Daughters of the Inquisition

by Christina Crawford

  Tacitus, around 100 CE in his Germania, reports these customs. He said that women were able to own property, practice professions, obtain divorce, and married late in their twenties. For both men and women, he noted their virility, youthful physique and strength. Strabo, in Geography, written about 10 CE said that the women who accompanied men into war were older, grey haired, barefooted women who wore white clothes, linen cloaks, metal belts, and were prophetesses and priestesses. “As they entered the camp with swords in hand they approached the prisoners, crowned them and led them to a bronze vessel. One woman would mount a step, and leaning over the cauldron, cut the prisoner’s throat, bleeding him into the vessel’s rim. Others cut open his body and inspected the entrails to divine the army’s next strategy.”93

  The Northern rituals of the sacred union were nearly identical to that of the Anatolian and Middle Eastern one: After the sacred union ceremony was performed, the consort was sacrificed to the Earth Mother, this time laid to rest in a peat bog. Then the Goddess chariot, vestments and her earthly representative were washed in a lake by a few slaves, who were then sacrificed also. Apparently the blood of the consort was offered to the earth as well. Excavations have uncovered handsome, well manicured young men with arteries severed, genitals removed and, throats slit. Virtually all Western agricultural societies practiced some form of these ceremonies in the belief that they nurtured the precious earth, protected the continuance of fertility, and provided abundance for the people with the blessing of the divinity.

  By 500 BCE, women as Goddess, medicine woman and shaman had increased their presence in Danish lands. Achterberg says, “The fact that women were shamans during this period indicates that they had entered into the most honored ranks of healers. The shaman in ancient or tribal cultures is at the top of the healing hierarchy and her skills are considered more advanced than those of either the herbalist or bonesetter.”94

  But, changes beyond imagination were in the process of becoming. Also around 500 BCE the temperatures were dropping, permitting the Scandinavian glaciers to travel southward. Two hundred years later, this caused the groundwater to rise, flooding fertile agricultural lands. The seas rose also, flooding coastal areas, causing people to migrate, sometimes to other areas of Europe. These natural catastrophes of cold and floods also created a change in Goddess worship, as had happened when opposite disasters of drought and volcanic eruption plagued the desert lands far to the east generations before. Displacement, refugees, famine created civil strife and finally the rule of “survival of the strongest” which meant wars and a warrior ethic with male strong-men images as new deities.

  But the relative isolation of the Northern people and their ferociousness in battle meant also that they never became part of the Roman Empire. It also saved them from becoming Christianized until after 1000 CE. Even then, their original ceremonies and beliefs continued to be practiced: Visits to the sacred springs, reverence for the sacred stones, lived on even if kept secret. It also spared them from having the Inquisition visited upon them, which preserved their culture and traditions from annihilation. Interest in and fascination with these tall, beautiful Northern women has never faded. In the eighteenth century, writing his History of Women, William Alexander, who was a physician/historian, chided the Danes for their continuing compatibility with their enchantresses, saying that poetry and divination were still sacred in the Northern areas, venerating females who dealt in charms, attributing the fact that women were given to spells to their vegetarian diet. We are indebted to him for his description of a particularly honored Danish woman, named Thoribioga, known for her soothsaying and attaining her considerable temporal power through her ability to vision the future. Dr. Achterberg writes, “She was dressed in a gown of greencloth, buttoned from top to bottom, had a string of glass beads about her neck and her head covered with the skin of a black lamb, lined with the skin of a white cat; her shoes were made of calf’s skin with the hair on it, tied with thongs, and fastened with brass buttons, on her hands she had a pair of gloves, of white cat’s skins, with the fur inward; about her waist, she wore a Hulandic girdle, at which hung a bag containing her magical instruments; and she supported her feeble frame by leaning on a staff, adorned by many knobs of brass.”95

  P. V. Glob in the 1967 book Denmark writes that vestiges of the ancient ways may be with us even now by saying, “Midsummer nights bonfires still blaze from the heights and along the coast all over the country on the night when all the powers of witchcraft were let loose, but when also the healing powers of wild herbs were at their greatest and the water in the sacred springs strongest in miraculous power.”96

  To complete our picture of the North peoples, we turn now to the Celts. Originally Celtic peoples in the fifth century BCE covered most of the European continent, conquered Rome, settled in France, where they were called Keltoi by Greeks, Galli or Gauls by the Romans, and gradually were pushed westward into what are now considered homelands of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Numerous tribes by various names (Brigantes, Belgae, Helvetti, Sequani, Parisi, Iceni, Aquitaini, Rumi, etc.) were all Celtic peoples who gave their tribal names to many geographical places throughout continental Europe in archaic times. As the Celts of Galacia in Turkey, they worshipped Artemis, and historian Strabo says that Gallic representatives attended a religious council in the sacred center of the Anatolian Goddess Kybele (city of Pessinus) in second century BCE. This reminds us that Kybele’s (Cybeles) priest who castrated themselves in order to serve their Goddess were called Galli.”97

  Several major themes are prevalent in Celtic Goddess. The first is association with a specific body of water, river, lake or ocean. The second and related theme is the Goddess associated with the Great Mare. Stone writes that “the connection of sea (water) and horse might help to explain the double use of the word ‘mare’ meaning sea in Latin and Russian (and the root of the English word marine) while at the same time used to designate a female horse.” Stone says both meanings may derive from the Sanscrit mah, meaning mighty. Through this, we may understand more Goddess names such as Morrigan and Morgan with gan, gin or gen, signifying beginning birth. Epona is the name of the Mare Goddess in Celtic Europe.98

  A third theme in Celtic Goddesses lore is their ability to change from one form or identity to another quite different. Sometimes called shapeshifting, it is known in many shamanic practices in other regions:

  This shapeshifting aspect of the Goddesses is one that occurs repeatedly in Celtic accounts, and unless it is to be viewed as purely poetic metaphor, which texts do not really suggest, it may well have encouraged those who revered the Goddess to treat animals with respect and caution. It seems to be this aspect of the nature of the Goddess that most insistently remained as Christianity gained power in Celtic society.99

  The Goddess of Victory, such as women in government, as soldiers and tribal leaders, can be traced in the descriptions of Scatlach, Aife, Maeve, and the nine Gwddynod of Gloucester. Then there are the actual historical records of Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni tribe and Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes. Stone includes information from Plutarch who wrote that Celtic women often acted as ambassadors in battles and rivalries between Celtic tribes and sat on peace councils to resolve disputes. His accounts of women traveling with Germanic troops said that they based their advice on listening to the sounds of streams and studying the movements of the water. The Celtic Banfathi (Prophetesses) did similarly, believing that the water possessed the spirit or essence of the Goddess. Then there were the Druidesses, groups associated with women’s islands, some off the coast of Brittany, (France), i.e. the Druidesses of Sena on the Isle de Sein. And early tradition in Christian times has long assumed that the Cathedral of Chartres was built over a major Druid spring/cave/shrine, later taking on the remembrance of the Black Virgin, while Mont St. Michels underground passages are dedicated to Notre Dame Sous Terre, Our Lady Beneath the Earth.100

  THE CELTIC GODDESSES

  (adapted from Ancient Mirror
s of Womanhood pgs 48–71)

  Danu – Divine Ancestress of the Tuatha de Danaan, once Gauls, whose Welch name is Don. This Goddess originated in Celtic Tribes when they inhabited Europe. The name Danu means wisdom or teacher. Midsummer’s Eve is Her holiest of days when worshippers carry torches of blazing bundled straw tied on long branches, making their way up mountainsides, blessing new cattle and newly planted seeds.

  The Morrigan – These are triple in nature which also are seen in Bridget as well as the Three Mothers sitting side by side. The Morrigan are extremely active, acting with self-assurance.

  Macha – Her name means mighty. She is one of the three aspects of the Morrigans, appearing to be the equine aspect of the Goddess, relating to the Celtic Mare Goddess known in Europe as Epona.

  Cerridwen – Translated as both “caldron of wisdom” and “fortress of wisdom,” She was gifted with wisdom, prophetic foresight and magical shapeshifting abilities.

  Morgan le Fay and the Lady of the Lake – Both may have been the same and related to much earlier Celtic habitation in France and Italy. Some say that Fata Morgana was another name for the Goddess of Fortune, whose shrines once were established in Etruscan towns near sacred springs. Others relate this Goddess to the Fates of Greek tragedy. And yet others still say She was sister to King Arthur of mythological fame. Bridget- She is Brigante Goddess whose powers are celebrated on the Celtic festival Imbolic, Feb. 1st. The fires at Bridget’s shrine in Kildare (Ireland) were first tended by nine Celtic priestesses, called Daughters of the Flame, whom no man could look upon. Later the flame was cared for by Catholic nuns, and then extinguished by a Roman Christian Bishop’s decree, but not until the date of 1220 CE. Bridget’s sacred women were healers and diviners, teaching village women about curative herbs and holy waters from Bridget’s wellsprings. She taught how to turn words into written marks, so others far away could “hear” them with their eyes, then a magical skill which today is called writing.

  Calleach Bheur – Primarily, She is Irish, though associated with Mala Liath, the gray mare of Scotland. Her name may be translated as wise old woman, crone or hag. It was She who created the many stone monuments in Celtic lands, carrying giant stones in Her apron. She nearly always appears in disguise, leaping from mountain to mountain top. One can never be certain that any person, animal, or rock is not filled with Her essence. Maeve (Medb) – Faire Queen and martial troop leader, She has been portrayed as a Judge of protocol and status among the Celtic peoples. Shakespeare cast Her as Mab, Queen of the Fairies in Anglo Saxon England. Once again, Maeve is a Sovereign Queen, owner of the Sovereignty of Ireland. The throne was Hers alone, and it was She who chose a new lover to mate with her, and only then could he claim the title of king. She belonged to a very long tradition of warrior Queens, stretching all the way back in time to the fabled Kurgan Queens (warrior/priestesses) of Asia Minor and the Amazon Warrior Queens of North Africa and Anatolia, as well as the mighty Scathatch, who lived beyond Alba, genius in prophesy and weaponry; courageous Aife who lived as far as Greece; the Gwyddono nine, remembered as warriors, crones, witches and prophets, and finally, holy Andrasta the Iceni Goddess of Victory whose land is where Norfolk, England, now stands.

  Rhiannon – Great Queen Goddess of the Welsh, She rides on a pale white horse, carrying a magical bag of abundance. No other only could catch Her and Her horse of magical speed, even with a foal by her side, creating another triple image of Woman, Mare and Colt, which is seen across the waters from France to Austria, taken south to Rome and west to the British Isles. And always, this triple image was called Regina: Queen. Her feast is celebrated in preparation for winter solstice in December 21/22.

  THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE BEGINS

  At the end of the Dark Ages, continental Europe in no way resembled what is thought of as the same area today. There were no nation states as countries, but rather scattered local power centers, bound together by a strong-man family system called feudalism. They were responsible for local defense against outsiders and in return were entitled to the servitude of all those living in their immediate environs. All power was family power, and the relative value was its interconnection with other families, primarily through marriage alliances made through use of its women. These fiefdoms had as their central structure the fortified hill castle with the town on the outside, agricultural fields and pastures beyond with forest woods interspersed for the hunting of game, but only by the landed gentry, not by the people who were called peasants (which meant “of the land”). One cannot yet speak of a France or Germany, of Spain or Italy, because they would not exist in modern form for centuries yet to come. It had now been four hundred years since the collapse of the Roman Empire. During these centuries, the Roman Christian Church, still based in Rome, had been busy expanding its power, basing their organizational strategy on the now defunct Roman army’s military government of the provinces. The church leaders looked to the currently unpromising, but familiar, European continent to recruit a secular leader and begin empire rebuilding of their own. They already knew that success was built on alliances with local elite. Over time, their quest paid off and finally a suitable candidate was found.

  Charlemagne

  Charlemagne, reigning from 768 to 814, rose to be the Frankish Emperor. The Franks were descended from ancient Germanic tribes, among whom the Salians conquered Gaul about 500 CE, and Charlemagne’s territory as Charles the Great, as king of the Franks, eventually covered all of present day France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy as far as Rome. As king, Charles (Charlemagne) believed it was useful to profess himself a Christian in order to entice the approval of the Church of Rome for his brutal territorial acquisitions and the slaughter of other peoples who opposed him.

  “In 772 he massacred over 4000 Saxons, destroying their shrine at Heresburg, an omphalos of the earth-mother Hera. He cut down the phallic tree Irminsul, ‘Column of the World’; the same axis-mundi the Greeks call the Great Herm, Norwegians called Yggdrasil.”101 After destroying the shrines of the Goddess-worshipping peoples, Charlemagne enslaved anyone who had lived through the slaughter, imposed vassalage on them, and then “converted” them by force to Christianity.

  In gratitude, the Pope crowned Charles II, king of the Franks, as Charlemagne the first Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas day, 800 CE, in a move that took many by surprise.102 Even though Charlemagne himself was illiterate, two years after his coronation with papal encouragement, he appointed a Northumbrian monk, Alcuin, to take over the Palatine School, (which would become the University of Paris) to create a scriptorium and encourage the revival of literacy, a nearly non-existent skill. Books were also imported from Arab and Egyptian sources, transported through Britain and Ireland to the continent.103

  The conversion-by-coercion or threat-of-death policy instigated by Charlemagne against the Saxons was seen as so successful by the Roman Church that the strategy was incorporated as its own policy from then onward. The song made famous by troubadours titled the “Song of Roland” put it succinctly: “The bishops bless the waters and convert the heathen. If any man protests, he is burned or put to the sword.”104

  All the while, and until the very present, the Roman church disclaims the fact, in bold evidence century after century that conversion by coercion ever played a part in either their policies or their politics.

  Charlemagne died in 814, fourteen years after his coronation, but the idea of the Holy Roman Empire definitely did not. The Roman Christian church had taken the giant step of proclaiming itself the grantor of legitimacy in choosing and crowning secular leaders to serve its own policies and carry out its mandates, thereby assuming a permanent, if unequal, marriage between church and state, with the Church of Rome in command and control.

  And, it had reaffirmed an early sixth century premise, now fully endorsing its practice. That premise was quite clear: “It is no sin to use force against dissidents” Pope Pelagius, 556–561, argued.

  Secular power can be used against those who split t
he Church and disturb the peace … specifying that in the case of schismatics exile was a possible penalty, as well as confiscation of property and even ‘dura custodia’ (prison). Such a use of force, (the pope wrote) did not constitute persecution, since to repress someone who does evil is an action taken out of love for that person. If all people were not forced to do good and abstain from evil, all human laws would be rendered meaningless.105

  Herein is the basic formula of the Inquisition. “Dissidents” were anyone who opposed the Roman Church. “Schismatics” were people who believed in religion differently than the orthodoxy of the Roman Church. Together, all of these people, who were in actuality the majority population on the European continent, were labeled “evil” which then entitled the church to unleash its entire might against them, assisted by the arms of the secular warlords.

  Charlemagne had a string of successors as Holy Roman Emperors. By the time Otto I (936 to 973 CE), king of the Germans, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, reigning as such from 962–973 CE, the European continent was consolidated under this church/state partnership which was now centered in Germany.

  The dawn of the first new millennium since the birth of the Christian era proved both dramatic and traumatic for both the Church of Rome and the rest of the Western world.

  The Middle Ages and the Crusades

  No sooner had Rome consolidated their new Empire in the West than the old one in the East broke free. In 1054, due to “irreconcilable differences” the Byzantine Empire separated from the Holy Roman Church. Henceforth, there will be an Eastern Orthodox Church and a Roman Catholic Church, no longer speaking in a language of friendship toward one another. Then what began as a war by the Christian army in Toledo (Spain) in 1085 to wrangle a portion of the Iberian peninsula away from the Islamic Empire turned into a holy war between the Church of Rome and the Muslims of Islam.