Wicker Man
Tales of the wicker man come out of a persistent (but arguably false) legend of the ancient Druids. The tale, recounted in Julius Caesar's Gallic wars, recounts a sensationalistic story of human sacrifices made by herding victims into a large man-shaped wicker cages and then burning them:
"Others have effigies of great size interwoven with twigs, the limbs of which are filled up with living people which are set on fire from below, and the people are deprived of life surrounded by flames. It is judged that the punishment of those who participated in theft or brigandage or other crimes are more pleasing to the immortal gods; but when the supplies of this kind fail, they even go so low as to inflict punishment on the innocent "
There are no other contemporary accounts (other than those who drew on Caesar's writings) of this practice, and no archaeological evidence to support the accusation, yet this story is the basis for most of the tales about Druids as bloodthirsty practitioners of human sacrifice.
Comments
Perhaps at a Gaian level of consciousness… The bombing of the Twin Trade Towers, September 11, 2001 was a bit of a premonating vision for everyone in the world to take note of, and may be somewhat of parable to the “wicker sacrifices.” Definitely a love/hate relationship established that day in history.
In reading about the wicker sacrifices, and in being reborn spiritually. I could assimilate a parable of my own to that of the September 11, 2001 bombings and also to the “Wicker Man.” I felt as though my life was taken from me, but through Jesus and Ganesh and the oneness of knowledge… I was ressurrected from the dead. If you would like to know more about my life and its metaphorical parable, read The Papyrus of Ani, The Egyptian Book of the Dead. I lived the myth of Bennu and can actually calculate for metaphysicians and spiritualists what exactly occurred and why the 911 disaster happened. I come from a St. Michaelist perspective, which is similar to the knowledge of Osiris, the Egyptian God of the Dead.