It's wonderful that you're opening up folks to these subliminal possibilities.
Several thoughts.
I think it's not that fairies choose whether to be seen or not - it's the humans go through periods where they are so focused on the superficialities of the surface waking consciousness that they lose contact not only with fairies, but the entire subliminal realm.
(NOTE: "Subliminal" - literally, beyond or behind the threshold - is a term Frederick Myers coined in the late 1800s to describe the vast realms of consciousness, whole universe, which exist underneath, behind, within the physical universe, far transcending it (yet themselves supported by the Logos - in Indian philosophy this is known as the gross or waking state of the physical universe, the subtle or dream state of the subliminal universe where fairies and all kinds of subtle beings live; and the causal or Logos of the sleep state. With the Godhead, of course, beyond all that)
As for science, we really don't have "science" yet - we have technos (perhaps it's "techne" _ i think that was Heidegger's term for it though I may be misspelling it). These small things that Hunter referred to as not being known before were, according to Owen Barfield and Jean Gebser, not even existent yet. Gebser points out that "matter" as we conceive of it in the modern age only came into existence around the 13th to 15th centuries.
The ancients - who we look down on with pity or scorn - knew of infinitely vast universes as well as aspects of the so-called physical universe of which most moderns haven't the faintest idea.
Of all the most well known scriptures I find the the Bhagavad Gita the most helpful in regard to specifics. "Waking up" (recognizing our True Nature, finding the Christ within and shifting our center of gravity so that "Not I but Christ lives in me," is the first thing Krishna teaches Arjuna around verse 13 of Chapter 2 (out of 18 chapters)
Seeing the Divine in all arrives at the end of chapter 6 - this being what many modern Christian contemplatives (even Merton) as well as most popular eastern "non duality" teachers - Zen, Tibetan Buddhist, Vedantic, Tantric - teach as the highest realization.
Starting in Chapter 7, and reaching stunning heights in chapters 10 and 11, Krishna teaches Arjuna how to look at each object, each person, each living being in the universe, and begin to recognize how this apparent solid object is the appearance, by means of the Logos, the causal, and subtle universes, of the Infinite Divine.
This is the beginning of a real science, one far transcending anything almost any scientist or theologian or philosopher of today even has the faintest idea.
To get back to the topic, fairies and countless other subtle beings are the devas, the gods of which all things are full. These Gods are the secret of a True spiritual science, though only when seen in the Light of the Divine God in which we live and move and have our being. As the evolution of consciousness proceeds, over the next several centuries (as we measure time now, though that will radically change as well) this new science will replace the old, and even the categories of science, art, theology, philosophy, politics, economics, etc will be replaced as well.
I am very sympathetic to the views you express here. My own book is a brief introduction to the inherent goodness and lovability of all creation, from the top of the chain to the bottom. My problem, however, is that many authors who share my views argue we should believe in fairies, etc. by appealing to past beliefs and traditions. I would like to have actual evidence for what I believe. I don't think an appeal to earlier cosmic views is evidence itself for animism. A restoration of mystery and enchantment may not be a return to see the natural world as full of governing spirits, but to realize that the world is more directly governed by God than we supposed. It may be God Himself who holds all things together, who endows prime matter with its powers, who directs all things toward their ends. And He may do so very directly, not with intervening agencies and spirits. Indeed, that is the view I currently lean towards--a view that eliminates the distance between the divine and human, the immaterial and material.
I always finish readings these kinds of articles with an intense feeling of dejection, because they amount to: "look at the worldview we once had! Let's get reenchanted again! Let's believe in fairies!" But I am never given a reason to think that the material realm is governed by these spirits. (Of course, I do think that there are good reasons to think that material realm is guided by SPIRIT, but that is quite different.)
The argument that science can't investigate the issue at present, so therefore neutrality or even assuming fairies really exist is preferable to disbelief, strikes me as particularly bad, since it can be applied to all kinds of other things which don't warrant our belief. Sure, there way be "more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in [our] philosophy," but *which* things those are we can't say. Why assume fairies exist but exclude belief in the malevolent extradimensional entities from H. P. Lovecraft's "From Beyond," for example? If you apply that line of argument to fairies, why not apply it to everything? There is a least a little bit of truth in Russell's teapot.
Yes! Great way of putting it. In short, if we want to reclaim some posited class of entities, we ought to show the data our forbearers encountered that led them to posit those entities. Then we try to explain, or explain away, that data, and look for current analogues.
As an aside: As I've gotten into the realm of paranormal investigations, I've started to have a new perspective on Christianity and monotheism. I am terrified by the idea that the world is full of Lovecraftian horrors, ghosts, demons, etc, but no God of Infinite Love and Power. I've begun to see just how liberating the Christian story is from the perspective of various pagan cultures: it promises freedom from all these mysterious entities and forces.
And, speaking from experience, that's what genuine (rather than academic) animism actually looks like: charlatans, shamans, mediums, thaumaturges, etc. exploiting their privileged status with the unseen realm for power and profit. Asian and African Christians have something important to add to the discussion on fairies, and they're being sidelined because their views on the spiritual world don't fit with the romantic fantasies of the Western theologians and philosophers. And we make the same mistake when we privilege the abstractions of Plotinus over the lived reality of Greco-Roman paganism for ordinary people. The "enchanted" worlds of animism are not filled with gentle nymphs and chuckling satyrs, all dancing before the One. They're unfriendly places, where human beings exist entirely at the mercy of capricious gods and jealous magicians.
My sources are all conversations with real people, unfortunately. I grew up in southern China and I worked mainly alongside Christians from the Global South up until about three years ago.
It's wonderful that you're opening up folks to these subliminal possibilities.
Several thoughts.
I think it's not that fairies choose whether to be seen or not - it's the humans go through periods where they are so focused on the superficialities of the surface waking consciousness that they lose contact not only with fairies, but the entire subliminal realm.
(NOTE: "Subliminal" - literally, beyond or behind the threshold - is a term Frederick Myers coined in the late 1800s to describe the vast realms of consciousness, whole universe, which exist underneath, behind, within the physical universe, far transcending it (yet themselves supported by the Logos - in Indian philosophy this is known as the gross or waking state of the physical universe, the subtle or dream state of the subliminal universe where fairies and all kinds of subtle beings live; and the causal or Logos of the sleep state. With the Godhead, of course, beyond all that)
As for science, we really don't have "science" yet - we have technos (perhaps it's "techne" _ i think that was Heidegger's term for it though I may be misspelling it). These small things that Hunter referred to as not being known before were, according to Owen Barfield and Jean Gebser, not even existent yet. Gebser points out that "matter" as we conceive of it in the modern age only came into existence around the 13th to 15th centuries.
The ancients - who we look down on with pity or scorn - knew of infinitely vast universes as well as aspects of the so-called physical universe of which most moderns haven't the faintest idea.
Of all the most well known scriptures I find the the Bhagavad Gita the most helpful in regard to specifics. "Waking up" (recognizing our True Nature, finding the Christ within and shifting our center of gravity so that "Not I but Christ lives in me," is the first thing Krishna teaches Arjuna around verse 13 of Chapter 2 (out of 18 chapters)
Seeing the Divine in all arrives at the end of chapter 6 - this being what many modern Christian contemplatives (even Merton) as well as most popular eastern "non duality" teachers - Zen, Tibetan Buddhist, Vedantic, Tantric - teach as the highest realization.
Starting in Chapter 7, and reaching stunning heights in chapters 10 and 11, Krishna teaches Arjuna how to look at each object, each person, each living being in the universe, and begin to recognize how this apparent solid object is the appearance, by means of the Logos, the causal, and subtle universes, of the Infinite Divine.
This is the beginning of a real science, one far transcending anything almost any scientist or theologian or philosopher of today even has the faintest idea.
To get back to the topic, fairies and countless other subtle beings are the devas, the gods of which all things are full. These Gods are the secret of a True spiritual science, though only when seen in the Light of the Divine God in which we live and move and have our being. As the evolution of consciousness proceeds, over the next several centuries (as we measure time now, though that will radically change as well) this new science will replace the old, and even the categories of science, art, theology, philosophy, politics, economics, etc will be replaced as well.
I am very sympathetic to the views you express here. My own book is a brief introduction to the inherent goodness and lovability of all creation, from the top of the chain to the bottom. My problem, however, is that many authors who share my views argue we should believe in fairies, etc. by appealing to past beliefs and traditions. I would like to have actual evidence for what I believe. I don't think an appeal to earlier cosmic views is evidence itself for animism. A restoration of mystery and enchantment may not be a return to see the natural world as full of governing spirits, but to realize that the world is more directly governed by God than we supposed. It may be God Himself who holds all things together, who endows prime matter with its powers, who directs all things toward their ends. And He may do so very directly, not with intervening agencies and spirits. Indeed, that is the view I currently lean towards--a view that eliminates the distance between the divine and human, the immaterial and material.
I always finish readings these kinds of articles with an intense feeling of dejection, because they amount to: "look at the worldview we once had! Let's get reenchanted again! Let's believe in fairies!" But I am never given a reason to think that the material realm is governed by these spirits. (Of course, I do think that there are good reasons to think that material realm is guided by SPIRIT, but that is quite different.)
The argument that science can't investigate the issue at present, so therefore neutrality or even assuming fairies really exist is preferable to disbelief, strikes me as particularly bad, since it can be applied to all kinds of other things which don't warrant our belief. Sure, there way be "more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in [our] philosophy," but *which* things those are we can't say. Why assume fairies exist but exclude belief in the malevolent extradimensional entities from H. P. Lovecraft's "From Beyond," for example? If you apply that line of argument to fairies, why not apply it to everything? There is a least a little bit of truth in Russell's teapot.
Yes! Great way of putting it. In short, if we want to reclaim some posited class of entities, we ought to show the data our forbearers encountered that led them to posit those entities. Then we try to explain, or explain away, that data, and look for current analogues.
As an aside: As I've gotten into the realm of paranormal investigations, I've started to have a new perspective on Christianity and monotheism. I am terrified by the idea that the world is full of Lovecraftian horrors, ghosts, demons, etc, but no God of Infinite Love and Power. I've begun to see just how liberating the Christian story is from the perspective of various pagan cultures: it promises freedom from all these mysterious entities and forces.
And, speaking from experience, that's what genuine (rather than academic) animism actually looks like: charlatans, shamans, mediums, thaumaturges, etc. exploiting their privileged status with the unseen realm for power and profit. Asian and African Christians have something important to add to the discussion on fairies, and they're being sidelined because their views on the spiritual world don't fit with the romantic fantasies of the Western theologians and philosophers. And we make the same mistake when we privilege the abstractions of Plotinus over the lived reality of Greco-Roman paganism for ordinary people. The "enchanted" worlds of animism are not filled with gentle nymphs and chuckling satyrs, all dancing before the One. They're unfriendly places, where human beings exist entirely at the mercy of capricious gods and jealous magicians.
Yes! I'd love any recommendations on this, particularly the Asian and African side of things, if you have any.
My sources are all conversations with real people, unfortunately. I grew up in southern China and I worked mainly alongside Christians from the Global South up until about three years ago.
You should write on this eventually, then, if you have time! I would love to hear more from you. I'll sub to your stack.