| However, some who have studied the linguistics tell me that the association of "Yule" with "wheel" (a fond belief you will find in many places, since the words are nearly identical) is a myth. The roots of the two words have about as much similarity in Scandinavian languages as in English. According to one theory, the root word for Yule came from the aboriginal Scandinavians, and has always meant only one thing: the festival at the Winter Solstice. The word for wheel came from the Indo-Europeans who migrated to Scandinavia around 3800 BC (although they didn't even begin to use wheels until about 2500 BC!) The debate points out how ancient the word is. |
For ancient Germanic and Celtic people, the impulse to celebrate solstice was the same as for their neighbors to the south -- a celebration of the cycle of nature and a reaffirmation of the continuation of life. But the style and substance of their celebrations took very different shape.
These northern cultures survived a colder, darker winter for one thing. And they were just as likely to be herders and hunters as farmers.
It's cold, it's dark many more hours than light, and snows cover the fields where your herds might forage. What is there to do but make a delight of necessity, with a great slaughter and feasting?
At solstice, the sun rises around 9 a.m. It sets about 3 p.m. A mere six hours of daylight. Even if you sleep for eight hours, you spend much more of your waking time in darkness than in light. What a relief when the days begin to lengthen again!
Many of the ancient traditions surrounding Yuletide are concerned with coping with the darkness and the evils it was thought to harbor, and helping the return of light and warmth.
Evergreens were cherished at this time of year as a natural symbol of rebirth and life amid winter whiteness. But holly was particularly prized to decorate doors, windows and fireplaces because of its prickliness -- to either ward off or snag and capture evil spirits before they could enter and harm a household.
From Iceland comes the legend of the sinister and gargantuan Yule Cat, who, it seems, is ready to eat lazy humans. Those who did not help with the work of their village to finish all work on the autumn wool by Yule time got a double whammy -- they missed out on the Yule reward of a new article of clothing, and they were threatened with becoming sacrifices for the dreaded .
One of Iceland's most beloved poets in this century, Jóhannes úr Kötlum, wrote a lay about The Yule Cat. It follows in the translation of Vignir Jónsson, who says: "You'll have to forgive me but I didn't make it rhyme - I'm not much of a poet."
Scratch the surface of Christmas folklore in Scandinavian countries, and you find images and traditions that probably go way back. Perhaps this is because Christian missionaries didn't reach these countries until the 10th and 11th centuries, so the old traditions had longer to settle in.
There's the Julbock or Julbukk, or Yule goat, from Sweden and Norway, who had his beginnings as carrier for the god Thor. Now he carries the Yule elf when he makes his rounds to deliver presents and receive his offering of porridge.
I've even read somewhere that the Finnish version of this goat character, the Joulupukki, does the present deliveries himself by riding on a bicycle! The Yule elf is called Jultomten in Sweden, Julesvenn in Norway, and Jule-nissen in Denmark and Norway. Jule-nissen was remembered fondly in 1908 by Jacob Riis:
"I do not know how the forty years I have been away have dealt with Jule-nissen, the Christmas elf of my childhood....He was pretty old then, gray and bent, and there were signs that his time was nearly over. When I was a boy we never sat down to our Christmas Eve dinner until a bowl of rice and milk had been taken to the attic, where he lived with the martin and its young, and kept an eye upon the house--saw that everything ran smoothly. I never met him myself, but I know the house cat must have done so. No doubt they were well acquainted, for when in the morning I went in for the bowl, there it was, quite dry and licked clean, and the cat purring in the corner.....the Nisse, or the leprecawn--call him what you like--was a friend indeed to those who loved kindness and peace." |
Wiccan Spells
Consecration/Purification in Spells Consecration is defined by the dictionary as to “dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose.” Consecration must be practiced before any tool can be used in the practice of witchcraft. Consecration is a form of purification, and is done with salt, water and incense, which all stand for the five elements of nature – water, earth, fire, air and spirit. It is important that consecration to be used for witchcraft be done in a positive state of mind, as this incorporates the “spirit” part of the elements. Consecration is used in witchcraft to gain the approval of the God and Goddess for what they are about to practice. Spell for Cleansing the body of Negative Energy
The following tools will be needed:
1 White Candle – this is representative of positive energy
1 Black Candle – this is representative of negative energy
1 Green Candle – this is representative of healing
Clear your mind and light the white candle. Say the following incantation:
“Mother Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Spirit,
I ask thee to cleanse my body of all negative energies”
Light the black candle and say the same thing. After this light the green candle and say the following incantation:
“Mother Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Spirit,
I ask thee to free and heal my body from all negative forces.
Blessed be!”
Sit back, and keep your mind clear for fifteen minutes. After this you should feel renewed and fresh. Three Red Leaves Spell
This spell is used to protect the mind against things such as nightmares, negative thoughts and “invasions of evil”. First you must gather three red leaves from any tree, plant or bush. Lay them in a triangle on a flat surface. In the centre of the leaves, place an already lighted candle, and place a few drops of chrysanthemum oil on each leaf. Say this incantation three times:
“Red leaves, gift from earth,
Birth to death and death to birth,
Keep all evil far away,
Day to night and night to day.”
Then extinguish the candle, and wrap the leaves in a white cloth or pouch. Place this near your bed within three feet of your head and it will stop all nightmares and negative thoughts. Invocation of the Elements
Air, Fire, Water, Earth,
Elements of astral birth,
I call you now; attend to me!
In the Circle, rightly cast,
Safe from curse or blast,
I call you now, attend to me! From cave and desert,sea and hill,
By wand, blade,and pentacle,
I call you now, attend to me!
This Is my will, so mote it be!
Tis the witching hour of night,
Or bed is the moon and bright,
And the stars they glisten, glisten,
Seeming with bright eyes to listen
For what listen they?
John Keats (1795 - 1821) |
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 6,000 years ago the forerunners of the Celts invented the Old Europe Script, as it is now known, to became the world’s earliest proto-language. Found largely inscribed on clay vessels, the first ever written sentence reads:
“The Bear Goddess and the Bird Goddess are the Bear Goddess indeed”.
The sentence means that the Bear Goddess and the Bird Goddess have merged into a single deity. This deity later became the Greek Goddess Artemis and the Celtic Goddess Artio--from which we derive the word “art”—the Bear Goddess Herself. Some of the symbols of the Old European Script survive today as Wicca symbols.
In addition, Celtic Gods and Goddesses had their counterparts in Eos, Goddess of Dawn, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, Zeus, Demeter, etc. It is this functional equivalency between pantheon of the ancient world promoted religions tolerance.
But the origins of the Celtic Culture go deeper still.
Where did these early Goddess worshipers come from? It’s believed that they came from a place called Circaesya: the Sea of Grass in what is now the Ukraine. This is where the name "Caucasian" originates.
Where did the Circaesir come from? Apparently, from a people called the Aesya, who gave their name to the continent of Asia, though they were not Asiatic as we now know them.
15,000 years ago, our most distant ancestors apparently had light hair and eyes.
But where did they come from?
That remains quite a mystery, since before that man apparently evolved out of Africa with dark skin, hair and eyes. There are, however, theories that implicate the "Star People" in the ancestry of the Celts. I don't know . . .
What we do know of these ancient Celtic ancestors is from what remains of their Neolithic settlements in places like Heuneburgand, in what is today Germany, Hallstatt in Austria, La Tene in Switzerland, and literally hundreds of archeological sites across Europe and the British isles.
What we know is that their lands stretched from the Anatolia in Asia Minor (Celtic Galatia) north through the Macedonian Peninsula and the Balkans, Hungary, the Ukraine and central Asia, from the Black Sea up the vast Danube River basin (where the Goddess Danu derives Her name) northern Italy, to eastern France, Spain and Switzerland north of the Alps. Later they would migrate north to the British Isles where they still live today.
In addition to what we learn for their remaining artifacts we know of them from the writings of the Mediterranean peoples, from the Greek and Roman cultures. Unfortunately, these reports were written by men who feared the Celtics and sought to destroy or enslave them.
From the Greek historian Herodotus we first hear of the “Keltoi”, which means “uncivilized” and from where the name “Celts”
may derive, though it may be they were called Celts because of their clothing (the forerunner of the Scottish kilt) which were woven in a plaid weave (also much like the kilt)
The Celts themselves may have called themselves the “Gaedheals”
The things to remember about Herodotus’ The Histories is that he never set foot in Celtic lands and probably plagiarized an earlier historian Hecataeus of Miletus, whose work has not survived. What Herodotus added was the “barbarian’ parts, in which the Celts were vilified as uncivilized.
On the other hand, Aristotle, uses them as examples of bravery in his writings. We know them from Polibius who wrote of their relentless advance on Greece, Italy and Asia Minor.
The Romans knew them and feared them for their sacking of Rome in the fourth century bce. Julius Caesar wrote of them in his Gallic Wars of first hand encounters in Gaul (France). Pliny the Elder wrote of Druid and Celtic medicine.
My personal favorite account of Celtic barbarism is from the Greek geographer Strabo who wrote that the Celts would cage their prisoners in huge wicker straw men which they would then set afire.
Again, the historical writings must be taken with more than a grain of salt. The Celts may or may not have had human sacrifices of prisoners. It was common practice of all ancient cultures. Again, no one knows for sure.
Taken together with the archeological evidence and surviving writings we begin to see a picture of the Celts as a people.
We know from their artifacts that they were skilled in metallurgy, accomplished sculptures in bronze and copper, silver and gold. Besides being the first to write, they perfected and brought into wide use the spoked wheel, they were great miners, and craftsmen, whose creations survive to this day and can be seen in museums throughout the U.K. and Europe.
We know that the Celts were fiercely independent. There was no central government, such as Imperial Rome. There was no mass communications between clans, no dictates from the emperor to the provinces. Each clan or tribe acted independently, united only by a common ideology and basic language.
We know that they did not generally seek war, as did the Romans. Though they were fierce fighters they would often choose to move on instead of defend a territory. The history of the Celts is one of migration, which we will not go into here. This makes their history extremely difficult to follow as they intermingled with the peoples of a new territory rather than subjecting them to the yoke. .
Essential to the social order at the feast was the “Hero’s Portion”. This was the right of the chieftain to claim the choicest cut of meat for himself. However, this was also a time a usurper could challenge the chieftain for his portion and, in the bargain, the leadership of the clan. When this happened, combat would ensue on the spot with the loser often forfeiting his life. In later Irish literature the stories of Bricriu’s Feast and Datho’s Pig tell of just such occurrences.
Usually, peace prevailed and the feast was marked with nothing more violent than bombastic good cheer. Here the bards would regale the clan with the great heroic songs and sagas of old, some of which survive today in Irish literature. Here the future of the clan would be planned; here boy met girl.
In appearance, the Celts were tall of stature, fair and ruddy of complexion with great fierceness in their eyes—the women no less than the men. Queen Boudicca was said to be terrible of aspect with a raucous sounding voice and a great mass of bright red hair that fell to her knees.
However, over the vast lands of the Celts regional variations flourished. Tacitus wrote of several distinct characteristic appearances of the Britons alone: the inhabitants of Scotland with reddish hair and large limbs, the southern Welsh with swarthy faces and curly hair, to name just two.
 Men commonly wore short beards while their chieftains shaved their cheeks but let their mustaches grow over their lip. Both men and women wore their hair long while shaving the rest of their bodies. In addition to their natural light hair color, “. . . they continually wash their hair with lime-wash and draw it back from the forehead to the crown to the nape of the neck,” wrote Julius Caesar of the Britons, “with the result that their appearance resembles that of satyrs or of Pan, for there is so thickened by this treatment that it differs in no way from a horse’s mane.”
Women used mirrors as well as tweezers for plucking stray hairs. They also used makeup, as is mentioned indirectly by the Roman poet Propertius who chides his mistress for painting herself “like a Celt”.
Their religion, unfortunately, is largely a mystery to us. We know the Druids where the priests and judges, teachers and magicians of their clans, though little of their rites and ceremonies remain--this because their knowledge was passed down orally, as was their sacred law. What we do know is that theirs was a religion of unity with nature. The spirits of tree and river, rock and sky where ever-present.
We know of the three Goddesses, the Trinity, who appear in various forms throughout Celtic lands. In Briton the names of the three Mother Goddesses of fertility and plenty are often Morrigan, Macha, and Bodb. Brigit, the bride, also has three aspects.
We know of Morrigan, the Great Queen, or Morrigna, as the Goddess Trinity is known collectively, who is always a personification of the Ancient Fertility Goddess in a direct matriarchal lineage from the dawn of time. Ironically, besides the bringer of life She also is known as Panic, the Raven of Battle, bringer of fear and irrationality, who can undermine the courage of men in times of crisis and sometimes delights in doing so. The image on the right is actually a tattoo, in keeping with the tradition of the Celts.
Male gods too sometimes occur in threes. There’s Lugh and his two brothers or Dagda’s associated with other names, but the male Celtic Deity is usually that of male competence, each the ideal of male strength and accomplishment for a particular clan--this too a reflection of the Horned God of ancient times.
The Celts believed, as do we of Wicca, that life occurs in the Power generated between the male and female energies. On the holiday of Samhain (Halloween), the God Dagda and the Goddess Morrigan, as ancient fertility goddess, are reunited, thus overcoming the forces of war and chaos while at the same time insuring that the balance of nature has been restored and fertility of the land and its people is renewed.
The religious ceremonies themselves generally occurred in nature. Their invocation prayers, incantation and dance were held in sacred groves deep in the sanctuary of the primeval forest. The Roman poet Lucan writes:
“And there were many dark springs running there,
And grim-faced gods uncouthly hewn by the axe
From the untrimmed tree-trunk rotted to whiteness . . .”
Pliny records one sacred rite: “They prepare a ritual sacrifice and feast under the tree
and lead up two white bulls whose horns are bound
for the first time on the occasion.
A Druid attired in a white vestment ascends the tree
and with a golden pruning hook cuts the mistletoe
which is caught in a white cloth.” Ceremonies could also be held in the open in fields or on hillsides, as is the custom for the night of Beltane when the sacred fires are lit to welcome and hasten the season of birth. And of course, sacred temples like Stonehenge and dozens of other surviving to this day throughout the Celtic lands
Water rising up from the earth in a well or spring or a deep shaft dug into the earth was often considered sacred, as it came from the Earth Mother Goddess. At these sites rituals were performed to petition the Goddess’s favor in exchange for a sacrifice, which was often thrown down a shaft or into a well.
The Celts believed, as do we, that the balance of Nature must be maintained. If a favor was granted something must be sacrificed in return. This belief continues in the majority of magyc spells found here and elsewhere.
This is the tradition we follow in Wicca in the direct line of Goddess and God worship in harmony with nature.
However, the route briefly presented here is just one way by which we may have come to be Wiccans. Most of the way is unknown and probably will never be known of our ancient origins. Theirs was a living religion of the flesh and blood, of the earth, the water, air and fire. They would not have seen their belief as a separate part of their existence but the most natural participation in the cycle of life.
But why should we care what a pack of "ignorant savages" did or thought; why is their history important? Because long before we had the means to destroy every living thing on the planet--including ourselves--we were a long shot at best as a species. Human beings aren't nearly as strong as most predators, we can't run as fast, see as well, hear or smell. We don't have sharp claws or big teeth. We had nothing but our God and Goddess to see us through. And that they did. They brought us justice, honor and unity. They brought us courage. They brought us inspiration and invention. In short, all that has made us great, though we as a culture have turned our back on our God/desses. We've lost touch. We no longer have them at our side. We can no longer speak with them. No, we don't need to consult out ancestors to build a bigger SUV, we need to learn from them the way of our destiny, the way of the God/dess. That is why we pursue their story.
As such, much of our journey has been speculative, based on surviving writings and archeological digs but always open to interpretation. We must always be open to other ideas.
For instance, another compelling theory maintains that at least part of the Celtic linage is derived from Lost Tribe of Israel.
According to a translation of Assyrian tablets found in the excavation of the Assyrian Royal Library of Ashurbanipal in ancient Nineveh, states that around 707 BC the “Light Bearers” of the nation of Israel, the lost tribe, escaped their Assyrian overlords and disappeared into the forests of Europe. Plausible? You be the judge:
In addition, legion has it that the Ark of the Covenant is buried beneath the coronation stone at Tara.
The point is that our long proud history is one of constant progression, of assimilation, of becoming. Countless generations of men and women throughout the ages have heeded the call of the Goddess and The Horned God, the call to Unity in myriad forms. We need to know who we are. We need not be Irish to know the sacred truth of our Being, or even Celtic. We only need to Be. That, is the lesson of our ancestors |
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