Running with the fairies : towards a transpersonal anthropology of religion

306 Pages·2012·1.959 MB·English

by  Gaffin, Dennis

Running with the Fairies

Running with the Fairies:
Towards a Transpersonal
Anthropology of Religion
By
Dennis Gaffin
Running with the Fairies:
Towards a Transpersonal Anthropology of Religion,
by Dennis Gaffin
This book first published 2012
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2012 by Dennis Gaffin
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-3891-8, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-3891-7
‘Prince Enters the Wood’
‘The Prince Enters the Wood:
All light and white as a fleecy cloud, / A female form floats gracefully’
© The Trustees of the British Museum.
In An Old Fairy Tale Told Anew, an 1866 illustration by Victorian fairy
painter Richard Doyle. He was uncle of Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote
the mystical The Coming of the Fairies and the Sherlock Holmes stories.
The gaze of the rider on horseback is alerted and altered by the light of the
fairy, inviting him into the woods, where his adventure begins.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements....................................................................................ix
Foreword....................................................................................................xi
Chapter One.................................................................................................1
Introduction
Chapter Two..............................................................................................25
Overview
What are Fairies?
Chapter Three............................................................................................37
Opening Up
From Childhood to Eureka
Connections – Adult Fairy Experience
Chapter Four..............................................................................................65
Lightness, Drama, and the Natural World: Attitude and Preparation
for Fairymindedness
Lightness and Drama
Fairyfolk in the Natural World
Minette’s FairyLands
Chapter Five..............................................................................................77
Fieldwork and Personalwork
Chapter Six................................................................................................91
Perspectives and Writings on Fairies
Chapter Seven..........................................................................................105
No Bad Fairies
Chapter Eight...........................................................................................113
The Unconceptual
viii Table of Contents
Chapter Nine............................................................................................123
Realization
Awareness of Fairy
Chapter Ten.............................................................................................133
Incarnation and Reincarnation
Chapter Eleven........................................................................................145
Mission, Purpose, Responsibility
Chapter Twelve.......................................................................................153
Fairypeople Traits
Physical Traits
Sensitivities and Personality
Chapter Thirteen......................................................................................167
Healing and Well-Being
Chapter Fourteen.....................................................................................189
Individual Transformation
Chapter Fifteen........................................................................................207
Fairyfolk Together
Chapter Sixteen.......................................................................................217
Ireland: The Fairy Portal, Artistry
Music, Art, Creativity
Chapter Seventeen...................................................................................231
Consciousness, Evolution, Planet
Notes........................................................................................................251
Bibliography............................................................................................273
Index........................................................................................................291
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to acknowledge the support of others who made this work
possible.
For technical support I would like to thank the staff at Cambridge
Scholars Publishing and Ken Fujiuchi at the State University of New York
College at Buffalo library. Phillips Stevens, Jr. of the University of
Buffalo was most helpful in his support and with incisive comments on an
earlier version of the writing.
Grants from the Research Foundation of the State University of New
York supported fieldwork, and a sabbatical from the Department of
Anthropology of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at SUNY College
Buffalo gave me additional time to pursue on site research.
In Ireland I am most grateful to all the newly made friends since the
turn of the millennium in the County Donegal hamlets of Doagh and, four
years later, Baile an tSleibhe. I would especially like to thank Brendan,
who allowed me to stay by myself without charge at his classic Irish
cottage down a walking path overlooking the beautiful northwest coast.
There I burned peat fires, read by candlelight, typed up field notes, and
transcribed interviews.
I am greatly indebted to all the real life characters in this book, but
most of all to Kay Mullin, to whom I became a sort of apprentice. She
nourished me in many ways: with delights from her garden of fruits and
vegetables, with rooms to sleep, and, most of all, with a wealth of gentle,
spiritual wisdom. It is quite clear that my seemingly happenstance meeting
with her has dramatically shaped my life and made this work possible.
Back in North America I am most grateful to my partner and colleague
Ana Bodnar, not only for her joining and assisting me during recent stays
in Donegal, but mostly for her moral and spiritual support of this daring
work and unconventional journey. Thanks always Ana.