Fairies, Environmental Justice, and Re-Enchantment in Modern Pagan Narratives

Abstract

This paper examines contemporary Pagan narratives about fairies, revealing themes of re-enchantment, environmental grief, and environmental justice. In these narratives, fairies are often portrayed as nature spirits and protectors of the environment who warn humans of impending disaster and suggest techniques for re-enchanting the physical environment through practices that create reciprocal relationships between humans and nature, change consciousness, and allow humans to experience an interconnected, ensouled universe. These narratives can be interpreted as belonging to a category of folk environmentalism in which expressive cultural forms provide resources for communities coping with environmental grief. They also reflect emergent vernacular ontologies which reflect contemporary Pagan efforts to re-enchant the world and shift perceptions from a naturalistic frame to one that is more animistic, in which other-than-human beings are thought to have consciousness and interiority.