posted on March 11, 2001 03:21:42 PM new
You guys might find it interesting that my Grandmother was a Pennsylvania Dutch lady and she was refered to as a powwow lady. She practiced a pre christian european form of what resembled vodoo or other animistic religion that seemed to coexist with the church in an uneasy truce. She did spells and incantations in German and although they will tell tourists that hex signs are just decoration people would bring them to her to "put the power in them". After reading the thread and thinking about it I had always wondered why they called these people powwow
men or women and now I am guessing that it was because of the similarity to what the Indian Shamans did when they saw them. It was passed father to daughter and mother to son.Anybody know ant more about this?
posted on March 11, 2001 05:29:46 PM new
krs - Niche sproken der Duetch. Close as I can come - I don't speak it. I will run 'em past a useless translator program.
posted on March 11, 2001 06:06:01 PM new
Oh,OK So far I had gotten something about a seeres in partnership with the brotherhood of Odin
I will do the whole phrase.
It has been long recognized that a persons mental health can directly affect their physical health. This years Kutztown Pennsylvania German Festival will examine phenomenon in a series of lectures centered on the theme "Hex Signs and Hexerei" Folk Beliefs of the Pennsylvania Germans.
The Pennsylvania German equivalent of faith healing is termed Braucheri or Powwowing. It stems from traditional folk medicines practiced throughout Europe which mixed herbal cures and incantations which cure both mind and body.
One of the mainstays of braucheri among the Pennsylvania Germans was a book by John George Hohman, published in both German and English called the "Long Lost Friend. Hohman's work covers all aspects of Pennsylvania German life from catching fish to winning a law suit.
Powwowing is primarily a curing art and as such often uses biblical references. All incantations end with the names of the trinity repeated three times.
It is evident that powwowing was the benevolent art which combined Christian practices with herbal cures. It is still practiced in Pennsylvania, although finding practiononers is becoming increasingly difficult. One such Powwow Doctor was the legendary Mountain Mary of the Oley Hills.
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emphasis added
Unless there's other evidence, I think it's doubtful your grandmother practiced one of the pre-Christian Northern European faiths, like Asatru. As the last page I listed says, "Although outlawed by the Protestant church, powwowing nevertheless attributes its power to the Christian God. Powwowers claim to be practitioners of God's healing power, intermediaries through which God cures the faithful."
Glad you posted about this, since I never knew about any of it until I started looking. Fascinating!
posted on March 12, 2001 03:11:31 AM new
Well that was interesting. I had not thought about the things she did in a long time in such detail. All the links I followed kept me up pretty late.
There was division over her practice. My Mother and her sister were not in agreement. A third sister I don't know how she felt.
One was OK with the powwow and the other was not. Once when I was young the neighbor man was taking down a tree and cutting it up after it was down cut his ankle with the ax really bad. His wife told my grandmother about it and she stopped the bleeding but the man came limping over and cursed her for doing it saying she knew he did not hold with doing that. She said what's done is done.
But after the reading I am understanding a lot of the little odd things she did better.
Once in the summer she went in the kitchen and cooked a meal in the afternoon well before dinner time and I asked her if she was hungery so soon and she said it is not for me. She actually made a plate up ready to serve and in about 5 miinutes a man came to the back door and wanted to know if we had any work to do or if we had anything to spare to eat. She had a hot plate of fried liver and onions and creamed corn mixed with diced potatos and sliced bread and handed it out to him and told him to eat right there on the back porch and if he wanted more to knock on the door and if not just leave the plate.
When she got the plate later she told me to go out front to the road and see if there was any writing on the curb. I went out and there was some kind of a mark by our mail box. It has been to long I don't remember what it was, but it amused her.
Her husband died young and she raised 3 girls alone. She had a pretty rough life. My mom and one aunt took care of her when she was older and sick but my other aunt was too selfish.
posted on March 12, 2001 05:07:36 AM new
Yeah it was a line figure like that but it has been too many years to remember and I didn't look at things as close when I was that young.
