and let the old Year go.
Sing reign of Fair Maid
With gold upon her chin,
Open you the east door,
And let the New Year in.
We have traced Maggie Figgy of St. Levan on her titanic chair supervising the surging waters of the ocean, and there is little doubt that the throne of St. Michael’s was the corresponding seat of Micah, the Almighty King or Great One. The equation of Michael = Kayne may be connoted with the London Church now known as St. Nicholas Acon: this name appearing mysteriously in ancient documents as alternatively “Acun,” “Hakoun,” “Hakun,” and “Achun” it is supposed may have denoted a benefactor of the building. In Cornish ughan or aughan meant supreme; in Welsh echen meant origins or sources,[753] and as Nicholas is the same word as nucleus it is impossible now to say whether St. Nicholas Acon was a shrine of the Great One or of echen the little Nicholas or nucleus. Probably as figured at Royston where Kitt is bearing the Cadet or the small chit upon his shoulder, the two conceptions were concurrent: on the opposite side of the Royston Cave is figured St. Katherine, Kathleen, or Kate: Catarina means the pure one, but catha as in catholic also means the universal, and there is no doubt that St. Kathleen or Kate was a personification of the Queen of the Universe.
Cendwen or Keridwen, alias Ked, was represented by the British Bards as a mare, whale, or ark, whence emerged the universe: the story of Jonah and the whale is a variant of the Ark legend, and it is not without significance that the Hebridean island of Iona is identified as the locale of a miraculous “Whale of wondrous and immense size lifting itself up like a mountain floating on the surface”.[754] Notwithstanding the forbidding aspect of this monster, St. Columba’s disciple quiets the fears of his companion by the assurance: “Go in peace; thy faith in Christ shall defend thee from this danger, I and that beast are under the power of God”.
It has been seen that Night was not necessarily esteemed as evil, nor were the nether regions considered to be outside the radius of the Almighty: that Nicholas, Nixy, or Nox was the black or nether deity is obvious, yet without doubt he was the same conception as the Babylonish “exalted One of the nether world, Him of the radiant face, yea radiant; the exalted One of the nether world, Him of the dove-like voice, yea dove-like”.[755]
That St. Margaret was the White Dove rather than the foul Culver is probable from her representation as the Dragon-slayer, and it is commonly accepted that this almost world-wide emblem denoted Light subduing Darkness, Day conquering Night, or Good overcoming Evil. But there is another legend of St. Margaret to the effect that the maid so meek and mild was swallowed by a Dragon: her cross, however, haply stuck in its throat, and the beast perforce let her free by incontinently bursting (date uncertain); in Art St. Margaret therefore appears as holding a cross and rising from a dragon, although as Voragine candidly admits—“the story is thought to be apocryphal”. We have seen that Magus or the Wandering Jew was credited with the feat of wriggling out of a post—“and they saw that he was no other than a beardless youth and fair faced”: that the adventure of Maggie was the counterpart to that of Magus is rendered probable by the fact that St. Margaret’s birth is assigned to Antioch, a city which was alternatively known as Jonah. With Jonah or Iona may be connoted the British Aeon—
Aeon hath seen age after age in long succession,