Blue Moon musings

This coming Friday evening will be a full "blue moon." A blue moon is an additional full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year, either the third of four full moons in a season or, a second full moon in a month of the common calendar. I think I'll enjoy a Blue Moon beer on this blue moon. The ancient Camunian/proto-European word for moon was Mòn or Mùn, prior to being replaced with the Roman/Latin Lùna. The Camunian village of Monno (in Italian) was known as Mòn in the Camunian dialect. Even the Roman name for the valley, Vallis Camunnorum, has the word Mùn within it, which means "Valley of the Camunni".. which actually breaks down roughly to "valley of the home of the moon people." 

The name in the Camunian dialect was Al Camònega ("valley of the home of the dawning moon"). The influence of the church gave rise to the local term "mòna"... a foul name for a woman, which is rooted in a negative reference towards the old venerated moon goddess. It should be noted that during the times of the witch trials, Camunian Catholics and Camunian Pagans (one-third of the population) got along fine.. as there was plenty of cultural overlap. Try to get out on the trail on the twilight and evening of this Friday's rising blue moon (actually sort've grayish), and feel that age old spiritual-ancestral and solar-lunar energetic interaction.

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Internet chess

Although there is no online reference to it that I can find, it can be most frustrating when you devote a half hour or longer of your time to a game of online chess, and finally reaching a critical point in the game... only to have the site/game system or internet connection "short your move" which directly makes you lose. Even though the game is meaningless, and you are anonymous, the psychological and intellectual frustration is not lost! It's as though you finally "blew it"... when you actually did not.

Another idea that I had was that it would be better if you were able to simply allow your king to be "taken".. to avoid the intellectual humiliation of being outnumbered and trounced during the final phase of the game. This would be better than the cowardly perception of "resigning" (aka quitting). In the game of rugby, when one team is far ahead on points, they just "call the game" and the players and coaches honorably meet at the center of the field. This fosters more respect between the teams.

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ELE happening now?

You know, we're in real trouble now. The Fukushima disaster--unlike Chernobyl, which ended after about a week I recall hearing--is still ongoing! Some scientists have called it an Extinction Level Event (ELE). If you haven't looked into it, you should. There is a lot on YouTube about it; I would suggest searching "fukushima rense" if you really want it fast and straight. If you read this in time, Fukushima is the subject of tonight's Coast To Coast AM program. There's almost no way to underscore how devastating this disaster is, or how bad it could get. There's practically a news blackout of it. But, what are they going to say... that we're all going to die?

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Gambara and Forseti





['Empfindsamkeit' by German Neofolk band Forseti - ωεlτεηbæμmçhεη]

Queen Gambara was the first queen of the Langobard tribe when they broke off from the Winnili tribe in 1st century Scandinavia. Although she inspired the migration into ancient central Europe with a command to her people to "Go forth!," she never saw the Italian peninsula. Forseti was an important god in Odinic mythology, although he is less known than Odin, Frigga, Tyr, or Thor. Both of these names would sound perceptively as "Italian" to the English-speaking world. I'm always looking for modern tie-ins to the ancient world, and often that can be within surnames.

Just off of the top of my head, the South Tyrolian beer "Forst" comes to mind if I try to brainstorm the root word "Forseti." There's likely no connection, but I ponder it. With a surname search for "Forseti" in Italy, there is nothing; however, there are a very small number of "Forsetti's" in the north. Again, it's likely just coincidental; although old Langobard words and surnames are common, albeit "Italianized." 

In a surname search for "Gambara," as many as perhaps 75 showed up around Emilia and Lombardy. That's not too much of a longshot since the Langobards brought the old legends of their origin with them into their new Cisalpine home. I would lay the odds at about even with that connection. "Gambara" was one of the aristocratic family names who made up the powerful oligarchic Brescian Council of the Middle Ages.

The surname "Gotti" is actually a Lombard regional name with Gothic roots.. originating from "the Goti"... the Goths. "Goti" is a Tuscan regional surname as well. Also, a Goði or Gothi (plural goðar) is the historical Old Norse term for a priest and chieftain in Norse paganism. Some of those long ago "Goti" made their way down to southern Italy... hence the now somewhat infamous Mafia name "Gotti." However, it's much more generally a Lombard surname.

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Regarding the recent rash of clown sightings, but don't laugh yet...





[Rob Zombie's '31' (2016) - Shane's World]

Apparently there has been a rash of reports of people, dressed up as creepy clowns, sneaking up upon and surprising or scaring unsuspecting people at night. It has escalated this year, and you can google or youtube it. It started in California, but has spread all over the country, and even in the UK. This brings up the issue of clowns in general, and that some people actually hate clowns! Personally I never had any problems with clowns as a child, having always seen them as benevolent. This phenomenon of unsuspecting clown terror at night is curious to me. So often, as with horror movies, it's "the face" and "the intent" of the clown, ghoul, monster, etc. The mask and outfit seem to somehow dehumanize them, and they become something of a monster. The mystery of who's behind that mask? Are they crazy, evil, or dangerous?; and at the dead of night no less!

I like the centuries-long history of the circus, the clowns, and other aspects of that eccentric traveling entertainment culture. It's really a small part of our history. Perhaps only some of the using of people with birth defects crossed the line in my opinion. Just last evening, while watching the most recent episode of 'My Haunted House' ('Route 160'), the issue of "clown night terror" was featured... however, in a more supernatural way. Still, even a young smallish blonde woman in a creepy clown mask.. staring at you in the dark of night, was somewhat unnerving. That "intent" thing... creating confusion for the unknowing. Is it a joke? Is it just for fun? Maybe not..

Probably the best creepy clown in recent years was Captain Spaulding, played by Sid Haig in 'House of 1000 Corpses' (2003) and in 'The Devil's Rejects' (2005). For a killer clown, he was rather sensitive about the issue of clown status in general, which made for one of the odd, scary, and funny sub-plots. Sid Haig has been one of the underrated off-beat character actors over the years. At one point, while being robbed at gunpoint, Captain Spaulding didn't even take the robbers very seriously.. until one of them said the wrong words: "I.. HATE.. C-L-O-W-N-S!!!"; at which point he responded with the funniest "low growl"... before dramatically getting even. I thought that first movie was so brutally artistic.

Those movies were written and directed by heavy metal singer and horror movie director Rob Zombie. Rob Zombie is directing another movie due for release in 2016, which promises to be another "1000 corpses," entitled simply  '31'. Five people are kidnapped on the days leading up to Halloween and held hostage in a place called Murder World. While trapped, they must play a violent game called 31 where the mission is to survive 12 hours against a gang of evil clowns. 

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~ Goddess Moon ~
 
Radiant heavenly light
are you goddess moon
lady of golden rays
that shimmers upon
sea and bay
Your light is mystical
and serene, as though
peacefully awake inside
a magical dream

--author unknown


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Last night while hiking in the northern Santa Cruz Mountains, as the sky turned a rich darkish blue color, I noticed an almost-full golden moon emanating through the tall black treeline. Shortly after, the trail moved into a clearing of brush and a good view of the nearby valley. The golden moon's rays were literally illuminating the trail a golden color.


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The Arctic Home in the Vedas: Part 11

Margaret Murray was right: Part II

The North Pole prior to about 12,000 years ago was somewhere in todays northern United States, probably where the Great Lakes are today. This sudden plate shift not only “pushed” the North Pole up from its present position from the viewpoint of North America; but it also “pulled” the Eurasian land mass up to the Arctic Circle. This is why, for example, so many perfectly preserved mammoths have been discovered. The northernmost stretches of Europe and Asia had very mild climates prior to this dramatic plate shift. It should also be noted that this sudden pole-shift caused a massive global flood as the poles were suddenly in much warmer weather. This explains why so many ruins of ancient cities now lay on the bottom of the oceans.

Prior to this plate-shift, the three sub-races---of which later became the Indo-European people---were geographically separated. It’s important to note that natives of the Far East, the Indian subcontinent, and true-Semites (based in the southern Saudi peninsula), didn’t live in Europe, North Africa, or most of Asia (including the Near and Middle East). Also, Turko-Mongolian racial types had not come to be as of yet. The Earth’s population was smaller than what we can imagine by todays standards.

The sub-race which I refer to as the “true-Mediterraneans” (not Semitic, or even necessarily what we call “Mediterranean” today) lived in the Near and Middle East; and founded the first post-flood civilizations. The sub-race which I refer to as the “proto-Germanics” (these were pure Germanics, not the largely Alpine-Germanic people whom we call “Germanic” today) lived north of the Himalayas up to the northern Eurasian coast. The sub-race which I refer to as “proto-Europeans” or “Alpines” lived in Europe, and probably well east of it in some places, and in parts of North Africa.

The spiritual culture of these proto-Europeans was the progenitor of Margaret Murray’s “Witch-cult.” All of the evidence points to it so clearly. The ancient stag god and the moon goddess. So many common themes. As small bands of proto-Germanic people migrated westward across central Europe thousands of years ago, they merged with these natives to form the “Celtic” cultures, and their spiritual traditions merged to form new ones. However, the “Witch-cult” always seemed to stick around as a separate tradition. When true-Mediterraneans migrated westward across Southern Europe and North Africa, and then northward along the Atlantic coast and into the British Isles, the same dynamic occurred. They merged with the natives, and their respective spiritual traditions merged as well; and yes, the ancient “Witch-cult” continued to exist separately. In fact, in many parts of both northern and southern Europe, “Alpine” tribes coexisted with the newer cultures that were much greater in number.

At some later point, approximately four to five thousand years ago, a large final migration of proto-Germanic people poured into Europe and overran Scandinavia and a large part of central Europe. I would theorize that they may have largely bypassed Eastern Europe, which then remained of the more native stock. Unlike the two prior migratory patterns into Europe, Germanic language, culture, and spirituality were much more dominant in these newly acquired territories. Yet still, the “Witch-cult” continued to exist even within these new Odinic cultures.

One well-documented example of this transformation from “Witch-cult” to other pagan traditions was in ancient Greece. When ancient Hellenic religion became dominant in Greece, the government declared that the “Old Religion” didn’t qualify as a religion at all. Although some may consider Christianity as the source of the deconstruction of the “Witch-cult,” it actually started long before that. It’s clear that the tradition of the moon goddess Hecate, and the Dianic tradition, existed long before Greece and Rome rose to prominence. Many names, same goddess.

Virtually all of the various spiritual “reconstructionist” groups do not lay claim to the scores of ancient stone megaliths, like Stonehenge, and rather attribute them to some earlier culture. Could that “earlier culture” have been this proto-European people, their culture, and maybe their spiritual tradition as well? Since so little is known about most of these massive stone structures, we may never know the exact truth; but it seems to me that this is a probability.

The Basques, the Welsh, and even the Camunians, are---at least partly---modern survivals of this ancient European type; particularly the Basques. Recent DNA studies have revealed that many English types have more genetic connection to this very ancient stock than previously thought. “Cheddar Man,” excavated in 1903, lived in southwest England over 9,000 years ago. After his DNA was extracted, and samples of local people were compared to it in 1997, one of this man’s direct descendants was living a half-mile away from his burial site. That’s pretty incredible since it has been over 90 centuries and about 300 generations.

This ancient---and extremely resilient---spiritual culture, in all of its related forms, is in need of a new, more dignified name for reference at least. A name that puts it within historical perspective, and one that sounds better than the clumsy, disrespectful-sounding term “Witch-cult.” Since I have gone this far, I would like to suggest a new name: “Witcheathenry.” I would guess that most of the ancient adherents of what was likely an open/non-occultic folk religion, were not practitioners of “magic” or “craft.” The literal "practice of magic” was left to the high initiates. Ancient women of renown… waiting for redemption.

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The Arctic Home in the Vedas: Part 10

Margaret Murray was right: Part 1

   
Margaret Murray (Wikipedia)

Margaret Alice Murray (13 July 1863 – 13 November 1963) was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of Christianized Europe and North America were an attempt to extinguish a surviving pre-Christian, pagan religion devoted to a Horned God. Whilst this theory is today widely disputed and discredited by historians like Norman Cohn, Keith Thomas and Ronald Hutton, it has had a significant effect in the origins of Neopagan religions, primarily Wicca, a faith she supported.

Her work in Egyptology took place largely alongside her mentor and friend, the archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie, whom she worked alongside at University College London. One of the earliest women to "make a serious impact upon the world of professional scholarship," she was also an ardent feminist, being actively involved in the Suffragette movement. From 1953 to 1955, she was the president of the Folklore Society, although since her death various members of the society have attempted to dissociate the organization from her and the Murrayite theory of the Witch-Cult.


The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (Wikipedia)

The Witch-Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Murray was published in 1921, at a time when the influence and success of The Golden Bough by anthropologist James George Frazer was at its height. In those days Margaret Murray was celebrated in university circles as the expert on western witchcraft. In the period 1929-1968 she even wrote the article on witchcraft in the successive editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In 1962, her main work was reprinted by Oxford University Press. Her theory, also known as the witch-cult hypothesis suggests that the things told about witches in Europe were in fact based on a real existing pagan religion that worshiped a horned god. 


Witch-cult hypothesis (Wikipedia)

The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most of the evidence for this theory was compiled by studying the accounts of the persecutors in the witch trials in early modern Europe. From the late 19th century an opposing view arose, that witches were not Satanists, but adherents of a surviving underground pagan religion. In the 20th century, the theory gave rise to the neopagan religion of Gardnerianism, with its various offshoots and traditions summarized under the term Wicca.

The theory was pioneered by authors such as Karl Ernst Jarcke and Jules Michelet in the 19th century, but received its most prominent exposition with Margaret Murray's 1921 book, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, and her contributions to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Scholars have criticized the theory and the general consensus is that the witch cult never existed and is entirely pseudohistorical, while scholars consider some folk magical practices to have influenced witchcraft stereotypes.

Gerald Gardner claimed that he had discovered the New Forest Coven, a group still practicing the religion (which he called Witchcraft) in his 1954 book, Witchcraft Today, a claim which was endorsed by Murray. Similarly, Sybil Leek, Robert Cochrane, Charles Cardell, Rosaleen Norton and Alex Sanders also made claims to having been members of a family line of adherents to the witch-cult. Some contemporary Wiccans have since distanced themselves from the theory.

According to the general consensus in the mainstream historical-academic community---including scholars who have been involved in studies specifically pertaining to religious studies and ancient folklore---Margaret Murray’s “Witch-cult hypothesis” has been sufficiently discredited. As this moment, my mind is failing to come up with adjectives to sufficiently describe the extent to which I disagree. They’re not going back far enough! Margaret Murray was right.

The problem stems from the failure to---historically-speaking---divorce both ancient Germanic and ancient Mediterranean peoples from Europe long enough to at least take a look at the culture of the proto-Europeans prior to 5,000 years ago. They just can’t seem to wrap their minds around the idea that proto-Germanic people didn’t live in Europe until about 5,000 years ago; and that true- Mediterraneans probably didn’t arrive in Europe until about 9,000 years ago.

The origins of the deconstruction of the “Witch-cult” occurred long before Christianity. This is such a no-brainer that it frustrates me! I’ll go through the logical steps yet again for posterity’s sake. The last Ice Age occurred about 25,000 years ago. Every 45,000 years, after both poles have frozen enough of the earth’s water to sufficiently weigh them down, the incredible amount of sheer weight forces a movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates about 2,000 miles. The outer crust of the earth literally moves as if it were a loose outer peel of an orange. This is not the same natural phenomena as an Ice Age.

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'At the Crossroads' (an original new poem)

'At the Crossroads'

Standing at the crossroads
Waiting for you to come
It's dark and it's cold
But still lovely to some

The goddess Hecate arrives
and all else disappears
All else for which I strive
She helps me calm my fears

Like the mother of the night
She wipes away my tears
When I feel afright
She takes me by the hand
Tells me it'll be alright

And by my side she stands
As I go through my life
She keeps me safe from harm
Protects me from all strife

And keeps me nice and warm

--Suzanne in Mississippi

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A Full Moon Tonight

Full Moon

by Deep~Glade

Borrowed from A Sacred Journey blog

This meditation can be used during the full moon to align and energise the chakras.

On the night of the full moon, preferably outside, stand tall and straight lifting your arms in greeting to the moon and the Goddess. If it is possible to do this under the moonlight that is great but if not, do not worry as the full moon’s energy will reach you even if there is no moonlight visible. Do not worry if you cannot stand – doing this meditation seated is fine and will still be beneficial.

Take a few deep, slow cleansing breaths. Try to breathe from your deep tummy, or your solar plexus area. Then let your breathing return to normal calm breathing.

Lower your arms. Visualise beams of silver moonlight reaching your crown chakra and streaming down into your body like a strand of glistening silver light.

Feel the strand of moon light streaming down to your root chakra and energising it. This gives you grounding.

Next, visualise the moon light streaming down to your sacral chakra and energising it. This gives you a sense of well-being and balance.

Then visualise the moon light streaming down to your solar plexus chakra and energising it. This gives you confidence and personal power.

Next, visualise the moon light streaming down to your heart chakra and energising it. You feel enveloped in the love of the Goddess and are able to express that love to yourself and others.

Then visualise the moon light streaming down to your throat chakra and energising it. This gives you the ability to communicate clearly and in truth.

Then visualise the moon light streaming down into your third eye chakra and energising it. You are able to discern with wisdom and trust your intuition.

Finally, visualise the moon light cascading into your crown chakra. You are connected to and filled with the ‘All’.

Now visualise all your chakras connected and aligned with a silver thread of pure moon light.

Pause for a few moments, allowing moon light to flood your body. Then raise your arms once again in honour of the Goddess.

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