Wyrd and the True Wyrde Systres II

All Hail!

At the birth of children the Wyrde Systres had a most outstanding worship of old. The Gesta Danorum  6.4.12 hath this:

“[1] Mos erat antiquis super futuris liberorum eventibus Parcarum oracula consultare. [2] Quo ritu Fridlevus Olavi filii fortunam exploraturus, nuncupatis sollemniter votis, dearum aedes precabundus accedit, ubi introspecto sacello ternas sedes totidem nymphis occupari cognoscit.”

“ The ancients were wont to consult the oracles of the Fates [Parcæ, gen. pl. Parcarum] concerning the destinies of their children. In this way Fridleif desired to search into the fate of his son Olaf; and, after solemnly offering up his vows, he went to the house of the gods in entreaty; where, looking into the chapel, he saw three maidens, sitting on three seats. ...”.
 
Reginald Pecock The Represser Of Over Moche Wijtyng The Clergie (Cmb Kk.4.26) ij. Parti,  iiij chapiter: 

“... and this opinioun, that iij sistris, whiche ben spiritis, comen to the cradilis of infantis forto sette to the babe what schal bifalle to him...”. 

The Christen did not like this at all and spoke out  against it, thus Roberd of Brunne's Handlyng Synne (Harl. MS. 1701; Bodl. 415.):

“Ȝyf þou trowest or vndyrstondys
Þat þre sustren ben shapandys,       572
And comun þere þe chylde ys bore,
And shapyn hyt wele or euel before;
For wykked beleue þat þou art ynne
Þey make þe chylde to falle yn synne;
Swyche beleue þou shuldest nat werche
Aȝens þe beleue of holy cherche.
Þer nys no shapper but god almyȝt,
Þat yn þe vyrgyne Mary lyȝt.
He ys shapper of al þyng;
Of al þat ys, he wote þe endyng;
He ys boþë god and man;
Alle he wote, and alle he can.
Þe touþer shappers þat men of telle,
Beteche we hem þe fende of helle.”

But what else are the three kings (hardly the “magi” of Matth.) who bring those meaningful gifts to the barn Jesus but the Wyrde Systres in men’s clothes? I mark well here that the “Three Kings” of Cologne were called “wicchis”: "Þe paynyms ... cleped þe iij kyngis Magos, þat is to seye wicchis."   The three Beten (or Bethen, Beden) are a German group of three saints, supposedly companions of Saint Ursula of Cologne. They are adored in minor churches and chapels in Bolzano-Bozen (Italy), Upper Bavaria, Baden and the Rhineland. Although the cult of the "Three Virgins" is known since the late Middle Ages, it is only distributed regionally and not contained in the official lists of saints of the Catholic church.  Many of the matres are to be outfolded as the Wyrde Systres or those elves they send on their behalf.  An inscription from Carlisle apparently reads: Matres Parcae pro salute Sancta Geminae (R.I.B. 951): “To the Mother Goddesses, the Fates, for the welfare of the Sanctia Gemina”. And another from Skinburness in Cumbria: Matribu[s] Par(cis) […], ‘To the Mothers, the Fates’(RIB 881).A relief, also from Carlisle, shows three Matres each one holding one of three things:   a flower, a fruit, and a knife. These look tokens of time, of wyrd, the knife could be linked to the shearing of the thread of life. (see Sylvia Barnard,  “The Matres of Roman Britain”, Archaeological Journal, vol. 142. 1985: 239). An image of the Matronae Aufaniae near Bonn has one of them holding a distaff, although it’s hard to know if it’s looking to the Fates or only women’s daily work. (see Miranda J. Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, 1997: 146).

 

In the North, as we have said, they are  the Nornir “þær er koma til hvers barns, er borit er, at skapa aldr” “who come to each child that is born, to appoint his life” as Snorri doth say in his Edda. Thus Helgakviða Hundingsbana hin fyrri from the Codex Regius:

1. Ár var alda, ǀ þat er arar gullu,

hnigu heilög vötn ǀ af Himinfjöllum;

þá hafði Helga ǀ inn hugumstóra

Borghildr borit ǀ í Brálundi.

2. Nótt varð í bæ, ǀ nornir kómu,

þær er öðlingi ǀ aldr of skópu;

þann báðu fylki ǀ frægstan verða

ok buðlunga ǀ beztan þykkja.

  1. In olden days, ǀ when eagles screamed,

And holy streams ǀ from heaven's crags fell,

Was Helgi then, ǀ the hero-hearted,

Borghild's son, ǀ in Bralund born.

2. 'Twas night in the dwelling, ǀ and Norns there came,

Who shaped the life ǀ of the lofty one;

They bade him most famed ǀ of fighters all

And best of princes ǀ ever to be.

From astrologia we cannot but think these are no more than an oblique way of referring to “the several situations of the two luminaries and the ascendant”. Ælfric's sermon on Epiphania Domini: 

 “...wæron sume gedwolmen ðe cwædon ðæt ælc man beo acenned be steorrena ȝesetnyssum, and þurh heora ymbryna him wyrd gelimpe...”.  

“...there were some heretics that said that each man is born by the layout of the stars, and Wyrd comes from their orbits  ...”. 

 

Plato hath the Wyrde Systres thus wielding the spheres with their planets in his Republic:

“[616b] ... But when seven days had elapsed for each group in the meadow, they were required to rise up on the eighth and journey on, and they came in four days to a spot whence they discerned, extended from above throughout the heaven and the earth, a straight light like a pillar [τεταμένον φῶς εὐθύ, οἷον κίονα], most nearly resembling the rainbow, but brighter and purer. To this they came [616c] after going forward a day's journey, and they saw there at the middle of the light the extremities of its fastenings stretched from heaven; for this light was the girdle of the heavens like the undergirders of triremes, holding together in like manner the entire revolving vault. And from the extremities was stretched the spindle of Necessity, through which all the orbits turned. Its staff and its hook were made of adamant, and the whorl of these and other kinds was commingled.  ...
[617b] ... And the spindle turned on the knees of Necessity, and up above on each of the rims of the circles a Siren stood, borne around in its revolution and uttering one sound, one note, and from all the eight there was the concord of a single harmony. And there were another three  [617c] who sat round about at equal intervals, each one on her throne, the Fates, daughters of Necessity, clad in white vestments with filleted heads, Lachesis, and Clotho, and Atropos, who sang in unison with the music of the Sirens, Lachesis singing the things that were, Clotho the things that are, and Atropos the things that are to be. And Clotho with the touch of her right hand helped to turn the outer circumference of the spindle, pausing from time to time. Atropos with her left hand in like manner helped to turn the inner circles, and Lachesis [617d] alternately with either hand lent a hand to each. ...”
We see here also that the Wyrde Systres are brought into harmony with the sirens.  This may seem an odd stead to find the sirens   until we read Plutarch in his Table Talk, who outfoldeth to us that the sirens here are truly a dark way of speaking of the Muses [here], and who were linked to the heavenly spheres.  But in Bœthius' De Consolatione de Philosophiæ prose 1 we will find the muses “musas” called “scenicas meretriculas” and “sirenes” by Lady Philosophy.  

Like the Wyrde Systres moreover,  the Muses were sometimes only thought of as three.  And in saying the Muses are nine we have thrice three.  What  Hesiodus (Ἡσίοδος) writeth in his Theogonia (Θεογονία) lines 36-38 of the Muses will make us think of the Wyrde Systres:

“Τύνη, Μουσάων ἀρχώμεθα, ταὶ Διὶ πατρὶ
ὑμνεῦσαι τέρπουσι μέγαν νόον ἐντὸς Ὀλύμπου,
εἰρεῦσαι τά τ᾽ ἐόντα τά τ᾽ ἐσσόμενα πρό τ᾽ ἐόντα,...”.

“Come thou, let us begin with the Muses who gladden
the great spirit of their father Zeus in Olympus
with their songs, telling of things that are and that shall be
and that were aforetime with consenting voice. ...”.

Whilst the  Greeks' Wyrde Systres, the Μοῖραι ‎(Moîrai, “Moirae”), from μοῖρᾰ ‎(moîra, “lot, allotted thing”). Clotho Κλωθώ, from κλώθω ‎(klṓthō, stavely “to spin”). Lákhesis Λάχεσις ‎(akin to λαγχάνω ‎(lankhánō, “win by lot”). Ἄτροπος From ᾰ̓́τροπος ‎(átropos, “unawending”), from ᾰ̓- ‎(a-, “un-”) +‎ -τροπος ‎(-tropos, “went; turned”), from τρέπω ‎(trépō, “I turn”). They are all called in the Odyssey Book 7 line 197 κλῶθές Spinners. Plato Republic book 10, 617c “Κλωθὼ δὲ τὰ ὄντα” “Clotho (sang) of the things that are” “Λάχεσιν μὲν τὰ γεγονότα” “Lachesis (singing) the things that were”, “ Ἄτροπον δὲ τὰ μέλλοντα” “and Atropos the things that are to be”. In book 10 of the Republic the fates linked to the sirens they sing in harmony with them and a κίων “φῶς εὐθύ, οἷον κίονα, μάλιστα τῇ ἴριδι προσφερῆ, ” “a straight light like a staple, most like a rainbow” . The sirens in the Odyssey book 12 lines 184 to 191 “know all things that come to pass upon the fruitful earth”. 

And withmete Diodorus Siculus 5.74.1:

“To the Muses, we are further told, it was given by their father Zeus to discover the letters and to combine words in the way which is designated poetry.”

Against Hyginus Fabulæ:

“The Parcæ, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos invented seven Greek letters - A B H T I Y.” 

 Overlap?  But to be aware of what is, what was, and what will be is the Foresight (Prudentia) of the gods, and is ymean (=common) to all of them as a whole.  When men and women  share in it too, by the gift of the gods, they are said to be "prudent".

It is worthwhile to bethink here also upon Clio or Kleio (Κλειώ), who is often said to be the muse of history. Her name is from the root κλέω/κλείω "tell of" or "make well-known".  At an early time she was the muse of herying scopcraft (praise pœtry), thus Diodorus Siculus 4.7.4:

“Cleio is so named because the praise which poets sing in their encomia bestows great glory (kleos) upon those who are praised;...”.

But minning that, as Carlyle thought,  “... Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men...”; by the time we get to Statius' Thebaid 10. 630 ff (awend. Mozley) she is fully the muse of history itself:

“... memor incipe Clio,                630
saecula te quoniam penes et digesta uetustas.”

“... Begin thou, unforgetting Clio, for all the ages are in thy keeping, and all the storied annals of the past.”

 The Wyrde Systres oversee metensomatosis (μετενσωμάτωσις)  or metempsychosis (μετεμψύχωσις) in the Republic 616b to 617e and 618a to 621c.  Belief in the immortality of the soul, although not compulsory,  is usual.  Lack of belief is a symptom of decay.   And among those who do believe in the immortality of the soul, a belief in reincarnation tends to prevail within a cycle of transmigrations (Hindu संसारः (saṃsāraḥ))  wherein all beings can go up and down in the hierarchy of beings according to their deeds, being reborn in higher or lower wombs according to whether they deserve to be punished or rewarded for their past lives (the aim being rebirth in progressively higher wombs in the hierarchy of beings until one has achieved the divine plane of existence (Hindu मोक्ष ‘moksha’ from a root ‘muc-’ "to let loose, let go"  )). As the Orphics said “From man, you became God”.    Once you understand this, many mysterious happenings  may be outfolded with eathe, not the least of which, is atheism and unbelief: 

 “It is not unlikely, too, that the rejection of god is a kind of punishment: we may well believe that those who knew the Gods and neglected them in one life may in another life be deprived of the knowledge of them altogether.” 

Farewell.