supernatural

Ep 79: Night Time Gnome Came Looking for Me! (New Zealand)

I speak to a man in Auckland New Zealand, who grew up in what was originally native bush land. As a child, he had what sounds like a gnome encounter inside his home. His response to the frightening experience had a profound effect on how he decided to live his life from that point forward.

Our guest’s inspiring story suggests what may be possible if we can look beyond our fears and lean into communication with landscape and the non-human beings who reside there.

It feels like an important story for us to hear at this time.

Image: Comus, Arthur Rackham (1921)

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.

⭐️ Head to Patreon for the full length version of our chat in video version ⭐️

Recommendations:

Astrology recommendation: Pam Gregory YouTube

For more info on chakras head to ‘The Body Mirror System of Healing’ and I recommend Martin Brofman’s book: Anything Can Be Healed.

New Zealand folklore :

Pirongia. Mystical mountain of the Patupaiarehe

WAKA HUIA – MATAKITE FULL EPISODE (youtube.com)

Search Te Ara – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Understanding tangihanga – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Wellbeing:

Pathworkings/Meditations for Wellbeing:

My ‘Connecting with Ancestors’ meditation is free here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/94431793

My mindfulness meditation free here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/96431208

SUPPORT THE PODCAST: The ‘Curious Folk’ tier is now available to join

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 78: The Dark Rider on Glastonbury Tor

In 2008 an English woman encountered a figure on Glastonbury Tor, who has appeared in a number of episodes thus far. He is known as…The Dark Rider.

In this and previous episode Ep 76: Otherworldly People: Encounter on the Thames he appears and then disappears. He is clad in black leather clothing, each time wearing a black helmet with the visor down so that you cannot see his face. He features in, Green Gnome Visitation Changed My Life (Oklahoma) when a man recalls his terror at seeing him appear in his childhood home.

In this episode I refer to S4 Ep46: A Series of English Encounters and episode 91 of Spirit Box Podcast: Jessica Mitchell ‘I saw the Dark Man on Glastonbury Tor’

Read more about Dr Neil Rushton’s experience on Glastonbury Tor here: Disembodied Faerie Voices: Some Personal Experiences. I will be speaking to Neil this month.

Host of Spirit Box Podcast, Darragh Mason’s book, Song of the Dark Man releases soon. Preorder your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Dark-Man-Witches-Crossroads/dp/1644119099

⭐️ The bonus episode on Patreon is a special on Gwyn Ap Nudd, King of the Fairies and bright god of Annwfn, the Brythonic Underworld. Gwyn is said to dwell in a glass castle within Glastonbury Tor. (Releases Friday 15th March)

Recommendations for Wellbeing:

Pathworkings/Meditations for Wellbeing:

My ‘Connecting with Ancestors’ meditation is free here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/94431793

My mindfulness meditation free here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/96431208

SUPPORT THE PODCAST: The ‘Curious Folk’ tier is now available to join

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 76: Otherworldly People: Encounter on the Thames

Jo Hickey-Hall speaks to Frank Scannella about his encounter next to the river in Walton-on-Thames in 1982. His story ‘Meeting Nicola’, was published in the, “It Happened To Me…” section of The Fortean Times (Issue 350, 2017). This episode was also released as a video on YouTube.

The sense of uncanniness about this meeting has always stayed with Frank. There are many liminal aspects to consider: the proximity to water, crossing a bridge, the time of his life between studies. As well as this, various folklore motifs abound: black dog, dark man, strange stillness in the environment (Oz Factor) and the way that the beings appeared and disappeared in a mysterious manner.

Most of all, there was a sense that one cannot fully describe. But you will know, if you’ve ever had a brush with the Otherworld.

The main image is Frank’s own impression of ‘Nicola.’

⭐️ BONUS EPISODE ⭐️
In the bonus episode on Patreon I share related folklore about river-related merfolk, we hear some comparable encounters submitted to Simon Young’s Fairy Census and we end with a particularly unsettling story that was posted on Reddit. It is a strikingly similar experience of a young man who came into contact with a strange man along the river in York, England, featuring lost time and other very strange factors Both men view their experiences as near misses with beings from the Otherworld and feel lucky that they lived to tell the tale.

Shownotes

Frank is the author of Sicilian Shadows – a compelling memoir of his struggle for survival in the heartland of the Mafia as a young boy.

The ‘Curious Folk’ tier is now available to join

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 73: Green Gnome Visitation Changed my Life (Oklahoma)

A most poignant story about a little boy from Oklahoma who came face to face with a gnome in his bedroom.

As a child he had felt very alone and afraid for much of his childhood but it was an Otherworldly being that reached out and showed him love. Now as an adult, he recalls how this experience, “changed (his) life and the way (he) saw the world”.

Trigger Warnings:
Our guest describes having survived an abusive childhood with aspects of neglect. As an adult, they were the first one to find their parent who had sadly, passed away.

⭐️ BONUS EPISODE ⭐️
In this Patron-exclusive full-length version, we hear of another experience which you may find shocking. Our guest’s elder brother was attacked by some kind of Otherworldly creature which is well-known in Native American Seminole folklore.

Main Image: ‘Robin Goodfellow, A Sprite‘ by Charles Folkyard (1910)

Shownotes

‘It’ (1990) Dir. Stephen King https://archive.org/details/stephenkingsit

Cornish Knockers (Blog by Icy Sedgwick) https://www.icysedgwick.com/knockers/

Descriptions of green skinned gnomes recall the story of The Green Children of Woolpit. See here for a great blog piece by Dr Neil Rushton: https://deadbutdreaming.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/the-green-children/

Paul Devereux: Haunted Land: Investigations into Ancient Mysteries and Modern Day Phenomena

Information regarding The Trail of Tears:
BBC Radio Documentary

https://stacker.com/history/stories-behind-trail-tears-every-state-it-passed-through

https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/resources/The-Trail-of-Tears-A-Story-of-Cherokee-Removal.cshtml

https://www.nativehope.org/

Our guest shared the following picture of a Duende which he says looks similar to the being he saw:

Interestingly, while looking for the artist of the above Duende I came across this intriguing story about ‘The Toucan Man’ who, in Belizean folklore was said to abduct children (this is a well known folkloric trope). Although our guest did not hear music, the guy who later told our guest’s brother about his encounter, had heard music.

It sounds like a different sort of being, however there are some interesting similarities also with the patron-only section in which our guest’s brother received deep scratches to his back when encountering another, more terrifying entity. :
https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/01/SI-JF-16-31.pdf

The ‘Curious Folk’ tier is now available to join

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 72: Californian Gnome Portals

Our guest describes a sighting in 2016 in California, which occurred after a plant medicine church meeting. Whilst sitting in his car waiting for a friend, he watched two gnomes, no more than three ft tall in height, appear from a bush one after the other. They ‘waddle’ across the street and disappear into another bush.

(Apologies for the poor sound quality! I have done the best I can with the file – it was much worse to begin with).

⭐️ BONUS EPISODE ⭐️

In the exclusive bonus episode on Patreon we hear of a multiple witness sighting of a white glowing human-sized figure after taking part in an indigenous ritual. It was observed on private land and the owner of the land appeared to be aware of the spirits that he shared this space with. The encounter lasted several minutes and the being emitted a ‘headlight’ type of light which shone into his eyes.

Image: A Travelling Gnome with his Toadstool by Heinrich Schlitt (German, 1849-1923)

Shownotes

✨ SHOW NOTES:

Marjorie Johnson (2018): Seeing Fairies: From the Lost Archives of the Fairy Investigation Society, Authentic Reports of Fairies in Modern Times

Simon Young: Fairy Census 2014 – 2017

Jack Hunter (2023) Deep Weird: The Varieties of High Strangeness Experience

Rudolf Otto (1917) The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry Into the Non-rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational

The ‘Curious Folk’ tier is now available to join

Here is the experience at West Kennet that I refer to: https://www.patreon.com/posts/west-kennet-82913328 it’s in our new Collections on Patreon.

Blog

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 70: Anubis & The Hat Man: In the Shadows

We hear of one woman’s experiences with shadow people. The first appears as Anubis the Egyptian Protector god, while the other is a well-known archetype: The Hat Man – an entity who has appeared to many people and is traditionally seen as malevolent…though the story shared in this episode provides another perspective.

TRIGGER WARNING
There is a trigger warning for those who may find it hard to listen to my guest describe her unhappy childhood and the content itself is rather unnerving. Skip this one if you are sensitive to creepy content.

⭐️ BONUS EPISODE ⭐️

In the exclusive bonus episode on Patreon, our guest describes a more recent mind-blowing ‘divine’ experience which was hugely transformative. A powerful force poured through her body and took her directly to experience what I refer to as ‘Source’. Since that time, her life has taken a new direction. She finds herself in a long-lasting happy relationship pursuing what she feels she was born to do – helping others.

Image: In The Afterlife. Photo Credit: catbagan, Creative Commons 2.0

Shownotes

Connecting with Anubis. This is a great article introducing Anubis and how to connect with him, written by someone who has felt his presence previously.

BLOG: Urban Legends, Folklore, Myths and Fairytales: SHADOW PEOPLE & HAT MAN

The HatMan Project

Blog

Darragh’s forthcoming book, Song of the Dark Man: Father of Witches, Lord of the Crossroads preorder now at Amazon.

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 69: Beckoned by Forest and Lake: Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Our guest describes his extreme childhood experience in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 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/

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/

Welsh Lake Legends and Folklore: Llyn Cwm Llwch and the Door of the Tylwyth Teg

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

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 67: Patrick Harpur: Daimons and The Otherworld

To kick off series 7 we are joined by author, Patrick Harpur who is well known to many of us for his book, Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld. I also highly recommend reading The Philosopher’s Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination which sheds a lot of light on the sorts of experiences we hear about on this show, along with his other non-fiction book, A Complete Guide to the Soul.

Here we talk about Patrick’s family’s relationship with the Otherworld and whether an openness to their existence aids the potential for personal encounters. We ponder the eccentricity of our modern western culture in denying the existence of daimons and Patrick offers ideas about which gods may be ruling us at this time.

I hope you enjoy this discussion. Let me know on Instagram and Twitter.

⭐️ In the bonus episode on Patreon⭐️

Patrick reveals his fascinating, childhood treasure-finding experience. Locating treasure is very much connected with beings from the fairy realm. It’s a lovely share.

To watch this exclusive chat join us on Patreon 👇

Shownotes

I mention an encounter with a werewolf-type being in Ep 14, the Guardian of the Mountain episode.

Patrick mentions his sister, Merrily Harpur’s book, Mystery Big Cats

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 66: Bethan and Icy talk Welsh and Northumbrian Fairylore!

✨ In this second and final Summer Guest Host Takeover special* I’m delighted to introduce two more spectacular human beings: Bethan Briggs-Miller of Eerie Essex and Spectre of the Sea and Icy Sedgwick of Fabulous Folklore with Icy

🧌🧚🏻‍♀️ Icy and Bethan share encounters from their original homelands, discuss psychic home-clearing and whether it works, muse on fairy/human interactions and even divulge their own personal relationships with potential Otherworldly beings!

The video version of this episode will release on YouTube one week after the audio release.

*JO HICKEY-HALL RETURNS SEPT 3rd with a new series ⚡️⚡️

⭐️ In the bonus episode on Patreon⭐️

✨🧘🏼‍♀️🧘🏽✨Jo provides a guided visualisation meditation to rebalance and aid your direction during this tricky time of transition.

Shownotes

🥔** Bethan Briggs-Miller is a folklorist, artist and co-host of two podcasts: Eerie Essex (along with Ailsa Clarke)and Spectre of the Sea, which she creates with Owen Staton. Both shows are incredibly entertaining. Bethan has also appeared on Help! My House is Haunted.

**listen to the show for the potato reference 🤣

Contact Bethan on socials:
https://www.instagram.com/bethanbriggsmillerart/
https://www.facebook.com/bethan.r.jones.37
https://twitter.com/BethanJones9

👻 Icy Sedgwick is a folklore blogger and host of the Fabulous Folklore podcast. She is also a fiction author of dark fantasy, supernatural mysteries, Gothic horror and Westerns. Her fascination with the occult began at an early age when her mum bought her a copy of Ghosts and Legends of Northumbria!

Contact Icy by email at: icy@icysedgwick.com and socials:
https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick
https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick
https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick

🌷🌸Thanks so much to Icy and Bethan and to our previous hosts, Claire and Kate. What a fabulous bunch of women 👏 I feel very grateful to be sharing this project with my friends and I really appreciate all their support.

💚 Get in touch with The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast on Instagram and Twitter and let me know which bits you enjoyed most. I loved hearing about Icy and Bethan’s own encounters and the story of the Silkie of Denton Hall – that one has fascinated me for years.

For more on fairies in houses, check out these previous episodes:
Episode 10: Stay or Go?
Episode 18: Chat with Thomas Freese, Researcher of the Strange
Episode 37: Paolo Sammut: Gnomes and Fetches in the Home

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