Friday, July 12, 2013

Pixy-Led

To be pixy-led is to be misled by faeries. In Ireland, stepping upon a tuft of grass or stray sod will cause one to be pixy-led, although if one has angered the fey, or if a pixy is feeling mischievous, one may also be led astray. 

One may discover that an exit that was clear upon entering a specified area is suddenly gone; and nothing one does will reveal the exit. Or it may be that one finds oneself suddenly heading in a different direction to the path he wishes to take, and be unable to right himself. This spell may be broken by turning one's coat inside-out and wearing it. One may wonder what one is to do if one is not wearing a coat to begin with . . . 

It is possible that one may turn other clothes inside-out and wear them that way (we have also read that even turning a pocket inside-out works); it may have been thought that this changed one's identity or otherwise confused the faeries. However, this trick does not always work. Other methods for breaking faery spells include the use of St. John's wort, red verbena, daisies (especially little field daisies), or a staff made of rowan wood or ash. 

Bibliography: An Encyclopedia of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs; Faeries, by Brian Froud and Alan Lee.  
Above image found at Google Images (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=600&q=pixies&oq=pixies&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1484.3017.0.3593.6.5.0.1.1.0.50.220.5.5.0...0.0.0..1ac.1.17.img.wdIa7Vq44aw#hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=pixie+fairy&oq=pixy+fA&gs_l=img.1.1.0j0i10l9.666937.672418.5.674911.26.15.1.0.0.5.74.616.14.14.0...0.0.0..1c.1.17.img.8uLA8iYGG5A&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48293060,d.eWU&fp=4bdfcf4ffb0aa612&biw=1024&bih=600).

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