Housebuilder uncovers Iron Age chamber on Lewis

A 2,000-year-old underground chamber has been uncovered during work to build a house on the Isle of Lewis.

The Iron Age soutterrain was revealed during the digging of the foundations for the property in Ness.
Local archaeologists, husband and wife team Chris and Rachel Barrowman, are recording the soutterrain.

Mr Barrowman said theories on the purpose of the stone-lined, flat stone-roofed structures included storing food.

Read the full story, and see pictures here.

 

Natural Histories: The Nightshades

Natural Histories: The Nightshades

Listen to BBC Radio 4's programme, in partnership with the Natural History Museum, on this group of fascinating plants.

It is hard to think of a more diverse and wonderful group of plants. They enchant us, poison us, make us feel sexy, give us hallucinations, heal us and feed us.  The screaming mandrakes in Harry Potter and the shamanistic dreams of tribal elders eating giant trumpet flowers testify to the magical powers of this group.

Its culinary properties enhance the ever intricate flavours of modern cuisine while its fatal attractions have been used by murderers, most famously Dr Crippen.

This is the group that contains mandrake, potatoes, chillies, aubergines, deadly nightshade and tomatoes. These are the plants that have entered our culture through food and medicine, drugs and love.

It is strange that the European plants in the group are mainly poisonous yet those that grow in the New World are often spicy and enriching.

Fearing anything that looked like nightshade the first plants that were brought here from the New World were regarded with suspicion, yet quickly we adopted them, so much so that it is impossible to conceive of Italian food without tomatoes or Friday night fish and chips, yet they are aliens in a strange land. We have a lot to thank this group for.

It soothed us before anaesthetics, sent our imaginations flying and tempted us with alluring flavours - and they are still pushing the frontiers of both medicine and food today.

"Away with the Fairies" - BBC Broadcast

Dominic Arkwright asks why fairies, once threatening and scary meddlers in human affairs, have become innocent, pink and fluffy.

He’s joined by Irish storyteller Eddie Lenihan, fairy illustrator and writer Faye Durston, and folklorist Juliette Wood. We hear how Eddie successfully campaigned to save an ancient hawthorn near Shannon Airport which was threatened by a new bypass. It was, he argued, the portal to the other world of the fairies of Munster. The tree still stands, though surrounded by cars on three sides.

Listen here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016wx2p

It is available on iPlayer worldwide, but only for the next few days, and a worthwhile listen it is, too.

"The Big Questions" - Reaction

So, I watched the programme which debated "Is Paganism more relevant today than Christianity?" on Sunday morning.  I watched it again when it appeared, in two parts on Youtube.

And, here is what I thought:  I felt completely unrepresented.

I felt that the pagan speakers were poor.  For example, none of the pagans refuted the statement that past pagans practised human sacrifice, let alone counter with the Christian God requiring Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac.   It was stated that paganism had no benefit as pagans were portrayed as nothing more than nature worshippers, and a non-religion, having no moral or ethical guidelines.  Well, I, for one, don't worship nature. I do have moral and ethical guidelines, not borne of a "sustainable relationship with nature", as stated by ERO, but from the society in which I live and the myths of my ancestors; the central tenet of my particular faith being "truth" (roughly translated).  Those that follow the Norse tradition have a set of strict ethical and moral codes to which they adhere, as do several other groups, including Wicca.  So, the statement that paganism is not a religion because it has no moral/ethical guidelines is false, but was weakly rebutted on the programme offering only that morals and ethics were innate.

Paganism is not a religion, it is a "hold-all" term for many different faiths, religions and philosophies, and it is impossible to refer to pagans as a cohesive whole.   Although ERO tried to explain this in relation to the question of afterlife, it was ignored and the debate continued as though all pagans have the same ideas about everything and worship or practice in the same way.   Even the opening statement fostered this impression, when Nicky Campbell announced that "Pagans will be celebrating Imbolc on Tuesday".   Really?  It was my understanding that while some pagans will celebrate Imbolc, others won't recognise the festival at all.  I laughed when the gentlemen said the statements on JF's website were contradictory. Well, of course they are, because pagans are not a cohesive whole.

However, I was appalled at the Christian-bashing, made by JF, with sweeping generalisations and misrepresentations.

There was only a brief discussion which spoke to the question of paganism or Christianity being more relevant to today's society, and Mr Harvey's contribution was reduced to the matter of environmental issues, after which I got the impression he just gave up and watched the rest of the farce.  Certainly some of the faces he was pulling (in the background) led me to this assumption.

I am beginning to see why so many are rejecting the use of the word pagan, and opting for something else instead. I must admit I tend to refer to myself as a polytheist these days.

"The Big Questions"

The BBC programme, "The Big Questions" is to debate "Is Paganism more relevant today than Christianity?" this Sunday, 31 January 2010, at 10.00 a.m. on BBC2 in the United Kingdom.

It's a little early in the day for me, but thought it might be of interest to readers of these pages.

Intolerance

I have to face up to it: I am intolerant. Having read Bo's thread, "The Enregies of Jupiter", gone to the BBC Pagan Boards and had a look at the various postings of the members, I have to admit I'm intolerant of fools.

I have to admit here that I did once upon a time frequent lots of pagan-lite boards in the past. Time being scarce, I have recently reduced my surfing to those boards where I am challenged and, as a consequence, expand my knowledge, deepen my practice and grow as a pagan. So, it has been a while since I've seen the bicce & bitchcraft that is out there in the ether. Thus it was, with great dismay, that I saw the offerings of the various posters (apart from one or two brave souls) and felt so angry I was ill. I was desperate to have a crack at the sheer idiocy of some of the posts, but, alas, it was not to be. The BBC boards have me on moderation (does my reputation proceed me?) and it was too much to tolerate to write all those posts and not have them seen because of some mod's overzealousness.

I had thought that with the growth of more serious discussion boards and fora in the pagan community that the general state of knowledge in the pagan community might have improved. People would see the wikkan misinformation, relabelled and recycled continously in a never ending loop, for what it is: new age, hippy trippy tripe. From what I can see at the BBC, a board open and readable by the general public (not just pagans), this is not the case and people appear to be getting a rather pitiful view of pagans. If you're reading the BBC Pagan Boards, you might end up believing pagans are freaks, uneducated, dyslexic, overweight, covered in tattoos, judgemental, intolerant, delusional (i.e. prone to "seeing things"), argumentative, ill-informed, vicious, vegetarian, vegan and carnivorous - all at the same time and, frankly, a very mixed bag of angry fruitcakes.

The recent troll incursion at the fora where I moderate, some posts from pagan friends of mine, at a different forum, on the subject of fundies of the "bessed be" bunny kind and the trouble they cause, has come to remind me why I don't: (a) go to moots; (b) attend a lot of pagan events (and why I get so sick after a few hours at pagan events and have to go home and rest for about a day to recover); (c) why I don't (pay to) join any pagan organisations; and (d) why I generally don't mix with many other pagans, choosing instead to keep contact with a very select few.

I just don't have the tolerance levels for it any more. It has come to a point where I feel I don't want to even refer to myself as a pagan, for fear of being lumped in with the general mêlée. Perhaps I should just stick to calling myself a polytheist and leave it at that?

In the meantime, I have realised I am intolerant of those fluffy bunny (yes, I use that term), wikkan, fundie, IRAB (I read a book), "more pagan/witch than you" wannabes and, should they get in my way, I will have no hesitation in cutting them down to clear the path for those that seek spiritual/religious truths. That said, I will not go out of my way to meet them, ever again. I just don't need the aggro.

While I'm at it, I should also admit to being judgemental, prejudiced, unforgiving, grumpy and tired. Ah, I guess I am a pagan after all!

***********

[Note: My definition of a "fluffy bunny" is one who only reads one author, or books from one publishing house, or one internet site and sets it up as the one and only authority, refusing to be challenged on fact or experience, and informing all others they are wrong to call themselves pagan/witch/druid/heathen/whatever if they don't follow the guidelines as defined by them. These are the people who scream louder when challenged, drowning out any reasonable discussion with cries of "persecution".].

Cú Chulainn becomes Animated in children’s TV series

Cú Chulainn, one of Ulster's most famous legendary characters, is the hero of this five part cartoon series. In five action filled five-minute programmes we follow his daring deeds from his boyhood to his tragic death.

This bilingual series contributes to a range of learning areas across the Northern Ireland KS1 and KS2 curricula including Language and Literacy, The World Around Us, Personal Development and Mutual Understanding and Art and Design.

English and Irish Language versions of the site and series are available via the English and Gaelige links.