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Human legend - specifically celtic legend - tells of a race of people who lived on the Britainnic Isles before the first humans came there. These people were said to be tall in form, fair of face, and strong in the ways of magick and weapons. When the first tribes of humans came to settle on the Isles they named these Others the Tuatha de Danaan, meaning 'people of Danaa.' For a time the two races were content to live peacefully side by side.
However, this world did not truly belong to the Tuatha de Danaan. They were merely visitors - perhaps even colonists, and when humankind decided to forcefully claim the Isles for their own, the de Danaan could not hold their ground. The humans came in superior numbers and they wielded cold iron. It wasn't a terribly long struggle, and finally the de Danaan were forced to retreat using what wits and magicks they had left to them.
Thus began the sundering of worlds.
To the humans, it appeared that the de Danaan went underground into the hills and barrows, and so they gave a new name to their foes...sidhe, meaning 'people of the barrows.' New myths and tales grew up around the 'underground' fae folk, and humans either worshipped their memories as gods, or tried to avoid them.No one is entirely certain what happened to all the sidhe who fled. Perhaps some were able to summon the energy to return to their home realm. Others probably fell to the humans and were trapped on earth. In any event, messages were sent back to the home realm: "Be wary of this world of humans. They are not kind to those they consider different from themselves."And so the sundering of the worlds was enforced.
Several centuries went by. Over the course of time, the stories of the sidhe and other fae folk became warped and twisted as humanity sought to fit them into whatever paradigm was the dominant one of the moment. The bloody and magnificent celtic tales of the old "gods" Lugh Longhand and Manannon MacLir gave way to fearful Church-spun explanations of angels who fell from Heaven but were still too good to be cast into Hell. Further development warped the tales into stories about strange, sad little beings who longed for the souls that only humankind posessed. By the Victorian era, "fae" were popularly thought of as nothing more than cute little pixy girls who perched on toadstools and drank nectar all day. Fae had become a symbol of mere fancy, the enemy of Reason - an unfortunate idea which still persists into the modern era.
So where were the fae all this time? How could they let such a thing happen? The tragedy can best be described as a vicious cycle. Once the sidhe were driven away, there was no forceful Otherworld presence. Other "fae" saw what had happened to the sidhe and concluded that it was safer to stay away from humans. And as the old saying goes, "out of sight, out of mind." Without a constant fae presence to remind them, humanity began to forget the fae and to doubt their existence. In many cases the "herd" mentality set in; No one wanted to be different from their unbelieving neighbors. If a human did chance to meet a fae, they were likely to tell no one, or even to disbelieve the meeting had actually happened. In other words, humans began ignoring fae. The development of heavy industries and the rise of large cities served to widen the gap even further, because most fae do not like such environments. And oddly enough, the more the humans ignored the presence of the fae, the harder it was for the fae to contact them to prove that they were still there. Sidhe still had a habit of visiting this realm on occasion for brief periods of time, but this became rarer and rarer, and they almost never revealed themselves in any case. And so by the dawn of the twentieth century, humans had mostly forgotten that they weren't alone.
Fortunately, at some deep, instinctual level, some humans didn't forget. They were lonely, and they longed for something they couldn't remember. It was this spark of longing and hope that reignited fae interest in these human lands. You see, the fae rather missed the humans too. It is a sad and lonely thing to be completely ignored.
So here we stand today. Change is accelerating in the human world at a rate never seen before. Experimental sciences such as quantum physics are proving that ideas once thought to be 'mere fancy' are in fact possible. People are watching in awe as clones, microcomputers, magnetic levitation and other stuff of science fiction "fantasy" novels are brought to life before their eyes. Theorists are pushing the laws of science to their limits - and finding that the "end of the line" is actually the beginning. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is merely another name for what ancient magicians already knew - that living beings affect their environment by their very existence. In a few more short steps, humanity will have come full circle and will relearn many of the truths that their far-flung ancestors knew.
What does that have to do with fae? It is quite possible that once humanity has taken those few steps, communication will be more possible. Humans and fae have been separated for so long that they are now on different "wavelengths," and it will require will and knowledge on both sides to overcome the gap. Fae already have these. The future depends on what humans choose to do. Will they look into the theoretical, "metaphysical" sciences? Will they accept the possibility of other sentient beings? More important, will they accept the idea that most other sentients do not want to destroy them and/or take over Earth? Will they cooperate? Humanity is on the verge of adolescence. Will it choose to grow up and take its place beside the other sentients, or will it retreat into the self-absorbed tantrums of children? "Star Trek" or "War of the Worlds" - which will it be?
Many prophets have predicted that a new era will arrive soon. I say it is already beginning, and we are currently seeing its birthing pangs. After all, at what other time in recorded human history have so many people had access to so much information? When has humanity had an opportunity like it does now to break down its racial, cultural, and gender barriers to become one united race? And when has humanity had the power and potential to totally destroy itself and its planet? There will soon come a time when people must choose which direction they will take. They can continue fighting each other and using up Earth's resources at an alarming rate, or they can settle down and try to heal the harms that have already been done. The choices people make now will direct the course of generations to come (assuming any are left). It is my fervent hope that humans will choose healing over hate, and thus bring themselves into a better position to be reunited with those they turned away from so long ago.
Where'd We Lose the Faeries?
A Bit of History
May you live to be a hundred
And may I live to sing at your wake!
-Irish Blessing
Per capita, the Irish eat more chocolate than Americans, Swedes, Danes, French, and Italians.
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