Re: VMs: On the VMs zodiac

["Marianna Ridderstad" <marianna.ridderstad@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Nick,

I admit that I do not have any deeper knowledge about Celtic culture... I 
just took it for granted that Celts probably had the same annual festivals 
as e.g. early Scandinavia (Finland included). The celebration of May Day, 
Midsummer, the First Day of Winter (14.10.)and the Christmas time have all 
been celebrated long before Christianity came to this part of the world, and 
I assumed that the Celts most probably had the corresponding festivals (I 
use the Wiccan names of the festivals, but I fully realize that the Wiccan 
traditions are neopagan).

I have a very nice book about the annual festivals, special dates and 
traditions in Finland, called "Vuotuinen ajantieto" ("Annual Calendrical 
Knowledge" or something like that; unfortunately not translated into 
English) written by Prof. Kustaa Vilkuna, which states that in ancient 
Scandinavia, the year was divided into Summer and Winter, which both had 8 
parts, and that this division is very old. The studies on prehistoric sites 
like Stonehenge and studies on folklore support this kind of division, 
originally based on Solstices and Equinoxes (Summer/Winter, Spring/Autumn), 
and I guess that in most countries there are traces of this original 
practise. The stregheria sounds really interesting, I'll have to read about 
it.

Thanks  & All the best,
Marianna


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nick Pelling" <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 1:09 AM
Subject: Re: VMs: On the VMs zodiac


> Hi Marianna,
>
> At 04:15 20/10/2004 +0300, Marianna Ridderstad wrote:
> > I took a look at the binding of the zodiac pages, and, indeed, it seems 
> > that my proposal that Aries would be Capricorn and Taurus=Aries is 
> > impossible because of the structure of the folios.
> > However, I now believe that the division of Aries and Taurus, plus several 
> > other features, might have something to do with the ancient division of a 
> > year into 4, 8 and 16 parts.
> > I wrote my notes on a web page for those who are interested:
> >
> > http://www.astro.helsinki.fi/~marianna/notes3.txt
>
> Be careful before assuming any link between Celtic and an eightfold 
> division of the year, as this doesn't seem to be supported by any actual 
> evidence (I posted on this back in August):-
>         http://www.voynich.net/Arch/2004/08/msg00504.html
>
> IMO, stregheria remains a far more likely source for this "eightness", 
> though I readily admit that the argument for that is far from won just 
> yet. :-o
>
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
>
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