BY JILLIAN KRISTINA
Hallow be their name,
And blessed be their claim.
If you who trespass put down roots,
Then Hallow be your name.
The Book of Invasions C. 1150
There are lands where the old gods are very much alive. Places where creatures of myth and lore still thrive, because the people there know their names. Know their stories. And know how to and how not to live alongside them. In these places, it seems like the veil is always thin, but at certain times of year, like this very time – the season of Bealtaine – that veil is almost non-existent, and we would all be wise to read the histories and mysteries of the island from which this fire festival celebration originates – Ireland.
Because we don’t want to turn out like Adam (Joseph Mawle) and Claire Hitchens (Bojana Novakovic). In 2015’s THE HALLOW, an English couple and their infant son, journey to a remote home in the Irish countryside. Adam, a conservationist whose primary focus is plants and fungus, treads into a forest full of trees he deems necessary to cut down, due to an invasive fungus he’s not familiar with. He even finds it oozing from the carcass of a deer, from which he takes samples and brings home.
Which he brings home. The ooze, the fungus from the forest that he’s actively marking for clearing. And when he’s warned by local town folk Colm Donnelly (Michael McElhatton) to stay out of the woods, he refuses to back down. Donnelly tells him his daughter, Cora, disappeared in those woods. A place inhabited by ‘the Hallow,’ a collection of “fairies, banshees, and baby stealers.” The woods are home to these beings. And their home is not to be trampled upon.
If you trespass on them, they’ll trespass on you.
While Adam’s been gone, Claire has been busy removing the iron bars from the windows of the old mill home they’re staying in. Iron. In Irish folklore, iron keeps the fae folk – the Sidhe (pronounced shee) – away.
As Lora O’Brien, founder of the Irish Pagan School and author of The Fairy Faith in Ireland: History, Tradition, and Modern Pagan Practice states, “Yes, Fairies are real, and called the Sidhe in Ireland.” This is a truth that is about to reveal itself to the foreign family.
When the family’s home comes under attack for Adam’s transgressions, he comes face to face with one of the Hallow through a hole in their front door. It’s here that the Hallow lay their claim upon the intruder, poking him in the eye and infusing him with the same fungus he’s been finding on the trees, in the dead deer, and even in his house. It’s fitting, this fungus – the very reason behind the tree removal is the very stuff of the Hallow. A race specific to this place. A mythology specific to these people.
According to Katherine Briggs, author of The Vanishing People: A Study of Traditional Fairy Beliefs, fairies are “a race of creatures, either superhuman or slightly sub-human, who are neither gods nor, strictly speaking, ghosts, and who have much in common with humanity but who differ from men in their powers, properties, and attributes.” The Hallow draw their powers from the earth. From the green. From the soil and roots and fungi and plant life that have sustained us our entire lives. The very stuff that we so carelessly destroy and poison. The very stuff that we’re made of. And it’s this disconnection to the earth – to ourselves, our myths, our stories – that creates the tragedies and violence that we’re seeing erupt all around us, right now.
Adam is given a chance to learn the myths and stories of the land he now treads upon when Donnelly brings a thickly bound book to his home – to his wife Claire – while he’s away dropping a window off for repair – a window that was shattered by the Hallow. Instead of reading it, he becomes enraged, deeming it simply a book of ‘fairy tales,’ tossing it aside. It is only when the fungus begins to change him, transform him – shift him – that he picks up the book again.
We fear what we don’t understand. Fear keeps us isolated, ignorant to the truth. Investing time into educating ourselves about other cultures and places is one of the most important actions we can take in this life, on this planet, especially if we’re planning on stepping foot on that native soil. Respect is earned, not given. Adam reads the book of ‘fairy tales’ too late. And in a not so ironic twist of fate, becomes the very thing he is seeking to destroy.
This Bealtaine season (which, in Ireland, is considered the entire month of May), if you’re so inclined, seek to challenge yourself. Challenge personal assumptions. Challenge information on other cultures disseminated from people not of that culture. Go to the source. Read. Learn. Study your own history. Research your ancestry. No doubt, you will uncover true horrors, but horrors that can begin to heal through your own discovery of the truth. This is how we shapeshift from one state of being to the next – truth, clarity, understanding. Right being. Right relationship. This is how we heal – ourselves, our ancestors, and this very, very precious planet that is so gracious to host us.
Here are a few prompts for a Bealtaine tarot spread, if you’re so inclined. If you are, please share on social media with the hashtag #hallowtarot!
- What am I being asked to learn more about?
- What is ready for release in this next seasonal cycle (from now until the next fire festival, Lughnasadh, in August)?
- With this release, what am I making space for?
- A card to ground me as I work with nature, rather than against.
