Do You Believe?
Posted on | April 3, 2010 | 6 Comments
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I am asked that question. As a fantasy artist I live and create in a world of make believe, folk lore, and the everyday magic that is nature.
A better asked question might be, “who wouldn’t want to believe in times like these?”
Recent weather catastrophes, war, financial crisis’s, drugs, violence, and the downfall of the “hero” in our society has left us bereft and adrift in a sea of disillusion and uncertainty. As children we looked up to sports legends, movie stars, and presidents until it become glaringly obvious that they missed the mark, fell or were toppled off their pedestals by their actions or misdeeds. After all they’re only human, right?
Faeries on the other hand are known to be duplicitous, tricks-y, pranksters, who depending on their type are pretty straight forward. Most fairy fall into one of three categories, Neutral, the Seelie, and the Unseelie. The neutral fairies are just that, neither aligned with the good or bad, and the Seelie are generally considered to be light (mainly positive) fairies while the Unseelie are quite the opposite. With faerie you know where you stand.
We were brought up believing in the Tooth fairy, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, and faeries. Early memories of scouting fields behind our home for dew covered spider webs on the ground with the hope of discovering fairy balls still going on. Mushroom rings, dark hidey holes in trees, fallen logs, dense underbrush were inspected for wee folk. My mom and grandmother would read to us each night of wee folk, goblins, and brownies who regularly stole our toys if we were bad.
My favorite poem is still William Allingham’s “The Faeries”.
Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren ‘t go a-hunting 
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather!
Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.
While we were not rich in coin we were rich in imagination and we believed!
Fast forward some forty years and I still believe. I believe in a world of imagination, of art, of music. Nature has become my muse, my comfort, and my friend. I turn off the TV and go for walks in the woods.
The air is clean and sweet, vernal pools are now teeming with life, trees are waking and showing forth their finest buds and blooms.
I believe.
My grandsons are now of an age where Santa, the Easter Bunny, and fairy folk are real. I will pass on the tales, poems, and stories that were told to me. The seeds will be planted, nurtured, and if they are lucky, they will have the chance to experience the imagination of a magical world, something that is slowly dissappearing from their daily life.
So, the next time you lose your keys, the lights go out, or toys go missing, blame it on the faeries… you’ll feel better and your children will love the stories. Use your imagination! 
Fantasy artists do it every day. We live our lives immersed in music, art, folk tales, traditions, and when the world around us is in chaos, we find the quiet place that faerie provides. Our own oasis in a desert of disillusioned humanity.
I ask again…do you believe?
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6 Responses to “Do You Believe?”
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April 3rd, 2010 @ 8:51 pm
I not only believe, but I believe belief is essential for a happy and healthy life. When we lose our sense of joy and wonder, we lose an important part of what make life worth living. I write a monthly column called “Faeries, Elves and Other Kin,” and I’m keenly interested in how people of all ages, both in terms of eras (now and then) and in terms of life stages (young and old), interact and communicate with the realm of faery, and how the realm of faery has evolved and changed to interact and communicate with us. All cultures have stories containing warnings and advice regarding the unseen forces at work in the world — to assume technology has explained away all of these forces is arrogant and unwise. Those with the courage to believe and seek out truth wherever it is to be found know the reality of faeries is is alive and well. Just ask my house faerie; they’ll tell you so!
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April 5th, 2010 @ 12:41 am
No, I don’t believe.
And you know what, and this is very important for people who think like the above, I don’t have to believe to enjoy something. I don’t have to believe to have joy and wonder.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite. You start to lose your sense of joy and wonder of the world when you believe. You are literally saying, that this life as it is without your faerie tales is nothing special, and that just isn’t the case. And as the poster above, they’ll make up whatever nonsense just to keep that illusion. The realm of faerie has “evolved” and changed to interact and communicate with us? C’mon, how egotistical… and what, how it used to be wasn’t enough? That’s just what happened when “believers” had to change their beliefs due to advancement of understanding about our actual wondrous world. “Oh, I guess that wasn’t faeries… but this other mystery must!” Have a little curiosity and actually explore our world instead of making things up every time something “unexplainable” occurs.
Just because you know something is fiction doesn’t ruin the entertainment value of it. Everybody who plays any kind of roleplaying or video game knows this. I love it, I program so I create whole worlds with all sorts of varying designs… but this doesn’t mean I’ve lost touch with how beautiful actual reality is.
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April 5th, 2010 @ 8:00 am
Well, I was to comment on the article. I’ve seen these two posts now. And I think I’ll sit back with a cigar and see how it plays out.
But, I DO believe I like the poem by W. Allingham. Cute.
k
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April 5th, 2010 @ 11:43 pm
I’m also in the not-believing camp, and I’m not fond of the argument that life is less fun when you don’t believe. I’ve never believed in faeries, but let me tell you, my life became a LOT better when I let go of certain religious beliefs…
Faerie and the tales of it are so rich and varied that you don’t have to believe them to love them. And they’ve inspired so many beautiful pieces of art, including the poem and illustrations you included in the blog, the work of many of our Etsy teammates, and most of my work, too. I don’t have to believe that faeries are real to draw inspiration from them.
Besides, everyone knows that when things go missing or the lights go out, the cat is to blame!
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April 6th, 2010 @ 8:40 am
I never stopped believing ~ that would mean I would have had to grow up!
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April 11th, 2010 @ 11:07 am
I just wanted to thank everyone who commented on my post. While some questioned my sanity for approving “negative” comments, I also respect the right to an opinion; even if it differs from mine.
As I tell my grandsons, we are all different flowers in one garden. Wouldn’t it be boring if everyone was a tulip???
Thanks again!
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