Deep into Fairyland
Between his involvement with the Cottingley fairies in 1921 and his
move to London in 1923, Hodson spent much of his spare time study-
ing nature spirits wherever he could find them in the English coun-
tryside. Given his remarkable track record in using clairvoyant powers
to analyze atoms, diagnose patients, psychometrize archaeological ob-
jects, and explore the solar system, his detailed descriptions of the
world of nature spirits take on new light, incredible as may be the pic-
ture he lays out.
Already in September of 1921, a few miles from his house in Pres-
ton, in a glade of beautiful old trees, "touched with autumn tints, a
stream flowing gently, and the whole bathed in autumn sunshine,"
Hodson described coming upon a field densely populated with fairies,
brownies, elves, and "a grass creature between elf and brownie, but
smaller, less evolved."
By this time Hodson was following the classical custom of dividing
the world of nature spirits into four main categories according to the
predominant element of their makeup-whether earth, water, air, or
fire; but he was quick to point out that there were innumerable differ-
ent species, often overlapping.
None of these nature spirits, said Hodson, had fixed solid bodies,
since their essence was of the astral plane, but they were able to "mate-
rialize" vehicles out of heavier etheric matter, using for models the
thought-forms concocted by local peasants and children, occasionally
imitating other forms they may have seen and admired.To see these
spirits required at least etheric sight and preferably astral and higher.
To Hodson, with his well-developed etheric and astral vision, the
fairies he found in the field near Preston, similar in many ways to