hvered wrote:Boreades wrote:The emphasis that Grimm puts on 12 usurping 13 feels significant as well. Lunar calendar (old knowledge) being replaced by a Roman calendar perhaps?
Thirteen, connected with the lunar calendar, is the natural cycle. It was once a lucky number. Some people claim that many stone circles consisted of 13 stones, or 12 in the circle with the centre stone making up the 13th. Be that as it may, there were twelve apostles circling around the Son or Sun.
When you divide the year up by the moon, you get 13 moons of 28 days each, plus one extra day. Each moon is four perfect weeks. Each year is 52 weeks. These are the cycles that govern the physical aspects of life including the menstrual cycle (the pricked finger may be a veiled reference).
The Ogham alphabet apparently consists of thirteen consonants and five (sacred) vowels. According to Robert Graves, the Beth-Luis-Nion Celtic Lunar Tree Calendar/alphabet consists of thirteen lunar trees and five solar trees. At any rate, the thicket sounds very much like a Druidic "sacred" grove.And roses are full of symbology as well. Anyone for a Rosicrucian connection?
Could be. These old stories have a tendency to get reworked and return in a new, more 'civilised', guise. The Rosicrucians seem to have been quite high up the social ladder.
The thorny briars are equivalent to a girdle and various Celtic saints, not to mention moon-goddesses like Aphrodite, were girdled. Breaching the girdle has sexual connotations but in esoteric-speak means enlightenment.
In my view 19th century Druid revivalist/romantic nonsense that has already been totally debunked http://www.maryjones.us/jce/celtictreecalendar.html still.....I could be wrong... if anybody can make this work I would be very interested.