The Wonders and Dangers of Fairy Realms

Collectors of folk tales such as W. B. Yeats in Ireland or the Brother’s Grimm in Germany did not have to worry about any dangerous side effects for their readers. But they did have to worry about being accused of promoting superstition or being enamored with occult mysticism. As a consequence, they went out of their way to remain academically detached. They presented their stories as carefully recorded collections of folk tales and children’s stories that were intended to enrich language, art, and literature.

Still, if someone recounts for us a story about a nature spirit, how are we to take it? Are they making it up? Perhaps they dreamed it or, like some elderly people, confuse fact with fiction.

In his introduction to Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland, (Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1973), W.B. Yeats says that in his collection of tales he has “Tried to make it representative...of every kind of Irish folk-faith” while avoiding any kind of rational interpretation.

Yeats goes on to quote a response Socrates made in the Phadrus when asked about the tale in which “Boreas is said to have carried off Orithyia from the banks of the Ilissus....I beseech you to tell me, Socrates, do you believe this tale?”

In response, Socrates reviews the various legends relating to this story and the various interpretations. He points out that for those who believe this allegory there is the further problem of having to continue on to ponder an entire array of similar monsters that are utterly inconceivable.

Socrates then says, “Now, I have certainly not time for such inquiries. Shall I tell you why? I must first know myself, as the Delphi inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my business, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous....I want to know not about this, but about myself.”

It is ironic for Yeats to make this reference. Yeats, as also William Blake, was a registered and active member of a Druid order. In quoting Socrates on fairies, Yeats is hiding the fact that he has performed rituals that attempt to interact with these beings.

And as for Socrates, I think he was asking the wrong question. The only way to know the self is through encounters with others and with the world around us. For me, a better question is, “What is it to be fully alive?” Socrates never sat in the forest and became the rock, the tree, the stream, the wolf, and the deer in his mind. Enjoying his own eloquence and the delight of confounding others with his questions, Socrates did not explore the boundaries of sensory perception.

Humor me for a few moments and consider the possibility that undines lurk just outside of the normal range of human perception. If we gather all of our sensory experiences with lakes, rivers, and seas, we can begin to taste the awareness that undines possess. Water certainly embodies sensual release. Water invites us to let go, to flow, and to be enfolded by nurturing tenderness. Ever float on a raft down the Little Colorado and feel as if time has begun to vanish?

Ever float just at the edge of breaking waves and felt your feelings opening to the vastness of the sea? Ever float in a mountain pool and just let go into primal being as the first rays of dawn reach down into those watery depths? Have you ever experienced the clouds come down to the ground with drops of rain running down the bark of trees, poised on the tips of leaves, shivering, quivering, and then slipping into streams? In any one of these examples you may have sensed a dreamlike serenity, a thrilling wildness, and a playful exuberance.

The gate to the realm of undines opens to us precisely at this point where sensual perception and feeling amplify each other. Nature grants us a chance to step outside of our social identities. Nature revives and renews us by taking us beyond ourselves into a timeless dimension where past, present, and future intermingle revealing awe, wonder, and delight.

Moments of uninhibited sensuality and extended perception are a part of almost everyone’s experience. But undines would take us further. Every undine in this book attempts to enchant through her heightened levels of empathy, magnetic attraction, and through her mesmeric sensuality that present an entire spectrum of new ecstasies. Why should this be a problem?

In going beyond the normal modes of perception, there is always a danger of disorientation. As in some of the stories I present, no matter how talented, an individual can become obsessed and seemingly possessed—for example, experiencing exhilaration and ecstasy one moment and then depression and an acute sense of isolation after returning to one’s everyday life.

Consider, we are connecting to beings from an evolutionary path distinct from the sciences and wisdom traditions of human civilization. For example, elemental beings do not have human ethics. If you receive a gift for Christmas, you assume the giver of the gift has your best interest and well-being in mind. But a gift from an elemental being may be a gift of pure power.

I was meditating one time with a partner who said an elemental being had given her an amulet to wear—something purely of a psychic nature and not material. But she found she started hallucinating at odd times during the day when she had it on. In this case, the amulet empowered the woman to cross over to the Otherworld, to the astral plane, where the nature spirit exists.

Being pulled into the astral plane is an astonishing experience especially if it happens when you are driving your car or shopping in a store. When you enter the astral plane of elemental beings, it is like entering a dream in the mind of a creature from a different evolution. There are no references to anything pertaining to your culture or civilization.

The elemental does not worry if his or her gift is going to present you with complications or side-effects. The elemental’s intent is solely to offer you an opportunity to experience its mode of existence. A gift of power is given out of respect. And no matter how beautiful or loving an undine may be, in their realm all interaction is based on power. Attraction and love are expressions of the magnetic properties of water and with this magnetism they are grand masters.

Second, the elemental beings I describe are well-acquainted with human beings. I am not the first person to talk to them. Some of the elementals in this book have formed extremely close ties with magicians. They have become companions and learned from each other. For some individuals, this has been beneficial and for others the connection to the fairy realm has been their undoing.

Some of the undines also claim to guard treasures of spirit and hidden destinies that world teachers have not yet revealed to mankind. Some elementals have incarnated as human beings. Even in the twentieth century, there are reports of this happening. This usually occurs because the elemental has temporarily taken a human lover.

When I write about elementals they may discuss with me their relations with mages, poets, and sages from historical and forgotten civilizations. When it comes to cultural myths and legends, it is sometimes difficult to trace the sources of the stories handed down through the generations. It may be that a poet or bard can not help but embellish and add entirely new chapters to ancient sagas in order to convey a message to his own time. It is probably wise, then, to take with a grain of salt the stories elementals tell. The astral plane is perhaps even more prone to exaggeration and to the excesses of imagination than is our own world.

Keep in mind, elemental beings are invisible except to clairvoyants. They do not eat food or drink water as do we—the energy sustaining them is altogether different. And they are not subject to human morality—they have existed for eons before human religions began.

When these elemental beings think, they do not use the lexical items in our dictionaries—neither the sounds nor the units of meaning they use relate to the Indo-European or any other human language. When a “thought” is placed into your mind by an elemental, it is your experience that becomes the vehicle for translating that thought into something familiar that you understand. If you rush to label your sensory perceptions or take for granted your connection to elementals, you lose the depth and the beauty of what is being shared.

And though the life span of elementals is a matter of speculation, it is fair to say that many live for countless ages and some have been around for millions of years. And so, when you enter the domain of elemental beings, you have to create your own reference points. Science, history, culture and the works of mankind—these beings do not need any of this in order to flourish or to practice their arts.

A relationship with another person often takes a lot of work. Working with elemental beings also takes effort, patience, and contemplation if you are going to get anything out of it. As in any kind of relationship, there are times when you have to put aside your expectations if you are going to hear what is being said or make the most of the opportunities that arise.

Once you form a connection an undine can show up unexpectedly, obtrusively, and without being called. These are the Queens and the masters of their element. Unless you possess a mastery of the water element equal to their own, they can follow their own rules. The rituals and authority in human spiritual traditions are no more than a curiosity and minor hurdle for them to leap over.

They do not speak in human language. Instead, their communication is body to body, feelings to feelings, and mental imagery to mental imagery. This is intimate and at times absolutely overpowering. Some of your experiences with these beings will be outside of anything described in human literature by any mystic, poet, or philosopher. The undines act according to principles of psychology that the human race will not discover for hundreds of years.

Through extended interaction you can begin to see as they see, feel as they feel, and engage the natural world from their perspective. But your new perceptions are, nonetheless, outside the normal operating range of other human beings. It takes a huge effort to make sense of what you experience and it is even more difficult to share your experiences with others.

And unless you immediately write down what you experience with an undine everything that happened may vanish from your mind within five minutes. Why? You have two hundred thousand years of neurological programming that makes you a human being. Undines have millions of years of uniting with nature. Joining these two perspectives and ways of being may not be as easy as it seems.

All the same, in reading through this book, a reader might ask, What is the point of this? What is the purpose?

What is not taught in our civilization is the essence of the feminine—the accepting grace, the healing power, and the all-embracing love within magnetic and attractive energy. The magnetic fluid, the essence of the feminine, is so receptive, so giving, so empty, free of ego and of indentifying with any form that it is able to contain within itself the soul of any being so as to shelter, transform, inspire, and to make something completely new. This feminine power has no limitations or restrictions placed upon it.

This energy that exists within nature and which undines have mastered can be reproduced within us. This energy is cool, contracting, soothing, and attractive. It is nurturing and supportive. It shelters and protects. Instead of intense, commanding, and explosive as is masculinity, it is rhythmic and gentle.

In psychological terms, it is empathic, sensitive and responsive. It draws together, bonds, joins, and unites. It accepts and affirms. In spiritual terms, it reaches towards an all-encompassing, all-embracing love.

If our society had the undines’ knowledge, our empathy would be vastly expanded. Inner kingdoms of feeling would be revealed. Our receptivity and sensitivity to impressions and our intuitive abilities would be exponentially increased.

In practical terms, this would mean we would have the ability to understand why others feel as they do—anyone anywhere on earth. We would be able to perceive and also to interact with their souls directly from within. Love, then, would not just be a moral imperative or a theological ideal. It would not just be an attraction that makes you feel good or bonds you with another. Love would be the power to hold and to contain anyone’s else’s life, soul, or will within our hearts so as to heal, bring to completion, and transform from within.

We all know about weapons of war. Love, however, creates peace. It is greater than the desire to control, to dominate, or to destroy. It is more powerful. This is because the empathy I describe is more accurate, precise, and penetrating with awareness than any form of knowledge we currently possess.

If you can understand others from within, then you can understand what motivates them, what drives them, what instincts are active, and every aspect of the power they hold in their hands. No general, dictator, warlord, politician, intelligence organization, corporation, or military industrial complex would be safe if it wished to abuse its power.

In the final analysis, it is love that takes responsibility for the world. It is love that is qualified to oversee the unfolding of history. It is love that has the power and authority to establish justice. It is love that sees the future. And it is love that offers us our greatest chance to be fully alive and to discover the best that life holds.

As I state in the dialogues, beings such as the queens of the undines have been created and imbued with wisdom and beauty commensurate with the destiny the human race is meant to achieve. Their knowledge awaits our discovery. They are an opportunity waiting to be seized.

As one undine queen said to me, “All that I am in my being you have the power to create in yourself as well.” Whether we choose to learn from their love or not, it is our destiny as a race to embody their abilities within us. I have journeyed into the realm of the undines in order to share their treasures with others.