Fairies

The fairy heritage of English-speaking people goes back hundred of years to the British Isles.  The church had tried to put a stop to this belief, people were burned and tortured for having seen fairies.
Fairies later became fashionable in the literature of the French and British courts.  In England, during the reign of Elizabeth I, fairies began to flourish the most. Shakespeare, and other poets and playwrights, chose them for their works.  When James I took the throne fairies were again banished.  James I declared fairies were the creation of the devil himself.
Fairy stories followed the early settlers to the New World.  Again, the people who spoke of fairies were associated with witches and were burned and tortured.
During the early eighteenth to the nineteenth century, artists became extremely interested in the fairies.  Victorian painters recognized the beauty and mystery of these beautiful creatures.
During the nineteenth century even children started to read about the magical fairy.  Grimm's stories inspired writers to write more fairy stories for children.
Even now, in the 21st century, people are still reporting fairy appearances in the British Isles, Canada, United States and Australia. 

The word "fairies" is the later known word for the earlier noun "Fays." 
"Fay-erie" was first a state of enchantment or "glamour"
and was only later used for the fays  who wielded those powers of illusion.
Since the seventeenth century the word fairy is used to conjure up an image
 in ones mind of a supernatural creature of a middle nature between man and angel.

We have been blinded by our materialistic thinking. 
It has dulled our being able to see and communicate with the fairies. 
That is why children are usually the ones that can see the fairies. 
Some of us still retain from childhood a hidden knowledge of the inner worlds of nature
and the fairies.  We need to recapture this before we can approach the fairy realm.

Speak of the Fairies - Irish Fairies - Wicca

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