Zalktis and the butter S cookies

Zalktis, the symbol of the good snake

I found an old German cookbook with a recipe for “butter S cookies”.  In a quick online search, I found S cookies from Germany, Italy, Greece, and somewhere in the Middle East.  People say that in ancient times, snake were not hated - I don’t know.  I’m saying that the cookies were snake cookies, and they fit into a pattern of pagan thought.

I have almost no information about this.

But I do suspect that during World War II, people in Germany still knew about Zalktis.  It’s an ugly truth that the Nazis used the Zalktis symbol for their most horrible military guys.  I’m having nothing to do with that repulsive business.

Anyway, what does butter have to do with snakes?  I found an Italian cookie company whose name seems to mean, “butter s”: Esselunga.  Is it because a snake will move like oil pouring...?  Another horrible thought- what if we cooked a snake, would it be oily?  I’d guess not (and maybe I don’t want to know.)

So, if the letter S represents a snake, could that be part of the reason why people may have once seen writing as magical?  Did they really believe that writing has power?  I met women who chose not to read & write, I think they were very devout Muslims...  Do the other letters of the alphabet have hidden origins?

Once I had a garter snake that I kept in a glass tank.  It was not exactly a pet snake, more like a guest.  I tried keeping a salamander in the same tank.  Unfortunately one guest ate the other guest.  So, I decided that it was difficult to feed the garter snake (who would not eat unless the food moved) and I let the snake go.  But before I let it go, I picked it (her?) up to have a good look.  So, the garter snake got musk all over my hand, and the smell was really really bad.  Ever since that time, I’ve been wondering if snake musk could be a source of hormones or other useful chemicals?

Auseklis charms and reality

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.

May Day is snake day

New ideas for May Day 2019:
- Saint James is Ogun in Haitian Voudou.  I found this in the novel, Masters of the Dew.  It needs further research, keeping in mind that Santiago de Compostella is dedicated to Saint James.
How does the name, James get translated into Iago? And into Jacob?

-news article on the BBC about a town in Italy that has a snake festival on May 1st every year.  They have a procession with a statute of a saint draped in snakes.  I read the article thinking that this smells strongly of a pre-Christian tradition.  Warning, all the photos in the article show garter snakes.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48132701

-Thanks to Patricia Robin Woodruff, I learned what is a bucranium.  Such a delight!  I’ve been wondering what those things are for a long time.  Bucranium: the image of an ox head carved on buildings, often with garlands.  It’s very ancient.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucranium

-See also:  Oscilla, little faces hung up near Lares on holidays to represent each person who lived there.  Pilae, dolls made of wool, similar to Oscilla.  I have lots of wool, and there is a rock nearby that I call, “Larry” because it seems to have a smiling face.  So I might try making some pilae.  This does not mean I believe in anything.  For me, it’s all about connecting with something very ancient.

[See also:  Lares, protective spirits sometimes described as household gods.  Lares statutes were placed outside villages like watchmen.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lares  ]

Saint Sidwell

I find this Wikipedia page highly entertaining.  I’ve found a Saint who could represent the last ear of corn at harvest time.  If you like finding blends of paganism and Christianity, you will like this too.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sidwell

I think she was once known as Sitha (not sure where I found that name, but I was reading about Bidwell Priory yesterday - almost certainly a site of pre Christian female religion).  I went into a daydream about Sitha -> Cynthia -> Cinderella.  Certainly my daydreams do not count as decent research.  But it’s intriguing to think that these names might be connected.

Saint Sidwell is pictured with a scythe.  In her story, her evil stepmother ordered reapers to cut off her head with a scythe.  How much more pagan can it get?  It’s pretty obvious to me that she represents that last special grain at the end of the harvest, the one you save for next year’s seed...


...

Why are there so many flowers in European art?

Often I don’t write because it seems hopeless.
This morning, I was staring at Pinterest as usual.  I imagined getting to talk to an art history professor and an anthropologist at the same time.  I would start by asking, “Why are there so many flowers in European art?”

Either they would say, “So what?  It’s nothing.”  Or they might say, “That’s interesting, tell me more about one specific culture and their beliefs about fertility.”  Of course, I would be stuck there because I’m not as precise in my thinking as they are.  I’m vague, I’m looking at an overview, everything mixed together.  My so-called research is very casual -ok, not perfect.

I’m having a hard time trying to describe what I’m seeing.  It seems to me, when you look for fertility motifs in any European art, it all starts to make sense.  One part connects to another, everything seems to fit together.  Parts that were unexplained begin to make sense.  I should give an example here but can’t think of a good one - has anyone written about pagan symbols in the paintings of Watteau? (I’m thinking of 1. Girl on a Swing and 2. Giles)

How about a not-example:  I can’t think of a way to link Celtic art (pictures of animals knotted together) to the flowery fertility motif art.  I had a sense that there were strange ideas about animals that would link the idea of the zoo to medieval bestiary books.  That’s the edge, or the next thing to think about.  I wonder if knotwork and vines are both meant to show flowing good fortune?

I’m going to try to write more often, even if I don’t have something big to write about.  Later I can go back and put an asterisk on the useful pages.

...

a List of Apotropaic stuff

You don’t need to read this.  I’m just practicing - maybe someday I will be able to express myself clearly.

I imagined a Venn diagram of things that appear near Willies/Sirens/Mermaids.  Things that often turn up near Willies in medieval manuscripts, hmm... I think dragons occur near Willies.  And plump sea monsters...what else?

I think that I see things differently from most everybody.  I’m not sure I can describe it without pictures.  Maybe if I copy my list here, and refer you to my Pinterest.com collection, you will be able to see it my way.

Here is my list of things to look for in my search for European Pagans:

Red & white
Checkered / gingham fabric
Flowers & calico print fabrics
Ducks - geese - swans
Windmills and anything that whirls
Fat bellies: partridge in a pear tree, pigeons - doves - chickens
Diamond shapes as womb, as Harlequin, as a coat of 1000 furs
Blackface / whiteface / carnival masks / “Moors”
Possibly battles between good and evil
Anything apotropaic (it’s all about apotropaic)
Girl on a Swing, swinger of birches, carnival rides, death defying tightrope walkers
Dance
Seeds / dots
Hair and anything that looks like hair, brooms, fringe
Vase, bucket, flowerpot, basket
Water and vines
Hand spinning?
Anything that seems to be moving: busy patterns, crowded artwork, (optical illusions?)
Reflections, mirrors, reversals & symmetry in artwork
Things that may symbolize male fertility:  arrows, spears, swords, clubs, walking sticks with a “Y” shape at the top, lions, unicorns, (griffons? Centaur?)

All the good luck symbols...
And all the symbols woven into Lithuanian sashes
All the symbols stitched into Romanian blouses

So, basically I’m looking for Pagans, but not looking for spiritual nor occult pagans.  I’m looking for a worldview.  I guess I should read something about Wicca.  But I don’t want some crazy California type to tell me what European Pagans believed.  I hope to explore source material and find out myself.

There are no wild lions in Europe

Here is the link that I wanted to put at the end of the previous page:

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/a-pagan-exorcism-in-sardinia

It’s about the mamuthones and issohadores, and I want to point out that the word exorcism in the title just means they are cleaning out misfortunes and assuring a prosperous new year.

I may not be doing my research properly, but at least I’m trying.  And since ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ some of what I’ve found may turn out to be true.  So, I will go on looking for lions.  If lions are somehow pagan, that would give a new meaning to all the pictures of Saint Jerome and the lion...

I’m going on the idea that pagan culture was everywhere in Europe, only thinly covered up by Christianity.  I want to know what the pagan stories were.  What if the fairy tale of the 12 months / twelve old men in a forest, what if that matches up to the mamuthones?  But why not 13 as in a lunar year?

After lions, I hope to write about sea monsters.  I’ve found a picture of a knight aiming a spear at a sea monster.  It looks a lot like St. George and the dragon.  I’m hoping that sea monsters from the 1700’s somehow represent fertility.

I’m sorry I can’t add pictures just now.  There’s a picture in the book, Splendor At Court by Roy Strong - I really want to show you this picture: The Chariot of Minerva (figure 121 on page 167)
The chariot looks like a sleigh, and it is pulled by a creature half lion / half dragon.  Looks a lot like a Russian Embroidery with the Mother of All on her Sun Shallop surrounded by two dragons.  Almost every picture in this book has something that could be pagan, but there’s nothing about it in the text.

Half a blog is better than none.  But I need pictures!
I’d like to show the sirens with their mirrors (figure 116, page 160.)


...