The Archetype of the Fairy Folk

 We feel the need to create a post that transcends the literary realm and offers those few brave souls who are interested the opportunity to delve deeper into the research and studies that led me to this project. For those unfamiliar with my posts, I'll refer you to my second blog for the highly technical and almost esoteric language!For this post, we're avoiding the Italian version; we'll provide it if you request it! Enjoy the read!

This research is more an attempt to immediately experiment with the new method in practice than a research in itself, but it is a point of arrival for this. With the old method, this would have been the Celtic archetype, Celtic hierohistory. It is a mesh that is too tight for us who want to go beyond. But how to define it? Druidic archetype? After all, the druids are found in literature, not in archaeology. However, they are not only in the tales of the Breton cycle or in folklore but in precise historical sources, so, as tempting as this name may be, the term "druidic" still carries too many historical encrustations. Beyond the chosen name, however, we must ask ourselves if it is legitimate to use this archetype because it is a container of multiple archetypes, as we have seen in our vertical analyses of the Celtic archetype. We will draw much from there and from our latest study on the subject, "Critical Study of the Celtic Archetype." But we will truly look beyond, beyond history above all. Historically, every ancient religion is an ethno-paganism, a community cult centered on the prosperity and survival of a specific community with its own language and customs. All this is too narrow for us who seek something alive and spiritual. Our research here deals with everything that an enchanted fairy eye sees, namely that capacity to transfigure the surrounding environment into a place populated by magical and numinous presences. Put this way, we could define our research not only as a study of the druidic but also of what is shamanic and animistic. It involves transposing the elements of the surrounding environment, or better, transfiguring them into imaginal forms drawn from a specific archetype of the world of the Spirit. The first operation performed by one endowed with such an enchanted, animistic, druidic, or shamanic fairy eye is to transfigure the land in which one operates. The name given to the land one inhabits is not casual; there is an etiology behind it, a myth. The Celts of the Ardennes, for example, called their "earth goddess" Arduinna. But attention: it is not the space that gives the name to the divinity; it is the divinity that gives the name to the space. There are no earth goddesses; it is NOT about TELLURIC DIVINITIES! It is about spiritus loci, beings that transform a place from an anonymous geographical space into a place populated by a being with whom one can interact and that renders a place sacred, numinous, and magical! Celtic gods are not creators; no one thinks that without them the earth could not exist, the grain could not grow, or calves be born—no, through the gods of the tribe, an anonymous land becomes the land of the tribe, and the divinities present there make it rain, produce milk, birth lambs and calves, for the tribal group that occupies that space, and they do so because they are the ancestors of the tribe who, during the time of myth, the heroic age, conquered those anonymous lands, rendering them the land of the tribe. Obviously, it is not always so; not always is the other people, the fairy people who occupy a territory, the ancestral group of the tribe; then the mediator of the sacred, whether a druid, a shaman, or other, must negotiate with these beings who in this case are much more unpredictable. For us, of course, the tribal discourse concerns us little; what interests us instead is that all this becomes geotheurgy, namely the faculty of evoking and establishing in every anonymous physical space its spiritus loci. From an archetype that is the same one that gives rise to Esfandarmoz can emerge an infinite number of beings connected to a specific place. Attention, however, because A) we are not speaking of a telluric archetype but of a celestial and imaginal Earth, of an energy that constitutes a space and nourishes and welcomes the beings that populate that space, an energy that, as such, is regal because it is mistress of the space it constitutes, an energy that is mother because it nourishes and generates the beings that are part of that space. An energy that is mother also because it receives the forms it creates, forms because it is informed. From this being of the spiritual world come all the theophanies and corresponding imaginal forms, like Demeter, the spiritus loci of cultivated and cultivable fields. B) But Demeter does not reside in the cultivated field; a cultivated field can be the gateway to the true dimension where Demeter is, just as the Boyne is not the place where Boann or Boand resides; every time we perceive the NUMINOUS OR FAIRY QUALITY OF A PLACE, WE ARE TRANSFIGURING IT, WE ARE CONSUMING ITS HYLIC REALITY, AND WE ARE MAKING THE IMAGINAL EARTH TRANSPARENT, THE EARTH OF LIGHT, THE SIDHE IN WHICH THAT BEING TRULY RESIDES. Every being that emerges from this geo-theurgy or topo-theurgy is a fairy, an elf, a numen; each of us is a monad, a microcosm, an imaginal land or world, so EACH OF US HAS THEIR OWN SIDHE. THIS SIDHE HAS ITS ELPHAME, TITANIA, ITS QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES OR ELVES WHO IS THE MOTHER OF ALL THE BEINGS WE ENCOUNTER IN OUR GEO-TOPO-THEURGIES; THE TRUE DIMENSION OF THESE BEINGS IS OUR SIDHE, OUR INNER IMAGINAL LAND, OUR HEART. WE CAN ENCOUNTER THE QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES IN THE PLACES OF OUR GEO-TOPO-THEURGIES; SHE CAN BE THE FAIRY OF THE WHEAT FIELDS, A DRYAD, OR NOTHING OF THE SORT; THE PLACES OF GEO-TOPO-THEURGIES CAN BE THE GATES THAT LEAD US TO THE SIDHE. WE CARE LITTLE ABOUT THE NAME OF THIS INNER IMAGINAL LAND; IT HAS HAD VARIOUS MANIFESTATIONS IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE: IT CAN BE THE ISLAND OF THE BLESSED, THE ELYSIAN FIELDS, AVALON, ANNWN, TIR NA NOG, ETC. IT IS IMPORTANT, HOWEVER, TO GIVE THE QUEEN OF THIS PLACE A NAME THAT IS AS LITTLE LOCALIZABLE AND FRAMABLE AS POSSIBLE HISTORICALLY OR LITERARILY SPEAKING; IT MUST BE SOMETHING OF OURS, NO LONGER HISTORICALLY OTHER. I WILL CALL HER THE QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES OR ELVES. FINALLY, IF IN EVERY PLACE A GEO-TOPO-THEURGY IS POSSIBLE, THE OPEN POSSIBILITIES ARE INFINITE, AND THERE IS MUCH ROOM FOR THEOFANIC FREEDOM. This research draws much from studies on the Tuatha Dé Danann but does not place them at the center; it is not about choosing between a Dagda and a Manannán mac Lir; history marches on; each has their Sidhe, many names that serve as avatars for a few archetypes. Indeed, what I ask myself is whether we must maintain the theory of the alternation between the heroic age/ historical age and see if we can maintain the discourse of the race parallel to humans. I believe so, for a simple observation: many cultures, especially shamanic and archaic ones, had a binary vision of society articulated in the moiety system. Many cultures HAVE ABANDONED THE MOIETY SYSTEM BUT HAVE MAINTAINED IT IN MYTHIC FORM, SEEING THE DEAD OR OTHER PARANORMAL BEINGS, USUALLY OF ANCESTRAL ORIGIN, AS PARALLELS, DICHOTOMIC, AND SYMBIOTIC WITH THEIR COMMUNITY. I feel compelled to maintain this aspect also because it actually has great metaphysical and soteriological consequences. JUST AS THE TWO HUMAN MOIETIES WERE NOT IN WATER-TIGHT COMPARTMENTS BUT ONE COULD PASS FROM ONE TO THE OTHER THROUGH MARRIAGE, SO DURING THE HEROIC AGE, FOR EXAMPLE, THE TUATHA DÉ DANANN COULD UNITE WITH HUMAN RACES OR WITH THOSE MYTHIC RACES PRECEDING THEIR ARRIVAL. NOT ONLY IN IRISH FOLKLORE WAS IT POSSIBLE TO PASS FROM ONE'S DIMENSION TO THE FAIRY ONE THROUGH LOVE OR THE ABDUCTION OF A FAIRY. MUCH MORE PROFOUNDLY, WHETHER IT IS HEROIC LIFE IN ILLO TEMPORE, AN ABDUCTION, OR POST MORTEM, THE GREAT METAPHYSICAL [FUNDAMENTAL] LESSON IS METAPHYSICAL INSTABILITY: THEOFANIC FREEDOM DOES NOT NECESSARILY KEEP A WORLD ETERNALLY IN AN HYLIC AND HISTORICAL DIMENSION OR IN A SPIRITUAL AND HEROIC ONE. THE TUATHA DÉ DANANN COME FROM THE NORTHERN ISLANDS, PURELY IMAGINAL AND THEOFANIC REALITIES, TO ARRIVE IN MYTHIC IRELAND, MYTHIC BECAUSE BARZAKH, INTERWORLD BETWEEN ARCHETYPAL AND IMAGINAL REALITY AND HYLIC AND HISTORICAL REALITY. EVEN THE BEINGS WHO PRECEDED THEM WERE LIKE THEM, AND THE SONS OF MILE, ANCESTORS OF THE HISTORICAL IRISH, ARE NEITHER ENTIRELY ARCHETYPES NOR ENTIRELY HISTORICAL. EVERY MYTH ON THE AGES, FROM THE VEDIC TO THE PRE-COLUMBIAN OR HESIODIC ONE, SPEAKS OF A REGRESSION ARTICULATED THUS: ARCHETYPE – HEROIC – HISTORICAL. SUCH A PROCESS IS NEITHER LINEAR NOR IRREVERSIBLE. AFTER DEATH, ONE GOES TO THE SIDHE, AND AFTER THAT, ONE WILL RETURN TO FOUND A NEW HEROIC KINGDOM OR, AS HAPPENS IN ZOROASTRIAN AND CHRISTIAN APOCATASTASIS, ONE RETURNS TO THE HYLIC AND HISTORICAL WORLD TO CONSUME IT AND AFFIRM THE GREAT PAROUSIA OF THE ARCHETYPAL AND SPIRITUAL KINGDOM, OR WITH THE RETURN OF ARTHUR, THE RETURN OF THE HEROIC AGE IN THE HYLIC AND HEROIC WORLD IS AFFIRMED. IN ARCHAIC THOUGHT, THE HYLIC AND HISTORICAL WORLD IS NEVER ETERNAL. All this obviously has great consequences, but above all, and as we have already noted, it resolves the contradictions between different mythic and folkloric visions: WE HAVE, SOMETIMES IN THE SAME FOLKLORE, DIFFERENT SOCIETIES OF FAIRIES AND ELVES; SOME ARE SEMI-NUDE OR COMPLETELY NAKED FAIRIES THAT INFEST COMPLETELY WILD PLACES AND DRAG HUMANS INTO THE ETERNAL AND WILD MAGICAL HUNT OR BACCHANAL; OTHERS, CLOTHED, ARE MORE SOBER BEINGS WHO, EVEN IN THEIR NEW FOLKLORIC REALITY AS DEPOSED DIVINITIES, MAINTAIN THEIR ROLE AS CIVILIZERS. OTHERS STILL ECSTATICALLY BATTLE WITH RIVAL BEINGS FOR THE PROSPERITY OF THE COMMUNITY THEY SUPPORT. IN REALITY, THE SIDHE ARE ETERNAL AND WILD BACCHANALS OR WILD HUNTS, THEY ARE IN THEMSELVES PEACEFUL PLACES OF BEATITUDE; IN THAT DIMENSION, THERE ARE NO WARRIOR OR CIVILIZING BEINGS; SUCH BEINGS BECOME SO OUTSIDE THE SIDHE OR IN CONTACT WITH HYLIC AND HISTORICAL HUMAN BEINGS; WITH THEM, THEY CAN BE KINGS, WARRIORS, DRUIDS, SHAMANS, OR OTHER, BUT IN THEMSELVES, THE FUNCTIONAL ARCHETYPE DOES NOT MANIFEST UNLESS THE FUNCTION MANIFESTS, AND THE FUNCTION MANIFESTS ONLY IN HEROIC AND HISTORICAL DIMENSIONS, NOT IN ARCHETYPAL AND PURELY HIEROHISTORICAL DIMENSIONS. Before proceeding and delving into the specifics of the main beings of the Sidhe, we must also express ourselves here on the archetype of wild and savage life. We have dealt with it extensively elsewhere, starting from the premise that where there is death, there is culture; where there is no death, there is no culture and all the needs that found it. We also said that, since the wild environment is not devoid of death, the contraposition with the polis (human social and cultural environment) is false; it is simply an environment that has not yet been reached by civilization but is potentially civilizable and domesticable. We had a broad debate; there is no need to repeat it here. At most, we can say that the divine, the archetype, spirituality transcends the dualism of civilization/wild life. But does not civilizing also mean domesticating and moderating something that is too powerful and extreme for our weak and mortal humanity? In certain possession cultures, when a spirit is too dangerous and uncontrollable, is it not said that that spirit is wild and must be tamed? Now, archetypes in themselves are uncontainable, extreme, dangerous, and abundant; extreme because they are truly too much for our weak and mortal world, so they must be moderated, tamed, diluted, as the Greeks did with wine at banquets. I REALIZE THAT THE METAPHOR OF WILD AND SAVAGE LIFE MIGHT SEEM LIKE ONE, BUT IN REALITY, IT IS NOT; WE ARE WEAK, MORTAL, AND CIVILIZED BECAUSE WE ARE A REDUCTION, A DILUTION, AND A MODERATION OF ARCHETYPES! ONLY THOSE WHO ARE MORTAL FEAR THE EXTREMES AND NEED MEASURE AND MODERATION, NOT THE GODS, AND AT THE CULMINATION OF CIVILIZATION, HUMANS IMAGINED THEOPHANY AS THEMSELVES, OLYMPIAN GODS, POLITICAL AND MEASURED LIKE THEM. THEREFORE, YES, I WILL MAINTAIN FOR THIS FAIRY ARCHETYPE THE CONCEPT OF WILD AND SAVAGE LIFE; FAIRIES, FOR THE MOST PART, LIVE IN WILD PLACES IN FOLKLORE MUCH MORE THAN THEY VISIT WELL-SWEPT HOUSES, AND FOR MILLENNIA, MEN DID NOT BUILD HOUSES FOR THE GODS BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE WILD AND DID NOT LIVE IN HOUSES. BUT THE SIDHE IS NOT A STATIC PLACE; THEOFANIC FREEDOM CAUSES ARCHETYPES TO TRANSCEND THEMSELVES, AND JUST AS IT IS TRUE THAT THEY DO NOT REMAIN CLOSED IN THE ARCHETYPAL NATURE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, THEY OVERFLOW INTO THE IMAGINAL ONE UNTIL REACHING THE HEROIC INTERWORLD. THEREFORE, CERTAINLY, WE MAINTAIN THE CONCEPT OF WILD AND SAVAGE LIFE, BUT THESE BEINGS COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER DIMENSIONS AND CONQUER THEM AS THE EXPRESSION OF THE VICTORIOUS FORCE OF RELATIVE LIGHT THAT TRIUMPHS OVER THE SHADOW OF NON-BEING.  

The Twins of the Sidhe 

When I addressed the Celtic archetype, and any other situation in which a calendrical polarity is configured, a problem always arose: it is all of incredible beauty, but what do I do with the luminous and civilizing polarity? Mine is a gnostic spirituality; I would not want to stay in this world even 5 seconds longer. Yet it makes sense even for me. The new waves that cyclically arrive in mythic Ireland always arrive at Beltane, in the bright half. Children are archetypally extensions and messengers of their parents. The twin of the dark half of the year and the bright half as well. Here we are not doing history of religions or philology, but Belenos is the shining one, Grannos has an affine meaning, and the first two together with Lugh/Lugos are the same person as Mabon and Oengus are. It is the archetype of the shining civilizing hero, of sacred kingship shining and luminous. It is ultimately the same archetype as the Saoshyant and the Savior of the end times. In a reality like the Sidhe, it is absolutely useless as a presence, so in the Sidhe, it is the sleeping hero who will awaken when the beings of the Sidhe want to open a new heroic age by conquering a new world or return to this world to refound the heroic age. The focus of our new research is not the Tuatha Dé Danann in themselves or Celtic culture. No one is saying that Lug in himself was historically a sleeping hero awaiting his coming. But if we exit pure History and enter comparison and the archetypal level, we can note precisely this. The savior hero is dormant or hidden from all; it is the conduit through which the fairy world opens a new heroic age, saves its elven or fairy people, and conquers a new land for it. He is not the Sun God, but he undoubtedly has a solar and heroic character. He is certainly a warrior but not a god of war; he is a sacred King and mage. Let us set aside what we said in our latest work on the Celtic archetype; WE ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THE CELTIC YEAR OR THE INDO-EUROPEAN ONE THAT ESTABLISH THE SEASONS OF RAZING, WAR, AND DRUIDISM! INSTEAD, WE ARE INTERESTED IN THE YEAR AND THE METAPHYSICAL CYCLE THAT TRANSFIGURES THE CELTIC YEAR. AT SAMHAIN BEGINS THE DARK SEASON OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN IN WHICH FAIRY AND ELFIN FORCES HAVE EXHAUSTED THEIR HEROIC TIME, WITHDRAW INTO THE SIDHE, AND COMMUNICATE WITH HISTORICAL AND HYLIC BEINGS IF THEY WISH. AT BELTANE BEGINS THE BRIGHT SEASON IN WHICH FAIRY OR ELFIN FORCES WILL CONQUER A NEW LAND, OPENING A NEW HEROIC AGE, OR RECONQUER THE LAND THEY HAD DURING THE HEROIC TIME. THIS IS A METAPHYSICS OF LIGHT AND PURE THEOFANIC FREEDOM; I DO NOT CRITICIZE THE TRADITIONAL MODELS THAT SEE A STRAIGHT LINE WITH THE COMING OF THE SAOSHYANT, THE MAHDI, OR CHRIST AND THE IRREVERSIBLE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE HISTORICAL OR HYLIC WORLD—NO, THEOFANIC FREEDOM AND ETERNAL THEOFANIC ASCENSION NEED ALL THREE TIMES: ARCHETYPE, HEROIC, AND HISTORICAL. ARCHETYPES NEED ALL THREE TO MANIFEST. From Beltane to Samhain opened the bright season of agriculture but above all of the sacred spring and razzias, like all other Indo-European peoples with different periods; from Samhain to Beltane was the time of druidic studies, magical journeys, and introspection. Lugos presides over the expansive phase of the bright season, Cernunnos over the introspective phase of the dark season. Lugos presides over the metaphysical season in which fairy and elfin forces expand, exit the Sidhe, become civilizers, cultural heroes, druids, and warriors, and refound the heroic age; Cernunnos presides over the metaphysical season in which fairy and elfin forces withdraw into a Sidhe and return wild, savage, and archetypal, and for the lands they abandon, the historical and hylic phase begins. It is clear how the opposition is not so sharp and one cannot find a twin who is more positive than the other: with Lugos, one stops living the archetypal and savage condition, the condition of PERFECT AND BEATIFIC LIFE AND WILD AND SAVAGE LIFE, BUT A HEROIC AGE IS FOUNDED IN A LAND WHERE THERE IS NOTHING, SO IT IS A NEW CREATION, IT IS THE RELATIVE LIGHT THAT BRINGS LIGHT WHERE THERE WAS SHADOW BEFORE, OR THE HEROIC AGE IS REFOUNDED IN THE WORLD OF MORTAL MEN, AND HISTORY RETURNS TO BEING MYTH. OUR WORLD IS ETERNAL; IT CYCLICALLY PASSES FROM HISTORY TO MYTH, BUT THERE IS NO APOCATASTASIS. With Cernunnos, on the other hand, one returns to the perfect condition of the archetype, of wild and savage life, to the beatific and perfect life for fairy and elfin forces BUT IN THE LAND WE RISE AGAIN, THE DARK AGE OF HISTORY RETURNS, IT IS THE TIME OF DEATH AND SUFFERING! Therefore, WE CAN SAY THAT CERNUNNOS IS THE METAPHYSICAL WINTER; MAGIC ABANDONS OUR WORLD; THE ARCHETYPE RETURNS PURE BUT CONTRACTS. LUGOS IS THE METAPHYSICAL SUMMER IN WHICH MAGIC CONQUERS A NEW WORLD OR RETURNS TO OURS; THE ARCHETYPE IS LESS PURE BUT EXPANDS. NO COMPLETE GNOSTIC CAN THEREFORE IGNORE ONE OR THE OTHER; THE GNOSTIC CAN THUS UNITE THE NEED FOR THEOFANIC FREEDOM WITHOUT BEING FORCED TO ACCEPT THIS HYLIC, HISTORICAL, AND SQUALID WORLD; THE HEROIC AGE IS AN INTERWORLD BETWEEN HYLIC AND HISTORICAL, MORTAL AND IMMORTAL, ARCHETYPE AND NON-, ALLOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAME ARCHETYPES THAT EXIST IN THE HYLIC AND HISTORICAL WORLD IN AN IDEALIZED AND NON-OPPRESSIVE MANNER. CERNUNNOS DEALS WITH GATHERING THE SOULS OF THE DEAD AND BRINGING THEM TO THE SIDHE; LUGOS DEALS WITH BRINGING THE SOULS OF THE UNBORN INTO THIS WORLD: THEOFANIC FREEDOM DEMANDS THAT WE BE BORN INTO THIS WORLD. CERNUNNOS DEALS WITH THOSE WHO SEEK MAGIC AND WANT TO FLEE THIS WORLD; LUGOS DEALS WITH HELPING AND COMFORTING THOSE WHO ARE IN THIS WORLD. BOTH ENTER A STATE OF "DORMANCY" WHEN IT IS NOT THEIR METAPHYSICAL SEASON; IT IS A STATE IN WHICH THEY ARE WEAKER AND INVISIBLE TO ALL, EVEN TO THE KING AND QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES, EXCEPT TO A FEW ELECT. We wonder if the shamanic tripartition of sky – earth – underworld makes sense here. The same fairies and elves are evil beings for those too attached to this world and its hylic and historical dynamics. The tradition of underworlds as places of punishment for the wicked belongs to more structured societies where the exercise of justice and the punishment of the wicked has an otherworldly prolongation. In less structured societies, it is all more nuanced because while on the one hand the violation of laws is a violation of the community's order, being outside the community is not evil tout court; the "accepted violence" in Männerbund or in permanent groups of elite warriors signals this to us. No, in our vision, our world does not exist because there was an act of rebellion, and if there was, it is part of the divine plan; no, this world and the evil that its existence entails is the fruit of theofanic freedom: WE DO NOT EXIST FOR OURSELVES; WE DO NOT EVEN CHOOSE WHERE AND WHEN TO BE BORN; WE EXIST TO SERVE AS EPIPHANY PLACES FOR ARCHETYPES! THEREFORE, THERE IS THE SIDHE, THE ELYSIAN FIELDS, THE GREAT PRAIRIES, AVALON, PARADISE, BUT NOT THE UNDERWORLDS. OBVIOUSLY, THE SIDHE MUST BE REACHED; THERE ARE NO ENTIRELY GOOD OR ENTIRELY EVIL MEN, AND NO ONE CHOOSES WHERE AND WHEN TO BE BORN, THUS BEING ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTS. THERE ARE RATHER HUMAN BEINGS MORE ATTACHED TO THE WORLD AND TO WHERE, HOW, AND WHEN THEY WERE BORN AND HUMAN BEINGS WHO ARE LESS SO. THE MORE ATTACHED YOU ARE TO THIS, THE MORE PROBLEMATIC, THORNY WITH OBSTACLES AND INNER DEMONS THE RETURN TO THE SIDHE—FOR THAT IS WHAT IT IS. AND ALL THIS IS EQUALLY IN LINE WITH SHAMANIC TRADITION; SHAMANS OFTEN ACCOMPANY THE SOULS OF THE DECEASED TO THE BEYOND; THERE ARE NO ENTIRELY EVIL OR ENTIRELY GOOD PEOPLE; THERE ARE ONLY PEOPLE MORE SENSITIVE AND CAPABLE THAN OTHERS OF FINDING THE BEST PATH TO THE BEYOND. In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the same occurs; more than karmic merits or demerits, what counts is how instructed and prepared you are in spiritual disciplines. Often, cultures and peoples that adopt the belief in underworlds as places of punishment and torment soon see them emptied due to similar conceptions; that is what happens in Buddhist countries of the Far East. THE ARCHETYPAL ANIMAL OF RESURRECTION IS THE DEER; I DO NOT WANT TO ENTER INTO THE EASILY OBSERVABLE BIOLOGICAL MOTIVATIONS, NAMELY THE CYCLE OF ITS ANTLERS. IT IS NOT SO MUCH ABOUT RESURRECTION; IT IS A PSYCHOPOMP ANIMAL THAT GUIDES THE PASSAGE BETWEEN TWO WORLDS. THE RAVEN, THE HORSE, AND THE SWAN ARE TOO, BUT THERE ARE CLEAR DIFFERENCES. THE DEER IS AT THE HEAD OF CERNUNNOS; RAVEN AND SWAN FOR LUGOS; EQUID AND CANID TEND TO BE AMBIVALENT. IT DEPENDS ON THE ARCHETYPE, ON HOW IT MANIFESTS IN HISTORY: SOMETIMES WE HAVE A TWIN ARCHETYPE, DIOSCURIAN IF YOU WILL; TO UNDERLINE AND REITERATE THE COMPLEMENTARITY OF OPPOSITES, COLORS PREVAIL OVER THE OPPOSITION OF THE SHAMANIC ANIMAL, NAMELY X HAS HORSE AND BLACK RAVENS, Y HAS HORSE AND WHITE RAVENS. SOMETIMES, INSTEAD, THE WILL TO UNDERLINE THE COMPLEMENTARITY OF OPPOSITES REACHES AMBIVALENCE, AS IN ODIN. IN ODIN, UNEQUIVOCALLY AN ARCHETYPE OF WILD AND SAVAGE LIFE, LIMINAL, THE ANIMALS SURROUNDING HIM INDICATE HIS ABILITY TO REACH EVERY CORNER OF THE UNIVERSE, EVEN THE MOST OPPOSITE CORNERS. THE CANID IS SLIPPERIER; DOG AND WOLF CAN CONVEY TRULY DIFFERENT ASPECTS, AND THE WOLF IS LESS CHTHONIC THAN ONE MIGHT BELIEVE. Let us now focus on the deer. THE DEER IS THE MOST KNOWN OR AMONG THE MOST KNOWN SHAMANIC ANIMAL OF TRANSITION BETWEEN WORLDS. HUNTER-GATHERER POPULATIONS PERHAPS ELECTED IT AS THE MOST EMBLEMATIC SPECIES AMONG THOSE THEY HOPED WOULD RETURN AFTER DEATH SO THEY WOULD NOT DIE OF HUNGER. SPECIFICALLY, IT IS THE ANIMAL OF TRANSITION BETWEEN THE WORLD OF THE LIVING AND THE WORLD OF THE DEAD, WHATEVER IT MAY BE; IT IS THE ONE THAT GUIDES BEINGS FROM THIS WORLD TO THE OTHER. IT IS NOT THE ONLY ANIMAL THAT GUIDES IN THE SHAMANIC JOURNEY, BUT THERE MUST BE DIFFERENCES. THE DEER HAS OFTEN BEEN GIVEN A SOLAR NATURE, BUT IT IS NO ACCIDENT THAT IT HAS BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO THE WINTER SOLSTICE: IT IS THE REBIRTH AND THE AUGURY OF THE SUN'S RETURN AFTER THE PERIOD IN WHICH THE DAY STAR IS LOWEST IN THE SKY AND AFTER THE LONGEST NIGHT. THE DEER IS THE ANIMAL OF RESURRECTION. FOR THIS REASON, IT INDICATES NOT A COMMON SHAMANIC TRANSITION BUT THAT SPECIAL ONE THAT OCCURS AFTER DEATH BETWEEN THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT, THE MOST SPECIAL AND MYSTERIOUS AMONG TRANSITIONS. NO SHAMANIC ANIMAL IS IMMUNE FROM THIS TRANSITION BETWEEN THE WORLD OF THE LIVING AND THAT OF THE DEAD, NOT EVEN THE SWAN; EVERY CULTURE, MYTH, AND NARRATIVE HAS ITS ANIMAL OF JOURNEY AND SHAMANIC TRANSITION, EVEN THE EAGLE, THE CELESTIAL ANIMAL PAR EXCELLENCE. AND INDEED, WHEN ONE WANTS TO UNDERLINE THAT THE JOURNEY IS CELESTIAL OR THAT THE DECEASED REACHES THE SKY, ONE SPEAKS OF EAGLE. WHEN INSTEAD THERE IS MORE THAN ONE ANIMAL, THERE MUST BE DIFFERENCES. AT DELPHI, THE SWAN IS APOLLO'S ANIMAL OPPOSITE TO DIONYSUS WHO PRESIDES OVER THE WINTER TEMPLE: THE HYPERBOREANS ARE NOT THE DEAD; IT IS A FAIRY PEOPLE IN WHICH—NOTE WELL—APOLLO TRAVELS, AND ALWAYS IN A CHARIOT OF SWANS, APOLLO RETURNS TO DELPHI. I BELIEVE THAT THE DEER IS THE ANIMAL OF INTROSPECTION, OF PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD OF THE LIVING TO THAT OF THE DEAD, OF WITHDRAWAL INTO THE SIDHE. CERNUNNOS IS THE ESOTERIC, THE MAGIC AND MYTH THAT WITHDRAW FROM THIS WORLD, THE SUPERNATURAL THAT HIDES AND BECOMES INVISIBLE. LIKE DIONYSUS, IT IS THE WILD AND SAVAGE LIFE IN THE DEPTHS, IN THE UNDERWORLD, THE MIDNIGHT SUN THAT COULD BURN OUR HISTORICAL AND HYLIC WORLD; IT IS THE FIRE AND THE SAVAGE ARCHETYPAL LIFE THAT COULD SCORCH THE FLESH OF HISTORICAL AND MORTAL BEINGS. THIS IS THE ONLY TRUE SENSE OF CHTHONIC AND INFERNAL. LUGOS WITH HIS SWANS IS THE ARCHETYPE THAT BECOMES MYTH, THE AWAITED HERO FOR THOSE WHO FEEL THE WEIGHT OF A WORLD WORN BY HISTORY; THE SWANS ARE THE JOURNEY TOWARD A NEW WORLD. CERNUNNOS IS THE MOST ARCHETYPAL PART OF OUR BEING, THE PART THAT IS WILD, SAVAGE, AND FAIRY THAT DOES NOT WITHDRAW NOSTALGIC LIKE SUIBHNE AND LAILOKEN BECAUSE DEATH IS NOT A DEFEAT; IT IS A LIBERATION, BUT THE DEAD WHO RETURN TO THEIR HOMELAND IN THE SIDHE ARE THE LONG WAVE OF A WITHDRAWAL, A REFLUX OF MAGIC AND MYTH FROM THIS WORLD. LUGOS, INSTEAD, IS THE GLORIOUS RETURN OF MYTH AND THE HEROIC AGE TO THE WORLD, THE PROMISE OF ITS RETURN; HOPE IS THE FULL MANIFESTATION OF MAGIC THAT ABANDONS THE ESOTERIC. WE ARE GNOSTICS; OUR TRUE PROBLEM WITH THIS WORLD IS ITS HEAVY CAP OF HISTORICITY AND OBJECTIFICATION. WE ARE A MONAD, A MICROCOSM; EACH OF US, BY THE LAW OF THEOFANIC FREEDOM, IS A SPECIAL, PECULIAR, AND DIFFERENT WORLD, A WORLD THAT FOR A PERIOD OF ITS EXISTENCE AND TO ALLOW THE MANIFESTATION OF ALL ARCHETYPES MUST UNDERGO THE UNIFORMING AND OBJECTIFYING CAP OF HYLIC AND HISTORICAL. AFTER OUR DEATH, IN THE MONAD, A TRAGIC FRACTURE OCCURS BETWEEN US WHO GO TO A BETTER WORLD AND THOSE WHO REMAIN BEHIND IN THE HYLIC WORLD. IT IS NOT A SOCIOLOGICAL REUNION OF THE DEAD WHO MUST SUBMIT TO THE HYLIC AND HISTORICAL RULES OF THE LIVING, BUT AN APOCATASTASIS THAT SWEEPS AWAY FROM OUR MONAD THE HYLIC AND HISTORICAL WORLD, REFOUNDING THE MYTHIC AGE, NOT FOREVER; IT WILL DEGRADE AGAIN INTO HISTORY, AND THE CYCLE WILL CONTINUE ETERNALLY. As a coda and commentary to this chapter, we can say that we wanted to unite the heroic and warrior tension of Celtic and Nordic [traditions] with the fairy archetype in its intransigent being of total otherness and opposition to the human and historical world. No, the fairy, elven world has lost once to history, but it does not intend to remain static; cyclically, it will lose and win infinite times its battle against a squalid historical world without myth and magic!

The King and Queen of the Fairies and Elves

 This archetype is not the enotheistic affirmation of a single image that fully charges it by encompassing it, but a constellation. The divine twins have given us the deep, metaphysical, and gnostic sense of the fairy and elven calendar. The divine twins are the dynamic and dialectic of the fairy world, its giving itself in a cyclic movement of expansion and contraction, opening and closing, entry and exit. The King and Queen of the Fairies and Elves are the ontology of the fairy and elven world, its substance also because they are the father and mother of the fairies. We have defined one of the most powerful and evocative manifestations of the King of the Sidhe, Dagda, as the Perfect Life: his image of inexhaustible abundance, sexual and alimentary appetite, strength correspond to the purity of the archetype, a purity that can be destructive for civil, hylic, and historical life, a purity that is therefore extreme and savage. Dagda and Manannán mac Lir together fully manifest the archetype of the King of the Sidhe. Is there the same complementarity between the King and Queen of the Fairies as between the fairy twins? Yes, it is more difficult to identify complementarity in a non-dynamic context. The Queen is the earth and the Regnum, the informed imaginal earth mother of forms; it is she who bestows the Regnum on the King; the King, instead, bestows on the Regnum his abundance and fertility, his forms. They are complementary, and each reciprocally indispensable, just as the feminine and masculine are. We would be wrong, however, to see something static in them; they are energies; every archetype is an acting energy. The Queen is the Regnum; the King its abundance; Lugos is the foundation of a new Regnum or its refoundation; Cernunnos its occultation. It is interesting how the King and Queen of the Sidhe transform during the heroic and epic phase. The Queen is terrible; she does not even hurl a spear, but she is a warrior mage who hurls the most terrible spells and creates panic to support the fairy army. The Morrígan together with the Cailleach are her most fearsome incarnations. The Morrígan is the battle witch, the hag who creates panic. Cailleach is the sterility of winter. For the hylic, historical, heavy, and objectifying world, the fairies are ambiguous and ambivalent; the maternity and fertility of the Queen become a sterile winter, Cailleach; the Queen is always a hag for the eyes and brain of flesh. Not to mention the Morrígan: the Tremendum divine derives from our inability and impossibility to tame the divine and the fairy. Only extreme violence can sweep away historicity, heaviness, and hylicity of our dimension. It is no accident, then, that she who gives life and creates forms in the Regnum must instead destroy them in this world. Demeter, to give immortality to Demophon, wraps him in flames every night. We have already seen this concept in the Yoginis; they are cannibals because they devour the humanity and mortality of the ascetic, regenerating him into divinity. The Yogini is no different from a fairy. When a Regnum is founded or refounded, what is not Regnum must be swept away, what is not fairy; it should not surprise us, then, that the Queen of the Fairies assumes the most terrible role in this phase; the passage from unknown and anonymous Earth to Regnum, to Fairy Land, Magical Land, Imaginal Land, is a bloody passage because Non-Being opposes its inertia, and Anti-Being its hostility. The King of the Fairies becomes Druid and warrior; the cauldron that in the Sidhe is the infinite abundance of the Regnum is the resurrection of the heroes who die in battle. The perfect life, the inexhaustible abundance of the Regnum challenge mortality and the limits of History; they challenge, they do not defeat! The heroic age is an interworld where history and hierohistory battle each other; there are moments when History momentarily succumbs entirely, but gradually it returns, just as for millennia today hierohistory has completely disappeared from this world, but it is only a momentary phase. Besides Druid, here he has also become hero the King, but the true King of the heroic phase is Lugos; it is he who is the guide and founder of the new Regnum; it is he who unites History and Hierohistory by founding the Heroic Age. He who in the Sidhe, in the archetype, is King places his wisdom and strength in support of the founder, oscillating between greater activity as Dagda and lesser as Manannán. Some scholars of Celtic myth have noted the total isomorphism between the two; no one has related such isomorphism to the fact that Dagda is fundamentally a character of the heroic age in which the Gods walk among men, while Manannán mac Lir is already the King of the Sidhe who lives far from human affairs. If one has an attentive eye, one notes that Dagda, like Thor, has a club; the archetype of perfect, wild, and savage life becomes brute force to defend and affirm the abundance of the Regnum, just as the Queen becomes violence, terror, and black magic to affirm the Regnum. Even in Thor, force and fertility are one, as they are in protohistoric Mars. The fairy and archetypal world, to transform history into heroic and epic age or to defeat the Darkness, must fight. It may undoubtedly surprise, this heroic and epic coloring in the fairy archetype; we can conceive it as static and eternally marginal and parallel to the human world. For obvious reasons, this staticity, with the increasing grip of Christianity and trust in human capacities—economy first and foremost—has led to seeing the fairies as increasingly inferior to men, to dwarfing them, making them more and more evanescent until making them disappear. We, however, following an intuition that is perhaps more Scandinavian than Celtic, see no Ragnarök: the archetype and theophany have occulted themselves but will return to History to sweep it away and refound the Heroic Age.