Reclaiming Samhain ????

Today the clocks went back one hour in yet another attempt by 'Government' to interfere with the natural order of things. Humans are not that much different to the rest of the animal kingdom in that we operate best in daylight, it has only been three or four generations since we operated a dawn till dusk work period. Which meant long days of labour in the warmth of the summer and short days in the Winter, this conserving energy and effort when food was at a low ebb. (By the way Samhain mean the end of lighter half of the year).

Industrialisation and the tyranny of the clock has disrupted this natural cycle.

So did I get an extra hours snooze this morning ? did I heck. The alarm on my son's blackberry went off at the 'new' 5am and the cat decided that he was having no truck with this clock changing malarkey and at the new 7am start lobbing Mistress Guthrum's bottles of perfume off the table in an unsubtle hint that he might want feeding because it was almost 8am in real time and it was light and had been for quite sometime !!

But what it did give me time to listen to was the very reverend Bishop of Hereford, whiffling on about the dangers of 'Halloween' and that in Hereford there was going to be 'fun ' workshops and the parading of saints around Hereford with a brass band playing when 'the saints come marching in'.

Well Bish, let me explain something to you and your johnny come lately religion (2000 years and counting) and your compatriots in Islam (1400 years and counting), as you battle out your competing theisms, the rhythm of life for humans has been going on for a lot longer than that and everybody who has lived before (our direct ancestors) the last 2000 years have not been damned to the big fiery pit of damnation.

Christianity when it was reintroduced to what has become England was not the religion of 'the people' it was the religion of authority. Not for nothing did the Church of Rome sent missionaries to extend the light to the villagers of England but to the Courts of the myriad of petty kingdoms. This was a top down religion.

The Kings may have decided that this was going to be the state religion, but the clerics away from the Courts had to impose this new foreign deity on the countryside. This was largely only achieved by building churches on previously sacred sites and by adopting the festivals celebrated by the paganii (the countryfolk). Then as now life revolved around the family/clan/ group celebration of birth, marriage and death. It also revolved around the same rhythms of nature that physical survival depended in the days before the God ipod.

Ken Follet's The Pillars of the Earth currently being shown on TV shows this undercurrent. The Kingdom may be in turmoil and war but the clergy were determined to build showy cathedrals and extend their temporal power, rather than tend to the poor and meek. The poor and meek were required to give 'free time' to the building of these edifices.

Poor they may have been, meek they were not. In many of the great cathedrals you will find 'Green Men' carved bosses, and inverted sculptures of the local prior/bishop/donor lord with his face visible to the floor of the church, and with an ass' head carved above, showing what the carver really thought of him for all time.

In the seventeenth century, country practices,beliefs and midwifery came under attack by the 'witch-killing' craze that lasted from the reign of James Ist to the last public execution in 1685, that was largely created by a centralising State wishing to impose conformity of worship.

So much of the previous practices and celebrations were driven underground, as nobody wanted to have their neck stretched by some religious zealot. However the survivals are still there. The bonfire night had its origins in the practice of creating two bonfires and driving livestock through the two fires to purify them for the coming year. The bones of slaughtered animals were also thrown onto these fires, as November is in Anglo-Saxon 'Blutmonath', where the winter supply of meat was cured and laid in. Burning the bones was a rudimentary way of disposing of a source of livestock disease. These farmers knew a thing or two.

The 'Devil' worship and sexual abandonment has obvious antecedents in these months of celebration that the Christian Church frowned upon, but never manage to stop.

So this afternoon I will attend to my part of Samhain, by the preparation of pickled onions to last the winter months, whether or not there will be sexual abandonment I am not sure, but I live in hope !

'Wes Thu Hal' Guthrum

Druids Now Sanctioned By The State

So Druids have been approved by the State (Charity Commission)

The Druids died out as a force before even the Saxons arrived, they wrote nothing of their belief system or ritual. What is clear from Roman writers is that they acted as Judges,War Leaders and had a secretive hierarchical system, Iron age Mullahs in fact. Aping the Church Of England and creating a spurious belief system in tune with the times is a bit strong. We need another hierarchical religion like a hole in the head.

Revived Druidism in the 19th Century was linked to 19th Century Folk Revival linked with Nationalism and Romanticism, in the late 20th Century it was linked to eco-religion. Lo ! it is now a sanctioned religion.

How long before the Chief Druid is permitted a seat in the House of Lords.


 Nobody should need a state sanctioned intermediary between his/her Gods.

Hwæt Hærfest Mōna Becuman Twentigoða Hærfestmōnað

Crosby Garrett Helmet

This amazing Roman Equestrian Helmet found in Cumbria is being auctioned at Christies with an estimated value of £300 000. Experts are putting this Helmet which appears to follow a general appearance of Mithras, down to the cap and tight curls,to the 1st Century. The fact that it was found in an area where no Roman remains have been located in this area before, begs the question whether it was just a ceremonial helmet or whether it was being used on 'active' service. The lineage to the post Roman Sutton Hoo Anglo Saxon Helmet is clear, with a full face covering.

Not Beige- RIP

Sid Rawle King of the Hippies 1945-2010




Hope Bourne 1918-2010

Chester- The City Of The Legions ?

Archeologists are mooting that Chester was the Arthurian site of the Round table.

This is entirely plausible as most of the twelve battles linked with the historical 'Arthur' were in the North.

The Chester amphitheatre could seat 1000 people, the average size of a professional Dark Age War band. The Gildean reference to a martyrs shrine is also convincing.

Rythmn Of The Heat

Echassiers les Elfes

The Ruin

The Battle Of Brunanburh

When Aethelstan defeated the Scots, Welsh and Norse Alliance and finally established England.

Drýcræft

Hí sǽdon ðæt hió sceolde mid hire drýcræft ða men forbredan

This Is The Earth Being Created - Not in Seven Days

Babylon Has Fallen

I have been searching for the words for this 17th Century Revolutionary Hymn for years.

Babylon is Fallen (2)

Hail the day so long expected,
Hail the year of full release.
Zion's walls are now erected,
And her watchmen publish peace.
Through our Shiloh's wide dominion,
Hear the trumpet loudly roar,
Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

....Baaaaaa....(drawn out...with the rest following a half beat later)
Babylon is fallen, fallen, fallen
Babylon is fallen, to rise no more.

All her merchants stand with wonder,
What is this that comes to pass:
Murm'ring like the distant thunder,
Crying, "Oh alas, alas."
Swell the sound, ye kings and nobles,
Priest and people, rich and poor;
Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

Blow the trumpet in Mount Zion,
Christ shall come a second time;
Ruling with a rod of iron
All who now as foes combine.
Babel's garments we've rejected,
And our fellowship is o'er,
Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

Bellmans Lullaby

Weymouth Viking Burial Pit

The decapitated skeletons of viking raiders have been examined by Oxford Archeology, their burial on the ridgeway is consistent with our saxon ancestors (not descendants- Sky News)executing transgressors alongside known boundaries

Year Of The Witch

One of my favourites from Agent Provocateur

Up Helly Aa

26th January

Remains of Queen Eadgyth Found

An incredible survival, the remains of Alfred the Great's Grandaughter and Aethelstan's half sister.