Linguistics: Viking Loan Words

From Science Daily: Viking Legacy On English: What Language Tells Us About Immigration And Integration (Apr. 22, 2009) — They’re a firm part of our language and even speak to us of our national culture — but some words aren’t quite as English as we think. Terms such as ‘law’, ‘ugly’, ‘want’ and ‘take’ are all loanwords from Old Norse, brought to these shores by the Vikings, whose attacks on England started in AD 793. In the centuries following it wasn’t just warfare and trade that the invaders gave England. Their settlement and subsequent assimilation into the country’s culture brought along the introduction of something much more permanent than the silk, spices and furs that weighed down their longboats — words. Dr. Sara Pons-Sanz in the School of English is examining these Scandinavian loanwords as part of a British Academy-funded research project — from terms that moved from Old Norse to Old English and disappeared without trace, to the words that still trip off our tongues on a daily basis. By examining these words in context, tracking when and where they appear in surviving texts from the Old English period, Dr. Pons-Sanz can research the socio-linguistic relationship between the invading and invaded cultures. The loanwords which appear in English — such as ‘husband’ — suggest that the invaders quickly integrated with their new culture. The English language soon adopted day-to-day terms, suggesting that the cultures lived side-by-side and were soon on intimate terms. This is in marked contrast to French loanwords. Though there are many more of these terms present in the standard English language — around 1,000 Scandinavian to more than 10,000 French — they tend to refer to high culture, law, government and hunting. French continued to be the language of the Royal Court for centuries after the invasion in 1066. In contrast, Old Norse had probably completely died out in England by the 12th century, indicating total cultural assimilation by the Scandinavian invaders. Another clear indicator of this is the type of loanwords seen in English. The majority of loanwords tend to nouns, words and adjectives, open-ended categories which are easily adapted into a language. But one of the most commonly-seen loanwords in English today is ‘they’ — a pronoun with its origins in Old Norse. Pronouns are a closed category, far more difficult to adapt into a new language, which again indicates a closeness between the two languages and cultures not present in previous or subsequent invading forces. Dr. Pons-Sanz has ‘cleaned up’ the list of loanwords thought to have come to English from Old Norse by painstakingly tracking the origins of each word. Her original texts include legal codes, homilies, charters, literary texts and inscriptions. By comparing the texts chronologically and dialectally, the introduction and integration of words can be tracked. For example, the word ‘fellow’ — which came from an Old Norse word originally meaning ‘business partner’— is first attested in East Anglia. Dr. Pons-Sanz said: “Language is constantly evolving; loanwords are being assimilated into English — and other languages — all the time. By examining the types of words that are adopted, we can gain insight into the relationships between different cultures.” Adapted from materials provided by University of Nottingham.

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What about that Old Norse loan word 'husband?' Here's some interesting information from Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets: "One bonded to the house (hus)" - a steward or majordomo chosen to tend a woman's property, under the old Saxon matriarchate when property rights were matrilineal. A husband was not considered an integral part of the maternal clan but remained a "stranger" in the house, as in early Greece where the men's god Zeus was "god of strangers."(1) Pre-Islamic Arabian husbands didn't even have names in the matrilineal clan until they begot children; then a man could call himself abu, "father of ..." So-and-so. This part of an Arab's name is still considered the most important part.(2) In southeast India, a husband was regarded as a more or less permanent guest int he wife's home, constrained to remain on his good behavior according to the rules governing guests. In archaic Japan, husbands were not residents in the wife's home at all, but only visitiors. The old word for "marriage' meant "to slip into the house by night."(3) Patrilocal marriage was unknown in Japan until 14000 A.D.(4) The position of a husband in the ancient world was often temporary, subject to summary divorce. An Arabian wife could dismiss her husband by turning her tent to face the west for three nights in succession.(5) After the introduction of Islamic patriarchy, the system was reversed in favor of men. A husband could turn his wife out of her home simply by saying "I divorce thee" three times. [What Isis calls "The old switcheroo."] Early Latin tribes followed the same rules as Arabians; a woman could divorce her husband by shutting hm out of her house for three consecutive nights.(6) Even in imperial times, a Roman wife could maintain her own property free of husbandly claims by passing three nights of eahc year away form his residence.(7) Ancient Egypt had several varieties of marriage existing side by side. Some, probably the oldest, were governed by premarital agreements that spelled out the wife's property rights and the husband's comparative powerlessness under the law. For example: I bow before thy rights as a wife. From this day on, I shall never oppose thy claims with a single word. I recognize thee before all others as my wife, though I do not have the right to say thought must be my wife. Only I am thy husband and mate. Thou alone hast the right of departure. From this day on that I have become thy husband, I cannot oppose thy wish, wherever thou desirest to go ... I have no power to interfere in any of thy transactions. I hereby cede to thee any rights deeded to me in any document that has been made out in my favor. Thou keepest me obligated to recognize all these cessions.(8) Egyptian priests advised husbands to remain in their wives' good graces, much as Christian priests later advised wives to make themselves subservient to husbands: Keep thy house, love thy wife, and do not dispute with her. She will withdraw herself before violence. Feed her, adorn her, massage her. Caress her and make her heart to rejoice as long as thou livest ... Attend to that which is her desire and to that which occupies her mind. For in such manner thou persuadest her to remain with thee. If thou opposest her, it will be thy ruin.(9) An Egyptian husband was counseled to make glad his wife's heart "during the time that thou hast," which might have meant a lifetime on earth, or else a shorter period implying a temporary marriage.(10) In the matrilocal household, husands often entered a period of trial servitude to win their brides, as did the biblical Jacob to win the hand of Rachel (Genesis 29). Hence Sophocle's remark that "Egyptian men sit indoors all day long, weaving; the women go out and attend to business."(11)[See also my comments appended to Note 8]. Similarly among Anglo-Saxon tribes, "husbandry" meant farm work - as it still does - because a husband wa usually bonded to work on his wife's land. Such an agricultural matriarchate is still found in some areas. Among the Zuni, husbands worked in the fields, but the land and its harvest belonged to their wives.(12) The old custom of providing work in compensation for marriage gave rise to the word bridegroom, literally "the bride's servant." The Koran tells mean, "your wives are your tillage," because by ancient Arabian law a wifeless man was also landless.(13) See Matrilineal Inheritance. Tantric sages considered "husbandship" (bhavanan) essential for still another reason: it was indispensible to a man's spiritual development. The same notion was found among Aryan Celts. The ancient Irish said a true bard could have power over poetry and magic only if he had "purity of husbandship," that is, fidelity to his wife.(14) Notes: (1) J.E. Harrison, 519. (2) Briffault 2, 90-91. (3) Hartley, 147, 159. (4) Briffault 1, 369. (5) de Riencourt, 187. (6) Briffault 2, 348. (7) Hartley, 232. (8) Diner, 212. [Cf. this famous passage from the admittedly patriarchal Hebrew Old Testament, King James Version which, in light of the above information, appears to be a prayer to Goddess for a merciful wife: Proverbs 31:10: Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. (11) The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. (12) She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. (13) She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with herhands. (14) She is like the merchants' ships, she bringeth her food from afar. (15) She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. (16) She considereth a field, and buyeth it [because it's her money, and she does what she wants with it]; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. (17) She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengthenth her arms [I find it surprising that this archaic description of a strong, independent female survived to be incorporated into the Book, in terms which were, after the patriarchal overthrow of the Goddess, generally reserved for males.] (18) She perceiveth that her merchandise is good; her candle goeth not out at night. (19) She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. (20) She stretcheth out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. (21) She is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet [that is, the best and finest and warmest wool clothing, dyed scarlet, the most expensive of dyes because of the difficulty in manufacturing the color. That is why it was reserved for royalty. In later times it was called "purple" and was the color of monarchs.] (22) She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. (23) Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. [In other words, he doesn't do anything all day but sit around with the other husband dudes at the gates of the city, making idle commentary on the merchants passing in and out, probably drinking too much, gambling with sheeps' knuckles and perhaps chasing after prostitutes.] (24) She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. (25) Strength and honour are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come. (26) She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. (27) She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. (28)Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. [He's just hoping he doesn't get divorced for sitting around at the gates of the city with the other dudes all day, drinking, gambling and chasing after unvirtuous women.] (9) Diner, 218; Budge, D.N., 26. (10) Hartley, 196. Cf. the Scottish custom of "hand-fast" and the contemporary custom in some Islamic societies of trial marriage or "Mu' tah" or "Mutah," a subject on which I previously posted. Hmmm - it just occurred to me - is "Mu' tah" somehow related to the ancient rites of the Mother Goddess Mu or Ma, Mah, Maat, etc.? (11) Bachofen, 180. (12) Farh, M.R.C., 81-83. (13) Fielding, 83. (14) Joyce, I., 463.

Further Explorations of the Word MA

From Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets: Tiamat Sumero-Babylonian "Goddess Mother" (Dia Mater), from whose formless body the universe was born at creation; personification of The Deep, or Tohu Bohu. Babylonians later claimed their municipal god Marduk, Tiamat's son, divided her into heavens above and earth below, as did Marduk's imitator, the biblical God. But the original division was made by the Mother herself, as in the ancient Pelasgian myth of her Aegean counterpart, Eurynome.(1) In derivative Hebrew myths, Tiamat became Tehom, The Deep; and this is how she appears in the Bible (Genesis 1:2). [Gen. 1:2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. -- King James Version. And from the Living Bible, which is a paraphrase of the Bible in modern English, Gen. 1:1-2: When God began creating the heavens and the earth, (2) the earth was a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors".] Patriarchal writers forgot that "The Deep" was a personified womb, a Middle-Eastern version of Kali whose being before creation was "formless." [I visualize it as the center "dot" in the "bindu." In Hindu mythology, although it may have older roots, it is from the bindu that all what we know as creation/universes sprung, rather like the "Big Bang" theory, KA-BOOM.] Most creation myths incorporated the idea of formlessness, in the darkness before the birth that brought "light" and the splitting of the Mother's body, so she became both heaven and earth. The Bible's account is based on the same archetype. In Egypt, Tiamat was Temu or Te-Mut, oldest of deities, mother of the archaic Ennead of four female elements: Water, Darkness, Night, and Eternity.(2) [The Ennead consisted of four paired goddesses and gods, each sister and brother, representing the earliest "Netjer" who were - I'm working from memory here so I hope this is right! - the offspring of that primeval creative force, akin to The Great Goddess or, in biblical terms, that Spirit of "God" roving about the face of the waters. Here is an interesting translation of Gen. 1:2 from the Bible used by the Jehovah's Witnesses, which is called The New World Translation: Gen. 1:2: Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of the water deep; and God's active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters. I have many different Bibles in my collection :)] She was also Nun, Naunet, or Ma-Nu, the great fish who gave birth to the universe and the gods. [Cf. Jonah inside the great fish's belly for "three" days, only to be "reborn" again by regurgitation]. In repeated cycles of becoming, she periodically swallowed up both gods and universes and gave them rebirth - like Kali.(3) Tiamat's firstborn child seems to have been a duplicate of herself, Mummu, translated either "churning" or "mother." The combination recalled the ancient notion that solid earth was made from "churning" the primordial fluid, like making butter from milk.(4) [Cf. Axis Mundi]. Some myths gave Tiamat a male consort, Apsu, similar to Jupiter Pluvius: a Father Heaven whose job it was to fertilize the Mother's abyss with seminal rain. But he was not her superior, not even her equal. Even in the chaotic conditions before creation, Tiamat was the true source of life. Her consort was subordinate, not even necessary.(5) Various myths said Tiamat alone produced the fluid of creation, which was not semen but her menstrual blood, flowing continuously for three years and three months.(6) Its great reservoir was the Red Sea - comparable to Kali's "ocean of blood"- the eastern shore of which is still called Tihamat by the Arabs. Babylonians said their god Marduk divided his mother Tiamat into two parts, upper waters and lower waters. Likewise, the Jewish God "divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which wre above the firmament" (Genesis 1:7). The Jewish god also divided the Red Sea, which was likened to Tiamat herself. The idea of dividing waters was not original with the Jews. Goddesses did it before gods. The Hindu Goddess Bindumati, "Mother of Life," divided the waters of the Ganges.(7) The Goddess Isis divided the waters of the river Phaedrus, to cross dry-shod.(8) Even an insignificant Egyptian wizard named Zazamonkh divided the waters of a lake to retrieve a courtesan's lost pendant.(9) Yahweh's miracle on behalf of the Israelites was fairly common in contemporary lore. By dividing Tiamat, Marduk established the Diameter (horizon), which was the Greek version of Tiamat's name, meaning Goddess-Mother [Dia Mater]. We still say a diameter divides a whole circle. Though Marduk was supposed to have slain his mother, the Ocean of Blood, he still maintained the menstrual calendar in Babylon, celebrating sabbaths and months of the year according ot the moom's phases.(10) Modern scholars tend to ignore Tiamat's maternal Creatress nature, describing her as nothing more than a "dragon of chaos" slain by Marduk. It is seldom emphasized that this was a myth of matricide, or that the Goddess was the one who created the world. Some traditions indicate that Marduk's murder of his mother may have been motivated by jealousy, like Cain's murder of Abel. Mother Tiamat had overlooked Marduk and chosen another of her sons, Kingu, to be her consort and the king of the universe. [She] exalted among the gods, her sons, that she had borne, Kingu, and made him greatest among them all . . . .placed him on a throne, saying, "By my charm and incantation I have raised thee to power among the gods. The dominion over all the gods I intrusted [sic] to thee. Lofty thou shalt be, thou my chosen spouse; great be thy name in all the world." She then gave him the Tablets of Destiny, and laid them on his breast.(11) Jealous Marduk not only killed Tiamat; he also deposed, castrated, and killed Kingu, and made the first man on earth out of Kingu's blood - which tends to show that Kingu was once the name of the sacrificed god-king, whose blood had the "feminine" power to make life.(12) [Cf. the Christian doctrines related to the sacrifice of Christ's life (blood) and the benefits of "Life's Water" flowing from the resurrected Christ/God.] Kingu was identified with the moon. Chaldeans called him Sin, the Moon-god of Mount Sinai. Apparently he still had the tablets of the Law given him by Tiamat (as Mother Rhea gave sacred tablets of the Law to Minos on Mt. Dicte), for the Old Testament claims he passed them on to Moses. In Southern Arabia, the Goddess was assimilated to Ishtar. The eyes of her idol Tehama wwere said to flow with tears each year as she bewailed the death of Tammuz.(13) Notes: (1) Graves, G.M., 1, 27. (2) Budge, D.N., 211. (3) Neumann, G.M., pl. 91; Erman, 252. (4) Brandon, 22. (5) Stone, 26. (6) Assyr. & Bab. Lit., 301. (7) Rawson, A.T., 74. (8) Budge, G.E., 2, 191. (9) Erman, 40. (10) Hooke, M.E.M., 45. (11) Assyr. & Bab. Lit., 287. (12) Larousse, 54. (13) Baring-Gould, C.M.M.A., 279.

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Ponderings:

As a totally irrelevant aside, I do believe that my given name, "Janet," which under traditional patriarchal interpretations is a derivative from "John," meaning something like "God's Gift [to men] ("Ja" = shortened name for God in Hebrew), is actually a derivative from the much older Naunet -- the "et" syllable denoted a female or the feminine in ancient Egyptian, much as "ette" denotes female or the feminine today in French). Perhaps the older name of "Nanette," which is out of style these days (as is my name, Janet), is an ancient carry-over from the times when the Goddess reigned supreme. Therefore, darlings, I am named after the Goddess of Creation, and not after "St. John." I always thought he was rather wimpy and - well, swishy. Oh, slap my face, I'm a bad girl for saying such a thing :)

Various myths said Tiamat alone produced the fluid of creation, which was not semen but her menstrual blood, flowing continuously for three years and three months.

Is this why the use of red ochre was so predominate in Neolithic times in sacred cave drawings and painted on stone, ivory and bone carvings -- to show life and a link to the Mother Goddess, from whom all life flowed through the sacred menstrual blood? Is this why the color "red" - as in "red blood" is associated with life and living? Is this why the mythical elixir of life, called "Soma" in Sanskrit and "Homa" in Pahlavi, was linked to menstrual blood? And is this why black (blood lacking oxygen from cessation of breathing, is a darkish, sort of black looking color = lack of life) is associated with funereal rites in many cultures to this day? I was going to put up an image of Tiamat with this post, but without exception those that I found were images of ugly beasts - sort of like Lizard-Dragons with huge claws and teeth -- ancestral memories of dinosaurs? Traditionalists would say I'm nuts for even thinking of such a thing, but based on the record -- actually lack thereof, to this point in time -- who's to really say? Wish I could live another 100 years to see what the archaeologists, paleontologists, anthropologists and historians come up with! Er - got sidetracked there for a second - back to finding an image of Tiamat: Since Tiamat is "formless" it occurred to me (duh, Jan!) that all images of her thus far discovered, without exception, were from much later times, after Marduk had "killed her off," and she was thereafter depicted as a monstrous being. As dondelion says, history is (re)written by the victors.

Further Explorations of the Word MA

Prior post on the topic: "Ma." Hola darlings! On this Good Friday, I'm going to write what Barbara Walker had to say about Maat in "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends": Maat Egyptian Goddess as personification of "Truth" or "Justice"; the original name based on the universal Indo-European mother-syllable meant simply "Mother." Maat's symbol was the feather against which she weighed each man's heart-soul (ab) in her underground Hall of Judgment. Thus the Plume of Maat itself became a hieroglyph for "truth."(1) The same feathers of Truth were worn by other aspects of the Goddess, such as Isis, who was the same lawgiving Mother. The gods themselves were constrained to "live by Maat." Her law governed all three worlds ruled by her trinity as "Lady of heaven, queen of the earth, and mistress of the underworld."(2) As the lawgiver of archaic Egypt, Maat was comparable to Babylonian Tiamat who gave the sacred tablets to the first king of gods. Maat's laws were notably benevolent, compared to the harsh commands of later patriarchal gods, backed up by savage threats like those of Deuteronomy 28:15-68. An Egyptian was expected to recite the famous Negative Confession in the presence of Maat and Thoth (or Anubis) to show he had obeyed Maat's rules of behavior: I have not been a man of anger. I have done no evil to mankind. I have not inflicted pain. I have made none to weep. I have done violence to no man. I have not done harm unto animals. I have not robbed the poor. I have not fouled water. I have not trampled fields. I have not behaved with insolence. I have not judged hastily. I have not stirred up strife. I have not made any man to commit murder for me. I have not insisted that excessive work be done for me daily. I have not borne false witness. I have not stolen land. I have not cheated in measuring the bushel. I have allowed no man to suffer hunger. I have not increased my wealth except with such things as are my own possessions. I have not seized wrongfully the property of others. I have not taken milk from the mouths of babes.(3) Those who lived by the laws of Maat took a sacramental drink, comparable to the Hindus' Soma or its Persian counterpart Haoma, which conferred ritual purity in the same sense as the Christian "washing in the blood of the Lamb." Egyptian scribes of the 3rd millenium B.C. wrote: "My inward parts have been washed in the liquor of Maat." Like baptismal water of life, Maat's potion brought life after-death to the peaceful, but death overtook violent persons.(4) Egyptian moral precepts were of a high order, many of them turning up centuries later in the Bible: Take heed not to rob the poor, and be not cruel to the destitute.... If thou canst answer the man who attacks thee, do him no injury. Let the evildoer alone; he will destroy himself. We must help the sinner, for may we not become like him?...Crusts of bread and a loving heart are better than rich food and contention.... Learn to be content with what thou hast. Treasure obtained by fraud will not stay with thee; thou hast it today, tomorrow it has departed.... The approval of man is better than riches.(5) Under the feudal disorders of the 12th dynasty [c. 1991 - 1783 BCE], old rules began to break down along with the matrilineal clan system that supported them, and educated Egyptians deplored the disruptions of society. A Heliopolitan priest wrote: "Maat is cast out, iniquity is in the midst of the council hall.... [T]he poor man has no strength to save hmself from him that is stronger than he."(6) Sometimes kinsman murdered kinsman, in violation of the clan's most sacred rule. One writer unfavorably compared his countrymen to the Maat-worshipping tribes of Nubia: "The Matoi, who are friendly towards Egypt, say: 'How could there be a man that would slay his brother?'"(7) Maat was more than a judge of the dead. She was a stand-in for all Egyptian Goddesses, including Hathor, Mut, Isis, Neith, Nekhbet, etc. The sun god was told: "The goddess Maat embraceth thee both at morn and at eve." As a birth-giver, she was sometimes Metet, the Morning Boat of the Sun, translated "becoming strong" and corresponding to the Greco-Roman mother of the dawn, Mater Matuta.(8) She was worshipped in lands other than Egypt. Northern Syria was called by the Hittites, Mat Hatti: that is, Mother of Hatti.(9) Egyptian priests drew the Feather of Maat on their tongues in green dye, to give their words a Logos-like power of Truth so their verbal magic could create reality.(1) Similarly in northern Europe the divine bard Bragi had this power because of the runes engraved on his tongue by the Goddess Idun. African Pygmies still know Maat by the name she bore in Sumeria as "womb" and "underworld": Matu. She was the first woman, and the mother of God. Like her Egyptian counterpart she was sometimes cat-headed.(11) Notes: (1) Budge, E.L., 68. (2) Budge, G.E 1, 418. (3) Budge, D.N., 254; Hallet, 411. (4) H. Smith, 49-51. (5) Budge, D.N., 258-60. (6) H. Smith, 50. (7) Erman, 43, 107. (8) Budge, G.E. 1, 323, 417. (9) Mendenhall, 157. (10) Seligmann, 39. (11) Hallet, 95. **************************************************************************** Wow! Where do I even start to comment? How about this: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, the movie which I remember from earliest times watching every Easter Sunday, will be on commercial television TOMORROW NIGHT, instead of Sunday Night! Darlings, this is absolutely, positively the END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. Watching THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, with Charleton Heston as Moses, Anne Baxter as the best Neferteri I ever saw, and that incredibly sexy, magnetic Yul Brynner as Rameses, is a must see for everyone. Indeed, there's something in this movie for everyone, which is why so many people continue to watch it year after year. Anyway, tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. will find me comfortably ensconced in my recliner (yes, I have one - go suck Easter Eggs if you're laughing) with a large supply of Wine and Fritos close to hand, to once again watch the Grand Epic and laugh at Charleton Heston's really bad acting. But I have to give it to the man, he was a hunk back in his day. Whoa! From THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, we now turn to THE TEN COMMANDMENTS - the real ones (allegedly), which were passed to Moses by Yahweh himself. While I certainly believe that anyone and everyone can experience supernatural events/happenings/revelations, or whatever one wishes to call such an event, I do not believe how THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (I think they were originally referred to as THE TEN WORDS) mysteriously multipled whilst residing in the Ark of the Covenant and turned into several thousand burdensome and petty rules, governing the minutest part of life. As a consequence, the followers of Yahweh became a people of rules rather than what Yahweh intended them to be, a people guided by a short list of principles to live by. Rules come and go, but principles are forever. Perhaps this is a lesson we need to revisit these days in the USA. I am pretty sure that if we had been a people of principles rather than legalistic rules, the CRASH OF 2008 would not have happened. Well, be that as it may, anyone who reads Abovethelaw.com these days and who absolutely HATES lawyers or wannabe lawyers is laughing their butts off! If you thought Wall Street types were totally self-absorbed, you haven't yet been introduced to the world of the 3L. Goddess, to think that I was once in that world - but thank Goddess, I wasn't like that - Maat, I've got a positive negative confession to make! That's why I got the hell out of the profession after five years. Overall, I haven't regretted it, but I sure wish I could figure out a way to make a lot of money without selling my soul to SATAN. Ha! That's not gonna happen, darlings. And just as well. I think I have a Napoleonic Complex... So glad the Goddess thumped me on the head one day and said - ENOUGH! And, cutting things short here because I've been at work all day and it's nearly 8 PM and I'm hungry and I want to make a casserole and TOP MODEL is coming on, I am SO glad I finally know where that famous saying came from - about taking the milk out of the mouth of babes. We STILL use it today. WOW! Ancient Egypt - the Negative Confessions - the Goddess Maat! ROCK ON MAAT!

Further Explorations of the Word MA

We've touched upon the meaning of the word in prior posts regarding Mary, Ma, Mari, etc. [compare Mera, Meri, Ta-Mera, etc.] Tonight we're going to explore further. Here is what Barbara Walker "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" has to say under the entry "Ma:" Basic mother-syllable of Indo-European languages, worshipped in itself as the fundamental name of the goddess. the universality of the mother-wird (not shared by words for "father") indicates either that the human race carried the same word from its earliest source [Merritt Ruhlen's theory that all language can be traced back to one "mother" tongue] to all parts of the earth at a period previous to the discovery of fatherhood; or else that all human beings instinctively say something like "ma" as the first verbal sound and associate it with the mother's breast, consequently with emotional dependence on a divinity perceived as a milk-giving mother - notwithstanding the absurd reference of Moses to a "nursing father" carrying the sucking child in his bosom (Numbers 11:12). "Ma-Ma" means "mother's breasts" in nearly all languages.(1) "All around the world, from Russia to Samoa, and in the ancient languages of Egypt, Babylon, India, and the Americas, the word for 'mother' is mama or some minor variation of this word."(2) In ancient Anatolia the Mother was Ma-Bellona; in Sumer and Akkad the Great Goddess was often called Mama, Mami, Mammitu, etc. In Central and South America the Goddess had such names as Mama Cocha, Mama Quilla, Mama Cuna.(3) In the Far East, the maternal blood bond that joined members of the matrilineal clan was mamata, "mine-ness."(4) Its sacred letter Ma, in pictographic form as the Spark of Life (bindu or vindu), was said to be "in the Great Yoni."(5) This scripture referred to a mystic essence uinting all the souls in a matrilineal kinship group. Ma or mamata expressed the idea that descendants of the same mother shared the same blood and couldn't injure one another without injuring themselves; therefore the concept of the maternal clan was a practical instrument of peace. In Indo-European root languages, Ma was often defined as "intelligence," the maternal force that bound elements together to create forms at the beignning of the world.(6) ancient Egypt gave this maternal force such names as Ma-Nu, Maa, or Maat, the Great Goddess of the All-Seeing Eye and the spirit of Truth.(7) The primitive Iranian Moon-Goddess Mah (or Al-Mah, the Moon) was another form of the same deity. Arabs called her Qis-Mah, "Fate," which the Turks corrupted into kismet. She gave birth to a series of Messiahs, each one called the Mahdi, one guided or given by Mother Mah. Persians made her name a sacred Word, formed of the letters Mourdad-Ameretat, "Death-Rebirth."(8) The ideogram MA was said to mean a state of immortality brought about by drinking the milk of the Goddess's breast, which brings one back to the original Ma-Ma. In Hebrew the same sacred letters MA made the Mem-Aleph, combining ideographs of "fluid" and "birth." This holy sign was credited with great productive power, and was written on Jewish amulets dating from the early 9th century B.C.(9) It could have been comped from either the Persians or the Egyptians, whose Mother Isis wore an "Amulet of Ma," a vase representing her own fountains of nourishing fluid.(1) Or again, as Ma-Nu, the Primal Deep, she was symbolized by three caldrons.(11) Even today the Tantric Goddess as a personification of "fertilizing water" is named Mamaki.(12) [Is there where the biblical references to "Waters of Life" spring from???] In Egyptian myth, a reversal of the Ma-Ma of nourishing breasts produced the female Devourer in the underworld: Am-Am, eater of souls. In the cyclic fashion of the elder religions, the giver was transformed into the taker.(13) Ma, the Great Goddess of Comana, was "worshipped by a whole people of hierodules in the ravines of the Taurus and along the banks of the Iris. Like Cybele she was an ancient Anatolian divinity and personified fertile nature."(14) She was taken to Rome where she merged with the war goddess Bellona, who personified fighting spirit as indomitable as that of a mother defending her young. Today the divine implications of the syllable Ma are recognized only in obscure semi-magical cults like voodooism, where a priestess embodies the Goddess's spirit and is known as mamaloi or mambo.(15). However, Ma is still a universal synonym for "mother". See Motherhood. Notes: (1) Potter & Sargent, 229. (2) Farb, W.P., 317. (3) Larousse, 443. (4) Bardo Thodol, 219; Campbell, Or.M., 216. (5) Mahanirvanatantra, css. (6) d'Alviella, 240. (7) Budge, E.L., 55. (8) Larousse, 311, 317. (9) Albright, 198. (10) Elworthy, 125. (11) Book of the Dead, 205. (12) Tatz & Kent, 164. (13) Budge, E.M., 171. (14) Cumont, O.R.R.P., 54. (15) Martello, 160. More tomorrow night.