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"The gravitational field of the Stone breaks life into its parts, into revelation."
-Peter Makem

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NOTES

1. The Binder is clearly the "Sovereignty" Goddess so well known to students of Celtic and British Paganism, and even continental Indo-European Paganism. She is also quite clearly the "Old Fate" of Traditional Witchcraft, the noose-goddess who binds all things and unbinds them at her will. The human sacrifices in the bogs from Stone Age and Bronze Age Europe tended to be bound and have a noose around their necks; it is believed that they were sacrificed precisely to her, in her form of "HANONA" or "Bog Entity". For attempts to find a genuinely-rooted name for this entity (The Binder) I tend to turn to the Basques for comparison with other ancient languages from the region of northwestern Europe. The Basques, themselves sprung from a distinctly non-Indo European people whose linguistic and cultural roots go to the western European Paleolithic had many similarities with the insular Celts across the channel from them, or so I have read.

The Basques have an amazingly similar goddess to the Binder (indeed, there is no doubt in my mind that this Goddess, the chief of their pre-christian pantheon, is the ultimate surviving folkloric expression of the Binder.) Her name is MARI, but it is thought that this name derives from AMARI. As the Earth Mother she was called AMALUR, (earth mother) and had other names like Ama or Amandre (mother and grandmother). Interestingly enough, the PGM (Greek Magical Papyri) part VII gives some ancient- no doubt rooted from the Paleolithic- roots for the Artemis cult, in which Artemis, here worshipped as a Great Binding Mother (a sign of the true nature of her cult before antiquity) is called "BRIMO" and "AMAMA" and "AMAR". The most distant and primal name for this immense and central power is well within our grasp when we meditate on these names. As for her daughters, the Basques called the Sun Goddess EKHI and the Moon Goddess ILARGI or ILAZKI. The Moon Goddesses' name means "light of the dead" for she had a special relationship with the dead, who had to travel "through" the moon after death, and finally, when they were to be reborn, fall as rain (directed by Mari) back to the earth.

2. This seems to be an ancient root for the Welsh Goddess Cerridwen, who lived below a lake, Llyn Tegid in Wales, and who not only initiated a Bard into the deepest mysteries, but also kept a miraculous cauldron.

3. This would appear to be the ancient root for the Celtic Brigid/Brigantia, and perhaps the Germanic Freya/Frowe.

4. This definition of "henge" is from the English Heritage Dictionary.

5. He would appear to be a primal model for Gods like Dagda, Bile, or Frey. The Basque name for the divinity who was the Serpent-associated father God and consort to MARI was "MAJU" or "MAYU". Under this name his "thundering" and sky aspects were emphasized, along with hers. Mari was always centrally considered a Goddess of Storms and Thunder, among other things, including the Earth.

6. More clearly than the others, this God seems to be the primal origin of Lugus, Woden or Odin, and Apollo. Insofar as the "cunning" God who taught or initiated human sorcerers and shamans was always also mythologically associated with the gifts of culture and other human technologies, we can see a similar Basque deity here in BASAJAUN or BASAYAUN, the "Lord of the Woods" who hunted evil, protected cattle, and taught humans agriculture, smithing, and other crafts. Smithing, especially, was associated with shamanism and sorcery.

7. In the folktale of "The Fairy Ring on Selena Moor", the fairies are actually ghosts of Stone Age Britons, who tell their imprisoned mortals that they worship the stars.



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