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.

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Of Poppyseeds and Megaliths

During the Yule baking, a friend/covensib came over one morning to make potica (that's poe-TEET-suh, for those of you who didn't happen to grow up speaking Slovenian): a sweet filling (poppy seed, walnut, chocolate, apricot) rolled up spiral-wise in a nice, flaky dough, and baked to golden-brown perfection.

When sliced, the cross-section couldn't help but remind me of a carved orthostat from the Neolithic tomb Gavrinis (ca. 4000 BCE) in Brittany.

At a distance of 60-some centuries, any resemblance between the two is surely fortuitous: a random convergence, no more. Not even my well-honed storyteller's ability to draw a line between any two given points is managing to come up with a possible connection between the two. Attribute it, if you like, to the intrinsic suchness of things.

In this season of wonder, though, it sure does make you wonder.

 

 

 

Coda

 

From Aubrey Burl's Megalithic Brittany:

"Even more dramatic are the ill-named 'shield idols' (10), which are probably formalized carvings of a female figurine. These have rectangular frames with a round top at the centre of which there is often a tiny, knoblike projection. Some have arcs radiating from the upper part like hair in shock. Sometimes there are distinctive loops on either side of the body. These austere squares have been called bucklers, cooking-pots, even octopuses, as well as shield-idols, but when one compares them with the human-shaped stones standing in the chambers of other passage graves, they seem more likely to have been abstract depictions of a female 'goddess' or guardian watching over the dead. Such anthropomorphic art, in various forms, is to be discovered all through the Breton Neolithic" (p. 15).

One could make a case that the carved orthostat shown above represents a compound "shield-idol": i.e. the fruitful Mother.

In which case, maybe what we're seeing here is the Mother's inherency in all that is.

Well. Thank you, Aubrey Burl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

Comments

  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham Tuesday, 31 December 2024

    I looked up potica on Google. There are a fair number of recipes out there but I don't see any with poppy seeds and apricots. Could you get your friend to share his recipe for potica with poppy seeds, walnuts and dried apricots?

  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch Wednesday, 01 January 2025

    Poppy Seed or Walnut Filling
    Beat 3 egg whites until stiff. (Use yolks in dough.) Mix whole egg with 1/2 cup honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 pound ground poppy seeds or walnuts. Fold this mixture into beaten egg whites.
    Apricot Filling
    Use a good-quality apricot jam.
    Wishing you a good Yule and a sweet New Year!

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