#fae work

Anyone else get annoyed at faery etiquette guides like this that only cover what you don't do? I feel like it contributes to the fearmongering that elemental spirits are all jumping at the chance to scorn and enslave you and it's simply not true. What's the point of making a guide to interacting with the Fae if all you're gonna say is don't do this or this or this like okay but what do you do???

I've always had better luck with taking my cue from nature. The wind will show you where to go. The birds will guide your senses if you listen. If you see an interesting stump or tree compliment it. Most common tree spirits are close to humans and actually like to be thanked and appreciated. Listening is often more important than looking. A genuine smile goes a long way. If you get a trick played on you, laugh it off, it's all in good fun. Faeries appreciate a good sense of humour, childlike wonder, and carefree singing. Let them approach you rather than approaching them. If you close your eyes and rest for a moment, you will hear the whole forest breathe, and feel more connected to Spirit than ever. And as for what you shouldn't do, don't bring your phone! It interrupts your aura and makes you appear more threatening.

-A live mouse. Safely caught and taken outside, only for the same mouse to keep returning to the exact same place in my house. Finally I drove it over a mile away to a small overgrown cemetery, after which it did not come back.

-A live fish. Still have it in our outdoor pond with some koi and goldfish.

-Strange bones, including a femur too long to belong to any native species, and what looks similar to a squirrel skull but with a beak-like mouth.

-Lots of fish bones, particularly gar jaws.

-Large dangly gold earring.

-Various small charms and trinkets, like stuff that would go on a bracelet.

-Neat rocks, usually quartz or agate.

-Once I asked the fae near my uncle’s house to keep the house safe from intruders while I was staying there alone, and literally everybody forgot I was there, including a cousin who had promised to come out and mow, and my own mother. Myself and the house just vanished from their active thoughts unless I contacted them first. Not quite what I had in mind when I asked for protection, but I was indeed safe.

-Clovers. So so many clovers. Anytime I’m within a decent sized patch, at least one four-leaf clover will be there. I’ve even found a few with five leaves. I literally have a dictionary with dozens of pressed clover leafs in it. If I find one while I’m with other people, I give them away.

-For about 6 months every single potato I tried to eat had some sort of blight. Only my potatoes, any other potatoes intended for family or housemates were fine. Even at restaurants.

-Dogsitting for my uncle and didn’t take an offering out to the local fae. Two of my pets at home became extremely and unexplainably ill.

-When I was younger, my father took a bottlecap from a small pile of things I’d left for the Folk in a small wooded cemetery**. His car immediately began having problems starting, to the point where our mechanic had to install a separate switch to bypass regular ignition.

-Traveling through the woods here at night is a big No. Have heard loud screaming sounds, and once even had a whole ass log chucked into the river about 15 ft behind me as a warning.

-Various important items going missing at the worst possible times, including keys, medication, and my work id.

-Weird bruises and scratches appearing on me for no discernible reason.

-Awful flu-like illness that will knock me out of commission for a day or two, then abruptly vanish. Doctors have not been able to figure out what it is.

-My friend and I getting lost for over an hour in woods that we’re normally extremely familiar with.

-Time loss in one specific section of the woods. It’s a weird path anyway, but it takes about 2-3x longer to walk further down it than it does while leaving the woods.

I don't know, my mom mentioned it offhandedly one day and then never brought it up again, and I have no idea how to bring the subject back up.