In this study, which is first of all a folk-lore study, we pursue principally an anthropo-psychological method of interpreting the Celtic belief in fairies, though we do not hesitate now and then to call in the aid of philology; and we make good use of the evidence offered by mythologies, religions, metaphysics, and physical sciences.

This classic study of traditional Celtic spirituality ties ancient Paganism, medieval myth, and traditional Fairy beliefs into a powerful celebration of Celtic wisdom and magic. This magnificent book is a collection of stories, anecdotes, and legends from all six of the regions where Celtic ways have persisted in the modern world: Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man. It examines how Fairy spirituality survived in the face of hostility caused by modern science and religion. It celebrates how beliefs (which only a century ago were dismissed as quaint and superstitious) were, in fact, powerful principles of ancient Pagan magic that remained essential features of the Celtic world for generation after generation. The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries offers plenty of speculation and theories regarding who or what fairies are and where they come from. But it is also an anthropological study of fairy faith which involved interviews with hundreds of people.

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"The Other Crowd," "The Good People," "The Wee Folk," and "Them" are a few of the names given to the fairies by the people of Ireland. Honored for their gifts and feared for their wrath, the fairies remind us to respect the world we live in and the forces we cannot see. In these tales of fairy forts, fairy trees, ancient histories, and modern true-life encounters with The Other Crowd, Eddie Lenihan opens our eyes to this invisible world with the passion and bluntness of a seanchai, a true Irish storyteller.

Running with the Fairies: Towards a Transpersonal Anthropology of Religion is a unique account of the living spirituality and mysticism of fairyfolk in Ireland. Fairyfolk are fairyminded people who have had direct experiences with the divine energy and appearance of fairies, and fairypeople, who additionally know that they have been reincarnated from the Fairy Realm. While fairies have been folklore, superstition, or fantasy for most children and adults, now for the first time in a scholarly work, highly educated persons speak frankly about their religious/spiritual experiences, journeys, and transformations in connection with these angel-like spirit beings. Set in academic and popular historical perspectives, this first scholarly account of the Fairy Faith for over a hundred years, since believer Evans-Wentz’s 1911 published doctoral dissertation The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, integrates a participatory, “going native” anthropology with transpersonal psychology. Providing extensive verbatim interviews and discussions, this path-breaking work recognizes the reality of nature spirit beings in a Western context. Through intensive on-site fieldwork, the PhD cultural anthropologist author discovers, describes and interviews authentic mystics aligned with these intermediary deific beings. With an extensive introduction placing fairies in the context of the anthropology of religion, animism, mysticism, and consciousness, this daring ethnography considers notions of “belief”, “perception”, and spiritual “experience”, and with intricate detail extends the focus of anthropological research on spirit beings which previously have been considered as locally real only in indigenous and Eastern cultures.

The writer best-known as the author/translator of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" presents a body of tradition and testimony about an elusive order that survives in the natural setting of wild and lonely places--a classic study of the luminous reality of leprechauns, pixies, and other fairy spirits. **Lightning Print On Demand Title