The Witching Hour Chronicles
My name is Christine and on WHC I will talk all things spiritual!
The Witching Hour Chronicles
The Fae Among Us: Uncovering Myths and Realities of Fairy Folk
The veil between our world and the realm of fairies may be thinner than you think. Dive into the enchanting yet complex world of the fae as we explore creatures that have captivated human imagination for centuries but might be more than just fantasy.
What exactly are fairies? Some believe they're nature spirits watching over earth, air, fire, and water. Others suggest they're souls of the departed. While their true origins remain mysterious, fairy lore spans across cultures with remarkable consistency – they exist alongside humanity but in a separate, hidden dimension.
From the helpful brownies who quietly tidy your home in exchange for milk and honey, to the mischievous pixies hiding your belongings in the garden, the fairy world is surprisingly diverse. This episode explores Scottish brownies (the inspiration behind Harry Potter's house elves), garden-dwelling pixies, death-predicting banshees from Irish tradition, treasure-hoarding leprechauns who serve as fairy bankers, and forest-protecting elves. Each type exhibits unique characteristics, behaviors, and relationships with humans – some beneficial, others decidedly dangerous.
Far from the sanitized versions in children's stories, authentic fairy lore reveals complex beings with their own societies, occupations, and moral codes. This episode is part one of our fairy exploration, with more fascinating types to be covered next week. Have you ever experienced unexplained occurrences around your home? Perhaps you've had an encounter with the fae without even realizing it. Listen and discover what might be hiding just beyond your perception.
Source: 25+ Types Of Fairies (Types Of Fae) From A-Z | Tea & Rosemary
Classifications of fairies - Wikipedia
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Welcome to the Witching Hour Chronicles. I'm your host, christine, so I just wanted to start out by saying I'm really sorry that I skipped an episode, a new episode, last week. Life's been super hectic. Hopefully things will be calming down here pretty soon. I am kind of starting some new scheduling, some new things with work, and that might get a little hectic for a while and depending on what days off I'm going to have is going to depend on if I am keeping a Friday schedule where all my new episodes come out on Friday. Hopefully I do keep that schedule, but if not, I might have to change things up for the podcast a little bit. But I will definitely keep you all updated if, for some reason, there are any changes, all right, with that being said, let's get into this. I am finally done with the birth chart episodes and I know some people were getting tired of listening to those. It's confusing. It's a lot of information. Those who wanted to listen to it. I hope you got something out of it. But I do know that some listeners kind of stopped listening a little bit because they were kind of getting tired of those episodes. So now we are moving on this episode.
Speaker 1:I am going to be talking about fairies. Like I said, I do a lot. I wanted to do a lot of spiritual things, but I also wanted to do different creatures, cryptids I wanted to eventually get into cryptids. I wanted to. I want to eventually get into some conspiracies like alien stuff. I want to pretty much touch on everything except true crime, even though I have to admit I'm really missing doing the true crime cases that I did with Dark Mysteries. But I'm still going to try to stay away from that. Who knows, maybe I'll start a different podcast where I focus only on true crime.
Speaker 1:But yeah, fairies we're gonna talk about different kinds of fairies, or fae is a lot what a lot of people know them, as there are so many different kinds of fairies. Though, I got into this. I read several articles, but I found one in particular article. I took information from a few articles, but mainly I got all my information from one article. What was the name? Trying to remember what the name of the article was, I don't know A link, for it will be in the show notes so you can read the article, but it gives a little bit of background on where the origin of fairies come from and it lists several different types of fairies and information about each. I thought it was pretty fascinating.
Speaker 1:I had never really heard of a lot of these. I have heard of some of them and you know a lot of people think are they just something out of? A lot of these? I have heard of some of them and you know a lot of people think are they just something out of a fairy tale? Are they just mythical creatures or what?
Speaker 1:But I kind of feel like a lot of stories, whether they're real or not, come from somewhere. I mean, okay, let's take Bigfoot, for example. I'm not sure I necessarily believe because I mean where's the proof? You know what I mean. But at the same time I feel like these stories have been around so long. They had to originate somewhere. They got to have some sort of truth to it. So fairies I kind of feel the same way about when did they originate from?
Speaker 1:Some believe that fairies are just spirits. Some believe that they represent the different elements earth, air, fire, water, kind of like they're the caretakers of nature. Some people believe that fairies are spirits of people who have passed. But in general, most types of fairies or fae, whatever you want to call them, usually exist near humans but not part of the human world. They are definitely separate and distinctly separate, but they live near humans. Some people believe that, yes, they're on Earth, they're in this world, but on a different plane or dimension. I kind of feel that way about Bigfoot as well, because, you know, I need proof.
Speaker 1:Anyways, let's see, not all fairies are good and not all are bad. There are a lot of really bad ones out there. That in the what I've been, what I read and what I'm going to tell you about. A lot of them seem to be kind of like tricksters and like to play tricks on people. Let's see. So, like I said, there are several different types and I have a whole 12 pages of notes on different types of fairies and we're going to go through this list. I don't know if I'm gonna get through the whole thing before this episode just gets too long. It is just me talking, so I might be able to get through it without overdoing it. Definitely, if I had a co-host on this one, it I probably would have broken it up into two episodes.
Speaker 1:But the first type of fairy Is called a brownie. They typically are like a household spirit. They live in the house with people with humans. They come from Scottish folklore. They were known to help farmers and would help with anything, any work that needed to be done outside at night. They are very short, only about three feet tall. They have pointed ears. They have a darker skinned complexion. They tend to wear brown clothing. Maybe that's why they're called brownies. They don't have wings and if they don't have a family, if it's just them, they tend to live underground. So everybody knows the Harry Potter series and this is where the inspiration for house elves came from was from brownies. The only difference brownies have never been slaves for people like the house elf on Harry Potter. They tend to be drawn towards families who like hard-working families, families and who might need the extra help around the house because they like it, farmers and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:If you have a brownie living in your house, they are happy with living with you. They will stay and bring good luck to the house. They kind of are like a magnet for good luck. They tend to if they're living in your house. They kind of are like a magnet for good luck. They tend to. If they're living in your house they will help you with your chores, but they also want because they want to live in a clean space. It's said that if you don't feed them they will get angry and they like things like milk, cookies and honey that you leave out at night. They they just want the consideration. They want you to do those kind of things for them. They're mostly nocturnal, which I kind of got into that already.
Speaker 1:Brownies tend to like rural areas. Living on a farm is where they're most happy. They also like to live in a home that has a lot of hiding spaces where they can go during the day, like closets, chest, secret doors. Who has a secret door? That's just weird and random. Okay, they like a warm, cozy, happy place. So, brownies, like I said, they like a happy place. But if you make them upset for any reason, they have been known to cause trouble. Either they'll just leave and you'll never see them again, or they'll cause problems around your house. They don't like it when you try to give them gifts or pay them for all their help. Mostly, the best way to repay them for their kindness is give them food. They love food. If you treat them well, they'll be super loyal to your family. So those are brownies, okay.
Speaker 1:So next we're doing is pixies. Normally, when people think of fairies, pixie is usually what comes to mind. Tinkerbell's a pixie. Pixies are very small. They're only about four inches tall. They tend to live in gardens and wooded areas. For some reason, these types of fairies have the most contact with humans, which is probably why they show up so much like Disney movies and stuff like that. Pixies can be found in wooded areas and pretty patches of flowers. They tend to be anywhere there's a lot of nature. Pixies have wings. They're known as earth or nature fairies. They have human-like features, delicate wings that move extremely fast. I'm kind of like a hummingbird. This is funny because in this article, it says that they tend to dress mostly in green, but also you might see other colors that you'd see out in nature, like blues and yellows.
Speaker 1:If you want to draw pixies into your yard, you need to create a woodsy area or a pretty little garden for them to live in, something where they can take shelter. It's almost like when you get a birdhouse and the birds come back every year. They build their nest and they come back. You can do this type of stuff for fairies. Give them a little house and everything. Now here's the thing about pixies, though. Is they like to. They like to play tricks on humans. They're very mischievous but just like people, they all have their own personalities, some nicer than others. Pixies don't really understand the pain of a human or desperation, so when they play jokes and be like a trickster can not be very nice and be kind of harmful. They are known to steal stuff from your home and take these items and hide them somewhere. They enjoy their little tiny houses. Nectar, honey, if you leave out, they say. If you want to make contact with pixies, to leave out these things as offerings for them. They love flowers and that will also draw them to your property. They say most people can't see these pixies in their little communities because they have the ability to hide themselves and cloak themselves. See, that is all I have on pixies.
Speaker 1:The next kind of fairy is a banshee. I didn't even realize that this was considered a fairy, but it's very interesting and I didn't know this either. They say banshees only exist in Ireland and Scotland. They have what they call the cry of death. So a banshee is a female spirit that predicts death. When you hear her cry, it's said to be a bad omen and it predicts your death. She can appear in several forms, either as a beautiful young woman, a matron of some sort or an old ugly hag. You don't always see her like physical form. You might not see her, but you can hear her and they say her cries are very haunting. It is also said that she will comb her long silver hair while she cries. In some parts of Ireland combs are thought to be bad luck because of the banshee. They normally don't harm people or she doesn't harm people she encounters. But if you hear her cry that's a prediction of death, and it's not necessarily your own. It just might be someone in the area. So I thought that was very interesting. Like I said, I didn't realize a banshee was considered a fairy of any type.
Speaker 1:My next one on the list is leprechauns. So leprechauns appear super small. They look like old men and they're usually dressed in green or red. They usually wear a pointed cap and have a pipe. They're mainly found in Ireland. So in this article it says that most fairies don't necessarily have a job like how us humans have. Like I manage in a restaurant and I go to work this five days a week and blah, blah, blah. But leprechauns are an exception. They are cobblers. They also can act as bankers in the fairy world. See, I think this is super interesting. Okay, you will hear them coming by, um, the sound of a hammer tapping, and they always have a shoe in one hand and a hammer in another, they say. Legend has it that they're always crafting shoes, because other types of fairies wear out their shoes every night during well, while they're dancing at night, so far I haven't read anything about any dancing fairies. But okay, that's awesome. Leprechauns love music and they also love to dance.
Speaker 1:Some leprechauns can be distrustful and secretive around humans. If you act kindly towards them, they might reward you with some gold, but for the most part they can be pretty distrustful towards humans. Most leprechauns avoid humans because it's said that if a human can capture a leprechaun, then the fairy must reveal its pot of gold, the hiding place of its pot of gold. Leprechauns love gold and ale and it's said that they always have a little bit of information they can sell you, usually at a pretty expensive price. Those are leprechauns.
Speaker 1:I have several more on this list, but I think I'm going to make this a two two-parter and I am going to read what is next on my list and then call it, and then next week I will have part two and I'll get through more of these because there's a lot and I think they're super interesting. If you believe in these kind of creatures, I mean I do, I don't you know. Which is why I kind of creatures I mean I do. I don't you know which is why I kind of wanted to teach you about them. I wanted to learn more. I thought it was very interesting. So the last one I'm going to do is elves. Didn't realize elves were fairies either. So most people know about elves because of movies and stuff like that. But elves have been around for like stories, have been around for a long time.
Speaker 1:According to mythology, there are both light elves and dark elves of the fairy kingdom. Elves are more often than not described to have blonde hair and blue eyes. They, out of all the different types of fairies, they are the closest to humans in size, even though they tend to be a bit slimmer but have a similar height. They tend to have high cheekbones, angular features compared to humans, they say their eyes can be mesmerizing and, of course, the pointed ears. It is said that elves are the types of fairies who place changelings in humans. Elves can kind of go either way when it comes to being friendly or not friendly towards humans. One thing I want to say about changelings that's another type of fairy we're going to get into a little further down. So on next week's episode I will teach you about changelings, and it's quite interesting. Honestly, that's all I ever really knew about fairies was stuff I had heard about changelings which made me want to get into all of these.
Speaker 1:Anyways, back to elves. Elves are said to be protectors, caretakers of the forest. They say they are very smart, definitely have more like a stronger intuition than humans do. Okay, looks like that's all I have on elves, but yeah, that is all I'm going to get into about that. Like I said, I still have seven more pages of notes. I only went through five pages of notes. I still have seven more pages. So next week we will get into part two about fairies or the fae.
Speaker 1:Follow me on social media Facebook, instagram, threads, tiktok, get onto my website, thewitchinghourbuzzsproutcom and click on the support tab and you can support this podcast in as little as three, for as little as three dollars a month. That would be greatly, greatly appreciated. It would help keep this podcast up and going. Once I get a handful of followers, I will start putting out or subscribers. I will put out subscriber only episodes. You'll get a shout out on the show. That would be great. Yeah, let me know what you think of fairies and all that fun stuff. Send me your ideas. I definitely want to hear what you. Let me know what you want me to cover. I want this podcast to be what you want it to be. Yeah, reach out, let me know. Other than that, that's all I have tonight. Good night. Thanks for watching.