How Does it Feel to Write from the Perspective of Elves?

". . . it feels wonderful . . . . most of what we write about elves isn't something we've made up, as some folks seem to think, but something we've noted by watching our kindred, particularly those who are truly attuned to Nature and their own nature. In that way one might say that we are elven sociologists and anthropologists."

     Someone recently asked us how it feels to write from the perspective of elves and the short answer is, of course, it feels wonderful. But we might also say that it feels natural because, after all, we are elves. What other perspective could we write from? We suppose we could pretend to be normal folk and write from that perspective, but honestly we've never quite understood normal folk and while we have tried to pass among them for harmony's sake, as well as to avoid much of the prejudice that they direct, both intentionally and unintentionally, toward us, we've never been very good at pretending to be normal. Faeries, on the other hand, seem very proficient at fitting into normal society by appearing to be "away with the faeries," a bit flighty, and by taking on the persona of the stereotypical dumb and nutty blond. In fact, they probably invented that stereotype as camouflage.

     We love everything about elven culture. We love being elves. We love other elves and elf types, faeries, pixies, gnomes, dwarves, brownies and all of fae kind. We even look at orcs and goblins and grimlins and think if they weren't so aggressive and hostile, we could get along with them. And we might not appreciate their country or whatever is there own music as much as they do, but if you can dance to it, we'd dance, and we do find them to be quite lovely and fascinating in their special way. The way one might, say, love Frankenstein's 'monster'. And when they accept you as one of their own, they can be quite loving, too, or at least friendly. The ladies more than the gents, if you can call orcs ladies and gents. Those are not terms, in our experience that they typically easy to relate to.

     One might ask: how do we write from the perspective of elves? But the answer is that due to the fact that we are elves, it is quite easy. And while elves are a diverse folk even if you look just at our s'elves and you don't include pixies and all other elfae, there are so many elves and so many points of view, much of it unfortunately influenced from being raised in the normal world where prejudice and preconceptions are normal and accepted behavior, that whenever we question what it means to be elven, we just observe our other elves. In fact, most of what we write about elves isn't something we've made up, as some folks seem to think, but something we've noted by watching our kindred, particularly those who are truly attuned to Nature and their own nature. In that way one might say that we are elven sociologists and anthropologists.

    While many folks seem to be limited by what they have read in traditional faerie tales and lore, and others seem totally restricted by this or that piece of fiction about elves that has inspired them, our perspective comes almost totally from our own lives and the lives of the kindred we observe manifesting in the world. It is not that we don't heed the traditional tales, or that we don't love modern fiction about our people, we are aware of and inspired by both, but the reality of what we see and the potential that we know exists within that reality, informs those tales and stories with the living vibration of Elfin and it is ever this that guides us. 

 

What about the Silver Elves Books and Cultural Appropriation?

      We recently had an individual write to us on Facebook and accused our books, among other things, of being a mish-mash of cultural appropriation. However, before we could reply to his comment he apparently realized he had contradicted himself in his long rant and he deleted his own comments. But, we’d like to reply to them anyway because although we think his observations are opinions really since he hadn’t actually read our books nor knew us personally in any way (including our cultural background), they are accusations worth considering.

      As to the idea that our books are a mish mash that is surely true. We take everything we encounter, from every culture we encounter and filter it through the lens of our elf sight. We look at the world at large much in that way that we view Elfin, that it is one place with many unique people, individuals and cultures but that these things and beings are not really separate but instead merely variations of the one, rather like a huge box of crayons. We elves wish to use all the crayons available when we color our world, not just a few. And when people tell us we can only use the blue or green but not the red or yellow or other varieties, then we look at them as though they are crazy, which they are.

      We once had a friend come visit us, who was really quite impressive. She was Jewish and had escaped the Nazis in Germany and saved herself and her children by fleeing to the Dominican Republic (since it was the only country in the world that would accept her). She was an old witch and went to a Covenant of the Goddess convention with us. One day, during her visit, as we were driving along in our car she saw our, at the time, three year old daughter coloring a drawing of an apple and she was making it purple. Our witch friend told us that we needed to compel her to color it red in order to teach her that apples are usually red and we just laughed at her and told her it was our daughter’s imagination at work and she could color it any color she desired, as far as we were concerned. We had no doubt that she would in the future learn the colors apples tend to come in. Elves are not fond of having our imaginations limited, even by what some folks perceive of as reality.

       We’ve written about cultural appropriation in a couple of our books but let us say that as elves and thus being of the oldest folk, according to much lore and legend, and being the hidden folk of nearly every people in the world, we feel we have the right to observe any culture we choose, since they all originally came from elves in one way or another or replaced us in our lands. So we take what they offer and view it from an elven perspective as well as transform it, hopefully making it better by doing so, and in a sense ‘elfinizing’ it. We actually believe everyone has that right.

      What we don’t believe in is taking something and making something wicked out of it. We don’t mind that the faeries took our seven pointed elven star and call it the faerie star, since they are doing this in a loving and positive way. It would be nice if they knew where they got it from, but alas, forgetfulness is the way of the world. However, when the Nazis took the wonderful Hindu symbol of the swastika and used it to promote their wicked agenda, that we object to. Now whenever most people in the world see the swastika they think of Nazis and skinheads and hate and prejudice, instead of the spiral galaxy and spiritual energy it truly represents.

      We once knew a woman of Hispanic heritage who was married to a gentleman of Asian lineage, and she was the high priestess of a Celtic witchcraft coven she had founded. Now, those who are against cultural appropriation would say that she should have a coven based upon Hispanic or Spanish magic but her spirit and soul drew her to Celtic witchcraft. From an elven point of view, this woman, despite her currently genetic heritage had been a Celt in a previous lifetime and still carried that spirit within her and had every right, to our minds, to have whatever type of coven her heart and imagination, her soul and her spirit, drew her toward.

      For these elves, all magic is one. It may manifest in a variety of ways and traditions around the world, but at its heart it is one magic and all magic stems from it and all magic wielders have the right to study magic in all of its forms. Saying that we can only write about magic from the culture that we are genetically descended from is ridiculous as far as these elves are concerned. That would be like saying that Western doctors can only study or do Western style medicine and Chinese doctors can only do ancient Chinese medicine and this is just patently ludicrous. Medicine does not belong to one people or culture, it belongs to all people and so does magic.

Kyela, 

The Silver Elves
http://silverelves.angelfire.com

“Elves view criticism as only being valid when it promotes creativity.
Otherwise, they say it is no more significant than spitting into a blazing fire.”

—The Silver Elves

And please, when you come to our website please enjoy reading sample pages and reader's reviews of all our 45+ books (published prior to March 2019) on magic and enchantment, elven lifestyle, elven poetry, elven short stories, an elven novel, on elven philosophy and the Elven Way at: http://silverelves.angelfire.com/HAelfbooks.html. 

Also, our newest Silver Elves books (beginning March 2019) may be found on this blog site at https://silverelves.wordpress.com/2019/03/20/magical-books-by-the-silver-elves-on-the-elven-way-magic-and-enchantment-elven-oracles-and-elven-lifestyle.

And you can find all our the Silver Elves books to purchase on The Elven Way on Amazon here:
US Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/The-Silver-Elves/e/B0070R8ER2

UK Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Silver-Elves/e/B0070R8ER2

 Most of our books are nonfiction books about the Elven Path, but we do have one elven novel,  The Elves of Lyndarys: A Magical Tale of Modern Faerie Folk, that we think you will enjoy quite a bit and it is written from our observations of our fae friends and family:

  The Elves of Lyndarys: A Magical Tale of Modern Faerie Folk

THE ELVES OF LYNDARYS is an often humorous novel about a young man’s struggle to mature and develop himself, his magic and his identity as he encounters and explores the modern pagan and otherkin communities and happens to encounter real elves, slowly coming to realize as he does so that he may not be a man at all but one of the elven. He is confronted through his journey not only by his own incredulity about his encounters and his inner conflict with what he has been taught to believe is reality and his actual experience but also by his personal prejudices and false assumptions. He comes to discover not only that the magic of Faerie is real but further that the Elven Way, as presented by his mentors, offers him a means of traveling the misty paths to magical and mystical enlightenment.

Also enjoy viewing an hour long YouTube video of The Silver Elves in a conversational presentation on The Modern Elven Movement and The Elven Way at Phoenix and Dragon Bookstore in Atlanta, GA, on March 2018, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0sv3OHkjRw

If you would like to know more about our magical lifestyle, we invite you to read our book Eldafaryn: True Tales of Magic from the Lives of the Silver Elves. Eldafaryn (means Elf Haven) contains a series of vignettes from our lives starting in the present and going back and forth through time describing our lives, our magic, our philosophy and our unique view of the world. If you've ever wanted to see Elfland from the inside, as the elves sense it, view it and live it, here's your chance. You may read sample pages here on our website.

Eldafaryn: True Tales of Magic from the Lives of the Silver Elves

 

What Sort of Elf, Faerie or Other Are You? Would You Like to Learn More about Your Tribe?

For years, dear Kindred, various kindred have asked us, the Silver Elves, to help them figure this out. Now we've created a questionnaire to help us do so and to help you learn about your people, your magical tribe. This is our gift to you (free). Simply follow this link and the directions and we will help you with your own personal narrative about your magical tribe.
http://silverelves.angelfire.com/HAelfkin.html

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We welcome you to come join us on Facebook under Michael J. Love (Zardoa of The SilverElves) and Martha Char Love (SilverFlame of The SilverElves).

Also we invite you to come join us on Facebook in some of our open Elven groups where you will find our elven-faerie-fae community interacting
 and sharing the Elven Way:

The Magical Books of the Silver Elves
https://www.facebook.com/groups/539205916250397 where we have discussions about our books as well as about Elven and Otherkin philosophy and lifestyle.
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Elf Witches of the Mystic Moon

https://www.facebook.com/groups/806583242768352
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Elven Life and Magic

https://www.facebook.com/groups/629491797123886
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Elvish Magical Chat

https://www.facebook.com/groups/307775362744491
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The Faerie Circle

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1025483294180077
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The Elven Way and Friends

https://www.facebook.com/groups/165938637423212 
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United Otherkin Alliance:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/328253710566869

  where elves, faeries, dragons, kitsune, gnomes, hobbits, merkin, pixies, brownies, nymphs, driads, niaids, valkyrie, vampires, devas, and all manner of Faerie Folk gather!