The Ley-Lines and Lost-Past of North Kent part 35 Surprising! Sap-rising!

Aquarius is 'the circulation,' but not the blood- in the landscape aquarius is the river, but not the water- these are very different things In the realm of ideas, as well as in the land. Aquarius is what we might think of as a type of cosmic current or force- like psychic-electricity- that flows through all things- animate or inanimate, mineral, vegetable, animal, human and beyond. Aquarius is the collective consciousness- or superconscious- distinct from the collective unconscious or subconscious of Jung. It is the group mind where the sum is always greater than the parts- the inner and outer internet, if you like.

The tarot arcana for aquarius is The Star Of Hope, and shows a naked goddess or woman pouring water from two vases- one onto the land and one into the sea. This arcana and the sign it represents, aquarius, govern the ancient science of astrology- its ruling planet, planet of revolution, uranus, is the planet of astrology, magic and the occult. These sciences or arts depend on knowledge concerning occult (hidden) forces and their utilisation or application in and to the real-world. Electricity, radio, television, internet- examples of once unknown- often denied- forces in everyday usage around the globe.

This arcana taught- way in advance of modern science- that there were hidden (occult) forces and currents that flow throughout the universe and through all the planes of existence, knowledge we moderns are beginning to catch-up with, with our radio, t.v., internet, g.p.s. wi-fi, particle accelerators, string-theory's etc., etc.

The teaching is basically that the waters of space and the field of stars within it, are connected directly to our solar system, the planets and lights, and to our world, and every living creature upon her by the self-same invisible 'spirit' that lives within and impels the blood through your veins- and flows within- impels the waters of the rivers and seas. 

The Star radiates a quality of inner beauty. Notice the seven smaller stars. The card is numbered 17, 17 equals 8 (1+7=8). All the stars have eight points. The bird in the tree in the background is the sacred ibis of thought, roosting in the tree of mind. The woman is pouring water (psychic energy) into the pool of Universal Consciousness. The other vase pours the water onto dry land in five rivulets, representing the five senses. Her feet are balanced between dry land and the pool. The bent leg on the earth supports her weight, while her other foot is resting on the water of the subconscious. She is naked, having nothing to hide. The ground is fruitful. This is the card of new ideas and growth and listening to the still small voice within. Because The Star follows the card of the Tower, it represents the end of a period of change and turmoil- the chaos of winter, the subconscious realms of the underworld. The woman in the card holds two vases of water, which she pours out to nourish the earth and continue the cycle of fertility. The water represents the spiritual realm and the land is a symbol of the material world. (From Biddy Tarot)

Every year, when the sun rises in 24 - 26 degrees of aquarius, and the calendar says it's the 14th of February, human beings (those who care) do the Valentine's thing. How old this tradition is, nobody really knows, but suffice to say- it's pretty ancient.

This awful though beautiful (in a Gothic kind of way) time of year, just a few weeks from the spring fertility rites of beltane, the ancients thought most appropriate for rites or customs of intended courtship. Which is typical of the way the ancient's thought... here in February, coldest, bleakest month of the year (in our northern hemisphere), in the sign aquarius, generally described by astrologers as emotionally detached, cold even, they set a 'courtship' rite or holiday, whatever the right term is. It would seem (to me) more appropriate to put Valentine's day in, say, June or July when it's warm and would be- for me- more conducive to social-gatherings, parties and romance.
But no, they put it here, and they had, I'm sure, good reasons for that.

Cupid, draw back your bow, 
And let, your arrow go,
Straight to my lovers heart,

For me, nobody but me.... (The Drifters) 

as far back as the 2nd century the tale of Eros and Psyche was included in the Golden Ass, by Apuleus, the only Latin novel to survive in a complete form, and itself probably based on an already ancient Greek myth. It's enough to know that the plot revolves around the central character's insatiable desire to learn about and practice magic, and he winds up transforming himself into an ass.

Set within the story was the tale of Cupid (Eros) and Psyche. To cut a long story short, Psyche was the most beautiful mortal ever born, a fact that made the goddess Venus jealous. She enlists the help of Cupid, her son, to fire his golden arrows at Psyche while she sleeps, so that, upon awakening she would fall in love with the first creature she sees. A 'vile-creature' is accordingly placed in her chamber in readiness for the deed. Cupid makes himself invisible and enters her chamber, hovers before her sleeping form, draws back the bow-string and... is mesmerised by her beauty, and hesitates. Psyche awakens and- though Cupid remains invisible- gazes right into his eyes. Startled, he scratches himself with the arrow and immediately, irreversibly, falls in love with her. Mission failed, he reports what has happened back to mum, Venus, and she places a curse on Psyche so she will not be able to find a husband, despite her unearthly beauty. This makes the enamoured and infatuated Cupid go on strike, and he refuses to fire any more of his love-arrows while the curse remains- and if he doesn't make mortals fall under the spell of love, Venus' temple would crumble and fall.

After months of no one falling in love, the Earth starts to grow old, which worries the goddess Venus, for nobody praises her anymore. She agrees to listen to Cupid's demands, granting him one desire. Naturally, he wants the beautiful Psyche. Venus, upset, agrees but on the condition that he begins firing his love-arrows immediately. He accepts and takes off, shooting his golden arrows as fast as he can, returning everything to the way it was. People again fall in love and marry, animals mate, and Earth begins to look young again, as it should be.

How odd to modern minds that the ancients saw connections and put together what seem unrelated. If human beings did not fall in love then nature would stop being fruitful... degradation and misery would fall like a shadow on our beautiful Mother.

Having a custom or ritual devoted to romantic love at this time of year- every year since time began as far as we know- is what we might think of as 'programming' nature. Would nature 'forget' how to reproduce if humans didn't remind her once a year? Sounds like a ridiculous question but before you answer in the negative- how would you know? For there never was a time in all of history when human beings did not carry out these 'customs,' these rituals.

Whilst struggling with the right way of saying it I went to Planet Waves Astrology Blog and hey presto! Look what latest research is saying:

Ecopsychology

Published by Eric Francis under Daily Astrology

From The New York Times Magazine

Albrecht’s philosophical attempt to trace a direct line between the health of the natural world and the health of the mind has a growing partner in a subfield of psychology. Last August, the American Psychological Association released a 230-page report titled “Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change.” News-media coverage of the report concentrated on the habits of human behavior and the habits of thought that contribute to global warming. This emphasis reflected the intellectual dispositions of the task-force members who wrote the document — seven out of eight were scientists who specialize in decision research and environmental-risk management — as well as the document’s stated purpose. “We must look at the reasons people are not acting,” Janet Swim, a Penn State psychologist and the chairwoman of the task force, said, “in order to understand how to get people to act.”

Yet all the attention paid to the behavioral and cognitive barriers to safeguarding the environment — topics of acute interest to policy makers and activists — disguised the fact that a significant portion of the document addressed the supposed emotional costs of ecological decline: anxiety, despair, numbness, “a sense of being overwhelmed or powerless,” grief. It also disguised the unusual background of the eighth member of the task force, Thomas Doherty, a clinical psychologist in Portland, Ore. Doherty runs a private therapeutic practice called Sustainable Self and is the most prominent American advocate of a growing discipline known as “ecopsychology.”

There are numerous psychological subfields that, to one degree or another, look at the interplay between human beings and their natural environment. But ecopsychology embraces a more revolutionary paradigm: just as Freud believed that neuroses were the consequences of dismissing our deep-rooted sexual and aggressive instincts, ecopsychologists believe that grief, despair and anxiety are the consequences of dismissing equally deep-rooted ecological instincts.

Romance and spring have always been, and still are, inextricably intertwined. Old pagan ideas speak of 'love-birds' pairing up and mating on or about the14th of February, a symbol pointing to the beginning of spring and new life. References to birds and eggs can be found easily in this area. For instance there's Hatchers Farm, and Shearwater and, a massive pointer to the goddess of spring, Aphrodite, is Sparrow Farm- the sparrow is sacred to the beautiful one. Her other sacred plants and animals were/are the rose, myrtle and apple, dove, sparrow, goose and fish, which are liberally splashed- in name and presence- all over this area of the landscape.

In previous installments we've seen how this zone is in the sign of the fishes, viewed from both Axis Mundi and Hinge. Aphrodite is associated with fish because, in the Syrian myth of Ashtarte (Aphrodite), she hatched from an egg delivered to the banks of the Euphrates by a fish.

The hare too (and later the rabbit) was regarded as sacred to Aphrodite and Eros because of its high libido. Live hares were presented as a token of love. Coney is the old word for a rabbit, and both coneys and the tunnels they live in, warrens, are name checked frequently; there's Conyngham Lane, The Warren, Coney Hatch and Buckland ('buc' = male rabbit).

They are also mentioned in a sideways fashion at the village on the edge of the former Wansum Channel, Shearwater. The shearwater is a sea bird, only to be found nesting where there is a thriving population of rabbits- as the shearwater takes over their abandoned burrows to lay their eggs and rear their young. If there are no abandoned burrows to be found, the bird will often evict the rightful occupant- resulting in a hot cross bunny (well, easter's coming).

Shearwater's are also very much associated with the underworld- because they live in burrows underneath the ground, and because they are invisible. well, almost... the adult birds go out to sea during the daylight hours, leaving their young safe beneath the ground. Shearwaters are natural prey to gulls, so to avoid the 'gull-patrols' along the shore line, they only return to their burrows by night- invisibly. And then the voices of the underworld begin to call- the shearwater chicks call to their parent from within the burrow, and the parent answers. Mum finds junior, feeds him and all falls silent again. Before dawn, the parents head back out to sea, and on land no eye has seen their coming nor going- but the voices of the damned cried out in the night...

During the spring frenzy, a well known, highly amusing phenomena takes place among the hares- boxing. Experts had assumed that it was male-on-male competition to impress the females and win the right to some hanky-panky. But recently they've come to realise that more often than not it's actually a female giving a male a good slapping. They haven't though, yet worked out what's actually behind all this violence- is she rejecting his unwanted advances? Is she seeing how tough he is? Hopefully, some genius will work out a way to ask the young ladies in question... 

Before leaving hares and bunnies behind, it's worth a mention that hares are basically solitary animals that gather together in loose groups- though there is a collective noun for such- a drove. A scan of any East Kent map will show that in this region are literally dozens of Droves, a few of which are: Wass Drove (we'll come back to 'wass' later), Cooper Street Drove, Goldstone Drove and Whitehouse Drove. This is not an exhaustive list- there are many more to be found.

A wild swine gored to death her beloved Adonis, so the pig was, for that reason, highly offensive to the goddess. A rose bush grew in the pool of blood. For this reason, Aphrodite's sacred flower is the rose, and she was often depicted adorned with roses around her head, feet and neck. This is why the rose symbolizes an immortal love or a union that will never fade - even through death.

Barfreston; 'bar' = boar; 'fre' = free; Ain't no boars around here, goddess.

Barham; 'bar' = boar or pig. Ham = bacon?, (joke). On that note, road signs in the area have had to be altered to be less appealing to thieves, as the village of Ham and nearby Sandwich were too good a combination to resist.. ketchup anyone?

Barville Road; the 'vile boar,' or 'villainous pig.'

Aphrodite's golden chariot was often drawn through the skies by a flock of doves (see Blue Pigeons) and sometimes geese- I found at least one reference to geese- there will be more I'm sure, at Gosshall Lane. 'Gos' is Anglo Saxon for goose, and Hall is 'hal,' holy.

Aside from dozens of rose oriented place-names and municipal rose-gardens in this sector, such as Rose Hill, Rose Lane, Thornton etc etc, there is, in memory of Adonis' bloody end,Gore Lane, the village or settlement of Gore near Deal, and on the Isles Of Resurrectionare both Gore and Gore End Farm, Sangrados Wood (from Spanish 'sangría,'act of bleeding, blood, from Latin 'sanguin,')and the village of Blooding.

As earlier promised, Waas Drove, being distinctly odd by name, is worth at least a brief second look.
The Tau (Cross) and the Waas were essential equipment for the powerful-one's, the priesthood, in the very olden-days- Egyptian priests, that is. They seem to have got everywhere in ancient times, those Egyptians...

This from my usual source, Wikipedia: Waas ("power") scepters represent the typhonic or set-Animal (the mascot of the Egyptian god Set). Waas scepters were depicted as being carried by gods, pharaohs, and priests, as a symbol of power, and in later use, as a symbol of control over the force of chaos that Set represented. Waas scepters often occur in paintings, drawings, and carvings of gods, and remnants of real Waas scepters have been found constructed of faience or wood, where the head and forked tail of the Set-animal are visible.

The waas sceptre was a symbol of health, happiness, and divine prosperity but also of power and dominion.  It was associated with the qualities of divine rulership, was carried exclusively by gods and goddesses.

i only mentioned the waas and Waas Drove because It should be borne in mind that we are still in Set's realm- the underworld- until the 20th - 21st march when we all burst out of winter, together. It's some equus we're riding...

Shellfish were also sacred to the goddess because of their reputation as aphrodisiacs. The cockle-shell was particularly sacred to her, as she was often shown being born from one- symbolically- the half opened shell represent female genitalia. Pearl, which come from oysters, was her sacred stone. This is the real reason that Ramsgate has Paragon Square and Paragon Drive.  I got this from The Online Etymology Dictionary, linked below: Paragon, 1548, from M.Fr. paragon "a model, pattern of excellence" (15c.), from It. paragone, originally "touchstone to test gold" (c.1324), from paragonare "to test on a touchstone.
And this from Dictionary.Com:

Paragon –noun
1.a model or pattern of excellence or of a particular excellence.
2.Printing. a 20-point type.
3.an unusually large, round pearl.

Another name for the goddess was Stella Maris, the star of the sea. Broadstairs on the Isle Of Resurrection is also known under the name or motto of Stella Maris, the star of the sea. I can attest that there is no better place in England from where to view the rising of the visible planets, than on this extreme east-facing height, at the top of the Broadstairs.

The apple and apple-tree were sacred to the goddess. She was awarded the prize of the golden apple from Paris of Troy and also bestowed golden apples upon Hippomenes in his contest to win Atalanta. On the island and off it are gold, apples and orchards aplenty- at Guilton, Goldstone, Bramling and Epple Bay for instance- 'epple' is apple in Anglo Saxon, and 'guilt' is gilt, gild or gold. 'Braem,' the origin of the name for a variety of cooking-apple, the bramley, is also the origin of the place-name Bramling- it means famous, glorious and noble. It's a very famous apple indeed...puts me in mind of another tale about an apple... and a snake. As do Snakes Hill (off Wingham Well Lane), and Snake Drove on Wade Marsh. As an aside, certain biblical scholars assert that the apple in the garden was in fact a pomegranate- and pomegranates are sacred to the goddess. 

Cuckolds Corner;(Online Etymology Dictionary) Cuckold: mid-13c., from O.Fr. cucuault, from cucu (see Cucoo) + pejorative suffix. So called from the female bird's alleged habit of changing mates, or her authentic habit of leaving eggs in another bird's nest. The verb is 1580s, from the noun. Related:Cuckoldry (1520s).

Shingleton, "sincgestreon," a treasure, jewel; (a pearl?); also someone as yet unwed- a singleton.

Paramour Street; (Online Etymology Dictionary) Paramour, c.1300, noun use of adv. phrase par amour (c.1300) "passionately, with strong love or desire," from Anglo-Fr. par amour, from acc. of amor "love," from amare "to love." Originally a term for Christ (by women) or the Virgin Mary (by men), it came to mean "darling, sweetheart" (c.1350) and "mistress, concubine, clandestine lover" (late 14c.)

Weddington; wedding.

Liss Road (Eastry); 'liss' is from 'lissian,' bliss.

Ringwould; 'ring' and 'would' in the same place-name... chapels are mentioned in pretty much every other lane-name.

Wingham; 'win' = wine; 'ham' = hymen - womb- home.

Perry Lane; pear cider.

Gobery Lane; gooseberry. Because of Aphrodite's association with the goose, the goose and its berry have found their way into many folk-sayings regarding love, courtship and fertility- some even claim to have been born beneath a gosseberry-bush! A third-person at a tete-a-tete- a chaperone, is often referred to as a gooseberry. And if a young ladies posterior receives an amorous or 'playful' pinch (don't try this at home) it is said that she's been goosed.In relation to the Cupid and Psyche story, goslings will imprint upon the first thing they see when they open their eyes- bird or not- and will follow it faithfully for the rest of their life.

Cherry Garden Lane (one of many in the area): Cherry is an ancient euphemism for virginity.

Love Lane;

Pisces is the sign and house that represents and governs the twelfth- the subconscious realm of dreams and deep sleep. The darkest hour before the dawn. The last steps of the stairway that leads the sun-god out of the underworld. Incredibly pertinent in all respects then is Nightingale Lane- because, according to lore and tradition, the nightingale is a symbol of love and longing- it is also known as the love-bird. Because it sings all night long, it was once believed to be free of the need to sleep.

Christians said the nightingale's song was a plea for help from the lost souls trapped in Purgatory, and, noting that the bird sang with increasing vigour as dawn approached, made the nightingale a symbol of the righteous christian, singing in the darkness of this world, anticipating the arrival of Christ and His light- an idea borrowed from the pre-christian's and what we cover here- astrolatry. This is the sign, house and season just before the solar-principle breaks-out of the winter, the underworld, and is resurrected- this region of the map equates to calendrical purgatory.

When a nightingale died, it was thought to be during the ninth hour of the day (three in the afternoon) just at the time of Christ's death on the cross. Nonington Village had always baffled toponomists, who'd invented some character called Nonny to explain it away- but now it makes perfect sense. Nonington is based on 'nones,' the name of the christian service carried out every day at nones- the ninth hour (three in the afternoon).

Pommeus Lane (at Ripple); apple or pomegranate? Ripple is one of those clever, plaited place-names our place-namers of yore loved to intrigue us (me at least) with. Being in the signs of the water-bearer and fishes, aquarius and pisces, a ripple is no real conundrum, is it? But the roots of the word ripple are slightly... tangential, to say the least. 'Rip' is from 'reap,' as in, harvest, cut down, lop-off; the reason for cutting down the fruit etc., is because it is 'rip,' that is, ripe, ready to burst or 'rip-open.'

Swaynes Lane (Eastry); a swain is a suitor or lover- also a posh pronunciation for swine. 

Dictionary.Com;

Swain: –noun

1.a male admirer or lover.
2.a country lad.
3.a country gallant

Pedding Lane; 'ped' is to walk- 'pecg' is Anglo Saxon for Aphrodite's beast of disfavour- the pig. It was from walking slowly about the woods with herds of swine that the word for a walker or ambler came about- pe[c]destrian.