An ancient spell for seeing the fairies comes to us down the centuries from our magical past, that Celtic twilight which confounds the mundane perceptions of our present materialist culture; but its association of herbs with fairy magic has its roots in a time that was remote even to the Celts, This little spell is often for the development of your fairy vision. If performed faithfully and word sincerity, it will certainly bring results, although these may at first be very subtle. Trust that your workings will be fruitful; and gradually, unmistakable evidence will gently unfold, proving their effectiveness.
Fairy Oil
(From the manuscripts of Sarah Greaves)
There is an old spell which gives directions for making a Fairy Oil that will enable one to look into the magical fairy worlds. This oil is to be made up in spring and left to settle so that it can be put to use on the Fairy Days.
Sweet herbs and summer flowers have many potencies, and it is good to use these; but they cannot do all the work for you; you must prepare your own soul so that you may see fairies; and this means loving them and their world of nature, loving the Great Heart which holds us all, and seeking them in their haunts at the right time and in the right way. offering humility and listening to inner guidance, may you see the fairies, and if you prepare the oil, prepare it with a charm of your own at the hours of Sachiel (midnight to one o’clock), and let your charm be a prayer to the God of meadows and forests, and the Great God and Goddess of All, that you may enter the fairy realm without harm, that the fairies may come to know and love you, and that you may know and love them.
Here is the word cunning to be followed in preparing the Fairy Oil: pour a tankard of corn oil into a green glass jar, and bless it with charms. Gather eglantine, the leaves of the briar, the buds of the hollyhock, the flowers of wild thyme (the young ripening tops of the fragrant wild grass), the shooting buds of young hazel, yarrow flowers, meadow-sweet and rue, and the sweet grass from inside a fairy-ring (the circular stretches of deeper, lush green grass whose material origin is the action of a fungus, but which have a connection with the ethereal life of the fairies). Pluck some marigold flowers from the garden. If you do not have any, the humble bur lovely field-marigold will suffice (commonly called the dandelion), Gather your herbs and flowers from those that grow towards the east; and at Cassiel’s hour steep your posy in the corn oil, again summoning blessings with runes.
Leave it to ripen in the Sun (the jar must be covered or stoppered) for three days; then you may pour out the oil into smaller glass jars, as small as may be. Into each one put seven drops of rose-oil, with seven supplications to the Earth Angel – to help you to see the fairy folk, and stopper well. A light touch of the oil is to be poor on to your eyelids, upon your brow, into the hollow of the throat, on to each finger tip and rubbed into the wrists before proceeding into the wild, It would be well to do this at Cassiel’s hour or Sachiel’s hour, if you conveniently may; and then you must venture out alone to see the fairies, if they be only into your own garden under the early moon, or just at sunrise, noon, or as the evening dew falls.
you can wash your eyes in the pure dew, which some say is the sweat of the stars, that is good; and mark well the Fairy Days, though others may be tried, for the fairies are always with us.
You will find the instruction to prepare the fairy oil with a charm of your own puzzling, use the following invocation to call fairies into the garden. Choose one of the fairy days and times to use it
Fairy host, from the wild
Come and tend this plot awhile;
Come dancing from the hollow hill
To raise the power and do God’s will;
Make your revels in my garden,
May this soil be fairy-trodden!
Each herb and flower,
Set each lovely spirit free!
May all be hung with globes of light
From deepest Elfame, fair and bright.
Fairies, heed this pledge I tell
To honour you and treat you well!