15 December 2025
No session held
17 November 2025 – Rites and Rituals at Home – Childhood Ailments
In this session we continued our exploration of everyday life with some aspects of folk medicine, as related to childhood ailments in particular.
We discussed the use of peony seeds & roots to help teething babies and suggested that the belief in the healing powers of peony (and bryony) might have been transferred from mandrake, as the roots of all three look very similar. From ancient times, mandrake has been regarded as a magical plant, with powers of healing and fertility. We also looked at red coral, which was believed to be a protective against evil influences and a remedy against any illness caused by witches' spells or other ill-wishing.
We then moved on consider an assortment of folk remedies based on
- drawing on the power of the Christian church,
- drawing on the power of "magic" or the supernatural by way of special people
- contact with the dead (possibly an original idea of drawing on the power of the Otherworld by way of the dead person?)
We finished the session with some speculation as to the possible origins of a selection of folk cures from the decidedly bizarre end of the spectrum.
20 October 2025 – Rites and Rituals at Home – Childhood Ailments
In this session we continued our exploration of everyday life with some aspects of folk medicine, as related to childhood ailments in particular.
We started with a summary of what was on offer to people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the way of medical treatment.
- Of the regularly qualified medical men, consultant physicians and surgeons charged the highest fees. The Apothecaries were cheaper and dispensed medicines as well as giving diagnoses and advice.
- From the 1820s onwards, General Practitioners were also one the scene and they would turn their hands to most things, including delivering babies.
- Chemists and druggists gave advice and dispensed medicines: herbalists offered herbal remedies: patent medicine salesmen offered "miracle cures " for all ailments.
Standard herbal medicines were generally safer and more gentle, but all the available treatments also included some fierce stuff (mercury compounds, antimony, strychnine, arsenic etc). A fair proportion of the less extreme treatments worked, but others did not.
In the general context of what was available, possibly the folk cures may not sound quite so bizarre.
The rationale behind most of the folk cures seemed to rest on trying to draw on power from either the Christian church or earlier pagan sources. The use of wedding rings, communion wine, church plates, prayers and charms directed towards the Christian saints would seem to be attempts to make use of the power of the church to effect a cure. Charms directed towards the pagan gods or the new moon, sympathetic magic or "like cures like", specific rituals that feature widely in the folklore, would seem to be directed towards older pagan sources and powers.
15 September 2025 – Rites and Rituals at Home
No session held
18 August 2025 – Rites and Rituals at Home – Young Children
The session carried on from where we left off last time with folklore associated with everyday life and the care and protection of young children.
21 July 2025 – Rites and Rituals at Home – Pregnancy and Childbirth
Carrying on with the folklore associated with everyday life and the extent to which the Christian church influenced the folklore tradition.
The process of pregnancy and childbirth was surrounded by a wealth of folklore customs and traditions that were designed to protect the woman and her unborn baby from Otherworld forces and evil spirits. The Church had little influence on these traditions.
The business of childbirth was traditionally regarded as women's work and it was the local midwife who kept the knowledge of what needed to be done to safeguard the mother and her new baby against ill-intentioned Otherworld forces. The new baby's character and future life could also be predicted by means of traditional beliefs (e.g. the time and day of the week of the baby's birth, the baby's physical characteristics - long fingers, dimples, large ears, heavy eyebrows etc). The folklore tradition also covered what needed to be done to protect the new baby in the first few weeks of her or his life.
Where the church did have a major influence was in the addition of the Christian rite of baptism to these folklore customs, as a powerful means of protecting the baby against evil. The customs and traditions associated with baptism and the naming of the child reflect a mixture of both folklore and church teaching, as Christian beliefs were added to the older traditions.
16 June 2025 – Rites and Rituals at Home – Pregnancy and Childbirth
Folklore 16th June 2025
We made a start on the folk customs and traditions associated with everyday life- birth, marriage, death and everything in between. We asked the question, to what extent did the Church influence or incorporate these traditional customs when Christianity first appeared in Britain and the impact on folklore.
In June we discussed folklore linked to pregnancy, childbirth and early life.
19 May 2025 – Christian Pilgrimage
In the session we looked at possible examples of pilgrimage from pre-Christian times. Where sites were already functioning as pagan sites and were absorbed into the Christian church.
1/. Glastonbury
Glastonbury was a site of early Christian communities which grew to a sizeable Benedictine monastic community through to the 1539 dissolution of the monasteries.
We considered possible links with a pagan past. There are a number of legends and stories, some are noted here.
i/. The Chalice well - the water is red and reputed to have healing properties.
ii/. The Holy Thorn - suggests a folk memory of pagan tree worship
iii/. The Tor – has a legend that it has an entrance to the Celtic other world.
It was an important site before the Christian community was formed. Archaeology shows remains of iron age villages with trackways made up of interwoven branches.
There have been suggestions that there are ceremonial terraces around the Tor and legends linking it to King Arthur and the kidnapping of Guinevere.
It seems plausible that such a striking feature would be used for ceremonial purposes but there wasn’t a great deal of evidence.
2/. St Michael’s Mount
In Christian traditions St Michael was associated with hilltops and high places.
St Michael’s mount is a tidal island connected by a causeway. It has a long Christian history and became one of the West Country’s most popular shrines. The priory had a papal indulgence, several relics including the jawbone of St Apolonia , a piece of the True Cross, and the spurs and sword that belonged to the saintly King Henry VI.
There was an iron age settlement and port located there, and we speculated that there was pagan activity there due to its distinctive appearance and being a tidal island. One story is that St Michael chased away a pagan dragon.
3/. Croagh Patrick- Ireland
Croagh Patrick, St Patrick’s Holy Mountain, in County Mayo was originally an active pagan site. According to legend St Patrick killed the White Goddess whilst she was in the form of the Caoranach. At Lough Dearg, another of the white goddess’s sacred sites, Christian Pilgrimage developed which had an intermingling of Christian and pagan traditions. A pilgrim at Station Island would visit some offshore rocks which were known as the ‘bones of the Caoranach’ at sunrise, noon and sunset. The bones of the goddess were included in the Christian rituals where they walked around the ‘bones’ whilst saying their prayers.
4/. Croghan Hill – County Offaly – Ireland
In pre-Christian times each year a young man would be sent to see the beautiful goddess. This is a possible cycle of the season. Christians linked it with St Brigid. A sacred special place.
5/. Canterbury
Thomas a Becket was appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 1162 by King Henry II. There was a struggle between the Church and the crown which led to the murder of Becket in 1170. Becket was canonised in 1173. His shrine attracted huge numbers of pilgrims from all over.
There is no evidence for Canterbury as an early pagan site, but legend grew following his death. He was of humble origins, but these legends gave him pagan hero characteristics. One gave him an unusual parentage; it tells that his father met and married a Saracen princess.
6/. Conclusion
Some of the linkage is plausible, some of it is clear and some of it of it has taken on the style of pagan storytelling post the arrival of Christianity.
15 April 2025 – Pilgrims and Pilgrimage
Easter Monday no session held
18 March 2025 – Christian Pilgrimage
In the session we continued looking at Christian Pilgrimage.
1/. Christian Pilgrimage
This reached its peak by the late 13th century.
We discussed why the sites were so important
- Pilgrimage sites were very competitive with each other and needed relics to attract visitors.
- Anxious to get people in for religious reason
- Clergy anxious to boost the status of their community and saint. Brought political power and influence
- Brought in money and gifts
- Monks and the townspeople felt great devotion to their community and their saint and relicts.
Customs and dress evolved. A mass and blessing would be held for a Pilgrim. They may have a letter from the priest or lord of the manor giving them permission to go. They were mostly men from a variety of ranks and occupations.
The clothes would help make a pilgrim recognisable as pilgrim if they needed help.
They wore a long coarse woollen robe in brown/rust, a cross sewn on the sleeve, a large hat, lanyard/belt, a large knife, flask, rosary, bag/wallet food and clothes, ointment for their feet and a large staff.
If you could not go you could pay a proxy to go for you if you were ill or old.
There were professional pilgrims called Palmers who travelled perpetually living on alms/handouts.
In summer a pilgrim would sleep outdoors or in barns/outbuilding but there were inns and hospices to.
Why did they do it?
- For the spiritual experiences
- The journey and the effort were part of it
- An affirmation of faith
- To gain spiritual grace
- To gain credit against purgatory time
- Imposed by a priest for sins committed
- For a cure
- Adventure and curiosity
- A way to travel at a time where people were not allowed.
- People on the run
- Be a Palmer and have a ‘living’ from it.
The pilgrimage sites became ranked in importance. The Holy Land was the highest followed by Rome. Indulgences granted by the Pope could be bought. By the end of 13th Century it was all carefully worked out, things had different values depending on which site was involved and could be bought and sold.
2/. Pre Christian Pilgrimages
Many of the pilgrimage sites predated the Christian era.
We discussed examples which were located in the Greek worlds, Roman World, Celtic etc. Some listed below.
- The Temple of Apollo in Delphi
- Sacred caves on Mount Ida in Crete, where Zeus was said to be raised.
- Fontes Sequanae dedicated to Sequana goddess of the River Seine
- Aqua Sulis at Bath
These also had customs and practices.
17 February 2025 – Pilgrims and Pilgrimage
No Session held
20 January 2025 – Pilgrims and Pilgrimage
No session held