Mellified man

 

Some bizarre facts (or factoids?) coined from various Wiki entries. I mean, wtf. 

>>>In traditional medicine in Europe, human fat was believed to have a healing magic significance until the 19th century. Many executioners recovered the fat from the bodies of their executants, called "Armsünderfett" or "Armsünderschmalz" (German: fat or grease from poor sinners put to death), and sold it. 

>>>For some executioners the marketing of human fat was a major source of revenue. The human fat was used to make ointments for treatment of various diseases such as bone pain, tootache and gout. It was also regarded as a panacea for particular diseases associated with cachexia (e.g. tuberculosis). Also an analgesic effect in rheumatoid arthritis was attributed to human fat.

>>>From the late 19th century, human fat was produced and offered under the trade name Humanol as a sterile, liquified preparation for injections in Germany. In 1909 it was introduced for surgical treatment of scars, wound disinfection, and wound revisions. In the 1920s it became out of fashion after low cure rates and the incidence of fat embolisms caused by its application.

>>>The Italian surgeon Giovanni da Vigo (1450–1525) defined mumia as "The flesh of a dead body that is embalmed, and it is hot and dry in the second [grade], and therefore it has virtue to incarne [i.e., heal over] wounds and to staunch blood", and included it in his list of essential drugs. The Swiss-German polymath Paracelsus (1493–1541) gave mummia a new meaning of "intrinsic spirit" and said true pharmaceutical mummia must be "the body of a man who did not die a natural death but rather died an unnatural death with a healthy body and without sickness". 

>>>The German physician Oswald Croll (1563–1609) said mumia was "not the liquid matter which is found in the Egyptian sepulchers," but rather "the flesh of a man that perishes a violent death, and kept for some time in the air", and gave a detailed recipe for making tincture of mumia from the corpse of a young red-haired man, who had been hanged, bludgeoned on the breaking wheel, exposed to the air for days, then cut into small pieces, sprinkled with powdered myrrh and aloes, soaked in wine, and dried.

>>>He [Pierre Belon] said Europeans were importing both the "falsely called" mumia obtained from scraping the bodies of cadavers, and "artificial mumia" made by exposing buried dead bodies to the heat of the sun before grinding them up. While he considered the available mumia to be a valueless and even dangerous drug, he noted that King Francis I always carried with him a mixture of mumia and rhubarb to use as an immediate remedy for any injury.

>>>The barber surgeon Ambroise Paré (d. 1590) revealed the manufacture of fake mummia both in France, where apothecaries would steal the bodies of executed criminals, dry them in an oven, and sell the flesh; and in Egypt, where a merchant, who admitted to collecting dead bodies and preparing mummia, expressed surprise that the Christians, "so dainty-mouthed, could eat the bodies of the dead".

>>>A mellified man, also known as a human mummy confection, was a legendary medicinal substance created by steeping a human cadaver in honey. The concoction is detailed in Chinese medical sources, including the Bencao Gangmu of the 16th century. Relying on a second-hand account, the text reports a story that some elderly men in Arabia, nearing the end of their lives, would submit themselves to a process of mummification in honey to create a healing confection.

>>>This process differed from a simple body donation because of the aspect of self-sacrifice; the mellification process would ideally start before death. The donor would stop eating any food other than honey, going as far as to bathe in the substance. Shortly, the donor's feces and even sweat would consist of honey. When this diet finally proved fatal, the donor's body would be placed in a stone coffin filled with honey.

>>>After a century or so, the contents would have turned into a sort of confection reputedly capable of healing broken limbs and other ailments. This confection would then be sold in street markets as a hard to find item with a hefty price.

Human marmalade

 

What the fuck...

Some quotes from the Wikipedia entry "Medical cannibalism". 

>>>Medical cannibalism in Europe reached its peak in the 16th century, with the practice becoming widespread in Germany, France, Italy, and England. At that time, most "raw materials" for the practice came from mummies stolen from Egyptian tombs; additionally skulls were taken from Irish burial sites and gravediggers sometimes robbed and sold body parts. Medicines were created from human bones, blood, and fat and believed to treat many types of illnesses. Tinctures to treat internal bleeding were made by soaking mummified bodies in alcohol or vinegar. Powdered skull was used to treat ailments of the head, and was sometimes mixed with chocolate to treat apoplexy. In the early 19th century, Englishmen still treated epilepsy by mixing skull with molasses.

>>>Blood, specifically, soon evolved to be seen as a substantial elixir  — especially fresh, warm human blood because it was believed to still possess the soul of the deceased. For example, it was believed that drinking the blood of a strong person or a wise person would result in an increase of strength or wisdom, respectively, because once ingested, the spirit of the deceased connected with that of the consumer and lend them its power. This belief was especially common in Germany. Even the poor, who could not afford other remedies, took part in this practice by bringing a cup to executions, paying the executioner a small fee, then filling their cup with the fresh blood. The execution of criminals was seen as having a double advantage: alive they were "a burden on the nation", but their dead bodies had "the power to serve a public good" by improving the health of others.

>>>Europeans also adopted a belief they considered to be of Ancient Egyptian origin, namely that the more valuable corpses were those of young individuals, especially those that had died a brutal sudden death, for it was believed that the spirit would remain trapped within the body for a longer period of time, and thus have greater healing powers.

>>>In Europe, the human blood was normally drunk warm and fresh for increased effectiveness, but some people preferred to have it cooked. Therefore a recipe for turning blood into marmalade was invented. In 1679, a Franciscan apothecary suggested letting the blood partially dry and chopping it into small pieces to allow any remaining water to seep out. Then it was cooked into a batter before sifting it into a jar.

>>>Mummia quickly became popular throughout Europe within the 16th century and was thought to cure all kinds of ailments. To prepare it, the black remnants in the skull and abdominal cavities were scraped out of mummies and placed in a large vase. Apothecaries mixed this mummia with herbs and wine, then prescribed it as medicine for their patients. In Germany, it was still occasionally offered for sale in the early 20th century.

>>>Around the early 1600s, a recipe for a "wine" made from human flesh was invented in Germany. According to this recipe, the body of a human – preferably a young, flawless red-head – was used. The flesh was chopped up and mixed with aloe and myrrh, then mashed and cured into "wine."

Shameless

 

The great shameless audacious bawler will make Byzantium change its laws, blah blah. Why are there no obvious Nostradamus quatrains predicting Donald Trump? I mean, it´s almost as if Nostradamus (or at least his interpreters) don´t really know what´s going to happen. Or something.

So where are they?

 

This is a long but somewhat interesting video on the Wild Man, a character known from European folklore and mythology. There are also some excurses to North Africa and the Middle East. Yes, that would be Enkidu and the Biblical Esau, who was born hairy. In fact, there is even more than this to cover. For instance, legends of giants. Or even pygmies, if you want to go there. There is a Swedish/Finnish connection, too: a Wild Man is depicted in the coat of arms of Lapland.

But back to the video. The content-creator treats the Wild Man folklore as genuine reports of Bigfoot-like creatures. From this, he draws the conclusion that Bigfoot is more human-like than we´ve been lead to believe. Above all, Bigfoot is real and has been around since the dawn of time, perhaps as an alternate lineage of Homo?

Of course, to believe this, you have to first believe that modern Sasquatch reports are genuine. The Wild Man is virtually impossible to distinguish from *other* creatures of myth and folklore I assume the content-creator doesn´t believe are real. What about fire-breathing dragons, thunderbirds that can abduct adult moose, or enormously large lindorms in the Swedish countryside? There is zero evidence that such things ever existed, in fact, it´s not even clear whether they *can* exist. Yet, there are alleged eye witnesses (see my review of Hyltén-Cavallius´ 1885 book on the famed lindorm elsewhere on this blog). 

It´s not clear to me that the modern Bigfoot reports are any better (or worse) than equally modern reports about even more fantastic creatures, such as thunderbirds, dog-men, or the Jersey Devil. And they, too, have analogues or even direct precursors in mythology and folklore. Are *they* real, too? 

Ultimately, we have to ask: if the Wild Men (and, I suppose, Women) are real, well, where are they? There is no archeological evidence that such tribes of people persisted into the Middle Ages or Early Modern Period (yes, medieval and modern archeology is a thing). Nobody has found any bodies. The only thing we have are stories, many of which can be given alternative explanations. Yes, they are myths about liminality, not literal accounts of meetings with surviving Paranthropi. The extremely fierce "Gorillai" encountered by Hanno in Africa could have been chimpanzees. The se´irim are Hebrew demons, not hairy savages. Well, at least not according to Wikipedia! 

And of course there is no evidence for dragons, werewolves or super-sized birds of prey either. 

My main problem with (modern) Bigfoot is that people keep seeing the squatches everywhere across North America - including the plains of Kansas, at tourist hot spots, at highways, or even in suburbia - and yet there is almost no tangible evidence that the creature exists at all. Yet, scientists have tracked down rare but real animals such as the Bili ape. This suggests that we´re either dealing with an extremely rare species hyped by the media (so people think they see it everywhere), pure fantasy all the way down, or some kind of paranormal phenomenon. 

The YouTube channel "Cabin in the Woods" is open to paranormal explanations. But the Wild Man mythology doesn´t depict a woodland sprite, but a flesh-and-blood creature with a rather broad range. And that´s surely the least likely explanation to this problematique.         

The 40 ethers

 

OK, this was actually quite interesting. The Golden Dawn-adjacent esotericist down under who calls himself Frater Eleftheria discusses what kind of experiences you can expect when practicing "Enochian magick" according to the system developed by John Dee and Edward Kelley (the notorious 16th century ritual magicians). 

The system is mostly "internal" and brings changes to your consciousness, which can sometimes be rather powerful. Thus, Eleftheria managed to temporarily cure his melancholy as a teenager by invoking the angel of Jupiter. An original pastime for a 17-year old! That being said, the visions seen when scrying (for instance in a crystal ball) are regarded as objective. The soul really does peer into an alternate reality in which angels freely roam. Eleftheria claims that different mages often get the same visions independently of each other. 

Dee´s and Kelley´s "48 calls" give you access to the "40 ethers". They look like barren landscapes on another planet and are filled with Enochian angels who often take bizarre forms: abstract geometric shapes, lots of wings and lots of eyes. Think the meme "Biblically accurate angel". I was reminded of the scene in "Watchmen" where Doctor Manhattan flies around Mars in a very strange space craft! The point of the exercise is frankly less clear, except that the angels will give you some kind of information which will bring about a positive change in your consciousness...

Still, an intriguing look at a rather unusual spiritual technique.  

Lower Slobbovia R Us

 

Credit: Unknown.
But it´s Slobbovia, so nobody cares!

I never heard of Lower Slobbovia before, apparently some kind of Jewish-Amerikan parody of Siberia. Or Russia. I admit that it´s convincing! As for our man JMG, he better hurry up with that next essay about the impending AI collapse because...you know. Collapse now and avoid the rush, that kind of thing. 

Situationism: The Road from Raswashingsputin

The time is near (again)

 

Of course, "The Prophecy of the Popes" - attributed to the medieval Irish saint Malachy but actually a late 16th century fake - has been dusted off in the aftermath of Pope Francis´ passing. 

According to the true believers, the next-to-last pope in the prophecy, Glory of the Olive, is Benedict XVI. This would make Francis the last pope, called Petrus Romanus in the prophecy. And that, in turn, means that the end of the world is near. Except of course that the actual text of the "prophecy" doesn´t fit anything that happened under Francis...

Apparently, three of the supposed front runners to the position of next pope are named Peter and one of them is an Italian (hence Roman). So perhaps the next pontiff will be the elusive last one? But please note that there will be massive persecutions of Catholics under Peter the Roman according to "Malachy", which doesn´t seem particularly likely any time soon.

However, we can say with outmost certainty that "The Prophecy of the Popes" will be taken down from the shelves again when Francis´ successor passes away or resigns. World without end! 

Every man an aristocrat

 

Johannes Bureus 

“Alla är vi valloner” (We are all Walloons) is a 2023 book by Peter Sjölund, a Swedish expert on genealogical research. Apparently, he managed to solve a crime case using DNA-based genealogies. In this somewhat eclectic book, Sjölund takes the reader on a roller coaster ride through “true and false genealogies in Sweden”. I rather naïvely assumed that Swedish genealogical research must be at least relatively easy, due to the large amount of preserved church documents detailing every birth, marriage and death in the parish. Especially today, when the stuff is usually digitalized and available on the web. While that´s true, many databases apparently contain fake genealogies, invariably ones going back centuries – even millennia – to ancient kings or heroic knights. This has led to the emergence of a kind of cult genealogy, with Internet-based communities of true believers hotly defending unproven family lineages, even to the point of uploading the “information” into genealogical databases. If this sounds a lot like, say, the 17^th century…bingo. It´s absolutely that kind of thing. Indeed, some of the fake genealogies quite literally hail from that century!

A large portion of the book deals with Johan Bure (Johannes Bureus), the 17^th century Swedish polymath, whose omnivorous interests ranged from documenting runic inscriptions to literal mysticism. Bureus did carry out extensive and quite serious genealogical research (perhaps uniquely for his time), interviewing his relatives and comparing oral traditions from different branches of the family, visiting several different Swedish provinces in the process. In this way, he managed to trace his ancestry back about 300 years. That Bureus wasn´t confabulating is proven by the fact that most of his ancestors were ordinary peasants, and that he also included stories about criminal family members (including some who were executed). The Bure family (Bureätten) in *this* sense has been mostly proven by modern DNA research.

However, as a child of the nobility-obsessed 17^th century, Bureus simply couldn´t stop there. He went further and eventually created a fantasy genealogy for himself, centered on a 12^th century knight named Fale Bure, very loosely based on a real person whose name is found on a tomb in the church at Skön in Medelpad. Bureus improved the local tall tales surrounding this supposed medieval hero (whose original name was Fartegn unge or Fale hin unge) and claimed descent from him – since this would give Bureus aristocratic ancestry. Three of Johannes Bureus´ cousins would later improve upon his “research”, inventing further lineages, much to their benefit (all three cousins were ennobled by king Gustavus Adolphus). And so it went, with distant relations of Bureus making up their own family lines. And apparently some people still today believe it!

The author tells a dramatic story from 2013 about how he and some associates managed to stop the rising of a modern statue of Fale Bure outside a large shopping mall at Birsta in Medelpad, close to Skön. The grand ceremony (which was supposed to include Viking Age-obsessed Swedish pop star E-type!) was cancelled at the last moment and the statue placed outside the Skön church instead. Not sure if policing local mythology in this way is the best way to spend your time as a skeptical genealogist, but there you go.

Another family of tall tales (pun intended) concerns the Walloons. Just like the Bure story, a grain of truth has metastasized into something else entirely. During the 17^th century, thousands of Walloons from the Spanish Netherlands and adjacent territories did immigrate to Sweden. (Present-day Wallonia is a region in southern Belgium.) The Walloons spoke a language related to French. Still today, some old Swedish families have French surnames and can trace some of their ancestry back to the Walloon immigrants. At some point during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the 17^th century Walloons – some of whom were smiths and hence highly skilled workers – became downright mythologized, both by the Swedish labor movement and by race biologists. The latter claimed that Walloon-Nordic intermarriage was one of the few examples of beneficial race mixing, a message heavily promoted through exhibitions directed at the general population. By contrast, Travelers (a Gypsy-like sub-population) were considered extremely low on the racial hierarchy. Both Walloons and Travelers were considered to be “darker” than pure bred Swedes. This probably prompted people of Traveler ancestry to claim Walloon ancestry instead. 

Gradually, the stereotypical “Walloon” acquired more and more characteristics usually considered negative and malformed, such as a big hump at the back of the neck, a constant propensity for back pain, or strange thumbs. Black hair and green or brown eyes seem to be constant. It does sound like some kind of “cope”. If you´re different in a “bad” way, at least you can claim descent from a respected (and to many people somewhat mysterious) immigrant group. (Fun fact: the only person with a Walloon surname I ever met looked almost stereotypically Nordic!)

“Alla är vi valloner” does contain some other interesting information (you´d never guess where the name “Rambo” originally comes from), but the above was what caught my eye on a first reading. As for myself, one of the names running in my family come from medieval Spanish knights claiming descent from Theoderic the Great, the famed Ostrogoth king of Italy. And since the Goths according to their mythology originated in Scandza (perhaps Scandinavia), this would make me more primordially Swedish than most Swedes. If you choose to believe the hype, that is. Another family name is Basque. And the Basque are racially pure Paleo-Europeans from Atlantis, right? Right.

When will wayward humanity come to its senses, I wonder?

Well, actually

 

An usurper flashing three crowns!

So I decided to look into the origins and meaning of the three crowns shown in the Swedish coat of arms. Or coats of arms (in the plural). The reason? Denmark recently dropped the three crowns from *its* royal coat of arms. See an earlier blog post!

Finding out the symbolism of the three crowns turned out to be more difficult than I expected. In middle school, I heard a "folk interpretation" of the three crowns: they supposedly stand for Svealand, Götaland and Norrland. That is, the three geographical regions of Sweden. However, this can´t be the original meaning, since Sweden had a different territorial extension before 1809. Nor is it the official meaning even today. Indeed, the three crowns doesn´t seem to have any particular legal meaning. They are simply the traditional symbol of the Swedish kingdom, period.

Diving into the matter, it turns out that the 13th century king Erik Eriksson (later mockingly known as Erik the Lisping and Limping) used a royal coat of arms showing three crowned lions. This was obviously inspired by the Danish coat of arms. Of course, it doesn´t explain why there are exactly three lions (and hence crowns) rather than two or just one. I mean, only one man can be king! Erik Eriksson (king 1234-1250) was succeeded by Valdemar Birgersson (king 1250-1275) whose royal coat of arms shows three crowned leopards. Don´t even ask about the distinction between "lion" and "leopard" in heraldry!

Next in line is Magnus Ladulås (king 1275-1290), who used a crowned lion surrounded by three crowns on his seal. Then, it becomes more interesting. During the long reign of king Magnus Eriksson (1319-1364), the three crowns themselves became an emblem for...something. Apparently, there is a fresco in France (!) showing the coats of arms of various rulers and kingdoms represented at a 1336 summit in the papal enclave of Avignon to discuss the calling of a new crusade. The Swedish coat of arms is evidently a shield with three crowns. This could be the earliest evidence for its usage as a "national" symbol. 

We also have coins minted by Magnus Eriksson´s government from 1350, showing a ring with three crowns. However, there is *some* confusion over the exact meaning of the crowns. At the height of his power, Magnus Eriksson was king of three kingdoms (Sweden, Norway and Scania). Is it possible that *this* is the meaning of the three crowns? By all accounts, there was nothing wrong with Magnus Eriksson´s self-confidence. He un-ironically believed himself to be born under a lucky star, claimed to be "God´s favorite", compared himself to king Solomon, etc. Together, his three kingdoms comprised the largest territory in Europe (nominally even including Greenland). Sounds like just the kind of person who would want to flash his success on coinage! 

The first definitive evidence of the three crowns being used as a "national" symbol for Sweden (rather than as a personal symbol) comes from the reign of Albrekt of Mecklenburg (1364-1389). This is somewhat ironic, since Albrekt is universally seen as perhaps the worst monarch in Swedish history, an usurper whose German mercenaries plundered the country in the aftermath of the Great Plague. Albrekt was also supported by a brotherhood of Baltic pirates! However, it may have been precisely due to his somewhat shaky legal status that Albrekt wanted to become associated with the three crowns. It was royal propaganda to prop up his "legitimate" claim to the Swedish crown.

During the 15th century Kalmar Union, both Margareta and Erik of Pomerania used three crowns on their seals. However, I´m not sure if this is supposed to be a seal only used in Sweden or whether it was an informal symbol for the entire union, which did indeed comprise three realms: Sweden, Norway and Denmark (with the latter being strongest). In Sweden, the three crowns were certainly seen as a symbol for Sweden only. They were used that way by notorious on-off king and regent Karl Knutsson Bonde.

After the dissolution of the Kalmar Union in 1523, Denmark kept the three crowns in its greater coat of arms. The usual interpretation is that the three crowns in this context do symbolize the halcyon days of the Union. But that sounds unlikely, since both Denmark and Norway had their own fields in the coat of arms. So it probably does symbolize Sweden specifically and could therefore be interpreted as a veiled Danish claim on the Swedish throne!

Meanwhile, Sweden continued using the three crowns as a symbol for the Swedish kingdom. But - once again - why on earth are there *three* crowns in the coat of arms? There have been all kinds of weird speculations about this, my "favorite" being a 17th century claim that they stand for the Norse gods Odin, Thor and Frey, whose idols in the Uppsala pagan temple were supposedly crowned...yeah, whatever! 

The most likely explanation I´ve come across is that the crowns stand for the three Magi, who were seen as three holy kings during the Middle Ages. The German town of Cologne (Köln) was an important place of pilgrimage during the High Middle Ages and supposedly housed the relics of the Magi. This could explain the obsession with *three* royal symbols: three lions, three leopards, three crowns. King Richard Lionheart had three lions in his coat of arms, and the mythological king Arthur was said to have had a blue shield adorned with three golden crowns.

So there you (probably) have it. It´s actually a symbol for Mesopotamian astrologers mentioned in a holy scripture of some obscure Jewish sect 2000 years ago. You know, the Gospel of Luke...

Everything is well in the world.  

Converso Columbus?

 

That Columbus was really Catalan or Jewish aren´t new ideas, but perhaps the combination is? Not sure how good this new research is, but sure, it´s interesting.

But...do Jews (or Catalans) really want to claim this guy?!  

Christopher Columbus was likely Jewish and Spanish

The wisdom of Solomon

 

Lifting the Lamp explains the basics of Solomonic magic. I assumed stuff like this was supposed to be secret? 

The system apparently includes both instructions to contact demons, ambivalent spirits and good angels. Hmmm...so how do we *know* that the angels are really the good guys? 

Most funny detail: the containers used to trap the demons and force them to do the magician´s bidding! You can see one in the thumbnail above.

Not exactly my path, but still quite interesting...

Deep fake confirmed

 

Credit: MidJourney (?)

Above is an AI-generated picture of Jesus, based on the Shroud of Turin, which many believe is authentic after the latest round of "tests".

But the picture above, while fascinating, rather suggests the opposite: of course it´s a medieval forgery. Jesus wasn´t assumed to look like this until centuries after his death (and resurrection?). See my blog post "Face Off", which links to a YouTube video on the matter, presented by a scholar.  

True Face of Jesus?

Face off

 

A propos the latest claim that the Shroud of Turin may (or must) be authentic. The mysterious face on the Shroud looks too "familiar" or "classical" to be the actual face of a historical person known as Jesus. And indeed, according to the YouTube video above (which is based on scholarly research), Jesus wasn´t originally portrayed with long hair and a beard. That came later (it´s actually a "pagan" thing), so what are the chances that an apocalyptic Jewish preacher looked like a Stoic philosopher or Roman god? Bracing myself for another round of unproductive polemix... 

The Vitruvian Man

 

We all know who *really*
prepared that cloth, don´t we?

Bracing myself for another round of debunking, claims and counter-claims...

Scientists make breakthrough discovery

Heart and horn

 

What are the origins of the pope´s mitre and similar headgear worn by other bishops, both Catholic and non-Catholic? You´ll never guess it. Hint: it has nothing to do with the god Mithras, which I kind of assumed. Nor is there any connection to Dagon (never heard that one) and probably not to the mouth of a fish (a Christian symbol). 

The actual history of the mitre and its symbolism is far stranger and includes a period in art history when Moses was depicted wearing...horns?! Yes, really.   

Catacomb Christians

 

Carrier takes on various myths and misconceptions surrounding the Roman catacombs. 

Myths and Legends of the Christian catacombs

Jailbirds of a feather

 

Have I linked to this before? Jolly heretic Edward Dutton argues that criminality is genetic, not social. Note the discussion on medieval and early modern Venice! 

Renegat

 

Copilot Designer udda fantasibild av Johan III. Lägg märke till de orientaliska inslagen!

Study the notochords

 

Credit: Kaique Rocha (Pexels)

Could ruffle some feathers, since John Michael Greer argues that Pythagoras and his notochord isn´t The Only True Magick Musick... 

Music as a magical language 

When Jack met the aliens

 

Would you just preach the Gospel to these guys?

So C S Lewis wasn´t *that* unique when he combined (mere?) Christianity with speculations about extraterrestrial intelligence. In other words, aliens.

A lot of interesting info in this article!

A very short introduction to the history of Catholic debates about the multiverse and extraterrestrial intelligence