Knots and Crosses... and Crossings

think I started to follow up my investigations into paganism last Saturday when I went looking for a Tarot pack for my friend Madge, I went to Treadwells. I think I would also have been interested to find a copy of this book. I went there thinking a lot about symbols - of the faith, of grace, and in the non-Christian or "secular" sphere.

One symbol I saw a lot of at Treadwells was the Tree of Life. Another was of course the pentagram, which is actually more interesting than you'd think. Tolkien and Gordon have notes on it in their commentary on Gawain, where it features on the hero's shield and is referred to as the seal of Solomon (cf. Solomon's knot, which isn't really a knot, the Buddhist Endless Knot, and of course the star of David). In Gawain obviously it also symbolises virtue and the Five Wounds of Our Lord. I have read that there is a tradition that Solomon wore his seal on his ring, like a signet-ring, and it gave him power over demons. (A Ring of Power, anyone?)

The inverted cross was of course originally the symbol of St Peter, who was crucified upside down, and hence of the Popes. My suspicion is that it is nowadays associated with the Antichrist partly because of ludicrous claims by protestants that the Pope is the Antichrist (even though, of course, there have been lots of Popes whereas there is only ever going to be one Antichrist).

There are other old folk-tale characters who have been "haunting" me recently, so to speak. One is of course the Wild Huntsman, whom modern pagans refer to as the Horned God. (He's very popular with pagan gays.) Another, of course, is Wade, who was either a sort of secular St Christopher or indeed his "pre-Christian predecessor" - someone, perhaps, to be invoked at river-crossings just as St Christopher would have been. The chap's name means exactly what it sounds like, and he's portrayed in Denmark as doing just that, except that the little boy he carries on his shoulder is not the Christ Child but his son Wayland the Smith. We know so much and yet so little about him (from Chaucer et al.) that it's like living in five hundred years' time and only knowing about Luke Skywalker from in-jokes in The Simpsons.

Another thing! Do these people actually have anything to do with the Grail? Presumably they do - although, given that even in the Middle Ages, when the Church and the Grail romances were at the height of their influence in real terms, the romances were still not officially acknowledged by the clergy, it seems the quintessence of bad taste. (And what's with their translation of the Psalter?)

The capital at the beginning is from the Front Free Endpaper blog. It's a Pall Mall capital (i.e. from the magazine - not, as I initially supposed, the front of the O&C). It would be fun to have a use for a cute Aquarian 'I', but of course I don't.