Any etymologists want some fun?

[Tincatinker]

I was musing on the meaning of Camino - road; path; journey: and then journey and its sense of transition and then I hit an earlier meaning for camino - furnace.

I thought of Vulcan and his forge and Hephaestus and their works wrought by the fires of change. Providing strength and protection as well as vengeance and savage change.

And that led me to my own traditions. Samhain comes and it is time for my passage through fire to the new year and the new life. A short journey through liminal space. Yet the space I walk into through those flames is the space i have always habited.

And that led me back to the Camino and the expectations that so many of us lay upon it: Of transition to a new and different life. New beginnings. In this same world.

The musings of an old pagan at the turning of the year. Blessings upon you all.

 

[Former member 49149]

I was musing on the meaning of Camino - road; path; journey: and then journey and its sense of transition and then I hit an earlier meaning for camino - furnace.

I thought of Vulcan and his forge and Hephaestus and their works wrought by the fires of change. Providing strength and protection as well as vengeance and savage change.

And that led me to my own traditions. Samhain comes and it is time for my passage through fire to the new year and the new life. A short journey through liminal space. Yet the space I walk into through those flames is the space i have always habited.

And that led me back to the Camino and the expectations that so many of lay upon it: Of transition to a new and different life. New beginnings. In this same world.

The musings of an old pagan at the turning of the year. Blessings upon you all.

Thanks. Think it is a first. Blessing from a pagan. An old pagan...

 

[Hiawatha]

Vulcan was certainly stoking his forge while I crossed the Meseta !

 

[Purky]

In my teens I was fascinated by Greek mythology, so a lot of that old knowledge popped back up when you mentioned Hephaestus, the lame blacksmith of the gods. In particular the bit where he made and used the chains to bind Prometheus to a rock.

Prometheus, that old Titan, who created humans and out of compassion and pity for mankind stole fire from the sun and gave it to us. For which he was punished severely: cast down and chained to that rock, an eagle sent by Zeus ate his liver. Overnight his liver would grow back, but after every new dawn the eagle would return.

I was always struck by the similarities of that story and the story of Lucifer (light-bringer), the archangel, who was cast from heaven for his own brand of defiance. Fire and light, always have been and always will be potent themes.

Incidentally: did you know that St. James is the patron saint of blacksmiths?

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Tinkatinker, you lost me on that one. It was "Greek to me" as we say in the USA and it has nothing to do with Greek mythology!

 

[AlanSykes]

Incidentally: did you know that St. James is the patron saint of blacksmiths?

I didn't know that, and we English Catholics venerate St Dunstan as the patron of blacksmiths. He was a Saxon archbishop of Canterbury a bit after King Alfred, and, as a young monk was responsible for shoeing horses at Glastonbury Abbey. One day the devil passed by and had his horses shod, and then tried to skip off without paying. Dunstan used his red hot pincers to grab the devil by the nose, making the devil scream (audible 3 miles away) at which point he decided to pay up after all. This is thought to be the origin of the phrase making somebody "pay through the nose".

 

[Kieran Kenneally]

Samhain is an old Irish Gaelic Celtic word. Other Celts pronounce it differently like in In Scottish Gaelic, the autumn festival is called Samhuinn. In Manx it is Sauin.The Celts believed that the passage of a day began with darkness and progressed into the light. The same notion explains why Winter – the season of long, dark nights – marked the beginning of the year and progressed into the lighter days of Spring, Summer and Autumn. So the 1st of November, Samhain, was the Celtic New Year, and the celebrations began at sunset of the day before ie its Eve.
The original Celtic year

• Imbolc: 1st February
• Beltaine: 1st May
• Lughnasa: 1st August
• Samhain: 1st November

 

[Tincatinker]

Ah. And the dancing at Lughnasa led to babies at Beltaine and fat and healthy infants when the year turned again...

I didn't say that. It was granny

 

[Andrea Innes]

Samhain is an old Irish Gaelic Celtic word. Other Celts pronounce it differently like in In Scottish Gaelic, the autumn festival is called Samhuinn. In Manx it is Sauin.The Celts believed that the passage of a day began with darkness and progressed into the light. The same notion explains why Winter – the season of long, dark nights – marked the beginning of the year and progressed into the lighter days of Spring, Summer and Autumn. So the 1st of November, Samhain, was the Celtic New Year, and the celebrations began at sunset of the day before ie its Eve.
The original Celtic year

• Imbolc: 1st February
• Beltaine: 1st May
• Lughnasa: 1st August
• Samhain: 1st November

Love me some Gaelic!!