Introduction to Nursery rhymes
Introduction
Nursery rhymes are short sung verses.
Generally, these verses are anonymous, centuries old
and originated as part of a long oral tradition.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
The existence of numerous European parallels for [the rhymes] ...
suggests the possibility
that these rhymes come down from very ancient sources,
since their direct translation is unlikely ...
Apparently most were originally composed for adult entertainment.
They were once called "Mother Goose rhymes"
because they were told by women
who were [symbolically] Mother Geese
[see our video Symbolism of the Goose].
Nursery rhyme publication, on the other hand,
coincided with the rise of literacy
and the improvement in printing processes,
with significant publication beginning in the 1700s
and blossoming in the 1800s.
It should be remembered that Gutenberg’s printing press
was only invented around the mid 1400s
and the printing initially was devoted to religious texts.
Caxton set up his printing press in London
towards the end of the 1400s.
Even by 1700, books were expensive, even when printed.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
The earliest known published collection of nursery rhymes
was Tommy Thumb’s (Pretty) Song Book, 2 vol. (London, 1744).
It included "Little Tom Tucker",
"Sing a Song of Sixpence", and "Who Killed Cock Robin?"
The most influential was Mother Goose’s Melody:
or Sonnets for the Cradle, published in 1781.
Among its 51 rhymes were "Jack and Jill", "Ding Dong Bell",
and "Hush-a-bye baby on the tree top".
It should be noted, that all these are full of symbolism,
as such they lasted because they were important
memorable rhymes -
notice the crude drawings and lack of colour even by 1781.
And as Encyclopaedia Britannica says,
many nursery rhymes have variants in other languages,
with similar rhymes appearing in different nations,
meaning they are a good deal more than verses for a child’s amusement.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Folklorists have also identified, embedded among the nonsense words ...,
relics of ancient charms, Latin liturgy,
or secret passwords of the Freemasons.
So we might better say,
that these easily remembered rhymed sung verses
belonged to an ancient occult folklore tradition
shared by adults and children.
And that in them, we find songs made memorable
for a largely rural community, who could neither read or write,
some with no fixed abode because they were hunter-gatherers,
and others who were servants,
but found sung verse easy to remember.
But not a "nursery" in sight.
The Sufi influence
Idries Shah - The Sufis
The Sufis ... have produced great theologians, poets, and scientists.
They accepted atomic theory and formulated a science of evolution
over six hundred years before Darwin.
Let us add a few more facts.
The coffee which we drink was traditionally first used by Sufis.
We wear their clothes (shirt, belt, trousers);
we listen to their music (Andalusian, measured music, love songs);
dance their dances (waltz, Morris dancing);
read their stories (Dante, Robinson Crusoe, Chaucer, William Tell);
employ their esoteric phrases ("moment of truth", "human spirit",
"ideal man"); and play their games.
And we also sing their songs.
Sufism predates Islam and many other religions
and it is clear that a great number of Nursery rhymes and stories
came from the Sufis.
Henriette Willebeek LeMair was a Dutch illustrator of children’s books.
In 1920 Le Mair married H.P. Baron van Tuyll van Serooskerkenand -
both were followers of the Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan,
who is on our website allaboutheaven.org.
The French illustrator Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel
was an important influence on Le Mair’s artistic development.
Louis was a French painter and illustrator
best known for his watercolours for children’s books.
Three trips to Algeria (1876, 1878, 1880)
had a strong influence on Louis’ style.
Sufism was considered an essential part of Islam in Algeria at the time.
Although Sufism was fought and oppressed by the Salafists.
[The Salafiyya movement emerged in the Ottoman Empire
during the late nineteenth century],
Louis and his protegee Henriette were influenced by Sufism.
The effect of the Industrial revolution
Overall, illustrators with strong occult interests
were often attracted to books, myths and rhymes
whose origins were also very clearly mystic or spiritual in nature.
For example, Walter Crane [15 August 1845 - 14 March 1915],
or Arthur Rackham [19th September 1867 - 6th September 1939]
were both attracted to occult writing.
As was Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (25 January 1872 - 10 March 1945).
And the innovations in printing and engraving techniques in their time,
meant that publications could be created faster
and reach more people than ever before.
The Industrial Revolution also created a larger, wealthier middle class,
meaning that more people than ever before could purchase books,
not only for themselves, but for their children.
Before the Industrial Revolution,
children were just participating members of the household,
assisting with daily chores which were commonly labour intensive.
With the exception of children of nobility,
there was no time for "childhood",
because the day-to-day activities were often
necessary to stay alive.
So we must treat the appearance of so called nursery rhymes in books
as a very helpful event in the life of these stories,
but never forget that the rhymes existed
as a verbal folklore tradition worldwide
and they were shared by adults and children.
The odd effect of recording the rhymes
The current collections of "nursery rhymes" is not
the clean list of symbolic rhymes it once was.
People would collect rhymes into compendiums
and include all sorts of rhymed songs -
many of which had no mystic meaning -
riddles, proverbs, ballads, lines of Mummers’ plays,
drinking songs, and songs about historical events,
Some of the currently recognised "traditional" English rhymes
are not even vaguely mystic.
But instead of saying - well some are and some are clearly not
researchers have tended to take an "all or nothing" view.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
John Bellenden Ker (1765-1842), for example,
wrote four volumes arguing that English nursery rhymes
were actually written in "Low Saxon",
a hypothetical early form of Dutch.
He then "translated" them back into English,
revealing in particular a strong tendency to anti-clericalism.
and Encyclopaedia Britannica
Katherine Elwes’s book The Real Personages of Mother Goose (1930),
linked famous nursery-rhyme characters with real people,
on little or no evidence.
She posited that children’s songs were a peculiar form
of coded historical narrative, propaganda or covert protest.
This has been further exacerbated by those ignoring
the historical nature of the rhymes
and the links some of them have with mystic symbolism,
but keen to protect children from all the violence
they think is evident in them.
The formation of organisations like the British
"Society for Nursery Rhyme Reform"
have inflicted yet further blows to the integrity of the rhyme
and its meaning
by sanitising them until their mystic meaning is entirely lost.
In some cases this descent into mindless "Political correctness"
has been ridiculed by light hearted books such as Felix Dennis’s.
When Jack Sued Jill - Nursery Rhymes for Modern Times (2006), or satires.
But it is the loss of the originals and their meaning
which is perhaps the most tragic.
Some example rhymes and the playlist
We have an entry on our website
for some of the more classical nursery rhymes,
but in order to demonstrate, we have selected a few
and given the link to the video that explains them.
JACK AND JILL
Jack and Jill went up the hill, To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after.
Wells, water, crowns and hills are all symbols described in
The Symbolism of the Well [and the Story of Jack and Jill]
RING A RING A ROSES
Ring-a-Ring o’Rosies A Pocket full of Posies
"Ash you! Ash you!" We all fall Down!
Even Wikipedia recognises
that the explanation of the plague is wrong.
But the change of words from ash you to ashoo is key,
as ash had great symbolic meaning at one time,
and rings of posies can have other meanings.
See our video The Symbolism of Ash and all 50 shades of grey.
BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP
Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!
One for the master, one for the dame,
And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
Wool is symbolically spiritual energy,
as such any poem about sheep and wool
is bound to be spiritual;
for more details see the video The Symbolism of Sheep and Wool.
master, dame and little boy refer to Mother, Father and Son symbolism
- please see the video.
GOOSEY GOOSEY GANDER
Goosey goosey gander Whither shall I wander?
Upstairs and downstairs And in my lady’s chamber.
There I met an old man Who would not say his prayers
I took him by the left leg And threw him down the stairs
Ascension by stairs, ladders and ropes
was once spiritually well understood.
We have two videos on Ascension.
But the entire symbolism of the Goose and her role
can be found in the video The Symbolism of the Goose.
HUMPTY DUMPTY
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses, And all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!
Humpty Dumpty is a Cosmic Egg
and a "wall" is part of the symbolic landscape of heaven.
Kings and horses are also symbolic,
we have a horse video for example.
But the key symbol is the Cosmic Egg,
see the Video The Symbolism of the Cosmic Egg.
LAVENDER’S BLUE DILLY DILLY
Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly; Lavender’s green.
When you are King, dilly dilly; I shall be Queen
Despite the view some scholars have, that this has no meaning,
the very use of Kings and Queens
links this rhyme to the spiritual path.
And green and blue also have symbolic meaning.
See the video The Symbolism of Green
[& the Green Lion consumes the Sun]
General clues about other rhymes
Rhymes such as MARY MARY QUITE CONTRARY
covers a wealth of symbols - Gardens
[The Symbolism of Gardens], bells, shells,
contrariness meaning contrast and so on.
Our website has their meaning,
The rhyme COCK A DOODLE DO starts with the phrase
Cock a doodle do! My dame has lost her shoe,
linking it to the Video The Symbolism of Feet and Shoes.
The rhyme HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE contains references to cats,
fiddles, cows, the Moon,
a dog and dishes and spoons all of which are key symbols.
Cows and Moons are both "feminine" - see The Symbolism of the Moon.
The rhyme HICKORY DICKORY DOCK is about the Spiritual Path
- see our video An Introduction to the Spiritual Path.
And there are more, once you understand the context and the symbols.
HUSH A BYE BABY for example can be explained using the video
The symbolism of the Tree of Life and Leaves.
LITTLE BO PEEP might be better categorised as a High Priestess -
see Video The Symbolism of Virgo, Virgins
and the High Priestess in the Tarot.
And LITTLE MISS MUFFET who met the giant spider
is part of the creation myths of many faiths
- including that of India and seen in the video -
The Order of Creation - of Spirals, Spiders and Snails.
Even SEE SAW MARGERY DAW is referring to a metaphysical concept
we describe in the video - The Concept of Contrast
and the Symbols of the Coin, Swing and Pendulum.
As such many rhymes that have been rejected by current scholars,
may still have their origins in alchemy and magic,
symbols and spells, potions and patterns.
Let us hope they are not "bowlderised" further
and remain as traditional and unsanitised as they once were,
to preserve the magic and mystery of the past
for future generations.