Editing Fairy (section)

=== Demoted angels ===
A Christian tenet held that fairies were a class of "demoted" [[angel]]s.<ref>Lewis (1994) pp. 135–36.</ref> One story described a group of angels revolting, and God ordered the gates of heaven shut; those still in heaven remained angels, those in hell became demons, and those caught in between became fairies.<ref>Briggs (1976) p. 319.</ref> Others wrote that some angels, not being godly enough, yet not evil enough for hell, were thrown out of heaven.<ref>Yeats (1988) pp. 9–10.</ref> This concept may explain the tradition of paying a "teind" or [[tithe]] to hell; as fallen angels, although not quite devils, they could be viewed as subjects of Satan.<ref>Briggs (1967) p. 9.</ref>

[[File:James I; Daemonologie, in forme of a dialogue. Title page. Wellcome M0014280.jpg|thumb|right|Title page of a 1603 reprinting of ''[[Daemonologie]]'']]

[[James VI and I|King James I]], in his dissertation ''[[Daemonologie]]'', stated the term "faries" referred to illusory spirits (demonic entities) that prophesied to, consorted with, and transported the individuals they served; in medieval times, a witch or sorcerer who had a pact with a [[familiar spirit]] might receive these services.<ref>{{cite book |author=King James |title=Daemonologie |date=1597}}</ref>

In England's [[Christian theosophy|Theosophist]] circles of the 19th century, a belief in the "angelic" nature of fairies was reported.<ref name="Evans-Wentz">{{cite book |author-link=W. Y. Evans-Wentz |last=Evans-Wentz |first=W. Y. |orig-year=1966 |year=1990 |title=The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries |location=New York |publisher=Citadel |pages=167, 243, 457 |isbn=0-8065-1160-5 }}</ref> Entities referred to as [[Deva (New Age)|Devas]] were said to guide many processes of [[nature]], such as [[evolution]] of organisms, growth of [[plant]]s, etc., many of which resided inside the Sun (Solar [[Angel#Theosophy|Angels]]). The more Earthbound Devas included ''nature spirits'', ''[[elemental]]s'', and ''fairies'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Hodson |first=Geoffrey |title=Kingdom of the Gods |year= 2003 |isbn=0-7661-8134-0 }}</ref> which were described as appearing in the form of colored flames, roughly the size of a human.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/athens/Olympus/3987/devas2.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040820064159/http://www.geocities.com/athens/Olympus/3987/devas2.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 20, 2004|title=Hodson's Pictures|date=August 20, 2004}}</ref>

[[Arthur Conan Doyle]], in his 1922 book ''The Coming of the Fairies''; ''The Theosophic View of Fairies'', reported that eminent theosophist [[E. L. Gardner]] had likened fairies to butterflies, whose function was to provide an essential link between the energy of the sun and the plants of Earth, describing them as having no clean-cut shape ... small, hazy, and somewhat luminous clouds of colour with a brighter sparkish nucleus.{{Request quotation span|date=March 2025|text= describing them as having no clean-cut shape ... small, hazy, and somewhat luminous clouds of colour with a brighter sparkish nucleus.}} "That growth of a plant which we regard as the customary and inevitable result of associating the three factors of sun, seed, and soil would never take place if the fairy builders were absent."<ref name="Doyle">{{cite book |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/cof/cof11.htm |author-link=Arthur Conan Doyle |last=Doyle |first=Arthur Conan |title=The Coming of the Fairies |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |location=London |year=1922 }}</ref>

For a similar concept in Persian mythology, see [[Peri]].