VMs: Fertility rites

[ajb <ajb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello

Recent discussions of agriculture put me in mind of old fertility rites
related to planting of crops, and indeed also animal husbandry, as once
practised in England and doubtless elsewhere.

Many such customs, usually of an overtly sexual nature and some of which
would perhaps strike the 'modern' mind as somewhat extreme or even
outrageous, are known to have persisted until quite recent times. I have
in the past witnessed several such rites, and to my certain knowledge at
least the vestige of one such survives to this day, wherein the
fecundity of orchards is maintained by the young men of the village
offering their own 'seed' to the trees.

The VMS contains much that is equally strange to us, including a great
many persons undertaking quaint activities in a state of undress; it
seems to me that many aspects of the illustrations could quite easily be
interpreted as fertility rituals. Certainly some of the activities I
referred to above were of a nature which would require discretion and
perhaps concealment from authority such as the Church of the time. Could
part of the VMS be a handbook to agricultural sexual magic?

Or am I barking up into the wrong tree again as usual? Apart from
certain personal experiences encountered by chance, I am no expert on
English Fertility Ritual but doubtless just such an authority is
subscribing to this list and will tell us. (Unfortunately a prime source
for this sort of thing, the "Museum of Witchcraft" which contained a
very large collection of relevant written material, was in a large part
destroyed in the flood this summer in Boscastle, in south-west England.)

And, as usual, my apologies if this topic has previously been - dare I
say it? - flogged to death already....

TTFN

Anthony

-- 
ajb

        Just because I'm paranoid it doesn't mean
              they're not out to get me...

        
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