#this is a bretonic celtic thing and i think it's more specifically welsh but i'm cornish and scottish so i'm a celtic cousin on both sides | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

leannan-sithe · 3 years

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What are some signs you're dealing with a fae and not another type of spirit?

I'm probably not going to give you a satisfying answer.

Does the spirit call itself a fae or any version of that -- faerie, or specific fae types?

Is it specifically from one of the Celtic nations that have fae? -- Celtic nations can include the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Manx, Breton, and sometimes Gaulish folks. Not all of these use the fae label, either they are independent of that label or they have a different name for it.

Does it claim to actually be Seelie/Unseelie or any other specific-to-fae indicators? (Part of a named court, etc.)

Things people think automatically mean fae but don't:

Looks like the Tinkerbell type of fairy

Really any physical appearance that matches a fae type

Is a shapeshifter

Re: the last two points -- black dogs and horses and ghostly women are the most common 'Celtic' spirits, but they're also like the most common global spirits to be seen. I usually like to default to "assume and treat like fae" (i.e. go by fae rules and use a pseudonym like I stated in previous ask) and allow myself to get corrected later.

Is from a Celtic nation as listed above -- as stated, some creatures might look like fae but they're not labelled as that in their culture. @witchlign has a post on Cornish piskies that might be enlightening!

Some people use fae for a much more generalized group. I use fae for a lot of creatures from the Celtic nations I list above; some people use fae as a like subset of creatures (ex. including mermaids as fae-related) with similar ~mystical~ aesthetic. I don't generally like this, but you might encounter spirits who do similar things.

Also, given that some fae are land-linked, meaning they're very specific to the soil of the Celtic nations they're from, someone in, say, the US may never encounter these creatures. I don't personally encounter any in my area, but I don't go looking for them, but-- I'm in the part of the US where the mountain range used to be the same as the Scottish highlands, so I wouldn't be surprised if fae traveled with migrants.

Keep in mind with this point that First Nations and their spirits have sovereignty here in the US, and therefore you shouldn't expect fae to automatically be here in the land.

#spirits #spirit work #fae #celtic #celtic soup

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themodernsouthernpolytheist · 6 years

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Do you have any particular feelings about how Wicca just kinda took the names of Celtic holidays and then fucked up the definitions and traditions? Beltane, for example. From what I understand, in Celtic polytheism we decorate May Bushes, not May Poles, and again, from what I can tell, Beltane isn't a holiday for fucking. idk I feel kinda mad about, but I feel like I'm the only one. Am I being unreasonable here?

It’s pretty safe to assume I have feels on most topics, tbqh, lol. But there’s a lot to unpack here. If someone is practicing a broadly Celtic polytheism, there are tons of traditions to draw from: the Gauls, the Gaels, the Bretons, Welsh, Cornish, IberoCeltic, maybe even the Picts. So it’s hard to be more specific.

But in Gaelic tradition, there are certainly examples of May bushes around Bealtaine. We know that rags and strings were often tied to trees or bushes for prayers and blessings and we know that this was done around Bealtaine as early as the 1930s, but it’s also possible, given the long history of English genocide and colonization of Ireland, that traditions from the English Maypole bled over. In and of itself, I don’t have an “issue” with that, I guess, as long as people recognize what they’re doin for what it is.

As for Wicca, that’s one of my major issues. So often, information is just taken from wherever and grafted onto a presupposed notion. This is especially true of solitary Wiccans ime, but I don’t necessarily fault them for it. So much of the material on Wicca that’s easily available to them is utter bullshit, full of tripe and cultural appropriation. Lord knows when I was 17 and readin what I could about Wicca, which I assumed was the whole of Paganism tbqh, I made some horrible decisions and thought some ridiculous things.

Now, that’s not to say that Wiccans can’t be awesome and aware, because they absolutely can. I’ve met a some. But the way the tradition was initially set up, imo, lends itself to very problematic practices. When these aren’t expressly talked about, it just snowballs and becomes a major issue. I also think that they way information has traditionally been disseminated, where it’s been plucked from a variety of sources with no credit as to where and then passed off as ancient and unbroken tradition, it exacerbates this exponentially. I have seen a change, I think, in this in the last 15 years and have watched myths like “The Burning Times” and others be dismantled, so there’s hope, even if Wicca just isn’t the tradition for me.

So, ultimately, I think it’s important to critique things like this within our broader community, but to also recognize where they come from and why and try to be compassionate and understanding up to a point, trying to combat misinformation so that all of us are better, stronger, and have more informed practices.

#Asks #super not tagging this for the general community cause I do NOT have the time for that lol #Anonymous #All Things Problematic

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