{"id":11767,"date":"2020-09-01T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11767"},"modified":"2020-09-01T10:00:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T16:00:53","slug":"a-quick-video-introduction-to-fairy-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11767","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Video Introduction to Fairy Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7hHomOJ-G5Q?start=01\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">?<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Early in the twentieth century, the famous physicist <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Ernest_Rutherford\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ernest Rutherford (1871\u20131937)<\/a>, &#8220;the father of nuclear physics,&#8221;\u00a0 is supposed to have remarked snarkily that all science was either physics or &#8220;stamp-collecting.&#8221;<sup><a href=\"#footnote_1_11767\" id=\"identifier_1_11767\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"Variations on the saying include &ldquo;That which is not measurable is not science. That which is not physics is stamp collecting&rdquo; and &ldquo;Physics is the only real science. The rest are just stamp collecting.&rdquo;\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>By &#8220;stamp-collecting,&#8221; I have always assumed he meant collecting and classifying, in that a geologist of his time might have been mainly occupied with classifying rocks and minerals or an entymologist concerned with classifying insects. (These disciplines \u2014 and others \u2014 now include much more.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Stamp-collecting&#8221; likewise describes a lot of paranormal studies. The famed <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Fort\">Charles Fort (1874\u20131932<\/a> was the master of it.((His life almost parallels Rutherford&#8217;s. Interesting.)) &#8220;As a young adult, Fort wanted to be a <a title=\"Natural history\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Natural_history\">naturalist<\/a>, collecting <a class=\"mw-redirect\" title=\"Sea shell\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sea_shell\">sea shells<\/a>, minerals, and birds&#8221; (Wikipedia). The sheer size of his collections had an effect, however.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Fort is acknowledged by religious scholars such as <a title=\"Jeffrey J. Kripal\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jeffrey_J._Kripal\">Jeffrey J. Kripal<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/faculty.txstate.edu\/profile\/1922193\">Joseph P. Laycock<\/a> as a pioneering theorist of the paranormal who helped define &#8220;paranormal&#8221; as a discursive category and provided insight into its importance in human experience. Although Fort is consistently critical of the scientific study of abnormal phenomena, he remains relevant today for those who engage in such studies<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Back in the the early 1690s<\/strong> \u2014 contemporanous with the Salem witch trials \u2014 the Rev. Robert Kirk((A minister in the then-large <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scottish_Episcopal_Church\">Scottish Episcopal Church<\/a>)) was not afraid to theorize, producing a handwritten book on fairies that latter became <em>The Secret Commonwealth. <\/em>Maybe his MA at Edinburgh University prepared him.<\/p>\n<p>His attempt to fit the fairies into a Great Chain of Being might not appeal to everyone, but at least it gave him a theoretical lens through which to consider them.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Kirk proposed that the reason that the fairies appeared to humanity was to convince us that an invisible realm exists, and that it\u2019s not entirely out of reach. Their occasional interactions with humans served as both a &#8220;caution and warning&#8221; that we are not alone in the world, and that unseen, intelligent forces occasionally meddled in our affairs. Maybe these forces are still at work. (<a href=\"http:\/\/thinkanomalous.com\/secret-commonwealth\">video transcript<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Then it was mostly a lot of &#8220;stamp collecting&#8221; until astronomer <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jacques_Vall%C3%A9e\">Jacques Vall\u00e9e<\/a> wrote <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0809237962\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0809237962&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=soutrocknatub-20&amp;linkId=c9de7b37ff97b8ae3985404955bfc48e\">Passport to Magonia<\/a>, <\/em>in which he rejected the &#8220;extraterrestrial hypothesis&#8221; for UFOs <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jacques_Vall%C3%A9e#Paranormal_research\">and replaced it with something more multidimensional<\/a>. Until the <a href=\"https:\/\/kripal.rice.edu\/\">work of Jeffrey Kripal<\/a>, I would rank Kirk&#8217;s and Vall\u00e9e&#8217;s books as <em>the<\/em> most important when it comes to fairy studies, more even than Evans-Wentz&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacred-texts.com\/neu\/celt\/ffcc\/\"><em>The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We still have people who are solely Bigfoot-hunters or UFO researchers or ghost-hunters or whatever, but thanks to Vall\u00e9e, it is more and more common to see all of these as part of something bigger: &#8220;the phenomenon.&#8221;((<a href=\"https:\/\/www.woodape.org\/\">Some BIgfoot researchers still seek a flesh-and-blood &#8220;wood ape,&#8221;<\/a> which might be less psychologically threatening than an interdimensional big hairy critter.))<\/p>\n<p>(Video from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinkanomalous.com\/\">Think Anomalous.<\/a> I saw it first at <a href=\"https:\/\/hecatedemeter.wordpress.com\/\">Hecate Demeter<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<ol class=\"footnotes\"><li id=\"footnote_1_11767\" class=\"footnote\">Variations on the saying include &#8220;That which is not measurable is not science. That which is not <i>physics<\/i> is stamp collecting&#8221; and &#8220;Physics is the only real science. The rest are just stamp collecting.&#8221;<span class=\"footnote-back-link-wrapper\"> [<a href=\"#identifier_1_11767\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>? Early in the twentieth century, the famous physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871\u20131937), &#8220;the father of nuclear physics,&#8221;\u00a0 is supposed to have remarked snarkily that all science was either physics or &#8220;stamp-collecting.&#8221;1 By &#8220;stamp-collecting,&#8221; I have always assumed he meant collecting and classifying, in that a geologist of his time might have been mainly occupied with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[82,97,227,17,22],"class_list":["post-11767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fairies","tag-ghosts","tag-paranormal","tag-scotland","tag-weirdness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-33N","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9662,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9662","url_meta":{"origin":11767,"position":0},"title":"Pentagram Pizza: It Resembles the Shaman&#8217;s Drum","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Once again, magic and sports don't mix. According to Siberian Times (July 1), shamans invoked the ancestors to aid Russia's team in their World Cup match against Spain. As a result (?), Russia won 4\u20133. But then they lost to Croatia a few days later and are now out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"occultism\"","block_context":{"text":"occultism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=occultism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Tuvan-shaman-ST.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3898,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3898","url_meta":{"origin":11767,"position":1},"title":"Survey for UU Pagans","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Another online survey, this one collecting\u00a0 \"personal experiences from Unitarian Universalists (UUs) who also practice Paganism or have an earth-centered theology.\" Take the survey here.\u00a0 The deadline is March 12, 2012.","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14","url_meta":{"origin":11767,"position":2},"title":"Pagan World Report","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 20, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a site collecting Pagans-in-the-news articles from all over the place. I started doing the same thing with scissors and photocopier in the pre-Internet 1970s, but it was impossible back then to have this kind of scope. My stuff went into a series of file folders labeled \"Witchcrap,\" since that's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3364,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3364","url_meta":{"origin":11767,"position":3},"title":"Ghost Tales of Cripple Creek, &#038;c","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"At my other blog, a recollection of my one venture into collecting ghost stories. And a couple of incidents that did not make it into the book, mainly because they were \"too personal\"\u00a0 and not connected with other people's experience. And a CNN story on how for \"growing ranks of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ghosts\"","block_context":{"text":"ghosts","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ghosts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1145,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1145","url_meta":{"origin":11767,"position":4},"title":"Jack Chick, the Movie","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have my own collection of Jack Chick pamphlets, but to make collecting more sporting, they have to be found in public places: left inside a library book about Wicca or on a public park bench, that sort of thing.Maybe God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick will create\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=24","url_meta":{"origin":11767,"position":5},"title":"The Paganism Reader","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 10, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"A telephone call from Graham Harvey on the 9th confirms that our anthology of important Pagan texts is going into production at Routledge. Here is the latest version of the cover--really, Graham's name should come first, as it was his idea to collect important texts from the Pagan revival, reaching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11767"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11776,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11767\/revisions\/11776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}