Herbwise Craft and the Faery Faith

Herbalism in all its varied expressions and the primordial pathways of the Faery are inextricably intertwined to the point that I have always said plant spirit work is a Fae arte! The ways in which these two parallel threads in the tapestry of animist sorcery weave something beautiful is worth our consideration- and it’s something that makes up how I approach and enact the herbwise craft in its entirety.

First, let us begin with the Faery themselves, who in honoring ancient taboos we will refer to from here on out via circumlocution as to not invite their enmity for my attempts to define them in words on the internet. The adoration terms of Good Folk, People of Peace, The Gentry, The Kind People, The Other Folk, and many countless other epithets are always a smart way to speak about our mysterious kin of the otherworlds.

The Faery Faith is a primordial tradition that is rooted in what we now call the Celtic or WISE Isles, but can also be found in every ancient animist culture across the globe. Simply put, because smarter and more astute people than me have already written at length about this (see references and suggested reading at the end of this post) the Faery are both the beings who inhabit the spiritual world of otherness and the name we use for the world itself.

The Good Folk are the many countless and varied beings who exist just at the periphery of the reality you and I live- their own world intertwined with ours to the extent that their existence directly influences things like the growth of crops, weather patterns, animal presence, luck, fortune, and health.

The denizens of Faery, the People of Peace who haunt the exact same spaces where you and I live but do so from a perspective that is (usually) outside our ability to directly perceive, are a statuesque and stately collective of myriad types of spirits who are far removed from the tiny winged creatures they became after the suppression of the Christian church.

Tracing far back to the roots of our awareness of the Otherfolk, we find that in every culture and tradition they are understood to be the very alive, very conscious, and very active spirits of the blessed dead. They are our ancestors who have passed back into the land via the initiation of death and continue to live their lives in otherness. Our most celebrated lore constantly affirm that the faces of the Kind Neighbors are familiar because we once knew them in life. When we engage with the inhabitants of the otherworld, we are engaging with the rivers of beings who came before us, but also with those who may very well emerge once again. It is said in much of our ancient Faery lore that our world floats on Faery in the same way an island floats on the ocean, and that all life emerges from that realm, is nourished by it, and then returns to it- possibly to repeat the same cycle again in some mysterious pattern.

You may have picked up on some crucial points so far that make respect for the People of Peace a smart thing for those engaged with plant spirit work on a deep level. Here are a few points that make Faery Faith practices important for those working with the Herbwise Ways:

·       We understand our world to be held within a greater realm of spirit- so that all which happens here is ultimately nourished from there.

·       It is affirmed time and time again in the lore that the Kind Folk are directly invested in the ways of plants and animals. They play some kind of role in moving vital force into our world and calling it back at the appointed time. Plants are tended by, protected by, and haunted by the Fae.

·       As protectors and stewards of the Green Realm, the Good Folk can be easily offended by work done with the plants not enacted with respect and circumstance. When humans trapse into wild or cultivated spaces cutting at will, trampling without notice, or harvesting from trees that are numinous, the Kind Folk may take revenge. For this reason we must always approach herbal work with a spiritually ecological mindset and show reciprocity and kinship to both the plants and those who haunt their spaces.

·       Plants are nature’s most powerful liminal points. They connect the worlds below to the realms above. For this reason, we see in lore that The Gentry commonly gather at trees, travel through hedgerows, celebrate around stands of particular plants, and even make their homes in groves and gardens. By working with plants deeply we will inevitably come into contact with otherness by nature of plant’s multi-realm connections.

·       If our blessed dead return to the realm of Faery at their death, then all our herbwise forebears are now Good Folk. Honoring them means that we sweep clear the path that connects living seekers with the wisdom-keepers who have crossed back into the mysteries. A very wise thing to do, indeed.

·       It is often the various Kinds and Queens and associated deities who are simultaneously connected to the green artes and to Faery. One example of this is my own patron deity whom we lovingly call The Green Man. He is at once a living member of the plant spirit realm and a king of the otherworldly verdant haunts. Another powerful example of this connection is in Ing-Freyr who is both God of Agriculture and inheritor of the lordship of Ylfheim, the realm of the Elves, via tooth-gift from Wōden and kin.

I think the most important takeaway from this very cursory look at how Faery Faith and Herbalism intersect is that our kinships must be whole in scope. We must step into spaces, relationships, and practices with the full awareness that many beings both seen and unseen call those spaces home, haunt them, traverse them, and have a profound impact on how they exist in consensus reality.

One simple way to engage with the Good Neighbors is simply to acknowledge their presence and make a good-faith offering of peace and respect. These words can be spoken extemporaneously from the heart, imperfect and honest. A small gift can be placed on a flat rock, at the base of a strong tree, or in a clearing ensuring that what is left is not just harmless to the space but affirming to it. Simple gifts include song, a few strands of hair knotted nicely, drops of whisky, pure incense, blessed water, a small bit of bread, or food for local fauna like seeds and nuts.

For those who are interested in exploring the ancient, primordial, animism of the Celtic Isles, the following books are reliable, entertaining, and inspiring. urchasing through the links helps support my work:

Aos Sidhe – Meeting the Irish Fair Folk
Morgan Daimler

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasanrty
WB Yeats

The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries
WY Evans-Wentz

The Fairies in Tradition and Literature
Katherine Briggs

Faerycraft - Following the Path of Faery Witchcraft
Morgan Daimler