Hot-cross Buns! Hot-cross Buns!
One a penny, two a penny, Hot-cross Buns!
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons
One a penny, two a penny, Hot-cross Buns!
But if you have none of these little elves
Then you may eat them all yourselves!
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On Good Friday (April 2 this year), it is customary to eat round, spicy buns iced with a cross. The "hot cross buns" of British folklore were credited to last a year without turning mouldy, and said to provide protection against evil forces and fire if hung in the kitchen, against shipwreck if taken out to sea, and against rats in the granary.
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These magical pastries have ancient origins. When archaeolgists excavated the ancient city of Herculaneum in southwestern Italy, which had been buried along with Pompeii under volcanic ash and lava, they found two small loaves, each with a cross on it, among the ruins. Round like the Full Moon, and crossed to mark her phases, the cakes were offered throughout the Mediterranean to the Queen of Heaven, the "Goddess of 10,000 names" - Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Ishtar, and Inanna being just a few of the many goddesses of spring. The buns were eaten throughout the season, but, in Babylon at least, only on (Good) Friday were they offered to the Queen of Heaven.
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The custom spread to northern Europe, where the pagans worshipped Eos, goddess of sunrise, cognate Eostre/Ostara (whose name is connected to Easter and oestrus). They offered to her tiny cakes, often decorated with a cross, at their annual spring festival. The similarity between the word "bun" and (Greek) boun, is maybe not a coincidence; boun refers to a ceremonial cake of circular or crescent shape, offered to the gods.
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The combination of yonic circle and phallic cross represents the alchemical process of Conjunctio, the union of male and female, the midpoint being the intersection of the sexes in the act of conception, appropriate for the spring season of fertility.
Also it is a symbol for the Earth and the four seasons:
"The world is a hot cross bun, and at Ostara we celebrate her bounty yet again."
-Dan Furst in Llewellyn's Sabbats Almanac: Samhain 2009 to Mabon 2010, p. 139
Tarot card of the week: Ace of Pentacles
Represents a time to put very practical plans to work, i.e. planting seeds, toward a lush garden of harvest abundance.
Represents a time to put very practical plans to work, i.e. planting seeds, toward a lush garden of harvest abundance.
Ace of Pentacles in the Robin Wood tarot and the Alchemical tarot by Robert Place
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In the Alchemical tarot, the usual pentagram of five points is shown as an intersection of two equal armed crosses, in which the 5th point is the center hub. Cross and pentagram jewelry pendants are too often considered to represent opposite (opposing) spiritual values; here we find them in an harmonizing conjunctio.
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The Robin Wood scene, similar to the familiar Waite portrayal, shows a lush garden of red roses and white [Easter] lilies. Who wouldn't enjoy a leisurely stroll through this paradise? Since my backyard is overrun by my darling cane di caccia (Sophia), most of what I grow is contained in a circular flower bed, divided into four sections like a Medicine Wheel (and a hot cross bun). Last summer, there were red roses, snapdragons and verbena, yellow yarrow and low growing sunflowers, blue catmint, trailing morning glory and columbine, and white daisies and alyssum - the four colours of a traditional Medicine Wheel.
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The only flowers blooming in my yard now are crocus and budding daffodils (aka narcissus), buried under an equinox snow. Garlands of these flowers plus hyacinths, violets and early blooming roses adorned the heads of Greeks and Romans attending spring banquets and symposiums. Crocus and narcissus were blooming in perfusion when Persephone picked one and "fell down the rabbit hole" into the fields of asphodel.
Like Alice in Wonderland. In the recent movie starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, the Wonderland Garden is brought to life in 3-D, complete with fly agaric 'shrooms, on which sits a caterpillar who advises Alice that partaking of the magic mushroom will grant her the ability to shapeshift her size.
Does this make our Alice a shaman?
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Disclaimer: I do like to research the fly agaric, don't I? I'm not a drug user (not even prescription, and only very rarely over the counter) but this particular plant has always fascinated me. Also, it's associated with Elen, my matron goddess/saint and her flying reindeer . But I've never ingested the drug and am not advising it.
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You don't need drugs for a psychedelic trip; here are some Alice in Wonderland musical mystery tours:
