St Hugh & the Swan Wife ~ Celtic Advent Days 3 & 4

Here we are at Celtic Advent Days 3 & 4.

Advent, Christmastide, & Epiphanytide begin with the goose of Martinmas & end with the swan of St Brigid at Candlemas. I love this image & yet, marvellously, I discovered just the other day that there is a swan here at the beginning of our journey too. This is the Swan of Stow & of St Hugh of Lincoln, the patron saint of swans, whose Feast Day is on 17th November (16th November in the Catholic Church).

http://www.danielmitsui.com/00_pages/hugh_lincoln.html

I have come to love and value the saints. Although 'saint', like God, can be an emotive word, for me these are the tales of our ancestors. Like all tales they contain many tangled threads, which we can choose to untangle, or not, as we wish. I have no doubt, for example, that many of the 'Royal Saints' who proliferated as the Anglo-Saxon kings converted to Christianity, had more to do with facilitating & legitimising land grabs than grace. But, underneath all that, there is a strata of beings in deep communion with the wild places & the creatures to be found there, a continuing animism that stretches back to the beginning of human consciousness & to the place where we are all bound together no matter what our religion. For example, there are few visions of which I am more fond than of the St Cuthbert who emerged quite naturally & gently during one 'Novena for the Fallen Through'; antlered, with a cormorant on his shoulder & otters at his feet.

The association of God with water birds is as old as prayer, as ancient as bone. Marija Gimbutas writes often of the life-creating and protecting Bird & Snake Goddess, appearing in ancient iconography “as separate figures and as a single divinity. Their functions are so intimately related that their separate treatment is impossible. She is one, and she is two, sometimes snake, sometimes bird. She is the goddess of waters and air, assuming the shape of a snake, a crane, a goose, a duck, a diving bird."1 She tells us too that “geese, cranes (herons), and swans are encountered painted or engraved in Upper Paleolithic caves.”2

12,000 year old carving of human figures & water birds, Image: University of Barcelona

I remember a poll of Britain’s favourite, and least favourite, birds that was carried out some years ago. Swans were amongst our favourites, but they were also much disliked coming second to crows. The main reason given being that their necks were ‘too snake-like’.

In his book, ‘When God Was a Bird: Christianity, Animism, & the Re-Enchantment of the World’, Mark I Wallace speaks of both Moses and Jesus as employing a form of ‘snake shamanism', with Moses casting a bronze serpent to mediate the healing power of God (Numbers 21), and, 800 years later, Jesus aligning himself with the serpent of Moses and “animistically shape-shifting into becoming the sacred serpent for the renewal of the people.”3 "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up." (John 3:14-15).

Despite the attempts of representatives of worldly power, such as King Hezekiah (715-686 BCE), to eradicate this ancient ‘snake cult’ & to impose a more governable & useful religion, Wallace suggests that, “the Bible articulates an unbroken line from Moses to the reign of David and the time of Jesus as a continuous exercise in shamanic healing featuring one of God’s non-human creatures ~ the snake ~ as central to restoring biological and social equilibrium.”4 It matters then to notice that goddess-saint Brigid is associated totemically with both the swan and the snake. 

These ideas may be unfamiliar, and perhaps challenging, to some but there is nothing to fear. Here is an unbroken thread from the first drumbeat and praise song stretching through all of the world’s religions if we have the open-heartedness & the courage to see it. Attempts to sever this thread, and so to locate power in worldly things, are about control & the enslavement of Spirit, nothing more. Why would we want to unroot ourselves? There is something here both about our 'animal bodies', and about our solidarity and relationship with the wild, that is longing to be included in our spiritual, and religious, experience. Something lost waiting to be welcomed home. The water bird, the snake, the wolf, the bear, are waiting to be offered room at the inn.

Bone swan pendants, Siberian, Middle Upper Palaeolithic

And for us, if the waiting of Advent is about anything, then it is about the coming of mercy, grace, and justice for all beings in physical form, the embodiment of God on Earth. Although that world-shaking event has been hijacked by Empire, it remains deeply subversive and liberating & needs to be reclaimed as just that. At Advent we wait in the luminous darkness for the Child of Light to be born, and this child will turn the world upside down. That includes the Church. No wonder then that so many fear him. The Saints, often choosing to live alone on the wild edges with only other-than-human beings for company, rejecting power & status, are a rich source for reclaiming what this season truly means.

And so to St Hugh of Lincoln and his companion swan.

Altarpiece from the Carthusian monastery of Saint-Honoré, Thuison-les-Abbeville, France, Wikipedia

Hugh of Lincoln, also known as Hugh of Avalon, was born in 1135/40 as a member of French nobility. His mother died when he was just 8 years old &, later, his father withdrew from the world, entering a monastery taking his son with him.

Having chosen a life within the Church, Hugh was sent to England in 1179 in order to found the first Carthusian (or charter) house. That Henry II facilitated this was part of his penance for the murder of Thomas Becket, the then Archbishop of Canterbury.

We are told that Hugh was often in conflict with the Crown, establishing his independence from the king & standing up to him where needed. He even excommunicated the king's forester for mistreatment & extortion of the poor. This was brave when Thomas Becket had been murdered for much the same thing.

Hugh was known for his kindness & generosity, particularly towards the outcast, & attempted to protect members of the Jewish faith, who suffered great persecution at the beginning of Richard I's reign. His biographer, Adam of Eynsham, writes that Hugh would "wash and dry the lepers' feet, sit with them, teach them, console and encourage them, and embrace and kiss them one by one."5

From St Benet Church, Beccles, Suffolk, by Simon K on Flickr

But, at this Advent time, it's Hugh's 'deep & lasting friendship' with a swan that we might reflect upon. We are told that Hugh loved to spend time in nature, delighting in the company of wild creatures. Around the time of his ordination as a bishop, a swan appeared on the lake of Stow Park, where he often went to find peace, & drove off all the other animals.6 The swan was particularly aggressive towards humans but, on meeting Hugh, it became docile, eating out of his hand & refusing to leave his side. It even watched over him as he slept and attacked anyone who came close. Their friendship endured for more than fifteen years.

The swan is revered in many of the world's cultures. Often seen as symbols of love & fidelity, they are also representatives of light.

In Norse mythology two swans drink from the Well of Urd and are turned white by the purity of its water. Five flying swans are the emblem of the Nordic countries. In Hinduism they are connected to saints, who are both in the world and unattached to it, just as a swan's feather can be in water without getting wet. A royal swan was the vehicle of the Hindu goddess, Sarasvati.

Swans are believed to have the power to move between worlds, possibly because of their long migrations. Hence, their role as psychopomps, carrying the souls of the dead to the Otherworld. In 2016 a Mesolithic era burial of a young woman and her infant son was found in Denmark. The child had been laid on a swan's wing.

In Western Europe, swans arrive in the autumn and leave in the spring. When whooper swans and greylag geese migrated northwards from Scotland in springtime, it was said they were carrying the souls of the dead ‘north beyond the north wind’. In addition, swans often travel at night and so may have contributed to beliefs about the Wild Hunt & other processions of the dead found throughout Europe.

Although so intimately connected with the dark, swans are also deeply woven in with the light. Through their association with divine twins they have become solar symbols of the Indo-European Sun Goddess; the Sun and the Son being born in Midwinter from the deepest dark. Their star constellation; Cygnus (the Swan, also known as the Northern Cross), marks the beginning of the Great Rift, or the Dark River, a band of interstellar dust clouds that appear to divide a third of the Milky Way lengthwise in half, much like parted legs. Here, light flows from the womb of primordial darkness through the constellation of swans in flight.

A.T. Hatto, in his paper, “The Swan Maiden - A Folk-Tale of North Eurasian Origin”7, tells us that shamans of Arctic or North Central Siberian societies often wore bird costumes, with the Buryat, Tungus, and Yakut, considering the Swan to be their ancestress and/or totem. There are echoes here of the celtic bards who may have worn feathered cloaks known as tuigen, including the skin, feathers and necks of swans. Hatto suggests too that swans and geese were particularly associated with female shamans, as is also the case with female saints! More of that tomorrow perhaps.

But what then of St Hugh of Lincoln, patron saint of swans? There is a concept in shamanism of the 'spirit spouse', a primary helping spirit who assists the practitioner in their work, & the world's mythology is threaded through with tales of the 'animal wife'. These are shape-shifting women, often alternating between human form and their other selves as seals/selkies, foxes, cranes, and yes, swans.

Via Twitter

This may seem to have little to do with Advent & the birth of Jesus, and I am not suggesting that St Hugh thought of his swan in this way, although many of us know how deep the love can be between us and a companion animal and how that can connect us to, and guide us in, the more-than-this. We can remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit often appears in the Bible as a dove and that Christ might also be described as a 'spirit spouse'; appearing to nuns, who are the 'Brides of Christ', in dreams. Some, including male clerics & monks, have been inspired to write the most beautiful and passionate love poetry in response. Some of it makes me positively blush! In addition, the oldest known example of a form of possible 'swan shamanism' is to be found in Israel at the 420,000 year old cave site of Qesem in Tel Aviv where evidence has been found of deliberate defeathering of a swan's wing for what is believed to be ritual purposes.

And so, here at the outset of our journey through Celtic Advent, we have the swan; a symbol of the sun, of light being born from star-filled darkness, and of both earthly royalty & otherworldly divinity, & so of negotiating between the two as St Hugh of Lincoln was able to do. Here too is our reminder that we will struggle with 'turning over the tables in the temple' if we have not first wedded ourselves to the wild & its Wilder God. Once, God was a bird.

I will end with Mary Oliver's powerful-as-wild-wings poem, The Swan.

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain peltingthe trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross streaming across the sky, its feet
like black leaves, its wings like the stretching
light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it
pertained to everything?
And have you finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

- Mary Oliver

References:

1. p. 112, Gimbutas, Marija, 'The Goddesses & Gods of Old Europe', Thames & Hudson, 1974

2. p. 3. Gimbutas, Marija, 'The Language of the Goddess', Thames & Hudson, 1989

3. p.35-36. Wallace, Mark I, 'When God Was a Bird: Christianity, Animism, and the Re-Enchantment of the World', Fordham, 2019

4. p.36. Wallace, Mark I, 'When God Was a Bird: Christianity, Animism, and the Re-Enchantment of the World', Fordham, 2019

5. http://thegoodheart.blogspot.com/2008/11/swan-of-stow.html?m=1, retrieved 18th November 2019

6. As 5.

7. Hatto, A.T. (1961). The Swan Maiden: a Folk-Tale of North Eurasian Origin? Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 24(2), pp. 326–352. doi: 10.1017/S0041977X00091461, in 
http://www.thesoulofbones.com/blog/the-cult-of-the-swan

On St Hugh of Lincoln

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_of_Lincoln

https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/11/13/the-saint-who-protected-the-jews-of-lincoln/

http://thegoodheart.blogspot.com/2008/11/swan-of-stow.html?m=1

On Marija Gimbutas

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marija_Gimbutas

On swans

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan

https://www.poetseers.org/contemporary-poets/mary-oliver/mary-oliver-poems/the-swan/

http://maryarrchie.com/2019/01/21/vedbaek-burial-a-baby-buried-upon-swans-wing/

An absolutely invaluable resource on the 'Cult of the Swan'

http://www.thesoulofbones.com/blog/the-cult-of-the-swan

On swan animism

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/swan-0012657

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/sculpture/flying_swan_pendants.php

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-why-archaic-humans-in-israel-collected-feathers-420-000-years-ago-1.7883700

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/birds-and-people-mingle-rare-piece-rock-art-180971690/

Neolitihic swan bone flutes https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/science/25flute.html

The Spirit is a Wild Goose ~ Celtic Advent Day 2

Greylag goose, Jacqueline Durban, 2013

We come to Celtic Advent Day 2.

The 'Wild Goose', an Geadh-Glas in Gaelic, Geif Gwyllt in Welsh, is the name that Celtic Christians are said to have given to the Holy Spirit, perfectly embracing the untameable, free, & unpredictable nature of our connection to the indwelling Divine. There is little proof that the name was used before the 1940s but, for me, that doesn't discount the symbol. Christianity comes from a land of dry desert & wide open spaces where, perhaps, things are more obvious. Here, it finds itself responding to a landscape of green misty valleys & sea fog, of ever-changing tides & sheets of grey rain. Nothing is obvious here. Rather, like the Grail, it is only half-glimpsed before it's gone and we are lucky if we can catch a feather or two to reassure us that it was here at all. In the goose, Spirit is embodied in the form of a wild bird bridging water, earth, & sky, and that image is a vision of both God & land.

For our ancestors their goose would probably have been a Greylag, like this one encountered in my canal days. The Greylag is the ancestor of our domestic goose, having been domesticated as early as 1360BCE. The connection of the goose to the Divine is long. She is associated with the Sumerian healer Goddess, Gula, the Egyptian Sun God, Ra, & the love Goddess Aphrodite of Greece, where goose fat was once used as an aphrodisiac.

At Advent we await not a tamed & domesticated God but one who is destined to accompany us as we stand against entrenched power, a God who sought wisdom in the wilderness of desert & mountain. The goose, who in the winter comes to our shores to find sanctuary in the marshes, estuaries, & edge places, is a perfect reminder that we wait for a Wilder God, freed from a year of watching the Church both speak out against, & enable, many injustices in the world, made new in the pure starlight & biting cold of Midwinter, born outcast to call us back to the holy edge.

Great Spirit, Wild Goose of the Holy One.
Be my eye in the dark places;
Be my flight in the trapped places;
Be my host in the wild places;
Be my brood in the barren places;
Be my formation in the lost places.

Ray Simpson, Community of Aidan & Hilda, Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

On this second day of Advent we might also consider a daily devotion which could be gently adopted as a reminder of the journey we are on. I love the Celtic Advent Calendar from Contemplative Cottage. I have also set an alarm to chime every 3 hours from 9am to midnight each day until Christmas Eve. I love this practice because it echoes in part the monastic Liturgy of the Hours. When the bell rings I spend a few moments in mindful contemplation of the starlit dark, even if that only means taking a few deep breaths. I hold expectation gently. As Susan Forshey of Contemplative Cottage says, this is an opportunity to practice grace.

Celtic Advent Resources ~

https://contemplativecottage.com

including the Celtic Advent Calendar 2019

https://godspacelight.com/blog/

https://www.faithandworship.com/Advent/Advent_Celtic_Christian_Celebration.htm

'Celtic Advent: 40 Days of Devotions to Christmas' by David Cole https://www.eden.co.uk/celtic-advent/

Our Flight Through the Winter Dark ~ Celtic Advent Day 1

Image: 'Nights of Reindeer & Starlight' by Wood Hill.

Today has been the first day of Celtic Advent; an enfolding time of waiting for the birth of the Sun/Son at Midwinter.

There are several possible dates for Advent to begin ~ the first Sunday in December, the traditional church date & the beginning of the new church year, & December 1st, when we open the first door on our Advent calendars. This year both fall beautifully on the same day. 

But there is also an older tide; that of 'St Martin's Lent' or, what has become known as 'Celtic Advent', observed by the ancient church of Britain & Ireland; our 'indigenous Christianity' one might say, the one that listens, rather than imposes. This Advent is a waiting deeply woven through with the starlit winter dark, the Celtic saints, & the song of the sacred Land.

Most now keep Celtic Advent from November 15th (or the 14th eve), but 'St Martin's Lent' traditionally began at Martinmas on the 11th; a day still celebrated in some Eastern European countries as a men's festival marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, with the women's festival, Catterntide, on the 25th.

It's interesting that one of the symbols of St Martin, who was an ex-soldier & a protector of children & the poor, was a goose. Of which more on another day. But, for now, it's telling that in medieval times, although many celebrated Martinmas with an autumn feast, only the rich could afford a goose, with the poor dining on duck or hen.

Which is why it was such a subversive delight for the Cratchits to have a goose for Christmas Day in Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. In 1824, Dickens' father was sent to the Marchelsea prison in Southwark for a debt to a baker & Dickens was forced to leave school to work in a factory. No doubt, like many amongst us now, he had many Christmases without good cheer.

At Advent we set our minds to asking for nothing less than the rebirth of hope & justice, the World Turned Upside Down coming as a vulnerable child amongst outcasts & refugees. But, first, we make our long journey through the winter dark, trusting to starlight & our own inner flame to show us the way.

Image: 'Nights of Reindeer & Starlight' by Wood Hill.

On the Radical Hospitality of Ragwort

I want to write a love song to Ragwort, so often despised and derided, endlessly at risk of eradication. I have fallen out with several people over my high regard for Ragwort as she is (unfairly) blamed for the deaths of horses & cattle. We so often value creatures in whose eyes we can see our own reflections, both literally and metaphorically, over the health of our planet. Ragwort is one of many teachers inviting us to do better, as are so many despised beings. 

As for horses & cattle, proven cases of Ragwort poisoning are rare. They will only eat fresh Ragwort if starving due to our own neglect, and so it is dried Ragwort in hay that is the real challenge, if a challenge there is. In this way, again, Ragwort calls to us to be more mindful, more present, to slow down. Instead of looking to ourselves, we fear her & try to wipe her out. Indeed, she is one of five plants named as an 'injurious weed' under the provisions of the Weeds Act 1959, which means that the Government can require a landowner to prevent her spread.

Recently, there has been petition to have this act rescinded, although this was closed early due to the General Election being called. The Government responded to the petition by saying that they have no plans to rescind the Act at this time, particularly as the Act doesn't call for the eradication of the five listed 'injurious weeds'. However, I would reply that it is not the Act itself but the message that it conveys which is injurious to Ragwort and her sister plants (Broad-Leaved Dock, Curly Dock, Creeping Thistle, and Spear Thistle).

Growing on the shingle beach, Folkestone November 2019

Writer Robert Macfarlane tells us that 'pharmakos' in Ancient Greek ritual is a human scapegoat, exiled at a time of crisis in order to purify the sins of a community. The related word 'pharmakon', from where we get our word 'pharmacy', means both 'poison' and 'cure'. Ragwort is one of our great scapegoats, like foxes, like Hogweed. We think of it as poison but it holds within its golden petals so many cures. And yet, here too, we find echoes of the crucified Christ, and so of the crucified Earth. I wonder how many scapegoats we will need before we begin to take back our power in thinking for ourselves?

 

A native plant to the British Isles, Ragwort is a member of the daisy family & considered one of the top nectar producing plants in our land. Abundant on wasteland and waysides,she offers at least seventy-seven insect species home & food, thirty of these relying on her, & only her, for their survival. Ten are considered rare or threatened. A further one hundred & seventeen insects, including solitary bees, moths, & butterflies, use her as a wayside hostelry as they travel between feeding or breeding sites. She belongs, she denies no one, and she matters.

Growing in the edge places

Once, Ragwort was much used medicinally by the people of the land as a cooling wash for burn or for inflamed eyes. Her juice was also used to bathe sores & cancerous ulcers. Hence, one of her folk names of 'Cakerwort'. A poultice of her leaves was applied to bring relief in cases of rheumatism, sciatica, and gout. She was also used as a gargle for sore throats. In Ancient Greece it was used to make an aphrodisiac, known as 'Satyrion', and the leaves and can be used to make a good green dye, with the flowers producing yellow, brown, and orange hues.

No doubt mindful of the many benefits of Ragwort, known in the Isle of Mann as 'Cushag', to insect and human alike, the Manx poet, Josephine Kermode, wrote; 

Now, the Cushag, we know,

Must never grow,

Where the farmer's work is done.

But along the rills, 

In the heart of the hills,

The Cushag may shine like the sun.

Where the golden flowers,

Have fairy powers,

To gladden our hearts with their grace.

And in Vannin Veg Veen*,

In the valleys green,

The Cushags have still a place.

Other than Cushag and Cankerwort, some of Ragwort's folk names are; Stinking Willie, Benweed, St James-wort, Stinking Nanny/Ninny, Dog Standard, Staggerwort, and Stammerwort. The penultimate name refers to the old belief that Ragwort would 'cure the staggers in horses', and presumably the last to a belief that the flower was a helpful remedy for stammering.

I love too a new name for Ragwort, Benyon's Delight, coined by Dusty Gedge in 2011 in response to the wildly inaccurate comments by then Government Minister with a responsibility for biodiversity, Richard Benyon, who has a professed hatred for the herb. Oh, the irony! MP for Newbury Mr Benyon wrote that, "I hate Ragwort. And I am on the warpath for those who let this poisonous weed spread." His Facebook post was accompanied by a photo of him pulling up Ragwort, watched over by a benign cow. You can read more about why he was wrong on the excellent Poison Garden website here.

That Ragwort is known as 'St James-wort' (or herb) is intriguing. There are several possibilities for the St James to which this refers. One is the brother of Jesus, a leader of the early Church, although I can find no reason for Ragwort to be associated with him. One writer suggests that Ragwort's fluffy white seedheads are reminiscent of St James's white beard, although this seems rather tenuous even though the plant's former Latin name was 'Senecio Jacobaea' or 'Old Man James' (my woeful Latin translation skills notwithstanding).

Rather, it seems more likely that Ragwort is the herb of James, son of Zebedee, or St James the Great, who, again ironically, is the patron saint of vetenarians, equestrians, blacksmiths, and pharmacists, although there seems to be no particular reasn why. He also watches over those suffering from arthritis & rheumatism, both of which were once said to have been relieved by the medicine of Ragwort. It is to the shrine of St James the Great that the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St James, pilgrimage route leads. This was one of the most important Christian pilgrimage paths in the late Middle Ages and I like to think that its edges are graced by the shining petals of Ragwort. St James' Feast Day is on July 25th when Ragwort is at the height of her flowering. It feels relevant too to note that both the St Jameses were martyred, as Ragwort so often is too; a martyr to us seeking to deflect blame for our own behaviour to the beings of the wild.

During the long, hot summer of 2018, I was blessed to live closely with Ragwort when she came to live in proliferation in the hedgehermitage garden. She not only filled the air with sweet honey scent ~ who knew that she smelled so gorgeous ~ but taught me much about shame, maintaining boundaries without excluding, endless generosity in the face of condemnation, and how to endure scapegoating with grace & an ever open heart. All important medicines in these times.

Loving my first sniff of Ragwort for the year, 2019

I have watched Ragwort plants offer one another space to grow, sheltering other green beings through the long, parched summer, providing pollen, and sometimes dozing places, for bees when other flowers had succumbed to drought. It was incredibly noticeable that wherever the Ragwort was growing was a vibrant green, not just of Ragwort but of the other plants and grasses growing with them, where the rest of the garden was dry and brown. My husband informed me that, when he did need to uproot an occasional Ragwort plant, her roots were providing a home to all manner of invertebrates and were alive with life (which he carefully found new homes for). It seems, that where we are repelled, beings with more wisdom are drawn to her.

Ragwort in the Seabrook Valley, Summer 2019

2018's Herring Gull chick sits amongst the Ragwort

She has been less abundant this year, although I have particularly noticed her growing determinedly on the shingle beach here. I was pleased to be told that her growth has a two yearly cycle so I hope to be surrounded by Ragwort next year. I miss her when she's gone. Through the winter I will watch over the prayer of her roots until she comes again in the early summer. I am grateful and in awe of her spirit of hospitality and kindness, to both indigenous beings and migrants alike, and in the face of condemnation and risk to her own wellbeing when many of us would become stone-hearted and cold. She is an example to us all. I look forward to her return.

Ragwort seedheads

Mr Radical Honey clearing (some of) the Ragwort for winter

Notes:

*  Vannin Veg Veen is Manx for dear little Isle of Man

References:

Ragwort Advocacy ~

An excellent resource for Ragwort facts can be found here ~  http://ragwort-hysteria.blogspot.com/

Here https://friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/ragwort-poisonous-ragwort-mythbuster

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/26/damned-as-dangerous-but-ragwort-is-full-of-life

 http://www.ragwort.org.uk/

and there is much reason to be found here  http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz/jacobaea_vulgaris.htm 

and, especially, here in regard to the demonisation of Ragwort  http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/blog/blog160911.htm

Ragwort info ~

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobaea_vulgaris

Ragwort as medicine ~   

https://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/r/ragwor02.html

On St James ~ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_the_Great

https://www.catster.com/lifestyle/st-james-the-greater-patron-saint-of-vets-cats-history

Lest We Forget

Folkestone Remembrance beach poppy, 2019

Lest we forget how our hearts, courage, and decency, our love, are turned against us by those in power. 

Lest we forget that our military recruitment services deliberately target schools in deprived areas, turning a broken society to their own advantage & attracting condemnation from the UN. 

Lest we forget that, although even we don't allow those under 18 to fight in war, when they do children recruited at 16 are twice as likely to die. 

Lest we forget, as we honour the dead in the 'Pages of the Sea' that many WWI soldiers drowned in their own trenches. 

Lest we forget veteran of the conflict in Northern Ireland, David Clapson, who died alone in a diabetic coma after the Government's Austerity measures deprived him of food and the electricity needed to keep his insulin cold. 

Folkestone Remembrance beach poppies, 2019

Lest we forget the victims of Yemen, those who die in refugee boats fleeing wars not of their own making.

Lest we forget that our media is more interested in Jeremy Corbyn's coat and the size of his poppy than that our last Prime Minister was married to an arms dealer and sold weapons to oppressive regimes on our behalf.

Lest we forget that we are the second largest arms dealer in the world & that our current Prime Minister pushed for arms sales to Saudi Arabia even whilst they were using them to murder Yemeni civilians, including 140 people who were attending a funeral. 

Lest we forget that the Church of England, who speak out against war, continue to rent buildings to military conferences and have historically benefitted from investment in the arms trade. 

Lest we forget that the Royal British Legion accepts sponsorship from the UK's biggest arms company, BAE Systems, who before they merged were Armstrong & Vickers who sold arms to the Ottoman Empire. The very weapons which were turned against British soldiers in WWI. 

Lest we forget the words of Harry Patch, the last surviving WWI veteran, who died in 2009; "Politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder."

Folkestone Remembrance beach poppies (detail) 2019

Never be fooled into thinking that war is anything more than the business of the rich and powerful with the poor as collateral. There is no such thing as the 'Glorious' Dead. 

At the rising of the sun and its going down, we WILL remember them. 

Folkestone war memorial, November 2019

On What Our Children Are Telling Us ~ the Government's report on tackling childhood obesity

Foodbank collection at All Souls', Cheriton's Harvest Festival, October 2019

I have decided to post a few pieces here that, like my article on Operation Christmas Child last week, contain my immediate reaction to happenings that mean a lot to me. They might be shorter than my usual sharings, less polished, and I'm sure not entirely complete ~ there is always more to say ~ but sometimes it feels important to say something, rather than nothing at all. I have quite a long list of beautiful blog posts I would like to share but I am struggling to find the space for writing & so I hope that you will forgive me, dear reader, for these occasional, less perfect, deviations.

Today, I want to write about the Government's strategy on childhood obesity.

When I first read Prof. Dame Sally Davies' ideas about tackling childhood obesity by, for instance, banning food & drink on public transport I was niggled, then I was angry. Now I am enraged.

You can read more about it here.

Whilst I agree with her that company profits are being put before people, & that that must change, there is clear evidence from a range of studies over decades that obesity is now linked to poverty; unlike in the past when the poor were starving & the children of the rich were obese.

These studies, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Wellcome Trust, concluded that the "powerful influence of the obesogenic environment [growing up in an environment that encourages, or at least facilitates, unhealthy eating] has disproportionately affected socioeconomically disadvantaged children", and that policies to prevent childhood obesity have been "ineffectually focused". Naturally when the Mail Online reported on this study in March 2018 they resorted, as ever, to 'victim shaming', suggesting that the report blamed rising childhood obesity on cheap junk food & declining activity levels. This, of course, is an oversimplification and it seems that today's Government report follows the same pattern.

Instead of tinkering around the edges, we must address the deeper issues affecting our children. Instead of reinforcing the age-old stereotype that the 'lower classes' need the kind, paternal hand of the 'upper classes' & Gvt to control ourselves, that we are some how more at the mercy of our baser instincts, maybe some thought needs to go into changing the fact that the well off are now growing 'fat' on the misery of the poor; if not physically then certainly in terms of wealth & power.

I have seen many people today, rightly, rejecting the recommendations in this new report whilst suggesting that parents need to be educated in how to feed their children healthy food, particularly on a budget. Whilst, I agree that we can all learn more about how best to care for our bodies, I reject the insidious and internalised blame masquerading as care which is thinly veiled beneath these, no doubt well meaning, comments.

In feeding ourselves and our children we cannot, and must not, discount the anxiety, lowering of self-esteem, and all-pervading depression, caused by decades of Conservative rule. The people feeding their own children now are the children of the children of Margaret Thatcher's brutal Government. So many of us knew that this would happen, have been screaming it into the wind. And depression spreads like poison in the blood. If adults are desperately unhappy, their children, through no fault of the parent or the child, live in a cloud of despair. Who wouldn't reach for a sugary or buttery treat?

And even without the depression, many parents are forced to take several jobs to make ends meet, working long hours, & so unable to cook for their children, sometimes even then compelled to use foodbanks.

Several years ago I read a horrifying report that food which needed to be cooked was being returned to foodbanks because some couldn't pay their gas/electricity bills & so were unable to cook at all. Whilst I accept that this may not affect large numbers of people (and it should be none at all), how easy would it be to make good & healthy food choices whilst living like that? And, of course, working long hours makes us desperately tired and more likely to reach for the quick energy-hit of sugar.

And then there is our disconnection from the outdoors, an issue which disproportionately affects children from low income and BAME households; so many playing fields sold off & built on, so much woodland and other open space lost to development in the name of greed. And we are encouraged not to care, to self-medicate with television and cheap snacks  ~ and, by the way, making the cheap snacks more expensive, as suggested in this report, only makes people poorer. There is no suggestion that healthy food should be made cheaper! ~ And, of course, even if children do have open spaces around them, their parents are often too tired or despairing, or just too busy working, to take them out, and we are so threaded through with fear by the media that many children never go out alone. 

And that disconnection; the loss of even wanting to be out, or being too afraid, of being tied to computer screens & televisions, of not knowing about the world of wonder, & messiness, & play to be found outside. I weep for our children and for all the 'Lost Words', whose loss has lessened the wonder.

I have worked as a counsellor with primary school children, mostly boys and mostly from poor families. They aren't lazy. They don't want to live on snacks. What they mostly want to do is play football or just run about. Instead, we make them sit still in classrooms, putting more and more pressure on them younger and younger to perform, to succeed, but only to succeed within the narrow parameters we have chosen for them to be of use in the world of work. No wonder that they eat.

This is the world that we have made. Looking at the most shallow level ~ the symptom, not the cure ~ won't mend it. We have to start thinking of ourselves, both as individuals & our society, as an ecosystem, a web of interconnections & relationships, & our ecosystem is dying. Our children are telling us that. It's up to us to make the system healthy again; but not with rules & petty blame, but with care, intelligence, and love.

And I am still in a rage. We all should be. How dare they talk about our children in this way!?

References:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/time-to-solve-childhood-obesity-cmo-special-report

https://theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/10/childrens-health-england-must-be-put-ahead-of-profits-says-chief-medic

https://www.nhs.uk/news/obesity/children-poorer-backgrounds-more-affected-rise-childhood-obesity/

https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2018/mar/01/improving-childrens-access-nature-addressing-inequality-bame-low-income-backgrounds

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/may/21/how-can-we-get-our-children-playing-outside-again

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/oxford-junior-dictionary-replacement-natural-words

https://heated.medium.com/weve-sold-the-definition-of-food-42062e6c4a14

On Operation Christmas Child; Colonialism Masquerading as Charity

Earlier today I met a stunning Ichneumon wasp & deep-hearted & wise Birch Moon Wisdom on Instagram commented that wasp medicine is afoot. I agree! On so many levels, now that I have almost recovered from how beautiful she was, my meeting with her was significant, but perhaps more of that soon. In the meantime, I am reminded that several times in my life I have been accused of being 'waspish', that insult which is so often cast at women who speak their minds. And this week I have had to speak my mind in a way which I'm sure was unwelcome, & that's where I come to the angel because this was about Christmas.

In the 1,000 year church last Sunday we were given a talk on Operation Christmas Child, whose parent organisation is Samaritan's Purse, a US Evangelical Christian group which provides disaster relief throughout the world.

Operation Christmas Child organises thousands upon thousands of shoeboxes to be filled with Christmas gifts by well meaning people, including in our schools and churches, & then distributed to children who have been affected by war, famine, poverty, disease, & natural disasters. Since 1990, more than 168 million children in over 160 countries have been given shoeboxes; an astounding feat. It sounds so lovely, so kind, & in this complex & bewildering world we so need things that are kind. But truly Operation Christmas Child isn't kind or lovely at all. 

Firstly, Operation Christmas Child is evangelical, hoping to convert children & their families to Christianity; the sort of Christianity that voted Donald Trump into the White House & believes him to be doing 'God's work'. Ironic then that this organisation which professes to care for children supports a man who has overseen the removal of migrant children from their families, the deportation of parents whilst their children were at school through ICE, & the incarceration of children at the border with Mexico. Whether evangelism itself is a good thing might be debated (I say not) but evangelism of this nature; fundamentalist & done by offering shiny gifts to vulnerable children who are first obliged to attend a 'prayer meeting' is beyond both religious & human decency. And it could so easily be argued that the inequality of power in that exchange makes it almost impossible for any conversion to be freely arrived at. As one commentator said, "You have desperate people and you have someone who has food in one hand and a Bible in the other."

In addition, the president of Samaritan's Purse is US evangelist, Franklin Graham who has been accused many times of hate speech & who was quoted in last Sunday's talk. Indeed it was that that made me investigate the organisation more deeply. 

Franklin Graham has spoken out against LGBT rights & in favour of conversion therapy, he supported the Iraq war & most definitely supports Donald Trump. Furthermore, he considers Islam to be "evil and wicked" & has said that Muslims should not be allowed to enter the US. It is ironic that his own organisation is named after the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story about overcoming bigotry towards those we consider 'other'. That is certainly not something that Franklin Graham is able to do. And, in addition, he is the highest paid CEO in the charity sector in the US. It must be hard indeed to consider the opinions of others when you can't hear them over the rattling of your own money.

In short, Operation Christmas Child benefits financially & otherwise from the continuation of war & injustice; a worldly system of greed openly supported by their president. You cannot provide 'relief' to the victims of war with one hand whilst cheerleading for it with the other. 

And this is certainly not the teaching of Jesus, a radical preacher in an occupied land who spoke out against injustice in all its forms. We must remember that he was murdered by the forces of Imperialism, and Operation Christmas Child is Imperialism in action; self-soothing by offering shallow charity, whilst ignoring, feeding, & even benefitting from, the deeper roots of injustice. Chillingly, Revd. Giles Fraser points out that US evangelism "systematically confuses the kingdom of God with the US's burgeoning empire. It is no coincidence that the mission fields most favoured by US evangelicals are also the targets of neo-conservative military ambition." And, of course, the more children and adults in distress, the more money Franklin Graham & Samaritan's Purse makes, and the more opportunities they have to create compliant & reliant Christians. This is the most terrible face of Christianity, and of any religion. 

Indeed, this is not truly Christianity at all. To follow Christ is to be counter-cultural, to demand the 'world turned upside down', to 'do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly' (Micah 6:8), or to do our best to at least. Operation Christmas Child/Samaritan's Purse is none of these. It is thinly disguised Colonialism by another name, and it preys on well meaning people, including my kind friend at church, who wish to share their prosperity with those who are less fortunate to spread its poison.

I am pleased to say that several organisations in the UK no longer support Operation Christmas Child by allowing their premises to be used as collection points. These include, Oxfam, the South Wales Fire Service, DHL, the Inland Revenue, & the Co-op. Surely our churches and our schools must do the same.

If we are to survive these times we must be better than this. We have to have difficult conversations, look and think more deeply, speak out; even if that means being considered 'waspish', be willing to listen and to change, sometimes to give up what we had held as good and precious and kind. And we have to transcend the attitude that tells us that a few plastic gifts in a shoebox makes up for hundreds upon hundreds of years of systematic exploitation and oppression. Then we might truly be doing God's work.

But, until we do, Christ have mercy.

There are several fine, Christian and otherwise, alternatives to Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Here are a few that I've been told about. Please let me know if you know of others.

https://linktohope.co.uk/shoebox-appeal-2019 ~ provides shoeboxes to families & the elderly to those in need in Eastern Europe

https://www.msrm.org.uk/liab.html ~ a Mustard Seed Initiative supporting children in Eastern Europe 

https://www.marysmeals.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/the-backpack-project ~ a year round initiative to fill a backpack with everything children in Malawi need for school; clothes, art materials etc

References:

http://emilyjoypoetry.com/7-reasons-not-to-participate-in-operation-christmas-child-this-year   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan%27s_Purse#Controversy   http://humanistlife.org.uk/2015/10/14/why-parents-shouldnt-support-operation-christmas-child/   https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/news-opinion/truth-behind-your-childs-operation-854545   https://baptistnews.com/article/10-alternatives-operation-christmas-child/   https://baptistnews.com/article/stuffing-shoe-boxes-for-the-worlds-poor-maybe-you-should-reconsider/#.WbXydbJ96M8   https://humanism.org.uk/humanism/humanism-today/humanists-doing/good-causes-and-charities/samaritans-purse/   https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/jan/15/fundraising.guardiansocietysupplement   https://sites.google.com/site/occalert/   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/10/religion.society   https://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2013/10/operation-christmas-childs-shoebox-campaign-just-propaganda-tool-christianity   http://www.inminds.com/occ.html   https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/news-opinion/wont-donating-christmas-charity-shoebox-13796645   https://www.secularism.org.uk/charities/operation-christmas-child.html   https://www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2014/11/