Banshee - Ghost, faerie, or something else?

When someone mentions a ghost, most of us think of cemeteries, haunted houses, and human-sized transparent figures draped in sheets. Likewise, the word "faerie" is linked with cute little figures with wings, and merry mischief.

However, mention a Banshee, and people squirm. The Banshee, like a ghost, often represents death. She can appear transparent, and is the size of a living person. Nevertheless, like her fae counterparts, she is associated with a more magickal Otherworld.

Perhaps she is the link which shows us that the Otherworld is a vast place, inhabited by many kinds of beings, including faeries and ghosts.

The Banshee, in Irish the Bean Sidhe (pronounced "bann-SHEE"), means "spirit woman." She is usually described as a single being, although there are many of them. According to legend, one Banshee guards each Milesian Irish family; these are the families whose names start with O' or Mac, though those prefixes have been dropped, particularly by American families.

Nevertheless, there is a Banshee for each branch of these families, and the family Banshee can follow the descendants to America, Australia, or wherever the Irish family travels or emigrates.

Traditionally, the Banshee appears shortly before a death in "her" family. The Banshee is almost always female, and appears filmy in a white, hooded gown. The exception is in Donegal, Ireland, where she may wear a green robe, or in County Mayo where she usually wears black. However, if she is washing a shroud when you see her, she may merely signal a major life-changing event in your future. The way to determine this is to go home and burn a beeswax candle after seeing her; if it burns in the shape of a shroud, her appearance foretells death.

The night before the death, the Banshee will wail piteously in frustration and rage. Her family will always hear her, but many others in the area will, too. For example, Sir Walter Scott referred to "the fatal banshi's boding scream."

One of the largest reports of this wailing was in 1938, when the Giants' Grave in County Limerick, Ireland, was excavated and the bones were moved to a nearby castle. Those who heard the crying throughout central Ireland, said that it sounded as if every Banshee in Ireland was keening.

That wailing of many Banshees is unusual but not unique. There have been other reports of several Banshees manifesting together. When a group of Banshees are seen, it usually forecasts the dramatic illness-and perhaps death-of a major religious or political figure.