12/14/2025
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.
