May Eve
Greetings to you, Sun of the seasons,
As you travel the skies on high,
With your strong step on the wing of the heights.
You are the happy mother of the stars.You sink down into the perilous ocean
Without harm and without hurt.
You rise on the quiet wave
Like a young queen in flower.- Traditional Gaelic Prayer
There are several ways to see past the shroud. Sometimes wearing one's coat turned inside-out will enable one to see into the Middle Kingdom. (This is related to the protective measure of turning one's coat outside-in and singing or whistling.) Closing one's right eye and peering through one's left may be sufficient.
Wearing a posy of primroses or carrying a four-leafed clover may have their merits.
There are certain places where one may best stand in order to gain vision of fairies, but these are often dangerous. One may stand inside of a fairy ring, or touch certain standing stones.
Some may have "the sight," a mixed-blessing at best. Some are merely 'touched.'
The surest means (it is said) to see past the glamour is to apply the proper ointment to one or both of one's eyes. This ointment (several families have their own recipe) has been likened to the one used in raising zombies. Some people insist mint is in it, others that it can only be made of flowers first bloomed the day of April 30th, others conjure tales of a bit of graveyard dust, a bit of starshine, clovers, primroses, St. John's Wort, a drop of pure water touched by unicorn horn...
On these nights, on Fridays, and on the last night of the year, it is said that they are given to leaving home, and taking away whomsoever of the human race they find helpless, or unguarded and unwary. They may be encountered any time, but on these stated occasions men are to be particularly on their guard against them.