The Lycian Sanctuary

THE FOLK SONG "JOHN BARLEYCORN" AS AN EXAMPLE OF PRIMITIVE PAGAN INITIATION

(Initiation is about being killed and reborn. The person who dies is the person before the magickal experience/revelation and the person who is reborn is the one with a new perspective, brought about through the initiatory revelation. Because the Lycian initiation rituals are secret, the following folksong is used here to explain briefly how initiation can take place and what symbolic meanings would apply to various elements within the ritual song.) To see notes, click on underlined material.

JOHN BARLEYCORN.
Collected by Fred Hamer from Billy Bartle in Bedfordshire. Dedicated to Margaret Hamer.

Adam, Cain and Abel staggered (1)
manfully across the field carrying a
plough, a harrow and a grain of
wheat...John Barleycorn--
mysterious intimations from above (5)
told them to dig three deep furrows and
bury him -- this done they returned
home and started to draw up plans for
the first ale house.

There were three men (10)
Came from the west
Their fortunes for to tell,
And the life of John Barleycorn
As well.

They laid him in three furrows deep, (15)
Laid clods upon his head,
Then these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn was dead.

They let him die for a very long time
Till the rain from heaven did fall, (20)
Then little Sir John sprang up his head
And he did amaze them all.

They let him stand till the midsummer day,
Till he looked both pale and wan,
Then little Sir John he grew a long beard (25)
And so became a man.

They have hired men with the scythes so
sharp,
To cut him off at the knee,
They rolled and they tied him around the (30)
waist,
They served him barbarously.

They have hired men with crab-tree
sticks,
To cut him skin from bone, (35)
And the miller he has served him worse than
that,
For he's ground him between two stones.

They've wheeled him here, they've wheeled
him there, (40)
They've wheeled him to a barn,
And they have served him worse than that,
They've bunged him in a vat.

They have worked their will on John
Barleycorn (45)
But he lived to tell the tale,
For they pour him out of an old brown jug
And they call him home brewed ale. (48)

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