Faery Craft: Weaving Connections with the Enchanted Realm

Lately the Fairy path has been calling out to many people, myself included, perhaps even more so then the Pagan Gods and Goddesses. I have read many books on fairy some have been simple and others have been complex. This book strikes a balance often times giving a through review. of what may have been read previously along with new information and insight. To explain the world of fairy the author uses the Septagram or seven pointed star as an out line. The Septagram was held sacred to the Goddess Inanna of ancient Sumeria. Along with a layout of the fairy world there are interviews with such gifted authors as John and Caitlyn Mathews, RJ Stewart, Charles De Lint and a whole bunch of others. Interviews are also given to Brian and Wendy Froud, Marc Potts, Karen Martinez and a slew of others. Singers and musicians are well represented also groups like Dolmen and SJ Tucker are interviewed often giving great insight in to the world of fairy. For those new to the fairy community there are resources for organizations and faerie festival. Alas I am jumping to the end of the book. Top start with the beginning we must go with knowledge. Chapter one tells us several possibilities of who the fairies are. Some theories trace them back to old gods, other people posit they are aliens and the list goes on to spirits of the dead, fallen angels to expressions of the world soul. Some deities associated with faeries are Freya, Morrigan and Hekate. The first chapter also gives a thorough discussion on etiquette. Faeries hate Iron, be careful as to when you [partake of faerie food. Give them the first offering of a nhewly opened bottle of water, milk or alcoholic beverage. Leave food for them. About thanking faeries well perhaps follow through is very important. Always be honest when approaching the fae.The other chapters include Connection, Trust, Honour, Magick, Joy and Inspiration. The book gives a thorough how to an doing rituals, finding tools and building a relationship with the faeries. At the end of the chapter there are exercises which help your spiritual advancement. They are worth doing as they help connect you to the environment and the fairy world. The book does not sell it self as a bible or a must do but rather as a gathering of tools as there is no room in spirituality for absolute authority.For those seeking to walking the path of the fae or build a closer connection to them. I would advise reading this book. What is said there in will not conflict with any previous held beliefs. All hail the world of the fae.

Faery Craft is structured in an interesting and simple way around the points of the heptagram or Faerie Star. Each chapter focuses on a particular point with exercises to do to connect more deeply with the world around you. The Faeries are depicted in this work as primarily elemental or nature spirits and there is a strong emphasis on connecting with the elements through meditation on the physical world. I found the unique view on birth elements as enlightening and fun.There is quite a lot of fun to be had with this book. The information on cultural gatherings, art, books and music inspired by faeries is enriching. I would recommend this book for those wishing to work with the elementals and forge a deeper connection with their own elemental natures. The book is not suitable for those looking for the traditional legends and folklore of the Little People or for those who have expanded their view of the faeries as more than the elementals or nature spirits.

Recommend!

I like the content but it’s a lot of content. Had to take in small doses.

I had been wanting to purchase this book for months. Upon receiving it, I was a little disappointed about all the pages of people photographs that were placed in the book. For me it detracted from the magic of the book and I was considering selling it at a second hand bookstore. But as I started reading it, I became entranced by emily's style of writing and what she had to offer and I was excited about reading the rest of the book. Overall it is a wonderful book, but I could not give it 5 stars because of all the photographs of people dressed up as faeries that unfortunately took up a third of the books pages and for me ruined it. I prefer artwork in books rather than pages and pages of everyday people dressed up as faeires.

A very informative book about Fae folk. I love the illustrations and photos. I recommend it to anyone. Thanks for prompt service.

This book is Good for beginners and wonderful for the people who are Wanting to get into the faery craft.

I have been a practicing which for many years and I was interested in rekindling and expanding my knowledge on faery's and my connection to them. This book is absolutely perfect, an amazing resource for working with the faery realm!

Loved the content although its not the usual Faery books I’ve read before, lots of new info which is going to take time to read ,digest and understand.

nice

I really enjoyed reading Faery Craft by Emily Carding. This is a book that I have been aware of and anticipating for several months, ever since seeing Emily Carding's awesome "Tarot of the Sidhe" and reading her excellent essay in "Both Sides of Heaven". It is clear from looking at her work that she is in touch with the Fey and is instrumental in bringing their energies into the world. I have not been disappointed reading Faery Craft and even reading it on my Kindle iPad app I am happy to say that the work captures that faery enchantment and sparkles with glittery magic across every page.I have been practicing magic and pestering supernatural entities for quite a few years now, so am not approaching this book as a beginner, rather as someone who wants to learn more about a subject which (at least in my esoteric neck of the woods) is rather obscure.Faery-lore is something where there are a lot of legends and references however very little actual information. Digging back into history there are more interesting accounts and several grimoires which have sections on dealing with faeries. However usually we are left with folklore and fairytales as the main body of information regarding these entities. It is a fleeting, frustrating subject to research however and the problem with older sources is that our perspective and culture has moved on, leaving some work rather dated. Emily Carding has done a superb job however and is a magical practitioner and a Priestess, so her contemporary perspective and work is invaluable. This book has been needed for quite some time.The book begins by looking at what faeries actually are. This is possibly an impossible question however all the ideas that have been put forward in the past are discussed and explained with theories ranging from simple nature sprits to ancestors to aliens. Emily makes a great point when she considers the idea that rather than us considering faeries as "aliens" (in the ET sense), could we consider "aliens" as faeries and alien contact experiences as faery experiences? I do not doubt that we are looking at the same phenomena here perhaps seen from two different cultural lenses and turning the usual idea on its head in this way provides much food for thought. I wonder for example whether anyone has tried any of the usual anti-faery measures such as using iron during a UFO/alien experience.Faery Craft is woven around a seven pointed star, each point corresponding to a specific branch of faery lore. Each point on the star corresponding to the concepts of Knowledge, Connection, Trust, Honour, Magick, Joy and Inspiration, each of these being important keys when discussing and interacting with the Fey.I have already discussed "knowledge" above, which concerned what faeries are, as well as discussing the rules to follow when dealing with them (such as avoiding Faery Food) and remembering the correct etiquette when dealing with the good folk. Each chapter is quite substantial and loaded with lots of information, much more than I can do justice with here using a few brief words of description.The second chapter "connection" looks at faeries in our landscape, discussing the types of elemental being out there and also placing some within the context of a year; a zodiac; so we know from the astrological sign behind them what type of qualities we might expect and perhaps when would be a good time to work with that type of being. This chapter led very nicely into the next, "trust" which then considered the underworld journey and using portals and gateways.The next chapter "honour" then focused on devotional work and how to best honour and work with the Fey, so Carding discusses building a shrine and how to make offerings (including what not to offer for sound environmental reasons). Again I found that this chapter bridged very easily with the next, "magick" which looked at getting started with practicing magic and detailed (among much more) the magical directions and sacred spaces, how to cast a circle and create and use magical tools.The next two chapters "joy" and "inspiration" then step out into the wide world and look at what is out there today. So there is a discussion on the different faery events and gathering which occur around the world and then a section on crafts detailing how to make your own garments, wings etc as part of a costume. I'll be the first to admit that faery wings do not suit my complexion, however a lot of people will find this chapter very useful as they cast their own faerie glamour! We then move on to the inspiration which the Fey have given humanity so much in the arts so we read about the work of people such as RJ Stewart, John and Caitlin Matthews, and Wendy and Brian Froud as well as the relevance of the work of JRR Tolkien. There is much more here as Emily Carding looks at a wide range of people working with Faery contacts today as artists, magicians and writers.Finally this is all tied together with a final chapter "balance" which contains a septagram working and a final fairytale loaded with meaning and inspirationEach chapter ends with a number of activities designed to help bring you in contact with the faerie kingdoms. There are certainly a few spots I know of both in Somerset where I live and also Hertfordshire which certainly feel faerie-haunted to me where I shall certainly go and meditate to see what happens; not forgetting the proper etiquette of course!The whole book is very well researched drawing upon the work of such luminaries as have been named above (and many more), as well as past authors and Fey-explorers such as A.E. and W.B. Yeats (both with a Golden Dawn heritage), W.Y. Evans-Wentz whose classic "The Fairy Faith in Celtic countries" was written before he went off gallivanting to Tibet (to write other classics) and many others. However through all this Emily Carding's work is a gossamer thread of inspiration running across all the faery realms opening up this hidden kingdom and helping anyone who hears such a calling to enter.Threaded through with personal accounts, poetry, interviews and stunning artwork this is a book to be read, re-read and treasured forever. Very highly recommended.

I am lucky enough to know Emily Carding personally, and have long enjoyed learning from her about the fae. She is the one who opened me to them again - after years of separation, since I'd left childhood. She taught me that the fae are not the sweet little flower creatures of Victorian imagination, but beings of power, light and strong connection with the Earth; the Elder race, with their own culture, civilisation and modes of thinking and operating. Some of this Emily had explored in her Tarot of the Sidhe, channelled from the great Sidhe faery of Ireland. Now Emily brings her deep knowledge of the faery realm, forged over a lifetime, to the page in this book, sharing it with a wider public. Her work is practical: in addition to the lore that she shares, Emily also suggests exercises and activities to discover faery, strengthen our connections with it, honour the fae and learn from these wise beings, custodians of the Earth in a real sense.Read this book. Have fun with the exercises, the lore, the beauty, the glitter and games. But be sure to put it down often and go out in the woods, by the streams, under waterfalls, up mountains or into caves, and develop a direct experience of the fae, guided by Emily's wise understanding of them. Then let them influence your day-to-day life, your relationship with the Earth and your action to save our Mother Planet from another mass extinction, which looms ever closer. There is still time: and the fae can help in many ways, not least as our guides and teachers.

This is the only book I've ever bought (or read) about faery. I bought it because it's by Emily Carding, whose work on Tarot of the Sidhe I so greatly admire. I don't know what to think about faery. Despite my interest in things esoteric, I am actually quite a hard-headed realist and skeptic. Some of you who also consider yourselves both a mystic and a skeptic might understand what a difficult position that sometimes can be! My spiritual path is quite earth-based, and I do not mess with otherworld realms much. I sense that something is 'flying around' out there (it's the best way I can think of to put it), but I feel no need to have any of those things turn their attention upon little old me. My workings are done with shields firmly up. In fact, I'm pretty sure my shields are up all the time, even when not needed. This is one reason I feel consideration of faery is good for my development. Another reason is that feeling I get when I venture out into the natural world, the feeling of a spiritual presence in the elements, and by that I don't mean the usual earth, water, fire, air, but also rivers, trees, rocks, and hills. Even a clearing or a fall of water into a tiny pool takes on the feeling of an entity to me. I want to greet them, honour them, admire them; there's something there, something more than just grass or moss or flowing water. And it's that feeling of spirit in the natural world that, to me, is the enchanted realm of faery. Forget little girls with wings (like the fairies at the bottom of the garden), or frog women wearing wreaths on their heads (like Brian Froud's illustrations), or slant-eyed wraiths with a dangerous edginess (Tarot of the Sidhe). Those are just individual artists' attempts to capture the feeling. That's not what the fae look like. Who knows what they look like. If they even look like anything. Artists famed for their depictions of faery agree on this point:'I discovered faeries really by making it up, by trying to imagine what it was...but it was always about feelings. So I brought all my skills as an artist to bear on trying to get the form and shape of what I was painting to feel like something that was elusive and invisible'. ~ Brian Froud, qtd in Faery Craft'[From an early age, believing in faery] was just the most natural thing, and it wasn't a cute little game we played, it was just that they were there, and we could leave them things, and we could feel them. We couldn't see them particularly, but we could always feel them, so I just grew up thinking it was the most natural thing in the world.' ~ Wendy Froud, qtd in Faery Craft'People want to believe what I'm showing them is real, and they go, 'Oh, that's how they look, isn't it?' and I say, 'Well, actually, no. It's how they feel.' You've got to bring people to some place where they can understand and feel it, and also that is a genuine opening, a genuine gateway to the reality...the problem is, when you try to express this stuff, everything fails. Words fail, pictures fail, everything is failing in one of the most astonishing and beautiful events. So to do what I do is trying to do the impossible, but I believe in it passionately.' ~ Brian Froud, qtd in Faery CraftAnd so you see, the faery realm has nothing to do with a blur out of the corner of your eye being a leprechaun that has just sprinted past you. It has everything to do with feeling 'something', and not knowing what it is, but knowing nonetheless that something is there, and it's got a kind of awareness, it's got a depth, it's got an antiquity, and it is somehow connected to the land and to you, and that you want to be with it, acknowledge it, respect it. The desire to communicate, or at least commune, with these perceived forces is the desire to 'weave connections with the enchanted realm,' at least for me. It has very little to do with decorating a faery altar, or flapping around a field in Cornwall wearing a velvet basque and gauze wings with glitter painted on your face, though to your surprise you may find yourself doing these very things. That's something else that's so amazing about faery. The aspect of freeing up your spirit.Oh yeah, I was supposed to be reviewing the book. Faery Craft is a really good introduction. It's divided into eight chapters:Ch 1 Knowledge - A bit of background on faery lore and various ideas about what faery are. (Ancient gods? Aliens? Fallen angels?)Ch 2 Connection - Explains the four elements and some symbols associated with otherworld, with really excellent meditations/exercises for you to try.Ch 3 Trust - Ideas about seeking a spirit guide and also about manifestations (if that's the right word) of spirit in the natural landscape, with lots more activities suggested for you to try.Ch 4 Honour - Altar and offerings, basically ways to acknowledge the faeCh 5 Magick - Circle casting and various consecration ritualsCh 6 Joy - Joining the faery community - That would be other people who love faery and like to get together for some of that costumed frolicking. Some good introductory information here about various paths and organizations. LOTS of photographs and suggestions for dressing up and doing rituals.Ch 7 Inspiration - Interviews with faery community luminaries: RJ Stewart, John and Caitlin Matthews, Zardoa and Silver Flame of the Silver Elves, T Thorn Coyle, and many more (including the Frouds).Ch 8 Balance - A final exercise involving the septagram, or faery star.I really enjoyed reading this book and have been enlightened by it to whole communities whose existence I knew nothing of, as well as inspired to explore otherworld for myself in my own way. Definitely recommended, even if you're a skeptic.