Saturday, September 30, 2006
Michaelmas
That's what I'm going to preach on. It was on Friday, and given my name, it was an obvious choice, if only I could find something to tie it in. I discovered that in the mediaeval period, St Michael (whose saint's day seems to have been positioned partly to push out the pagan celebrations of the autumn equinox) was associated with paying of debts and reckoning, as well as the end of harvest. Michaelmas was one of four "quarter days" when debts had to be settled, as well as the beginning of term for universities (both Oxford and Cambridge - and some other British universities and colleges - still have a "Michaelmas term", as do lawyers).I can relate this to the rather difficult reading from Mark, which talks about how it's better to cut off your hand or foot, or to pluck out an eye, than to go to hell. This can be seen as being about preparing one's soul for the afterlife - a very mediaeval preoccupation. Some translations of the Lord's Prayer use "debts" for "sins" or "trespasses", so that ties in well.
The clincher, though, was the discovery that Archangel Michael is the patron saint of Somerset, where I was brought up.
Moo, Jo and I went to Colchester zoo today, a perennial favourite. Dad couldn't make it, as he had meetings in Cambridge, but we had a lovely time, and found a very nice pub in Fingringhoe (yes, it's a real village) called The Whalebone. A good day. Where, by the way, did Jo learn to say "dawn" when we were up at 0545 and were trying to convince her it wasn't yet light, and that she should therefore go back to sleep?
Christmas and Easter being the prime examples... it is useful to note that the pagan festivities were rarely occult- but rather a celebration of the rhythm of the earth, something we might do well to investigate- there is something in the notion of Gia which resonates deeply with creation and recreation, spring time and harvest.. but that is probably me just being off the wall again....
Hard passage in Mark... challenging but hard!
pagan literaly means country dweller, but has attatched connotations of nature worship etc...
Occult is about hidden and secret things available only to the initiate...
lesson over I am doing too much MBS stuff at the moment; starting to become a bore.
I particularly like that nice rose colour for the 3rd week in Advent...
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