

I will say that I did find some new and interesting aspects of Ireland, beautiful landscapes, ponds, dense and lonesome forests, tight alleyways that looked as though they could be portals to elsewhere, old houses and cobblestone streets, but it was not the milk and honey that brought the faerie, but the whiskey I had bought in a small shop down one of the narrower streets of Dublin. It was nearing dark, and I did not intend to stay out late, because there was another conference meeting the following morning.

Many people will say that there are no faeries around Tara anymore, because it is a tourist attraction, that there is no magic there, but I do not believe that, considering I met my first faerie there.

I had not managed to see Tara yet, and I would not leave Ireland behind without seeing it this trip. My best friend at home would ask if I had gone to see Tara, and if I had brought her back anything, pictures, trinkets, a leaf of some kind to prove that I had been there. She was much more interested in the spiritual and religious side of Ireland than I was, so I suppose that I went for her more than anything. There is actually a motorway near the area in which I decided to camp out and… subsequently, get drunk.

Because, honestly, when you are twenty-something years old and have just spent the entire day chasing after the European version of the Snipe, having a few rounds sounds like the best idea in the entire world. So, with that being said, I poured a glass to the “faeries” that hadn’t bothered to grace me with their presence and poured one for myself, and then one became two, two became five and eventually, I was well underway to being the only American out on the Hill drunk, but not the only American who had likely gotten drunk on the Hill, and most definitely not the only man who had ever gotten drunk on the Hill.

I would have to say that I saw him anywhere from the fifth cup to the seventh cup, and he was not a corporeal being as I have noticed some on this website seem to see. He was a wisp, a ghost, barely visible, barely there and yet not there at all. He would have been out of the corner of my eye, had I seen him with the corner of it. His hair was short, curly, and blonde. He had sharp ears and what appeared to be gilded armor, but as I could only see glints of him, I cannot tell you much more than that.

He stood near the cup that I had placed on the ground, smiled, nodded his head and then vanished, blowing away in the wind. I thoroughly thought that it was because I was drunk, but after I had polished off the bottle I’d brought with me, and went to collect the other glass, I found that it was empty, with only perhaps a drop remaining. There had been no one else on the Hill except for me, and I saw no animals approach, therefore there must have been something supernatural about the experience. To those who are interested in knowing, this is the only experience with faeries in which I was drunk, all other experiences were experienced extremely sober.

Needless to say, I had a pounding headache and horrible hangover the following morning.

Cheers,

Alex

Thanks Alex, For sharring such an encounter. As this one did make me smile as it is some times how i see them some times my self. Though with out the being intoxicated. Many do love such drinks.  Again thanks for sharring. So Cheers.

To say the least, my dear, I remember being astounded and thinking that perhaps I had been very much drunk, and intoxicated myself to the point where reason had left me. It was not until several days later that I had a sit down and went over the night to myself, and I have to admit, I was in denial at first. I think I was in denial until I came home and showed the glass to my best friend, who is now my wife and she abruptly demanded that I get back on that plane, and smuggle her to Ireland in a suitcase so that she may hopefully have a similar experience.

My wife, Sarah, has had several experiences herself, one that has been with me and another without me, and one of my girls’ claims that she’s seen one or two faeries in the house, or at least that the dog has seen something, even when there is nothing there. She recently took a video of it in her room and showed it to me. Gracie and I moved the books around on the floor to see if it was a bug, picked up her paint box and there was nothing there, no bug, but the dog continued to follow something around the room and paw and bat at an invisible creature, then Gracie exclaimed that something bit her on her ear.

There were no bite marks, but her ear was red and it hurt.

What a great experience! I adore Ireland…would go back there at the drop of a hat.

And will definitely try the cup of whiskey for the fae around these parts!

It's interesting what you said about Ireland being a living being…

The very first week I was there I fell off a 5 meter cliff…!!!

The magic part of this is that I landed with barely a scratch, only my knees and my jaw had hit the ground. I look back and think something lifted me by my collar as I fell. Maybe Ireland was trying to wake me up!

Anyhow, I had a great time there, it feels like my home. :)

Can't wait to go back and visit Tara.

If you do ever find yourself in Ireland and want to try contacting the faeries or drawing them to your person, I would most definitely suggest whiskey, but only if you are old enough to purchase it, as I would not want anyone getting into situations with the law.  The legal drinking age in Ireland is 18, so respectively, my daughters could drink if it was all right with their mother and I, but if you are under the age, it is illegal to consume or purchase alcohol in Ireland. If you are not old enough to be purchasing whiskey, then I would suggest the milk and honey or honey bread with some cinnamon, as I hear that some of them enjoy that for a snack as well. My daughter Olivia used to tell me, when she was a younger child, that faeries also enjoy milkshakes, but that might have just been an excuse for her to see if she could finagle one out of daddy late at night.

Wow, Averill, t hanks so much for sharing that!        I know I would  be happy in Ireland

In my situation, it was through a prayer I made to God that I had my faery encounter- face to face  one month later,      and to t hink that years ago I neither beleived in God or faeries.    Seems that one can never say "never". 

My  mother mentioned to me just this afternoon that there is so much the human eye cannot detect-  certain animals even have better vision than humans.    Then there is electricity and other energies the human eye cannot see -but  it exists just the same.

I have seen two  of the same kind of Sidhe in a photograph someone showed me online–  the person was standing near an old tree that had an area of it that was hollowed out.    I could see transparent-like figures standing outside of the tree and one at entrance of the tree .    They had robes on.  The younger of the two looked handsome and  was standing back in the tree hollow and looking away at something while the other robed figure was standing outside of the tree toward the person in the photo.   The figures were about human adult size too-  and seemed to be from the medieval era.   

I couldnt' believe I was able to see them so clearly in the photo when noone else seemed to be able to see them-

Your encounter reminds me   of one of these Beings :-)