sidhe

i've been trying to find information about sidhe, but didn't find much. also, i have some questions...

are they all either seelie or unseelie?
do they all serve the seelie or unseelie king/queen?
is it true that they all wear white?
what do they generally look like, and is that mandatory (i.e., are they able to shapeshift)?
how powerful are they, more powerful than other fae? (i heard other fae work for them.)

i'm grateful for any piece of informaton you might have.

There isn't much out there, although information about Irish Fae in general will give you some generalizations you can look at. We've also read some channeled material by John Matthews that's been published under the title The Sidhe. Parts of it rang true to Val when she originally read it, but parts seemed suspiciously New-Agey.

The sidhe are noble Fae, like the alfar. They're generally tall, slender, and pale. We remember that the alfar assumed red hair on an alf was a sign of sidhe blood. I'm not sure about shapeshifting, but they are experts with glamour. They have servants but I wouldn't assume that all of the others in their slice of Faery are subservient to them.

I'm not so sure about them wearing white. Val read something a while back about sidhe women generally being described in the lore as wearing green clothing with cutout panels revealing white clothing underneath, and that probably being a bowdlerization of revealing, green clothing with the alleged white undergarments representing the skin described in the original tales.

Sidhe food is dangerous. Have your own store of astral food with you, if you attempt to meet with them. (This is generally a good idea when dealing with any spirits who offer you food, aside from the alfar, whose food is safe but whose drinks may not be. Avoid Fae alcohol in all cases.) Dancing is also potentially dangerous. I don't believe the stories about spending a night with them and then discovering that a whole generation has passed in the outside world, but I do believe in the possibility of pining for, or even being addicted to, something you can't have again.

Their gifts often look valuable on the surface, but are really glamoured-up trash, in contrast to the alfar, whose gifts may look like junk but later turn out to be valuable.

I wouldn't trust our memory on their courts; at least one of our alfar has sidhe blood, but we don't have enough distinct memories of the sidhe to give an educated opinion on that one.

-Nihil

Hey, I gotta tell ya, don't listen to 80% of the crud you here about the Sidhe. The word itself causes problems. One can't always tell if we are talking about some kinda faerie people, the hills faerie people allegedly lived in, regular people who lived near burial mounds, dead people in burial mounds or simply...hill people.

All this stuff about wearing white, seelie and unseelie, faerie food (no offence) etc... is simply romanticism.

You're best bet is to read the stories of the Inavsion Cycle of Ireland. Oh....and read the mabinogi (welsh).

In the Invasion cycles, they talk of the tribe called the "Tuatha de Dannan" These connect to the sidhe in one of two ways (that i have found). In one, they BECAME the Daoine (or Aes) Sidhe by either going through specific hills (Like New Grange, which is not a natural hill) to live in another plane, to go into the land of the dead (because they died after being defeated by the Milesians), or because they simply went to live in the hills. (see above difficulties with the word "sidhe")

The second way they connect is that they encountered the Sidhe after being driven from Ireland. Again, it is either because they went into another plane, or died and went to the land of the dead (hence..ancestor worship prevalent with Ireland's tribes).

The Mabinogi has Arawn..and interesting figure with the ability to alter his appearance and the appearance of others. he rules the land of Annwn, which seems to be on the "other" side. It seems that at some point Arawn became a Lord of Death and Annwn the land of the dead...not sure why though, nothing in the Mabinogi hints at those notions.

When reading the above two (and you could include the Fenian cycle and every concerning Chu Chullain (spelling varies) ) look for animals with white fur and red ears, dapples, spots, tri-colored hair, and I'm sure..gold brocades of silk....these are all devices that seem to mark things otherworldly.

Finn's son Oisin in particular seem to encounter these otherworld people a bit.

Now...I myself have observed a specific energy or whatever that associates with the idea of 'Sidhe." It differs from the dannan, humans, and the Alfar. Interestingly enough, I pick it up again within the concept of the elusive "picts" of britain. Because of this, and because of ol Arawn, I almost link "sidhe" more with Britain for some reason. I'm also sure I will be spat at for this..hahaha

kahoku Wrote:i've been trying to find information about sidhe, but didn't find much. also, i have some questions...

are they all either seelie or unseelie?
do they all serve the seelie or unseelie king/queen?
is it true that they all wear white?
what do they generally look like, and is that mandatory (i.e., are they able to shapeshift)?
how powerful are they, more powerful than other fae? (i heard other fae work for them.)

i'm grateful for any piece of informaton you might have.

From what I remember (and I have absolutely no idea how long ago I lived as Sidhe so I don't know how reliable memories are, being so incredibly old), I was Sidhe. I was neither seelie nor unseelie, but independent of any Court or type. Of course respect was paid from the other Sidhe I knew to the King or Queen, but Sidhe seemed to respect other Sidhe more than they paid respect to non-Sidhe. Apparently we thought quite a bit of ourselves, and I do believe Sidhe did serve in royal courts.

I do not remember wearing all white, but that may be because I lived with humans - by choice. I remember I looked like a human because I spent most of my time in the human world rather than Faerie, but I do know that glamour was used to a great extent to alter appearances, etc, but I do not know about true shapeshifting. I know that my body was much lighter and not so weighed down with gravity. I could float if I wanted, skim the surface of the ground (picture someone walking, but a few inches off the ground - best comparison I can make), but not outright fly! I know that I was good with magick, much better than now, and I wouldn't be surprised if other fae worked for Sidhe. No wings for me, or the other Sidhe I knew, but I'm quite sure any of us were capable had we so wanted to of making a pair of wings for ourselves through magick & glamour.

Acta non Verba Wrote:Now...I myself have observed a specific energy or whatever that associates with the idea of 'Sidhe." It differs from the dannan, humans, and the Alfar. Interestingly enough, I pick it up again within the concept of the elusive "picts" of britain. Because of this, and because of ol Arawn, I almost link "sidhe" more with Britain for some reason. I'm also sure I will be spat at for this..hahaha

I would say Sidhe are also linked with England and Scotland. No spitting on you here <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s --> Just as different kinds of grey wolves (as an example) live in different places, why could not different kinds of Sidhe lives in different places, especially places so near as England / Ireland / Scotland / Wales / etc. And yes Sidhe have a distinct energy .

is there a way to describe/compare the energy?

Dechtire. Very interesting.

I don't have "memories' of any of this. By memories I mean, I have no pictures in my head of people, places, or things. I have no little banks of knowledge i can access just like I can access learned material from a class.

What i do have, and this is by far the most dodgy thing I have, is something like intuition. Intuition of certain notions that should apply to the Sidhe peoples. I am honestly not sure where the notions come from. They just appear.

The interesting thing is that my my intuition, or whatever, has given me notions that can easily meld with your memories. it could be that mine intuitions are simply vague enough to do so, or maybe not.

My intuition is that Sidhe, as far as Kings and Queens go, followed patterns similar to humankind. That is to say, any individual with enough resources and charisma could be a "king" or a "queen" and would gather subjects. Enough resources and servants could build a decent little urban center and have enough troops to defend it, for instance. A good example is the cities of Canaan. Good because they are outside of anything celtic (in which anyone with enough cows could be a "king" for a while.) Take the city Ai for instance. This was NOT a huge place. Yet it had a king. "Kings" didn't have to be in charge of vast realms in order to be kings back in time.

Do you remember anything like this? kings and Queens with relatively small areas of control?

As for Sidhe being quite more impressed by other SIdhe than humans. My intuition or whatever goes there too. I have a notion that there was even a good bit animosity between, dare we say, pro-human Sidhe and anti-human sidhe. it seems that maybe this even had something to do with why some groups of Sidhe migrated to other places... Do you remember anything like that?

I also have the notion that some Sidhe saw the very existence of Sidhe (or at least their ancestors) as that which was to be in control over humankind. I have the notion that some Sidhe blame humankind for somehow destroying or stealing this heritage of theirs.

Remember anything like that?

i don't remember because i am no sidhe. however, i might know one from my pre-incarnation, so i wanted to check if my memories corresponded with the image in my mind. that's why i was mainly asking about traits and appearance.

Well, it is very very possible that an individual, or even a hundred, you recall were in some manner of court and maybe even specifically wore white for some reason. Besides, a few clothing materials are simply white until you dye them anyway.

It is possible that some were in positions of power over others and maybe even had highly odd 'magical' abilities.

that's just the problem - the one i remember didn't seem to serve a king, and surely didn't wear white. that's what i read in several sources i found though.