Writing today, what to say. Listened to a zoom meeting, a meditation on Samhain. Georgie is good at storytelling, she told of the Cailleach or Hag that somehow represents the dark days coming up to winter. Remember I talked of the Mother Goddess on the Isle of Lewis the other day. Female goddesses were represented in the Roman line-up of gods as well The matres (mother goddesses) often carrying a cornucopia of food, maybe with a little dog at heel. Life through the ages is very similar to life today.
The Hag though was dark and frightening, someone you pulled up to frighten your children as we get to All-Saints night. She is more of a Scottish/Northern figure, useful in naming mountains. In fact she also belongs to a trio of females, the maiden, the mother, and then the old hag.
There are three old Celtic goddesses of Ireland. The Morrigon are again a triple deity, this time symbolising one force, sovereign rights. Macha, Badb and Ananna are their names, and they can shape-shift turning from old woman to beautiful maiden - but beware they can be cruel.
These tales sit at the bottom of so many sci-fi fantasy stories, beings from afar sent to plague us, but there is always someone to confront the evil monster!
Well it was a quiet meditation and I enjoyed it and so did the audience.
Then I have finished listening to Robert Galbraith's book 'The Running Grave'. A long rambling story of a cult and all its evils. Perhaps there was too many characters to always grasp who was who, but evil done on a different basis. Rowlings is a good storyteller, The Harry Potter books attest to that, but perhaps she fills up spaces of her writing with 'fluff' of the main protagonists, Strike and Robin.
Finished the baby blanket and it is now folded away in the drawer. Tom is coming down at the weekend to see Lillie at the Hippodrome. Matilda is off to Whitby, I think it is Goth week, and she is doing some sort of writing on it.
Isn't it wonderful how young people dash about from a to b ? I used to love seeing the Goths at Whitby in their finery. It is a horrible dank, dark, dreary. rainy day here and guess it is not all that much better at Whitby - time to clear up a bit for the weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe weather is the same here, and we have had to put a load of cardboard out which is probably getting wet and the men won't take it. Well from London to Whitby Pat it is hardly a dash. Train to York, another train to Scarborough and then bus to Whitby. But it is fun the Goth weekend.
ReplyDeleteWe went to Whitby a few years ago not knowing it was the goths weekend. The place is crowded enough on an ordinary day, but with the goths you could hardly move. Best avoided for us.
ReplyDeleteThat is very true Tasker, but if you stay in Whitby and get up early in the morning the town is deserted. I love Whitby for its quirky cottages closely entwinned down passageways. Like Staithes and Robin Hood Bay there is captured a postcard vision of old fishing villages.
DeleteThis time, a Mormon family struggles with having transgender children in northern Mississippi. You can read about it at www.emilysvirtualrocket.blogspot.com. Thank you for blogging. Emily Shorette
ReplyDeleteHi Emily, American politics is another rabbit hole I usually don't go down. Margerie Taylor Green has very strong views, goodness knows how she got elected but I see she is being called out, surely a good thing?
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