Ep 106: Circle of White Beings: Siôn from NW Wales

Siôn from Gwynedd, North West Wales shares some astonishing stories: A circle of beings appearing and reappearing, supernatural attack at a Crossroads, his childhood experience of a being seemingly impersonating his teddy, ‘Pinky’, his encounter with a green ‘wisp’, The Egryn Lights case and local ‘Fairy Lakes’ folklore.

Siôn reveals an encounter that his Uncle’s friend reported around twenty years ago, after walking in a particularly remote, marshy area in the mountains between Llanegryn on the North West coast and Abergynolwyn, North West Wales.


“I was visiting my uncle in hospital at the time and he had just received a visit from this close friend just before I had arrived. The account was fresh in his mind and [my uncle] had no reason to think that his friend would make such a story up, no matter how amazing it seemed…at the time…”

Sadly, his uncle died unexpectedly a short time later and Siôn regrets that he didn’t get to ask him any more about it. He has since reached out to his Aunt who remembers the story her husband told, but is unable to identify which of his friends it might have been.

The difficulty of tracking the person down is made trickier (as experiencers will know) by the fact that these stories are largely kept secret, and only ever shared with those who we feel might understand.

Nevertheless, Siôn remembers the account vividly and shares it with us here.

🌟 Siôn is coming onto our Patreon members live zoom chat in July to speak to us in person. Come and join our community 💫 https://www.patreon.com/c/themodernfairysightingspodcast/membership

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

Mary Jones and the Harlech Light Flap/The Egryn Lights
https://www.sufon.co.uk/post/the-egryn-lights

These are the lakes we discussed and some information from Siôn:
Llyn Cynwch
https://nannau.wales/folklore/the-fairies-of-llyn-cynwch/
https://faeryfolklorist.blogspot.com/search/label/Wales?m=0

Llyn Barfog/The Bearded one’s lake (literally=Bearded Lake)
The green clad fairy women and the white cow story …http://faeryfolklorist.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-fairy-women-of-llyn-barfog-north.html?m=0

Llyn Hafod y Llyn (the green wisp experience)
It happened around two miles from Siôn’s brother’s house near a picturesque lake nestled in a forest.

Llyn Hafod y Llyn (The Lake of the Lake Lodge/Shelter!!)
 ‘Hafod’ is the word for a place on high land where the shepherds would stay in summer while tending their sheep. ( ‘Haf’=Summer  ‘Fod’ = place/to be).

Lastly, the story of the circle of beings that I was trying to remember actually happened in Westmeath, Ireland…It’s in Dermot MacManus’s The Middle Kingdom. The circle of beings moves in a similar way to that reported by Siôn. In addition, just like report from NW Wales, this area was also known to be connected with Otherworldly experiences. The description of bagpipes suggest music may have also played an element here. :

“Clonmillan Hill has always had a reputation for being connected with the fairies, including the great Shee as well as the lesser Shee-og… The two girls had not got halfway up when the boys who had only gone on a short distance down the Mullingar Road, heard them call out. When the lads looked back they saw that the girls had stopped and were looking earnestly into the field on their right. After a few moments they saw the girls turn back and run down the lane on to the main road again. On reaching the road, the girls went over to a gate opposite the lane and stared into the field beyond it. Then they began urgently beckoning to the boys to join them there. They boys, who were thirty or forty yards away, ran up at once, little dreaming what an extraordinary thing they were about to see.

Whey they joined the girls at the gate and looked through it, to their utter astonishment they saw, some forty yards away, a group of dark figures of human size standing in a circle about ten yards in diameter. Black capes or shawls were draped over their heads and hung across their shoulders and from there dropped straight down to or into the ground, but with no crease or bend where they reached it. The figures stood so close together that their draperies touched from the shoulders down, making it impossible to see past them. They were quite motionless, even to folds and pleats of their draperies, as if carved out of some black stone, and their heads were erect. Mr Gowran [one of the boys grown up] says emphatically that these black cloaks were not woollen but were made of some very fine cloth that was not shiny, and so could not have been silken either.

Another remarkable feature was that the whole centre of the circle of figures appeared to be covered by a black cloth at the height of their shoulders. From it rose what seemed to be a chest – or though the children did not think of it at the time, a coffin – and it, too, was covered by the same black material, which lay snugly on the chest and showed its shape clearly. The top of the chest was a foot or a little more above the heads of the surrounding figures. And on the top of this chest lay a set of old Irish bagpipes. Mr Gowran can still describe them in detail and can remember just how they lay. There were three drones each about three feet long, one of which lay towards him and the other two away from him. The bag and the mouthpiece hung down over the side of the box. The drones were of unusual shape and were as thick as a big man’s wrist.

The children had stood looking at this curious sight for a considerable time, probably two or three minutes, when they saw Dan Jackson, the owner of the field, and his eighteen-year –old son approaching from the field beyond it, which was divided from it by a small ditch and strolled unconcernedly on. It seemed as if they were going to walk up to the figures, but it was soon clear that neither of them saw anything unusual, and after passing within six feet of the dark silent figures, they approached the gate.

Afraid of being asked awkward questions, and being rather alarmed at what they saw, the four children ran off towards the town just before the two men reached the gate. But the two boys, being bolder than the girls, stopped after they had gone a short distance and peered through the hedge again. They were now alongside the next field and so had to look through the side hedge as well, but they found a gap and saw that the mysterious figures were still quietly standing, but the circle had moved some ten yards further away and was now close to the ditch of the next field, covering the track along which the two men had just passed.”

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This episode also released as a video on YouTube

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

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

SUPPORT THE PODCAST: The Curious Folk tier is available to join with a free one week trial!

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 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. 

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

🥔** 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 


Episode 22: The Gentry and a Visitor

In this episode we hear from a woman living in Wales who had a visit from a green man while gardening. Later, after some ‘goings on’ in the house, she had to ask him to leave. She also describes how she watched The Gentry ride by near her home one day. We discuss these and some other extraordinary experiences.

It amazes me how many people have had something strange and inexplicable take place in their life. It seems like the majority of people can report at least one such happening. The world is a mysterious place! Let’s not forget that. There appears to be much more going on here than we generally take for granted.

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.

Join The Curious Crew and receive bonus material when you support The Modern Fairy Sightings Project:

Become a Patron!

Shownotes

Fairy Paths and Spirit Roads: An Exploration of Otherworldly Routes by Paul Devereux’ – this is a fabulous book which covers corpse roads, fairy paths and Australian aboriginal ‘Dreamtime’ routes among others. It includes a ‘sampler’ section of the routes themselves for those curious and intrepid explorers who feel drawn to tread these paths.

The Middle Kingdom: The Faerie World of Ireland‘, by Dermot Mac Manus. A friend of Yeates, Mac Manus provides a fascinating insight into the customs and beliefs present in Ireland when it was written in the 1950s. Many of the memories shared stretch back to the 19th century in places and it’s really a great read. There’s a whole chapter on fairy paths.

‘Greening the Paranormal: Exploring the Ecology of Extraordinary Experience’, by Dr Jack Hunter. This great book covers Animism and the idea of ‘personhood’ encompassing natural formations such as rocks and rivers. Essays explore how themes of ecology intersect with the paranormal, from different perspectives.

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

Main image: ‘Då och då tog tomten tag i tyglarna’ (Every now and then santa grabbed the reins) by John Bauer.