Lesson Five ~ The Sidhe and Other Spirits
In previous lessons we have discussed the Gods and the spirits of the dead. There are also other entities to think about with Celtic mythology. One of the most important groups of these are the Sidhe. Some books translate this word as meaning fairy, but that tends to conjure up images from Victorian paintings of little whimsical Tinkerbell things flitting about with butterfly wings. The Sidhe are not cute or whimsical. They are powerful Beings who inhabit the natural world, and who are not always friendly to humankind. Celtic myths refer to the Sidhe as large, brilliant creatures with skills and life spans beyond those of mortals.
It seems probable that the word Sidhe originally referred to the burial mounds from the Bronze and Neolithic periods, which were viewed as the homes of various Gods and other spirits. In time the word was used not just for the mounds, but for the various beings who lived in them. The word can also mean profound peace, and has echoes of the Lithuanian concept of darna ~ spiritual vibrancy comes from being in harmony (or perhaps accepting) ones own nature; being in harmony with one’s tribe, family or wider community; from being in harmony with one’s ancestral line and their expectations (recalling the link between the burial mounds and the creatures dwelling within them); from being in harmony with one’s Gods and the forces of the cosmos. Peace here does not mean just sitting quietly, but a deep sense of balance, harmony, belonging, and attunement.
Sometimes the distinction between a god and a Sidhe is blurred, and there are certainly local spirits who have been reverenced and treated in a god-like manner. The spirit tied to a given river may well take on god-like proportions if one’s entire family depended on that river for fresh water, food, etc. For someone else just passing the river on a day trip, then the spirit is nothing more than a local land wight. This fuzziness is not really a problem, and it’s worth noting that Celtic religion probably had little appeal to anally-retentive minds who wanted everything nice and neat and pigeon-holed.
The Sidhe live in the Otherworld, called Eile-Saoghal in Scots Gaelic, but often journey into this one via portals such as burial mounds or particular trees. The horsewoman Rhiannon appeared out of the Mound at Arberth when it opened at certain special times of the year. Equally, Pwyll later entered the fairy court through it when he was wooing Rhiannon. Portals are often two-way affairs, reminiscent of the kind of interdimensional gateways beloved of so many science fiction films and TV shows today. In the Otherworld they have their own dogs, cats, cattle, etc. It is described as very much a sensual, physical place, rather than some abstract world of ethereal harp twanging. These strange creatures can sometimes be seen in this world, and are most commonly identified by their colouring ~ the body is mostly white, but with red extremities (such as ears and paws). The canine cu-sidhe are often described as running with hunting parties across stormy skies.
In Scottish folklore the fairy people are divided into two courts, each with their own leaders, war bands and so forth. The Seelie Court consists of those beings that are friendly to humankind, and a meeting with the Seelies is usually a positive experience. The hostile, aggressive spirits belong to the Unseelie Court. The savage inhabitants of the Unseelie Court are rather like the Irish Fomori, mentioned later.
One sort of Sidhe that gets frequent mention even into quite recent folklore is the corpàn-sidhe, or changeling. Legend has it that sometimes the fairies steal human children (quite why is never entirely clear) and replace them with one of their own, a changeling. These babies look a little odd and frequently act in strange ways ~ screaming incessantly, or eating everything in sight. Folklore gives a variety of ways to encourage the fairies to bring the human child back, none of which are very pleasant. Some folklorists feel that stories of the changeling may have been a way to explain unusual-looking infants ~ ones that had what we would call Downs Syndrome today.
It may be worth pausing a while here to reflect on what exactly you consider the function of fairy stories to be. Are they just metaphors and moral tales for children, or are they describing an actual race of creatures? Science fiction has already been mentioned, and a fair few mythographers have noted the comparison between medieval tales of people being taken by the fairies and 20th century accounts of alien abduction. These days many people find it easier to think about creatures from another planet than to consider that there may be other sapient creatures from this planet, but perhaps ones existing at some other level of reality not easily perceived by our standard senses. One century’s Otherworld is another century’s Parallel Dimension. Whatever the jargon and conceptualisation, the basic idea is of a world that runs alongside, and often overlaps with, this one. It is certainly not compulsory that one ‘has’ to believe in fairies to adhere to the larger principles of polytheist Druidry, however they are mentioned a great deal and it is useful to file them somewhere in your mental schema. It is always useful to have a rough idea of where the bounds of your reality lay, what you consider plausible and what ludicrous.
In addition to the shining and radiant Sidhe, there are a whole range of other spirits that do not readily fit into categories. Let us start with a few of the grimmer ones, then finish on a jollier note. In Irish myth there is a race of entities called the Fomori, sometimes also referred to as the Tuatha de Domnann (the Tribes of the goddess Domnu, whose name suggests a connection to the depths of the ocean). Most of the time they are portrayed as hideous, ill-tempered things prone to abusing all they encounter. Some modern books talk of them being evil, and contrast them against the goodness of the Danann gods. We find this approach unhelpful. Whilst ethics were important to the old tribes, notions of good and evil were largely an introduction by Christian missionaries. The spirits don’t fall neatly into boxes labelled “cuddly” and “gruesome”.
If a wolf eats a goat, is it evil? To the goat’s mother the wolf is a monster, but to the passerby it is just a carnivore doing what carnivores were designed to do. It would be silly to say a predatory animal is either good or evil, it is simply doing what it must to survive. If a person contracts a virus and dies, is the virus evil? Again, whilst the victim may feel it is at the time they’re dying, it would be daft to impart morality to a germ.
For many centuries humans have been the dominant species in Europe. We long ago wiped out virtually all rival predators. We are not used to being viewed as dinner, and the prospect is quite disconcerting. Maybe that is why so many horror films show humans being knocked off the top of the food-chain by vampires, werewolves, aliens etc. Included under the label of Fomori are a number of spirits who (in our experience) just seem to view humans as either totally irrelevant, or as lunch ~ a source of energy that can be battened on and drained. The fact that such spirits might cause us harm does not make them any more wicked than a shark chewing on a swimmer. Sharks have their own beauty, though a wise man observes it best through a reinforced plate glass window at an aquarium. Likewise, it may be safer to view many Fomori from a great distance.
This is not to say that there are no spirits prone to malicious, sadistic behaviour ~ just that it is too easy to demonise anything that seems a threat to us.
Most myths describe the Fomori as quite ugly (there is a tendency in Celtic myth to associate physical perfection with moral perfection, which is seldom a wise thing to do.) Yet it is worth bearing in mind that both handsome Lugh and Bres the Beautiful were said to be half-Fomori and half-Danann. There are also members of the Danann who cause as much, if not more, destruction than the Fomori do. As ever, things are more complicated than many books present them as being.
There are also hordes of little sprites that are told of in folklore from around the Celtic countries. A number of statues from the Iron Age depict a central deity flanked by small figures wearing cloaks and hoods, called cucullatus. These may be depictions of Druids or worshippers, or perhaps of local land spirits that acted as messengers of the main deity. Scottish folklore speaks of the bocanach or bodach, words that mean an old man (especially a grumpy one) and also a small sort of goblin that lives in the house. If treated well they look after the home, but if offended they wreak havoc. Part of treating them well involves talking to them and leaving them offerings of their favourite food or drink. There are numerous stories that say these house sprites are naked, but take offence if ever offered clothing. No one seems entirely sure why this should be so!
House spirits do not just inhabit Scottish crofts or Hampshire semi-detached’s, but any kind of structure. The use a building is put to may well determine the type of spirit that feels comfortable living there. A library is likely to attract a quiet, contemplative soul whilst a nightclub might be full of little raver sprites. There are lots of anecdotes about Pagans visiting homes and encountering house sprites who loathe their new human “tenants” because of the way they act ~ and they often try to drive them out by breaking things, hiding keys, causing electrical malfunctions etc.
Russian and Roman pagans felt that there were different spirits in each part of the house ~ one sort living in the bath-house, another in the barn, another in the pantry, yet more in the bedroom, etc.
Other types of spirit, more often found in the countryside, include the usually gentle ceasg, mentioned in Scottish lore, which is rather like a mermaid but has the tail of a salmon and lives in freshwater lakes. The Ghillie Dhu lives in forests, dressing in mosses and leaves. Friendly enough, it looks after lost travellers, and will also help those who are friends to the trees and beasts of the woods. It is similar to, if not indeed the same as, the Russian leshi.
The Welsh bwca is probably one of the most famous of Celtic spirits, and entered English folklore under the name of Puck or pooka. These spirits change shape a great deal, and few (if any) know what they really look like. Sometimes in the form of a pony, sometimes a goat, one even starred in an old film with James Stewart and took the guise of a giant rabbit!
All countries have stories of little sprites that inhabit lakes, mountains, woods, etc, and will be friendly to humans if they and their realm are treated well. In some countries this belief remains very strong ~ in Iceland, for example, some boulders are said to be inhabited by elves, and road builders will commonly make a bend in the road to go round the boulder rather than risk offending by removing the rock.
From reading this it may sound as if we are knee-deep in spirits… and perhaps we are! However, there may well be places which have no spirits. This could be because the spirits that were there have upped and left, been exorcised or driven out in someway, or may have died (or whatever it is that finally happens to sprites). Or perhaps because a place is too new to have attracted interest, some Pagans who move into brand new houses say they feel “empty”. It may well be that houses, hospitals, libraries and other buildings only attract bocain over the course of time.
Some questions for you to think about:
Do you think these spirits exist, or are they just old stories told by people to explain natural events?
Do you think house spirits are entities that lived in an area before the house was built, or only migrated there afterwards because they liked the house (or people in it)? Do you have any ideas why house spirits are often perceived as being naked?
Have you ever seen, heard or otherwise experienced something that might have been a nature spirit? Is it possible that some places, perhaps through pollution or terrible events happening there, might be totally bereft of any spirit presence at all? Have you ever been to a place that felt totally dead?
Practical task:
If you have not already done so, try and make contact with whatever spirit dwells in your local river, lake or other body of fresh water. Through meditation, divination or whichever other techniques you prefer, try and get a name for the watery creature, and a sense of its temperament. Try leaving it a gift of food or drink to establish friendly relations. You might want to consider creating a small altar exclusively for his, her or its use (avoid the mistake of automatically assuming all water spirits are female in manifestation).
If your local water source is heavily polluted, full of chemicals and human waste ~ it may be taken as a friendly gesture if you spend an hour or three cleaning up a stretch of it (take suitable safety precautions so you don’t turn yourself into an accidental offering!).
It never hurts to research beforehand. Find out if this is an ancient river, or a manmade one. Does it follow its original course, or has it been diverted? What names has it been known as over time? What is its history of use ~ was it ever used for fishing, as a transport canal etc. Where does the river (or lake, stream, etc) originate? You could always visit the springs that feed into it. Does this body of water supply your household, or does the stuff that gushes out of your taps come from elsewhere?
Of course, if you think river spirits are just metaphors, then this exercise may seem a tad pointless! However, give it a try with an open mind and see what happens.