"ASH Magazine Archive" - 5 new articles
In Memorium
Dave Hunt
1941 - 2009 Friend and mentor across time and space. A tribute by Alex Langstone. It is with great sadness that I can report the death of ASH magazine founder Dave Hunt. Dave was a stalwart of the Earth Mysteries and Occult communities in the south-east and his encyclopedic knowledge of folklore and mythology was outstanding. He spent many years researching landscape mysteries and legends around Essex, a county he loved.
Dave was born in 1941 in Mevagissey, Cornwall and he always loved exploring the British landscape. Indeed in 1993, we spent time researching an alignment of ancient sites across south-west England, which was eventually written up as The Eucharist of Osiris, and published in The Lighthouse volume 2 number 1. But it was in 1985 that I first met Dave. I was a keen and enthusiastic 20 year old, wet behind the ears, but fascinated by esoteric subjects and eager to learn. Dave took me under his wing, and over the months and years that followed I learned much. Dave had a great way of passing on knowledge, and I shall always remember with affection, the years we studied together, and the way Dave always encouraged and supported me. He was the key player in the publication of my book Bega and the Sacred Ring, and without his valuable support I doubt if it would ever have been published! His esoteric legacy spreads far and wide. Dave worked alongside many within the esoteric community. He was a student of 20th century occultist extraordinaire William G. Gray and was an adept of the Craft of Cunning. Dave worked with Andrew Collins during the early Earthquest group, where he helped Andrew research the Running Well Mystery. He later helped Andrew again in the search for the seven swords, by finding the sixth Meonia sword in Tintagel, Cornwall. This episode has been immortalised in chapter 45 of Andrew Collins' psychic questing classic The Seventh Sword. The chapter is entitled Morgana Awakes and absolutely sums up how I will always remember Dave. Dave Hunt co-founded ASH magazine, along with myself, Ian Dawson, Claire Capon and Jim Kirkwood, and under his leadership he encouraged us all to write and lecture about what we had researched. He remained with the magazine until its demise in the spring of 1997. He also helped host two very successful ASH magazine Esoterica conferences and was fundamental in the organisation of the ASH Wednesday public meetings, held during the mid 1990s. He was an active member of the Leigh-on-Sea based Temple of Isis Iseum, during the early 1990s and a valuable guiding light, teacher and mentor in the Clan of the Trees. Dave's biggest legacy though was his research. He spent years researching the Essex Landscape Zodiac, and I sincerely hope that someone, somewhere has this document, and that it will one day be published. I recall spending many happy hours out in the field with Dave, whilst he checked and re-checked the maps and the landscape for clues to the elusive geometry of the Zodiac, and he gave many excellent lectures on this subject. I am very fortunate to have in my possession some of Dave's work, and it will all be published in due course. The thing that will always stay with me most of all was Dave's infectious sense of humour. Many times I recall situations that needed the lightness of his humour and he always made everyone laugh, and this was one of the joys of belonging to some of the groups he was a part of. Dave was a wise soul, who would tell it as it was! He will be sadly missed in the communities he served. Below is a poem from an early issue of ASH, that Dave wrote. I can recall talking to Dave about it at length at an editorial meeting, where it caused much discussion. It is a particular favourite of mine and seems a fitting conclusion to this obituary.  Years EndYears End
by Dave Hunt In the hours between the hours when day has died and night not yet begun and this old Earth is made to sigh by Autumn's dim and dwindling days, over hills and vales made mellow by the mists and setting sun. The Mother of the mystery walks her secret ways. As old as time, and born of time itself She passes, quiet, stealthy and unseen. Shuddering with the cloying cold that surely soon will come. Making Summer's sun and warmth a half remembered dream. And as She passes, with caressing touch, She plucks the life from all She does survey and drops it, gently as a falling leaf, into a basket made of dark decay. Over all the land She wanders, dogged by shades of darkness and of fear, pausing for a while at homesteads locked against the Crone, to scratch at door and window or to freeze the child's tear who hears her in the chimney softly moan. When She has passed the land is locked in Winter's sere and snowy hold. The now dead sun hangs like a pearl in the pewter bowl of sky, yet folk in Albion, huddled round the fires against the cold quietly wait to hear from far a future Child's cry. Written in 1989, and originally published in ASH magazine no. 3.  The Witch and the Stone Folklorist Ian Dawson was one of the founder editors of ASH Magazine, and was at the magazine until the very last issue in 1997. He spent the nine years that ASH was in print, as a loyal and leading light within the editorial team. He wrote more articles than anyone else, and was a champion of the Green Man in Essex, along with being a mine of information on Essex Witchcraft and Cunning Lore. The article below, was one of his earlier ones, and was published in the second issue, which hit the streets in the winter of 1988!The Witch and the Stone by Ian Dawson For years Essex has been known as the witch county, because of the many witchcraft trials held there in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is hardly surprising therefore, that there are many stories about witches and their craft, coming from this part of the British Isles. One such story is that of the Witch of Scrapfaggots Green. For years the villagers of Great Leighs knew of large stone that lay at the crossroads known locally as Scrapfaggots Green. Under the stone were the remains of the Witch of Great Leighs, put to death some 300 years before.
In 1944, during the second world war, the roads leading to Boreham air base had to be widened so that military vehicles could travel along them. One of these roads, called Drachett Lane, led over the crossroads where the witch lay, and an army bulldozer pushed aside the stone that marked the witch's grave. From that day onwards. there followed a series of events that defied all explanation and to which nearly everyone in the village was witness to at one time or another. For instance, after a calm and serene night, a farmer awoke to find his hay stacks had been tipped over and scattered around the surrounding countryside. He also found his wagons had been turned sideways in their sheds and it took the farm labourers half an hour to get them out! Sheep were found outside their still secure pens, yet there were no gaps or any means of escape. A builder found his scaffold poles spread all over his yard and some decorators found their heavy paint pots and tools missing, when they turned up for work at a cottage they were decorating. They finally discovered the paint pots under a bed in the attic. The church bells rang of their own accord at midnight and the church clock was found to be two hours slow. Cows stopped giving milk, chickens stopped laying and three geese disappeared without a trace. Not even a tell-tale feather. A chicken that belonged to no one was found dead in a water barrel. Daily the turmoil grew until a reporter for the Sunday Pictorial arrived on the scene and was witness to one event himself. At the village pub, the Dog and Gun, another large stone turned up on the doorstep. The landlord said he had not seen it before and did not know where it had come from. After he and the reporter struggled to move it out of the way, he stated that it would take at least three strong men to lift it. This, as with the other happenings, had no explainantion. No logical one anyway.The locals though, had their own theory. The moving of the stone at Scrapfaggot Green had let loose the spirit of the witch and it was she who was to blame for all the disturbances. Harry Price, the well known ghost hunter and head of the London University Council for Psychical Investigation, was consulted about the mysterious happenings, and in his view, the events were caused by a poltergeist and suggested the stone should be replaced in its original position. As this action was in accord with local feeling, and that Halloween, the witches night was approaching, they decided that this was what they should indeed do. So out to the stone on Scrapfaggots Green the villagers went and edged it back to its place. From that moment, all the strange activity stopped. They later found out however, that one last trick had been played before the replacement of the stone. A woman who kept rabbits, arrived home to find them all in the chicken coup with the chickens! So what was the cause of all these disturbances? These upsets, although trivial, were witnessed by nearly everyone in the village and some of them would have required super human strength, ruling out the possibility of any foul play. Earth Mysteries enthusiasts would say that the stone at Scrapfaggots Green was a pagan standing stone or markstone, and the removal of this stone would release the earth energies flowing into it, causing poltergeist activity to occur. Or perhaps the villagers of Great Leighs were correct in their assumption, that it was the witch herself who was causing all the mysterious happenings. Records show that there was indeed a witch who came from Great Leighs by the name of Ann Hewghes who was brought to trial at he nearby Chelmsford Assizes in 1621. For various misdemeanors performed on the nights of the witches sabbats, the old Celtic quarter days of Imbolc, Feb. 1st, Beltane April 30th, Lughnasadh Aug. 1st and Samhain Oct. 31st, she was put to death at the stake. As burning of witches did not take place after the reformation, this form of execution seems quite strange. However, among the crimes Ann Hewghes committed was the murder of her husband which was considered petty treason and punishable by burning at the stake. She was buried on the spot and covered by a stone to keep her down. There is no record where this spot was but crossroads were traditionally the burial place of witches. Bones and ashes were said to have been found beneath the stone at Scrapfaggots Green and incidentally, scrapfaggot is an old Essex name for a witch. The stone which turned up at the village pub can still be seen. You will not find it at the dog and gun however, but at the St Annes Castle Inn. It seems that one night, three men from the pub tried to carry off the stone, still known as the witches stone, to no avail. Upon investigation, the stone was found to be too small to be the same one that covered the witches grave, but could it be a fragment of the original stone? The bulldozer that widened the road could quite easily have broken it and a piece found its way to the pub. The fact that the stone is now at St Annes Castle Inn is interesting. The pub is one of the oldest ion England and is haunted by an old lady called Anne. Some say it is he witch herself who has taken up residence at the Inn, arriving with the stone that for so long kept her down. A strange story but a true one. Whatever the case, the facts remain. I'll leave you to decide for yourself.  Notes.
The image above was published with the original article and is by Jim Kirkwood.  The Sacred Flame
The Sacred Flame
by Jim Kirkwood
Kyrie Eleison.
The air is heavy with incense and the sound of a strange chant. I glance across the small chapel to a statue of Mary the mother of God. I like Mary, which I'm told is unusual for one of a protestant background. It seems only a short step from Mother of God to Mother God, yet the Christian faith is still content with the masculine half of the Tao and gets nervous when the subject of God and sexual equality is brought up. For the third time in my life I am attending a Roman Catholic church. It is exactly twenty one years since the first, confused encounter. A priest dressed in white walks around the perimeter of the church and back to the altar. The white robe reminds me of something, a Druid I think. I wonder why they walk round the church carrying a burning censer and a crucifix on a pole. Then I realise he has just formed a circle around the people. A different kind of magic. 
This time I am singing along with the rest, I now know what the strange chant means. Children are playing in the aisles and the music is accompanied by two ladies playing guitar and keyboards making an ethereal sound that echoes round the chapel. The priest, a Dominican brother, talks about love and reads from the Gospel of John, the gospel most favoured by the Celtic church and the Christian mystics down through the centuries. It is the gospel of fire, so called because of the strong image used in the opening chapter of an eternal flame burning in a sea of darkness. Tolkein used exactly the same image in his book, the Silmarillion, when writing the creation myths of Middle-Earth. The idea is of course borrowed from the religion of the Magi and it is interesting that the three wise men who followed a star to the birthplace of Christ, were themselves Magi and astrologers from Persia. The worship of fire forms an essential part of the religion of the Persians, called Zoroastrians after their founder Zoroaster who lived, according to Parsee tradition, between 660 and 583 BC. The element of fire though, was sacred to the Persians long before Zoroaster. The worship of Mithras, a sun god, can be traced back to 1500 BC and there are many aspects of this god which have been attributed to Christ, especially concerning his birth. A hymn, sung to Mithras also reveals importance of the sacrifice of blood. "Thou hast saved us also by pouring out the blood eternal". It is It is an interesting fact that Christ claimed to baptise with fire and his death coincided with a solar eclipse. Apart from the Findhorn community, what do Christians and pagans have in common? To have asked this question a few centuries ago, the answer would have been the stake. Heretics made just as good burning as witches. But it is 1988 and the law, for the moment, is on our side. The answer is simple, yet it would seem difficult for most to accept. We walk the same earth and breathe the same air. The fire of the sun gives us light and warmth to good and bad alike and the same water sustains all life. If we can agree that there is only one power in and around, creating and maintaining all the elements of life forms dependent upon these elements, then we have found the supreme harmony between our apparently different religions. Whatever name we chose to give this one power, whether we see it as a trinity or a duality, this one power has poured out His/Her blessing through the elements on all, regardless of their religion or beliefs. This article is the first in a series on the elements, and in particular, the elements as seen from the Christian point of view. In the closing chapters of the excellent book by Marion Bradley, The Mists of Avalon, Morgaine of the fairies enters the Christian chapel of Mary at Glastonbury where she discovers a statue of St Brigid and recognises the goddess of that name. At last she sees, after a lifetimes struggle with a bigoted Christian church, th  at the powers that be were not limited to working in the way that she thought they should. The goddess had been reborn in Mary and Brigid and her worship continued.
St Brigid, the abbess of Kildare was born on the 1st of February 450 AD at Fockhart near Dundalk. Her life and that of the Celtic triple goddess Brigid have become so interwoven over the centuries as to be almost inseparable. One particularly close link is that of the element of fire. A perpetually burning fire among the Druid oak groves in the central plain of Ireland was part of the ritual worship of the goddess. When the abbey of Kildare was built on that site the flames did not die but were kept alive by St Brigid and her nuns. As hinted at in the above mentioned book, the early Celtic church did indeed share much in common with the pagans and the fire of Brigid could be seen right up until the reformation. Today only the ruins remain, but who knows, the wheel turns. The oaks may grow again and the fire rekindled on the plain of Ireland. The writings of St Francis, himself heavily influenced by the early Celtic church, left us a rich legacy of their beliefs and practices. Brother sun and sister moon are familiar to all of us. His faith was simple, and like the druids he worshipped his God mostly in the great outdoors. The elements, far from being static, to him were living beings with whom he shared his life. This was not a romantic ideal that he lived. At the end of his life, his eyes had to be cauterised with a white hot iron. These words are his reaction to being told what the treatment would be. "My brother fire, outdoing all things in splendour the Most High
Such a belief in the elements as living beings figured very strongly in the religion of the Hebrews.
created you mighty, fair and useful. Be kind to me this hour, be courteous, for I have long loved you in the lord." "Who makest the winds thy messengers,
fire and flames thy ministers." "Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire." Psalms 104 v4
Above are the same quotations. The first, a modern translation from the RSV bible. The second from the older King James version. The difference between the two give us some understanding as to why the modern Christian fails to see anything spiritual within the elements. One quotation implies that God merely uses creation for a purpose. The other reveals that the elements are living, thinking, moving beings.
In the Hebrew/Christian tradition the archangel Michael was the master of the element of fire as well as being the guardian angel of the nation of Israel. The other three archangels, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel being air, water and earth respectively. Such designations of angels to the elements and cardinal points was an essential part of the belief system of the ancient Hebrews, long before the kabbalah came on the scene. It was during the bronze age, 1200 BC, that the Hebrew peoples, wandering for forty years in the wilderness, developed the idea that the four archangels stood at the cardinal points to protect them, each holding a key to one of the four elements, which were believed to be the weapons of God's judgement. The arrival of Christianity saw the designation of the elements to the Holy spirit, the symbol of fire being a single flame. belief in the angels did not cease, but they lost their elemental significance, being seen more as messengers and rescuers than interacting with the powers of nature. J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S.Lewis, apart from being very good friends, were also strong advocates of the Christian faith and much of what they believed can be read in their books, Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. In Tolkein's works, angels, or divine spirits, took the form of wise old men with supernatural powers, an idea straight out of the old testament and certainly a prominent feature of the Celtic church where angelsoften appeared as beggars in disguise to test the faith of the religious. Gandalf, the wizard/angel who walked middle-earth dressed like a beggar in grey rags, also possessed one of the three elemental rings of power, Narya the ring of fire. The other two were Vilya and Nenya of the elements of air and water. According to Robert Graves, the colours of these three rings, white, red and blue, were a reoccurring sequence symbolising the lunar-vegetation goddess as new, full and old moon and as maiden, bride and crone, of which Brigid is certainly an example. This great work of fantasy, which borrows so much from the mythologies of the Celts and Norse interwoven with Christian ideals, presents us with a vision of marriage between heaven and earth to which both pagan and Christian can easily relate. It is a vision of the past, a vision of the Christianity of Jesus the gentle carpenter from Nazareth whose parables were full of the elements of nature so beloved of the Celtic church. It is also a vision of the future once this dark age has received the sacred flame. I'll see you there. Kyrie Eleison Credits ASH Magazine Autumn 1988 cover art by Jim Kirkwood Celtic Cross and Dragon by Jim Kirkwood (was published in the same issue as this article). Brigid by Paul Atlas-Saunders (not part of the original article).  Beli Mawr This article was submitted for inclusion in The Lighthouse Vol. 2 No. 2 - the lost issue, and it is with great pleasure that I can now finally publish it for all to read. Beli is the earliest known deity of Britain. Very little is known about him for sure as his origins are lost in the thick smog of unrecorded history that predates the dark ages. Glastonbury artist and author Yuri Leitch goes in search of his origins.
Beli Mawr
The Origins of an Ancient British Deity
by Yuri Leitch Beli Mawr is the father god of ancient Britain, the Dis Pater of pre-Christian Europe. In Ireland he is Bile, husband of Dana, mother of the famous Tuatha de Danaan. Beli and Don are the British counterparts of the Irish Bile and Dana; all are Celtic. Links have been made between Beli and the Babylonian god Bel because of the obvious similarity between the names, however this remains subjective. Yet there is a link between Beli and the Orient in an obscure piece of folklore which gives Beli a Phoenician origin.
In a Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology by Marian Edwards and Lewis Spence a story is given, that in far ancient Phoenicia there was a huge tower from the top of which the entire world could be seen. One day three men upon the tower; Ith, Beli and Mile espy Ireland. So won over are they by Ireland's beauty that they decide to live there. It now being known for sure that the ancient Phoenicians had much interaction with Ireland and Cornwall, the above story could hold some hidden truth. All that is known for sure is that Beli is a Gaelic personification of Dis Pater the God of Death and the Underworld. In British he is Beli, In Irish he is Bile (pronounced Bill-lay) and to the Formorians (the ancient race that lived in Ireland before the Tuatha de Danaan) he is Balor. The Gaelic root syllable of Beli, Bile and Balor is Bel, which means "to die". Beli is the husband of Don, Don is the ancient goddess of fertility of Britain. Their offspring are called the Children of Don and are also known as the children of light. Metaphorically, it is from the darkness of death, i.e. emptiness, nothingness, that "light" can spring. The Children of Don as a pantheon of deities are symbolic of different enlightenment's and knowledge. Celtic mythology is full of heroic characters who venture into the underworld or who come back from the realms of death, with learnt or gained treasures that would then benefit mankind or the worl  d about them. That illusive divine spark, that bright idea, that initiator of motivation, that guiding light ij the darkness of despair, and that big bang of universal creation all come from the darkness that Beli is.
The light of the children of Don and their descendants was their creed for living. Druidically it was expressed (as in all things Celtic, in a tinity) as the Three Pillars of Light, a three fingered symbol of enlightenment; that which was, is and will be as one. In later centuries this light and the creed that it followed would be symbolised by the motif of the Three Crowns of the Wise men, a possible ironic return to the oriental source of Beli Mawr. The myth-smiths of early medieval heraldry , forming noble blood lines of descent with stories of picture symbols paint a scene of enigmatic lineage. The Three Crowns as an emblem shine back (and forward, outside of time) through history. Connecting the likes of St Helena of Colchester and the tragic but devoted King Arthur back to the source. 12th century heraldic artists give Beli Mawr, the god-king of Britain, the coat of arms of the Three Golden Crowns upon a dark blue background. Orion's belt of heraldic expression. In a time before television, in an ancient time even before writing. When fingers drew symbols in the sand, the night sky was an open story book and the characters within it were known to all. The great expanse of dark nothingness was the all encompassing father of the underworld/otherworld - Beli Mawr. As Balor the Formorian the bright burning ball of fire - the Sun, was his all consuming eye, the beautiful shining moon that governed the seasons of farming his beloved wife and the Queen of Heaven, Goddess of fertility - Don. The bright shining myriad of stars and constellations of the heavens were their children of light. Known in the east as Angels and to the Vikings (of the great Odin with his one eye) as Elves. To the Celts they were known as the Faerie, beings of light from beyond the veil.  More Recent Articles |
