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WISP (WILL O' THE WISPS)
Among European rural people, especially in Gaelic and
Slavic folk cultures, the
Will
o' the wisps are held to be mischievous spirits
of the dead or other supernatural beings attempting to
lead travelers astray.
Sometimes they are believed to be the spirits of
un-baptized or stillborn children, flitting between heaven
and hell. Modern occultist elaborations group them with the
salamander, a type of spirit wholly independent from humans
(unlike ghosts, which are presumed to have been humans at
some point in the past).
They also fit the description of certain types of fairy,
which may or may not have originated as human souls.
Historical literature has revealed that people from all
cultures and times have seen unexplained light phenomena.
The Indians and Chinese sometimes built temples where lights
had appeared with some regularity. |
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To the Irish they were fairy lights; to the Scots they
were simply gealbhan (balls of fire); to Malaysians,
pennangal – the spectral heads of women who had died
in childbirth; to Indians they were local deities or the
lanterns of spirits; to Africans they were devil
lights; to Brazilians, the Mother of Gold leading
to buried treasure; and to Chinese Buddhists they were
Bodhisattva Lights.
Europeans visiting some of these lands also reported
seeing strange lights – demonstrating they were more than just local
lore. On a visit to Gabon in 1895, for instance, the writer Mary
Kingsley saw a ball of violet light roll out of a wood onto the
banks of Lake Ncovi; it hovered until joined by another, similar
light. The two lightballs circled each other until Kingsley
approached them in a canoe. One then flew off back into the trees
while the other floated over the lake surface; as Kingsley paddled
quickly after it, it went down into the water, still glowing as it
sank. Locals later told her such phenomena were aku, devil lights.
No Will-o'-the-wisp
mislight thee,
Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee;
But on, on thy way
Not making a stay,
Since ghost there 's none to affright thee.
Robert Herrick (1591–1674), The
Night-piece: To Julia
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