[...]... is naught to the young, And I dare not sell my honour Under the eye of my son Take HIM, 0 king, and bind him, and cast him far in the deep, And it's I will tell the secret That I have sworn to keep." They took the son and bound him, Neck and heels in a thong, And a lad took and swung him, Andflung him far and strong, And the sea swallowed his body, Like that of a child of ten, And there on the cliff... State) ( New York E P Dutton, 1968) Farb's book the human achievements of the past were all right for our ancestors, but in quickly became a best-seller and a Book-of-the-Month-Club selection The the here -and- now are obviously pr�mitive and hopelessly old-fashioned following quotes from the book give a fairly succinct overview of Western Too, where we are now is better, though not as good as where... collected and stored by bees Mead is the fermentation man whom they called Kvaser, the all-knowing-one so wise that there of honey, producing a liquor that allows human beings, for a time, to experi­ was no question that he could not answer And when he spoke all were ence sacred states of mind And more, all three things-bees, honey, and touched by the power of his voice, wherein lay the power and sacredness... with the dead The king in the red moorland Rode on a summer's day, And the bees hummed, and the curlews Cried beside the way The king rode, and was angry, Black was his brow and pale, To rule in a land of heather And lack the Heather Ale S A C R E D AND H E R B A L H E A L I N G It fortuned that his vassals, Riding free on the heath, Came on a stone that was fallen And vermin hid beneath Rudely plucked... them are would be a price-it would from it, and he 16 S A C R E D A N D H ERBA L H E A L I N G The Well of Remembrance B E ER S been seeing For those of us raised in perhaps the most materialistic era I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars, And the pismre is equally peifect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren, And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,... increase in hemoglobin and an Generally, raw, unprocessed, and unpasteurized wildflower honey overall increase in vitality, energy, and general appearance.46 Other stud­ should be used in the production of mead and as food and medicine For ies in Switzerland and the United States echo these results A number of wounds and burns it is generally placed, liberally, on the affected area and modern researchers,... at last to Hnitbjorg and the giantess, Gundlad Using his power, Odin throughout the world For instance, in the Rig-Vedas, the holy books of disguised his countenance so that she knew him not, and in sweet voice the Hindus, Vishnu and lndra are called Madhava, the honey-born ones, he spoke to her, and her heart went to him, for she had been long alone and their symbol is the bee .And the ancient Celtic... -Rig-Veda There may also an excellent Drink be made from the Tops and Flowers of Heath, seasonably gathered and dryed, and brewed as you have occasion for it tures still make meads throughout Central and SouthAmerica andAfrica -Dr W P Worth, 169210 as their ancestors did thousands of years ago There are many ancient ref­ erences to mead, and they occur in such a manner as to show that mead Heather mead,... plants will talk and teach their there is no inherent depth in the material universe-no soul, no feeling The use as medicines universe operates by set (physical) rules and actions that can be discovered 6 S A C R E D A N D H E R B A L H E Ali N G The Well of Remembrance B E E !l- S and known b y human beings Those rules and actions, indeed the universe gathering other than the universe-as-machine model... sacredness mead-confer on humankind some of the immortality of the gods, giving of the gods them long life, health, and a deepening of consciousness and awareness The 21 For long did Kvaser walk the heavens, the symbol of the peace of gods following story-retold from the Edda-captures exquisitely the sacredness But there came a time when, straying far, he was taken and bound by the and poetics of mead .             AND    AR    