Empire unusual suggested

66 PASSPORT TO MAGONIA THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH 67
It is remarkable that one cannot find a single writer who claims
he knows the physical nature of the fairies. 14 They give us their
personal opinions on the subject or report on the various theories
held during their time, but they do not assure us they have a final
answer. To Kirk, the Good People have bodies so
plyable thorough the Subtilty of the Spirits that agitate them, that
they can make them appear or disappear at Pleasure. Some have
Bodies or Vehicles so spungions, thin, and defecat, that they are fed
by only sucking into some fine spirituous liquors, that pierce lykc
pure Air and Oyl.
According to medieval occultists, all invisible beings can be
divided into four classes: the angels, the gods of the ancients; the
devils or demons, the fallen angels; the souls of the dead; and the
elemental spirits, which correspond to Kirk's Secret Commonwealth.
In the fourth group are the gnomes, who inhabit the earth
and correspond to mine-haunting fairies, goblins, pixies, korrigans,
leprechauns, and the domovoys of Russian legends, and the
sylphs, who inhabit the air. These subdivisions are obviously
arbitrary, and Paracelsus himself will admit it is extremely difficult
to provide definitions for these various classes.
The bodies of the Elementals arc "of an elastic semi-material
essence, ethereal enough so as not to be detected by the physical
sight, and they may change their forms according to certain laws."
To start from this basis would naturally open the way to farreaching
speculations. From John Mac Neil of Barra, Wentz
learned:
The old people said they didn't know if fairies were flesh and
Hood or spirits. They saw them as men of more diminutive stature
than our own race. I heard my father say that fairies used to come
and speak to natural people and then vanish while one was looking
at them. Fairy women used to go into houses and talk and then
vanish. The general belief was that the fairies were spirits who could
make themselves seen or not seen at will. And when they took people
they took body and soul together.
Another man interviewed by Wentz insisted that "the fairies
of the air are different from those in the rocks." Similarly, in
Brittany, popular tradition divides the fairies into two groups:
pygmy-sized entities endowed with magic powers and the science
of prophecy, on one hand; and white, aerial fairies, on the other.
Beings in the first category are black, hairy; their hands terminate
in talons. They have old faces and hollow eyes, small and bright
like burning coals. Their voices arc low as if "broken by age."
With the remark about prophecy, we are led again to consider
the relationship between the actions of the Secret Commonwealth
and the affairs of men. Wentz, noting this relationship in
ancient poetry, says that during the last fight of the great hero of
Ulster, Cuchulainn (who was a favorite of the sidhe or fairies),
one of these beings named Morrigu flew over Cuchulainn s head
as he fought in his war chariot. Similarly, the fairies took part in
the Battle of Clontarf (April 23, 1014), providing what would be
called, in modern military language, "air support" for the Irish
side. Before the battle, a fairy-woman came to Dunlang O'Hartigan
and begged him not to fight; she knew the issue could only be
death (and here we find the prophetic powers of fairies again).
lie assured her that he was ready to die for Ireland. The two
armies met near Dublin:
It will be one of the wonders of the day of judgment to relate
the description of this tremendous onset. There arose a wild, impetuous,
precipitate, mad, inexorable, furious, dark, lacerating, merciless,
combative, contentious Badb which was shrieking and fluttering
over their heads. And there arose also the satyrs and sprites . . .
and destroying demons of the air and firmament, and the demoniac
phantom host. 15
This is only one of many references to the flying hosts of the
fairies. We shall have occasion to study them more closely in a
later chapter, But, first, let us return to UFO's.
Can we study modern UFO reports without reopening the
entire problem of apparitions? To most UFO writers, the answer
is yes. Unidentified flying objects, they argue, leave physical
traces and behave like space probes. It is obvious to them that
UFO's are scientific devices having nothing to do with the
mystico-rcligious context of medieval apparitions, and nothing to
do with the creatures studied by Kirk, since—as we have just seen
—these latter could appear and vanish at will.
This view is no longer tenable. The reports of recent observations
do describe objects that appear and vanish. It is just that