Gemini should be almost overhead in the Northern Hemisphere, and can be picked out by its two brightest starts, Castor and Pollux. Gemini can be seen from September to May. But between September to November it is only visible in the morning before sunrise. It is best viewed from January to March. For evening viewing it is possible from December to May In February it should best visible at 9.00pm.
I will follow this post up with another one about the Twins on July 15th but here are the basic details from that post:
The Divine Twins, the Dioscuri, were horsemen, patrons of calvary, athletes, and sailors. Pollux is the son of Zeus and Leda (raped by Zeus in the guise of a swan). His twin brother has a different and mortal father, the King of Sparta and the same mother, Leda. So they are examples of heteropaternal superfecundation.
One is therefore immortal and the other isn’t. They had many adventures including sailing with Jason as Arganauts.
According to some version of the story, Castor was mortally wounded, and Zeus gave his twin brother the option of letting Castor die while Pollux spends eternity on Mount Olympus, or sharing his immortality with his brother. He agreed to the latter, and the twins spend half their year as the Constellation of Gemini and the rest, immortal, on Mount Olympus. Thus, they are the epitome of brotherly love.
Their sisters were, no less than Helen of Troy, and Clytemnestra. But more about them in July.
Diagram of H. A. Rey‘s alternative way to connect the stars of the constellation Gemini. Twins are shown holding hands. Wikipedia AugPi CC BY-SA 3.0
The Chinese New Year is a lunar festival that falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. However, not always. The need to keep the lunar and the solar years in some sort of sync means they add in intercalary months from time to time, in which case the Chinese New year will fall on the third new moon after the winter solstice.
If you look at the chart you will see this is the year of the dragon, the wood dragon, representing both wood and earth, which are, to some extent, in conflict. To find out more and for predictions of the year, look here:
First written in January 2023 and revised in February 2024.
A plate of Polish pączki for tłusty czwartek (Fat Thursday)
Today is El Jueves Lardero in Spain, Giovedì grasso in Italy, Weiberfastnach in the Rhineland, Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday) in Poland and Tsiknopempti in Greece. It is the first day in the Carnival season, which reaches a climax on Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday when the 40 days of fasting before Lent begins. Last year it was on February 16th.
In Poland, the tradition is to eat pączki which we call doughnuts and the Germans call Berliners. (remember when Kennedy made that famous speech in Berlin and said ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’, well what he was saying was ‘I’m a doughnut’). The doughnuts traditionally should be made with red jam, but now people can use cream, or almost any sort of sugary addition.
Spain is more savoury, where tortilla are eaten but also eat sausages, bacon, and pork on that day. In Catalonia, they eat tortilla with butifarra.(which are sausages in the Roman tradition). Here is a recipe for butifarra.
In Italy giovedì grasso is when “the fooling and the mumming, the dancing, shrieking, and screaming would be at its height.” according to the English writer Marie Corelli in her book Vendetta (1886). For more on Fat Thursday and El Jueves Lardero.
Butter Week & Lardy Cake
There are some indications that the week before Shrove Tuesday in the Anglo Saxon period was one of merriment and eating the things that were not allowed in Lent. So in Old English this week is Cheese Week or Butter Week, and there was a Cheesefare Sunday. (‘Winters in the World’ by Eleanor Parker).
But I cannot find any references to traditions of a fat Thursday or a Lardy Thursday in the UK. But we do have the fabulous Lardy Cake, it is a cake that drips with sugar and pig fat, and is one of my very favourite cakes. The main ingredients are rendered lard, flour, sugar, spices, currants and raisins. I was brought up on Chelsea Buns, Spotted Dick, Lardy Cake and Sticky Willies (iced buns). I am surprised I wasn’t an overweight child!
It is by no means a countrywide cake. My own theory is that it was a delicacy of the West Saxons. And I fondly imagine King Alfred tending to the Lardy Cake when musing about defeating the Vikings. I have bought it in Woking and Guildford in Surrey, in Winchester (Alfred’s Capital), Reading, and the best were sold in Cornmarket in Oxford, in the since closed Woolworths. These are all in areas controlled by Wessex in the 9th Century.
When lecturing at Worcester I found a variant of it which is called Worcester Dripping Cake and Worcester is in the Kingdom of Mercia. Wikipedia says Lardy Cake is from: ‘southern counties of England, including Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Gloucestershire.’ But I have never found it myself around Stonehenge, or in Dorchester, nor in the Cotswolds. So I would say Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire are the lardy cake heartlands. It is said to have been originally for special occasions, so maybe there once was a Lardy Thursday tradition. It feels like there should be one!
And here, courtesy of the BBC and the handsome (but possibly a little ‘lardy’) Paul Hollywood of Bake-off fame, is a recipe for Lardy Cake. Please make it and feel that wonderful English Pudding feeling of a lead weight in your stomach.
The recipe says ‘This recipe has a generous amount of dried fruit in a rich dough that’s lighter and less sweet than most shop-bought lardy cakes’. So, it’s not going to be entirely authentic!
Following posting this page on Facebook Heike Herbert posted this response concerning ‘Women’s Fast Night on February 8th in Cologne or Koln:
Aristotelis Psitos emailed me to say that the Greek Orthodox ‘Fat Thursday is not until 16th February.
Full Moon Photos by Natalie Tobert – you can find out more about her work here:
The Goddess Book of Days’ has the the 7th as the Day of Selene and other Moon Goddesses. (February 6th as the Festival of Aphrodite)
Selene is one of the most beguiling of Goddesses as she is the epitome of the Moon (Romans knew her as Luna). She, who gives that silvery, ethereal light to dark days, who appears and disappears to a routine few of us really understand. She is therefore beautiful, beguiling, unknowable. She is the Goddess of Intuition. She brings the tides and the monthly periods, and so is a Goddess of power as well as fertility, pregnancy and so love, and mothers, and babies.
To my mind, far more powerful than Aphrodite, Selene seems much more independent. On the Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum she is shown with her brother Helios, the Sun God; with Hercules – the epitome of male strength, Demeter and Persephone, representing the earth and underworld (or life and death), Athene and her father, Zeus; Iris, the messenger Goddess; Hestia, the Goddess of the home, and Dione with her daughter ,Aphrodite, representing love. At one end, Helios brings up the sun with his Chariot and Horse and at the other, Selene’s horse sinks exhausted in Oceanus after a glorious night of moon shine. It’s a wonderful arrangement, which suggests the scheme was to show a balanced cosmos between female and male forces, framed by the Sun and the Moon.
Cartoon of Elgin Marble, showing Selene’s Horse at the right hand end
I did a longer piece on this pediment of the Parthenon Marbles here
Selene – Moon Goddess by Mike Petrucci -unsplash
I have used several of Natalie Tobert’s photos in my post which I pluck from Natalie’s face facebook feed which is a veritable visual feast. She worked, as an archaeologist at the Museum of London at the same time as me. She is an excellent potter, photographer and artist. Natalie was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of Society of Designer Craftsmen. You can see more of her pictures here.
This is going to be transferred to April 20th in 2025.
First published in 2022, and revised February 2024.
Snowdrops in late January 2024, Gilbert White’s House Selborne (Photo Kevin Flude)
Today is Imbolc, one of the four Celtic Fire Festivals. It corresponds with St Bridget’s Day, which is a Christian festival for the Irish Saint, and is the eve of Candlemas. Bridget is the patron saint of all things to do with brides, marriage, fertility, and midwifery (amongst many other things, see above). And in Ireland, last year (2024) was the very first St Bridget’s/ Imbolc Day Bank Holiday!
St Bride’s Statue, St Bride’s Church. Fleet Street from K.Flude’s virtual tour on Imbolc
St Bridget, aka Briddy or Bride, converted the Irish to Christianity along with St Patrick in the 5th Century AD. She appears to have taken on the attributes of a Celtic fertility Goddess, called Bridget or Brigantia, so some doubt she was a real person.
Brigantia
There are Roman altars dedicated to Brigantia The Brigantes tribe in the North were named after the Goddess. The Brigantes were on the front line against the invading Romans in the 1st Century AD, and led by Queen Cartimandua. Cartimandua tried to keep her independence by cooperating with the Romans, while, a few years later, Boudica took the opposite strategy. But both women appear to have had agency as leaders of their tribes and show a great contrast with Roman misogyny.
Altar to Brigantia from K Flude’s virtual tour on Imbolc
Last day of medieval Christmas and the Lords of Misrule.
This was the end of the Christmas period. John Stow, in the 16th Century describes the period between Halloween and Candlemas being the time that London was ruled by various Lords of Misrule and Boy Bishops (see my post here). In the piece below Stow goes on to talk about a terrible storm that took place on st February 1444.
Against the feast of Christmas every man’s house, as also the parish churches, were decked with holm, ivy, bays, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green. The conduits and standards in the streets were likewise garnished; amongst the which I read, in the year 1444, that by tempest of thunder and lightning, on the 1st of February, at night, Powle’s steeple was fired, but with great labour quenched; and towards the morning of Candlemas day, at the Leaden hall in Cornhill, a standard of tree being set up in midst of the pavement, fast in the ground, nailed full of holm and ivy, for disport of Christmas to the people, was torn up, and cast down by the malignant spirit (as was thought), and the stones of the pavement all about were cast in the streets, and into divers houses, so that the people were sore aghast of the great tempests.’
Wells dedicated to St Bridget
There are many wells dedicated to St Bride. They were often used in rituals and dances concerned with fertility and healthy babies. And perhaps, the most famous, was near Fleet Street. Henry VIII’s Palace of Bridewell, later an infamous prison, was named after the Well. St Bride’s Church has long been a candidate as an early Christian Church, and although the post World War Two excavations found nothing to suggest an early Church, they did find an early well near the site of the later altar of the Church, and by the remains of a Roman building, possibly a mausoleum. Therefore, it is possible that the Church was built on the site of an ancient, arguably holy, well.
St Bridget’s Well, Glastonbury
The steeple of St Brides is said to be the origin of the tiered Wedding Cake, which, in 1812, inspired a local baker to bake for his daughter’s wedding.
Steeple of St Brides Fleet Street
Imbolc and St Bridget’s Day are the time to celebrate the return of fertility to the earth as spring approaches. In my garden and my local park, the first snowdrops, violets, and daffodils are coming out, and below the bare earth, there is a frenzy of bulbs and seeds budding, and beginning to poke their shoots up above the earth, ready for the Spring. In the meadows, ewes are lactating, and the first lambs are being born.
Violets, bulbs, and my first Daffodil of the year. Hackney (2022), London by K Flude
I, occasionally, do walks about Imbolc and other Celtic festivals, in conjunction with the Myths and Legends of London, and at May Eve, the Solstices, Halloween and Christmas (when I have time). See the walks page of this blog
And let’s end with the Saint Brigid Hearth Keeper PrayerCourtesy of SaintBrigids.org
Brigid of the Mantle, encompass us, Lady of the Lambs, protect us, Keeper of the Hearth, kindle us. Beneath your mantle, gather us, And restore us to memory. Mothers of our mother, Foremothers strong. Guide our hands in yours, Remind us how to kindle the hearth. To keep it bright, to preserve the flame. Your hands upon ours, Our hands within yours, To kindle the light, Both day and night. The Mantle of Brigid about us, The Memory of Brigid within us, The Protection of Brigid keeping us From harm, from ignorance, from heartlessness. This day and night, From dawn till dark, From dark till dawn.
I have been waiting to post this for a long time, as it relates to Christmas. (Was it really a month ago?) By the way, I have added to some text to yesterday’s Brexit posts.
This evening is also Imbolc, the Celtic Festival to Brigantia and St. Bridget of Kildare. Candlemas tomorrow.
This is a letter from Mary Musgrove in Persuasion (Chapter 18). This is Jane Austen’s most mature and probably the best novel,. Here the moany Mary Musgrove writes a typically FOMO letter which illustrates how Christmas, for the well, off really continued to February 1st and Candlemas.
February 1st “My dear Anne,–I make no apology for my silence because I know how little people think of letters in such a place as Bath. You must be a great deal too happy to care for Uppercross, which, as you well know, affords little to write about. We have had a very dull Christmas; Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove have not had one dinner party all the holidays. I do not reckon the Hayters as anybody.
The holidays, however, are over at last: I believe no children ever had such long ones. I am sure I had not. The house was cleared yesterday, except of the little Harvilles; but you will be surprised to hear they have never gone home. Mrs. Harville must be an odd mother to part with them so long. I do not understand it. They are not at all nice children, in my opinion; but Mrs. Musgrove seems to like them quite as well, if not better, than her grandchildren.
What dreadful weather we have had! It may not be felt in Bath, with your nice pavements; but in the country it is of some consequence. I have not had a creature call on me since the second week in January, except Charles Hayter, who had been calling much oftener than was welcome.
Between ourselves, I think it a great pity Henrietta did not remain at Lyme as long as Louisa; it would have kept her a little out of his way. The carriage is gone to-day, to bring Louisa and the Harvilles to-morrow. We are not asked to dine with them, however, till the day after, Mrs. Musgrove is so afraid of her being fatigued by the journey, which is not very likely, considering the care that will be taken of her; and it would be much more convenient to me to dine there to-morrow.
I am glad you find Mr. Elliot so agreeable, and wish I could be acquainted with him too; but I have my usual luck: I am always out of the way when any thing desirable is going on; always the last of my family to be noticed. What an immense time Mrs. Clay has been staying with Elizabeth! Does she never mean to go away? But perhaps if she were to leave the room vacant, we might not be invited. Let me know what you think of this. I do not expect my children to be asked, you know. I can leave them at the Great House very well, for a month or six weeks.
I have this moment heard that the Crofts are going to Bath almost immediately; they think the Admiral gouty. Charles heard it quite by chance; they have not had the civility to give me any notice, or of offering to take anything. I do not think they improve at all as neighbours. We see nothing of them, and this is really an instance of gross inattention.
Charles joins me in love, and everything proper.
Yours affectionately,.”
It is my paragraphing rather than the original. The mystery of the book is how such a lovely, considerate, able daughter like Anne, can be from the same family as both her awful sisters, and her monstrous, egotistical father.
Satirical Ladybird Book Front Cover showing Johnson, Farage, May and Gove up Creek with an inadequate paddle
On this day in 2021, the United Kingdom, formally left the European Union.
I remember vividly the morning the referendum result was announced. We were in Glasgow for my daughter’s Graduation, and we all burst into tears.
I remain angry, (as you can see from the tags to my post, below, made exactly one year ago). It’s not so much at the idea, but the stupid way Brexit was done, with no planning or regard for consequences, just this blind idea that we, the British, were special.
Tags on my Brexit anniversary post last year
So how is it going? Support for Brexit has gone right down. 60% think it was a mistake, 35% think it was the right decision. The country is in a complete mess, most of our institutions are failing because of lack of money and a truly incompetent Conservative government. Even Nigel Farage has agreed that ‘Brexit has failed.‘
But, at least, under Sunak, the Conservatives have stopped going on about ‘Brexit Opportunities’ and have got rid of the ridiculous Jacob Rees Moog. As I write, I am listening to another rational compromise with the EU, by Sunak’s government, which has, seemingly, cleared up, Boris Johnson’s mess over the border with Northern Ireland. Sunak, at least seems like a grown up and has a more pragmatic approach to Europe.
Britain’s economy is doing badly, partly as a result of losing unhindered access to the biggest free market in the world. However, no party is actively campaigning to rejoin, and, it seems clear, that as time goes on we will gradually, in small steps, as Sunak has done, creep closer to the European Union. I would guess we will probably find our own version of associate membership at some point, in 5, 10, 20 years time.
Here, I want to take ‘the long view’ on Brexit. One important point to make, at the outset, is about British/English exceptionalism. When I was at school we were taught the history of ‘This Island Story’, our Commonwealth, how we had the created Parliamentary democracy and how Churchill won World War 2. This fed a feeling that we should never kowtow to European Bureaucrats. So how far back can we trace this sense of difference to Europe?
In the Upper Palaeolithic and early Mesolithic Britain was physically part of Europe, the Thames was a tributary to the Rhine. Archaeologists have recently been investigating the landbridge to Europe under the North Sea which is now called ‘Doggerland’ after the name of that portion of the sea. This was swept away by rising meltwater in about 8,000 years BP and made us an Island. And, so, Britain had an Island identify which we were very proud of until recent times. I can’t remember the last time someone referred to us as ‘an Island race’ but this was the title of CHURCHILL, Winston S.’s book: ‘The Island Race The History of the English-Speaking Peoples’
As farming spread from Asia Minor it took an extra thousand years to bridge the Channel.
Map of the spread of farming through Europe, showing Northern France, farming c 5000BC but Britain only in about 4000BC Source: https://agro.biodiver.se
The ‘native’ Britons eventually became speakers of the NW European group of languages called ‘Celtic’, but the Romans never called us that, they called us Britons, although Julius Caesar and others make it clear that the Britons often helped out rebel Celtic tribes in Gaul (France).
The most interesting difference is at the end of the Roman period. When the western part of the Roman Empire fell in the 5th Century, it was taken over by Germanic Kings. The Franks in France and Germany; the Anglo Saxons (etc.) in England; the Lombards in Italy and Goths, Visigoths, Vandals in Spain (and N. Africa).
On the mainland, the German Kings became native, the Roman culture endured, as did the Latin language, and Christian religion. And the tradition of Roman law and culture. French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian are all romance languages based on Latin.
Across the Channel in England, the same thing happened. German Kings took over from the Roman Empire. But here our German Kings didn’t adopt the Latin language. Nor indeed did they adopt the native Celtic dialect of Brittonic, and they changed the religion back to pagan. So English culture is Germanic and not Roman, Western European states were built on Roman foundations. In the Western areas of the British Isles, never very, if at all, Romanised, retained their Celtic heritages, either retained or adopted Christianity and used Latin as the language of learning and religion.
So, unlike most of Western Europe, England does not have a foundation in Latin culture and Roman law.
In AD 407, Britain threw off Roman rule and took independent control. We had 4 leaders of no great distinction in a short span. Seems familiar?
London in the 5th Century Reconstruction painting.
Then the Britons wrote, in AD 410, a letter to the Emperor Honorius asking him to take us back. He said, ‘Sorry, pals, the Goths are at the gates of Rome, but you can raise your own Armies to defend yourself.’
Now, the archaeology of this period is very difficult, so it’s hard to know what happened in detail. But we do know that coins went out of circulation, pottery manufacture ceased in Britain and Roman Towns declined dramatically.
My friend, Oxford Professor Bryan Ward-Perkins, wrote a book on the Decline of the Roman Empire in which he says that we next reached the level of international trade achieved at the height of the Roman Empire in 1500. 1000 years after the fall of Rome. Technically, a recession that lasted 1,000 years. It would seem that the destruction of a free trade zone can be a disastrous choice.
Lecture by Prof. Bryan Ward Perkins on the End of the Roman Britain.
In the early medieval period, Britain largely existed in a North German, Scandinavia North Sea economic zone, until the Norman Invasion of 1066 which brought us back into Europe. Clashes with the Catholic world broke out on occasion, such as the murder of Thomas Becket at the behest of Henry II, and over the use of English to read the bible after Wycliffe’s translation.
This came to a head in the 16th Century Reformation, Britain isolated itself from European Catholic Culture.
Despite the worst destruction of cultural heritage in England’s history, the economic impact of ‘going it alone’, doesn’t seem to have been that bad. It can be argued that the selling off of the one third of the land of the kingdom owned by the monasteries boosted the gentry and broadened the elite to include a more entrepreneurial class. Also, the downside in terms of turning our back on Europe wasn’t so destructive because Catholic Europe wasn’t a free trade zone, and much of Northern Europe was protestant.
But the next really significant difference was the changes instituted by Napoleon as he subdued and changed and, to an extent rationalised and liberalised the continent. He had dreams of creating a United Europe of Nations, in the process dismantling the Empires that held sway (such as the Holy Roman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire)
As a consequence, most legal systems in Europe are based on Roman Law as amended by the Napoleonic code, while England, by contrast, is based on the Common Law. Napoleon’s attempted blockade of trade with Britain, had an impact but as Britain controlled the seas and was a global trading nation and Empire made it much less dependent on trade with Europe. Secondly, the economy was on a war footing so lost production was more than compensated for. So, there is a case to be made that there are fundamental differences in British History which might explain our attitude to the EU. But, it feels, to me, that the main issue is that we don’t see ourselves as a normal European state but as something special.
St Cadoc was born in 497 AD, a Saint, and Martyr, who founded a monastery at Llancarfan, near Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales. He also has associations with Scotland, Brittany, and England. His story is not written down until the 11th Century, but it is fascinating and, in its own way, a charming story. The gentle son of a savage, robber King, he was educated in Latin under an Irish priest, and refused to fight on his father’s orders. But lived to convert his parents eventually. He is known as Cattwg Ddoeth, “the Wise”, although his sayings are mired in the forgeries of Iolo Morganwg.
His story brings Cadoc into conflict with King Arthur. In Welsh literature, King Arthur is a brave but wilful King who demanded Cadoc give him compensation after the Saint sheltered a man who had killed three of Arthur’s men. The compensation was delivered as a herd of cows, but as soon as Arthur took charge of them they turned into ferns.
Cadoc was forced out of Britain by the pagan Anglo-Saxons, but eventually, he felt he had to return despite the grave danger he would return to. He wanted to obey his own maxim:
Would you find glory? Then march to the grave.
He therefore moved to the Saxon settlements to give spiritual succour to the native British Christians who had survived the massacres of the Saxons. He met his martyrdom at Weedon in Northamptonshire, where he was celebrating a service when it was interrupted by Saxon horsemen, and Cadoc was slain as he served the Eucharist.
The Catholic Church celebrates him in September, elsewhere on the 24th January.
For more, look at https://celticsaints.org or Wikipedia.
First published in January 2023, republished in January 2024
‘The man born under Aquarius shall be lonely and ireful; he shall have silver at 32 years; he shall win wherever he goeth, or he shall be sore sick. He shall have fear on the water, and afterwards have good fortune, and shall go into divers strange countries. He shall live to be 75 years after nature.’
‘The woman shall be delicious, and have many noises for her children; she shall be in great peril at 24 years and thereafter in felicity. She shall have damage by beasts with four feet and shall live 77 years after nature.
The Kalendar of Shepherds, 1604 (quoted in the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly)
the Author sporting a Betsy Trotwood aphorism ‘Never be mean, never be false, never be cruel’
Resolutions & Predictions
The Kalendar of Shepherds predictions for those born in Aquarius, (see above) are so specific they cannot help but be wrong for most people. The art of the prophecy, surely, is to be vague, be general and to know human nature.
By the 21st of January, we should have an idea of whether we are going to keep to your resolutions or not. And perhaps we should now be tuning them or adapting them to fit our lives as actually lived, rather than on our pious hopes.
Last year, on January 21st, I had a chat with a taxi driver on the way to the railway station after my Uncle Brian’s Funeral. The driver told me that funerals make him wonder how his behaviour might influence the number of people who will, one day, make that special effort to turn up at his funeral. He was a young Asian guy, so he was thinking ahead quite some way.
I replied that ‘Funerals make me reflect on how much time I have spoiled by not being fully engaged in the moment’. All those conversations where my mind wandered, those radio programmes I only half heard as I tried to read a book at the same time, those train journeys, walks in the woods or along the canal while listening to headphones, those visits to relatives where I rushed back to get home as quickly as possible. Being present in the moment was, I said, perhaps, the key to improving the quality of life and interactions with others
We continued chatting through the short journey and as we arrived in the forecourt of the station he suggested we exchange a final bit of wisdom. As we had been talking about history, I turned to Charles Dickens and told him Betsy Trotwood’s words to David Copperfield:
“Never,” said my aunt, “be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you.”
I said that Betsy’s words stem from Charles Dickens’ belief that the key to progress in the world was to ignore the dogma of religion but to live by just one tenet: Treat people as you want to be treated by others.
In return, he told me of an Islamic teacher who responded to his enquiry as to how he could be sure of salvation given all the many (possibly conflicting) moral teachings and texts there were. The answer was, if he lived wisely and thoughtfully on his impact on others, he could be sure of salvation.
By this time I had missed my train, but the two of us had had a moment of connection, and there are plenty of trains from Guildford to Waterloo.
T-shirts
Philosophy for life as told to St Patrick by a Druid
I have a lot of t-shirts with quotations from history on them. I suspect I am one of the very few people who store his t-shirts in chronological order. Above is the first, and the last is
“You can’t always get what you want But if you try sometime you’ll find You get what you need”
Rolling Stones.
End note
Dickens philosophy was based on the broad understanding of Christianity, as expressed in these two quotations:
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
“Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31).
First written on 21st January 2023, revised January 2024.
This is the time for prophecy for the upcoming year. Prophecy is, of course, related to new year’s resolutions and central to the nature of the new year. As Janus, the Roman God of Beginnings and Endings has two heads looking in both direction, we, look back on the year passed before putting plans/hopes/aspirations/resolutions together for the hopeful new year ahead. Fortune-tellers normally tell their clients what they want to hear, and couch advice in generalities, enigmas and expectations. But such prophecy is not useless because we take what we are told through the lens of our own life, fears and aspiration. We might ignore those which don’t resonate, while latching on to those which fit in with thoughts and inclinations. It can help clarify our ideas and lead to plans and a state of mind to help us avoid our fears, and maximise our changes of realising our dreams.
Here are two pieces of ‘Weather Lore’ from Richard Inwards book of the same name:
January should the sun appear March and April will pay full dear.
Janiveer freeze the pot by the fire As the day lengthens So the cold strengthens
In this almanac, we have been following Gervase Markham’s 17th Century weather forecasting system, suggesting that the weather on the 10th Day of Christmas will rule the weather in the 10th Month. So October will be wet and warm.
The Mayor of Casterbridge, desperate to beat his one-time friend, Donald Farfrae, now a rival, in Corn dealing consulted a Cunning Man about the likely weather, and was as a result made a pauper.
Old Moore’s Almanac made the following predictions for 2023:
They got most of them wrong! As they were in the 2022 almanac when they prophesied a a ‘prevailing sense of optimism’ and ‘high support for the Government’. There was no word of a European war either.
Bible Prophecy
A simple form of prophecy was to open a book at random, stab a finger randomly onto the chosen page, and the text there will give you an insight into your future. Old lore recommends using a Bible but, as I prepared for my New Year’s Walk, I took a small, light book of poetry, randomly chosen, for my Prophecy demonstration as I don’t have a light portable bible.
I tried it out before the walk and this is what my random choice was:
The Perfect Life It is not growing like a tree in bulk, doth make Man better be; or standing long an oak three hundred year, to fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere;
A lily of a day is fairer in May, although it fall and die that night- It was the plant and flower of Light. In small proportions we just beauties see: and in short measures life may perfect be.
Ben Jonson
Of course, I intended to do the prophecy live, but my hasty scan of the poem suggested parallels with my Almanac interests, and the last two lines, suggested I was going to have the perfect life in 2023 with a life full of ‘beauties’. I decided to stick rather than twist and used this poem for my walk. Re-reading it again now, I can also see you could interpret it as a call to enjoy life now because you never know when it is going to end! But then that is always good advice.
