British Fairies

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Summoning Faeries- spells and practices

MAY 31, 2020APRIL 13, 2023 ~ BRITISHFAIRIES

‘Good Morning‘ by Estella Canziani

In a much earlier post on summoning spells (https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/i-conjure-thee-sybilia-o-gentle-virgin-of-fairies-how-to-see-fairies/), I examined some of the methods that have
been used to bring fairies before you.  During my researches, I’ve come across a few more, which are presented here now.

Broadly, there seem to be two ways in which it is possible to summon fairies into your presence.  One involves the use of a crystal ball and the conjuring of the faery with the correct words; the other
exploits the faeries’ own magic or glamour to override their invisibility and expose them to our view.

Crystal Balls

The first method was the one adopted by many magicians and seers, especially during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when efforts to contact spirits of different kinds by these means seem to
have been at their peak.  One of the leading English practitioners was William Lilly, who describes some of the methods used in his History of His Life and Times.  He tells us that he knew two skilled seers. 
One was a woman called Sara Skelhorn who practiced in the Gray’s Inn Road in London.  She contacted beings she described as angels through her crystal ball and gained information from them.  In fact,
Sara seems to have been rather too good at this.  Late in her life, she complained to Lilly how the angels wouldn’t go away, but followed her around her house until she was weary of their presence.

The other conjurer he knew was a woman called Ellen Evans, who summoned up the fairy queen using her ball and a summoning spell, that began “O Micol! O Micol! Regina pigmeorum veni…”  (Micol,
come, queen of the pygmies [fairies]).  This line is evidently the start of a much longer invocation, and I have discussed before the sorts of lengthy charm (https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/i-
conjure-thee-sybilia-o-gentle-virgin-of-fairies-how-to-see-fairies/) that was usually required.  You’ll also note that it seemed necessary to invoke the faes in Latin; I’ve examined the question of fairy
language (https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/fairy-language/) several times before- and there’s little basis for thinking they spoke as the Romans did- but Latin as a learned language seemed
very suitable for these charms at the time.

Here’s an example summoning ritual from Percy’s Reliques (III, 263).  It’s titled “an excellent way to get a fayrie.” :

“First, get a broad square christall or Venice glasse, in length and breadth three inches. Then lay that glasse or christall in the blood of a white henne, three Wednesdayes or three Fridayes. Then take it out
and wash it with holy aqua [water], and fumigate it. Then take three hazle sticks, or wands, of an yeare groth ; pill [peel] them fayre and white ; and make them soe longe as you write the spiritt’s name, or
fayrie’s name, which you call three times on every stick being made flatt on one side. Then bury them under some hill, whereat you suppose fayries haunt, the Wednesday before you call her: and the
Friday followinge take them uppe and call her at eight, or three, or ten of the clocke, which be good planetts and houres for that turne ; but when you call be in cleane life and turne thy face towards the
East, and when you have her bind her in that stone and glasse”

At this point Lilly goes on to warn readers that the spirits won’t appear for everyone.  They prefer people of “strict diet and upright life,” which is what he means by his reference to “cleane life:” a ritual
cleansing in advance is recommended.  Moreover, even if they do appear, it will often transpire that the magician is not suited to the experience.  As Lilly says, even those of undaunted character and firm
resolution can be astonished and trembling “nor can many endure their glorious aspects.”  However much you may desire to see the faery queen, therefore, the reality may be overwhelming.
Glamour

The second way to see fairies is to use their magic against them.  A seventeenth century spell book in the Bodleian library in Oxford contains a variety of faery related spells, including ‘To call Oberon into
a crystal stone’ but the one I wish to discuss is called ‘Experimentum optimum verissimum for the fairies.”  It sets out a lengthy and complex procedure, which I reproduce for you here:

“In the night before the newe moone, or the same night, or the night after the newe moone, or els the night before the full moone, the night of the full, or the night after the full moone, goe to the house
where the fairies mayds doe use and provide you a fayre and cleane buckett, or payle cleane washt, with cleere water therein and sett yt by the chimney syde or where fyre is made, and having a fayre
newe towel or one cleane washt by, and so departe till the morning; then be thou the first that shall come to the buckett or water before the sonne ryse, and take yt to the light, that you find upon the water
a whyte ryme, like rawe milk or grease, take yt by with a silver spoone, and put yt into a cleane sawcer; then the next night following come to the same house agayne before 11 of the clocke at night,
making a good fire with sweet woods and sett upon the table a newe towel or one cleane washt and upon yt 3 fyne loaves of new mangett [fine wheat bread], 3 newe knyves with whyte haftes and a newe
cuppe fulle of newe ale, then sett your selfe downe by the fyre in a chaire with your face towards the table and anonynt your eyes with the same creame or oyle aforesaid.  Then you shall see come by you
thre fayre maydes, and as they passe by they will obey you with becking their heads to you, and like as they doe to you, so doe you to them, but saye nothing.  Suffer the first, whatsoever she be, to passe,
for she is malignant, but to the second or third as you like best reache forth your hand and pluck her to you, and with fewe words aske her when she will apoynt a place to meete you the next morning for
to assoyle such questions as you will demand of her; and then, yf she will graunt you, suffer her to depart and goe to her companye till the houre appointed, but misse her not at the tyme and place; then
will the other, in the mean tyme whyle you are talking with her, goe to the table and eat of that ys ther, then will they depart from you, and as they obey you, doe you the like to them saying nothinge, but
letting them depart quyetlye.  Then when youre houre is come to meete, say to her your mynde, for then will she come alone.  Then covenant with her for all matters convenient for your purpose and she
wilbe always with you, of this assure yourselfe for it is proved, ffinis [the end].”

The process is reasonably straightforward, as you will have seen.  You will need to have acquired some fresh fine loaves, some new ale, some clean buckets filled with clean water and clean towels, but
none of these items ought to be too hard to come by.  The tricky part is knowing whether a house is one “where the fairies mayds doe use,” in other words, a place that is frequented by female fairies on a
regular basis.  Provided that you’re sure you’ve correctly identified the place, everything else will apparently fall into place like clockwork.

How does this ritual work?  Well, as fairy expert Katharine Briggs explained, the unspoken assumption lying behind it is as follows: overnight the fairies will enter the house to wash themselves and their
children in the fresh water.  As I’ve described before, fairy babies are anointed with an ointment (https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2017/06/26/fairy-ointment/) that gives them their second sight and
powers of glamour and (it seems) reinforces their immortal fairy nature.  Some of this salve will, it seems, be washed off during the ablutions and it is this that forms the rime on the surface of the bucket. 
You then simply lift it off with your silver spoon and you have acquired the key to faery.

All that remains is to wish you good luck- and to remind you to read other postings discussing some of the potential downsides of any encounter.  For a discussion of the summoning faeries for sexual
purposes, see my Love and Sex in Faeryland, 2021 (Amazon/ Kindle)
POSTED IN ELF, ELVES, FAE, FAERIES, FAERY, FAIRIES, FAIRY, FAY, FOLK BELIEF, FOLKLORE, UNCATEGORIZED
CHARM CRYSTAL BALL ELLEN EVANS GLAMOUR LANGUAGE LATIN RITUAL SARA SKELHORN SPEECH SPELL SUMMON SUMMONING WATER WILLIAM
LILLY

4 thoughts on “Summoning Faeries- spells and practices”

1. Pingback: Seeing Angels Instead? Faeries & Angels | British Fairies

2. Pingback: Feasting with Faeries- more than just a meal? | British Fairies
3. Jessie Scroggins (Practicing Teutonic Witch)
SAYS:
APRIL 13, 2023 AT 1:39 AM
This spell will not work. This is a complete fiction. You cannot summon a faery this way. First off, how many faery names do you know? Since any real faery isn’t going to just give you their name,
your out of luck. You would get more out of a reciprocal relationship with the fae than you would trying to bind them to a stone. It’s more likely that you would put yourself in very real danger in the
attempt. Do not attempt the spell above, you will anger your local fae and land wights.

Reply
1. britishfairies 
SAYS:
APRIL 13, 2023 AT 4:23 PM
Jessie

Thanks for contributing your experience. I assume you’re referring to the spell from ‘Percy’s Reliques,’ rather than the second passage. I reproduced it primarily as an example of the sort of magic
you find in 16th and 17th century spell books. I agree that most faes are very unlikely to offer their names so freely, and not without a trusting relationship having been established, but the Tudor
and Stuart magicians were convinced that they knew the details of a number of very powerful and effective faeries- Sibyllia, Mycob and others- who, as you say, would have been at risk of being
ordered around by numerous demanding men and- understandably- would have got very fed up: at which point, as you rightly state- the magicians would have had very good cause to fear their
wrath.

Reply

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