The Bonfire Fairy

In our previous post, we wrote of a young seer, Carleen. Later we interviewed Carleen's grandmother, B., who told us this story:

One Sunday, B. lit a bonfire to burn up all the rubbish in her back yard.  She was standing nearby to make sure it didn't get out of hand.  She stayed there till it got quite dark. As she was walking back through an area of the garden, she noticed a bright, white light that was floating from one part of the garden to another.  At first she thought it might be a spark from the fire, so she stopped and waited for it to go out.  Then she realised it was not red or gold but bright white, almost blue-white.  She was close to the house so she raced inside and got Carleen and took her downstairs.  

They spotted the light drifting out of the garden, and Carleen said, 'Oh come back, fairy! I'd really like to look at you closely.'  Instantaneously the light swung around and came towards them, growing larger as it did. Instead of being a little spark it became a circle, about two and a half centimetres in diameter.  It cruised across in front of them at eye level about 20 centimetres away.  It was a round, glowing silvery ball, with a glowing peach-coloured ball within it. It went back and forth in front of them a few times, then drifted out of the garden.  It hesitated near the wire fence into the paddock, then dived down and went under the wire.

Carleen was ecstatic.  When it was passing in front of their eyes, she said, 'Isn't that beautiful?  Just look at the wings.'  B. herself couldn't see wings, just the glowing ball of light.

The Young Seer

At the time of our interview, Carleen was a highly intelligent and sensitive ten-year-old. Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was only fifteen months old. The extraordinary thing is that Carleen remembers the accident and describes how rescuers found her under the front seat. Subsequently Carleen was brought up by her grandmother.

(We've used initials for names she gave us.)


Andrew: Tell me what you remember.

I was climbing up into the mango trees, and I climbed onto the roof of the shed and I saw something in the sun, and I thought it was a bird waving its wings. The moment it started to get closer I got a bit worried as I thought it was a magpie come to dive-bomb me, but it was actually an arm going like that [she gave a beckoning signal with her arm] and I just remember seeing this big white light coming right through the mango tree, and when it had gone away I looked at the tree and there was a little burnt spot about the size of a cork. When a drop of sap came out, it was like milk.

It just stopped — although, to me, everything stopped. I felt like I was walking on air because I was really light-headed. And when all the light had gone I realised I had been visited by fairies or something. I really didn't know what had happened. And I used to hate drawing and writing, but they gave me a talent of drawing and writing because now I like doing it.

What age do you think you were when this happened?

[She paused.] About when I was eight ... eight or nine; I think it was mostly nine. Afterwards I felt I needed to lie down. But I didn't. I just felt like drawing. So I started drawing a face and I thought, 'This is not going to turn out good,' as I'm not good at drawing — but it turned out excellent. It was the face of someone I didn't know, and then I saw him in a shop, and his name was Bruce and we became really good friends. And I draw faces of people I don't know, and I see them and I become friends with them. If I draw any kind of face I become friends with them: any face.

Does that happen now?

Yeah. I once drew the face of a magpie and we became friends. Like, it's anything — a cat, a dog, a mouse, a horse.... I just like drawing so much now. And I draw dreams that I might have had a long time ago and then five minutes later I go, 'I know it! I know that dream. It's from when I was one.' Or something like that. And since they visited, I remember being born and having the brace put on. [Carleen had a leg brace put on in 1996 as a result of the accident. One of her legs was shorter and the brace was put on to stretch it. Carleen had four operations.] 

They (the fairies) visited me again before I went into hospital, and then again in the hospital just before I went into theatre. They said, 'Come and see what's going to happen to you and you'll see the brace put on.' I thought, 'I'm dreaming.' And I pinched myself when I woke up, and I was dreaming. The lady woke me up and said it was time for me to have breakfast: 'You're going to be going in in a few hours' — jam on toast — and I was wanting to go back to sleep. Then in the morning they put me on the theatre bed and took me down, and when I was asleep I wasn't in my body. I was out with the fairies and looking at what was going on. It was very strange because every operation they visited me.

The brace is called Illazarof. My leg was shorter and they wanted to make my leg seven centimetres longer but they could only get it six centimetres because I had so many complications. They used to turn it four times a day and afterwards my knees used to ache. Then I felt these cold hands take it and I saw a kind of red ball disappear into thin air. I didn't realise what it was and no-one else could see it but me. I was never in my body. I was always somewhere else, looking at other children in my ward who were needing help. I was taught by the fairies how to take the pain away from them and take the pain away from me as well. I would just close my eyes for ten or twenty seconds; then, after that, cold hands would come onto me and my pain was gone and didn't return.

At camp, that was the most serious time. They didn't come because people didn't believe that things like this could happen. And I didn't dare tell anyone, only the people who understood, like my friends S. and A. They do Reiki.

I always used to communicate with my horse, and when she died I knew that she was still around. Another white stallion died in the creek and sometimes I wake up in the morning and hear these two horses galloping around. Sometimes I leave out food like an apple or a carrot and I come back in the morning and, well, it's gone. I know that when they take it they're happy.

I've believed in fairies since I was ... I don't know, because I've believed in them for a long time, because ... we had this special fairy pond. It was magnificent. I put three jelly beans (on the ground) and I covered them over with a few leaves and then we used to come back in a couple of days later and they were gone. I was really happy because I knew they were alive. And Grandad didn't like it. He hated jelly beans just like I do now.

Since the fairies have been, I've been game to do a lot more things – run a bit faster, use my foot more and just get used to the feeling that I'll be able to run, but not as fast as I could run before. I used to come second or third in races — or last, but I didn't really mind, and I still don't mind because as long as I compete and do the eight hundred metres or something like that I know I'm fine, 'cos at the start I get pushed by someone and when I turn round there's no-one there.

How do you know when you're visited? Do you see them?

I don't exactly see them; I only see this white glowing thing in the shape of a person.

How big is it?

A bit bigger than me The smallest ones are the size of a five- or six-year-old.

Are these fairies or angels?

Some of them are fairies, some are angels. The fairies I notice. They stay around the creek area. The angels come down from the top of the forest. The angels have a very sweet smell like ... honeysuckle. The fairies smell of fresh air like the forest, nice and clean. Unless I get a mixture, then I know they are both there.

Do you remember being born?

Yes. I remember this huge light in my face and this kinda green fuzzy thing and Mum having the car crash.

What car crash?

When my parents died – because B. is my grandmother, not my mother.

You were in the car with your parents?

Yes. If I wasn't this wouldn't have happened. We know how the car crashed. It was a very old 'bomb' and a tyre blew and we spun around and hit a tree. Mum died of head injuries, broken neck and some back problems. She would have been in a wheel chair, so it was best for her to die. These people pulled over to see what happened. My Dad had a heart attack. He couldn't see me because I was under his seat and my legs were all bent.

How old were you when your parents died?

Fifteen months old.

Do you remember anything about before you were born?

I remember being very warm and very comfortable, then someone grabbed me. And then I was crying like hell. And I started talking when I was really young. I think I was a horse once, because I remember dying as a horse. And I remember being a race horse; and if I was, I was very, very fast ... not as fast as the fastest horse but nearly, and I broke my back and it healed by itself but I was never able to race again. I had to have a special kind of thing put on my back so I couldn't make my legs go very fast — just walking and trotting. Maybe that's why I'm not scared of horses.

Did your parents ever come back?

Yes, they do come back with my sister who died. I've forgotten her name. I call her Lily. My mum was pregnant for the second time but I never knew about it. I just dreamt it. B. told me (later) I did have a baby sister but she died in the womb. (At the time I first saw her) no-one (had) ever told me that. So I do have a sister but she's dead. I was at the beach once and I saw them standing on top of the water when it was calm. They were just standing there with a little baby in their arms.

Did they talk to you?

Yes, but I couldn't quite hear them because of the other kids splashing in the background. But I remember them saying 'It's your turn soon.' And I didn't understand by that whether it was my turn to die, or my turn to go on or something like that. What they did say was, 'You'll be joining her one day.' But each time I see them she's bigger. It's like another year's gone past but it's only three days.

How often have you seen them?

They just come and sometimes at school when I've got no-one to play with I say, 'Where are you?' I sit on the fence and I talk to them. My sister Lily, she's about eight years old but I decided to keep it to myself and not tell everyone cos they'll only say, 'You don't have a sister, it's a total lie,' so I keep it to myself.

What kind of Fairies can you see?

There's every kind, but not all fairies have wings. Like the sea fairies I see sometimes: they don't have wings. They sort of have between a fin and a dolphin tail. They just sit around on the rocks and talk to people. They're about the size of me. Fairies are beautiful I reckon.

Fairies: Helpers or Tormentors?

In the course of our research we met a number of adults who never grew to forget or disbelieve their childhood experiences of fairies, as well as some who had such experiences as adults. Jenna, Lizzie and Darryl, for instance.

Jenna
Jenna is a hairdresser who lives on the Gold Coast of Australia.

When she and her family were in England in 1995 they stayed at an old Bed and Breakfast place in York, which had its own forest.

'The day we were leaving I wasn't feeling very well. I had a hangover from drinking too much at a party the night before.' She told her two children to go for a walk, as she wanted to meditate.

'I found the biggest, oldest looking tree and sat by it. I'd been doing this around England, finding big old trees to lean against and meditate, because their energy is so lovely.

'Anyway, I sat down by this tree and asked if it would help me get rid of my headache. I had my eyes closed and I felt as if I had become part of the tree, which is what usually happens.

'Next thing, a figure about a foot high put his head around the tree beside me. He was wearing a Robin Hood outfit – except that it was bright orange. He had a hat and a little orange tunic and he was a real short, sharp, quick little guy. He was gorgeous. He talked to me for a few minutes, almost sarcastically. He was really funny, though. Unfortunately I can't remember what he said.

'Then after about 10 minutes he said, "You can go now!" and off he went, and I got up and walked away from the tree and my headache had gone.'

Lizzie

At the time we interviewed her, Lizzie was a business manager and lived in a house on a small block of land in a NSW country town. She said she had probably seen fairies since she was very young but she'd dismissed the idea. In the last two years, however, she had become aware of a 'presence'.

The presence, she said, got in touch with the child within her and she found herself having a stone wall built for her front fence, from local rocks from the river.

'A little garden evolved between my front fence and the nature strip and I was sitting there on a stump one day and I said, "This is their garden - their home. Please come and visit." And they did.'

Lizzie saw them. 'They were very delicate. Very small. There was Joy and Amber – they actually had names. They are constantly there. I don’t see them all the time but I feel them there and I take great joy in sitting on my front verandah, and adults and children walk past and they stop. My next door neighbour told me that a young boy stopped his parents and pulled them back because he wanted to have a look at the garden. The garden is nothing spectacular but I believe the fairies are actually attracting the children.'

Lizzie's small block had about 40 trees on it. She believed that was where the fairies lived and danced and that they were always there,'But they have chosen, as one of their many homes, to be around me. And I call them by name.'

She said she could feel their lightness and joy. 'I was given as a Christmas gift two fairy pictures. I was speaking with somebody about children with difficulties and she saw my fairies on the wall and she said that autistic children very often believed that they were children that the fairies had brought to the world to teach. That’s something I would like to follow up. This woman has worked for years with difficult children and that was a new enlightenment for me about fairies. I believe their love and their power is very potent.'

Darryl
Darryl recalled an experience that was rather less benevolent! He and Andrew met at a shaman workshop at Gunnebah, a residential retreat in the mountains just out of Murwillumbah in New South Wales. Darryl was a practitioner of Chinese medicine.
When he was three or four years old and living in California, Darryl went through a period of seeing little people from another dimension. It first happened one evening when he was gazing at the wall at the foot of his bed. The doors and windows were closed – and what looked like gnomes walked straight out of the wall toward him.

'They looked like they had come straight out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' Darryl explained. 'They were dressed exactly the same, in very colourful dress, floppy boots and big hats that hung down, belt buckles, all that, and they were so like the seven dwarfs that for years afterwards I thought, "Well maybe it's a recollection from something I'd seen before, not something that was an entity of its own".

'But my perception of them was very real. They used to walk out of the wall and walk toward me with a leer, a cheeky grin. I wouldn't say it was designed to intimidate me, but it kind of had that effect. They were clearly out to frighten, not in a nasty way but a cheeky way.

'I was terrified. I screamed out and my mother came rushing in and I said, "Little men are coming to get me!" and so she stayed with me and talked, and said it was just my imagination – a typical response, I guess. Then 15 to 20 minutes later she left the room and switched the light out, and within moments they were coming out of the wall again and I screamed again.

'This went on nearly every night. After a period of time – I can only guess the time frame now, a week or two weeks perhaps – I realised that it was futile calling my mother and I imagined it was starting to cause friction at home, so my best way of dealing with it was to pull the sheet over my head and go to sleep.'

Darryl said he didn't see the gnomes at any other time, only when he was in bed.

Then, at the workshop, the participants were asked to do a meditation and see nature spirits.

Darryl said it was very easy for him. He visualised nymphs or little fairies, and when he recalled his childhood experience he realised that there was always a leader in the front leading the charge.

'So I ended up visualising him and briefly talking to him. I stood up for the little child within me, I guess. Some of my training is to contact the child within as an adult and respond to its needs. Part of its needs was to have someone go in and defend me to the gnomes. So I spoke to them and said, "Look, you know, you were frightening and caused me some degree of anguish and despair at that age." They acknowledged that, although they didn't necessarily apologise; but it was acknowledged and that seemed to be a pretty important thing.'

Fairy Companions

Catherine, a young American woman, communicated with Andrew by email after he asked for people with experience of faeries who were willing to tell their stories. This is the record of her replies to his interview questions:

1: How old were you when you first saw a faery?
I can't remember when it *started*, but from a very early age (2? 3?) I spoke to faeries. I remember seeing them as I got older, but they're more of a glimpse in the corner of my eye. I saw them typically in secluded places.. mostly gardens. I have always had an attraction to forests and gardens.. they've always seemed magickal to me. Other places I have noticed them are in old places.. like attics.. places that seem to hold memories.

2: How old are you now [1996] and are you still seeing them or did that stop and at what age?
I am 18 now. It's sporadic. I think it depends on how much I want to "see".. when I was younger, I conversed with them on a daily basis.. I believe that gave them the energy they needed to materialize. As I got older, and more interested in things like Wicca, they began to have a large impact on my life. (I think it has something to do with re-connecting with my "younger voice".. inner child through various mental exercises.)

3: What were the faeries like that you saw? How were they dressed? Were they small or tall? Or both?
The faeries were small. Dressed.. well, I'm not too sure. I do remember conversing with an Arabian faery.. I don't remember the name he had. He was very elaborately dressed.. and carried a sword. He was small (maybe 2'). Other faeries I saw (see) are more like.. reflections of light.

4: Were they garden faeries, earth faeries, water faeries?
Funny that you should ask that. As for my research into faeries, I have none. I only know what I believe, and what I have seen.

5: Did they communicate with you or you with them?
Yes, we spoke. Sometimes, I think they might have played tricks on me when I was younger. I don't remember them always being kindly.

6: Did you tell others what you had seen and what was their reaction?
I'm a pretty private person. I'm sure I told my parents about it.. but they thought I just had a great imagination! Other than that, I have never told people about them..

7: It's our experience in the research we have done that the people who are tuned into this other realm have often had some really traumatic event in their lives or had a terrible and lonely childhood. Is that so in your case?
Well, I can't say much for my teen years.. but my childhood was "normal". My parents weren't around much, and I am an only child.. but I have attended school since I was 2.5, and have always received a lot of attention. I don't remember ever viewing them as my friends.. more like companions along the way of my "daily adventures".

7: Have you any recollection of your conversations with the faeries? What kind of things did you talk about? Did they ask you questions? Were you conscious of their concern about pollution and what it is doing to them?
Recollections you ask for, hmm? Well.. all I can tell you is the Arabian faery (if that's what he was).. I used to play games with .. (kind of like pirate-games, like we were on a ship and had to fight off the attackers). I really don't remember specifics. As I said I was always drawn to gardens.. I love flowers.. and seeing things grow/thrive (esp. when they seem as if they don't have a chance). I also have a deep concern for the horrible state of affairs the world happens to be in now.. I don't know if it was from their influence. I do, somehow remember them teaching me about compassion.. but, again, it's very vague. The contact I feel I have with them now is more along the lines of just *knowing* they're there.. not so much that I know why.