I don't recall seeing any of the nature spirits or The Good Folk, except once after I had been snowshoeing out in the woods. I had gone further than usual, into an area with really beautiful views of the nearby mountains. Upon returning, I had a brief glimpse of a small, fast moving spark of light, or orb. It could have just been dust or something in my eye, but I won't rule out the possibility of it having been something more. I like to think it was a nature spirit who had followed me home, but who knows, really.

When Hope and I showed our film and gave a workshop at the congress this year I signed up for two Fairies to be assigned to me, not on the paper, but with a vigorous mental "yes", In fact I did it twice, once each time it was offered. It has since become clear to me that I have four fairies that are available to me any time I want to interact. I don't "see" them with my eyes, but they are often on my shoulders, just visible as a shadowy presence, and if I focus on them I "see" them in great detail, in my mind. Also they are very articulate in the language of thought forms, much like angels or ascended guides (with whom I have had more direct experience than with the Fae). They are helping me to tune into the Fairies everywhere, and they have helped me connect to the Devas that oversee their translator/symbiot jobs.

I have a fun story to share... My best friend's dad is a gentle man in his sixties, he's spent most of the past 25 years in the garden tending his award winning roses. Though he had never before expressed beliefs in anything having to do with fairies, he non-the-less experienced a first hand encounter which he could not deny.
Several years ago while out in the garden, Martin saw a small man standing next to a bush. At first he thought it was his son and turned back to his work, he then realized that this person was much too small to be his son! He turned around at once to find himself quite alone in his garden, the tiny man had vanished in the blink of an eye! "There is no doubt," Martin told us. " I saw a gnome!"

Caroline,
this is great that you found this site! I feel like the fairy faith has been portrayed by too many cutesy little creatures with wings! and fairies are so much more than that!

to answer your question, "have I seen a fairy?" many times. The first time as an adult was very vivid and came very unexpectedly. I was living in Seattle in a part of town where there was a lot of construction going on. I walked by a window in my apartment, and outside by the fence was a little creature. I knew immediately that it was a brownie. (not sure of the gender) it was dressed in brown soft clothes, a little hat. I saw that it was frightened, and it was looking for somewhere to hide. I motioned to it to come and hide in my pocket. it darted straight over and into my jacket pocket. I was aware of its presence for a couple of days. It had a very sweet energy....and then it was gone. I had never (consciously) entertained the idea of being with the fairies. I had been influenced by the Findhorn teachings, and I had started studying the Perelandra information at that time. These both seem to work with the devas, and don't really mention fairies at all. At that time I could also see energy fields, but not fairies. I really didn't think about fairies that much!

years later when I saw that Dorothy MacLean, one of the founders of Findhorn, was going to be presenting at the Fairy Congress, I knew that I had to go. and I came back with 3 dragons, one of whom loves spending time in the Atlantic brewing up hurricanes (so much for cutesy fairies with little wings)! I had never entertained the idea of working with dragons either, so that took me completely by surprise.They have been my main allies since. It spells like sulphur when one of them is around! or burnt rubber! I have later found very level headed people in the shamanic world who work with dragons.

and through the years my fairy sight has improved. This last year at the congress, I went with the intention to have fairy sight because I know they're there. I was ready to see them. I immediately lost my glasses, my flashlights and had a dull pain behind my eyes for the 3 days. I asked the fairies to return the glasses before I had to hit the road. and of course they did. I had to laugh at the whole thing. you get what you ask for! and I am comfortable seeing fairies now. It's become very natural. the nettle fairies are very adament about me making updates on the fairy congress website! ...the gnome gets grumpy if I don't make offerings!

this is my world now!

blessings everyone!

Jan

The first experience I had with the fae I remember very vividly, though I forgot it for a long time. My grandparents had a big backyard with fruits and vegetable gardens and an herb garden. Once, when I was around 5, I spent the night there and after watching Fern Gully with my grandpa, we went out and I helped him in the garden and as we worked, I asked him if fairies were real. He lifted me onto his shoulders and let me pick out fruits of my choice to put on a plate for the fairies. I picked cherries and we put them on a plate with some sweetened bread and a small bowl of honey. By that time it was time for bed and he tucked me in and said "Be careful of they fae, for they loved to play games, some games would be joyful and fun, but some games might not be, for there are fae who like to play tricks." That night, after I knew my grandparents were asleep, I went back into the garden. I was scared and thought I heard whispers. I could see things moving in the corners of my eyes, but when I tried to look right at them, they were gone. Suddenly, right in front of me was a little girl. I reached to her and she placed her hand on the back of my hand. She said "Do not forget us, do not forget this world is our heart as it is yours." I heard her words, though she never moved her mouth and I know now that she spoke to my heart and not to my ears. I forgot about this for many many years until I walked through a store in my city which had one copy of The Faeries Oracle. When I opened the book, the first card I saw was The Maiden, and though she looked nothing like the small girl from so long ago, the events of 10 years past had all come back to me and the Fae in all there games, tricks, and wisdom have been with me and shown themselves to me ever since.

Sorry to bore you all with my novel. It's hard not to share when you have people you can share with.

I am not sure how reliable you would consider my perceptions, because I am narcoleptic, and apt to mix dream with waking. Some might consider such waking dreams a legitimate form of perception, others not. Anyway, my own close encounters:

1. Surem (a sort of Yaqui wee people.) I have seen a man of the Surem twice in the same general area of the Sonoran desert, very briefly, once from behind, as he did something that looked tending with a pricklypear cactus, once peering at me intently from behind a clump of vegetation. Once I caught a glimpse of his home in the same area, which looked circular, made of adobe, and half the height of a human dwelling. It promptly vanished. What seems inconsistent with narcolepsy to me is that these things happened at the same location, and location is not a known trigger for narcoleptic seizures.

2. Tree-woman. In El Cerrito California. I walked down a greenway underneath an elevated BART track, with pine trees to my left. One turned into a ten-foot tall, loving-faced female in green hood and robes, then back again to a tree. I dismissed it as "hypnagogic hallucination" (the medical term for dreaming while mostly awake) yet nevertheless went up to the tree and laid my hand on it in thanks for having been the vehicle for such a lovely vision. HOWEVER, when I came by the next day, I only found a bare spot there, not so much as a stump to indicate that a tree had ever been there. Furthermore, none of the other pine trees were of the conical variety, but rather a low, spreading form, selected (and probably pruned) so as not to interfere with a power-line. A few days later I found my husband staring out the window of our upstairs apartment with a puzzled look on his face. He pointed to a neighbor's lawn, without anything on it except grass, and said, "I could have sworn I saw a tree in that yard a minute ago!"

3. Tactile encounters. In the San Diego home of my childhood, an invisible lady (somehow I knew she was female) would often gently tuck me in, especially if I had a hard day. I dismissed this as a childhood fantasy, until many years later, as an adult living far away, I received a phone call from my grandmother, who said she had lain down for a nap in my old room and felt hands tuck her in!

Years after that I returned to stay for awhile. I suffered a really severe fibromyalgia flare and could barely make it to the bed to collapse on it (in a different room.) The trigger point for the pain-flare had begun in my calf-muscle. I distinctly felt a feminine hand holding mine. Then, while still feeling that, I also felt two more hands work the muscle of my calf HARD! I could differentiate fingers. There was nothing the least bit fuzzy about this experience. The massage hurt, but it immediately released the tension in the muscle and brought the pain-flare to an abrupt and uncharacteristic halt.

This list does not include lucid dream contact, which is my usual way of interacting.

Hi,

I usually do this kind of work in meditation so I don't see fairies in the material world except for one Samhain about three years ago. I was taking some break and honey out to one of my circles at midnight (which I'm usually far too lazy to do but that year I was trying to do ritual at midnight more than I usually do). When I got out there my eyes had pretty much adjusted to the moon light tho it was definitely hazy and I saw what appeared to be a HUGE circle of dancy, tiny little beings going around where the circle was -- which was around a hawthorn tree. I just set the offering down and backed off but considering how tiny they were it would have been thousands. It was so stereotypical of what I grew up thinking "fairies" were and so different from what I do in meditation that I didn't know where to put it, but I just took it as a cool thing and a kind of a gift.

New to the group so take care and nice to speak with you, leslie l. (maine, USA)

I don't think they are necessarily in the form typically portrayed in the media. Like last night I experienced a being in the garden that was in the form of a huge pink lotus blossom out of which a pillar arose that was looped with lines of white light. But then then I'm not so anthropomorphically inclined. Mandalas or energy patterns with power & intelligence. But then there were also small rusty orange beings in the ravine similar to spinning tops that did have tiny faces.
And then this morning there was a screech owl - or what seemed like one - that had a fey presence.

One time I was sitting in meditation, during that time I was a celibate monk. I saw with my mind's eye very clearly a very sensual red dressed with small wings, she had reddish hair and was teasing me with her legs. I restrained my energy as that was part of my celibacy practice; to not follow desire. In that same week, another day I was sitting in meditation, I started hearing two fairies giggling... their laugh was so beautiful, soft, resonate like a high pitched but very smooth bell. They were holding a candle with a flame on it. I saw the light in the meditation, but then they left :-( All this occurred during 2002

Later I had profoundly more powerful experiences with a female little person, pointy ears, and what a smirk and beautiful eyes she had. I encountered her as I was at that time practicing stepping out of the physical body into the astral body on a daily basis. I was walking in the astral body in my living room, kitchen, flying out etc. Experimenting with sitting in meditation to learn other things in the astral body. Trying to alter physical objects using the astral etc. As I was walking in my living room one time, I looked into the eyes of what appeared to be my cat, then all of a sudden it transformed to this little person. I believe I connected with her as just recently I had gone to a Native American sweat lodge. Looking in her eyes I was teleported to different worlds. I began exploring underworlds, upper worlds, seeing many different civilizations, going to their libraries etc. It opened a whole new array of experiences which there is no end to. This was all during 2004

Later I encountered some older more mature little people... it seems fairies were just at a certain stage.

Left all this behind, and then entered different teachings, so haven't really been encountering since 2004.

...seen a fairy, or gnome... ???

Everyone has seen the Fae in one of their many forms of existence.

Doubt : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubt

Reality : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality

hmmm...

I am blessed to have a Gnome guide and he is with me every day. I have not had to go in search of these wonderful beings as they live me me as family. Any one wanting this experience just need ask and take the time each day to be with them. Set out vegetarian type foods, and plenty of sweets. Elves and Gnomes like chocolate but if you sense you have winged ones please do not set out chocolate for them. In this case you want to put out lemon anything and be generous please.