From: Jon Hughes [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: June 10, 2021 12:52
To: SATAN IN THE GROIN
Subject: your websites

I am writing as, like you, I am an established author, having had six previously published books with subject matter as varied as the work of the mediciners of the Knights Templar to the history of the druids and witches of the Welsh Marches. I have now been commissioned by my publishers, Inner Traditions, Vermont, USA, to compose a book on the subject of the female, or more accurately, the non-male role in the history of Druidic Lore in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
As you will be aware, much of the current understanding we have of this history in contained in the landscape and historical artifacts that survive to the present day, along with mostly apocryphal accounts and mythological, pre-history legend that combine to paint a male orientated imagery of the white-robed, bearded elder as portrayed in the romantic revival of the 19th century in the British Isles, whist much of the more formidable evidence is contained in our landscape and pagan artifacts along with the religious artworks that embellish our many medieval churches, recording the lingering pagan beliefs and imagery still present in the early pagan/Christian crossover.
Having explored your site(s), I find a wealth of imagery relating to exhibitionist male and female stone-works that illustrate the commonalities between these early Christian images and the preceding pagan beliefs potentially shared by the practicing druids existant in the British Isles.
My reason for contacting you is I would very much like to include a number of your images in the forthcoming publication and acknowledging your copyright ownership of the images, I would like to ask your permission to reproduce a small number of the images appearing on your site. I would of course ensure that any acknowledgments/credits you specify would appear in the book along with an explanation of the source of the images. If you are amenable to this request, I would be more than happy to discuss the details in whatever depth you wish and supply the publishers standard copyright release agreement for your scrutiny.
May I ask, that if this proposal is not acceptable to you, or if you have any questions, that you reply to me at your convenience so that I may convey to the publishers that we are not proceeding with the arrangement.
Thank you for taking the time to read this mail and I hope to hear from you soon.

My best wishes from Killarney, Ireland
Jon Garstan Hughes

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Dear Mr Hughes,

It seems to me that your 'thesis' (the hackneyed 19th century trope of exciting and sexually-explicit 'paganism') runs completely counter to what I say on this website.

We know almost nothing about Celtic religion, and what we do know for certain (reverence for trees and water) is largely ignored. Celtic religion stretched from Ukraine and Romania to Ireland, but the Irish seem to have assumed ownership rather as the English assumed ownership of Ireland. I find this despicable. I live in a country where people are still sent to places of healing waters as part of the healthcare system. I live just 2 kilometres from a sacred spring. Forests are still sacred in France as they are not in Ireland.

You mention "early-Christian images" on my website, when it is crystal clear that my website is concerned with the late-mediæval phenomenon of exhibitionism on churches, which I am at pains to point out derives from the plentiful Classical antique models which were visible at the time. There are no exhibitionist early-Christian images in Ireland. Those that do exist in the Christian world are Coptic or Byzantine images of the baptism of Jesus.

You have not read my text, nor have you bothered to do any fieldwork for what I take to be yet another meretricious work in the titillating, popular market for pseudo-Celtism.

So, although anyone can pirate my non-copyright pictures (which come from 40 years of research) from the web, I will not sign your publisher's agreement, especially having read their book-list.

Is mise, le meas,

Anthony Weir