Ep 69: Beckoned by Forest and Lake: An Appalachian Enchantment

Our guest describes his extreme childhood experience in Appalachia involving musical enchantment, levitation, loss of time and senses and deep connection to raw nature.

We hear how he was enchanted into the woods and ended up in a potentially life-threatening situation. Despite the intensity of the experience, he hold the view that it opened him up to a new way of seeing the world. A truly remarkable story and a much treasured share.

A second experience was described during our conversation. It is just as amazing as the first and will be released nearer winter solstice.

TRIGGER WARNING
This story contains descriptions of a child finding themselves alone in the forest and getting into potential danger in water. Although thankfully they were not harmed, it may be a trigger point for those who are sensitive to these subjects.

⭐️ In the bonus episode ⭐️

In the bonus episode I read from Yeats’ The Celtic Twilight and a story collected by 19th century folklorist, Thomas Crofton Croker

Image: ‘Place of Ghliocais’ kindly permitted by Merle Oberon at Moth Creative https://www.instagram.com/mothcreative/

Podcast intro music: Transmutate by Snowflake (c) copyright 2020 Licensed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Shownotes

Paviland Cave ‘lady’

Welsh people as early Britons

Mary Oliver’s fairy experiences in the forest:
Marjorie T. Johnson in Seeing Fairies by Marjorie T. Johnson (2014) (ed. Simon Young) pp. 33.

The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow by Ben Johnson (1628)

Thomas Crofton Croker’s Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825 – 1828)

Interesting articles re water related fairies:

https://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/water-fairies/

https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2018/07/01/mere-maids-freshwater-spirits-of-britain/

Please submit your fairy sightings to The Fairy Census and I would love to hear from you if you’d like to discuss your experience either for research, my forthcoming book or the Podcast.

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Ep 68: A Gnome Ran Across My Bed!: Maintaining Childhood Wonder

I chat to a woman originally from the south east of England, about her real experiences with fairy beings. They include childhood levitation, a bedroom based fairy visitation, and a multiple-witness sighting of a tiny humanoid disappearing into a hedge. She describes seeing orbs inside her bedroom as a child as well as lights in trees and we hear the strange case of a fairy-related text message which the sender had not written!

⭐️ In the bonus episode ⭐️

The bonus share is the story of a ‘Stick Man’ or ‘Tree Being’ which she and her husband became used to seeing around their home in New York State.  I hold a special place in my heart for these creatures. Having seen one myself a number of years ago. They appear to be sensitive, peaceful beings who are connected with the land in which they appear and are perhaps even guardians of that land. We hear snippets of previous guests encounters with Stick Men (some of them previous exclusive bonuses)

Some of the experiences described may be unsettling for some listeners who are sensitive to creepy content. These stories are not suitable for children.

Image: Margaret Tarrant ‘On Primrose Hill’

Music: Elf Meditation by Kevin Macleod

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Shownotes

Dr Simon Young on Levitation

Boggart and Banshee episode on Levitation

Spirit Box Patreon Bonus on The Flying Men Sect of Haiti

Dr Simon Young’s Fairy Census

Fairy Census submissions which feature in this episode:

#90A – Reception teacher in woods
#30 – Tinkling lights in hedge
#94 – Gnomes in the playbox
#364 – Parade of fairies across bedroom floor
#61 – Dancing fairies on duvet
#123 – Elf in the grass
#142 – Fairy being followed them home

Please submit your fairy sightings to The Fairy Census

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Ep 64: ‘The People That Aren’t People’

A woman from San Diego, California shares a whole host of extraordinary encounters with people who took the appearance of human beings but felt decisively, not-of-this-world.

From a strangely terrifying family in a Walmart car park to a disappearing cowboy, you may well find that these stories strike a chord with some odd encounters of your own.

Perhaps the most intriguing of all, ‘The Hitchhiker’ may lead you to question what is really ‘real’ anymore. Is the Universe communing with our subconscious by way of metaphors and archetypes?

Some of the experiences described may be unsettling for some listeners who are sensitive to creepy content. These stories are not suitable for children.

⭐️ In the bonus episode ⭐️

🌚 Our guest shares some more personal experiences which took place just outside her home and also more recently, within her home.

Image: Still from GIF by Almost Dead https://giphy.com/channel/AlmostDead

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Shownotes

Wellbeing: Insight Timer App with free meditations


Further reading/listening regarding the Trickster:

Simon Young and Chris Woodyard’s Podcast: Boggart and Banshee https://www.buzzsprout.com/1859647/13142425-the-immortals-among-us-the-wandering-jew-and-other-undying-ones

Simon Young’s Sourcebook: Meeting an Immortal: Encounters with the Wandering Jew in British Folklore

If you are interested in the Trickster, you need to read The Trickster and The Paranormal by George P. Hansen

On the theme of ‘personhood of landscapes’ etc, I recommend reading Dr Jack Hunter’s Greening the Paranormal which in turn signposts to further reading.

Wonderful Women:
Bethan Briggs-Miller of Eerie Essex and Spectre of the Sea
Icy Sedgwick of Fabulous Folklore with Icy
Kate Ray of Hare in the Hawthorn
Claire Casely of Fairy Whispering

Fae Connection Tea Ceremony Online Workshops with Todd Grube

Saturday 12th August 2023 16:00 – 17:30 (BST) and
Saturday 19th August 2023 09:00 – 10:30 (BST)

Tickets Eventbrite: £25.00

(Patreon supporters of The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast receive 20% off)

☕️Tea meditation or Cha-dao is a ancient form of Shamanic meditation practice from south China which uses the plant medicine, Camellia Sinensis or tea!

🧚‍♂️It has been used by shamans, healers and Taoist for around 20,000 years as a tool to communicate with gods, Fae, elementals, guides, Star people and power animals.

🌱Tea is a plant teacher and medicine which helps open you to receive messages and even communicate with different Fae and light beings.

Todd Grube – Tea Ritual Teacher and Mystic Mover

🌟In this workshop Todd will talk about:
the history of tea : how to do a tea meditation : which teas to use for tea meditations : philosophy of tea meditation : how to use tea as a medicine and to connect with the Fae and light beings.

✨We will run a ritual ceremony during the workshop followed by an opportunity to share our experiences and ask questions. The whole workshop will be 1.5 hours

☕️ 🧚🏻‍♂️✨🧚🏻‍♂️✨🧚🏻‍♂️☕️

Todd has previously discussed his extraordinary experiences with Fae and other non-human beings on The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast.

You can hear Todd talk about tea in this episode:

Book your space on Eventbrite

For more information contact scarlettofthefae@gmail.com or
https://www.facebook.com/todd.grube.3

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Shape-Shifting Tree Folk and a Love of Nature

I meet Paul from Alberta, Canada who tells me about his experience with a shape-shifting being. The encounter took place during a visit to a forest environment which he had grown to love.

We discuss the importance of nature in our lives and the instinctive responses which we should always pay attention to.

This is a lovely, heartwarming chat .

Paul will be joining ‘The Curious Crew’ who support the show this summer for an online Q and A plus…

⭐️The bonus episode ⭐️ includes:

🌳 narrated modern encounters from Dr Simon Young’s Fairy Census 2014 – 2017 and Marjorie T. Johnson’s Seeing Fairies, that bear resemblance to the encounter in this episode.

🌳 our extended conversation which continued off-episode

⚡️🍄⚡️MUSHROOM WARNING: I do of course need to add a disclaimer here to protect folks. The brown capped mushroom that looks like Fly Agaric could be Panther Cap which is highly toxic and in rare cases, can kill. Please do not go picking or ingesting mushrooms unless you are with a trained professional.

Image: ‘Wood Goblin’ by Alexander Vygalov https://piat.ru/en/jivopis

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Shownotes

If you have had a fairy sighting, please complete Dr Simon Young’s ongoing Fairy Census which is found here.

Warning: I do not advise people to pick or ingest mushrooms unless they are with a professionally trained ID expert. Many mushrooms are poisonous and harmful if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Tinder Hoof Identification

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2021/10/bracket-fungi-identification/

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Ep 62: Visitations from ‘The Lady’ with Amanda Mariamne Radcliffe

I chat with High Priestess and Bishop of the French Gnostic Church, Amanda Mariamne Radcliffe.

We explore Amanda’s experiences with the Divine which include a visitation from ‘The Lady’ and a number of fairy sightings. She describes her deep connection with the Cathars and how she came to live in ‘Cathar Country’ in Mont Segur, Occitaine and Rennes Le Bain in Aude, both situated in the South of France. 

We discuss Amanda’s extraordinary life journey so far, which has at times been directed by dream insights. 

⭐️The bonus episode ⭐️ contains:

🌹 (what sounds like) a Tokoloshe experience and what sort of emotional states fairies appear to be attracted to.

🌹 power points in the landscape,  including Mont Segur, Rennes le Bain and  Glastonbury.

🌹 how dream insights led Amanda to live in Rennes Le Bain and join the Gnostic Order in France.

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Shownotes

I audio recorded this week’s Stanton Drew Solstice Ceremony 2023 led by Druid, Adrian Rooke. You can listen here.

If you have had a sighting, please complete Dr Simon Young’s ongoing Fairy Census which is found here.

Michael Le Flem on Visions of Atlantis discussion on Spirit Box Podcast

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Ep 59: The Burgundy Kingdom – Shropshire Fairies

This episode, full of childhood encounters, holds a particularly enchanting quality. As a sick child lies in bed, he is visited by pixies. On another occasion, at the end of the Second World War, a terrifying goblin appears at the end of his bed. A member of the same family later experiences a bedtime parade of magical wonders. Her resulting dream journeys to a ‘Burgundy Kingdom’ makes her wish dearly that she could return.

Some of those experiences are beautiful and wondrous while others are quite unsettling. A further reminder that this podcast is not suitable for children or for those who are sensitive to creepy content.

⭐️On the bonus episode we hear more about the history of the house including a particularly unnerving event which took place soon after the passing of its owner. In that same bonus we will hear about our guest’s experience at the famous 800 year old oak tree, Old Knobbly in Essex.⭐️

Main Image: ‘The Sleepless Child’ by H. Stratton from ‘Songs for Little People’ (1896)

Please subscribe, rate and share this podcast 💚 

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Ep 58: Professor Ronald Hutton’s Encounter with a Leannán Sídhe

Professor Ronald Hutton of University of Bristol

Professor Ronald Hutton, a leading expert on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, shares an Otherworldly encounter which took place near the Ring of Kerry on the west coast of Ireland, during his twenties.

We discuss his personal experience and he offers what traditional fairylore can tell us about modern encounters with the Unseen.

A video version of this interview is available on Patreon. An exclusive bonus episode will follow this coming week!

⭐️Join the Curious Crew to support the show and access bonus content on Patreon ⭐️

Please subscribe, rate and share this podcast 💚 

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Ep 55: Terrified by Goblins in my London Flat!

In 2018, after months of unusual phenomena in her London flat, a woman finally came face to face with the troublesome culprits. During a night time trip to the bathroom she was horrified to see two goblins, stacked one atop the other, peering at her from the threshold of the door. 

Since that time, she has struggled to come to terms with the reality of what happened.  In our western society, people are wholly unaccepting that these experiences take place, least of all that they could ever happen in urban areas. 

We discuss the events that finally led to that night, her relationship with the flat, which had always unnerved visitors and how the decision to share her story was not taken lightly. 

Is it purely location that invokes these visitations? What other factors are involved? We discuss aspects of liminality including thresholds, stages of life and geographical landmarks. 

In the bonus episode on Patreon, I narrate several other modern encounters which bear a striking resemblance to our guest’s experience. Join us there for just £3 a month and get access to the Discord group and regular events.

Main image: Created by the guest as a close likeness of the one of the goblins she saw in her flat.

Please subscribe, rate and share this podcast 💚 

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Show notes

Briggs, K. (1976) An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and Other Supernatural Creatures. New York: Pantheon Books.

Bathing Fairies of Ilkley on Boggart and Banshee Podcast (Simon Young and Chris Woodyard)

Bord, J.  (1997) Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People. London: Michael O’Mara Books

Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti (composed in 1859 and published in 1862)

Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Ep 53: Dartmoor Gnomes and Seer Lineage

Another delve into the original interview recordings I made in early 2017 when the Modern Fairy Sightings Project first launched.  Mark Norman and I were at the time researching for the Devon chapter in Simon Young’s book Magical Folk.

One particular woman responded to a poster I’d pinned up in Dartmoor, calling for people to contact with their fairy encounters! We spoke about her family history with fairies and her own understandings of the Otherworld. 

Later on in the show, I share more reported fairy sightings on Dartmoor featured in Janet Bord’s book, Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People.

In the bonus episode on Patreon, we explore  20th century Dartmoor folklore by Theo Brown, which mentions a few stories of sightings in Postbridge, not far from Bovey Tracey, where our guest had lived.

Please subscribe, rate and share this podcast 💚 

Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers and listeners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.

Shownotes

Janet Bord’s Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People (1997)

Theo Brown’s Tales of a Dartmoor Village: Some Preliminary Notes of the Folklore of Postbridge (1973)

Susan Chittenden’s A Romance of Two Worlds (2021) (pls email me for Susan’s contact)

J. R. W. Coxhead – Devon Traditions and Fairytales (1959)

Edward L. Gardner: Fairies: A Book of Real Fairies (1974)

Marjorie T. Johnson’s (Simon Young ed) Seeing Fairies: From the Lost Archives of the Fairy Investigation Society, Authentic Reports of Fairies in Modern Times (2019)

Dermot MacManus Middle Kingdom: The Faerie World of Ireland (1980)

Simon Young’s Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies: 500AD to the Present (2020)


Subscribe, rate, review and share the wonder ❤️✨

If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon

Want to report a sighting?

Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
If you love the show and want support it and join our loving community you can find us at Patreon 

Ep 49: Artist, Brett Manning discusses dreams, inspirations and magic rabbits

Brett’s book is available on Etsy

A beautiful in-depth chat with Brett Manning – a well known and much admired artist of the strange. Her new book, One Foot in the Green presents insightful and characterful interpretations of the Fae and cryptid beings. 

Brett’s sense of the Otherworld is inspired by her own dreams and personal experiences.  This chat is a really generous and open hearted discussion about her relationship with these beings and their realms. 

Connect with Brett’s work on Instagram at BrettManningArt and BrettisaGirl on Etsy. 

Hop over to the Patreon BONUS EPISODE to hear excerpts from Brett’s book, One Foot in the Green.

Brett Manning’s Art

Content warning: These are not fairytales and the content is unsuitable for children. Some episodes may contain details which some may find unsettling or frightening. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for listeners 16 years and older.

Please do subscribe, rate and share this episode and support the podcast by joining Patreon if you can. Thank you 

Podcast intro music: Transmutate by Snowflake (c) copyright 2020 Licensed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Modern Fairy Sightings Green Man Artwork: Peter Hall Studios