Plaids, Paisleys & Highland Things.

On the eve of Burns night I was thinking that I don't know anything about Robert Burns and I don't really know much about Scotland, Scottishness or the Scotch (more about that word later).  I started to get worried that I might actually be a bit Scottish-ist devoid of all knowledge of Scotland. So my mind decided to go off on a bit of a highland fling thing to see what I remember and what I could find out about this far-away place.

We never went on holiday to Scotland as young kids.  It just seemed like somewhere really far away and foreign with a lot of football teams with difficult to pronounce names that I remember from the football pools and results announced on telly on Saturday afternoons.  Watching English born Rod Stewart perform on Top of the Pops wearing tartan or laughing hysterically at Russ Abbot on TV as he did an 'aye see you Jimmy' headbutt were as close as I ever got to Scottish culture. 

Photo: Michael Putland (1973)

Then in around 1978 those teen sensations from Edinburgh, The Bay City Rollers came to East London. It was my first proper gig with my mates.  I think we were about 12 years old.  We got tartaned up.  We had the acrylic plaid scarves and wore the white polyester wide-legged trousers scrawled allover with graffiti and with obligatory tartan turn ups, we sung "Eric, Derek, Alan too, Woody, Les, we love you!" We were so excited to see them perform at Ilford Town Hall at a FAB 208 magazine party.  They were on the bill with Essex band Flintlock. There was so much screaming, fainting and idol worship, that outside in the high road,  I can clearly remember a whole row of ambulances waiting to attend to hysterical, overwhelmed fans. Me and my friends got out in one piece, clutching goodie bags filled with such exciting freebie products as Valderma soap for teenage acne. My dad was waiting in his car up the road to collect us after the concert. In the days before mobile phones, God knows what he must have been thinking when he saw all the ambulances there!

Then in later Scottish-Essex moments of my twenties 'outta my head' days, I fell absolutely in love with The Waterboys song The Whole of the Moon....but had no idea they were from Scotland and around the same time, I shared a house with my Scottish friend Eileen who's dad happened to be the late Jimmy Johnstone, nicknamed 'Jinky'. Years later I discovered he was a legend, having been a brilliant Celtic footballer of the 1960s - on a par with Georgie Best superstar - and I didn't even aye och the know that I lived with the daughter of a superstar! She managed to keep that a secret!

In the Whole of the Moon, The Waterboys sing 'I talked about wings, you just flew.....'.  Talking about wings, when my son was in my belly, I drove with his dad, for the best part of a day all the way from London to the beautiful town of Oban, up past Loch Ness for our friends traditional Scottish wedding and was over the moon to see so many men in kilts and with bagpipes. From the back of the wedding venue, we could look across the bay and see the actual Mull of Kintyre. I had no idea it was a real place, I hadn't really thought about it and probably just thought it was some words in a Wings song of my youth, a song that I had loved though and would play over and over again. I just discovered while researching for this blog that Paul MacCartney owned a farm there and the song was written as a tribute to the beauty of the Kintyre Penninsula.  I remember standing there in Oban, looking over at the stunning view and thinking 'oh, wow, there really is a Mull of Kintyre!'

Incredible beauty. The view of the Mull of Kintyre from Oban

Working in the fashion industry, in the early 90s, I got headhunted for a job in London as Senior Buyer at High Street retail chain Mackays (now known as M&Co). The Scottish company was owned by two brothers, Iain and Len McGeogh, who at work we referred to as 'Mr Len' and 'Mr Iain'.  I loved my job there, and for about 3 years I was a successful buyer and visual (display) merchandiser of their teenage girls wear range called 'Kylie' responsible for selecting and buying stock for over 200 shops.  It's great to see that Kylie is still going strong and popular clothing for young people today.

Occasionally one of the big boss McGeogh brothers would pop into our offices opposite St Mary's Hospital in Paddington and I would discuss my weekly sales figures with them.  Little did I know that they were multi, multi, multi millionaires on the Sunday Times Rich List as two of the most wealthy men in the country, you certainly wouldn't have thought it by looking at them, they seemed very humble indeed.  Once while on a visit to Scotland to the main Mackays warehouses and HQ in Paisley, near Glasgow, I was a bit shocked by how rough and rundown the area was.  I thought it must be a cheap place to have property but had no idea then of it's historical connections with the textiles industry....and witches! 

When I went into the local sweetshop to buy a bag of crisps, the man serving me was behind a counter with narrowly spaced iron bars in front and I had to pass my money through this iron grill. I literally thought he would have to take my crisps out of the bag and feed them to me through the grill. Although it was broad daylight, I thought it must be an area of high crime, so I didn't hang around for too long to find out more about the area. Now, (a lot) older and (a bit) wiser, I'm looking into the history of the town of Paisley.  It makes for fascinating reading.

The witches of Paisley

Paisley was the location of the Renfrewshire Witch Trails of the late 17th Century, when seven well respected local people (four men and three women) were accused by an eleven year old girl of witchcraft and were subsequently put to death on Paisley's Gallows Green.

The young girl who believed that witches had put a spell on her in 1696 was Christian Shaw, the daughter of the Laird of Balgarran.  She claimed she had been tormented by a group of people and had experienced various symptoms of being cursed, such as having fits, coughing up hair and flying through the air! This was only a few years after the now famous witch trials of Salem and some believe the witch-hunt was influenced by the American witch-hunts.

As Agnes Naismith, one of the so called witches died, she is rumoured to have screamed out a curse for the town and its townsfolk to suffer from ill fortune. The mythical witches were buried in a mass grave which was sealed by a horseshoe.  It wasn't until roadworks in the 1960s that the horseshoe removed. Gradually the town of Paisley went into decline, which may or may not have been due to Agnes' curse! 

Alexander Stoddart's monument 

In 2008 a monument to the persecuted 'witches'? was erected. It was created by the Royal Sculptor Alexander Stoddart and a horseshoe was embedded into the monument, to hopefully bring good fortune back to the town.

Christian Shaw having been widowed in her 30s, embarked upon a tour of Northern Europe in the late 1600s with her mother. In Holland, Christian, with her entrepreneurial spirit, saw an opportunity to gain knowledge for future business.  The Dutch were producing the finest thread obtainable, they used techniques and apparatus for spinning thread that Christian wanted to bring back to Scotland. In what was seen as Industrial Espionage, crucial pieces of a Dutch 'Spinning Jenny' were smuggled into Scotland under their skirts!

The company Bargarran Threads was set up by Christian on her return to Paisley, producing fine silken threads of supreme quality, in the manner of the Dutch. She employed workers, built equipment and used her contacts in high society to spread the word about these finest of threads. Orders flowed in from the aristocracy in the South from such fashionable places as Bath.  By 1820, the industry started by Christian Shaw employed 7000 people in Paisley alone!

Since 2012 the town folk of Paisley have developed cultural venues, a shop, a festival and other creative projects relating to this heritage and Paisley's textile industry, where students and visitors can learn more of these legends of the past and participate in workshops. At the end of this blog is a link to their Facebook page "Renfrewshire Witch Hunt 1697'.

When we were 'Mods' in the mod revival of the late 1970s we would scour markets such as Brick Lane, Petticoat Lane and Kensington Market looking for clothing in original 1960s fabrics.  I had no idea that the name for those swirly whirly Arabesque designs came from the town of Paisley in Scotland. I never gave it a thought.  When silk went out of fashion in around 1790, weavers in Paisley switched to producing imitations of Kashmiri cashmere shawls in ornate paisley patterns, woven using Coats Threads.  Coats, a well known thread supplier today, was established as part of the Renfrewshire textile industry, after the Bargarran Thread company that was set up by Christian Shaw.  By the 19th Century, the small industrial town of Paisley was producing paisley shawls and pashminas for shipment worldwide.  So we could say that without the cunning developments smuggled to Scotland by entrepreneur Christian Shaw, paisley might not be paisley today! I wonder what it would have been called?

The exotic paisley 'teardrop' motif, favoured for smoking jackets has remained popular since the year dot.  It has been printed, embroidered, brocaded and woven.  The design is adored by hippies and rock n' rollers such as Liam Gallagher, David Bowie, and of course Prince.  Liberty of London are crazy for it.  Although the motif design originated in ancient Persia and India, the name paisley became world famous.  According to the BBC article Paisley, the story of a classic Bohemian print (See link below) it is said to contain hidden messages and symbolism - now that is fascinating and I think will have to be the subject of a later blog.  

Wow, so much exciting textile related stuff evolving from this small Scottish town! Well worth a visit back there I think, even if I have to stick my money through iron bars in the sweetshop to buy a bag of crisps!

Photo: Mandie Stone

Anyway. Tomorrow night, 25th January, people will be celebrating the life and work of the revered poet Robert Burns with their Burn's Night Feasts and suppers, some of which will even be offering Vegan haggis! Staff at our local Children's Hospice Charity Shop in Glastonbury (pictured) have created a fabulous Burn's Night themed window, filled with typewriters and poetry. What really caught my eye though were these stunningly styled highland fling costumes that wouldn't look out of place on a Vivienne Westwood or Alexander McQueen catwalk.  What a wonderful tribute to the great Scottish baird Burns. 

Photo: Mandie Stone

We won't be celebrating Burn's Night as such, being none Scottish n'all that, but I suppose by writing this blog, I'm celebrating Robert Burns in my own way, sharing muses with you my readers, experiencing his poems for the first time and loving them. Talking of love and with Valentine's Day only a couple of weeks away, I chose A Red, Red Rose as my featured Burns poem. 
Hope you love it!

O my Luve is like a red, red rose 

   That’s newly sprung in June; 

O my Luve is like the melody 

  That’s sweetly played in tune. 

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 

   So deep in luve am I; 

And I will luve thee still, my dear, 

   Till a’ the seas gang dry. 

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, 

   And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; 

I will love thee still, my dear, 

   While the sands o’ life shall run. 

And fare thee weel, my only luve! 

   And fare thee weel awhile! 

And I will come again, my luve, 

   Though it were ten thousand mile.

I'm signing off for now cos I've got a neck ache from typing. 

Oh, just one more thing on the Scottish theme.  It was only after I reached the age of fifty, that I found out from a neighbour with Scotch blood, that you must never refer to a Scottish person as Scotch. Because they are Scottish not Scotch and Scotch is a drink, albeit a drink from Scotland.  

Obviously. I get it now.....although where does that leave 

Scotch Broth and Scotch Tape? 

Are they not Scottish too? Hmmmm.......

"I saw the crescent. You saw the whole of the moon......" Lyrics: The Waterboys
Photo by Brian Outten of the full moon over Burn's the Bread in Glastonbury. (Nothing to do with Burn's night though!)

Sources/Links

BBC website article on the Paisley witch trials
About Christian Shaw. Entrepreneur of Paisley
Renfrewshire Witch Hunt 1697
The Whole of the Moon. The Water Boys.
Mull of Kintyre. Wings.
BBC article about Paisley print and weave
Poetry Foundation website
The Paisley Thread Mills

Weaving a Web of Spider Magic

Arachne in Greek legend was a talented weaver who challenged Athena, the goddess of wisdom to a weaving contest which resulted in her being turned into a spider. Illustration: dated 1574

        The Spider's iridescent, sparkly web is a complex creation of intricate beauty that shimmers with ethereal mystery.  A collection of strands that hold everything together.  The internet, known as the world wide web, now helps us realise how closely linked all humans are and communicate and create in collaboration from wherever we might be the world.  We are all one in the universe, linked by invisible strands in the ether that connect us. The spider through it's web can move inter-dimensionally and has therefore been used by tribal people across the globe for divination purposes.

The Three Fates by Emily Balivet, 2014

     
In mythology the Three Fates, known in Greek as the Morai spun the threads of human fate from birth until death.
Clotho spun the “thread” of human fate from her distaff onto her spindle, 
Lachises dispensed it, measuring the thread of life with her measuring rod.
Atropos cut the thread (thus determining the individual's time had come). 





       

        It's well known that spiders are feared by a high percentage of humans due to their risk of biting and poisoning, even killing.....we've all heard the story of man eating spiders haven't we? Nobody every complains about the man eating cheese sandwich though do they? (sorry, cheesy joke). Anyway, I was once very afraid of these mysterious creatures so thought I would delve into their world to find out more about the furry eight legged wonders.

        For the Navajo and Hopi of Arizona, thousands of years before the internet existed, spider woman was not only a tremendously talented weaver, she was a creator of all things.  She cast out her threads to create the four directions, she gave life to twin goddesses who created the sun and the moon. She she was the creatrix who bore twin sons, the north and south poles who then brought the cycles of the seasons into being. 

Photo Credit: Amethystmoonsong

        Grandmother Spider is from the Cherokee tradition.  According to their legends, there was darkness around the time of creation, light and heat was needed for the Cherokee people. Grandmother Spider had heard that there were people on the other side of the earth who were warm and dry and had plenty of light.  She stole the sun for her tribe after other creatures such as the possom had failed due to it's intensity.  Grandmother Spider made a heat resistant clay pot and spun a strong web which reached all the way to the other side of the world. She used the web to get across and put the sun in her clay pot then carefully get return home across the web with the sun to light up their sky.

        From tales by the Ashanti Tribe of Ghana, West Africa we learn of Anansi, the god who often took the form of a spider and is known as the god of all knowledge of stories. He was a 'trickster' who according to legend, went to the sky god asking if he could buy his stories from him because at that time in the world there were no stories out in the world to be shared. Anansi is also celebrated in the folk tales of Jamaica.

Anansi the spider god as known in Jamaica.
Illustration: Martha Warren Beckwith

The sky god told Anansi that it would be impossible for him to buy stories but Anansi, not to be put off asked the sky god to name his price.  The sky god set him the challenge of returning to him with acquisitions including a particular python, a swarm of bees, a certain leopard and an actual fairy to prove his worth. Only then could the stories be traded.  This indeed was a challenge for Anansi who had to try every trick in his book to capture the creatures and deliver them to Nyan the sky god.  When Anansi came back with everything he had been asked for, Nyan immediately handed over his stories.  These became known as the spider stories.

Once upon a time I was completely scared of spiders and had been known to scream the house down if a spider appeared in the bath. My friend Tash inspired me though when back in 2015 she handled a very hairy tarantula on a visit to the Petting Zoo at Longleat, to overcome her fear of spiders.  Tash, throughout our lives has always been one step ahead of me, having introduced me to texting and so many other things I'd never heard of, including some great music.  Anyway, it took me another couple of years before I was ready to do the same, and I got the opportunity at the Mid-Somerset Show in Shepton Mallet when I too experienced the thrill of holding a very hairy tarantula in the palm of my hand.  It really did help me to get rid of my fear and start thinking of spiders as fascinating creatures. This, in turn opened me up to some real spider magic in Glastonbury.

After shuffling my Animal Magic cards one Sunday evening, I picked out  "Spider"
stunningly illustrated surrounded by crystals.

         Later on, I could hear the Karaoke coming from our local pub (no choice but to embrace it - it's very loud!).  Spiders From Mars by David Bowie came on and it sounded like there were loads of people in the pub singing along. About half hour later we were reading in bed and a beautiful, small spider dropped down from the ceiling and hanging on a thread of cobweb, it dangled between our heads as if to say 'hello'. Brian touched it and it quickly made it's way back up towards the ceiling. Then Bri picked it up and carefully put it out of the window.

        Next morning we felt like getting energised and blowing away the cobwebs, so we walked to the top of Glastonbury Tor. It was very windy and the cobwebs blew away.  When we returned to the bottom of the Tor and were about to turn left on the street, I said to my husband Brian, 'let's see if the temple is open by the White Spring'. So we turned right. We got to the gate and it was closed. The sign said it opens at 1.30pm on Mondays. I asked Bri what the time was and he said '1.29pm'. While waiting outside for it to open, a girl came along holding a crystal. She went up to a bloke who was sitting on the wall by us and said somebody had just given it to her and asked him if he knew what crystal it was. he didn't know. I looked at it and said it was Hematite and that it would be good for her blood circulation. She thanked me and asked the bloke his name. He said "I'm Spider".

        The girl wandered into the temple which had just opened. We stayed chatting with Spider who said he used to have a hippy-junk shop called Cobwebs which was now closed down and that he was a 'Free Man of the Land' He and Brian were chatting outside for ages about land and law and environmental stuff while I went into the temple, where a girl called Briony was singing beautifully and there was a completely naked man sitting at an altar filled with candles and all kinds of crystals, feathers, paintings and objects from nature. I decided not to sit and meditate next to nudie man, and went back outside to join Brian and Spider. He really does look and move like a spider!

Spider (spelt Spyda) told us he lives in a tree and showed us a photo of his tree home. He was an interesting character and he and Brian swapped numbers - maybe we will visit him on his land one day. After all this spider activity, I went into Elestial the crystal shop and treated myself to a silver spider ring. To this day, I haven't taken it off.

        I believe there are messages to be learned from spider synchronicity and according to the book that comes with my cards, spider is weaving the etheric vibrations of the universe into my physical body as it calls me to 'create, create, create'. It also said that number thirteen was particularly lucky for me at this time - which was completely bonkers because the day was August 13th!!

        Outside the temple there was a dream-catcher hanging from a tree. The art of story telling and weaving dream catchers comes through Spider Magic. I thought I should have a go at constructing my own spiders web, just to see how hard those little fellas/lady spiders work.  I tried umpteen times to create a spiders web from a piece of wall in the style of the 'cats cradle' we used to have fun with in the school playground.  I was following a youtube video called 'String Tricks! How to Do the Spiderweb String Figure Step by Step. I still haven't been able to work it out - I mess up about half way through, but I'm not giving up trying.  If you want to have a go yourself, there's a link to the video at the bottom of this page.

There are several links to spiders in ancient Chinese legends.  One is that women would leave a spider on utensils such as two chopsticks and leave them in a container outside on the seventh day of the seventh month. When they checked the next morning, if they found cobwebs on the chopsticks, it would confirm that the woman was a skilful seamstress and embroiderer.

The legends of the Lakota tribe show both fear and reverence of the spider. On the one hand, the spider gave all the animals their names shapes, personalities and identities and led man from the darkness of caves into the light of the earth and on the other hand, the spider is a trickster who was once a god of wisdom, who abused his trust.

Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders.  As almost all spiders are venomous, it's no wonder we are scared of them and their hairy-ness and all those legs!  They are great for pest control though and can eat roaches, earwigs, flies and even those awful clothes moths who chomp away at your best jumpers and wool rugs.  In East Africa there is a species of jumping spider called Evarcha Culivicora which could be recruited for the war on malaria.  It makes a web in the home and lays in wait for mosquitoes as it prefers to eat blood-filled mozzies rather than biting at humans. 

        So by killing a spider, people may be getting rid of an important, possibly life-saving predator from their home. I would hope to steer well clear of a Redback/Black Widow spider though and it's probably advisable for all of us to become familiar with the 10 most dangerous spiders in the world you can find a link to at the bottom of this page.

       Justin Timberlake may (for some reason, although I can't think why!!!) have the nickname 'Trouser-Snake' (possibly due to rumours started by his ex Britney Spears) and therefore not have Ophidiophobia, but he's apparently terrified of spiders; as is Harry Potter author J K Rowling, although being Arachnophobic hasn't exactly stopped her from being creative with her spooky stories. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, she writes of Aragog, an Acromantula, a rare and gigantic spider with venom thats an important ingredient in magic potions. He is loyal to Hagrid but watch out, as he sees all other humans as prey.

        January is a time of Spring cleaning and getting rid of the cobwebs.  One way householders keep their territory spider-free is by dotting conkers around the place, because conkers omit a noxious substance that spiders detest, although apparently that's an old wives tale with no scientific evidence to prove it works. Should we be sweeping them away though?  My mum has brought me up to never kill a spider, saying if I did I would get bad luck. Spiders are quite possibly as afraid of us as we are afraid of them. The Who even sung about this in their song 'Boris the Spider' (1966) with the lyrics 'Maybe he's as scared as me, where he's gone now I can't see.....'

        Couture fashion hasn't escaped from spider magic.  This incredible electronic 'smart' dress was created by Dutch technical engineer and designer Anouk Wipprecht. The dress is said to react to movement and protect the wearer from the threatening social behaviour from the outside. The spider legs on the dress come out and retreat in a creepy, crawly kind of way! This happens when the spider reacts to sensory and respiratory signals from the wearer about how she is feeling eg. whether she is stressed or chilled etc and mechanically the feelers respond by going into attack position.....or not, as the case may be! Wow!

Photograph: Courtesy of Anouk Wipprecht

        In the V&A museum in 2012, on display was a tasselled cape of golden silk, it had taken hundreds of industrious workers four years to make. The whole 'cobweb' cape was constructed from raw, undyed golden spider silk. The Madagascan spiders who's raw silk was used were from the Nephila genus. Their name is from Greek and is translated from a combination of two words and means 'fond of spinning'. Sub-species of this spider have been known in Australia to weave invisible webs across whole streets which have been frequently run into by joggers! This spider silk is said to be far superior to the silk produced by a silkworm. Strong and long lasting, there it's use is now being investigated for everything from bullet proof vests to body armour; from biodegradable fishing lines to artificial tendons and the finest silk shirts in the world.

Model Bianca Gavrilas wears a a hand-embroidered cape made from the silk of the Golden Orb Spider in the V&A Museum's Medieval and Renaissance Gallery

( GETTY IMAGES )

The cape was spun from the naturally golden threads of 1.2 million female spiders from Madagascar

'Golden Orb' spiders were collected every morning for silk to be extracted from them by trained handlers. The spiders were not harmed in the process and were returned to the wild at the end of every day. The process was developed by Simon Peers a British textile expert and Nicholas Godley, an American designer both based in Madagascar.

The only other known garment woven from spider's silk was said to have been made for an exhibition in Paris in 1900 but no examples of it appear to remain.

        Some might even think twice now before removing spiders from their home.  Those curious creatures full of magical mystery could well be the bringers of luck and good fortune!  I find it helps me to get into a meditative state by watching a spider weaving it's web, it's quite trance like and mesmerising to focus on.   Spider's really can chill you out! 

         With all this magic and myth surrounding them, what's not to love about them?  If all else fails, you've had a go at handling one of these gorgeous creatures at a petting zoo and yet are still scared of spiders, if one turns up in your home and frightens the living daylights out of you, why not just tell it a joke? Yep really. It says so in the chorus of my son's favourite cartoon 'Spider in the Bath' from when he was a toddler in the early 90s........  

A spider in the bath, a spider in the bath!

A creepy crawly, creepy crawly spider in the bath!

I know he's only there because he wants to have a laugh!
See? What is there to fear?  He only wants to have a laugh............go on, tell him a joke! xx

Tash setting a great example!

    Oh....and he's only scary 'cos he's hairy!

Me finally taking the Tarantuala challenge

Little Miss Muffett eat your heart out!










Biography

Animal Wisdom, the definitive guide. Jessica Dawn Palmer.

The 10 Most Dangerous Spiders in the World (website link below).
Transference Healing Animal Magic. Earth, Mystical & Elemental Cards. Alexis Cartwright.

The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects. Barbara G. Walker.

The Golden Thread. How fabric changed history. Kassia St Clair.

Links to sources:

How to Do the Spiderweb String Figure Step by Step

https://www.planetdeadly.com/animals/most-dangerous-spiders

Boris the Spider. The Who
Smart Couture. The Spider Dress. 2.0.

To purchase a print of the Three Fates by Emily Balivet

The Gown of Gold. Daily Mail article.

Anouk Wipprecht

P.S. Ophidiophobis is fear of snakes............keep a look out for my up and coming blog on snakes.