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© Brian Froud
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LEANAN
SIDHE
This
beguiling creature is the Irish faery mistress, or faery muse, who inspires
artists, poets, and musicians. Her enchantments stimulate creativity
until it burns with a bright, fierce flame. The sheer intensity
of this vision will eventually leave the artist hollow eyed and worn,
his gift in ashes. Artists visited by the Leanan Sidhe
are said to be touched by genius but often die young.
In other moods she is the Dark Seductress known as Lhiannan
Shee on the Isle of Man. She seduces her victim, draws out
his spirit, and leaves him as a ruined husk in body and soul.
She is the skogsfru of Scandinavia, a forest faery with a fatal
touch; and the Bonga Maiden of India, a capricious nature spirit
who entices and even marries human men.
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beautiful Deer Maiden of the Lakota and other Native American tribes,
who lures men into the woods to their doom-- yet also inspires artists
(and occasionally drives them mad). But she is perhaps best known
as the faery so evocatively portrayed in Keats's poem "La Belle Dame sans
Merci": the seductive creature who leaves the knight haggard, alone, and
"palely loitering."
---Excerpt
from GOOD FAERIES/BAD FAERIES
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© Brian Froud
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THE
FOOT FUNGUS FAERY
The
wild nocturnal dancing of faeries produces the well-known phenomenon of
faery rings: toadstools growing in the circle where their tripping feet
have touched the ground. This faery causes athlete's foot (or ringworm),
a fungal problem of the skin in ring-shaped patches. It is a fungal
faery ring, personalized and in miniature. One book of remedies
recommends that we "go artistic" and wear sandals without socks-- in other
words, give freedom to our feet; let them be less constricted and more
creative. Our feet connect us to the ground and give firm footing
to bright ideas and flights of fancy. Sometimes we need to earth
our dreams in order to bring them to fruition.
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© Brian Froud
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| The foot fungus faery,
like the mushroom he sits on, has materialized overnight. He is an
idea just coming into form. His wings are still damp and crumpled,
not yet fully extended. He sits, making the decision whether to sit
or stand or fly away-- whichever might be the best foot forward. This
faery can slow you down or help you develp a surefooted future. *(I suspect
this creature moonlights as the faery sock stealer).
---Excerpt from
GOOD FAERIES/BAD FAERIES
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