Supernatural Friday: The Scarecrow Waits for You in the Cornfield-Scarecrow Myths

Scarecrows are a sign of autumn. They maybe in the farmer’s fields all summer, but most people think of them connected with corn stalks and pumpkins, with Halloween to Thanksgiving. Scarecrows link to the planting and protection of crops and the changing of the seasons. In agrarian societies, Spring was celebrated as a time of resurrection – of life reborn after the dark winter. Sacrifice is bound up in this cycle. Winter kills that which grows, and breeds, until it is reborn in Spring. A description for a scarecrow: that which frightens or is intended to frighten without doing physical harm. Literally that which - scares away crows, hence the name scarecrow.

Scarecrows fascinate us. Daniel Defoe is generally thought of as the first English novelist to use the term "scarecrow", in his 1719 novel "Robinson Crusoe." Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Feathertop" is about a scarecrow created and brought to life in seventeenth century Salem, Massachusetts by a witch in league with the devil. He is intended to be used for sinister purposes and at first believes himself to be human, but develops human feelings and deliberately cuts his own life short when he realizes what he really is. The basic framework of the story was used by American dramatist Percy MacKaye in his 1908 play The Scarecrow. After all, in the Batman comics one of his villainous adversaries is the Scarecrow! A scary scarecrow was the center monster in Supernatural Season 1, Episode 11, entitled “Scarecrow.” Sam and Dean Winchester travel to a small town in Indiana where couples have gone missing the same day each year, only to discover the local farmers are sacrificing the innocent victims in order to end a geographic blight long cursing the region, to a Pagan God who takes the form of a scarecrow.

The Scarecrow is the alter ego of the Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn, the smuggler-Robin-Hood hero in a series of novels written by Russell Thorndike. The first book, Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh, was published in 1915. The story was made into a movie (1937) and later taken up by Disney in 1963 and dramatized for its Sunday night audience as Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh starring Patrick McGoohan.

There are other scarecrows in film and TV shows. ‘The Wizard of Oz’: not a horror film, but more fantasy. This film features a talking scarecrow who sings "If I Only had a Brain". 

‘The Wickerman is a chilling 1973 horror movie in which a policeman travels to a Hebridean island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. Instead he finds a neo-pagan cult who demand a sacrifice each year – someone they burn inside a giant wicker figure. There’s a remake to this cult classic.

‘Children of the Corn’ is another. A young couple stumble onto a town of creepy children and “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”.

Doctor Who has an episode “Family of Blood,” where formless aliens control an animate army of scarecrows. When the Doctor finally defeats them, he traps one of them inside the form of a scarecrow.

Back in ancient Greece, wooden statues were placed in the fields, carved to represent Priapus. Although he was the son of Aphrodite, Priapus was hideously ugly. His most prominent feature was his constant and huge erection. Birds tended to avoid fields where Priapus resided, so as Greek influence spread into Roman territory, Roman farmers adopted the practice.

Different kinds of scarecrows were used in pre-feudal Japanese rice fields. The most popular one was the kakashi. Farmers used old dirty rags and noisemakers like bells and sticks mounted on a pole in the field and lit it all on fire. The flames—and no doubt, the smell—kept birds and other animals away from the rice fields. Of course, the word kakashi meant "something stinky." Over time,  Japanese farmers began making scarecrows that looked like people in raincoats and hats. These scarecrows were equipped with weaponry to make them look even more frightening. In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan (compiled in the year 712), a scarecrow known as Kuebiko appears as a deity who cannot walk, yet knows everything about the world.

The Middle Ages in Britain and Europe had small children to scare of the crows. They would run around in the fields, clapping blocks of wood together to frighten away birds that might eat the grain. As the medieval period wound down and populations decreased due to plague, farmers discovered there was a shortage of spare children to shoo birds away. In medieval England, farmers secured animal skulls to posts in order to frighten away birds and other animals from the crops. But before long, those in Britain and Europe took to stuffing old clothes with straw, placed a turnip or gourd up on top, and mounted the figure in the fields. They soon realized these lifelike guardians did a pretty good job of keeping crows away.

The scarecrow took care of the crops. His size corresponded to the height of the cornfield and it was coated with wax from nine beehives. A witch doctor placed the eyes, which are two beans; the teeth are maize and nails made of white beans; he is dressed in “holoch” (corn husks). Each time the witch places one of these elements on the scarecrow, he calls to the four winds to protect the corn.

 

Scarecrows came to North America with European emigrants. German settlers in Pennsylvania brought with them the bootzamon—bogeyman—which stood guard over the fields. A female counterpart would be added to the opposite end of the field or orchard sometimes. In the southern Appalachians, another common method of scaring off crows was use of a dead crow hung upside down from a pole.

Mayan Scarecrow Myth:
The scarecrow is presented to the Sun God and given as an offering to the Rain God. Fragrant herbs and anise are burned, and the sacred fire is kept burning for about an hour. Meanwhile, the witch doctor distributes “balché” to the witnesses, which is a very intoxicating liquor, so that the humans won’t be aware when the gods come down to earth. The ceremony should take place when the sun is in the middle of the sky. At that hour, the witch doctor makes a wound on the little finger of the owner of the cornfield, then squeezes out nine drops of blood into a hole in the right hand of the scarecrow; this hole reaches to the elbow.
The witch doctor closes the hole in the scarecrow's hand and in a peremptory voice commands: "Today your life begins. This man (pointing to the owner) is your lord and master. Obedience, scarecrow, obedience ... may the gods punish you if you fail. The cornfield is yours. You must punish the intruder and the thief. Here's your weapon." At this moment he places a rock in the right hand of the scarecrow.

During the burning and the growth of the cornfield, the scarecrow is covered with guano palm, but when the fruit starts to emerge, he is uncovered.

The people say that if a thief or mischief-maker tries to steal the crops, he is stoned to death. Therefore, in the cornfields where scarecrows stand guard, nothing is ever stolen. After the harvest, a “hanincol” (meal in the cornfield) is served in honor of the scarecrow. After the ceremony, wax scarecrow is melted and the wax is used to make candles, which are burned in the pagan and Christian altars.

Next time, you drive past a field and see a scarecrow, think. Are they truly scary, or is it all bad press?

Supernatural Friday: Autumn is a Many-Colored Story

Autumn days come quickly, like the running of a hound on the moor. - Irish proverb

Autumn is  dressed up in her best gown of many colors, prepared to dance in celebration. ~ Pamela K. Kinney

Fall is almost here. On Wednesday, September 23, at 4:21 a.m. (EDT).   On the autumnal equinox, day and night are each about 12 hours long (in the Northern Hemisphere, occurring a few days after the autumnal equinox).

The word equinox means "equal night." This occurs two times each year: Vernal in late March and Autumnal in late September. Another definition of fall is nights of below-freezing temperatures combined with days of temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. So summer loving people, it does not mean pool weather. 

Some autumn folklore:

The sound of trees snapping and cracking in the autumn indicate dry weather.

If, in the fall of the leaves in October, many of them wither on the boughs and hang there, it betokens a frosty winter and much snow. Not so.  It more likely indicate that your area may not have enough rain and wind to shake those little buggers off.

It is said that spring rain damps and autumn rain soaks. No, as even n summer and winter, rain comes down hard or light. Same goes for fall and spring.

The autumn or fall season is the traditional harvest time for most Native American tribes, and autumn is associated with the corn goddess in many east coast tribes. Spiritually, autumn is considered a symbol of change in many North American tribes. The Pueblo Indians and some California tribes such as the Hupa hold special Autumn Dances as part of their tribal dance traditions, and the Hopi have traditionally considered autumn a favorable time of year for weddings.

Fox tale of why leaves turn in autumn:

At the beginning of the season of snow, just after the first fall of snow, three men hunted for game one early morning.  They trailed a bear in thick bush on a hillside. One of the men too of running into the brush.

"The bear is racing away towards the place of the noon day sun! Where the cold comes from." he shouted to his companions. 

Between all of them, they kept the bear fleeing. With them was the little dog owned bu one of the men, who went by the name, Hold-Tight of River-that-joins-Another. They say that after a while the first man who pursued the bear looked down at the ground. Green of the surface of the earth was below them. They all realized they had chased the bear up into the sky.

"O River-that-joins-Another, let us go back! We are being carried up into the sky!"

Keeping up the chase, they overtook the bear in the autumn and slew it. After they had slain it, they cut boughs of the oak and boughs of sumac, and laid the bear on top of the leaves. They flayed and cut up the bear; afterwards they slung and scattered the meat in every direction. Towards the coming of the morning they flung the head. It is said in the winter- when the morning is about to appear, some stars usually rise and that they came from the head of the bear. And the men flung his backbone towards the place of the morning. Stars huddled close together is said that they came from the backbone. 

These four stars in the lead were the bear, and the three stars at the rear were the men who hunted the bear, and between two of them is a tiny little star, the little dog, Hold-Tight of River-that-joins-Another. 

After that, every autumn the leaves of oaks and sumac redden because it the hunters had placed the bear on top of the leaves and cut it up, turning the leaves red from the blood.

What do you love about the season of autumn? Leave a comment.

 

Supernatural Friday: Ghosts



Fall is here and with autumn and October only a week away, that means Halloween will soon be here. With Halloween for many people comes the thought of ghosts. Though with reality shows like Ghost Hunters and paranormal groups popping up more and more everyday, phantoms are thought of the rest of the year too.

What are spirits? Where did the words come from?

In traditional belief, a ghost is the soul of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestations, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely: The mode of manifestation in photos or seen by the living’s eyes can range from an invisible presence, shadow people, translucent or wispy shapes, and orbs, to realistic, life-like visions—solids. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as a séance. Paranormal investigators use equipment to find proof of paranormal activity and to make contact with phantoms.



The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to appease the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.


The English word ghost continues Old English gást, from a hypothetical Common Germanic *gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North and East Germanic.The pre-Germanic form was *ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting "fury, anger" reflected in Old Norse geisa "to rage." The Germanic word is recorded as masculine only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would  have been an animating principle of the mind, in particular capable of excitation and fury. In Germanic paganism, "Germanic Mercury," and the later Odin, was at the same time the conductor of the dead and the "lord of fury" leading the Wild Hunt.


Besides denoting the human spirit or soul, both of the living and the deceased, the Old English word is used as a synonym of Latin spiritus, also meaning of "breath, blast" from the 9th century attestations. It also denoted any good or evil spirit, like angels and demons. The Anglo-Saxon gospel refers to the demonic possession of Matthew 12:43 as se unclæna gast. Also from the Old English period, the word might also meant the spirit of God: the "Holy Ghost."

The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk. It entered the English language via the United States in the 19th century. Alternative modern words included spectre (from Latin spectrum), the Scottish wraith (of obscure origin), phantom (via French ultimately from Greek phantasma, compare fantasy) and apparition. The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin umbra- in reference to the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld. And "haint" is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States, and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition. As for  poltergeist, that is the term for a German word, literally a "noisy ghost," for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects. 

Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost, spectre, and apparition." It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent, omen." In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits.


A revenant is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated ("undead") corpse. Also related is the concept of a fetch, the visible ghost or spirit of a person yet alive.


Another widespread belief concerning ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, or subtle material. Early beliefs were that ghosts were the person within the person (the person's spirit), most noticeable in ancient cultures as a person's breath, which upon exhaling in colder climates appears visibly as a white mist. This belief may have also fostered the metaphorical meaning of "breath" in certain languages, such as the Latin spiritus and the Greek pneuma, which by analogy became extended to mean the soul. In the Bible, God is depicted as animating Adam with a breath.


In many tales, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of a ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death. Seeing one's own ghostly double or "fetch" is a related omen of death.


White ladies were reported to appear in many rural areas, and supposed to have died tragically or suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them is the theme of losing or being betrayed by a husband or fiancé. They are often associated with an individual family line, as a harbinger of death. When one of these ghosts is seen it indicates that someone in the family is going to die, similar to a banshee.


The stories of ghost ships have existed since the 18th century. The most notable of these is the Flying Dutchman.
Ghosts can also be angels and demons. In some paranormal circles it is believe that demons are non-human, while other spirits who did terrible things (like murder) but human and passed on without benefit of being forgiven, are not.

Whatever we call them, apparitions are  among us, unseen and sometimes seen. Are they proof that there is existence beyond death, or something else? Who or what they may be, they do add to the flavor of autumn, and most of all, Halloween.