Fairies and Magic

According to virtually all sources that describe the Magical folk, one defining trait is its possession of types of Magic.

At the same time, it is obvious that both the notion of magic and its aims and mechanisms among humans and fairies differ completely.

Indeed, if we use the classic definition of Magic as “the science and art of making reality conform to the practitioner’s will”, it becomes perfectly clear that, since the very nature of volition in humans and fairies differs, its expression is different too.

First, as we’ve often discussed, the mind of fairies is much more balanced than humans’. Neuroses, obscurations, mental dead ends — everything that makes up a significant part of the human psyche — are very rare among fairies. And yet for humans it is precisely the mental imbalance that often becomes the trigger for mastering power: through the practice of “cultivating the garden” people can bring order to their own minds. Namely, people often turn to magic to solve their own inner problems and obstacles. However, even the minds of lesser fairies are already a relatively harmonious flow, and therefore, using magic for self-healing would be strange for them.

Second, fairies are harmonious not only internally; they (at least, the Seelie Court) are also usually in harmony with the outside world. Accordingly, the desire to change the world, to make it suit themselves, seems very strange to them.

Therefore, fairy Magic is not the active, fiery, assertive art that humans seek to master; it is the world’s own “acausal” activity, the drive and ability of global flows to overcome their obstacles, regardless of causal chains. That is, when, for the sake of the continued harmonious progression of a given process or the affirmation of a phenomenon, an obstacle arises such as ‘laws of nature’, the natural order, fairies can overcome this ‘necessity’ — and that is precisely their Magic. For example, if, by all laws of causality, a fawn must end up as a wolf’s dinner, a puka who happens to be near effortlessly saves it, satisfying the wolf by “scooping” a little Magic from the World Medium. To be fair, note that if the “third force” in this story is not a puka but, for example, a skatach, the fawn will be far less lucky, and the wolf will probably also get a “bonus” in the form of some other little animal running by.

One way or another, it is important to understand that if for humans the driving force and energy source of magic is desire, expressed as personal will, fairy magic is rooted in immanence, in the inertia of natural flows, and in their tendency toward self-maintenance.

In other words, if human Magic is more often expansive, “attacking”, then fairy Magic is usually defensive and preserving. When, for instance, Amergin defeats a storm, his goal is to gain a foothold, to fulfill a personal intention. When the Kings of the Tuatha hinder him, they aim to prevent change, to preserve the existing order. Even when humans use protective Magic, it is more often reflective, repelling danger — meaning, again, active, rooted in Muspellsheim. Fairy Magic, however, is usually dissolving, annihilating; it comes from Niflheim.

As mentioned, at the human level, fairies’ minds are closest to the Daoist ideals of “non-interference”, to those energy practices that are known, for example, in aikido and related arts. That is, fairy Magic is usually the art of inner transformation, reinforcing or, conversely, weakening existing flows, whereas humans more often create new vortices and vectors.

In the most ancient times, the two humanities complemented each other perfectly in their impact on the world: the Immortal folk supported what existed, while mortals introduced disturbances necessary for development. And even when misunderstandings arose between them, they were quickly resolved by the wisdom of the Higher fairies. Unfortunately, the Iron Age changed everything, when, not without the intervention of the Fomorians, humans moved from moderate expansion to aggressive consumption of nature’s resources, which ended in the technological transformation of the world and the exodus of the fairies.

The modern situation is close to a technological singularity, when the human mind itself risks being displaced into the Interworld almost the same way as once the fairies went there. However, if the fairies leave entirely, preserving their freedom and self-awareness, for humans another scenario is looming: their minds are increasingly shifting into the Interval, while the bodies become anchored in the world — which is what prepares humans to be energy generators and redistributors of energy between worlds and the Interworld.

And if such a change does occur, a person, at the very least, must understand its nature and consequences, and retain freedom of choice. And perhaps the time has come to try again to build at least some bridges between the two peoples, because fairy magic is precisely what humans should learn today. It is clear that the Immortal folk are, to say the least, unfriendly toward humans; however, it would also be good for humans to understand why it happened, admit their mistakes, and — with the help of the fairies’ experience — prepare for the changes to come.