The Narnian Digest
September 24th - 30th Edition
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Narnian Digest. Let’s get right into it. This one is a long one with some interesting things!
Everything Just Keeps Getting Older
This morning I came across a story from 2022 about an English coin that was found in Newfoundland, Canada. The gold coin is a Henry VI quarter noble that was minted in London between 1422 and 1427.
The reason why this is interesting is because the accepted narrative of when Europeans traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and settled in North America. The accepted history is that Norse explorer Leif Erikson was the first to visit over 1,000 years ago, in 1001 AD. This was proven after evidence of a Norse settlement was discovered in L'Anse aux Meadows.
Following Erikson, the next recorded European explorer to arrive in Newfoundland was John Cabot in 1497. Just under 100 years later, in 1583, the province came under English possession and fishing operations were established along its coast.
The gold coin predates Cabot's expedition by 70 years, and is even older than the "half groat" coin discovered on the beach at the Cupids Cove Plantation provincial historic site in 2021. That artifact was dated to the 1490s.
For those who aren’t picking up what I’m putting down, what I’m saying is that the accepted narrative about Europeans in North America isn’t just in question but has been blown apart.
Another interesting piece of evidence that’s came about in the past 23 years is that we have also discovered that there was Norse contact prior to 1001 AD. In 2010, a DNA study was conducted that found that there may have been a Viking-Indian child born in Iceland. Scientists found more than 80 living Icelanders with a genetic variation similar to one found mostly in Native Americans. This suggests that prior to Erikson, there was an American Indian who sailed to Europe with the Vikings.
Now, you may ask the question: Why are you so interested in this? Let me show my hand here.
I find this interesting because in my own home state of West Virginia, there has been a controversy since the 1980’s about this kind of thing because it really calls the narrative into question. In 1964, there was a petroglyph discovered in Wyoming County, West Virginia. It wasn’t until 1970 that an archeologist from the WV Economic and Geological Survey studied it and concluded that this petroglyph was at least five to seven hundred years old, if not older. It also was in marked contrast to other known Native American petroglyphs in the area.
Here’s where things get controversial. The Wyoming County petroglyphs were translated by Dr. David Fell, the President of Harvard’s Epigraphic Society. Fell came to the conclusion that these were not Native American inscriptions, but rather Old Irish called Ogham. Fell translated them from Old Irish, then into Modern Irish, then into English. The inscriptions read as followed.
“At the time of the sunrise, a ray grazes the notch on the left side on Christmas Day, the first season of the year, the season of the blessed Advent of the Savior Lord Christ. Behold he is born of Mary, a woman.”
The interesting thing is that Dr. Fell and his colleagues re-united at this carving just before the sunrise on December 22nd, 1982. They watched in amazement as the first beam of sunlight torched through the sky and struck the center of the Celtic sun symbol on the left side of the panel. Gradually, as the sun rose, the entire carving lit up.
Now, let me say. I am not a professional archeologist or epigraphist. There are, admittedly, things that I do not know. I do not know Ogham and cannot verify if Dr. Fell’s conclusions were true or not.
But what I do know is this. Those petroglyphs look nothing like the Native American petroglyphs in our state. They look like a written language, whereas the Native American petroglyphs are pictographic.
I also know that the powers that be do not like it when you question the standard narrative. They do not like for ideas to be freely discussed and they like to gatekeep. So much so, that a 2018 article published by Appalachian Magazine titled "Could the Celts Have Explored Appalachia Long Before Columbus?" disregards Dr. Fell’s research, stating that it "has problematic imperialist, or even racist, undertones."
I learned the way things work myself back in July of 2022 whenever I was removed from the West Virginia Archeological Society without warning or reason. The inciting incident for why I was removed occured back in the Fall of 2022. On a beautiful fall evening, a group friends and I led an expedition to discover a “lost” serpent mound in Logan County, West Virginia. This particular mound is an Adena effigy mound that dates back to around circa 500 BC and has long been considered “lost” to the coal mines by those in the WVAS.
Well, after about an hour ride through the mountains and after a little trek down a valley and up a ridge, this group of friends and I “re-discovered” the “lost” serpent mound. It was exactly where it had been for thousands of years. I shared our findings with the West Virginia Archeological Society, and I was removed from all groups without warning or notice. I even sent an email to the secretary of the society asking for clarification on why I was removed, to which I never received a response, though I was a paying member.
I suspect over the next several decades, many of the narratives that we have been told our entire lives will begin to unravel and that we will find that the world is much stranger than we could have ever imagined. That’s because much of what is considered “science” isn’t really science but a quasi-religion that has dogmas that cannot be questioned.
Feast of Michael the Archangel and All Angels
Today marks the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel and All Angels. Traditionally, it comes at the end of what’s called Saint Michael’s Lent and is used to remember the victory of Christ, through Saint Michael the Archangel, to defeat Satan in the War in Heaven (See Revelation 12). You can find it in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer Calendar and for those who are looking for personal liturgies to celebrate, you can also find some prayers in the Daily Office for morning, midday, evening, and compline.
What I love about this feast is that there’s something explicitly masculine about it, which is refreshing as a man living in a world that constantly cries about “toxic masculinity.” This feast reminds us that it is a good and right thing to celebrate the throwing down of Christ’s enemies, and that we too should stand against the powers of darkness.
Now, some people may be uncomfortable with the idea of having a feast for an Angel or a Saint. “That takes the focus off of Jesus and puts it onto a created being,” you might be tempted say. However, let me just remind you — we’re remembering and participating in something that is found in Scripture. Does that take the focus off of Jesus? If so, then why is it included in Scripture? I sincerely find objections like this to be poorly reasoned.
Let me propose to you another way of thinking about this. The victory of the Archangel Michael over Satan in the War in Heaven is Christ’s victory. Michael’s victory over Satan glorifies Christ as King. It shows forth, in mighty magnificence, the power of the King that an Archangel who is faithful to His sovereign can throw down a spiritual being who is “higher” in the celestial hierarchy than himself. To give you an analogy, whenever someone is brought to Christ by faith, does the person sharing the Gospel lessen Christ’s glory? Of course not. We all understand that Christ sovereignly uses means to accomplish His ends.
The same is true with the victory of Saint Michael. Remembering his victory does not lessen Christ’s glory but magnifies it. So, feast this Friday and give thanks to Christ for giving us a “prince” who watches over His people and go throw down some idols. Re-enchant the way you keep time.
Green Men in the Church: The Lost Lore of The Green Man on The Symbolic World
Some of you have probably realized by now that earlier this week I posted an essay that was for paid subscribers only titled Green Men in the Church: The Lost Lore of the Green Man. I unpublished it this week because it’s actually going to be published as an exclusive through The Symbolic World. It’s going through editing now, so I’m not quite sure when it will be published there.
For those who are unfamiliar with The Symbolic World, it’s the digital home for Jonathan Pageau. Jonathan Pageau is a French-Canadian icon carver, public speaker and YouTuber who has had many conversations with folks like Jordan B. Peterson, John Vervaeke, and others exploring the symbolic patterns that underlie our experience of the world, how these patterns emerge and come together, manifesting in religion, art and in popular culture. He's also the editor of the Orthodox Arts Journal and host of the Symbolic World blog and podcast.
I’m thrilled to have another essay on The Symbolic World, and they seemed to be thrilled to have it. For those interested in the meaning of the “green man” in churches in the UK, you’re going to want to check out this essay. It has had an additional thousand words or so added to it since the beginning of the week. I spent most of yesterday revising it and adding in more content, so if you read when I posted it here initially, it will be much different by the time it drops there. I’ll let you all know when it’s published!
True Magic & UFO’s
just published a little ditty on UFO’s. It’s really good and concise. You can find it here. 
Two Trees Podcast Delayed
In the last Digest, I mentioned that I would be making an appearance on The Two Trees Podcast. For now, that has been delayed. Jon had some things come up last week that he needed to attend to, and we weren’t able to get together.
As soon as that gets re-scheduled, I’ll let you all know.
The coin could have been in Cabot's own pocket, for all we can tell—predating him doesn't mean its presence here predates his, but that WV petroglyph is INTERESTING!
Someone on Facebook mentioned the lack of non-native foodstuff (either crops or livestock) as a strike against the "Old Irish" story. But this also is somewhat contingent on WHY the Europeans (or other outsiders) came: if they came to trade and go back home, the artefacts would be different from those of a military conquest or different again from a colonization settlement.
In the case of the Christmas Day ogham, it seems to serve two purposes: Christian iconography and an astronomical calendar. It can thus likely be supposed that these Irishmen, if the carvings are authentic, were there as missionaries and perhaps educators to the natives. It is not unheard of for those in such fields to adopt local diets and other material culture IOT better integrate socially with their congregations, and such a practice would leave far fewer archaeological relics than a colonizing settlement or a military garrison.