Occult Goose and Priscillian associations

[Preston Pittman]

sorry it took so long to answer you, Elyn - Christmas Holy days, you know...

I first encountered the "occult" goose connections to the Camino in  the
book "NORTHERN SPAIN" by Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls.  They, in turn,
were relating material they had read in a French book on the Camino by Louis
Charpentier.

Louis Charpentier believes that the medieval Christian Camino was predated
by a pagan Celtic "spirit way" that led to the "Coast of the Dead" and
Finisterra - where the known land mass of the old world ended.
http://usuarios.maptel.es/eirik/iberos3.htm The Celts believed that this was
where the spirits of the dead sailed off into the other world.  They had
many tales of "spirit paths" intersecting the main Camino, on which the dead
could be seen walking on certain nights of the year, usually accompanied by
a large black dog.  In Asturias, this group of ghosts walking the Camino is
called "La Houstia".  They are said to light their way with candles mounted
on human tibias.

Charpentier said that one of the very unusual things he noticed about the
medieval Camino was the preponderance of place names associated with
Spanish, French and Latin words for goose (& gander).  He cites El Ganso,
the Montes de Oca, Rio Oja, Puerto de la Oca, the River Anso, and the Virgin
de la Oca, just to name a few.

There was also a group of people living in the Pyrenees called the agotes
(in Spanish), and cagotes (in French) who were builders - possibly
associated with the building of the Cathedrals, who were not allowed to
marry with or associate with "normal" people and who were forced by law to
wear an emblem of a goose's foot on their clothes.  In French, the
expression "devider las jars" (to spin the ganders) meant to speak the
secret argot of the cathedral builders.

The alchemist Fulcanelli also wrote about the cagotes and the building of
the Cathedrals along the Camino.  He wrote several books examining the
Cathedrals for occult and alchemical references.  He also wrote about a
strange monument near the Camino in the Basque town of Hendaya.  Fulcanelli
thought that the monument predicted the Apocalypse date as 2012 AD (the same
year predicted by the Mayan calendar).  As many of the cathedral
constructions (by the cagotes) were financed in whole or in part by the
Templars, there seems to be an occult tie-in suggested by Louis Charpentier
in his books.  He points out, as archeologists have proven, that most
important Christian sacred sites were "converted" from pagan Roman or Celtic
usage.  http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-59501/misc/fulcanelli.html
http://sangraal.com/AMET

In pagan Celtic legend the goose is associated with the goddess Epona who is
often depicted riding the back of a huge goose into the "spirit world".
Epona is a goddes of healing and also associated with springs and
underground streams.  The Germanic Holda is also associated with the goose -
which she also rides to the spirit world - and she is associated with winter
rites - especially Candlemas on February 2.

http://www.thorshof.nildram.co.uk/holda.htm
http://des.users.netlink.co.uk/winter.htm
http://shadowdrake.tripod.com/mgoose.html

There were also legends of Lamiak or Xanas - beautiful fairy maidens, who
lived in natural springs or in caves with underground rivers, who were
"goose-footed".  The legends say that if they catch men spying on them while
they are bathing, they will pull them into the "other world".  I believe one
of the other legends associated with them is that they will steal human
babies and substitute their own "changling" babies to be raised by the
humans, then take their own children back when they have been raised.  (I
don't recall what happens to the real human babies.  Maybe they give them to
"el papon" who likes to eat human babies.)

Charlemagne's mother, Queen Berthe and the Visigothic Queen Ranachile were
also said to be "goose-footed", like the lamiak and Xanas.  Queen Ranachile
was known as "La Reine Pedaque" (the goose foot).  The legend about
Charlemagne's mother, Berthe, is that she had "goose-feet" and loved to tell
stories to children while doing her spinning.  French fairy tales used to
begin with the phrase "in the time when good Queen Berthe spun".  She is
associated with "Mother Goose".

In the very early middle ages a major heresy arose in Galicia around the
mysterious figure Priscillian of Avila.  He was a Bishop accused of allowing
women equal opportunity and voice in the Church.  He even allowed women to
participate in the liturgy.  When the conservative Church officials couldn't
get him to stop, they had him accused of magic and witchcraft and brought
before a Council in Germany.  He was condemned as a heretic and was the
first person the Church executed for heresy.  Before his execution, he
appealed to St. Martin of Tours (his contemporary Bishop) for help.  St.
Martin sent a letter to the Council pleading for mercy but the letter was
"delayed" and arrived too late.  Priscillian was beheaded.  St. Martin's
symbol is a goose.  Some think that the goose may have been associated with
Priscillian and some pre-Christian cult that he was syncretizing into the
myths of the early Church - like many others did without loosing their
heads.  The goose may have been "adopted" as a symbol by St. Martin after
Priscillian's death.  Facaros and Pauls suggest that the "goose" may be a
disguised ibis because it is often associated with the sites of the Black
Virgin - which usually predate Christianity and refer to Isis.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12429b.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/saints/martintours.html

 From what I've read, the "Goose Game" that we know was "invented" by one of
the Medici and presented to King Philip II as a gift.
http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~salley/Articles/goose.html  It became enormously
popular among the elite in Spain and survives today as a popular Spanish
television show. http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/4189/oca.html
http://www.gamepuzzles.com/histfun.htm  Louis Charpentier thinks that it is
somehow an "initiatory" game and that the spiral path on the board relates
to the Camino de Santiago - the "Tomb" space on the board is the Tomb of
Santiago at the Cathedral - but it is not the goal of the game - it is a
pitfall, because Priscillian of Avila is really buried there and the real
goal of the game to initiates is Finisterra - following the Tomb.
Charpentier suggests that if you "really" know the occult truth behind the
symbols, the Royal Game of the Goose becomes a "game" dealing with higher
states of consciousness.

This is just a little beginning.  How all this interelates and applies to
the Camino, I'm still not sure, but I think its fascinating.

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