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.
Let's Build a Wheel-Cairn
You know that cairn that we've been talking about building? The one where people can depose the ashes of the dead?
Well, here's an idea: let's build it in the shape of a Wheel.
Check out this wheel-cairn from Sälle in Fröjel on the island of Gotland (Sweden). (It's about 2000 years old.) Let's build one like this, oriented East-West, big. I'd see the spokes and rim as maybe a foot high, the Hub- and Quarter-cairns higher.
It's a Sun Wheel, of course. That makes it a prayer. As the dead go West with the Sun, so too may they be reborn with him in the East.
And it's the Wheel of Time, the Wheel of the Year. As time, as the year, move in a circle, so may those who were be reborn to the People.
The Wheel, of course, is also the Journey. The dead have a journey to make. As our people have followed the Sun, traveling from East to West, so do the dead continue their journey.
As years go by, of course, and more and more ashes are added, our Wheel-Cairn will grow. We'll have to be careful that it keeps it shape.
And when it's full, no problem.
We'll just build another.
So, that's my proposal. What do you think?
Where on the Wheel, best beloved, would your ashes go?
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