Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
A Coin of the Dobunni, ca. 10 BCE
Witch Money
The little silver coin, 2000 years old, is tiny, barely the size of my little fingernail.
It is a coin of the Dobunni: the original (so say some) Tribe of Witches.
The People of the Two Bands
At the beginning of the first millennium, the Dobunni—the People of the Two Bands—lived in the Cotswolds and Severn Basin of what is now southwestern England.
Like the other Celtic-speaking peoples of southern Britain, they Romanized early; even before the Roman conquest of Britain, they were minting their own coinage. We can gain some sense of the extent of their tribal territory from the distribution of these coins.
600 years later, this same territory was inhabited by an Anglo-Saxon-speaking people called the Hwicce (HWITCH-eh). Archaeological and genetic finds make clear the area's cultural and demographic continuity from the Celtic to the Saxon periods.
Interestingly, the same territory is also characterized by a distinctive kind of Neolithic burial mound. In the tribal hunting-runs of the Hwicce, it would seem, roots both cultural and genetic run deep.
What if Gardner was right after all?
What if the Craft really does reach back into the Stone Age?
Heads and Tails
I hold the coin, a miniature Moon in black and silver, on the pad of my index finger.
On one side, barely legible through centuries of wear, a lunar profile looks to the left. On the other, a three-tailed stallion rushes to the right.
Face and horse: who these may have been to the Dobunni, the Elder Witchery, we cannot know.
I read the two sides of the coin together: she looks toward him, he rushes to her.
Who they may be to the Younger Witchery, though: well, now, that would be very clear indeed.
Coin Trick
Call it eisigesis: a reading-in.
She Who Looks Down from Heaven. The Stallion of Three Tails.
For latter-day witches, a simple coin can become an act of magic: indeed, a veritable Great Rite.
For more:
The Land of the Dobunni: A Series of Papers relating to the Transformation of the Pagan, Pre-Roman, Tribal Lands into Christian, Anglo-Saxon Gloucestershire and Somerset
Heritage Publications, Norfolk 2003
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