Magrat does History (!!): Pre-Christian Britain: beliefs and practices

My primary religious allegiance will always be to Christianity: it, or at least, the version of Protestant Christianity that was Presbyterianism in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, is the faith and the practice that I inherited; it has for sixty years been the matrix through which I have sought to understand my spirituality and to resolve, at least partially, some of the larger questions about Life. It is undeniably in my blood. However, I am increasingly convinced that the Christianity I have known and practiced is very much a creation of Paul/Saul of Tarsus; and while I admire his convictions and his passion for mission, I have huge reservations about the supposed connections between his theology/Christology and the life and teachings of the person I would wish and try to be a disciple of: Jesus of Nazareth. 

My reservations have rather neatly been summed up (by far greater theologians than I!) as the difference between the gospel of Jesus and the gospel about Jesus. The former is to do with living out the kingdom of God here and now, potentially transforming society; the latter, as promulgated by Paul et al, has to do with individual salvation. I recommend the easy to read yet stunning writings of Marcus Borg (The Heart of Christianity) and Kurt Struckmeyer (A Conspiracy of Love) on this theme, and also Rob Bell's book 'What is the Bible?' Genius. I also very much appreciate the nice distinction Struckmeyer in particular makes between belief and faith: that belief has to do with accepting certain doctrines, theologies, and so on, while faith is, more simply, allowing one's self to trust. 

Jesus of Nazareth was, of course, Jewish, and his literally awe-some innovative and universally-applicable teaching and life-style are linked to his historical context: Judaism and Judea in the 1st century CE. All faiths derive to at least some extent from their historical context, and reflecting on that fact has led me to become interested in pre-Christian beliefs and practices in Britain: Christianity is a very recent overlay to the previous thousands of years of human life in the British Isles. 

There are various suggestions as to how Christianity first arrived in Britain. Medieval legends told of the conversion of the island/s after missions by the apostle Philip and/or by Joseph of Arimathea, or under the legendary 2nd century CE King Lucius. Alternatively, it is said to have been introduced under the Emperor Tiberius in 37 CE. Certainly by the sub-Roman period (between 235 and 400 CE) the Romano-British population is said to have been mostly Christian, although it was perhaps not formally established until after the mission of Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory, in around 600 CE. 

But however and whenever the conversion to Christianity occurred, the question remains: what were the indigenous people being converted from? So, despite a life-time of being very much a non-historian, I have spent a few rainy days delving online into British history and have found it surprisingly fascinating! I may have got some of the following information muddled up - in which case, forgive me, and send me a comment to put me right! 

Amazingly - to me at least - it seems that Homo antecessor was present in Britain around 898,000 BCE. Wow. How do we know that? Because his/her footprints were found at Happisburgh, Norfolk, along with stone tools. Other flint tools and bones dating from around 800,000 BCE were found at Pakefield, Suffolk. Here is that very footprint!  

The oldest human fossils in Britain, of Homo heidelbergensis, were found at Boxgrove, Sussex, but they are much more recent (!) than the Norfolk footprint, dating from around 488,000 BCE. 

Fossils of other early (pre-Stone Age) hominins dating to around 380,000 BCE were found in Kent, and teeth and part of a jaw-bone dating to around 228,000 BCE were found near St. Asaph in North Wales - the most north-western site of early hominins in Eurasia - but due to the extreme cold, including glacial and inter-glacial episodes (between 168,000 BCE and 58,000 BCE) Britain was only intermittently occupied by humans. 

Some of those early humans were Pithecanthropus (Java Man), also known as Homo erectus. These hunters were here during the Lower Paleolithic Age (68,000-48,000 BCE), and they may have looked something like this: 

Evidence has been found of the use of fire and of tool making by hominins during the Lower Stone Age; in Britain the 'Levalloisian' technique of stone flaking has been identified from tools and waste chippings found in Middlesex and Kent - although it is said that these may have been carried there from elsewhere by flood waters or ancient courses of the Thames and its tributaries.  

At this time there was still a land mass ('Doggerland') connecting Britain with continental Europe. This 'bridge' was not lost until around 6,500-6,200 BCE when it was flooded by rising sea levels, and, perhaps, following the tsunami caused by the Storegga Slide, a massive underwater landslide off the west coast of Norway. 

During the Middle Paleolithic period (48,000-38,000 BCE) if not earlier, the next evolution of human beings, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, were migrating out of Africa, travelling into Eurasia through Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey, and replacing the earlier pre-existent species such as Homo erectus - although Neanderthals themselves were still hunters. We also know that the Neanderthal people deliberately buried their dead - and, as far as I 'm aware, this is the first evidence of non-essential/non-survival activity (albeit not in Britain) and a significant indicator of their psychology. 

At La Ferrassie, a rock shelter in the Dordogne valley in France, eight very well preserved Neanderthal skeletons (two adults and six children) were found in burial pits 40 cm deep. One of the adults had reached the advanced age of 40-55 years, despite evidence of systemic infection and osteoarthritis. To reach such an age, he must have been cared for by other people, despite his being unable to 'work'. Two of the children were approximately 2 and 3 years old; one skeleton was of an infant estimated to be 12 days old. 

Ten Neanderthal skeletons were found at Shanidar Cave in Kurdistan. Shanidar 1 was aged between 40 and 50 years, and displayed signs of injury and deformity, all occuring long before his death, including a blow to the head likely to have caused partial or total blindness in one eye, and blocked ear canals, causing deafness. He also had a withered right arm, which had been fractured and had healed in several places, and had lost his right hand. 

Shanidar 2, another adult male, is thought to have died in a rock fall inside the cave. However, there are signs of a ritual of some sort: a pile of stones, including worked stone points, on top of his grave, and evidence of a large fire by the burial site. 

Shanidar 3 was another older male (40-50 years) with a wound to his left 9th rib: he may have died from complications from a stab wound, although bone growth indicates that he lived for at least several weeks after injury, with the object still embedded. He also suffered from a degenerative joint disorder in his foot, most likely due to a fracture or sprain, resulting in painful, limited movement. 

Shanidar 4, an adult male of 30-45 years, was on his left side, in a partial foetal position. Soil samples revealed pollen around his body, indicating that flowers or flowering plants had been part of the burial procedure. The pollen was from yarrow, cornflowers, bachelor's buttons, thistles, ragwort or groundsel, hollyhock, and grape hyacinth - all known to have curative properties, which may indicate that he was some sort of medicine man/shaman. (It has been somewhat prosaically suggested that the flowers/seeds/pollen were introduced to the site by burrowing rodents, but that doesn't sit right with me.) 

At La Chapelle-aux-Saintes (in central France), an adult male was buried in a 30cm deep rectangular pit (1.45m x 1m), his body being laid in what has been described as a 'sleeping position'. There were also stone tools and animals bones in the pit. 

Intentional burials may have begun much earlier, but there is no doubt that during this period at least some burials were deliberate, and that funeral gifts were left at some. So, what I conclude from that is that around forty thousand years ago, people mattered to each other, enough to care for those who were sick, injured, disabled, old, or newly born. In addition, people were either valued enough to leave gifts in their graves to honour them, and/or there was a belief in an after-life, when the items left might be of use. 

The third and last (Upper Paleolithic 48,000-10,000 BCE) period of the Old Stone Age is said to coincide with the replacement of the Neanderthals by Homo sapiens - anatomically modern humans. There is archaeological evidence that at least some people lived in settlements, had hearths, grew plants, fished using boats and harpoons, and hunted using bows and arrows as well as advanced stone and other tools, made of bone, horn, and ivory. They also used pigments such as ochre (which may indicate trade links) and ivory and stone 'jewellery' for personal ornamentation, and they painted pictures, often on the walls of caves, sometimes in remote locations (see below for those at Creswell Crags, Derby/Notts.). Their dead were sometimes buried in such painted caves, sometimes after excarnation - the removal of flesh from the body, indicated by cut marks on the remaining buried bones, which does not necessarily indicate cannibalism. 

Many of the cave paintings that have been found are of the larger mammals that were hunted, but during the following Mesolithic period (10,000-4,000 BCE) there was a rise of the hunter-gatherer way of life, as humans returned to Britain (via Doggerland) after the Ice Ages and spread as far as the north of Scotland. It was only from this time onwards (from around 9,700 BCE) that Britain has been continuously occupied by our ancestors. 

By the time of the Neolithic period (4,000-2,500 BCE) Britain was an island, following the flooding of Doggerland, but migrants nonetheless began to arrive from central Europe, and the earliest known language to have been spoken in Britain belonged to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Farming was introduced to Britain (having come to continental Europe from the Middle East) and there was a gradual transition from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural ones. Agricultural communities grew up where the soils were most fertile and the area therefore most productive, such as Orkney, eastern Scotland, Yorkshire, Anglesey, around the Wash, Essex, the upper Thames, and Wessex. 

Although the people lived in wooden houses, large megalithic chambered stone tombs were constructed across the British Isles, in the style of those also found across much of western Europe. (Below: Newgrange, Co. Meath.) These were the equivalent of our grave-yards, and contained many interments. It has been suggested that this indicates the veneration of ancestors - but I'm not convinced. 

In the later Neolithic period, and continuing into the Bronze Age, stone circles were constructed. Why? What were they for? Neo-pagans of the 20th and 21st centuries have gathered for festivals at sites such as Stonehenge, but there is no known evidence of what their original purpose was, nor that of their nearby cursuses (earthwork enclosures). Suggestions have included their use as astronomical calendars, and as the focus for funerary and other ritual. 

Stone circles continued to be constructed during the Bronze Age (2,500-800 BCE), such as those at Avebury, Silbury Hill, and Must Farm. The gene pool during this time was almost completely (90%) replaced by the Beaker People, who came to Britain from central Europe (although they may originally have been from the Iberian peninsula). These people were farmers, weavers, and archers, who wore stone wrist guards to protect their arms from the bowstring. They were also the first metal-smiths, who not only introduced the use of copper and then bronze to Britain but also a patriarchal system of society, the brewing of the first known alcoholic drink in Britain - a form of honey-based mead - and, of course, their eponymous style of pottery, found in their round barrow graves.

They were into round things - beakers, graves, houses, stone circles, and tombs. And in those tombs both men and women were buried with their head to the south, men facing east, women facing west, in individual graves full of grave goods such as pottery jars, gold buckles, bronze daggers, cups, necklaces, and sceptres. Again, does this indicate the worth of the dead person, or the belief that they would need such goods in an after-life? And why were they facing different directions? 

Following the Beaker People came the Celts who characterised the Iron Age (800 BCE-100 CE), when the main language spoken was Common Brittonic/Brythonic - a form of Insular Celtic, from which Welsh, Cumbric, Breton, Cornish, Scottish Gaelic, and Pictish were derived, all similar to the Goidelic/Gaelic and Gaulish languages of neighbouring Ireland and Gaul. Settlements now became more permanent, extensive field systems were developed, animal husbandry became more important, long ditches were dug to mark borders, and defensive structures, such as brochs, round houses, and hill forts, were built. Traders from the Mediterranean and from across the North Sea brought new goods and weapons, and Britain exported grain, cattle, gold, silver, iron, hides, slaves, and hunting dogs.

Up to this time, there being no written records of religious beliefs or practices, it has only been possible to speculate and/or, at best, extrapolate theories based on archaeological discoveries - none of which are of images/statues of deities nor of special buildings for worship. The same remains true of the early Iron Age. Suggestions have been made that human sacrifice occurred, citing, for example, the evidence of Lindow Man:

This young man,  who may have been of high rank, since there is no indication of heavy work, sometime between 2 BCE and 119 CE, ate a last meal of charred bread (toast?!), was strangled, hit on the head, had his throat cut, and was left lying face down in a peat bog. Worsley Man was also found in a peat bog. He died some time around 120 CE. His head bore a wound beind his right ear, fractures to the top of the skull, the remains of a garotte round his neck, and he had been decapitated. This has been taken to indicate, if not a' cult of the severed head', at least the possibility of a belief that the human soul was contained within the head - worthy, therefore, of capture; and the 'historian' Diodorus (90-30 BCE) recorded that the Britons preserved the heads of their most high-ranking people in cedar oil. Possibly even more bizarre was the discovery in Wiltshire of the body of a woman without her feet. Why? Some say it was to prevent her rising from the dead. Where did that come from?? Odder yet, the bones of at least two sheep or goats were found on her head, prompting one archaeologist (Peter Cox) to suggest that this may have been to protect her soul from bad spirits. Again, why? Or should that be, How? 

Enter the Romans - first of all in 55 BCE and then back to stay from 43 CE - and with them, for the first time, written records... albeit very much reflecting their own world view and their own motives in the manner of their accounts - pretty much to diss the natives! So, from them we learn of Celtic festivals, marking the progress of the year, measured in lunar months; of the sacred groves and shrines (on which many Roman temples were subsequently built); and of their 'priests' - the Druids. The term/title 'Druid' possibly means a sorceror, although it is also interpreted as 'oak-seer' and is associated with the wren. Druids were portrayed by the Romans as a religious and learned elite with considerable holy and secular powers, who formed a link between the super-natural Other-world and the natural realm. Caesar said that they believed in reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul. One of their main centres in Britain was Anglesey, and Britain itself may have been the seat of the Druidic cult - but sadly no definitive archaeological evidence of Druidry survives. 

The Romans also described a variety of deities worshipped by the Iron Age Celts of Britain and elsewhere in nothern Europe, and Tacitus noted a similarity between the religious/ritual practices of the pre-Roman British and the Gauls. The gods often related to the sky and to particular tribes, while the goddesses were most often associated with fertility, the earth, and water (such as springs and wells), and transcended tribal distinctions. Some deities were common across all Celtic peoples, such as the goddess Brigantia/Brigid, the dawn-bringer or 'bright one', and the god Lugus (aka Lugh/Lleu), whose name may mean the 'shining one', and who in fact was a triple deity or triad (mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan) comprising Teutates ('Protector'), Esus ('Lord), and Taranis ('Thunderer'). The 'Mother' (Matres/Matronae) was also represented as a triad of goddesses, for example, the Morrigan (Great Queen) consisted of Badb (the Crow), Macha (the 'Sun of Womanfolk'), and Nemain (Havoc, who is sometimes known as Anand - mother of the gods). The Mother/Morrigan was believed to be the sister of the land goddess, who was represented by the triad of Eriu/Eire/Erin, Banba, and Fodla. 

Celtic religious practices included offerings and sacrifices, which indicate the concept that humanity was required to establish, maintain, and/or restore right relationships with the gods/goddesses. The offerings were possibly sometimes human, but more likely of animals, metalwork (weapons and jewellery), and war booty. Various places, including certain rocks, streams, rivers, mountains, and trees, some of which were themselves sacred, may have had shrines to the deity residing there or for the deity of the local inhabitants. 

After the Roman conquest of Gaul and southern Britain, religious practices began to display elements of Romanisation, resulting in a syncretic Gallo-Romanic culture. The Romans equated the Celtic gods with their own, rather than referring to them by their native names. Julius Caesar believed the Celts to honour Mercury Visucius (the raven), Apollo, Lenus (the healer) Mars, Jupiter Poeninus, Dis Pater/Pluto, and Sulis Minerva. Non-Romanised deities included Suleiva ('she who governs well'), Rosmerta (goddess of fertility and abundance), Nodens (aka Nuada/Nudd, the Hunter), Cocidius (the Red One, god of war), Belatucadrus (the Fair Slayer), and Epona (goddess of horses, below). 

Some gods and goddesses appear to have been literally coupled together: Nantosuelta (goddess of the earth, nature, fire, and fertility) and Sucellus (the hammer bearing 'Good Striker'), Sirona (the Healing Star) and Grannus (the Sun god), Borvo (the Bubbler - as in a bubbling spring) and Damona (the Divine Cow), and Loucetius (Lightning) and Nemetona (She of the Sacred Groves). 

The many deities can be sub-divided according to certain characteristics: 

• healing deities, such as Brigid, Airmed, Grannus, Belenus, and Borvo;
• solar deities, such as Lugh, Belenos, Grannus/Grian (the Winter Sun) and Aine (the Summer Sun);
• deities of sacred waters, such as Sulis, Damona, and Bormana;
• Mother goddesses, such as Don, Rhiannon (Great Queen), and Modron (Great Mother);
• gods of strength and eloquence, and/or with hammers such as Ogmios/Ogma, Sucellos, Silvanis, Dis Pater, and Dagda; and
• zoomorphic deities, such as the divine bull Tarvos Trigaranus (does this link in with Mithraism, a mystery religion popular among the Roman military?) and the ram-headed snake, who sometimes accompanies Cernunnos, the antlered Lord of the Animals. 
  

By the 6th century CE, the Celtic region had effectively been Christianised... and here ends my whistle-stop trip through time! And if Time was a 24-hour clock, this, according to the evidence so far found, and my dubious maths, has happened so far: 

Between midnight and 01.00, our ancestors left footprints in Norfolk and fragments of stone tools in Suffolk; between 10.00 and 11.00 people were living in Sussex; between 13.00 and 14.00, people were living (or at least, dying) in Kent and, between 17.00 and 18.00, had got as far as North Wales. Between 22.00 and 23.00, people were being buried in caves. From around 23.30 to 23.40, people were making cave paintings in South Wales, the Midlands, and the South West. From about 23.53 until about 23.56 people were being buried in chambered stone tombs, and building stone circles. From 23.57 to around 23.59, round barrow tombs were being used. And everything else, from Celtic paganism and the Roman invasion onwards, has happened in the last minute before midnight. 

So, to summarise:

• There is evidence that, at least for the last 40,000 years, people have mattered to each other and have been cared for by each other, including those who are sick, injured, disabled, old, and newly born; and this care includes deliberate burial. 
• The dead may have been honoured by the placing of grave goods. 
  
• There may have been a belief in an after-life.
• There may have been a veneration of ancestors. 
• By the Iron Age, there was a belief that people were constituted at least of a soul (whatever that means) as well as a body.
• Natural and man-made sites were used for rituals and for festivals, based on an astronomical calendar.
• The Iron Age Celts believed in a spirit world beyond or behind the tangible world, and worshipped a variety of gods and goddesses, many of whom personify aspects of Nature, and some of whom were either tribal, in couples, or triadic (each 'person' of the triad revealing a different aspect of the whole divine being). 
• Offerings were made to the deities, indicating a belief in a relationship between humanity and divinity. 

To compare my understanding of pre-Christian Celtic paganism with my understanding of Pauline Christianity: they share these things in common -

• the belief in deity (sometimes represented by 'trinities') and in the need for right relationship both with the deity and between people;
• the belief that divine beings can be or must be appeased (for what?) - hence the concept of offering/sacrifice as atonement; and
• the belief both in life after death and that what happens in this life affects the after-life.

In more general terms, I would sum up the essentials of Celtic/Iron Age paganism as involving the following:

• a recognition of something other than the tangible/sensory world;
• a personification of both Nature (which we humans cannot entirely control) and certain archetypes (such as the Mother) as the deities; and
• a sense of the need to affect the deities (either by manipulation, and/or by establishing a close relationship) so that human life here and now, as well as in the possible here-after, is easier/more pleasant, this being achieved by 'religious' ritual and practice.

My conclusion, not only regarding pre-Christian practices in Britain, but also religious ritual and practice in general (which, please note, does not include that tricky thing faith/trust itself) is that it is essentially self-serving. 

What do you think?

A Year to Change - Step One: When to Start?!

As we all know, there are 4 seasons to a year, which is made up of 12 months, which total 52 weeks. The way I am organising my Year to Change will bear some relation to the seasons, and focus on twelve different areas, with a different specific task for each week, to be continued if possible throughout all the subsequent weeks.

So, the first decision to be made is when to start this 'new year' of positive change. 

The Roman and Julian calendars marked the new year as beginning on 1st January, as does the subsequent Gregorian calendar, which, since 1582, most of us in the West have followed. Prior to that the new year was celebrated in different European locations on different dates. The Astrological new year still starts at the Spring Equinox (around 20th March); the Celtic new year is at Samhain (31 Oct/1 Nov); and the Orthodox Church of Estonia begins its year on 1st September, with this 'Matin Hymn':

Christ our Lord, You who provide the rains and fruitful seasons,

and hear the prayers of those who humbly seek You, accept also our requests

about our needs and concerns, and deliver us from worry, danger, and sin.

Your mercies are as abundant as Your works. Bless all our activities,

direct our steps by Your Holy Spirit, and forgive our shortcomings.

Lord, bless the year with your goodness and make it a year of grace for all of us. Amen.

Today is 5th August. August, to me, is the last of the Summer months, a time of harvesting, so rather than start today, and despite the fields around us already having been ploughed over ready for the sowing of the next crops, I'm going to start my Year to Change at the beginning of next month, specifically, the evening of Friday 31st August. I prefer to think of 'days' as beginning with at sunset the evening 'before'.

Mucha: Autumn

Autumn is a time of transition between Summer and Winter, and September is the first of the Autumn months, the month of going back to studies and/or work after the summer holidays. September is also the title of one of my favourite poems by Louis MacNeice, from his Autumn Journal:

September has come, and it is hers
whose vitality leaps in the autumn,

whose nature prefers trees without leaves

and a fire in the fireplace.

So I give her this month and the next,

though the whole of my year should be hers

who has rendered already

so many of its days intolerable or perplexed
but so many more so happy;
who has left a scent on my life, and left my walls
dancing over and over with her shadow;
whose hair is twined in all my waterfalls,
and all of London littered with remembered kisses.

So, September it is, and rather than start with the easy and obvious one (Body - which can wait until after the feasts of the winter solstice!) I'm going to start with my Mind - and here's a song to start me off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEhS9Y9HYjU

A Year to Change

Once upon a time, after surviving rather a rough patch in my life, I devised the following simple chart to help me do more than just survive, and to make sure that I was looking after myself as best I could in all the areas of my life, re-dressing any imbalances.

I've put some examples in each box, below, to demonstrate how I used it, and there are of course several overlaps/duplications.

Home c/o house/garden c/o dog	Work Mon/Fri Pep.Hse Tues/Thurs St A. Wed St V alt wk/ends Ips	Play Gardening Singing Walking Reading, Writing
Mind Studying Reading, writing Brain training prog	Body Food/drink Exercise: walking, swimming, gym, Rest/sleep	Spirit Reading, writing, singing, walking, gardening Church, personal devotions
Family Visits Phone calls Cards	Friends X,Y, Z (They know who they are)	Other (empty for a long time!)

As a method of self-care, and of rebuilding self-esteem, I found it worked for me, so well, in fact, that eventually I didn't need to use either the file on my pc nor the printed copy of it: I just kept it in mind when things seemed to get out of balance a bit - which they inevitably did - and still do!

That was all a long time ago, and life no longer fits those nine boxes, not least as I've taken early retirement from both paid employment and unpaid church responsibilities, been awarded a Doctorate in Divinity, and, with The William and Shadow, have re-settled in Brittany. A revised, pyramidal version of my former 3x3 plan might now look like this:

Pack/Home

Friends/family      Everything else

Mind                    Body                   Spirit

I could, of course, just fill in the (invisible) boxes again as an aide-memoire, but instead, not least as I have a bit of thinking time on my hands during this hiatus of our staycation (staycation interruptus?!) recuperating from having slipped and fallen down the stairs yesterday (yes, big OW!) I'm going to do something different and create a project for my self: A Year to Change.

We all have goals and aspirations and resolutions, and sometimes we take steps to achieve them!... and sometimes, often-times, they get side-lined by day-to-day life. Well, this project, A Year to Change, is my concerted effort to achieve more of my goals and aspirations, and to fulfil more of my 'resolutions'. If I don't do this for my self, no-one else will - actually, no-one else can - and if I don't do it now, when will I ever do it?

So, I intend that my next blog-post will be my outline plan - which will itself, of course, be subject to change! - and I'll be documenting how I get on in future blogs, not because I think anyone else should be, or indeed is, interested, but because I know I need that discipline of writing to keep my self going - although your guess is as good as mine as to whether that's carrot or stick!

Staycation postponed for the weekend...

Today we were going to have a lazy-ish day at home, doing a few pottering about things and having lunch at the village restaurant, Les Retrouvailles. The latter part of the plan fell by the wayside when we discovered yesterday that the restaurant is closed for an unspecified holiday period, which makes sense from the point of view of Josianne and Gerard, as many of their usual working customers will be off for at least part of this month - but disappointing for us.

However, this morning I have really kyboshed things by slipping on the staircase - only from the penultimate step, fortunately - and bashing my back rather badly between the shoulder blades. Ow. And then some. I was carrying a small potted plant at the time, a Kalanchoe, going outside for some fresh air and sunshine, so the living room floor got rather covered with soil, which The William cleaned up while I crawled about testing all my bits are still working ok - which they are. Just rather a shock and rather painful, although eased by good old ibuprofen and a hot bath. 

So having had to postpone our original staycation due to The William's back, it's now postponed again due to mine! What are we meant to learn from this, do you think? Are we trying to do/carry too much? Probably, but who doesn't - and who would if we didn't?! So no deeper meanings, just a bit frustrating: I was looking forward to playing in the garden!

Staycation Jottings, Days 1, 2, & 3

Tuesday 31st July and our 'staycation' begins with a warm, sunny morning: more laundry pegged out and a bit of weeding done before we head into Rostrenen where it's market day, with the added bonus of Breton/Senegalese musicians performing in the Place de la Fontaine, which is also home to a children's play area and a boulodrome. Lots of people wandering in the sunshine, sitting on the grass, picnicking, walking their dogs, browsing the market stalls... a nice relaxed atmosphere. 

We didn't find any of the herb plants we still need for the raised potager beds, but we did enjoy a galette and a cup of local cider in the relatively new creperie La Rozell - nice food, although a surprisingly urban red/black/white décor. Back home and The William is busy baking a loaf for tomorrow, which is Lammas, the first of the three harvests, being the harvest of grain  - all 'safely gathered in'.

Wednesday 1st August, and we head west for a day at the seaside! Almost due west, in fact, to Camaret-sur-Mer, a nice little town at the far end of the Crozon peninsula, with a harbour and lots of yachts moored in the marina. 

We had a coffee at the Café de la Marine, bought postcards and a triskele pendant (my holiday souvenir!) and ate our picnic lunch sitting comfortably on a bench by the Tour Vauban, looking out over the blue sea, with seagulls sweeping across the sky. The 18 metre high polygonal tower, also known as the Tour Dorée (Golden Tower) was built in 1693 as part of the fortifications of Brest, and to guard the harbour, and is listed (along with twelve other Vauban sites) as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Vauban, the foremost military engineer of his time, who was commissioned by Louis XIV as a Marshal of France, was himself in command of the garrison on 18th June 1694, when an Anglo-Dutch attack was repelled, putting several British vessels out of action and scattering the British troops that had landed: the British estimate was a loss of 700 soldiers and 400 other men who were aboard the ships.

Sadly for us, and especially for Shadow, we were stymied by the fact that the tide was in, and, in any case, dogs are not allowed on the beaches. At Camaret itself that didn't matter too much, as the beach was shingly and sea-weedy, but we would have liked a walk along the amazing beach at the Anse (Cove) de Dinan - a huge stretch of flat sand, being enjoyed by relatively few family groups and surfers... Another time, maybe, out of season. Meanwhile we had a little leg stretch up to the top of the headland overlooking the beach: lots of heather in flower, and even more very prickly gorse!

We came home via the fabulous Pont de Terenez, a cable-stayed bridge over the river Aulne which 'connects Brittany with the Crozon peninsula' (which makes it sound like a separate state!) The cables are arranged as asymmetrical fans, and the bridge has a curved deck - and admiring it is rather a distraction from the view of the river!

The Aulne itself is actually part of the Nantes-Brest canal, which is no longer navigable over part of its length, due to the hydro-electric dam at Guerledan, which submerged some of the original locks. Aulne means 'alder', but the river is said to have been known to the Romans as the Alaunus. Alaunus was the name of the Gaulish god of the sun, healing and prophecy, who came to be associated with the (Roman/Greek) god Sol/Helios-Apollo, but there was also a Breton river goddess, Alauna. Her name derives from 'alanous', meaning both nourisher and wanderer/nomad, and is also the origin of the names of the Allen River in Scotland, called Alauna in Ptolemy's Geography, as is the river Aln at Alnwick, Northumberland. I do like these links between 'Lesser' and 'Greater' Britain, as well as the recognition of the essential nurture provided by the wandering rivers... And what a lot from one short day out! :-)

Thursday 2nd August, and today we spend a sunny morning at Huelgoat...

… browsing round the market, watching the world go by as we enjoy coffee and the local specialty patisserie (made of flour, sugar and butter, and served warm), wandering along the lakeside, and, finally, discovering Le Chaos de Roches -  a jumbled mass of hundreds of huge mossy boulders at one end of the dammed lake, next to an 18th century watermill which used to help in the extraction of silver lead from the valley. 

The William bravely descended 10 metres down a dark narrow rock step-ladder to reach the riverbank and the Grotte de Diablo. 

One Celtic legend suggests that the rocks were thrown here by a giant, and another that the Virgin Mary had a home here. A few metres beyond the tumbled rocks is a clearing with an outdoor amphitheatre, above which is an art gallery housed in a former school. Further into the Huelgoat forest, the name 'Huelgoat' meaning 'high wood' in Breton, and which is part of the Parc d'Armorique, is the Grotte d'Artus, where Arthur is said to have slept and hidden a hoard of treasure before arriving at the Camp d'Artus. Less romantic archaeologists, including Sir Mortimer Wheeler who excavated the site, suggest that in fact the ancient defences were probably created by a local Celtic tribe, and long pre-date Arthurian times, and it was used as a refuge by the Osisme Gauls against the Roman invasion in 57 B.C.E.

Pre-Staycation Journal

STAYCATION 2018: THE RUN-UP

Saturday 28th July
About a year ago The William and I set off on our Road Trip, leaving The Hearth behind us, and heading towards Karningul. It was a journey not only of miles, but of the mind and heart, and not an easy one. 

Now here we are, having survived the wild wet winter and the blustery wet spring, appreciating, at last, the summer sun. But having worked pretty hard in both house and garden, we're in sore need of a few days off, to enjoy what we have created here so far, and to recuperate and get ready for all the ongoing tasks that await us! 

So, today we begin the run-up (or rather, the wind-down) to a little staycation - the weather forecast isn't very bright for the weekend, and we have the luxury of choosing what we do when. We had hoped to begin the staycation proper last night, with a sighting of the Blood Moon, but there was too much cloud and rain. But hey, rain's good for the garden and today's wind will quickly dry the laundry on the line - and test my latest mad bamboo creations (why grow bamboo and, in the absence of a panda, not use it?) - a pair of VERY high tripods (actually a quadrupod and a septopod), affectionately known as Asterix and Obelix - photo to follow, when we have enough sunshine again!

And instead of a panda we do have at least one mole, who The William spotted yesterday popping up in between the new raised herb beds. I hoped to glimpse it this morning - but it kept under cover as we watched it make its way around by the movements of the soil. I shall be gathering up the filtered soil from the mole hills, and am glad to think that its tunnelling will be improving the drainage for us.

Sunday 29th July
Wind-Down Day 2, and, like all the summer holidays of my childhood, today is a day for jumpers and rain jackets: it's bucketing down! Or actually not down, but horizontally.
Shadow and The William had a walk down the avenue, and, since he was already so wet, Shadow has had a bath and all his monthly treatments (teeth brushed, ear drops, anti-bug spotted on); The William is cooking his amazing lentil pie for lunch (my favourite!), and I am going to curl up with a good book. At the moment I'm re-reading Mary Stewart's Merlin series, and have got as far as book three, The Last Enchantment: great fiction, based I think on Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'history' of the kings of Britain, 'De Gestis Britonum'. 

Once upon a time, I stayed for six months close to Arthurian country, in a cottage called Avalon Sunset - named by its hippy owner for the 1989 album by Van Morrison, which one reviewer described as "combining religiosity and Celtic feeling, a sort of superior New Age music". Here's one of the tracks - and why am I surprised it's a duet with Cliff Richard??! - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuzVwiL1i5M&list=PLGbb9KO9XC_MfFPA0P1yMyA9JXxgnP1Zt

Lyrics of another great VM song below...

These are the days of the endless summer
These are the days, the time is now
There is no past, there's only future
There's only here, there's only now

Oh your smiling face, your gracious presence
The fires of spring are kindling bright
Oh the radiant heart and the song of glory
Crying freedom in the night

These are the days by the sparkling river
His timely grace and our treasured find
This is the love of the one magician
Turned the water into wine

These are days of the endless dancing and the
Long walks on the summer night
These are the days of the true romancing
When I'm holding you oh, so tight

These are the days by the sparkling river
His timely grace and our treasured find
This is the love of the one great magician
Turned water into wine

These are the days now that we must savour
And we must enjoy as we can
These are the days that will last forever
You've got to hold them in your heart. 

Monday 30th July

Wind-down Day 3: more clouds, more wind, more rain, and an invitation to 'lunch' at 3 p.m. (?... We are insuring against who knows what by having maxistrone soup at our usual time of 12.30ish) with some acquaintances whose holiday home is one of the cute lock-keeper's cottages alongside the Nantes-Brest canal, where we often enjoy lovely easy walks with Shadow. Only three sections of the canal are navigable today, and none are near us, so it's very peaceful, although I do think that restoring it would bring even more tourists, of the boaty kind, here. My only canal-boat experiences are a week back in the 1990s on the Caldon Canal in Staffordshire, and being punted along the Lancaster Canal by The William even longer ago, when we were very young!

While I wait for the Theological Seminary I'm associated with to get back to me with the next units, I've been browsing the internet and came across an excellent initiative by Kurt Struckmeyer: The Mustard Seed School of Theology -  www.followingjesus.org

This is the introduction:

Like many other great religious leaders, Jesus taught a way or path to his followers. His teachings point to an understanding of the religious life as a journey. He spoke about alternative paths encountered on the journey — the wide path and the narrow path. He talked about seeking and entering the kingdom or reign of God. These are active words. They imply doing something, moving from where we are to someplace new. These are not words of correct beliefs and doctrine, but words that call us to get up and get going. Jesus called people to follow him in a way of living. As a result, the earliest members of the Jesus movement were known as “followers of the Way.” This website is devoted to exploring the Way of Jesus in a postmodern world.

For me this concept of a way of living that involves compassionate altruistic action, rather than a requirement to sign up for specific doctrine (and in particular, that of Pauline Christology), is spot on. What do you think?

(Emma Higgs has a blog here: www.patheos.com)

22nd July: Mary Magdalene

       O lamp of the world, and bright-shining pearl,

       who by announcing the resurrection of Christ,

       didst merit to become the Apostle of the Apostles,

       Mary Magdalene, of thy kindness,

       stand thou ever before God, who chose thee,

       to entreat him for us.

(The Dominican Benedictus Antiphon from the Mass of St. Mary Magdalene)

It was only two years ago that Pope Francis requested that the annual Catholic observance of Mary Magdalene be made a major feast day, marking women as the first evangelisers, and putting Mary Magdalene on a par, liturgically speaking, with the male apostles. She also now precedes the other eleven saints celebrated on 22nd July.

The Magdalene was long seen as a threat to male dominance within the Roman Catholic Church. It was in 591 Pope Gregory first suggested that she was a prostitute, and not until 1969 did the Roman Catholic Church admit that there was no textual or other evidence to support this.

In the decree issued from the Vatican in June 2016 with Pope Francis' request, it was stated that Mary Magdalene, 'recognised as one who loved Christ and who was very dear to him' can now be considered as 'a paradigm of the ministry of women in the Church'. A letter that accompanied the decree calls for 'a deeper reflection on the dignity of women'.

Mary is now widely believed to have been one of the leaders of the early church. The many references to her in the Gospel of Thomas and other non-canonical gospels confirm this: in the Pistis Sophia, for example, her name is mentioned 150 times, compared to just 13 times in the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John combined.

The Magdalene may also have been the 'beloved disciple' referred to in John's Gospel, and some people believe that she and Jesus were wife and husband, and that the wedding at Cana-in-Galilee (Kfar Cana/Kafr Kanna) was their own. There is an actual papyrus, dating back to the 4th century C.E. and written in Egyptian Coptic script, which contains this quote: 'Jesus said to them, My wife...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLioYdt8A5c

The following simple poem, written back in February, was inspired by some research about Mary Magdalene in my post-doctoral studies:

The Magdalene

Who are you, Dark Lady of the gospels,

you and the other women, providing for the Lord

as he roams throughout the Galilee...

Why are you, Dark Priestess with a jar of nard,

kneeling to anoint the Bridegroom's feet, preparing Him

for death, for rising, as you follow to Jerusalem...

When are you, Dark Sorrow, watching as Love dies,

then and now bringing your spice of solace,

sitting shiva with the other Mary at our tomb...

Where are you, Dark Mystery who disappears;

running to tell the others, you leave us in a garden

with angels at our side...

What are you, Dark Secret of church history:

recovering demoniac, repentant lady of the night,

for ages wholly side-lined - or the Holy Grail...

How are we to find you, beautiful black Magdalene,

Wisdom for our folly, Sister, Mother, Child,

shining through our Darkness...

4th July

Happy Independence Day to all Americans - and Brits?! 

Here in France, we have another ten days to wait before the celebration of la Fête Nationale. 

A week and a day after that, Tisha B'Av this year coincides with the Feast of Mary Magdalene, established as a major feast day in 2016 by Pope Francis - a step, I think, in the right direction towards a discipleship of equals.