The Celtic Spirit World

There are several instances on record of what would appear to be a relationship between Druidism and the fairy folk, although, to judge from at least one passage in Irish myth, no love seems to have been lost between the disciples of the two cults – if as separate cults they may be described. That a secret fairy cultus did actually exist until late times, having its own priesthood and initiates, I hope to be able to prove, but whether it was associated with Druidism or not it would be difficult, if indeed at all possible, to ascertain.

We read in Welsh folk-lore that fairies are the souls of good Druids who died before the introduction of Christianity, and who were “not good enough for heaven and not bad enough for hell”. (36) It was also conjectured by Maury that the functions of prophetic Gaulish Druidesses were confused with those of the fairies. (37) Wirt Sikes observes that some Welsh traditions exist which relate that the fairies were merely the Druids in hiding from their enemies. (38) This, of course, is to confound the priests or worshippers with that which was worshipped. The same belief exists in Cornwall, the fairies there being regarded as Druids who had shrunk in size “because they would not give up their idolatries” ! (39) The self-same notion, almost, was put forward by the Rev. P. Graham in his Sketches of Perthshire, in which he explained the superstition regarding fairy changelings as a species of kidnapping by which the Druids, harassed by the priesthood of the new Christian faith, “procured the necessary supply of members for their order”. (40) But a tradition actually appears to exist that the Druids had a close association with the fairy sphere. “The Druids,” says Joyce, “were the intermediaries with the fairies and with the invisible world in general for good or evil, and they could protect people from the malice of evil-disposed spirits of every kind.” (41) In Irish lore we are informed that the Druids reverenced the well of Slan and “offered gifts to it as if it were a god”. As Whitley Stokes indicates, this is the only passage connecting the Druids with well-worship, and Wentz remarks upon its importance, because it establishes the relation between the Druids and their control of spirits like fairies, who were thought of as haunting or inhabiting such wells. (42) In one passage in Irish tale we read of a “fairy Druid” (sighe-draoi), named Lassa Buaicht, which seems to infer a close connection between the fairy and Druid beliefs or cults. (43)

Is it probable that the fairy faith constituted a cultus in any way associated with or descended from Druidism? The Scottish evidence at least appears to be in favour of such a theory. That many people, especially witches, entered fairy mounds for the purposes of initiation seems apparent. Indeed, I would differentiate between the terms “fairy” and “fairy folk”, the last so commonly encountered in the accounts of witch-trials in Scotland, as applying in the first case to the fairy spirits and in the latter as signifying the priests and worshippers of the fairy cult. Such places of initiation were, of course, frequently confounded with the Land of Faerie itself, which appears a not unnatural error in the circumstances. But that they were the seats of a faith associated with the belief in Faerie, a fairy cultus, seems obvious enough to me, and that the people who inhabited them were the initiates, hierophants, and mystae of that faith seems an equally reasonable surmise, judging from the numerous tales of the all-too-human character of these mound-dwellers. The hillock of Cnocnam Bocan, or the Knowe of the Goblins, in Menteith, is spoken of as formerly “the headquarters of the faries of the whole district of Menteith”, who were granted by the Earl of Menteith the Cui-n’an-Uriskin, or Cave of the Faries in Ben Venue, at which, says Dr. Graham in his Sketches of the Picturesque Scenery of Perthshire, “the solemn stated meetings of the order were regularly held”. Great nobles do not confer messuages either on hill or in dale upon airy spirits, nor do the “orders” of the same meet on earth. Indeed, the Earl in question was spoken of as “overlord of the faery folk”. The “folk” in question were probably initiates of the fairy cult, and thus real enough.

Also it must be clear that the very large number of fairy knowes or hills in Scotland and elsewhere have some association with such a condition of things. The knowe at Aberfoyle, a very extensive one, to which the Rev. Robert Kirk was eventually spirited away as legend avers, the Eildon Hill, the Brogh of the Boyne in Ireland, the Calton Hill at Edinburgh – all such places seem to have been centres at which a process of initiation in the fairy cult could formerly be gone through. Such a spot was the knowe at Aberfoyle; the Maes-howe in Orkney; Coldach broch, Perthshire, and many others. Such places have usually a long passage leading to a chamber with cells on either side, such as are typical of ancient centres of initiation.

Returning to the consideration of other classes of spirits, we find considerable dubiety existing concerning the precise nature of the gruagach, so frequently encountered in Irish and Scottish lore. The name means “the longhaired one”, and there is abundance of evidence that this spirit was until quite recent times placated in the Western Isles of Scotland by oblations of milk, which were poured into a hollow stone known as “the gruagach’s stone”. That he was a godling or spirit who acted as a guardian of the cattle is not in doubt. But in folk-tale he appears as a valiant warrior and sorcerer. J. F. Campbell was of opinion that he represented a folk-memory of members of the Druidic caste. The gruagach’s acts of sorcery in folk-tale are numerous, but I adhere to the view that he is a broken-down form of the sun-god, as his streaming hair, prowess in arms and generally gorgeous appearance in folk-tale, as well as his patronage of cattle, would seem to indicate. (44)

The urisk is a shaggy, satyr-like spirit which appears to haunt lonely, desert places in the Highlands, and more particularly waterfalls. He closely resembles the Irish phooka, which has also a goat-like appearance, and the Manx phynoderee, who partakes of the same attributes. But he has also the traits of the brownie, as he assists the farmer in his agricultural tasks. Brownie so closely recalls the lar, or spirit of the dead ancestor, formerly worshipped in Rome, that I believe him to have had a common origin with that species of spirit at a remote time. He is the spirit-ancestor of the farmhouse, as is the banshee of the castle.