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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Black has been the color in infinity/life/death in the Indo-European world for millenia. For the Greeks, it was the darkness of the underworld. In India, to this day, black is the color of the goddess Kali who is, herself, black. She is all powerful. She is life and death. She wears a garland of skulls around her neck. In her begnin manifestation, she is Durga, the wife of Shiva. She is still worshipped in north east India. yrs, tom ault On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:49:22 +0000 Ursula Troche <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and >culture > > > Dear Rochelle, Christopher, Meg, Otfried and others, > > basically then the evidence of recognition is far greater than the >funeral director's 'folklore/myth'. Or can it be that different parts >of the country had different beliefs - or perhaps there were >different beliefs at different times? Or should we discard the >undertaker completely? > I had also heard about the belief that the spirits of the dead will >acquire new bodies - they used to believe that in at least parts of >Germany (where i am from) as well. The belief there went beyond >funerals, they thought that even vice versa, that in winter at night >the spirits of the trees could attack those of the dead (except those >who died by sacrifice). Did this belief also exist in Britain? > The idea of the sacrifice sounds quite horrible but as to the >spirits of the deceased acquiring new bodies that might not >necessarily be a bad thing. > And also there is a question on whether these beliefs belonged to >medieval Christianity or 'only' to pagans. > > Where can I read more on the issue? Any literature you can >recommend? > > Ursula > > Christopher Crockett <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and >culture > >From: "Cormack, Margaret Jean" > >>As I recall from the original posting...it was the claim of a funeral > director (not a historian) that the deceased would not be able to >recognize > family members. > > that's right. > >>This strikes me as most unlikely, considering the number of folkloric >>ghosts > that return from the dead precisely to warn the living to reform >their lives. > I´ve never heard or read of a recognition problem. > > of course, the phenomenon (from our Rationalistic point of view) is >purely the > creation of the *living*, not the dead. that being the case, >recognition of > the former by the latter is a Given. > >>I´m guessing that this is just a guess by the funeral director. > > well, i guess it may have originally been a "guess", but i believe >by now what > we're dealing with is a pretty solid piece of Undertakerly Folklore. > > c > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write >to: > [log in to unmask] >For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > > > > --------------------------------- > The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email >address from your Internet provider. > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write >to: > [log in to unmask] >For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html