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.
Bigghes: or, The Lost Treasure of the Witches
In my previous post about Old English béag, "ring, arm-ring, neck-ring, torc, crown," I was utterly remiss not to have mentioned what is perhaps the word's most obvious link with modern witchcraft.
The fairly obscure Gardnerian term bigghes refers to the High Priestess' parure, i.e. her matched set of jewelry: wristlets, necklace, crown. (Parure. Good old English: we really do have a word for everything. And if we don't, we just pick one up from someone else. Small wonder it's the sacred language of the witches.) The kinship with the Old English word is obvious.
Survival or revival? Wicca being a child of the 20th century, the latter seems indicated here. What it does show is that those early witches were doing their research.
Just as we still do today.
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