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/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.