Sounds of Infinity Quotes

“Another important aspect of the migration of faeries into the grimoires is that it allowed for these spirits to travel over quite some distance. The documented history of Sibylla for instance begins in the Greek Hygromanteia where one is instructed on how to set a rich table for her in return for her answering the magician's questions, and extends as far as the extreme North of Britain where Reginald Scot records workings to invoke the faerie Sibylla. Obreon (Oberyn etc.) is also found both in Britain and on the continent. This ability of faerie lore and charms to travel via grimoires began to change the very nature of the highly localized Witchcraft legacy, allowing people to conjure faeries from other regions.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“In Folger 26 Oberion and a variant of Queen Mab are listed with demons such as Lucifer with no real essential differences between them noted. The faerie presence in the grimoires from the seventeenth century onwards is extensive.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Hence Plotinus saith, that the souls of men are sometimes made spirits: and of men well deserving are made familiars which the Greeks call Eudemons, i.e. blessed spirits: but of ill deserving men, hags, and hobgoblins, which the Greeks call Cacodemons, i.e. Evil spirits; But they may be called ghosts when it is uncertain whether they have deserved well or ill.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“From all this we can divine the following: the serpent or dragon people live both in the ground and fly through the air, just like angels and “fallen angels,” some of them are probably the ancient form of the Watchers, those who illuminated the witchblood with their cunning fire. Faeries and Witches (the same creature on two different sides of the hedge, both with one foot on each side, a twilight, liminal creature, both) are the children of them, or are sometimes manifestations of them in human/faerie form. Baltic tradition suggests that “dragon” is but the name given to a powerful male faerie, or in later language, a kind of warrior angel, much like St Michael. To bring these two threads together we need only refer to Welsh folklore. Romani lore and many other British depictions of serpents as spirits place them as a vitalist force, a titanic layer of power in the Underworld, where as Ristic's Bulgarian sources make dragons into something much like the Watchers.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Another Welsh tradition held that this snake-congress took place on May Eve. The serpent-stones were round, pastel-colored pebbles believed to confer second-sight and healing, especially of the eyes. The Welsh had many tales about the healing powers of snakes9 so it appears serpent stones and their makers were as multifaceted as faeries, providing martial prowess with one hand and dispensing healing manna with the other.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Along with having “fallen” into mountains and rivers and guarding those places serpent spirits were also known to create magical stones. The Welsh said that serpents came together on Midsummers Eve to mysteriously blow into being the Glain Neidr (“serpents' stone”). Joining their heads together and hissing, they form a bubble around the head of one. They blow it down until it comes off at the tail and hardens like glass.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Although connected closely with faeries Eva Pocs describes the dragon or serpent as an older more archaic part of the spirit world. This fits well with both Romani Gypsy lore which positions the “serpent people” as residing in the lower parts of the Underworld and being among some of the oldest of the spirits.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“So it appears that images of St George or St Michael spearing dragons are not as foreign to European Faerie Faiths as it might seem. Francisco Vaz da Silva in the fascinating Extraordinary Children, Werewolves, and Witches in Portuguese Folk Tradition points out that the connection between slayer and slain may actually be far more intimate even than this: “One implication is that the slaying of the old dragon is homologous to the snake's casting of the old skin. But then, the dragon slayer is himself like the young snake—which Vladimir Propp rightly sensed as he stated, ‘he who was born from the dragon will kill the dragon’.”4 Within such a context the dragon-slaying images found among the saints can well be reinterpreted as images of renewal, fertilization of the land by the fiery lightning bolts of the heavens, skin-casting, as well as battling for the crops.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Serpents were known to live below and guard each house in Wales. They had a king and queen serpent of each area and they wore diadems on their foreheads.2 These seem like very ancient, titanic life forces within the Earth, spirits of place, no doubt dating back to an early period of our history. Serpents guard homes, springs and wells, as well as “buried treasure” in the land.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“One of the Ukrainian names for Witches is “snakes.” South Russians thought they had tails, a sign of their once having been snakes. The Faerie Queen, Witch-teaching figure of Sibylla is also described as having a serpent's tail in some places, and of putting initiates through sexual and physical ordeals involving snakes before they can win instruction and initiation inside her mountain. In the Basque province Sugaar, a great serpent God, is the father of the laminak faeries. In Wales serpent spirits were closely associated with geni loci particularly places with buried treasure.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“The faerie is ever of the mid-country, neither human nor angel, neither plant nor animal, living in a world with neither sun nor moon, always on the edge of dawn, with one foot on either side of the hedge, riding the barriers—just like the Witch.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“As Eva Pocs puts it: “The masked figures of the Calusari [can be placed] among the wolf, horse etc, masked representatives of the dead returning home at the time of the winter solstice. On the other hand, the oppositions of the dead and the fertility bringing goddesses is not exclusive: fairies are in one of the aspects themselves the returning dead; while the winter demons and especiall St Theodore's horses also have a fertility-bringing role.”7”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“As a cultivated, human food not found in the wild, bread is sometimes used to ward against the faeries, and at the same time, when it's baked just right (neither cooked too well nor raw as the faerie wife insists in Wales) it and the aroma it creates is used as an offering to faerie. The same thing that under one circumstance can ward them away can also feed them. This is a concept that returns to us again and again whenever we discuss traditional ways of maintaining right relations with the faeries.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“But this association of horses with the female is not absolute in faerie lore, as the poucca/puca/buca who we have previously linked to Robin Goodfellow is known to be able to turn into a horse. An important spirit familiar of both British and Irish traditional craft is very much part horse as often as he is goat. Horses have feminine connotations but they also simply belong to “those who can cross over.” Horses are not the only kind of Sabbat mount. Goats are ridden to Sabbat and the samodivile of Rumania are known for riding deer tethered with snakes!”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“At the beginning of The Golden Toad it is suggested by Andrew Chumbley, past Magister of the Traditional Witchcraft sodality Cultus Sabbati, that the name of the horse one acquires power to whisper is in fact “man.”1 As Chumbley also says in salute of the mysteries: “Here's to the horse with the star on its head and the chestnut tail and mane, a star on his head and a patch on his foot and his master's name was Cain.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Rhiannon's punishment of “becoming the horse” and carrying people on her back may refer to a ritual position where she must serve as a threshold keeper who takes people back and forth between the worlds.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Rhiannon is just as clearly a Faerie Queen as Gwynn is a king. She is even first spotted on a special mound, likely an old Neolithic burial mound like many faerie beings before her. Similar to True Thomas's Faerie Queen she appears on a hill riding a white horse. Like Mari of Basque folklore she wears a gold gown, you could almost imagine her owning a gold comb to brush out her golden hair. She is a woman of Annwn, clearly a faerie otherworld where the hounds are all faerie dogs with pink eyes and white fur. She gets further away the faster you ride, a typical “faerie inversion” example of a back-to-front world, much like weeping instead of laughing and laughing in the place of weeping. But there is more to this motif of Rhiannon's; one has the feeling that Pwyll is being given a lesson in right relations with Faerie. He is being told firmly that all of his spurring his horse, all of his striving to capture and dominate and show off will mean nothing to her, he simply needs to learn how to humble himself a little and ask for what he wants.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Gwynn ap Nudd is a wonderful example of the winter demon style of hob man, as is Arawn who is also a Wild Hunt leader. His face is blackened out with soot, he wears furs and is accompanied by demonic-seeming black dogs with red eyes. Sometimes he even comes bearing chains clanking and is intimately associated with the Wild Hunt, whose connection with Goetic demonic depiction we have previously noted. Gwynn ap Nudd is often called “King of Goblins” and so his role as King of the Winter Court of Faerie seems indisputable. Given that he appears in the Mabinogion being at all the places where the dead are slain from end to end of the land each time blood is spilt and men die it seems fair to accept that Gwynn is a God of the Underworld, death and the Wild Hunt, a psychopomp of sorts. But he is also very clearly a King of Faerie.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“The word “God,” even “a God” as opposed to “the God,” is tainted with the brush of hierarchical, nationalist fantasy. If we aren't careful in how we frame it can take us a little distance from the great and powerful teacher spirits that shamanist and animistic societies worldwide turn to as their familiars and helpers. When you call something a God, a little of the thinking we associate with the God in monotheism, is evoked by accident alongside it. Yet, when it comes to the Queens and sometimes Kings, Princes and Princesses of the realm of Faerie most people acknowledge that we are probably dealing with entities that would have once been local Gods. Or in some cases even more widely-spread Gods.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“The spirits of dangerous treacherous mountains are often dangerous faeries, such as the Welsh gwyllion known for leading the unwary astray into the mist or off the edges of treacherous mountain passes. The spirits of plush cow pastures are often soft and beautiful. The type of faeries in a place relate to the temperament of the place not just of season.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Under the plural form Sânziene, there is another annual Romanian festival in the fairies' honor which takes a more feminine vent. Etymologically, the name stands for sân (common abbreviation of sfânt—“saint” or “holy”) and zână (a word used for fairies in general). In other words “saint-fairy,” which tells us a great deal about the way new concepts of holiness mixed easily with folk beliefs around faeries. Because the zână are described as a “gentle type of faerie” this aspect of faerie mythology has been less threatening to the Church. In Romania the Sânziene holiday annually is celebrated on June 24. This is similar to the Swedish Midsummer holiday date and seems to suggest the faeries being honoured are of the “Shining Court” summer variety.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“In some places in Wallachia, the vătaf used to measure the height of the dancers on a red thread, a process known in some Witchcraft traditions as “taking the measure.” They would then bind the measure together with the apotropaic plants on the flag, or he would make a sign on the very pole of the flag, kept in vertical position, indicating the height of each căluşar. This was considered as a surety of their pledge of secrecy and obedience given to their patron the Queen of Faeries, much like handing over an object link such as hair or blood.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“The Mute has much in common with the Witch role of summoner, who is often seen as not quite a member of the Coven and able to move between Covens, offering both news and messages, whilst sometimes also serving a protective function. The flag bearer, called arătătorul is entrusted the special care of the flag. Dressed in ordinary clothes, he does not, as a rule, dance but is ready to replace any of the performers in case of ailment or weariness. During the performance, the flag bearer must hold the flag in upright position in the middle of the group, which is why he has to be strong. If the flag falls down, which is bad omen, reparation can only be made by disassembling the group, making a new flag and repeating the vows all over again. Thus it is clear that the pole erected in the middle of the dance is somehow pivotal to the magic that is occurring within the circular space.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“The Sicilian example is the most immediately relevant to our subject matter, as they are often thought of as “The Sicilian Faerie Witches” and thus there are enough of them for their behavior to be considered cultish. “Quaestio de Strigibus (Venice 1525) describes a witches Sabbath in the province of Ferrara that is presided over by Domina Cursus, whom the witches also call ‘The Wise Sybil. During the nightly meetings that are held twice a week on the bank of the River Jordan. The Wise Sybil tries again and again to fly down to touch the river... for if she can only get her finger in the water she will have power over the whole world. But she never manages it! Here again we find the resemblance to the Madonna Oriente cult from Milan and the fairy cult of Sicily, but a new element has appeared: Domina Cursus demands of her Ferrara witches that they must kill a child once every fortnight, so they run around in the shape of cats... where they suck the blood from small children who die a few days later.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“Like the powerful hobman Robin/Puck, the faerie woman Sibylla mentioned by Scot or as Sib by Shakespeare, lives inside a mountain teaching Witches all the way over in Italy and yet also emerges in England and Scotland. Some faerie entities were so powerful that they had numerous Witch familiars and were linked to more than one location. Here the line between “faerie” and “God” or “Goddess” becomes very blurred. But in the Faerie Faith, which seems to display a continuous sliding scale of power, rather than clear distinctions between human, faerie and God, this is not to be thought unusual.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“He then speaks of how all the animals answered the faerie man's piping and faerie, Witch and animal dance until dawn9. Later in the story (which she is relating to her husband) they fly on their hemlock as far as Lapland, were they find the local faeries all in array, for the “geni of the north” were keeping their holiday. Hogg then writes: “The warlock men and the weird women And the fays of the wood and steep, And the phantom hunters all were there, And the mermaids of the deep.” Here we see faeries, Witches/Warlocks, the phantom hunters of the Wild Hunt and mermaids linked together in a Sabbat narrative,”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“The provision of food by faeries is given as a sign of great love from a faerie man to a woman he has impregnated. One very potent story to this effect is that of the birth of Robin Goodfellow, fathered by the Faerie King Oberon (or Obreon in older sources) upon a mortal woman. As a sign of his love for the human mother of his child he continuously feeds her. Mutton, lamb, pheasant, woodcock, partridge, quail, a never-ending supply of food is laid before Robin Goodfellow's mother by her faerie lover.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“If there could be said to be an observable religious impulse behind historical Witchcraft it is not the Pagan fertility religion of early Wiccan and Neopagan projections, it is the animistic faith shared with faeries, and sometimes the worship of particular powerful faeries. It is a religious faith both in faeries and the knowledge, shared with faeries and perhaps given by them, that the stars and all things in life have spirits in them from the largest to the smallest and many microcosms are in each with everything moving forever in cycles. The Faith that there is an inalienable sanctity in the relationships between those that mutually nourish each other, including the relationship between a Witch and familiar spirit.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“But there are many other than Alice and her Robin who do, such as Isobel Gowdie's sexual passion with her “devil” and Andro Man's ongoing relationship with his Faerie Queen and almost worship for Christsonday who sounds angel-like. Ann Jeffries not only experienced romantic love with her faerie man but was bravely defended by him when she was threatened and Thomas the Rhymer was treated with affection by his Faerie Queen at the very least.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity

“We have already said that Robin Artisson, whom Alice Kyteler was devoted to, was a demon by the estimations of the times but most likely also a kind of faerie. In many cases the true “religion” of Witches, if they could be said to have religious feelings that come through to us from the records, is toward their familiar spirit, who was sometimes but not always associated with the Devil when they were probably often a devil.”
― Lee Morgan, Sounds of Infinity