"We seem to be having a crisis of honor............Lying and deceit dominate public politics and public life, business, academics, and even the arts. As a result our children have virtually no valid role models on which to model their own sense of honor."
Recently I made a mask for Verity (Veritas) the Roman Goddess of Truth. I also began a sculpture, which I finally finished. In my recent Post about the Mask of Verity, I described a few things about the mythology, and why I seem to be compelled to pursue this imagery.
I was embarroused to see that I never shared on this Blog the Presentation I was honored to give at the Conference on Current Pagan Studies ** (via Zoom) in January of this year. Their Theme for 2022 was "Pagans and Creativity" so I offered a presentation on my own 50 years of being an artist, with (obviously visible) Pagan roots and Pagan iconography even in the very beginning. It seems Gaia and Myth and the Goddess have been with me almost as soon as I could pick up a crayon, and it't been so ever since.
In 2000 I participated in a "Litany for the Lost". 5 people, standing in a circle, recited names of extinct and vanishing Species; the names of our fellow Beings on this inter-dependent, inter-woven planet. I have thought about that for years, and just received a grant from the Puffin Foundationthis past month, for which I am very grateful, to create a "Shrine for the Lost". We are not the only life forms striving to evolve on our beautiful Planet Earth, and as species are lost, the Balance of ecosystems breaks down, like a tapestry unravelling. It is the greatest of arrogance to think that humanity is not a part of that tapestry, and that our lives unravel with it.
My Dia de los Muertos"Shrine for the Lost": the Sixth Extinction will consist of 4 panels, each panel 16 inches by 72 inches (6 feet), hung on the wall. Each panel will have 7 pages like the one above, with Lists of the Lost, and interspersed visuals. The pages will run together vertically, kind of like the sample to the right, only the panel will be 6 feet long. I want people to grasp the magnitude of the loss with these long lists.
In addition, the Shrine will have an Audio Component, a recording of a "Litany for the Lost": 5 voices calling the Names of Extinct or Vanishing Species (probably with some kind of musical backdrop as well). My colleague Kathy Keller will collaborate on this with me.
I cannot share here images of the finished Shrine, because it will not be installed until November 1st for the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos). But I am pleased to share a bit of the Work in Progress, and as soon as the Shrine can be made active, I will be sure to share that as well.
I have made application to create the Shrine at the 2023 Parliament of World Religions as well...........here's hoping.
It is my hope and offer to all those who may be interested that this exhibit, when finished, travel as a means of educating others about the magnitude of our loss. The List........
And the List continues................
* A film produced with Leonardo De Caprio well worth seeing:
It's that time again, the Autumnal Equinox. "Equinox" means "equal night", and it is indeed both a very, very ancient Pagan Holy Day, and an auspicious celestial event! On this day of Balance, I am wishing as always that humanity come into a realization of the importance of being in Balance with our planet.
And I wish joy, apples, bread, and of course, beer, to all on this, the Second Harvest Celebration. I felt like sharing, speaking of beer, something about the mythology of John Barleycorn, "Little Sir John", and the cutting of the sheaves. Once upon a time, the world was much, much more alive and animated and mythologized than it is today, in our mechanical, soul less society. Corn Dollies were made, the land was thanked, and of course, John Barleycorn's sacrifice was honored.
John Barleycorn Must Die is a traditional English song - records of its origins go back as far as the 1300s, and it is probably much older than that. Over time, many variations have arisen, and the Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote his own famous version of the story of John Barleycorn. In the 70's, John Renbourne, Traffic, and Steel Eye Span popularized the song, along with many other folk artists of the time. John Barleycorn is a very ancient, prime myth indeed - the Great King who is sacrificed, dies and is reborn in the spring as the wheel of the year's agricultural cycle turns.In many pre-Christian cultures, this motif is found as the Sumarian God Dumuzi, the Shepherd husband of the Goddess Inanna who goes into the underworld for part of the year, and returns to her in the Spring. The same idea of the dying and reborn King is found with the Egyptian Osiris, who is reborn in his son, the Sun God Horus.
John Barleycorn is the personification of the grain, and the life of the grain from planting to harvest, transformation into beer, and then sowing. After Barleycorn’s first death he is buried, and laid within the ground. In midsummer he grows a “long golden beard” and “becomes a man”. The songs of John Barleycorn go on on to describe threshing and harvesting. Barleycorn is bailed and taken to the barn. And then the grain is parceled out. Some is taken to the miller to make flour for bread. And some is saved and brewed in a vat to make ale. And some is planted, so that the whole cycle can begin again. It is likely that versions of John Barleycorn songs go back to pre-Christian times, the accompaniment of harvest rituals at Lughnasash, in August, or Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox.
Some of these rituals survive to this day in modified form, most famously the sacrifice of the wicker man. These rituals tell the story of the death and eventual rebirth of the god of the grain."*
It might be noted that John Barleycorn is, in particular, also a God of Ecstasy - because he provides celebration and ecstasy as the barley becomes the source of beer and the beloved malt whiskey of the Highlands. He shared a style not unlike the more Mediteranean temperment of Bacchus, the Roman God of wine. The malting and fermentation of the grains that form his body is also a part of his "life cycle" and divinity. Perhaps one of the most famous "ecstatic" manifestations of the Wicker Man, his rituals of sacrifice, rebirth, and celebration is Burning Man, the "harvest" festival that happens in Nevada every fall.
It's interesting that in Robert Burn's poem, there are "three kings", similar to the kings from the east in the Nativity story. Early Christians who came to the British Isles (and elsewhere) often absorbed native pagan mythologies and traditional rituals into Christian theology, and the evolution of the Story of Christ is full of such imagery in order to help the natives accept Christianity. Certainly John Barleycorn shares with the Christ Story the ancient theme of the death and rebirth of the sacrificed agricultural King.
I am a great admirer of the wisdom traditions of Gnostic and esoteric Christianity, but I also believe it is necessary to separate the spiritual teachings of Christianity from the mingling (and literalization) of earlier mythologies in the development of the Church.
For example, I believe the metaphor used to describe Jesus as the "Lamb of God" directly relates to Biblical (and Roman) practices prevalent in his lifetime of sacrifice of lambs and goats to Yahwah (or, for Romans, their pantheon). The later development of the doctrine that Christ "died for our sins", may have some of its origins in the important, and quite ancient, Semitic Scapegoat Rituals. But observing recently a Catholic "Communion" ritual ("This is my Body, This is my Blood") I was impressed by the many layers of mythologies and archaic cultures inherent in that ceremony, still important to so many people today. And one of those threads may very well originate in theprime agricultural myth of the dying and reborn God, a long tradition from which John Barleycorn is yet another God who dies now at Harvest, and arises re-born every spring.
John Barleycorn by Robert Burns
There was three kings into the east, Three kings both great and high, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn should die. They took a plough and plough'd him down, Put clods upon his head, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn was dead.
But the cheerful Spring came kindly on, And show'rs began to fall; John Barleycorn got up again, And sore surpris'd them all. The sultry suns of Summer came, And he grew thick and strong, His head weel arm'd wi' pointed spears, That no one should him wrong.
The sober Autumn enter'd mild, When he grew wan and pale; His bending joints and drooping head Show'd he began to fail. His coulour sicken'd more and more, He faded into age; And then his enemies began To show their deadly rage. They've taen a weapon, long and sharp, And cut him by the knee; Then ty'd him fast upon a cart, Like a rogue for forgerie.
They laid him down upon his back, And cudgell'd him full sore; They hung him up before the storm, And turn'd him o'er and o'er. They filled up a darksome pit With water to the brim, They heaved in John Barleycorn, There let him sink or swim. They laid him out upon the floor, To work him farther woe, And still, as signs of life appear'd, They toss'd him to and fro.
They wasted, o'er a scorching flame, The marrow of his bones; But a Miller us'd him worst of all, For he crush'd him between two stones. And they hae taen his very heart's blood, And drank it round and round; And still the more and more they drank, Their joy did more abound.
John Barleycorn was a hero bold, Of noble enterprise, For if you do but taste his blood, 'Twill make your courage rise. 'Twill make a man forget his woe; 'Twill heighten all his joy: 'Twill make the widow's heart to sing, Tho' the tear were in her eye. Then let us toast John Barleycorn, Each man a glass in hand; And may his great posterity Ne'er fail in old Scotland!
And last, and so appropriate for the Harvest Time of Mabon, Steve Winwood of Traffic's version of John Barleycorn Must Die. I love to hear this ancient song sung thus, it brings back to me something I don't see in contemporary music much any more, which is the use of music to tell stories, and through poetry, to continue the teachings of myth, which was traditionally the role of the Bard.https://youtu.be/t8878chOvfI
