Mediaeval Baebes - Summerisle (The Maypole Song)

[billybilboa]

and the stars are the dicator of seasonal celebration, two and two together here.. spring, penis erm birds bees ...lol

[billybilboa]

The may pole is a phallic symbol and you cannot argue that it is a celt thing or a pagan thing it is a penis.. simple worshiped around the world, jung symbolism tends to suggest that it is a universal symbol which indeed is not the intillectual property of any cult or religion. Good points about christianity being a narrative version of paganism though..without a doubt.

[666BrotherofMetal]

@billybilboa all religions in a way are pagan if you think of the VERY first religion personified, as a tree. Each branch being different paths of religion, hinduism, sikhism, paganism christianity etc, and upon each branch there was twigs, each twig being a different tradition of that religion, wicca, catholicsm and so on. Each leaf being the follower of that religion. And as a leaf falls, it goes back into the earth and becomes anew. :)

[billybilboa]

However, most religions are almost identical, but political pressure will change things.. (even through the subtle changes of language which I would be sure you can agree is wicked. I am not a Chrisian but can I escape xmas in the uk?, can I feck, it is celebrated world wide in tribes even.. I like to contemplate and infact quite spiritual but I am not going to brand myself with a highstreet brandname religion :)

[billybilboa]

protestents and catholics both celebrate xmas, ask a shaman

[BestLion75]

Hail Paganism!! Great song..I heard it first on Wicker man

[HeathenCub]

....and Christians killed Pagans later on..and anyone else who disagreed with them!!! :P

[5arthur2]

lindoooooo

[RedSoxForObama]

Sumer is icumen in!

[Transmissional]

Wow i prefer them singing in that middle english language :P

[pupsenok]

The maypole is Germanic and not Celtic. Accordingly, the association of the maypole with Beltane is not historical. Someone already beat me to stating this, but it clearly needs repeating.

It is interesting how Pagans have picked up this song and use it for maypole dances, when it was originally for a a film, The Wicker Man, that painted paganism in a not entirely favourable light.

[RedSoxForObama]

@pupsenok

'May Day' is Germanic, though, and modern paganism is often a synthesis of many European pagan religions.

[pupsenok]

@RedSoxForObama

The fact remains that the association of the maypole with Beltane is not historical.

Some groups synthesize and others are reconstructionist. Some groups, like Wicca, are a hodge podge of pre-Christian European religions, Eastern mysticism, humanism, modernism, personal beliefs (such as Gardner) and almost everything else. Wicca is no closer to any historical form of Paganism than is Christianity, which has assimilated many pagan traditions, from Easter to Christmas.

[RedSoxForObama]

@pupsenok

They're the same day and they celebrate broadly similar things. Did you expect people not to associate them?

[tangotangoromeo]

@RedSoxForObama Actually, not really. May Day is, in a lot of ways, similar to the Celtic Samhain, because it is one of the days sacred to Freyja, and it is a time when it is believed the "veil between the worlds is thin." Only in the case of May Day, the spirits one encounters are more like....ljossalfhar/light elves. Because Freyja is sometimes known as Valfreyja, there is some connection of Her with the dead ("val" = "slain") and the noble ancestors. Long, long story...

[tangotangoromeo]

@RedSoxForObama The Celts, for whom Beltane was a big celebration, had this thing for bonfires - let's not forget that "beltane" means "Bel's fire" and by definition it is a celebration of a specific Celtic fire deity. Beltane is a noble holy tide on its own, as is May Day. Let them be what they are. I wouldn't advise trying to bend them into a mold to suit a modernistic agenda. Pagans should respect their ancestral ways.

[tangotangoromeo]

@pupsenok I cannot thank you ENOUGH. The Maypole thing is definitely Germanic, NOT Celtic. I have no idea where most neo-pagans get the idea that maypoles are Celtic.

[pupsenok]

@tangotangoromeo

We are still fighting a losing battle against ignorance and ahistoricity. Most modern Pagans are fusionists or synthesists or ecumenists, like Wiccans, and very few are actual reconstructionists. I have no problem with people making up their own religion. Where I do counter is where nonfactual claims of historicity are made for them.

[tangotangoromeo]

@pupsenok Yes, I agree; much of 21st century paganism seems strongly anti-research, anti-scholarship, anti-intellectual. To borrow Wiccan terms, it leans FAR too heavily on the water/emotional/intuitive end of the spectrum, and seems to almost completely diss air/the mind/analysis, etc. Yet these same people want to claim to walk an "ancient" tradition. Um, well, if one is going to do that, then do that. What most of them are doing now is not that. :)

[pupsenok]

@tangotangoromeo

Well, even quasi-participating in this very discussion is one who is arguing for some ahistorical connection and making several other unsupported claims. He argues against "bending into a mould to suit a modernistic agenda" and asks Pagans to "respect their ancestral ways", while at the same time doing some form of modernistic and ahistorical blending of Celtic and Germanic.

[pupsenok]

@tangotangoromeo

In the end, I may simply practice a form of pure reconstructionist Rodnovery which is a blending of my fiancee's ethnicity with my Heathen and polytheistic beliefs. We already read together ancient texts (in the original) and discuss them (in Russian and Ukrainian), like the Chronicle of Bygone Years. It seems a happy compromise. And it is very important as I want us to have a shred faith and to raise our children in our shared faith.

[tangotangoromeo]

@pupsenok I freely confess I feel slightly more inclined to an ecumenical form of paganism, but my fiance is Asatru, and even if I do choose to walk an ecumenical pagan path, that doesn't mean I have to be un-intelligent about it. All it takes is honesty with oneself to start with. It's not hard. I'm just not as "good at" reconstructionism as my fiance is. Seriously. Oh, and ya wanna know something else that squicks me? The Maid Mother Crone thing. ARRGH! Don't people know where that came from?

[pupsenok]

@tangotangoromeo

I am myself in a quandary. I am French, and so split between Celtic and Germanic forms of worship, although keeping them apart, I participate in both. My fiancee is Ukrainian and I thus engage in Rodnovery celebrations with her. It is difficult to walk three paths separately...and I am not inclined to merge them into some common form of Heathenism. It simply does not fit me to create my own religion. I am at a difficult crossroads.

[darksnow236]

have u noticed that  the tree's roots look like fingers?

[TheSoulflower]

This is one of the better versions of this song I have heard. I heard a trio of singers sing it in Vienna who did it well, as well as singers from Texas Southern. These ladies always give wonderful performances.

[TheHeathenLore]

Nice version of a classic by the Mediaeval Baebes. Cant help thinking of it in relation to the Wicker Man (original and best) movie though...lol

Incidentally the Maypole isnt Celtic/Beltane but a Germanic pagan fertility dance brought to Britain with the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Friesians etc.

[adventussaxonum]

@TheHeathenLore - Well said; it seems EVERYTHING is "Celtic" nowadays.

[riderpoet]

Midsummer's Eve is coming up soon, all ye whose souls inhabit the cool, grassy spaces beneath the trees.

[phantomofsorrow]

can't stop to sing it xD

[Jayson510]

is off to dance around a Maypole and jump over a cauldron of fire with some of my fellow witches, pagans, hippies, and old libertines. Blessed Beltane everyone! Today the Maiden becomes a woman, and the Horned One will sow his seed!

[Lolli92imo]

Like, Oh My Goddess! WOW! This song is amazing!

[tusindfrydpigen]

where are the babes?

[Enzo012]

@tusindfrydpigen they're in the tree.

[tink449]

love it:D

[Fangsthevampire]

I really like this song, it's pretty, explains the cycle of life, is nice to listen to, and is good when you need to clear your mind

[astrideuridice]

lovely song to teach it to a child, i think is cute.

[Optimusnorm]

Agreed...and it teaches them the cycle of life and how everything is connected...a lesson best learnt without dogma and religion.

[pupsenok]

@Optimusnorm

But, the lesson is not being taught without dogma and religion. On the contrary, it is being taught within the context of religion...pagan religion.

[Optimusnorm]

@pupsenok - The dogmas of paganism pale next to the dogma of middle eastern monotheism though. The pagan fathers of our civillisation 2000+ showed a lot more religious plurality and tolerance than people 50 or 100 years ago who had adapted Christianity or Islam.

[pupsenok]

@Optimusnorm

To use an inappropriate metaphor...you are preaching to the choir.

[adventussaxonum]

@Optimusnorm - Exactly. The yardstick was the question " How many preachers were martyred during the conversion of England to Christianity?"-- None!

Not bad for heathen barbarians?

Of course, once Catholicism was established , the persecutions could begin in earnest - against pagans,supposed witches,other Christian sects,Jews. etc.



[snakedemon11]

@adventussaxonum *sigh* I have gone to 5 songs today, 4 of them had catholic haters on them. I wonder what I did wrong?

[howlerkos]

@snakedemon11 Its not waht you did wrong, its what the Catholics did wrong so long ago. Today there are plenty of good catholics. but back then, they were... well.... bad people. A lot of religions then were.

[adventussaxonum]

@snakedemon11 - I don't hate Catholics; I am married to one! I merely recognise the fact that pagans didn't martyr catholic missionaries in England. Unfortunately the same can not be said about the Catholic church's attitude towards pagans, when it was in power.

[Murdoc2Dbabe]

@adventussaxonum but pagans did kill christians in ancient rome

[adventussaxonum]

@Murdoc2Dbabe - can't speak for the Romans. My comment is linked to English paganism,

[Murdoc2Dbabe]

@adventussaxonum well you have a point there

[XxDregonxX]

Okay, the lyrics are retarded.

[goddessmelania]

I love them! This was amazing as usual, with their angelic voices. Thanks for sharing this song. Love and Light to you, be blessed.

~ Goddess Melania ~

[Simba92]

Wow. Very nice song.

[NCPilot]

We played this song for the maypole part of Beltane this year. :) It's hauntingly beautiful.

[LupinMNP]

.... does that mean you have music for it? because i really need it to wave in my choirs face.

[sorcress18]

@NCPilot

This would be a good song for Beltane... :)

[AnandamayaMusic]

HEy Great tune- What alvum is this from?

[MewoAndTheCrow]

Lol, two months late, but it's from Undrentide.

^_^

[jaocheu]

It from the soundtrack of the movie The Wickerman (the original UK 70's movie) a classic soundtrack

[MasterofRandomness87]

I agree too

[armisis]

Theres a hole in the middle of the sea.

[BruceinFalkirk]

I like this but it's not as good as the song from the Wicker man

[Mamechiho]

i agree inpart. I dont like it. The one from wicker man is better.

I do thinks these girls can sing but this just sounds all wrong to me

[prichan91]

very nice song!!

[blackstormelf]

Love thier song Miri it is!!

[KINGOFYARD]

love this song

[shaun7the7mod]

good pic, nice vid

[fingerfootmusic]

Nice singing. Did you take this picture yourself?