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of my recollection, their discussions revolved around religion and philoso- phy. Several times since then I have met other people who claim to have had frequent encounters with similar entities. For some reason, most of these percipients seem to be on the fringes of the art world. They all describe essentially the same type of being. Those who are bright enough quickly realize that their mysterious visitors are capable of assuming any form they wish. One artist told me in great detail of her thirty years of experiences with an androgynous entity who resembled an Indian and who was fond of playing little jokes on her, such as turning up in the form of Abraham Lincoln. She also described his/its volatile temper. “They’re Valkyries, you know,” she said. ‘“‘They have a wonderful sense of humor, but they also get very angry if you contradict them.” Throughout history occultists have called these entities elementals. There are several kinds of elementals in psychic lore. One type is supposedly conjured up by secret magical rites and can assume any kind of form ranging from that of a beautiful woman to hideous, indescribable monsters. Once a witch or warlock has whipped up such a critter, it will mindlessly repeat the same actions century after century in the same place until another occultist comes along and performs the rite necessary to dissolve it. Many hauntings are ascribed to elemental beings. Generation after generation the entity returns to the same spot to walk along a specific course. If a house is built on the spot, it will walk through the house leaving unlocked doors in its wake, parading through bedrooms and pantries, wandering blindly across gardens. There are innumerable docu- mented instances in which knowledgeable occultists have gotten rid of such entities by exercising certain rites and chanting ancient prayers. Sounds ridiculous, but, as with the exorcism rites of the Church, it seems to work. The leprechauns of Ireland seem to be another form of elemental. They may be akin to the legendary elves of the Black Forest in Germany and the mysterious little “Stick People’’ of the North American Indians. The Irish have all kinds of stories and lore about the “‘little people.”’ In 1968, the people in Ballymagroartyscotch were up in arms when road builders threatened to cut down a skeog, or fairy tree. According to tradition, some fairies locate themselves in skeogs, and woe to anyone who tries to cut them down. Several contractors refused the job of chopping down the tree. One of them, Ray Greene, said, ‘I heard of a chap with the electricity board, and he cut down a fairy tree, and the next day he fell off an electricity pole and was killed.” 202 / Operation Trojan Horse