Last night you were looking for a Celtic name for the ‘ocean-river’ that surrounds the Isle of Avalon. The river in this book is the same, the Styx, the Jordan or any other mythological name that fits well with the culture of the Dead in place. You came up with “Sulis” who was a localized deity worshipped at the thermal spring in Bath, England. A place you visited and water that you dipped your fingers into. Wikipedia says:
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“[Sulis] was worshipped by the Romano-British as Sulis Minerva, whose votive objects and inscribed lead tablets suggest that she was conceived of both as a nourishing, life-giving mother goddess and as an effective agent of curses wished by her votaries.” . . .
Although the name "Sulis" appears almost nowhere else outside Bath, she is identified with the Suleviae, a group of Celtic goddesses known as the subject of votive inscriptions in the city of Rome and elsewhere; Suleviae has been attested in the epigraphic record from sites at Bath. Suleviae, frequently identified as a plural form of Sulis, is linked to a good many widely revered divine mothers, who frequently appear with two or three primary aspects to their character.”
Wikipedia
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By including the name you are putting a mythological order where there is not, but I’ll go along with it in this case, as you can now (in imagination) more intimately identity with the fictional River Styx, Jordan and the Sulis. – Amorella.
Bath and its hills are very interesting. We did walk down to the beginning of the spring itself and I did put my fingers in the tepid water. I like to ‘touch’ history as well as see and hear it. The spring is natural mineral water and the Avon River is nearby. What would it be, to touch the Styx? This will have to do.
The Spring Source
Outside, at the Bath, after visiting the Spring
Earlier this morning you drove to Beacon Orthopedics: Summit on Kemper Road and had a Bilateral L5 Transforminal Epidural for you lower back pain. As such you are to rest today and to continue somewhat so for the next three days. You are sitting near the window in your bedroom chair with your feet up and leaning back for greater comfort this late morning. Post. - Amorella
Nap, late lunch of excellent homemade vegetable soup, and a couple of TV shows from Tuesday. Soon it will be time for the national news.
Do I have enough to begin the scene or do I need more info and/or background. I am wondering about the privacy structures these Dead exist in. I assume there are no roofs. Once the sun appears does rain also, does the Land of the Dead basically become a ‘natural’ parallel universe (even for the marsupial-humanoid dead)?
Earlier, before supper, I was checking out the Druids because I was getting too much of a mix of Celtic Christian folklore. I found a site by The Theosophical Society in Pasadena, CA. The Society was founded in New York City in 1875. The work on the Druids was through the “Universal Brotherhood” and at least one book from the Society is in the Houdini library collection he donated to the Library of Congress. I assume the occult is one of the themes because Houdini wrote to discredit such things. That being said, the info on “The Ancient Druids [Their History and Religion] ” was written in three parts for their magazine by a Reverend W. Williams in 1898 under “The Science of Comparative Religion”. Skimming the place and people name material on Druidism, I have seen similar in a 1980’s Encyclopedia Britannica.
I would like you to place a quotation from Reverend W. Williams in your notes. – Amorella.
You are kidding. This man has no credentials.
Neither do you, boy. Do it. – Amorella.
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“The Ancient Druids”, by Rev. W. Williams, 1898 [The Theosophical Society]:
In process of time, becoming settled and established, the Celts formed amongst themselves for purposes of mutual defense vast confederations of warlike tribes. They became fond of hunting, expert and skillful agriculturists and dwelt in conical huts formed of the branches of trees, covered with the skins of animals slain in the chase. They painted their bodies with figures to distinguish their families and rank, of which they felt so proud that in the most inclement season they preferred the dispensing with any kind of clothing. Like the Persians, their distant relatives, they held idolatry in abhorrence and overturned and destroyed the images and temples of the vanquished. . . .
Whilst in their native land, the heads of families discharged all priestly duties and were termed Rishis, by whom were composed most of the hymns forming the Rig Veda, but owing now to their altered conditions and circumstances of life, the Celts, in order that they might be better able to attend to the means of self-preservation and provide for their respective families, relegated and intrusted the discharge of all priestly functions to certain individuals who have become known to us as the Druids; the derivation and meaning of which name is still a matter of dispute and uncertainty. Pliny the Elder, a noted Roman author, derives it from the Greek word drus, an oak, but several Welsh scholars maintain that it comes from Derwyda, the old British form of the word, a compound of derw, a wise man, a vaticinator or prophet. However this may be, the word Druid was used to designate a class of priests and philosophers corresponding to the Brahmans of India, the Magi of the Persians, as also to the hierophants and scholars of ancient and modern people. . . .
Amongst classical writers Caesar in the sixth book of his De bello Gallico, is the first who states that the Druids were the religious guides of the people as well as the chief expounders and guardians of the law. As, unlike the Brahmans in India, they were not an hereditary caste, and enjoyed exemption from military service as well as payment of taxes; admission to their order was eagerly sought after by the youth of Gaul. The course of training to which a novice had to submit was protracted, extending over twenty years, — resembling in this particular the system of education still in vogue in India. The office of Arch Druid was elective, extending over a lifetime, and involved supreme authority over all others. Desultory references and brief notices of the learning of the Druids are met with in the writings of Aristotle, Diogenes Laertius, the church fathers Origin, Clement of Alexandria and St. Augustine. . . .
The Druids had schools in the forests, where youths committed to memory certain maxims in verse, inculcating the worship of the gods, bravery in battle, respect to chastity of women and implicit obedience to Druids, magistrates and parents. These verses sometimes contained an allegorical meaning which was explained under an oath of secrecy to those educated for the higher orders of the priesthood. They were divided into three classes, the Druids proper, who were the sole judges and legislators, presided at the sacrifices and were the instructors of the novitiates. They were dressed in white robes. The second class were the Bards, who accompanied chiefs to battle and sang hymns to the god of war. They had to undergo a novitiate-ship of twenty years, during which they committed to memory the traditionary songs, the exploits and deeds of daring and valor of past chiefs. After passing the customary ordeals and examinations, they were given to drink of the waters of inspiration, which we are inclined to think was the same as the juice of the soma plant amongst the Hindoos; after which, like the Brahmans, they were said to be twice born and were henceforth held in the highest respect and veneration by their countrymen. The color of their garb was green. . . .
They were hunters and agriculturists and the exigencies of their modes of living, left them neither time nor leisure to attend to works of architecture, of which they had no need, as Nature herself had provided them with structures and temples fairer, more enduring and grander in their proportions than those upreared by human arts and skill. . . .
The doctrine of the unity of the Divine Being lies at the basis of all their cosmogonies and systems of philosophy, to which become attached, in course of time, teachings of Metempsychosis or Reincarnation, of moral and physical causation and speculations which crystallize into dogmas on the nature and ultimate destiny of man. There is also an embryological law which governs their development by which we can account for the many and differing phases of growth which they exhibit, as also the causes of their decline and extinction. Those in which the principle of humanity has been the ruling element, have attained the greatest longevity and become the most active and universal agents in the progress of civilization and the advancement of the Arts and Sciences which ameliorate the conditions of life and enable man to utilize the forces of nature and make them subservient to his welfare and enjoyment. . . .
The religion of the Celts, like all other ancient religions, was patriarchal in its character, until, as we have stated, their altered circumstances and newly acquired modes of life necessitated a change which resulted in the relegation of religious rites and ceremonies and their celebration to certain individuals characterized for their learning and holiness of life, who henceforth became known by the name of Druids. In silent forest glades and groves, they had ample opportunity, like the Aranyakas in India, for the development of those high spiritual states of ecstasy in which the whole realm of knowledge and the secrets of nature became unveiled and revealed to their wondering and inquiring gaze, and so long as they were un-swayed by ambition and remained content to be advisers and teachers, the fame of their extensive learning and the vast stores of knowledge which they accumulated, caused them to become subjects of the highest reverence. The rumor of them spread throughout all lands, so that students from all parts of the world flocked to them for instruction, and tradition states that Pythagoras himself was indebted to them for the doctrine of Metempsychosis. It is admitted by Greek writers that he was a disciple of the Celtic sages and acquainted with Abaris, a great Druid adept, who instructed him in the doctrine of the Abred or Circle of Courses, which, like the Gilgal Nishmoth or revolutio animarum of the ancient Kabbala, is intimately connected with the doctrine of Reincarnation. . . .
From: Universal Brotherhood. (online) “The Ancient Druids I & II” by Williams, 1898 [The Theosophical Society].
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I find the above troubling because it is drawing connections in a non-fiction-like setting. And, it seems, overall, highly ‘romanced’ like stories about the Celts and Druids are still built today. The Merlyn series is fiction and I try to keep the non-fiction (what there is of it for realism’s sake) somewhat separate.
And how do you do that, boy? – Amorella.
I would hope my notes show this. I show my sources which I admit are not scholarly standard because so much is from Wikipedia – so, you have me to rights.
What really bothers you about what I had you copy? – Amorella.
Shame, that sometimes I would love to believe the romance in the story-telling. It is embarrassing to me, who tried to teach what I thought was a literary and historical foundation to my literature classes, and here I am, writing in such a non-scholarly manner, mostly because I am not a scholar and never was.
This needs to be in your notes, boy. You need reminding from time to time as to who and what you are at heart and soul if not entirely mind. An agnostic dreamer. Such humor I see here, such sweet humor. Post. – Amorella.
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