*
It is late June, and the evening is hot. We sit outside on the porch watching the sky.
“Where’s the Hen,” asked my father.
“The Hen? If you want to see it, you shall wake up tomorrownwell before the first light. It’ll be there,” said grandmother pointing at the sky.
“The Hen? What hen,” I asked.
“The Pleiades,” answered my father, and seeing my raised eyebrows, added, “the stars. People of the old used stars to track time and seasons. In the countryside many still do so today.”
“Well,” Grandma added, “the shows up close to Midsummer when the Sânziene[2] come out flying by moonlight and starlight. They go over fields and meadows to bless all herbs for healing and magic. We look for the Hen to know when to go out and gather the herbs that fairies blessed in their passing the night before.”
“How do the fairies decide when is the time to fly over the field and bless the herbs?”
“I’d say they follow the Hen,” grandma answered.
*
I sat with that memory. Then I devoured the book. Then I went back to spend more time with the same memory twisting and turning it on all sides, trying to squeeze out of it as much meaning as possible. I truly felt drawn toward developing this approach to fairy faith where star lore, afiry lore and a personal mythology would weave into something beautiful and magical.
And so I began to chase the Pleiades. I believed that sterile observation wasn't enough, and in this newly emerging paradigm, establishing a personal connection was important. I thought that such connection can only be established through direct participation, like observing the sky, the stars, noticing the relationships between sunrise, sunset, moon phases, other stars or celestial bodies and how these aggregate around the cycles of the Pleiades. I believed that learning about Pleiades’ lore in different cultures and listening to those who have personal UPGs[3] about connecting stars and fairies are also important as sources to consult for information but not substitutes for direct engagement through observation. I proceeded to dig up all the info I could. Then I started to create a calendar of fairy holy days which was focused on the Pleiades. As a starting point I had the dates given in “Living Fairy” but I knew that there must be more.
Astronomical charts gave me headaches, both figuratively and for real. I didn’t have much success with direct observation either. In the end, I overcame the reluctance of relying so much on technology and I got a phone app[4] that does a decent job at tracking celestial bodies, stars, and of course the Pleiades.
Then, in June 2022, I went again to Ireland. While there, my connection to fairies reached a new level of tangibility. My understanding of Liminal Powers[5], Fairy Gods expanded too. I took on the assignemt of opening portals at specific times throughout the year [6] , which times are related to the Pleiades' positions.
Help came in unexpectedly. One of my favorite teachers in the whole world, Cat Heath.[7] offered a class aptly titled "Elves &Witches: A Survival Guides". I signed up impulsively, without thinking much. In that class I learned new skills to apply in psychic work to gain clarity, insight and direction - all of which turned out very helpful in my pursuit, tracking the Pleiades and develop a calendar of fairy holy days.
After that, I began to internalize connections that for some time I only understood intellectually. On the night of October 26, 2022 acting on a hunch, I tracked the Pleiades with my phone app. I caught the exact position when they touched the horizon line just after dark.
The Pleiades just below the eastern horizon on October 28, 2022 at 9:17pm (left)
The Pleiades just above above eastern horizon on Oct0ber 28, 2022 at 9:35pm (right)
Photo credit Daniela Simina, using SkyView app.
I noticed that more often than not I'd look at the sky at just the right time to notice something of relative significance. One early morning I located with the naked eye the tiny blue cluster about to fade in the growing light. I opened the phone app right away to double check whether I am looking at the Pleiades or something else. It felt like a small victory.
October 20, 2022, 6:50am, Pleiades visible above the western horizon.
Photo credit: Daniela Simina
I stumbled upon an online calculator[11] for the positions various celestial bodies, constellations, and star clusters - the Pleiades among them. Upon seeing it, my first reaction was “How I wish I found this tool at least few months ago, or even better, a couple of years ago.” Then I looked at all the pictures, screen shots, and notes that I took over the past two years. The sense of familiarity, closeness, and connection with the stars, with the sky and implicitly with the energies of the seasons - I had developed those through active observation, through trying to track the stars and failing so many times.
Corroborating data from the online calculator and my own observations provided a big surprise. The shortest time between sunset and the rising of the Pleiades on the eastern horizon at night fall, occurs this year on October 31, Samhain Eve[12]. Wow. Few months ago, I had almost decided to let Samhain be just Halloween!
I once read an account of a holiday when sacrifices were made to the Álfar. The Norwegian skald Sigvatr Pórdarson retells this episode in the poem Austrfaravísur. The story conveys the importance of Álfablót, the Sacrifice to the Elves. There’s much debate about the date when the blót was celebrated since no date is mentioned in Austrfaravísur . While offerings to elves and land spirits were made on diferent other occasions, the Álfablót was the big holy day dedicated to Elves, thus something I was very interested in observing. I learnned [13] that Álfablót would correlate honoring ancestors and preparing for winter which to me sounded a lot like the timeframe for Samhain[14] and the very similar Romanian holiday of Sâmedru. FInally, I had found a time when Pleiades position on the horizon at nightfall connected with honoring ancestors, elves and other fairy beings.
I have a vested interest in the area where Irish and Norse-Germanic fairy lore and traditions overlap. For me personally, having found a possible connection between Pleiades position and Samhain/transition from fall to winter, is hugely significant. For once, it provides at least in part the reason why the particular group of fairy beings that I am connected with tasked me with locating this specific position of the Pleiades in the sky, and (re)claim it as a hallow time of Theirs[15].
The end of October is just days away, and for everyone whose spiritual practice draws on multiple traditions, I hope this post could be of use.
Until next time Oíche Shamhna Shauna daoibh[16], Happy Halloween, Happy Álfablót, and happy everything else you might be celebrating at this time.
Bibliography and Resources:
Daimler, Morgan “Living Fairy”, 2020
Heath, Cat, “Elves & Witches: A Survival Guide”, Cat Heath – for class recordings email Cat Heat at seo.helrune@gmail.com
Simina, Daniela “A Ritual for the Autumn Equinox and Acronychal Rising of the Pleiades”, https://whispersinthetwilight.blogspot.com/2022/09/
Simina, Daniela “On Liminal Powers or Fairy Gods”
https://whispersinthetwilight.blogspot.com/2022/10/
Simina, Daniela, “Fairycrafting: Complete 3 Part Course - Overview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it-pVTDiV4I&t=2s
“Álfablót- the Viking Halloween” https://modernnorseheathen.wordpress.com
[1] Morgan Daimler, “Living Fairy” p.1
[2] Romanian fairies, benevolent toward humans.
[3] Undocumented personal gnosis: personal experience that may align or not with the body of know lore and traditions.
[4] Sky View Lite, the free version.
[5] “A Ritual for the Autumn Equinox and Acronychal Rising of the Pleiades https://whispersinthetwilight.blogspot.com/2022/09/
[6] On Liminal Powers or Fairy Gods https://whispersinthetwilight.blogspot.com/2022/10/
[7] “Elves & Witches: A Survival Guide”, Cat Heath
[8] https://whispersinthetwilight.blogspot.com/2022/09/
[9] https://whispersinthetwilight.blogspot.com/2022/10/
[10] “Fairycrafting: Complete 3 Part Course - Overview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it-pVTDiV4I&t=2s and "Fairycrafting: The Art of Fairy Magic. Part 3- Overview" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VzUGsvSKlg&t=17s
[11] https://in-the-sky.org/whatsup_times.php
[12] There are actually few days when the Pleiades are visible in the night sky on the eastern horizon shortly after sunset, October 31-November 4, so any or all of these taken together could be a marker for the liminal timeframe I have been seeking to pinpoint.
[13] https://modernnorseheathen.wordpress.com
[14] Samhain means November in Irish; it is the name of the month and not of one specific day as it is oftentimes misinterpreted outside the culture.
[15] To be clear, this is personal undocumented gnosis, UPG, and applies to my practice and relationship that I have with one specific group of fairy beings. In Ireland, it is known that the Otherworldly activity peaks on Samhain Eve, and offerings are left out for the Good People on this night. I am not pioneering any kind of work here regarding Samhain, just merely connecting few dots between Irish and Norse/Germanic traditions surrounding fairy people.
[16] Happy Halloween, in Irish. See pronunciation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yC3Vaz-Ehw
This is a very interesting post! In Italy, we also call them “le gallinelle” - the little hens! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jay, thank you so much for taking the time to read these posts. To answer your question, yes, it is perfectly possible to interract with fairy beings from a culture that is different from the one you grew up with. It is also possible to interract with fairy beings who are not "native" to your geograohical area. There are many stories of fairies moving to foreign lands to accompany migrating people. And my personal experience points out to the existence of portals that allow faires to travel across the globe. Bottom line, it doesnt matter where you are; what matters is how do you chose to relate to them. I hope this helps!
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