Dave TheKilla

James Kendrew - Witchcraft, “The World Turned Upside Down, or, No News, and Strange News”, 1820.

— Carl Gustav Jung

The Viking Runes. The eldest runestones, inscribed with Norse runes, date from the 4th century. These were the Elder Futhark runes. However, the most of the runestones were created during the late Viking Age and thus inscribed with theYounger Futhark runes. The runestones with Norse runes were usually erected to commemorate one or several deceased kinsmen, and in most cases these people died at home peacefully. Usually, men raised or commanded raising a runestone, while some of them are raised by women, usually widows of the deceased. It is believed that runestones were brightly colored. Nowadays, most of them are painted with falu red, Swedish deep red paint known for its use on wooden cottages and barns. The vast majority of the Norse runestones are located in Scandinavia, but they can be found at all places reached by the Norsemen during the Viking Age: from the Isle of Man to Berezan’ in the Black Sea region. It is interesting, however, that not a single runestone is known to be found in Iceland. Runestones were erected at assembly locations, near roads, bridges and fords. Norse Runestones marked territory, explained inheritance, and told about important events. They remain one of the most striking traces left from the Viking Age.

art by Sebastian Nabel

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi is a Latin phrase that means “Thus passes the glory of the world”. It has been interpreted as “Worldly things are fleeting”. The phrase was used in the ritual of papal coronation ceremonies between 1409 (when it was used at the coronation of Alexander V). As the newly chosen pope proceeded from the sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica in his sedia gestatoria, the procession stopped three times. On each occasion a papal master of ceremonies would fall to his knees before the pope, holding a silver or brass reed, bearing a tow of smoldering flax. For three times in succession, as the cloth burned away, he would say in a loud and mournful voice, “Pater Sancte, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi!” (“Holy Father, so passes worldly glory!”) These words, thus addressed to the pope, served as a reminder of the transitory nature of life and earthly honors. 

Memento Mori: Remember to Die, 1640.

Gerard de Jode - Draco, “'Icones Revelationvm S Iohs Evangeliste”, 1585.

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Artwork by Erika Kosmatka

Tetractys of Life. At the top, there is the Monad, the One, the Good, the uncreated Creator of all things. At the bottom, there are the four elements of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Water iis the mean between Earth and Air, and Air itself is the mean between Water and Fire. These four elements create a physical body with the capacity to be seen, heard, smelled/tasted, and touched. The body, moreover, is built upon the Soul, which itself is composed of three qualities: Sameness, Difference and Existence, which allow the Soul to distinguish these things in the Cosmos. There are three reagents: Salt, Mercury and Sulfur. We can link these three reagents with the three properties of Difference, Existence and Sameness, respectively based on Plato’s Timaeus. In using Plato’s Lambda, we’re using the same notions of “left” and “right” in terms of directions down and from the Monad, and the Demiurge (saith Timaeus) “he carried round [the motion of Sameness] by the side to the right, and the motion of the diverse diagonally to the left”. This assigns Salt the property of Difference, and Sulfur the property of Sameness. This gives Mercury the property of Existence, which links Sameness and Difference.

Pierre de Hangest - Fear of the Living Dead, c. 1470. For the first time, researchers have found evidence in a belief in the walking dead in medieval England, where they analyzed bones and skeletons that were decapitated, burned, and otherwise mutilated after death. The Independent says the evidence from the bones “strongly suggests” a belief among the villagers that their deceased peers would rise from the dead. The evidence apparent in the bones backs up historical documentary evidence of such beliefs and practices. The Independent says it is known that medieval people believed corpses could rise up only when the flesh was still on the bones - after death and before decomposition. They didn’t believe skeletons had such powers. The article states villagers broke dead bodies’ limbs, perhaps with hammers or stones, and they cut off heads to remove any chance of thought or sight. After all this, they burned the corpses to destroy the flesh and keep them in the grave. Fear of the dead, or undead as the case may be, probably has roots in ancient or even prehistoric times. Medieval people thought dead people who had been evil in life could rise up and vengefully attack the living or spread disease. A Yorkshire preacher of the 12th century, William of Newburgh, wrote of an evil man who escaped justice and fled York. He died and rose up. A pack of barking dogs pursued him as he wandered through town. The townspeople stayed inside with their doors locked. They came out eventually, determined to mutilate and burn his body. They dug up his grave, and as the Independent reports of his writings: “They laid bare the corpse, swollen to an enormous corpulence, with its countenance beyond measure turgid and suffused with blood. The young men, however, spurred on by wrath, feared not, and inflicted a wound upon the senseless carcass, out of which incontinently flowed such a stream of blood, that it might have been taken for a leech filled with the blood of many persons”.