We often find that accounts of people encountering fairies at night begin with a strange and unusual light near a rath, stone circle or in the woods. Sometimes the entire mound itself is recounted to have lit up, basking the observer in an unearthly brightness. This light is often said to induce trance as well as facilitating entry into the Otherworld.
Folklore accounts on all continents describe this same strange light and this has often been a point of bewilderment for those who witness the sight. Andrew Lang, in his 1893 introduction to Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies (1691) writes that inside the fairy mounds the light is ‘artificial’ and glows softly. Kirk himself says of the fairy abodes, “Their ‘places’ are large and fair, and unless at some odd occasions are unperceivable by vulgar eyes.” He writes that they, “…have continual Lamps, and Fires, often seen without Fuel to sustain them.”
Might there be something to this fairy light which hints at a technological source, or is it even more unexplainable?
For many, the idea of associating fairies with technology is heresy, yet why should this be the case? I think the main reason is that it pushes fairies more towards the realm of multi-dimensional beings and perhaps UFO encounters which also share these traits. For example, many who claim to have been taken inside strange craft often remark on how there was no visible source of light yet the whole area was glowing.
Another interesting example of the properties of fairy light comes from the account of The Stolen Bride.
This piece of folklore begins at the wedding of a couple in the townland of Curragraigue, Co. Kerry. The groom finds that his wife has vanished and immediately suspects that she has been taken by the good people.
This is where the motif of fairy-light takes place; the groom, while in a half-waking, half-dreaming state sees his wife outside his window. She is visible through the 'slanting rays' of the moon upon the glass of the window. Somehow she has used the light of the fairy realm to break through into reflected moonlight in the human world.
We might propose that the light from the fairy realm has a property which facilitates communication, and also seems to be able to break the dimensional barrier between our world and the fairy Otherworld.
Today, of course, we ourselves use light in fibre-optics, for example, to send signals and communication, so clearly this is not a far-fetched idea.
We might ask, though, whether we need to be in a particular state of mind to receive and understand the messages in fairy light.
In the story of The Stolen Bride the groom has just woken up so perhaps he is still in some type of altered state of consciousness.
The hypnagocic state has been used by human beings to explore dream meanings, receive prophecy, and in shamanic-type vision questing, to both receive ancestral and spiritual wisdom as well as journeying to higher consciousness realms, so this may also be the case here.
We might also take the case of Biddy Early’s bottle which she used to divine prophecy and communicate with fairies. Again, it was by looking into this bottle and the reflections off the liquid inside that Biddy was able to communicate with the other folk.
Returning to the tale of The Stolen Bride, the groom eventually tracks his wifes emergence from the fairy realm and is waiting at a mound when it transforms into a brilliant palace and, "A thousand lights flashed from the windows and lofty hall entrance."
We can notice what Jaques Vallee would later interpret as a parallel between UFO encounters and fairy sightings in this description. The bright lights, the transformation of an ancient structure, the rath, into an almost futuristic and otherworldly realm. But perhaps what deepens the mystery further is the fact that fairies themselves are often seen as shining ones.
Indeed, this is also often how they are referred to within many traditions. In such accounts it is not just their garments which seem as bright as the sun, but their faces and surrounding aura. Might this be another factor as to why their appearance seems to cause such mesmeric and hypnotising effects upon us? Perhaps their very nature itself is not just one which causes awe and wonder, but a physical, stunning impact. (C.) David Halpin.