Daily Cosmic Calendar for Sunday, November 10th

The cosmos is certainly on the wacky end of the astro-psychic spectrum during this unusual weekend. Trying to make your agenda the law of the land is likely to fall on deaf ears. Pursuing unrealistic objectives when the Moon is void — following a 90-degree clash of the Sun and Moon at their First Quarter Phase last night — is also a non-starter and likely to boomerang were it ever to get going in the first place.  On the other hand, enjoying a time-period for reflection and having a leisurely breakfast while putting old worries out of your mind can make a lot of good sense. No matter whether you are feeling elated or confused, watch the clock around 1:15PM when Mercury leaves retrograde status at 3 degrees of Scorpio, and begins a gradual shift into forward motion. [Mercury won’t go into reverse again until February 6, 2014 when the Messenger of the Gods planet will go retrograde at 4 degrees of Pisces in a three-week reversal that lasts until February 28, 2014 when Mercury will stop to go forward at 19 degrees of Aquarius.]  All of today’s Mercury themes — communications and correspondence, learning programs and information exchange, classes and primary school education, business and trade, health and medicine, transportation, hand-eye coordination, flexibility and adaptability, breathing and respiratory conditions, temperature and air-wind changes, magic tricks, sleights of hand and thefts — are energized not only at the exact time of the station at 1:15PM, but all day long.  Once the Moon leaves void status in Aquarius by entering Pisces (6:37PM), be more compassionate and empathic to the truly needy and disenfranchised. Try your hand at fixing one of grandma’s old-world recipes for clam or corn chowder and muffins. Reading, writing and watching favorite film classics are promoted later on when the Moon trines Mercury in water signs (10:59PM) and the lunar orb makes its monthly union with Neptune (11:06PM). Keep a notebook of profound dreams, visions and out-of-the-body excursions with Neptune — the ancient God of the Seas and ruler of psychic-imaginative abilities — running the show as Sunday night morphs into Monday morning. [Note to readers: All times are calculated for Pacific Standard Time. Be sure to adjust all times according to your own local time so the alignments noted above will be exact for your location.]

Calendar of the Moon for November 10th

Calendar of the Moon

Reed Month

Color: Blue-green
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue-green place a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a great bowl of water floating with wetlands plant leaves, and a knife.
Offering: Recycle something useless into something useful.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian soup and sandwiches. Only water or herbal tea to drink.

Ngetal Invocation

Call: Now is the time of the bleak cold.
Response: Now the reeds whisper in the swamp.
Call: Now is the time when we see the growing dark.
Response: Now is the time when we begin to shiver.
Call: Now is the time of bare trees.
Response: Now is the time of rain and wind.
Call: Now the rain fills the wetlands to overflowing.
Response: Now the swamp overflows into our lives.
Call: We feel our feet dragged down into the cold waters.
Response: Yet the wetland is the source of greatest life!
Call: We feel ourselves pulled into the unfamiliar.
Response: Unfamiliar to us, but no less of value.
Call: The damp cold begins to reach our bones.
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: We must keep it far away with fire’s warmth!
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: Why should we not ban it from our lives?
Response: For this, too, is a Mystery of water.
Call: Not the deep mystery of the Ocean…
Response: Not the running flow of the river…
Call: Not the crystal of snow and ice…
Response: But the secrets of the still waters.
Call: From the still waters springs the greatest number of lives!
Response: And it is this that we must honor.
Call: Welcome into ourselves the song of the whispering reeds!
Response: Welcome into ourselves the oncoming winter.

Chant: Cold as stone
Marshes heart
We will own
What is apart

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 10th

Calendar of the Sun

Ancestor Day

Color: Black and grey
Element: Earth
Altar: Spread a black cloth, and lay it with photographs, paintings, and other depictions of our ancestors. Add also symbols of their old tools, and statues of ancestral deities, a bowl of seeds for the future garden, pots of soil, a pitcher of water, and many candles of black and white and grey.
Offerings: Things they would have liked to eat, drink, smoke, or smell. Tend a cemetery and clean up the graves.
Daily Meal: Food from an earlier era, using authentic recipes.

Invocation to the Ancestors

Our ancestors got up at dawn,
Slaved in the dirt,
Sweated in the sun,
Chilled in the cold,
Numbed in the snow,
Scattering each seed with a prayer:
Pray that there be enough,
That no one starve this winter.
Pray that no bird nor beast
Steal the food I have struggled for.
And most of all,
Pray that each seed I save
Of this harvest
Shall next year
Bring forth a hundred more.
We live today
Because they worked
Because they sowed
Because they harvested
Because they prayed.

Chant:
Those who came before
We are your children
Those who came before
We honor your names

(Each person takes seeds from the bowl and plants them in the pots of soil, speaking the name of one of their ancestors as they do so, as in: “In honor of _______.” The pots are watered, and the candles put out one by one.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Current Moon Phase for Nov. 10th – First Quarter Moon

First Quarter Moon

(waxing/54% of Full)

Emotions begin to stir coupled with recognizing that the new beginnings you are making must also increase personal security to be worthwhile over the long haul. This is a time when it’s appropriate to get in touch with your gut instincts and begin to guide your life more deliberately, with an awareness of using your “sixth sense” as well as your enthusiasm. Obstacles may emerge that require you to reevaluate how to better integrate yourself into your immediate environment.

Let’s Talk Witch – The Written Spell

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Let’s Talk Witch – The Written Spell

Spoken spells have a transitory force, affecting only the action to which they are directed. Written spells, on the other hand, are thought to last as long as the written spell is in existence. To maintain the long term effect of the written spell, many of the prayers of the Egyptians were written on coffins and placed in the Book of the Dead with the mummy.

As written spells combine the effect of symbols, these spells are thought to be far more potent than other kind. The Islamic Koran is, as the revealed word of God, a sort of written spell in itself. Anyone who has heard it read aloud in Arabic knows that it is also a spoken spell of great beauty, even to those who cannot understand the language. The Latin psalms have the same quality, but without the tonal beauty which is found in the Arabic language.

Older written spells on parchment, some of which have been in existence for hundreds of years are particularly revered. In many cases their real effect lies in the fact that so many people believe in them. Some older writings have taken on a magickal aura solely due to their age.

Because of their strangeness and the mystical power associated with strangeness, spells written in a foreign language or in a mystical or magickal alphabet are also thought to have great power. This is one reason why spells written in Hebrew characters are supposed to be superior in quality. In the Middle Ages, a talisman was a man who wore a tallis, the shirt or undershirt worn by orthodox Jews. As this was felt to be a source of power to them, the idea of talisman quickly transfered to a spell written to give power or protection. In the first thousand years of Christianity, Hebrew was the pre-eminent language for the writing of spells and Jews, who were the most literate members of any European community, were the pre-eminent “magicians of choice.”

This obviously lead to some silly situations. One old “authentic spell” in a European museum was removed from display when it was pointed out that the words of the spell said, “What is the meaning of this?” in Hebrew characters transliterating medieval French! It had been supposed to be a spell to call upon a demon to cure sick children.

Written spells form another branch of the spell-caster’s art. In the Hex practice of the Pennsylvania Dutch country, himmelbriefs, or heavenly letters, are designed to act to protect the one who carries them against ills and evils of all kinds. The older versions were written with painstaking care by the hexenmeister who copied them one letter at a time. The newer versions are usually mimeographed copies of a typed original which are sold for a dollar or two as curios.

Just as a spoken spell requires a certain ability to use one’s voice, a written spell requires a certain ability to concentrate upon what one is writing, and hold the image of the desired work for the spell throughout the entire operation. The spell should be written with absolute concentration on every letter of the spell. It should then be read aloud in the same manner when it is finished. If the spell is to be given to someone it should be enclosed in an envelope, but not sealed. Most of these spells are to be carried on the person when they are in use.

Celebrating Spirituality 365 Days A Year – Celebration of the Goddess of Reason

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November 10th

Martinmas Eve, Celebration of the Goddess of Reason

The old Pagan festival of Nincnevin, later Martinmas Eve, honored the Goddess Diana and her entourage. At Martinmas, the Germans celebrate this time by feasting on wild geese and then using the breast bone of the last goose to predict the weather for the coming months. It is believed that if the breast bone be fair and clear when the flesh has been eaten off it, the weather will be cold and full of hard frosts. However, if the breast bone is dark then the winter will be full of rain, snow, and sleet but warmer overall.

During the French Revolution, this day was celebrated with a parade through the streets of Paris. A young woman was chosen to represent the Goddess, and led the processional to the cathedral of Notre Dame, considered a center of learning, whereupon she was presented with a crown of oak leaves. It was hoped that the festivities would make the people aware of the importance of learning.

 

SUNDAY – The Day of the Sun

SUNDAY

The Day of the Sun

sunnandaeg (Anglo-Saxon)
sonntag (Germanic)
dies solis (Latin)
ravi-var (Hindu)
etwar (Islamic)
dimanche (French)
nichi youbi (Japanese)

Traditionally seen as the first day of the week by the ancient Hebrews and as identified by the fourth commandment (Exodus, xx, 8-11). This day was in ancient times dedicated to the Sun and later as ‘The Lord’s Day’. Sunday is traditionally a time for rest, reflection and worship. It is believed to be a lucky day for babies born on this day according to tradition as the child was thought to be safe from witches and evil spirits. Some born on this day are believed to have psychic or devining abilities. Any cures that are administered on a Sunday were believed to be more likely to succeed. In some parts of the British Isles (UK) there is a belief that announces that any agreements that are made on a Sunday are not legal as it will offend God to make any transactions of a day of reflection and dedicated to worship. In the USA this is enforced by the saying ‘ Never make plans on a Sunday’. In rural areas of the British Isles those employed for a new job on a Sunday would soon leave their post:

‘Saturday servants never stay,
Sunday servants run away.’

It was also thought to be unlucky to put clean sheets on the bed on a Sunday along with cutting your hair or nails. Regarding music, choir singers who sang a false note on this day were according to a traditional English (UK) belief expected to have a burnt Sunday dinner. You could expect a busy profitable week ahead, especially if you were in business, if you found a pair of gloves on this day, and quite naturally very unlucky to be the person who had lost them according to a rural English (UK) belief. A prehistoric cairn marks the spot of Druid worship where a Christian settlement was created Slieve Donhard, near Newcastle, England. Set up by Donhard (a convert of St. Patrick), pilgrimages regularly visit the place of worship, high on the hill, as it is said that St. Patrick himself appears as a result of Donhard’s faith each Sunday of the year. As he appears before everyone, it is said that St. Patrick also leads the people in the mass. (For more on St. Patrick see Mystical WWW Mystical Time : Mystical Months, March 17. For more on Donhard see Mystical WWW Mystical Time : Mystical Months, March 24). According to the English historian Richard Grafton certain dates of the month were unlucky as published in the ‘Manual’ in 1565. Days throughout the year were identified and of course could have related to any day of the week. The date was the most important point to consider. The work was reputed to have some credence with support given by astronomers of the day.

(For more information see Mystical WWW Mystical Time : Mystical Months).

The Witches Correspondence for Sunday, November 10th

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The Witches Correspondence for Sunday, November 10th

Magickal Intentions: Growth, Advancements, Enlightenment, Rational Thought, Exorcism, Healing, Prosperity, Hope, Exorcism, Money
Incense: Lemon, Frankincense
Planet: Sun
Sign: Leo
Angel: Michael
Colors: Gold, Yellow, Orange and White
Herbs/Plants: Marigold, Heliotrope, Sunflower, Buttercup, Cedar, Beech, Oak
Stones: Carnelian, Citrine, Tiger’s Eye, Amber, Clear Quartz and Red Agate
Oil: (Sun) Cedar, Frankincense, Neroli, Rosemary

The first day of the week is ruled by the Sun. It is an excellent time to work efforts involving business partnerships, work promotions, business ventures, and professional success. Spells where friendships, mental or physical health, or bringing joy back into life are an issue work well on this day, too.

  

The Witches Almanac for Sunday, November 10th

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The Witches Almanac for Sunday, November 10th

Sunday (Sun): Healing, spirituality, success, strength and protection.

Martin Luther’s Birthday

Waxing Moon

The Waxing Moon is the ideal time for magick to draw things toward you.

Moon Sign: Aquarius

Aquarius: Rebellious energy. Time to break habits and make abrupt changes. Personal freedom and individuality is the focus.

Moon Phase: Second Quarter 12:57 am

Moon enters Pisces 5:36 pm

Pisces: The focus is on dreaming, nostalgia, intuition and psychic impressions. A good time for spiritual or philanthropic activities.

Incense: Heliotrope

Color: Gold

A Glorious Sunday Morn To All My Loves, Family & Friends Too, lol!

Witchy Comments & Graphics
My morning started out very nicely. I don’t know how I got in this mood just to bite someone’s head off. We are having a local telethon for disabled children. I started watching about 4:30 this morning. Then about 7:00 it turned to Gospel music. They never start the Gospel hour at 7:00 it is generally around 10:00. So I kept listening and hoping and listening and hoping, finally I said the hell with it and turned the TV down. In the meantime, my bobcat jumps my Pomeranian and you would have thought she killed her. Razzy (bobcat) has been wanting to play all morning. I have played with her some. So she get on the bed and lays in wait for Kiki to hop on the bed. When Kiki did Razzy jumped at her. She didn’t hurt Kiki just scared the crap out of her.

Now I have all the homefront issues handled, I get on the site and I have someone trying to tell me what I put on the front page. That struck a nerve. Started by staying Witch craft is not a religion but it can be compared to knitting or crocheting. But it was turned around somehow and stated that yes, Witch craft could be a Religion now days. Then ended by saying, Witch craft is the oldest religion in some part of the world. “Baby, first off before you ever dare tell me what I wrote, you best read it. Don’t ever attempt that again. I am the author of the front page. I know what I wrote. Next, Witch craft is not two words, it is one like this “Witchcraft,” see.  The part that really pissed me off was comparing my Religion, YES, MY RELIGION! Don’t like Witchcraft classified as a RELIGION GO SOME PLACE ELSE, Got it! But comparing it to knitting or crocheting, that tells me you are no WITCH.  Instead you are an IDOIT! You want to make comments like these, you best find you another site to do it at. NOT THIS ONE! Because yes when I run into comments that make me angry, I do call them out.

I know exactly what you are. But now it is wonderful, because remember the time I was threw out of an Award’s Site. Come to find out the owner was a Baptist. She threw me out but left it were I could read each and everyone of your nasty comments about me and my Religion. Baby, pay back is a bitch! You see, I am not going to let you comment or anything. I am treating you the same way ya’ll treated me. Sit and take it! I am not near as nasty as everyone of you were to me. But I will tell you one thing if you ever come back to this site, I will publish your name and let every witch here do what she wants with you. Got it. Never, ever darken these halls again!

Now that I am through with my dear old friend there, I was thinking this morning. This was when I was starting to flip the channels, then I thought what good would it do? All I see on Sunday mornings is Baptist, Christian, Catholic and every other mainstream Religion out there on TV. I got to thinking wouldn’t it be lovely to have a Craft Hour on TV. I know, I know! I wouldn’t even know how to go about doing it. But it would be so beautiful to see somebody on there spreading the word of our Goddess. Wouldn’t it? I use to be able to turn the TV down low when I was posting on Sundays but I can’t do that anymore. I know you are thinking, “well, change the channel!” I am going too in a minute or so. But I guess the Goddess has touched my heart and soul, I don’t want to hear any other Religions. The only one I want to hear is the words of our Religion. I want others to come to know the Goddess. Have our Divine Lady fill their souls and hearts with joy and love. There are still thousands of individuals that have not heard our message yet or more important met our Divine Mother. The internet has been an excellent resource but we are going to have to come up with more creative ways for our message to get out. I know television is a pipe dream right now but one day, perhaps with the Goddess it can come true.

I hope everyone has a very relaxed and blessed Sunday.

Luv & Hugs,

Lady A

P.S.

I know there are several here to start trouble from another Religion this day. They are probably wondering how can she talk all so holier than thou right after she gave someone hell. I can do it because I am a Witch. We have all learned from our past history what individuals like you would do to us if given the chance. I can guarantee you one thing, you or anyone else like you will never get that chance again. It was a hard lesson learned but we learned it well. We will not go quietly anymore nor will we remain quiet. Our Goddess does not expect us to die for Her unlike some of your Religions suggests. Our Divine Mother stands beside us at all times. Loving us, caring for us and comforting us at all times. I have made a commitment to Her. That commitment to my Mother is that I get Her message out to many people as I can. Nothing or no one will deter me from that mission. May the Goddess bless you and help you to see the error in your ways!

Fairy Brew

Fairy Brew

-Recipe from:

“The complete book of incense, Oils, and Brews.”

by: Scott Cunningham

Ingrediants:

3 parts rose petals

2 parts yarrow

1 part cinnomom

3 parts rose petals

1 part cinnamon

1 part nutmeg

1 part bay

1 part mugwort

Assemble your herbs, grind them manually, and put about a handful into a pot; Strain. Drink a cup before seeking your encounter and return what you do not use to the Earth

 

Faery Sugar

Faery Sugar

3 cups fine white sugar

1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon red food coloring

Glass container

Lay sugar on wax paper & sprinkle on Vanilla:

stir into the sugar till all mixed in.

Next sprinkle on the red food coloring and incorporate in till sugar turns ‘faery pink.’

Save in glass container, you have labed “Faery Sugar.”

Now use this special treat in the “Spell to see the Fae”

and also for Faery cookies, cakes and offerings to the Fae.

You can eat some yourself, but remember the recipe is a secret.

Author: Barbara Morris

A Recipe to See The Fae

A Recipe to See The Fae

On a Dawn morning or Evening dusk, find a special bottle, a pretty one that the fae will love.

Pour into it the following:

1 cup spring or rain water

1 teaspoon of Pink Rose Petals

½ teaspoon Lavender flowers

Add 3 quartz crystals

Add 3 amethyst chips

1 pinch of Faery sugar

Nine inch piece of pink ribbon

Hide this away in a dark place for three days. On the third day, again at dawn or dusk, in a place you think you might spot the Fae, like an Oak tree, backyard or mushroom patch in the forest. Even a potted plant, herb, or flower will do. Tie a nine inch piece of Pink ribbon around bottle neck. Next, close your eyes and spinkle 9 drops over each eyelids of your “faery potion water,’ care not to get it in your eyes. Next recite thie incantation and watch for the Fae.

Ribbon of pink, I just might think,
I would like to see the Fae today.
Special sight of Faery’s flight,
Send to me the way today.
A sprinkle here a sprinkle there,
A secret spell I say today.
Wispy wings and little things,
Are what I’d like to see today.

Brownies

Brownies

Customarily brownies are said to inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. However, they do not like to be seen and will only work at night, traditionally in exchange for small gifts or food. They take quite a delight in porridge and honey. They usually abandon the house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies make their homes in an unused part of the house.

The ùruisg had the qualities of man and spirit curiously commingled. He had a peculiar fondness for solitude at certain seasons of the year. About the end of Harvest he became more sociable, and hovered about farmyards, stables, and cattle-houses. He had a particular fondness for the products of the dairy, and was a fearful intruder on milkmaids, who made regular libations of milk or cream to charm him off, or to procure his favour. He could be seen supposedly only by those who had the second sight, though instances where he made himself visible to people not so Gifted have been rumoured. He is said to have been a jolly personable being with a broad blue bonnet, flowing yellow hair, and a long walking staff.

Every manor house had its ùruisg, and in the kitchen, close by the fire was a seat, which was left unoccupied for him. The house of a proprietor on the banks of the River Tay was even at the beginning of the twentieth century believed to have been haunted by this sprite, and a particular apartment therein has been for centuries called “Seòmar Bhrùnaidh” (Brownie’s room). When irritated through neglect or disrespectful treatment he would not hesitate to become wantonly mischievous. He was notwithstanding, rather gainly and good-natured rather than formidable. Though, on the whole, a lazy, lounging hobgoblin, he would often bestir himself on behalf of those who understood his humours, and suited themselves thereto. When in this mood, he was known to perform many arduous exploits in kitchen, barn and stable, with marvellous precision and rapidity. These kind turns were done without bribe, fee or reward, for the offer of any one of these would banish him forever. Kind treatment was all he ever wished for, and it never failed to procure his favour.

In 1703, John Brand wrote in his description of Zetland that:

“Not above forty or fifty years ago, every family had a brownie, or evil spirit, so called, which served them, to which they gave a sacrifice for his service; as when they churned their milk, they took a part thereof, and sprinkled every corner of the house with it, for Brownie’s use; likewise, when they brewed, they had a stone which they called ‘Brownie’s stane’, wherein there was a little hole into which they poured some wort for a sacrifice to Brownie. They also had some stacks of corn, which they called Brownie’s Stacks, which, though they were not bound with straw ropes, or in any way fenced as other stacks used to be, yet the greatest storm of wind was not able to blow away straw off them.”

The brownies seldom discoursed with man, but they held frequent and affectionate converse with one another. They had their general assemblies too, and on those occasions they commonly selected for their rendezvous the rocky recesses of some remote torrent, whence their loud voices, mingling with the water’s roar, carried to the ears of some wondering superstition detached parts of their unearthly colloquies. In a certain district of the Scottish Highlands, “Peallaidh an Spùit” (Peallaidh of the Spout), “Stochdail a’ Chùirt”, and “Brùnaidh an Easain” (Brownie of the little waterfall) were names of note at those congresses, and they still live in legends which continue to amuse old age and infancy. Every stream in Breadalbane had an ùruisg once according to Watson the Scottish place name expert, and their king was Peallaidh. (Peallaidh’s name is preserved in “Obair Pheallaidh”, known in English as “Aberfeldy”.) It may be the case, that ùruisg was conflated with some water sprite, or that ùruisg were originally water sprites conflated with brownies.

Banshee

Banshee 

The Banshee from the Irish bean sí (“woman of the side” or “woman of the faerie mounds”) is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. Her Scottish counterpart is the bean shith (also spelled bean-shidh) The asos sí (“people of the mounds”, “people of peace”) are variously believed to be the survivals of pre-Christian Gaelic deities, spirits of nature, or the ancestors. Some Theosophists and Celtic Christians have also referred to the aos sí as “fallen angels”. They are commonly referred to in English as “faeries”, and the banshee can also be described as a “fairy woman”.

In Irish legend, a banshee wails around a house if someone in the house is about to die. There are particular families who are believed to have Banshees attached to them, and whose cries herald the death of a member of that family. Traditionally, when a citizen of an Irish village died, a woman would sing a lament (in Irish: caoineadh, [ˈkiːnʲə] or [ˈkiːnʲuː], “caoin” meaning “to weep, to wail”) at their funeral. These women singers are sometimes referred to as “keeners” and the best keeners would be in much in demand. Legend has it that, for five great Gaelic families: the O’Gradys, the O’Neills, the O’Briens, the O’Connors, and the Kavanaghs, the lament would be sung by a fairy woman; having foresight, she would sing the lament when a family member died, even if the person had died far away and news of their death had not yet come, so that the wailing of the banshee was the first warning the household had of the death. In later versions the banshee might appear before the death and warn the family by wailing. When several banshees appeared at once, it indicated the death of someone great or holy. The tales sometimes recounted that the woman, though called a fairy, was a ghost, often of a specific murdered woman, or a woman who died in childbirth.

Banshees are frequently described as dressed in white or grey, and often having long, fair hair which they brush with a silver comb, a detail scholar Patricia Lysaght attributes to confusion with local mermaid myths. This comb detail is also related to the centuries-old traditional romantic Irish story that, if you ever see a comb lying on the ground in Ireland, you must never pick it up, or the banshees (or mermaids – stories vary), having placed it there to lure unsuspecting humans, will spirit such gullible humans away. Other stories portray banshees as dressed in green, red or black with a grey cloak.

Asrai

Asrai

In Brythonic mythology, an Asrai is a type of aquatic faerie similar in some ways to mermaids, nixies, selkies, sirens, or morgens. Some sources describe them as timid and shy, standing only between 2 and 4 feet tall, while others depict them as tall and lithe. They are said to look like beautiful young maidens, sometimes as young as children, while actually being hundreds of years old. They may have webbed hands and feet, resembling some descriptions of selkies

If an Asrai is seen by a man, her beauty is so great that, according to folklore, the man will instantly wish to capture her. The Asrai are as deathly afraid of capture as they are of the sun, for if captured or if even a single ray of sunlight touches them, it is said that they die and turn into a pool of water.

The tale told of one fisherman who caught an Asrai claims that the touch of her skin was so cold, that where the Asrai touched his arm while pleading for her freedom — and her life — the flesh has never been warm since.

Their inability to survive daylight is similar to that of the Scottish Fuath.

The Fairy

The Fairy

 

A fairie (also fay, fey, fae, faerie; collectively, wee folk, good folk, people of peace, and other euphemisms) is the name given to a type of mythological being or legendary creature, a form of nature spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural. The concept of fairies is based on the fae of midevil Western European (Old French) folklore and romance. Fairies are often identified with a variety of beings of other mythologies. Even in folklore that uses the term “fairy,” there are many definitions of what constitutes a fairy. Sometimes the term is used to describe any magickal creature, including goblins or gnomes: at other times, the term only describes a specific type of more ethereal creature.

Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers. Their origins are less clear in the folklore, being variously dead, or some form of angel, or a species completely independent of humans or angels. Folklorists have suggested that their actual origin lies in a conquered race living in hiding, or in religious beliefs that lost currency with the advent of Christianity. These explanations are not always mutually incompatible, and they may be traceable to multiple sources.

Much of the folklore about fairies revolves about protection from their malice, by such means as cold iron (fairies don’t like iron and will not go near it) or charms of rowan and herbs, or avoiding offense by shunning locations known to be theirs. In particular, folklore describes how to prevent the fairies from stealing babies and substituting changelings, and abducting older people as well. Many folktales are told of fairies, and they appear as characters in stories from medieval tales of chivalry, to Victorian fairy tales, and up to the present day in modern literature.

Fairies are generally portrayed as human in appearance and as having supernatural abilities such as the ability to fly, cast spells and to influence or foresee the future. Although in modern culture they are often depicted as young, sometimes winged, females of small stature, they originally were depicted much differently: tall, radiant, angelic beings or short, wizened trolls being some of the commonly mentioned. Diminutive fairies of one kind or another have been recorded for centuries, but occur alongside the human-sized beings; these have been depicted as ranging in size from very tiny up to the size of a human child. Even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant.

Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are very rare in the folklore; even very small fairies flew with magic, sometimes flying on ragwort stems or the backs of birds. Nowadays, fairies are often depicted with wings of various shapes.