Each of these people had fairy experiences that had a profound effect on their lives.

In 1976 Brian Froud's life changed forever when he moved to the small country village of Chagford in Devon, England. Up until that time he had lived in London and worked as a graphic artist. London is a huge city with lots of buildings and people, and being a graphic artist was about drawing and painting what other people pay you to draw or paint. These assignments often took him outside. As Brian walked through the forests of oak and ivy across the wild expanses of Dartmoor, he began to hear words and stories whispered by the land with its wealth of folklore and myth. These encounters with nature began opening him up to the realm of the fairy. He began to draw the images of the magical beings he encountered, producing the fascinating books Faeries and Good Faeries, Bad Faeries.

"They were all around me, tangible pulses of energy, spirit, emotion, and light. They took on form as they stepped into my art, cloaked in shapes of nature and myth," reflects Froud. These fairy creatures guided, disrupted, enchanted, and plagued his daily life while visibly inspiring his pictures in every way. Nothing is made up in his fairy art; the images come from direct fairy communications.

Brian Froud's experience is similar to the modern fairy encounters. These encounters occur more often in a natural setting, where the land is wild and undeveloped. In addition, folklore says that the fairies only bestow their magic on those who are sincere, good at heart, kind and gentle, truthful, open-minded and relaxed, and most of all respectful.

Fairy encounters happen at places and times when two points or elements come together. Examples include between the sea and the land, where mountains meet the flatlands, where woodlands blend into meadowlands, where a tree trunk meets the earth, and where a river winds through its stone and earthen riverbed. Magical encounters also frequently occur during times when light and dark converge such as at dawn and dusk. Optimum sites for encounters include fairy circles and mounds (In a later blog I will teach you how to make a faerie ring), wondrous caves, and bubbling creeks that speak to your inner spirit.

When you encounter fairies, elves, and other magical creatures it feels like no other experience, It can either bring an immense amount of magic or mischief, depending on you, your attitude, and the fairies themselves. When it brings magic, the encounter takes on divine proportions, and at that point, anything is possible. What qualifies as a miracle or act of magic is a matter of who induced the event. When God creates a rainstorm in a drought it is called a miracle, but if a fairy or elf creates the same rainstorm, it would be call magic. The difference is in how you perceive it. Miracles have divine implications, whereas magic is viewed as slight of hand or something that is not as it seems because it attempts to deceive onlookers. Miracles and magic (in my opinion) are basically the same thing. They are extraordinary events that are very much real.

The journey to fairyland and the magic of the fairies can have a profound effect on your life. Fairy encounters open the doorway to other kinds of experiences that can have a creative and healing influence.

I hope this post sparked your interest to look further into the faerie realm...there is so much to see and experience!

Blessings
Bliss