What is Faërie?
“the perilous realm” A different reality, but it interpenetrates our realm…
The fae and the faerie realm exist as a real reality, but it is a different reality than ours. Some may cal it 4D or the astral realm. That most humans can’t perceive it because we are too focused on material physical reality. But people who are spiritually sensitive and children can sometimes see this reality that exists within and inter penetrating with our normal physical reality. In the past, humans were closer to nature and so had more awareness and interaction with the fae, but especially now most people are unaware.
Tolkien's Definition: In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien describes Faërie not as a single place, but as a vast, otherworldly realm of enchantment, beauty, peril, and mystery. It is the "Perilous Realm" where magic exists, and anything is possible.
Mythical Geography: The Faerie realm often exists alongside or hidden within our world but is separate from it. It may be accessed through specific portals, dreams, or moments of liminality (dusk, dawn, or specific seasonal transitions like Samhain or Beltane).
Symbolic Meaning: Faërie represents the imaginative, spiritual, and mystical aspects of existence, embodying both wonder and danger. It is not inherently "good" or "evil" but reflects a deeper reality beyond mundane perception.
“The Perilous Realm”
The Danger of Entering the Imaginal Realm
- The challenge is not getting there, but returning—many who enter the imaginal never integrate their experiences back into ordinary life.
- Tolkien warns that some may become lost in Faërie, unable to return to the mundane world.
- This parallels the shamanic journey—the successful myth-maker must go, return, and bring back the vision to enrich the world.
One of the greatest dangers of venturing into Faërie is not in getting there, but in returning. The keys to this world can be lost, and those who lose themselves in the imaginal without a way back risk madness or despair. However, if one is able to return and bring others with them, then they act as a true myth-maker, one who expands the consciousness of the collective. This is precisely what Tolkien did.
Jung thought that a certain type of person would either become a mystic or a madman, a prophet or a crank.
The Mythic Fantasy Realm
Every culture has their mythic stories, fairy stories that take place in a magical mythical realm The astral realm The realm of the imagination The inner planes Middle Earth And that realm is real, is actually more real than our everyday human perceived physical reality , and all the things that we do and pay attention to These stories contain the mythic and spiritual riches of the people.
On Fairy Stories
This is the realm of the archetypal imagination, of the collective unconscious, the mythic dreamspace of Humanity
This is an ancient, eternal, timeless place
Myth is truer than history
The story of the Hero, of the Great Quest to save the world, to slay the dragon, to vanquish the Dark Lord
The Imaginal Realm
The Imaginal The Imaginal Realm
The Mundus Imaginalis
a reality that exists beyond time and space, in the realm of the imagination
the infinite library of the real
The inner realm of the imagination
The mystical magical realm of the deep unconscious, subconscious
Following the inner spontaneous dreaming imagination as it unfolds, as it it becomes a living dream, a fantasy, a symbolic archetypal story
”Just”, “only”, “merely” a dream, a fantasy…..
The Mundus Imaginalis (Corbin) is not just a psychological landscape but a real ontological space that influences the material world.