The Hidden History of Shrunken Heads (Tsantsas)

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Achuar, Amazon, Colonialism, Ecuador, fakes, Jivaro, museum collections, rituals, Shrunken heads, Shuar, tourism, Tsantsas

_{Credit: Shrunken heads. Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY} 4.0)

The hidden history of shrunken heads 

Across Europe and America, if you visit a museum with an Ethnography section, you may come across a display of shrunken heads, or Tsantsas, from South America. The heads are no larger than a man’s fist, with lips and eyes stitched up, threads hanging from them, and framed by long black hair. If you haven’t seen one in a museum, then you’ve likely seen one depicted in popular culture, the movies Beetlejuice and more recently Harry Potter both feature shrunken heads in a horror/comedy setting. 

But how did shrunken heads from the Amazon basin find their way into the museums and collections of Britain, Europe and the USA and how did interaction with western societies influence and change this indigenous tradition? 

Who made them? 

Tsantsas were created by the Shuar, Achuar, Awajun/Aguaruna, Wampis/Huambisa, Candoshi-Shampra, who are now collectively known as SAAWC. Europeans historically referred to this group of peoples as Jivaro, however, this became synonymous with being uncivilized or savage, so is considered offensive in Ecuador [1].  

These groups lived in the Amazon, in small villages often based on family groups. They subsisted primarily from hunting, fishing, raising pigs and gardening. They also traded with other indigenous groups, and later with European settlers.  

The Shuar’s primary claim to fame is that they successfully thew off the yoke of the Spanish Conquistadors in 1599, earning themselves a legendary reputation for fierceness and independence. This love of independence is reflected in the structure of their society, which was based on family groups and existed without any centralised authority [2]. 

_{Family group c1901. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons}

More than just a war trophy 

It is fair to say that even now the popular view in the West is that all headhunting cultures took heads as war trophies. And while some did, this is a reductive view, for the SAAWC peoples the head of an enemy killed in combat was much more than simply a brutal material symbol of victory. The power of Tsantsas came from harnessing the power imbued in them from the dead man’s soul for the benefit of the warrior’s family. The process of obtaining and preparing a Tsantsa was complex, time consuming and resource intensive, it was also fraught with danger. This meant that the practice of headhunting was not taken lightly, nor one practiced frequently by SAAWC peoples.  

SAAWC peoples believed that the soul of a man was made up of separate components the Arutam and the Muisak. The Arutam was the soul-power, the spirit, power, and knowledge of the man. A man became Kakaram through killing and this strengthened his Arutam, this power was obtained through raids on other tribes to obtain Tsantsas. So, the best Tsantsas, the most powerful, came from a man who had killed a lot of people and therefore had strong Arutam. However, taking the head of such a man (and it invariably was a man, as a woman was not thought to be possessed of a strong Arutam), a powerful enemy warrior, possessed of such power, required careful rituals, or else his Muisak, his avenging soul which came into being at the point of death, could wreak havoc on his killer [3] [4].

_{Objets dAmazonie (réserves visitables du musée national dethnologie).  Dalbera from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

How were they made? 

The skills involved would be passed down from father to son [5]. The process was both practical and ritual. To ensure the head could be transported away from the enemy village quickly, the skull, brains, muscle were removed, making it lighter to carry. This skin ‘bag’ was then filled with hot sand and pebbles repeatedly until it shrunk to the size of a man’s fist [6]. Shrinking the head was the beginning of the ritual process of trapping power in the artefact.  

A series of rituals and feasts were held, the first of which was a binding ritual. It was crucial to trap the Muisak in the head before it could escape and seek revenge. The Muisak would try and escape through the mouth, so it was vital to sew up the lips of the decapitated head quickly. Similarly, eyes were sewn shut to prevent it from seeing, and the skin was blackened with charcoal [7] [8]. Once the Muisak was trapped, the owner could begin to use the soul- power of the Tsantsa, and transfer it to others, through a series of ritual feasts.  

The feasts could take place over several years, this allowed the owner and his family to grow enough food to feed the many guests that would be expected to attend. The purpose of the feasts was to harness the power of the individual warrior’s Arutam (his skills and knowledge} and pass them on to the women of the owner’s family, so that they would be more productive. The final ritual would expel the Muisak from the head, rendering the physical head less valuable to the village. Sometimes the warrior would keep the head, but more often than not the head, once divested of its spiritual power, would be discarded, or traded away [9]. As the whole ritual process associated with creating and utilising a Tsantsa was a lengthy one, and required extensive resources, it was not done often. 

The Shuar themselves have emphasised that it is not the head per se that interests them [10], it was the soul-power of the warrior, which was contained in the decapitated head, that was their object in creating Tsantsas. However, by the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century the production of tsantsas escalated rapidly. Now women, even children might find themselves targets of head-hunting raids.  

So, how, and why did this tradition change? 

Guns for heads 

In the late nineteenth century, Europeans began to encroach on Shuar lands in search of rubber and cinchona bark, which was used to make Quinine, and this led to more interactions between the Shuar and neighbouring tribes and westerners. Quickly trade began between the groups, the Shuar providing settlers with much needed pigs, deer, salt and occasional Tsantsas, in return for cloth, machetes and guns. The dynamic changed when the settlers began raising their own livestock, the Shuar still wished to trade for goods such as machetes and guns, which made their lives easier, (they did not make their own metal) but the only thing the settlers wanted now was Tsantsas [11][12]. 

_{Webley & Scott Mk VI. Caliber .455 Collection Paul Regnier, Lausanne, Switzerland. Photograph by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12346282}

A trade had rapidly grown up around Tsantsas with North American and European Museums, collectors, and souvenir hunters all eager to snap up these curious tribal artefacts. Because the numbers of Tsantsas produced for ritual purposes was so limited, demand soon outstripped supply.  

To meet this demand for Tsantsas, the Shuar and other tribes, massively increase in head-hunting raids, often using the guns they so keenly traded for. Raids involved hundreds of people, and now encompassed the murder of women and even children, who would not have previously been victims as their soul-power was considered lesser than a man’s. Frances Larson notes that the going rate for one gun was one Tsantsa, and commented that the Tsantsas on display in museums show more of the history of “white man’s gun” as an economic incentive for the Shuar to kill [13]. Tsantsas produced for trade would not be ritual Tsantsas, they were produced specifically for the open market.  

This trade in tribal curios led to many fake shrunken heads being created, with some reports of the bodies of the poor-dead in morgues being used to create Tstantsas, along with the heads of countless monkeys and sloths [14]. Some of these fakes even ended up in distinguished museums in North America and Europe.  Charlie Morgan of the Wellcome Collection, estimates that up to 80% of Tsantsas on display could in fact be fakes [15].

The Holy Grail of Ethnography 

From the enlightenment onwards western society has been obsessed with cataloguing everything, from plants and animals to humans. However, in the nineteenth century this drive to understand the world soon became a tool for justifying an ethnocentric world view. The gap created by the end of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the early nineteenth century, was filled the European Imperial Project. Imperialism often wore a paternalistic face, civilised western nations claimed to be improving the lives of less advanced races who were unable to govern themselves.  

_{Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, shrunken heads (pre-1946). Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)}

This Imperialist project was quick to co-opt science to support colonialist expansion. In a similar way that the pseudo-science of phrenology began as a genuine endeavour to understand how the brain worked but ended up being used to justify eugenics and racism, so ethnographic hierarchies of people (with white Europeans at top of the evolutionary tree, and brown and black races at the bottom) were used to promote a race theory which justified the ‘superior’ races colonising less civilised races. The fall-out from this is still being felt today. 

The position of Shuar peoples, never having been colonised meant they fell into that Holy Grail of Victorian Ethnography: the untouched tribe. A tribe in need of being studied and civilised.  

Education, entertainment, exploitation 

In the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Human Zoos or ‘ethnological expositions’ were extremely popular. These exhibits would have people from traditional societies displayed in a ‘natural setting,’ ostensibly for the education of Western spectators, but in reality, as a way contrasting ‘primitive’ peoples and societies unfavourably to the more advanced nations of the West [16].  

_{By Henri Sicard and Farradesche Lithographers – Jardin zoologique d’acclimatation, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41478061}

People are still drawn to the exotic and the ‘other.’  Museum visitors today, when faced with Tsantsas, often experience a sense of horror and an underlying feeling of cultural superiority, in that the viewer, is perhaps grateful that they do not belong to a culture that could produce such unnerving artefacts, that they themselves live in a ‘civilized’ culture where these things do not happen [17].  

A review by Peter Gordon in 2003, reinforced this view as he found that visitors to the Pitt Rivers Museum often viewed the Shrunken heads for entertainment purposes, using words like ‘gruesome’ ‘barbaric’ and evoked ‘a freakshow element’ [18]. This led the museum to re-evaluate their display and whether it was achieving its intended aims to teach visitors about how other cultures treated their dead enemies. 

This is in part because Tsantsas have come to represent an entire culture, this is all many people will ever know of the SAAWC peoples. Head-hunters have become synonymous with primitive and savage practices that the march of human progress has suppressed. However, this is a distortion of the rich symbolic meaning behind these sacred ritual objects. 

Should the Tsantsas head home? 

At a time when museums are being challenged to de-colonise their collections and address their imperial past, the history of the trade in shrunken heads is a timely reminder of the impact European colonisation had on the indigenous cultures they encountered.  

Greater involvement and dialogue with indigenous cultures whose artefacts, particularly those that constitute human remains, are in western museums has changed the landscape of many museums. Museums, such as the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, have now removed their displays of Tsantsas, and have reconsidered how they present information about indigenous cultures.  This moved has been a polarising one, with some people welcoming the change and others against it.

The debate over the role of Western museums in curating artefacts from the colonial past, especially human remains, is a highly fraught area, with excellent arguments on both sides. There is a vocal lobby for the for the role of museums as conservators of our shared past, and educators, and equally strong lobby against that, and that the views of other cultures and their struggle to regain control over their own identities and heritage should take precedence.  And of course there is also the problem of identifying real Tsantsas from the many historic fakes on display.

The issues of repatriation of cultural objects is a very controversial area, with genuine fears of great museum collections being broken up and lost forever. Use of modern technologies, such as digitised collections, contextualisation of collections and most importantly, involvement from colonised cultures could be one way to build a bridge between the rights of those cultures that were colonised alongside the valuable role of museums to protect and educate using artefacts from our shared past. I suspect this is an argument that will continue for many years to come, and may never have an outcome that will please everyone.

The last word 

But what of the people whose ancestors made these artefacts, what are their views? Currently SAAWC peoples are engaged in a political and cultural fight for survival against the pressures of mining and the oil industry, sacred objects created by their ancestors, are potent symbol of cultural unity, and many now want them returned.  Federación Interprovincial de Centros Shuar-Achuar now represent the interests of the SAAWC peoples.

The last word should go to Shuar themselves, Indigenous leaders Miguel Puwainchir and Felipe Tsenkush:

“Our ancestors handed over these sacred objects without full realising the implications” [19]

“We don’t want to be thought of as dead people to be exhibited in a museum, described in a book, or recorded on film.” [20]

I would love to hear your views on this topic.  

_{Modern Shuar dance in Logroño, Ecuador. IJlh249, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

Sources

My primary inspiration for writing this article was the chapter on Tsantsas in Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Found, by Frances Larson, a fabulously witty, erudite, and thought provoking book.

Byron, C.D., Kiefer, A.M., Thomas, J. et al. The authentication and repatriation of a ceremonial tsantsa to its country of origin (Ecuador). Herit Sci 9, 50 (2021).

Harner, J, The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls, 1984

Houlton,Tobias M.R.and Wilkinson, Caroline M., Recently identified features that help to distinguish ceremonial tsantsa from commercial shrunken heads – ScienceDirect

Larson, Frances, Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found, 2015

McGreevy, Nora, Oxford Museum Permanently Removes Controversial Display of Shrunken Heads | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine

Morgan, Charlie, Shrunken Heads Real and Fake, Wellcome Collection Blog, 27 June 2014

Peers, Laura, Shrunken Heads, (Pitt Rivers Museum publication)

Rubenstein, Steven Lee, Circulation, Accumulation, and the Power of Shuar Shrunken Heads in Cultural Anthropology Vol. 22, No. 3 (Aug., 2007), pp. 357-399 (43 pages)

shrunken « Bizzarro Bazar

Shrunken heads | Pitt Rivers Museum (ox.ac.uk)

The Pitt Rivers Museum and its Shrunken Heads – Sang Bleu

Wikipedia, Shuar

Wikipedia, Human Zoo

Notes

[1] Shuar

[2] The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls

[3] ibid

[4] ibid

[5] Oxford Museum Permanently Removes Controversial Display of Shrunken Heads

[6] Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found

[7] Shrunken Heads

[8] Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found

[9] ibid

[10] Shuar, Wikipedia

[11] Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found

[12] Shrunken Heads

[13] Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found

[14] ibid

[15] Shrunken heads real and fake

[16] Human Zoo

[17] Shrunken Heads

[18] ibid

[19] Oxford Museum Permanently Removes Controversial Display of Shrunken Heads

[20] The authentication and repatriation of a ceremonial tsantsa to its country of origin (Ecuador)

Ghosts, deadly judges, and the hanging of cousin Charlotte

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after-life, anthology, Carmilla Voiez, death, Dennis Higgins, Essays, Franco Esposito, Ghost stories, Ingrid Hall, Our Day of Passing, Poems, reincarnation, Short stories

Our Day of Passing – An Anthology of Short Stories, Poems and Essays

Complied by Ingrid Hall and Franco Esposito

Free Kindle Download

King Death

Illustration from Chapter 6: ‘Ghosts’; Our Day of Passing.

Death is a subject that most of us are at least mildly curious about. The fact that it is inevitable and that there is no hiding from it adds to its macabre appeal. I have always had a strange relationship with death and rather than becoming increasingly afraid of it in my middle-age, if anything, I have come to respect the power that it has over us all. You can be the sweetest person ever to walk the earth or a twisted, psychopathic serial-killer…but ultimately that great leveler, Death, will come for you.

The beauty of Our Day of Passing – An Anthology of Short Stories, Poems and Essays is that it has been written from a wide range of authors and poets from around the world. Rather than looking at death from one fixed, religious perspective it contains a full range of opinions proving that when it comes to death, there is no right or wrong answer.

So, whether you are pagan in your leanings or deeply rooted in your Catholic faith, or just like a good ghost story, I am sure that you will find something that will make you not only contemplate your own mortality but embrace your life.

Illustration from Chapter 5: ‘The Immortals’; Our Day of Passing.

Our Day of Passing was compiled by Ingrid Hall and Franco Esposito; edited by Ingrid Hall, Carmilla Voiez and Joanne Armstrong; and has contributions from the following international writers and artists:

Ingrid Hall, Franco Esposito, Dennis Higgins, Virginia Wright, Candida Spillard, Valeri Beers, Dada Vedaprajinananda, Strider Marcus Jones, Adam E. Morrison, Allyson Lima, D. B. Mauldin, David A. Slater, David King, Dee Thompson, Donald Illich, Edward Meiman, Eileen Hugo, Emily Olson, Joan McNerney, J.S. Little, Kin Asdi, Madison Meadows, Malobi Sinha, Marianne Szlyk, Mark Aspa, Mark David McClure, Megan Caito, Michael Brookes, Michael Burke, Pijush Kanti Deb, Prince Adewale Oreshade, Rafeeq O. McGiveron, Robin Reiss, Sasha Kasoff, Stephanie Buosi, Talia Haven.

Our Day of Passing is free to download on Amazon until Tuesday 23 February 2016 and will be available in paperback soon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Day-Passing-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B01BQLXBXE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456046999&sr=8-1&keywords=our+day+of+passing

Kagyu Samye Ling: A little piece of Tibet in Scotland

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Buddhist, Buddhist centre, Buddhist temple, Esk Valley, Monastery, Monastic community, Samye Ling, Samyeling, Scotland, scottish borders, Tibet, Tibetan

Wat Po Thailand

A number of years ago (more that I care to remember) Miss Jessel and I had the good fortune to go traveling around the world for a year.  Our peregrinations took us from the familiarity of the Classical world as expressed in the temples and architecture of Greece, Turkey and Israel, to what was for us at that time the less explored and more ‘exotic’ world of Asia.

I recall being captivated by the fantastical temples of Thailand, India and Nepal.  The shapes, colours and fantastical beasts and carvings. These structures made a lasting impression on me in a way that the safe and over-familiar iconography and structures of European Christianity did not.

One of my regrets was that at the time my budget would not extend to a trek from Nepal to Tibet, little did I know that many years later I would find a small piece of Tibet transported much closer to home.

Sukhothai Historic Park, Thailand

On a damp day in late September I happened to be over the border in Scotland.  Suddenly I found myself walking along a driveway lined, somewhat incongruously, with small Buddhist shrines.  Intrigued by this development I continued walking and soon found myself in the heart of a Buddhist Community in the middle of the Scottish Borders.  It was quite bizarre and utterly enchanting – in a Brigadoon-esque kind of way!

The road to Samye Ling.

Nestled in the Esk Valley, in the ruggedly beautiful border country between Scotland and England sits the Tibetan Buddhist monastery – Kagyu Samye Ling.  It was the first Buddhist Centre established in the West – way back in 1967 a time when many in the West were seeking alternative spiritual systems – and it currently  has a thriving community of around 60 people .

Samye Ling garden shrine viewed from the driveway.

There are a number of aspects to the Centre – the beautiful gardens not least of its attractions, but the most striking part has to be the Temple itself.  It is approached down a long enclosed corridor that terminates in a large stained glass window.  Stepping out of the enclosed corridor into the daylight the visitor finds themselves in a vast courtyard facing the impressive temple building. On the day I visited its jewel like colours and intricate workmanship provided a stark contrast to the grey Northern skies.

The slightly dreamlike corridor that leads to the temple.

Stained glass window at the end of the corridor.

 

On leaving the corridor you are met with the imposing Samye Ling Buddhist Temple – a blend of the modern and the ancient.

Detail from the temple doors.

More details from the temple doors.

And again…

Perhaps the most moving moment of my visit was when I was standing alone in the silence of the temple, awed by the beauty of the astonishingly ornate and gilded interior.  From the silence rose a curious thrumming and fluttering noise, as I looked about me I located the source of the disturbance: a Robin had flown in through an open window and was joyfully oblivious of the fact that he was hopping about behind the rope barrier separating off the most sacred area of the temple (had he not read the polite notice ‘please do not cross the rope barrier’?)  His total disregard for human protocols seemed a perfect sly dig from Nature – a gentle reminder that however ingeniously humans can express their sense of the spiritual in art, literature or words, Nature  will always, effortlessly, do it better!

Anyway, here are a few more of my photographs from extrordinary Kagyu Samye Ling…Enjoy

A typical Scottish garden…?

Votive offerings tied to the branches of a tree

East meets West: Tibetan prayer flags and Celtic clooties/rag offerings.

Kagyu Samye Ling Buddhist Centre welcomes visitors – Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike – and runs a number of courses on meditation, Yoga and other subjects.  You can find out more on their website http://www.samyeling.org/

All images copyright Lenora.

 

 

 

Of martyrs, hens and hangings

Tags

Camino de Santiago, cult of martyrs, martyrs, miracles, pilgrims, relics, Santo domingo de la calzada, strange tales, the cock and the hen

Strange tales from the Camino

The Camino de Frances runs for nearly 500 miles across Spain and takes in some extraordinary sights – not least of which are the churches and cathedrals.  English churches were stripped out of their booty during the reign of Henry VIII – no such thing happened in Spain.  For anyone used to pottering around elegant but largely unadorned English churches those of Spain come as a bit of a culture shock.  God and Gold go hand in hand the extravagant and exuberant altarpieces of many Spanish churches and cathedrals.

But aside from the awe-inspiring bling of the alters, there are also many strange, and sometimes gory, hidden away amongst the treasures.  If you can drag your eyes away from the gold, glitz and glory for long enough you will find some very strange things on the walls of these buildings.

Bota Fumeiro – Santiago cathedral

The cult of martyrdom

The word itself is from the Greek, meaning to witness, and came to be applied to those who suffered torture and death for their Christian faith – although the concept and psychology of martyrdom pre-dated Christianity and existed amongst Jewish and Pagan Peoples as well. It was the Christian Church however, who really ran with the idea of martyrdom and it became an important aspect of the Christian Ethos.  The Catholic Church in particular seems to have made quite a cult of the suffering of Martyrs and viewed them as powerful intercessor between worshipers and their god.

Bones and relics of martyrs quickly became currency, both spiritual and materially, and appeared in churches and religious establishments.  The market for martyrs could be competitive and certainly brought great riches for many religious houses with the faithful flocking to centres of pilgrimage such as Santiago de Compostela, here they could offer gifts to the relics and hope that the saint would look favourably on them.

The bones of a saint

Visceral wounds

Female martyrs are often depicted as beautiful

A Martyr being beheaded

Slaughter of innocents

Admittedly, and no disrespect to Christian’s intended, what struck me most intensely in viewing many of the relics and images of martyred saints that are displayed in Churches and cathedrals along the Way of St James, was the sheer delight in portraying gory and visceral deaths.  Some of the images had an almost macabre humour whilst others seemed almost distasteful in their veneration of human suffering. In the days before sadomasochism had been identified, I can’t help thinking that, whilst pious viewers saw the images as a offering an example of Christian fortitude, there must surely have been many others who viewed these images with something other than their god in mind.

 

Nevertheless, some of the images of martyrdom and miracles have a distinct sense of humour about them.

Persecutor: “A scratch? Your head’s off. Xtn Martyr: No it isn’t. Persecutor: What’s that, then? Xtn Martyr: [after a pause] I’ve had worse. Persecutor: You liar. Xtn Martyr: Come on ya pansy.[1]

The following tale is associated with the Church of Santo Domingo and is both bizarre and humorous.

The Miracle of the Cock and the Hen

During the Camino, I visited the cathedral of Santos Domingo de La Calzada.  Here I was baffled by the presence of a very ornate hen-house situated within the cathedral and inhabited by a rooster and a hen.  Not sure if it was simply that the priest simply had a fondness for fritatta’s (they did seem quite popular along the Camino) I soon found out that it was connected with a very odd tale involving a pious pilgrim, a woman scorned, a resurrection from the dead and some zombie chickens*.

I have come across a few versions of this strange tale, the version below is taken from the website of Santo Domingo cathedral and seems the most comprehensive:

“Legend tells of a German Pilgrim called Hugonell who was walking to Santiago with his parents, when they decided to rest at an inn in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The owner of the inn´s daughter immediately fell in love with him; however her feelings were not reciprocated, so the girl, angered, placed a silver cup into his luggage and accused the boy of theft. Thieves at that time were punished by hanging, and this was the fate of Hugonell. His parents, saddened by his death continued the pilgrimage, and upon arriving in Santiago de Compostela, began their return journey to visit the grave of their dead son. When they arrived in Santo Domingo however, they found their son still hanging in the gallows but, miraculously alive. Hugonell, excited, said to them: “Santo Domingo brought back me to life, please go to the Mayor´s house and ask him to take me down”. Quickly, the parents arrived at the Mayor´s house and told him of the miracle. The incredulous Mayor, who was preparing to have dinner with friends, responded: “That boy is as alive as these two roast chickens we are about to eat,” and suddenly, the chickens came to life, sprouted feathers and beaks and began to crow, and so, to this day there is a saying about the town which goes: “Santo Domingo of the Way, where the roosters crow after being roasted”.

Hen coup in Santo Domingo Cathedral

Holy Hens

From silver hens…

…to sacred cookies. The legend is popular today as ever.

 *Not strictly true – in this version the chickens are at least allowed to sprout new feathers and beaks – other versions leave the reader imagining bald cooked chickens running zombie like through the town – a truly fowl image *har har har* (sound of tumble weed blowing across the internet).

 References

All images copyright Lenora at http://www.hauntedPalace.co.uk

[1] Adapted from Monty Python’s Holy Grail – Black Knight scene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_martyrs

http://www.english.catedralsantodomingo.es/santo_domingo.html

The Camino de Santiago – Part One

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Camino de Santiago, Camino Frances, Compostella, Finisterra, Finisterre, Forests, Galicia, Pilgrimage, St James, The Way, Trees, Walking in Spain

The Camino de Santiago

The Conche shell – iconic symbol of the Camino de Santiago

Greetings all!  I have returned from my epic hike across northern Spain, and amongst other posts that I have been nefariously plotting whilst away, over the coming weeks I would also like to share some of my photo’s from my travels.

Basically, for the past six weeks Bonnie and I have been hiking the famous Medieval pilgrimage route the Camino de Santiago – more specifically the Camino Frances. The route runs from St Jean Pied-de-Port in France to Santiago in the West of Spain and runs through the provinces of  Navarra, La Rioja, Burgos, Palencia, Leon, Lugo and La Cornuna (the last two forming the very Celtic region of Galicia).  This particular Camino route (and there are lots of them) is round about 490 miles (790km) and by far the most popular and well sign-posted route to Santiago.

Although historically the Camino is famous as a Catholic pilgrimage route, today walkers of all faiths and no faiths walk the Camino (it has become particularly popular recently following release of the film ‘The Way’, starring Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez).  There is also a growing pagan element to the walk as many of the pilgrims continue on, past Santiago, and make their way to the rugged Costa da Morte and to the village of Fisterra.  Here they burn their shoes on the rocky shores at the end of the world.  It is said that this is an echo of the practices of pre-Christian pilgrims who sought spiritual rebirth at the temple to Ara Solis in Celtic times.

The Camino de Santiago (source: http://www.santiago-compostela.net/)

Rather than begin with the obvious – the religious architecture of the Camino – I prefer to indulge my passion for all things arboreal and begin with the Trees of the Camino de Santiago!

 The Trees of the Camino

(All images copyright Lenora at http://www.hauntedpalace.co.uk)

At the Citadel above St Jean Pied de Port, France.

The citadel, St Jean Pied de Port

 

On the way to Orisson, via Route de Napoleon, heading over the Pyranees

The road to Roncevalles, coming down off the mountains, Spain

The avenue of plane trees of the Espolon in Burgos

Trees and stone shrines on the great wide expanse of the Meseta

The trees and logs had some amazing moss and lichen growth.

 

Spring Blossoms near Hornillos

Heading into the mountains near Rabanal

OK, no trees, but nice colours!

Grove pf beech trees on the way to Molinaseca

Nature reclaiming the land – Castillo de los Templarios

Knitted tree warmers were all the rage in Cacabelos!

Through the fields and Vineyards to Villafranca

O’Cebreiro at dawn, entering the Celtic lands of Spain

Ancient tree at Castano Mill, Galicia

A fallen giant

Early morning in the forest, Galicia

Left hand path or right hand path…?

One of the many shrine trees along The Way.

Dawn in the forests of Galicia

A rustic gate in Galicia, at times Galicia looks more like Britain or Ireland than Spain!

Is that the Grim Reaper!?

Commercially planted Eucalyptus trees (used for the pulp industry) have begun to replace the ancient beech and oak forests in some parts of Galicia.

In some places the old Oak and Beech trees still hold their own against the eucalyptus

Nearing Santiago, the moon over the forest.

 And thats all for now Folks!

Victory regarding the Right of Witch Priests and Priestess in PA to legally marry couples, or as Charlton Heston said in “The 10 Commandments” – “Victory is Mine Sayeth The (Horned God) Lord”

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Covens fight, Legal rights, Marriage, pennsylvania, USA

Here is a quick update on a post I recently reblogged from Coven of the Catta/Blau Stern Schwarz Schlonge ‘My fight as an ordained witch priest to legally perform marriages in Pennsylvania’. The fight for Ordained High Priests and High Priestesses to perform legally binding marriage ceremonies in Pennsylvania has been won! Well done to Shawnus and his Coven for taking on the fight and winning! Hopefully this local victory for the Coven will translate into wider tolerance and acceptance that not everyone follows a ‘religion of the book’ and that there are equally valid alternatives to the mainstream religions.

Coven of the Catta

Image from Wikicommons

To quote Charlton Heston from “The Ten Commandments” I have just added this Addendum and post to my original post Our Covens Fight as Witch Priests and Priestesses to legally Perform Marriages in PennsylvaniaHere is the hopefully Final Addendum and Comments at the final end of that post so read thru All of them, and i am just pasting what i just posted there –

“Addendum 6 March 2014 – To quote Charlton Heston from the 10 Commandments – “Victory is Mine Sayeth the (Horned) Lord” – The lawyer i went to to last week to do my Will (dont need a lawyer or notary or even witness in PA so free) and to combine my deeds on tracts of land to reduce my taxes, is also The Lawyer for this county. He told me last week, after explaining what Wicca is in my Will etc…

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My Fight as an Ordained Witch Priest to legally perform Marriages in Pennsylvania

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Contemporary witchcraft, pagan rights, Paganism, pennsylvania, religious equality

This is a very passionate article about an important issue. Modern witches still face many cultural and legal prejudices – Shawnus, a 3* high priest is currently engaging the Christian biased state laws of Pennsylvania for the right to perform legal marriages as an ordained witch.

Coven of the Catta

Tumblr image with many sources

As you all know i am Shawnus Merlin Belarion 3rd* High Priest of the Coven of the Catta. I started my path 33 years ago and about 7 years later attained this level of initiation. There are three others at the level of 3rd* HPTs and HPSs who are active in our coven.

I and others are also registered online as a minister in the Universal Life Church which does not mean much to Federal, State or County governments, but i still encourage everyone who is part of a “fringe religion” as society thinks we are to become a minister through them and to support their cause.

Our coven has a Handfasting ritual and i can Handfast anyone who asks. But that is a Witch ritual, not a legal marriage. There are two pagan friends of mine who May decide to get legally married some…

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The Female Messiah of Suburbia

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Albany Road, Bedford, British History, feminism, Joanna Southcott, Mable Barlthrop, Messiah Complex, Octavia, Panacea Society, Prophets

The Panacea Society, Albany Road, Bedford

On an ordinary English suburban street, in an ordinary English town, there lies an extraordinary secret….

Welcome to the world of the  mysterious Panacea Society…preparing the way for the second coming of Jesus in a very polite, practical and idiosyncratically British kind of way.

How an Edwardian Lady became The Female Messiah

Mabel Barltrop c1907 from the website of the Panacea Society

I recently found myself in Bedford for a week and curious as to what the sights of Bedford might be, I did a little research.  Suffice to say my interest was truly piqued when I discovered that only a few streets away from my hotel, just along the tree-lined river embankment, there was a very famous street.  A street on which a house had been purchased and decorated almost hundred years ago, for a very special guest – the son of God himself.  What’s more, there was a house a few doors away awaiting the return of the DAUGHTER of God.

Mabel Barlthrop- a name to conjure with: respectable, middle-class, stolid, genteel, church-going.  Not the kind of name you would associate with a Messianic religious cult.   But oh, how many secret passions lurk behind the twitching net curtains of respectable middle-class sensibility?

Mabel was born in 1866 in Surrey, and after a prim upper-middle class upbringing (involving contact with such luminaries of Victorian Society as Coventry Patmore, Millais and Ruskin) she left school to marry Arthur Henry Barltrop in 1889.  Barltrop was a Church of England Clergyman and Mabel, like a dutiful wife took a keen interest in his theological studies.  They had 4 children and lived happily for a time.  However, their happiness was not to last as Arthur had an undiagnosed brain tumor which lead to chronic ill-health.  Arthur’s fragile state of health affected Mabel and in 1906 she had a break-down and entered a nursing home – some say a lunatic asylum.  She was diagnosed with Melancholia and was noted as believing she was responsible for all of the ills of the world.  While she was recuperating her beloved husband had a stroke and died.  This must have been a very traumatic time for her.

A widow now, Mabel took up literary criticism to make ends meet and she and her aunt raised the children in their Bedford home on Albany Road.  Then came the The Great War (1914-1918) which left an indelible scar on the nation, a psychic scar that the survivors desperately looked to heal – it was a boom time for spiritualism and many felt that they were living at the ‘end of days’.  Almost no family was untouched by the war: Mabel herself lost her eldest son who was killed in Action in 1917.  Another tragedy that Mabel had to come to terms with and may have added to her need to come up with a solution to the suffering and tragedy she saw around her.

The Ladies of Letters and the Prophetess of the Visitation

Joanna Southcott by William Sharp [public domain via Wikimedia]

Between 1913 -1919 Mabel engaged in a correspondence with a group of similarly minded, genteel ladies on the topic of the writings and revelations of the English prophetess Joanna Southcott (1750 – 1814).

Joanna Southcott sits within the tradition of ‘The Visitation’ – the belief that since the 17th Century divine prophecies have been revealed to English prophets.  At the time of Mabel and her correspondence there were seven recognised prophets of the visitation – there would soon be an eighth.

Joanna was a farmer’s daughter born in Devon in 1750 and worked variously in domestic service, as a farm laborer, and as an upholsterer.  She was firmly working class and during her lifetime often defended the rights of the poor.  It was  in 1792  that she became convinced of her diving mission, seeing herself as the Bride of the Revelations.  She strongly identified with a female idea of the divine, her ‘voice’ spoke to her in 1804 emphasising that: “I will conquer in woman’s form.”

Joanna took her prophecies to London, and gathered quite a following, cannily charging anything from 12 Shillings to a Golden Guinea for the privilege of being ‘sealed’ into the elect 144,000.  She believed that Revelation would come to pass in 2004.

Joanna attracted many followers, and made many prophecies that seemed to come true:  she is credited with predicting the death of Bishop Buller of Exeter in 1796, the crop failures and famines of 1799-1800 and the Napoleonic Wars.  She also had the disconcerting habit of sealing up her prophecies and posting them to churchmen so they could be tested at a future date.  Her most famous sealed prophetic writings relate to the near legendary ‘Joanna Southcott’s Box’ subject of much later rumour and speculation.

Charles Williams (active 1797-1850), Spirits at work- Joanna conceiving ie- blowing up Shiloh, 1814. Julie Mellby notes that the book Joanna has been reading is The Art of Humbugging, chapter one. Above her head is a bag labeled: Passports to Heaven, five shillings each or two for Seven.

Nevertheless she was not without her critics, and the eighteenth and early nineteenth century caricaturists could be savage.  Especially when Joanna at the age of 64 announced that she was carrying the new Messiah, Shiloh, the child mentioned in Genesis.  Frenzied preparations amongst her followers resulted in a fabulous silver gilt cradle being commissioned from Seddon’s (a rather swanky cabinet-maker at the time).  However, the fatal day came and went and no baby appeared…her loyal followers claimed the child was of spirit and had been taken up to heaven, but others thought she had finally gone to far with her flummery.  Heartbroken, exhausted and possibly suffering from Dropsy, Joanna died shortly after, probably about 27th December 1814 (although her followers appeared to have kept her body for a few days just in case the prophetess returned…she did not).

So it would seem that the legend of Joanna Southcott might die with her, but she had some very loyal adherents who kept her prophecies alive, and if legend is to be believed, guarded her box devotedly and handed it down generation after generation until it found it’s way into the hands of the Panacea Society.

Octavia and the Panacea Society

Swiftly deciding that she was the eighth prophet of the Visitation, Mabel Barlthrop changed her name to Octavia and from 1916 she began receiving daily divine messages at 5.30pm promptly.  By 1919 she was convinced that she was in fact Shiloh the divine daughter of God and the female Messiah, and that she must begin preparing for the second coming of the Son of God.

Being a genteel Edwardian lady she set about her task with clubbable gusto – appointing 12 female apostles and obtaining the real estate to set up the New Jerusalem on Albany Road, Bedford.  The enclosed gardens became the ‘Garden of Eden’ and the ‘Gathering of the Believers’ began.

The society which began as the Commune of the Holy Ghost and by 1926 had become the Panacea Society had set religious aims and tenets – one of which is of great interest.  Mabel believed that god was not a trinity but fourfold.  God the father and son, and God(dess) the mother and daughter.  Many of her followers were women, often war-widows, but because of this female doctrine and the concept that Octavia/Mabel was the Female Messiah the Society also appealed to the suffragettes  – as it seemed to be an attack on the old boys club of the Church of England.  The fact that it was also a largely female commune and entirely run by women – must have been quite refreshing at that time.

One of the Society’s main goals was to try to fulfill Joanna Southcott’s wish that her fabled box be opened in the presence of 24 Bishops of the Church of England at a time of dire national peril.  In the box would be the instruction manual for surviving Revelations.  With this Messianic mission the ladies set about taking out small ads in newspapers such as the Sunday Express.  These ads ran from into the 1960’s and even 1970’s:

“War, disease, crime and banditry, distress of nations and perplexity will increase until the Bishops open Joanna Southcott’s box.”

Church of England Bishops did not oblige and the box remained unopened.

Nevertheless the society flourished, with up to 70 mainly female members living in the commune in the 1930’s and thousands world-wide.  As part of Mabel’s healing ministry she would breathe on small water-soaked linen squares and post them all over the world – the cloths were believed to have healing qualities.  As the commune grew it became necessary for Mabel to set out some ground rules for polite living –  the worst of her upper middle class snobbery came out here and some of her rules could seem very elitist: such as members only being allowed to use the term napkin (‘serviette’ simply would not do!).

God’s house in Bedford

The Ark, Albany Road

One of the most notable quirks of this group was the very practical steps it took in relation to the second coming.  In a very property-owning and British kind of way, the society decided that God,  if/when he returns, would require a rather nice Victorian Villa in Bedford.   After all, most Brits at the time were convinced that God was of course British, so of course God would want to live in Bedford – so close to London, but near enough to the countryside…close to local amenities etc.

The late Ruth Klein the last surviving member of the religious community, is quoted as saying of the Ark on Bedford Road:

“We’ve had it completely refurbished, new carpets, curtains…you may well ask does God need a shower? He will have a radiant body, so I don’t think he will, but we’ve prepared it as a normal house anyway.”

The Society also kept Mabel’s house intact, just as she left it when she died in 1934. Even as the millennium came and went, surviving members till hoped that Octavia, the female Messiah would return.

The end…

After Mabel’s death in 1934,  the Panacea Society lasted but with dwindling membership until its last member, Ruth Klein died in 2012.  Although it is no longer a religious community, it’s multi-million pound assets mean that it still exists as a charity – it funds local Bedford charities for the poor as well as funding research into prophecy and Millenarianism.

Overall I think that Mabel was sincere in her beliefs, although they did get decidedly odd towards the end of her life (she thought her late husband was Jesus). Her mental break-down following the loss of her beloved husband; then the outbreak of war and the loss of her eldest son; simply must have had a significant impact on her mental state.  She seems to have had some of the symptoms of Messiah Complex – and at a time when people were desperate to cling to anything that made sense of the terrible events they had all recently lived through –  Mabel/Octavia tried to offer them some hope. So although she may have been a little deluded, and a bit of a snob, and very much an English Eccentric, a lot of what she did had a very positive impact, especially for the many women left alone and grieving after such a catastrophic war.  She also embraced the idea of the sacred feminine and a female godhead which challenged the accepted male oriented Church of England.

And what of Joanna Southcott’s Box?

Psychical researcher Harry Price

In 1927 the offices of Harry Price (of Borley Rectory fame) received a mysterious parcel.  The covering letter purported to be from a Devonshire gentleman who was leaving Britain for far off climes.  In disposing of his possessions he came across a walnut box left to him by an aged family retainer.  The Devonshire gentleman claimed that it was Joanna Southcott’s box.

Harry Price was a showman as well as a researcher and was keen to debunk the mysterious box and all things Southcottian.  He engaged a number of psychometry experts to sense what secrets lay hidden within.  He also wrote to a number of Bishops of the Church of England inviting them to the unveiling – and got a lot of snarky replies for his troubles!  Eventually, on 11 July 1927 at Hoare Hall in Westminster the box was revealed via X-ray (apparently some of the psychometry experts got quite a good feel for what was in the box).

X-ray of Joanna Southcott’s Box – Image, Harry Price Website

With massive press interest and boo’s and hisses from Southcottian’s (and possibly Panacean’s) the contents of the box was revealed.  It contained 56 items including:  a horse-pistol, a fob purse and coins, a dice box, ear-rings, a miniature, a selection of romantic fiction but not really anything apocalyptic.  Unless of course it contained lots of things to help you pass the time waiting for the apocalypse..?

Anyway, those who were skeptical sniggered at the believers, whilst the believers hissed at the skeptics and said that the box was a fake.  To this day, the Panacea Society state that the Joanna Southcott’s box is in a secret location in Bedford – awaiting the day of judgement.

Image from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg

Sources

Harry Price Website: http://www.harrypricewebsite.co.uk/Famous%20Cases/southcottbyharryprice.htm
Mellby Julie L:  http://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2012/01/joanna_southcott_or_southcote.html
Panacea Society: http://www.panacea-society.org/
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/octavia-daughter-of-god-review
The Telegraph: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/octavia-daughter-of-god-review
Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_Southcott
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panacea_Society

Traditional Witchcraft and the Pagan Revival by Melusine Draco

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Alternative spirituality, Book Review, Melusine Draco, Paganism, Traditional British Witchcraft, Witchcraft

One of my other pass-times, in between researching odd avenues of history and the supernatural, is doing book reviews for my friend Ingrid and her Indie Author website.  She recently asked me to review a book on the history of Traditional Witchcraft and Paganism that is due to be published soon.  Below is the review that I posted for her.

The Author:  Melusine Draco

The author known as Melusine Draco trained in the arts of traditional British Old Craft with Bob and Mériém Clay-Egerton.   She has extensive experience as a practitioner and teacher of British Traditional Witchcraft and has written a number of acclaimed books on magic and spirituality for the modern witch.  As part of the Arcanum and Temple of Khem, Melusine offers magical and spiritual instruction.

One of the things that sets her apart in the world of pagan writings is her use of classical sources, academic texts and archaeological findings.  You can find out more about Melusine and her other books at her blog Melusine Draco at Temple of Khem.

We here at http://www.ingridhall.com have been privileged to be offered the opportunity to review Melusine Draco’s latest book prior to publication.  Traditional Witchcraft and the Pagan Revival is part of the ‘Traditional Witchcraft’ series written by the author and published by Moon Books.  It will be published on 30 August 2013.

Traditional Witchcraft and the Pagan Revival by Melusine Draco

This book takes the reader on a sweeping journey through time and spirituality within the British Isles.  From archaeological sites in the Paleolithic that hint at shamanism, ancestor cults and an established genius loci; through the medieval period, with its ambivalent view of witchcraft; to the Elizabethan’s and their obsession with Ritual Magic; and the ‘Burning Times’ of the seventeenth century; to the pagan revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; all the way to the modern period and the birth and phenomenal growth of the Wiccan and neo-pagan movement.

Draco uses archaeological sources and historical research to argue that magic and religion were at first intertwined, and later became separated particularly with the advent of Christianity. She argues that remnants of older pagan traditions remained, particularly in more remote areas of Britain, and these remnants and their guardians influenced the development of Traditional British Witchcraft.  She also addresses some of the pit-falls of modern interpretations of paganism and their claims to ancient antecedents.   She also highlights some of the prejudice that can still be faced by those following alternative spiritual paths.

I found this book to be very engaging, enlightening and at times challenging – it covers a great deal of ground in under 200 pages.  While there are undoubtably more complex and detailed archaeological and historical studies available and Draco’s interpretation of the evidence whilst drawing on some very distinguished sources, is very much her own, this book provides a good over view of archaeological and historic periods from earliest times to the present day.  Her survey outlines  the main theories in relation to magical and religious developments within the British Isles and her insight how these traditions and survivals may have influenced Traditional British Witchcraft and Neo-pagan traditions such as Wicca.

Her chapters are broken up into the archaeological or historical overview, a ‘story so far’ section interpreting the evidence, and a summary drawing it all together.  In a book covering such a vast period of time, this seems a very practical approach.  She also provides a detailed chapter by chapter bibliography to aid further research.

I was impressed with the depth of research carried out by Draco, she quotes eminent archaeologists and historians to support her theories, and presents this information in a very readable and informative manner.  Any book on the history of witchcraft would be hard pressed not to refer to the legendary Margaret Murray, whose 1921 book on witch-cults in Europe had a huge influence on the development of the neo-pagan movement and modern Wicca.  Draco uses Murray judiciously, Murray’s theories are now hotly disputed and Draco, although claiming some remnant pagan elements from antiquity may have survived in Britain, does not go as far as to claim an unbroken ancient lineage.

I was particularly taken by Draco’s idea of a Jungian Collective Unconsciousness, where over time universal magical knowledge was laid down and stored, ready for those with the ability to tap into in to it in future ages.  A sort of metaphysical unbroken lineage rather than an actual genealogical line!

Draco also makes an interesting point that many of the academic writers researching the history of witchcraft do not actually believe in witches per se, so approach the subject with an unintentional bias; she also has no truck with a lot of current pagan writings in which she blames for the propagation of  lazy and inaccurate historical ‘facts’ – or to use her own phrase: ‘fakelore and fantasy’.

I was interested to see how she would approach the ‘Burning Times’,  Draco clearly highlighted the difference in treatment of witches in England as opposed to those on the continent who were subject to the inquisition during this period.  She also avoided citing the oft quoted figure of 5 million killed during these times, a highly contentious figure which is strongly refuted by academics in the field.  (However, the dispute about the numbers killed should in anyway denigrate or dismiss the terrifying truth that hundreds of thousands of people, mainly women, were killed because they were perceived to be witches. And lets not forget that TODAY in many countries around the world people are still being persecuted and killed as witches).

Draco is a teacher, an instructor, and this comes across strongly in her writing style.  She has some very passionate views on the ‘correct’ approach to studying witchcraft and paganism – and strongly believes in the importance of tapping into the genius loci of an area as a way of connecting to the Old Ways.  She is very skeptical of the modern pick and mix approach promoted by many spiritual paths, preferring (as Dion Fortune did) that a person becomes an expert (in more than on path, if desired) before one creates a more individualist path.  Draco does not encourage ‘dabblers’.  Some may find her muscular approach to her subject and her clear preference for Traditional Witchcraft a little off-putting – some of her views in relation to Wicca and neo paganism can appear high-handed and dismissive (she readily admits that British Traditional Witchcraft can be a bit ‘red in tooth and claw’ and is much more tribal and can seem a lot less open armed than other branches of paganism).

This book is clearly  pitched at pagan readers rather than history fans, however I think that those generally interested in history would enjoy reading it, as it provides a very good survey of the last few thousand years from quite an alternative perspective: the magical/religious developments of the British Isles in relation to modern paganism.  In my view, it can only be a benefit to paganism in general if those practicing alternative paths such as Witchcraft, Wicca or Paganism find out more about the actual history of the subject rather than relying only on those books that provide a very appealing but not necessarily realistic view of pagan history.   As a result some currently accepted historical ‘facts’ might be consigned to ‘folklore’ but that’s not to say they lose their significance – it just tempers it.

Although some of the interpretations of the archaeological and historical record are open to challenge, for a book of under 200 pages that successful navigates many thousands of years of history and dealing with quite a controversial subject this is only to be expected!  This is a book that makes the reader ask questions, think about the evidence, and hopefully explore further.  I found it a thoroughly fascinating read.

Traditional Witchcraft and the Pagan Revival by Melusine Draco will be available on Amazon from 30 August 2013:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Traditional-Witchcraft-Pagan-Revival-anthropology/dp/1782791566/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373736875&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Traditional+Witchcraft+and+the+Pagan+Revival+by+Melusine+Draco

The curse of the red shoes: dancing manias of the middle ages

Tags

dance of death, dancing mania, frau troffeau, hans christian anderson, middle ages, pied piper, religious extacies, religious madness, St Vitus Dance, the red shoes

Dance of Death

Image by Pieter Breugel the elder

Amidst our people here it come

The madness of the dance.

In every town there now are some

Who fall upon a trance.

It drives them ever night and day,

They scarcely stop for breath

Till some have dropped along the way

And some are met by death[1]

 

On the 14^th July 1518, Frau Troffea left her house and went outside.  Suddenly from out of nowhere she began to dance.  Dancing awkwardly and uncontrollably, with arms and legs jerking in all directions, she jumped and twisted and twirled her way through the streets of Strasbourg. Frightened and bewildered neighbours came out of their houses to watch her strange progress.  Unbeknownst to them, that day was the beginning of what became known as the “Dancing Plague of Strasbourg”.

For between 4 to 6 days, Frau Troffea danced day and night.  Despite suffering from complete exhaustion, she could not rest.  By the end of the week, 34 people had joined her and within a month about 400 men and women were tearing their way through Strasbourg in this non-stop frenzied dance.  Many of the exhausted dancers died, often due to heart attacks and strokes, their bodies continuing to make jerking movements even in their final death throes.

Physicians consulted by the city’s authorities ruled out astrological or supernatural causes and instead put the cause down to a natural disease which they called “hot blood”.  Oddly enough their remedy was to keep the dancers in perpetual motion as they believed that the citizens would only recover if they danced continuously.  To this end it was decided to open up two of the city’s guildhalls and the grain market and to erect a wooden stage, all to encourage and facilitate the dancers.  Musicians were even hired to accompany them.

Seventeenth century Strasburg

In a last desperate attempt at a cure, the dancers were loaded onto three large wagons and taken to the shrine of St Vitus near Saverne. Priests were employed to say mass for each group.  After paying a donation of one pfenning, each of the dancers was given a gift of a cross and a pair of red shoes which had been sprinkled with holy oil.  Led around the altar in groups, the priest made the sign of the cross over the soles and tops of the shoes and sprinkled holy water on the afflicted men and women.

Mysteriously as it had begun, the epidemic ended.  The fate of the first dancer, Frau Troffea is not known but she had initiated the last, most famous and largest outbreak of the dancing plague.

Dancing Plagues

Written documents mention at least ten other outbreaks of dancing plagues in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.  Known as the “St Vitus Dance”, the earliest incident is recorded having occurred in the 7^th century.  Despite the association with Saint Vitus, the characteristics of each incident varied, with the smaller outbreaks confined to members of an extended family group or close neighbours.  An outbreak in 1237 involved a group of children jumping and dancing their way from Erfurt to Arnstadt, an event that shows a surprising similarity to Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.  Forty years later, 200 people were reported to have started dancing frantically over a bridge, resulting in the bridge giving way.  The first major documented case occurred in Aachen in Germany on the 24 June 1374 where a group of people were seen foaming at the mouth, dancing wildly in the streets and shrieking about wild visions.

Some believe that these incidents were organised events, purposely started to generate frenzy and hysteria but evidence from witnesses all report that the dancers appeared in a trance like state with no sign of pleasure on their faces. Indeed the fact that so many begged for help to stop tends to suggest that the participants were unwilling victims who had temporarily lost control over their own bodies.  Remedies could vary with victims being exorcised, isolated or being taken on pilgrimages ending at a shrine or chapel dedicated to St Vitus.

Even stranger aspects to the contagion involved shoes and the colour red.  Some of the dancers were described as having an extreme hatred for pointed shoes, whilst others took immense pleasure from having their feet hit! In the folklore of many northern countries, red was seen as an extremely powerful colour.  It could

Red shoes, image by Dancer4life adapted by Lenora

be viewed as good, symbolising the martyrdom of Christ as well as being the colour of love, fire, health, healing and joy.  Red was also worn to ward of the evil eye. On the other hand, red also signified vanity and female sexuality and was associated with the devil and witches.  Often those involved in the dancing epidemics were reported as being unable to perceive the colour red and some of the afflicted dancers became violent when confronted by red objects.  This reaction could suggest that some of the dancers believed that they had been possessed and it is noticeable that one of the healing gifts given by the priests to the afflicted citizens of Strasbourg was shoes, coloured red.

The root cause of these outbreaks was unknown at the time and even today it is a considered a historical mystery.  A number of theories have been put forward by both historians and scientists in an attempt to explain the phenomenon but many of these are about as plausible as the “hot blood” theory of the physicians of Strasbourg.  One of the least convincing arguments is that the participants were suffering from the condition known as ergotism.  Ergot poisoning from rye infected with a specific type of mould can cause a number of symptoms such as psychosis, mania, spasms and seizures.  Although movements could be jerky, contemporary sources describe the movements of those afflicted as more akin to dancing than seizures or spasms.  Other explanations include mass hysteria, collective mental disorder and religious ecstasy due to excessive veneration of St Vitus.

The author John Waller in his fascinating book “A time to dance, a time to die” puts forward another more convincing theory.  He notes that the outbreaks often coincided with periods of extreme suffering.  The incident at Aachen followed the devastation of the Black Plague which occurred between 1348 and 1350 and killed between 75 million and 200 million people reducing the population of medieval Europe by about a third.  The Strasbourg event was also at a time of extreme famine, poverty, fear of invasion by the Turks and arrival of syphilis into the community as well as a horrific epidemic of a disease known as the “English sweat”.  John Waller suggests that the combination of extreme psychological distress, pious fear and their belief in spiritual possession enabled the power of St Vitus to take over their minds and inflict a compulsive dance.  He also remarks how these epidemics disappeared in the 17^th century once Protestantism became the dominate religion of Northern Europe leading to the cult of St Vitus dying out.

The Cult of Saint Vitus

St Vitus, image by Thomas Mirtsch

A Christian Saint from Sicily who was believed to have escaped unscathed from a boiling cauldron of tar and molten lead, Saint Vitus died a martyr at the hands of the Romans in the 4^th century.  He was also one of the fourteen holy helpers of the Roman Catholic Church whose intervention was believed to be particularly effective combating certain diseases.

Saint Vitus day was celebrated on the 15^th June according to the Julian calendar and it can’t be a coincidence that the outbreaks of dancing mania in Aachen and Strasbourg occurred around this date.  Worshippers in Germany and Latvia celebrated the day by dancing in front of his statue.  Sydenham’s Chorea, the neurological disorder which became known as “Saint Vitus Dance” caused those stricken to suffer from rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements of the feet, face and hands. It is understandable that many people believed that those involved in the dance manias were believed to be suffering from this disorder. Vitus became known as the patron saint of dancers, entertainers, comedians, epileptics as well as giving protection against lightning strikes, animal attacks and oversleeping.

The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen

The Red Shoes, 1899 Ed by Helen Stratton

On a final note I just wanted to mention a lesser known and quite unpleasant fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. In the story, a poor girl named Karen is adopted by a rich old lady and becomes spoilt. The girl tricks her mother into buying her an expensive pair of red shoes fit for a princess.  Defying her mother, Karen wears the shoes repeatedly to church, ignoring the disapproval of the whole community and even the holy images. Karen’s obsession with her shoes results in her leaving her sick mother so she can attend a party.  On the way she meets a man who remarks on her beautiful dancing shoes.  After this encounter she begins to dance frantically and uncontrollable tearing her skin on the brambles.  Unable to stop dancing she is prevented from attending her mother’s funeral.  An angel appears to Karen and tells her that her vanity has condemned her to dance even after death.  Eventually in desperation she finds an executioner who cuts of her feet.  He makes her wooden feet and crutches.  Her amputated feet continue to dance in the shoes barring her way when she tries to enter the church.  After a long period of repentance and prayer, the angel again appears to Karen and grants her mercy, her forgiven spirit flying to heaven.  An even grimmer version of the story has the girl failing to find salvation and condemned to continue to dance until she was nothing more than a skeleton.

I don’t know if Andersen based the fairy tale on the dancing epidemic but considering he was born in the same geographical region; it is unlikely that he would have been unaware of the incidents.  There are too many coincidences, the non-stop dancing, the shoes, the colour red, the religious association, although here unlike for the Strasbourg dancers, the red shoes became the curse and not the cure.

Sources

Dance Mania http://missmeadowsvintagepearls.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/dancing-mania.html
Rethinking the Dancing Mania, http://www.csicop.org/si/show/rethinking_the_dancing_mania
Dancing Mania, http://frontierpsychiatrist.co.uk/dancing-mania/
Dancing Plague of 1518, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Plague_of_1518
History of Madness in Sixteenth-Century Germany, H.C. Erik Midelfort.A Time to Dance, a Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518, John WallerThe Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages, Justus Friedrich Karl HeckerThe Red Shoes, Hans Christian Andersen

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[1] Straussburgh Chronicle of Kleinkawel 1625