Another way the second sight passes can be immediate and occur to anyone (59-61).
One way to get the skill is by blood, and one popular way is the “seventh sons” (24). He likens the skill to glasses for a nearsighted person (23). According to Kirk, some superterraneans called “men of the second sight” can see the invisible beings (23). More interesting to me than the actual beings are the people who can see them. We have all heard references to these beings in folk tales, legends, literature, and popular culture, but to see it written from a first-text perspective is unique. These subterraneans have different goals and means to achieve them, but they are all invisible to the superterraneans. According to Kirk, these “invisible people among us” (18). Kirk reports that “they are a people invulnerable to our weapons” (14). What he refers to as “ignorant ancestors” performed “exorcisms, donations, and vows” to obviate the subterranean effect on their lives (54). These beings make up a “secret republic” (52). Kirk classifies and describes the subterraneans, what they do, and what their tactics are. Kirk’s clergyman eyes allowed him to see the Celtic beliefs as an academic and write down what he was told by his informers his unique position as a seventh son allowed him a closer access to these beliefs. Subterraneans are “those people that lives in the cavities of the earth” and Superterraneans “are we that live on the surface of the earth” (80). Kirk defines subterraneans and superterraneans. This book is an origin text for supernatural beings or what Kirk refers to as “subterranean people”. As a seventh son, Kirk was able to explore the superstitions of Celtic lore. Marina Warner writes in the introduction: “Kirk never alludes to his own status as a seventh son or to any healing he might have performed, but the accident of his birth must have directed the drifts of his interests” (xiv).
Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies is an exploration in ancient Celtic beliefs.
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