(no subject)

[arethinn]

A colourful bit of Scottish history/folklore/whatever related to the Campbells, which show up in my maternal genealogy at my fourth-great-grandmother (Margaret Campbell), descended from a "Black David" Campbell who lived in Ulster, and whose parents (if I've got it right) were the ones who went there from Scotland:

"When it comes to ancient curses, the best defence is a good offence. So, the next time you are in Inveraray, near Loch Fyne in north-west Scotland, which happens to be HQ for the Campbells, consider partaking in this quaint ancient custom. As you drive past their dour castle over a narrow bridge, you extend your hand towards it, with the forefinger and little finger extended and the middle fingers curled into the palm (the devil's horns sign). Then you say "buitseach" (a Gaelic curse) three-times and also spit between the fingers three times." (http://www.thetyee.ca/Views/2004/01/22/Living_With_the_Curse_of_the_Campbells/)

"Buitseach" apparently means "witch". This is meant to cause misfortune and is all on the account of a slaughter of some McDonalds by some Campbells in 1692 - but I find it, ah, rather interesting. I assume the connotation meant is just "foul" and "evil" and "Devil take you" as opposed to anything having literally to to with witchcraft (especially since the Campbells were Presbyterians at this point, if I have it right)... but still. Amusing.

I'm also rather interested in where "Black David" got his nickname...

Comments

[son-of-art.livejournal.com]

Indeed. My sincere apologies then. I never thought he was a bad guy, I was just being ornery. The only thing he ever did to me was believe a massive pack of lies about me, without verifying the truth of it, of which there is none. Other than that, he never seemed a bad fellow- very political, he was, always posting political articles.

I take it you've seen our new website, after its redesign:

http://www.thecrookedheath.com/elder/hallpage.htm

I hope you get some use out of it. Do you have a website somewhere?

RA

[ahril.livejournal.com]

Apology accepted. Shall we start again?

No, I do not currently have a web site of my own. For now, lj is sufficient for my purposes.

I shal read yours, however. Thank you.

[ahril.livejournal.com]

Ah, now I see more clearly whence you come. My feeling about you was true then.

Read this book (http://www.nicholasdevere.com/), and you shall see that not all those you would label Alfar are dead, and why you surmise all Elves are only in storybooks (a lie the Catholic Church of Rome would perpetuate).

[son-of-art.livejournal.com]

I don't believe that Elves are only storybooks. The people who are "Elfin Grey" are the dead, except that I don't believe in "dead" things in the pure sense of the word. The 'dead' are as alive as we, they exist in perpetuity within the void of the underworld, and the Underworld is at the heart of all "things" or conditions that we experience as human beings.

So, the Elfin people are (in the best animistic sense of the term) everywhere- but the condition that the mind has to be in to experience them is trickier. Extra-sensory reality is like that. Sometimes, special times of the year make perceptual "interstices" of time and space that overlap with the timeless; this time of the year is one such occurence, the Tinley-tide, Hallowmas, whatever you'd like to think of it as. I've been honored to meet the Pale People, those described (by the people I am honored to call teachers) as "Elfin Grey".

You may have other uses for the word "Elf"; I simply have my own way of experiencing it, and how I understand it. My researches, outside of tradition, have led me to the inescapable conclusion that the Alfar cult was a cult of the Dead- but bear in mind that no cult of the dead is a "mere" cult of the dead- the dead and the living are one community, twisted and spiralled through an eldritch, endless, and timeless reality, of which humans suffer a hard Fate and see a very small portion of.

The Elfin people are very much in the Land, and emerge at special loci as well- Large Oaks and Thorns are good examples.

I don't believe a word the Roman Catholic Church has to say.


RA

[son-of-art.livejournal.com]

PS: I know the works of Mr. DeVere. You'll have to excuse me if I consider them to be fantasy without much credibility. It doesn't mean that I am bamboozled by some Catholic historical paradigm.


RA