There is a veil between the worlds

Years ago, what would seem like many to those of us of mortal blood, but what is really just a twitch of time to the ageless stars and eternal moons, the world of mortal and the world of fairy were separated. Mortal man had become too populous, too jaded, too fast for the easier, more genteel pace of the fairy blooded, so they chose to leave this place and create their own They live now in another level of our world where a veil of magic has been created to divide us from them and keep their lives free of our hectic, desperate struggle to progress. A level close enough for them to keep watch over us, to keep our imaginations alive with periodic night rides through the countryside, witnessed by the lucky few staring out of misty windows on a night seemingly burdened with insomnia. The worlds are so alike, so close in kind they might even be seen as parallel worlds, if not for the beings that inhabit them. Their world is the stuff of legend for our world. The winged and horned and magic creatures unlike any we know here. The beings of rock, of water, of air and fire and spirit.

They wait for the time when we childlike mortals have learned that not all that we see as progress provides a better way of life, when we have discovered that too much science takes away the joy of mystery. They wait till they can return without fear of their magic between slowly stripped away by the disease of disbelief. There are those of us who belong in part to that world and in part to this one. We have been stranded here by the drawing of the veil, charged with keeping the knowledge of the fae worlds alive and simmering always in the imaginations of this mortal world. With pen and brush we strive always to recreate for the masses our ancient and instinctive memories of that other place. Maybe our efforts help to keep the veil thin between us, maybe they helps to keep the Fae folk from disappearing forever into that other realm. Perhaps we have been chosen specifically for that purpose for our sensitive natures and visited in our dreams.

Perhaps, in the way of small children, we stumbled upon a fairy event, or place, and kept the knowledge ever after hidden in the backs of our minds. Perhaps, we are truly changelings, fairy children left in exchange for human ones, always yearning for our true home, but destined to remain on this side of the veil. Who truly knows, but I prefer to think of us as those changeling children, part mortal and part fairy.

Whatever your favorite theory, Fairy Day is a time for all of us, fairy kissed or no, to honor and delight in the fanciful, the mystical, the ethereal in our lives. Throughout man’s history, Midsummers Day has been known as a time to revel in the magic of nature. It is one of the few "in between" times, when the veil is drawn thinnest and crossing between the worlds is at it’s easiest. This day, the longest of the year is known for odd things happening to unwitting mortals, victims of the fairies playful games. It is at this time that fairies may be seen, dancing round rings, or that mortals with the desire and a pure heart may meet a fae out walking in the woods.

Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream is a famous version of such an event. And with the creation of Fairy Day, us Changelings wish to honor this ancient connection, to help bring back into the common focus the magical in our world, to help keep the veils thin enough so that we do not lose the Fae forever, and with them, a part of our own souls. To even, perhaps, one day lift the veil entirely and bring them back home.

~ Jacqueline Collen-Tarrolly, artist, February, 2006

Visit the Official Fairy Day website for more information and fun fairy day web buttons!