Áine of the past was wondering about the future? But what about it?
Also, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas this weekend (we really got screwed over this year with the timing didn’t we?)
Unlike Back Office, Bata Neart is running down on its final 5 pages, so there will be new Bata Neart pages right through the holiday 🙂
Merry Christmas to you and your family, too, Rawr. And a Merry Christmas to all here as well.
Wait, FINAL 5 pages? That’s for this chapter, yes, not the entire comic?
@Azreal: My bad! Poor choice of words in the blog post, I meant the final 5 pages of the chapter. We’re only 7 chapters into a 70+ chapter story…and even after ‘Bata Neart’ finishes I have a several Extended Universe stories already planned. So not to worry, as long as I’m around so will this comic universe and it’s inhabitants 🙂
Merry Christmas to you too and a happy (not *too* hung-overy) New Year too!
I’m pretty sure that nothing Aine was thinking of matches up to what actually happened. 🙂
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, Rawr, and to all your other readers. 🙂
So should we interpret this to mean that “sleeping together” doesn’t carry the same connotations for Aine that it does for Aoife (and the rest of us) or that Aine had a sexual relationship with Muinteoir? I’d be more inclined toward the former; my impression has been that their relationship was more like mother and daughter.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone here. I hope the holidays are pleasant for all of you and your families.
@KessyI’m interpreting this as two peolpe trying to keep warm during a dark, cold night. Sharing body heat is the best way. But I also think their relationship is a little closer than “Mother/Daughter”. They’re not lovers, but they’re definitely very close; probably as only a teacher and student like this can be. Not to put a perverse spin on it, but I’m pretty sure that a lot of the rituals that were performed back then had a lot of nudity in them. From what I understand (which is very little) of Wiccan practices, it’s about getting as close to Nature and the elements as possible, so the same could be here. It’s likely they just finished a ritual and are settling in for the night…which kind of contradicts my original statement.
@DeltaYeah, the past here is juuuust a tad different from the future she’s in now. ;P. But she’s probably thinking about what she’s going to do with her own powers and what’s going to happen to Muinteoir when she’s gone. And Present Aine is probably thinking about Past Aine and how the situations are so different, but at the same time a bit similar. This is probably what she was thinknig of when she crawled into bed with Aoife, because in her world it’s normal for women to be in bed together naked. Especially if they’re close friends like she and Muinteoir were and she, Aoife, Ashling, and the rest are now. Plus she probably did it to try and feel safe in this still somewhat unfamiliar world.
@Farren: LOL, in my opinion, the whole skyclad thing came about because Gardner was a dirty old man. 😉 Modern Wicca is largely derived from the works of Gerald Gardner, who claimed to have been initiated into a coven that had been practicing in secret for centuries. Since none of the other members of that coven ever came forward publicly, this all rests solely on Gardner’s own account. There’s considerable doubt that this coven ever existed at all. Gardner was a retired civil servant, and the followers he attracted after publishing his books tended to be young women, and, well, you can do the math.
Whatever the truth of Gardner’s story is, I find it pretty unlikely that modern Wicca has a direct connection to the religions of pre-Christian Europe, although that’s a topic of lively debate in the community. In my experience Wiccans tend to be a pretty individualistic and a bit iconoclastic lot, so these kinds of arguments usually aren’t that big a deal.
@Delta: Pretty much. I don’t think she had much of a chance guessing correctly 😀
@Kessy: Your impression is exactly what I hoped it would. They do have a close relationship, but it is not romantic or sexual. They are in more of a parent/child relationship where The War Priestess is concerned with keeping Áine safe in a war-torn world.
@Farren: Áine sleeping nude was as you wrote, about sharing warmth. It’s skin-contact is apparently the best way to share heat, and thus if you have no hangups about nudity you’ll get the most skin contact without clothes. That’s what they are doing here.
I was a little concerned that people would mis-read this page, and think they were having a sexual relationship, but thankfully everyone so far is reading it as I hoped 🙂
@Kessy: Years ago I had wondered about ‘Skyclad’ and eventually did unearth the whole thing about Gardner. In the Bata Neart Universe I will be covering something similar where there will be some references to ‘magical nudity’…or more to the point…spells that can help people get that way. You will be blaming Aoife for that one…as well as any ‘useful’ spells that crop up. I’m thinking of referencing Gartner and ‘Skyclad’ in there somewhere.
I imagine nudity in itself won’t necessary for any of the spells to work unless there is a practical reason. For example, the spell that froze Áine may require the ‘subject’ to be nude, merely to avoid the horrible ‘band-aid’ effect of trying to peal off 1000 year-old-clothes that have been frozen onto your skin. Also…I guess you want an ‘even’ all-over freeze. All of this probably works better without clothes ;D
ROFLMAO Now that you mention it, I’m sure the idea of doing a ritual skyclad would really appeal to Aoife. ^_^ I’d love to see how she convinces Ashling to go along with it.
My take on real world magick is that the mechanisms it works through operate in the mind of the person doing the casting, and the ritual part of it is there to help them get in the proper frame of mind. So for example, it’s not anything about the athame itself that helps in casting a spell, but it’s the idea of the athame. Think of it as being like a locker room ritual that players on a sports team do to get themselves psyched up for a game, or that a performer does before going on stage. The details don’t really matter, it’s whatever works and feels right for the person doing it. So there’s nothing wrong with including nudity in a magickal ritual. But claiming that there’s some deep mystical reason for it is – in my opinion – kind of making excuses.
As I’m sure you can tell, I’m not a Gardnerian so this is just my opinion and there are plenty of people who feel very differently about it.
I guess when her mentor treats being naked in such a no-big-deal way, that kind of helps explain why she doesn’t seem to care about being exposed now. Or maybe it was a cultural thing from her era as a whole and being embarrassed about being seen with nothing on is more of a modern thing. As this point, it’s probably both.
@melaredblu: Pretty much dead-on. I was kind thinking that they didn’t really have the same hang-ups in pre-Christian Ireland, with clothing being mostly used to avoid the cold. So unless it’s really cold she hasn’t many reasons to cover up…especially when she’s in a heated 21st century bedroom 🙂
@Kessy: I doubt Aoife would ever successfully convince Ashling to go skyclad. However that doesn’t mean that she wouldn’t try her best 😀