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The esteemed editor and her downtrodden assistant would like to thank all the contributors who have taken time to send us items to include in the newsletter. Without them the job would be nowhere near as much fun.
As another year comes to a close we can look back at some very interesting speakers and field trips for which I would like to extend very hearty congratulations to Shaun for organising. Glancing at the forward programme it looks as though he is keeping up the good work.
Them people what runs the Society (the Committee) would like to wish everyone Seasons greetings and thank everyone for attending meetings and field trips. Those of you who do not come on the field trips are missing out on what have become some of the most enjoyable days out.
Next year’s field trips have been listed in the back of the journal and more details of meeting-points and so on will be added shortly.
The word “Yule” is believed to derive from the old English “Geol” a word which has Icelandic origins, where it is “Jol”. This is the name of a pagan festival celebrated at the time of the winter solstice. - I wonder if this is where our word “jolly” or “jollifications” comes from?
The Icelandic Jol was another of the Fire festivals, where large bonfires were lit at summer and winter solstices as part of a cycle of renewal and preservation of the life-cycle.
This may be why we have the Yule Log for the household fire, also may be the origin of Yule candles. Sometimes the remains of the Yule log were re-kindled at Candlemas, February 2nd - a festival which has pagan as well as Christian connotations.
“The Tree of Life” was the title of the talk given by Kevin Huntley at the November meeting. Kevin, an entertaining and humorous speaker, has been trained in both the magical and the mystical methods of working with the Kabbalah – the tree of life as it is commonly referred to.
The Kabbalah states that there is a series of ten spheres, known as Sefirot, through which divine influences have to pass to reach the earth. Each sphere has its own name and can be associated with a specific tree, mineral or colour and personal characteristics, among other things, and it is possible to gain enlightenment by working with these spheres. The signs of the Zodiac are also associated with different parts of the sephirot.
Meditation on the sephirot can help with Chakra work, as each one has an affinity to a particular chakra.
In the mid 19th century Alphonse Louis Constant [Eliphas Levi] linked the Kabbala with the Tarot system of divination.
Like most people, I had heard of the Tree of Life, and had an idea what the diagram of it looked like, but before the talk I had very little understanding of what it was about. However, Kevin’s excellent and amusing explanations have pierced a few holes in the darkness!
Here is the Tree of Life, showing the ten spheres (sefirot).
1: Kether-Supreme Crown
2: Hokhmah-Wisdom
3: Binah-Understanding
4: Hesed-Love
5: Din-Power
6: Tifereth-Beauty
7: Netsah-Endurance
8: Hod-Majesty
9: Yesod-Foundation
10: Malkuth-Kingdom
Not an opinion but an extremely ancient seasonal custom that took place in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Dorset. The tradition, sometimes known as “Hoodening”, dates back to pre-Christian times and took place during the winter festival celebrations.
The participants dressed themselves up in animal masks and disguises. Bull heads made of wood were often retained by families for many generations and were sometimes mounted on a stick to be waved rather than being used as a mask. The “bulls” descended upon various households throughout the village and were allowed freedom of the houses they chose. Apparently much carousing and licentiousness took place, and once the church became established the tradition was strongly condemned as a devilish practise.
However, the custom managed to keep going in spite of the revels in later years being a mere shadow of their former selves.
December 6th is the feast day of Saint Nicholas of Patara, a fourth-century Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor. Apparently he gave gifts to three poor sisters who would otherwise have been driven into a life of prostitution. The gifts were of gold balls which he dropped into their stockings which had been hung before the fire to dry.
The lore developing from this charitable action gradually became the basis of the commercial catchpenny that is the modern Christmas “celebration.” Dutch settlers, who called him Sante Klaas took the old stories to the USA, where, during the 19th century, the “added value” of a sleigh and reindeers gave rise to the current image of Father Christmas.
Odin the Norse god may also share the blame, as he was reputed to ride his horse through the sky at midnight, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked.
Knecht Ruprecht [servant Rupert] was an early German version of Santa Clause. He is usually referred to as a Knight of Christ and went from house to house giving gifts to children who had behaved themselves over the past year. The fathers of naughty children were given a cane to punish them with.
December 21st is also the festival of the Apostle Thomas, who was the original “doubting Thomas”, as he refused to believe that Christ had been resurrected. He later went to India, preaching and working as a carpenter, and found the three Kings who had witnessed the birth of Jesus. They were later baptised as Christians.
On St. Thomas, Day in Staffordshier, those who had received a gift from a local benefactor often gave them a small sprig of mistletoe in return. In parts of the country, including North Wiltshire, the day was known as Gooding Day, when poor people went “a-gooding”. This was not seen as begging and was regarded as a perfectly acceptable way for poorer people to aquire a little extra money, or goods for the festive season. In North Wilts it was customary for children to collect pennies on Gooding Day. Given that a labourer might have to raise a large family on a few shillings a week, if a child could collect even a few pence it would have made a real difference to the family’s festive budget.
“The Longest Night and the Shortest Day – please to remember St. Thomas’s Day.”
December 19th is one of the three days each year dedicated to Ops, a Roman festival which celebrates might and power – Opalia, while the 31st of the month is the Roman festival of Divalia, not dissimilar to Divali, the name of the Hindu festival of lights.
Further to the article from the Weleda Newsletter last month I came across another interesting piece about water in a book I was reading.
The director of the Institute for Physical Chemistry in Florence became dissatisfied with conventional explanations of common chemical reactions taking place in water. He noticed that the rate at which reactions took place seemed to vary, and sometimes they did not take place at all. His curiosity was further aroused by his discovery that if he enclosed his experiments in copper sheeting, they always worked as theoretically re-predicted. Wishing to get to the bottom of this mystery, the director and his colleagues conducted a long series of chemical experiments simply to see how they fluctuated. They chose a simple experiment which they repeated more than 200,000 times over a ten year period, recording the time of day and how long the experiment took to complete.
The results, published in 1960, show that variations in the time the reaction took was related to solar eruptions and the Earths magnetic field. Over the long term the results were related to the 11 year sunspot cycle. All the experiments conducted inside the copper shielding were unaffected.
As is usual, we don’t have a field trip for December, as most members are busy with seasonal celebrations of one sort or another, but get your wellies and insulated dowsing rods ready for January, when next season’s trips begin.
More details will be in next month’s journal, but we have picked Lydiard Tregoze to start the season with as, there is interesting dowsing not too far from civilisation should the weather turn bad.
Since our last visit, the “missing” lake has been restored and more of the house is available to the public.
The February trip to Oxford has also been picked with possible wintry weather in mind. The Botanical gardens has some nice warm glasshouses. The museum has also had a lot of work done since our last visit, and should be well worth the trip.
While researching some details for potential future field trips, I came across a number of bits of local folklore which suggested that a number of round barrows in the area , along with an odd village of hamlet are the burial sites of golden chairs or golden coffins. No other items of furniture were mentioned, just chairs. No reasons were given for the burials.
Upavon is the site of one golden chair, which is reputed to lie somewhere in the ramparts of Casterly Camp. Should any of our members be lucky enough to locate this chair by dowsing, perhaps they would be kind enough to let the rest of us know – it would make a nice piece for the journal.
At Enford is one of the largest round barrows in Wilts., and also has a golden chair buried at the bottom. The Gipsy Lane round barrow at Chisledon contains one of the large golden coffins, as does the round barrow at Kingston Deverill.
Oliver’s Castle at Roundway has a gold coffin, so do Winkelbury Hill at Berwick St. John and there is also one at the parish of Winterslow, although no details of the site were given
Hackpen Hill cannot boast any gold but, according to the “Hypomnemata Antiquaria”, in the Bodlian Library in Oxford, lays claim to a fairy hill, which a local shepherd was led into one dark night after he became lost. Inside the hill he could hear fairy music.
Sidbury Hillfort at North Tidworth has an underground passage which leads to Everleigh. The passage contains –guess what- another golden chair.
Less exiting is the round barrow at Ogbourne St. Andrew. The barrow, in the churchyard was converted into a motte and bailey in Norman times, and was the home of venomous vipers. This may actually be true, since our native adders are a type of viper and are venomous.
Adams Grave at Alton Priors used to be called Woden’s barrow in a Saxon Charter [BCS 390], and locals believed that is anyone runs around the barrow seven times, a giant will appear.
Cley Hill, at Corsly has two round barrows on the top. One of these was the home of the guardian spirit of the nearby hamlet of Bugley. This spirit used to direct people with weak eyes to a local holy well which had a reputation for curing eye problems.
Several dowsing possibilities here?
“Hours of sun on Christmas Day – so many frosts in the month of May.”
“A Green Christmas – a White Easter.”
In parts of Austria, it was believed that violent storms could be subdued by tossing a handful of meal out of the window, or by ringing the church bells.
The state of the weather on New Year’s Day is significant – should the wind blow from the north, the forthcoming year will see lots of bad weather, but if it blows from the south, there will be plenty of good weather. If the wind at New Year blows from the east, there will be famine or some other severe calamity, but if it blows from the west, there will be an abundance of milk and fish. No wind at all signifies a year of joy and prosperity.
A spell of wet weather can be expected if an accidentally dropped piece of bread and butter lands butter side down. Likewise rain will come if the cat washes behind its ears.
If it rains on January 25th, St. Paul’s Day, there will be poor grain harvests, while rain at Easter indicates lush grass later in the season, but little hay. Rain on June 29th means a good apple crop.
In times of drought you could apparently make it rain by stepping on a beetle or ant. In some parts of Wales it was said that money washed in rainwater could not be stolen, and that babies bathed in rainwater would learn to talk sooner than others of the same age.
We often get rainbows and love to see them but in days gone by they were less popular. In some places e.g. in the Shetlands, a rainbow was an omen of death if it arched over a house, Pointing at a rainbow was believed in some places to make the rain start again, and many sailors thought that a rainbow could swallow up an entire boat. Water that has been touched by a rainbow was thought to be poisonous by some.
Incidentally, has anyone done any serious dowsed weather forecasting? If so, it would be interesting to check the rate of accuracy against the standard weather forecasts. S.C.
The Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe –
Are sacred boughs that we bestow,
Around our hearths to decorate
The flaming Yule Log in our grates.
Holly-for a happiness that lasts,
Ivy for friendship future and past,
Mistletoe for strength to overcome all,
The Yule log is for fortune fair.
I wish your Yule Log, Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe
Works well for you this coming year!
Wish Hound