Observations placeholder
The Ship of Fools
Identifier
004279
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Hans Peter Duerr - Dreamtime
As late as 1133, a wooden ship on wheels travelled from Cornelmunster to Tongern and Looz via Aachen and Maastricht, where it was fitted out with a sail and mast. Wherever the ship halted, the women were overcome by wild ecstasy. Half naked or clad in a short shift, their hair loose, they danced around the ship and later engaged in behaviour about which a monk who reported the event maintained could only weep or be silent. Regrettably for posterity, he did not write while weeping, so we are left in ignorance as to what might have taken place around the ship after nightfall. Ships float in water, in no man’s land, as it were, not subject to the laws of one particular country. …. Lawless fools were also often represented on the ships