Lineage Expressed Through Neo-Paganism & Poetics: How the Ancient aligns with the contemporary to birth the inner-world

Poets and poetry have been a form of rebellion against the status quo and simultaneously - a retreat into the numinous nature of the psyche. By exploring the tapestry of fairy magic and lore, a poet reclaims her identity as an American born Irish woman and a fairy.

Elizabeth Kirwin identifies as a faery witch and changeling. Poetry is a link to and a reminder of her neo-pagan spiritual practices and beliefs. Kirwin is a magical practitioner who can walk between the worlds of male and female, human and animal, and earth and star borne spiritual entities. She believes in reincarnation. Kirwin’s poetic series, The Fairy Gothic Ballads, were composed by a spiritual entity from a past life known as the bard. The bard presents verses that are stories about the fairies, magical creatures who inhabit Ireland, and intermingle with the human race. These dark tales about the fairies illustrate both benevolent and destructive behaviors they visited upon humankind. Kirwin is of Irish origin, and was raised in the Catholic religion. She became involved with witchcraft in the mid-1990s. During graduate school, Kirwin studied the work of Robert Kirk (The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Faeries), R.J. Stewart (Earth Light & Power Within the Land) and Starhawk (The Spiral Dance & 12 Wild Swans). Exposure to these works led to her personal identification with the fairies as part of her lineage. Her spirituality was in direct opposition to that of her family, who embraced Catholicism and demonized her practices.

The Fairy Gothic Ballads were written in the United States. Kirwin has never visited Ireland. Taking her cues from walkabouts in mountainous wilderness areas, and a period of time when she lived by the sea, she imbues the ballads with the liveliness of a wanderer whose intimate connection with nature and people inspire and fascinate. For Kirwin, nature’s innate wildness is connected to and expressed by people who live in small villages and have direct contact with the land and sea – and the fairies who inhabit these spaces. These stories are written from a male perspective. In Ireland’s past, the title of bard preceded that of druid, and both pagan identities were reserved for men only. The stories are told in the manner any bard may have spoken or sung to an audience in a small community. The bard travels from the mountains, to the flatlands, to the beaches of Ireland, and collects tales along the way. He fashions them into ballads – all complete stand-alone stories that are brief and potent. The ballads describe the human relationship with fairies as one which is sublime. When humans encounter fairies, they are filled with awe and wonder, as well as fear and dread for the unpredictable actions the fairies may take upon them and their loved ones.

Kirwin has engaged with neo-pagan communities in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Virginia, Asheville, North Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Committed to a lifelong engagement with magic, Kirwin believes humans have a direct relationship with deities and earth borne entities, like the fairies. Magic has a continuous influence on her life and her literary work in poetry and fiction.