Les Saintes Puelles, once again

For some reason, Google hasn't indexed my post on Les Saintes Puelles, so I'm gonna link to it in a new post and see what happens. Kind of a test.....

Les Saintes Puelles

"Smash It Up"

"The criminal fight against culture is only the reverse side of a criminal culture." -- Pierre Klossowski

We've dedicated quite a few posts to the "Illuminati pyramid" of Blagnac. And why not? It is a blatant and unmistakable representation of Illuminist principles, elitism and, according to how one interprets the symbolism of the tessellated map of the world below the fountain, either a goal of world enlightenment....or domination.

Also, people flock to this shit like kids to candy. If we had AdSense or the like we could make a few cents or two. Cash in, like so many seem to be doing, on people's apparent need to believe that somebody is in control.

That world map, by the by, as we reported back in February, has been covered over, literally whitewashed. The paranoid in me might attribute this to all the new-found attention our post eventually generated. Or maybe the mosaic was simply prone to leaks. Author Terry Melanson (Perfectibilists, a comprehensive study of the Bavarian Illuminati) suggested rather wisely that we contact the mairie of Blagnac and find out why this is so; he also suggested we contact the architect behind the monument. Much to our discredit, we haven't done either....yet.

Anyhoo, because it seems to be a topic of interest, we bring you another update. One one side of the pyramid there are two tombstone-shaped bronze tablets bearing swirling images of what appear to be planets and cosmic winds; to these are affixed a smaller plaque bearing an Eye of Providence (observing all and simultaneously radiaiting light) and the text of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Gid, incidentally, only just posted an engraving of a woman with an Eye of Providence in the place of her breast, an image subsequenty identified as "Reason." One wonders if the author of that image intended to link the revolutionary Enlightenment sentiment with a warm, maternal feeling, the eye of reason with mother's milk?

In this engraving, she is also wearing a lion skin as a cloak, the head of the lion a kind of headdress. I'm sure this has an established allegorical meaning, but I don't know it. For our purposes, it does remind me of Leontocephaline, upon whom LoS commented in May. This figure is one of the most enigmatic symbols of Mithraism. In the rich iconography of this ancient religion, Mithras himself was often pictured wearing a Phrygian cap, another important Revolutionary symbol. A coincidence, probably.

In any event, one of the bronze tablets is now missing a section.

Did it come loose? Had it become wonky, forcing the municipality to remove it for repair?

Or was it vandalized? Did some angry guy come along and bang it off? Was this a political act? Will we see more of this in the future?

I don't know, but here's a pic for your edification:


Obvious suggestion is to call the mairie and find out what's up.

Eye Nipples: What is this?

In response to a recent post, Daurade's "Staff of Life" (which sounds sort of perverted when you put it that way), I noted St. Lucy's tray of eyeballs resembled St. Agatha's tray of breasts, and I mentioned the possibility that the historiographies of these saints may have been conflated. Daurade wondered if we could find other example of conflating eyeballs & nipples.Well I googled for images of "eye nipple", & I found this wonderful image.

But what is it?

It's a beautiful picture. To me the woman looks Hellenist, but I barely know what that word means, so I'm probably wrong. I see a lion's head draped across her head, and the lion's paws across her breast. And I think, but am not sure, that the "breast" is actually some object that she may be holding in her left hand. And the "breast" appears to to have rays emanating from it, as if it were a sun or a meteor; the rays seem to express upward as if fanning from an object hurtling from the heavens. There's clearly lots of symbology that I'm just not getting--which is why I'm asking for your help!

The image itself points to a bizarre little page that also shows a relevant Rene Magritte (see below), quotes Shakespeare's King Henry VI ("At their mother's moist'ned eyes babes shall suck"), and provides deadlinks to "the chapter Before the Milk of the World: Nipple-Eyes out of N. Hilton’s Lexis Complexes.

But the page doesn't say what this image is! So I ask again:

What is it

English Closed Triple Compound Words

What the hell does the title of this piece mean?

Let's break it down, in reverse order:

* Compound words -- I'm sure you know what a compound word is: Two or more words joined together to form a new word.

* Triple -- Now I'm just making stuff up. My idea here is that most closed English compounds are formed with a pair of words -- but there are very few instances, in English, of three joined words.

* Closed (or "solid") -- Just means that the compounded words are mashed right together (e.g., wallpaper) instead of hyphenated (e.g., single-minded) or separated by a space (e.g., dead end, which, if closed, would make the wonderful "deadend"!).

* English -- Duh. Or not so "duh"? Keep reading to learn about the relevant controversy surrounding this seemingly innocent term!

Okay--so you're with me so far? Good! I've been collecting a few closed English triple compound words that I'd like to share. Many of them can be grouped according to key "root" words. Some dictionaries will differ, but I found all of these listed somewhere. I'll also share a few good fakes and questionable entries. Let me know if you have others! (One ground rule--I am excluding scientific mumbo-jumbo, so please don't break out your chemistry books.)

"Man" Group

There are a handful of triples created by adding "man"/"men" to a pre-existing compound. I reckon you could do the same with "woman"/"women", "person", and, if you wanted to cross the line, "bot".

* backwoodsman

* crossbowman

* longshoreman

* newspaperman

* plainclothesman

"Super…man" Group

Supermen warrant their own category! (Surely there are other "super" triple plays?)

* supersalesman

* superseamen

* superstatesmen

Directions

* Eastsoutheast, etc.

"...soever"

Lots of triples are formed by placing a word in front of "soever":

* whatsoever

* whensoever

* wheresoever

* whichsoever

* whithersoever

* whomsoever

* whosoever

"…upon"

I nearly overlooked this entire family, quite forgetting that upon is "up" "on"! Actually, I suspect that this just a subset of a larger "…up…" family, but I couldn't come, er, up with anymore.

* hereupon

* whereupon

Uncategorized

Do you have any more to offer? Note that there are some mini-groups here ("here…", "inso…", "…the…"), which may help to jog your memory…

* counterclockwise

* heretofore

* hereinafter

* insofar -- perhaps the shortest of all English closed triple compound words!

* insomuch

* nevertheless -- if dig back real deep and consider "never" as a contraction ("n(ot)ever"), this is close to quadruple territory!

* nonetheless

* notwithstanding

* whatshisname, whatshername, whatshisface (debatable, I'll grant you, but these seem to be in common usage at this point)

Questions

What's your opinion on these candidates? Anymore good fakes out there?

* highwayman (and superhighway) -- On the one hand, "highway" does seem to refer to the high way (rather than the main way), but the term is so old that it actually stems from OE heiweg via ME heyewey, both of which are compounds. In otherwords (teehee), "highway" may not be directly formed from mashing "high" with "way", but the compound was originally formed in English (albiet Old English), and the root words both "translated" individually as the word carried forward to contemporary English.

* nowadays -- Similar to my "highway" concern, "nowadays" stems from ME nouadaies which was a joing of nou ("now") and adaies ("during the day"). Adaies was, as best as I can tell, a contraction formed from a (short for "of"?) and daies for days. Nowadays, however, "nowadays" feels like a joining of "now", "a" (bastardized "of"), and "days".

* wherewithal and therewithal -- "Withal" is a word in its own right, but I think that it does stem from ME joining of with and al ("all").

* woebegone -- Not actually "woe" "be" "gone" :-) Instead, this stems from ME wo ("woe") joined with begon (means "beset"). Anyone want to argue that ME begon stems from an OE compound of be and go, which would make this a triple play if we count a ME/OE blend as fair game?

Fakes

My favorite category of all!

* buttonhole -- "but" "ton" "hole"

* catalog -- "cat" "a" "log"?

* champ'ion'ship

* cot'ton'mouth (& cot'ton'tail & cot'ton'wood)

* counter'at'tack

* cub'by'hole

* disc'on'tent

* do'or'knob (& …man, …mat, & …way)

* fat'her'hood

* feat'her'bed (& …weight)

* her'ring'bone

* sports'man'ship -- My favorite fake! Plenty others in this vein (e.g., "gamesmanship", "horsemanship", "seamanship")… (My hat's tipped, bytheway [hahaha], to Paul's Glob for a number of these triple plays, including the wonderful "sportsmanship"!)

Compound compounds

My thanks to ohsuplauren for the idea of mashing compounds together. For example, moreover + overrule = moreoverrule. You can also get sillier: goldfish + fisherman = goldfisherman. Here are a few more:

* fatherhoodwinked

* loinclothespin

* dumbbellhopscotchmankindhearted

Notre Dame de Sabart

I. Summary of the Legend and History of Notre Dame de Sabart[1]

Legend has it that in 778 Charlemagne set up camp in the vicinity of Tarascon (Ariège) with the intention of engaging the Saracens. While following the enemy’s trail on the evening of September 8 he found himself at the mouth of a valley[2] that his horse refused to enter. Digging his spurs the horse still refused to move ahead. Twice more he tried to urge the beast forward it remained obstinate; he would not enter the valley. After his third try a luminous Virgin appeared. As Charlemagne gazed upon her, we must imagine not without much awe and wonder, the Virgin disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared. At dawn the emperor assembled his army at the spot of the apparition. They began to dig and discovered a bronze statue upon which was written “Our Lady of Victory.” The soldiers erected a stone altar on the spot. According to the legend, it was his horse’s stubborn refusal to advance which prevented Charlemagne from entering the valley and walking straight into a Saracen trap which would have almost certainly led to his defeat.

The emperor decided to carry the Virgin of Victory to the abbey of St. Volusien at Foix, but after two attempts the statue miraculously disappeared and returned to where she had originally appeared. This was clearly where she wanted to be venerated; Charlemagne ordered a chapel built at the place, thenceforth called Sabart.

According to Saillens in Nos vierges noires (1945):

“A Black Madonna called Our Lady of Sabart--or Victory--is venerated near Tarascon and Ussat-les-Bains. The site, deserted today, gave its name to the Sabartès. Legend attributes the chapel to Charlemagne, victor over the Saracens, but we can find the same explanation at Thuir and Rochefort-du-Gard, and Sabart was a sacred place well before the alleged visit of Charles. The mountain which dominates the chapel is pierced with caves of prehistoric paintings. The long presence of the Romans is attested to by a series of coins…”

The miraculous statue of this sanctuary became an object of widespread devotion and Sabart a place of pilgrimage benefiting from the protection of St Volusien abbey. In 1569, during the wars of religion, the church was destroyed but rebuilt in the 16^th century. An annual pilgrimage was consecrated to the emperor’s victory. Pilgrims from all over the region arrived thundering a sacred ballad composed for the occasion circa 1672 by a canon of Pamiers, one Father Amilha in pure “langue moundi”[3] of Toulouse.

In the 17^th century a hospice and convent were founded there.

During the revolution the chapel was pillaged, sold off as national property and converted into a barn. In 1842 the abbot Vergé bought the chapel along with the house next door and restored it with assistance from the parish of Notre Dame de Sabart. It once again became a pilgrimage site.

In our time there are no remnants of the Carolingian church. The chapel is Romanesque and granite blocks from the 12^th century are still visible in the façade. The current structure dates to 1842.[4] Two very old stained glass windows were conserved and restored. The chapel, one of the most venerated in the diocese, was classified as an historical monument on June 5, 1846. The crenulated turret and false fortifications date from 1870.

II. Coronation

On June 7, 1954, the Notre Dame de Sabart was crowned. This is a reverence shown to especially important images of Mary and for which the Catholic Church has developed special rites and customs. It is an ancient practice which became widespread at the end of the 16^th century. According to the Order of Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1987):

“....it should be noted that it is proper to crown only those images to which the faithful come with a confidence in the Mother of the Lord so strong that the images are of great renown and their sites centers of genuine liturgical cultus and of religious vitality.”[5]

In addition to the standard coronation rite, one abbé Sabas Maury composed a devotional him to Our Lady of Sabart especially for the occasion. Take if you will this stanza from the hymn:

Mais, dans la nuit sans étoiles

La Vierge apparut soudain

Blanche et pure sous ses voiles

Comme un beau lis du jardin

Ave, Ave Ave Maria (repeat)

But in the night without stars

The Virgin appeared suddenly

White and pure under her veils

Like a beautiful lily in the garden

Ave, Ave Ave Maria (repeat)

So, if Saillens in 1945 identifies her as a Black Madonna, there is no indication that as soon after as 1954 her apparition was noted for her darkness; quite the contrary, she was "White and pure under her veils."

Notre Dame de Sabart does has several of the common characteristics of Black Madonnas: the strange comportment of an animal, being buried and/or emerging from the earth, miraculously returning to the spot where she was found after being removed, thus indicating the spot where she was to be worshipped.

As with other Black Madonnas, she generated a fervent cult and became the site of an important medieval pilgrimage.

But was her "blackness" really important to these medieval pilgrims? Before Saillens there is no particular indication that her darkness was considered an especially salient feature. Current authors such as Begg are not entirely corroborative because there's no indication he didn't simply take his identification from Saillens. Cassagnes-Brouquet includes her as one of the Black Madonnas of the Crusades, like Saillens equating her with the Black Madonna at Thuir which is also associated with Charlemagne and a victory over the Saracens. Numerous references to her as a Black Virgin exist, but these are contemporary and do not necessarily indicate a medieval provenance. It is hard to ignore that as recent as 1954 a hymn written to accompany the coronation denoting her special significance makes no mention of a dark hue. Quite the opposite.

III.

When I first saw Notre Dame de Sabart I was on a lunch break. On limited time I popped down from nearby Foix. I knew there was a Black Madonna in Tarascon but had forgotten the name. After seeing a few sites in the Pyrenees I've developed a kind of intuition about where they are located so I skirted the town and arrived at the chapel of Sabart: situated out of the town center on a somewhat elevated position overlooking the town (as in Aspet, Saint-Béat, Oust) with a chapel not dissimilar to others housing Black Madonnas, that is to say a 19th c renovation of a much earlier chapel. After moseying about, I was not sure she was the Black Madonna I had been seeking. Certainly she's darker than other representations of the Virgin in the chapel, and certainly the most honored, but she didn't seem strikingly dark, even if visibly darker than other representations in the chapel.

Verifying the name I later I discovered that she was indeed the Black Madonna I'd been looking for.

In 2006 she became a "sister" to Our Lady of Merixtell, the Patroness of Andorra. This latter Madonna was allegedly found on January 6 under a wild rose bush miraculously in bloom. Like Notre Dame de Sabart, she always returned to the spot where she was found when the people tried to remove her. Thus a church was built on the spot. This church was gutted by fire on September 8, 1976. You will recall that this was the date that Notre Dame de Sabart appeared to Charlemagne! This statue was destroyed but survives in many copies, some of which are dark, other less so. I have seen two other representations of the Virgin in Andorra which are the centerpiece of elaborate retables which are also very dark in relation to the depictions of the saints around her. In some there are over a dozen saints depicted, very pink, but the Virgin remains very dark. This is not surprising. After Auvergne, the Pyrenees remain the area with the densest cluster of Black Madonnas. As far as I know, however, very little has been written about the phenomenon in Andorra.

---

[1] The entirety of Part I is more or less a translation --with minor adjustments--from an article entitled “Meritxell-Sabart, un jumelage réussi” by Laurence Cabrol, found in the AriegeNews on May 3, 2006. Further information can be found in the following:

Notre-Dame de SABART, Fêtes du Couronnement, 7 Juin 1954
Impr, Narbonne, Pamiers, 1954, 10 page brochure concerning the coronation ceremony.

SABART, Histoire de l'église de Sabart dans le canton de Tarascon-sur-Ariège
Impr, d'Aug, De Labouisse-Rochefort, Toulouse, 1849, 233 pages.

[2] Present-day Vicdessos Valley ; although it is impossible to say whether or not Charlemagne actually encamped at this spot, some battles were certainly fought there.

[3] Somes say “Languedocien”, “Occitan” or simply, “patois”. “Moundi” is all of these, but more specifically the dialect of Toulouse and environs. See: Lingua Populi, Lingua Dei: Language, Religion, and the Origins of French Revolutionary Nationalism by David A. Bell in The American Historical Review, Vol. 100, No. 5 (Dec., 1995), pp. 1403-1437.

[4] Two much earlier stained glass windows were conserved and restored.

[5] http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/crowning.html; this text comes from the English translations of an earlier rite approved by the Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship in Rome in 1981. In the 17^th century rites were composed for the coronation of images of Jesus, Mary and the Saints. A rite specifically for Mary dates to the 19^th.