I am not a changeling. I have never been invited Under the Hill or beneath the Oak on a Dancing Night. I often, and sorely, wished I was, though. As a child I was obsessed with Faeries and their stories. I had compendiums and collections of fairy tales from nearly every European nation. And yes, you can argue that most faerie tales don't even feature Fairies, but think about it: talking wolves; magical apples; fish that grant wishes and cursed golden rings - can you really say that the Fae haven't walked through the world of the tale, that their magic has not touched it?

It has always been this magic that has most seduced me. That is why I became a Witch, instead of a Buddhist like my mother or a Hindu, like my cousin, when Christianity failed to answer all my questions. I knew there was a world of danger and beauty, close to this world, but not of it, that I could glimpse with Magic. I am trying, always, to bring that wild and beautiful Magic into my life.

As an adult, I am still inspired by the stories of my childhood. My MFA thesis project was a series of illustrated books retelling fairy tales to touch on the issues I had in my life as a contemporary woman. As I created the digital collages that would tell the story, I returned to those collections of stories, illustrated by Golden Age artists like Edmund Du Lac, Kay Nielsen and Arthur Rackham. Even though they were drawn for children's books, I always felt that the images from these artists capture the beauty as well as the danger of the Faerie Realm so well.

And danger there is, in the faerie realm. Old stories tell of pipers and musicians invited Under the Hill to entertain the Faerie Lords. They would return to our world a hundred years later, all those they once loved lost to time; or they may return with their wits scrambled, so that they could never lead other mortals to the Faerie world. The Tale of True Thomas, or Thomas the Rhymer gives us the warning that we must never eat of Faerie food, or accept Faerie drink, or we will be stuck in the their Realm forever.

For more information on Faeries and fairy tales, please check out these amazing websites:

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html

http://www.mythinglinks.org/

http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/jomahome/