Thoughts on the Sidhe

The term Sidhe (SHEE) is an old term for the “little people” of Ireland, and I prefer to use this term opposed to the more commonly used term Fairies. Fairies instantly draw up ideas of cute little females with wands, and though some of the Sidhe are portrayed this way in history and literature like in Cinderella), many were much more sinister (remember Rumpelstilskin?) Nowadays the Sidhe (or fairy folk, if you choose) are portrayed as friendly, attractive adorable beings. The gnomes sit in our yards with pointy red hats, the generic fairy is dangling from wing chimes and sits on shelves as cute little knick-knacks, and the trolls are these ugly, yet popular brightly-haired plastic dolls that are dressed up like everything from soldiers to nurses. When you think about it, it’s kind of insulting how we treat the Sidhe today.

The Sidhe are seen very much as myth, even within the paranormal community. Hoaxes like the Cottingley Fairies added to that belief. However, I do believe when it comes to the Sidhe it’s not all smoke and mirrors. Delve back further in history and you’ll see among old pagan beliefs and you’ll see how the history of the Sidhe is often misunderstood, but very universal. Stories of the Little People range all over the world. The Native Americans, Celtic Europeans, tribal Africans and Pacific Islanders all have their stories of a race of human-like people who interact with their societies and offer blessings, veneration, and interaction but also theft, kidnapping, destruction and terror when they aren’t appeased. So my question is with these “creatures” existing all over the globe can all these stories really be fabricated?

Some say the Sidhe are a race on their own, while others believe that they are the Pagan Gods of old who retreated back to nature with the dawn of monotheistic religions. Yet there’s another theory that they are a mix of humanoid-type hybrid creatures as well. Regardless, there are some misconceptions of these creatures. They have not always been cute, friendly and available in toy stores. The fact of the matter is these creatures were quite nasty, both in appearance and temperament.
Celts treated these creatures with utmost respect, but feared them immensely. Some cultures even kept their front and back doors opened so the “trooping” Sidhe can come through the house and out the back door without too many problems. Milk, cream and portions of meals were left out for the Sidhe so the Sidhe would bless the household and not harm the family. The wife of the household was taught at a young age how to appease the Sidhe, and she knew the consequences of making the “wee folk” angry. They would destroy crops, livestock, trash homes, attack the children, and even cause death. People believed the Sidhe also took healthy babies and replaced them with their own ugly sick offspring. The most terrifying of the Sidhe were the ones that ventured out after dusk. The creatures, like trolls, banshees and the Black Annis were known for killing, kidnapping and even eating humans traveling at night. Some, like the castle-occupying Red Cap, existed simply to kill people. In fact the Red Cap is known by his cap colored red by fresh human blood.

What’s the most disturbing about these creatures is most likely their appearances. They usually took the appearance of the element they were associated with as well as a human-like appearance. Earth Sidhe were brown, dirty and wore green and brown, like gnomes. Air Sidhe were light, winged and transparent. Water were pale, milky and aquatic colored with blues and greens. Fire are red or rustic. However, most of these creatures really weren’t as cute and chubby as we’re familiar with them. Most of their appearances struck fear in the people who saw them. Many were known for their large heads, big empty eyes, skinny bodies, expressionless faces and even claws and tails. Many were gender neutral, but many were male or female. Trolls were males covered in hair and known for large glowing eyes and rotting teeth. Water nymphs were usually female, pale, wet and expressionless buy very alluring, and often pulled men to their deaths in lakes. Pixies, nowadays seen as the cutest of this batch, were also very scary looking. They were known for very large heads, big empty eyes, small bodies, intense staring and unisex bodies, similar to other “winged” beings.

I often believe the “things” that follow people home from haunted houses are a type of Sidhe. Some sort of lower astral form that attaches itself to people for a limited amount of time before it has to go back to the astral world. They cause some havoc for awhile, especially with appliances and lights but eventually go away or can be easily cleared out. I say this because Sidhe are known to follow people and have a relentless compulsion for playing pranks and tinkering with everything from butter churns to Airplanes. Pilots claimed to have seen bizarre creatures fooling around with plane engines in WWI. I believe this may be a type of Sidhe, some are more evolved than others. I also believe that it’s possible these are pure astral energy but out minds put the appearances on them; Wings on the flying ones, and claws on the earth Sidhe. Though being pure astral it doesn’t explain how people have been physically maimed by such creatures.

Now here’s my theory. The old stories of fairy kidnappings and encounters often described big eyed creatures sneaking into homes and carrying people out to either populate their race or “breed” with their own kind. This is documented in many history books. Doesn’t this sound familiar today? Stories of people being powerless and having big-eyed big headed non-gendered vaguely human looking creatures coming into their homes (usually in farming and wooded areas) and poking and pronging them and having sex with them to create a stronger race are as common now as they were three –hundred years ago. Only now we call them aliens!

- Al Tyas

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