Ever since posting something about this on my status line, I've had so many people writing me to ask about it, that I thought I might as well post it as a blog. And you all know I don't blog all that much... ;)
I was spending the night with Sionna out at the Elysium farm last Saturday night. We had noticed the full moon rise, large and orange, and so we walked from the farm house up to the Elysium circle (a very large, fenced, sacred area, with trees all around the perimeter) to watch it. We stayed cuddled in the swing watching the moon until it turned white and rose above the trees. I had taken a heavier shirt in case it got cool, but didn't use it.
Finally, we decided to head back to the farm house, and were about halfway back when I realized I had left my shirt up at the circle. Sionna waited for me down by the lower gate while I went back up to get it.
I was watching the moon the whole time I walked up there, got to the swing, picked up my shirt, turned to head back, when a "saw" it. It was like the air had become denser, thicker, and formed a human shape. About 5' tall, standing just at the edge of the fire pit, which is in the center of the circle. I couldn't tell if it was male or female. I got a very "androgynous" feel from it, although I'm inclined to think female... though that may just be my projection.
The other odd thing was that, after a lifetime devoted to reading about the "Good People", I thought that, if I ever encountered one, there would be a sense of "kindred spirit" or camaraderie. Nothing could have been farther from the truth!!! I've never felt so much like I was in the presence of something totally alien. Not malevolent, just other-worldly. It was like all my hair was standing on end!
I left that place quickly, feeling like I was intereupting something. (I got the sense that it was in the middle of some ritual or other.) The other thing I kept wandering all night was whether it had been waiting for Sionna and me to leave before it started doing its thing, and I only "saw" it because I'd forgotten my shirt and had to go back for it.
The alien feeling of it kinda haunted me all night, and even now, I can't quite get the image out of my head. I certainly wish Sionna or her dog had gone back to the circle with me. It would have been interesting to see if they had seen it, too.
I can certainly better understand that theory I've heard that, depending on one's underlying personal mythos, one might interpret it as one of the "Fair Folk", or as "an alien". It would sustain either interpretation, in my book. Just completely not-of-this-world, and you-shouldn't-get-too-close. Brrrr!!!