Didn’t get my tooth pulled yesterday, woke up with a lot of congestion and not sure if I have a cold or allergies but couldn’t breathe normally so decided that was out and now I’m rescheduled for next week–but still took the day off as was just feeling punky–laid around and ran out to Sam’s for office supplies http://www.samsclub.com/sams/homepage.jsp . Oh Sat this weekend went to Cassadaga (if you haven’t been there look at this site—it’ a very interesting place– http://www.cassadaga.org/ )Some of us had readings at the hotel (there’s only one) www.cassadagahotel.net and a great Italian Restaurant (also in the hotel and also the only one in town) Sinatra’s http://sinatras.us/cassadaga/index.html and stopped back there for drinks later. Oh and my recommendations if you’re getting a reading: Torre—www.venusinvlvet.com Anyway we were there till about 4:30 and then came home and I left shortly thereafter to meet some other friends at the Copper Rocket in Winter Park http://www.copperrocketpub.com/ for a battle of the bands–Straight Jacket https://www.facebook.com/straightjacketofficial won. Made it home at Midnight-ish.
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So many months to go…But Claire an Jamie must wait 20 years.
Today we’re looking at some current symbols Like the one on the beginning of the page. When we see the Skull and Cross Bones (both my pictures today were taken at a neighbor of a friend of mine–don’t ask) we think of pirates. The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today, the skull and crossbones symbol on a black flag, was used during the 1710s by a number of pirate captains including “Black Sam” Bellamy, Edward England, and John Taylor and it went on to become the most commonly used pirate flag during the 1720s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_Roger
THE PENTAGRAM is still a symbol we recognize–from reading, movies on the occult and the re-emergence of pagan worship (over a million recorded most recently) (Devil Worshipers by the way use an inverted pentagram) . It is a five pointed star with a single point upright and is used universally by Wicca practitioners, who might I add don’t worship the devil.
SATAN AS A HORNED FIGURE goes back a long time and there have been found depictions all the way back to cave dweller paintings and later they became Cernunnos the Celtic god of the hunt (with stag horns) Pan the Greek (Goat–probably the closest to even modern depictions) god of the woodlands and Janus (the two-faced Roman diety) to name a few—but they have long stuck in our memory at the child’s costume above shows us. It still stirs our tribal memories and puts chills up our spine–but we with our silliness try to dilute this–but down deep we still have that cave dweller cowering in a corner of a cave when the storm is at it height—or the creatures of the night howl at the entry. Interestingly the Irish have a legend of horned women, witches all.
THE BUNNY especially at Easter has become a symbol of the day dedicated to the Rebirth of Christ, but even the name of the holiday goes back to ancient times and is from that of a fertility goddess and what better representative of fertility (ditto eggs) that the very prolific rabbit?
Then there’s IRISH GREEN—Well actually the Irish flag and the color associated with St. Patrick was originally blue, but then the English got involved and ”
blue as a color associated with Ireland became tainted. From the late 18th to the 20th century, as the divide between the Irish population and the British crown deepened, the color green and St. Patrick’s shamrock became a symbol of identity and rebellion for the Irish. ”
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/should-st-patricks-day-be-blue-180954572/#oy3OiJxYAtDjFzC2.99
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/should-st-patricks-day-be-blue-180954572/#oy3OiJxYAtDjFzC2.99
While Green is now Irish–Red seems to have been associated with prostitution for many long years. From the Red Light Districts (Merrian-Webster Dictionary) which according to Dictonary.com originated from Prostitutes employing red lights (there are also references to a whore in the Bible using one to alert persons to her location.
But if you put the two together you don’t get an Irish lady of the evening but rather Christmas: “The conventional colours of Christmas – red and green – are not, as many might suppose, a legacy of the Victorians. Instead, they hark back to the Middle Ages and perhaps even earlier, according to Cambridge research scientist Dr Spike Bucklow.” http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/who-colour-coded-christmas#sthash.5WWsRRc5.dpuf He goes on to say that these were colors used in the churches which the Victorians restored and were included in Christmas because of this use by much earlier artist to separate and code areas of the churches, which while the meaning was lost on the restorers, the colors themselves made an undying impression..
GARLIC as a symbol of vampires and especially keeping them away and or assisting in the demise (First you put through the heart, then cut the head off and then garlic in the mouth of the decapitated head) is a rather recent addition to the legend and appeared fist in the 19th c book Dracula by Bram Stoker. Exactly were he developed this ritual, garlic has long been used as an herbal medicine and the Christian St Andrew is reputed to have given to humanity. But it was prominent in Slavic communities as a way to find a vampire and there are records as late of as the 1970s of Romanian churches passing out garlic in services to detect the creatures in the congregation.
The Sword in the Stone, even to this day it represent a legend of kings that probably were war lords and clan chiefs of the Celtic Triangle–Wales and Cornwall in the 5th century most likely. While the Celtic lands, especially Britain, are full of finds swords from time immemorial in rivers, stream, even holy wells and spring the sword in the stone seems t long to a different people who were part of a larger empire’s conquering army–the Sumerians. There is also another similar and earlier legend involving a Saint in Tuscany. So who knows exactly where it comes from? http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-other-artifacts/legendary-sword-stone-san-galgano-002968 As noted above it later became an anvil…I’m not even going there.
” All we saying is give PEACE a chance. John Lennon
Sources:
City of Sin: London and It’s Vices by Catharine Arnold
Irish Fairies and Folk Tales By W.B. Yeats
Mystical Britain and Ireland By Richard Jones
The Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
The Lore of Ireland by Daithi O hOgain
The Vampire Book By J. Gordon Melton
Were-Wolf and Vampire In Romania by Harry A. Senn
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