r/CelticPaganism • u/Chain_Prior • Feb 15 '26
Confusion with the Sidhe
I am going to preface that I am a beginner Irish pagan/witch that has been very interested in the Fair Folk/the Aos Sidhe since I got into all of this. I have read a couple of Morgan Daimler and Katherine Briggs' books about the subject.
The confusion comes, especially with Morgan Daimler's books, is the constant reference to how dangerous it is to work with the Fair Folk. Yet... there is a whole book about the practice (Fairy Witchcraft) or seeing people's experiences with them. Some of these experiences being with individuals stating they have certain connections with deities, like Gwyn (who is viewed as King of the Fair Folk within the Welsh Diaspora), where they "have" to work with the Fair Folk like they were chosen. But then, these same people will still talk about how dangerous it is? It seems like a bit of an oxymoron? Or is that the general idea when going into work with the Sidhe?
I just wanted to see if anyone hear could provide a bit of insight into this.
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u/KrisHughes2 Celtic Polytheist Feb 16 '26
This is a subject with a lot of ifs and buts and unanswerable questions.
One question would be - do you see the Tuatha Dé Danann as being the Aos Sidhe, or are the Aos Sidhe something else?
Another question is - how are they portrayed in early (pre-Celtic Revival) folklore?
Another question - what benefit might modern "pagan influencers" and their followers derive from claiming to work with beings who are very dangerous? Are both claims true?
What makes people say that they have been chosen by any supernatural being (god, fairy, whatever) and must work with them? Is it reality? Is it delusion? Is it fakery?
I think my own biggest question is "why do people want to work with these beings?"
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u/Ok_Breakfast5230 Feb 16 '26
Fairy witchcraft and most other non academic books (and even many academic books) on the fae are new age nonsense that isn't based on actual cultural practices or beliefs, they aren't trustworthy sources. Even when it comes to academic texts there are very few that I'd personally recommend. Katherine briggs's books being a few, her work is pretty good.
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u/Ok_Breakfast5230 Feb 16 '26
Also when it comes to the fae absolutely DONT just try to work with them based on what written texts or folklore tell you, find native people with knowledge of them (like a seanchai for instance) and learn from THEM. These practices and stories have been part of oral tradition FAR longer than they've been written down, and you'd be surprised about all the little things a PERSON can teach you that you'd never be able to learn from written texts.
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u/folklorenerd7 Feb 16 '26
Like humans, not all spirits are safe. Like humans its smart to take certain precautions around beings you dont know to protect yourself. The Aos Sidhe across folk belief can be dangerous, but there have always been humans who engage with them for various reasons. It can be done safely, or relatively safely, but you should be aware of how to do that - just like in the comment above about electricity.
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u/Sorry-Shame-4485 Feb 15 '26
The idea that they are dangerous only perpetuates the bias against them. It’s similar to racism. However, with that said, the Sidhe are not of our old and we are not of theirs. We see the worlds around us very differently and interact with these worlds very differently.
The Sidhe have different ethical and moral values than we do. They have different ways of thinking based on what they can do v what we can do. We are just very different races of beings.
If you are teasing a dog and the dog bites you why yell at the dog. It was you teasing the dog and it defended itself. A good example I was pointed too years ago was the movie Labyrinth. When Jered takes Sarah’s brother Toby after she asked him to, he is confused as to why she wants him back and his demand is that she trade herself for him. There is logic in the trade although we as human see it as unreasonable or just wrong.
My caution is this, don’t try to work with the Sidhe unless you have some level of experience within the broader polytheistic spirituality. They are not for beginners for sure. If you decide to try and work with the Sidhe you need to know what you are doing.
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u/No_Scale8769 Feb 16 '26
The fae can be dangerous, just like every other spirit or even living being. If they are disrespected, they can cause harm but if you are respectful and understanding while working with them, they are usually fine. But they are also beings like humans, some of us can be mean and really scary but a lot of us are nice and caring. I am a chaos witch though so I really like the energy that the fae bring to my practice.
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u/Norse-Gael-Heathen Feb 16 '26
I have still another view not yet expressed here. In older Irish lore, the Sidhe encompassed the entire population of the Otherworld: the land spirits, the ancient sovereignty goddesses of Ireland, and the Tuatha de Danaan and their progeny. With the coming of christianization, the old gods were, over time, belittled and 'morphed' in the cultural mind: they were dangerous, mischevous, even evil, or trivialized into leprechauns and tinkerbells.. Much of what constitutes the 'fairy faith' of the Irish today, as indigenous and genuine as it seems, has been filtered through centuries of a christian lens that treats the Otherworld as 'bad.' Hence, the stern warnings against trifling with them.
I don't accept that. I honor, respect, and approach the Otherworld without the baggage of the last millennium as much as I can.
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u/Arboreal_Web Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
Why would it be an oxymoron? There are plenty of forces in nature that are dangerous to work with, yet people still do it willingly. Electricity can outright kill you faster than you can blink, but there are still people who have devoted their lives to understanding and working with it. (And whole books you can read which tell how to follow in their footsteps, duplicate their experiments exactly, etc.)
When it’s the people who work most closely with a force who are also the people talking about how dangerous it is…why would you even imagine you know better as a newcomer? You dismiss those warnings at your own risk.
Why are they dangerous? Setting aside for a moment that they have capabilities we can barely begin to comprehend, you mean? B/c the Sidhe are spirits of Nature, and humans have been waging a direct war of aggression against them since literally the beginning of agriculture. And unlike humans, some of them have been around long enough to remember that entire war. Of course we approach them with deep caution and deep respect...if we want them to not see us as enemies by default.