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reetings from Australia.
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Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory – Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on. Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet who drowned on July 8, 1822 How wonderful is Death, Poets are the
hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the
gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words
which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to
battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved
not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. No man has a right
to monopolise more than he can enjoy; what the rich give to the poor,
whilst millions are starving, is not a perfect favour, but an imperfect
right. The cemetery is an
open space among the ruins, covered in winter with violets and daisies. It
might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in
so sweet a place. |
Cremation of Shelley |
Heigh ho! sing heigh ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
William
Shakespeare; from As You Like It
For there was a great hole like a doorway in the side of the mound, and in that doorway the daughters of Conaran sat spinning. They had three crooked sticks of holly set up before the cave, and they were reeling yarn off these. But it was enchantment they were weaving.
James Stephens; Irish Fairy Tales, 1920; 'The Enchanted Cave of Cesh
Corran'. Today begins the Celtic tree month of the holly.
In Northumberland smooth holly leaves, gathered late on a Friday, are collected in a three-cornered handkerchief and carried home. Then nine of the leaves are tied into a handkerchief with nine knots, and placed under the would-be diviner's pillow, and, as a result, interesting revelations from dreamland are confidently anticipated. In another magical ceremony, a maiden before retiring sets three pails of water on the floor of her bedroom, and pins three holly leaves on her left breast. She will then, conformably to the popular belief, be awakened from her first nap by three loud yells, followed by three horse-laughs, whereupon the form of her future husband will be revealed to her.
The supposed efficacy of these rites doubtless depends chiefly upon the use of the magical holly, but the repetition of odd numbers is also characteristic of charms, incantations, and mystic procedures in all ages and throughout the world.
Robert Means Lawrence; The Magic of the Horse-Shoe, With Other Folk-Lore
Notes, 1898, 'The
Number Three'
Then in anger, Cuchulain left him and drove the sole of his foot against a holly-spit, so that it pierced through flesh and bone and skin. Thereat Cuchulain gave a strong tug and drew the spit out from its roots. And Cuchulain threw the holly-spit over his shoulder after Ferbaeth, and he would care as much that it reached him or that it reached him not. The spit struck Ferbaeth in the nape of the neck, so that it passed out through his mouth in front and fell to the ground, and thus Ferbaeth fell.
"Now that was a good throw, Cucuc!" cried Fiachu son of Ferfebè, who was on the mound between the two camps, for he considered it a good throw to kill that warrior with a spit of holly.
The Cattle-Raid of
Cooley (Táin Bó Cúalnge), 'The Slaying Of Ferbaeth
("The Witless")'
"Then you must strike the rock with your holly staff. A cow will come forth. Put the halter on her and bring her home to your mother. It will comfort her for having lost Blackie."
White-thorn carried out all the talking bird's instructions. With the magic shoes she walked on the sea to the first island. She went round it till she came to the rock with the sea-green reeds. With these she made a halter, as the bird had directed. Then with her holly staff she struck the rock. Instantly it opened and out of it came a cow just as the bird had said.
Elsie Masson; Folk Tales of Brittany, 1929, 'Little White-thorn and the Talking Bird'
No woman of the family could be married till her suitor had brought from the Donn Thir (brown or dark land) the Craov Cuilleann (holly-bough), the Luis Bui (marigold), and the crimson berries of the Uhar (yew).
Patrick Kennedy; Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, 1891, 'An
Braon Suan Or [a]'
"It is very hard," said the bird, "to kill her. There is no one in all Tir na n-Og who is able to take her life but her own husband. Inside a holly-tree in front of the castle is a wether, in the wether a duck, in the duck an egg. and in that egg is her heart and life. No man in Tir na n-Og can cut that holly-tree but her husband."
Jeremiah Curtin; Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland, 1890, 'The Three Daughters of King
O'Hara'
"Take the
head," said Misty, " and put it on top of the holly bush that's
out here above us." Fin put the head on the holly hush, and the
minute he put it there the head burnt the bush to the earth, and the earth
to the clay.
Curtin, ibid; 'Fin MacCumhail The Seven Brothers and the King of France'
Holly is mi-duveléskro
ruk ('God's tree'; cf. Cornish Aunt Mary's Tree); and Gypsies
pitching their tent against a holly-bush are under divine protection.
Francis Hindes Groome; Gypsy Folk Tales, 1899, No 53, 'De Little Bull-calf'
Four and twenty horses were chosen, and Taliessin got four and twenty twigs of holly which he had burnt black, and he ordered the youth who was to ride Elphin's horse to let all the others set off before him, and bade him as he overtook each horse to strike him with a holly twig and throw it down.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson; Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the
Atlantic, 1898, Ch. II, 'Taliessin of the Radiant
Brow'
My father left me three acres of land,
Refrain: Sing ivy, sing ivy
My father left me three acres of land.
Refrain: Sing holly, go whistle and ivy ...
'The Elfin Knight'
Beira's reign was now drawing to a close. She found herself unable to combat any longer against the power of the new life that was rising in every vein of the land. The weakness of extreme old age crept upon her, and she longed once again to drink of the waters of the Well of Youth. When, on a bright March morning, she beheld Angus riding over the hills on his white steed, scattering her fierce hag servants before him, she fled away in despair. Ere she went she threw her magic hammer beneath a holly tree, and that is the reason why no grass grows under the holly trees.
Donald Alexander Mackenzie; Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and
Legend, 1917, Ch. II, 'The Coming of Angus and
Bride'
It is unlucky to
name the fairies, here as elsewhere, except by such placating titles as
"Good Neighbors" or "Men of Peace." Rowan, elm, and
holly are a protection against them.
Ruth Edna Kelley; The Book of Hallowe'en, 1919, Ch. VIII, 'In Scotland and the
Hebrides'
Some holly-trees bear only male flowers, which have four stamens producing a rather small quantity of pollen, and a rudimentary pistil; other holly-trees bear only female flowers; these have a full-sized pistil, and four stamens with shrivelled anthers, in which not a grain of pollen can be detected. Having found a female tree exactly sixty yards from a male tree, I put the stigmas of twenty flowers, taken from different branches, under the microscope, and on all, without exception, there were a few pollen grains, and on some a profusion. As the wind had set for several days from the female to the male tree, the pollen could not thus have been carried. The weather had been cold and boisterous, and therefore not favourable to bees, nevertheless every female flower which I examined had been effectually fertilised by the bees, which had flown from tree to tree in search of nectar.
Charles
Darwin; Origin of Species, 6th ed., 1872, Ch. IV, 'Natural Selection; Or the Survival of the
Fittest'
Then slackening speed awhile they went
Adown a ragged thorn-bushed bent
At whose feet grew a tangled wood
Of oak and holly nowise good ...
William Morris;
'In Arthur's
House'
We need to teach the next generation of children from Day One that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.
Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author, born on July 8, 1926
Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; On Death and
Dying, 1969
It is difficult to accept death in this society because it is unfamiliar. In spite of the fact that it happens all the time, we never see it.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; Death: The Final Stage of
Growth, 1975
Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in life has a purpose.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
For years, I have been stalked by a bad reputation. Actually, I have been pursued by people who have regarded me as the Death and Dying Lady. They believe that having spent more than three decades in research into death and life after death qualifies me as an expert on the subject. I think they miss the point. The only incontrovertible fact of my work is the importance of life.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and
Dying (her autobiography), 1997
I always say that death can be one of the greatest experiences ever. If you live each day of your life right, then you have nothing to fear.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; ibid
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross quotes
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July 8
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Celtic tree month of Tinne
(Holly) commences
(Jul 8 - Aug 4)
Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name. Today commences the Celtic tree month of Tinne.
Hollies are shrubs and trees of the genus Ilex. Many of them are highly decorative. Some have
leaves with widely-spaced, spine-tipped leaves, while others have simple
leaves.
Vitulatio,
or Day of Joy, 
