Loved by the Fairies

I had another totally awesome Hallowe'en experience last night!

Over the years, I usually have one visitor each Hallowe'en who rocks my world and makes all the effort of the preparation worthwhile. When I was still in high school, I dressed up as a witch, handing out candies by stirring them in a huge pot and lifting them out with a ladle - all the while with my very cooperative black cat Tuffy perched on my shoulders! I cackled with glee and used my best old crone voice to great effect. The best reaction I got was from a couple of knee-high things who stood, heads tilted almost straight back to see me, their mouths dropped completely open. They turned around and ran to their mom and exclaimed "Mommy mommy! we just saw a REAL witch!"

It made my day! And of course, turned out to be prophetic, though nobody, not even me, dreamed it would one day be true at the time!

Another great reaction was from a 10 year-old girl one year. It was the year I had made "Big Bertha," a dress form that Hubby had helped me make out of - what else? - duct tape! So it was very much my actual shape, with no head. Come Hallowe'en, we stood it up on some kind of stand and dressed it in a long dress. Next to it we put a hay bale with a painted wig form holding a wig, and Hubby added a hatchet into the head and we put lots of red paint around.

This little girl walked calmly up to the grisly scene and stood in front of it for a few minutes with her hands on her hips. Then she shook her head and said "Good grief!" and walked away. I nearly asphyxiated laughing!

And then there was the sweet little 6- or 7-year-old French girl who happily clambered expectantly up the steps, only to have my cat, who wanted very much to come in the house, jump right in front of her just as she arrived at the door. She gave a stifled scream and spluttered away in French that my cat had terrified her. I did my best to soothe her with candy, but I must admit that, after she left, I secretly praised the cat!

Now, recently I've met a new group of pagans, one of whom is into Faeries. They are not to be mixed up with Fairies - watch the spelling here - and they are not to be confused with the dancing, fun-loving, teensy-weensy beings we think of - like Tinkerbell - and with whom we populate children's stories, making them all glittery and fluttery and fun.

No, these Faeries are not to be trifled with! They are the stuff of nightmares - mine, at least. And Boyfriend and I recently spent an evening with our new friends A and E, getting a rather scary earful about these beings. Well, they've been somewhat on my mind since then, or rather, at the back thereof, since I quickly pushed all thoughts of them down to where I didn't have to think of them, because I simply can't deal with the occult. In any way.

Not my path. Too many mood disorders, too close to madness for me. Here there be dragons. I don't go there! But I do have great respect for those who can, and do, manage to come out, if not unscathed, at least sane.

And here's where I got a message last night, from the Faerie folk, through a little Fairy, who happens to live across the street from me, one of two little babes I've enjoyed watching slowly grow from a bump in her mother's tummy to a walking, talking being.

She and her sister and her cousins came trick-or-treating as a group with her mom and auntie. Ours was the first house they came to. We were actually both waiting and watching for them, they're kind of the signal for us that Hallowe'en has officially begun, because they're so little they go out very early.

Three of them took their time working their way up our steps, but my little Fairy was on a mission!

"Debbie!" She was saying at the top of her lungs. "Debbie-Debbie-Debbie-Debbie-Debbie-Debbie-Debbie!!!" she kept on saying! And she THREW herself into my arms! I lifted her - she was IMPOSSIBLY light! I had to kiss her little cheeks, I think she was busy kissing mine, or else she was still saying my name. Her mother, in between trying to catch her breath from laughing, managed to say "She knows your name!" and proceeded to introduce me to her sister and the other children as I handed out treats (unsweetened applesauce snacks, puddings, and juice boxes, by the way!) but none of us could hear anything for this little Fairy saying my name!

She finally stopped when given her treat and I said "Okay, darling! Okay! You have FUN tonight!" And I told her mom her treat bag was too small (kids love to hear that!) and then they trooped off to the van to be whisked away to where the streets aren't quite so busy and they could trick-or-treat with less danger of being mowed down.

I'm pagan for a reason - I recognize a sign when I see one! I see that the Faeries have told me not to be afraid. I'm not going near them anytime soon, mind you, but now I'm not going to live with this apprehension in the pit of my stomach either!

I'm also going to cross the street with some home-made something soon and a piece of paper and go meet my neighbours properly and write down all their names and learn them! And...(groan) I guess there will be more quilts to make sometime in the future, AFTER I've finished the ones that are currently promised. At this point, I think I'll have to live forever to get them all made!

And the moral of the story is precisely this: Beings of great power are also capable of great love.