Sigurd Rune

For the record, tonight's nightly rune drawing is Elhaz, the rune associated with both Sigurd and protection. Not sure if this is foreshadowing that the result of my dad's Y-DNA Hg test might be R1a, but it's an interesting coincidence. Stay tuned, although the result will be awhile in coming as I haven't even got the test kit yet.

Taylor Y-DNA Haplogroups

In follow-up to my previous post concerning mtHg U5 associations with Y-DNA haplogroups, the Taylor surname (my father's surname) project at Family Tree DNA lists several potential European Y-haplogroups already identified for males with the surname Taylor.

Celtic

The most common general Y-Hg found is R1b, a Hg associated with European Celts. This Hg is popularly known as Oisin (Sykes) and Ruisko (Oppenheimer).

Anglo-Saxon-Germanic-Fennoscandia

Next in frequency is Y-Hg I. From among the peoples known from my own autosomal DNA results, Y-Hg I is highly associated with Anglo-Saxons, Northern Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland, and to a lesser but still significant degree, with Hungary, Lapland (the Saami), England and the Netherlands. Y-Hg I is known overall as Wodan (Sykes), Ivan (Oppenheimer). Oppenheimer was able to divide this Hg into 3 clear clusters. The two most important are I1 (Ian) and I2 (Ingert) now known as I2b. Both I1 and I2 are found among Taylor men.

Norse-Viking

Also associated frequently with the surname Taylor is Y-Hg R1a, a Norse-Viking Hg popularly known as Sigurd (Sykes) and Rostov (Oppenheimer). R1a is a distant cousin of R1b, and most commonly found from Eastern Europe to India. In Britain (from where my clans most recently are associated) R1a is associated with probable Scandinavian immigration during periods of Viking settlement.

Non-European / Uncommon Y-Hgs

Other Y-Hg associated with the surname Taylor at Family Tree DNA, to a lesser degree than the three above, are (in order of frequency) E1b1a, E1b1b, G2a, J2, J1, two instances of Q1a3a and A, and one instance each of N1c1, and O.

E1b1a, E1b1b, G2a, J2 and J1 are each found more than a few times, but not nearly as much as R1b, I and R1a.

Egyptian Royalty

E1b1a is the Y-Hg of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III (reigned 1186–1155 BCE), the second pharaoh of Egypt's 20th dynasty.

North Africa - Near East

In the North Wales town of Abergele there is a very high percentage of haplogroup E1b1b1 (33%), which is thought to have dispersed around Europe mainly from the Balkans. This Y-Hg originated in North Africa, Horn of Africa, or nearby areas of the Near East and is thought to have left and migrated from Africa thousands of years ago. E1b1b is popularly known as Eshu (Sykes).

Semitic

Y-Hg J, popularly known as Re (Sykes), is associated with Semitic people from the Middle East, Near East and Northern Africa including Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, Arabs, Turks, ancient Anatolians, southern Mediterraneans, Iranians, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Algeria and the Sinai Peninsula (to name only a few).

J1c3 and J2a are the Y-Hgs associated with the Kohanim of Jewish Tradition. There is one J2a4h2 found in the Taylor surname project from an individual in Poland. All of the other Taylor J1's and J2's are not further described beyond being simply J1 or J2.

Jewish-German

G2a originated in the Middle East and is found in Jewish men and has also been found in a 7th- century CE high-status tomb in Ergolding, Bavaria, Germany.

English Taylor Y-Hgs

Y-Hgs of Taylor men from England (my most recent European country of origin) in the Family Tree DNA project are R1b, R1a, I1, I2, E (not defined further), E1b1b, G2a, J2 and Q1a3a (American Indian).

Taking all of this together, the probability is that my father's English Taylor Y-Hg will most likely be Celtic R1b, Germanic I or Norse-Viking R1a, but the other Y-Hgs remain a possibility.

U5 Y-DNA Correlates - Norse R1a, Anglo-Saxon Danish I and Baltic N1c1

At Ancestry.com we are provided with an updated distribution map for mtDNA haplogroup U5 (see above) and informed that

Haplogroup U5 was the most common maternal lineage among European hunter-gatherers, not just during the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, but until much later in North and Northeast Europe, notably with the Sami people. U5 is absent from Southwest Asia and very low in most of the Middle East, where its presence could be attributed to foreign invasions and settlements from the Bronze Age onwards (Hittites, Indo-Iranians, Phrygians, Armenians, Greeks, etc.).

U5 correlates mostly with Y-DNA haplogroups I, N1c1 and R1a.

On another Ancestry.com page and at Family Tree DNA, we are informed more about the ethnicity correlates of these Y-DNA haplogroups:

Hg I is Anglo-Saxon/Danish.

Hg N1c1 is Baltic with 5 subclades as follows:

1) North European Subclade (Z1936+,Z1935+)
2) North-Baltic Subclade (VL29+,L1022+)
3) South-Baltic Subclade (L550+,L1025+)
4) Scandinavian II (L550+,L1025-)
5) Ugric Subclade (Z1936+,L1034+)

Hg R1a is Norse Viking.

Celtic Y-DNA tends to be R1b.

Just ordered the Y-DNA test for my dad - can't wait to see the results!

Reflections for the New Year

My personal spiritual practice as a witch is all about my ancestors, those who have come before and those who will come after me. As a witch of primarily Northern-Northwestern European ancestry, most of my work involves these genetic ancestors of mine. But not all - some of my Northern European ancestors found refuge in Northern Africa during the height of the last Ice Age. Today, the modern North African Berber tribe are my genetic cousins, being those who descended from the common interaction of my ancient Northern European ancestors with indigenous North Africans (the Saami of Northern Scandinavia, my motherline, and the North African Berber tribe all share a relatively recent common ancestor - our shared motherline split about 9000 years ago - a group who would become the Saami returned to Northern Europe after the Ice Sheet retreated, while some stayed behind in Africa and became the Berbers.) A few modern Africans in Nigeria also share this motherline ancestry with those from my motherline, the Saami and the Berbers.

In my own ancestor work, I do not neglect the African origins for our species, homo sapiens sapiens, in Africa, even as I also honor my ancient archaic Eurasian human ancestors (including Neanderthals and Denisovans) - all of these human lines contributed to who I am today. I honor them all.

The products you find at mt shoppe Witchcrafts Artisan Alchemy reflect my own ancestral work and seek in spirit to honor all of my ancestors. The mixing of Northern European (and North American Cumberland Gap) and African ancestry is currently reflected in my Hoodoo offerings. In 2014, I will be adding a few products to reflect the Berber African tradition specifically, as well as a few Sufi offerings to honor my ancient ancestors whose ancestral branches can still be found today in some of the Arabic peoples. My kabbalistic offerings honor my ancient ancestors with ancestral branches which can still be found today among those of Hungarian Jewish descent in both Hungary and Israel.

Today I reflect on my roots, the soils from which my clans sprouted, the branches and leaves through which we find individuality, and the stars among which we will ever-live.

Hail the ancestors!

Teasing Out My Indigenous Roots

Indigenous and modern day native British Islanders have a strong genetic link to ancient Basques (who came to the British Isles from Iberia in Southwest Europe) -

So, based on the overall genetic perspective of the British, it seems that Celts, Belgians, Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Vikings and Normans were all immigrant minorities compared with the Basque pioneers, who first ventured into the empty, chilly lands so recently vacated by the great ice sheets.

but even though my most recent European ancestors came from England, my genetic link to the ancient Basques is relatively not so great, making it unlikely that the British Isles is the indigenous home of the bulk of my own European ancestors. Instead, I seem to be genetically more related to "immigrant minorities" of the British Isles - namely, to the Celts, Belgians, Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Vikings and Normans.

My autosomal STR genetic deep ancestry test results support this, indicating that I am deeply more heavily Scandinavian (Sweden, Norway and other Fennoscandia countries), Celtic, Belgic and Germanic, with my U5b1b1 genetic motherline distinctly indigenous to arctic northern Scandinavia. My chromosome painting is also predominantly Northern European.

So, it seems clear to me that the bulk of my ancestors were likely not indigenous natives of the British Isles, but rather were native to Scandinavia and also to the Celtic-Germanic lands of continental Europe - groups who then migrated to the British Isles and subsequently admixed with the Basque-sourced native population there (as I do have some Basque genetic ancestry, but much less relative to my Scandinavian-Celtic-Germanic ancestry).

Event Horizon

In follow-up to my previous entry reporting on a dream (Wyrd Weaver) I had about a week ago, where I wrote in part:

I sat down in the same place at the table and stuck my right index finger into the patterns of the table and made the one little adjustment. I immediately found myself on the northern long side of the table sitting by the teaching spirit. I realized that there were 12 lives apportioned to me in this cosmic cycle. In the room of the table, I was sitting between my eighth and ninth life. My eighth life was past, my current life was ninth.

Rereading through one of my rune books (Alu - An Adavnced Guide to Operative Runology by Edred Thorsson) tonight, I came across this (discussing the fourth of four elements of radical operative runology as a system of meta-communication) which speaks perfectly to the excerpt of my dream noted above:

The event horizon is that liminal space whence phenomena enter the world from an unmanifested state. The unmanifest becomes manifest. Operations of magic can be conducted entirely within the manifest universe ... however, another form of operation causes changes in the pre- or unmanifest world - before this phenomenological feed enters the physical realm. To communicate with this unmanifest - or runic - realm requires the highest form of art and science - and oftentimes luck. But this is where the most miraculous changes can be effected. This operation requires a form of time travel - because it is from the realm of the "past" (Urðr) whence these phenomena arise in our lives - he who learns to condition the past can control the future.

In my dream, I traveled to the liminal space between the past and the present to make a change, conditioning the past to control the future. This dream exemplifies an event horizon within the context of a magical operation of consciousness.