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One of the most familiar scenes from this play is Act 4,
Scene 1. This is where the Weird Sisters are gathered around the cauldron
chanting, “Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron
bubble.” They then go on to describe a
whole list of awful ingredients that they are throwing into their cauldron.
At least that is what they sound like to modern readers. People watching the
play in Shakespeare’s day would have recognized most of the names of these
ingredients as colloquial names for common plants and herbal ingredients.
They’d also probably have found it amusing, since it is a nonsense recipe.
Note also what the Weird Sisters are using the cauldron for in this scene.
They’re about to predict Macbeth’s fate: None of woman born shall harm
Macbeth and that Macbeth shall never been harmed until Birnham Wood comes to
Dunsinane Hill. Cauldrons and cups are often associated with divination. This
is just a dramatic version of a much more common technique: Reading tea
leaves. Finally we told the cast that they were working with
archetypal images like the Wyrds and Hecate in this play. We told them to do
simple exercises to ground out this energy at the end of each performance. It
is being in this “altered state” that can sometimes leave you less aware of
what is around you and expose you to accidents. The cast members told us that they now felt much better
about the play. They then asked us when we were doing the spell to cure the
curse. The next day a bunch of bemused stage hands and anxious cast
members watched as Phoenix and I went around the theatre in robes armed with
incense and salt to banish evil influences. Of course this ritual served the
psychological purpose of “disengaging” them from the perceived curse and gave
them the confidence that they needed. Phoenix and I got free tickets and I am
listed in the program of the production as a “technical consultant.” This reminds me of a common occurrence at the police
department. If you were to walk up to a bunch of Vancouver cops on a slow
night and say, “Boy, sure is quiet tonight,” quite a few of those cops would
cringe. It is simply amazing how many of them believe that if you use the “Q”
word, all hell will break loose. I used to get a bit of perverse pleasure out
of using the word “quiet” a lot around such people. After a while I didn’t
get much of a reaction anymore. Their reasoning seems to be that I can use
that word with impunity. After all, I’m the “Curse Buster“. Kerr
Cuhulain |
Careful What You Ask For, Conclusion
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e-mail: webmaster@officersofavalon.com |
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The three Wyrds or Norns
lived in a cave at the root of the World Tree, determining the fate of every
living creature. |
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2007 OFFICERS OF AVALON CALENDAR Got any good photos of seasonal rituals? Any good snapshots of Officers of Avalon
members in action? Please share them
with us! I’m currently looking for
photos for the 2007 O of A calendar which I am creating to celebrate our
diversity. Photos of this sort are an
excellent way to show the world that we are everyday people doing everyday
jobs. This calendar will include dates
from as many different Neo-Pagan trads as I can fit in. Every member will get one. |
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Here’s some
links to anti-defamation sites of groups that have worked with issues such as
these over the years. Click on the
banners to go to their web sites |