Part 11 of ARDA 2 SECTION TWO A - Student Organizations ...

And whose hand sets the geas before you
Like a wall of stone
To this, I give my heart.
Beltaine Fire Invocation
Bhride
Firedancer
in the many-hued arms of flame
daggers of light contained in the chalice of the sky,
overflowing with stars
bright with the song of a thousand souls.
Dance with us, our lives wound in glistening threads
about the spokes of the universe,
braided into the umbilical cord of the navel of the Earth.
Teach us to kindle our inner fire,
And dance our lives in the weavings of flame,
The fire that enkindles the heart into spiralling song.
Bhride
Firesinger
voice leaping with the strength of many deer
into the gates of starlight
where the ancient flames soar.
Sing with us, our lives as the weavings of song
on the loom of the many stringed sky
reflected in the inner sky of the spirit.
Teach us to light our inward flame,
and sing our lives into rising smoke
the fire that burns behind the eyes of all souls
and laughs in the cosmic dance of the universe’s music.
May 1989, Blue Moon Eagle
Rome Discovers It May be Older Than it
Thought
Archaeologists find wall that could add credibility to legend
By Carol Cirulli, Associated Press Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, June 30, 1988 D/11
ROME—Archaeologists have dug up a wall in the heart of
the Roman Forum that could help them discover the secrets of the
founding of Rome. The city could be older than it thinks it is.
The archaeologists say the discovery also could find some
truth in the legend of Romulus and Remus.
According to the legend, Romulus established Rome by
building a defense wall around the Palatine Hill, the site where he
and his twin brother, Remus, were suckled by a she-wolf and
reared by a shepherd. Romulus then founded Rome in 753 B.C.,
as the legend goes.
While the archaeologists don’t believe they’ll find any
proof of Romulus, Remus, the she-wolf and the shepherd, they do
think they might find some truth in the legend about the way
Rome was founded and when.
Andrea Carandini, a University of Pisa professor who is
leading the dig, said archaeologists in May uncovered a stone
wall on a slope of the hill just at the spot described by the ancient
Roman historian Tacitus as the site of the wall that first defined
and protected Rome.
Experts have dated the find to the 7 th century B.C., but
Carandini said in an interview he suspects underneath it is an
earlier version of a defensive wall that could have been built a
century earlier.
395
Archaeologists say reaching the wall could be the first
tangible piece of evidence to back up the story of Rome’s
legendary founding in 753 B.C.
But secrets of the earliest days of Roman civilization may
stay locked in the ground if the government fund that has
financed the dig for the last three years is not replenished.
Carandini says the team needs the equivalent of about $400,000
to continue.
For now Carandini keeps digging.
“We will never discover the wall of Romulus, because
Romulus is a legend, of course,” he said. “But I think the nucleus
of the legend is right, and in a way, we already proved this
because nobody believed that there really was a fortification of
the Palatine Hill.
The base of the hill eventually developed into the Forum,
ancient Rome’s market and meeting place, now a major tourist
attraction.
Experts who have observed the excavations say the
discoveries, if fully documented, will provide significant insight
into the little known period between the 8 th and 6 th centuries B.C.
“It is interesting that the physical objects that (Carandini) is
discovering not only seem to be dated very early in the history of
the city, but are related to the historical texts that talk about the
foundation of the city,” said Richard Brilliant, professor of art
history and archaeology at Columbia University in New York,
who visited the site in May.
“Whether or not conclusions can be drawn about the wall in
the development of the city is something much more research is
needed to demonstrate.”
Alessandro Guidi, an official with the regional archaeology
office, said the find indicates that Rome may have evolved much
earlier than was once believed from a primitive village inhabited
mainly by shepherds into a more advanced society.
“This could be very important because it may be proof that
before the Etruscans conquered Rome, Rome already was a very
big center,” Guidi said.
The defensive wall, discovered about 10 feet below a
grassy surface, probably surrounded a “pomoerium,” or holy
place, in the city that had been founded with the gods’ blessings,
Carandini said.
Above the excavated wall, archaeologists found remnants
of houses they believe date back to the end of the 6 th century B.C.
and belonged to aristocrats of Etruscan origins.
The houses probably were built after the defensive wall
was expanded to surround the seven hills of Rome, Carandini
said.
But it is what lies below the wall that may give real insight
into the founding of one of the world’s most ancient civilizations.
[Again, Pagan myth and legend is found to have a core of truth.]
To the Missal-Any:
It warms me to hear from you again. “Something” is about
right. The seasonal diary format of “Heathen on the Heath” so far
requires me to be a lot more together than I am. I’ll keep the byline
‘cause I like it, but when I do show up, it may be as poet or
general essayist and big mouth, or fictionalizer of small
experiences or writer of love letters to the gods, with no more
whys or wherefores. My ritual consciousness, as of now, is shot
to shit.
As I become more a part of my community, other pagans
begin to emerge one by one from the woodwork—a cohort in my
school music schemes, a Star Route Journal reader or two, other