“Come over here, gentlemen and
put your hands on my sword again. Swear by my sword, you’ll never mention what
you've heard.”
Hamlet: Act 1 Scene 5.
The Hearth of the Turning
Wheel has since its inception developed, adapted, evolved and assimilated
teachings and materials not necessarily apparent upon a cursory examination.
Two items of regalia, acquired long after our foundation, serve to illustrate
this growth.
The Hearth Sword and the
Hearth Stone are a pair of ritual items, which although rarely incorporated
into ritual; serve an important purpose and represent a vital theological
concept. The Sword as a ritual item is a well-known representation of the
masculine principle. The Stone as a representative of the Earth is equally well-known,
as a representation of the feminine principle.
The symbolism of swords and
stones, their pairing and unification, is a common motif in mythology, both
ubiquitous and practical. The most obvious illustration is that within the
Arthurian Cycle, where a sword must be pulled from a stone, to confer a valid
and rightful kingship upon the bearer. Here, the actual penetration of the rock
by a blade, is a symbolic representation of the divine union of heterogender
principles, that unification of the Sky Father with the Earth Mother. The
Hieros Gamos itself, in which the God and Goddess are conjoined.
By drawing the sword Arthur
takes upon himself the role of an earthly representation of the Divine King of
Heaven, recognising that his kingship is granted or bestowed by the Goddess
herself and this is what is meant when we in the Hearth of the Turning Wheel talk
of Sovereignty. To again validate his claim to kingship, Arthur marries a
recognised princess and it is the marriage to Guinevere that confirms his
rights, for it is She who represents the Goddess manifest on Earth.
Historically this near
matriarchal marriage line is seen within the pre-Roman culture of Egypt,
although in neither the Arthurian Cycle nor in Ancient Egypt, is matriarchal
rule an actuality. The Egyptian line of succession being matrilineal, with the
crown passed through the female representing sovereignty but with her chosen
husband ruling as king.
The concept of Sovereignty
runs through British and Irish mythology like a thread of precious virtue. In
the Irish cycle it is the Morrígan who may represent the sovereignty of the
land. In the British Isles and the Arthurian Cycle, that archetypal
representation is Guinevere. In the English Midlands it is the Maid Marion that
other Queen of the May, who holds that same sacred position and by whose
marriage Robin Hood reigns as consort.
Marion is a maid but not a
maiden. Her relationship with Robin Hood and her activities within the legends,
transcend the social mores of the period. She is mistress of her own fate. Her
Maytide marriage to Robin Hood, bestows upon him the right to rule. Maid Marion
is the Sovereignty of the Greenwood and Robin Hood as her consort, reigns by
right of the Sacred Union. The Merry Men, the word Merry is derived from the
Saxon meaning retinue or retainer, serve as their household. The model
presented in the Sherwood Cycle is therefore; comparable to Arthur, Guinevere
and the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian.
The penetration of the stone
by the sword is a representation of other symbolic unifications, the lance
penetrating the body, is later mirrored in the act of communion in which a
blade enters the grail to bless wine. The wine representing both the blood of
sacrifice and that of childbirth, for there is perhaps no greater sacrifice
than the pain of childbirth to bring forth life, is itself the Sacred Blood of
Kingship and Sovereignty.
Within our own practice it is
recognised that the Sword and the Stone form a paired treasure, two items of
regalia that symbolise what a Hearth is in reality. Wheresoever those paired
treasures reside, that is where the Hearthstead is and wheresoever the
Hearthstead is, the Kinship and Sovereignty of the Hearth shall reign.
© Daniel B. Griffith the Chattering
Magpie 2017
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