Another Gingerish Jesus

I came across this painting yesterday by the artist Bernhard Plockhorst. It's titled The Good Shepherd and shows Jesus with gingery-brown hair. He's not an absolute definite redhead, but I think he's close enough.

Freckles in Shakespeare's The Tempest

I came across another red hair Shakespeare reference recently - well, not quite red hair actually, but more freckles - the sister blemish of red hair. Again red hair and freckles are represented in a bad light. In this case it's the character Caliban who has the misfortune. Caliban is a savage and deformed slave who tries to rape Miranda, the daughter of Prospero. Another great red-haired role model :/

"A freckled whelp, hag-born -  not honoured with a human shape"

His mother, the witch Sycorax, is described as a "blue-eyed hag", reinforcing this association.

Copernicus - Copper Locks?

We have another important astronomical figure who may have been red-haired - Nicolaus Copernicus. The image below shows him with, dare I say it, coppery locks.

If he was indeed a redhead we can add him to the ranks of fellow-astronomers Galileo and Tycho Brahe who were also red-haired. Interestingly, Brahe also had an artificial "copper" nose (although some sources say gold or silver), after losing part of his nose in a duel.

I should thank Barry for bringing this one to my attention. He cites it as more evidence that redheads are more predisposed to the Ninth Intelligence;
https://barrykort.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/the-ninth-intelligence/

..From Scotland and Ireland

A few more redheads, this time from Scotland and the Emerald Isle. Once again courtesy of Emanuela. Firstly we have Beatrice Elvery. She was an Irish painter and stained-glass artist. Her red hair can be seen in the portrait below, painted by the artist William Orpen;

Another painter with red hair was the Scottish artist David Wilkie. His self portrait below shows him with red hair, and looking very much like a member of the Bullingdon Club.

Our final redhead is the Irish rebel and king of Tyrconnell Hugh Roe O'Donnell. He is sometimes known as Aodh Ruadh II or Red Hugh II, supposedly because of his red hair.

Stan Gooch and the Red-Haired Neanderthals

I've recently re-read The Neanderthal Legacy by Stan Gooch.

I mentioned this book on my website a while ago, but on re-reading it I realised I'd missed a few interesting bits out. I'll briefly give a synopsis of the book then mention these few points of interest.

Basically, Gooch believed that modern man was a hybrid of Cro-Magnon man and Neanderthal man, and that our conflicted, yet impressive, civilisation was a consequence of this fact. Interestingly for us he believed that Neanderthals were red-haired and that this was where our modern red hair originated. He also believed the Neanderthals were nocturnal, matriarchal, left-handed moon-worshippers - and that the Cro-Magnons were patriarchal, right-handed, day-dwelling sun-lovers. He believed this was where our social division of "left wing" and "right wing" originated.

Anyway, the few bits I'd missed now. Firstly, on page 35 of the book he mentions that the famed Russian "wild woman" Zana was covered in red hair. This story will be quite familiar to anyone au fait with Bigfoot mythology. Zana was said to be a "wild" woman that was captured in Russia in the 1870s. Bizarrely she was said to have had four children with local men during her period of captivity. Gooch suggests that she was a remnant Neanderthal, as he believed that Neanderthals were covered in red body hair - the biblical Esau being cited as one of many examples. It's interesting to note in this regard that in the book Mary Magdalene: Princess of Orange, the author Ralph Ellis mentions Christian traditions that claim Mary Magdalene was covered with body hair too.

On page 39 Gooch then mentions a link between red hair and the Philosopher's Stone;

Chinese alchemists consider the Philosopher's Stone to be red cinnabar and say that if this is mixed with honey and eaten, it restores youth, confers immortality, and turns your hair red.

Later in the book he then also mentions that both zombies and vampires are cultural memories of Neanderthals. This is interesting because over the last few years we've started to link red hair with vampires on this blog as well. Maybe this overlap suggests there's some grain of truth to all this speculation.

On a final note Stan Gooch died in 2010. It's a shame his work isn't a little more well known as it's both interesting and challenging. Hopefully this article will help readdress the balance in some tiny little way.

The Martyr of the Solway - John Everett Millais

A little bit of art now - The Martyr of the Solway by Millais.

The painting depicts Margaret Wilson, a young Scottish Covenanter who was drowned for refusing to swear an oath to James VII.

Red Hair in the Works of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

I came across a few interesting references to red hair in the works of Madame Blavatsky, co-founder of the famed Theosophical Society.

Firstly this from Isis Unveiled;

In India, as well as in Russia and some other countries, there is an instinctive repugnance to stepping across a man's shadow, especially if he have red hair; and in the former country, natives are extremely reluctant to shake hands with persons of another race. These are not idle fancies. Every person emits a magnetic exhalation or aura, and a man may be in perfect physical health, but at the same time his exhalation may have a morbific character for others, sensitive to such subtile influences.

Continuing;

The magnetism of a red-haired man, we have found, in almost every nation, is instinctively dreaded. We might quote proverbs from the Russian, Persian, Georgian, Hindustani, French, Turkish, and even German, to show that treachery and other vices are popularly supposed to accompany the rufous complexion.

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/isis/iu2-12a.htm

Secondly this, from a piece titled The Legend of the Blue Lotus; In it she recalls the eastern legend of the Blue Lotus - a story of a king who must sacrifice his eldest son. The son refuses to be the sacrificial victim and tries to find a substitute to take his place. A sin for which he is punished by God.

"A prince who does not know how to die for his subjects is not worthy to reign over the children of the Sun. He will be reborn in a race of red haired peoples, a barbarous and selfish race, and the nations which descend from him will have a heritage ever on the decline."

 "He reincarnated in the family of a foreigner without caste (Mleccha-Yavana) and became the ancestor of the barbarous and red-haired races which dwell in the West."

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/nightmar/night-4.htm

The general theme here seems to be red equals bad.