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 Venery of Pagans
Reader Alert: Contains material some may find offensive.
I was reading my favorite "non-pagan-but-regularly-writes-about-pagans" author, S. M. Stirling.
"[T]he Brannigans were a family as prominent as any in Sutterdown," he wrote, "and usually contributed the senior High Priestess and High Priest of the town's clutch of covens" (Stirling 352).
"'Clutch of covens,'" I thought, "that's good." Like “clutch of eggs,” presumably.
They call them "venereal terms" (from the hunting, rather than the amorous, form of venery): poetic miniatures of collective being. An exaltation of larks. A murder of crows. A parliament of owls.
So:
A clutch of covens.
A venery of pagans. (Some might say: "...venality....")
An argument of witches.
A herd of cowans.
A cackle of crones.
A purism of Reconstructionists.
A bristle of brooms.
A hangover of Druids.
A pomposity of high priestesses.
A collage of eclectics.
An exclusion zone of initiates.
A hatching of newbies.
A grove of Green Men.
OK, your ball.
Wanna play?
S. M. Stirling, The Golden Princess (2014). Roc.
The locus classicus of venereal terminology is, of course:
James Lipton, An Exaltation of Larks (1968). Penguin.
Above: Lucas Cranach, The Golden Age (circa 1530)
Comments
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Friday, 14 August 2015
"A battery of drummers."
This one's directly from Brazilian Portuguese (e.g. Candomble usage: bateria). -
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I just finished reading that book, too!