Our disgust of effluvia and coinage of taboo terms for body substances is inseparable from voodoo. Steven Pinker explains how words for effluvia possess a dreadful magic power:
"Effluvia have an emotional charge that makes them figure prominently in voodoo, sorcery, and other kinds of sympathetic magic. People in many cultures believe that a person can be harmed by mutilating or casting spells on his feces, saliva, blood, nails, and hair, and that a person can be protected from harm if those substances are cursed, buried, drowned, or otherwise ostentatiously discarded. The potency of these substances is people's minds also leads them to be used in medicines or charms, often in homeopathic or purified doses. The emotion of disgust and the psychology of sympathetic magic are entwined. The psychologists Paul Rozin and April Fallon have shown that modern Westerners respect the laws of voodoo in their own disgust reactions, such as recoiling from an object if it merely looks like a disgusting substance or has been in contact with one in the past. Word magic simply extends this chain of associations by one link, and gives the words for effluvia a dreadful power as well." (The Stuff of Thought, p. 345)
THIS DAY IS SACRED TO THE NORSE GODDESS," FRIGG", THE DAUGHTER OF "NJORD "AND CONSORT OF "ODIN". HER NAME TRANSLATES TO BELOVED ONE. SHE WAS THE "QUEEN OF THE AESIR" AND WAS ASSOCIATED WITH GODDESS OF THE LOVE, MARRIAGE, AND MOTHERHOOD. "FRIGG" ALSO PROTECTS THE HOUSEHOLD AND IS THE BESTOWER OF CHILDREN. LIKE MOST FERTILITY GODDESSES, "FRIGG" WAS LIKENED TO "MOTHER EARTH," THOUGH MORE ACCURATELY SHE EXERTED INFLUENCE OVER THE ATMOSPHERE. CHOOSING NOT TO LIVE WITH "ODIN", SHE RESIDES IN A HOME OF HER OWN, AND SHE, AND HER MAIDENS, SPIN GOLDEN THREAD AND WEAVE THE CLOUDS.
"FRIGG" CONTROLLED THE CLOUDS AND REPRESENTED THE ATMOSPHERE THAT ENCIRCLES THE WORLD. A TALL, BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, SHE IS SOMETIMES DEPICTED AS WEARING WHITE GARMENTS OR DARK GARMENTS, DEPENDING ON HER MOOD, WHICH REPRESENTS THE CHANGING OF THE WEATHER. A QUIET, WISE GODDESS, "FRIGG "ALSO HAD THE GIFT OF PROPHESY, ALTHOUGH SHE WILL NEVER TELL US EVERYTHING THAT SHE KNOWS.
ACCORDING TO MYTH, WHEN HER SON "BALDUR" IS FATED TO DIE, SHE DOES HER BEST TO ALTER HIS DESTINY BY EXTRACTING A PROMISE FROM ALL THINGS IN CREATION NOT TO HARM HIM. ALAS, SHE THINKS THE MISTLETOE TOO YOUNG AND INSIGNIFICANT, AND "LOKI," THE TRICKSTER, USES IT TO HIS ADVANTAGE, AND BRINGS ABOUT "BALDUR'S "DEATH. IT IS SAID THAT THE BERRIES ARE HER TEARS, AND WHEN SHE LEARNS THAT HE WILL BE RESTORED TO LIFE, SHE PROMISES TO HANG IT AND KISS EVERYONE WHO WALKS BENEATH....HENCE, COMES THE TRADITION OF KISSING UNDER THE MISTLETOE.
