Walpurgisnacht - A Journey Across Time, Space, and Darkness
by Sean Jobst
27 April 2020
It is a misty night whose magical qualities inspired many a poet and writer who dared allow themselves to step outside time and space. This night is when a disguised Mephistopheles sought to distract a Faust who had already bargained away his soul, from knowing the fate of his beloved Gretchen. The great poet who transmitted this story, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, on one winter's night in 1777 ascended the snowy heights of the Brocken to both recover from the sorrow of his sister's death and to step outside the mundane constraints of his Weimar society - but descended down newly inspired to create one of the best poetic masterpieces in the German language. This legendary night was immortalized by the great Irish novelist Bram Stoker as one "When the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel." American science-fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft described this night's infernal qualities in "The Dreams in the Witch House", while its esoteric imagery has been meditated upon by occultists.
Walpurgisnacht is the name for this incredible night around which mysteries and legends are constructed. The night of 30th April, leading into the 1st of May celebrated in Spring festivals across Europe. It should be no accident that a night associated with death and the undead comes on the twilight of a great celebration of new life and fertility, for the two are complementary parts of the same cycle. Regions of southern and central Germany have woven unique traditions around the mystical strands of this night. As we have seen with Ostara earlier this month, distinctions between what was imposed by Church authorities and what was carried over from die alten Volkstraditionen of Heathen times are not always apparent but make for an illuminating journey across worlds as we unravel deeper aspects of ourselves.
Also known as Hexennacht, Walpurgisnacht according to folklore is the dark night before May Day when witches from across Germany took flight to see the witch-king in the Harz mountains, from whom they received their orders for the next year and held a large celebration on the Brocken, the highest peak of northern and central Germany. Legends lend credence to the Brocken's peculiar natural features. For around 300 days a year, the mountain is shrouded in fog, which "creates an optical illusion of magnifying the observers' shadow" called the Brocken specter that "provides a natural stage for the supernatural and fantasies about evil"(Hudson). This isolated area for so long formed a "terra incognita" which happened to be one of the last regions of Germany to be converted to the cross. Yet underneath the outer imagery and investments of "evil communions with the devil" are deeper remnants of indigenous Heathen lore transposed upon a Christian holiday.
Who was Walburga? This night was named after the Christian abbess Walburga (710-779CE), a Benedictine nun who proselytized in Franconia. It was no accident she made her center in the Bavarian town of Heidenheim ("heathen home"), for despite oft-repeated claims of Christian apologists, South German regions still held on to our ancestral folk faith well into the 7th and 8th centuries before they were converted to the new religion - and even then only after a long process of syncretism and then absorption by the church. Desiring to break the indigenous cohesion of an area, the church tended to send foreign priests, monks and nuns to convert the local tribes to Christianity. Such it was that the church tended to send proselytizers from newly-converted parts of the British Isles to convert our regions of southern Germania, bending them to the political power of the Merovingians and Carolingians and the spiritual power of Rome.
Thus was Walburga born into an allegedly aristocratic Anglo-Saxon family of saints in Devonshire - her parents were the saints Richard the Pilgrim and Wuna of Wessex. Her uncle was Boniface, who chopped down Donar's Oak of the Chatti in Hessen. Boniface sent for his nephews, the saints Wunnibald and Wilibald, and his niece Walburga to join him in efforts to convert Bayern, Schwaben, Franken, and Hessen. All of this "saintly" family actively burnt down sacred groves and carried out the instructions of Rome to build new Christian sites over the previous sacred sites in order to harness the energy and facilitate conversion. Whether any of these saints were historical figures is debatable, their first mention being long after their lives - but what most concerns us is the idea of their existence being constructed later to support the narrative while revealing pre-Christian patterns.
Walburga's original festival date was that of her death, 25 February (Thomas, 2423). Her relics were kept in her abbey at Heidenheim, including her bones later alleged to exude a "miraculous" therapeutic oil. This could relate to Heidenheim being the site of a sacred healing spring from Heathen times, whose mystique was taken over by her abbey. As with other hagiographies, Walburga's "miracles" were later inventions to solidify the church's power and stamp out lingering Pagan traditions - hers were first mentioned by Wolfhard von Herrieden's Miracula S. Walburgae Manheimensis (895/896). She was canonized by order of Pope Adrian II on 1st May 870 and her bones transferred to Eichstätt. In the 11th century, Anno II, the Archbishop of Köln, declared that "Walpurgisnacht" would be celebrated from sundown on 30th April. The dating is no accident, clearly designed to co-opt indigenous May Day festivals. Since Germanic and Celtic days began with the moon, its likely that significance would be placed on the night before May Day as well.
Etymology holds the secrets. Whether Walburga was an actual historical saint or had a different name, the etymology bearing such a close relation to the "witches" and magical qualities of Walpurgisnacht cannot be a coincidence. "Clairvoyant, wise women played such an important role among the forest peoples that it astonished the Romans. In the Germanic-Celtic settlement area, they were known under the names Wala and Voelva and in southern and central Germany as Walburg and Walburga, which means 'staff bearer' (Germanic waluz = stave, staff; from Indo-European *uel = turn). They carried wands with which they were able to steer things magically"(Storl, 267). Wal- also had the meanings of "chosen" and "corpse", as seen with the Walküren, the Germanic messengers of death who "chose" selected dead warriors off the battlefield to take with them into the otherworld. Death bore a close relation with fertility within our ancient cyclical understanding, so its little wonder the Seeresses who bridged the different "worlds" would unite the elements within their names.
In the 2nd century CE, a Greek inscription on a pottery piece on Elephantine island mentioned a Germanic seeress in service to the Roman governor of Egypt, named Waluburg "Se[m]noni Sibylla" - "Sibyl from the Semnones", a seeress from a Germanic tribe that lived between the rivers Elbe and Oder (Spickermann). The -purgis and -burga elements could relate to burg "homestead" or berg "mountain", both terms conveying images of the hearth and the motherly womb (the mountain and "breast" imagery previously discussed in relation to Zisa). The Rune Berkanan ᛒ also conveys dual meanings of "birch" and "rebirth", so that Walpurgisnacht occurring after Ostara and on the eve of May Day could possibly convey new life springing forth from the darkness that precedes light. The "p" and "b" being interchangeable between Walpurgis and Walburga will further correlate to the goddess Berchta or Perchta as the various folklore surrounding this night parallels those of various Germanic goddesses as we shall see throughout.
Walpurgis may also derive from Gothic walus "staff, wand" and Lombardic Gand-bera "wand-bearer"(Simek, 135, 333). Both these could also relate to the god Wodan, who as the wanderer traversed across the worlds carrying the staff of a traveler or pilgrim as both conveyed esoteric ideas. The lore of the Longobards ascribed their name to the seeress Gambara, who sought the assistance of the goddess Frija (whom the Longobards knew as Frea), the wife and consort of Wodan. Here we see the interchange of "w" or "g", with Frija's qualities often attributed to the goddess of the Wild Hunt, Frau Holle, who was often known as "Gode" the wife of Wodan in some German regions. The distinction not always being clear between the Germanic and Celtic tribes, according to Cassius Dio the seeress Veleda was succeeded by one named Ganna, whose name could possibly relate to Proto-Celtic *geneta "girl"(Matasović, 157). "The Veleda or Weleda goes back to the original Celtic velet or fili, which means 'visionary' or 'poet'"(Storl, 267).
Representations of Walburga. Just as her "miracles" were later constructions, so too the evolving images of her reveal deep-seated Germanic symbols having nothing to do with her own qualities in life. Her earliest representation was the Hilda Codex published in Köln in the early 11th century, which depicted her holding stylized stalks of grain. This could be the Christianization of an older Pagan concept of the Grain Mother, with peasants fashioning her image into a corn dolly at harvest time and seeing her presence in the grain sheaf (Berger, 61-64). Other images portray Walburga with a three-cornered mirror and a spindle, which correlate to the three Germanic goddesses of Fate, the Norns. Folklore holds that spells sent using the spindle originated with Walburga herself, and lazy farmers would be presented with a straw doll called "Walburga" to shame them into ploughing their land (Rochholz, 40). In the late 19th century, the Bavarian-Swiss folklorist Ernst Ludwig Rochholz gave a lengthy description of her traits which will serve as our reference throughout:
"Nine nights before the first of May is Walburga in flight, unceasingly chased by wild ghosts and seeking a hiding place from village to village. People leave their windows open so she can be safe behind the cross-shaped windowpane struts from her roaring enemies. For this, she lays a little gold piece on the windowsill, and flees further. A farmer who saw her on her flight through the woods described her as a white lady with long flowing hair, a crown upon her head; her shoes were fiery gold, and in her hands she carried a three-cornered mirror that showed all the future, and a spindle, as does Berchta. A troop of white riders exerted themselves to capture her. So also another farmer saw her, whom she begged to hide her in a shock of grain. No sooner was she hidden than the riders rushed by overhead. The next morning the farmer found grains of gold instead of rye in his grain stook. Therefore, the saint is portrayed with a bundle of grain"(Rochholz, 26-27).
The protection of crops was ascribed to her and she was often portrayed with three ears of corn, relating her to a fertility or agricultural goddess. In this way she can correspond to the grain goddess Sibba, the wife of Donar, the Thunderer. Known to the Norse as Sif, her name bears a close relation to Sippe "clan, kindred, extended family" - an allegory for the importance of crops and harvest to the survival of family, clan and tribe. Her relation to Donar, who represents the power of rains and thunder that "fertilizes" the soil and crops, conjure up images of the "Dark Night of the Soul" that must occur before any new growth can arise. This is an inherently Pagan concept even though couched in the terms of Catholic mystics, representing a confrontation of the deepest aspects of the psyche to "cleanse" those parts called The Shadow, and integrate them into a newly-balanced self. Such imagery occurs throughout Walpurgisnacht, whose folklore suggested that after the "evil" of that night would then come the good symbolized by May Day, such as renewed rains and bountiful harvests. This included the bauernregeln (rural sayings) of Walpurgisnacht: "Ist die Hexennacht voller Regen, wird's ein Jahr wohl voller Segen" (If it rains during the witches' night, it will be a year full of blessing). In Tyrol, houses would be fumigated with resinous twigs shaped on the last Thursday of April "at midnight into bundles" to be "kept and burned on May Day"(Frazer, 560) - Thursday corresponding to Donarstag.
With the notable exception of a nun's headscarf as we can expect with a religion derived from the Middle East, Walburga's representations were indigenous down to the most minute details. One of these is the solar disc behind her head, such as she was portrayed by the anonymous artist dubbed the "Master of Meßkirch" around 1535 and 1540. This common motif most often appeared with solar gods in the Greco-Roman world and with Jesus in Christian imagery, but Walburga's portrayal as such might carry over the Germanic and Celtic personification of the sun as a goddess (while the specific power of the sun rays and light was often considered masculine, such as with Balder or Belenus). Walburga's healing oil and her solar disc could both relate to Sirona, a Celtic goddess whose reverence was centered in southern Germany, whose name relates to "stellar, astral" and qualities included healing, cleanliness and fertility.
Other representations showed Walburga with dogs, which can be understood as an allegory for fertility since the ancient "corn-spirit" was "conceived as a wolf or a dog" in many regions of Gaul and Germania (Frazer, 448). She was never associated with dogs within her lifetime, but is in keeping with the animal companions often described alongside Germanic goddesses and as the "witches' familiar", associated with Frau Holle in all her regional variations. "Grey hounds accompany the three Norns. The fertility goddesses Frau Harke, Frau Gode, and Frau Frick (Frigga) have always a house beside them, and Frau Berchte in Steiermark is called the 'poodle-mother' because of her dog"(Rochholz, 20). Fertility comes in with the folklore about feeding a "Windhound" left behind after the Wild Hunt to ensure good weather for the crops (Hodge). This Windhound was connected to fertility, the accumulated "luck" of an individual's life and their ancestors, and with abundance in both the home and fields, such that it was known as Nahrungshund "nourishment-hound" in many regions (Rochholz, 22). On Walpurgisnacht in Thüringen, Frau Holda rides with the Wild Hunt accompanied by dogs (Pearson, 28). Holda was portrayed riding on distaffs with her Hulden, the nocturnal spirits of the women who became her "witches", just as Walburga is often portrayed with a distaff (Hodge).
Brigid and Bealtaine parallels. Given that Walpurgisnacht comes right on the cusp of the Celtic festival Bealtaine, one has to wonder about parallels between Walburga and Brigid, the Irish goddess who was also turned into a "saint". She too had various fertility and solar symbols, and was honored with "corn crosses" laden with solar symbolism. Just as the Germanic Norns and Irish Morrígna were three-fold, so too were Brigid's "crosses" threefold. German folklore stipulated that woodcutters mark three crosses in the form of a triangle on stumps of felled trees, inside which it was believed the Moosleute "moss folk" or wilde Leute "wild folk" would be safe from the Wild Hunt (Grimm, 929). Brigid was regarded as daughter of the Morrigan and The Dagda, joining in her person allegories of the underworld and sky such as we have seen with the Germanic goddesses behind Walburga, like Frau Holle the matron of the Wild Hunt, and Hel the underworld goddess. The healing and solar connotations of Sirona exist with the protectoress Brigid, whose name derived from a cognate meaning "fiery arrow". Her shamanic connotations can be seen in her "saintly" abilities to find lost people and being associated with sages and poets who have been "inspired". The solar, underworld, and shamanic elements are similarly joined in the South German goddess Berchta, whose name derived from Old High German beraht "the bright one" -> Proto-Germanic *brehtaz, and also related to the Old High German verb Pergan "hidden, covered".
Bealtaine (Scottish Bealltainn, Welsh Calanmai, Manx Boaltinn) was a purification festival that involved two burning columns of fire, between which cattle followed by people would pass as a symbolic "cleansing" from the Winter. Cattle were often sacrificed to Brigid and she was associated with Boann "white cow", just as her name came from the same Indo-European cognate as Sanskrit bhrati "exalted one", an epithet for the Vedic dawn goddess Ushas, who was portrayed riding on a chariot drawn by seven cows. Bealtaine heralded the end of the "cold" season (Gaullish Giamon, Irish gemred, Welsh gaiaf) and beginning of the "hot" season (Gaullish Samon, Irish samrad, Welsh haf) (Sjoestedt, 52-53), so that the night before this seasonal transition was also an auspicious time. Such it was for the Welsh, who called the night (nos) preceding Calanmai as Ysbrydnos "spirit night", when spirits roamed and divination was most effective. There was a mock battle where a men representing Winter and Summer would throw branches and flowers at each other, and after "Summer" inevitably won the May King and Queen would be crowned. This symbolism occurs also with the "darkness" of Walpurgisnacht preceding the "light" of 1st May within Germanic, Norse, and Finnish lore.
This symbolic "new beginning" also appears with the Irish tradition of washing one's face with the morning dew of Bealtaine, for Brigid preserves "beauty" within her path just as Holle does so within the German Walpurgisnacht traditions: "In Hesse, Frau Holle yearly passes over the land, and gives it fruitfulness"(Pearson, 28). At both Ysbrydnos and Walpurgisnacht, the "veil" between the worlds of the living and the dead are at their thinnest - mirroring in the material world what was occurring within the spiritual world, so that the "cleansing" fire was also used to appease or ward off these spirits, as occurred in Germany: "Still today there are places where bonfires are kept burning all night to repel the evil spirits"(Stark, 100). Bealtaine derived from the Common Celtic *Belo-te(p)nia "bright fire", the element *belo- holding some relation to the English bale "white, shining" - fitting the general solar and fire "cleansing" connotations of this time. There was the tradition of balefires as a funerary or ritualistic fire, and it shares the same cognate as Balder, the Germanic "shining" god also associated with "cleansing" sun rays. As Goethe reflects on Die erste Walpurgisnacht: "As the flame is purified by smoke, so purify our faith / And even if they rob us of our ancient ritual / who can take your light from us?"
The Wild Hunt and Frau Holda. Just as with Walpurgisnacht on the transition point leading into May, one of many ways to understand the Wild Hunt (wilde Jagd) is as the lingering power of Winter trying to prevent Spring from remaining after Ostara. A strange contrast between the joyous, fertility rites of 1st May and the dark, stormy, witchcraft imagery of Walpurgisnacht. "What kind of a pairing is this, of the witches of the Brockenmount with a saint of the church, under one and the same name!", which can only be understood as the "worthy wholeness of a Germanic goddess"(Rochholz, 1). Aware of this but unable to stamp out the lingering Heathen traditions, the church tried to strike fear into any who engaged in the May Day dancing and processions lest they be entrapped in an "everlasting hunter's chase", which is actually a lingering ancestral memory of "Wuotan's march"(Grimm, 1057). The church had special ire against the "Tanz in den Mai" around the Maypole - an obviously phallic symbol - just as it tried to suppress the folklore relating to the mother goddesses, such as the dual role of Wodan and Holle with the Wild Hunt. Coming from the same Germanic root as "to hide, to conceal" (like we saw earlier with Perchta and relates to the "veil" imagery of Walpurgisnacht), the Hulden were those women whose knowledge of folk healing outside the church and feudal authorities was demonized as "devilish". According to the 10th-century Canon Episcopi, the Hulden went "out through closed doors in the silence of the night, leaving their sleeping husbands behind" to attend feasts and "battles in the sky", stipulating that any accused woman be required to do a year's penance (Hodge).
Grimm mentioned many "witch mountains" throughout Germany aside from the Brocken, and identified most if not all as "places where formerly justice was administered [the Things?], or sacrifices were offered. Almost all the witch-mountains were once hills of sacrifice, boundary-hills, or salt-hills"(Grimm, 1051). Many chapels and other sites associated with Walburga in Bayern stand on hills surrounded by linden trees. Linden has beneficial qualities for the heart and thus was associated with Germanic mother goddesses, such that Christians regarded them as "witch's trees" they often cut down and built chapels dedicated to Mary (Storl, 166-167, 183). Keeping in mind that "elves" were allegories for Ancestors within Germanic lore and not the grotesque small creatures they were turned into by the Christians (like the "demonic" imagery of Walpurgisnacht), and that dancing for spiritual purposes was a common shamanic ritual, we read the following from Grimm:
"Down into the tenth and into the 14th centuries, night-women in the service of Dame Holda rove through the air on appointed nights, mounted on beasts; her they obey, to her they sacrifice, and all the while not a word about any league with the Devil. Nay, these night-women, shining mothers, dominae nocturnae, bonnes dames....were originally daemonic elvish beings, who appeared in woman's shape and did men kindnesses; Holda, Abundia, to whom still a third part of the whole world is subject, leads the ring of dancers....It is to such dancing at heathen worship, to the airy elf-dance and the hopping of will-o'-the-wisps, that trace primarily the idea of witches' dances; festive dances at heathen May-meetings can be reckoned in with the rest. To christian zealots all dancing appeared sinful and heathenish, and sure enough it often was derived from pagan rites, like other harmless pleasures and customs of the common people, who would not easily part with their diversion at the great festivals"(Grimm, 1056)
Folk traditions. Like May Day and Bealtaine, bonfires were also associated with Walpurgisnacht. "The kindling of the fires on Walpurgis Night is called 'driving away the witches.' The custom of kindling fires on the eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night) for the purpose of burning the witches is, or used to be, widespread in the Tyrol, Moravia, Saxony and Silesia", while in Voigtland people would leap over bonfires while tossing burning brooms into the air: "So far as the light of the bonfire reaches, so far will a blessing rest on the fields"(Frazer, 622). The "burning out the witches" tradition in Tyrol included processions of noise-making (much like the Perchtenlauf of Alpine regions), and burning incense and bundles of twigs fastened on poles, much like similar Bealtaine traditions of warding off "evil spirits" - and the ritualistic noise can also be seen in light of the "cleansing" properties of certain sound vibrations: "The custom of expelling the witches on Walpurgis Night is still, or was down to recent years, observed in many parts of Bavaria and among the Germans of Bohemia. Thus in the Böhmerwald Mountains all the young fellows of the village assemble after sunset on some height, especially at a crossroad, and crack whips for a while in unison with all their strength. This drives away the witches; for so far as the sound of the whips is heard, these maleficient beings can do no harm. In some places, while the young men are cracking their whips, the herdsmen wind their horns, and the long-drawn notes, heard far off in the silence of night, are very effectual for banning the witches"(Frazer, 561).
As with the distaff associated with Frau Holle, so too was the broom often taken as symbolic of psychic and mental "cleansing" from negative effects of witchcraft (which is inherently neutral, subject to the specific charge placed into its working). "The symbol of the witch was originally the sign of the worshipper, the protection against the anger of the goddess, or of the priestess, her servant"(Pearson, 29). In the Obererzgebirge, crossed brooms were placed over doorways on Walpurgisnacht; in Mecklenburg, cows and stalls were protected by an inverted broom; brooms were burned in Thüringen to frighten witches; and at Saulgaul near Sigmaringen in Bayern, processions to a sacred well were "headed by a man bearing a broom, followed by one with a fork, and between them a third clothed in a sheepskin, and carrying a tree with apples and other eatables (termed the Adam's tree)"(Pearson, 29-30). The English biostatistician Karl Pearson linked these same symbols with Twelfth Night, temporal beginning of the Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht during the Lenten season:
"A scarcely less noteworthy figure is that of Berchta with her plough. She waters the meadows, and on Twelfth Night she goes her round to punish idle spinsters, often in the most brutal manner. In Swabia, on Twelfth Night, a broom is carried in her procession, or she is represented with a broom in one hand and fruit in the other. This list of goddesses might be largely extended did our time permit; but it may serve, as it is, to show that the devil's mother is only a degraded form of a goddess of fertility and domestic activity. She is but one of those goddesses whose symbols are those of agriculture, the pitchfork and the plough, or of domestic usefulness, the broom and the spindle. She is associated with symbols of fertility, the ears of corn, fruit, the swine, and the dog. Her well brings with its water fertility to the land and fruitfulness to women"(Pearson, 28).
Esoteric connotations. As we discussed throughout, myths and folklore are laden with many layers of meanings beneath just the surface levels. The ancients spoke through the language of allegories, so that special attention should be given to the esoteric connotations of Walpurgisnacht. One contemporary thinker who has spoken on this subject is the Irish writer and artist Thomas Sheridan, who relates Walpurgisnacht to a lesson from the Vedic tradition - stemming from the same distant Indo-European roots as Germanic mythology. In the Bhagavad-Gita, the god Krishna appears on his chariot to the despondent Arjuna following the battle of Kurukshetra. Within the dialogue Krishna assures him that what was happening that day on the battlefield, was a product of what was simultaneously occurring in the spirit world. The underlying lesson here is that all realms are reflections of each other, governed by the same cosmic or natural laws, and that events within one realm mirror those in another.
Infernal and mysterious aspects are most associated with Walpurgisnacht because it occurs at a liminal time, when the "veils" or barriers between different worlds are at their "thinnest", opening a "portal" through which more overlap occurs between the material and spiritual realms. Significance is especially given to the hours after midnight, corresponding to the so-called "Witching Hour" when one is at the farthest from the sun and thus no longer affected by the earth's decreased magnetic field. This creates a "gap" in reality, allowing for innumerable opportunities for growth. One can experience what occurs on the spiritual world through more synchronicities, mirroring within the inner self what occurs outside - a psychological level we mentioned with the "Dark Night of the Soul". We see this currently with the cosmic alignments of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars with Capricorn - with all the psychological qualities those symbolize.
Even the Christians recognized the unique qualities of such liminal times, such as Walpurgisnacht or the "12 Days of Christmas". Since Walpurgisnacht occurs between the Gregorian Catholic (23rd April) and Julian Orthodox (6th May) days of St. George, the lore between all these days are similar. The myth of St. George is based on European myths about gods or heroes slaying dragons or wyrms, which also convey allegories about going deep within the "labyrinth" of one's psyche to "slay the dragon" that resides within and so facilitate growth. Applying Correspondence and the Four Elements, we recognize that "dragons" as winged serpents mean simultaneously bound to the underworld but also broken the rules of gravity - symbolic of the lower and higher selves. Unable to appreciate allegories, the literalist church turned the folklore about Walpurgisnacht into "demonic" and "superstitious", just as other reductionist, materialistic offshoots also deny a more magical realm. Such it is that the church worked to suppress Germanic folklore, while the East German Communist regime also "frowned on Walpurgisnacht's pagan associations and tried to focus on workers and trade unions on international Labor Day"(Hudson).
Perhaps on no other night are the natural and cosmic laws so present as Walpurgisnacht, such as the Polarity - opposites that are identical in nature but different in degree. Hence the various spectrum of the "darkness" of the Walpurgisnacht and the "light" of 1st May. The three Norns or Fates, where past, present and future fit such a polarity; the dual young maiden and old "hag" imagery of Hel or Perchta, reflecting back to you what is within yourself, also represents this Law of Polarity. The Law of Correspondence occurs because on Walpurgisnacht there is a greater awareness that the material and spiritual realms mirror each other. There are the nine worlds that are linked to each other, and the Wilde Jagd of Holle and Wodan extend across both the physical world of the living and the spiritual realm of the dead. Going beyond "demons" of Abrahamism, we can see the "witches" and their magical qualities (essentially the ability to "create" through one's will) as similar to the nine Muses of Greek mythology, who inspire people to create the arts much like the daimonae. The numbers three and nine are particularly sacred and occur throughout Nature. And such it is that on Walpurgisnacht we may undertake a metaphysical journey unlike no other.
27 April 2020
It is a misty night whose magical qualities inspired many a poet and writer who dared allow themselves to step outside time and space. This night is when a disguised Mephistopheles sought to distract a Faust who had already bargained away his soul, from knowing the fate of his beloved Gretchen. The great poet who transmitted this story, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, on one winter's night in 1777 ascended the snowy heights of the Brocken to both recover from the sorrow of his sister's death and to step outside the mundane constraints of his Weimar society - but descended down newly inspired to create one of the best poetic masterpieces in the German language. This legendary night was immortalized by the great Irish novelist Bram Stoker as one "When the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel." American science-fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft described this night's infernal qualities in "The Dreams in the Witch House", while its esoteric imagery has been meditated upon by occultists.
Walpurgisnacht is the name for this incredible night around which mysteries and legends are constructed. The night of 30th April, leading into the 1st of May celebrated in Spring festivals across Europe. It should be no accident that a night associated with death and the undead comes on the twilight of a great celebration of new life and fertility, for the two are complementary parts of the same cycle. Regions of southern and central Germany have woven unique traditions around the mystical strands of this night. As we have seen with Ostara earlier this month, distinctions between what was imposed by Church authorities and what was carried over from die alten Volkstraditionen of Heathen times are not always apparent but make for an illuminating journey across worlds as we unravel deeper aspects of ourselves.
Also known as Hexennacht, Walpurgisnacht according to folklore is the dark night before May Day when witches from across Germany took flight to see the witch-king in the Harz mountains, from whom they received their orders for the next year and held a large celebration on the Brocken, the highest peak of northern and central Germany. Legends lend credence to the Brocken's peculiar natural features. For around 300 days a year, the mountain is shrouded in fog, which "creates an optical illusion of magnifying the observers' shadow" called the Brocken specter that "provides a natural stage for the supernatural and fantasies about evil"(Hudson). This isolated area for so long formed a "terra incognita" which happened to be one of the last regions of Germany to be converted to the cross. Yet underneath the outer imagery and investments of "evil communions with the devil" are deeper remnants of indigenous Heathen lore transposed upon a Christian holiday.
Who was Walburga? This night was named after the Christian abbess Walburga (710-779CE), a Benedictine nun who proselytized in Franconia. It was no accident she made her center in the Bavarian town of Heidenheim ("heathen home"), for despite oft-repeated claims of Christian apologists, South German regions still held on to our ancestral folk faith well into the 7th and 8th centuries before they were converted to the new religion - and even then only after a long process of syncretism and then absorption by the church. Desiring to break the indigenous cohesion of an area, the church tended to send foreign priests, monks and nuns to convert the local tribes to Christianity. Such it was that the church tended to send proselytizers from newly-converted parts of the British Isles to convert our regions of southern Germania, bending them to the political power of the Merovingians and Carolingians and the spiritual power of Rome.
Thus was Walburga born into an allegedly aristocratic Anglo-Saxon family of saints in Devonshire - her parents were the saints Richard the Pilgrim and Wuna of Wessex. Her uncle was Boniface, who chopped down Donar's Oak of the Chatti in Hessen. Boniface sent for his nephews, the saints Wunnibald and Wilibald, and his niece Walburga to join him in efforts to convert Bayern, Schwaben, Franken, and Hessen. All of this "saintly" family actively burnt down sacred groves and carried out the instructions of Rome to build new Christian sites over the previous sacred sites in order to harness the energy and facilitate conversion. Whether any of these saints were historical figures is debatable, their first mention being long after their lives - but what most concerns us is the idea of their existence being constructed later to support the narrative while revealing pre-Christian patterns.
Walburga's original festival date was that of her death, 25 February (Thomas, 2423). Her relics were kept in her abbey at Heidenheim, including her bones later alleged to exude a "miraculous" therapeutic oil. This could relate to Heidenheim being the site of a sacred healing spring from Heathen times, whose mystique was taken over by her abbey. As with other hagiographies, Walburga's "miracles" were later inventions to solidify the church's power and stamp out lingering Pagan traditions - hers were first mentioned by Wolfhard von Herrieden's Miracula S. Walburgae Manheimensis (895/896). She was canonized by order of Pope Adrian II on 1st May 870 and her bones transferred to Eichstätt. In the 11th century, Anno II, the Archbishop of Köln, declared that "Walpurgisnacht" would be celebrated from sundown on 30th April. The dating is no accident, clearly designed to co-opt indigenous May Day festivals. Since Germanic and Celtic days began with the moon, its likely that significance would be placed on the night before May Day as well.
 |
Illustration of the seeress Veleda from the book
Germania. Zwei Jahrtausende deutschen Lebens
by the Swabian-German historian and literary
critic Johannes Scherr (1817-1886)
|
Etymology holds the secrets. Whether Walburga was an actual historical saint or had a different name, the etymology bearing such a close relation to the "witches" and magical qualities of Walpurgisnacht cannot be a coincidence. "Clairvoyant, wise women played such an important role among the forest peoples that it astonished the Romans. In the Germanic-Celtic settlement area, they were known under the names Wala and Voelva and in southern and central Germany as Walburg and Walburga, which means 'staff bearer' (Germanic waluz = stave, staff; from Indo-European *uel = turn). They carried wands with which they were able to steer things magically"(Storl, 267). Wal- also had the meanings of "chosen" and "corpse", as seen with the Walküren, the Germanic messengers of death who "chose" selected dead warriors off the battlefield to take with them into the otherworld. Death bore a close relation with fertility within our ancient cyclical understanding, so its little wonder the Seeresses who bridged the different "worlds" would unite the elements within their names.
In the 2nd century CE, a Greek inscription on a pottery piece on Elephantine island mentioned a Germanic seeress in service to the Roman governor of Egypt, named Waluburg "Se[m]noni Sibylla" - "Sibyl from the Semnones", a seeress from a Germanic tribe that lived between the rivers Elbe and Oder (Spickermann). The -purgis and -burga elements could relate to burg "homestead" or berg "mountain", both terms conveying images of the hearth and the motherly womb (the mountain and "breast" imagery previously discussed in relation to Zisa). The Rune Berkanan ᛒ also conveys dual meanings of "birch" and "rebirth", so that Walpurgisnacht occurring after Ostara and on the eve of May Day could possibly convey new life springing forth from the darkness that precedes light. The "p" and "b" being interchangeable between Walpurgis and Walburga will further correlate to the goddess Berchta or Perchta as the various folklore surrounding this night parallels those of various Germanic goddesses as we shall see throughout.
Walpurgis may also derive from Gothic walus "staff, wand" and Lombardic Gand-bera "wand-bearer"(Simek, 135, 333). Both these could also relate to the god Wodan, who as the wanderer traversed across the worlds carrying the staff of a traveler or pilgrim as both conveyed esoteric ideas. The lore of the Longobards ascribed their name to the seeress Gambara, who sought the assistance of the goddess Frija (whom the Longobards knew as Frea), the wife and consort of Wodan. Here we see the interchange of "w" or "g", with Frija's qualities often attributed to the goddess of the Wild Hunt, Frau Holle, who was often known as "Gode" the wife of Wodan in some German regions. The distinction not always being clear between the Germanic and Celtic tribes, according to Cassius Dio the seeress Veleda was succeeded by one named Ganna, whose name could possibly relate to Proto-Celtic *geneta "girl"(Matasović, 157). "The Veleda or Weleda goes back to the original Celtic velet or fili, which means 'visionary' or 'poet'"(Storl, 267).
 |
| The most well-known image of Walburga was made by the Master of Meßkirch around 1535 nearly 800 years after her death |
 |
| "Hel" (1889) by the German illustrator Johannes Gehrts (1855-1921). Hel is just one of many Germanic goddesses Walburga is likely modeled upon. |
Representations of Walburga. Just as her "miracles" were later constructions, so too the evolving images of her reveal deep-seated Germanic symbols having nothing to do with her own qualities in life. Her earliest representation was the Hilda Codex published in Köln in the early 11th century, which depicted her holding stylized stalks of grain. This could be the Christianization of an older Pagan concept of the Grain Mother, with peasants fashioning her image into a corn dolly at harvest time and seeing her presence in the grain sheaf (Berger, 61-64). Other images portray Walburga with a three-cornered mirror and a spindle, which correlate to the three Germanic goddesses of Fate, the Norns. Folklore holds that spells sent using the spindle originated with Walburga herself, and lazy farmers would be presented with a straw doll called "Walburga" to shame them into ploughing their land (Rochholz, 40). In the late 19th century, the Bavarian-Swiss folklorist Ernst Ludwig Rochholz gave a lengthy description of her traits which will serve as our reference throughout:
"Nine nights before the first of May is Walburga in flight, unceasingly chased by wild ghosts and seeking a hiding place from village to village. People leave their windows open so she can be safe behind the cross-shaped windowpane struts from her roaring enemies. For this, she lays a little gold piece on the windowsill, and flees further. A farmer who saw her on her flight through the woods described her as a white lady with long flowing hair, a crown upon her head; her shoes were fiery gold, and in her hands she carried a three-cornered mirror that showed all the future, and a spindle, as does Berchta. A troop of white riders exerted themselves to capture her. So also another farmer saw her, whom she begged to hide her in a shock of grain. No sooner was she hidden than the riders rushed by overhead. The next morning the farmer found grains of gold instead of rye in his grain stook. Therefore, the saint is portrayed with a bundle of grain"(Rochholz, 26-27).
The protection of crops was ascribed to her and she was often portrayed with three ears of corn, relating her to a fertility or agricultural goddess. In this way she can correspond to the grain goddess Sibba, the wife of Donar, the Thunderer. Known to the Norse as Sif, her name bears a close relation to Sippe "clan, kindred, extended family" - an allegory for the importance of crops and harvest to the survival of family, clan and tribe. Her relation to Donar, who represents the power of rains and thunder that "fertilizes" the soil and crops, conjure up images of the "Dark Night of the Soul" that must occur before any new growth can arise. This is an inherently Pagan concept even though couched in the terms of Catholic mystics, representing a confrontation of the deepest aspects of the psyche to "cleanse" those parts called The Shadow, and integrate them into a newly-balanced self. Such imagery occurs throughout Walpurgisnacht, whose folklore suggested that after the "evil" of that night would then come the good symbolized by May Day, such as renewed rains and bountiful harvests. This included the bauernregeln (rural sayings) of Walpurgisnacht: "Ist die Hexennacht voller Regen, wird's ein Jahr wohl voller Segen" (If it rains during the witches' night, it will be a year full of blessing). In Tyrol, houses would be fumigated with resinous twigs shaped on the last Thursday of April "at midnight into bundles" to be "kept and burned on May Day"(Frazer, 560) - Thursday corresponding to Donarstag.
With the notable exception of a nun's headscarf as we can expect with a religion derived from the Middle East, Walburga's representations were indigenous down to the most minute details. One of these is the solar disc behind her head, such as she was portrayed by the anonymous artist dubbed the "Master of Meßkirch" around 1535 and 1540. This common motif most often appeared with solar gods in the Greco-Roman world and with Jesus in Christian imagery, but Walburga's portrayal as such might carry over the Germanic and Celtic personification of the sun as a goddess (while the specific power of the sun rays and light was often considered masculine, such as with Balder or Belenus). Walburga's healing oil and her solar disc could both relate to Sirona, a Celtic goddess whose reverence was centered in southern Germany, whose name relates to "stellar, astral" and qualities included healing, cleanliness and fertility.
Other representations showed Walburga with dogs, which can be understood as an allegory for fertility since the ancient "corn-spirit" was "conceived as a wolf or a dog" in many regions of Gaul and Germania (Frazer, 448). She was never associated with dogs within her lifetime, but is in keeping with the animal companions often described alongside Germanic goddesses and as the "witches' familiar", associated with Frau Holle in all her regional variations. "Grey hounds accompany the three Norns. The fertility goddesses Frau Harke, Frau Gode, and Frau Frick (Frigga) have always a house beside them, and Frau Berchte in Steiermark is called the 'poodle-mother' because of her dog"(Rochholz, 20). Fertility comes in with the folklore about feeding a "Windhound" left behind after the Wild Hunt to ensure good weather for the crops (Hodge). This Windhound was connected to fertility, the accumulated "luck" of an individual's life and their ancestors, and with abundance in both the home and fields, such that it was known as Nahrungshund "nourishment-hound" in many regions (Rochholz, 22). On Walpurgisnacht in Thüringen, Frau Holda rides with the Wild Hunt accompanied by dogs (Pearson, 28). Holda was portrayed riding on distaffs with her Hulden, the nocturnal spirits of the women who became her "witches", just as Walburga is often portrayed with a distaff (Hodge).
 |
| Irish images of Brigid preserve ancient Gaelic solar symbols |
 |
| Bealtaine fires containing the Triskele, the most widespread ancient symbol across the Celtic world, a triple-spiral solar symbol also found on the pre-Celtic megaliths like Newgrange. |
Brigid and Bealtaine parallels. Given that Walpurgisnacht comes right on the cusp of the Celtic festival Bealtaine, one has to wonder about parallels between Walburga and Brigid, the Irish goddess who was also turned into a "saint". She too had various fertility and solar symbols, and was honored with "corn crosses" laden with solar symbolism. Just as the Germanic Norns and Irish Morrígna were three-fold, so too were Brigid's "crosses" threefold. German folklore stipulated that woodcutters mark three crosses in the form of a triangle on stumps of felled trees, inside which it was believed the Moosleute "moss folk" or wilde Leute "wild folk" would be safe from the Wild Hunt (Grimm, 929). Brigid was regarded as daughter of the Morrigan and The Dagda, joining in her person allegories of the underworld and sky such as we have seen with the Germanic goddesses behind Walburga, like Frau Holle the matron of the Wild Hunt, and Hel the underworld goddess. The healing and solar connotations of Sirona exist with the protectoress Brigid, whose name derived from a cognate meaning "fiery arrow". Her shamanic connotations can be seen in her "saintly" abilities to find lost people and being associated with sages and poets who have been "inspired". The solar, underworld, and shamanic elements are similarly joined in the South German goddess Berchta, whose name derived from Old High German beraht "the bright one" -> Proto-Germanic *brehtaz, and also related to the Old High German verb Pergan "hidden, covered".
Bealtaine (Scottish Bealltainn, Welsh Calanmai, Manx Boaltinn) was a purification festival that involved two burning columns of fire, between which cattle followed by people would pass as a symbolic "cleansing" from the Winter. Cattle were often sacrificed to Brigid and she was associated with Boann "white cow", just as her name came from the same Indo-European cognate as Sanskrit bhrati "exalted one", an epithet for the Vedic dawn goddess Ushas, who was portrayed riding on a chariot drawn by seven cows. Bealtaine heralded the end of the "cold" season (Gaullish Giamon, Irish gemred, Welsh gaiaf) and beginning of the "hot" season (Gaullish Samon, Irish samrad, Welsh haf) (Sjoestedt, 52-53), so that the night before this seasonal transition was also an auspicious time. Such it was for the Welsh, who called the night (nos) preceding Calanmai as Ysbrydnos "spirit night", when spirits roamed and divination was most effective. There was a mock battle where a men representing Winter and Summer would throw branches and flowers at each other, and after "Summer" inevitably won the May King and Queen would be crowned. This symbolism occurs also with the "darkness" of Walpurgisnacht preceding the "light" of 1st May within Germanic, Norse, and Finnish lore.
This symbolic "new beginning" also appears with the Irish tradition of washing one's face with the morning dew of Bealtaine, for Brigid preserves "beauty" within her path just as Holle does so within the German Walpurgisnacht traditions: "In Hesse, Frau Holle yearly passes over the land, and gives it fruitfulness"(Pearson, 28). At both Ysbrydnos and Walpurgisnacht, the "veil" between the worlds of the living and the dead are at their thinnest - mirroring in the material world what was occurring within the spiritual world, so that the "cleansing" fire was also used to appease or ward off these spirits, as occurred in Germany: "Still today there are places where bonfires are kept burning all night to repel the evil spirits"(Stark, 100). Bealtaine derived from the Common Celtic *Belo-te(p)nia "bright fire", the element *belo- holding some relation to the English bale "white, shining" - fitting the general solar and fire "cleansing" connotations of this time. There was the tradition of balefires as a funerary or ritualistic fire, and it shares the same cognate as Balder, the Germanic "shining" god also associated with "cleansing" sun rays. As Goethe reflects on Die erste Walpurgisnacht: "As the flame is purified by smoke, so purify our faith / And even if they rob us of our ancient ritual / who can take your light from us?"
 |
"Wodans wilde Jagd" (1882) by German-American
painter Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1845-1921)
|
 |
| Illustration of Frau Holda from "Elfenreigen" (1882) by the German folklorist Marie Jeserich Timme (1830-1895) |
The Wild Hunt and Frau Holda. Just as with Walpurgisnacht on the transition point leading into May, one of many ways to understand the Wild Hunt (wilde Jagd) is as the lingering power of Winter trying to prevent Spring from remaining after Ostara. A strange contrast between the joyous, fertility rites of 1st May and the dark, stormy, witchcraft imagery of Walpurgisnacht. "What kind of a pairing is this, of the witches of the Brockenmount with a saint of the church, under one and the same name!", which can only be understood as the "worthy wholeness of a Germanic goddess"(Rochholz, 1). Aware of this but unable to stamp out the lingering Heathen traditions, the church tried to strike fear into any who engaged in the May Day dancing and processions lest they be entrapped in an "everlasting hunter's chase", which is actually a lingering ancestral memory of "Wuotan's march"(Grimm, 1057). The church had special ire against the "Tanz in den Mai" around the Maypole - an obviously phallic symbol - just as it tried to suppress the folklore relating to the mother goddesses, such as the dual role of Wodan and Holle with the Wild Hunt. Coming from the same Germanic root as "to hide, to conceal" (like we saw earlier with Perchta and relates to the "veil" imagery of Walpurgisnacht), the Hulden were those women whose knowledge of folk healing outside the church and feudal authorities was demonized as "devilish". According to the 10th-century Canon Episcopi, the Hulden went "out through closed doors in the silence of the night, leaving their sleeping husbands behind" to attend feasts and "battles in the sky", stipulating that any accused woman be required to do a year's penance (Hodge).
Grimm mentioned many "witch mountains" throughout Germany aside from the Brocken, and identified most if not all as "places where formerly justice was administered [the Things?], or sacrifices were offered. Almost all the witch-mountains were once hills of sacrifice, boundary-hills, or salt-hills"(Grimm, 1051). Many chapels and other sites associated with Walburga in Bayern stand on hills surrounded by linden trees. Linden has beneficial qualities for the heart and thus was associated with Germanic mother goddesses, such that Christians regarded them as "witch's trees" they often cut down and built chapels dedicated to Mary (Storl, 166-167, 183). Keeping in mind that "elves" were allegories for Ancestors within Germanic lore and not the grotesque small creatures they were turned into by the Christians (like the "demonic" imagery of Walpurgisnacht), and that dancing for spiritual purposes was a common shamanic ritual, we read the following from Grimm:
"Down into the tenth and into the 14th centuries, night-women in the service of Dame Holda rove through the air on appointed nights, mounted on beasts; her they obey, to her they sacrifice, and all the while not a word about any league with the Devil. Nay, these night-women, shining mothers, dominae nocturnae, bonnes dames....were originally daemonic elvish beings, who appeared in woman's shape and did men kindnesses; Holda, Abundia, to whom still a third part of the whole world is subject, leads the ring of dancers....It is to such dancing at heathen worship, to the airy elf-dance and the hopping of will-o'-the-wisps, that trace primarily the idea of witches' dances; festive dances at heathen May-meetings can be reckoned in with the rest. To christian zealots all dancing appeared sinful and heathenish, and sure enough it often was derived from pagan rites, like other harmless pleasures and customs of the common people, who would not easily part with their diversion at the great festivals"(Grimm, 1056)
 |
| Two paintings of village Maypole celebrations by the Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564-1636), such as my maternal ancestors in Vlaanderen would have practiced as well. |
As with the distaff associated with Frau Holle, so too was the broom often taken as symbolic of psychic and mental "cleansing" from negative effects of witchcraft (which is inherently neutral, subject to the specific charge placed into its working). "The symbol of the witch was originally the sign of the worshipper, the protection against the anger of the goddess, or of the priestess, her servant"(Pearson, 29). In the Obererzgebirge, crossed brooms were placed over doorways on Walpurgisnacht; in Mecklenburg, cows and stalls were protected by an inverted broom; brooms were burned in Thüringen to frighten witches; and at Saulgaul near Sigmaringen in Bayern, processions to a sacred well were "headed by a man bearing a broom, followed by one with a fork, and between them a third clothed in a sheepskin, and carrying a tree with apples and other eatables (termed the Adam's tree)"(Pearson, 29-30). The English biostatistician Karl Pearson linked these same symbols with Twelfth Night, temporal beginning of the Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht during the Lenten season:
"A scarcely less noteworthy figure is that of Berchta with her plough. She waters the meadows, and on Twelfth Night she goes her round to punish idle spinsters, often in the most brutal manner. In Swabia, on Twelfth Night, a broom is carried in her procession, or she is represented with a broom in one hand and fruit in the other. This list of goddesses might be largely extended did our time permit; but it may serve, as it is, to show that the devil's mother is only a degraded form of a goddess of fertility and domestic activity. She is but one of those goddesses whose symbols are those of agriculture, the pitchfork and the plough, or of domestic usefulness, the broom and the spindle. She is associated with symbols of fertility, the ears of corn, fruit, the swine, and the dog. Her well brings with its water fertility to the land and fruitfulness to women"(Pearson, 28).
Frau Holle and her devotees were turned into "hags" by a church unable to understand that the past, present and future were on the same continuum in our indigenous cyclical worldview, yet even while the authorities portrayed them as dark and deathly, they continued to be associated with life and fertility by the common folk: "in Westphalia, the young men go round with music and song to honour their brides and sweethearts; elsewhere they plant May-trees before their sweethearts' doors; witches and wilde Frauen - that is, the hags or women of the woods - come in Swabia to weddings and to births. What is this but a relic of the day when the priestess of the goddess of fertility came to marriages and births as of right?...In Swabia, and in the Pfalz also, the midwife, according to the legends, is often a witch who baptizes the children in the devil's name, or again she lends women the Drutenstein or trud's stone to protect their babes against witches; it is the hag or woman of the woods who knows and collects the herbs which relieve the labours of birth. Here we have the priestess of the old civilisation as medicine woman and midwife relieving human suffering"(Pearson, 32).
Goethe and Walpurgisnacht. The best word to describe Goethe's religion was pantheistic, but he looked upon the ancient German Heathen past with admiration, especially vis-a-vis their Christian persecutors. Concerning his poem "Die erste Walpurgisnacht" (1799), he wrote a letter to his composer friend, Carl Friedrich Zelter: "A historian would have tried tracing back the origins of the ancient German belief in the devil's or witches' sabbath on the mountain Brocken, Harz. He found that the old pagan priests, after being driven out of their sacred groves, and after Christianity was made mandatory for the people, gathered with their true remaining followers in the hard accessible Harz mountains to celebrate the arrival of spring the old way. In order to protect themselves from armed, but superstitious Christian prosecutors they would have covered up their faces with devil's masks, to safely and unrecognized finished their 'pure' worship."
He portrayed "Druids and local Heathens" continuing to celebrate Walpurgisnacht as an act of defiance, reverse-inverting the Christian inversion of the old ways as "demonic", by playing upon the latter's fear and donning "devil" masks to both ward them off and mock their ignorance. To people accustomed to thinking of the Druids as Celtic, it is certain that the continental Germans had similar priestly, divination classes although their name is not as well known. Such scholars as the Irish antiquarian and historian Edward Ledwich and the Flemish-French folklorist Louis de Baecker even proposed that many Germanic tribes did have Druids - some credence is lent by the fact that in many regions the distinctions between Germanic and Celtic was not always clear (note the parallels between Bealtaine and Walpurigsnacht). In any case, Goethe conjured up supernatural images of "bewitched bodies (that) glow with flames through and through", while his poem tapped into actual Germanic lore even if unaware.
Under the banner of "Es Lacht der Mai" (May is in full bloom), the Druid welcomes the spring with what appears to be a libation: "Erschallen Lustgesänge / Ein reiner Schnee / Liegt auf der Höh" (Across the verdant mead, upon the height, the snow lies light). Later, under the phrase "Wer opfer heut zu bringen scheut" (Whoever fears to sacrifice), I interpret Goethe as referring to those who "feared" sacrifice both because they consider it "demonic", and also because of their own ignorance about what sacrifice actually meant to the ancients. His Druid utters these powerful words: "Wer opfer heut / zu bringen scheut / Verdient erst seine Bande" (Who fears today / His rites to pay / Deserves his chains to wear). Overall Goethe excellently encapsulates the ancient faith surviving through the folk traditions of the common people who stubbornly held on to them, despite the obstinate efforts of church and political authorities to eradicate them.
 |
| Illustrations from "Lenore" (1773), a poem by the German-Prussian poet Gottfried August Bürger. Takes place on Walpurgisnacht and most known for the saying: "Die Todten Reiten Schnell" (The Dead Travel Fast). |
Esoteric connotations. As we discussed throughout, myths and folklore are laden with many layers of meanings beneath just the surface levels. The ancients spoke through the language of allegories, so that special attention should be given to the esoteric connotations of Walpurgisnacht. One contemporary thinker who has spoken on this subject is the Irish writer and artist Thomas Sheridan, who relates Walpurgisnacht to a lesson from the Vedic tradition - stemming from the same distant Indo-European roots as Germanic mythology. In the Bhagavad-Gita, the god Krishna appears on his chariot to the despondent Arjuna following the battle of Kurukshetra. Within the dialogue Krishna assures him that what was happening that day on the battlefield, was a product of what was simultaneously occurring in the spirit world. The underlying lesson here is that all realms are reflections of each other, governed by the same cosmic or natural laws, and that events within one realm mirror those in another.
Infernal and mysterious aspects are most associated with Walpurgisnacht because it occurs at a liminal time, when the "veils" or barriers between different worlds are at their "thinnest", opening a "portal" through which more overlap occurs between the material and spiritual realms. Significance is especially given to the hours after midnight, corresponding to the so-called "Witching Hour" when one is at the farthest from the sun and thus no longer affected by the earth's decreased magnetic field. This creates a "gap" in reality, allowing for innumerable opportunities for growth. One can experience what occurs on the spiritual world through more synchronicities, mirroring within the inner self what occurs outside - a psychological level we mentioned with the "Dark Night of the Soul". We see this currently with the cosmic alignments of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars with Capricorn - with all the psychological qualities those symbolize.
Even the Christians recognized the unique qualities of such liminal times, such as Walpurgisnacht or the "12 Days of Christmas". Since Walpurgisnacht occurs between the Gregorian Catholic (23rd April) and Julian Orthodox (6th May) days of St. George, the lore between all these days are similar. The myth of St. George is based on European myths about gods or heroes slaying dragons or wyrms, which also convey allegories about going deep within the "labyrinth" of one's psyche to "slay the dragon" that resides within and so facilitate growth. Applying Correspondence and the Four Elements, we recognize that "dragons" as winged serpents mean simultaneously bound to the underworld but also broken the rules of gravity - symbolic of the lower and higher selves. Unable to appreciate allegories, the literalist church turned the folklore about Walpurgisnacht into "demonic" and "superstitious", just as other reductionist, materialistic offshoots also deny a more magical realm. Such it is that the church worked to suppress Germanic folklore, while the East German Communist regime also "frowned on Walpurgisnacht's pagan associations and tried to focus on workers and trade unions on international Labor Day"(Hudson).
Perhaps on no other night are the natural and cosmic laws so present as Walpurgisnacht, such as the Polarity - opposites that are identical in nature but different in degree. Hence the various spectrum of the "darkness" of the Walpurgisnacht and the "light" of 1st May. The three Norns or Fates, where past, present and future fit such a polarity; the dual young maiden and old "hag" imagery of Hel or Perchta, reflecting back to you what is within yourself, also represents this Law of Polarity. The Law of Correspondence occurs because on Walpurgisnacht there is a greater awareness that the material and spiritual realms mirror each other. There are the nine worlds that are linked to each other, and the Wilde Jagd of Holle and Wodan extend across both the physical world of the living and the spiritual realm of the dead. Going beyond "demons" of Abrahamism, we can see the "witches" and their magical qualities (essentially the ability to "create" through one's will) as similar to the nine Muses of Greek mythology, who inspire people to create the arts much like the daimonae. The numbers three and nine are particularly sacred and occur throughout Nature. And such it is that on Walpurgisnacht we may undertake a metaphysical journey unlike no other.
 |
"Walpurgisnacht" (1866) by the painter August Albert
Zimmermann (1808-1888), showing Goethe's Faust
|
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berger, Pamela. The Goddess Obscured: Transformation of the Grain Protectoress from Goddess to Saint. Boston: Beacon Press, 1985.
Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough. London: Macmillan and Co., 1922.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust, Part 1. New York: New Directions Books, 1949.
Grimm, Jacob. Teutonic Mythology. Vol. III. London: George Bell and Sons, 1883.
Hodge, Winifred. "Waelburga and the Rites of May." <http://www.friggasweb.org/walburga.html>.
Hudson, Alexandra. "Walpurga, Faust, Satan vie for souls on German mountain." Reuters, May 1, 2014. <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-devil-walpurgis/walpurga-faust-satan-vie-for-souls-on-german-mountain-idUSKBN0DH2S620140501>.
Matasović, Ranko. Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2009.
Pearson, Karl. The Chances of Death, and Other Studies in Evolution: Woman as.... Vol. II. London/New York: Edward Arnold, 1897.
Rochholz, Ernst Ludwig. Drei Gaugöttinen: Walburg, Verena und Gertrud, als deutsche Kirchenheilige. Sittenbilder aus germanischen Frauenleben. Leipzig: Verlag von Friedrich Fischer, 1870.
Simek, Rudolf. A Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2007.
Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise. Celtic Gods and Heroes. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000.
Spickermann, Wolfgang. "Waluburg." Brill's New Pauly. <http://www.encquran.brill.nl/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/waluburg-e12208850>.
Stark, Lucien. Brahms's Vocal Duets and Quartets with Piano. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998.
Steffen H. "Occult Art: The First Walpurgis Night." April 29, 2018.<https://www.theoldcraft.com/2018/04/29/occult-art-the-first-walpurgis-night-cantata-by-felix-mendelssohn-bartholdy-after-a-poem-by-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/>.
Stoker, Bram. "Dracula's Guest." Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories. London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1914.
Storl, Wolf Dieter. The Untold History of Healing: Plant Lore and Medicinal Magic from the Stone Age to Present. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2017.
Thomas, Joseph, ed. "Walpurga." Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1892.
Comments
Post a Comment