“Holy Head” and Protection from the Heart

Myths from many lands, peoples, and eras attest to a cult of the “Holy Head“, universally credited with protective qualities: the Head of Bran, guardian of the British Isles; the head of Mimir, which counseled Odin; the head of Orpheus, prophesying on the island of Lesbos; and others of the same kind.

According to legend, a head was among the objects venerated by the Templars, and the cult of the head was widespread among the Celts. Plato, in the dialogue Timaeus, claims that “the human head is a likeness of the world.”

The spherical shape signified by the head, in this sense, reflects the closed nature of the world, its perfection, and, as we shall see below, is important for affirming the separateness of this world from its surroundings.

The skull of the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was said to have shone with light and to have possessed the power to curse and protect.

We will not now analyze these myths symbolically — much attention has already been devoted to that in the literature.

Let us speak specifically about the protective properties of the head, which are especially relevant in anticipation of Samhain.

A head severed from the body was perceived as an image of “life in death”: it is still living, but already aware of its death — in short, it belongs simultaneously to two worlds. This double belonging gives the Head a prophetic gift, but it also makes the head a guardian of worlds, not only joining them but also separating them. It is significant that the joining of worlds within the detached head seems to intensify their separation outside the head, by “relocating” unity inward.

Another point important for the head’s protective function is its opposition as the keeper of intellect to the heart as a receptacle of feeling. The clarity of intelligence and the turbulence of feeling in a person stand as images of the “this-worldly” and the “otherworldly” realms. In ordinary circumstances it is precisely their interaction, struggle, and complementarity that produce the manifold world of the psyche. However, in liminal situations feelings are a poor guide; they can push one to ill-considered actions and are a source of perceptions that it is not always safe to experience. Intelligence creates an island — small but solid and safe — where all objects are classified, defined, and catalogued, separated from the surrounding ocean of the unconscious — the ocean of feeling.

In liminal times, during danger or instability, it is very important to hold the ground intelligence provides — not to get lost in the raging ocean of feeling. And the head, separated from the body — and therefore from the heart — represents a symbol of “pure intelligence” no longer affected by the storms of the heart; the head therefore “grounds“, and thus protects ordinary, “daytime” mind from intrusions of the unknown.

From this point of view an additional meaning is lent to a tale in the sagas about Kete, son of Matach, which says that the hero could not sleep without placing under his knee the head of an enemy he had felled that day. Besides reinforcing his awareness of victory, the enemy’s head protected the hero from strange dreams, strengthening his “heroic” straightforward mind.

Thus, the protective function of the head lies precisely in the energy it emits: stability, definiteness, intelligence, and clarity of mind. In liminal situations it is crucial for a person above all to “not lose one’s head” — to act as reasonably and deliberately as possible in order to avoid the dangers caused by the interpenetration of worlds. And the head as symbol helps achieve this.