Finding our way home

It has never been the policy of these elves…
Dear kin,
… to say who is or isn’t an elf. We do not have the authority to say so, nor does anyone else. We may have our opinions on the subject and if asked, render them, but it is always up to the individual to discover and declare hir (his/her) particular nature.
So, too, it is the right, and some might say duty, although we wouldn’t go that far, of each individual elf to decide hir own spiritual path and beliefs. We certainly have our own beliefs, which are, we believe, rather unique and each elf must, should, or perhaps we should say, is encouraged to decide for hir own s’elf the spiritual path/s SHe (she/he) will tread and the extent of, and depth of Hir, beliefs.
Many elves base their beliefs loosely upon Tolkien’s mythology, which is not wholly different from the Catholicism that constituted his own spiritual practice. And while these elves are not ours’elves Christian, nor any of the other major or really minor religious beliefs, we respect the right of those elves who do follow Christianity or Islam or Buddhist beliefs or any other philosophy they choose.
However, and here’s the rub, dearest, there are certain beliefs that simply don’t accord with Elfin and if one follows those practices SHe will in time stray farther and farther from Faerie. Perhaps this can best be illustrated with Christianity as an analogy. Anyone can say SHe is a Christian, in fact, millions do. But saying one is a Christian is not the same as following the path that Jesus outlined for those who would follow his way.
In just this same way, anyone can say they are an elf, and these elves will not deny them the right to do so, however, if one practices hate and prejudice, if they promote bias against any particular group because of their sexual preference, or gender, or race, creed, national origin, fashion style, or because they swing to a different sort of music, then they are promoting ignorance, and ignorance, is to be found in the opposite direction from Faerie/Elfin. The more one embraces prejudice, the farther one strays from Elfin and from one’s true elfin nature.
And so it is that we elves also believe in, promote, and practice personal liberty. The Wiccan Rede: And that it harm none, do what thou wilt, works well with us. This is also, according the Max Freedom Long, the basic principle of morality of the ancient Kahuna sorcerers. We elves say, “We are all returning to Elfin from a different direction and the path that is right for you, may be the wrong way for another.” Each must be allowed to follow hir own path. So those who insist that their way is the only “right” way and who seek to force their beliefs upon others and compel others to live as they do, are not following the Elfin Way. This is not to say that they are not elves, for no one has a right to say that but the individual hirs’elf, but they are truly losing their way and, in time, in danger of losing contact with Elfin, which is to say their own creative soul, altogether.
Now, one can say they are a Christian in this world and still promote hate and prejudice and war, thus not truly be a follower of the Way of Jesus Christ at all, with little or no consequences, save some very bad karma for having helped spread slime about the world, but to promote hate and prejudice and practice evil magics (trying to control others in opposition to their will and their creative well being) can have very swift and not so pleasant results.
Faerie/Elfin is a magical realm and thoughts, feelings and actions are more potent, profound and powerful when one gets near it or invokes its name. To use Faerie magic for ill deeds quickly brings ill upon ones’elf. This is not our wish for them, mind you. We wish them healing, but we cannot protect them from the hate they have invoked, nor the dark spells they have cast, nor the demons they’ve sent forth, who will come looking for them very shortly. Even if we had the power to thus protect them, we do not have the right to interfere with their magic. But they should know that whenever the time comes when they are done suffering, that is, when they are done trying to create suffering in the world; whenever they are through with feeling out of control, that is trying to control others; we shall be awaiting them on the path to Elfin and if they can calm their anguished hearts for a moment, they will hear our song, calling them ever home.
kyela,
the silver elves

Faerie at First Sight

A sister wrote us asking how it was that we seemed to equate Faerie with Love while Tolkien wrote that Faerie was the Perilous Realm, which contained not only the good but also the dark, and could be quite dangerous. Here is our reply to that question:

Going to Faerie from this world…
Dear sister,
… is like moving from a small town to New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, London or Tokyo… the opportunities are greater surely, but so are the dangers (not that there are no dangers in this world or small towns or even backwoods). We did not say that Faerie was love, we were instead using Love as an analogy to point out that one can no more force their way into Faerie than they can force someone to love them, or even truly force ones’elf to love someone else. Not even elves can do that (and we surely wouldn’t try), although we do have magics that can grease the wheels, so to speak. And while it is also true that there are magics that can cause profound infatuation, the admonition to be careful of what wishes for is best considered when using these spells.
Faerie is closer to the source, the formative Magic, the underlying reality of pure potentiality that is within and beneath, so to speak, all things. Although, perhaps it would be more accurate to say it is along side of. But that is not quite it either. Faerie/Elfin is not exactly elsewhere. In his novel the Quest of the Golden Stairs, Waite wrote, “Faerie is not there but here”. For Faerie/Elfin is not so much another place but another vibration of this world. Think of it as one would think of Ultra Violet or Infra Red, a spectrum of being that exists here and now but is not readily observable by most folks. It is like the Moon ruled sephiroth on the Tree of Life. It is the formative world (thus both more magical and more responsive to our desires) upon which this world is based. Are we really ready to have our desires instantly or very quickly come into being. How about our fears? Can you see the danger here? Are our dreams less perilous than this world? Only because we can escape them, we expect. But what if we could not? Perhaps some of us are in this world to escape from the dangers of Faerie. Biding our time and strengthening our souls, spirits and magic until we feel ours’elves truly ready to go back and confront the dangers there, learning to control our minds and impulses so we do not unthinkingly bring about results we do not truly or completely desire.
Yet, perhaps Faerie is Love. Is Love not perilous? Do we not risk nearly everything in truly loving? Our hearts, our minds, sometimes and for some people their very lives? Even their souls? Mayhaps we should speak of: Faerie at first sight? There is truth there, don’t you think? A greater truth than most realize.
eli feln le,
the silver elves

Elves and Brownies * A letter to Keith Olberman

We wanted to tell you…
Dear Keith or, if you prefer it, Mr. Olberman,
… how much we enjoy your show, which we watch regularly. You speak the truth with wit and humor and you are often the highlight of our day. We particularly love the diatribes you call special comments and often find ours’elves clapping and cheering at the end of your statements.
The other day however, you made a special commentary about Congressman Wilson’s rude interruption, which we also thought despicable, of the President’s speech. However, in your comment you, if we remember correctly, warned the Republicans that they were fast becoming in danger of joining the ranks of those loonies who believe in elves and brownies, and to this, Sir, we take exception. We are those loonies.
We not only believe in elves and brownies, pixies and faeries, but we believe we are the genetic descendants of those tribes of peoples upon whom those legends and myths are based. Like the American Indians, our peoples were overwhelmed long ages ago, and as the Native Americans are now, we were, mythologized, so much so that now the mass of people, who have never bothered to peruse the historical data (a good place to start would be Laurence Gardner’s non-fiction book the Realm of the Ring Lords) believe we never existed at all and are merely a product of myth and legend.
May we point out to you that our beliefs, as loony as they may seem to you, are supported by a great deal more historical fact than the vast majority of humanity use to justify their belief, upon no evidence at all, in their various Gods and Religions.
However, let us make ours’elves clear, we do not object to the fact that, without examining the evidence at all, you think us among the crazies. Such opinions and casual unthinking prejudice we have endured all our lives and take for granted. What we object to is the fact that you, first: think that we are less sane than the Republicans, and second: that you would lump us in with them.
We will cede to you the point that we might be crazy for our particular, and perhaps peculiar, beliefs; but, please understand that we are a whole different variety of crazy than the Republicans. In what way different? Well, IQ for a start, but more than that we are the sort of eccentric crazy that was portrayed as the family in Kaufman’s and Hart’s play and movie, You Can’t Take It With You (you may wish to check out Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness by David Weeks and Jamie). While you may not agree with our opinions, we do have a basic grasp of Logic and Reason, which the Republicans, either do not, or have abandoned in their greed for power. Furthermore, we are a variety of amiable crazy, whereas the Republicans are a kind of potentially violent sort of crazy that may kill you if you don’t agree with them and ultimately desire to use force to compel everyone to act, think and behave as they do. On the other hand, we don’t care if you agree with us, just don’t lump us in with those vicious liars whose ancestors were responsible for destroying our culture in the first place and who are actively seeking each day to destroy the essence of this democracy.
Please understand, however, we are still your faithful viewers and we still trust you to speak the truth regularly and with humor, and most of all to tear the Republicans a “New One” periodically, although, we fear that since there is hardly anyone left in their party but “New Ones” that your task is somewhat redundant. Still, how could we ever tire of laughing?

Thanks for you courage in speaking the truth,
The Silver Elves

Finding our own magic

In Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled, vol. 2…
Dearest Beloved,
… she presents us with massive evidence that nearly all the major religions, that is Christian, Judeo-Hebraic, Moslem, Egyptian, Caldean, etc. originated from the Hindu and Pre-Buddhic practices and texts of ancient India. On the other hand, if you read Max Freedom Long’s books on Polynesian magic and the Huna (secret) practices of the Kahunas of Hawaii, he informs us that their magic is, as far as he can tell, in its purist form, pre-religious and that they, the Polynesians, originated from India and islands near there and left as the Aryan and other invaders, the originators of religion, arrived.
(Just an aside here, but we used to know a French magician named Roland who would write us and send us these wonderful posters he created about magic (all written in French, of course), when we were part of the Elf Queen’s Daughters. He came to visit us one time for about a week when we lived in Southern Illinois where we called ours’elves the Elves of the Southern Woodlands, and we found it interesting that he pronounced Isis, not Ice –ees, but Is Is. Contemplate that a moment!
But this isn’t primarily about Blavatsky’s theory that all religion stems from India, nor Long’s that we can find magic in its purest form from studying the Kahunas, though we for our part have neither reason nor facts to question their theories. This is about how we elves, who have been so far and long divorced from our culture in so many ways, and raised quite often, though not always and not entirely, among the normal folk, come to understand what is Elfin/Faerie magic and how it may differ, if it does, from various other magics that are in use today and in the past.
Surely we can glean some things, as we ever tend to do, some hints, from good fiction about we elfin folk and our magics. And surely, at its heart all magic stems from the same source, which is to say The Magic, the infinite potentiality that is, was and ever will be, from which all things are created. Religions anthropomorphize this energy into Gods and Goddess but all such Deities, to the elfin mind, are mere demi-gods, individualize interpretations of the truth that is both universal and undifferentiated.
We can certainly, and these elves do, study the various books and systems of magic that are available in metaphysical bookstore and even on the internet. Taught among the Elf Queen’s Daughters (who also taught us elfin witchcraft, sorcery and enchantment among other things) to use the I Ching, these elves consult this oracle every day and have been doing so since 1975. We also study books and have explored the use of various forms of magic, including Taoist, Celtic, Western Ceremonial, Tibetan and others, picking eclectically from each according to what works and what appeals to our hearts and souls.
Naturally, we have explored many, but not all, the books about faerie magic. Alas, most of these seem to be for witches and others who wish to use the faeries to help them with their magics. There is nothing wrong with that, if done rightly, but, except for our own books (which you can check out at ) we’ve encountered no books that view elfin magic from the inside, that is, how we elves do our magics, which is why, in part, that we have created our own books, many of them elfin versions of other systems that we have known, used and loved.
Which brings us back to Long. For we could do far worse than study the most original forms of shamanic practice, which Fraser, in the Introduction to the Golden Bough, hypothesizes was the source prior to, and in a sense, inspirational for both religion and science. If we are indeed in some senses the Elder Race then we must look back to the earliest manifestation of civilization and magic and these are to be found among the Kahunas of Hawaii, the aboriginal shamans of Australia, the indigenous shamans of Siberia (from whom the name shaman originates) and the Amazon and others, filtering what we learn through our own hearts, déjà vu like memories (telpareon – the far memory of the elves) and our own experiences.
Of course, these elves count ours’elves lucky. We were trained in magic by other elves and it is true that there is a vibrational transference of energy (similar perhaps to that described between a guru and his student in yogic lore) that is shared among the elfin that cannot be learned from books or received from others. But this is not something we do intentionally, exactly, but something that just happens among us when the time is right. Perhaps indeed, or really, without question, the best way to learn elfin magic is to be with other elves, but in the meantime, we can each of us glean what we can from other systems all of which ultimately had their source (diluted though they are) among the elfin.

Eli feln le (we love you),
The Silver Elves

trusting our instincts and intuitions

it is often difficult…

dear kith and kin,

… to know what constitutes our Elfin Culture when for the most part the only thing left of it are the tales and legends of those, who often, are not even a part of us, only daring to look in from the outside, repeating tales others have told and never thinking what the truth might truly be. So many of our ancestral tribes were wiped out and those that survived did so by merging with other larger and more aggressive peoples, either willingly to survive, or by capture, rape, and enslavement ages ago.

Yet within us the truth lives, and that truth shall always be our guide in knowing what is true and what is false about those who write about us both in fiction and non-fiction. This instinctive knowledge comes to us from what Jung called the Collective Unconscious, that knowledge that is passed to us through our elfin genes, but also, according to elfin belief by the memories of our spirits in whatever bodies into which we choose to be born.

If you are someone who believes whatever they are told by those in authority… than you are probably not an elf, or certainly not one that has awakened. It is said by the great Sage Silver Flame that there are two kinds of people in the world, those who value freedom over security and those who value security over freedom. We elves always choose freedom, which is perhaps why we ever hunger for kith and kin, for union and frasority (fraternity and sorority combined). We ever yearn deeply for our own but will never give up our freedom to obtain the family we so desire. This is in part why cult leaders hate us for they sense we can never be followers, and why the normal folk, who always choose security over freedom and ever are concerned with what others might think, are uncomfortable around us. To them we seem like wild cards, unpredictable folk who might do or say anything. Which is not quite true. What is true is that we will always do and say what we feel is right whether it fits the social mores or not. We are not so concerned with what people think of us as what we think of ours’elves.

So the answer, dear kin, to nearly every question you have about Elfin/Faerie is almost always to be found in what you feel. What kind of elf or faerie or other you might be? This Elfin/Faerie like this or that? Look within. The truth, as always, is there. Trust your attractions. Trust your interests. And consider always what is Fair, we are after all the Fair Folk. Remember always to be courteous, even when you find it necessary to be firm, perhaps, particularly then. Rudeness is weakness (this is a secret of enchantment). Gentleness is strength. Kindness is a rare and valuable commodity.

kyela,

the silver elves

Hello world!

we are glad to have you here…

dear kin,

…. among us in this world of grammarye and spellcraft. Let the magic begin!

kyela,

the silver elves