Some pagan roots of Easter

Apparently there are pagan links with Easter from the ancient Near East and other places over time, but I just wanted to put out a few from European traditions from Wikipedia.


Etymology

The modern English term Easter, cognate with modern German Ostern, developed from the Old English word Ēastre or Ēostre, which itself developed prior to 899. This is generally held to have originally referred to the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess, Ēostre, a form of the widely attested Indo-European dawn goddess. The evidence for the Anglo-Saxon goddess, however, has not been universally accepted, and some have proposed that Eostre may have meant "the month of opening" or that the name Easter may have arisen from the designation of Easter Week in Latin as in albis.


Computations

In 725, Bede succinctly wrote, "The Sunday following the full Moon which falls on or after the equinox will give the lawful Easter." However, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical rules precisely. One reason for this is that the full moon involved (called the Paschal full moon) is not an astronomical full moon, but the 14th day of a calendar lunar month. Another difference is that the astronomical equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, which can fall on 19, 20 March, or 21, while the ecclesiastical date is fixed by convention on 21 March.


Ēostre

Ēostre or Ostara (Northumbrian Old English: Ēostre; West Saxon Old English: Ēastre; Old High German: *Ôstara) is a goddess in Germanic paganism who, by way of the Germanic month bearing her name (Northumbrian: Ēosturmōnaþ; West Saxon: Ēastermōnaþ; Old High German: Ôstarmânoth), is the namesake of the festival of Easter.


Jacob Grimm, *Ostara, and Easter customs

In his 1835 Deutsche Mythologie, Jacob Grimm cites comparative evidence to reconstruct a potential continental Germanic goddess whose name would have been preserved in the Old High German name of Easter, *Ostara. Addressing skepticism towards goddesses mentioned by Bede, Grimm comments that "there is nothing improbable in them, nay the first of them is justified by clear traces in the vocabularies of Germanic tribes." Specifically regarding Ēostre, Grimm continues that:

We Germans to this day call April ostermonat, and ôstarmânoth is found as early as Eginhart. The great christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the oldest of OHG remains the name ôstarâ ... it is mostly found in the plural, because two days ... were kept at Easter. This Ostarâ, like the [Anglo-Saxon] Eástre, must in heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries.

Hares and Freyja

In Northern Europe, Easter imagery often involves hares and rabbits. Citing folk Easter customs in Leicestershire, England where "the profits of the land called Harecrop Leys were applied to providing a meal which was thrown on the ground at the 'Hare-pie Bank'", late 19th-century scholar Charles Isaac Elton theorizes a connection between these customs and the worship of Ēostre. In his late 19th-century study of the hare in folk custom and mythology, Charles J. Billson cites numerous incidents of folk custom involving the hare around the period of Easter in Northern Europe. Billson says that "whether there was a goddess named Eostre, or not, and whatever connection the hare may have had with the ritual of Saxon or British worship, there are good grounds for believing that the sacredness of this animal reaches back into an age still more remote, where it is probably a very important part of the great Spring Festival of the prehistoric inhabitants of this island."

Some scholars have linked customs and imagery involving hares to Ēostre and the Norse goddess Freyja. Writing in 1972, John Andrew Boyle cites commentary contained within an etymology dictionary by A. Ernout and A. Meillet, where the authors write that "Little else [...] is known about [Ēostre], but it has been suggested that her lights, as goddess of the dawn, were carried by hares. And she certainly represented spring fecundity, and love and carnal pleasure that leads to fecundity." Boyle responds that nothing is known about Ēostre outside of Bede's single passage, that the authors had seemingly accepted the identification of Ēostre with the Norse goddess Freyja, yet that the hare is not associated with Freyja either. Boyle writes that "her carriage, we are told by Snorri, was drawn by a pair of cats — animals, it is true, which like hares were the familiars of witches, with whom Freyja seems to have much in common." However, Boyle adds that "on the other hand, when the authors speak of the hare as the 'companion of Aphrodite and of satyrs and cupids' and point out that 'in the Middle Ages it appears beside the figure of Luxuria', they are on much surer ground and can adduce the evidence of their illustrations."


Modern popular culture and modern veneration

Jacob Grimm's reconstructed *Ostara has had some influence in popular culture since. The name has been adapted as an asteroid (343 Ostara, 1892 by Max Wolf), a Mödling, Austria-based German nationalist book series and publishing house (1905, Ostara), and a date on the Wiccan Wheel of the Year (Ostara, 21 March). In music, the name Ostara has been adopted as a name by the musical group Ostara, and as the names of albums by :zoviet*france: (Eostre, 1984) and The Wishing Tree (Ostara, 2009). Eostre appears in Neil Gaiman's novel, American Gods.

In some forms of Germanic Neopaganism, Eostre (or Ostara) is venerated. Regarding this veneration, Carole M. Cusack comments that, among adherents, Eostre is "associated with the coming of spring and the dawn, and her festival is celebrated at the spring equinox. Because she brings renewal, rebirth from the death of winter, some Heathens associate Eostre with Idunn, keeper of the apples of youth in Scandinavian mythology."

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Garden Blessing for Ostara

By Patti Wigington - About.com Guide

The earth is cool and dark,
and far below, new life begins.
May the soil be blessed with fertility and abundance,
with rains of life-giving water,
with the heat of the sun,
with the energy of the raw earth.
May the soil be blessed
as the womb of the land becomes full and fruitful
to bring forth the garden anew.

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Confronting the Unknown

With the unknown, one is confronted with danger, discomfort and worry; the first instinct is to abolish these painful sensations. First principle: any explanation is better then none. The question "Why?" is not pursued for its own sake but to find a certain kind of answer--an answer that is pacifying, tranquilizing and soothing.

--Friedrich Nietzsche, 'Twilight of the Idols'

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Politics, double-standards, and tattle tales in neopaganism

I thought I would combine three items which I have found troubling in neopaganism. First, individuals and groups who insist on being the polar opposite of what they perceive as "Conservative Christianity." They go out of their way to be this opposite--to me, "opposame"--and it very often revolves around an obsession to the issue of homosexuality. Even if you don't like where you at least think I'm going with this, just allow me one example, and you might change your mind.

A couple of months ago, I came across a website called "Pagan FM," and it is a pagan radio program out of Dover, New Hampshire. Not a podcast, but literally a radio program over the airwaves. My first reaction was that it was a great idea, and I still think that. I even find the simple and almost pleasantly hard-to-navigate website to be inviting. However, the times when I listened to archived programs, they discussed "gay activism" more than neopaganism. Of course, it's their program and they can discuss whatever they like. Still, it goes back to this incessant desire to be political; and to insist that the individual accepts those politics when they may be searching for something entirely apolitical.

I can recall one YouTube video where a man had just become a "Wiccan," and his background was as a political activist. He seemed to know next to nothing about Wicca, and while wearing a pentacle star, he shamelessly injected his personal political activity to his newfound religion. I admit, that is an extreme example, but I found it to be detestable nonetheless. There are some even deeper issues in that regard, but I think I'll just let that stand for now.

The opposite side to the same political coin are the far right groups involved in.. usually heathenry, but all of this doesn't follow any exact pattern. Suffice to say that people with a far left or far right inclination seem to clearly be attracted to neopaganism. Lets be clear, I am only referring to concerns who have "gone political." There is a group called "Heathens Against Hate," which purports to be opposed to anything racist or racialist within the Heathen/Odinic milieu. One of the complaints is the use of ancient sacred symbols, which are injected into those far right politics; which is--in my opinion--precisely the same as the political "Wiccan" example above. I'll have to find that video.

The problem with Heathens Against Hate, and other groups who share the same complaints, is that they don't stop at "hate" or the misuse of symbols. They define "hate" as anyone who adheres to the "folk-religion" concept, or at least they imply that. That's clearly a double-standard because I'm in California, and I know that there are endless masses of social, political, economic, and religious groups that the members of Heathens Against Hate cannot join because of their ancestry. That includes mens groups, womens groups, youth groups, professional associations, economic guilds, political action committees, religious and spiritual groups, etc., and the "Heathens Against Hate" are not allowed to join due to their ancestral background. I don't like double-standards.

Even a non-political folk group like the Asatru Folk Assembly is not immune to this extreme double-standard. In September of 2011, the pagan web-blog "The Wild Hunt" shamelessly tattled on the AFA because a few AFA members wore AFA t-shirts to an explicitly white-political-interest event which was not endorsed in any way by the AFA. Why hasn't The Wild Hunt told any tattle tales about the hundreds of other identity-political groups in the country?? Quite frequently, the religious and political branches of these groups work together as one. About a mile and a half from where I live, there is a hospital explicitly for people of one particular cultural background, aka "race." I'll share the name of that institution with The Wild Hunt if they want to write about it. My e-mail is camunlynx@live.com.

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Saint Patrick, the Irish Druids, and the Conversion of Pagan Ireland to Christianity: Part III

Some scholars give a good explanation of what this conversion may have looked like. They suggest that this conversion is not what we would consider conversion by today's standards. Indeed, just because some pagans decided to accept Patrick's gods does not necessarily mean that they abandoned their own. Because pagans were used to accepting a number of different gods into their pantheon, it would follow that when they were introduced to this new god, it probably meant that they included him in their worship, not that they limited their worship to him (Hopkin 21).

So, unlike in Muirchu's account of the conversion of Ireland, no one found Patrick so threatening as to warrant a call to arms over Christianity. There was never a recorded act of violence between Christian and pagan, nor was there a single martyrdom in Ireland over the conversion to Christianity (Hopkin 21).

Although Patrick began the process of introducing the Irish to Christianity, it does not appear that he had nearly the phenomenal success that later writers would attribute to him. In fact, Patrick himself died in obscurity. Far from being the arrogant miracle-worker who made disbelievers pay for their skepticism, the historical Patrick "was not remembered as an enormously successful missionary—because he was not enormously successful. At the time of his death Ireland was still predominantly pagan, aggressively pagan" (Thompson 158).

Why, then, does Muirchu go out of his way to describe Patrick as being singlehandedly responsible for the submission of pagan religion to Christian belief, or for the annihilation of the Irish druids? What exactly were the circumstances surrounding the conversion of Ireland to Christianity, if Patrick himself had little impact on the Irish? And how did the Irish druids react to this conversion?

It would not be out of the question to assume that in the years Muirchu was writing, around the late 600s, a large part of the Irish population was Christian and not pagan. At least, the pagans and druids who remained were not "aggressively pagan" as they had been immediately after Patrick's death. Otherwise, how could Muirchu get away with his harsh portrayal of pagan and druid alike? If Patrick could not get away with such hubris in the fifth century AD, it would follow that Muirchu could not do so either among an "aggressively pagan" society. So what happened during these two hundred years that brought pagans over to Christianity? Historical Saint Patrick did introduce the island to Christianity, but we know that his success was small. What brought the majority of Irish over to Christian belief enough to tolerate such a negative portrayal of paganism and the keepers of paganism, the druids? And what was the point of Muirchu writing such an untruthful hagiography of Patrick?

Most scholars agree that Muirchu was successful in reintroducing the Irish to the accomplishment and life of Patrick (Hopkin 36). In the seventh century AD, few in Ireland knew who Patrick was (Thompson 156). He obviously did not have a huge impact on their collective consciousness, and so writers like Muirchu were allowed to reinvent Patrick to suit their own purposes.

These purposes are not in doubt. We know that Muirchu belonged to the monastery of Armagh near the Hill of Tara. The clergy claimed this monastery was founded by Patrick. At the time Muirchu was writing, there was a divide between the northern church and the southern church on the island. It appears that the northern church of Armagh needed propaganda to promote the position that their church should reign supreme in Ireland. So Muirchu's stories of Patrick being the primary force behind the conversion of Ireland to Christianity helped their goal in their "campaign to dominate the Irish church. As its power grew, so too did the cult of its founder" (Eaton, McCaffrey).

It is also clear that the church leaders in Ireland wanted very much to convert the remaining pagans to Christianity. By the seventh century AD, they were in a far better position to do so, for it is known that the majority of pagans had already turned to Christianity en masse. The exact reason for this change of religion is debated.

Some say that the majority of pagans turned to this new religion for reasons unflattering to the church. They argue that this conversion came as a result of the natural disasters and massive plague that killed off half of the population one century earlier in the sixth century AD. It appears that church leaders attempted to convince the people that such tragedies stemmed from the worship of pagan gods. "Christianity's spread across Ireland was accelerated in the sixth century by climate disaster and plague, the result, according to church leaders, of pagan wickedness" (Eaton, McCaffrey).

In addition, "Scholarly monks in the seventh century AD reinvented Ireland's heroic, mythical past—the stories known today—in order to convert its pagan people" (Eaton, McCaffrey). "Since writing only came to Ireland with Christianity, the church also controlled literacy and thus the primary means of education." (Eaton, McCaffrey) Hence the vitriolic stories of the pagans and druids that writers like Muirchu espoused. Another method Christians used to convert pagans was to take over traditional druidic sites of worship, usually holy wells, and give them Christian names (Ellis 19). The takeover also extended to various holidays, as illustrated when Muirchu's Patrick proved the superiority of Easter over the pagan Beltane feast.

Other scholars say that the conversion of pagans between the fifth and seventh centuries was a result of less sinister motives. They suggest that Christianity offered pagans values not embraced by the pagan theology, such as forgiveness and redemption. The renaming of wells, then, does not necessarily demonstrate a threatening behavior, but instead showed the willingness of Christians to adopt and welcome the pagan beliefs that had come before (Sellner 21).

Scholars know very little about the druids as a group, so it is no surprise that we have no recorded reactions from the Irish druids about the methods of conversion. Since druidic beliefs were exactly what Christians wanted to replace, some historians argue that one way they did that was through devaluing the worth of the druid in society. druids still existed at that time, as they were still mentioned in the law books as having a place in Celtic society (Ellis 20). But it appears that by the time Muirchu came along, they were far fewer in number.

The re-characterization of druids as sorcerers seems to have played a large part in the Christian propaganda of the seventh century AD, when Muirchu wrote the Life of St. Patrick. Muirchu was not unusual in his portrayal of druids as magicians. This was effective in downplaying their importance. Some argue that Christians replaced them as the intellectual class.

    [T]he general Christian attitude to the druids was inimical. They were obviously portrayed as opponents of Christianity, upholders of the ancient religion, and thereby were relegated to the role of shamans, magicians . . . although this prejudice varied from writer to writer. (Ellis 70)

With all these negative assessments of the importance of druids in Irish society, is it any wonder that the druids turned to Christianity as a way to fulfill the functions their ancestors had filled in the past? Christians were the new intellectual class. It seems that if one wanted to be a respected member of the learned class, one did not go into the woods to learn "oak knowledge" as in the past, but rather to the nearest monastery. Being a part of the clergy was respected, while being a druid was not anymore. As Ellis argues, "With the arrival of Christianity, the druids began to merge totally with the new culture, some even becoming priests of the new religion and continuing as an intellectual class in much the same way as their forefathers had done for over a thousand years previously" (18). Other scholars argue that the young Irish were attracted to the new values advocated by Christians, such as forgiveness and redemption.

There is a story that illustrates the decline in druidic religion better than any research paper could ever do. In this story, the druid preferred to die with his faith rather than convert. Two hundred years after Muirchu wrote Patrick's hagiography, a man named Wrdistan wrote a hagiography of the sixth-century Saint Guenole, who lived in Brittany, a Celtic region of modern-day France. In this land, the druids were considered "elderly adherents to a dead religion" (Ellis 89). When the king of Brittany was dying, he called the saint over, and there the saint saw the druid. The king warned St. Guenole not to treat the druid poorly because the druid had endured much already. The king said the druid "has lost his gods! What sorrow can compare with this sorrow? Once he was a druid; now he mourns a dead religion" (Ellis 90). The druid and the monk buried the king, and in that spot the druid asked Guenole to build a monastery, admitting that that spot used to be a sacred site for his kind. He insisted that it be done anyway, and said, "[I]t is my wish, the wish of one conquered but resigned to the changing order of the times, one who feels neither bitterness nor hatred" (Ellis 90). The druid handled the loss of his religion, and thus of his connection to his ancestors, gracefully. When the monk suggested that the druid take up Christianity in place of his dying faith, the druid kindly refused by pointing to the sky and telling the monk that when they died, maybe they would come to realize that all their different faiths were in vain for "perchance there is nothing but a great mistake" (Ellis 90). When Guenole became outraged at this and again urged the druid to come with him back to the monastery, the druid once again gently refused. He would rather dwell in the woods as he had always done. Besides, he told Guenole on his way toward the forest, "Do not all tracks lead to the same great centre?" (Ellis 90).

In conclusion, the historical Saint Patrick did not banish the druids or the pagan faith by sheer force of will as Muirchu suggested. The saint's pilgrimage to Ireland brought about the changes in that island that would eventually come to replace the old ways. Some pagans may have converted because they were attracted to new Christian values such as forgiveness, while others may have responded to more manipulative methods of conversion. Muirchu was not unusual in typifying the Irish druids as superstitious workers of magic. This seems to have been one of a number of tactics for converting the pagan Irish people to Christianity. These included appropriating Druidic sites for Christian worship and taking advantage of the natural disasters that befell the Irish people in the sixth century AD by saying that these were the result of pagan beliefs.


Footnotes

[1] Presumably, the prominence of snakes in Irish Celtic spirituality is a holdover from the Celts' earlier ancestors, who did not originate in Ireland but instead migrated from mainland Europe. Additionally, Irish Celts had frequent interaction with their British neighbors to the east, and certainly would have known of snake species abroad.

[2] It is likely that the church's views on the Celts were influenced by earlier Roman accounts of Celtic customs, which were overwhelmingly negative and described such practices as headhunting and human sacrifice. The validity of ancient Roman sources has since been called into question by modern scholars. Whether such practices occurred or not is better left to a separate article, but as far as Roman scholars were concerned, descriptions such as these served the function of painting the Celts as uncivilized. Modern scholars suspect that most Roman accounts of Celtic activity can be traced back to one source: Posidonios, a Greek ambassador of Rhodes, who set out to study barbarism as an exercise in stoic philosophy (Ellis, 50). Though Posidonius's works survive only in fragments, he is known to have been a friend of Pompey, and seems to have taken an amicable view of Roman expansionism (Franklin). Contemporaneously, when Julius Caesar wrote about the Celts, he was in the process of subjugating various Celtic strongholds to Roman rule. He had a vested interest in portraying the Celts as barbarous and in need of a civilizing presence such as Rome (Ellis 53).


Works Cited

Bieler, Ludwig. The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh. Dublin, Dublin Inst. Adv. Studies, 1979.

Bonwick, James. Irish Druids And Old Irish Religions. 1894.

Eaton, Leo and McCaffrey, Carmel. "In Search of Ancient Ireland: Religion." PBS.

Ellis, Peter Berresford. The Druids. Grand Rapids: William Eerdmans Pub. Comp., 1994.

Franklin, Claire. "To what extent did Posidonius and Theophanes record Pompeian ideology?"   Digressus Sup. 1 (2003): 99-110.

Hanson, R. P. C. The Life and Writings of the Historical Saint Patrick. New York: Seabury Press, 1983.

Hopkin, Alannah. The Living Legend of St. Patrick. New York: St. Martin's, 1989.

Piggot, Stuart. The Druids. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1975.

Sellner, Ed. The Celtic Soul Friend: A Trusted Guide for Today. Notre Dame: Ave Maria, 2002.

Thompson, E. A. Who was Saint Patrick?. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985.


Bridgette Da Silva is still pursuing her dream of taking over the world with her husband Notah and two mischievous rabbits. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from St. Catherine University (formerly the College of St. Catherine) and continues to write historical and speculative fiction as well as nonfiction. She has another Strange Horizons article entitled "Medieval Mindsets: Narrative Theory and The Mists of Avalon." Updates on her writing can be found on her blog, or feel free to email her at dasi0004@yahoo.com.

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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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Drinking cold water AFTER a meal

For those who like to drink cold water after your meal, this may be of interest to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after your meal. However, the cold water will solidify the only stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion of your food.

Once this "sludge" reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and may lead into cancer.

It is best to drink hot broth, tea, coffee or warm water after a meal.

--Colleen Blattenbauer in Minnesota

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Saint Patrick, the Irish Druids, and the Conversion of Pagan Ireland to Christianity: Part II

Raids, such as the one Patrick fell victim to, were not uncommon in the fifth century AD. There was a general lawlessness about Britain at that time. The Western Roman Empire was collapsing, many groups of people warred with each other for power, and different groups of raiders took advantage of this instability. This was the period when the mythical King Arthur is supposed to have lived, the king who united all the warring tribes under the Cross in peace. Sadly for Patrick, this was not the case when he was a boy, so he was abducted just like "thousands of others" (Hanson 76). For six years, Patrick toiled as a shepherd for a minor Irish king in the Wood of Fochloch, which is believed to be near what is now Killala Bay on the west coast of the island (Eaton, McCaffrey). The conditions under which Patrick worked as a slave were not necessarily as bad as they could have been. He does not appear to have endured abuse, though he suffered from the weather and isolation (Thompson 17). His lonely situation was enough to make him turn to the Christian religion he had disregarded as a boy. He wrote that he would wake up before dawn to say up to one hundred prayers (Hanson 86). Essentially, Patrick was taken from his atheistic, materialistic boyhood, and thrown into the trials of slavery. In this challenging period of his life, he turned to Christianity to console himself.

His newfound Christianity seems to have given him hope about his situation. According to Patrick, one day God told him a ship was waiting for him, to take him back home. This is what sparked Patrick's decision to escape his servitude. In what must have been a terrifying event, Patrick stole away from his pagan master and made his way to the other side of the island, seeking a ship that would take him back to Britain. He must have come upon a trading port, for a week or so later he found a boatful of traders waiting to leave the coast. Patrick begged for them to take him along. Some think that Patrick may have used food he stole on his escape to barter his way off the island (Thompson 22). At first, the Irish pagan crew refused to take Patrick with them, but in a surprising twist, they changed their minds and called him back to the boat. Patrick describes the captain as a particularly surly man who was proud of his pagan faith and refused Patrick's attempts at conversion.

Historians are uncertain of what happened in the next three years of Patrick's life. In fact, it is not even certain where exactly these traders took Patrick. It took them three days to reach land, but which land is a mystery. Some scholars have proposed that they landed in Britain, but that does not explain why it took Patrick three whole years to return to his family. Why did he not immediately go to them if they landed in Britain? The most agreed-upon answer is that they took Patrick to Gaul. Patrick says that after their landfall he was sold again into slavery by the surly Irish captain and crew. This would have been easier for them to do in Gaul, considering that Patrick would not know anyone in Gaul to escape to and he would be unfamiliar with the terrain. The Irish sailors "knew that he was an escaped slave, friendless and without resources or influence, an ideal subject for a kidnap" (Thompson 28). It would certainly explain why the sailors changed their minds and let Patrick board their ship after first refusing him. Perhaps they realized he would be a benefit to them after all, if they could sell him into slavery in Gaul. Patrick apparently escaped once again, and ended up working for three years to be able to pay for a boat ride back home to Britain.

There is also a darker theory that has been suggested to explain this period in Patrick's life. We know that Patrick wrote the Confession as a reaction against some sort of criticism he received from a group of fellow Christians, who questioned the rightness of his promotion to bishop. Some scholars have proposed that there are certain inconsistencies in this section of the Confession, and that the best way to explain this is to assume that the Irish sailors actually intended to plunder Gaul and that Patrick simply went along with them because he had no choice (Thompson 32). That would certainly be a reason for some Christians to question his status as a bishop, if he quietly went along with a group that exploited the weakness of Gaul during the Western Roman Empire's collapse. If one is to accept this theory, the second slavery that Patrick claimed to have suffered was actually a cover-up for a period in his life when he either participated in or was forced to witness raids along the Gaulish coast.

So we know that Patrick had at least three bad interactions with the pagan Irish that may have shaped his opinions of this entire group. The first, dreadful interaction involved the Irish pirates who sold him into slavery. The second was with his pagan slave master who used Patrick as free labor to herd sheep. And the third was the ambiguous situation with the surly pagan Irish crew. Whatever happened between Patrick and the crew, it could not have made a very positive impression. Either they sold him again into slavery in Gaul, or they took him along on a raiding spree in Gaul despite his desire to go back home.

By the time Patrick was able to raise enough money to buy his way back home to Britain, he was around twenty-six years old. It had been ten years since he was sold into slavery. Once reunited with his family, though, he did not stay there long before he decided it would be his life's work to return to Ireland, the land of his captivity, to convert the Irish pagans to Christianity. He was aware of the disadvantage he had in official theological learning. While he had been toiling as a shepherd in Ireland, all his peers had been educated to a great extent. In a divergence from the mythical stories, the historical Saint Patrick lacked the hubris that Muirchu and later writers gave to him, and was very self-conscious about his lack of education, knowing his written Latin left much to be desired. At any rate, Patrick began having dreams of a man named Victoricus, who urged Patrick to return to Ireland. Later writers have claimed that Victoricus was an angel of God but E. A. Thompson argues that this man most likely was a friend Patrick had met back in Ireland (37). It is thought that Patrick then returned to Ireland despite the many protests of those in Britain. In Ireland, he became a deacon, and eventually was appointed to be a bishop.

How, then, did he go about his mission of converting the pagan Irish to Christianity? Were the events as clear-cut as Muirchu describes, with resistance from the pagans and druids at first but ending finally with their submission to Patrick's superior faith?

Historically, the Irish did not seem threatened by Patrick's activities. Many actually incorporated Christianity into their beliefs. In addition, scholars are not sure whether Patrick was as wildly successful at conversion as Muirchu claims. However, long after Patrick died, the church apparently had gained enough power to write its own version of events. Muirchu and others were allowed to create a revisionist history. In it, they claimed that Christianity was superior to paganism, and that this divine superiority had enabled a miraculous victory in Patrick's time. Thus, authors such as Muirchu made Patrick's mission seem more successful than it actually was. So, when Patrick first introduced Christianity to the pagan Irish, there was little contention between Patrick and the druids. But by the time Muirchu and others came along, circumstances had changed such that they could claim it was a straightforward matter of good versus evil, in order to further their own agenda of replacing paganism with Christianity.

Nevertheless, it is clear that Patrick was the first Christian man ever to go to Ireland with the express purpose of converting the Irish to Christianity. Before Patrick went on his conversion mission, a man named Palladius was sent by the pope to Ireland in 431 AD, but it is thought that Palladius was not expected to preach his faith among those who did not believe. He instead was expected to act as bishop and administer to the small communities of Christians who already lived in Ireland. Who these Christians were or how they came to be in Ireland is not known. "It was none of [Palladius's] business to go out among the heathen and convert them; he had enough to do among the faithful" (Thompson 56). E. A. Thompson also adds, "One reason for the backwardness of the Church in trying to convert the barbarians was presumably the view held by a number of churchmen that the barbarians were not fully human" (63).[2]

Scholars admit to being mostly ignorant of the happenings in the fifth century AD. There is very little surviving evidence that would allow us to get a good picture of what was going on at that time. However, we do know that Patrick's mission was not as cut-and-dried as Muirchu would have us believe. In fact, one of the reasons his family had protested the idea of mission work in Ireland was precisely because it was a dangerous proposition. Patrick himself knew when he departed with the aim to convert the Irish tribes that it would be a difficult task. Nonetheless, there are no contemporary records of confrontations between Patrick and the druids, upholders of the pagan faith. Why is this so? Did the pagans give up their religion without a fight?

In reality, there does not seem to have been any reason to fight. Patrick recognized that he could not go to the foreign country with a condescending attitude. He realized that there was a potential for violence, not because his conversion efforts posed a threat, but simply because Patrick was a foreigner. Patrick wrote that God meant for him to "endure the insults from unbelievers, that I should hear abuse for being a foreigner, that I should endure many persecutions even unto imprisonment" (Thompson 80). He even expected and embraced the idea that there was a possibility he would be martyred. It is clear that the pagan Irish would not have tolerated the behavior of the mythical Saint Patrick. There was no way Patrick could use coercion or the threat of force as part of his strategy to convert the pagans. E. A. Thompson writes that "the pagans were far too powerful and menacing . . . . And he was doubtlessly aware that if he gave any sign of trying to impose his views on the Irish pagans against their will, his mission would come to an abrupt and bloody end" (90).

So, being limited by this danger, did Patrick make any difference at all? Most scholars would say yes, but that it did not come at all close to the singlehanded effort that Muirchu tried to convince people it was. Patrick himself claims to be responsible for converting "thousands" despite the hostility he encountered, but no one can be sure that this is an accurate description. There is some evidence that he was better received by the youth in Ireland, and even slaves, especially female slaves (Thompson 91). We also know that Patrick mixed often with the Irish nobility, and in some cases ended up converting a number of that class too. Part of his dealings with the nobility consisted of Patrick paying Irish chieftains to cross their lands. The chieftains' sons would accompany Patrick while he crossed their fathers' lands. Even then it was not entirely safe. There is a recorded incident of Patrick being robbed by one chieftain's son.

But why would the pagan Irish even consider converting to Christianity in the first place? It certainly was not because of a threat of violence, and not because they witnessed any inherent inferiority in their beliefs when compared to Christianity (as Muirchu states). We know Patrick had to be respectful in his approach, but still, one wonders why the Irish would abandon the gods they had worshipped for thousands of years to accept a god that a complete stranger told them about.

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A Night At Palliser

A Night At Palliser from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

Click on widescreen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ^

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The Panther of Colma Creek II

I had no intention of writing a second part to this, and this goes against my better judgement due to the "high strangeness" of it, but having had another similar type of experience in the same location has coaxed me into it. I have had experiences up there that I wouldn't share in text, but perhaps vocally where I can at least express certain strange encounters better. This general area was once the location of roads and sporadic homes up to I'm guessing about eighty or ninety years ago. Virtually all of the old foundations that had long survived the homes have been torn out now, but some of the paved roads are now walking trails.

There was one well-documented incident where a very troubled young woman committed a totally senseless murder on one of those roads against a male motorist in the 30s I think it was; and another murder took place up there in the 70s, where a male stalker had overheard a young woman discussing the trails that she liked to hike on and had waited for her up there. Being so close to an urban center, there have been some incidents of murder victims being dumped up there over the decades. There has overwhelmingly been positive energy injected into the area, and somehow it all seems to have created an atmosphere of restless spirits and unusual activity. When I say "unusual activity," I don't mean every day; but if you spend time up there, before long you will notice it. It's not an "evil place," but I think its past--good and bad--has opened a type of twilight-doorway.

Recently I began hiking in a somewhat more remote location. Three days ago, after walking along some foothills, I started to walk into the same area of heavy brush where I had spotted the "panther." I had seen him once more around here since I had written about him. It wasn't quite twilight, but the heavy fog had rolled in. This, along with the heavy brush, had made the environment dark and somewhat foreboding-looking. With the brush and dark mist, it created a somewhat eery visual along the trail. Coastal fog here can be really thick, and sometimes you can't see beyond about thirty yards in front of you. As I got close to where I had spotted the large black cat, and I mean the exact spot next to that distinct tree, I saw a black cloaked figure crouched down next to what I assumed to be the "panther."

It was surreal, and naturally I was trying to figure how I should react to it as I got closer. The dark misty atmosphere was darker underneath that tree, but I could still clearly make out the black figures. One strange feature that I noticed was that this cloaked figure was totally "black," even the face and hands. However, the hood probably covered the face and perhaps the cloak and wide sleeves covered the hands; or maybe I just didn't notice the hands, or gloves were being worn. As I got within thirty yards, the figure stood up and was now looking directly at me. It wasn't quite dark enough for a flashlight, but I turned my small flashlight on anyway and aimed it to the ground in front of me to signal to this person. I was wearing a matching light grey sweatsuit, so I don't think I would appear too intimidating. However, a person dressed all in black, with a cloak and hood, walking in a remote area in this dark mist, would probably concern me more than the other way around.

When the figure stood up and looked at me, I only saw a black shadow. The person was relatively small in stature, and suddenly it disappeared along a cross-trail. Subtly, I could see that it was a woman. I immediately felt bad that I had maybe startled her, and broke up her "communion" with the wild cat. While I did feel bad that she felt the need to get away from me, I did want to get a second look at his very mysterious woman. Oddly, as I reached that spot, the cat didn't move. It was a different cat, a large brownish tabby with black stripes, and he just sat there and looked at me. Actually I had seen this particular cat since he was almost a kitten several years ago in a different location, but I'm not positive of that. After a few more yards I looked down the cross-trail and saw her again.

She was moving fast, but not running. Although this main trail led downward into a wooded area, this other trail led immediately to a clearing. I could then see her fairly clearly despite the mist, appearing dark grey against the light grey background. It was surreal seeing her black cloak flow as she quickly walked away, as if she were floating. As I passed down into a wider wooded trail, I hoped that she could return to doing whatever she was doing. I admit, I did look back twice; as her appearance definitely got my attention. Who was she? Was she an older woman... younger? Was she a pagan? Did she live nearby? Mainly, I suppose, I would be curious if she was an adherent to a particular spiritual/earth tradition.

Wild cats aren't easy to approach. At best, I have gained their trust only enough to walk past them without them running away; and even then, that was after coming in contact with them many times prior. Somehow this woman had sufficiently gotten this wild cat's trust, enough to make physical contact it appeared. There seems to be a special connection between a woman and particularly a male cat. Perhaps that location, the unusual tree, was her "church," and the cat was a fellow member. Somehow.. I felt left out.

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Science and Magic

"What is the difference between reality and illusion, and science and  magic? Is there one? As science advances, science and magic will become closer. Since at times, the difference between them is only one of perspective."

~Odinia~

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Full Moon Rising

Full Moon Silhouettes from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

Click on widescreen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ^

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'Litany against fear' from the 'Dune' movies

Litany against fear

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.


[The litany against fear is an incantation used by the Bene Gesserit throughout the series to focus their minds and calm themselves in times of peril.]

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'Vikings' series on History Channel portrays an Odinic culture

The nine-part History Channel series entitled 'Vikings' debuted on Sunday, March 3. The second installment was yesterday evening. If you missed them, they are rebroadcast during the week. So far the story basically revolves around the life of future Viking chieftain Radnar Lodbrok, who was a real historical figure. It portrays Viking life as a rugged existence, with the undercurrent of an expansionist/seafaring mindset. Lokbrok's wife Lagertha is also based on a real historical figure.

Naturally, Viking culture is strongly tied to Odinic spiritual tradition; and there were a couple of references to it so far. The more noble characters seem to behave true to the "9 Noble Virtures," which I assume to be intentional. There seems to be a genuine intent for an accurate portrayal. Society is portrayed as neither saintly nor over-the-top violent. It should be remembered that the Winnili, later known as the Langobards, were originally from Scandinavia (some five centuries earlier than the period portrayed here).


Plot (from Wikipedia)

The series is inspired by the epic sagas about the raiding, trading and exploring Norsemen of early medieval Scandinavia. It follows the exploits of the semi-legendary Viking chieftain Ragnar Lodbrok and his crew and family.

It portrays Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) as a young Viking warrior who longs to discover civilizations across the seas. With his friend, the gifted craftsman Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård), he builds a new generation of faster longships and challenges the local ruler, Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne), a man of little vision, to allow raids into the unexplored West, to Anglia. He is supported by his brother Rollo (Clive Standen), who secretly covets Ragnar's wife, the shieldmaiden Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick).


‘Vikings’ presents kinder, gentler side to ancient Norse warriors

Cassandra Szklarski - The Canadian Press - February 28, 2013

TORONTO – Cast aside notions of the barbaric, filthy Viking.

“Camelot” scribe Michael Hirst is on a mission to rehabilitate that image with a scripted series that portrays the seafaring Scandinavian marauders as not only family-oriented, but rather civilized.

“Culturally for us the Vikings are always the other — they’re always the guys who break down your door in the night and rape and pillage and they’re not normally seen as sympathetic or attractive people,” Hirst says in a recent phone interview from his home, just outside Oxford, England.

“Two of the main things about that culture was, one: it was far more democratic than anything in the West — anything in England or France or Ireland. That they had public meetings, that they had pseudo-democratic institutions. And the other thing that really stood out was … that unlike in the West, women could divorce their husband, they fought with their men, they could rule. They could inherit property. And this was so far away from the sort of cliche of these raping, pillaging guys that I thought, ‘Well that’s a way to start. That takes me into their world.’”

Of course, there’s still plenty of pillaging and plunder going on in Hirst’s nine-part drama, “Vikings,” an international Irish/Canadian co-production that debuts Sunday on History.

The eighth-century action centres on the fearless Norse warrior Ragnar Lothbrok, an ambitious adventurer who urges his corrupt chieftain Earl Haraldson, played by Gabriel Byrne, to explore the undiscovered West.

A bloody opening battle establishes Ragnar’s ruthless precision in dispatching enemies, but when back in his tight-knit community, he’s revealed to be a loving husband, father and farmer.

Australian actor Travis Fimmel stars as Ragnar while Toronto-bred Katheryn Winnick plays his warrior wife, Lagertha, and Montreal’s Jessalyn Gilsig play’s Haraldson’s wife Siggy.

Gilsig says a deep backstory helps add texture to her calculating character, who comes from an established family and married young, probably around 12. She’s forged a “Macbeth”-like partnership with Haraldson to rule their community with fear, but along the way they lost two sons in battle.

“We are as vulnerable as a family could be in our position — he’s getting older, we don’t have an heir and we have this really ambitious young man who is curious about a new way of exploring and also a new way of ruling,” says Gilsig, also known from “Nip/Tuck” and “Glee.”

“Gabriel Byrne was the first to mention Lady M actually and he was very adamant that we always have this approach…. It’s not accidental that Siggy comes into the Great Hall and sits beside him. It’s because he needs her to sit beside him, because they have a plan and she needs to keep him focused on that plan and together they build a strategy and had always built a strategy to maintain their position.”

They live in a brutal society, but Gilsig notes that punishments are not meted out casually.

“Life is not disposable. Every death has a price and in fact, I think Michael Hirst has done a beautiful job of also showing that there was a system of justice in place — you couldn’t just go and kill your neighbour and be, ‘Well, I’m a Viking, sorry, that’s what we do,’” she says.

“There were laws and there were codes and they were different than ours, it’s a different time, but it wasn’t just a kind of free-for-all of rape and pillage.”

Of course, those codes were reserved for the Viking community. It was a different story when they went exploring.

Most of the early bloodshed comes as Ragnar and his gang head to foreign lands with the help of his friend Floki, played by Gustaf Skarsgard, who engineers a faster, sleeker and better-crafted boat that takes them south to England.

Hirst says Ragnar is based on a real Viking leader who raided England and Ireland, attacked Paris, married twice and had many warrior sons.

“One of his sons was the remarkably named Ivar the Boneless, who is just a fantastic character and I can’t wait to get him in the show,” says Hirst, whose costume dramas include the TV series “The Tudors,” “The Borgias” and the 1998 film “Elizabeth.”

Hirst says he based the tale on authentic records as much as possible. But he notes that Vikings were an illiterate people and all evidence of paganism was destroyed after Christianization.

Much of what was written down came from Christian monks and other hostile witnesses, giving birth to the ruthless reputation Vikings still have today.

“Anyone tuning in to a channel called History has the right to expect that what they’re watching has some relationship to reality and to the real past. And this show does,” says Hirst, who relied on research from archeological digs and anecdotes from traders who encountered Vikings.

“But it’s important to say at the same time that we’re talking about the Dark Ages. And they’re not called the Dark Ages for nothing. We know very, very little about this whole period and a lot of it’s mixed up with myth and with legend and so on. So anyone trying to manoeuvre their way around this subject is going to have to take leaps and use their imagination but that’s fine because that’s what drama is. And I would never ever claim that I’m writing a documentary.”

Leaps included finding a way for characters to speak Old Norse without bogging down the series. Snippets of the language are used throughout but for the most part actors had to adopt a unique accent that evoked the era.

“We worked with a dialect coach to try to create a sound and an accent that our international cast could use as a bible to really kind of go to, to keep everybody unified,” says Winnick, whose background in competitive taekwondo helped make her a convincing shield maiden.

“It’s a Swedish, Old Norse way of speaking, traditional way of speaking — a bit of a British undertone for me being Canadian and living in the States. But I’m born and raised in Toronto (so) it definitely was challenging for me to pick up an accent. But I loved it.”

“Vikings” debuts Sunday on History.


Official website

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Ghost programs and the metaphysical issue: Part 9

Although I didn't feel the need to mention every paranormal-themed program, I wanted to mention a few more here. One program on the Syfy network is called 'Paranormal Witness'. It is produced in the same documentary-narrative style as 'A Haunting', and it's quite good. I didn't see season one in 2011, but I did see season two. Season three is scheduled for later this year with twenty episodes. Some people find it easier to just purchase the DVDs.

One other program, also on the Syfy channel, is called 'School Spirits'. It's a school-themed program that's also good. Without making lists, I would loosely say that 'A Haunting' was the best of this program genre, with 'Paranormal Witness', 'The Haunted', and 'School Spirits' being the next three. All four are still active, and produced in the docu-narrative style. 'The Dead Files' (active; new season starts tonight) 'Paranormal State' (ended) and 'Ghost Adventures' (active), are more "investigative." 'A Haunting' and 'Paranormal State' were something like "the pioneers" of paranormal television.

It should be mentioned that 'In Search of' from the late 70/early 80s was a somewhat similar program and deserves mention. It's always helpful to have a great narrator like Leonard Nimoy. 'In Search of' really holds up today. I think part of the appeal of these types of programs, and many metaphysically-themed horror movies, is that they free up this "spirit world" which is part of our genetic memory. Often, people with "dismissive personalities" regarding anything they don't understand--and don't wish to understand--are actually afraid to know or experience anything new. Also, most often, those with strong religious dogma dismiss these ideas based on their social conditioning which is something a little bit different than the fear-based attitudes.

'Celebrity Ghost Stories' is another one which was pretty good. I'm not much of a fan of "celebrities," but I'm not going to omit it or say that it's not good. I think many of the early accounts were sincere, but a lot of the phonies looking for attention will be getting into the act now. YouTube carries a lot of these and other programs. It still amazes me the variety of things uploaded onto YouTube.


Paranormal television (Wikipedia)

Paranormal television is a genre of popular reality television programming. Its scope comprises purportedly factual investigations of paranormal phenomena, rather than fictional representations found in such shows as The Ghosts of Motley Hall and Ghostbusters, or cartoon/children's series such as Scooby-Doo and Rentaghost.

[See above link for history and the program list]

There are probably a lot of programs and concepts that I didn't cover, but I think that I gave a pretty good overview of what this subject and these programs are about. It should be mentioned again regarding this "spirit world," that there is probably many times more "good" and "protective" spirits; but in human nature we just accept the positive things, and only when there is a negative presence do we complain. Although there is evidence of a "soul process," there's also evidence of spirits just coming into being based on love, hate, pain, etc., almost as if they were grown like a plant. Some are the spirits of humans, but others may have been animals or other life forms, or spirits which never were alive and are attached to places or objects.

Also, there is "unfairness" within this spirit world. Human souls are meant to move on to the next plane, but sometimes another soul may stop them and hold them in a place, or even terrorize them. Suicide is one act which seems to hold a soul on the earth. This doesn't mean that this soul is "bad." Sometimes a soul of a person chooses to stay. Other times, there are "energy stamps" from events or acts that have occurred in a place and/or become attached to an object. Sometimes, for example, a negative energy stamp can be placed by a person that commits an act of violence at a location... but that stamp exists even though this person is still alive. This whole subject strongly ties into the concept of "animism" as well.

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The Arctic Home in the Vedas: Part 9

The Týrlanders
 
About every 45,000 years, after the two poles have attained enough of the earth's water within their massive frozen zones, the outer crust of the earth moves about 2,000 miles like a loose outer layer of an orange. This last happened about 12,000 years ago. It wasn't really a "pole shift," but a tectonic "plate shift." The direction of this movement was southward from the standpoint of North America, and northward from the point of view of Eurasia. Therefore, North America melted and became a temperate climate zone, while Eurasia was thrust up towards and even into the arctic. This caused an immediate and dramatic earth change. For example, mammoths died and froze so quickly that some are still being found in perfectly preserved condition.

Some of the Mongol (the sub-racial meaning) ancestors of Amerindians were forced to migrate over the frozen land bridge between Siberia and Alaska, which would be almost like going south at that time in terms of climate. People from the proto-Germanic homeland, which was somewhere along the Kara Sea in northern Eurasia, suddenly found themselves living near or even above the Arctic Circle, which directly ties into Bal Gangadhar Tilak's theory in 'Arctic Home in the Vedas'. In other words, it's not a "theory," but a fact. It should be noted that this very ancient proto-Germanic homeland had a climate and terrain which was probably much like Montana. The only feature of Tilak's theory which wasn't really true was that he lumped all modern Europeans into one basket and sincerely proclaimed point-blank that they weren't native to Europe originally. This was what I would call a half-truth which he overlooked.

The proto-Germanics seemed to continue to live in this homeland--let just call it "Týrland" after what seems to have been the chief god of the proto-Germanics at one time, until if and when someone comes up with a better name--for a period of time until migrating to other lands. Some migrated to a land which later became known as the Tibet Autonomous Region, and although there isn't a trace of them left, modern natives of this region still use a version of the proto-Germanic triskelion as one of their most sacred symbols. Some migrated down into lands east of the Caspian Sea and north of the Himalayas, like the Tarim Basin. Some then continued to migrate into what is today Iran, and then eventually their uniracial/interethnic (I'm guessing "Balkan-looking"; Note: White "interethnic," not "interracial") descendants into the Indus Valley. I believe that others migrated into ancient Assyria. Still others migrated into Europe, where they merged with native "Alpine" proto-Europeans in many places to produce the Celtic-cultures; and eventually they moved in mass into northern Europe, and being checked at the border of ancient Gaul (for a while).


Eastward migration after the "plate-shift?"

Could some of the ancient "Týrlanders" have migrated eastward, and even into the Americas? "Kennewick Man"--found near Kennewick, Washington--comes to mind, but we still don't know the origins of this man. The Army Corps of Engineers purposely destroyed the area of this find so no further evidence can be found there; as well as outrageously mismanaging the remains, compromising any future DNA studies of it. All we really know about Kennewick man is that he lived over 9,000 years ago and clearly had a Caucasian skull type. He could have been proto-Germanic, originating from a genetic migration from either the eastern or western land bridges. He may have been an ancient proto-European (non-Germanic) type who was part of a westward migration; or he may very well have been part of an ancient migration of Ainu people, who were a "Caucasian-like" people whose true origins are unknown.

Clearly based on their actions, the establishment does not want any of us to look at the evidence of Ainu, proto-Germanic, Chinese, Egyptian, Phoenician, proto-European/Welsh, Roman, ancient Hebrew, or Viking movements into the Americas. Only Leif Erikson is "allowed" to have been the sole non-Amerindian to have visited the pre-Columbian Americas, despite clear evidence to the contrary. Very clear non-Amerindian artifacts--like those left by Chinese travelers on Victoria Island, or Egyptian artifacts found along the Mississippi River and in the Grand Canyon--are either permanently put away in storage or disappear into private collections. Curiously, the Amerindians on Victoria Island today look much more Chinese than Amerindian. Usually numerically smaller cultures who are absorbed into larger ones are just thought of as being "one people" at the end of the day. However, for some reason, the establishment has decided on their own that Amerindians are the ONE exception to this rule, and other peoples/cultures may not be discussed.

Excerpt from pages 97 and 98 of 'The Suppressed History of America' (Schrag; Haze; 2011):

According to an article published in the May 13, 1928, edition of the Humboldt Star, a nine-foot-tall red-haired mummy was discovered deep inside the Lovelock Cave, located twenty miles south of the town of Lovelock, Nevada. Isolated on top of a high hill, the cave is estimated to be 40 feet deep and 180 feet wide. The Piute Indians told the early Nevadan settlers fantastic stories about the origins of the cave, including tales about their fierce battles with red-haired white giants. In their oral history they claimed to have cornered the remaining giants in Lovelock Cave. Once the giants were trapped, the Piutes blocked the entrance with sagebrush and set it on fire. They reportedly stoked the fire until all the remaining giants had been smothered by smoke.

Further evidence supporting local legends about giants had emerged in 1911 when a mining company plowing for bat guano in Lovelock Cave began to find amazing artifacts. They discovered layers of burned materials and broken arrows that validated the Piutes' claims. Further down they found the remains of giant red-haired mummies, along with strange stone artifacts and shells carved with mysterious symbols. As usual most of these artifacts were either lost or fell into the hands of private collectors who whisked them away. One museum did manage to preserve some of the items discovered at Lovelock Cave.

The Humboldt County Museum at Winnemucca, Nevada, has in its collection a skull from one of the giants. Stan Nielsen, the famed treasure hunter, pilot, and photojournalist, went to investigate this skull with some dental plaster and a camera. The museum curator graciously allowed Nielsen to compare the plaster model of a normal-size man's jaw with a jaw of one of the giants found in the museum's collection. The photographic evidence clearly shows the vast difference in size between the plaster model and the immense jaw from the giant skull. What's more amazing is that anyone can see this skull for themselves by contacting the friendly staff at the Humboldt County Museum. Recent e-mail transactions have verified that some of the sensational Lovelock Cave artifacts, including a giant skull, are being kept in the back room of the museum.

This event--the killing of this tribe--took place about five or six hundred years ago, long after eastward traveling proto-Germanics may have crossed the Bering Strait land bridge. One curious note is that during the global flood which followed the last "plate shift" 12,000 years ago, California's huge Central Valley was flooded by the ocean. It was literally part of the Pacific Ocean, and the "coast" would have come right up close to northern Nevada. That dynamic may have existed right up to five or six thousand years ago. Could this red-haired tribe--which most clearly was of an Indo-European type based on the existing skulls--have been a last remnant of ancient eastward-migrating proto-Germanic people? Maybe they were part of, or descended from, a more recent westward traveling group? Could this tribe have traveled by boat--possibly either around the tip of South America, or even across the waters north of Canada and Alaska--thousands of years ago to this ancient inland coast? Were these people among the last remnants of the migrating post-glacial movement (actually "post-plate shift") "Týrlanders" In North America?

There are some issues that need to be addressed regarding what is known about this mysterious tribe. First, the archeological establishment clearly isn't having any of it. To them, these are "Native Americans," plain and simple, despite CLEAR evidence to the contrary! Next, I have seen some of the old photographs which were taken prior to these mummies being taken away and "lost." They were quite similar to the Tarim mummies. They appeared as "Norse-looking," and with red hair as was evident even in the black and white photographs. They were more "mummified" rather than mummies from a burial rite. It isn't likely that they were Vikings, since red hair is not common in Scandinavia in particular. I would love to know what those "mysterious symbols" looked like. If, for example, there was a triskelion symbol, then this would be a closed issue. Since some of those symbols still exist for public view, we need to see them! If anyone reading this lives or will be near Winnemucca, and is interested in this subject, then by all means get permission and get in that back room and take some pictures!!

Next, evidently, only two of the remains were incredibly tall--about eight and a half feet--while the rest apparently averaged between six and a half to seven feet..... which would only be about six inches taller than the average height of modern Montenegrins (6'3"). If these were pure proto-Germanics, then this "giant concept" would not be all that amazing. That is pretty damn tall though! In addition, they didn't live in that cave. Apparently, the Piutes used that cave for food and storage, so it would seem that most of the artifacts were Piute. However, since the symbols were alien to them, they were likely from this mysterious tribe... and certainly we need to see them. In other words, they weren't "cave men." As far as cannibalism, we probably will never know. Perhaps during this war, there was an act of cannibalism, or maybe there was propaganda among the Piutes to get them in a war mode. If this tribe was perhaps seventeen inches taller on average than the Piutes, coupled with the fact that they were at war, then exaggerations were possible... "giants."

Lastly, the "dental comparison" isn't quite as incredible when you overlay the normal dental mold directly over the teeth of "the giant." It's certainly big, but not all that comparatively "giant." Look for yourself. Definitely big... but not so "giant." Also, based on the remaining skulls, the report of these people as having "layers of teeth" seems to have been a misrepresentation of the initial evidence. This was certainly a big tribe though, and probably were part of a really big strain of ancient pure "Týrlander." You can't really think only of modern Scandinavians--the purest modern Teutonic strain--as far as comparison. The average height for males in Scandinavia is just under 5'11," which is tall for an average height, but may have been on the short side in ancient "Týrland." However, this mysterious tribe must have been an unusually tall sub-grouping.

Video: Nevada - Spirit Cave and Lovelock Mummies

 

~~~ Týrland was the Arctic homeland ~~~

Proven.

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"Forbidden Archeology" - The documentary that drove the scientific establishment nuts!

This is the 1996 NBC-TV documentary entitled 'The Mysterious Origins of Man', which was based on the book 'Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race' (Cremo; Thompson; 1994). It's an open secret that when archeological finds do not fit with accepted norms, they are taken and hidden away, disappear into private collections, or simply disappear period. When an archeologist takes a stand against this unwritten policy, their careers permanently end in a New York minute. When this program aired, many top American careerist-scientists went ballistic. They demanded an apology from NBC, then went running to the FCC. After all, the public isn't supposed to know just how flimsy and subjective that mainstream archeology really is.

One of the tricks in establishing control is by using a Hegelian method by which you create two "opposames," and trying for force everyone to "pick-a-side"; which, in this case, is creationism vs. evolution. It's not even creationism and evolution "as is"..... but a particular type of closed-minded creationism and closed-minded evolution, which makes this a part of the closed-minded religion vs. closed-minded science fiasco that we've had to endure for generations now. There are many other possibilities, which I believe involve elements of both creation and evolution over a much longer period of time.

Michael Cremo's official site

ForbiddenArcheology.com

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Beretta to Maryland: Enact gun laws and we may be outta here

Beretta to Maryland: Enact gun laws and we may be outta here

by Vatic Master - The Vatic Project - March 5, 2013


Vatic Note: I love  companies that stand, like Americans, with their nation, their people and their history.  This is one of them, however, having said that, I believe they could do serious damage/work to the power elite who want to enslave us by stating unequivocally that if they pass the gun control laws, that Beretta will apply them across the board to everyone.  That includes the government contracts as well. 

Its expensive profit wise, but other companies are doing it and going all the way.  Its the only way.  Its all they understand, nothing less. If you don't, then your only customer will be governments and guess what they have done in the past?  If you have no other customers, and they are your only customer, they will simply steal the product from you. 

That has happened to numerous computer software private companies.  The government just stole the software and never paid the company what  they owed.  This move toward tyranny is for ALL OF US, NOT JUST THE LOW, MIDDLE CLASS, BUT THE ENTIRE NATION, DEPOPULATED OF COURSE.

These *censored* mafia Bankers have no morals, or conscience, so they "take'" whatever they decide they want and they have done that already to the ubber wealthy when they stole their diamonds from the diamond market and substituted very good fakes.  If they will steal from the ubber wealthy, they will steal from you.

This isn't a game for them.  Its been in play for thousands of years through these long term blood lines.  We have to adapt to the reality of these people and give up our perceptions of our reality that do not exist, then we can decide if we want to live they way they have planned, if not, then we work our options.  Time to get educated. Your lifes work is on the line.

Beretta’s future in Maryland tied to state’s gun-control debate

By Aaron C. Davis, Published: February 23
provided to vatic project by Freedom Pheonix

On the production floor of Beretta USA sits a hulking new barrel-making machine ready to churn out the next object of obsession in America’s love-hate relationship with guns: a civilian version of a machine gun designed for special operations forces and popularized in the video game Call of Duty.

Beretta, the nearly 500-year-old family-owned company that made one of James Bond’s firearms, has already invested more than $1 million in the machine and has planned to expand its plant further in Prince George’s County to ramp up production.

But under an assault-weapons ban that advanced late last week in the Maryland General Assembly, experts say the gun would be illegal in the state where it is produced.

Now Beretta is weighing whether the rifle line, and perhaps the company itself, should stay in a place increasingly hostile toward its products. Its iconic 9mm pistol — carried by every U.S. soldier and scores of police departments — would also be banned with its high capacity, 13-bullet magazine.

“Why expand in a place where the people who built the gun couldn’t buy it?” said Jeffrey Reh, general counsel for Beretta.

Concern that the company will leave, and take its 300 jobs with it, is palpable among state lawmakers who worry it could be collateral damage from Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed gun-control bill.

Among other restrictions, O’Malley’s bill would ban assault rifles, magazines with more than 10 bullets and any new guns with two or more “military-like” features. Gun experts said it’s a near-certainty that Beretta’s semiautomatic version of the ARX-160, now only a prototype, would be banned under O’Malley’s bill.

“I’m concerned. I think they’re going to move,” said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert). “They sell guns across the world and in every state in the union — to places a lot more friendly to the company than this state.”

In Beretta’s low-slung factory along the Potomac River in Accokeek, where walls are lined with trophy heads of caribou, wild boars and black bears shot by employees, the legislation proposed by O’Malley (D) feels like an affront.

In testimony this month in Annapolis, Reh, who oversees the plant, warned lawmakers to consider carefully the company’s future. Reh pointed to the last time Maryland ratcheted up gun restrictions in the 1990s: Beretta responded by moving its warehouse operation to Virginia.

“I think they thought we were bluffing” in the 1990s, Reh said. “But Berettas don’t bluff.”


Growth of a company

The small U.S. division that Beretta started 35 years ago in Prince George’s has added substantial swagger to a company that already billed itself as the “World’s Oldest Industrial Dynasty.”

From behind the modest brick facade of an abandoned gun plant it purchased in 1977 on Indian Head Highway, Beretta won a landmark contract to become the standard sidearm of all U.S. military personnel in 1985. To the chagrin of American competitors, it soon replaced the venerable Colt 45.

More than a half-million of the company’s guns have been shipped to the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines, each stamped as made in Accokeek.

The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

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