Train of thought- I was telling my husband that I want to dye all the pink stuff (left overs from making pussy hats and other resistance items) to turn it brown. From pink to shades of cinnamon, cocoa, and mahogany - dark browns. Then the 2nd dye pot will be for light brown - sepia, tea, tan- lightly antiqued so that my quilt will look old. I am waiting for a day when I can have the windows open, maybe today.
So, this quilt has been waiting for me to finish it a long time. I really need to make something. I got a job that I like but it’s not creative. After almost 3 months of steady work, I’m starting to feel the loss of my textile arts = it’s summer and I don’t have time to knit, sew, or weave. Too busy. But I always make time for thinking about it. Recently I’ve been thinking about this quilt because I learned that it has a meaning. The stars on the quilt are not random decorations, not just pretty.
Auseklis - my quilt is covered in Morning Star motifs. The eight pointed star has many names: Selbu Rose, Norwegian Star, etc. But I’ve discovered that it’s an ancient pagan symbol that means Venus, the morning star... and by extension it can mean the future, days to come, and hope for new life. It always means life, all the symbols mean life in one way or another. Even the swastika meant life, but my husband’s family is Jewish so I can not imagine using a swastika in my artwork. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that the Auseklis is closely linked to the swastika in folk art, especially in the oldest pieces. My guess is that in ancient thought the Auseklis is both dawn and birth. You may have heard of the gates of dawn? Venus, being the brightest star, should be the last star you see before sun rise, although I have not checked on that (lately I’ve not been and early riser, but now I’ve got a good reason to try getting up early.)
Well, there is also the gates of Mara, which are the gates of birth - the way children come into this world from their mother’s belly. The gates of Mara (spirit of water) are seen in every picture of the Mother of All, Berehynia (my name!) = the part of the picture that looks like bent knees / legs up / birth, with water or vines below. The picture is a charm bring you life, good fortune, fertility, and success. These charms are always layered (more layers, more symbolism, more charm magic) and they are always meant to appear as if they are coming toward you, even if the design is quite flat, so I’m telling you what once must have seemed obvious to the people who made the folk art. They never wrote it down - they thought everybody knew this stuff. Many of them may have been unable to read and write, their cultures were mostly oral. I have had to rediscover the ideas with difficulty. In my part of the world, nobody knows what was meant by the old symbols. I feel isolated and I need to share what I’ve figured out.
I want to teach people my views on what the old beliefs were. But I’m not certain whether it’s correct what I’m saying. I’m trying to get an overview of the old European cultures from before Christianity existed. I want to tie it all together, get the big picture. If I’m right, it will change the way people understand lots of things. Change all of art history for one thing. It might change how people understand the mess we are in, the roots of the environmental disaster slowly unfolding now.
So, as I see it, folk belief was like Shinto, a belief in reality with some myths. All the lovely fairy tales and myth were extra, but the core beliefs were in reality, things you can observe. I think in the old days, people were just as down to earth as we are now. I continue to do my pagan research as if I were an anthropologist, an outsider, an observer. I might become a pagan if it were mainly a belief in reality, so you may say that I am finding what I want to find. But don’t worry, I’m trying to do a good job of it, carefully rediscovering whatever thought lies behind the Auseklis and related symbols.
-Virginia Miller, in Campton, New Hampshire, on 24 July 2019.
