64 – The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies
This week we’re taking a look at a strange little book detailing the lore surrounding the fae folk of the Scottish Highlands. Written in 1692 by the reverend Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth is one of the earliest works in the same tradition as the work of John Keel and a whole host of other weirdos who put on their Sunday best, go traipsing around the sparsely populated hills and forests, and start asking questions they maybe shouldn’t. What’s really remarkable about The Secret Commonwealth is just how much of the fairy lore from Scotland in the 600’s matches up almost exactly with modern UFO folklore. Not only in the nature of the entities and encounters, but also in how much time Robert Kirk spends talking about psychics or, to use the terminology of the day, those born with “the second sight.” Weirder still, Kirk’s mysterious death and events that transpired afterwards led to rumors that Kirk did not, in fact, die, but was instead taken away to fairyland as punishment for revealing the secrets of those strange folk that dwell beneath the Earth.
