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Fairies. Often know as the Fair Folk or the Tylwyth Teg or Little People, they have been the subject of many, well, fairy tales. They are believed by most to be fiction, fabrication, just plain not real. But are they fake? If you think about it, we have tons of beliefs in the Christian world, especially those focused on end-times and related “strange” things about UFO’s, Nephilim, Aliens, Giants, and the like. In fact, I have heard rumors that the main reason the public doesn’t know about a lot of that is due to government coverups from the various nations of the world. In spite of all those other things, I don’t ever come across anything Christian about fairies. Or Elves. or Unicorns. Or vampires, fauns, werewolves, dryads, naiads, trolls, gnomes, pixies, brownies, dwarves, centaurs, wraiths, hags, ettins, flying horses, grass spirits, elementals, and the many, many, many others that I have simply not listed. If there is so much out there about all of these “other” beings, why couldn’t fairies be real? And what on earth does this have anything to do with followers of Jesus? Let’s dive in and take a look at fairy spirits and the Lamb of God.
There are generally only two “Christian” camps in regards to beliefs and opinions about them:
1) They’re not real. End of discussion.
2) If they are real (and if is as far as most will go), then they’re demons and that’s all there is to it. End of discussion.
There are two problems with those options:
1) I don’t agree with either option
2) “They’re just demons” has never been a good enough answer for me (and I’m the one writing this article, so I win.)
Thus, I propose a third possibility. What if God created them and we are going to interact with them by choice or by accident, so we might as well have a clue about them, what they’re about, and how to work with them? To be clear, yes, some of the spirits in question are either demonic in nature or serve Satan although are not technically fallen angels. We will look at them a bit more in a future article.
Think about this—many stories exist in almost all cultures regarding the activity of mysterious creatures that seem to roam the earth. Some are dumb as rocks and others as intelligent as humans. These creatures can be good or evil (which varies from creature to creature), seem to live parallel lives to ours, and only to coincide with ours on rare occasions. That’s what the stories say, that is. But I have another thought: what are now considered fables once began as a story from a woman or a man to their children by firelight. Those tales were passed down through oral tradition while also spreading among people groups. 50 years later, dad’s story about meeting a little green man becomes a story of “your grandfather once met a little green man….” Add a hundred years to that and it looks like “A long time ago, your ancestor met a little green man.” Add even more degrees of separations and the tale has moved so far from the inception point that the story is “One day Fred met a little green man.”
What people have come to believe over time about that little green man is based almost entirely upon Fred’s encounter that many years ago. But wait. Fred met him, but others have met little green men over time as well. And so the volume of stories about green men (or mermaids, or whomever) grows. I think the reason so many stories about these beings exist is not because someone got bored one day and made up “Fred and the Green Man” (or mermaid, unicorn, etc.), but are based in at least some modicum of truth. Sure, stories grow and change over time as people forget or change details in a centuries-long game of Whisper-Down-The-Lane, but the key elements are the same: One day a guy met a not-guy, and it was considered significant enough to keep re-telling.
In reality, how different is that from the Bible? We read about Adam and Eve, Noah, Enoch, and many others who existed long before the Israelites began to keep written records of anything. At some point all of those stories were written down, and to this day they are told worldwide. If those true stories were carried by means of oral tradition for centuries, how can we say with certainty that some of these other myths aren’t similar in some way? After all, many different cultures have a flood story of some kind. Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences. Furthermore, if you read the Bible, it’s mostly a collection of stories of peoples’ personal experiences, all of which revolve around the same theme—the God of the Bible sharing his love and interacting with humanity.
Take it another step, and it’s not actually that big of a jump to say that something like fairies actually might exist. I mean, we even find these sorts of characters in the Bible. Think about it. Ezekiel watched all these flying dudes chucking fireballs at each other underneath this otherworldly storm. John the Revelator saw these ‘living creatures’ with a crazy ton of eyes and wings all over the place. Have you considered all the weird combinations of human and animal parts on those ‘living creatures’?? The Bible says it, not a fairy tale. If we know that fire-tossing spirits exist, and ones that have faces of four different creatures, and ones covered all over with nothing but eyes and wings, then maybe Centaurs and Mermaids aren’t so weird after all?
Let’s assume for a moment that this isn’t quite so “out there” after all (Okay, let’s face it—it’s totally “out there”, but hopefully that some of what you enjoy about The Kings of Eden—we aren’t afraid of the “out there”, and hopefully we even make it meaningful.). The next obvious question becomes “what is the point”? I mean, if we accept for a moment that all these things do exist, then why do we care?
I had some friends ask me once if this isn’t all just some huge spiritual charade, a cosmic distraction to keep us busy on unimportant things that have nothing to do with us as humans, and even more-nothing to do with our spiritual walk. While that is possible, I think it is unlikely. First off, Paul stated something that if it is a distraction is a valid point— “. . . in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11).” If it’s a scheme of the enemy, then at least being aware of it is a good idea. Hiding our heads in the sand of Ni-ev-etee, the capitol city of La-la-land, never helped anyone. If these spirits exist (and they certainly do), then we should at least take the time to figure out what they’re about before moving on. I mean, the book of Revelation has kept people guessing for centuries and everyone has their own inaccurate opinion on the subject, but people still spend tons of time plumbing the depths of the book. How is this any worse? No, if we are to inherit the earth, take dominion over it and all that, we owe it to ourselves to at least have a clue of whether we are sharing the planet with anyone.
Let’s pretend for a minute that it’s not all just one big illusory sideshow put on by the enemy, and that there actually is a point. The faerie realm is something that has pretty much been relegated to the New Age, Wiccans, and the like—people who are unlikely to know Jesus, but who have also hit upon some tangible reality in these areas. If they are busying themselves with the fairies and don’t know Jesus, and if we care about them at all, we should at least be able to hold an intelligent conversation with them when they tell us about these sorts of things. Did you know that “they’re just demons” isn’t a very effective evangelistic tool? Delivery is nine tents of the message. Even if you are convinced they are demons, coming to the table with some data in advance allows for honest and open communication with someone instead of what amounts to legalistic finger-pointing.
And what if, perchance, those who believe in the existence of so-called mythical beings are actually onto something? What if there is a purpose to all of this fairy-tale interaction? Here’s how I see it. In the same way that God has made all angels ministering spirits sent to those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14), He has made other spirits to govern other things too. In Genesis it states that God created the sun to govern the day and the moon the night, but He created light a few days prior. The sun and moon realistically are probably both a physical object and are or have a spiritual governing entity. In Malachi 4:2 it says “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings”. If the sun doesn’t have a spiritual counterpart, a spirit that directs the activity of the sun, then I have absolutely no clue as to what Malachi is talking about. And technically, no, it isn’t talking about Jesus. The word used there is shemesh, which literally means “sun”. Angels are referred to as stars in a few different places in scripture, and the sun technically is a star. Why couldn’t the sun and moon have spirits that govern their activity? And wouldn’t that explain a bit better why so many cultures seem to think that the sun and moon have or are gods? The realm of the Fair Folk and their ilk are all Nature Spirits. If there are angels or other spirits that govern various solar bodies (what I call Stellar Spirits), then is it hard to believe that other spirit beings govern and shepherd the activities of creation on earth?
Next week we are going to look at this subject further (read part 2 here), pondering what God’s purposes might be in creating nature spirits, as well as ways He might want us to partner with them to steward this earth for all of humanity.
If you want to read more about similar subjects, check out the following:
Devas, Nature Spirits, and Talking With The Trees
Engaging the Stars of Orion’s Belt
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