THE RECENT CASE OF CUTTING A SHADOW
I'm violating my previous pattern of Little People posts today. The reason is that the case I'll discuss is sort of running rampant around Fairyworld conversations and has popped up in my communication exchanges in three different ways over the last few days. SO .... I feel moved to write it up here and talk, just a little, about it. Hopefully you'll like the approach.
Where this case came from: There is a wonderful Canadian documentary which was mentioned on this site by a reader. It is entitled THE FAIRY FAITH and it is by John Walker who did a great job.
There are lots of interesting things therein. But one, this case, stands out.
I didn't catch the year (sometime within the past ten --- whoops just found out that the documentary isn't really brand new, so, place this case in about the 1990s) near Glasgow, Scotland at a place called Fairy Hill (Perthshire) a single man, a laborer, was doing something that he often does and enjoys: walking on the hills and enjoying Nature. Out of a clear sky, he was surprised by the development around him of a dewy fog, complete with a beautiful rainbow. He was thrilled by the atmosphere --- delighted by what he felt was a privileged moment.
As he reached the crest of a small decline, the Sun broke through and cast his shadow down the hillside. He stood there now hearing enchanting harp like "fairy music."
The witness yelled "OYE!!" and the two fairy folk just popped out of existence, or at least out of sight.
This witness appeared on the film in an attitude and presentation which was one of the best I've ever seen. HIGHLY impressive as a good commonsense even-keeled fellow, who anyone would like and trust. I liked him and it.
........... but what could this shadow business have been about? No one could know the meaning of this of course, but we can throw a few ideas out.
In the Greek world, and following the Roman world, there was The Land of Shades --- Shadows --- something so fundamental to the nature of human beings that they were almost the equivalent of "the Soul" or "the Ghost" or some extremely significant revenant or left-over of the person post-Death. Such ideas exist in cultures all over the world --- Japan, Africa, ... nearly anywhere. The connection which almost all the old cultures felt between the person's shadow and the person's life in this world was seemingly obvious. Some cultures even felt that when you lay down to sleep, your shadow absorbed into your body while your consciousness temporarily left the world.
In Japan, there also was an idea that there existed creatures which did not have shadows at all. These creatures were felt to be "demons", but my reading of these demons is that they are more like "tricksters" than devils. In that, they might even be thought of as Celtic people thought of some of The Little People.
Do Little People have shadows? Or are they part of a parallel appearing but non-physical form of reality, which is not founded upon the textbook physical laws (like, light interrupted by matter creates a shadow.)
All of that is me BSing about things that I cannot know well enough to have earned an opinion. But, taken with that humility, one can still daydream about a denizen of a world without shadows (Faery) symbolically cutting off a human's shadow. Could such an action be seen as a precedent for taking the human away into fairyland? Or, was this fairy "kidding" to just mess around with a person as a trickster would do?
That's all I've got for now. The case is a very neat one, and worth putting out there.
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Hello Prof, I enjoyed watching the video a great deal. I'm 99% likely to be repeating whatever else others have been saying to you!
ReplyDeleteOnce again, we see apparent enchantments and distractions and diminutive beings who don't necessarily have our best interests at heart. That isn't to say they mustn't, or cannot, be friendly, but they so often seem self-serving. I suppose the extent of any negative effect is likewise hard to discern considering so many experiencers tend to continue with normal lives. My opaque thought there is that, whatever might be taken, no long term harm befalls them. Of course, they might find their minds becoming slightly less rigid and that in itself can be awash with unexpected consequences. The guy in this case was left pining for another experience and seemed relaxed about whatever happened.
The rolling up of a shadow was a fantastic image and perhaps speaks to the dreamlike, narrative values of these odd episodes. So many reported encounters involved something being taken and, here we are, with a piece of shadow of all things; it seems so Brothers Grimm and yet simultaneously symbolic. The way he broke the spell by calling, "Oi," is also very reminiscent of how people with night terrors wake themselves up by trying to make a noise. This maybe links in with those who believe daylight encounters are part of our psychological topography and related to fugue states and dissociation. Who the heck knows?
Incidentally, there's an old report in John Hanson's "Haunted Skies Vol I" on page 44. RAF Pilot/Navigator Sergeant William Davis, on December 10th 1944, had an experience of a small figure on the nose of his Avro Anson V aircraft. Here's an extract for other readers. "I will never forget its pinkish face - European in nature, with a thick, short trimmed beard, close cut, covering its features, reminding me of an old English Naval seaman, dressed in some sort of green garb, height approximately 18 inches tall, apparently watching something in the sky to my left, moving around in a nonchalant manner - as if walking around his estate. I was close enough to see instead of fingers, he had what looked like little exhaust stubs, no thumbs, and pointed shoes made of velvet or some such material, rather than leather."
The story continues that the pilot shouts to get the being's attention before realising the engines will drown his yells out. The stowaway doesn't notice the pilot at all and "pushed himself off the nose before disappearing below."
I'm sure there's no need to add the following, but what the heck. Our pilot was excited by the experience and told people as soon as he landed. He was met with the usual howls of laughter and decided to keep quiet.
Hello, my friend. Wonderful to hear from you again. Your WWII story was an absolute cracker. Took me somewhere (way up in the air and on a piece of noisy technology) that I certainly have never been before with these critters. I'm blaming you for this pattern-breaker :=}}
DeleteI liked the side notes about the differences between our light and "other kinds of light". It made me remember a text once when the author said that just like light in our universe is more fundamental and older than fire (light does not need oxygen to exist) "other dimensions of light" could be even more independent than "our light", therefore light from the spirit world (for example) not necessarily would need to produce shadows.
ReplyDeleteFairy/UFO lights certainly behave in very strange ways, some cases even say they could be solid.
Alaor
I'm glad it caught your attention as much as it caught mine. The links are for both pages of the account.
ReplyDeletehttps://drive.google.com/open?id=1x5471qx8ITJJSE5yJvEH8BStYMMWQsjX
https://drive.google.com/open?id=13z3GUSOycbT_kXw890UCf7frurr3ugWd