Grace Petrie's unique takes on life, love and politics, and the warmth and wit with which they are delivered, have won over an army of loyal fans across the alternative, folk, political and comedy scenes.
She has toured with Emmy the Great and Billy Bragg, supported comedians Robin Ince and Josie Long, and collaborated with some of the most respected names in folk including Leon Rosselson, Roy Bailey and Peggy Seeger. She is also a frequent guest on BBC Radio 4's the Now Show, has appeared on Channel 4's Random Acts and has performed in Glastonbury's Festival's Leftfield several times.
Bar and boc office open 1 hour before event start time.
An evening of acoustic, folk and roots artists.
An exceptionally gifted pianist, singer, songwriter and composer .


Brand wegsy is for sale on Brandroot.com!
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text:
Report shares Arsenal's concern about £22m-rated target; another club quietly confident of signing him
Arsenal fans hoping to see Dominik Szoboszlai arrive during the January transfer window may be set for disappointment, amid a report from The Athletic concerning the 20-year-old's future.
Szoboszlai has established himself as one of the most exciting talents in Europe right now. He has scored two goals in the Champions League this term. Meanwhile, he also bagged a hat-trick in Salzburg's latest league win on Saturday.
(Photo by Laszlo Szirtesi/Getty Images)
Unsurprisingly, it would appear that plenty of clubs across the continent want the Hungarian.
The Athletic reports that he is likely to move on in January. It is noted that he has a £22 million release clause in his contract which expires soon.
(Photo by Andreas Schaad/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Arsenal are reportedly amongst those tracking the youngster. However, The Athletic reports that they have concerns about his ball retention.
It is also mentioned that RB Leipzig – who are, of course, linked with Szoboszlai's current club – are quietly confident of signing him when the window opens.
So it would appear, as things stand, that a move to the Emirates may be unlikely.
The suggestion that Arsenal have concerns about Szoboszlai however, may well frustrate a number of supporters.
He looks to have the potential to be an incredible talent. His energy and technical ability hints that he will be a real steal at anything like his release clause.
RB Leipzig's presence in the race perhaps means that any other admirer faces a tough task. But it will surely anger many if Arsenal do not make a strong attempt to spring a surprise.
Original article: https://tbrfootball.com/report-shares-arsenals-concern-about-dominik-szoboszlai/
'Might be finito here', 'He's gone': Some Arsenal fans discuss £35k-a-week player after Arteta's comments

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


BJP veteran and leader of opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal has sought probe by a Supreme Court judge or the CBI into the assets former Chief Ministers of the state.
Former Chief Minister, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleged that the Congress, ever since, came into power in the state, leveling false allegations against his family. He claimed that a wrong list of properties has been given to the ADGP (Vigilance), submitted by a Dharamsala-based advocate, without supporting affidavit, and the Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was using it for unleashing malicious propaganda and interestingly advocate has been appointed as assistant advocate, he further alleged.
Leader of opposition enclosed the complaint filed by a advocate (with the letter) on the basis of Vigilance Bureau conducting the inquiry, and request PM to get the allegations probed after getting an affidavit from the complainant. He categorically made clear that if any property, not mentioned in the income tax returns or election affidavit found might be confiscated and if otherwise action should be taken against the complainant and those prompting to file the false complaint.
Dhumal also sought independent probe into asserts of all former Chief Minister to unearth the truth. He said Himachal had five chief ministers so far and since two of them, Dr Y.S Parmar and Ram Lal Thakur were no more, sought probe into the assets of remaining CMs, Virbhadra Singh, Shanta Kumar and including him.
Prem Kumar Dhumal said that fair probe is necessary to bring the truth to light.


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<!doctype html>

  <meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-BVYiiSIFeK1dGmJRAkycuHAHRg32OmUcww7on3RYdg4Va+PmSTsz/K68vbdEjh4u" crossorigin="anonymous">

  <title>Silly video</title>

 Silly video

Is it silly?
But for so many hours
I checked for something, for nothing
 Not a desperation, or obsession
 But a missing piece
A missing kiss
A missing depiction
I couldn't understand a default coldness
And everything in me
Was just shaking inside
Was crawling inside
Scared, confused
Because there's just one place I go
What would I do?
But the Lord
Fair he does
And then he comes
Uncanny I suppose
The feed it feeds
The video it feeds
Silly astrology it seems
 Beautiful, cheesy and catchy singles
 But it's the silly things
That really makes you cry
My soul it feels
My heart is fills
My body it melts
I may be weak
But I'm walking again.
What's that?
Is that the air?
I think we're flying
And soon
We'll be reaching the stars.
 And soon
 We'll be there for our sky.

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McMaster Has the Islamophobes Worried. Good.
William McCants directs the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at The Brookings Institution and is the author of The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State.
The Islamophobes are not wrong to sense that McMaster will be hostile to their worldview, according to those who know him best. McMaster spent much of his career fighting and winning wars in the Middle East, which required him to know the local cultures and treat Muslims like humans rather than scripturally programmed robots. "He absolutely does not view Islam as the enemy," said Pete Mansoor, who served with McMaster in Iraq. "He understands that the world is not one dimensional, that the Muslim world is not one dimensional," said John Nagl, who also served with McMaster. In other words, the complicated causes of terrorism require complicated solutions.
McMaster's disgraced predecessor, Michael Flynn, agreed with the Bannonites and was disdainful of the intelligence community's analysis, which he believed ignored the religious motives of jihadists in order to please President Barack Obama. I served in the State Department when Flynn was still in government and, having seen some of the same analysis Flynn saw, I can say that the intelligence community did not ignore religion; it just didn't inflate it as the primary driver of jihadist terrorism. The intelligence community was also careful to disaggregate jihadist groups according to their competing interests and to distinguish those groups from nonviolent Islamists. With McMaster's appointment, such analysis is now likely to find a sympathetic ear in the White House.
McMaster is also known as a military innovator who listens first and then changes direction accordingly. "You gotta come in with your ears open," McMaster, then a colonel, told his soldiers in Iraq. "You have to really listen to people." He pioneered the counterinsurgency strategy that President George W. Bush later adopted to stabilize Iraq, and he has pushed the Army to adapt its doctrine so it can better counter Russia's hybrid warfare in Ukraine.
Such flexibility is essential for addressing the dizzying array of threats that confront the United States, especially those posed by jihadists and Russia. He is not likely to share his new boss' Russophilia or his belief that ISIS can be destroyed without committing large numbers of American troops to stabilize its former territories. He's also not likely to be impressed by the retread "war of ideas" approach to jihadism promulgated by Bannon and his circle, who argue that the United States can defeat the movement by empowering moderate Muslims to intellectually discredit it. That approach was tried under the Bush administration and, under another guise, by the Obama administration, to little effect.
What has been proven to work in combating jihadist militias is the same broad approach McMaster won praise for employing in Tal Afar: using intelligence judiciously, separating the truly dangerous from the merely angry, creating fissures between unlikely allies and recognizing that restraint can be the most powerful weapon of all. To his mind, militant ideologies find fertile soil when the ground is tilled by civil war; bring security and the ideologies will struggle to survive.
Although McMaster is intellectually nimble enough to help his boss navigate the treacherous sands of national security policy, he will be competing with Bannon for the president's attention. Trump put Bannon on the key body of the National Security Council, the Principals Committee, an unprecedented appointment for a political adviser. And Bannon's Strategic Initiatives Group has reportedly been overseeing the chaotic rollout of the president's most controversial counterterrorism policies.
Still, in a White House full of self-proclaimed alpha males who equate counterterrorism seriousness with the willingness to kill, no one will be able to marginalize McMaster by playing the tough guy card against him. In the early days of the first Gulf War, then-Captain McMaster led what has been called "the last great tank battle of the 20th century" against Iraqi armored divisions during a sandstorm, killing or wounding nearly a thousand Iraqis in just over an hour. "Eagle Troop had taken no casualties," McMaster wrote in a report about the engagement. "I and other soldiers offered prayers of thanks to God. We did not gloat over our victory." Hopefully, that combination of a deadly efficiency, sincere humility and respect for his adversaries will help McMaster maneuver to the fore of Trump's national security team so he can calmly guide the new president through the storm of his own making.


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Thoughts on Elphin's misfortunes
I've long been fascinated with Gwyddno Garanhir, a character who surfaces enigmatically from time to time in early Welsh literature. Several people have said to me, "Oh, then you should read The Misfortunes of Elphin by Thomas Love Peacock. It's all in there!" And so I read it.
Petrified tree stumps on Borth Beach
Thomas Love Peacock was an early Victorian author (d. 1866) best known for his satirical novels. He could also turn his hand to verse, which features quite a bit in The Misfortunes of Elphin – but I'd better start at the beginning.
Gwyddno Garanhir (Gwyddno 'longshanks') is best known as the lord of the legendary drowned kingdom which is supposedly under Cardigan Bay. There is real evidence of an inundation, perhaps 4,500 years ago. Medieval maps show islands no longer visible, while in recent years, heavy storms have revealed more and more petrified forests along the coast, visible at low tides. Perhaps a very long folk memory has made its contribution to the legend of Gwyddno, who would understandably need a good pair of wading legs.
Gwyddno belongs to legend, now, and it is difficult to place him with certainty in a historical period. The 6th century seems likely, but that's a little late for the inundation. A conflation of famous Gwyddnos could be at work. There are a number of Gwyddnos in the 6th century who are difficult to disambiguate, although Peter Bartrum offers some help in A Welsh Classical Dictionary (p 392-396).
Gwyddno Garanhir's first literary appearance is in the 13th century Black Book of Carmarthen, where he has a conversation with Gwyn ap Nudd, in which Gwyn is very much in his psychopompic persona. His main legend also appears in the Black Book, as a lament in Gwyddno's voice for the loss of his land – Cantre'r Gwaelod (the bottom cantref). Medieval poets and 20th century Celticists have all contributed interpretations of the material. Over time, it has been suggested both that the woman Meirerid, mentioned in the poem, made a mistake with a well (perhaps reminiscent of Boand in Irish lore), or that the flood was the result of drunkenness on the part of either Gwyddno, himself, or a prince called Seithenyn. (Bartrum p 394-396)
Gwyddno is also the father of a prince called Elphin, who had the luck to find the infant Taliesin (sewn up by Cerridwen in a leather bag forty years earlier) caught in his father's fish weir. Some versions of the tale of Taliesin and Cerridwen mention how Gwyddno's horses were poisoned when Cerridwen's cauldron burst and its poisonous contents flowed into a river. Much of the story of Taliesin is devoted to telling how he later rescued Elphin from his poverty and from the anger of King Maelgwn. [1] Gwyddno's final claim to fame is his possession of a hamper, mentioned in Culhwch and Olwen. Gwyddno's hamper is capable of feeding a hundred men, if food for just one is put into it.
Early Welsh literature wasn't well known in Victorian England, so it might seem an odd starting point for a novella by a satirist who was a friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley. But Peacock's wife was Welsh, and he seems to have been fond of Wales – probably with something of a romantic gloss.
The Misfortunes of Elphin isn't a long book. My copy is just over a hundred pages, and quite of bit of that is verse. On one level, Peacock does what I have been tempted to do myself. He tries to put Gwyddno's stories into one cohesive narrative. In fact, he only includes 'The Drowning of the Bottom Hundred' and the tale of Taliesin.
If you don't mind Victorian English, you might enjoy Peacock's book. His satiric wit is mostly aimed at the drunken Seithenyn, and various self-important members of the nobility and clergy. So far, so good. Of course, like any good historical/mythological novelist, he also feels duty bound to create a love interest for the young Taliesin, and to pad the story out with sometimes interminable conversations between said nobles and clergy, which allow him to exercise that witty turn of phrase. At first, I found that aspect quite funny, but by the end it had begun to grate and I was tempted to skip forward.
Then there's the verse. I happen to like Victorian poetry a lot. (Alfred Tennyson was one of my 'gateway drugs' to neoPaganism, believe it or not.) Technically, Peacock's verse is excellent in its rhyme and metre. But, even though much of it describes nature, it left me cold. Perhaps Peacock's cynical satirist's mind made it difficult for him to feel nature on a deep level. It's as if he imitates other poets' descriptions of nature without quite understanding why they say what they say.
The penultimate chapter of the book features a bardic contest in which Taliesin competes against other famous early Welsh bards. Myrddin, Aneirin, and Llywarch Hen are all present. When I hit that chapter and saw what Peacock was about to do, I definitely sat up and took notice. Good English translations of these works were not readily available in Peacock's time, and exactly how he accessed the material isn't clear. Did his wife translate for him, or did someone else? Did he attempt to read the Welsh? My guess is that someone merely provided him with a synopsis of some of the work of these poets, and perhaps translated a few lines as examples.
Now, to be clear, Peacock never claims his poems to be translations, or even paraphrases, of the work of Taliesin or these other great bards. However, this was the chapter in which I really lost respect for the book. Into the mouth of Llwyarch Hen, Peacock puts his unemotional and flabby verses about the beauty of winter. He completely misses the desolation and despair of the original gnomic verses, but sticks to the subject matter, after a fashion. Myrddin talks about how nice apple trees are and Aneirin offers a long and rousing poem about warriors. None of it makes the reader feel anything, completely missing the power of the original poets. Of course, the poetry of Peacock's Taliesin is filled with his own sharp wit, but it lacks the seemingly heartfelt praise of his patrons found in the historical Taliesin, or the sharp-edged, psychedelic shape-shifting of the legendary Taliesin.
In the end, I have the same problem with this book that I have with every historical-cum-fantasy novel based on Celtic myth or legend. The authors are almost always from outside the relevant cultures, and are basically co-opting those cultures as a vehicle for the story they want to tell, and they want to give that story a coat of Celtic paint.
The Misfortunes of Elphin is in the public domain. My copy was published by the Dodo Press (undated). It is also available online and in historical reprints.
[1] These stories of Taliesin are translated in Patrick Ford's The Mabinogi and other Medieval Welsh Tales. University of California Press.
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The Dindsenchas Tamed
Many lovers of Irish mythology know that the Dindsenchas offer a rich seam of lore, but rarely feel that they have the time or the knowledge to work that seam effectively. I believe that I have a remedy in this document, which lists the different sets of dindsenchas translated by Gwynn and Stokes, in a master index, with every entry hyperlinked to the journals where they reside on archive.org. It's now easy to locate all the entries for Druim Suamaig or Mag Murisce (should you wish to) from this single index. I've also included some of the more popular personal names, with a list of the entries in which they occur. You may not be surprised to hear that there are at least nineteen dindsenchas which mention Cú Chulainn, but now you can actually find them, as well as the Mac Óc's modest sixteen.
dindsenchas_index_7922.pdf
You are very welcome to download this document. Putting it together was a lot of work (and fun), so a donation is appreciated if you're able. For this reason, please direct your friends and students to this website, to access their own copies, rather than reproducing or distributing the document yourself.
What are the Dindsenchas?
Essentially meaning "lore of places", the Dindsenchas take us on a rather random tour of Ireland, stopping to point out what happened in specific places, most of which can still be located in the landscape, today. The stories told are mythological or legendary and because of this, they contain a great deal of mythological information, some of it not found in other texts. On our travels, we learn snippets of information about figures from all four 'cycles' of Irish myth: The Mythological, Ulster, Fenian, and Historical; and sometimes entire new stories are revealed to us.
The problem has always been how to find those stories. Like many Irish texts, dindshenchas are scattered through various manuscripts, giving groups of them exotic names like The Bodleian Dinnshenchas, the Rennes Dindsenchas, and The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas, depending on where the manuscript was housed. And that's just the prose dindsenchas. In the style of many Irish texts, there are also poetic settings of many of the stories, known collectively as The Metrical Dindsenchas.
If you're lost already, wait until I tell you about the English translations! Between about 1892 and 1924, the redoubtable Whitley Stokes and Edward Gwynn (working separately) edited and translated the prose and metrical dindsenchas, respectively, for our use and benefit. Like many translators working at that time, their work was published, often piecemeal, in Celtic Studies journals like Revue Celtique or Todd Lecture Series, where it has remained largely inaccessible to the general public.
Even if you manage to locate the journals, finding your way around the dindsenchas, themselves, can be a bit hit-or-miss. Most of the titles refer to places names which have changed over the centuries, and which give no clue as to what gems may lie within. Who would guess that the entries for Dumae Selga tell the story of the Mac Óc and his lover, Derbrenn, who care for a herd of talking pigs who were once human; or that the dindsenchas of Berba recount the bizarre tale of Meche, son of the Morrigan, and his three hearts? Only the most dedicated students of early Irish texts have really learned to find their way around the Dindsenchas, and it's no wonder. Some of them are indexed, and sometimes, the index is even in the same journal as the texts. It's hardly a recipe for a quick browse.
I hope this document will encourage all lovers of Irish myth to explore the Dindsenchas with confidence. They are a wonderful resource!
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Ethics, abortions, and Celtic Paganism
I've seen a few questions this week about what "Celtic Paganism's stance" is on abortion. Happily, none of the internet spaces I inhabit saw this turn into a fight. Most people gave answers similar to my own, and here's mine:
First, Celtic Paganism is just an umbrella term. It's not an organised religion, there is no official stance on anything. We have a collection of mythology and other early texts which are meaningful to many of us, but just like the Christian Bible, they are open to a variety interpretations.
There is nothing like Leviticus or the Ten Commandments in that body of lore. We do have the Irish Brehon Law and the Welsh Laws of Hywel Dda, but these are secular legal texts. They prioritise compensating the injured party far above any thought of punishment. Women have different, in many ways slightly better, rights than they did under the Norman laws which superseded them, but women were still very much an oppressed group. I'm not aware of any mention in either set of laws that human life is sacred. However, it's pretty clear that wives were expected to produce children.
Like I said, these are secular laws, so unless you are trying to reconstruct the social order of the early Medieval period of Ireland or Wales in the comfort of your own home, you probably aren't going to live by them, anyway. If fact, you can't, because the rest of society doesn't recognise them, and you live in a society, like it or not. These law codes are very useful for understanding the social order as presented in mythological texts, and they are a good springboard for some philosophical pondering.
According to this excellent article on the Brehon Law:
A man can divorce a woman (listed in Gúbretha Caratnaiad) if she is unfaithful, if she induces an abortion or if she is a habitual thief.
In the story of the conception of Cú Chulainn found in the Lebor na hUidre, the king's sister has become mysteriously pregnant (by the god Lugh), so the king finds her a husband.
She was very ashamed to go to her husband's bed pregnant by another, so she went to the bedstead and stabbed and beat her belly this way and that, until she was virgin-whole. Then she slept with her husband, and immediately became pregnant again.
That's right, the woman aborted Lugh's baby and nobody batted an eye. But, being a magical baby, it sort of grew back.
People also quote the story of St Brigid of Kildare magicking away a woman's embarassing pregnancy with a miracle, as if whatever the saint did, the goddess must surely approve of (as long as it fits their narrative). Pro-lifers will tell you that this is another myth which is open to interpretation, and in that, for once, they are probably right.
If you are looking for the perfect, "Well, according to my religion," type of comeback in the abortion discussion, based on following Celtic Paganism, forget it!
The fact is that none of us know what the Druids (who were supposedly the judges of their day) thought about ending pregnancies, or what their judgement would have been on a thousand other things. But what if we did? What if tomorrow, somebody found a secret text from 100 BCE full of verifiable Druidical laws or moral codes? Would you just live by them? I doubt it. All that would happen would be a new set of debates about what they really intended - whether that bit about what to wear is relevant today, and whether it was worth risking prison to perform those human sacrifices.
And that's good. As Pagans, some of us are very quick to judge people for following their religious texts and religious leaders without asking questions, weighing the evidence, examining their own consciences, and reaching rational personal conclusions about right and wrong. Not to mention being realistic about the need for compromise and tolerance of people who reach different conclusions.
One of the things I love about teaching mythology is that reading the myths and discussing what we think they might mean has the potential to raise the ethical intelligence of everyone in the conversation. In my opinion, that is the strength of myth, and I am wary of anyone who uses ancient texts in a fundamentalist way, and I am wary of those modern storytellers who reshape myths in order to force them to mean what they want them to mean – especially without telling the reader/listener what they've done. (If you need a story to help you make a point, maybe go write one, rather than changing something which is culturally significant in its current form so that you can claim 'ancient indigenous wisdom' backs your idea.)
We live in a society where a lot of people are very quick to quote some kind of holy writ as the ultimate authority in every question: whether that's the Koran, the US constitution, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or even the Bible. I think it makes us philosophically lazy. The questions seem too hard for us. We aren't used to looking at issues from all sides, or trying the experiment of laying our emotions or our cultural conditioning aside and attempting a bit of objectivity. Our culture doesn't even condition us to consider objectivity as an option. We want to know what our tribe thinks, so we can think the same and avoid cancellation on social media, or even professionally.
Celtic Paganism is not going to offer you a moral code, but it can offer you some great tools for arriving at your own sense of ethics. Thinking is hard work, but it's all we've got.
For the record, I believe that every woman should have the right to end her pregnancy at any time, for any reason.
The Mabinogion and Lady Charlotte Guest
Is there a problem?
Most scholars of the Mabinogi(on) will tell you, "Oh, don't use the Charlotte Guest translation. Get something better!" I firmly agree, but I think it deserves a bit of an explanation.
Many people cut their teeth on this translation. It was the first translation into English that was at all popular. In fact, it became extremely popular, arriving during the Victorian era, with its obsession with Medievalism in art and literature. Pre-Raphaelite painting, the poetry of Tennyson – it was a perfect fit. Guest's language is high toned, old-fashioned, and sometimes very beautiful.
Cut to the present day, and Lady Charlotte's version also has the advantage of having passed into the public domain. The copyright is expired, so any website that wants to host it, or any publisher who wants to reprint it, is free to do so. No wonder it's still popular and some readers are very loyal to it. (I get it. I like the King James Bible. The language is pretty, I'm used to it, and don't really care about the accuracy!)
So why do modern scholars hate it so much?
It's just not a very accurate translation. The reasons for that are varied, and not always as straightforward as you'd think. Guest was not a native speaker of Welsh. However, she was a scholar of multiple languages and took advice from native Welsh scholars during the process.
Most of the later, serious editors of her work have said that the translation was better than they had been led to believe. That said, scholarship of Middle Welsh really has improved since Guest's day, and all of the later translations reflect this.
Another concern is the squeamishness about all things sexual which beset so many translations of Celtic texts in this era. There are multiple mentions of couples sleeping together in the Welsh text. As these are often at the consummation of marriages – they just "get married" in Guest's work, but she hedges if they aren't married. Other 'naughtiness' is also censored out – especially in the Fourth Branch. Most translators of the period would have done the same. Now they wouldn't. Times change, but these things do affect the overall meaning of a story.
Could prejudice be at work?
Guest certainly came under fire (some of it seemingly unfair) from the translators who followed her, most notably Jones and Jones. Being a woman may have made her an easier target than a male translator, or may have caused them to take her less seriously, but I wouldn't like to go out on a limb over that, because I don't know what was in their minds.
I think there could also have been some discomfort with Guest's English nationality, and possibly also her class. The rise in interest in Welsh literature and folklore in Wales was entangled with both important working-class political issues and language justice/nationalism movements. It is perfectly understandable that by the 1940s, when Jones and Jones' translation appeared, there was an appetite in Wales for a translation produced by Welsh-speaking scholars from Wales. It is perfectly possible that (probably mostly unconsciously) some of these feelings have lingered in Welsh academia.
Most modern Welsh scholars will now recommend Sioned Davies' excellent 2008 translation, so perhaps we can now rule out misogyny. The fact that they tend to offer it in preference to modern translations by US-based Celtic scholars Patrick Ford or John Bollard, may be more a matter of familiarity than national pride. Certainly, Ford is widely respected and his 1977 translation had a good run as 'the scholarly one', although it doesn't include all eleven stories.
Guest's legacy
Charlotte Guest was quite a woman. Polyglot and polymath. An example of a member of the upper class who used her leisure time for good works and large projects – including translating a massive piece of literature from Middle Welsh. She also worked to provide education for local children, started a library, and took over the running of her husband's iron works after he died. (Not to mention having ten children.)
But for our purposes, Lady Charlotte Guest's greatest contribution is certainly her translation of The Mabinogion. (And yes, I'm sidestepping the whole issue of that word.) It may have been timing or it may have been money and influence, but neither the English translation by William Pughe in 1833 nor the one by Ellis and Lloyd in 1929 became at all popular. Would we have many of those Pre-Raphaelite paintings or Tennyson's body of Arthurian poetry without it? Would anyone even be interested in The Mabinogion today, or would it have slipped into obscurity? I can't answer those questions, but it's something to think about.
The Mabinogi: Looking at different translations. A description of all the modern translations, and where to find them.
The Crimes of Lady Charlotte Guest and The Further Crimes of Lady Charlotte Guest are two papers by Donna R. White, delivered to the Harvard Celtic Colloquium in the 1990s, which explore the accusations levelled at Guest and their veracity.
Early Celtic texts and personal gnosis
People have opinions, preferences, and personal experience. Nowhere is this more true than in the world of Celtic paganism and spirituality. I have mine, and if I think that they are important then I am going to talk and write about them. I love it when others do the same.
Creatrix by Robyn Chance
If my profile is a little higher than some because I choose to write publicly, and to teach, I don't think that makes me particularly special, and there are others with much higher profiles – some of whom hold themselves up as special, and some who don't.
Celtic neopaganism is quite a new thing, really, and its diversity is often a strength, but it can be difficult to organise something that is both inclusive and still meaningful. Herding cats might fit the situation, but no one wants to be accused of trying to herd the cats.
There are a few points where one can be right or wrong. (What a particular Medieval text does or doesn't say, a specific date in history…) Mostly, we are all feeling our way, and that's one reason I try to avoid too many hard and fast statements. I prefer to qualify most things with "in my opinion" or "according to ___" or "this is what works for me". A lot of people don't bother to do that, and I've always thought a lot of arguments could be avoided if they did. At the same time, I don't think a lot of people hear me when I do qualify my statements with "I think" or "Cormac's glossary says" or whatever. They just hear my opinion, and if they hold a different one, they jump to the conclusion that I am criticising them. They feel attacked, or that all they hold dear is being threatened.
This seems to be a particular issue when it comes to my love of Medieval Irish and Welsh texts, and the scholarly study of them, or the fact that I hold the preservation-through-memorisation of lore by the bards and druids of the past in very high regard. This is my area of interest, and yes, I do think it is important and deserves a bit more attention. That's why I spend a lot of time making things which I hope give more people access to it, or spark interest.
None of this means that I think personal gnosis is silly, or that your experience of a deity is worthless if it doesn't fit what the texts say. But just as you have every right to talk or write about those experiences, which are very real to you, surely I have every right to talk and write about mine. I have lots of personal gnosis, too. If you've followed my work over the years, you'll know that. If I don't write more about it, maybe that's because I think it's just that. Personal gnosis. Maybe it's just for me.
But what if I told you that my personal gnosis tells me that the Medieval texts are preserving something that is vitally important to us today. My interest in them is partly because of that belief. I talk about it a lot because of that gnosis. Not instead of direct contact with deity. This doesn't mean that I think it's more important than what others believe or experience – but it's what I've been prompted to focus on, and it is often during deep study of early texts that I feel closest to the gods.
I have noticed something, though, about personal gnosis or revelation. We're heavily influenced by whatever we expose ourselves to, or immerse ourselves in. If people consume a lot of popular fiction about deities and ancient cultures it very often influences what they experience in meditations or visions. If people are exposed to certain information as doctrine, like "the lord and lady" or "hard polytheism" their personal experiences tend to reflect it.
Sometimes gnosis is also contagious. One person tells their group they have visions of Taliesin flying an airplane. It's not up to me to judge the truth or meaning of that vision. But if several other people have the same vision after hearing this, it would be sensible to question whether it's a product of imagination rather than gods or spirits.
Those who make a study of early texts tend to have experiences of deity which agree with, or build on, what those texts say. People who are drawn to folklore collected in the last couple of centuries are more likely to have experiences in line with that folklore.
The 14th century White Book of Rhydderch
Of course, there are things we must question about Medieval texts concerning the gods (or maybe-gods). There is a biggish gap between the pre-Christian era and the scribal era. We don't know what was going on culturally in that gap, for the most part. Professional bardic traditions in non-literate societies can be extremely good at preserving material with minimal change but, especially in Britain, those professions were interrupted and suppressed repeatedly by incoming influences.
For some people, the elephant in the room is that the scribes who put these texts onto vellum were Christians. Therefore, some people conclude, they must be Christian propaganda, or at the very least, heavily censored; yet a close study of the texts suggests that only a minority could possibly be intended as pro-Christian or anti-Pagan in intention. Removal of some material is much more likely, and yet, there must have been a desire to preserve or they wouldn't have been written down at all.
Another question is whether they really reflect long-preserved cultural material, or are "just literature" composed by, or in near proximity to, the scribes who placed them on the page. This is where comparative study is useful. Does the text, or the story the text tells, exist in other times or places? Do characters with cognate names have similar stories or functions across different texts? This is even more useful if we know whether a scribe in one time or place had access to a text from another. The continued work of Celticists is answering more of these questions as time passes.
One result of Celtic neopaganism being so diverse is a lack of willingness to recognise leaders. This may or may not be a good thing, but it appears to be very different than its pre-Christian counterpart. Everyone wants to be the druid or the prophet. No one sees any value in priesthood unless they get to be the priest. It's all about personal viewpoint and the only hope of any shared vision is in looking for the lowest common denominators of understanding – whether that's scholarly or revelatory. Mostly we opt for the currently popular idea that each person's reality is equally valid, and leave it at that. It's democratic, but consensus is rare.
Personal revelation is important, but doing it without the grounding of cultural material can leave people untethered. Folklore is important, but it is diverse and often extremely localised. Removing it from its original context often strips it of its original meaning. Repeating it without understanding of that meaning results in new meanings being applied. That's how folklore operates, of course! Medieval texts are hard work for all the reasons I've outlined, and there are linguistic problems, too. They are very difficult to translate, and although scholarship is improving, many translations done a hundred years ago, or more, are not being superseded by better ones, because there's no money in doing so.
Each of these three areas is rich in potential for helping us reach an understanding of Celtic cosmology. If you find yourself focused on one of these approaches, I'd say it's important to listen to people who are focused on the others with an open mind. We don't need to be in competition.
How to get more out of Celtic mythology books
I'm writing a lot about reading material these days, but people seem to like it, so here's another post on the topic, sparked by a discussion in a class today. Not for the first time, someone said something like, "I've got those books you recommended, and I've read some of them, but . . ." The implication was 'I'm not sure it did me much good.'
I think this follows on pretty logically from what I was saying in a recent post about people buying up Celtic Studies books and not using them. It reminded me of why this happens, because I know people buy them with good intentions. I often recommend what I see as reference books, but people are trying to read them cover-to-cover.
If you're interested in Celtic myth and related things, then ultimately the goal is to join up what you learn in one book with what you've learned from other books you've read. Some books are meant to be read cover-to-cover. That's obviously the best way to read fiction. It also works really well for non-fiction books with a more-or-less linear narrative structure. Books on history for example, or any topic in which the author is building up a picture – starting with background material, building up layers of knowledge and presenting theories, tying things together in the final chapter.
Books like Celtic Heritage by Alwyn and Brynley Rees, or John Waddell's Archaeology and Celtic Myth work well read cover-to-cover, as do many others. However, scholarly books such as these are also very useful if you just read the chapters that look most interesting to you. In fact, you may remember what you read better that way, because although these books are somewhat linear, each chapter stands pretty well on its own. And you might get less discouraged by the density of them if you go for things that interest you.
The two books mentioned above are about mythology, but books of mythology are usually collections. I'm thinking of things like Cross and Slover's Ancient Irish Tales or Koch and Carey's The Celtic Heroic Age. Many of us like big books. We're used to reading modern fictional trilogies, for example. But mythology doesn't read like fiction. It rarely spends much time on what the characters are thinking, or even on description. The narratives are often concise, sometimes downright terse. A lot can happen in a sentence or a paragraph, and you need to adjust the pace of your reading to make the most of such texts. Slow down and give yourself time to picture the details of scenes, consider the motivations and possible emotions of characters, and so on. (There are exceptions. The Tain, or Culhwch and Olwen, for example, are very wordy in places.)
However, the conversation which happened today in class was about a different class of books altogether. One was Rachel Bromwich's mighty tome Trioedd Ynys Prydein. 'The Triads of Britian' seems an innocent enough title, but this is mostly a reference book, or a book to pick up and leaf through for interesting bits. Its two main sections are the triads themselves in Welsh and English with some very interesting notes; and the 'Notes to Personal Names'. This section has significant essays about the people mentioned in the triads. Essays which reference almost every text outside the triads in which that person appears, plus the etymology of their name, scholarly ideas about them, etc. It's a gold mine, but you need to know that section is there and use it, not just when you stumble on a triad somewhere, but to find out more about many characters from the Mabinogi and Welsh legend, generally.
Another book which came up was the Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin by Marged Haycock. This is an excellent scholarly translation of a very difficult collection of poems. I love this book, but I can't imagine most people getting much joy from reading it straight through. Or, at least not unless you go slowly. You could spend a couple of days on the introduction. It's not that long, but if you're new to the subject it's still quite a bit to take in.
Each of the poems has a lengthy headnote which is worth reading. Each poem also has many footnotes. Most of these discuss why Haycock translated a word or line the way she did, and possible alternatives. They're pretty interesting to me – maybe not to you. It's enriching to read them and perfectly okay to ignore them. Honestly, I'd say one poem a day is enough with this book. Read it thoroughly, read the notes, do it justice. Sleep on it, or go read something a bit lighter. I generally go to this book because I'm reading something which mentions one of the poems, and then I want to go deeper into it.
If you want to read the poetry of Taliesin in a more relaxed but slightly less scholarly format, you might like Lewis and Williams' The Book of Taliesin, which is another modern, still quite scholarly, translation. It offers you enough information to help you make sense of things, but is more manageable.
Obviously, I can't talk about ALL the books here! There are lists everywhere of "the best books to read" about Celtic myth or history. Unfortunately, such lists rarely tell you what the book is like, what it's for, or how to get the most out of it. If you're asking people who are more knowledgeable than you for book recommendations, it's helpful if you tell them what, specifically, you want to learn. You want stories. You want the history of ancient Scotland. You want a good dictionary of Celtic mythology. Whatever. There is also no shame is saying, "I got myself a copy of ___ but it's not making much sense. What am I supposed to use it for?"
You could even ask me in the comments!
Four Essays on Celtic Mythology
A collection of essays on reading mythology for deep meaning.
See product page for details.
Calling things Celtic doesn't make them more Pagan. Please stop!
photo: simonwakefield CC Wikimedia commons CC 2.0
Someone just shared the meme on the left on social media. I am blatantly ignoring possible copyright infringement by adding it to this post. (For educational purposes, of course.)
Now, as iffy memes about Celtic things go, I've seen a lot worse. They've managed to spell the Irish words correctly, even if they don't quite understand the meanings, and there's a nod to Welsh language which also isn't terrible, but again, a bit off. People are often wrong on the internet, but this post isn't really about that.
My question is why people are so desperate to talk about Celtic things that they don't actually get? Or to talk about everyday things like holidays, but to dress them up in faux Celtic ideas? If something is a modern Pagan idea or new tradition, why not just say so?
The Oak and Holly Kings are lovely symbols of summer and winter. The fact that they aren't old, or Celtic, doesn't make them less so. Midwinter is a beautiful English-language word, evocative for me of snow and candlelight. If you're an Irish speaker, perhaps Meán Geimhridh does it for you. If you're not an Irish speaker – is writing it just so much posturing? You decide.
To be honest, I'm not an Irish speaker, and not sure whether that's a common idiom for Midwinter in Irish, so I wouldn't use it. I checked several dictionaries (just for you) and meán does mean mid, and geimhridh (geimhreadh) does mean winter, but none of the dictionaries listed that construction for "midwinter" – it might be right, but do people actually say it? Using it would feel pretentious to me because I've no claim to Irishness, and I don't speak Irish.
I do get that if you're learning a language, or you have some reason to align yourself with a particular culture, that it's fun to use some words. That's fine. My beef is more with people who just want to pepper their meme or ritual or whatever with a few words in a Celtic language because they think it will be more authentic or more spiritual, or perhaps it will make them look smarter than the people who don't know these words. I do speak some Gaelic (the Scottish one) and have learned a tiny bit of Welsh, and to be honest, the first thing I think when I see non-native-speakers throwing words in a Celtic language around on the internet is "I bet they can't pronounce that".
But moving from language to ideas, what does this meme achieve? The first paragraph takes a universal concept shared by pretty much all cultures and ascribes it to "Celtic countries". Why? The second paragraph talks about the "Celtic Midwinter". What does that even mean? If I call my dog a "madra" or a "cù" does that make him a Celtic dog?
As you can see, I have made a new version of the meme. It makes less claims of specialness for the ability to use a few poorly understood words. Of course I didn't have space to get into the nuts and bolts of everything. The whole questions of "alban" in Welsh is a little wobbly, as far as I know. It only seems to appear in the 18th century, and is used for both solstices and equinoxes, but it doesn't seem to be used in common speech. More of a fancy word in books, perhaps. And I'm pretty sure it doesn't really mean light – that idea comes from neoDruidy, as far as I know. It means a quarter of the year, or the quarter points of the year.
Is this Alban Arthan?
As for "arthan" – well, that means a young bear. Of course, the name Arthur derives from bear, but I'm pretty sure the association of bears and winter isn't directly to do with King Arthur. That said, I have definitely read neoDruid teaching that claims "Alban Arthan means the light of Arthur" – so I guess it means that to them. Whatever. I think we're going in circles.
On to the final paragraph! There is some interesting folklore about robins and wrens all over Europe. Is it Celtic? I'm not sure, and I'm not sure how well it really matches up to the Oak and Holly Kings, either. Perhaps I should consult my Robert Graves, but I'm not going to bother, because he got an awful lot of things about Celtic culture wrong.
You don't have to tell me that my "corrected" meme isn't as sexy. I've taken out all the woo-woo wannabe Celtic, "aren't the natives spiritual" stuff, and left you with the boring old truth.
Have a very happy solstice!
Horses of the Dark Time: Souling
This post was published on Patheos.com in 2018.
Photo: Duncan Broomhead. Used with permission.
If you can't believe these words I say,
Step in, Wild Horse, and clear the way.
In comes Dick and all his men,
He's come to see you once again.
He was once alive but now he's dead,
He's nothing but a poor old horse's head.
This horse has travelled high, he's travelled low,
He's travelled both through frost and snow,
This horse has an eye like an hawk
A neck like a swan,
He's a tongue like a ladies' pocket book,
Going down yon hill last night,
Poor old Dick fell down and broke both shafts off.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, open your hearts
and see what you can give towards Dick a new cart;
not for him to draw, but for me to ride in.
This horse has only one leg and he is obliged to beg,
What he begs it is but small,
But is obliged to serve us all.
It's the middle of October, and in a few weeks the first of the dark time traditions will begin to unfold in Britain. I'm not talking about Samhain, Halloween, or Bonfire Night, but other traditions which are interconnected. Among my favourites are the souling plays of Cheshire. These are simple, traditional plays which have been around for at least a couple of hundred years, but may include elements of something much older. The reason they are called "souling plays" is that they are associated with All Souls Day, on November 2nd, a day that has had a major influence on how we celebrate Samhain/Halloween.
A hundred years ago, folklorists were sure that plays like these were pre-Christian survivals about death and rebirth. That has been discredited now, but whatever the origins, there is something in them that speaks to my Pagan soul, and I know I'm not alone. Kristoffer Hughes says of the Mari Lwyd tradition, "A sure sign of the power within the sacred is when it easily transfers itself into the celebratory practises of secular communities." I fully agree, but I also think that the sacred has a way of seeping into secular traditions, or perhaps finding a way to make itself known through them.
The Cheshire plays are short and based on a formula. Each group - usually associated with a particular village, has its own variation. Performances mostly happen in pubs, although they once went house-to-house, and are performed by adults for adults on the days close to November 2nd.
Jones Ale Soul Cakers. photo: Emma Riding
King George enters and swaggers about bragging for a few lines, then in comes the knight, Slasher. They have a sword fight and the knight is killed in a joyful combination of ritual recitation and slapstick comedy.
Next to enter is the knight's mother -- a man in drag. She is distraught at the knight's death, so a doctor is called to revive him. The Quack Doctor comes in next. After some more joking about, the knight is given some silly remedy and stands up, fully cured. There are other stock characters that usually do their bit – a boozy Beelzebub and a sort of fool, sometime called Little Devil Doubt. He usually collects the money at the end and might try to ride the horse.
The final character (and, of course, my favourite) is The Wild Horse, often named Dick. The Horse is usually a carved horse head, or decorated pony's skull, mounted on a pole, and carried by a man covered by some sort of heavy fabric. He is led in by his Driver, who tells us what a great horse he is, or perhaps once was, and the play ends by asking the crowd to give money to buy The Wild Horse a new cart, or some other necessity.
I realise that my description is not very inspiring, so I hope you will enjoy this video of the real thing.
This kind of play is well known in most parts of Britain, but Cheshire stands out because the plays are at All Souls, instead of Christmas. From a Wheel-of-the-Year perspective, there isn't really a wrong time for a nod to death and resurrection, but the beginning of the dark time, and the Christian All Souls celebrations add a little extra weight.
The other thing that stands out about Cheshire is the Wild Horse, itself. In most of the plays, the horse and driver are given quite a bit of time for lines and larking about, even though they have no actual involvement in the plot of the play. Maybe horses have survived as part of the plays because people love to see them, but another possibility is that the horse was once a separate tradition, like the Mari Lwyd or Hooden Horse, which at some point was combined with the play.
The Lair Bhan.
There is a tantalizing reference from 19th century Ireland to a Mari Lwyd-like pole horse called the Lair Bhan, in County Cork. "It is not many years since, on Samhain's eve, 31st October, a rustic procession perambulated the district between Ballycotton and Trabolgan, along the coast. At the head of the procession was a figure enveloped in a white robe or sheet, having, as it were, the head of a mare, this personage was called the Lair Bhan, " the white mare," he was a sort of president or master of the ceremonies. A long string of verses was recited at each house."
 – William Hackett, 1853
This tradition has completely disappeared, as far as I know. There are other Lair Bhans in Ireland, connected with wren boys or with St. John's bonfires, but they are usually of the type where a frame goes around the "rider's" waist. This one seems to have been part of a house visiting tradition in which people gave food and money to the troupe to avoid bad luck. Sadly, I only know of this one reference.
Mari Lwyd – Rhyn Williams Wikimedia 4.0
And speaking of Mari Lwyds at this time of year, I noticed that The Anglesey Druid order chooses to bring their Mari out for the first time at Calan Gaef (Samhain).
Whatever all these horses mean, I love that people are interested in them again. If you are waiting for me to connect them to the horse goddesses, I will, but I would certainly not say that they are necessarily a remnant of a horse cult, although it's always just possible. Rather I would say that they might be a manifestation of some part of us that quite rightly reveres the Great Mare, whether we can voice it in so many words. Whether the person under the cloak is a devout Pagan trying to honour a horse goddess, or just someone why enjoys taking part in mumming traditions, isn't the main point. I see the Great Mare in the snapping jaws of the horse, and the tingle everyone gets when the horse makes an appearance, and feel that in some way She has honoured us with Her presence, regardless of the intent.
Intent, of course, can take these traditions to another level!
Told by the living and the dead, in their own words, Master Jack is a story I had to write, inspired by the people past and present who make folk traditions happen, in spite of their often difficult lives. It is also the story of the spirit of the horses which I believe live through the different hobby horse and skull horse traditions of Britain.
Not-quite-folk-horror is how I tend to describe this story spanning generations across two families - all linked by the skull of a horse. Make of this what you will, dear reader!
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A Bit of Mabon Love
This was originally posted on Patheos a few years ago. The title is a response to something John Beckett had said, to the effect that complaining about people using "Maybon" as a word for the autumn equinox was "hate".
It's that time of year again when I hear the name of a deity I revere on the lips of many people. His name is on my social media feed on a daily basis, too. That would feel great if more people actually knew that the were speaking His name, so this year I'm on a bit of a campaign to get His story out there, since his name is, anyway.
The name of this deity is Mabon. A few years ago, I made the short video below about how the Autumn Equinox came to be named Mabon in the early 1970s, and a few other cool facts.
You might have seen my post a few years ago on Patheos Agora titled Mabon is a God. It explains Mabon's ties to the Gaulish/British god Maponos, and mentions his thriving centre of worship in the first century AD along the Scottish/English border. It never occurred to me that any of my Pagan friends would doubt that Mabon is a god, but apparently that's also a thing, which mystifies me, because I think the evidence for that is pretty sound.
Brian Walsh seems to agree with me. His Mabon - a God of Spring Misplaced post gets an airing every year, and while I don't necessarily agree with the theory that Mabon ap Modron and Angus Óg are more-or-less the same deity, I'm glad that other polytheists at least agree that Mabon has deity status.
Castle Loch, Lochmaben
An equally important reason that I believe that Mabon is a god, however, is that I have a relationship with Him. Years ago, when I desperately needed to escape from Edinburgh for a couple of weeks, I decided to book a holiday cottage somewhere quiet, and I ended up on the outskirts of Lochmaben. The little town of Lochmaben is surrounded on three sides by three different lochs (that's Scots for lakes). Perversely, none of them is called Loch Mabon, but it seems like the one called Castle Loch probably used to be.
I definitely needed some emotional patching up at the time, even if I was fine physically, and it was easy to reach out to Mabon there. I ended up making a pilgrimage to the Clachmaben Stone, as well, which was another powerful experience. I went back to Edinburgh renewed in myself and with great respect for the kindness of the god Mabon, as well. He definitely has healing powers.
Over time that experience faded, and I moved on to other things, but I still remember how Mabon's places touched me. At the time, I'm not sure I was even aware of the Autumn Equinox being called Mabon, so when I moved back to the US and started hearing people say "What are you doing for Mabon?" the question didn't quite compute. It still makes no sense to me, because from what I can see, most people are doing absolutely nothing for Mabon. They aren't honouring Him. They aren't talking about Him. A lot of people only half believe me when I tell them that there actually is a deity called Mabon.
When I was researching what I wanted to write about Mabon this year I couldn't believe that there were no photos of the healing spring Maponos was associated with in the Auvergne region of France. It's famous largely because there is a museum filled with votive offerings someone once found there during construction work. There are thousands of them. Most take the form of human or animal limbs, as if to show the gods where it hurt, but others take the form of an entire person or animal. Among them was a lead tablet addressed to Maponos. Finally, in a local French paper I discovered that the spring had been neglected and blocked up for decades, but someone has recently cleared it and built a small pool, and there are hopes that eventually there will be a public font. No one is worshipping Maponos there (yet!) as far as I know. I don't have a photo to show you, but there are several at this link.
I don't suppose a few vocal polytheists will convince wider Pagandom to stop calling this holiday Mabon, but I am on a one woman campaign to at least encourage people to show Him a bit of love and devotion once a year.
Mabon ap Modron and Maponos
A class looking at many aspects of Mabon and Maponos.
Saturday, September 18th, 2021 at 12 noon Pacific/3 pm Eastern/8 pm UK
The enormity of what is asked
Ex-votos from Chamalières in the Musee Bargoin. ©Thierry Nicolas, La Montagne
I have been working on material for the class I'll be teaching about Maponos and Mabon soon. I've been reading papers that are either new, or that I hadn't had time to read before, and thinking about the site of the spring at Chamalières where the famous tablet inscribed to Maponos was found. Of course, I'm looking for images that will help the students to visualise what must have been happening at Chamalières as the last decades BCE moved into the first century CE. Images like the one of the archaeological dig that uncovered all this, back in the early 1970s seem messy and overwhelming. It made me realise that I have not really taken the enormity of this site in, myself.
The photo, below, is of the excavation of the site in the 1970s. That strange texture toward the centre of the photo, made up of many lines, like some kind of log jam – those are ex-votos. Carvings of human legs, mostly, and some arms, some horses' legs, some of whole men and women. Over three thousand of them.
Excavation photo from Chamalières
Our ideas of deity vary – some things we can't shake off from cultural Christianity whether we were really raised as Christians or not, plus our own ideas about what a deity is, or what we think deity meant to our pre-Christian ancestors. It's very personal. But the enormity of this site, the weight of requests for healing and probably offerings of thanks for healing – today, I just felt the weight of it.
If I came closer to understanding Maponos today, it was only that I came closer to understanding the enormity of what was being asked of Him. Like most modern polytheists, I shy away from thinking of deities as all-powerful or all-knowing. If you want their help you have to get their attention, offer something in return, and accept that they probably have more agency in the world than you do, but how much more is never clear.
From what the archaeologists can know, this site was only in use for a hundred years – probably less. Yet the limbs piled up into a solid mass, accompanied by offerings of gold staters and hazel nuts and fibulae. Maponos waited with open arms to receive all that pain, all those hopes.
I've had a few visions of Maponos over the years. One, quite unexpected, where he appeared as a tall, self-assured, young man in a cave with flowing water. I sat with my arm outstretched as He poured water over it from a dipper. I had an overwhelming sense of kindness and compassion, but also of the sort of detachment one often finds in people in the medical profession. Detachment which allows them to do their work, keep their sanity, be efficient. Something else, too. A sense from Him that I shouldn't be surprised by His willingness to heal. A sort of "It's what I do" matter-of-factness.
Of course there's more to Maponos than His healing aspect. We lack any mythology for Maponos. We have to do our best to understand Him through His associations with Apollo and Mabon ap Modron, and maybe even Aengus Óg son of Boand and the Dagda. Their attributes include healing, being imprisoned, music and poetry, hunting, association with the sun, maybe a warrior aspect … Recently, I sensed Maponos reminding me that I need to see deities, Himself included, in all their aspects, not just pick one.
If you want to learn more about Maponos and Mabon there are opportunities coming up soon. I'll be teaching a class about him starting on Saturday, 18th September. You can join just the first week of the class, as a stand-alone talk, or sign up for the full six weeks. There's more information at this link.
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text:
Црква Успења Пресвете Богородице или Црква Свете Госпође (локализам) припада парохији кртољској Митрополије црногорско-приморскe, Српска православна црква. Налази се у насељу Радовићи, Кртоли, Луштица, Општина Тиват, Бока которска, Црна Гора.

Стари натписи на цркви спомињу 1843. као годину градње од браће Дабчића, а испод розете пише да су иста браћа изградила (оградише) звоник 1866. Поред капије са дворишне стране је и спомен плоча црквеног туторства из 1967. у знак захвалности великом добротвору Васу Ј. Русовићу. У односу на остале цркве на Луштици, црква је већих димензија. Грађена је од камена и у порти, око цркве, је гробље. Нека од презимена православаца сахрањених на овом гробљу су: Бан, Старчевић, Микијељевић... Поред масивног звоника са 3 сата (сата нема само на источном зиду звоника), на улазном, западном дијелу храма, цркву краси и велика купола изнад наоса. Кружног је облика са 4 мала прозора-вентилациона отвора. Јужни и сјеверни зид храма имају по 2 прозора са обје стране, а полукружна олтарска апсида има један прозор. У храму је барокни иконостас, а 2013. у олтару су биле насликане фреске. Под је од црвених и бијелих камених блокова у облику шаховске плоче, само укосо постављених.

Галерија

Извори

Спољашње везе

Општина Тиват
Цркве Митрополије црногорско-приморске
Православни храмови у Црној Гори

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Energy saving lightbulbs - 9w and 11w sticks are currently 5 for 40p in Tescos.
I wish the low-energy bulbs would hurry up and mature... We have dimmers in most of our rooms, which means that 95% of low-energy bulbs just won't work. I have tried a 18w dimmable (£15 inc postage), but it takes about a minute to warm up to full brightness and although touted as 100w equivalent we found we were straining to see so we've had to swap back to a normal 100w bulb for now.
We also have a number of GU10 50w spots in our kitchen. The only GU10 low energy bulbs are either larger than normal (and so won't fit the light fittings) or not bright enough (only about 35w equivalent), so still on normal bulbs for there too!
I just wish we could swap to low-energy bulbs without replacing all of the light fittings just to take more bulbs to provide the same light.
I am a fan of the 30w full daylight spectrum bulbs. Nowhere near as cheap but they kick out a fair bit of light and are great for waking up in the morning.
One of those as a bedside light is great for stopping you snoozing for too long.
I'd not seen any low energy ones higher than 20w, so could be interested in getting one of those to try out. I presume it's not dimable (at least the ones linked above aren't), but if that is suitably bright enough then it could be worth considering. How quick are they at starting?
Hmm, that looks rather nice.
I might have to get a few of those. my biggest grumble with energy savers is they're a bit dim.
Although, I consider the 'slow warmup' a feature - I like not having to go 'aah my eyes' when I turn 'em on :0.
That looks like them, although you may want to shop around as they can be found cheeper. They can be dimmed very slightly, but not to the degree of an incandesant.
They are probably on a par with most other CF bulbs when it comes to starting.
The thing to note is that, as you would expect with a daylight spectrum bulb, the colour temperature is higher than other bulbs. It does give you a fairly harsh white light a bit like a supermarket.


Our 39th release on the label is an EP full of Dark Space Ambient from Hyperreality. Hints of light shine throughout the release, but you really feel the cold darkness of outer space with this release. How to listen to this properly? As the artist states, space ambient should be visualised to when you're alone, in the dark so try listening to this fantastic release of Dark Space Ambient when you're alone and about to fall asleep.


Here are a few fun and easy ideas of Hunts you can do with your little ones.
Or click HERE to see all these posts.
Hey, thank you for these suggestions! Now, I won't run out of fun and educational activities with my preschool son.
Thank you for all the ideas, now I will have something for my kids to do so they don't get bored and are learning at the same time too. Thanks!


This .357 steel cased ammunition is brand new Russian import. The Tula Cartridge works has been producing ammunition to both military and civilian spec since the year 1880. Tula has produced ammunition for the Russian and Soviet Military during both World War one and World War Two, and throughout the cold war. Today, Tula supplies ammunition not only to Russia, but to governments worldwide. Tula Ammo is seen in a wide variety of roles, from the battlefield to the back woods. Tula has earned a solid reputation producing cartridges that are reasonably priced, reliable and built tough. All Tula .357 ammunition is new production. Tula .357 ammunition is in compliance with CIP requirements.
Ammunition is polymer coated steel cased. Cartridges are boxer primed and non-corrosive. The bullet is bi-metal copper and steel with a solid lead core.
Note: Some users have reported cartridge casings sticking in their cylinders after firing, you may want to purchase a box to test. Many revolvers run this ammunition flawlessly. Some mainly imports have been documented to have more difficult time extracting spent casings.
loaded 6 rounds in my s& w, .357 revolver, every casing expanded/jammed in the cylinder, & i had to drive them out. the bullets fired perfectly well, but would not eject from the cylinder & had to be driven out.
same thing (above) happened tula ammo in my .38 spl.
however, i ran 200 rounds thru my 9mm glock 43 with absolutely no problem at all. go figure.
Now i have 990 rounds left to do lord knows what with..
I use Tula successfully in my semi-auto handguns and rifles. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work well in my (only) revolver, the shell casing get stuck in the cylinder of my S&W 686 after firing, it's frustrating and not worth the effort to dislodge them.


EXCLUSIVE: Focus Features and Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman are closing a deal to acquire the new Neil Gaiman novel The Ocean At The End Of The Lane. Joe Wright is being attached to direct, and his Shoebox Films partner Paul Webster is coming aboard to produce with Hanks and Goetzman. The film will be a co-production between Playtone and Shoebox.
The Ocean At The End of the Lane will be published in June by William Morrow. According to jacket copy, it's about about memory and magic and survival, about the power of stories and the darkness inside each of us. The narrator describes a tale that begins when he was seven and a lodger stole the family's car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and a menace unleashed — within his family, and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a ramshackle farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.
That sounds promising and hey, it's Gaiman, whose works include American Gods, Sandman, The Graveyard Book, all of which are getting made. He was also behind Coraline, which Focus Features turn into an animated hit.
Wright teamed with Focus Features on his last two films, Anna Karenina and Hanna, and before that Pride & Prejudice.
Playtone is adapting Gaiman's American Gods as a series for HBO, and the production company just won five Emmy Awards for Game Change, and Playtone is currently producing the Peter Landesman-directed feature Parkland.


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EA+SATOSPHERE
Adaptation of the EA concept to the dome of the SAT
It is in residence at the Society for Technological Arts [SAT], that we adapted the EA concept to the Satosphere, the SAT 360˚ immersive projection dome. We presented the fruit of his research in ten représentations.
Use the immersive three-dimensional space of the dome and the spatialization of sound to immerse the spectator in the heart of the pictorial creation.
from SAT
"A pioneer in the field of immersive creation, the SAT inaugurated the Satosphère in October 2011: the very first permanent immersive modular theatre, dedicated to artistic creation and visualization activities. With a diameter of 18 metres and a height of 11.5 to 13 metres, this dome forms a 360-degree spherical projection screen and can accommodate up to 350 spectators.
The Satosphère is a new creative tool for tangible, inclusive, and immersive human experiences, placing the audience at the very heart of the audio-visual experience. Whether it's for audio, visual film, architectural visualization, dance, or game projects, you're invited to come explore new conceptual and sensory territories on a human scale."
The Satosphère's key points :
Modular screen configuration : 180°, 210° and vertical 230° by 360°
18m in diameter
11.5 to 13m high
8 video projectors
157 speakers
www.sat.qc.ca/en/satosphere
© 2017 ÉLECTRO-ACRYLIQUE


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Whittier College Catalog 2021-2022
Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate
Student Financing
Whittier College Catalog 2021-2022 ARCHIVED CATALOG
ANTH 213 - Peoples & Cultures of Native America
Who are the people native to North America? What has been the role of Native Americans in the formation of "America"? What is unique to their circumstances within a complex state structure and global system? Where do various Native American groups share cultural patterns and where are there differences among them, for example, in origin, environmental setting, world view, family structure, and political system? How do these patterns influence their responses to contemporary issues? This course will explore the issues raised by such questions through detailed historical and ethnographic studies of selected societies.


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Directory of Parishes
Rice Lake, Wisconsin
History of the Diocese of Superior
The history of the Diocese of Superior dates back to the 17th century. Our Journey Through Faith offers a glimpse into the historic events that played a role in the growth of Catholicism in Northern Wisconsin.
Our Journey through Faith: A History of the Diocese of Superior,
Diocese of Superior - Statistics
View the summary from the last Parish self-assessment questionnaire conducted in 2012.
Read the 98-page Executive Report 2013 (PDF)
Birchwood | Dobie | Haugen | Rice Lake
Parish History - Overview
St. Joseph Parish was organized in 1880, but continued as a mission of Stanfold, now Dobie, until 1887. In November 1880, Fr. Joseph Dole purchased property on West Marshall Street, site of the present church, from the Knapp-Stout Lumber Company. The first church was constructed of wood and brick veneer and was completed in 1881. In 1887, Fr. Michael Schoelch was appointed the first resident pastor. By 1906, the need for a larger church was evident due to an influx of French, German and Irish immigrants who settled in Rice Lake for the Knapp-Stout Lumber Company. In March 1908, demolition of the old church began. The cornerstone of the new church was laid July 4, 1908. On Thanksgiving Day, 1908, the gothic style church was dedicated. In 1936 a kitchen and restrooms were installed in the basement. Exterior renovations were made to the existing structure in 1947. A cement floor was poured in the basement in 1950. The Communion railing was removed in 1967 and the altar was placed in the middle of the sanctuary to comply with liturgical changes instituted during the Second Vatican Council. Major interior and exterior upgrading took place in 1978 and 1979. In 1995, the last major improvements were made to enhance the worship space and to make the entire structure accessible to the disabled.


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Home > All Tours > USA > USA Tours > Southeast Trail
11 Day Guided Tour from New York to New Orleans with Busabout
Book online and enjoy exclusive savings on Busabout's 11 Day Southeast Trail. O say can you see, a once in a lifetime adventure spanning from the Big Apple to the Big Easy. On this expertly crafted, 11-day road trip across the eastern United States, you'll see the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, walk Johnny Cash's line in...read more Nashville, and discover Elvis' Heartbreak Hotel in Memphis. From the White House to honky-tonks and voodoo priests, everyone who's anyone knows that the East Coast is where to be!
1 New York to Philadelphia to Washington D.C.
Our 11-day adventure begins in the Big Apple: New York City. Don't get comfy though, because we're off to our first stop, Philadelphia, bright and early. In Philly, you're free to explore, relax, feast, or meander. Why not follow in Rocky Balboa's footsteps and jog the 72 steps leading up to the Philadelphia Museum of Arts? History buffs should be sure to check out the famous Liberty Bell, an iconic symbol of American independence. Next, we'll be travelling to Washington D.C. Upon arrival, we'll take a driving tour of the city to snag a quick look at all of the best bits before you're free to spend the evening however you see fit. We recommend a sunset view from the Arlington, the Iwo Jima Memorials and a cheeky drink in a local bar.
2 Washington D.C.
Today, head out into the United States capital city and see it your way. In the morning, you have the option of a bike tour of the capital area. You'll soak in the sights of the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Washington and Lincoln Memorials. In the afternoon, why not indulge in a tour of the Capitol Building or the White House and witness the world's foremost political power in action. If politics isn't your thing, there are more than 17 free Smithsonian Museums darted around DC, any of which are well worth the visit! For anyone looking to blow some dollars and undergo the genuine American shopping experience, Georgetown isn't far and can cater to all your spending needs. Tonight, go happy hour hunting in any number of Washington bars.
3 Washington D.C. to Asheville
We'll be rolling out of D.C. in the early morning with Asheville ahead of us. When we arrive in the afternoon we'll have a quick rest before it's back out to explore this vibrant, mountain nestled city. Together, we'll follow a sculptural urban walking trail designed to honour the people and communities that moulded Asheville into the gorgeous city it is today. Come evening, we'll head out on a walking tour of the city before meandering over to a rooftop bar for views of the sun setting behind the magnificent Blue Ridge Mountains, and relax until the stars arrive. Under the blanket of night, we'll hit the lively streets to experience Asheville's famous musical and culinary scenes.
4 Asheville
Asheville awaits today, and you're free to see it however you please. From beer, to arts, to architecture, Asheville has it all. You have the option of joining your guide and getting back to nature today – we'll head down to the Blue Ridge Parkway and stop for hikes, visit some waterfalls, and hit some lookouts. If that's not your vibe, you can visit the 19th century Biltmore Estate, an enormous French-inspired chateau constructed by George Vanderbilt. The estate has been utilised in cinema since the 1940s and was featured in Richie Rich, Forrest Gump, and Hannibal! A stop off in the Arts District is a must for anyone with an eye for style. Here, you'll be lost in a sea of studios, murals, galleries, and street musicians. Next, head over to the Industrial District to discover why Asheville's affectionately referred to as Beer Town. With 30 craft breweries and even beer flavoured doughnuts, the South Slope Brewery Zone is easily one of the best places to kickstart a memorable night.
5 Asheville to Nashville
Day five puts us down in Nashville, Tennessee: the home of country tunes, red-hot chicken wings, and rowdy line dancing. As we hit the road we'll be stopping off for lunch in Knoxville, a charming town with a bustling market square. For city views, you can venture into the iconic observation deck of the Sunsphere for a gallery of Knoxville images and a 360 degree view of the city. When we arrive in Nashville, we'll head out to experience some of the city's famous music scene. You'll spend your evening being treated to live music, good food, and a whole load of laughs.
6 Nashville
You're set loose, yet again, on another unsuspecting city. There's plenty to see and do in Nashville's colourful streets but we recommend embracing the country spirit and checking out the RCA Studios or the Johnny Cash Museum. Better yet, meander over to the Grand Opry, which is where country music was first made famous. For views of the city and surrounding river, be sure to walk the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge; an impressive feat of engineering and one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world. Tonight you are free to try and catch a show at the Ryman Theatre, the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, or bar hop all the way down Broadway.
7 Nashville to Memphis
This morning we'll be making the pilgrimage from the home of country music to the birthplace of blues, soul, and rock & roll: Memphis. When we arrive in the early evening, we'll kick things off with a tour of the city to get us orientated. We'll pass famous sites, such as the National Civil Rights Museum, the Rock n Soul Museum, and Mud Island. Tonight we'll venture to Beale Street, which is historic for its impact on blues! Dine and drink the night away in venues frequented by legends like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Louis Armstrong.
8 Memphis
It's time to rock your way across Memphis on another free day. Fans of Elvis Presley should consider a trip to Graceland, where the King lived in his mansion. Explore the musical legend's home-turn-museum and visit his final resting place. The city is also home to the infamous Lorraine Motel, where Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. Now the motel stands as a museum to Civil Rights and all of Doctor King's achievements. If you're not music-ed out, take a tour of Sun Studio and see where legends like Johnny Cash, BB King and Elvis recorded. Tonight, head back to Beale Street for more soulful blues, fine food, and cocktails.
9 Memphis to New Orleans
We bid farewell to Memphis bright and early and make our way to our headline city and home of smooth jazz, New Orleans. After arriving in the afternoon, we'll head out to explore the city's oldest area: the French Quarter and Jackson Square. Here we'll enjoy heritage houses, vibrant street performers and a mouth-watering variety of restaurants! After a soulful wander around these quaint, colourful streets, we'll delve deeper into the Big Easy for a night of unbeatable jazz and slick New Orleans cocktails.
10 New Orleans
Our last full day on the trip dawns and we urge you start it with a beignet pastry from Cafe du Monde! There's an incredible variety of activities and sights in New Orleans, ranging from art and WW2 Museums to ghost walks and flea markets. Head out in any direction and you'll find something worth seeing! We recommend a bike tour for the best coverage or even a bike rental. If the city's unique spiritual side is what you're craving than take a trip to Rev Zombie's House of Voodoo for all things folkways. Tonight we'll visit French Street to end our tour in style. We'll experience live music whilst perusing casual eateries and sipping on cocktails. What better way cap off an incredible adventure?
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and today, once we've shared one last epic group breakfast, it's time to say our farewells and go our separate ways. We hope to see you again!
Run the Rocky steps in Philadelphia
Experience Asheville's hip bohemian vibe
Party in the French Quarter of New Orleans
All coach transport
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Barbara Wirkus is a Jill of all trades and mistress of none. In her lifetime she has been a wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, Emergency Medical Technician, Medical Technologist, poet, tap dancer, gardener, photographer, writer, political activist, birder, and art gallery curator.
Chapbook, revised and expanded; $9.
With eighty-plus years of wisdom and experience, poet Barbara Wirkus has crafted twenty-six exquisitely poignant and wistful poems that reflect on the passage of time and some of those who have danced in her heart and still do, and her heart always responds with poetry: passionate, platonic, maternal and caring: readers are certain to FEEL the pangs and the delicate pulls in Echoes From the Bell Jar.
a reprieve from kaleidoscopic lives.
but for what we never had.


Hungary trip day 5 (driving) – Eger, Egri Bikaver, Eger Castle, Eger Basilica, Bukk National Park, Ballet – The Karamazovs.
The town of Eger, east of Budapest, is famous for eggs and Egri Bikaver, or Bull's Blood wine. So my mission was to find some. Wine that is, not eggs. Of course you can simply buy it in a supermarket in Budapest or at the airport duty-free, but where's the fun in that?
In 1552, 50,000, 100,000, or 200,000 (different figures depending on what you read, but a lot anyway) Ottoman Turks laid seige to Eger, which was defended by about 2,000 Hungarian troops, fortified by Egri Bikaver poured down their throats by their captain, Istvan Dobo. And with the assistance of the women in the town who poured boiling oil over the Turks, the town was successfully defended. Unfortunately, 44 years later, the Turks tried again and succeeded, and stayed for 90 years before being thrown out. I'd suggest staying just for a day or two. There's an area called the Valley of Beautiful Women (Szepasszonyvolgy – the signs say Nice Ladies Valley or something) with a large number of wine cellars where you can sample and buy Egri Bikaver. Don't drink and drive. Apart from the risk of spilling your wine, the limit is zero, and they're quite strict about it apparently.
The Bull's Blood name comes from the Turks seeing the victorious Hungarians with red wine dribbling down their chins, and thinking they had drunk the blood of bulls. Or so the story goes.
The times have changed however, now one needs not fear a Turkish invasion in Hungary, but the airport security officials who will deny export of bottles of Egri Bikaver in your hand luggage because they are larger than 100 ml. Bugger. I tried to find a beautiful woman to pour boiling oil on them but no such luck. I even tried to pour the wine on them to reduce the quantity in each bottle to less than 100 ml, but they were not impressed.
In the town of Eger, there are the ruins of Eger Var (Eger Castle) which is interesting to explore for a while, and an unruined Eger Basilica (Erseki Foszekesegyhaz), built in the early 1800s, designed by the same chap who did the basilica in Esztergom – architect Joseph Hild (Jozsef Hild). The Eger one is a bit smaller but is a nicer shade of yellow on the outside, and a bit more colorful on the inside.
Bukk National Park (Bukki Nemzeti Park) is east of Eger between the towns of Eger and Miskolc and has a few hills and a couple of steam trains. The highest hill in the park is Istallos-ko, at 959m. The highest hill (at what height do hills become mountains?) in Hungary is Kekesteto, a short distance west of Eger, height 1014m. A good place for a picnic, and if you bring some Egri Bikaver with you, your confidence should be boosted sufficiently to fight off Turkish invaders. Or NZ invaders. Or invaders from anywhere.
Back to Budapest for a ballet performance at the opera house (The Karamazovs – a story about a girl and a couple of blokes – similar to opera). I have a confession. I had never been to a ballet performance so wasn't sure what to expect (yes, I did know there would be people dancing). It was unexpectedly fascinating – actually it looked like something Cirque du Soleil might do. My neighbour in the stalls, who had nicked my front row seat because I was late, told me that this was contemporary ballet, not classical ballet. Which explained the lack of frilly skirts.
Across the road from the opera house was quite possibly the best bookshop I have ever seen. Not because of the book collection (although that was impressive), but because it had an exquisite looking cafe upstairs, was open until 10pm every day, and they sold wine (including Egri Bikaver).
Dinner was worth a mention, because I parked myself in a restaurant on the UNESCO World Heritage Site listed Andrassy Avenue (Andrassy Utsa or Utca) and had some authentic traditional Hungarian pizza at authentic traditional Hungarian tourist prices. Pizza Hut is much better.
359 – Autumn bull's blood vines near Eger.
369 – Quaint Eger central street.
374 – Eger town square and cathedral (not the basilica).
384 – Walk up past the Mona Lisa to the Eger Var (castle).
389 – Wine tasting courtyard in Eger.
392 – My part time job as a Hungarian somelier. I even dressed up for it, as you can see.
400 – Eger Basilica in the line of fire.
428 – Eger Var, cathedral, and basilica.
433 – Modern Hungarian houses.
439 – Eger Var, cathedral, and basilica.
443 – Hungarian army fighting off Turkish invaders in Eger.
447 – Eger town square and cathedral.
451 – Hungarian army pouring boiling oil down on Turkish invaders.
472 – Eger basilica outside.
496 – Eger basilica inside.
531 – Eger basilica inside – domes and windows and stuff.
600 – Bukk National Park scenic drive.
622 – Bukk National Park mountain pass (forgot the name).
629 – Budapest ballet performers sans frilly skirts.
643 – … and cafe upstairs. No kidding. Have you ever seen anything like it in a bookshop?
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A special candle that is inserted into the ear canal and as it is lit, it creates a vacuum and clears out the ear wax and infections.
This treatment is an aloe body wash, which is with enzymes (active) aloe vera and coconut oil soap. This wash will leave no film on the skin and will eliminate unsightly clogged pore bumps. Clients using aloe body was daily will lose up to 40% more weight than clients that use other body cleanse.
Florida Spa had been proudly serving the South Florida area for over 32 years.
This is designed and developed to restore the body's balance and energy levels. It also aids in its natural detoxification process. In addition, it is proven to balance and restore the body's pH and electromagnetic energy.
Benefits - McGraw-Hill encyclopedia reports medical practitioners make use of infrared radiant heat to treat sprains strains, bursitis, peripheral, vascular disease, arthritis, and muscle pain.
Mud Bath: Cleanse the body to remove dead skin and brighten the skin. The mud bath is a product from the Dead Sea which is infused with Dead Sea salts and minerals (15 minute body therapy) cleanses skin from dirt and impurities effectively moisturizes and restores skin elasticity for all skin types. 45-minute sessions.


Love birds lamp and shade. Resin lamp base features elephant and lion with a matching fabric printed shade in a green and white jungle vine print. Lamp stands about 14 inches tall and includes an energy efficient light bulb. Coordinates with a full line of nursery bedding and decor.