R, ruis, the dwarf elder in Ogham. The rochat, or ... - Rodney Mackay

his subjects, he was always in mortal peril when his
powers were perceived to fail. An inaccurate weather
prediction, inability to pursue a successful war, or obvious
failings in health, might lead to a suspicion that the godpower
had seeped away. Throughout northern Europe this
led to instances of ritual murder, thus Iain Moncrieffe
speaks of the Gaelic "sacrificial cult of the divine-king",
which he explains "venerated the continuity of the embodied
life force." More simply, members of the community took it
upon themselves to kill kings who were seen to be in failing
spirit. This was done benevolently since it was supposed
that the god-spirit should be returned to the earth to be
reborn in a more appropriate body.
In those times, the mechanics of human reproduction
were not well understood, and it was guessed that women
were impregnated through the food that entered their
bellies. If an entrapped god-spirit could be reduced to
"earth" and the earth used to grow crops it was reasoned
that the spirit might then be transferred through a grain
into the womb of a woman, so that a god like Hu of Aod
might be reborn. This belief led to the business of
consigning bodies to funeral pyres, afterwards scattering
the ashes on the fields where "corn" was grown. Collin de
Plancey has noted that, "It was held, during the seventeenth
century, that corpses, the ashes of animals and even the
ashes of burned plants contained reproductive seeds; that a
frog for example could engender other frogs even as it
decayed and that ashes of roses produced new roses..."
Among the Scots, even less spirited men were expected to
undergo periodic reincarnations, and mothers-to-be looked
for dreams so that they might correctly name the baby after
its appropriate ancestor. Where dreams failed, the mothers
consulted baobhs, or witches, whose hindsight was expected
to reveal the necessary information. Until very recently,
my own family has included a member known as Hugh in
each generation.
Within some tribes, the incarnate human gods served a
specified period of years as king, it being thought canny to