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‘Irish Faeries: A True Story. First of all, let me just say that prior to my experience, I didn’t give the faerie lore much credence, relegating it to children’s bedtime stories: you know, ‘fairytales’. In May 2009, just a few days after Beltaine, a very good friend and I traveled to Donegal in the northwest corner of Ireland where we spent four days at a shamanic workshop The whole subject of the Fae was an ‘aside’ and not initially important, but in fact, meeting the Fae turned out to be a major turning point for me that would be spiritually life-changing. The affable Irish owner of the four-hundred-year-old barn and cottage where my friend and I stayed picked us up from the airport in Derry and we drove past the town of *** and into the hamlet of ***. Exhausted from traveling, the car’s steady hum started to lull me into a fatigued silence in the backseat until our Irish friend began driving up the hill to her property, and I immediately stirred from my stupor. Something seemed to have changed and to this day, the only thing that I could tell that was palpably different was a change in the light, which seemed golden, and a childish, playful feeling of anticipation bubbling up in me. I had this inexplicable feeling that some magic was afoot! I gave our friend my impression of her beautiful and wild-looking property and how I couldn’t contain myself. She chuckled softly and said that we should wait until we saw the faery well and that her property, which sat on six acres, was full of the Fae, and that she had strategically placed huge crystals in certain spots to ensure that the land and her family were protected. We were taken straight away to our lodging, an almost derelict four-hundred-year-old the cottage on the edge of some woodland. Right outside was an almost life-sized statue of a Moon Goddess with a giant amethyst geode where her womb would normally be. Above her in the branches were an assortment of various charms in crystals, tinsel and coloured paper and pendulums. There were various chimes by the door. We set our luggage down in the cottage while she lit a fire, and then joined her for tea in the adjoining house, a charming barn conversion worthy of any droll Harry Potter movie, and, it has to be said again, very fey and magical. We sat with her in her kitchen and she shared stories with us about feeling ‘energy’ near the magic well and the spring on the property, and in the woods attached to the back of the cottage. She also showed us countless photos of orbs and tiny lights that she and her daughters took in their walks in the nearby woods. I felt as though we were embarking on a wonderful adventure. We retired to our cottage after an early supper of warm soup. As this was early in the month of May, our cottage felt positively glacial indoors, although there was always a roaring fire in the hearth in the tiny sitting room. Feeling travel-weary, we went to bed early, leaving the fire in the hearth to warm us and a tea candle flickering as our night light. I awoke at around three-thirty with the distinct impression that someone or something was gently tugging my head from the nape of my neck. I panicked, and in my torpor, I mumbled over and over again ‘No! No!’ Fright turned into annoyance and, now awake, I cried out angrily ‘Just stop it!’ I woke my friend up with the racket that I was making and explained what had happened and whilst I was doing so, I had the distinct impression that a wee being or silhouette sauntered onto the wooden beam above my bed. I was slightly alarmed but convinced myself that my eyes were playing tricks on me, and then found myself drifting off to sleep within a few minutes. I awoke at about 6:30 (I recall checking the time). The Beltaine sun was rising and there was a rather loud dawn chorus in the garden just outside the cottage. The day ahead seemed so full of promise. I then turned my head and gazed up at the ceiling where I saw a tiny flickering light, with arms and legs and wings! Little translucent dragonfly wings! I blinked several times, rubbed my eyes and it was still there. I cried out to my friend, ‘Oh my God, you have to see this!’ She came over and we were watching the being move from one wooden beam above us to the next for a few minutes. Here’s the thing though: we have some missing time of about one hour! It seemed as though neither one of us remember how the wee one left us. Did it fly off somewhere else, like out the window (the windows were shut)? Did it vanish into thin air? The only thing either of us remembers is that it was a little after 7:30 and we were putting on our jeans and getting ready for breakfast and our workshop. It was very clear that there was this gap in our memory of the event of one full hour. Every once in a while, whenever there was a break in the workshop outside, I would slip back into the cottage, lie on my back in bed and say aloud something like ‘I would like to see you again’. After a few minutes, there would be a hollow sound of bells and there seemed to be a wavy movement in the air, much like what it looks like when the hot summer sun beats down on pavement. I wanted to repeat the experience, but apart from the sound of bells and the wavy air, there were no light beings. On our last night in Donegal, we were having a chat with our lovely hostess in our cottage. She and my friend were unaware that I wanted to see the faeries one last time, was constantly thinking about them and I quietly wished to communicate with them. Minutes later, I suddenly had this strong urge to play with my camera by the window. It was dark outside and I pressed halfway down on my camera and through the viewfinder, there were about three large blue orbs right by the window pane, as if they were looking in on us from the outside! I ran outside, my two friends astonished and running after me, and starting shooting photos as I had heard a voice in my head saying, ‘We are outside in the garden if you would like to see us!’ It was pitch dark but I kept shooting my camera, stumbling around in excitement. I had taken some orb photos. Once back home, I zoomed in on my orb photos taken during that last evening, and found upon enlargement, in one of them, there was an unmistakable being with wings. It had a very angular face with huge eyes slanting upwards at the outer corners, slender arms with very long fingers. One hand held a scepter with a Mercury symbol on the top (a circle with horns) held closely to his chest (the figure looked androgynous although I felt that it was male)