I've just come from the monthly get-together that I fondly call Mystic Pizza. It's a few people--frequently very few--who get together at a local K&W cafeteria to talk about metaphysical subjects.
This time the talk ranged from the story of a FAIRY SIGHTING to the question of whether cause-and-effect rules the universe.
Everyone seemed open to the most extreme possibilities. On each subject, at least one person had no doubt.
I've read that something like 42% of Americans believe in ghosts. But most of us don't go around in the world at large talking about such things. And that's understandable. For one thing, it could put a job at risk. (In my first novel Revelation, I wrote about a minister who heard the voice of God, and TOLD, and his liberal congregation began to question whether he was well.)
I wonder WHAT THE WORLD WOULD BE LIKE, IF WE ACTUALLY TALKED FREELY ABOUT WHAT WE REALLY BELIEVE.
For myself, I face no risk at all. As an artist with a metaphysical bent, I have a cultural sanction for being wacky. It's expected, nearly obligatory. The fact that I tend to wear classic clothes (with a twist) instead of flowing gowns with moons and stars on them is probably more of a liability than claiming gnomes are doing my garden chores. But I boldly go on with my quiet presentation.
At the same time, I find that, with nonbelievers, I talk far more skeptically about the "supernatural" than I am. I'm completely willing to believe stories of ghosts and fairies etc--and I want to get to see them too. Sunday I went to a Body, Mind, Spirit Expo, and bought a fifteen-minute reading from a guy, Christian von Lahr, who sees "little people." The way I tell the story of that intriguing conversation varies depending on who I'm talking with. I've heard myself speaking with a lot more skepticism and irony than I feel.
As the popular saying goes: what's up with that?
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For me, skewing the story some in the telling (by notching down the extent of what happened, usually) is my way of not making folks uncomfortable. I once had a big dinner party on the winter solstice, and had planned a fairly substantial solstice ritual that everyone knew about in advance. However, when it came time to do it, it was clear that more than a few of the folks there were uneasy about what we were doing. I shifted gears and did a modified version that seemed to fit more easily with everyone's comfort zones. And I decided that my solstices after that year would either be celebrated with my immediate family or folks I absolutely knew were kindred spirits. I really didn't want to notch those down.
Re: elves and fairies... I often remark to my daughter that her pony must have fairy grooms in the night. He is a painted pony - dark chocolate brown and white - and his white areas frequently get grass stains, mud stains, the characteristic Chatham county red clay stains - that can be washed out but not brushed out. We do daily grooming, but not daily bathing of horses, so it always surprises and tickles me when he comes in with the stains miraculously gone. I have visions of little pony-loving elves and fairies with tiny buckets and sponges and brushes, cleaning him up in the night!
Love those pony elves. That's a delightful picture.
I can see notching down when you're asking people to go through a ritual with you. But I think playing down my beliefs when I'm only talking about an occult subject is for my comfort and not the listener's. Probably less interesting to them too than the whole truth would be.
I dunno, friends-- yes, there's a feeling of being less than candid, perhaps. On the other hand, if people with even mainstream spiritual beliefs start telling me about them with too much intensity, I feel like backing away.... slowly, slowly, as though with a barking dog..... And maybe that's because of my experience being preached at by Baptist preachers for so many years, with the idea that the preaching would stop only when I confessed or committed myself, or whatever. So, keeping a veil of privacy or being a bit less than candid feels like self-preservation to me. And, I've also seen the ledgers in the State Library where women were committed to mental institutions for behavior more explainable than seeing gnomes or fairies--- just some decades ago. Not to mention the infamous trials in that other Salem, not my hometown of Winston-. So, Billie, go ahead and write the story of The Pony and the Fairy Grooms-- there's a market for such "children's literature," and some of us will have little tales to tell at the library check-out desk as we take them home.
I don't like being preached at either, Anonymous. But when I'm actually interested, I do want to hear the straight stuff.
And I'm interested if someone is telling me and not trying to persuade me. That's the bottom line.
I do know people have been locked up for this sort of thing, including the painter I'm writing a biography about. I'm just not worried about it for myself. Hope I don't live to regret that.
Some years ago an astrologer told me that in my previous lives, I'd avoided being burned at the stake through some clever career moves. I think those moves are called recanting. If I should ever need those skills again, I guess I have them to call on.
Moot point so far, though. I haven't seen any ghosts or gnomes anyway. Much to my disappointment. I'm working on correcting that.
It's interesting - I think some people cross my path expressly to be pushed gently (and sometimes not so gently) out of their comfort zones. Others don't want that at all, and it's pretty clear to me which ones are which. It's mostly unconscious on my part as it's happening.
I do think art is a way to "talk" about these things from a place people can "listen" and/or "experience" w/ a sort of filter or distance that isn't present in conversation. My books don't do much notching down, by the time they're done, although part of the process for me is to stop the censor and be bold with the real story of the characters I'm writing about.
Anonymous here again--
Yes, well, I have to say, I have talked about faeries and gnomes more in the last two days than I have the past ten years. So I am somewhat emboldened--only with people I mostly trust. Interesting that Peggy brought up the past life experience. I have never formally explored past lives for myself-- but I have always had the feeling that my religion--actually, my own spirit-- was the one thing I would die for. Maybe have died for.
Billie has a good point about art as a filter-- I think art-- and costume parties, some games and various expeditions-- are ways to 'try on' various concepts of reality without 24/7 commitment. I think I'll be BOLD ENOUGH TO REGRESS and check out some fairy stories tomorrow.
For some contemporary litfic on fairies, try Keith Donahue's The Stolen Child.
It's billed as an adult fairy tale. Very unique story, good writing. Amazon.com loved it and pushed it, more so than any book I remember - and they have optioned the film rights to bring it to the big screen.
Maybe a fairy-elf-etc. costume party would be fun. I could get into that.
Once on a Bermuca cruise that I was writing a travel story about there was a make-your-own-costume night.
Using what I had and could find on the ship, I made myself a mermaid costume that I was right pleased with.
But it turned out that the few who had actually cooked up a costume were expected to do a runway number in the Grand Salon. I backed out of that with the speed of a minnow.
Have fun regressing, Anonymous.
Gosh. I talk fairly openly in most circles of my life about my spiritual experiences. However, I'm afraid to wear the starry purple cloak. :( I would like to though. That's where I want to be more "out." =) I don't generally run up to people and spout my latest encounter--or I would never shutup. People who know ask. Sometimes they ask in front of people who don't know. It's fun for me to watch those people open up to their own experience, because they do, however minutely, by the end of the conversation. I find that everyone has an unexplained story in their lives and the term "ghost" usually comes up. However they rationalize it, they accept that it is unexplainable. Also by the end of those conversations it has normalized to the point that the discussion opens up to more odd and off the hook experiences. I think that's great =) Still, I value incredibly open spaces like Mystic, where it's OK to talk about whatever is going on in the Unseen.
Hope you're well!
I hope you'll wear that starry purple cloak. It sounds terrific. Inspiring, even.
The robe sounds lovely..!
The comments here have gotten me excited today. I have 5 queries that I mailed off the end of May still unanswered, and I planned to follow up with them. Somehow, the energy to do with talking openly about experiences and art/literature being a way to do that resulted in my zapping two email queries out to 2 of the above 5.
Somehow it all comes back, for me, to being bold, and my own personal goal to write and sell fiction that transforms.
And, talk of costumes has renewed my idea from last fall to dress up with Keil Bay in his "quiet ride" black full-face fly mask, which makes him look like a horse in Avalon... with me on board in flowing black robes, some sort of head attire, and my son's huge medieval sword replica. :)
You'll stir up the neighborhood when you take that ride down the road.
I'm glad the conversation has resulted in e-mailed queries, too.
so... all my pondering aside, are you going to tell the story of the man who sees little people and what he said?? :)
I'm desperately curious.
Von Lahr man who hears from elves, gnomes etc.,--and just wrote a book about what they said told me a number of very interesting things about my biography subject, who died in 1947.
His first image was a sword and a cross. My subject had a lifelong fixation on King Arthur. That felt validating of skill to me.
Other answers that I found enlightening (and it will take a book to explain how) are that she says: "it wasn't a whirlwind, it took study and a method..."
and that she wants to be shown as a human.
I also got some good stuff from Diane Brandon, an intuitive I talked with at the same conference. Her first response was: "What a codger!" Which indeed Chant was.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
A question that has alot of people up in arms about it, is the people whom identify themselves with the Otherkin, Faeryfolk, etc.. What is your opinion of those whom express either through conversation or websites that they themselves feel they are Faeryfolk, Otherkin, or whatever they express? This is a take for someone on the other side of the mystic stories of the Fae, for they have stepped into the facet of Self Actualization and accepted what they feel to be their true selves.
For centuries people around the world have reported sitings and beliefs in these mythical beings and still today work with them in their daily lives. Many feel that faeries are otherworld beings whom left this earth when they were driven out by humans, but for those who feel that they are the descendants of these beings fully accept the possibility that this is a fact for their heritage.
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