Honoring the fae?

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

Or the sidhe, the gentry, the good folk etc. I am making this topic because the other on faeries was more about contacting or doing spell work. I am looking for me about honoring them, in general.

How do you honor them?

Specifically, I tried researching online for a ritual to honor the fae and the most I found are Beltane rituals or spells/meditations. I want a ritual just in general. Most I saw were "moon based" but I was thinking of doing mine in the day time. If I can't find anything, eventually I just will make my own ritual, lol. But I wanted some opinions before hand.

Sorry, if I put this in the wrong forum. I am looking for a more Wiccan based ritual, so I put it here.

[blue_moon]

I - in general - find it hard finding something about the fae. Searching pins i found alot of nice "poems" and techniques to see and contact them.
No rituals at all actually!

Maybe building kind of a shrine / house / of some sort? Using found materials and plants; gems, glasstones and other shiney items.

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

I - in general - find it hard finding something about the fae. Searching pins i found alot of nice "poems" and techniques to see and contact them.
No rituals at all actually!

Maybe building kind of a shrine / house / of some sort? Using found materials and plants; gems, glasstones and other shiney items.

That was pretty much all I encountered too. I would build a house but I am planning on doing an outdoor ritual where it would be in the wilderness and probably not be a good idea. (Might be destroyed by animals.) I may build one eventually. I think I am going to give them offerings of incense and honey, not exactly sure yet.

[blue_moon]

We made little chimes from wood and beads and wool and hung em up in the trees.

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

We made little chimes from wood and beads and wool and hung em up in the trees.

Might be a good idea but I don't think I have wind chimes/beads or can obtain them right away. (We're out in the boonies.) I may use this for another ritual when I set up a more appropriate shrine.

[blue_moon]

We made the chimes with wool and wood - just wrap the wool (or cotton) around the twigs tie them to a bit bigger branch and hang it up in the tree.
You could also add shells (we always find some in the woods), acorns or pinecones.

[smogie_michele]

I don't have a ritual, but when we were living on our own, I had a small outdoor altar. It was nothing big, just a small little table with a vase and some bird seed.

Anyways, about once a week or so, I would make homemade butter for dinner. I would always take a little bit of that and put it outside on my altar with a small piece of sweet bread and a small shot glass full of sweet wine. It was my way of honoring them.

Now that I live with my inlaws, doing something like that is a little hard to explain (I'm in the broom closet) so now I will occasionally leave a flower outside on the patio table.

[Kassandra]

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They love it when we honor the land in some way, like volunteer with a group to clean a river bank or hiking trail, or something, or just fix up our yards. I see them hanging out more in well-manicured lawns in my neighborhood, than in unkempt ones. It's not the conventional beauty of a nicely-kept yard that attracts them. It's the love and dedication behind the person(s) intentions that move the fae's emotions, the personal touch we make to the Land. Their reaction is kind of like when we watch a movie that brings tears to our eyes. They hang out in such lawns, encouraging and inspiring the homeowner to do more wonderful things with his or her yard.

The environment is more than just a "thing" to them, it is "part" of them, like our body parts our part of us. They feel like they are extensions of the land, and not vice versa. The land is primary; we are merely secondary. This close connection is similar to how the some of the spirits of Native Peoples in the Americas choose to stay "earthbound" in lieu of doing the "go into the light" thing, just to continue taking care of the land, or so I learned the hard way (with good intentions, however ignorant, lol --see "I Guess I Ain't No Jennifer Love Hewitt" here: http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum ... ml#p172986). These spirits have committed themselves to eternally protecting and caring for the land, even in death.

And I learned that when we destroy the land, we really anger all these various gentle guardians, not to mention destroy ourselves slowly but surely. But when we honor the land, even in the smallest of ways, we literally honor Them too in the process, no shrines nor other accessories needed. It's just like the difference between spending actual time with a child, versus going out and buying that child a bunch of toys and trinkets, like it's some kind of guilt offering for not spending time with him or her. The latter is artificial, contrived; the former is loving and unforgettable. There's no substitute for giving our hearts, our time and efforts, our spirits.

Just love the land, protect it, heal it, honor it --honor Her-- and you will honor Them. That's been my impression, at least.

Thanks.




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[Lord_of_Nightmares]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I am going to make my own ritual and post the results/method used.

[Myrth]

Spot on, Kassandra. Spot on!

[Siona]

I would build a house but I am planning on doing an outdoor ritual where it would be in the wilderness and probably not be a good idea. (Might be destroyed by animals.)

A very simple shrine is just a pile of stones, but effective if you do want to have some sort of marker. I leave offerings of milk, honey, and porridge oats or cornmeal. As Kassandra said, offerings of time caring for the land is also much appreciated. The shrine at my grandparents house is out in the woods, and there's not many others around disturbing the area, but the shrine in the woods near my apartment sees much more traffic, so it is nice to bring a plastic bag and collect litter along the way to the shrine.

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

It's a good idea, but we don't have a lot of litter to pick up here, because I am in Yosemite and it's fairly clean. Planning on doing the ritual up on our property, so there really won't be anything to pick up.

[Lord_of_Nightmares]

Okay, guys. I did a ritual honoring them. I did not use any like specific guide, so I don't have the right words for what I did. I did do this in broad daylight, deep in the woods, because I felt I should. (This was on the 21st.) I also did a healing ritual with it using Brigid and the angel Och, with the sun.

So, I live in the mountains and this is a good distance from the house. It's on a medium size hill. There are trees protecting a rocky area near a creek's small waterfall. On the top were the fall starts with the group of rocks, I made this a sidhe shrine. Though I did not use anything permanent. (I meant to take pictures and opted out for a reason I cannot remember. But I will post some here someday, so you can see what I am talking about.)

One of the rocks is split down the middle. So, I laid candles on the two sides, one for earth, one for the heavens, and in the middle was for the otherworld. (Or underworld which is a place there.) On the rock next to it I used a white candle for my healing spell.

The result I got was positive feedback from the fae, they seemed to have liked it. I offered them the candles, incense, and honey. (I poured the honey on the rocks.)

[Kassandra]

I offered them the candles, incense, and honey. (I poured the honey on the rocks.)

Nice, "sweetening" the land, very symbolic bet they loved it. Honey on the Rocks sounds the title of a poem or something, lol.

May we all work to, in our own ways, sweeten the land.

Thanks.


P.S. You live in the Yosemite area?! Wha'?! Lucky you!



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[SolitaryWoman]

I've always preferred making my own rituals. Which unfortunately is sometimes a lot of trial and error. So far its been a distant relationship with them because they tend to be elusive and there's no small amount of attentiveness on my part. I'd rather not get in their bad side. The hardest part for me is setting out offerings. cream and honey seem to be popular but I'm vegan and would really prefer not to use animal products.