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What should I tell what sophisters When St Catherine wears a cap, As at Catherine, foul or fair, They say that by the
commands of the gods Ixion spins round and round on his feathered wheel, saying
this to mortals: "Repay your benefactor frequently with gentle favours in
return". Nine balls of these mixed together may be taken, and afterwards a potion made of bog-water and salt, boiled in a vessel, with a piece of money and an elf-stone. The elf-stone is generally found near a rath; it has great virtues, but being once lifted up by the spade it must never again touch the earth, or all its virtue is gone. (This elf-stone is in reality only an ancient stone arrowhead.) Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde; Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, 'The Properties of Herbs and Their Use in Medicine', 1887 |
St Catherine, by Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel) |
It is said by time wise
women and fairy doctors that the roots of the elder tree, and the roots of an
apple tree that bears red apples, if boiled together and drunk fasting, will
expel any evil living thing or evil spirit that may have taken up its abode in
the body of a man.
Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde; ibid, 'Cathal the King'
From the earliest times among the Northern races the Lady Elder, as we may learn from the Edda, or FIN MAGNUSEN
("Priscæ veterum Borealium Mythologiæ Lexicon," pp. 21, 239), and NYERUP ("Worterbuch der Scandinavischen Mythologie"), had an unearthly, ghostly reputation. Growing in lonely, gloomy places its form and the smell of its flowers seemed repulsive, so that it was associated with death, and some derived its name from Frau Holle, the sorceress and goddess of death. But SCHWENKI ("Mythologie der Slaven") with more probability traces it from hohl, i.e., hollow, and as spirits were believed to dwell in all hollow trees, they were always in its joints. The ancient Lithuanians, he informs us, worshipped their god Puschkeit, who was a form of Pluto, in fear and trembling at dusk, and left their offerings under the elder-tree. Everybody has seen the little puppets made of a piece of elder-pith with half a bullet under them, so that they always stand upright, and jump up when thrown down.
... The ancestors of the Poles were accustomed to bury all their sins and sorrows under elder-trees, thinking that they thereby gave to the lower world what properly belonged to it. This corresponds accurately to the gypsy incantation which passes the disease on from the elder bark into the earth, and from earth unto death. Frau Ellhorn, or Ellen, was the old German name for this plant. "Frau, perhaps, as appropriate to the female elf who dwelt in it" (FRIEDRICH, "Symbolik," p. 293). When it was necessary to cut one down, the peasant always knelt first before it and prayed: "Lady Ellhorn, give me of thy wood, and I will give thee of mine when it shall grow in the forest."
... Elder had certain protective and healing virtues. Hung before a stable door it warded off witchcraft, and he who planted it conciliated evil spirits. And if a twig of it were planted on a grave and it grew, that was a sign that the soul of the deceased was happy, which is the probable reason why the very old Jewish cemetery in Prague was planted full of elders. In a very curious and rare work, entitled "Blockesberge Berichtung (Leipzig, 1669), by JOHN PRÆTORIUS, devoted to "the Witch-ride and Sorcery-Sabbath," the author tells us that witches make great use of nine special
herbs ... Among these is Elder, of which the peasants make wreaths, which, if they wear on
Walpurgis night, they can see the sorceresses as they sweep through the air on their brooms, dragons, goats, and other strange steeds to the Infernal
Dance. ... [Blocksberg] informs us that Hollunder (or Elder) is so called from hohl, or hollow, or else is an anagram of Unholden, unholy spirits, and some people call it Alhuren, from its connection with witches and debauchery, even as CORDUS writes: –
"When elder blossoms bloom upon the bush,
Then women's hearts to sensual pleasure rush."
Charles Godfrey Leland; Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, 'Chapter II: Charms and
Conjurations to Cure the Disorders of Grown People', 1891
On this Thanksgiving Day,
Hey!
Over the river and through the woods
Now Grandmother's face I spy.
Hurrah for the fun,
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie.
English folksong, 'It's Raining, It's Pouring' Source
Give me the end of the year an' its fun
When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;
Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,
Let me sit down with the ones I love best,
Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,
See the old faces unblemished by wrong,
See the old table with all of its chairs
An' I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers.
Edgar Guest (1881
- 1959), American poet; 'Thanksgiving'
How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens the doors. It changes a child's personality. A child is resentful, negative-or thankful. Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw people.
Sir John Templeton
Our harvest being gotten
in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after have a special
manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four
in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the company
almost a week, at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms,
many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King
Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted,
and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and
bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be
not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of
God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty ...
Your loving friend,
E.W. [Edward Winslow]
Plymouth in New England this 11th of December, 1621
Mourt's Relation,
pub. 1622; EW Winslow writes of
what many believe to be the first American Thanksgiving, which apparently
occurred prior to December
11, 1621 (use our Search to see other dates
for the first Thanksgiving, as the origins are disputed) Source
No pen could describe it,
nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of
it.
Daniel Defoe (c.
1660 -
1731),
British novelist, on the Great Storm of 1703; The Storm, 1704
I celebrate Thanksgiving
in an old-fashioned way. I invite everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we
have an enormous feast, and then I kill them and take their land.
Author unknown
Harriet Beecher Stowe
(1811 -
'96), American author. Pies are
a popular part of the customs of America's Thanksgiving commemoration.
Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated
in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they
really had something to be thankful for – annually, not oftener – if they
had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous
twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving
Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years
drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and
was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was
proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910),
anti-war, anti-imperialist American humorist and novelist
Men are nicotine soaked, beer besmirched, whiskey
greased, red-eyed devils.
Carrie A Nation, American temperance crusader
and bar smasher, born on November 25, 1846; in The
Ultimate Success Quotations Library, 1997
Source: Creative quotations
Oh, I tell you, ladies, you never know what joy it
gives you to start out to smash a rumshop.
Carrie A Nation; Carry
Nation's Hammer Source: Creative quotations
If you don't do it, then the women of this state
will do it … You refused me the vote and I had to use a rock.
Carrie A Nation,
ibid
You have put me in here a cub, but I will come out
roaring like a lion, and I will make all hell howl!
Carrie
A Nation;
on
her imprisonment, ca. 1901; in Cyclone Carry, by Carleton Beals, 1962 Source: Creative quotations
Who hath sorrow? Who hath
woe?
They who do not answer no;
They whose feet to sin incline
While they tarry at the wine.
Carrie A Nation; ibid,
ch. 12
"Man
does not live by bread alone." I have known millionaires starving for lack
of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know
workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of
those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich. There is
no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.
Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself.
Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still
plays the beast. My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have
contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the
spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of Pittsburgh
sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth.
Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919), Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist;
from one of his memos to himself
I don’t believe in God. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good
citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
Andrew Carnegie
November 25 is the 329th day of the year in the Gregorian
calendar (330th in leap years),
with 36 days remaining.
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Celtic
tree month of Ruis (Elder) commences (Nov 25 -
Dec 22)
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 Elder.
Elder or
Elderberry (Sambucus) is a genus of fast-growing shrubs or small trees in the
family Caprifoliaceae.
They bear bunches of small white or cream coloured flowers in
the Spring, that are
followed by bunches of small red, bluish or black berries. The berries are a
very valuable food resource for many birds.
Common North American species include American Elder, Sambucus canadensis, in the east, and Blueberry Elder, Sambucus glauca, in the west; both have blue-black berries.
The common European species is the Common or Black Elder, Sambucus nigra, with black berries.
The 'True Cross' of Jesus Christ was said by some in England to have been made of elder-wood. The folklorist Arthur Young (1741 - April 12, 1820) was speaking to some little children one day about the danger of taking shelter under trees during a thunder-storm. One of the children said that it was not so with all trees, "For you will be quite safe under an eldern-tree, because the cross was made of that, and so the lightning never strikes it."
"Names: Ruis (RWEESH), Draenan, Elder, Sambucus nigra"In popular Celtic folklore, it was believed that it was unlucky to use Elder wood for a child's cradle, but that only Birch wood should be used to symbolize purity and new beginnings. In Europe, spirits were believed to dwell within elder trees and there are still taboos against burning it."
Source (a good page of lore) More on the lore of the Elder
Elves and elder"In the popular creed there is some strange connexion between the Elves and the trees. They not only frequent them, but they make an interchange of form with them. In the church-yard of Store Heddinge, in Zealand, there are the remains of an oak wood. These, say the common people, are the Elle-king's soldiers; by day they are trees, by night valiant warriors. In the wood of Rugaard, in the same island, is a tree which by night becomes a whole Elle-people, and goes about all alive. It has no leaves upon it, yet it would be very unsafe to go to break or fell it, for the underground-people frequently hold their meetings under its branches. There is, in another place, an elder-tree growing in a farm-yard, which frequently takes a walk in the twilight about the yard, and peeps in through the window at the children when they are alone.
"It was, perhaps, these elder-trees that gave origin to the notion. In Danish Hyld or Hyl – a word not far removed from Elle – is Elder, and the peasantry believe that in or under the elder-tree dwells a being called Hyldemoer (Elder-mother), or Hyldequinde (Elder-woman), with her ministrant spirits. A Danish peasant, if he wanted to take any part of an elder-tree, used previously to say, three times – 'O, Hyldemoer, Hyldemoer! let me take some of thy elder, and I will let thee take something of mine in return.' If this was omitted he would be severely punished. They tell of a man who cut down an elder-tree, but he soon after died suddenly. It is, moreover, not prudent to have any furniture made of elder-wood. A child was once put to lie in a cradle made of this wood, but Hyldemoer came and pulled it by the legs, and gave it no rest till it was put to sleep elsewhere. Old David Monrad relates, that a shepherd, one night, heard his three children crying, and when he inquired the cause, they said some one had been sucking them. Their breasts were found to be swelled, and they were removed to another room, where they were quiet. The reason is said to have been that that room was floored with elder."
Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries, 'Hans Puntleder', 1870
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Celtic Tree Calendar Months
(This is the blank day in
this calendar, the one day of the year that is not ruled by a tree
and its corresponding
Ogham alphabet
character. Its name denotes the
quality of potential in all things.) |
Michael Vescoli
|
Celtic Tree Calendar - Ogham Alphabet What is the Celtic Tree Calendar? |
Feast day of St
Catherine of Alexandria (Katherine of Alexandria), virgin and
martyr
(Sweet
butter-bur, Tussilago fragrans,
is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Catherine was a virgin (nun) and martyr of noble birth in Alexandria who defended the Christian faith against 'heathen' philosophers (c. 310 CE) commanded by Emperor Maximinus.
When Maximinus began his persecutions, the 18-year-old and very beautiful Catherine went to the emperor and rebuked him for his tyranny as he stood in the middle of a pagan temple. Unable to answer her arguments, he called in fifty philosophers to confront her. After they admitted that they were convinced by her arguments, the furious emperor sentenced them to be burned.
The emperor offered to marry her, but she refused because Christ had already appeared to her in person and placed his gold ring on her finger (like St Catherine of Siena). For this reason, Greek Christians call her 'Ækatharina', that is, 'always pure'. Catherine was beaten for two hours and then thrown into a cell, in which she was fed by a dove, and Christ appeared to her in a vision.
Maximinus returned, and found that his
wife, Faustina, and an officer, Porphyrius, had gone to visit
Catherine just out of curiosity and had been converted to
Christianity. Moreover, Porphyrius had converted 200 men of the
imperial guard. Maximinus condemned them all to death, including the
young virgin.
The Catherine wheel
She was sentenced to be killed on a breaking wheel, now known as 'St Catherine's wheel', or 'catherine wheel', set with spikes or razors. Wikipedia says that "the wheel itself was similar to a large wooden wagon wheel, with many radial spokes. The victim's arms and legs were placed one by one over two sturdy wooden beams. A large hammer was then applied to the limb over the gap between the beams, breaking the bone. This process was repeated several times per limb. Afterwards, the victim's shattered limbs were woven through the spokes of the wheel. The wheel was then hoisted onto a tall pole, so that birds could eat the still-living victim."
When she was placed upon its rim, her bonds were
miraculously untied, the wheel broke, and the spikes flew off,
killing some spectators of the execution. Finally, as she called
down blessings on all who should remember her, she was beheaded.
From her veins flowed a white, milky liquid and not blood. It is
claimed that for many years oil oozed from her bones; this oil was
prized as medicine and for lamps in holy sanctuaries.
When the
executioners were binding Catherine to the wheel, lightning struck
the cords and destroyed the engine, killing the executioners and
some bystanders. Maximinus ordered her to be taken outside the city
walls of Alexandria where she was whipped then beheaded. After her
death, her body was carried by angels over the Red Sea to the summit
of Mt Sinai. Today, on
Mount Sinai, one will find the Orthodox monastery of St Katherine's
as well as her shrine.
From the wheel
comes the circular window design in stained glass in medieval
ecclesiastical architecture, termed a Catherine-wheel
window, rose window or wheel window, and also
the firework,
the
Catherine
wheel.
There is a British band called Catherine Wheel.
"Sometimes she is shown (1) with sword and wheel; (2) crowned, carrying her own head on a charger; (3) beheaded with sword (Fernando Gallego); (4) with a book, crowned by the angels (Melchiore Caffa); (5) with her body transported by angels to Mount Sinai (Limbourg Brothers); (6) as a hermit shows her a picture of the Virgin; (7) mystically married to the Infant Christ (occasionally to an adult Christ); (8) disputing with doctors; (9) encouraging others as they are burned; (10) visited by Christ in prison; (11) visited by the Empress Faustina in prison; (12) encouraging Faustina at her execution; or (13) with Christ placing a ring upon her finger as in the paintings by Cranach the Elder, Lorenzo Lotto, and Corregio." Source
Catherine in astronomy
Some galaxies
are said to be Catherine wheel-shaped (or, pinwheel-shaped,
as a pinwheel is a Catherine wheel), and there is also a Catherine
wheel projection of the earth.
There is a crater on the moon
named Catharina.
At around the mid-17th-Century, the Italian Jesuit priest
and astronomer, Giovanni
Battista Riccioli (1598 - 1671), on his lunar atlas, the Almagestum
novum of 1651, named this particular ring mountain in honour of
this St Catherine, for its wheel-like appearance. (Above his map, by
the way, Riccioli had inscribed the legend, 'No Man Dwells on the
Moon'.)
Sacred oil and other folklore
At
St Catherine's, near Edinburgh, was a spring that exuded
petroleum, and which was believed to be curative. The locals said
that St Catherine was commissioned by Margaret, the consort of
Malcolm Canmore, to bring her a quantity of holy oil from Mt Sinai.
In passing over Lothian, she dropped a few drops of the oil. On her
earnest supplication, a well appeared at the spot, forever oozing
some of the precious and health-giving oil.
Anciently, women
and girls in Ireland kept a fast on every
Wednesday, Saturday and Catherine's Day. The reason was for the
improvement of husbands or the getting of good ones.
St Catherine was patroness of single women, and young women who met on this day in Britain called it going 'Cathar'ning' or 'caterning' (when 'cattern cakes' are eaten). This was still the case in mid-19th-Century England, at least in the more remote parts.
"Cattern Cakes
"2 pounds bread dough
2 oz lard or butter
1 oz caraway seeds
2 oz castor sugar
1 large egg
"Prepare the dough, then knead in the lard or butter, caraway seeds, sugar and egg. When the ingredients are well mixed, divide in two, kneading one piece to fit into a 2 lb greased loaf tin. Divide the second piece into two and knead each half to fit a 1 lb loaf tin, then cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise until the dough reaches the top of the tins. Bake 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. Serve sliced and buttered."
In France, on St Catherine's day, women
traditionally have the right to ask men to marry them (like
February 29 in other places).
Prayer-rhymes are said to help find the mate:
St Catherine, St Catherine, O lend me thine aid
And grant that I never may die an old maid.
A husband, St Catherine,
A good one, St Catherine;
But arn-a-one better than
Narn-a-one, St Catherine.
Sweet St Catherine,
A husband, St Catherine,
Handsome, St Catherine,
Rich, St Catherine,
Soon, St Catherine.
She is also the patron of apologists, craftsmen who work with a wheel (potters, spinners, etc.),
archivists, attornies, barristers, dying people, educators, girls, jurists, knife grinders, knife sharpeners, lawyers, librarians, libraries, maidens, mechanics, millers, nurses, old maids, philosophers, potters, preachers, scholars, schoolchildren, scribes, secretaries, spinners, spinsters, stenographers, students, tanners, teachers, theologians, turners, unmarried girls, wheelwrights (Source)
At Woolwich, England, until about 1816, a man dressed in women's clothes and with a large wheel was carried about town to the church of St Clement, stopping at different houses to make a speech.
Kali?
It is tempting to conjecture, as some have
done, possibly with more
hunch than evidence, that Catherine might have originated in the
destructive and creative Hindu mother goddess, Kali
(right), and an association with the Wheel of Karma.
Kali, the fierce aspect of Devi, the supreme goddess, is represented as a dark woman with four arms; in one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain. With two corpses of children for earrings and a necklace of skulls, her actual clothing is merely a girdle made of severed human hands. Her face is azure, streaked with yellow, her glance is ferocious; her disheveled and bristly hair is usually shown splayed and spread like the tail of a peacock and sometimes braided with green serpents, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her eyes flash red, her face and breasts are smeared with blood; skulls, cemeteries, and blood are associated with her worship. Unlike the unmarried and saintly Catherine, Kali stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the breast of her consort. 'Shva', by the way, in Sanskrit means a corpse. Kali is also called Durga, Bhowani Devi, Sati, Rudrani, Parvati, Chinnamastika, Kamakshi, Uma, Menakshi, Himavati, Kumari.
As ever, Waverly Fitzgerald has a good article on St Catherine
Ixion tormented on the wheel
Zeus grew tired of
Ixion's misdeeds
(including his lusting after Hera) and bound him to a
wheel, on which he is whirled by winds through the air for all
eternity.
Ixion (left) may be seen as
representing the eternally moving sun. In some parts of Europe in
ancient times, a blazing, revolving wheel was carried through fields
that needed the heat of the sun; perhaps the Ixion legend evolved to
explain the 
custom and was subsequently adopted by the Greeks.
The myth of Ixion is told by Diodorus, Pindar, Virgil in Georgics and Aeneid, and by Ovid in Metamorphoses.
"In Greek mythology, Ixion
was one of the Lapiths, and a son of Phlegyas.
Pirithous
was his son. He married a daughter of Deioneus
and, in order to avoid paying the bride-price, pushed him into a bed
of coals. For this, he was punished in Tartarus
after his death by spending eternity on a flaming wheel."
Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days
Feast day of Persephone
According to
Nigel Pennick (The Pagan Book of Days,
Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992) Persephone is the wheel
goddess of the Underworld, this is her day, and her cognates include
St Catherine and the Celtic goddess Arianrhod. There
are indeed some similarities: for example, the Graeco-Roman goddess
is associated with the wheel of the year, St Catherine is, of
course, associated with the wheel, and Arianrhod's name means 'silver wheel'.
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