{"id":"BAYLEY1912-001","label":"Medieval European Holy-Spirit bullroarer emblem","people_or_site":"European mystics of the Middle Ages (Albigensian / Cathar tradition)","country_current":"France","historic_region":"Languedoc (medieval Albigensian Europe)","macroregion":"Europe / Mediterranean","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer / papermark emblem","source_language":"English","object_description":"Two medieval paper watermarks read by Bayley as bullroarers: a laurel-leaf / diamond-lozenge blade hung from a single cord; one carries the regenerative 'number eight', the other a roughly drawn serpent (symbol of regeneration).","function_summary":"Bullroarer taken as an emblem of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit among medieval European mystics; Bayley links the roaring instrument to the Dionysian 'roarer' (Bromius) and to Christ.","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"bayley1912_lost_language","source_type":"book","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283161/page/n95/mode/2up","page_or_plate":"pp. 86-88, figs 227-228","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"representative Languedoc coordinate (Albi) for a diffuse 'medieval European mystics' attestation","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Not an instrument at all, but a reading of paper. In The Lost Language of Symbolism (1912), the watermark scholar Harold Bayley took two medieval European papermarks — a blade ranging \"from this laurel-leaf form to that of a diamond lozenge\" — to be drawings of the bullroarer, and argued that \"among the European mystics of the Middle Ages the bullroarer was apparently considered to be an emblem of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.\" He read the marks as charged with rebirth: the first, he wrote, carries \"the regenerative number eight,\" the second \"a roughly executed serpent, the symbol of regeneration.\" Bayley set this against the instrument's deep ancestry, noting that under the name Rhombus it had \"figured prominently in the Mysteries of Ancient Greece,\" and tied the roaring sound to Dionysus, surnamed Bromius, \"the roarer,\" and through him to Christ.","pull_quote":"Ezekiel describes the voice of the Spirit as 'a great rushing,' and there is a similar reference in The Acts to 'a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.'","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism, Vol. I (1912), p. 86","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","snake","death_rebirth"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism, Vol. I (1912), chapter on The Bullroarer, pp. 86-88, figs 227-228","url":"https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283161/page/n95/mode/2up"}],"source_citations":"Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism, Vol. I (1912), chapter on The Bullroarer, pp. 86-88, figs 227-228","source_display":"Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism, Vol. I (1912), chapter on The Bullroarer, pp. 86-88, figs 227-228","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two medieval paper watermarks read by Bayley as bullroarers: a laurel-leaf / diamond-lozenge blade hung from a single cord; one carries the regenerative 'number eight', the other a roughly drawn serpent (symbol of regeneration).","function_display":"","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"european mystics","display_name":"Medieval European Holy-Spirit bullroarer emblem","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BAYLEY1912-001.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/BAYLEY1912-001_thumb.jpg","alt":"Bayley's figures 227–228: two pointed oval medieval paper-watermark designs, one marked with bars and arches and the other with a wavy line; he interprets them as bullroarers on cords.","credit":"Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism, Vol. I (1912), figs 227-228","license":"Public domain (published 1912)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283161/page/n95/mode/2up","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Bayley's figs 227-228: two medieval paper watermarks he reads as bullroarers — a blade on a single cord."},"slug":"bayley1912-001-european-mystics-of-the-middle-ages-albigensian-cathar-tradition"}