Carla O'Harris
November 24th, 2006, 11:53 PM
The ever-disputational Carla O'Harris strikes again :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattachine
...the medieval-Renaissance French Sociétés Joyeux:
"One masque group was known as the 'Société Mattachine.' These societies, lifelong secret fraternities of unmarried townsmen who never performed in public unmasked, were dedicated to going out into the countryside and conducting dances and rituals during the Feast of Fools, at the Vernal Equinox. Sometimes these dance rituals, or masques, were peasant protests against oppression — with the maskers, in the people’s name, receiving the brunt of a given lord’s vicious retaliation...."
...This French group was named in turn after Mattacino (or the Anglicized Mattachino), a character in Italian theater. Mattacino was a kind of court jester, who would speak the truth to the king when nobody else would. The "mattachin" (from Arabic mutawajjihin — "mask-wearers") were originally Moorish (Hispano-Arab) sword-dancers who wore elaborate, colorful costumes and masks.
Lifelong secret fraternities of Maskers!!!
Let's keep in mind that "Mascas" was a name for witches, because they were known to wear masks (at the sabbats).
I am not suggesting that the 'Société Mattachine' had direct connections to the witch-cult (nor that it did not), but the significance of this information is the existence of such secret societies of maskers, which establishes the form in Medieval society, and this is indeed critical information, because it means the suggestion that there were secret societies of witches who often met in masked sabbats does not take place in a vacuum, but in a documented social context.
It is also very interesting that the name traces back to Sword Dancers.
Two projects face those of us who are serious about finding our ancestral heritage of witchcraft :
1. To open up the line of closure placed around Europe that impedes appreciation of the Islamic/Moorish influence on European culture, and being able to appreciate the collaboration of pre-Christian and pre-Islamic elements in groups substantially preserving these elements. This is very important, and will require important translations of Arabic material and collaboration with Arabic scholars, with the persistence to get through any hesitation to open up the pre-Islamic material. Sufi channels would be a good place to begin.
2. Now that the visionary aspect of the Murrayite thesis has been proven, and the pagan religiosity of the fairy cult established beyond any reasonable doubt, we must now attempt to show the connections between this and the carnivalesque forms of the Medieval and Early Modern times : in other words, to demonstrate that at times, this religiosity was indeed physically ritually enacted in a carnivalesque sabbat. This will involve a great deal of work but is important.
Those complacent in their own passive acceptance of lazy skeptics will, of course, do nothing but sit on their organ of excretion and continue to proclaim their scurrilous corrosions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattachine
...the medieval-Renaissance French Sociétés Joyeux:
"One masque group was known as the 'Société Mattachine.' These societies, lifelong secret fraternities of unmarried townsmen who never performed in public unmasked, were dedicated to going out into the countryside and conducting dances and rituals during the Feast of Fools, at the Vernal Equinox. Sometimes these dance rituals, or masques, were peasant protests against oppression — with the maskers, in the people’s name, receiving the brunt of a given lord’s vicious retaliation...."
...This French group was named in turn after Mattacino (or the Anglicized Mattachino), a character in Italian theater. Mattacino was a kind of court jester, who would speak the truth to the king when nobody else would. The "mattachin" (from Arabic mutawajjihin — "mask-wearers") were originally Moorish (Hispano-Arab) sword-dancers who wore elaborate, colorful costumes and masks.
Lifelong secret fraternities of Maskers!!!
Let's keep in mind that "Mascas" was a name for witches, because they were known to wear masks (at the sabbats).
I am not suggesting that the 'Société Mattachine' had direct connections to the witch-cult (nor that it did not), but the significance of this information is the existence of such secret societies of maskers, which establishes the form in Medieval society, and this is indeed critical information, because it means the suggestion that there were secret societies of witches who often met in masked sabbats does not take place in a vacuum, but in a documented social context.
It is also very interesting that the name traces back to Sword Dancers.
Two projects face those of us who are serious about finding our ancestral heritage of witchcraft :
1. To open up the line of closure placed around Europe that impedes appreciation of the Islamic/Moorish influence on European culture, and being able to appreciate the collaboration of pre-Christian and pre-Islamic elements in groups substantially preserving these elements. This is very important, and will require important translations of Arabic material and collaboration with Arabic scholars, with the persistence to get through any hesitation to open up the pre-Islamic material. Sufi channels would be a good place to begin.
2. Now that the visionary aspect of the Murrayite thesis has been proven, and the pagan religiosity of the fairy cult established beyond any reasonable doubt, we must now attempt to show the connections between this and the carnivalesque forms of the Medieval and Early Modern times : in other words, to demonstrate that at times, this religiosity was indeed physically ritually enacted in a carnivalesque sabbat. This will involve a great deal of work but is important.
Those complacent in their own passive acceptance of lazy skeptics will, of course, do nothing but sit on their organ of excretion and continue to proclaim their scurrilous corrosions.