BJ Swain > Quotes

“Again”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Oxford Reference delineates between two sorts of Irish leannan sidhe stories. The first is the pattern weve outlined and what weve seen in our other faery-lover stories. A human and a faery fall in love”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Our first example of a report of a faery encounter adds another element that we might consider similar to the relationship with a familiar or the tales of witch power we see historically. The story of Thomas the Rhymer is the account of an historical man who was believed to have lived for a time in the land of the faeries. Thomas Earlston lived in Berwickshire in the 13th century. ​One day”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“As we said at the on set of our discussion of the leannan sidhe”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Lady Wilde presents the leannan sidhe as a distinct type of faery being in Ancient Legends Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland. For Lady Wilde”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Having children”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Women riding in the night in spirit with supernatural elven power to cause harm is a common motif spanning centuries before the witch trials. Mythological women of power are also often shown as armed. The overlapping traditions linking armed elf-women”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“The story of Ethna”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Gowdies Devil provides elf-shot to the witches. This Devil takes them to dine in faeryland; although the Devil is not described as being at the table with the Faery Queen”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“For those curious about the Queen of Elphame”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Many types of spirits can become familiars. The method by which they are acquired will vary largely based on the practitioner. Someone born with witchblood will likely encounter a spirit”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Magicians historically keep spirit companions. Sometimes they are friends”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“For Wilde”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“One of the two main Pendle witches”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Spirits of the forest”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“While some very notable Scottish witch trial cases”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Some authors”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Black dogs appeared as an element of folklore related to faeries and the dead. Different regions had different stories about black dogs”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Alisons brother James Device had a familiar named Dandy. Dandy first appeared to him as a brown dog and later as a black dog.”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“The reality of European Traditional Magic is that a great deal of it is taught by and empowered by spirits. The spirit catalogues all include the spirits teaching various disciplines of the liberal arts”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“The other of the two most notorious Pendle witches was Chattox. Her familiar was named Fancy. Fancy initially appeared as a man but also as a bear and spotted dog at other times. Faery animals are also sometimes described as spotted”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Demdikes daughter”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“Magician" clearly refers to anyone who practices magic”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“According to McNamara-Wilson”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“This story ties back to witchcraft a little more in that were specifically dealing with The Queen of Elphame. Her land is between Heaven and Hell. Her relationship with Thomas is based on taking him as a human lover”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“The Faery Queen is not so much a faery as we might see in faery tales”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“As we explore evidence about personal and household religion”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“This will involve providing it a space in which it will reside”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“The first tale of the leannan sidhe presented by Moore accords with his view that they are guardian spirits that befriend families. He explains that the Fletcher family of the Ballafletcher Estate had a special crystal cup. The cup was dedicated to the leannan sidhe”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions

“In The Meanings of Elf and Elves in Medieval England”
― BJ Swain, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions