THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES
Of all religions and philosophies in Western lands I know none save
that ancient teaching now called Theosophy which has any place in it
for elemental forms of life. Therefore, since we have established some
sort of independent case for their existence, it is well that we should
examine carefully what they teach and see how far it fits in with what
we have been able to gather or to demonstrate.
There is no one who has a better right to speak upon the point than my
co-worker, Mr. E. L. Gardner, since he is both the discoverer of the
fairies and a considerable authority upon theosophic teaching. I am
glad, therefore, to be able to include some notes from his pen.
"For the most part," he writes, "amid the busy commercialism of
modern times, the fact of their existence has faded to a shadow,
and a most delightful and charming field of nature study has too
long been veiled. In this twentieth century there is promise of the
world stepping out of some of its darker shadows. Maybe it is an
indication that we are reaching the silver lining of the clouds when
we find ourselves suddenly presented with actual photographs of these
enchanting little creatures--relegated long since to the realm of the
imaginary and fanciful.
"Now, what _are_ the fairies?
"First, it must be clearly understood that all that _can_ be
photographed must of necessity be physical. Nothing of a subtler order
could in the nature of things affect the sensitive plate. So-called
spirit photographs, for instance, imply necessarily a certain degree
of materialization before the 'form' could come within the range even
of the most sensitive of films. But well within our physical octave
there are degrees of density that elude ordinary vision. Just as
there are many stars in the heavens recorded by the camera that no
human eye has ever seen directly, so there is a vast array of living
creatures whose bodies are of that rare tenuity and subtlety from our
point of view that they lie beyond the range of our normal senses.
Many children and sensitives see them, and hence our fairy lore--all
founded on actual and now demonstrable fact!
"Fairies use bodies of a density that we should describe, in
non-technical language, as of a lighter than gaseous nature, but
we should be entirely wrong if we thought them in consequence
unsubstantial. In their own way they are as real as we are, and
perform functions in connection with plant life of an important and
most fascinating character. To hint at one phase--many a reader will
have remarked on the lasting freshness and beauty of flowers cut and
tended by one person, and, on the other hand, their comparatively
short life when in the care of another. The explanation is to be
found in the kindly devotion of the one person and the comparative
indifference of the other, which emotions affect keenly the nature
spirits in whose immediate care the flowers are. Their response to
love and tenderness is quickly evidenced in their charges.
"Fairies are not born and do not die as we do, though they have their
periods of outer activity and retirement. Allied to the _lepidoptera_,
or butterfly genus, of our familiar acquaintance rather than to the
mammalian line, they partake of certain characteristics that are
obvious. There is little or no mentality awake--simply a gladsome,
irresponsible joyousness of life that is abundantly in evidence
in their enchanting abandon. The diminutive human form, so widely
assumed, is doubtless due, at least in a great measure, to the
powerful influence of human thought, the strongest creative power in
our cycle.
"In the investigations I have pursued in Yorkshire, the New Forest,
and Scotland, many fairy lovers and observers have been interviewed
and their accounts compared. In most cases I was interested to note
that my share in making public the photographs of Cottingley was the
worst sort of introduction imaginable. Few fairy lovers have looked
with favour on that. Reproaches have been frequent and couched in
no measured terms, for the photographs have been resented as an
unwarranted intrusion and desecration. Only after earnest assurances
as to my own attitude could I get farther and obtain those intimate
confidences that I have compared and checked and pieced together and
am at liberty to narrate here.
"The function of the nature spirit of woodland, meadow, and garden,
indeed in connection with vegetation generally, is to furnish the
vital connecting link between the stimulating energy of the sun
and the raw material of the form. That growth of a plant which we
regard as the customary and inevitable result of associating the
three factors of sun, seed, and soil would never take place if the
fairy builders were absent. We do not obtain music from an organ by
associating the wind, a composer's score, and the instrument--the
vital link supplied by the organist, though he may be unseen, is
needed--and similarly the nature spirits are essential to the
production of the plant.
"THE FAIRY BODY.--The normal working body of the gnome and fairy
is not of human nor of any other definite form, and herein lies
the explanation of much that has been puzzling concerning the
nature-spirit kingdom generally. They have no clean-cut shape
normally, and one can only describe them as small, hazy, and somewhat
luminous clouds of colour with a brighter spark-like nucleus. As such
they cannot be defined in terms of form any more than one can so
describe a tongue of flame. In such a body they fill their office,
working _inside_ the plant structure. 'Magnetic' is the only word
that can describe their method. Instantly responsive to stimulus,
they appear to be influenced from two directions--the physical outer
conditions prevailing and an inner intelligent urge. These two
influences determine their working activity. Some, and these are by
far the most numerous, work on cell construction and organization,
and are comparatively small when assuming the human form, being two
to three inches high. Others are concerned exclusively with root
development below ground, while others are apparently specialists
in colour and 'paint' the flowers by means of the streaming motion
of their cloud-like bodies. There appears to be little trace of any
selective or discriminating work done individually. They all seem
actuated by a common influence that affects them continuously, and
which strongly suggests the same type of instinctive prompting that
marks the bee and ant.
"THE HUMAN FORM.--Though the nature spirit must be regarded as
practically irresponsible, living a gladsome, joyous, and delightfully
untrammelled life, each member appears to possess at least a temporary
definite individuality at times, and to rejoice in it. The diminutive
human form--sometimes grotesque, as in the case of brownie and gnome,
sometimes beautifully graceful, as in the surface-fairy variety--if
conditions allow, is assumed in a flash. For a while it is retained,
and it seems clear that the definite and comparatively concrete
shape affords pleasure above the ordinary. There is no organization
perceptible, as one might perhaps hastily infer. The content of
the body still appears homogeneous, though somewhat denser, and
the shape of 'human' is usually only seen when not at work. The
nature spirit so clothed indulges in active movement in skipping and
dancing gestures and exhibits a gay abandon suggestive of the keenest
delight in the experience. It is evidently 'time off' and play for
it, though its work seems charming enough. If disturbed or alarmed
the change back to the slightly subtler vehicle, the magnetic cloud,
is as sudden as the birth. What determines the shape assumed and how
the transformation is effected is not clear. One may speculate as to
the influence of human thought, individual or in the mass, and quite
probably the explanation when found will include this influence as a
factor--but I am intent here not on theorizing, but on a narrative of
observed happenings. One thing is clear--the nature-spirit form is
objective--objective, that is, in the sense in which we apply that
term to a stone, a tree, and a human body.
"FAIRY WINGS.--The wings are a feature that one would hardly expect to
find in conjunction with arms. In this respect the insect type, with
its several limbs and two or more wings, is a nearer model. But there
is no articulation and no venation, and moreover the wings are not
used for flying. 'Streaming emanations' is the only description one
can apply. In some varieties, particularly the sylphs, the streamers
surround the body, as by a luminous aura sprayed to a feathery mist.
I was told that the earlier and more elaborate Red Indian headdresses
must have been inspired from this source, so suggestive are they,
though the best of them are but poor copies of the originals.
"FOOD.--There is no food taken, as we should regard it. Nourishment,
usually abundant and ample for sustenance, is absorbed directly by a
rhythmic breathing or pulse. Resource to the magnetic bath on occasion
appears to be their only special restorative. The perfume of flowers
is delighted in, and, reversely, disagreeable odours repel. This is
one of many reasons, besides timidity, why human society is usually
avoided, there being little that is inviting in that connection for
them, and much that is obnoxious.
"BIRTH, DEATH, AND SEX.--Any estimate of length of life is misleading,
because comparison with ourselves cannot be made. There is no
real birth nor death, as we understand the terms--simply a gradual
emergence from, and a return to, a subtler state of being. This
process takes some time, probably years in certain varieties, and
their life on the denser level, corresponding to our adult period,
may be as long as the average human. There is nothing definite in
all this, however, except the fact of the _gradual_ emergence and
return. There is no sex, as we should regard it, though, so far as I
can gather, there is division and sub-division of 'body' at a much
subtler and earlier level than that usually sensed. This process
seems to correspond to the fission and budding of our familiar simple
animalcules, with the addition, towards the end of the cycle, of
fusion or reassembly into the larger unit.
"SPEECH AND GESTURE.--Below the sylph there appears to be nothing,
or very little, in the way of a language of words. Communication is
possible by inflexion and gesture, much as the same can be exercised
with domestic animals. Indeed, the relation of human with the lower
nature spirits seems to be about on a par with that of kittens,
puppies, and birds. Yet there is abundant evidence of a tone language
among them. Music by pipe and flute is common, though to the human
ear of the quaintest character--but whether the instrument or the
voice is the real source I cannot yet determine. The higher orders
of nature spirits are adding mentality to the emotional development,
and speech with them is possible. Their attitude to ordinary humanity
is unfriendly rather than well disposed, and often hostile, arising
probably from our utter disregard of the amenities. I am beginning
to see sense and reason in the 'burnt-offerings' of yore. Pollution
of the atmosphere is a horror to the sylphs and deeply resented. An
ancient saying I had seen somewhere came to mind when discussing the
beautiful air-spirits and their work: 'Agni (Fire) is the mouth of the
gods!' Our sanitary and burial customs are doubtless still capable of
improvement! One fairy lover said to me gleefully, 'Ah, well! you will
never be able to get photographs of the sylphs--they know too much for
you!' If we can establish friendly relations with them, though, the
weather may be ours, if that be desirable!
"CAUSE AND EFFECT.--The dissection and examination of vegetable forms,
however exhaustive, is but an analysis of _effects_. No adequate
_cause_ is therein to be found any more than a dissection of a
sculpture will disclose the craftsman. The amazing skill in evidence
in the plant kingdom in construction, adaptation, and adornment demand
the labour of workman, mechanic, and artist. Their recognition in the
nature spirits fills the vague hiatus between the sun's energy and
the material wrought. On our own human side of the line the finding
of two pieces of wood nailed together would unmistakably point to
a workman of sorts, yet we are accustomed to gaze with wonder and
admiration on the exquisitely built forms of a whole kingdom, and
murmur 'evolutionary processes,' or 'the hand of God,' according to
our temperament. An agent is necessary on the one side and no less on
the other.
"MODE OF WORKING.--The feature that will appeal to every nature lover
interested in the vital processes of plant life is the craftsmanship
of the nature-spirit agent. An inference, if it be simple enough,
often escapes us, though in this case the experiences gathered of
our own human labour suggest the analogy vividly. An analogy with
a difference, however, for the hidden manner of work of the nature
spirit is in most respects the exact opposite in character to our
own. In this physical world we labour with hands and tools, and work
consistently on exteriors, always indeed handling and applying our
material from the outside. Addition, accretion, is our constructive
method. We find ourselves made that way, and it is our characteristic
mode of approach. The nature spirits operate from the interior,
working from a centre outwards. Their aim appears to be to achieve an
ever-closer touch with the environment, and to that end the driving
urge of their activity is how best to adapt the means to their hand.
It is easy to perceive the cause of variety in nature in view of
this striving endeavour to organize the vehicle that the nature
spirits use, and so gain in endless ways a closer touch. Flower
colouring, mimicry, seed protection and distribution, defensive and
aggressive measures, all the thousand-and-one devices employed to
attain an end, point to an intelligence working through agents who,
at their own level, are often in more or less antagonistic relation
with each other. Variety and difference is as much in evidence as
among humanity, and makes for that diversity of form and custom that
we find on our side so fruitful of experience. In the tilling of
the soil and the culture of plant life for our own purposes we have
worked intimately together--though unconsciously. The efforts of
nature spirits working by themselves _without_ our assistance produce
the wild flowers and berries of our woodlands and meadows, while
partnership _with_ the human yields a record of cultivated cereal,
flower, and fruit, immensely richer.
"PLANT CONSCIOUSNESS.--The relation of the nature spirit to the
consciousness functioning through the vegetable kingdom generally
is an interesting study too, for the twain appear quite separate.
This might perhaps be likened to the rôle respectively of crew and
passenger in a ship. The slumbering, or at best slowly awakening,
consciousness of the plant, makes of it little more than an idle
traveller, whereas the nature spirits, alert and active, attend to the
upkeep and navigation of the craft, and the voyage through the kingdom
means a growth and development for both.
"THE FUTURE.--What might follow an intelligent understanding of the
'little people,' and the establishment of mutual good feeling, opens
up a prospect alluring in the extreme. It would be for us a working
in the light instead of in darkness. A foretaste of such co-operation
may be gathered by noting the effect of a devoted lover of flowers on
his or her charges. The nature spirit responds to emotion and appears
keenly appreciative of kindly attention and affection. Whether this
applies with any force to any but the varieties concerned with flowers
and fruits I cannot say, but it certainly does to them, and the
intelligent direction of effort in place of empirical incident tempts
one's speculation to run riot as to future possibilities.
"The awakened self-consciousness of the human kingdom, with a vigorous
mentality linked to kindly emotion and physical action, may enable
an ages-old debt to be adjusted. We have served the nature-spirit
line of evolution consciously not at all, but by understanding the
situation we can co-operate together intelligently and helpfully, and
the service of both to mutual advantage can take the place of blind
experiment and groping self-interest."--E. L. G.
In the literature of Theosophy, I know no one who treats the elemental
forces of nature more fully than Bishop Leadbeater, whom I met in my
Australian travels, and who impressed me by his venerable appearance,
his ascetic habits, and his claims to a remarkable clairvoyancy which
has, as he alleges, opened up many of the Arcana. In his book _The
Hidden Side of Things_ he talks very fully of the fairies of many lands.
Dealing with the little creatures whom so many of my informants have
seen tending flowers, the seer says:
"The little creatures that look after flowers may be divided into two
great classes, though of course there are many varieties of each kind.
The first class may properly be called elementals, for, beautiful
though they are, they are in reality only thought-forms, and therefore
they are not really living creatures at all. Perhaps I should rather
say that they are only temporary living creatures, for, though they
are very active and busy during their little lives, they have no
real evolving, reincarnating life in them, and when they have done
their work they just go to pieces and dissolve into the surrounding
atmosphere, precisely as our own thought-forms do. They are the
thought-forms of the Great Beings, or angels, who are in charge of the
evolution of the vegetable kingdom.
"When one of these Great Ones has a new idea connected with one of
the kinds of plants or flowers which are under his charge, he often
creates a thought-form for the special purpose of carrying out that
idea. It usually takes the form either of an etheric model of the
flower itself or of a little creature which hangs round the plant
or the flower all through the time that the buds are forming, and
gradually builds them into the shape and colour of which the angel has
thought. But as soon as the plant has fully grown, or the flower has
opened, its work is over and its power is exhausted, and, as I have
said, it just simply dissolves, because the will to do that piece of
work was the only soul that it had.
"But there is quite another kind of little creature which is very
frequently seen playing about with flowers, and this time it is a
real nature spirit. There are many varieties of these also. One of
the commonest forms is, as I have said, something very much like a
humming-bird, and it may often be seen buzzing round the flowers much
in the same way as a humming-bird or a bee does. These beautiful
little creatures will never become human, because they are not in the
same line of evolution as we are. The life which is now animating them
has come up through grasses and cereals, such as wheat and oats, when
it was in the vegetable kingdom, afterwards through ants and bees when
it was in the animal kingdom. Now it has reached the level of these
tiny nature spirits, and its next stage will be to ensoul some of the
beautiful fairies with etheric bodies who live upon the surface of
the earth. Later on they will become salamanders, or fire spirits,
and later still they will become sylphs, or air spirits, having only
astral bodies instead of etheric. Later still they will pass through
the different stages of the great kingdom of the angels."
Speaking of the national characteristics of fairies, he says with all
the assurance of an actual observer (page 97):
"No contrast could well be more marked than that between the
vivacious, rollicking, orange-and-purple or scarlet-and-gold mannikins
who dance among the vineyards of Sicily and the almost wistful
grey-and-green creatures who move so much more sedately amidst the
oaks and furze-covered heaths in Brittany, or the golden-brown 'good
people' who haunt the hillsides of Scotland.
"In England the emerald-green kind is probably the commonest, and I
have seen it also in the woods in France and Belgium, in far-away
Massachusetts, and on the banks of the Niagara River. The vast plains
of the Dakotas are inhabited by a black-and-white kind which I have
not seen elsewhere, and California rejoices in a lovely white-and-gold
species which also appears to be unique.
"In Australia the most frequent type is a very distinctive creature of
a wonderful luminous sky-blue colour; but there is a wide diversity
between the etheric inhabitants of New South Wales or Victoria and
those of tropical Northern Queensland. These latter approximate
closely to those of the Dutch Indies. Java seems specially prolific
in these graceful creatures, and the kinds most common there are
two distinct types, both monochromatic--one indigo blue with faint
metallic gleamings, and the other a study in all known shades of
yellow--quaint, but wonderfully effective and attractive.
"A striking local variety is gaudily ringed with alternate bars of
green and yellow, like a football jersey. This ringed type is possibly
a race peculiar to that part of the world, for I saw red and yellow
similarly arranged in the Malay Peninsula, and green and white on the
other side of the Straits in Sumatra. That huge island also rejoices
in the possession of a lovely pale heliotrope tribe which I have
seen before only in the hills of Ceylon. Down in New Zealand their
speciality is a deep blue shot with silver, while in the South Sea
Islands one meets with a silvery-white variety, which coruscates with
all the colours of the rainbow, like a figure of mother-of-pearl.
"In India we find all sorts, from the delicate rose-and-pale-green,
or pale-blue-and-primrose of the hill-country to the rich medley of
gorgeously gleaming colours, almost barbaric in their intensity and
profusion, which is characteristic of the plains. In some parts of
that marvellous country I have seen the black-and-gold type which is
more usually associated with the African desert, and also a species
which resembles a statuette made out of a gleaming crimson metal, such
as was the orichalcum of the Atlanteans.
"Somewhat akin to this last is a curious variety which looks as though
cast out of bronze and burnished; it appears to make its home in
the immediate neighbourhood of volcanic disturbances, since the only
places in which it has been seen so far are the slopes of Vesuvius
and Etna, the interior of Java, the Sandwich Islands, the Yellowstone
Park in North America, and a certain part of the North Island of New
Zealand. Several indications seem to point to the conclusion that
this is a survival of a primitive type, and represents a sort of
intermediate stage between the gnome and the fairy.
"In some cases, districts close together are found to be inhabited by
quite different classes of nature spirits; for example, as has already
been mentioned, the emerald-green elves are common in Belgium, yet a
hundred miles away in Holland hardly one of them is to be seen, and
their place is taken by a sober-looking dark-purple species."
Very interesting indeed is his account of the Irish fairies. Speaking
of a sacred mountain in Ireland, he says:
"A curious fact is that altitude above the sea-level seems to affect
their distribution, those who belong to the mountains scarcely
ever intermingling with those of the plains. I well remember, when
climbing Slieve-na-mon, one of the traditionally sacred hills of
Ireland, noticing the very definite lines of demarcation between the
different types. The lower slopes, like the surrounding plains, were
alive with the intensely active and mischievous little red-and-black
race which swarms all over the south and west of Ireland, being
especially attracted to the magnetic centres established nearly two
thousand years ago by the magic-working priests of the old Milesian
race to ensure and perpetuate their domination over the people by
keeping them under the influence of the great illusion. After half an
hour's climbing, however, not one of these red-and-black gentry was
to be seen, but instead the hill-side was populous with the gentler
blue-and-brown type which long ago owed special allegiance to the
Tuatha-de-Danaan.
"These also had their zone and their well-defined limits, and no
nature spirit of either type ever ventured to trespass upon the space
round the summit, sacred to the great green angels who have watched
there for more than two thousand years, guarding one of the centres of
living force that link the past to the future of that mystic land of
Erin. Taller far than the height of man, these giant forms, in colour
like the first new leaves of spring, soft, luminous, shimmering,
indescribable, look forth over the world with wondrous eyes that
shine like stars, full of the peace of those who live in the eternal,
waiting with the calm certainty of knowledge until the appointed time
shall come. One realizes very fully the power and importance of the
hidden side of things when one beholds such a spectacle as that."
For fuller information the reader may well be referred to the
original, published by the Theosophical Publishing House. The book
is a storehouse of knowledge upon all occult matters, and certainly
the details concerning the fairies fit in remarkably well with the
information from other sources.
* * * * *
I have now laid before the reader the full circumstances in connection
with the five successful photographs taken at Cottingley. I have added
the experience of a clairvoyant officer in the company of the girls
upon the third and unsuccessful attempt to get photographs. I have
analysed some of the criticism which we have had to meet. I have given
the reader the opportunity of judging the evidence for a considerable
number of alleged cases, collected before and after the Cottingley
incident. Finally, I have placed before him the general theory of the
place in creation of such creatures, as defined by the only system of
thought which has found room for them. Having read and weighed all
this, the investigator is in as strong a position as Mr. Gardner or
myself, and each must give his own verdict. I do not myself contend
that the proof is as overwhelming as in the case of spiritualistic
phenomena. We cannot call upon the brightest brains in the scientific
world, the Crookes, the Lodges, or the Lombrosos, for confirmation. But
that also may come, and for the present, while more evidence will be
welcome, there is enough already available to convince any reasonable
man that the matter is not one which can be readily dismissed, but
that a case actually exists which up to now has not been shaken in
the least degree by any of the criticism directed against it. Far from
being resented, such criticism, so long as it is earnest and honest,
must be most welcome to those whose only aim is the fearless search for
truth.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES
[1] From this time onwards the real name Wright is used instead of
Carpenter as in the original article--the family having withdrawn their
objection.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious printing mistakes have been corrected.
Both "air-spirits" and "air spirits" were used in this book.
Page 13, "every" changed to "ever" ("hoax ever played upon").
Page 40, "prima-facie" changed to "prima facie."
Possible errors retained in this book:
Page 150, "time-rutted."
Page 166, "Oxeford."