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"Tomorrow Determines Today"

Abednego Tregarthen Comment:

prykys

Literally, mark.

A typical færie story will relate how a human, often a female, will be given to care for a færie child. She will be instructed to wash the infant or to place an ointment on the child's eyes, and will be cautioned not to use the ointment or the water on herself. Invariably, one day the woman will disobey and touch her eye with the forbidden substance. As a result, she immediately will be able to see færie. In one story, she will see a male færie at a marketplace where she will see him stealing while he remains invisible to normal mortals. She will exclaim or in some way let the færie know that she can see him. He will ask her which eye can see her and pluck it out, or blind that eye with his touch.

In Gandolf's story, the mother will touch her eye with whes-has-gos, indeed, a magickal ointment, and immediately she will see the invisible færie father. Because he loves her, he will not blind or pluck out her eyes, but will touch her womb and mark the childrens' eyes within. This will appear to satisfy the færie injunction against mortals beholding the færie, but at a relatively mild price. This reduction in the power of the færie injunction will be from the love of the father for the mortal woman.

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