Posted by Israeli guy on September 08, 2001 at 13:27:43:
(ff buried alive, hanging, incest, pagan rituals, peace, love, and understanding :)
"I knew that I hung
in the windy tree
for nine full nights.
Wounded by the spear
consecrated to Odin
an offering to myself
on the tree
whose roots are unknown"
(Songs from the Havamal, c.900-1050)
" 'Strange pagan rites were at the bottom of certain forms of execution', writes Carl Ridel of thirteenth-century custom ... 'and hanging (associated i.g.) with the wind-god' ... In Nordic countries hanging may even have originated as a sacrifice to Odin, Wagner's Wotan, who sacrificed himself on the World Ash in order to gain wisdom"
from the book : "Death comes to the maiden"
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"God sometimes you just don't come through
Do you need a woman to look after you ?
...
A few witches burning, gets a little toasty here
I gotta find why you always go when the wind blows"
"God", Tori Amos
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"Daddy ?"
The temple of the crimson monster was trembling in a way it never did before. The steam coming out of the monster's face made it hard for Rache to see. The only thing trembling more than the temple was Rache's heart. She stood there legs planted in the ground, looking strait into the head of the monster, making herself be brave enough not to run away. She had to stay. She is the daughter of the priest and of his wife, that died long ago (and her father won't tell her how).
Rache's tears were now getting colder, as the steam from the monster's head stopped. No need to cry for her father again. She didn't expect him anyway. He had the annoying habit to fail her every time she really needed him, and her cry was more a way to keep calm in front of the raging god, than a plea for help. She was becoming a woman, she needed and wanted to do things without outside help. Still, she felt abandoned. Is it his fault ? Isn't it true that having no mother guarantees such feelings ? How could she tell ? Feeling abandoned made her heart sink into the darkness again.
"Mother ?"
No she wasn't there. She never was. Rache loved her for giving her life, hated her for abandoning her, hated her for making her take her role in the life of her father, having to look after him instead of her, for the constant need to become her, and hated herself for hating her mother. She gave a scream heard for miles around and ran into the monster's head ramming her head into it once and again, hitting it over and over. She wanted to die. She wanted the god to take her or to let her become her mother and have peace with herself. Totally crazed she hit the god again, blood coming from her forehead, screaming like a wounded animal. Harder, harder, and then she fell on the floor un-conscience.
Waking up in her bed, she saw her father smile at her. Did she become her mother ? She at least felt like it.
"The crimson monster is very satisfied with you, my little girl", said her father. It was decided that from now on you will be the keeper of his temple. It was your mother's role when she was alive. This means you will also be in charge of the cave of Odin, and throw the ashes when the wind starts to blow. I'm so proud of you.", He gave her a kiss on her wounded head.
She didn't let him go. She pulled him into her and said : "Then it is true, I asked the monster to make me into my mother, and this means you will be my husband, you must do it, its the will of our gods." She felt him shake in horror for a minute, and didn't know why, and then he got a hold on himself. She lifted her dress showing her legs, her sex, and at last her breasts. She took his hand and put it on her breast. Her father sighed and allowed himself to be pulled onto her. It was the first time they made love.
The next day their marriage was arranged in a haste. It was very rare for a mother to marry her son, or for a father to marry his daughter, in fact it was generally forbidden, but in cases where the gods demanded it, it was to be. After her father explained that Rache became her mother, it was needed to get her and her father married as soon as possible. In these cases, one of the virgins in the village would be sacrificed. The virgin had to be pure : without any handicaps, missing organs, scars or skin wounds. The proper girl was selected by fate. All relevant girls must sit in a circle, and the priestess of fate, eyes closed, drugged and disoriented, standing in the middle of the circle, go round and round with a stick in her hand. After twirling around herself for many times while calling on fate, she suddenly stops, and the girl pointed out by her stick is the sacrifice.
The sacrifice is buried alive next to a tree. The symbolics of it is that the earth is considered to be the mother, and the virgin is the seed returning into the mother like the sperm of the son will go inside his mother, but they used the same ritual for fathers and daughters too. The girl had to be a virgin and buried alive because like the seed of the son, it is improperly planted : The burial of the virgin while still alive, when she could still live for a long time and have children is like the sperm planted in the wrong woman.
After the ritual was held in the morning, the selected girl was taken next to the big tree. Rache and her father was there, and a hole in the ground, a fresh grave, at their feet. Knowing what she should do, the girl went smiling to them, kissing and hugging them, wishing them a good marriage and many children, then went into her grave, relaxing in it and closing her eyes. Rache and her father covered her with dirt, while the people of the village chanted the relevant song. After the burial, they stood next to each other, while he conducts the ceremony, being the priest. Rache, who was originally alarmed by her own determination to marry her father felt better about it knowing the proper sacrifice was made. There was no way for them to avoid its reality. They were standing on the dying virgin, and the earth under them was moving while she gave her last spasms.
The next day her father showed her the cave of Odin. She will now be in charge of it. It only had some drawings on the wall, a big jar full of ashes, and another thing. Her father never told her of it, but she knew he was hiding something. The cave was very cold, and there was a smell of rotting flesh, but one that only a sensitive nose like hers could feel, yet no explanation of it from her father. The rituals involved were simple. When Odin was mad she had to take the ashes and throw them at the wind, day by day until it stops. The ashes were ashes of the last woman sacrificed to Odin. If he wasn't satisfied until all ashes were gone, a new woman, one that already had at least one child, will be chosen by fate, and sacrificed.
The wind was blowing. Rache was pregnant by now. It was the first time she came back to the cave since the day after her marriage. Only now she took the time to watch the drawings on the cave wall carefully. The first depicted a body hanging from a tree, swaying in the strong wind. The second showed the same body being burned, but it wasn't swinging. It was on a hook instead of in a noose, and the head was gone. The head was fitted on a pole next to the burning body. Rache swallowed, she felt that the body was herself, took the ashes, and did her job.
The wind kept blowing. Rache's father knew that soon his daughter will know the secret of the cave. He took her to the cave and showed her the hidden place. He moved the big rock at the end of the cave, and in this cold chamber Rache could see about a dozen heads of usually young women fixed on poles. This was not a big shock after examining the drawings, but she suddenly gasped at the sight of the closest head. It was the "woman in the river", that's how they used to refer to their own face, because the only times they saw their faces was when they saw their reflections in the river. She realized in a minute that this was her mother, and knew how she died. Her father knew she was smart enough to understand it. They didn't say a word, and went away.
The wind kept blowing. It was hungry for something. Rache could feel it. It was now a full moon since it started blowing, and it was only getting stronger. Rache knew that soon a woman will be sacrificed to Odin as the ashes were coming to an end. She informed the priestess of fate she should select the sacrifice because in two more days, if the wind keeps blowing, the tribe will need it. The priestess smiled an ironic smile, and said that tomorrow she will pick the sacrifice, and that Rache should come to the circle too. "But I still didn't give birth to my first child", Rache said. "When ashes take long to appease Odin, pregnant women also sit in the circle, and I have a feeling that this is no chance". Rache trembled inside.
The wind kept blowing. The noose was dangling from the branch. Rache's father held her in his arms crying. It was so cruel, losing his wife for the second time for Odin, now she was also his daughter, and also now being the priest he will do the honors. Usually the ashes suffice for several generations, but for such a long time now the wind was blowing, swallowing the ashes of his dead wife, claiming the other. They kissed and made love for the last time. When they finished they heard the chanting and Rache knew it was time. They put their clothes on, and she went with her father to the noose. Going through the same path of her mother, she walked slowly and shared her fate. She couldn't look at her father; she was fixated on the noose that dangled in the strong wind, knowing she will soon dangle in it in the same wind. Paradoxically, the more Rache was closer to the noose, the more calm she was. It was like coming home. Like going where she was made to go. Her shoulders felt the noose on them and as her father pulled her it tightened, and then she went up, dangling choked in the strong wind. She just closed her eyes and lowered her head, body all limp when the noose tightened, as if already dead, and kept like that when in the air. The best sacrifices are the ones that totally submit to the wind. Her father told her that she was a good girl in a sad voice while she hanged limp but still alive in her noose, and she felt more and more at home, more and more at peace, the only thing that seemed to fight in her was her unborn child, and when she died she knew her wish came true. Granted by the beast. She truly became her mother.
Her body stayed there for nine nights. It was a must that the sacrifice will stay hanged until the wind stops. Her body stayed in good shape because it was a Nordic winter, and a very cold one.
Then the wind finally stopped, and the routine took place. Her body turned to ashes, while her head watched from the pole, then her head was put next to her mother's head in the cave, and her ashes placed in the jar replacing her mother's ashes.
Israeli guy.