A little background here I suppose, I'm sort of stumbling through this all but I posted on February 3rd, however really though from Groundhog Day to February 12th ish is a 12 day festival called Fasching.
So the first thing that happens is Groundhog Day, which I just saw a post recently where someone said that it was taken from legends around Brighid, nope not true. The Groundhog is much like Ratatosk who is a squirrel that runs up and down Yggdrasil bringing news of the nine worlds. Thus the Groundhog is an otherworldy messenger. Presumably he brought news of the up coming year in the past, but now we've reduced him to a meteorologist.
During this time of year female spirits are honored specifically Frigg, Gewwern (a.k.a. Gefjon) and Idise. I am going to do a meditation on each of them, before moving on from the 12 days of Fasching.
Now we come to our friend the Butzemann who is a scarecrow-golem. Oddly through D&D I am more knowledgeable about a golem which according to Jewish folklore is an animated anthropomorphic being, magically created entirely from inanimate matter. Thus the Butzemann is created and life is breathed into it at a ceremony known in English as the Ceremony of the Corn. Now once you have your Butzemann activated he protects your property and crops. He is also to be treated, as far as I can tell as a living creature. Offerings are made to him through out the year, but your Butzemann will be good only for so long. If he isn't destroyed before Halloween (Allelieweziel) he turns bad and runs amok destroying the crops he guarded for all the previous months. As well as just destroying the town you live in.
Now I had planned on making a sage man or Old Man Gloom as I have heard him called before, but after seeing some of the pictures online I decided to make one kind of like the others I saw.
Now it's important to give him a heart which I think is obvious, but I really don't know the Urglaawe reasoning behind it. It is also important to give him clothes and a name. (If you are thinking Dobby the House Elf here, you aren't alone). Again, he is considered a living being, and if you were being hospitable to a stranger that showed up nekkid, you'd give him clothes and food.
My Butzemann is stuffed with basil we had from previous years harvests, cotton, lint (hey it seemed like a good idea) and I cut some of my Brighid's cross from a few days ago and put it in there for good measure.
I made him clothes from scraps of other fabric projects laying around.
It's also important to give him a name (please see articles below regarding naming conventions)
Everyone, meet Atz der Nei Or Atz the New.
Grundsau Burrow: “B” IS FOR BUTZEMANN: THE PAGAN EXPERIENCE
https://grundsauburrow.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/b-is-for-butzemann-the-pagan-experience/
Butzemann Naming Convention
http://urglaawe.blogspot.com/2012/02/butzemann-naming-convention.html
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