House Spirits and How to Handle Them

Known very widely as Fairies (Faeries, Fae, Fay) these spirits are very much attached to and attracted by anything that we humans have built, crafted, cooked, designed, or by any other means been involved with. Celtic names for these spirits are many including “Brownies” “Hobgoblins” and “Robin Goodfellows” and it is generally believed that calling them Fairies is bad luck and can cause these spirits to become upset or angry with you. Though some say these different names are used to title separate tribes and cultures that these spirits may belong to.

Brownies prefer to be addressed with very polite and sweet terms. This spurred the use of many names for them to be referred to by. Such as, “The Fair People” “The Good Neighbors” “The Beautiful People” “The Perfect People” and my personal favorite “The Shining Ones”.

If you treat these spirits well they will treat you well. They can be addressed at any time, as they are the most prevalent type of spirit within areas of a human establishment. When speaking to them use your friendliest tone of voice with the most poetic words you can. The Shining Ones are sure to appreciate it.

Offerings to the Brownies can be made with milk and honey. Sweets of all kinds are sure to gain favor. They love pretty things, especially valuable items that are small in size, such as coins, gems, and jewelry. When giving these offerings to them be sure to speak out loud so they can hear you say it is for them. If you have a request for them as a returned favor for your offering to them, please make sure to ask nicely. Never make demands to the Fair People. A common favor to ask would be for them to find and return a lost item to you in trade. Be sure it is an up-trade for them. Good deals make good friends.

Be careful never to take back what you gave to the Good People. This is a sure way to make enemies. If Brownies are angered enough they can transform into powerful and terrifying poltergeists. They also have a way of creating a vast amount of misfortune upon those they hate. Tread carefully.

Working with House Spirits

Brownies love to be acknowledged and treated well by their human housemates. Most Brownies stay located and do not leave the living space they have called home. It is not often that Brownies will follow a human to a new location when they move. If they do follow the human it is most assuredly due to either an extreme love for that person or extreme hate for that person. You definitely want as many Brownies as possible to love you, they are the best nonhuman spirit allies you can have on a regular basis. This is mainly due to the vast loyalty they will show to a human they have come to love, and their knack for independent action that they feel is of benefit to the human they love.

House Spirits want to feel acknowledged, appreciated, and respected by their human roommates. Making them feel “welcomed” is not recommended because most times you have moved in long after they started living there. With this in mind, it would be advised that when you first move into a new living space that you introduce yourself to the spirits already there and ask that they welcome you into their home. A great sign of goodwill is to make a special place in your home that is specifically for them. Usually referred to as a “Fairy House”.

Building A Fairy House

The location you decide to have a Fairy House in your home should be in an area that is not regularly disturbed or seen. House spirits like privacy and don’t appreciate being treated like decorations. With this in mind, the Fairy House should not be used as a “talk piece” when your guests come over. It is ok to discuss the Fair People with guests if they ask, but exposing their “Fairy House” to people they do not know will offend them. You may also want to consider not allowing your guests the opportunity to insult or speak badly about them. With all this in mind, be sure to pick a place in your home that would be the most appropriate to install the Fairy House.

The Fairy House itself can be of a wide variety of styles. Buying a blank birdhouse at an arts and crafts supply store and decorating it with bright colors and shiny rhinestones is commonplace within the practice of modern practitioners who work with Brownies. However, simply putting down an altar cloth and small pillow, such a size as a dollhouse would have, on a high shelf inside a cupboard is also very acceptable. Comfort and privacy are the first priorities. Beauty and shininess are the second.

Working with House Spirits

Brownies are perhaps the nonhuman spirits that love poetry the most. So speaking to them in beautiful rhymes are sure to be very appreciated by them. Combine poetry with offerings is the best possible way to make friends with the Fair People. The following poem and offering combination would be a good choice for regular interaction.

“Fair people, Fair people,

Please welcome my greeting,

For if I could please you with fruit of the sepal,

I would much care for a meeting.

Listen please beautiful ones,

I wish to ask for a favor,

It would be pleasing and fun,

Perhaps some sweets for you to savor.”

By saying this poem out loud you would place a flower and a small amount of honey (or a piece of candy) at the Fairy house. After this, you may ask nicely for what you wish for them to do, but keep in mind that your trade to them must be appealing and respectful. Always be sure that the House Spirits are getting the good side of the deal. This will ensure a relationship that grows healthily and beneficially for both you and the Good Neighbors.

Angered and Hostile House Spirits

House spirits are very common and often the cause of “hauntings” of houses. Making lots of noise, disturbance of objects, and in extreme cases harm to the humans or animals that living in said house. Such an account was recorded by King James I of Scotland in his published work entitled Daemonologie, originally printed in 1597, where he considered the Brownies to be devils who, “haunted the house, doing no evil, ‘but doing as it were necessaire turns up and down the house; and this spirit they called Brownie in our language, who appeared like a roughman: yea, some were so blinded as to believe that their house was all the sonsier, as the called it, that such spirits resided there’”.

To appease such an angered Brownie it is generally accepted that spoken poetry is the best to use in calming and comforting the spirit. If you feel that you have such a situation as to use a poem to calm a Brownie the following poem may be something to consider.

“Dear friend, dear friend,

I am sorry for your woes,

may I offer a poem,

to bring such case to a close.

There is no ill will,

from me to you,

perhaps I can be of good company,

and cure your blues.

Sit down and listen,

is what I plan to do,

tell me what I am missin,

a friend I will be true.

There is no harm,

I intend or wish,

let me heal with charm,

and make you a dish.

You’re safe, you’re safe,

no danger here,

you can always stay at this place,

don’t dare to fear.

Be merry my friend,

I am here in glad heart,

Peace be with you,

This is my message to impart.”

In the case that his poem gets no reply, or seems to make the spirit more upset it is a definite indication that the spirit in the house causing the haunting is not a Brownie.