I have heard people say that children have an uncanny connection to God, fairies, and unseen realms. I’ve also heard them say that fairies prefer the company of children over that of adults. And so naturally one has to wonder what is it about “youth” that would attract a fairy? And what it is about adulthood that would make them flee and turn invisible again? To answer such questions we must think about what it means to be young again. The definition of “Youth” can be broken down into different things, however, after interacting with the fairies myself for many years and studying those interactions I’ve come to realize that above all else, youth is the pure, and naive, and not-yet-jaded heart. The kind of heart that loves so deeply, fearlessly, and does not know what “to hurt” or to “be deceived” yet means. Or what “to lose” or “to die” yet means. It’s running around and living each moment as if you are forever immortal, and unaffected by all that may happen around you. There’s something so resilient, timeless, and fearless about being young and at the same time there’s also something so resilient and timeless about the realm of fairy.
Many may believe that it’s that very same essence of fearlessness and naivety that may have gotten us into trouble when we were younger and just ‘didn’t know any better’. However, I believe that it is predominantly a destructive world and trauma from exposure to a destructive world that really harms us the most and leads us into trouble, and it is our lost naivety and innocence that can act as a redeemer of sorts to draw us back into those quieter places where we can become connected to the imagination once again; to our fearless not-yet-jaded hearts, and to fairy realms & far away lands.
In Tolkien’s 1947 essay on Fairy entitled: “On Fairy-Stories”, he describes the realm of fairy as a perilous land, which as far as fighting dragons and defeating foes are concerned, is undoubtedly true. But there are far more wondrous things that can be found in the realm of fairy which Tolkien also perfectly portrays in his stories such as: indescribable beauty, romance, virtues, mistakes, and redemption from those mistakes. And if not redemption, then at the very least lessens. As someone who’s gotten to know fairy well I can say without a doubt that the human experience is exceedingly more dangerous than that of any dragon or imaginary foe, and that fairy is more or less a softer place to land where we can reconnect to a youthful sense of wonder; to our untouched innocence before the darker more human experiences have had a chance to reach out from the shadows to touch us.
It can become more difficult to access these fantastical realms as we grow older. Life hardens us, thus it hinders us. In time we learn through mortal experiences that there are very real and physical dangers in the world all around us, and that we are in fact maybe not as immortal as our imaginations would lead us to believe. Yet if we let mortal experiences take over our hearts and minds it will rapidly disconnect us from fairy. I believe a good first step to reacquiring our lost innocence is to learn to live fearlessly once again. To clarify, I don’t mean we should do this foolishly. Rather, I think we can take our adult wisdom and knowledge with us while reclaiming these fearless states. After all, one can still remain relatively fearless in life but also brave and well informed in the face of danger. We can do this by finding creative ways to cope with the difficult world around us and by holding out a bright light before the darker and more foreboding things we must come to face.
So the realm of fairy really exists in two places simultaneously. As I mentioned before it exists in the heart of a child, and it exists within all of us if you know how to access a childlike state of consciousness. But it also exists outside of us externally within nature. And whether you’re trying to find fairy within yourself or externally out in nature, the key to accessing their realm lies in the power of the imagination, and in the unwavering belief in its existence.