The Editorial Board has ganged up against me and at the last meeting of the Full Committee For Staying on Track, I barely ecked out a victory, only because MaryBelle, Adrasta, and Annoying Darla sided with me, and they each have ten votes a piece. That’s 25 votes among them…I think. Of course, I had to pay them. So I will stay off track long enough to eventually make my way back onto the path that leads to Regan’s bedroom…don’t take that the wrong way. But heads it was, and since the coin came up heads again…heads again it is. And heads is something that is directly, not to mention not indirectly, directly applicable to a certain someone who, or so I thought, had been done to death…but not quite. And to pick up the Trail Leading To Certain Nothingness, I find myself following up to Part 3…The Name of God…well, not exactly. I suppose I must needs follow up to Part 2…Reliquary, which got its name for the obvious reasons. And no discussion of reliquaries or, especially, head…can be complete without…
The Cephalophore!
St. Tremeur…before and after, as it were. First, his father killed his mother. Then, his father killed him. And Tremeur had been so close to his mother that, after being beheaded, he picked up his head, walked to his mother’s resting place, and put his head on her grave. Very touching. His mother? Yes! St. Tryphine. Her husband killed her by…
…cutting off her head…imagine that. Some stories state that she got up and picked up her head. Others say that St. Gildas picked up her head, put it back on her shoulders…and then she got over her ailment and came back to life. Now to make the weird weirder and the interesting interestinger...one form of the legend states that her husband, Conomor, had killed several previous wives. Tryphine was snooping around and…
…found the relics of his previous wives, who promptly warned Tryphine that Conomor would try to kill her. That’s not weird enough! Conomor and his wife-killing hobby became the basis for a story that has proven most enduring indeed…
…Bluebeard! Originally written in 1697 by Charles Perrault. Now I have to admit that math wasn’t my best subject…I’m just not so good with numbers. So I can’t remember how many wives Bluebeard had…
…Three? Seven? Eight? Ten? Although I must admit, I don’t get how you can have a parade of deceased, former wives with skulls on their skeletons if their heads are hanging in a special room that requires, should one wish to enter it…a special key. I was surprised to learn that Bluebeard…
…was rather unattractive, or that he…
…had so little style that he would wear overalls, a yellow turtleneck, and matching yellow socks. And it would seem that he had a rather fascinating biography…
…how dope, ballerinas, eggs, or buxom serving wenches fit into the picture…I don’t know. But many editions of Bluebeard included fascinating illustrations…
…that seem to imply that violence against women is entertaining. And in my serial essay titled The Devil Made Me Do It, I have always endeavored to show modern America’s penchant for taking various tales and stories from the past, and updating them to fit a more modern America. Approximately one year before the release of The Exorcist, it was decided that the story of Bluebeard wasn’t edgy enough. And it didn’t take too much to arrive at…
…Richard Burton is Bluebeard! And he is joined by Raquel Welch and Joey Heatherton…among others…
Why settle for just the overt violence of the Bluebeard tale when you can have the sex too? And I’m sure the following shot sums up the reaction of many viewers of this movie as they attempt to sit through it…
What I was surprised to learn is that Bluebeard is regarded as a…
…CHILDREN’S STORY! And that would explain why…
…Nancy Drew felt she had to get involved. Actually, as strange as it may seem, Bluebeard is regarded as a…fairy tale. And so too another strange story that, as I’m sure you’ll remember, found its way into Chris MacNeil’s basement in 1973…
Following Karras’s first meeting with Regan, and apparently, although he’s a boxer, Karras doesn’t seem to be very good at ducking…
…he finds himself in the basement waiting around as Chris finishes washing and ironing his shirt. Karras bides his time admiring Regan’s artwork. And we get a close-up shot of some of the decorations that Regan has put up on what appears to be a wall. Now close-up shots in The Exorcist are always very important. As I have stated in a previous essay, I think the most important aspect of the long close-up of the Little Red Riding Hood characters is that we are supposed to notice…
…the hinges in the upper-right part of the shot. This wall is actually a wall of cabinets, and I stated my opinion in a previous essay that the prime importance of Regan’s artwork is that it begins in the basement, suddenly appears in the kitchen, only to resurface in the basement when Karras losses a bout with Regan’s stomach. But The Exorcist is all about exploiting the viewers’ inability to actually follow the story that unfolds before their eyes, making it all about perception and misperception. The film also exploits the tendency people have to jump to conclusions about things they really know nothing about…demons…Pazuzu…artwork…jewelry…and an Orange Scottish Bagpiper who morphs into Captain Howdy. Diabolical Captain Howdy is nothing more than a logo on a John Dewar & Sons whiskey box in Chris’s attic. But you didn’t notice the box…and you didn’t notice Captain Howdy staring out from it. You didn’t notice the Mechanical Regan Doll moving its head in the entryway during Chris’s party with all the grace of 1950s B-Movie Robotic Invader From Outer Space. I could go on and on. Believe me…I could! And in recent times, there is endless internet chatter about the Horrible Demonic Pazuzu…who is actually the exact opposite. Misperception and Ignorance. But so too with Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Actually, the Big Bad Wolf doesn’t seem quite so scary, and so it is that we stand firmly within…
…the realm of sweet and wholesome. And isn’t she cute as a button! And so it appears to be a wonderful fairy tale for children. Sure! As wonderful as the fairy tale about a man who keeps killing his wives and keeping their relics in a specially designated room! And what Little Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard have in common is that they both come from the quill of…
… Charles Perrault. So just how cute and wholesome was the Real Little Red Riding Hood Fairy Tale? I must move somewhat away from the cutsie-cutsie images I just provided if the point is to be made. And I found a fitting image that could either help explain what is to follow, or at least make it somewhat more conducive to altering your state of consciousness…
That wide-eyed stare with eyes glazed over is probably the result of a few nibbles on the Psychoactive Magic Mushrooms growing beside her. Well, without toads…you have to make do. Now I move to a slightly less warm-and-cozy grand-mamma’s house…
Then…
Well that’s not supposed to happen! But neither is this…
…take off your clothes! But that’s only the prelude to…
…nummy…nummy! Then finally…
Oh, my! Strip and get into bed with grandmamma? In the Perrault version, the story essentially consists of the Big Bad Wolf killing and eating Grandmamma. When Red arrives, he cajoles her into getting into bed with him. He then kills and eats her…and off he goes victorious. And with a full stomach. Read that one to your child! Actually, that version is boring. Let’s go back past Perrault to an earlier time. The Big Bad Wolf, who is sometimes swapped out for an ogre, vampire, or lycanthrope, gets to Grandmamma’s house before Red, kills Grandmamma, eats Grandmamma, but leaves some of her flesh and blood on a table. When Red arrives, the Big Bad Wolf cajoles her into eating and drinking what’s on the table…meaning that Little Red Riding Hood was an unwitting cannibal who ate the flesh of her grandmother and drank her blood. That’s terrible! Wait…he’s not done. He tells Red to strip naked and throw her clothes into the fire…she won’t be needing them. Then he tells her to get into bed with him. In some versions, he then eats her. In another version, Red detects the trap, and convinces the Big Bad Wolf to let her get out of the bed because she has to defecate, and if she doesn’t move quickly, it will end up in the bed. As perplexing as it is that Red doesn’t seem to realize that the wolf isn’t her grandmother, it is even more disturbing that Red wouldn’t pause and wonder why her grandmother would tell her to strip naked, throw her clothes in the fire, and then climb into bed with her for a snuggle. Not your typical grandmother-granddaughter moment, to say the least. And I thought it would be cool to get Red’s autograph…
Figures. Now I’ll bet you didn’t know just how creepy the story of Little Red Riding Hood truly is. I’m also sure that the makers of The Exorcist did know, and so they chose…
…this, of all the other possibilities, to show in the close-up of the cabinets in the basement. So everyone believes that Captain Howdy is an evil demon when in reality he is an Orange Scottish Highlander Playing His Bagpipes; Pazuzu is a horrible demon who is possessing Regan and…well, it’s never clear what the non-existent demon is actually trying to accomplish, but surely he’s horrible! In reality, Pazuzu saves pregnant women, infants, and children from Lamashtu, all the while keeping the Tree of Life safe and the Universe going. Clearly in Merrin’s view, it’s Pazuzu’s timely appearance at the end of the movie that signifies that Lamashtu has lost. So Captain Howdy is completely harmless…Pazuzu is a good guy…and Little Red Riding Hood is a story about cannibalism, with obvious bestiality and pedophilia overtones, not to mention the very indelicate aspect of trying to save your sexual purity and life, after eating the flesh of your grandmother and drinking her blood, by going off into the woods to take a crap. As I said…perception and misperception…knowledge and ignorance. And only The Exorcist gives the option of the former, while you choose the latter.
Well, Chris…that depends on which version you’re reading. And I’m sure that Toots likes my version better.
St. Aventin…hermit and martyr who, after being beheaded, picked up his head, and walked around looking for a place to be buried. He is not the only cephalophore whose post-beheading rambling is connected to locating his burial place.
Who could forget…
Gines de la Jara, who is also credited with tossing his severed head into the Rhone River. However, another legend states that after he was beheaded, he was buried at Arles but that his head was transported miraculously "in the hands of angels" to Cartagena.
St. Noyale, who travelled from England to Brittany in the company of her maid, seeking to escape an arranged marriage. She then refused to marry a local dignitary in Brittany, and was beheaded. Unphased, she picked up her head and, accompanied by her maid, sailed back to England. Well, at least Noyale’s head and her maid could chat on the voyage home.
St. Livier of Marsal, beheaded by the Huns after they capturied Metz. Livier picked up his head, and walked a short distance. He set his head down, and then sat down. Where he set his head a never-ending stream of freshwater flows, and where he sat down, the Oak Tree of Saint Livier, or Saint Liver’s Backside, soon grew.
St. Lucian of Beauvais…following his decapitation, he picked up his head and walked toward the town where he lived. He crossed the river Therain before stopping a quarter mile shy of Beauvais. He dropped dead there, and his followers buried him on the spot where he fell.
Meet St. Haude, daughter of Lord Golon of Tremazan, and sister of Gurguy. When Mrs. Golon died, Daddy remarried. The step-mother mistreated Haude, her brother having fled the family. Haude spent much of her time in prayer, but her step-mother was spreading rumors that she was promiscuous. Gurguy returned and, believing his step-mother’s lies, he found Haude washing clothes. He drew his sword and beheaded her. That night, back at the castle, Haude was seen walking up to the walls, carrying her head in her hands. Finally, she put her head back on her body, and proceeded to denounce the lies of her step-mother. The step-mother, naturally, denied this…but then fell over dead. And that is one strange step-mother/step-daughter moment. Given the circumstances, Haude also declared her forgiveness of her brother…
…Saint Tanguy. We should all be so willing to forgive…and her forgiveness brought about the transformation of her brother’s life. I suppose that there should be more clowns and St. Haudes in the world. The story is also told in stained-glass…
And you can see the signs of her recent beheading…
There’s no way that I would forget…
…and that is her priory, and that is her…in watercolor! St. Osyth…she too was beheaded and picked up her own head. She proceeded to carry it to the door of a local convent, where she died. I can’t decide which would make a worse special delivery for Mother Superior…a phallus picked from a phallus tree by a naughty nun, or a severed head delivered by its unlucky former owner. St. Osyth’s story is so cool that I had to include an image of it from an illuminated manuscript in the not-so-creative image at the top of this boring page.
St Gohard…born and martyred in Angers. He was caught up in the hostilities involved the Franks and the Britons, and the Viking attacks. One day, Gohard was celebrating Mass in the Cathedral at Nantes, when a group of Norman warriors broke into the church, killed the priest and massacred the worshippers. Gohard was beheaded. He picked up his head and walked down to the Loire river. He boarded a boat headed for Angers, where he was finally buried.
Yes, you’re right! That’s St. Minias of Florence, who lived as a hermit. You’re good at this! He was tortured and thrown to the wild animals in the amphitheater during the persecution carried out under the emperor Decius. Surviving the amphitheater, he was beheaded. He then picked up his head, crossed the Arno river, and returned to his hermitage.
Saint Sperie of Cahors…born to a noble family, she chose to devote herself to glorifying God. She was betrothed to a noble named Elidius. But getting cold feet, she ran off to live the life of a hermit, living in a hollowed out tree. Her brother tracked her done, and beheaded her. She then picked up her head, carried it to a stream, and washed off the blood.
Saint Lambert…an agricultural servant beheaded for not denying Christianity. He picked up his head with his hands, walked behind his oxen, and brought his head to the tomb of martyrs at Zaragoza.
St. Mitre of Aix! He was accused of witchcraft and beheaded in the courtroom. He picked up his head and carried it to the altar of the church of Notre-Dame de la Seds.
St. Clair du Beauvais! He ran away from home when he learned that his father had arranged a marriage for him. First he was a hermit, but in 870, he became a Benedictine priest. The woman he had been betrothed to never got over her anger at being rejected. She arranged for assassins to track him down and behead him. He picked up his head and carried it to a nearby fountain, which is now regarded as a miraculous source of miraculous water.
St. Maurin d’Agen…a native of Agen during the time of the country’s control by the Visigoths. He was educated in Capua, returning to Agen after seven years. He became active preaching to the locals. He was arrested and tortured, and then beheaded. He picked up his head, and took it to the site of the abbey named after him.
Meloir (Melar) of Cornwall, son of St. Miliau (Miliaw). His father was killed by his uncle Rivod. As for Meloir, first his uncle cut off his right hand and foot. But then he received a silver hand and foot of brass that were functionally equivalent to natural limbs. Later, he was beheaded, and his head was brought to Rivod. The head was then taken to the bishop of Quimper-Cornwall and placed in the cathedral. Later, the body and head were taken to the mountains of Arree, the border between Donmomee and Cornwall. There were 2 groups, one with the head, and one with the body. The head began to move and then went to join the body…how I’m not sure. But!
Well, that’s the head of John the Baptist, still…
But immediately after the head of the blessed John let the locks of its hair rise from the dish, and it flew to the middle of the convivial room before the king and his high officials. In that very moment the roof of the house was opened and the head of John flew in the air…As to his head, it flew over Jerusalem, and cried for three years to the town, saying: "It is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive." After it had cried for three years, it went to all the world shouting and proclaiming the horrible crime of Herod, and repeating the words: "It is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive." Fifteen years after it had been cut off it ceased proclaiming, and rested on the town of Horns. The faithful who were in that town took it and buried it with great pomp. A long time after, a church was built on it, which is still standing in our time.
It's one thing to walk around with your head in your hands, or even to have it put back on your shoulders to testify as to the horribleness of your step-mother, but to fly over Jerusalem for three years declaring that Herod shouldn’t marry his brother’s wife while he was alive? For three years? With Cephalophores, most of the time the powers of the head are linked to the body’s continued possession of it. No so with the Flying Head of John the Baptist.
Melior was a chip off the old shoulders…to coin a phrase. He came from a family of cephalophores! A noble Cephalophoric family if there ever was one! Miliau was the brother of the evil Rivod. Rivod beheaded him. Holding his head, and Milau’s disembodied head told his wife to take care of their son Melior. As we just so, this was rather successful! Well, apart from Rivod cutting off a foot and a hand of Melior, before cutting off his head and turning him into a cephalophore, just like dear old Dad.
Miliau’s family had two cephalophores…ok…but what about the family of St. Euchair? Beheaded, he journeyed to the village of Liverdun carrying his head to his chosen place of burial. But the story doesn’t end there!
St. Euchair Jr…also known as…Elophe. And he has a good reason to keep his hands on his head!
Beheaded, he picked up his head and carried it to the top of a hill that now bears his name. Then he sat down and preached his last sermon. Finally, he washed the blood off his severed head. But! Like father like son…like daughter! Meet…
…St. Libaire…daughter of Euchair and sister of Elophe. Some families have all the luck. Beheaded, she picked up her head and passed under the water of a fountain. Then she dressed and made-up her hair and placed her head in a shroud. And don’t confuse Libaire the Hair-dresser with Miriam the Hair-dresser! No…the Talmud will be of no help.
St. Sever…a strangely apropos name, seeing how his head was severed. After being beheaded, he picked up his head and walked to a nearby hill, where an abbey was founded in his honor.
St. Saturnina…born the daughter of a king, she nonetheless took a vow of celibacy at the age of 12. When she turned 20, her family attempted to force her marry a local noble. She fled, with her suitor desperately searching for her. He found her and attempted to rape her. She resisted, and was beheaded. Saturnina stood up, and carried her head to the church of St. Remi. That’s a cool story, but I know one better. An alternate legend states that she carried her head to Sains-les-Marquion. Then she placed it on a stone, and the head declared that she would be the last human sacrifice in that country. Cool!
St. Emygdius…a pretty good-looking guy. As he made his was to Ascoli, he made many converts and performed miracles such as striking the side of a cliff and causing water to gush forth from it. The local governor wasn’t particularly happy with the Saintly doings, so he arrested Emygdius and demanded that he worship Jupiter and Angaria, a pagan deity in Ascoli. He was even offered the governor’s daughter in marriage. When the girl came forwarded, Emygdius baptized her. The saint was promptly beheaded. Then he picked up his dead, and carried it to a place on a mountain where he had constructed an oratory.
Now this guy is impressive! He is Justinian…Hermit of Ramsey Island. At one point he had been confessor to St. David and abbot of St. David’s Cathedral. But he left the limelight to live as a hermit, with a few monks loyal to him. He demanded a very austere and disciplined life-style, which led some of his monks to kill him by decapitation. He got up, picked up his head, and then crossed Ramsey Sound by WALKING ACROSS THE WATER! Top that one!
St. Procule of Gannat. After being beheaded, she picked up her head, and then walked to the Church of St. Croix. Then she placed it on the steps leading up to the altar. She actually passed five stations along the way. Years later, the people of Gannat built a chapel at each of these five stations.
St. Juthwara…aka…Cheese Lady. A pious girl, she found it difficult to get along with her step-mother, much like St. Haude. Following the death of her father, she began experiencing chest pains, which her step-mother planned to cure by putting two soft chunks of cheese on her breasts. And I would’ve thought that a man came up with that idea! Step-mom then told Juthwara’s brother that soon-to-be-Cephalophore was pregnant, so he beheaded her. Suddenly, a spring of water bubbled on the spot of her murder. She then picked up her head, and carried it back to the church.
St. Jovan Vladimir! Ruler of Dukja, a powerful Serbian state during the years 1000 – 1016. He was captured by Bulgarian ruler Ivan Vladislav, and beheaded. He picked up his head, and took it to the Monastery of St. John. A different legend states that he took his head to a church he built in Elbasan, where he was subsequently buried.
St. Alban of Mainz; sent to Gallia by Ambrose of Milan. In 406, the Vandals overran the territory, and while Alban was praying, the Vandals beheaded him. He picked up his head and carried it to the place where he wished to be buried.
Now for a pop quiz! Who was the first Headless Horseman? Was it the Green Knight…or the Terror of Sleepy Hollow? Maybe…neither. Perhaps it was…
St. Gemolo! He and his uncle, a bishop, and a group of pilgrims, crossed the Alps on a trip to Rome. While they camped one night, they were robbed by a group of bandits. Included in the plunder was the bishop’s horse. Gemolo and a friend, rather incensed, took off after the thieves. Gemolo demanded the return of the stolen goods, and was beheaded for his troubles. Undeterred, Gemolo picked up his head, mounted his uncle’s horse, and rode back until he joined his, I’m sure…horrified…uncle.
St. Quiteria…apparently a conflated character. She was one of the Nonuplet Sisters…nine daughters born to a Roman military officer and his wife. They were all born at the same time. Their mother felt insulted by this, and told a servant to drown all the girls in a river. The father knew nothing about their birth, and the servant refused to kill them. All became Christians who denounced the Roman gods. They were taken to their father, who somehow managed to recognize them. He decided they would marry Romans. They refused, were imprisoned, escaped, and launched a guerilla war against the Roman presence. They were finally caught, Quiteria was beheaded, and her body and head were cast into the sea. Suddenly, she emerged from the water with her head in her hands.
St. Solange…devout young keeper of sheep who was abducted by a young noble who had become infatuated with her beauty. When she attempted to escape from him, the noble beheaded her. She picked up her head, carried it to the church of Saint-Martin, yelling out the name of Jesus three times.
St. Nectan…Irish born saint and hermit who later lived in Wales. Legend states that he was a son of King Brychan. He and some friends later lived in a forest at Hartland. He then moved to a valley, and lived near a well. He was given two cows after helping a local man recover some lost pigs. But the cows were stolen, and when Nectan caught up with the thieves, he tried to convert them to Christianity. He was beheaded, and then he picked up his head and walked back to his well.
St. Domninus of Fidenza. According to legend he was a servant of Emperor Maximian, and converted to Christianity. Having found out about his conversion, the emperor sent troops after the fleeing saint. They caught him on the banks of the Stirone outside of Fiedenza. He was beheaded, and then he picked up his head and placed it on the future site of the San Donnino cathedral.
Felix, Regula, and Exuperantius. Felix and Regula were siblings and members of the Theban legion under Saint Maurice, stationed in Agaunum in the Valais. When the legion was to be executed in 286, they fled, reaching Zürich via Glarus before they were caught, tried and executed. Unfortunately, their servant Exuperantius happened to be with them, so he was killed along with them. After decapitation, all three miraculously stood up, picked up their own heads, walked forty paces uphill, and prayed before lying down and dying They were buried on the spot where they lay down, on the hilltop which would become the site of the Grossmünster. And here…
…the three are being welcomed by Jesus.
St. Valerie of Limoges…daughter of the Roman governor of Aquitaine, and converted to Christianity by Saint Martial, Bishop of Limoges. Valerie decided to remain a virgin. A noble named Steven came to Limoges, and Valerie was brought before him. She refused to break her vow, and Steven had her head cut off. Valerie pick up her head, and carried it to Saint Martial. And here…
…Valerie presents her head to Saint Martial. And to make the story complete…
…her head reliquary. And now for…
St. Hilarian of Espalion…not to be confused with…
…St. Hilary of Clinton. St. Hilarian was a pious young man who became a priest at the court of Charlemagne. However, deciding to return to his own country and serve as priest at the Chapel of Persia near Espalion. He was captured by Saracens in 793 while officiating in the Chapel of Persia, and beheaded. He then picked up his head, washed it in the Fontsange river, and then brought it home to his mother. Apparently, he made this promise to his mother…in the event that he was decapitated.
St. Justus of Beauvais…the little nine year old martyr who was arrested while on a trip with his father to ransom a relative. He was charged with being a Christian, something he readily admitted, and refused to turn his father in. He was beheaded, but then picked up his head, and preached a sermon that converted numerous pagan onlookers. Another form of the legend holds that Justus’s head also asked his father to take his head back to his mother for a goodbye kiss.
There can be no doubt that the most famous cephalophore is…
…St. Denis. He was sent from Italy to Gaul (France) to convert the local pagans, and became Bishop of Paris.
This was the time of the persecution of Christians initiated by the emperor Decius, following the defeat and death of Philip the Arab, a friend of Origen and known to be friendly to Christianity. Denis was close friends with the saints named Rusticus and Eletutherius, and all three were martyred together. Following complaints made by pagan priests to the Roman governor about the trio’s missionary activities, they were arrested and beheaded. Denis picked up his head, walking several miles while preaching a sermon.
A sermon is one thing…but what about a Psalm?
St. Nicaise, bishop of Reims. He was beheaded by Vandals while he was reciting a Psalm. Even though his head was lying on the ground, he continued reciting the Psalm. Then he picked up his head and carried it to his burial place.
Saint Wyllow…born in Ireland, he lived the life of a hermit in Cornwall. He was, of course, beheaded. Then He picked up his haead and carried for a half a mile until he reached St. Wyllow’s Bridge. He set his head down on the spot that a church would later be built in his honor.
St. Principin…persecuted by the king of the Goths. After being decapitated, Principin picked up his head and crossed the Eye river. Each drop of blood formed a stone, and he was able to walk across the river by treading upon each stepping-stone. Very cool! He arrived at a church where a blind man named Macharius lived. The blood of Principin restored the man’s sight.
St. Gaudens. He lived in the Fifth century. A Visigoth king named Euric was intent that all who refused to convert to a Christian heresy called Arianism would die. Guaudens, a 13 year old shepherd, crossed paths with some of Euric’s men. He refused to convert, and was beheaded. He picked up his head, and walked to Mas Saint-Pierre. When he approached the church, the doors open for him all on their own, and closed behind him. Story-telling at its best…but much more than that as I will make clear in a few moments. Pursuing Visigoth soldiers could not force their way into the church. Mas Saint Pierre changed its name to Saint-Gaudens.
St. Aphrodisius, an Egyptian priest who lived during the time of Christ…and may have been born in the same year as the Charismatic Leader of the Repentance Movement. Legend says that he went to Judaea, met Jesus, and became a disciple. Following the death and resurrection of Christ, Aphrodisius went to southern France, becoming the first Bishop of Beziers. A group of pagans accosted him, and decapitated him. He then picked up his head, and carried it through the city. The locals threw snails on the road, but the kindly Aphrodisius walked across the snails without crushing them. And then! Be careful who you make fun of!
From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!”
Elisha is, of course, the prophet Elisha. And apparently he was bald. I would seem that a group of boys thought it would be fun to mock the prophet’s baldness. However, the fun didn’t last long…
He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of Yahweh. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.
There were more than forty-two boys who suddenly appeared to make fun of Elisha’s baldness? That’s a small army of very stupid boys! And would the One True God really punish a small army of boys with a horrific death at the claws of two angry bears because they made fun of a prophet? And here’s what I don’t get about the story. I figure that a bear can maul no more than two very regretful boys at a time…that’s one for each paw…the bear rearing up, of course. It’s like the joke about two men standing around when a lion suddenly appears. The one man starts running frantically. The other yells out…What’s the point? You can’t outrun a lion! The other man agreed, but with a twist…I don’t have to outrun the lion…I only have to outrun you! Yes, a lion can eat only one not-so-clever man at a time. If I were one of the hapless boys who made fun of the wrong guy, I would let each bear grab two boys to maul. Then I would…run like a guy trying to outrun another guy who was about to be caught by a lion. The only way forty-two boys were mauled by two bears would be either…these were special bears with 21 paws each, and thus grabbed them all at once, or they were stupid enough to stand around waiting their turn. Still, it would seem that at least some of them, those not included among the Forty-Two Idiots, did decide to run. Actually, I would propose that there weren’t forty-two boys in the original version of this story. The number of boys mauled was actually…two…one by each bear. In order to juice up the story, someone added the premier Magical Biblical Number…forty…when the story went through a further redaction. One boy per bear limit, please! And apparently, Elisha is rather touchy when it comes to the subject of hair. If you bump into him…don’t bring it up. Of course, some attempt to find all kinds of ways to make biblical passages that we modern folk find offensive, to be less offensive. Yes! The bears appeared, and appeared to be quite angry, not because Elisha had issues with his hair follicles…oh, no! The two bears are described as…she-bears…female bears. Their cubs were somewhere nearby…and everyone knows, even Forty-Two Idiotic Boys know that you don’t get near a she-bear’s cubs…or you die. Nice try! The text says nothing about cubs, but does clearly connect the Rampaging She-bears with a curse that Elisha pronounced in the name of the One True God because he couldn’t be a grown-up and ignore two children calling him…baldy. I know you are but what am I? Too bad! That’s the story and you’re stuck with it. Still, I feel more than sure that the real Elisha did no such thing.
Ok, they were a little younger in that slide than they are now that they’re working in my new doll manufacturing business…but they looked so cute and sweet I couldn’t resist. And riddle me this…what do two angry she-bears and Little Red Riding Hood have in common? Exactly! See, I didn’t have to say it!
I’m not really sure why people watching a man carrying his severed head as he walks down the street would choose to put snails on the road, rather than run in horror. However, I think I do understand why Aphrodisius was so careful not to crush the snails as he walked across them. Why? That’s simple…snails can be very, very dangerous…
Snails have no fear about slowly, slowly, marching into combat against even the toughest of knights. And I wonder if they show quarter for their vanquished foes…
And there were so many different species of snails in the Medieval world…
Cat-snails, goat-snails, and fox-snails…oh my!
Deer-snails and man-snails. And, in no way forgetting…
…man-snails doing battle with dragons.
But what happened after Aphrodisius walked across a bunch of snails without breaking them? He had escargot? No! Some stone-workers decided to mock Aphrodisius. And as though they took one metaphorical look at a metaphorical Medusa, they turned to stone. Their stone heads were visible along the…Street of the Heads.
…that is a drawing of the stone heads of some guys dumb enough to mock another guy walking through the town with his head in his hands. And I feel compelled to show yet again an image I showed before…
…and a new one I will show featuring St. Felicitas and her seven martyred sons…
The kabobs are done! I’m rather confused how there were only seven stone heads when the drawing seems to make it clear that there were eight stone heads, unless the severed head floating above the others is actually a re-drawn image of the third head from the right. And I’ll bet that Elisha’s She-bear Victims would not have made fun of his bald head if he were carrying it in his hands! Still, Aphrodisius ended his Cephalophoric Stroll by taking his head all the way back to the cave where he had dwelt.
St. Fechin…with his ruined church on Omey Island. Oh, and his holy well. What makes this well so important is that one of the legends about St. Fechin was that Viking freebooters caught him, and then…of course…cut off his head. So Fechin picked up his head and carried it to the Holy Well on Omey Island. He then dipped his head into the well, stuck it back on his shoulders, and went about his saintly business.
St. Bily 43rd bishop of Vannes. Vikings beheaded him in 913. He picked up his head and carried it back to Vannes.
St. Winifred, daughter of a Welsh ruler named Tyfid ap Elludd and his wife Wenlo. And Wenlo was the sister of Winifred’s super cool Uncle Beuno. A young hothead named Caradog became enamored with her. But! She decided to become a nun instead of become Mrs. Caradog…which is at least easier to pronounce than her father’s name! Caradog became so angry that he cut off her head. As the above meanderings well attest for so many Saintly Victims of Decapitation, sacred sources of water spring forth from spots were Decapitated Saintly Heads happen to land. So too with Winifred…
Holy Water…indeed. Uncle Bueno just so happened to be around when Winifred’s Saintly Head begot Winifred’s Saintly Well, and picking up his niece’s head, he re-attached it. Eventually, she later became an abbess in Denbighshire. Behold Winifred and Uncle Bueno…
And now for the close-up of Saintly Saint Winifred…
So the result of Caradog’s Dastardly Handiwork is clearly visible as a scar around Winifred’s neck.
In concluding this discussion of religious cephalophores, I feel compelled to briefly mention a special type of Head-Carrier…the Demi-Cephalophore…to coin a phrase…
Chrysolius…He received the relics of Saint Peter from Pope Marcellus I. He was ordained a priest and died a martyr. Soldiers carrying out the persecution decreed by the emperor Diocletian cornered him in the town of Verlinghem. According to legend, he was beheaded, but only the top of his skull was cut off with a sword. The pieces of the severed part of his skull fell to the ground, giving rise to fountains of water. He then he walked to his home in Comines where he collapsed and died.
St. Papoul (Papulus)- a colleague of Saturninus of Toulouse, he was an evangelist in the south of Gaul. The Apostle Peter himself assigned him to Saturninus as a companion. Eventually, Saturninus went to Spain, and Papoul remained in Toulouse. He was tortured during Diocletian’s persecution, and then had the top of his head cut off.. He picked up his head and walked off with it, setting it down where he collapsed and died. A spring of water suddenly appeared.
There remains one last thing to do as far as Religious Cephalophores go. And that is? Determine today’s winners!
St. Justinian of Ramsey Island! He is the clear 3rd Place Winner. Why? He’s the only cephalophore to combine post-decapitation head carrying with an equally amazing miracle…walking on water!
St. Winifred came very close to winning First Place! However…she missed by just one family member. But she definitely wins 2nd place…not only did she survive her beheading…not only did she obtain a post-decapitation phase of life, but she also had an uncle who combined the amazing features of being a first-class saint, hermit, and first-class-head-and-shoulders surgeon.
The church of St. Bueno; Bueno’s Well; a strange head carving at the well; and…is this the cave where Winifred’s uncle lived the quiet and contemplative life of a hermit?
There can be no question that St. Haude is the Number One Cephalophore Of All Time! Imagine the amount of sheer will it would take to be decapitated, pick up your own head, walk to the castle, then attach your own head to your shoulders so that you could angrily yell nasty things at your step-mother! A woman after my own heart!
But…on the more serious side…those who find Cephalophoric Saints and the obsession with relics as purely an exercise in morbidity…I say that you are wrong. Christianity was born in the white hot fires of persecution. And while many people chose to do what the persecutors demanded…which in no way compromised their status as True Followers of the Resurrected Christ, there were those who endured unspeakable horrors in their refusal to compromise with the most unholy of men. And it seems more than fitting that the stories of those people that Christendom should hold in the highest esteem should live on…and serve as a much needed example to us all as to how strong people of faith can be. And! The world needs more Simple-Yet-Holy-Places…a tiny church in the mystic forests of Cornwall or a small well from which healing waters bubble to the surface. Are the stories true? In one sense, on one side of the wall…it doesn’t matter in the least. Centuries…millennia…roll back in a matter of moments when you stand in the cave of Bueno…whether he stood there or not. Relics allow us to stand in the presence of those much braver than ourselves. Morbid in one sense…but essential in another sense. I would focus on the latter and not the former. And Cephalophoric Saints? It is merely my opinion, but I find it encouraging at the very least that the Power of God didn’t end with the Book of Revelation…that nothing could keep it from bursting forth into the world again and again. And although I don’t want to meet a modern-day Cephalophoric Saint, I would be more than thrilled to bump into one from the past. Especially St. Haude. The world would be a much better place if we all could look hard enough to see the Unending Power of God all around us. It isn’t always easy to see.
But not all cephalophores were saints. Other Medieval Cephalophores include…
…Bertran de Born, lord of Hatefort in southern France and famous troubadour. In 1182, Henry II took steps to force Richard (the Lionheart) and his brother Geoffrey to give homage to Young King Henry, brother to Richard and Geoffrey. Richard refused, believing that Young Henry had no claim to Aquitaine. Henry II finally succeeded in bullying Richard into giving homage to his brother, Young Henry refused to accept it. Instead, he fomented a rebellion against Richard in Aquitaine. Bertran supported Young Henry against Richard. Richard proved superior, and gave Hautefort to Betran’s brother Constantine. Later, Henry II returned the castle to Betran. Betran patched things up with Richard, and supported him against Phillip II, king of France. During this time he wrote numerous works. Later in life he became a monk, and made large grants to a local abbey. He died sometime during the period 1202 – 1215. A fictional biography was written about him in which Henry II blames Bertran for Young King Henry’s revolt against him during the years 1173-1174. In Dante’s Inferno, Betran is described as suffering punishment in the ninth bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell…carrying his severed head around in his hands.
The Green Knight (14th century) appeared during a feast being held at King Arthur’s court, carrying a battle axe. He challenged one of Arthur’s men to strike him with the axe, stipulating that he himself would do the same to his attacker in exactly one year. Sir Gawain took up the offer, and promptly decapitated the Green Knight. Then the Green Knight picked up his severed head, reattached it, and instructed Gawain to meet him in one year to meet his fate.
The human head had a miraculous power in its own right.
St. Fragulphe…admiring a water source named after him. Fragulphe lived in the 8th century in the valley of Aussoue. He and a group of locals fought against Moorish invaders. But the saint was captured by some Muslims and beheaded. His head rolled down the hill and when it finally came to rest, a source of water bubbled forth. This connection between the severed head of a saint and the appearance of a source of water was common, whether the beheaded saint was actually a cephalophore or not…such is the case with St. Fragulphe. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you were one or the other…another Simple-Yet-Holy-Pace is born.
St. Alban…England’s first great martyr, he lived in Roman Britain. During a persecution of Christians, he sheltered a priest named Amphibalus. When the authorities found out that Amphibalus was living with Alban, troops were sent to arrest the priest. Meanwhile, Alban had become so impressed with Amphibalus’s faith, he converted, and when the arrest party arrived, Alban claimed to be Amphibalus. He was arrested and beheaded. All manners of strange elements were added to the story, including the claim that the executioner’s eyes fell out their sockets. Alban’s head rolled down the hill and where it stopped, a well of water sprang up.
What cephalophorical saint is featured in that image? None. That is the head of Bran the Blessed…an ancient Welsh king who also happened to be a giant. He gave his sister to the Irish king Matholwch as wife. However, Bran’s sister, Branwen, was mistreated. So Bran and his warriors set off to avenge his sister. To make a long story short, Bran and all but seven of his warriors were slain. As Bran lay dying, he told his soldiers to cut off his head and take it back to Wales. Now I don’t know how much fun Bran was while he was alive, but he was a real gas after he was dead. Returning to Wales, Bran’s head entertained the Morbid Seven for seven years. Then they moved to an island, and the Head of Bran the Blessed was so much fun that 80 years passed as if it had been only a few weeks. Finally, Bran’s head stopped talking…finally! After 87 years he finally shut up! The Seven then buried the head at Gwynfryn…White Hill in London, where Bran’s head was left facing France…so Bran could help defend Britain against the French. I wonder if they shouldn’t have had Germany in mind!
If one looks to the left of the picture, one will see that, standing back from the young squires working the lance, two young women holding a very large platter upon which sits a very large severed head. In the center right of the illustration, one sees a feast going on. I sure hope that the two ladies aren’t waitresses bringing in the main course! This is a scene from the Welsh romance titled Peredur, son of Efrawg. This is one of three works of the Mabinogion. In short, this cycle is similar to Perceval, Story of the Grail, by Chretien de Troyes…a romance that was never finished. There are many differences between the two works. But one of the most striking differences is that in Peredur, the Holy Grail is replaced by a…
…severed head on a platter. The young Peredur…a knight in search of an errand, or error, made his way to Arthur’s court. While there, Sir Kay drove him away. Whilst roaming, he ended up at a bizarre ritual in a castle where a woman walked into the hall with a severed head on a platter. His participation was predicated upon Peredur taking an oath to not ask about what he sees. However, later on, he will learn whose head it was. It turns out that it is the head of his cousin, who was murdered by the Nine Witches of Gloucester, who had been devastating the lands of Peredur’s uncle. Still, it is quite amazing that you would swap out the Holy Grail for the Head of Peredur’s Cousin.
The importance of the severed human head in tales such as that of Peredur has another dimension to it. What is that? It is believed that the people called…Celts…by Julius Caesar, practiced the now lost art of headhunting. The soul resides in the head…or so the Celts thought, and the taking of heads appears to fit within a Celtic military context. And wherever you found ancient Celts, you also found…
…lots of stone heads, although they don’t appear to have been overly inclined to make them look very realistic, and that may be important in understanding what purpose these stone heads served. There are some sculptures that appear to give the impression that they are meant to resemble severed heads…
However, it appears that two guys have been eaten by a monster, and one can see what looks like a human arm dangling from the beast’s mouth. My two favorites are…
…either the Celts were really bad at making stone heads, or this one was meant to be humorous. Perhaps he drank too much Celtic ale! And I dig this one too…
…why? Because one might just believe that the guys who made up Dr. Who bad guys saw it when they came up with the…
…Sontarans.
It is true that Celtic stone heads have been worked into architectural features, such as being…
…carved into walls, or standing in relief. As a result, many reckon with a Celtic Cult of the Severed Head. And thus we find some very bizarre suggestions about ancient Celtic structures. We go from…
…to the suggestion that the holes in the pillars were intended to hold…
…something like that. It seems to me, and I’m sure I’m wrong, that all of this is probably being misunderstood. This is…
…the opening scene of The Exorcist. It is Hatra, a key archaeological site. And it is here that Father Merrin was working as part of the excavation of the site.
…at the bottom center of the shot you can see the Good Father pulling up in his jeep. I would briefly reiterate something I have said before…the name of the movie is not…The Exorcism…or…The Exorcism of Regan MacNeil. No, the name of the movie is…The Exorcist. And who is the exorcist? The exorcist is Father Merrin. So the movie is really about him. However, it doesn’t seem that way since he is present only at the beginning, and then at the end. We see far more of Regan, Chris, and Karras than we ever see of Father Merrin. However, I would put it this way. If you reconstruct the story of Father Merrin in the movie, then you will find a story that no one has ever seen since it first appeared in 1973. Well, except in my fevered delusions. Once the story of Father Merrin is finally grasped…then it will be immediately clear that there are several stories running through the film that are distinct, yet intersect one another in all-important ways. I have begun reconstructing these stories on this website, and will continue to do so until they are all complete. But in reality, Father Merrin’s story begins at Hatra, and in a strange way, ends there as well. What happened to Merrin at Hatra reached its culmination in Regan MacNeil’s bedroom…don’t take that the wrong way. What started and remained unfinished at Hatra ended and was finished in Washington D.C.
Still, I bring up Hatra at this point because it is worth bearing in mind when one talks about Celtic heads and whether there ever was a Cult of the Severed Head. Here are shots from Hatra that are worth looking at…
There was no Cult of the Severed Head at Hatra. What you are looking at…these stone heads…many human, but others animal, are decoration.
That is the god Shamash who, like Pazuzu, managed to survive the passage of time since the very beginning of it all…
Behold ancient Sumerian Utu, and his Assyro-Babylonian manifestation…Shamash. And one should exercise caution when one finds…
…Oh, no! Stone severed heads! Diabolical…yes? No. These are simply heads from statues or statuettes that have broken off. It is by no means uncommon to find statues and statuettes whose heads have broken off over thousands of years. This…
…is the best example. Archaeologists tell us that this is the Egyptian king named Khufu, who they say built the Great Pyramid at Giza. When it was found, the head was missing. It was found amongst a vast number of broken bits of statues, statuettes, and other bric-a-brac. What happened was that a head was chosen from among the other choices, and then glued onto the shoulders of the Tiniest of Tiny Statuettes. I strongly doubt that the head that was attached is the right one…it’s just a head. And…the whole piece is only a couple of inches tall. I will note, but not rehash, what I have written elsewhere on this website that Khufu was a Tiny Nothing who had nothing to do with the building of the Great Pyramid, which isn’t really a pyramid at all…as far as the idea of a tomb goes. Or a temple. How far does Hatra go as far as a comparison for Celtic heads? I would note my favorite head at Hatra, and bear in mind…
…this is a screen shot from The Exorcist. I will show another image…
This face is really rather fascinating. There is an inscription that identifies it as a Gorgon…a Greek mythological creature who counts Medusa among its number. And the face does have snakes for hair, but the face also has a leafy beard, along with what would seem to be foliage flowing from the sides of the face. And so I show a few images…
Yes, these are all versions of the character known as Green Man. He is best known as a decorative feature found on architectural elements of various kinds, particularly in Britain and France. In Roman times, France was known as Gaul, which was inhabited by people Julius Caesar described as Celts. It is clear that when Green Man is compared to the Hatra Gorgon, we are dealing with variations on the same theme. The notable thing at Hatra is that the Gorgon retains its snake hair, although presentations of Green Man often have a depiction of the leafy hair that is somewhat similar. Green Man originated among the Romans…
However, he is really a composite character based on…
The Greek river god Achelous, who battled with Heracles; Bacchus, Roman god of wine; and Dionysus (the two images to the right), god of vegetation and wine, who was the exemplar for the Roman Bacchus. The fact that the Hatra Green Man still has his snake hair would suggest that he is older than forms which lack this element. So there is a remarkable amount of commonalities between Celtic Heads and Hatra heads. And I would emphasize something else…
As I said earlier, this is Hatra’s version of the god Shamash…the Sun God. When you live in the middle of the scorching desert, Shamash is bound to be at the top of your pantheon. But at Hatra, he also had a title. What was it? Maren. Sounds a little like…Merrin. And since I mentioned Shamash and Maren-Merrin, and Merrin is a priest, I can play…Who Is Your God? I played that earlier in Part 3 with the God of the Old Testament…whose name you can’t speak because you’ll die, and the fact that we don’t know FOR CERTAIN what His name is…we won’t die because we inadvertently uttered a name that is used thousands of times in the Old Testament; i.e. the one who was the Friend of Abraham, with whom he was on a first-name basis. Clearly, Shamash’s rays are the rays of the sun. And Shamash is the same as…
…Sol Invictus…the Unconquered Sun. Well, except for the one on the far right. He was popular with soldiers, and came to replace Apollo, or at least as a different manifestation of the same thing. One emperor in particular who venerated Sol Invictus was Aurelian. He built a new temple to Sol Invictus, which was dedicated on…December 25, 274. However, that wasn’t the only thing that happened to Sol Invictus on December 25th…he officially became one of the most important deities in the Roman empire. And when did the Christian Sabbath…the day of rest…stop being Saturday? That is the Jewish Sabbath and originally that of Christianity too. The change happened on March 7, 321. That was the day that the emperor Constantine declared Sunday…the Day of the Sun…as the day of rest. And it is equally interesting that before Constantine threw in his lot with the Christians, his main devotion was to…Sol Invictus. And it was before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge that Constantine had his vision of the Chi-Rho in the sky, followed by a dream where Christ told him to win his war to be sole emperor by using that very symbol. Of course, the well-known account of Constantine and his Magical Sun before the battle is the second version of the story. St. Eusebius of Ceasarea…a man who forwarded a Whole Lotta Nonsense about many things, yet Unadulterated Divinely Inspired Truth about other things…a man well-deserving of his Not-Tektonikian-Honorary-Sainthood, wrote both accounts. The first was simply anhistorical account without the Chi-Roh Fiction. But when Constantine, backed by Eusebius and other leading Christians as the emperor who would protect and promulgate Christianity if he had the unconditional support of the Churchmen, the guy who would end the persecutions and normalize Christianity, needed to rest upon the notion that God and Christ had chosen him to be emperor, i.e. he needed the Credibility of God, Eusebius wrote a second, more engrossing, account of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge complete with the Chi-Roh. In Biblical terms, Constantine got his Call Narrative…just like Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, the Apostle Paul, and many others. And there were important religious rituals associated with Sol Invictus. The most important was a festival known as Dies Natalis Solis Invictus…the festival of the Day of the Birth of Sol Invictus…December 25th is the birthday of Christ? No one has any idea when Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, the Son of Man and Son of God, the Alpha and the Omega…the Beginning and the End…was born. In fact, scholars don’t agree on the YEAR in which he was born…much less the month and day… although I’m sure that Miriam of Nazareth knows. In another essay on this website I have taken the position that Christ was born in the same year that saw the death of King Herod the Great, and despite being Tektonikus…the Beyond the Paler…I am certain that Matthew’s…Slaughter of the Innocents…did in fact take place in that year, although I took the position that the massacre happened, not because Herod was inexplicably worried about the birth of just another baby who would ultimately become so much more than just another baby, but because rebels had taken the bribe from the Magi that Herod would not.
Protestant or Catholic, if you’ve been to church you’ve seen the Chi-Roh. Here it is in The Exorcist…
What makes this shot so cool is the way that Karras almost seems to be rising up from the Chi-Roh. In two ways, Father Karras…as we see him in the film…is a distortion of the Real Damien Karras…he isn’t in any way the man he seems to be. I will develop that further in a different essay. But one can ask the question as to whether the Chi-Rho as we have it…is it really what Constantine says he saw in the sky before he turned to the Christian God to establish his reign? Hmm. I found this fascinating image…
Sol Invictus…Constantine’s god…is obviously in the center. The Chi-Roh as we know it is on the left. What is on the right? Well, one possibility is that it is simply the rays of the sun…and that this is what Constantine saw in the sky. This mosaic does it justice…
…a very Apollo-like Christ. And with Sol Invictus being metaphorically born on December 25th, Constantine replacing Mars with Sol Invictus in 310, and then establishing Sunday as the day of rest in 321…well…let’s just say that Christ was born on December 25th and you arrive at the genius of Constantine…he kept his pagan god by creating an amalgamation of Sol Invictus with the One, True Living Christ. And no…there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. History owes a tremendous debt to Constantine, as flawed as he was. In fact, the Old Testament utilizes a fascinating messianic title…
…Shemesh-Tzedakah…the Sun of Righteousness. The title is used in Malachi 4:2…
But for all of you who revere My name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his rays. And you will go about leaping for joy like calves in the pasture.
Well, that’s how Malachi put it, and I couldn’t have said it any better.
And now I will wrap up this brief digression about Sol Invictus worthy of this serial essay. That means bringing into the discussion that Biggest Little Guy in the Universe…the guy who Maren-Merrin believed would helop defeat Lamashtu, thereby saving himself and an Afflicted-Twelve-Year-Old-Girl-With-Gorgeous-Teeth. I emphasize…help. One more powerful than Pazuzu would also be there…and that is the subject of the concluding episode of this boring multi-part ranting and raving. What is the origin of Green Man, be it European, Roman, or Hatrian? Who cares about the oranges of this? The better question is…where is the genesis of this matter? Here’s a crazy idea…
Crazy indeed! The guy on the right is the Hatrian Gorgon-Green Man. The guy on the left…who looks like he has foliage growing out of his face, is our Favorite Spirit-Being From Mesopotamia, though it now seems that he is everywhere and everywhen. Who? Pazuzu of course…the Spirit-Being Who Simply Refused To Die…who found a way to keep popping up wherever and whenever…though he often hid behind other manifestations. And if he was critical to the outcome of The Exorcist…in the view of the Good Father…and who am I to question him? Well, I agree with him in a metaphorical way that will become clear in the final episode. But if Greenman is, in fact, Pazuzu…then Assyria’s Anything-But-A-Little-Guy, given just how far and wide Greenman appears in Europe…then yet again…Pazuzu has been standing right before you and simply didn’t see him…the Prince of the Power of the Air floating all around us…what a strange thing that would be.
As for Karras, rising up out of the sun would imply a metaphorical rise up to Heaven. However, the following image is taken from his dream sequence…
…I’m sure you see it. Karras stands directly in front of a sign with an arrow pointing up to Heaven…with PROHIBITED appearing directly above the arrow. And what do we see immediately preceding this?
He’s not just a dog…he’s a black dog…a Black Dog. Just having a little fun, one could note…
…that’s right! Led Zeppelin’s fourth studio album…released in 1971. That album included the song, which you may have heard, called Black Dog. And! There is another song on that album that you may have heard…Stairway to Heaven. In Karras’s dream, the way to heaven is prohibited.
Sadly, it is the Stairway From Heaven that he will find himself tumbling down when he meets his Helluva Fall.
And I would be remiss, if not remisser, if I were to pass over a very strange type of Cephalophore described by the roving alchemist, sorcerer, philosopher, astrologer, magician, doctor, caster of horoscopes, fraud, and crazy person who made a deal with the devil…who appeared to him in a forest one night claiming to be…
…Mephistopheles…although in some versions of the story of Johann Georg Faust, Mephistopheles and God make a bet over the soul of…
…Faust…which is not too original, seeing how Yahweh and The Satan made a bet about whether Job would remain faithful to God if a few...shall we say…negative things…befell the Man from Uz. Much of what had been handed down about a man who appears to have called himself…
Georgius Sabellicus, Faustus junior, fons necromanticorum, astrologus, magus secundus…
…Georgius Sabellicus, Faustus Jr, Necromancer, Astrologer, and Second Magician…to translate loosely. The Catholic church labelled him a blasphemer after he claimed to be able to perform the same miracles Christ had performed. But yet more! He was also a palm-reader (chiromanticus), one who divines things while standing in a field (agromanticus), or standing on the earth (geomanticus), or divining by the power of the air (aeormanticus), or looking at stuff floating on water (hydromanticus), or staring at a fire (pyromanticus). It would seem that Medieval European Christians had retained a penchant for pagan nonsense. But what does…Second Magician…mean? Well, one might point out that he wasn’t…the First Magician…Zoroaster…whom some identified with a strange character who appears in the Book of Acts with an equally strange name…
…Simon Magus…Simon the Magician, or…Simon the Sorcerer. He started out as a disciple of Philip the Evangelist, being from Samaria, and later, upon crossing paths with the Apostle Peter, was so impressed with the power of the One Bearing the Keys of the Kingdom that he offered to buy that power with…money. Hence the term…Simony…which in the Medieval world, referred to the condemnable practice of buying positions within the church. Simon was reputed to have had genuine magical abilities…including the ability to fly…and was the founder of a sect of Gnostic Christians known as Simonians. For some early Christians, the conflict between Simon and Peter was really a conflict between Peter and Paul, and it is known that the Ebionite Christians, a Jewish-Christian group who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the prophesied Messiah, but not actually divine, and rightly rejected the Myth of the Virgin Birth…and used a version of the Gospel of Matthew beginning with Chapter Three…i.e. where the Gospel of Mark begins and lacking the later Gospel of the Young Jesus…rejected Paul as a true Apostle…unlike Simon Peter. In other words, the Ebionites paid Peter to get rid of Paul, who was then metaphorically, not Mephistophelically, equated with Simon Magus. So Faustus would appear to have viewed himself, with all his -mancies, as the heir to Simon Magus. Zoroaster was a Persian prophet who founded a religion whose influence soon spread far and wide. He was also associated with a star-cult…
…and it will be remembered that in the Gospel of the Young Jesus, the Magi follow a star to Bethlehem. And…as it so happens…I believe that to be genuinely historical…just not quite in the way that the Magi Story was recast. Of course a magus was a pagan religious functionary…and it is odd…perhaps not…that the Three Magi, the Three Sorcerers…had to be cleaned-up a bit if they were to appear in your kids’ Christmas Pageant. So they became the Three Wisemen…although the Gospel of the Young Jesus doesn’t actually say there were three…while Simon the Wiseman becomes Simon the Sorcerer…with all the pagan connotations associated with sorcery…connotations that Faust, and presumably…Mephistopheles…had no qualms with claiming.
And he managed to gain a reputation for being a Sodomite…to put it nicely. Sexually degrading accusations have always been a prime way of attacking your foes, enemies, or those with whom you disagree…so I’ll go ahead and call that one baloney. Faust died after a chemistry experiment blew-up in his face, leaving him terribly mutilated…interpreted as indicating that the Devil…Mephistopheles…had come to collect his soul. There is, perhaps, some justice in Faust’s terrible death, seeing what a terrible fate befell a priest named Dorstenius, who had the misfortune of encountering Faust and mentionning that he was rather tired of having to shave every morning. Faustus suggested that Dorstenius use his new super-duper arsenic gel to remove his beard. While it was effective on Dorstenius’s beard, it also took off most of his face. And I’m sure that the non-existent readers of Stuff On This Website know that before Rock music was blamed for corrupting the Youth of America, comic books were to blame, and the agitations of a Weird Anti-Comic-Book-Guy ended up in a rating system for comic books. The most cited offenders were horror comics and true-crime comics which were, in many instances, pretty disturbing. And I remember one such comic that came immediately to mind when I read what Faustus’s Special Formula Shaving Cream did to the face of poor Dorstenius…
But, Mephistopheles, you said this Arsenic Thing would work!
And Faust, despite the temporary set-back, decided to use comic books to peddle his Faustian All-Body Arsenic Shower Gel…
…well…his beauty products business isn’t doing so great…but you should see him tell the future by tossing pebbles into a well! And since the disturbing world of young boys’ comics of the 1940s and 1950s was brought up by Georgius Sabellicus, I would simply note that they had a particular fascination with disembodied heads…
I suppose a rating system wasn’t such a bad idea after all…for comics and skin care products…
Look, Faust…all I want is my money back!
And surely there is a purpose for violating the latest fiats issued by the Full Committee For the Staying On Track and digressing into a weird and bizarre corner of this Realm…a rare thing indeed. Yes…a special type of late Medieval Cephalophore owes its very existence to the Man Of A Million -Mancies! According to Faust, there was a special kind of sorcerer…they didn’t use fields, the earth, water, fire, or any other silly means to entertain. Oh, no…not these guys! According to Faust, he knew of a group of magicians who would decapitate themselves, and then stick their own heads back onto their shoulders. Then do it over and over and over again. Now that’s entertainment!
I have to say that I’m all about Poetic License; but not just that…Artistic License…interpretation, as it were. And that brings me to one of the most famous heads of all…not to mention…one of my very favorites. Yes, Regan MacNeil. And I thought that a brief look at her, as seen through the eyes of others, would prove, at the very least, interesting, if not somewhat mind-boggling. As pretty as Linda Blair was, it seems as though it was rather difficult to reproduce her…
…a special call-out for this one…
I’m somewhat confused by all the depictions of Regan MacNeil that feature green skin…she had a blue tinge to her skin, blue because of deficulty breathing due to…wait, I’m in danger of getting ahead of mysef. And art isn’t art until you have…drawings…
But for that matter, Linda Blair didn’t do a very good job herself…
And there have been some interesting adaptations…
Super sexy Regan with toned down facial wounds and red lipstick…and given the basic idea…no vomit. Vomit would taste bad when you kiss! And along the same lines…
No! No! No! You don’t get it! Regan’s blue housecoat gives way to lingerie and some very interesting sandals, which I don’t recall having seen Regan wear. But I’ll look again. And now for…
!Mine is sow the away Keep
Yes! The Regan MacNeil ventriloquist dummy! And wearing too much eye make-up. And while it’s true, as the sampling above shows, some have felt the need to exaggerate the Horror-Movie-Aspect of what is manifestly not a horror movie, some have actually gone the other way…
…very cute. At the same time, some have done a pretty good job of depicting Regan MacNeil…
…these are all quite good, with the depiction second from the left being the scene where Regan, with the exorcism underway, suddenly sits up, looks at Karras…
…and then Karras has his hallucination, which we also have, seeing through his eyes…
…but Father Merrin clearly didn’t. The depiction on the far right is, or so I believe, the scene at the very end when Karras makes a most pathetic attempt to revive Merrin, but one I think he thought would be good enough for his alibi…Regan. I think that Karras was putting a lot on having Regan tell the cops that she saw Karras try to revive Merrin like you see on TV. But that goes out the window when…
…she laughs, and he flys off into a rage. Whether horrible or cute…or anywhere in between…like a Cephalolphoric Saint carrying his head through a mystic forest in Cornwall as wells of living water bubble up from the ground as he makes to his way to his final destination, the story is one that will never die. It’s too bad that it has been so misunderstood…and probably by no one more than me. Or not. But when all is said, I did find a Regan MacNeil head that I like best…
Now that’s more like it!