A circle is a sacred space in which witches have worked for thousands of years. It offers both a space of protection and a place to store raised energies until they are needed. By casting a circle you state your intention to leave the solidity of the earthly world and the boundaries of your normal consciousness behind you. In a circle you state you are on the edge of all worlds -- the physical, the astral, the spiritual, and probably ones of which we as yet have no knowledge. At the edge of your circle all things, all time, and all places meet, and it is here that faeries can easily come to watch, aid, or participate in your worship and work.
Remember that faeries as a whole cannot be summoned at will, nor controlled by egotistical magicians. They are sentient, living beings who are extremely sensitive, and they deserve our respect. When you are in the protection of your circle, try calling on faeries while keeping their individuality in mind rather than thinking of them as merely elemental energies. (You can and should certainly keep in mind their elemental associations, but try to divorce them in your mind from being only such a representation.) Invite them with the same respect with which you would offer an invitation to a cherished friend.
Different Pagan traditions have various rules or guidelines for casting circles, and a set of prescribed rituals to do in them before any magick or ritual can begin. If you are used to these proceedings it is certainly all right to keep following them. In fact they may even help you see faeries, for your deep mind is already conditioned to these preliminaries and is being signaled that you are about to enter another world.
To summon faeries to the circle, turn to the four directions and invite -- never demand -- the faeries' preence. Your invitation might sound something like this, as you face eah direction in turn as your tradition prefers, saying the following at each one:
"Hear me now, oh powers of the (direction). With an open heart I invite all the friendly spirits and faeries of the (direction) and of (element associated with the direction, usually air for east, fire for south, water for west, earth for north) to come to the edge of my circle, this sacred space, to witness and participate in the worship of our cherished Goddess and our blessed God, and to joyfully worktowards our goals for the good of all. Come join me (or us), if you will. You are welcome here. You are wanted here. Blessed be all who come in the name of the
Bounteous Lady and the Gracious Lord."
If your tradition calls for bells to be intoned as the directions are invoked, you must avoid this if you wish to bring faeries. Bells have long been used as a deterrent which frightens them away. Also, any sharp sounds while you are in your circle, including hand clapping and whistling, will frighten them off, leaving you only the mere raw energies of the directional elements. Remember, your goal is to get the input and assistance of a whole being for the duration of your ritual. For example, if you were frightened enough to flee from a sacred place, a part of your energy would undoubtedly remain behind (this is, in fact, one explanation of a haunting), but the real you, the part capable of thinking and acting, would not be there and therefore could not fully interact with others.
When you first begin contacting faeries, always stay within the protection of a circle until you get a feel for their intent towards you. If you feel faeries are indeed present you should not break the circle for any reason until the circle has been grounded, at which time most entities who were attracted to it will disperse.
If you cannot see the faeries at the perimeter of your circle, try to sense their presence. But even if you do not see or feel them, do not repeat the invitation to them. Be assured that it was heard the first time, and to press the issue could be construed as demanding or rude. You are, after all, about to enter another dimension of reality, and you do not want to drag into it negative feelings of any kind which might be magnified by the energies you raise in ritual.
A Witch's Guide to Fairy Folk : Reclaiming Our Working Relationship With Invisible Helpers (Llewellyn's New Age Series) by Edain McCoy
