Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The Fairy Doctor



In Celtic lands the world was/is viewed differently from the view that most of us modern, sophisticated people take. As in most cultures there is the world that we inhabit and an Otherworld.  The Otherworld is the world that we can’t see and most don’t interact with.  It is the Lower World, the Middle World and the Upper World.  The Otherworld that some Celtic people call the Sidhe (pronounced "shee") consists of the fairy world and the fairies themselves.

According to ancient Irish tradition if a healthy child suddenly drooped and withered then that child is fairy-struck and a fairy doctor must be at once called in. Young girls who fell into rapid decline were said to be fairy-struck.  They were wanted in Fairy-land as brides for some chief or prince and so there was a risk that they would pine away without visible cause till they died.  In both of these cases the children were believed to have suffered from a fairy stroke.

The Irish, before the advent of modern medicine and even afterwards in places without Western medicine, were also wary the Wind and the Evil Eye. The evil power of the Wind is called a fairy blast.  One suffering from the Evil Eye they say he has been "overlooked."

In these cases it was necessary to call a fairy doctor.  The fairy doctor would pronounce from which of these three causes the patient is suffering, the fairy-stroke, the fairy-blast, or the Evil Eye.

Fairy doctors in rural Ireland and other Celtic lands treated people suffering from illnesses and misfortunes attributed to faery influence. Fairy doctoring was strongest in areas without western medical care and where the presence of the Otherworld was recognized as one of the realities of daily life. However, like shamanism it has never completely disappeared.  Fairy doctoring holds much in common with shamanism and like shamanism and other indigenous practices it is undergoing a revival. It seems that fairy doctors, shamans, and druids reappear in every age when needed.   

The dis-eases treated by fairy doctors remarkably similar to the symptoms of many modern ailments: tiredness, lack of energy, depression, listlessness, low enthusiasm for life, and an inability to focus attention that suggests partial soul loss. As shamanic practitioners we can orient our practice to faery doctoring traditions and also discover new ways from the faery world itself to apply our skills. Learning healing methods from the faeries is a major part of the tradition.

The Sidhe has been "returning" in the sense that more and more people are becoming aware of its presence and of its influence. Among some there is a growing realization that our two worlds must live, work, and play in greater harmony.  The Sidhe take energy and vitality from humans to restore and rebalance the life force that we consume wastefully, selfishly, and in great quantities.  This energetic “borrowing” results in an epidemic of fairy illnesses.  

As we learn to take better care of ourselves and the world in  which we live we decrease the need for the Sidhe to “borrow” our energy.   As we become more aware that there is more to this world than what we see with our eyes we can begin to work as friends and partners with the Sidhe.


May the saddest day of your future
Be no worse
Than the happiest day
Of your past.

  -- Old Irish Blessing



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