{"id":117,"date":"2019-09-07T19:44:19","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T03:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/?p=117"},"modified":"2019-09-07T19:48:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T03:48:24","slug":"healers-lybbestre-herb-chanters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/healers-lybbestre-herb-chanters\/","title":{"rendered":"Healers, Lybbestre, Herb-Chanters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"384\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lybbestre2.jpg?resize=1024%2C384&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lybbestre2.jpg?resize=1024%2C384&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lybbestre2.jpg?resize=300%2C112&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lybbestre2.jpg?resize=768%2C288&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/lybbestre2.jpg?w=2000&amp;ssl=1 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption>An Anglo-Saxon word for women healers a thousand years ago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Healers.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Herbal mysteries were the province of the Old English <em>lybbestre <\/em>and Old German <em>lupparar\u0101<\/em>, \u201cfemale healer.\u201d These words for healing witch- es descend from <em>lyb <\/em>and <em>luppa<\/em>, which both mean \u201cvitality,\u201d \u201cmedicine.\u201d It designates \u201cmedicine\u201d both in the sense of curative herbs or powders, and as something animated by sacred power. <em>Lyb <\/em>is related to the word \u201clife\u201d itself. The Anglo-Saxon verb <em>libban <\/em>(<em>lybban) <\/em>means \u201cto live, be, exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Icelandic cognate <em>lyf <\/em>could mean either a healing plant, or some other spirit power.92 Modern explanations define <em>lib \/ lyb <\/em>as \u201csomething medicinal and potent, a harmful or powerful drug, \u03c6\u03ac\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd.\u201d There is a special irony to translators\u2019 using the word \u201cdrug,\u201d and even \u201cpoison,\u201d rather than \u201cmedi- cine,\u201d to translate <em>lyb<\/em>,93 which meant \u201clife.\u201d The negative charge laid on these heathen terms dies very hard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So <em>lybbestre <\/em>translates as \u201cwoman who works with life-force,\u201d or \u201cmedicine-woman.\u201d Many spiritual concepts of the Anglo-Saxons sprang from the etymological matrix of <em>lyb<\/em>. <em>Lyfja <\/em>meant \u201cto heal.\u201d <em>Lybcr\u00e6ft <\/em>was the wisdom of witch-herbalists, who supplemented their pharmacological knowledge with transformative and protective magic. Cognate words existed in Old German: <em>lupperie <\/em>\u201cmedicine, healing,\u201d <em>l\u00fcpp\u00e6rinne<\/em>, \u201csorceress\u201d and, later, <em>lublerin<\/em>, \u201cfemale healer.\u201d <br><br>[Click on audio stream above to hear the whole thing.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Herbal mysteries were the province of the Old English lybbestre and Old German lupparar\u0101, \u201cfemale healer.\u201d These words for healing witch- es descend from lyb and luppa, which both mean \u201cvitality,\u201d \u201cmedicine.\u201d It designates \u201cmedicine\u201d both in the sense of curative herbs or powders, and as something animated by sacred power. Lyb is related to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,37,18,34,35,38,29],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anglo-saxon","tag-germany","tag-healing","tag-herbalists","tag-medicine","tag-wales","tag-witches"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourcememory.net\/maxdashu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}