Gluttony and Smut

Here's the light of the setting sun on the 21st December pouring down the entrance tunnel of the Neolithic chambered cairn at Maeshowe, in Orkney, illuminating the interior with natural light at only one time of year - the winter solstice. Part of the Great Processional Way that traversed the West Mainland, winding between lochs, across the great plain, from the 5000 year old Ring of Brodgar

via the Ness ritual site

 to  the Maeshowe burial chamber. 

The rituals of the dead.

Hard not to be impressed. It is thought (by Neil Oliver) that the original 60 stones of the Ring of Brodgar were dragged across Orkney, one from each parish, judging by the composition of the stones, by simmans, ropes made of straw, across beds of wet seaweed, with crews throwing water on the seaweed to keep it supple and gelatinous so that the stones could move freely.

Modern paganism probably has little to do with the truly ancient religion of the British Isles, but it does attempt to connect with beliefs that are fairly obscure, lost in the millenia. The most the Ness Site Director, Nick Card, will be drawn on is to say: when we don't know what it is, we say ritual....

The modern rituals for the Yule sabbat, the first of the eight sections of the Wheel of the Year, tend to focus on fire, sex and food. You know - light the Yule log, kiss under the mistletoe, drink some mild mistletoe tea - a specific contraceptive and abortifacient - to deal with the consequences of all that celebration of the Great Rite in the warm glow of candlelight. Back in the Neolithic day, there was a lot, no, I mean, a lot, of eating of roasted cows, as the charred bones of hundreds of cattle at the Ness dig provide silent testimony. Nowadays, your local coven is more likely to eat honey cakes dipped in spiced hot wine, whilst encouraging the birth of the Sun Child

who will defeat the powers of darkness in the coming spring, ushering in nature’s triumphant return. Listen hard and you might just hear the Wild Hunt.

At Christmas, 1153, Earl Harald and his Viking warriors were travelling from Stromness to the parish of Firth, when a terrible snowstorm caused them to seek shelter in Maeshowe, which they knew as Orkahaugr, an obviously man-made mound in the middle of the flat plain. They broke into the chamber, and occupied themselves for the duration of the storm by carving runes onto the walls. There are 30 separate runic inscriptions on the walls, making it one of the largest and most famous collections of runes known in Europe.

"On the thirteenth day of Christmas they travelled on foot over to Firth. During a snowstorm they took shelter in Maeshowe and two of them (his men) went insane which slowed them down badly so that by the time they reached Firth it was night time." Orkneyinga saga - Chapter 93

And what did these bored and possibly insane warriors write on the ancient walls in runic graffiti?

"Ingebjork the fair widow - many a woman has walked stooping in here a very showy person" "

"Thorni fucked. Helgi carved"

"Ingigerth is the most beautiful of all women" (carved beside a rough drawing of a slavering dog)

"This mound was raised before Ragnarr Lothbrocks her sons were brave smooth-hide men though they were"

So when folk complain that the true meaning of Christmas has been forgotten in all the gifting, feasting, drinking and lechery - not a bit of it. That's exactly what the true meaning of Christmas is. The early Church fathers just renamed it and slipped it forward by four days.

The year has turned now, as the days begin to lengthen again - thank the Goddess. I'm not one for organised religion, as you know - any organised religion - just a hedge witch, me.