Post by Scruffy Brooky on Jan 20, 2011 16:40:21 GMT
Apologies for the length of what follows. When I was researching for the discussion on death my imagination ran away with me. I was originally going to read this out at the moot but as I wrote it, it became clear it was far too long for that! Its hear to read if anyone wants to!
Celebrations honouring the dead exist in many cultures, sharing certain religious commonalities. The question is; does modern Paganism have such a celebration? Halloween is overly commercial and spiritually vacant and it is arguable that many Samhain celebrations are only a small step up, and I include my own previous celebrations in this. Our ancestors ritualised death and literally worshipped their own ancestors. I believe that due to a combination of factors, not least that we neither bury our own dead nor kill the animals we eat, we have become detached from death and therefore from this way of thinking.
All this assumes that Samhain even had the significance we attribute to it today. Historians are divided on this issue. Miranda Green a leading authority on Celtic religion states a view that will be familiar to most modern Pagans:
At the festival of Samain [spelling as per text], it is the sombre images that predominate; the spirits of the dead move freely among the living at that time… when the barriers between the natural and supernatural world are temporarily broken down.
However Professor Ronald Hutton disagrees with this in Stations Of The Sun, positing that Samhain is merely summer’s end. Hutton states that it was a time for culling cattle, storing the harvest, sacred sex, sacrifice, feasting and games, but not particularly for honouring the dead.
But what of our ancestors? What were their attitudes to death and the otherworld? There is strong evidence that our ancestors held a considerable reverence for the dead and a steadfast belief in the afterlife. Where does the confrontation of the mortality of oneself and others fit into the modern and sanitised Craft? In my opinion a brief examination of these practices, reveals the inadequacy of modern Samhain rituals.
Caesar wrote of the Druids that they attach great importance to the belief that the soul does not perish after death, and that this encourages bravery. The history books make reference to a warrior elite in Celtic society as it often seems to have been the warriors that were buried, along with their possessions. The most earthly way of interpreting this is as propaganda to ensure a ready supply of soldiers, but was it more spiritually significant? Caesar notes that everything a man was thought to be fond of goes on the pyre. Why should this be?
A number of classical historians state that the Celts regarded death as a pause in a long life, and that during this pause the soul continued to control the body in the Otherworld. This could be seen to be borne out by the fact of one of the associations of the Celtic God Mannanan being rebirth. In addition we have the legend of Mac Da Tho’s pig. Mac Da Tho was a God presiding over a feast in the Otherworld, featuring the opposing companies of Ulster and Connaught. The feast was a large pig and a squabble broke out over who should get the champions portion. This story was believed to be the reason that pork joints were placed in many Celtic Iron Age graves for the deceased.
The Irish Otherworld was free from the cares of the living, and a place of abundance, magic and music. Sometimes regarded as distinct is The Irish Land Of The Dead, ruled over by Donn. Where it is distinct, the Land Of The Dead is generally described as having a more sombre character than the Otherworld. The graves of Celts were often laden with grave goods. The practical nature of these goods has been taken to be evidence towards a belief in life after death.
During the Bronze Age graves were elaborate but there is no evidence of an elaborate ritual until late in this period. It appears in the late Bronze Age the Celts had quite a radical shift in belief regarding death and the after life as a widespread burial ritual was adopted. This ritual involved cremations in flat cemeteries, or urnfields. Effectively, right up until Roman times, it could be argued that the afterlife had regard for social status held in life, due to the small number of burials relating to the lower classes. It cannot be ruled out that, rather than only the elite heading for the afterlife, everyone was on the same journey (the elite better prepared with their grave goods) but burial was an issue of cost or power.
The graves in the Hallstatt Iron Age were plank-lined chambers, often with a four-wheeled vehicle and a horse team contained within. The deceased would often be buried with such items as a Hallstatt sword, a harness, hides, bows and arrows, textiles (including on occasion genuine Chinese silk), offerings of grain and animals, cauldrons and cups fashioned from human skulls. Skulls were often a trophy kept of the men a warrior had slain in battle. Sometimes the deceased would have their hands or feet missing. Sometimes, such as at Ebberston in Yorkshire, the swords were apparently ritually broken into four pieces. The La Tene Iron Age saw the belief in the afterlife continue. The major differences as regards the burials were that most chariot burials were now two-wheeled vehicles and objects such as food, drink and jewellery were being additionally included amongst the grave goods. Non-chariot burials were usually women with jewellery and amulets, or warriors with complete battle gear. It is worthy of note that the common foods amongst grave goods, pork and goose, come from animals that symbolised war. Distinct from continental Europe, most British burials did not now include weapons. An exception to this rule is the grave at Wetwang Slack. This double burial however is more notable for the fact that the male’s burial chamber contains iron by way of metal; the female’s the more expensive bronze. It is unclear whether this distinction is due to the respective social positions of the couple or evidence for a more general elevation of women.
Various individual rites have been discovered. In Wandlebury, Cambridgeshire the remains of a legless child were found in a pit. At Danebury three human legs, a jaw and part of the trunk of a body were deposited also into a pit. Famously there was the Peat Bog Burial at Lindow Moss. This evocative sacrifice involved a male who was pole-axed, garrotted and had his throat slit. It has been suggested that this was a ritual sacrifice to a water deity as the body was found in a crouched position, in a shallow pool. It is believed unlikely that he was a peasant due to the neatness of his moustache and nails. It appears that the bodies of members of the community with spirits to be feared would be buried as well as the elite classes. These included witches and victims of inauspicious deaths. Such graves would be devoid of goods. Late La Tene warrior burials would have their swords ritually bent as an act of consecration for the Otherworld. A further feature of this period was enclosure ditch burials to prevent spirits from wandering.
During the Romano-Celtic period a bizarre ritual emerged involving the beheading of bodies, and burial with hobnailed boots, the severed head often placed by the legs. At Lankhills, Winchester seven such burials were found, all old women who had met violent ends. The act of beheading was performed from the front, with a knife and with great care taken as to the placement of the cut. One explanation is a wish to be more certain that these spirits will not return. Similar burials took place elsewhere and in Dorset they went further, removing the lower jaw, possibly to stop the spirit talking. Were these merely the village gossips, or witches? The hobnailed boots are believed to be assist with the journey to the Otherworld. This was either symbolic or the Celts believed that the spirit of a child was the same as the spirit of an adult as buried infants have been found with adult-sized boots. Some burials included Goddess figurines or other such religious artefacts, presumably for protection in the Otherworld.
It is believed that pits were entrances to the Otherworld and places for offerings to chthonic deities. One evocative example of this bridge between worlds is a pit containing antlers, a Goddess figurine and a Cypress tree, roots in one world branches in another. Deal, Kent had an underground shrine with a chalk sculpture likely to be of a deity. The pit had footholds and space to hold around five adults.
In terms deity, it appears there was no single ruler of the Celtic Otherworld, though several deities have a chthonic aspect. Carvings from the time depict the dead themselves being literally worshipped and monstrous beasts taking human life that were to be appeased. As has been mentioned Donn was ruler of the Land Of The Dead, sometimes taken to be the Otherworld, so he is probably the closest we have to a single ruler. According to Caesar the Celts also had an equivalent deity to the Roman Dis Pater. Goddess Aeriaua is also similar to a Roman deity, Prospina Roman Goddess of the Underworld. Succellus also had funerary associations, accompanied as he was by a raven and a three-headed dog, similar to Cerberus, and also carrying a chthonic hammer similar to Dis Pater.
Whilst the methods are no longer suitable (I am neither suggesting human sacrifice nor burying your dead with their Ford), I find it difficult to reconcile the deep seated respect of the spirit world, death and the afterlife described above with any Samhain rite I have been privy to. So I look to another culture for inspiration. In October Mexicans begin their preparations for Dia de los Muertos, Day Of The Dead, which takes place over November 1st and 2nd. They clean and repair the tombs of their ancestors and set up shrines by the roads for the victims of traffic accidents, natural disasters and violent attacks.
November 1st is given over to los angelitos, the spirits of departed children. It is marked by evening vigils with candles, stories and singing until dawn. The stories tend to feature a pair of characters who are the mother and father of mankind. November 2nd is for los muertos, the dead. Offerings are made of food, tequila and tobacco. Marigolds, the flowers of the dead, decorate tombs. There are fireworks and traditional folk plays. Bands accompanied by skeletal dancers play in the streets, mocking death. As the Celts regard the journey to the Otherworld, Mexicans regard death as a saviour from the worries of mortal life and as a beginning not an ending.
The doorways are decorated with fruits and marigolds and the streets are filled with people dressed in costumes and masks. Upon entering a cemetery one is presented with a bowl of hot chocolate and some pan de muertos, literally the bread of the dead. The feast is shared with the dead and after it is blessed the dumb supper is redistributed. Water too is set out for the dead. There are shrines constructed from reed and corn, decorated with tangerines and marigolds to family ancestors.
Day of the dead is a matter of national pride. Everything must be part of the indigenous culture. There are no pumpkins or cauldrons on display here. By the tombs poignant eulogies, called Calaveras, are read that fondly poke fun at the deceased. Paper lanterns are traditionally made and decorated with symbols of death. These lanterns are traditional as the Mexican Lord Of Death, Mictlantecuhtli, wears an intricate paper hat. Amaranth seeds, blood and honey are mixed into a stiff dough that is in turn fashioned into the shape of a deific skeleton and called tecuelo which translates to “God eaten”. Hallucinogenic flowers and fungi, especially in rural areas, are an accepted means with which to open a link for communication with the ancestral dead.
In Mexican tradition the terms of death are accepted at birth. Their version of the Otherworld “Xibalba” is inhabited by a male – female pair of deities. Interestingly much of the symbolism of these deities and death will be familiar to a modern British Pagan. Sacred to these Gods is the West, caves and water, all of which have parallels in modern British Paganism. Also there exists a belief in cyclical regeneration and skeletons are considered a symbol of rebirth, the generally accepted meaning of the tarot card Death featuring a skeleton as its primary symbol.
There is a great commonality, accompanied by a wonderful cultural difference that must be acknowledged, in the level of respect afforded to the dead between the Celts and modern Mexicans. There is also commonality between some of the practices in Mexico and those of modern Pagans. It seems to me that modern Paganism’s Samhain traditions are quite diluted compared to the reference points cited above, from the ancient and contemporary world. I would not propose lifting traditions from the Day Of The Dead because as noted above, they have kept it fiercely Mexican and we must keep our rites of honour British in my opinion. I do however think if we can capture the respect and enthusiasm of the ancient Celts and the modern Mexicans we may be able to honour our ancestors with a more fitting festival of the dead.
Celebrations honouring the dead exist in many cultures, sharing certain religious commonalities. The question is; does modern Paganism have such a celebration? Halloween is overly commercial and spiritually vacant and it is arguable that many Samhain celebrations are only a small step up, and I include my own previous celebrations in this. Our ancestors ritualised death and literally worshipped their own ancestors. I believe that due to a combination of factors, not least that we neither bury our own dead nor kill the animals we eat, we have become detached from death and therefore from this way of thinking.
All this assumes that Samhain even had the significance we attribute to it today. Historians are divided on this issue. Miranda Green a leading authority on Celtic religion states a view that will be familiar to most modern Pagans:
At the festival of Samain [spelling as per text], it is the sombre images that predominate; the spirits of the dead move freely among the living at that time… when the barriers between the natural and supernatural world are temporarily broken down.
However Professor Ronald Hutton disagrees with this in Stations Of The Sun, positing that Samhain is merely summer’s end. Hutton states that it was a time for culling cattle, storing the harvest, sacred sex, sacrifice, feasting and games, but not particularly for honouring the dead.
But what of our ancestors? What were their attitudes to death and the otherworld? There is strong evidence that our ancestors held a considerable reverence for the dead and a steadfast belief in the afterlife. Where does the confrontation of the mortality of oneself and others fit into the modern and sanitised Craft? In my opinion a brief examination of these practices, reveals the inadequacy of modern Samhain rituals.
Caesar wrote of the Druids that they attach great importance to the belief that the soul does not perish after death, and that this encourages bravery. The history books make reference to a warrior elite in Celtic society as it often seems to have been the warriors that were buried, along with their possessions. The most earthly way of interpreting this is as propaganda to ensure a ready supply of soldiers, but was it more spiritually significant? Caesar notes that everything a man was thought to be fond of goes on the pyre. Why should this be?
A number of classical historians state that the Celts regarded death as a pause in a long life, and that during this pause the soul continued to control the body in the Otherworld. This could be seen to be borne out by the fact of one of the associations of the Celtic God Mannanan being rebirth. In addition we have the legend of Mac Da Tho’s pig. Mac Da Tho was a God presiding over a feast in the Otherworld, featuring the opposing companies of Ulster and Connaught. The feast was a large pig and a squabble broke out over who should get the champions portion. This story was believed to be the reason that pork joints were placed in many Celtic Iron Age graves for the deceased.
The Irish Otherworld was free from the cares of the living, and a place of abundance, magic and music. Sometimes regarded as distinct is The Irish Land Of The Dead, ruled over by Donn. Where it is distinct, the Land Of The Dead is generally described as having a more sombre character than the Otherworld. The graves of Celts were often laden with grave goods. The practical nature of these goods has been taken to be evidence towards a belief in life after death.
During the Bronze Age graves were elaborate but there is no evidence of an elaborate ritual until late in this period. It appears in the late Bronze Age the Celts had quite a radical shift in belief regarding death and the after life as a widespread burial ritual was adopted. This ritual involved cremations in flat cemeteries, or urnfields. Effectively, right up until Roman times, it could be argued that the afterlife had regard for social status held in life, due to the small number of burials relating to the lower classes. It cannot be ruled out that, rather than only the elite heading for the afterlife, everyone was on the same journey (the elite better prepared with their grave goods) but burial was an issue of cost or power.
The graves in the Hallstatt Iron Age were plank-lined chambers, often with a four-wheeled vehicle and a horse team contained within. The deceased would often be buried with such items as a Hallstatt sword, a harness, hides, bows and arrows, textiles (including on occasion genuine Chinese silk), offerings of grain and animals, cauldrons and cups fashioned from human skulls. Skulls were often a trophy kept of the men a warrior had slain in battle. Sometimes the deceased would have their hands or feet missing. Sometimes, such as at Ebberston in Yorkshire, the swords were apparently ritually broken into four pieces. The La Tene Iron Age saw the belief in the afterlife continue. The major differences as regards the burials were that most chariot burials were now two-wheeled vehicles and objects such as food, drink and jewellery were being additionally included amongst the grave goods. Non-chariot burials were usually women with jewellery and amulets, or warriors with complete battle gear. It is worthy of note that the common foods amongst grave goods, pork and goose, come from animals that symbolised war. Distinct from continental Europe, most British burials did not now include weapons. An exception to this rule is the grave at Wetwang Slack. This double burial however is more notable for the fact that the male’s burial chamber contains iron by way of metal; the female’s the more expensive bronze. It is unclear whether this distinction is due to the respective social positions of the couple or evidence for a more general elevation of women.
Various individual rites have been discovered. In Wandlebury, Cambridgeshire the remains of a legless child were found in a pit. At Danebury three human legs, a jaw and part of the trunk of a body were deposited also into a pit. Famously there was the Peat Bog Burial at Lindow Moss. This evocative sacrifice involved a male who was pole-axed, garrotted and had his throat slit. It has been suggested that this was a ritual sacrifice to a water deity as the body was found in a crouched position, in a shallow pool. It is believed unlikely that he was a peasant due to the neatness of his moustache and nails. It appears that the bodies of members of the community with spirits to be feared would be buried as well as the elite classes. These included witches and victims of inauspicious deaths. Such graves would be devoid of goods. Late La Tene warrior burials would have their swords ritually bent as an act of consecration for the Otherworld. A further feature of this period was enclosure ditch burials to prevent spirits from wandering.
During the Romano-Celtic period a bizarre ritual emerged involving the beheading of bodies, and burial with hobnailed boots, the severed head often placed by the legs. At Lankhills, Winchester seven such burials were found, all old women who had met violent ends. The act of beheading was performed from the front, with a knife and with great care taken as to the placement of the cut. One explanation is a wish to be more certain that these spirits will not return. Similar burials took place elsewhere and in Dorset they went further, removing the lower jaw, possibly to stop the spirit talking. Were these merely the village gossips, or witches? The hobnailed boots are believed to be assist with the journey to the Otherworld. This was either symbolic or the Celts believed that the spirit of a child was the same as the spirit of an adult as buried infants have been found with adult-sized boots. Some burials included Goddess figurines or other such religious artefacts, presumably for protection in the Otherworld.
It is believed that pits were entrances to the Otherworld and places for offerings to chthonic deities. One evocative example of this bridge between worlds is a pit containing antlers, a Goddess figurine and a Cypress tree, roots in one world branches in another. Deal, Kent had an underground shrine with a chalk sculpture likely to be of a deity. The pit had footholds and space to hold around five adults.
In terms deity, it appears there was no single ruler of the Celtic Otherworld, though several deities have a chthonic aspect. Carvings from the time depict the dead themselves being literally worshipped and monstrous beasts taking human life that were to be appeased. As has been mentioned Donn was ruler of the Land Of The Dead, sometimes taken to be the Otherworld, so he is probably the closest we have to a single ruler. According to Caesar the Celts also had an equivalent deity to the Roman Dis Pater. Goddess Aeriaua is also similar to a Roman deity, Prospina Roman Goddess of the Underworld. Succellus also had funerary associations, accompanied as he was by a raven and a three-headed dog, similar to Cerberus, and also carrying a chthonic hammer similar to Dis Pater.
Whilst the methods are no longer suitable (I am neither suggesting human sacrifice nor burying your dead with their Ford), I find it difficult to reconcile the deep seated respect of the spirit world, death and the afterlife described above with any Samhain rite I have been privy to. So I look to another culture for inspiration. In October Mexicans begin their preparations for Dia de los Muertos, Day Of The Dead, which takes place over November 1st and 2nd. They clean and repair the tombs of their ancestors and set up shrines by the roads for the victims of traffic accidents, natural disasters and violent attacks.
November 1st is given over to los angelitos, the spirits of departed children. It is marked by evening vigils with candles, stories and singing until dawn. The stories tend to feature a pair of characters who are the mother and father of mankind. November 2nd is for los muertos, the dead. Offerings are made of food, tequila and tobacco. Marigolds, the flowers of the dead, decorate tombs. There are fireworks and traditional folk plays. Bands accompanied by skeletal dancers play in the streets, mocking death. As the Celts regard the journey to the Otherworld, Mexicans regard death as a saviour from the worries of mortal life and as a beginning not an ending.
The doorways are decorated with fruits and marigolds and the streets are filled with people dressed in costumes and masks. Upon entering a cemetery one is presented with a bowl of hot chocolate and some pan de muertos, literally the bread of the dead. The feast is shared with the dead and after it is blessed the dumb supper is redistributed. Water too is set out for the dead. There are shrines constructed from reed and corn, decorated with tangerines and marigolds to family ancestors.
Day of the dead is a matter of national pride. Everything must be part of the indigenous culture. There are no pumpkins or cauldrons on display here. By the tombs poignant eulogies, called Calaveras, are read that fondly poke fun at the deceased. Paper lanterns are traditionally made and decorated with symbols of death. These lanterns are traditional as the Mexican Lord Of Death, Mictlantecuhtli, wears an intricate paper hat. Amaranth seeds, blood and honey are mixed into a stiff dough that is in turn fashioned into the shape of a deific skeleton and called tecuelo which translates to “God eaten”. Hallucinogenic flowers and fungi, especially in rural areas, are an accepted means with which to open a link for communication with the ancestral dead.
In Mexican tradition the terms of death are accepted at birth. Their version of the Otherworld “Xibalba” is inhabited by a male – female pair of deities. Interestingly much of the symbolism of these deities and death will be familiar to a modern British Pagan. Sacred to these Gods is the West, caves and water, all of which have parallels in modern British Paganism. Also there exists a belief in cyclical regeneration and skeletons are considered a symbol of rebirth, the generally accepted meaning of the tarot card Death featuring a skeleton as its primary symbol.
There is a great commonality, accompanied by a wonderful cultural difference that must be acknowledged, in the level of respect afforded to the dead between the Celts and modern Mexicans. There is also commonality between some of the practices in Mexico and those of modern Pagans. It seems to me that modern Paganism’s Samhain traditions are quite diluted compared to the reference points cited above, from the ancient and contemporary world. I would not propose lifting traditions from the Day Of The Dead because as noted above, they have kept it fiercely Mexican and we must keep our rites of honour British in my opinion. I do however think if we can capture the respect and enthusiasm of the ancient Celts and the modern Mexicans we may be able to honour our ancestors with a more fitting festival of the dead.