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Water from the Tines

Anyone that knows Old Hornie knows him both for a trickster and a shifter of shapes, who “shows himself to each according to their desire.” Nor indeed is he god of witches alone, but everyone's, knowing or no.

(Frearth Hobson)

While visiting a friend in Ireland's Burren region, mythologist Martin Shaw spent the night in the mossy limestone cave once inhabited by Colmán mac Duagh, a 7th-century holy man.

The next night, he dreamt that he was back in the cave.

A stag came to the entrance of the cave, in moonlight. He looked in and he was twelve-tined, which means he had a great rack. I suddenly realized in the dream that I was phenomenally thirsty. As I had that thought, the stag, which I know in some form was Yeshua [= Jesus] leaned forward with his antlers, and on the tip of every antler was a drop of water. It's very much like an icon. I was underneath it with my hands cupped, gathering every drop of God-water, of Yeshua-water, of Spirit-water. I drank, and then I woke up [Dreher 215].

Forthwith, fair reader, some questions.

Seriously, Posch?

Next month at Paganicon 2025, you'll be teaching a class in astragalomancy: divination by knucklebones?

What the Bones Said: How to Cast and Read the Knucklebones

Long ago, in the dawn of days, the Horned gave us the bones and taught us how to read them.

Here's how.

Paganicon 2025

Friday, March 21 – Sunday, March 23

You mean to say that you're giving a workshop, and yet there will be no stack of new, ready-for-signing books on astragalomancy?

No do-it-yourself read-the-bones kits?

No faux-leather carrying pouches?

No cast-resin whitetail “knucklebones”?

No cotton “linen-style” casting-cloths?

You're giving a workshop, and you're not selling anything?

Anything at all?

More short, pithy sayings, and short form advice from my responses to questions and social media. I was asked what happened to the dead before the goddess Hel came to rule the realm Hel. My answer:

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Plants carry potent energy you can use to amplify your magical workings. Use the signs of the sun, moon and stars to your advantage and, over time, you will come to know which ones are most effective for you. Make sure to use your own astrological chart in working with these herbs.  Here is a guide to the astrological associations of plants you may grow in your kitchen garden or keep dried in your pantry:

 Aries, ruled by Mars: carnation, cedar, clove, cumin, fennel, juniper, peppermint and pine.

Next time you put on a pair of pants, thank the Horse Goddess.

According to current evidence, pants were invented by those same horse-riding, pot-smoking, milk-drinking Indo-European pastoralists who, starting about 6000 years ago, spread out in all directions from the Pontic-Caspian steppes to take over the known world: our linguistic ancestors.

Why, one might wonder, did they invent pants?

Easily told: because they were also the first to ride horses.

Did you ever try riding a horse while wearing a kilt?

Every word's a story.

In their 6000-year history, the lower, bifurcated garment has gone by many names, and pants are only the youngest.

The word, of course, is short for pantaloons, named for a stock character of 17th-century Italian comedy whose signature form of dress they were. Another version would have it that "pantaloons" was a nickname for Venetians, whose patron saint was St. Pantalone. Your call.

Older than pants were trousers, derived from the Gaelic triubhas. The Scots word trews remains more faithful to the original Celtic pronunciation than the longer, extended Southron version, which would seems to have acquired its extra syllable under the influence of drawers, something you draw on.

Older yet, the tunic-ed and toga-ed Romans were horrified to discover the barbarous inhabitants of Gallia Comata (“long-haired Gaul”) wearing leg-coverings that they called braccae. Germans wore them too—you know, those hairy barbarians are all alike—and called them by the same name, whence English breeches, and the Americanized britches. (Once again, Scots breeks remains faithful to the old Celtic pronunciation.) To the Hwicce, the original Anglo-Saxon Tribe of Witches, they were bréc, the plural of bróc, “leg covering.”

Braccae take us back in time about as far as we can go. The word exists in both Celtic and Germanic stocks, so in all likelihood derive, at the very least, from the time of the common tongue from which both language stocks derive: possibly 3500-3000 BCE.

What the original horse-riding, pot-smoking, milk-drinking pastoralists called them on the prairies of eastern Europe 6000 years ago, we don't know.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, recently warned priests ministering to soldiers in the Russian army in Ukraine to be on the lookout for “weirdos” attempting to spread “neopaganism.”

Kirill, a close ally of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and a vociferous supporter of the war in Ukraine, expressed outrage that in the 21^st century, “weirdos” (чудики, chudiki) should be attempting to revive “neopagan sentiments” “on the territory of Holy Russia.”

The Patriarch called on clergy in the war-zone to “show special initiative” in eradicating any “neopagan” influence on Russian soldiers, emphasizing the Church's role in shaping their ideological mindset. He also reiterated his belief in a broader conspiracy, claiming that “the forces opposing Russia” orchestrated the war in Ukraine in order to “weaken our country and the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.”

Since the fall of Communism, the collective search for a post-Soviet identity has lead to a burgeoning revival of old Slavic religion in both Russia and Ukraine. Often strongly nationalistic in tone, these movements have provided numerous soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

BE IT THIS 16 day of february in the year of Our Lord 1654 that one SVEIN HARDIN of Malmö in Skåne Parish did testify

ITEM to whit that on the 3 day of june in the Year of Grace 1643 that day being a Thursday that as he gathered diverse Mushrooms in the forest he did meet in said Forest with a skögsrå a man of the forest who was clothed all in GREEN from his head to his foot and that

ITEM he being fairer than the sons of men he did have carnal Dealings with said skögsrå and moreover did suffer him to know him per ano which the laws of God and man do plainly forbid and that he did call him his GREEN HANS and that this did call him His Darling lad and further that

ITEM for 10 years thereafter he did at each full of the moon meet with said skögsrå and his Fellows in said woods for dancing and Witch-sabbat and carnal Intercourse therewith and that

ITEM said skögsrå did teach him all herbs and roots and every manner of LEECHCRAFT wherewith he hath these ten years since healed many and many Lives saved withal or so he claimeth

and so for these Crimes do we hereby CONDEMN him for this is no skögsrå but a Fiend from hell from intercourse with which no Good can come however fair its Seeming

that on the 23 day of february in this Year of Grace 1654 for these hellish deeds he the aforesaid SVEIN HARDIN of Malmö in the aforesaid parish shall be BURNT in full public witness in Malmö Square of the aforesaid parish