A Gesture of Thanks!

I have a whole bunch of new readers so I thought it was time to say hello, welcome, and thanks for coming along for the ride... So, yeah, all of those things!

I started this blog as an offering to Mercury, one of my Patrons. It began as an exercise in getting my voice out there. It's a daily blog, started officially on January 1st, 2011 CE, tho there were a few "warm up" posts before that. I've finally reached the point where hubby has stopped telling me, when I'm searching for subject matter, that I don't have to do this every day. He's realized that's not true. I really do have to do this every day. I take my commitments seriously. There was one day where I didn't have internet access so I just wrote the entry of the day and posted it as soon as I was back on line.

I post a lot about Italy, Sicily, the deities thereof, mystery traditions, and how Catholicism is mostly an extension of Roman Paganism. I delve into pre-history when possible and talk about Italic Witchcraft before the Romans came along. I post folklore, family traditions both mundane and magickal, and I rant about things that bother me, including the modern Pagan community's ignorance of their Italian Pagan roots. The info just isn't out there and I suppose that's part of my mission here.

The past few days of posting have been pretty intense for me. There are days where I can put up a post in a few minutes and others that lead me to hours of research and new avenues of information and study. Looks like this blog is Mercury's gift to me as well as my offering to Him. So, Thanks! Tonight, I need to post some fluff. Shinies for you!

How do you stop an Italian from talking?
You tie their hands behind their back!

It's true: half of the language is gestures, the other half has a coinciding gesture for it if necessary.

Some of em aren't as dirty as you think! Some of em are worse too! This fits in nicely with what I was talking about earlier in the week regarding the magic of Italy and how it's woven into every day life. There is a ritual of gesture used on the daily in Italy. The gentleman in the video below talks about how gestures came into common use: After the fall of Rome, people from all countries started to settle in Naples so the gestures were created as a way to bridge the communication gap. I don't  think he's going back far enough. I've blogged about the Roman hand of power, but huge grand magickal gestures are not what I'm talking about, tho in every video you'll see the cornuto, the sign for the horns. He calls it "exorcism" and in another video they equate it with knocking on wood.

This is a long video (it just feeels slow because he's in no kind of rush), but the man is adorable! 


This is a quicker, more modern crash course and gives you the basics!


If you're not up for a video you'll find a page of 3 really cute Italian hand gesture charts here.