Something I am Working On …
… a snippet of the start of something. Raw and unedited.
Abbé Henri Breuil sketched diligently by the dim gas-light, in a high alcove deep within a cave system. What he drew there and in other caves, what theories he later published about his discoveries, would help shape not only modern archaeology but also modern Paganism.
The Abbé was a man obsessed, crawling through narrow passages and scaling walls, only to lie upon the floors of caverns humanity had not set foot upon for thousands of years. All to draw the images he found there within. The most ancient of art in European history called to him. Cave art; depictions of bison and horses, lions and hand prints. And, in only a few instances, images of the human form mingled with that of an animal. The experts call these part-human, part-animal figures therianthropes.
The Trois-Frères cave was just one of many ancient cave systems Breuil would visit in his lifetime. In fact, it is far from the most famous of caves he worked in. Discovered in southern France, the art in this cave dates back to the mid-Magdalenian period of about 14,000 B.C.E. This cave features some 280 engraved images… Continue reading
It’s Not Done Yet
Hedge Witchery
Hedge is a Teutonic term originally meaning any fence, boundary or enclosure, later meaning a specific type of living thicket planted to act as a fence, enclosure or boundary.
Old High German (language used roughly from 500 to 1050 C.E): hegga, hecka
Old Dutch (600 to 1150 C.E.): heggehn
Old Saxon or Old Low German (800 to 1200 C.E) : haeg
Anglo-Saxon or Old English (550 C.E to 1250C.E): hecg, hegge, haga, hecge or hege
Middle English (11th century and about 1470 C.E): hedge, hegge, hedgen, heggen
Suffolk dialect (at least 1300 C.E. to present day): hetch
Modern English (1550 C.E to modern day): hedge
Middle English hagathorn meaning “hedge thorn” becomes the modern hawthorn
Old Teutonic stem haja- meaning “behind the hedge” gives rise to the Old English haja, Middle English heye, haye and thus the English hay. Behind the hedge lays the hay field.
The old words for hedge also gave rise to the words hawk (hedge-bird), haggard, edge and hag (witch).
Old English for hedgerow is heggeræw.
Saxon haegtessa and the Old English haegtesse, roughly translates to hedge-rider, hag-rider, witch and witch-fury.
In a 13th century Icelandic text called the Poetic Edda,… Continue reading
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