I saw a picture of a man wearing a stork costume in this book, The Folk Arts of Poland. It was among a whole lot of carnival costumes, mummers, carolers, and kukeri. See the chapter, Art in Rituals and Customs if you are interested in European shamanism. The costumes looked like the ones in The Dancing Goddesses by E.W. Barber.
I never saw the stork costume before, so I looked it up. Google translate says that stork costume is "bocian stroj" in Polish. When I searched this, I discovered that Polish people have zillions of these stork costumes. Sometimes, Polish children do school plays dressed as storks and frogs - maybe to celebrate the arrival of spring?
What if our traditional pictures of storks bringing babies... what if it's a hint at an old fertility religion, some trace of ancient European shamanism? But then why storks in particular? I remembered the story that passenger pigeons once darkened the skies in America. Could it be that migrating birds were once so many that they could darken the skies over Europe? That would be very far in the past.
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Thursday, March 30, 2017
Saturday, March 4, 2017
St. Martha & the month of March
This is just a blog. I can write anything. I don't have to be accurate, nor prove my facts.
I think I found another item of interest to pagans. I'm still undecided about all this religion stuff.
My internet connection is about to turn off, so, quickly here is what I found: March may be named for some goddess, not Mars originally.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martius_(month)
Suppose the Ides of March were a day of prayer and sacrifices for the beginning of the agricultural year. Then when Caesar was warned to beware the Ides of March, maybe people dying on the Ides of March was a thing? A very ancient thing?
So, I think Baba Marta and St. Martha are actually the same person. I think she is a virgin who uses her potential fertility to overcome evil (such as crop failures) and tame the wild nature spirit (such as the Taraskon, or dragon, unicorn, etc). This is a prayer for good outcomes in the spring before planting begins.
Now I've got to figure out why St Martha was sometimes called St Pelagius or St Marina. I think that I can connect her with prayers for good fishing??
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I think I found another item of interest to pagans. I'm still undecided about all this religion stuff.
My internet connection is about to turn off, so, quickly here is what I found: March may be named for some goddess, not Mars originally.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martius_(month)
Suppose the Ides of March were a day of prayer and sacrifices for the beginning of the agricultural year. Then when Caesar was warned to beware the Ides of March, maybe people dying on the Ides of March was a thing? A very ancient thing?
So, I think Baba Marta and St. Martha are actually the same person. I think she is a virgin who uses her potential fertility to overcome evil (such as crop failures) and tame the wild nature spirit (such as the Taraskon, or dragon, unicorn, etc). This is a prayer for good outcomes in the spring before planting begins.
Now I've got to figure out why St Martha was sometimes called St Pelagius or St Marina. I think that I can connect her with prayers for good fishing??
.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Basilisk and Taraskon
Last week I found a real live Basilisk (on the internet). I'm excited about this! But I'm finding it difficult to say why I like it so much. It seems so very ancient. And I am really curious what people thought about deep in the past.
Link to see a real live Basilisk:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badalisc
Today, I found a real live Tarasque. The Taraskon (alternate spelling) looks like a dragon in the picture. There is text in Portuguese (or Spanish?) that describes a monster with a body like a turtle and a scorpion tail. This monster was in a festival parade in the 1400's, possibly along with both Christian and Islamic festival displays. According to the story, Saint Martha subdued the Taraskon, then the monster was killed.
I'm no expert on dragons but I think St. Martha had two dragons. One was good, and one was bad. It must be about foretelling the future - if you kill the bad dragon, then no harm (no crop failure, no diseases, etc.) will come in the new year. Simple apotropaic magic for agriculture, very ancient in my opinion.
Link to see an actual Taraskon:
http://www.caminandogranada.com/feria-del-corpus-granada-2016/
And this Tarasque on Wikipedia, with links to other dragon & virgin stories:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasque
I still can not guess why the dragon has her cloak in his mouth. But I found several more medieval images of St. Margaret and the dragon. In some pictures he bites her cloak, and in others she is emerging from the belly of the dragon...
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Link to see a real live Basilisk:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badalisc
Today, I found a real live Tarasque. The Taraskon (alternate spelling) looks like a dragon in the picture. There is text in Portuguese (or Spanish?) that describes a monster with a body like a turtle and a scorpion tail. This monster was in a festival parade in the 1400's, possibly along with both Christian and Islamic festival displays. According to the story, Saint Martha subdued the Taraskon, then the monster was killed.
I'm no expert on dragons but I think St. Martha had two dragons. One was good, and one was bad. It must be about foretelling the future - if you kill the bad dragon, then no harm (no crop failure, no diseases, etc.) will come in the new year. Simple apotropaic magic for agriculture, very ancient in my opinion.
Link to see an actual Taraskon:
http://www.caminandogranada.com/feria-del-corpus-granada-2016/
And this Tarasque on Wikipedia, with links to other dragon & virgin stories:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasque
I still can not guess why the dragon has her cloak in his mouth. But I found several more medieval images of St. Margaret and the dragon. In some pictures he bites her cloak, and in others she is emerging from the belly of the dragon...
.
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