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A Pagan Gathering for Australia and the world

Monday, October 31, 2011

Celebrations of the 30th Gathering

Some people have emailed and requested information regarding the refrains that were used in our ritual this year. The full lyrics are from Beltane Fires by Christopher Bingham and are readily accessible during a search for the same. Photographs to accompany this post, are courtesy of Mel who gets snap happy at the best of times but Franklin remains a favourite place to photograph the amazing array of flora and fauna :))



Excerpts from Christopher Bingham's "Beltane Fires"

<Men chant moving anticlockwise>
Eo! The musky Piper playing
Eo! The One Who Calls the Dance
Eo! The howling earth is saying
Eo Evohe!





<Women chant moving clockwise>
Eo! The Maiden and the horned one
Eo! The call to spill the seed
Eo! The stirring of the Cauldron
Eo Evohe!






Some have also emailed who were curious about the spiraling chant used this year.  It is entitled "The Witch's Reel" or "Gelie Duncan's song"- a woman accused of Witchcraft in Scotland and one of the songs she and three other conterparts were accused of singing over four hundred years ago in Scotland. Allegedly all four women were executed. The entire reel is as follows:

"Cummer, go ye before, cummer, go ye
If ye willna go before, cummer, let me
Ring-a-ring-a-widdershins
Linkin’, lithely widdershins
Cummer, carlin, crone and queen
Roun’ go we

Cummer, go ye before, cummer, go ye
If ye willna go before, cummer, let me
Ring-a-ring-a-widdershins
Loupin, lightly widdershins
Kilted coats and fleein’ hair
Three times three

Cummer, go ye before, cummer, go ye
If ye willna go before, cummer, let me
Ring-a-ring-a-widdershins
Whirlin’, skirlin’ widdershins
De’il tak’ the hindmost
Wha’er she be"

Some of the more challenging linguistics of this reel were kindly translated by the Prestoungrange Arts Society:

cummer, carlin and crone = are all words for “witch”
ring-a-widdershins = go anti-clockwise in a circle (meant to be bad luck)
linkin’ lithely = join arm in arm
loupin’ = jumping
skirlin’ = screaming or howling
de’il = the devil

The Prestoungrange Arts Society is a fantastic website with all manner of interesting articles and information-a site well worth the effort to visit and peruse. 

Anne Ross-is a former research fellow in Archeology at the University of Southhampton, her books also provide an immeasurable amount of resources and information regarding Pagan-Celtic Britain. Well worth investing in :))



2 comments:

  1. Find the tune of the song for 'the witches reel' here on youtube...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sniM8XIqWIg

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, though bearing in mind that one seems to have a peculiar time signature.

    ReplyDelete