Religions1

Celtic mythology is the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. Among Celts in close contact with Ancient Rome, such as the Gauls and Celtiberians, their mythology did not survive the Roman Empire, their subsequent conversion to Christianity, and the loss of their Celtic languages. It is mostly through contemporary Roman and Christian sources that their mythology has been preserved.

Ancient Celtic religion (known primarily through archaeological sources rather than through written mythology). As a result of the scarcity of surviving materials bearing written Gaulish, it is surmised that the most of the Celtic writings were destroyed by the Romans. ... Julius Caesar attests to the literacy of the Gauls, but also wrote that their priests, the druids, were forbidden to use writing to record certain verses of religious significance...

Less is known about the pre-Christian mythologies of Britain than those of Ireland...

Celtic Otherworld

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Otherworld

In Celtic mythology, the Otherworld is the realm of the deities and possibly also of the dead...

In Irish myth and later folklore, the festivals of Samhain and Beltane are liminal times, when contact with the Otherworld was more likely....

In Irish myth there is another otherworldly realm called Tech Duinn (the "House of Donn" or "House of the Dark One"). It was believed that the souls of the dead travelled to Tech Duinn; perhaps to remain there forever, or perhaps before reaching their final destination in the Otherworld, or before being reincarnated. Donn is portrayed as a god of the dead and ancestor of the Gaels. Tech Duinn is commonly identified with Bull Rock, an islet off the west coast of Ireland which resembles a portal tomb. In Ireland there was a belief that the souls of the dead departed westwards over the sea with the setting sun....

Gaulish druids believed that the soul went to an Otherworld, which he calls by the Latin name Orbis alius, before being reincarnated.

Celtic belief in islands consecrated to gods and heroes. Among them were Anglesey (Môn), off the north coast of Wales, which was the sacred island of the druids of Britain; the Scilly islands, where archaeological remains of proto-historical temples have been found; and some of the Hebrides, which were, in the Gaelic tradition, home of ghosts and demons:

He said it was thought that the land of the dead lay west of Great Britain. The Continental Celtic myths told that once the souls of the dead had left their bodies, they travelled to the northwestern coast of Gaul and took a boat towards Britain. When they crossed the Channel, the souls went to the homes of the fishermen, and knocked desperately at their doors. The fishermen then went out of their houses and led the souls to their destination in ghostly ships. There are still remains of those beliefs in the Breton and Galician traditions. In Brittany, the name Bag an Noz is used to denote those ships who carry the dead to their goal.

In Asturian mythology, there are many stories which describe human encounters with xanas, fairies which are dancing around a chief fairy, the Xana Mega, or the "Queen of Fairies", known as xacias in Galicia. The castro of Altamira is said to hide an enormous underground realm which is ruled by a royal couple, and whose entrance is found some place on the hill.

Irish mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_mythology

The three main manuscript sources for Irish mythology are the late 11th/early 12th century Lebor na hUidre, the early 12th century Book of Leinster,... Despite the dates of these sources, most of the material they contain predates their composition. The earliest of the prose can be dated on linguistic grounds to the 8th century, and some of the verse may be as old as the 6th century. Other important sources include a group of four manuscripts originating in the west of Ireland in the late 14th or early 15th century: The Yellow Book of Lecan, The Great Book of Lecan, The Book of Hy Many,[1] and The Book of Ballymote. ...

When using these sources, it is, as always, important to question the impact of the circumstances in which they were produced. Most of the manuscripts were created by Christian monks,...later sources may also have formed part of a propaganda effort ...There was also a tendency to rework Irish genealogies to fit into the known schema of Greek or Biblical genealogy.

Donn, or the Dark One, is the Lord of the Dead and father of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, whom he gave to Aengus Óg to be nurtured. Donn is regarded as the father of the Irish race; a position similar to that of Dis Pater and the Gauls, as noted by Julius Caesar.

Originally, Donn was the chief of the Sons of Mil, a mythological race who invaded Ireland, ousting the Tuatha Dé Danann. Donn slighted Ériu, one of the eponymous goddesses of Ireland, and he was drowned off the south-west coast of the island. A place near this spot, on a small rocky island named 'Tech nDuinn' ('the House of Donn'), became Donn's dwelling place as god of the dead. This house was the assembly place for the dead before they began the journey to the Otherworld.

Aes Sídhe: The aos sí is the Irish term for a supernatural race in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology comparable to the fairies or elves. They are said to live underground in fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans. This world is described in the Lebor Gabála Érenn as a parallel universe in which the aos sí walk amongst the living. In the Irish language, aos sí means "people of the mounds" (the mounds are known in Irish as "the sídhe"). In Irish literature the people of the mounds are also called daoine sídhe [ˈdiːnʲə ˈʃiːə]; in Scottish mythology they are daoine sìth. They are variously said to be the ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods.

Bean Sídhe: A banshee ("woman of the mounds") is a female spirit in Irish mythology who heralds the death of a member of one of the prominent Gaelic families, usually by shrieking or keening. Her name is connected to the mythologically-important tumuli or "mounds" that dot the Irish countryside, which are known as síde (singular síd) in Old Irish.

Fódla or Fótla daughter of Ernmas of the Tuatha Dé Danann, was one of the tutelary goddesses of Ireland. Her husband was Mac Cecht. With her sisters, Banba and Ériu, she was part of an important triumvirate of goddesses. Ériu (Éire)... thus 'Fodhla' is sometimes used as a literary name for Ireland, as is 'Banba'....Fotla was the name of one of the first Pictish kingdoms.

Ériu daughter of Ernmas of the Tuatha Dé Danann, was the eponymous matron goddess of Ireland. The English name for Ireland comes from the name Ériu and the Germanic (Old Norse or Old English) word land. Since Ériu is represented as goddess of Ireland, she is often interpreted as a modern-day personification of Ireland.

Ériu, Banba and Fódla are interpreted as goddesses of sovereignty.

Celtic / Irish Mythology: Tuatha De Danann

https://youtu.be/JHO047ud98E

Celtic Mythology - The Morrígan

https://youtu.be/-qIJyrXhYy4

'Morrigan'- Animated Short

https://youtu.be/9vrQIS0C5Xw

Irish Mythology: Donn Fírinne, The Dark One

https://stairnaheireann.net/2017/01/06/irish-mythology-donn-firinne-lord-of-the-dead

An Overview of: Celtic Religion

https://youtu.be/rVEvxyD6IKc

Mabon

http://sacredwicca.jigsy.com/mabon-sabbat

ANGLO SAXON WHEEL

Anglo-Saxon paganism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_paganism

Festivals: Everything that we know about the religious festivals of the pagan Anglo-Saxons comes from a book written by Bede, titled De temporum ratione ("The Reckoning of Time"), in which he described the calendar of the year...

The pagan Anglo-Saxons followed a calendar with twelve lunar months, with the occasional year having thirteen months so that the lunar and solar alignment could be corrected. Bede claimed that the greatest pagan festival was Modraniht (meaning Mothers' Night), which was situated at the Winter solstice, which marked the start of the Anglo-Saxon year.

Following this festival, in the month of Solmonað (February), Bede claims that the pagans offered cakes to their deities. Then, in Eostur-monath Aprilis (April), a spring festival was celebrated, dedicated to the goddess Eostre, and the later Christian festival of Easter took its name from this month and its goddess. The month of September was known as Halegmonath, meaning Holy Month, which may indicate that it had special religious significance. The month of November was known as Blod-Monath, meaning Blood Month, and was commemorated with animal sacrifice, both in offering to the gods, and probably also to gather a source of food to be stored over the winter.

Remarking on Bede's account of the Anglo-Saxon year, the historian Brian Branston noted that they "show us a people who of necessity fitted closely into the pattern of the changing year, who were of the earth and what grows in it" and that they were "in fact, a people who were in a symbiotic relationship with mother earth and father sky"...

Magic and witchcraft: Anglo-Saxon pagans believed in magic and witchcraft. There are various Old English terms for "witch", including hægtesse "witch, fury", whence Modern English hag, wicca, gealdricge, scinlæce and hellrúne.

The Religion of the Pagan Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons:

Jutes and Angles from now Denmark Saxons from northern Germany.

http://slideplayer.com/slide/4357421/

1 The Religion of the Pagan Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons: Jutes and Angles from now Denmark Saxons from northern Germany

2 In the middle of 500s, Anglo-Saxons invaded England. Celtic Breton moved to West Wales, hilly Scotland and Ireland. With the Celts, Christianity survived, especially in Ireland, where Catholic scholarship continued to flourish.

4 Anglo-Saxon’s religion: 1. The world is driven by spirits and magic. 2. Everything that moves or existed has consciousness and spirit. 3.They worship trees, mountains, wells and rivers. 4.They believe in good spirits and evil spirits —gods and demons.

5 5. They believe in mischievous elves. 6.They believed in hideous monster spirits called ogres, and malicious ghost-like spirits called goblins. ** Their myths was the story of Beowulf, a hero victor over a savage monster named Grendel and Grendel’s mother.

6 Anglo-Saxon Gods and Goddesses: Gods: 1.Tir—god of glory and honor; a favorite with warriors; Tuesday. 2.Woden—most important; shaman and as the leader of the Wild Hunt; Wednesday. 3.Thunor—god of thunder, popular amongst warriors; Thursday. 4.Frey—fertility god; ruler of rain and sunshine.

7 Goddesses: 1. Nerthus—the earth mother who looked after fertility and well-being of man and beast. --associated with love, lust yearning and friendship. --another name:Frig à Friday --people worship sacred groves. 2. Eostre—the goddess of the dawn, spring and new life; (Easter in Christianity). 3. Rheda (valkyrie)—goddess of the winter.

8 Months of a year: 1.A year was divided in to two parts:summer &winter. 2.Winter started in October; Summer started in April. 3.June and July---Midsummer December and January—Midwinter

9 Christianity to England’s Anglo-Saxons: 1. Aethelberht, king of Kent, contacted the people on the continent and married Catholic daughter of king of Paris. 2.Pope Gregory sent a group of monks to Kent to evangelize. 3.Aethelberht and his subjects were baptized. 4.Destruction of the temples of rival religions.(Easter)

10 5.Later in mid 600s Christian missionaries from Ireland began evangelizing across England. 6.Catholicism won prestige with the victory of Northumbria 7.Kings in England welcomed a religion whose scriptures described and supported monarchy.

11 Works Cited Pagan: http://www.angelcunn.org.uk/ World History

Similar presentations of anglo-saxons, etc. at bottom of page:

http://slideplayer.com/slide/4357421/

Horned God

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_God

The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in Wicca

Horned deity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_deity

Deities depicted with horns or antlers are found in many different religions across the world.

Odin’s Wife: Mother Earth in Germanic Mythology - Nerthus

http://www.germanicmythology.com/original/earthmother/odinswifenerthus.pdf

Solitary Norse Rite to Nerthus

https://www.adf.org/rituals/general/earth-day/nerthus-rite.html

Europe’s True Identity : Christian or really Pagan ?

www.hinduhumanrights.info/europes-true-identity-christian-or-really-pagan/

GIANTS:

Enoch & the Watchers: The Real Story of Angels & Demons

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/enoch-the-watchers-the-real-story-of-angels-demons

Giant Nephilim from the Caucasus Mountains

https://sites.google.com/site/naomiastral/ancient-civilisations/giant-nephilim-from-the-caucasus-mountains

Dogs and Wolves in Native European Religions:

Hellhounds, Werewolves and the Germanic Underworld

http://www.primitivism.com/hellhounds.htm

There is a curious connection between dogs and travel to the realm of the dead. It can be found particularly in Indo-European mythologies...

Garmr and the Greek mythological dog Cerberus, relating both names to a Proto-Indo-European root *ger- "to growl" (perhaps with the suffixes -*m/*b and -*r). However, as Ogden (2013) notes, this analysis actually requires Cerberus and Garmr to be derived from two different Indo-European roots (*ger- and *gher- respectively), and in this opinion does not establish a relationship between the two names. However, the two roots are similar enough that a connection can still be argued. ...The yawning gates of Hades were guarded by the monstrous watchdog Cerberus.

Hellhound

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellhound

A hellhound is a supernatural dog in folklore. A wide variety of ominous or hellish supernatural dogs occur in mythologies around the world, similar to the often seen dragon...They are often assigned to guard the entrances to the world of the dead, such as graveyards and burial grounds, or undertake other duties related to the afterlife or the supernatural, such as hunting lost souls or guarding a supernatural treasure. In European legends, seeing a hellhound or hearing it howl may be an omen or even a cause of death. They are said to be the protectors of the supernatural, guarding the secrecy of supernatural creatures, or beings, from the world.

Garmr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garmr

In Norse mythology, Garmr or Garm (Old Norse "rag") is a wolf or dog associated with both Hel and Ragnarök, and described as a blood-stained guardian of Hel's gate.

Fenrir (Norse) a wolf is bound.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenrir

Gylfaginning chapters 38 and 51

In chapter 38, High says that there are many men in Valhalla, and many more who will arrive, yet they will "seem too few when the wolf comes." In chapter 51, High foretells that as part of the events of Ragnarök, after Fenrir's son Sköll has swallowed the sun and his other son Hati Hróðvitnisson has swallowed the moon, the stars will disappear from the sky. The earth will shake violently, trees will be uprooted, mountains will fall, and all binds will snap – Fenrisúlfr will be free.

Fenrisúlfr will go forth with his mouth opened wide, his upper jaw touching the sky and his lower jaw the earth, and flames will burn from his eyes and nostrils. Later, Fenrisúlfr will arrive at the field Vígríðr with his sibling Jörmungandr. With the forces assembled there, an immense battle will take place. During this, Odin will ride to fight Fenrisúlfr.

During the battle, Fenrisúlfr will eventually swallow Odin, killing him, and Odin's son Víðarr will move forward and kick one foot into the lower jaw of the wolf. This foot will bear a legendary shoe "for which the material has been collected throughout all time." With one hand, Víðarr will take hold of the wolf's upper jaw and tear apart his mouth, killing Fenrisúlfr. High follows this prose description by citing various quotes from Völuspá in support, some of which mention Fenrir.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%AD%C3%B0arr

In Norse mythology, Víðarr (Old Norse, possibly "wide ruler",[1] sometimes anglicized as Vidar, Vithar, Vidarr, and Vitharr) is a god among the Æsir associated with vengeance. Víðarr is described as the son of Odin and the jötunn Gríðr, and is foretold to avenge his father's death by killing the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarök, a conflict which he is described as surviving. Víðarr is attested in the Poetic Edda

Some sources claim dog(s) as the Celtic guard of the entrance to the otherworld but, this source claims the crane.

Celtic Spiritual Beliefs

http://www.mythmaiden.com/celtic.htm

This is a brief overview of the Celts and their spiritual beliefs.

The Crane symbolizes secret knowledg, patience and longevity. "Crane Knowledge" was knowledge of the Ogham and arcane science to the Druids. Three cranes guard the entrance to Annwn (the Underworld).

Some sources claim dog(s) as the Celtic guard of the entrance to the otherworld but, this source claims the crane.

Celtic Spiritual Beliefs

http://www.mythmaiden.com/celtic.htm

This is a brief overview of the Celts and their spiritual beliefs.

The Crane symbolizes secret knowledg, patience and longevity. "Crane Knowledge" was knowledge of the Ogham and arcane science to the Druids. Three cranes guard the entrance to Annwn (the Underworld).

Annwn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annwn

Annwn was the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it was essentially a world of delights and eternal youth where disease was absent and food was ever-abundant. It became identified with the Christian afterlife in paradise (or heaven).

In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, entitled Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, the eponymous prince offends Arawn, ruler of Annwn, by baiting his hunting hounds on a stag that Arawn's dogs had brought down....

Cŵn Annwn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C5%B5n_Annwn

In Welsh mythology and folklore, Cŵn Annwn were the spectral hounds of Annwn, the otherworld of Welsh myth. ...Arawn, king of Ännwn, is believed to set the Cŵn Annwn loose to hunt mundane creatures. ..Christians came to dub these mythical creatures as "The Hounds of Hell" or "Dogs of Hell" and theorised they were therefore owned by Satan. However, the Annwn of medieval Welsh tradition is an otherworldly paradise and not a hell or abode of dead souls.

The hounds are sometimes accompanied by a fearsome hag called Mallt-y-Nos, "Matilda of the Night". An alternative name in Welsh folklore is Cŵn Mamau ("Hounds of the Mothers").

Da Derga is also known to have a pack of nine white hounds, perhaps Cŵn Annwn.

Culhwch rode to King Arthur's court with two "Otherworld" dogs accompanying him, possibly Cŵn Annwn.

The Cŵn Annwn are associated with the Wild Hunt. They are supposed to hunt on specific nights (the eves of St. John, St. Martin, Saint Michael the Archangel, All Saints, Christmas, New Year, Saint Agnes, Saint David, and Good Friday), or just in the autumn and winter. Some say Arawn only hunts from Christmas to Twelfth Night.[citation needed] The Cŵn Annwn also came to be regarded as the escorts of souls on their journey to the Otherworld.

A Cŵn Annwn's goal in the Wild Hunt is to hunt wrongdoers into the ground until they can run no longer, just as the criminals did to their victims.

Another product of middle age Christianity was taking Pagan traditions, or beliefs to be demonized for propaganda. Then later to be used against the innocent at trial which led to wrongful convictions, tortures, and death sentences. It would easy to convince a Christian Legal System that Pagans are Devil worshippers from the belief that Dogs/Wolf are guards in Hell, and if the devil somehow had sex with a witch it could produce a werewolf child. Or maybe the werewolf escaped from Hell on Samhain to extract vengeance on a corrupt society. Hyping up exagerations and falsehoods to be used against the innocent is nothing new. The fact it was the Roman Government's Church System taht changed the entire belief of Hell to a place of the Devils abode and all people who do not believe in the teachings of this Government Church will be sent to Hell to suffer torment forever. This makes the Government backed by the Church an omnipotent authority. It is Absolute Power to make the people slaves of the Government and the Church at the time. If you did not obey, or you were not liked by another, or you were a competition to another then you could easily be falsely accused of being a devil, a witch, a werewolf, or whatever.

Werewolf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf

A werewolf (from Old English: wer, "man"), man-wolf, or lycanthrope....

The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland (especially the Valais and Vaud) in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century. The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an integral part of the "witch-hunt" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, accusations of werewolfery being involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials...

The werewolf folkore found in Europe harks back to a common development during the Middle Ages, arising in the context of Christianisation, ...Their underlying common origin can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European mythology, where lycanthropy is reconstructed as an aspect of the initiation of the warrior class. ...The concept of the werewolf in Western and Northern Europe is strongly influenced by the role of the wolf in Germanic paganism ... There was no widespread belief in werewolves in medieval Europe before the 14th century.

Werewolf witch trials

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf_witch_trials

Werewolves Cases from Medieval French Chronicles

http://alam25.tripod.com/cases.htm

As centuries passed there arrived a point when fanciful stories told to amuse people were replaced by real incidents and real suffering. Suddenly tales such as Stubbe’s started to emerge. It was as if people believed that werewolves were every where. The trial records of lycanthrope increased at an epidemic rate. In France alone between 1520 and 1630 some 30,000 individuals were labeled as werewolves, many of them underwent traumatic interrogation and torture. Confessed or not, most of them suffered vile death at the stake. Here few recorded sensational werewolf trials have been mentioned.

Historic Werewolves

http://mentalfloss.com/article/29073/historic-werewolves

Werewolves - Page 19 -

https://books.google.com/books?id=q9tonFYrBgQC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19

Trials were held for hundreds of people accused of being werewolves. Many people went to jail or were executed. Sometimes, authorities put actual wolves on ...

The Pagans Path: Witchcraft & Shamanism

http://www.paganspath.com/magik/index.htm

General Paganism http://www.paganspath.com/magik/index.htm#general

General Magik http://www.paganspath.com/magik/index.htm#magik

Traditions: Celtic http://www.paganspath.com/magik/index.htm#celtic

Traditions: Druid http://www.paganspath.com/magik/index.htm#celtic

Traditions: Wicca http://www.paganspath.com/magik/index.htm#wicca

Traditions: Norse http://www.paganspath.com/magik/index.htm#norse

Wicca: The Occult Experience {documentary}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ku4mG-RXbs

Celtic, Gaelic, Polytheism, Druids, Folklore, ...

Gaol Naofa's Recommended Reading List

http://www.gaolnaofa.org/docs/gaolnaofa_readinglist.pdf

lichtengel60 (witch uploads)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOJKkcM_hFZyD5r8aNXnHlg

Annwn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annwn

Cŵn Annwn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C5%B5n_Annwn

In Welsh mythology and folklore, Cŵn Annwn (Welsh pronunciation: [kuːn ˈanʊn], "hounds of Annwn") were the spectral hounds of Annwn, the otherworld of Welsh myth. ...Arawn, king of Ännwn, is believed to set the Cŵn Annwn loose to hunt mundane creatures. ..Christians came to dub these mythical creatures as "The Hounds of Hell" or "Dogs of Hell" and theorised they were therefore owned by Satan. However, the Annwn of medieval Welsh tradition is an otherworldly paradise and not a hell or abode of dead souls.

The hounds are sometimes accompanied by a fearsome hag called Mallt-y-Nos, "Matilda of the Night". An alternative name in Welsh folklore is Cŵn Mamau ("Hounds of the Mothers").

Da Derga is also known to have a pack of nine white hounds, perhaps Cŵn Annwn.

Culhwch rode to King Arthur's court with two "Otherworld" dogs accompanying him, possibly Cŵn Annwn.

A Cŵn Annwn's goal in the Wild Hunt is to hunt wrongdoers into the ground until they can run no longer, just as the criminals did to their victims.

Connect With Your Loved Ones On The Other Side - Guided Meditation

https://youtu.be/gArFvReGImE

Samhain History & Ritual

https://youtu.be/UvVpqKxNags

The Story of Samhain

https://youtu.be/xaacaIUoWig

11 Hidden Spots to Enter the Underworld

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/11-hidden-spots-to-enter-the-underworld

Tír na nÓg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%ADr_na_n%C3%93g

In Irish mythology and folklore, Tír na nÓg "Land of the Young" or Tír na hÓige ("Land of Youth") is one of the names for the Otherworld, or perhaps for a part of it.

The Ancient Celtic Otherworld

https://www.adf.org/articles/cosmology/otherworld.html

Roman Underworld

http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-gods/roman-underworld.htm

The whole imaginary Roman underworld, which we tend to call Hell, though according to the ancients it was the receptacle of all departed persons, of the good as well as the bad, is divided into five parts: the first may be called the previous region; the second is the region of waters, or the river which they were all to pass; the third is what we may call the gloomy region, and what the ancients called Erebus; the fourth is Tartarus, or the region of torments; and the fifth the region of joy and bliss, or what we still call Elysium....

The fourth general division of the subterraneous Roman Underworld is this Tartarus, or the place of torments: there was a city in it, and a prince to preside over it: within this city was a vast deep pit, in which the tortures were supposed to be performed: in this horrid part Virgil places two sorts of souls; first, of such as have shown their impiety and rebellion toward the gods; and secondly, of such as have been vile and mischievous among men: those, as he himself says of the latter more particularly, who hated their brethren, used their parents ill, or cheated their dependants, who made no use of their riches, who committed incest, or disturbed the marriage union of others, those who were rebellious subjects, or knavish servants, who were despisers of justice, or betrayers of their country, and who made and unmade laws not for the good of the public, but only to get money for themselves; all these, and the despisers of the gods, Virgil places in this most horrid division of his subterraneous world, and in the vast abyss, which was the most terrible part even of that division.

House of Hades

https://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/hades.html

In Greek mythology, the House of Hades was the world of the dead, Underworld or the netherworld. A place where Hades and his consort, Persephone, ruled over the souls of the departed.

Below, there are descriptions of the Underworld and the deities who dwelled in this realm.

An Account of the Sarcophagus of Seti I, King of Egypt, B.C. 1370

By Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge

https://books.google.com/books?id=vQ5FAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=sections+of+the+otherworld&source=bl&ots=Nmb4vnJA5M&sig=Yj6iYc_8pwnlInLOTde7aJgyuEc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjgoZTNsMzPAhUM74MKHYc1CX8Q6AEIQTAH#v=onepage&q=sections%20of%20the%20otherworld&f=false

NEAR DEATH & AFTERLIFE EXPERIENCES and Spirit/Physical World Encounters

REAL LIFE STORIES:

(I am not trying to endorse any belief system here, nor are the links an endorsement. The links are just from a random search to introduce this subject.)

Long before the Pagan Genocide by the Roman Empire the Native Europeans held a belief in honoring their dead, and a strong belief in the otherworld. What knowledge have we lost today from the Druid genocide? The Druids had secret knowledge, and communications with the otherworld that indicate their associations with the otherworld.

Samhain is the belief that some of those who passed on to the otherworld as well as other beings in the other world are able to cross-over into this world on Samhain. It is believed that communication is also possible for some between the spirits of those in the otherworld such as loved ones with people of this mortal world. If it is possible to communicate with the otherworld what can we learn from them? Are the spirits trying to communicate with this world but, we do not understand how?

This section will attempt to give some real life accounts of near death experiences, as well as any other phenomenoms that can address the next life.

I will add to this section periodically.

The Underworld beliefs are in a previous posting, and the different mythologies are additional previous posts scattered about.

What happens after you die? Depends on your belief? Reincarnation? Heaven, or Hell? Paradise, or Torment? Different sections where each person goes? No after life? Does each person experience a different afterlife distinctly unique; same afterlife as some others but, not all; or is the afterlife the same for everyone? Another explanation?

Are these near death experiences just a mind experience based on personal belief or thought before ithe mind dies, and not actually occurring? The following stories are the same for some, while others experience different experiences. Either you experience what you believe, or each person experiences a different afterlife, or some of the stories are lies to push their beliefs, or other explanations?

The stories are too numerous to list all here but, a search on youtube or google will offer you many more.

Other:

Signs of Approaching Death

https://youtu.be/75H_AGGpE1A

10 Things That Happen After You DIE

https://youtu.be/M1hRDfm8VB4

Deathbed Visions - Hospice Nurses Share Their Stories.

https://youtu.be/nMr_sapd-qY

How to Talk to the Dead

http://www.wikihow.com/Talk-to-the-Dead

Connect With Your Loved Ones On The Other Side - Guided Meditation

https://youtu.be/gArFvReGImE

Meet the Amazing Spirit Medium, Concetta Bertoldi...

https://youtu.be/VQbH9UQ9ztc

Mediums Talking To The Dead Part 1

https://youtu.be/LlJEUDyH6qA

Christian:

Nurse Shares 30 Years Of Spiritual Experiences With Death & Dying

https://youtu.be/kl5cu1H4Hss

Boy Dies & Returns From Afterlife to Tell His Mom About Heaven!

https://youtu.be/TJ5OUkdmI-A

Near Death Experience: The Secret of Afterlife!

https://youtu.be/LSi39KlaQR8

Reincarnation:

3-Year-Old Remembers Past Life & Identifies His Murderer

https://youtu.be/ZWyHuN1G1vk

6 Kids Who Remember Their Past Lives - Reincarnation Series Part 1

https://youtu.be/qxGMzIRrtwg

Reincarnation Proof: 5 year old boy white boy lived past life as black woman!

https://youtu.be/2ESrd3mMop0

Children's Past Lives (Documentary) - Real Stories

https://youtu.be/Uq8l4XVfgPA

11 Signs Your Soul Has Reincarnated Many Times

https://youtu.be/d23JuoeN-D8

Clash of the Gods Hades part 1 of 4

https://youtu.be/FF1gdmhT5yQ?list=PL8fJOOY7Z174unqXKpuyXZHyyKqepEqf6

Clash of the Gods all episodes

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8fJOOY7Z174unqXKpuyXZHyyKqepEqf6

Human Sacrifice was practised in many parts of the world. But, how common was Human Sacrifice in Europe is much a matter of interpretation, and the source. Claims were made but, the frequency comes down to the source. Such as when one political, or religious entity chooses to defame its opponent it may resort to smear tactics in the war propaganda. Middle age Christianity is one such source that proved to demonize the pagans spreading rumors of devil worship, and human sacrifices to justify the murder of innocent native Europeans.

It is evident that even today's societies kills its own. In the name of governments human are killed in wars, its legal system, medical, and other forms that one can interpret as human sacrifice. Archaeological burials some interpret as human sacrifices to their religion may be nothing more than the killing of war prisoners, or criminals, or to stop disease.

It is difficult to fully prove skelatal remains are from some witchery sacrifice, a normal death, a murdered body, or even a death as punishment or other reason. It may have been just a ritual of the death itself just as in today's ceremonial funeral traditions, and not necessarily the cause of the death itself.

I'm sure in a few thousand years from today people will try to explain that our society was involved in ritual human sacrifices which is quite evident from the practises of our Governments, and Legal System, or the embalming the dead and draining of blood and dressing up and placing in caskets and placing of artifacts, etc... all can be interpreted later as some form of witchery human sacrifice.

Human sacrifice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice

Europe

Neolithic Europe

There is archaeological evidence of human sacrifice in Neolithic to Eneolithic Europe. Retainer sacrifices seem to have been common in early Indo-European religion.

Greco-Roman antiquity

References to human sacrifice can be found in Greek historical accounts as well as mythology.

In ancient Rome, human sacrifice was infrequent but documented. ...deaths in the arena to be little more than human sacrifice.

Celts

Contradicting the Roman sources, more recent scholarship finds that "there is little archeological evidence" of human sacrifice by the Celts, and suggests the likelihood that Greeks and Romans disseminated negative information out of disdain for the barbarians. There is no evidence of the practices Caesar described, and the stories of human sacrifice appear to derive from a single source, Poseidonius, whose claims are unsupported.

Germanic peoples

Human sacrifice was not a particularly common occurrence among the Germanic peoples, being resorted to in exceptional situations arising from crises of an environmental (crop failure, drought, famine) or social (war) nature,

Was European Human Sacrifice actually just killing of those who carried disease, and as punishment (death penalty) for those who engage in perilous activities and punishment for crimes? And when the guilty are in short supply its legal system resorts to the death penalty of the innocent. The Julius Caesar commentary seems to suggest that based on interpretation.

The Celts in their beliefs may have felt the balance of justice involved human death similarly as todays death penalty such as for murder a life for a life. And since medical technology in ancient times could not cure diseases it would need to be eradicated to prevent its spread to the remaining tribe. So what we may interpret today of the ancient pagan ways as some supernatural devil worship was actually just a normal societal function for the technology they had at that time. The interpretation comes down to science, or religion. Human sacrifice to appease the Gods and Goddesses, or Human sacrifice to appease government, and law.

This commentary suggests that when bad men did bad things it upset the Gods and Goddesses. That to appease them justice must be served. A life for a life. Death sentences for crimes. To kill disease involved killing the human that carried the disease. Etc....

But what is most troubling to me by this commentary is these people became obsessed and corrupt that it led to the killing of the innocent.

Not to please the Gods but, probably to please the corrupt system that had evolved in that day.

How common was human sacrifice in Europe?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2dvlmc/how_common_was_human_sacrifice_in_europe/

Julius Caesar's Commentaries... "The entire nation of the Gauls is very given to religious scruples, and for this reason, those who are affected by grave diseases, and who take part in battle and in peril, either sacrifice men as victims or vow to sacrifice them, and they use druids as the performers of these sacrifices, because they believe that, unless for the life of a man, the life of a man is returned, the power of the immortal gods is not able to be appeased, and they have instituted sacrifices of this kind for the public. Others have images great in size, the limbs of which, interwoven with twigs, they fill with living humans; the men, with these having been set aflame, perish. The punishments for those apprehended in conspiracy or in thievery or in other crime are thought to be most pleasing to the immortal gods; but, when abundance of this kind fails, they even defer to the punishment of the innocent."

The practice of sacrifice in Iron Age Britain

http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/practice-sacrifice-iron-age-britain-002152

Hecate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate

Hecate also came to be associated with ghosts, infernal spirits, the dead and sorcery. Shrines to Hecate were placed at doorways to both homes and cities with the belief that it would protect from restless dead and other spirits. Likewise, shrines to Hecate at three way crossroads were created where food offerings were left at the new moon to protect those who did so from spirits and other evils.

Abode: Underworld. Hecate was generally represented as three-formed, which probably has some connection with the appearance of the full moon, half moon, and new moon. Triple Hecate was the goddess of the moon with three forms: Selene the Moon in heaven, Artemis the Huntress on earth, and Persephone the Destroyer in the underworld.

Like Hecate, "[t]he dog is a creature of the threshold, the guardian of doors and portals, and so it is appropriately associated with the frontier between life and death, and with demons and ghosts which move across the frontier. The yawning gates of Hades were guarded by the monstrous watchdog Cerberus, whose function was to prevent the living from entering the underworld, and the dead from leaving it."

A goddess, probably Hekate or else Artemis, is depicted with a bow, dog and twin torches.

Dogs were closely associated with Hecate in the Classical world. "In art and in literature Hecate is constantly represented as dog-shaped or as accompanied by a dog. Her approach was heralded by the howling of a dog. The dog was Hecate's regular sacrificial animal, and was often eaten in solemn sacrament."

Dogs were sacred to Hecate and associated with roads, domestic spaces, purification, and spirits of the dead. They played a similar symbolic role in ancient China, where dogs were conceived as representative of the household sphere, and as protective spirits appropriate when transcending geographic and spatial boundaries. Dogs were also sacrificed to the road. As Roel Sterckx observes, "The use of dog sacrifices at the gates and doors of the living and the dead as well as its use in travel sacrifices suggest that dogs were perceived as daemonic animals operating in the liminal or transitory realm between the domestic and the unknown, danger-stricken outside world".

Hekate's Deipnon is, at its most basic, a meal served to Hekate and the restless dead once a lunar month on the night when there is no visible moon, usually noted on modern calendars as the new moon. ...The main purpose of the Deipnon was to honor Hekate and to placate the souls in her wake who “longed for vengeance.”

Hecate was identified with Ereshkigal, the underworld counterpart of Inanna.

"Hecate mediated between regimes — Olympian and Titan —, but also between mortal and divine spheres." This liminal role is reflected in a number of her cult titles: Apotropaia (that turns away/protects); Enodia (on the way); Propulaia/Propylaia (before the gate); Triodia/Trioditis (who frequents crossroads); Klêidouchos (holding the keys), etc.

As a goddess expected to avert harmful or destructive spirits from the house or city over which she stood guard and to protect the individual as she or he passed through dangerous liminal places, Hecate would naturally become known as a goddess who could also refuse to avert the demons, or even drive them on against unfortunate individuals.

It was probably her role as guardian of entrances that led to Hecate's identification by the mid fifth century with Enodia, a Thessalian goddess. Enodia's very name ("In-the-Road") suggests that she watched over entrances, for it expresses both the possibility that she stood on the main road into a city, keeping an eye on all who entered, and in the road in front of private houses, protecting their inhabitants.

HEKATE

http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Hekate.html

(Hecate) was the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy. She was the only child of the Titanes Perses and Asteria from whom she received her power over heaven, earth, and sea. Hekate assisted Demeter in her search for Persephone, guiding her through the night with flaming torches. After the mother-daughter reunion became she Persephone's minister and companion in Haides.

Hecate - Famous Witches - Witchcraft

http://www.witchcraftandwitches.com/witches_hecate.html

Hecate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate

Hecate, and her dogs are Greek in its origin. But, Greek and Native European beliefs may have evolved from a similar source further back in further ancient history, or the oral stories may have been shared during migration and trade between the different peoples.

Hecate: Goddess of Witchcraft & Necromancy - (Greek Mythology Explained)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylF7rqVsLEg&list=RDircqXpuyseU&index=24

The witches wand is likened to the native american ritual of the peace pipe that allowed safe passage between tribes.

The Lakota claim that White Buffalo Woman came to them and gave them the magic of the Pipe.

Was White Buffalo Woman a Germanic or Celtic Witch? Or is the Lakota story just a similar rite common among peoples of various places?

Witches and Warriors – the Northern Culture

http://freya.theladyofthelabyrinth.com/?page_id=208

All women were expected to be versed in magic, but some women more so than others. All the Germanic tribes, as well as the Vikings, nurtured groups of wise women, witches or priestesses who lived unmarried (though not necessarily in celibacy) and who could travel alone wherever they liked without fear. A woman who carried the wand of the witch would never be harmed. They were allied with the fate goddesses and thus wielded the greatest of powers. In the Viking Age Norse context, these women were called the völur, singular völva. The literal translation of this title is “Wand-Wed” or “Staff-Carrier”. In this book I will often refer to them as just “witches”, since that is in my opinion the best description. This was a time and age when witches were honored and revered and sought as wise women, healers, prophets, oracles, shamans and priestesses. Sagas show that if a witch came to visit, the lord and lady of the house would give up the high seat to her, a very powerful way of indicating that the witch had higher authority. The sources also make a point out of how the witch can talk or not talk to anybody at whim, regardless of their status – which means that she was outside and above the normal hierarchy of society. The primeval witch was the goddess Freya, who introduced the art of seidr [fate-magic, shamanism] and the art of conquering death to men and women, and in the first instance even to the gods.

Þórbjörg “Little Witch” performs Seiðr in Greenland around the year 1000 A.D.

[Eiriks saga Rauda – The Saga of Eirik the Red, chapter 4]

http://freya.theladyofthelabyrinth.com/?page_id=255

A High Seat was prepared for her and she had pillows to sit on – they had to be stuffed with hens feathers. She arrived in the evening with the man who had been sent to meet her, and she was dressed like this: She was wearing a dark blue mantle to be tied at the neck. It was decorated with stones from the top to the bottom. Around her neck she wore glass pearls, on her head a black hood made out of lamb fur, dressed on the inside with white cat fur. In her hand she held a wand with a knob on, it had a steel coating and the knob was surrounded by stones. Around her waist she wore a …belt with a large pouch. In that she hid the magical equipment she needed for her divinations [i.e. the pouch with cannabis seeds and amulets found in the Oseberg burial, see p. NB!]

Underworlds by mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld

This list includes underworlds in various mythology, with links to corresponding articles.

Underworld figures

This list includes rulers or guardians of the underworld in various mythologies, with links to corresponding articles.

The underworld or netherworld is an otherworld thought to be deep underground or beneath the surface of the world in most religions and mythologies. Typically it is a place where the souls of the departed go, an afterlife or a realm of the dead. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.

List of death deities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_death_deities#Norse_mythology

Deities associated with death take many different forms, depending on the specific culture and religion being referenced. Psychopomps, deities of the underworld, and resurrection deities are commonly called death deities in comparative religions texts. The term colloquially refers to deities that either collect or rule over the dead, rather than those deities who determine the time of death. However, all these types will be included in this article.

Hel - Norse deity

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hel-Norse-deity#ref213867

Hel, in Norse mythology, originally the name of the world of the dead; it later came to mean the goddess of death. Hel was one of the children of the trickster god Loki, and her kingdom was said to lie downward and northward. It was called Niflheim, or the World of Darkness, and appears to have been divided into several sections, one of which was Náströnd, the shore of corpses. There stood a castle facing north; it was filled with the venom of serpents, in which murderers, adulterers, and perjurers suffered torment, while the dragon Nidhogg sucked the blood from their bodies. Mention is made in an early poem of the nine worlds of Niflheim. It was said that those who fell in battle did not go to Hel but to the god Odin, in Valhalla, the hall of the slain.

in Norse mythology, the cold, dark, misty world of the dead, ruled by the goddess Hel. In some accounts it was the last of nine worlds, a place into which evil men passed after reaching the region of death (Hel). Situated below one of the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasill, Niflheim contained a...

one of the principal gods in Norse mythology. His exact nature and role, however, are difficult to determine because of the complex picture of him given by the wealth of archaeological and literary sources.

in Norse mythology, the hall of slain warriors, who live there blissfully under the leadership of the god Odin. Valhalla is depicted as a splendid palace, roofed with shields, where the warriors feast on the flesh of a boar slaughtered daily and made whole again each evening. They drink liquor that...

Communicating with the Otherworld:

Communicating with the Dead on Samhain

http://www.pagangate.com/wicca/communicating-with-the-dead-on-samhain/

Llewellyn Worldwide - Articles: You Can Talk to the Dead

http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/1366

Keep in mind this was the belief in the 10th century. Ancient Scandinavian ways were mostly orally transmitted and not written. By this time of the writing the belief had progressed to the souls of the dead in Faeries and elves. Was this an original belief of the native Norse, or the belief of the Celts that was shared..

The Old Norse Halloween or Day of the Dead: Alfablót (Sacrifice to the Elves)

http://freya.theladyofthelabyrinth.com/?page_id=339

It is closing in to the time of the Sacrifice to the Elves, the “elves” in Norse not meaning Faerie but referring to spirits that are both of nature and of the souls of departed men who still live on in mounds, where they can still be sought and communicated with. The Dökkalfar (Dark Elves) live underground, akin to the Huldrefolk and other creatures from beneath the Earth.

These were Powers of the dark and hidden things, death, the mysterious. These spirits were the most powerful during the dark winter-months and their power was of a kind that made people decide that it was best to keep them on our side. They entry to the first month of darkness is an offering of friendship to the powers of the dark time so that they be benevolent rather than malevolent towards us, so that they will assist us in surviving through the dark cold to come, so that they will be strengthened in their efforts to impregnate the Earth with life once more – and we call especially upon the powers of our male ancestors who still live among the elves, call on them to protect us and be our ambassadors among the dark powers.

The female ancestors have their own time of celebration at winter solstice (Yule), if you wondered why the ancestral elves are all male ancestors.

The dark powers are not evil, but they will not offer any assistance unless we ask them to and honor them for it. The Norse Heathens offered what they thought anyone would want most on a dark and cold night: Beer and meat. ...

Thus we see that in Old Norse lore, the elves are strongly associated with souls. There were Light Elves and Dark Elves. In the Gylfaginning, Snorri describes the Dark Elves as darker than tar and offers a very sombre vision of them, in contrast to the Light Elves: ...The Dark Elves represent the souls of the dead that still reside in the world, albeit in the underworld, still able to communicate with the living. They may have been kept in the world by their descendants, who prayed to them and sacrificed to them for their wisdom, their guidance, their healing powers and their protection – exactly as it was said that people could pray to Freyr in his mound after his death.

Pagans would sit on burial mounds or on the sacred hills and mountains where the dead were thought to reside, meditating until communication with the dead could be obtained. Their darkness is the darkness of the unknown, that which is not seen by the living, of the hidden reality that is death.

The Light Elves, on the other hand, may very well refer to the souls of the dead that have achieved immortality. Perhaps they have become shining bright and transparent through a descent (or ascent) in the Well of Origin – a feat achieved through spiritual training and initiation, leading to the transformation and the immortality of the soul?

Whatever the key to their position, the silent Light Elves dine with the gods and the immortals in the Hall of Aegir at Hlésey ...As the Lord of Elves, Freyr is ultimately the Lord of Souls. What kind of soul or what aspect of the soul is an open question – the sources indicate that the elves are the souls of the dead,... The elfin ancestor resides in the burial mound and may be helpful to those who seek him there. To all appearances, the elf is the embodiment of the soul of a dead male. If he resides in the mound or in other aspects of the Underworld, he is a Dark Elf. If he resides in the upper heavens, he is the immortal soul of the enlightened, and is a Light Elf. ....When Freyr is the Lord of Elves, he is also the Lord of dead men, the lord of the realm where the souls of dead men linger. In a fashion, he represents or rules the soul of males.

To conclude, we may assume that the annual harvest celebration of the Elves was powerfully connected to the worship of dead ancestors,

THE CULT OF THE DEAD.

https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/rac/rac13.htm

Irish kings were often inaugurated on ancestral burial cairns, and that Irish gods were associated with barrows of the dead. The cult of the dead culminated at the family hearth, around which the dead were even buried, as among the Aeduii; this latter custom may have been general. In any case the belief in the presence of ancestral ghosts around the hearth was widespread, as existing superstitions show. In Brittany the dead seek warmth at the hearth by night, and a feast is spread for them on All Souls' eve, or crumbs are left for them after a family gathering. But generally the family ghost has become a brownie, lutin, or pooka, haunting the hearth and doing the household work. Fairy corresponds in all respects to old ancestral ghost, and the one has succeeded to the place of the other, while the fairy is even said to be the ghost of a dead person.

Certain archæological remains have also a connection with this ancient cult. Among Celtic remains in Gaul are found andirons of clay, ornamented with a ram's head. M. Dechelette sees in this "the symbol of sacrifice offered to the souls of ancestors on the altar of the hearth." The ram was already associated as a sacrificial animal with the cult of fire on the hearth, and by an easy transition it was connected with the cult of the dead there. It is found as an emblem on ancient tombs, and the domestic Lar was purified by the immolation of a ram. Figurines of a ram have been found in Gaulish tombs, and it is associated with the god of the underworld. The ram of the andirons was thus a permanent representative of the victim offered in the cult of the dead. A mutilated inscription on one of them may stand for Laribus augustis, and certain markings on others may represent the garlands twined round the victim. Serpents with rams' heads occur on the monuments of the underworld god. The serpent was a chthonian god or the emblem of such a god, and it may have been thought appropriate to give it the head of an animal associated with the cult of the dead....

The great commemoration of the dead was held on Samhain eve, a festival intended to aid the dying powers of vegetation, whose life, however, was still manifested in evergreen shrubs, in the mistletoe, in the sheaf of corn from last harvest--the abode of the corn-spirit. Probably, also, human representatives of the vegetation or corn-spirit were slain, and this may have suggested the belief in the presence of their ghosts at this festival. Or the festival being held at the time of the death of vegetation, the dead would naturally be commemorated then. Or, as in Scandinavia, they may have been held to have an influence on fertility, as an extension of the belief that certain slain persons represented spirits of fertility, or because trees and plants growing on the barrows of the dead were thought to be tenanted by their spirits. In Scandinavia, the dead were associated with female spirits or fylgjur, identified with the disir, a kind of earth-goddesses, living in hollow hills.

The nearest Celtic analogy to these is the Matres, goddesses of fertility. Bede says that Christmas eve was called Modranicht, "Mothers' Night," and as many of the rites of Samhain were transferred to Yule, the former date of Modranicht may have been Samhain, just as the Scandinavian Disablot, held in November, was a festival of the disir and of the dead. It has been seen that the Celtic Earth-god was lord of the dead, and that he probably took the place of an Earth-goddess or goddesses, to whom the Matres certainly correspond. Hence the connection of the dead with female Earth-spirits would be explained. Mother Earth had received the dead before her place was taken by the Celtic Dispater. Hence the time of Earth's decay was the season when the dead, her children, would be commemorated. Whatever be the reason, Celts, Teutons, and others have commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter, which was the beginning of a new year, while a similar festival of the dead at New Year is held in many other lands.

Both in Ireland and in Brittany, on November eve food is laid out for the dead who come to visit the houses and to warm themselves at the fire in the stillness of the night, and in Brittany a huge log burns on the hearth. We have here returned to the cult of the dead at the hearth. Possibly the Yule log was once a log burned on the hearth--the place of the family ghosts--at Samhain, when new fire was kindled in each house. On it libations were poured, which would then have been meant for the dead. The Yule log and the log of the Breton peasants would thus be the domestic aspect of the fire ritual, which had its public aspect in the Samhain bonfires.

All this has been in part affected by the Christian feast of All Souls. Dr. Frazer thinks that the feast of All Saints (November 1st) was intended to take the place of the pagan cult of the dead. As it failed to do this, All Souls, a festival of all the dead, was added on November 2nd. To some extent, but not entirely, it has neutralised the pagan rites, for the old ideas connected with Samhain still survive here and there. It is also to be noted that in some cases the friendly aspect of the dead has been lost sight of, and, like the síd-folk, they are popularly connected with evil powers which are in the ascendant on Samhain eve.

OCTOBER 31 IS CELTIC NEW YEARS EVE....

The Book of Hallowe'en

https://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/boh

THE CELTS: THEIR RELIGION AND FESTIVALS

https://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/boh/boh04.htm

They kept their lore for the most part a secret, forbidding it to be written, passing it down by word of mouth. They taught the immortality of the soul, that it passed from one body to another at death.

"If, as those Druids taught, which kept the British rites,

And dwelt in darksome groves, there counselling with sprites,

When these our souls by death our bodies do forsake

They instantly again do other bodies take----"

--DRAYTON: Polyolbion.

They believed that on the last night of the old year (October 31st) the lord of death gathered together the souls of all those who had died in the passing year and had been condemned to live in the bodies of animals to decree what forms they should inhabit for the next twelve months. He could be coaxed to give lighter sentences by gifts and prayers....

"A slender black cat reclining on a chain of old silver" guarded treasure in the old days. For a long time cats were dreaded by the people because they thought human beings had been changed to that form by evil means.

The chief festivals of the Druids fell on four days, celebrating phases of the sun's career. Fires of sacrifice were lighted especially at spring and midsummer holidays, by exception on November 1st. May Day and November Day were the more important, the beginning and end of summer, yet neither equinoxes nor solstices. The time was divided then not according to sowing and reaping, but by the older method of reckoning from when the herds were turned out to pasture in the spring and brought into the fold again at the approach of winter--by a pastoral rather than an agricultural people.

CHAPTER III SAMHAIN

https://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/boh/boh05.htm

ON November first was Samhain ("summer's end")....Then the flocks were driven in, and men first had leisure after harvest toil. Fires were built as a thanksgiving to Baal for harvest. The old fire on the altar was quenched before the night of October 31st, and the new one made, as were all sacred fires, by friction. It was called "forced-fire." A wheel and a spindle were used: the wheel, the sun symbol, was turned from east to west, sunwise. The sparks were caught in tow, blazed upon the altar, and were passed on to light the hilltop fires. The new fire was given next morning, New Year's Day, by the priests to the people to light their hearths, where all fires had been extinguished. The blessed fire was thought to protect the year through the home it warmed. In Ireland the altar was Tlactga, on the hill of Ward in Meath, where sacrifices, especially black sheep, were burnt in the new fire. From the death struggles and look of the creatures omens for the future year were taken.

The year was over, and the sun's life of a year was done. The Celts thought that at this time the sun fell a victim for six months to the powers of winter darkness. In Egyptian mythology one of the sun-gods, Osiris, was lsain at a banquet by his brother Sitou, the god of darkness. On the anniversary of the murder, the first day of winter, no Egyptian would begin any new business for fear of bad luck, since the spirit of evil was then in power.

From the idea that the sun suffered from his enemies on this day grew the association of Samhain with death.... In the same state as those who are dead, are those who have never lived, dwelling right in the world, but invisible to most mortals at most times. Seers could see them at any time, and if very many were abroad at once others might get a chance to watch them too....

These supernatural spirits ruled the dead. There were two classes: the Tuatha De Danann, "the people of the goddess Danu," gods of light and life; and spirits of darkness and evil. The Tuatha had their chief seat on the Isle of Man, in the middle of the Irish Sea, and brought under their power the islands about them. On a Midsummer Day they vanquished the Fir Bolgs and gained most of Ireland, by the battle of Moytura.

A long time afterwards--perhaps 1000 B.C.--the Fomor, sea-demons, after destroying nearly all their enemies by plagues, exacted from those remaining, as tribute, "a third part of their corn, a third part of their milk, and a third part of their children." This tax was paid on Samhain. It was on the week before Samhain that the Fomor landed upon Ireland. On the eve of Samhain the gods met them in the second battle of Moytura, and they were driven back into the ocean.

As Tigernmas, a mythical king of Ireland, was sacrificing "the firstlings of every issue, and the scions of every clan" to Crom Croich, the king idol, and lay prostrate before the image, he and three-fourths of his men mysteriously disappeared.

This was direct invocation, but the fire rites which were continued so long afterwards were really only worshipping the sun by proxy, in his nearest likeness, fire.

Samhain was then a day sacred to the death of the sun, on which had been paid a sacrifice of death to evil powers. Though overcome at Moytura evil was ascendant at Samhain. Methods of finding out the will of spirits and the future naturally worked better then, charms and invocations had more power, for the spirits were near to help, if care was taken not to anger them, and due honors paid.

HALLOWE'EN BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS IN IRELAND

https://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/boh/boh09.htm

IRELAND has a literature of Hallowe'en, or "Samhain," as it used to be called. Most of it was written between the seventh and the twelfth centuries,... The evil powers that came out at Samhain lived the rest of the time in the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, the province which was given to the wicked Fomor after the battle of Moytura. This cave was called the "hell-gate of Ireland," and was unlocked on November Eve to let out spirits and copper-colored birds which killed the farm animals. They also stole babies, leaving in their place changelings, goblins who were old in wickedness while still in the cradle, possessing superhuman cunning and skill in music.... Brides too were stolen....

The power of fairy music was so great that St. Patrick himself was put to sleep by a minstrel who appeared to him on the day before Samhain. The Tuatha De Danann, angered at the renegade people who no longer did them honor, sent another minstrel, who after laying the ancient religious seat Tara under a twenty-three years' charm, burned up the city with his fiery breath. These infamous spirits dwelt in grassy mounds, called "forts," which were the entrances to underground palaces full of treasure, where was always music and dancing. These treasure-houses were open only on November Eve when the throngs of spirits, fairies, and goblins trooped out for revels about the country. The old Druid idea of obsession, the besieging of a person by an evil spirit, was practised by them at that time.

""For the fairy mounds of Erinn are always opened about Hallowe'en."

"This is the first day of the winter, and to-day the Hosts of the Air are in their greatest power."...

No place as much as Ireland has kept the belief in all sorts of supernatural spirits abroad among its people. From the time when on the hill of Ward, near Tara, in pre-Christian days, the sacrifices were burned and the Tuatha were thought to appear on Samhain, to as late as 1910, testimony to actual appearances of the :little people" is to be found.... The place of the old lord of the dead, the Tuatha god Saman, to whom vigil was kept and prayers said on November Eve for the good of departed souls...The name of Saman is kept in the title "Oidhche Shamhna," "vigil of Saman," by which the night of October 31st was until recently called in Ireland....

Hemp-seed is sown across three furrows, the sower repeating: "Hemp-seed, I saw thee, hemp-seed, I saw thee; and her that is to be my true love, come after me and draw thee." On looking back over his shoulder he will see the apparition of his future wife in the act of gathering hemp....

IN SCOTLAND AND THE HEBRIDES

https://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/boh/boh10.htm

AS in Ireland the Scotch Baal festival of November was called Samhain.... The November Eve fires which in Ireland either died out of were replaced by candles were continued in Scotland. In Buchan, where was the altar-source of the Samhain fire, bonfires were lighted on hilltops in the eighteenth century; and in Moray the idea of fires of thanksgiving for harvest was kept to as late as 1866....

THE TEUTONIC RELIGION. WITCHES

https://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/boh/boh14.htm

Like the Greeks and Romans, the Teutons had twelve gods and goddesses,...

A man's innocence or guilt was manifested by gods to men through ordeals by fire; walking upon red-hot ploughshares, holding a heated bar of iron, or thrusting the hands into red-hot gauntlets, or into boiling water. If after a certain number of days no burns appeared the person was declared innocent. If a suspected man, thrown into the water, floated, he was guilty; if he sank, he was acquitted....

Freya and Odin especially had had power over the souls of the dead. When Christianity turned all the old gods into spirits of evil, these two were accused especially of possessing unlawful learning, as having knowledge of the hidden matters of death. This unlawful wisdom is the first accusation that has always been brought against witches. A mirror is often used to contain it. Such are the crystals of the astrologers, and the looking-glasses which on Hallowe'en materialize wishes.

From that time in the Middle Ages when witches were first heard of, it has nearly always been women who were accused. Women for the most part were the priests in the old days: it was a woman to whom Apollo at Delphi breathed his oracles. In all times it has been women who plucked herbs and concocted drinks of healing and refreshment. So it was very easy to imagine that they experimented with poisons and herbs of magic power under the guidance of the now evil gods.... Venus herself is like the Christian conception of Freya and Hel. She gathers about her a throng of nymphs, sylphs, and those she has lured into the mountain by intoxicating music and promises. "The enchanting sounds enticed only those in whose hearts wild sensuous longings had already taken root."... By the fifteenth century Satan, taking the place of the gods, assumed control of the evil creatures. Now that witches were the followers of the Devil, they wrote their names in his book, and were carried away by him for the revels by night.... At the witches' Sabbath the Devil himself sometimes appeared as a goat, and the witches were attended b cats, owls, bats, and cuckoos, because these creatures had once been sacred to Freya. ...

Samhain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

Gaelic festival ...from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, this places it about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. ...Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins and there is evidence it has been an important date since ancient times. ...the Aos Sí, the 'spirits' or 'fairies', could more easily come into our world ...Oweynagat ('cave of the cats'), one of the many 'gateways to the Otherworld' from whence beings and spirits were said to have emerged on Samhain. ...bonfires were lit on hilltops at Samhain and there were rituals involving them...bonfires symbolically "burn up and destroy all harmful influences". ...

BBC - Religions - Paganism: Samhain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/samhain.shtml

Deeper Into Samhain

http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-festivals/samhain/deeper-samhain

The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows - Celtic Samhain

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/celtsmyth/a/lochalloween.htm

The History Of Samhain And Halloween

http://www.paganspath.com/magik/samhain-history.htm

"The Celtic Druids" SAMHAN

https://ia601309.us.archive.org/6/items/TheCelticDruids/The_Celtic_Druids.pdf

The following are the Gods as he gives them, with their Goddesses:

1. Aesar Axire, Anu-Mathar, the first Ith.

f Moloch, Molk, &c.

2. Ain.^Fan Eo-Anu, the second Ith.

^Taulac or Tauladh.

3. Cearas .... Ceara.

4. Lute, Lufe Aedh, Aodh.

f Geamhar Cann.

5. < Dins Ceachd.

CTath Brighit.

6. Neith Nath.

Baal, Alla, Aleim.

Samhan, Mediator.

SAMHAN OR BAL-SAB

The God Samhan is placed by M. Pictet at the head of his double series, with following explanation : Samhan eadhon Ceisil, eadhon Giolla ; Samhan, that is to the evil spirit, (Satan,) that is to say, the Seroitettr.*

Samhan appears to have been one of the Gods, the most revered, in Ireland, annual solemnity was instituted to his honour, which is yet celebrated on the eveninig the first day of November ; which yet at this day is called the Oidhche Samhna or night of Samhan.

This solemnity was consecrated by the Druids, to the intercession of the living for souls of those who had died the year preceding, or in the current year. For, accord to their doctrine, Samhan called before him these souls, and passed them to the mansion of the blessed, or returned them to a re-existence here, as a punishment for their crim He was also called Bal-Sab or Lord of Death. It was probably this epithet wh induced the commentator to call Samhan by the name of Ceisil, which, in modern Iri means devil.

Samhan was also the Sun, or rather the image of the sun. This word is found many Semitic languages: in Arabic, Schams, the sun ; Hebrew, cotf sms ; Chalde KCPDtP> smsa; Syrian, Schemscho ; in Pehlvi, Schemsia; in Sanscrit, Homsa, the sui The Sun was the first object of the worship of all the Heathens, either as Creator, 01an emblem or Shekinah of the Divinity. These attributes of Samhan seem at first contradictory, but they are not unusual amongst the Heathen Gods. With the Greek Dionysos, the good Demiurge, is identified with Hades. In Egypt, Osiris was the Lord of death ; with the Scandinavians, Odin, the God beneficent, was, at the same time king of the infernal regions. This deity was above all the others whom we have named but he was below the supreme being Baal. If Samhan were the Sun, as we see here he answers to Mithra of the Persians, who was the middle link between Oromasdes i Arimanius — between the Creator and the Destroyer, and was called the preserver.

Schelling says, the Irish doctrine was, that the souls did not descend to the sev Zeus, (Pluto, the Jupiter of the Styx,) but that they ascended to the merciful Osirus Such is the meaning of the Irish Samhan, who is a merciful judge, not deciding by caprice, but holding his power from the God Supreme, of whom he is the image * In all this is a curious mixture of physical and moral doctrines.

Samhan seems to have been the same with the Kadmllos of Samothrace, and Camillus of the Etruscans. They were inferior to the great God, but superior to the other Cabiri. They were the heralds of the great God, ^H^DTp kdmial, prior, antecedens.

The whole system is called Samhandraoic, that is to say, the magic of Samhan.

Draoic signifies magic ; Draoith, a magician. In the Irish glossaries Seanoir, which signifies an old magician, a sage, is always applied to the Druids. In the Gaelic trans-lation of the Bible, the three magi who came to the birth of Christ are called Draoithe.

In Welsh, the Druids are called Derwyzon, in the singular Derwyz ; evidently the Eastern Dervice. The word dry, clearly taken from the Gaelic, signifies a magician. In Persian, a wise man, or Magus is also called Daru.

In an old Irish glossary it is said, Samhandraoic, Eadhon Cabur — the magic of Sam- han ; that is to say, Cabur. And it adds this explanation, Eadhon comhceangalladh ; that is, an association, a mutual confederation. ...

From this long digression we will now return to the consideration of the word Samhan or Saman. In Section xviii. it was observed, that it was said in an old Irish glossary, the magic of Samhan, that is to say, Cabur. And here, though we be likened to that good man Corporal Trim, in his history of the kings of Bohemia, we must make another digression: What is the meaning of the word magic ? It is well known that the magi were nothing more than the priests of Persia — priests of the religion of Zoroaster, and magic the doctrine taught by them. It might be perhaps only their secret doctrines ; and it is probable that this was the case. Then the magic of Samhan, or Soman, or Cabur, will be the secret doctrines of the powerful one. ...

THE CABIRI OF THE PHOENICIANS.

In the ancient traditions of the Phoenicians, the Cabiri are said to have been seven in number, and to have had an eighth associated with them, under the name of Esmun. It was the same with the Cabiri of Egypt, who represented the seven planets, with Phtas at their head, making an eighth. The very same history is related by the Irish. Their gods or Cabiri were said to have been seven in number, and to have had an eighth asso- ciated with them, under the name of Saman.

Each planet had its name, and the whole were called, in the Chaldee dialect, Samin; ...

The analogies between the Esmun of the Phoenicians and the Saman of Ireland are striking. Both terminate the chain of the Cabiri : both are gods of death : both are ap- plied to the sun, the source of light and life : both are at the head of seven others ; though inferior and subject to another superior* being, the highest and last of the Irish gods, called Baal, or Seadhac.

An inspection of M. Pictef s scheme, will shew, that he considers Samhan as the mediator placed in order between Baal, the supreme Lord of the Israelites, and the inferior Gods. It is probably true, that he was the mediator or preserver of the

Persians — the Mithra. He has all the attributes of this personage. All this tends to place beyond doubt the fact, that the Druidical system and that of Persia and India were the same, ...

Samhain and Irish Mythology

https://stairnaheireann.net/2021/10/27/samhain-and-irish-mythology-6/

Samhain Ritual

http://www.paganlibrary.com/rituals_spells/samhain_ritual.php

The Circle is cast and purified the Circle in the usual manner. Dancing around the Circle in a shuffle step (deosil), all chant three times:

The Moon is bright, the Crone is old

The body lifeless - the bones so ...

The Story of Samhain - The Ancient European Origin of Halloween

https://youtu.be/6fW0IBe-ZpE

The birth of Samhain and the first Halloween

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNBsHwsS6lY

The Haunted History of Halloween (Full Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRKR9JfjITk

ANCESTOR VENERATION...

True Origins of HALLOWEEN - Ghosts and Demons or Ancestor Worship?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UVIBDAywhI

Samhain Customs and Folklore

https://www.thoughtco.com/samhain-customs-and-folklore-2562733

The entrance passage to the Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara is aligned with the rising sun around Samhain.

History of Halloween Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXAup-0LEYI&has_verified=1

Samhuinn Fire Festival 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDw0XphycB8

1hr 4 min Beltane Fire Society

Edinburgh Samhuinn Fire Festival 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwsGdXLqGwY

1hr 14min This is a film about the 2015 event on Grassmarket 31st october. (start at 35 min.)

Samhain Edinburgh 2021 1:10:52 Beltane Fire Society

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz2-CXd7dM4

Tlachtga IS THE ONLY PLACE WHERE BEL FIRE CAN FIRST BE LIT. FROM THERE ALL OTHER FIRES ARE LIT. SACRED SITE...

Samhain Fire Festival 2019: Hill of Ward (Tlachtga)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S-Y_VaS4Go

Samhain Fire Festival on the Hill of Tlachtga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5DPElUIR3o

Tlachtga Samhain Fire Festival 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRXqLDL7gLg&t=159s

Tlachtga Samhain Fire Festival 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDAsScOEltw&t=850s

Samhuinn Fire Festival 2017 [Extra Embers]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imJNwdir0KY

Omnisutra Book of the Dead - Invocation of Ra video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbpumxvpqRY

DIWALI LIGHT FESTIVAL IN INDIA IS SLIGHTLY SIMILAR TO THE LIGHTING OF BALI (BEL) FIRES AT SAMHAIN. CHREESHNA IS SUN. RAMA GOD OF SOLAR KINGDOM. YAMA IS GOD OF THE UNDERWORLD. KALI OR CALIEAGH AS GODDESS OF WINTER OR DARK MOTHER AS MOTHER EARTH IN THE DARK TIME WHICH IS WINTER, AND AS THE MORRIGAN CARRIES AWAY FALLEN WARRIORS.

BALIPRATIPADA CELEBRATES MAHABALI RETURNS EVERY YEAR FROM THE NETHERWORLD WHICH WAS GIVEN TO BALI BY VAMANA. VAMANA IS SON OF ADITI AND KASHYAPA. VAMANA CAME TO RESTORE INDRA'S AUTHORITY.

IT IS PROBABLE THAT SAMHAIN OF IRLAND AND DIWALI OF INDIA MAY HAVE SOME COMMON HISTORY ALBEIT CORRUPTED OVER TIME.

Diwali

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali

2020 date November 12th (Dhanteras) 13th (Naraka Chaturdashi) 14th (Lakshmi Puja/Kali Puja) 15th (Govardhan Puja/Balipratipada) 16th (Bhai Dooj/Vishwakarma Puja

Indian festival of lights, usually lasting five days and celebrated during the Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika (between mid-October and mid-November).... The festival is widely associated with Lakshmi, to Sita and Rama, Vishnu, Krishna, Yama, Yami, Durga, Kali, Dhanvantari, or Vishvakarman. Furthermore, it is, in some regions, a celebration of the day Lord Rama returned to his kingdom Ayodhya after defeating the demon-king Ravana. ... the Bengali Hindus generally celebrate Diwali, by worshipping Goddess Kali....

The five-day celebration observed every year in early autumn after the conclusion of the summer harvest and coincides with the new moon, known as the amāsvasya – the darkest night of the Hindu lunisolar calendar....The darkest night is the apex of the celebration and coincides with the second half of October or early November in the Gregorian calendar.... The Diwali festival is likely a fusion of harvest festivals in ancient India. It is mentioned in Sanskrit texts such as the Padma Purana, the Skanda Purana both of which were completed in the second half of the 1st millennium CE....celebrated by Hindus on the day of the New Moon in the month of Kartika.... In western states such as Gujarat, and certain northern Hindu communities of India, the festival of Diwali signifies the start of a new year....

Diwali is a five-day festival, the height of which is celebrated on the third day coinciding with the darkest night of the lunar month. During the festival, Hindus, Jains and Sikhs illuminate their homes, temples and work spaces with diyas, candles and lanterns...

Clash of the gods Episode 10 : Thor History Channel

https://youtu.be/rvarTmoDKms

People Who Have Seen Angels

https://youtu.be/9ojmMxQdNsI?list=PL285057D4F4D5BF67

REAL Ghost Stories from REAL People

https://youtu.be/qtVilf9YGFo?list=PLRGQo030JVWeLpKGVkbpRTx-XHBzfnQ_w

5 MYSTERIOUS Ancient Books That Promise REAL Supernatural Powers

https://youtu.be/GRjcpBOYlDM

(MIDDLE AGES 12TH - 16TH Century)

The Sworn Book of Honorius by Liber Iuratus Honorii

Pseudo Monarchia Daemonum by Ioannis Vieri

The Galdrabok (Icelandic. Book of Spells)

Book of Soyga (Time before Time)

Ars Notoria by Sive Flores Aurei

The Pagan Library

http://www.paganlibrary.com/

Paganism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism

Paganism is a term that first arose among the Christian community of southern Europe during late antiquity as a descriptor of religions other than their own, or the related Abrahamic religions; i.e., Judaism and Islam. There has been much scholarly debate as to the origin of the term paganism, especially since no one before the 20th century self-identified as a pagan.

While most pagan religions express a worldview that is pantheistic, polytheistic, or animistic, there are some monotheistic pagans.

It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised. The notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. ...As such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense.

The term pagan is from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance. Itself deriving from classical Latin pagus which originally meant 'region delimited by markers', paganus had also come to mean 'of or relating to the countryside', 'country dweller', 'villager'; ...Latin slang originally devoid of religious meaning.

"Hellene" or "gentile" (ethnikos) remained the word for pagan; and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace. ...Heathen comes from Old English hæðen ("not Christian or Jewish"); cf. Old Norse heiðinn. This meaning for the term originated from Gothic haiþno ("gentile woman"). ...In modern times, "Heathen" and "Heathenry" are increasingly used to refer to those branches of neopaganism inspired by the pre-Christian religions of the Germanic, Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon peoples.

In the 17th century, description of paganism turned from the theological aspect to the ethnological, and a religion began to be understood as part of the ethnic identity of a people, and the study of the religions of "primitive" peoples triggered questions as to the ultimate historical origin of religion.

Many of the "revivals", Wicca and Neo-druidism in particular, have their roots in 19th century Romanticism and retain noticeable elements of occultism or theosophy that were current then, setting them apart from historical rural (paganus) folk religion.

The Fylfot

https://arithharger.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/the-fylfot/

Völuspá The Völva's Prophecy A Study Guide

http://www.germanicmythology.com/PoeticEdda/Voluspa.html

The poem known as Völuspá is comprised of two similar poems found in manuscripts known as Codex Regius and Hauksbók. While both manuscripts contain many similar and identical verses, each contains unique verses and variant readings not found in the other. All modern versions of this poem contain a mixture of material from both manuscripts...

Winter Solstice

https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/winter-solstice.html

December 21, 2020 04:02CT 10:02UTC 10:02WEUR

December Solstice in Universal Coordinated Time is on

Friday, December 21, 2018 at 22:23 UTC

December Solstice in Fargo, North Dakota, USA is on

Friday, December 21, 2018 at 4:23 pm CST

Full Moon on The Winter Solstice 2018

https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-winter-solstice

The Germanic Origins of Yule 20:14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3rGydNBUZ8

Yule - Winter Solstice

http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/the_wheel_of_the_year/yule_-_winter_solstice.asp

The Anglo-Saxon word for the festival of the Winter Solstice, 'Iul' meaning 'wheel'. In old almanacs Yule was represented by the symbol of a wheel, conveying the idea of the year turning like a wheel, The Great Wheel of the Zodiac, The Wheel of Life. The spokes of the wheel, were the old festivals of the year, the solstices and equinoxes. The winter solstice, the rebirth of the Sun...

Yule is deeply rooted in the cycle of the year, it is the seed time of year, the longest night and the shortest day, where the Goddess once again becomes the Great Mother and gives birth to the new Sun King.

Yule is another fire festival, ...Yule lends itself to a more private and domestic celebration. Yet like its midsummer counterpart, is strongly associated with fertility and the continuation of life. Here the Goddess is in her dark aspect, as 'She Who Cuts The Thread' or 'Our Lady in Darkness', calling back the Sun God. Yet, at the same time, she is in the process of giving birth to Son-Lover who will re-fertilise her and the earth, bringing back light and warmth to the world.

Yule Log: ...a large oak log was ceremoniously brought into the house and kindled at dusk, using a brand from the previous years Yule Log. It was deemed essential that the log, once lit, should burn until it was deliberately extinguished. The length of time, varied from region to region, from 12 hours to several days and it was considered ill-omened if the fire burnt itself out. It was never allowed to burn away completely, as some would be needed for the following year. In England, it was considered unlucky for the Yule log to be bought, and had to be acquired using other means,...

Mistletoe: Mistletoe,...it is held in great veneration when found on Oak trees. The winter solstice, called 'Alban Arthan' by the Druids, was according to Bardic Tradition, the time when the Chief Druid would cut the sacred mistletoe from the Oak. The mistletoe is cut using a golden sickle on the sixth day of the moon. It is often associated with thunder, and regarded as a protection against fire and lighting.

Mōdraniht

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C5%8Ddraniht

"Night of the Mothers" or "Mothers' Night" was an event held at what is now Christmas Eve by the Anglo-Saxon Pagans.

Wicca, Pagan and Witchcraft Holidays | Winter Solstice

https://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/yule.htm

Celtic

Yule is also known as the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere... Yule log: The log would burn throughout the night, then smolder for 12 days after before being ceremonially put out. Ash is the traditional wood of the Yule log. It is the sacred world tree of the Teutons, known as Yggdrasil.

Why Do We Celebrate Yule, the Winter Solstice?

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/yulethelongestnight/p/Yule_History.htm

The Celts of the British Isles celebrated midwinter as well. Although little is known about the specifics of what they did, many traditions persist. According to the writings of Pliny the Elder, this is the time of year in which Druid priests sacrificed a white bull and gathered mistletoe in celebration.

Yule

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule

Yule or Yuletide ("Yule time") is an indigenous midwinter festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples. The earliest references to Yule are by way of indigenous Germanic month names Ærra Jéola (Before Yule) or Jiuli and Æftera Jéola (After Yule). Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht.

The long-bearded god Odin bears the names jólfaðr (Old Norse for "Yule father") and jólnir ("the Yule one"). In plural (Old Norse jólnar, "the Yule ones") may refer to the Norse gods in general. In Old Norse poetry, the word is often employed as a synonym for 'feast', such as in the kenning hugins jól (Old Norse "Huginn's Yule" → "a raven's feast").

A description of pagan Yule practices is provided (notes are Hollander's own. Hollander, M. Lee (Trans.) (2007). Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway):

" It was ancient custom that when sacrifice was to be made, all farmers were to come to the heathen temple and bring along with them the food they needed while the feast lasted. At this feast all were to take part of the drinking of ale. Also all kinds of livestock were killed in connection with it, horses also; and all the blood from them was called hlaut [ sacrificial blood ], and hlautbolli, the vessel holding the blood; and hlautteinar, the sacrificial twigs [ aspergills ]. These were fashioned like sprinklers, and with them were to be smeared all over with blood the pedestals of the idols and also the walls of the temple within and without; and likewise the men present were to be sprinkled with blood. But the meat of the animals was to be boiled and served as food at the banquet. Fires were to be lighted in the middle of the temple floor, and kettles hung over them. The sacrificial beaker was to be borne around the fire, and he who made the feast and was chieftain, was to bless the beaker as well as all the sacrificial meat."

The narrative continues that toasts were to be drunk. The first toast was to be drunk to Odin "for victory and power to the king", the second to the gods Njörðr and Freyr "for good harvests and for peace", and thirdly a beaker was to be drunk to the king himself. In addition, toasts were drunk to the memory of departed kinsfolk. These were called "minni [memorial toast]".

The Old Norse Yule Celebration – Myth and Ritual

http://freya.theladyofthelabyrinth.com/?page_id=397

WINTER SOLSTICE – THE REBIRTH OF THE SUN GODDESS.

NIGHT AND ALL HER KIND

THE YULE RIDERS – WHEN THE INHABITANTS OF HEL RETURN TO EARTH

THOR AND THE YULE-GOAT

MÓDRANIHT – THE NIGHT OF THE MOTHERS – NEW YEAR AND JÓLABLÓT

The true origins of Christmas - The Pagan Roots

https://youtu.be/JT5plZa9UH4

Why was Christmas banned in America until 1820?

https://youtu.be/-RUd3rOxbEo

Fylfot Hearth 2011 Yule blot at the White Horse Stone*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpeeO5elEaw

Shetland fire festival - Up Helly Aa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnoBun80YVQ

Castlefest Wintereditie Yule Ritual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rd6SjcFd7M

Winter Solstice Ceremony at Sunrise 2011 - Scotland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3QAiRwwTh4

Winter Solstice Celebration in Soomaa 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUUlFkdy38w

Winter Solstice Fire Celebration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBTB40QZtg

Winter Solstice Celebration Drum Circle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK660C0jzNE

Winter Solstice Lantern Festival FIRE TRIBE FIRE DANCE!! 2013 Vancouver 12min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCEx8Fsda6Q

Winter Solstice Fire Twirling & Bonfire at Collingwood Children's Farm 2009.AVI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jI2kh8Q6TI

Fire Lotus - Winter Solstice Island - 2013 30 min **

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_pWpBm_HHs

Winter Solstice Live Stream 2017

https://www.irelandsancienteast.com/wintersolstice

Watch the Winter Solstice LIVE from Newgrange 8.30-9.15am on December 20th & 21st,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aDywTl53_s

Old European culture Newgrange

http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.ie/2016/12/newgrange.html

This is Newgrange, a prehistoric monument in County Meath, Ireland, located about one kilometre north of the River Boyne. It was built about 3200 BC. Newgrange is a large circular mound (tumulus) with a stone passageway and chambers inside. The mound has a retaining wall at the front and is ringed by 'kerbstones' engraved with artwork. There is no agreement about what the site was used for, but it has been speculated that it had religious significance. Once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage, illuminating the inner chamber. This illumination lasts for about 17 minutes....

Today the first light enters about four minutes after sunrise, but calculations based on the precession of the Earth show that 5,000 years ago first light would have entered exactly at sunrise....

The whole construction of the Newgrange tumulus indicates that it was constructed as a shrine dedicated to the holy union between father sky and mother earth. The tumulus is shaped like a pregnant woman's belly. The inside of the tumulus resembles female reproductive organs.... On top of this the entrance is shaped like a penis, with the roofbox, or better lightbox, being the head of the penis... Anyway, the sun rays entering the main chamber deep inside the earthen mound and hitting the bawl in the fundus is literally copulation, intercourse between the father sky and mother earth. The fact that Newgrange was aligned with the sunrise on the Winter Solstice, allows the young father sky to penetrate mother earth on the first day of the new solar year, and thus ensure the mother earth's fertility....

Santa Claus is an American perversion to demonize Odin. Jultide was hijacked by Christians.

Santa, or Satan is the God worshipped by Americans on Christmas Day.

Germanics viewed Odin (Father) as the original gift giver which later became St. Nicholas in Turkey. Which was later changed to Santa Claus by Americans to give honor to their God Satan. The Americans are the people of Satan.

But, the true descendants of Odin know their origins. Odin descendants honor Odin, and his wife Nerthus to bring back new life.

The Origins of Santa Claus

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/yulethelongestnight/p/Santa_Claus.htm

Among early Germanic tribes, one of the major deities was Odin, the ruler of Asgard...

Odin was often depicted as leading a hunting party through the skies, during which he rode his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. ...Sleipnir is described as being able to leap great distances, which some scholars have compared to the legends of Santa's reindeer. Odin was typically portrayed as an old man with a long, white beard...

Who Are the Deities of the Winter Solstice?

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/yulethelongestnight/a/Winter_Sol_Gods.htm

Odin (Norse): In some legends, Odin bestowed gifts at Yuletide upon his people, riding a magical flying horse across the sky. This legend may have combined with that of St. Nicholas to create the modern Santa Claus.

Celebrating Yule, the Winter Solstice

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/yulethelongestnight/a/About_Yule.htm

(Odin's Wife Nerthus, Freya, Frigga, etc... Nerthus is Mother Earth)

Winter Solstice and the Goddess Freya (Frigga)

http://www.goddessgift.com/Pandora's_Box/Winter-Solstice.htm

In ancient Europe, this night of darkness grew from the myths of the Norse goddess Frigga who sat at her spinning wheel weaving the fates, and the celebration was called Yule, from the Norse word Jul, meaning wheel. The Christmas wreath, a symbol adapted from Frigga's "Wheel of Fate", reminds us of the cycle of the seasons and the continuity of life. ...

In Northern Europe, the year's longest night is called "Mother Night" for it was in darkness the goddess Frigga labored to bring the Light to birth once more. The Young Sun, Baldur, who controlled the sun and rain and brings fruitfulness to the fields, was born.

Coincidental, or is Winter Solstice really the Jul's (wheel) death period?

Jultide marks the end of deathness, and brings new birth. Consequently, research has proven that the period around Christmas is the deadliest time of the entire year. Notice from this article the period from Samhain to Jultide the death rate rises peaking at the Jultide. Then death rates decrease.

http://www.us-funerals.com/funeral-articles/death-never-takes-a-holiday.html#.WFFg1rkbSME

Winter solstice 2016: Everything you need to know about the shortest day of the year

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/0/winter-solstice-2016-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-short/

December Solstice in Universal Coordinated Time is on

Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 10:44 UTC

The Legend of the Holly King and the Oak King

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/yulethelongestnight/p/Holly_KIng_Yule.htm

the Holly King frequently appears as a woodsy version of Santa Claus. He dresses in red, wears a sprig of holly in his tangled hair, and is sometimes depicted driving a team of eight stags. The Oak King is portrayed as a fertility god, and occasionally appears as the Green Man or other lord of the forest.

Yule Goat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Goat

The Yule goat is a Scandinavian and Northern European Yule and Christmas symbol and tradition. Its origin may be Germanic pagan and has existed in many variants during Scandinavian history. ... While a popular theory is that the celebration of the goat is connected to worship of the Norse god Thor, who rode the sky in a chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr it goes back to common Indo-European beliefs. ...

The Yule goat's origins go back to ancient Pagan festivals. The last sheaf of grain bundled in the harvest was credited with magical properties as the spirit of the harvest and saved for the Yule celebrations, called among other things Yule goat (Julbocken). This connects to ancient proto-Slavic beliefs where the Koliada (Yule) festival honors the god of the fertile sun and the harvest. This god, Devac (a/k/a Dazbog), was represented by a white goat, consequently the Koliada festivals always had a person dressed as a goat, often demanding offerings in the form of presents. A man-sized goat figure is known from 11th-century remembrances of Childermas, where it was led by a man dressed as Saint Nicholas, symbolizing his control over the Devil.

In Sweden, people regarded the Yule goat as an invisible spirit that would appear some time before Christmas to make sure that the Yule preparations were done right. Objects made out of straw or roughly-hewn wood could also be called the Yule goat...

During the 19th century the Yule goat's role all over Scandinavia shifted towards becoming the giver of Christmas gifts, with one of the men in the family dressing up as the Yule goat. In this, there might be a relation to Santa Claus and the Yule goat's origin in the medieval celebrations of Saint Nicholas. The goat was then replaced by the jultomte (Father Christmas/Santa Claus) or julenisse during the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, although he is still called the Joulupukki (Yule goat) in Finland, and the tradition of the man-sized goat disappeared.

Yule

http://www.theasatrucommunity.org/yule

The name Yule is derived from the Old Norse HJOL, meaning 'wheel,'... is a direct reference to the return of the Sun represented as a fiery wheel rolling across the heavenly sky.... The Yule holiday is the most important and most popular of all the native Germanic spiritual celebrations. Yule marks the return of the God Baldur from the realm of Hel... traditionally 12 days long with the start of the festivities beginning at sunset on the winter solstice... The first night of Yule is called Mothernight, when Frigga and the Disir (female ancestral spirits) are especially honored....

Yule is the season at which the gods and goddesses are closest to Midgard: our deities were called 'Yule-Beings' by the Norse, and Odin himself is called Jólnir, the "Yule One" and is where the image of Santa Claus is derived from. Yule is also the season during which the dead return to earth and share the feasts of the living. Elves, trolls, and other magical beings roam freely, and must either be warded off or invited to come in friendship and peace. Yule is the time of the year at which the Wild Hunt - Odin's host of the restless dead - rides most fiercely; it is dangerous to meet them, but gifts of food and drink are left out for them, for they can also bring blessings and fruitfulness....

The straw animals, which are still widely found throughout Sweden, are intimately related to ancient Norse Germanic mythology; originating in legends of the sacred animals of the gods; the Goats of Thor (Yule Goat - Julbock in Swedish), and the Wild Boar of Freyr (Yule Boar - Julgris or Julegris - also Swedish)...

During Yule, we honor Thorr for driving back the frost etins, Frey to give us prosperity in the coming year, Odinn as leader of the Wild Hunt, and our Ancestors. During Yule, we are closest to the dead....

We decorate an evergreen tree with sun wheels, runes, items of food such as cranberries and popped corn, and bright pretty things, to remind us of the eternity of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, as it lasts throughout the winter’s Ever Green....

Yule/Winter Solstice December 21st

http://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/yule

The Goddess gives birth to the Sun/Sun God....

The Oak King and The Holly King: The Holly King rules over the dark part of the year from Midsummer to Yule, he is God of the Waning Year. At Yule he surrenders his life to the young light Oak King, God of the Waxing Year and his twin, who rules over the light part of the year from Yule to Midsummer. Both rule for half of the year, both fight for the favour and love of the Goddess and both surrender their life force for the well-being of the land. In truth, they are one.

Evergreens represent everlasting life ...

Mistletoe: Greatly revered by the Druids, this is the healer and protector. It is carefully cut to ensure it never touches the earth. It's magical properties are believed to be connected to the fact that it lives between the worlds, between sky/heaven and earth. The white berries of mistletoe represent the fertile white semen of the life-giving male. Which is where kissing under the mistletoe comes from!

Holly: Another evergreen of protection, holly's spiky bristles are believed to repel unwanted spirits. Newborn babies used to be sprinkled with 'holly water', water in which holly had been soaked, especially potent if left under a full moon overnight. Holly is sacred to Holle, the Germanic underworld goddess, and symbolizes everlasting life, goodwill and potent life energy. Its red berries represent feminine blood. Together, mistletoe and holly represent the Sacred Marriage at this time of year with the re-birth of the Sun/Son.

Ivy: Evergreen symbol of immortality and resurrection, growing in a spiral reminding us of reincarnation and rebirth. Sacred to Osiris, where His death and resurrection was a central theme in Egyptian religion. Sacred also to Dionysys, god of vegetation, blossoming and the Return of Spring.

Yew: Tree of regeneration and rebirth as no other - it sends up new trees from its roots and grows to a very great age. It is deeply connected with the spirit realms and the ancestors. Often used as the central 'world tree' in ritual spaces and was often planted in graveyards. Very poisonous.

Pine: Its branches bring healing and joy to the home, burning it will purify.

The Wreath: It was traditional to make wreaths from evergreen - the Wheel of Life as evergreen.

The Yule Tree: Introduced into modern times apparently by the German Prince Albert in Victorian times and we love it. In ancient Rome, pine trees were an essential part of Goddess groves. On the eve of the Midwinter Solstice, Roman priests would cut down a pine tree, decorate it and carry it ceremonially to the temple celebrations. People decked their homes with boughs of evergreen trees and bushes in pots. Pines and firs were cherished as a symbol of rebirth and life in the depth of winter. It was the festival of Saturnalia. Pagan families would bring a live tree into the home so the wood spirits would have a place to keep warm in the cold winter months - food and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat.

Candles: This is the festival of light out of darkness and the tradition of lighting candles is ever popular. Red, green and the gold of the Returning Sun are the colours of Yule. Deck your home and altar with evergreens and candles.

Summer/Winter Solstices and Spring/Autumn Equinoxes

https://greenwichmeantime.com/longest-day/equinox-solstice-2010-2019/

Winter Dec 21, 2017 16:28 (GMT)

winter solstice 2017 Northern Hemisphere will be at 10:28 AM on Thursday, December 21 Central Time.

When is the winter solstice 2017? Traditions, rituals and definition of the shortest day of the year

http://www.mirror.co.uk/science/when-winter-solstice-shortest-day-11615633

The Druids - the priests of the ancient Celts - used evergreen trees , holly and mistletoe as symbols of everlasting life during winter solstice rituals. Cutting them down and putting them in their homes would have been too destructive to nature. But when Saint Boniface, also known as Winfrith of Crediton, found a group of pagans worshipping an oak tree in 8th Century Germany, he cut the tree down. Some say he then planted a fir tree on the spot after the pagans converted - others that a fir tree sprang up on the spot. Myth has it the converted pagans in the region returned the following year to decorate the fir tree.

Winter Solstice

http://pagancalendar.co.uk/event.php?zodiac=astrological&getdate=20171212&tz=Europe/London&id=1011

Winter Solstice Midwinter/Yule/Alban Arthan, on the winter solstice known to have included the sacrifice of a pig for the god Freyr, a tradition which survives in the Scandinavian Christmas ham. Many of the symbols associated with the modern holiday of Christmas such as the burning of the Yule log, the eating of ham, the hanging of boughs, holly, mistletoe, etc. are apparently derived from traditional northern European Yule celebrations. Heathenry In Germanic Neopagan sects, Yule is celebrated with gatherings that often involve a meal and gift giving. Further attempts at reconstruction of surviving accounts of historical celebrations are often made, a hallmark being variations of the traditional blot. Groups such as the Asatru Folk Assembly in the US recognize the celebration as lasting for 12 days, beginning on the date of the winter solstice. Thu Dec 21 16:28 GMT 2017

Yule begins on Mother Night, (about Dec. 20) the night before the shortest day and the longest night (winter solstices). We honor the beginning of the Sun's return and the breaking of Winter, (which is most noticeable in five days) and is celebrated over a twelve day period.

Saint Nicholas' Day, observed on December 6 in Western Christian countries and Romania, December 5 in the Netherlands and December 19 in Eastern Christian countries, is the feast day of Saint Nicholas.

Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December.

Christmas Day 2017 in United States of America Monday, December 25

Orthodox Churches in Russia, Serbia, Jerusalem, Ukraine, Ethiopia and other countries use the old 'Julian' calendar and people in those churches celebrate Christmas on January 7th. Most people in the Greek Orthodox Church celebrate Christmas on December 25th.

SANTA = SATAN ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mii9jjszgp0

The Christians defamed witch rituals into devil worship....

Krampus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus

Krampus figure has been theorized as stretching back to pre-Christian Alpine traditions... in no other form is the full regalia of the Horned God of the Witches so well preserved. The birch – apart from its phallic significance – may have a connection with the initiation rites of certain witch-covens; rites which entailed binding and scourging as a form of mock-death.... They believe Krampus derives from a pagan supernatural who was assimilated to the Christian devil....The Krampus figures persisted, and by the 17th century Krampus had been incorporated into Christian winter celebrations by pairing Krampus with St Nicholas....

The Krampus tradition was prohibited by the Dollfuss regime under the Fatherland's Front (Vaterländische Front) and the Christian Social Party. In the 1950s, the government distributed pamphlets titled "Krampus Is an Evil Man".... Sometimes Krampus appears with a sack or a basket strapped to his back; this is to cart off evil children to Hell.... The Feast of St. Nicholas is celebrated in parts of Europe on 6 December. On the preceding evening of 5 December, Krampus Night or Krampusnacht, the wicked hairy devil appears on the streets. Sometimes accompanying St. Nicholas and sometimes on his own... Unlike North American versions of Santa Claus, in these celebrations Saint Nicholas concerns himself only with the good children, while Krampus is responsible for the bad. Nicholas dispenses gifts, while Krampus supplies coal and the ruten bundles....

"Jul" or "Jol" are cognates of Norse "Jòlnir" or "Ýlir", which are alternate names of Odin...

Jul (Norway)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jul_(Norway)

Jul or jol is the term used for the Christmas holiday season in Scandinavia and parts of Scotland. Originally, "jul" was the name of a month in the old Germanic calendar. The concept of "jul" was a period of time rather than a specific event prevailing in Scandinavia.... Whereas the start of "jul" proper is announced by the chiming of church bells throughout the country in the afternoon of 24 December, it is more accurate to describe the season as an eight-week event....

Norse roots

"Jul" or "Jol" are cognates of Norse "Jòlnir" or "Ýlir", which are alternate names of Odin, although the root itself is debated. Jul was celebrated during the second moon (from new moon to new moon) of the winter half of the year – roughly from the new moon of November to the new moon of December. At this time, the animals for slaughter were the fattest, flour had been processed, all the work of autumn was completed, and it was time to celebrate.

The time of celebration has varied. According to written sources such as the legislation of Gulaþing, it was mandatory for farmers to have a beer drinking party with at least three farmers attending. If a farmer was so far away from his neighbours that this was difficult, he still had to brew as much beer as if he had been taking part of such a party. The beer should be ready by November 1.

The tradition of Yule Ale and "drinking Jul" is symbolized by a drinking horn on December 25 on the Runic calendar, with an upside-down drinking horn depicted on January 13, symbolizing that the ale should be finished by then.

By the wording of the legislation, there are two celebrations where beer drinking was mandatory. The first was a form of thanksgiving (where at least three farmers attended), while the second was a smaller party for the family.

The old tradition of brewing Yule ale and drinking in honor of the Æsir, friends and kinfolk also remained in the time following the Christianization, with the law demanding people to brew enough as well as strong enough, but people were now to drink in honor of Christ and the virgin Mary instead.

The figure of the mischievous but gift-bearing Norse nisse, a mythological creature associated with the Winter solstice in Scandinavian folklore, is a white-bearded, red-wearing ancestral spirit also known as Julenissen (Jul spirit), which has been integrated with the figure of Sinterklaas to comprise the modern-day figure of Santa Claus. Like the cookies traditionally left for "Santa Claus" today, it was customary to leave a bowl of rice porridge with butter for the Jul spirit, in gratitude. The food represented a sacramental meal. Sacramental meals were formally called a blót—in this particular instance, yuleblót or winterblót.

Odin, who commonly went by the name of "Jólner". The Jul...

Jul (Sweden)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jul_(Sweden)

Jul, the Swedish Christmas holiday, is celebrated throughout December and traditionally until St. Knut's Day on January 13. The main celebration and the exchange of gifts takes place on Christmas Eve, December 24. The Lucia Day is celebrated during Advent, on December 13.

History

The origin of the Germanic word "Jul" is somewhat unclear. Around the year 600, it is mentioned in the Gothic calendar together with Christian religious texts. Around the year 900, the word "Jul" can be found in a tribute to king Harald Fairhair, in which someone is said to "Dricka Jul" (Drink Jul). The pretext for the Jul celebration was to mark the winter solstice when the days start to get longer and the nights shorter again.

In Nordic prehistoric times there was a "midvinterblot" rite (mid-winter blót), which was a sacrificial rite held in mid-winter, which may either mean the same time as Jul (in later sources called julablot), or in mid-January which was in the middle of the winter period. The people sacrificed cattle and perhaps humans to win the Æsir's blessing on the germinating crop. The ás (singular of Æsir) who was especially hailed at this time was Odin, who commonly went by the name of "Jólner". The Jul was Christianized, while the blót rites were forbidden and abandoned when Sweden became a Christian country....

In the Old Norse sources the pagan celebration of Jul in the Nordic countries is often described as "to drink jul/yule". The central aspect of the pagan Germanic celebration of midwinter was to eat and drink well. To bake and to produce ale and mead were important preparations for the celebration. In medieval wooden calendars and pre-Christian picture stones, this celebration is still symbolised by a barrel of ale, or a drinking horn. So the emphasis on food and drink traditions was originally a pagan trait of the Christmas celebration.

The Christmas tree is a custom that was imported from Germany in the 1880's. The foremer tradition of giving joke presents, often a log of wood, was replaced in the 1900's by Christmas gifts given out by Santa Claus, Jultomten.

Ansuz Rune

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansuz_(rune)

óss refers to Odin:

ᚬ Óss er algingautr

ok ásgarðs jöfurr,

ok valhallar vísi.

Óss is aged Gautr

and prince of Asgard

and lord of Valhalla.

Santa Claus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, or simply Santa... Origins: Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from Church history and folklore, notably St Nicholas (known in Dutch as Sinterklaas), merged with the English character Father Christmas to create the character known to Americans and the rest of the English-speaking world as "Santa Claus" (a phonetic derivation of "Sinterklaas").

In the English and later British colonies of North America, and later in the United States, British and Dutch versions of the gift-giver merged further. For example, in Washington Irving's History of New York (1809), Sinterklaas was Americanized into "Santa Claus" (a name first used in the American press in 1773) but lost his bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. Irving's book was a lampoon of the Dutch culture of New York, and much of this portrait is his joking invention.

Santa Claus - Christmas - HISTORY.com

http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/santa-claus

St. Nicholas made his first inroads into American popular culture towards the end of the 18th century. In December 1773, and again in 1774,... The name Santa Claus evolved from Nick’s Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint Nicholas). In 1804, John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical Society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society’s annual meeting. ...

Stores began to advertise Christmas shopping in 1820, and by the 1840s, newspapers were creating separate sections for holiday advertisements, which often featured images of the newly-popular Santa Claus....

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, wrote a long Christmas poem for his three daughters entitled “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.”... is largely responsible for our modern image of Santa Claus... In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore’s poem to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. ...18th-century America’s Santa Claus was not the only St. Nicholas-inspired gift-giver to make an appearance at Christmastime. Similar figures were popular all over the world. Christkind or Kris Kringle was believed to deliver presents to well-behaved Swiss and German children. Meaning “Christ child,” Christkind is an angel-like figure often accompanied by St. Nicholas on his holiday missions. In Scandinavia, a jolly elf named Jultomten was thought to deliver gifts in a sleigh drawn by goats. English legend explains that Father Christmas visits each home on Christmas Eve to fill children’s stockings with holiday treats. Pere Noel is responsible for filling the shoes of French children. In Russia, it is believed that an elderly woman named Babouschka purposely gave the wise men wrong directions to Bethlehem so that they couldn’t find Jesus. Later, she felt remorseful, but could not find the men to undo the damage. To this day, on January 5, Babouschka visits Russian children leaving gifts at their bedsides in the hope that one of them is the baby Jesus and she will be forgiven. In Italy, a similar story exists about a woman called La Befana, a kindly witch who rides a broomstick down the chimneys of Italian homes to deliver toys into the stockings of lucky children.

Christmas Trivia - Santa Claus

https://the-christmas-game.com/pages/christmas-trivia-santa-claus-st-nicholas-and-kris-kringle

at Martin Luther's urging, some protestants in Austria and Germany sought to bring the holiday closer to the Bible, by re-naming the gift-giving character from Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) to Christkindl (Christ child).

"Kris Kringle" is an Americanized pronunciation of Christkindl. Although Christkindl refers to the infant Jesus,... Americans seem to have adopted the name "Kris Kringle," but reattached it to the original St. Nicholas as a synonym, which is the exact opposite of what was originally intended.... the in melting pot of the United States, all of the characters -- St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, and Father Christmas -- become synonyms for the same person.

Christkind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christkind

Promulgated by Martin Luther at the Protestant Reformation in 16th–17th-century Europe, many Protestants adopted this gift bringer, the Christ Child or Christkindl, and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve. As such, the "Lutheran Church promoted Christ as the children's gift-giver, hoping to draw attention to the child for whom Christmas was named." The Christkind is a sprite-like child, usually depicted with blond hair and angelic wings. Martin Luther intended it to be a reference to the incarnation of Jesus as an infant (see Christ Child). Sometimes the Christ Child is, instead of the infant Jesus, interpreted as a specific angel bringing the presents, as it appears in some processions together with an image of little Jesus Christ. Later, the Christkind was said to make rounds delivering gifts with St. Nicholas....

Since the 1990s, the Christkind is facing increasing competition from the Weihnachtsmann in the American version of Santa Claus, caused by the use of Santa Claus as an advertising figure....

Truth Behind xmas? Why was Christmas banned in America until 1820 MUST WATCH!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htpp5nuTOPw&t=21s

History Channel-The Real Story of Christmas-Full Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyqAmfKCPX0

Is the Christmas Tree the same as the Yule Tree, the same as the World Tree, the same as the Tree of Life, the same as the Tree of Knowledge?

If the trees have spirits why would you cut them down just to worship them for 2 weeks as they later die?

The Genus of the Tree of Life is different among different peoples. Each people were made from a different material. Some made from clay and sand, some made from tree wood, etc...

The spirits in trees, animals, people, and all living things come from the giver of spirits either from Father Sky, or Mother Earth. When any spirit filled being dies the spirit returns back to the Sky Father, or Mother Earth and he/she will return the spirit back again as either a human, tree, animal or any living being with a spirit.

The Genus of trees is important as it contained the spirits of past ancestors.

Ash, or Yew: To be or not to be seems to be the question. Tree worship is a part of our ancient European/Eurasian belief. Pagan religion involved honor of trees where they grew in nature. The practise of bringing in a tree for Christmas was first practised in midevil Germany. Prior to that Yule trees were honored outside on living trees but, they may or may not have been decorated.

Various articles are in disagreement as to which tree is the real World Tree. It may be they are all right. It may come down to the people it represents, and the land which that people live.

To the people of Thor, the Yggs Drasill Rowan Ash seems to be their world tree. Although the Rowan is not scientifically a Fraxinus. However, recall that scientific classification was not known in ancient times when the Rowan was called an ash. So the Rowan was known as an ash tree by these tribes who viewed it as a sacred world tree.

To other peoples their world tree may have been some tree other than the Rowan either by denominational interpretations over time, regional beliefs/ traditions, regional tree availability, interpretaions based on historical writings, etc..

Is the Yule Tree a symbol of the World Tree, or is it a symbol of something else such as various religious interpretations i.e., everlasting life, reincarnation, life/death/resurrection, tree spirits, ancestoral spirits, fairy spirits, magic powers, blessings from the gods, etc...

From the ancient clay tablets of ancient sumeria 3000bc, we see the tree is a deciduous tree. It is not a coniferous tree.

From interpretations of later midevil writings : "An ash I know there stands, Yggdrasill is its name, a tall tree, showered with shining loam. From there come the dews that drop in the valleys. It stands forever green over Urðr's well". (Völuspá) and "It is the ash Yggdrasil. There the gods must hold their courts each day" ... "dew falls from Yggdrasil to the earth, explaining that "this is what people call honeydew, and from it bees feed" (Gylfaginning).

This says the tree is an Ash, but can be misinterpretted to mean an evergreen tree, or that it is deciduous but remains green, or it remains alive because it is watered every day growing over the well and being watered by dew, or the dew is honeydew which feeds insects and bees. Coniferous trees do not produce honeydew that feeds bees. A deciduous tree such as Ash, and Rowan do produce honeydew to feed insects. Just speculation but, the whitey aureates may be apples. So this Ygg's Drasill Tree could also be an apple since apple trees have been a mythical tree as well as a life giving tree.

"Yggdrasil is the biggest and best of all trees" would favor a Fraxinus Ash over the smaller Rowan Sorben Ash if taken literally rather than mythical.

In closing I am of the belief that Ygg's Drasill Tree is some type of a deciduous tree whether it is a Fraxinus Ash, or a Sorbus Mtn.Ash, or even an apple tree.

That the Christmas Tree is a coniferous tree for Christian celebration that was influenced by variuos pagan beliefs, and traditions in the beliefs of tree worship, world tree, and other tree religious beliefs of the pagans..

The Yule Tree could be either a conifer, or deciduous tree.

Christmas tree

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree

The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, [and] sweetmeats" the apples and and round ornaments are supposed to represent the fruit of knowledge of good and evil from the first book in the Bible, Genesis. In the 18th century, it began to be illuminated by candles which were ultimately replaced by Christmas lights...

The Christmas tree is sometimes compared with the "Yule-tree", ...Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmas time."

During the Roman mid-winter festival of Saturnalia, houses were decorated with wreaths of evergreen plants, along with other antecedent customs now associated with Christmas. The modern Christmas tree is frequently traced to the symbolism of trees in pre-Christian winter rites, wherein Viking and Saxon worshiped trees....

"tree of paradise" of medieval mystery plays that were given on 24 December, the commemoration and name day of Adam and Eve in various countries. In such plays, a tree decorated with apples (to represent the forbidden fruit) and wafers (to represent the Eucharist and redemption) was used as a setting for the play. Like the Christmas crib, the Paradise tree was later placed in homes. The apples were replaced by round objects such as shiny red balls.

Is the Yule Tree an Ancient Pagan Custom?

http://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-culture-blogs/paganistan/is-the-yule-tree-an-ancient-pagan-custom.html

But there's no evidence at all in antiquity for decorated trees per se at Midwinter. The modern Yule tree, rather, has its roots in Renaissance Germany: ironically, the period of the Great Persecution. So it's really a Christian custom....

Every pagan understands the Tree of Life, the Tree that stands at the Center of the Worlds. (How do we know that it's the World Tree? Obviously: because it's got the North Star on top.)...

As novelist Richard Grant puts it, Yule trees are seedlings of Yggdrasil....

Ash Tree

Scientific name: Fraxinus

Family: Oleaceae

Rowan Tree

Family: Rosaceae

Genus: Sorbus

mountain ash Alternative Titles: rowan, Sorbus

Mountain ash (genus Sorbus), also known as rowan, genus of several shrubs or trees in the rose family (Rosaceae), native to the Northern Hemisphere. Unrelated to true ashes (genus Fraxinus, family Oleaceae),

Yew

Genus Taxus:..

Families Taxaceae, Cephalotaxaceae, and Podocarpaceae which are superficially similar to other yews, are also known by this name:...

Adam-Thor's or Ygg's Drasill Tree of Life a Rowan-apple Ash

https://sites.google.com/site/n8iveuropean/home/britain/British-Edda.pdf

[This famous Tree, Adam's Rowan-apple or Mountain Ash" Tree of Life, " the Drasill Tree is thus described in the Sibyl's Lay :]

The Ash I see standing;

'Tis hight Ygg's Drasill,

Highly beamed oozing

Whitey aureate (apples).

Thence come the dewdrops

That fall in this dale.

It stands aye afar from

The green pine of Urd Burn (of Eden).

Three roots of it stand out

At the three highways

Under the Ash of Ygg's Drasill.

To Hell-Byre (Eden) goes one

Another to the rimey frost-giants (of Ararat)

The third to the baptized men of men (the

Goths at Vidara town).

Harts too there are four ,

Their heads thrown up. who

With (long) necked Geese gnaw (its boughs) ;

Dainn and Dwalinn

Are they named and

Duneyr and Dyrathror .

The Ash, Ygg's Drasill,

Drees more distress

Than men have witted of :

Harts bite it above,

At its sides it rots,

And the Nether-ogre shears its aneath.

Fig. 48 Thor's, or Sig's Tree guarded by Goats(Goths) attacked by Chaldee adversary. From Babylonian seal. Note rayed Sun on each side of tree which stands on a mountain, and crescent Moon over the assailant.

Tree Lore: Rowan

http://www.druidry.org/library/trees/tree-lore-rowan

Folklore

The Rowan tree is one of the most sacred trees in Scottish folk tradition. ‘Scottish tradition does not allow the use of the tree’s timber, bark, leaves or flowers, nor the cutting of these, except for sacred purposes under special conditions.’ (Fife)

Rowan is one of the trees associated with Saint Brighid, the Celtic patroness of the arts, healing, smithing, spinning and weaving. Spindles and spinning wheels were traditionally made of Rowan in Scotland and Ireland. Rowan trees planted near stone circles in Scotland were especially powerful. Scottish Fairies were said to hold their celebrations within stone circles protected by Rowan trees. Modern interpretations of the Celtic Ogham place Rowan, called Luis, as the sacred tree of February.

Rowan twigs were placed above doorways and barns to protect the inhabitants against misfortune and evil spirits. It was one of the trees sacred to Druids and used for protection against sorcery and evil spirits. The Druids burnt Rowan on funeral pyres, for it also symbolized death and rebirth. The Druid Ovates and Seers burnt Rowan in rites of divination and to invoke spirits, and Druids used Rowan wood in rites of purification. Ancient Bards considered the Rowan the ‘Tree of Bards’, bringing the gift of inspiration. Rowan is one of the nine sacred woods burnt in the Druids’ Beltaine fire. Rowan is also associated with dragons and serpents - sacred Rowans were once guarded by dragons.

In America, the Rowan is usually referred to as Mountain Ash. Most sources maintain that the word ‘Rowan’ is derived from the Norse word rune, which means charm or secret, and runa, which is Sanskrit for magician. However according to Elizabeth Pepper, Rowan is a Scottish word, derived from the Gaelic rudha-an, which means ‘the red one’.

Rune staves were often cut from the rowan tree for amulets by the Norse people who invaded Scotland. In the Christian era, the twigs have been used for protection against witches, sorcery, negative magic and the Evil Eye. Twigs tied in a cross with red thread are affixed to doors and barns to keep the inhabitants and livestock from being enchanted, saying this charm, ‘Rowan tree and red thread, will put witches to their speed’ . Walking sticks made of rowan are used to protect the user from the spirits of the woods.

Rowan is also called the Witch Tree, or Wicken Tree, and can be used for divining precious metals, just as hazel can divine water. Witches used Rowan to increase their psychic powers, for spells of healing, success, protection, and often used the wood for their magic wands.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Baz_uvdheow/

Rowan Apple Rosemary Samhain simple syrup. Equal parts juice of cooked & strained rowan "berries" & tart or crabapples + sugar or honey to taste. Heat gently to dissolve sweetener with a few sprigs of rosemary in the pot. Cover to allow the fragrant resinous rosemary to properly infuse. This makes a bewitching drink with sparking water & ice. Or pick your poison & add your favourite spirit. Garnish with rosemary and raise your cups to the parting mists! ~Jennifer

gathervictoria#wildfoodlove #rowanberry

Tree Lore: Rowan

http://www.druidry.org/library/trees/tree-lore-rowan

Rowan is a small deciduous tree, found high up in the mountains; ...it prefers the heights,...The shape of the tree resembles an Ash, however it is not related. A member of the Rose family, Rowan is related to Rose, Apple, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, and Cherry, and grows no higher than 30-40 feet. It can live up to two hundred years....In May, Rowan blossoms into clusters of little creamy white flowers. The tree berries in autumn with a bright red fruit beloved by birds....

The Rowan berry is bitter, but when mixed with sugar or other sweet fruits, is excellent in pies, jelly or jam. Rowan berries are also made into juice and wine. The berries provide vitamins A and C, carotin, pectin and essential oil, and stimulate the immune system. Medicinally, Rowan berries are a laxative, and can also be used for sore throats, inflamed tonsils, hoarseness, even diarrhoea. A decoction from the bark is used as an astringent.

The Rowan tree is one of the most sacred trees in Scottish folk tradition...

Yggdrasil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil

Yggdrasill is an immense mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology.... in the Poetic Edda,... and the Prose Edda,... is an immense ash tree that is center to the cosmos and considered very holy. The gods go to Yggdrasil daily to assemble at their things. The branches of Yggdrasil extend far into the heavens, and the tree is supported by three roots that extend far away into other locations; one to the well Urðarbrunnr in the heavens, one to the spring Hvergelmir, and another to the well Mímisbrunnr. Creatures live within Yggdrasil, including the dragon Níðhöggr, an unnamed eagle, and the stags Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór. Conflicting scholarly theories have been proposed about the etymology of the name Yggdrasill,...

Old Norse Yggdrasill is "Odin's horse", meaning "gallows". This interpretation comes about because drasill means "horse" and Ygg(r) is one of Odin's many names. The Poetic Edda poem Hávamál describes how Odin sacrificed himself by hanging from a tree, making this tree Odin's gallows. This tree may have been Yggdrasil. Gallows can be called "the horse of the hanged" and therefore Odin's gallows may have developed into the expression "Odin's horse", which then became the name of the tree.

opinions regarding the precise meaning of the name Yggdrasill vary, particularly on the issue of whether Yggdrasill is the name of the tree itself or if only the full term askr Yggdrasil (where Old Norse askr means "ash tree") refers specifically to the tree. According to this interpretation, askr Yggdrasils would mean the world tree upon which "the horse [Odin's horse] of the highest god [Odin] is bound". Both of these etymologies rely on a presumed but unattested *Yggsdrasill....

In the Poetic Edda, the tree is mentioned in the three poems Völuspá, Hávamál and Grímnismál.

Völuspá: An ash I know there stands, Yggdrasill is its name, a tall tree, showered with shining loam. From there come the dews that drop in the valleys. It stands forever green over Urðr's well.

Hávamál: I know that I hung on a windy tree nine long nights, wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,

myself to myself, on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run....

Odin describes how he had no food nor drink there, that he peered downward, and that "I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there." While Yggdrasil is not mentioned by name in the poem and other trees exist in Norse mythology, the tree is near universally accepted as Yggdrasil, ...

Grímnismál: Odin (disguised as Grímnir) provides the young Agnar with cosmological lore....Odin says that, because the "bridge of the Æsir burns" and the "sacred waters boil," Thor must wade through the rivers Körmt and Örmt and two rivers named Kerlaugar to go "sit as judge at the ash of Yggdrasill." In the stanza that follows, a list of names of horses are given that the Æsir ride to "sit as judges" at Yggdrasil.... Odin provides a list of things that are what he refers to as the "noblest" of their kind... Yggdrasil first, and states that it is the "noblest of trees".

Yggdrasil is mentioned in two books in the Prose Edda; Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál.

Gylfaginning: ...Gangleri (described as king Gylfi in disguise) asks where is the chief or holiest place of the gods. High replies "It is the ash Yggdrasil. There the gods must hold their courts each day". Gangleri asks what there is to tell about Yggdrasil. Just-As-High says that Yggdrasil is the biggest and best of all trees, that its branches extend out over all of the world and reach out over the sky. Three of the roots of the tree support it, and these three roots also extend extremely far: one "is among the Æsir, the second among the frost jötnar, and the third over Niflheim. The root over Niflheim is gnawed at by the wyrm Níðhöggr, and beneath this root is the spring Hvergelmir. Beneath the root that reaches the frost jötnar is the well Mímisbrunnr, "which has wisdom and intelligence contained in it, and the master of the well is called Mimir". Just-As-High provides details regarding Mímisbrunnr and then describes that the third root of the well "extends to heaven" and that beneath the root is the "very holy" well Urðarbrunnr. At Urðarbrunnr the gods hold their court, and every day the Æsir ride to Urðarbrunnr up over the bridge Bifröst. Later in the chapter, a stanza from Grímnismál mentioning Yggdrasil is quoted in support.

In chapter 16, Gangleri asks "what other particularly notable things are there to tell about the ash?" High says there is quite a lot to tell about. High continues that an eagle sits on the branches of Yggdrasil and that it has much knowledge. Between the eyes of the eagle sits a hawk called Veðrfölnir. A squirrel called Ratatoskr scurries up and down the ash Yggdrasil carrying "malicious messages" between the eagle and Níðhöggr. Four stags named Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, and Duraþrór run between the branches of Yggdrasil and consume its foliage. In the spring Hvergelmir are so many snakes along with Níðhöggr "that no tongue can enumerate them". Two stanzas from Grímnismál are then cited in support. High continues that the norns that live by the holy well Urðarbrunnr each day take water from the well and mud from around it and pour it over Yggdrasil so that the branches of the ash do not rot away or decay. High provides more information about Urðarbrunnr, cites a stanza from Völuspá in support, and adds that dew falls from Yggdrasil to the earth, explaining that "this is what people call honeydew, and from it bees feed".

In chapter 41, the stanza from Grímnismál is quoted that mentions that Yggdrasil is the foremost of trees. In chapter 54, as part of the events of Ragnarök, High describes that Odin will ride to the well Mímisbrunnr and consult Mímir on behalf of himself and his people. After this, "the ash Yggdrasil will shake and nothing will be unafraid in heaven or on earth", and then the Æsir and Einherjar will don their war gear and advance to the field of Vígríðr. Further into the chapter, the stanza in Völuspá that details this sequence is cited....

Davidson notes parallels between Yggdrasil and shamanic lore in northern Eurasia: The conception of the tree rising through a number of worlds is found in northern Eurasia and forms part of the shamanic lore shared by many peoples of this region. This seems to be a very ancient conception, perhaps based on the Pole Star, the centre of the heavens, and the image of the central tree in Scandinavia may have been influenced by it.... Among Siberian shamans, a central tree may be used as a ladder to ascend the heavens.

Davidson says that the notion of an eagle atop a tree and the world serpent coiled around the roots of the tree has parallels in other cosmologies from Asia. She goes on to say that Norse cosmology may have been influenced by these Asiatic cosmologies from a northern location. Davidson adds, on the other hand, that it is attested that the Germanic peoples worshiped their deities in open forest clearings and that a sky god was particularly connected with the oak tree, and therefore "a central tree was a natural symbol for them also"....

Scandinavian and Turkish People, What is the connection? Odin and his People

https://tarihvearkeoloji.blogspot.com/2016/02/scandinavian-and-turkish-people-what-is.html

The word Yggdrasil, the Nordic Tree of Life, is a cognate with the Turkish words Yigac asil, meaning "noble main tree". This, like Tengri, was likely a contribution from Germanic to Turkic unless it is a case of convergent evolution with the roots coming from a common earlier ancestor in Eurasian. As we have seen Ygg comes from Ing.Yig, like Ing and Ygg, means "young" coming from the Eurasian root *Yeug of *Jeug, which has also given us the Tibetan Nge Jung meaning "to be born again", and the Chinese character Yong meaning "everlastin", "perpetual" and "forever".

The tree of life in Norse legend refers to the first male mortal, Ask, who was fashioned from an ash tree. Two ash trees are actually involved in Norse tradition. The rowan or mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia, gave us the Norse word runa meaning "charm", Swedish word ronn meaning "red" as in its red berries. Ash as in Asgard refers to the "center post" or "king post" provided by the true ash tree, Fraxinus excelsior. Neither of these ash trees occurs naturally in the East. In the West it would be the oleaginous true-ash-tree that would used to give the highest heat for the purpose of metalworking and would become the "noble main tree" of life for Odin leaving the rowan in the lurch, the icon of a failed religion.

Celtic sacred trees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_sacred_trees

Oak...

Ash also features strongly in Irish mythology. The mountain ash, rowan, or quicken tree is particularly prominent in Scottish folklore. There are several recorded instances in Irish history in which people refused to cut an ash, even when wood was scarce, for fear of having their own cabins consumed with flame. The ash tree itself might be used in May Day (Beltaine) rites. Under the Old Irish word nin, the ash also gives its name to the letter N in the ogham alphabet. Together with the oak and thorn, the ash is part of a magical trilogy in fairy lore. Ash seedpods may be used in divination, and the wood has the power to ward off fairies, especially on the Isle of Man. In Gaelic Scotland children were given the astringent sap of the tree as a medicine and as a protection against witch-craft.

Apple...Wands of druids were made from wood either of the yew or of the apple. The Brythonic Avalon in Arthurian tradition is 'The Isle of Apples'. One gloss of the name for the magical Irish island Emain Ablach is 'Emain of the Apples'....

Hazel: Both the wood and the edible nuts of the hazel have played important roles in Irish and Welsh traditions. Hazel leaves and nuts are found in early British burial mounds and shaft-wells, especially at Ashill, Norfolk. In the ogham alphabet of early Ireland, the letter C was represented by hazel... Thought a fairy tree in both Ireland and Wales, wood from the hazel was sacred to poets and was thus a taboo fuel on any hearth. Heralds carried hazel wands as badges of office. Witches' wands are often made of hazel, as are divining rods, used to find underground water. In Cornwall the hazel was used in the millpreve, the magical adder stones....Even more esteemed than the hazel's wood were its nuts, often described as the 'nuts of wisdom', e.g. esoteric or occult knowledge....

Alder... power of divination, especially in the diagnosing of diseases. Alder might be used in the fé, a rod for measuring corpses and graves in pre-Christian Ireland. The letter F, third consonant in the ogham alphabet...

Elder...has many associations with the fairy world in oral traditions of recent centuries in Celtic countries.... thought of as the 'fairy tree'. In Ireland many individual elder trees were thought haunted by fairies or demons.

Yew... The evergreen yew with dark green, needle-like leaves and red berries has commonly symbolized immortality in the Indo-European imagination as it is the longest-lived entity, often lasting more than 1,000 years, to be found in the European environment....

Tree Lore: (Sacred Trees)

http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/treelore.htm

Tree worship... In folk religion and folklore, trees are often said to be the homes of tree spirits. Historical Druidism as well as Germanic paganism appear to have involved cultic practice in sacred groves, especially the oak. The most ancient cross-cultural symbolic representation of the universes construction is the world tree....Buddhism It is said that the Buddha was born, received his enlightenment, preached his first sermon and died all under the Bodhi tree.... Judeo-Christian the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge... This Sumerian Clay tablet is dated c. 2,500 BCE. The original Sumerian (Indo-Iranian) concept .... In Norse mythology Yaggdrasil is the holy Ash World Tree surrounded by nine worlds. It is said to connect the Underworld to Heaven with its branches and roots. symbol of the tree flows human awareness and consciousness.... In Egypt the Holy Sycamore is said to stand on the threshold of life and death, connecting the worlds....

Other examples of trees featured in mythology are the Banyan and the Peepal (Ficus religiosa) trees in Hinduism, and the modern tradition of the Christmas Tree in Germanic mythology, the Tree of Knowledge (Kabbalah) of Judaism and Christianity, and the Bodhi Tree in Buddhism. In folk religion and folklore, trees are often said to be the homes of tree spirits. Historical Druidism as well as Germanic Paganism appear to have involved cultic practice in sacred groves, especially the oak. The term druid itself possibly derives from the Celtic word for oak.

Tree Spirits: To the ancient Greeks and Romans, trees were thought to be inhabited by female spirits called Dryad (in oak trees) or Meliae (in ash trees). In Greek drys signifies 'Oak' from an Indo-European root *derew(o)- 'tree' or 'wood'....

Sacred Trees and their Meanings: ...

The Religion of the Ancient Celts: Chapter XIII. Tree and Plant Worship

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/rac/rac16.htm

HE Celts had their own cult of trees, but they adopted local cults--Ligurian, Iberian, and others. ...an anonymous god represented by a conifer on an altar at Toulouse,...Forests were also personified or ruled by a single goddess...a whole class of tree-divinities spirits of the oak-woods ...

The Celts made their sacred places in dark groves, the trees being hung with offerings or with the heads of victims. Human sacrifices were hung or impaled on trees, e.g. by the warriors of Boudicca. 4 These, like the offerings still placed by the folk on sacred trees, were attached to them because the trees were the abode of spirits or divinities who in many cases had power over vegetation.

Pliny said of the Celts: They esteem nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows. But apart from this they choose oak-woods for their sacred groves, and perform no sacred rite without using oak branches."... Other Aryan folk besides the Celts regarded the oak as the symbol of a high god, of the sun or the sky,...

old tradition that men once lived on acorns ...A people living in an oak region and subsisting in part on acorns might easily take the oak as a representative of the spirit of vegetation or growth. It was long-lived, its foliage was a protection, it supplied food, its wood was used as fuel, and it was thus clearly the friend of man.... Folk-lore survivals show that the spirit of vegetation in the shape of his representative was annually slain while yet in full vigour, that his life might benefit all things and be passed on undiminished to his successor. Hence the oak or a human being representing the spirit of vegetation, or both together, were burned in the Midsummer fires. How, then, did the oak come to symbolise a god equated with Zeus....The fires were kindled to recruit the sun's life; they were fed with oak-wood...

Stonehenge has now been proved to have been in existence before the arrival of the Celts,...

Tribal and personal names point to belief in descent from tree gods or spirits and perhaps to totemism. The Eburones were the yew-tree tribe (eburos); the Bituriges perhaps had the mistletoe for their symbol, and their surname Vivisci implies that they were called "Mistletoe men." 3 If bile (tree) is connected with the name Bile, that of the ancestor of the Milesians, this may point to some myth of descent from a sacred tree, as in the case of the Fir Bile, or "men of the tree." ...

The veneration of trees growing beside burial mounds or megalithic monuments was probably a pre-Celtic cult continued by the Celts. The tree embodied the ghost of the person buried under it, but such a ghost could then hardly be differentiated from a tree spirit or divinity....These embody the belief that the spirit of the dead is in the tree, which was thus in all likelihood the object of a cult. Instances of these legends occur in Celtic story. ...

Tree-worship was rooted in the oldest nature worship, and the Church had the utmost difficulty in suppressing it. Councils fulminated against the cult of trees, against offerings to them or the placing of lights before them and before wells or stones, and against the belief that certain trees were too sacred to be cut down or burned. Heavy fines were levied against those who practised these rites, yet still they continued. Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, tried to stop the worship of a large pear-tree standing in the centre of the town and on which the semi-Christian inhabitants hung animals' heads with much ribaldry. At last S. Germanus destroyed it, but at the risk of his life. S. Martin of Tours was allowed to destroy a temple, but the people would not permit him to attack a much venerated pine-tree which stood beside it--an excellent example of the way in which the more official paganism fell before Christianity, while the older religion of the soil, from which it sprang, could not be entirely eradicated. 2 The Church often effected a compromise. Images of the gods affixed to trees were replaced by those of the Virgin, but with curious results. Legends arose telling how the faithful had been led to such trees and there discovered the image of the Madonna miraculously placed among the branches. 3 These are analogous to the legends of the discovery of images of the Virgin in the earth, such images being really those of the Matres.

We now turn to Pliny's account of the mistletoe rite. The Druids held nothing more sacred than this plant and the tree on which it grew, probably an oak. Of it groves were formed, while branches of the oak were used in all religious rites. Everything growing on the oak had been sent from heaven, and the presence of the mistletoe showed that God had selected the tree for especial favour. Rare as it was, when found the mistletoe was the object of a careful ritual. On the sixth day of the moon it was culled. Preparations for a sacrifice and feast were made beneath the tree, and two white bulls whose horns had never been bound were brought there. A Druid, clad, in white, ascended the tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle. As it fell it was caught in a white cloth; the bulls were then sacrificed, and prayer was made that God would make His gift prosperous to those on whom He had bestowed it. The mistletoe was called "the universal healer," and a potion made from it caused barren animals to be fruitful. It was also a remedy against all poisons. ... the rite probably took place at the time of the Midsummer festival, a festival of growth and fertility. Mistletoe is still gathered on Midsummer eve and used as an antidote to poisons or for the cure of wounds. Its Druidic name is still preserved in Celtic speech in words signifying "all-healer," while it is also called sùgh an daraich, "sap of the oak," and Druidh lus, "Druid's weed."

Pliny describes other Celtic herbs of grace... The ritual used in gathering these plants--silence, various tabus, ritual purity, sacrifice--is found wherever plants are culled whose virtue lies in this that they are possessed by a spirit. Other plants are still used as charms by modern Celtic peasants, and, in some cases, the ritual of gathering them resembles that described by Pliny.

This article claims YggDrasill Tree is Yew, and not Ash...

Pagan World Tree

https://paganmeltingpot.wordpress.com/tag/pagan-world-tree/

Yggdrasil is a yew tree and not the ash tree that is... mentioned in the Völuspa of the Edda, although the descriptions of Yggdrasil clearly are not those of the ash tree....

Yew

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yew

Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. The name is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus Taxus:...The name also is used for any of various coniferous plants in the families Taxaceae and Cephalotaxaceae:...Various coniferous plants in the family Podocarpaceae, which are superficially similar to other yews, are also known by this name:...

Ancient Yew | Frequently Asked Questions

http://www.ancient-yew.org/s.php/frequently-asked-questions/2/2

oldest yews can exceed 1000 years.... “It is the toughest, most indestructable and longest lived tree we have.”...

Once it has reached a certain size it can put out new shoots from the base of the trunk. When the original trunk decays this ‘secondary’ growth forms the new tree. When a branch reaches the ground it can become embedded in the soil. From this point a new tree can develop, either remaining joined to the parent tree or living separately. Likewise a root close to the ground may give rise to new growth at some distance from the parent tree....

After all of the yew stands in Britain and Ireland had been depleted, the English crown began to import yew wood from Spain and, after this source was exhausted as well, turned its eyes on the trade with the Hanse towns of the Northern and Baltic Seas...barge-loads of yew wood from the depths of the eastern European woodlands, namely in western Russia and in the Carpathian Mountains. During the first half of the 16th century Bavaria and Austria alone exported 0.6 - 1.0 MILLION yew staves, by 1568 there was not a single yew left in Bavaria!

Poison is found in all parts except for the fleshy fruit. The poison is called Taxine. “The alkaloid ephedrine, as well as a volatile oil and traces of a cyanogenic glycoside, taxiphyllin, are also present.” The leaves are more toxic than the seed.... Fifty to one hundred grams of chopped leaves is considered fatal to adults.

What is the mythological significance of the yew tree?

During the Bronze and Iron Ages the different cultures developed their particular characteristics, their sets of moral and law codes, esthetics, language, customs, and so on. As part of the process, the ancient idea of the Tree of Life also changed to a multitude of forms. Often, however, it remained linked with the notion of a female deity or mother goddess. In the pre-hieroglyphic script of ancient Egypt, for example, the term for giving birth is directly derived from the word for tree. This shows what impact the Tree of Life once had on philosophy. In Egypt, the mother goddess was Hathor, and her tree, the sycomore fig (Ficus sycomorus) gave food and life in this life, while after death the ancient Egyptian expected to meet the goddess and her tree again to grant him eternal life. In ancient cosmology, the Tree of Life includes the process of death.

And so it is with the yew in the northern temperate zone. Its links with eternal life, death and rebirth are legion in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon and Nordic traditions, as well as those in southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. Local customs and rural traditions regarding the yew can eventually all be traced back to these ancient concepts. Christian churchyard traditions blended smoothly with these ancient roots, the yew remained a symbol of eternity. The terminology, however, changed from 'rebirth' to 'resurrection'.

By the 13th century, when the pre-Christian Nordic traditions (the Edda) were written down by a Christian monk, the northern European mythological image of the Cosmic Tree – Yggdrasil – had lost a big part of the nurturing, 'female' qualities mentioned above. Its foremost purpose now was to uphold the heavenly order of creation, and to deliver the runes to Odin and thus to humankind. This links Yggdrasil with the – also ancient (and international) – traditions of the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil).

The original sources identify Yggdrasil as vetgrønster vida (= most evergreen tree) and barraskr (= needle-ash). Unfortunately, some historians in the 19th century took this all too literally and declared Yggdrasil an ash-tree, a 'myth' that still persists. But the ash is not evergreen nor is it a needle-tree, not to mention that there is no evidence whatsoever for a Scandinavian ash worship as opposed to plenty of material regarding sacred uses of the yew. (Copyright © Fred Hageneder 2005)

Essentially, the Tree of Life is an image of the whole universe, or at least of planet earth, which embodies the notion that all life is related to each other and that all that lives is holy. Every animal, human or plant is a leaf on this tree. The symbol of Tree of Life is strongly related to the Cosmic Tree which has the stars as its fruits. To serve as an 'earthly representation' of the Tree of Life, different cultures chose different tree species, according to which species grew in the region... Siberia the birch is the World Tree of the shamanic tradition. For the early Celts in Ireland, the Germanic tribes of Scandinavia and Germany, and some Slavic peoples in south-western Russia it was the yew tree. (Copyright © Fred Hageneder 2005) ...

Norse Mythology: According to Snorri, one day Odin,Vili, and Ve were wandering over the lands that they had created when they came across two fallen trees, one an ash, the other an elm. The three gods made the ash tree into the first man, Ask, and the elm into the first woman, Enibla. Odin gave them the breath of life,

The Tree of Life in Ancient Cultures - ensign

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1988/06/the-tree-of-life-in-ancient-cultures?lang=eng

Among the closest parallels are scenes that appear on a number of small gold plates dating from the fifth century B.C. to the third century A.D., engraved in Greek and found in Italy, Sicily, Crete, and Macedonia.1 These plates depict the dead, wandering in the world of the shades, and warn them to avoid a destructive spring on their left. They enjoin the souls to keep to the right, where they will encounter another spring beside a white cypress tree.

After pausing for refreshment and nourishment from the spring and the tree, the wanderers continue to the lake of memory, where, after responding appropriately to questions posed by the lake guardians, the travelers receive eternal memories and enter into the gods’ presence. The texts on many of the plates state that those who successfully complete the journey become gods themselves.

Commentators agree that the cypress tree is a tree of life symbol, the spring nearby is a spring of life, and the other spring is a source of forgetfulness and punishment. They also agree that the most likely origin for the mythology is Egypt.

Tree of life

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life

The concept of a tree of life is a widespread mytheme or archetype in the world's mythologies, related to the concept of sacred tree more generally, and hence in religious and philosophical tradition. The expression Tree of Life was used as a metaphor for the phylogenetic tree of common descent in the evolutionary sense in a famous passage by Charles Darwin (1872).

The tree of knowledge, connecting to heaven and the underworld, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are both forms of the world tree or cosmic tree, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, and are portrayed in various religions and philosophies as the same tree.

Hinduism Bodi Tree... Ancient Iran Haoma Tree... Ancient Egypt Acacia Tree... Assyrian Tree of Life was represented by a series of nodes and criss-crossing lines... Etz Chaim, Hebrew for "tree of life," is figuratively applied to the Torah itself.... Buddhism Bodi Tree... China Tree of Life depicts a phoenix and a dragon; the dragon often represents immortality. A Taoist story tells of a tree that produces a peach of immortality every three thousand years, and anyone who eats the fruit receives immortality.... Christianity tree of life is Christ:... Islam "Tree of Immortality" is the tree of life motif as it appears in the Quran... Baha'i Faith tree of life the Manifestation of God... In Eden in the East (1998), Stephen Oppenheimer suggests that a tree-worshipping culture arose in Indonesia and was diffused by the so-called "Younger Dryas" event of c. 8000 BCE, when the sea level rose. This culture reached China (Szechuan), then India and the Middle East. Finally the Finno-Ugaritic strand of this diffusion spread through Russia to Finland where the Norse myth of Yggdrasil took root.... Georgia Borjgali is an ancient Georgian Tree of Life symbol.... German and Norse Yggdrasil, the world tree, a massive tree (sometimes considered a yew or ash tree). Perhaps related to Yggdrasil, accounts have survived of Germanic Tribes' honouring sacred trees within their societies. Examples include Thor's Oak, sacred groves, the Sacred tree at Uppsala, and the wooden Irminsul pillar. In Norse Mythology, the apples from Iðunn's ash box provide immortality for the gods.... Mesoamerica World trees embodied the four cardinal directions, which represented also the fourfold nature of a central world tree. Maya, the central world tree ceiba tree wacah chan or yax imix che... North America Iroquois, The World on the Turtle's Back a tree of life is found in the heavens, where the first humans lived, until a pregnant woman fell and landed in an endless sea. Saved by a giant turtle from drowning, she formed the world on its back by planting bark taken from the tree. Ojibway as Grandmother Cedar, or Nookomis Giizhig in Anishinaabemowin.... Turkic Turuğ or Bayterək is the tree of life in turkic mythology . The World Tree or Tree of Life is a central symbol in Turkic mythology. According to the Altai Turks, human beings are descended from trees. According to the Yakuts, White Mother sits at the base of the Tree of Life, whose branches reach to the heavens where it is occupied by various creatures that have come to life there. ...

The Arborvitae gets its name from the Latin for "tree of life." ... The Tule tree of Aztec mythology ... Caribbean and in the Philippines, the coconut is considered the "tree of life" ...

The 'tree of life' – an enduring symbol

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-tree-of-life--an-enduring-symbol-65898

Babylonia and have been dated to 3,000 – 4,000 BC. The Babylonian tree was at the center of the universe at the mouth of the Euphrates River. The roots of the tree extended into the waters of the abyss which was guarded by Ea, the god of wisdom, who produced the water necessary for agriculture in the land between the two rivers. The leaves of the tree were where the goddess of the heavens resided and the trunk held the earth goddess and her son....

Persian mythology, prior to Islam, centered around a large, sacred tree which bore all the seeds necessary for trees to grow on earth. Ahriman who was the source of all of the evil in the world sent a frog to invade the tree and destroy it. To guard the tree, the god Ahura Mazda, who represented all that was good, including life, created two fish to continually stare at the frog, always ready to stop it. A different Iranian myth, that of Mashy and Mashyane, tells of two trees who were the ancestors of all living beings....

The ancient Egyptians had a somewhat different way of looking at the tree. Their sacred tree was a sycamore that stood on the threshold of life and death and connected the two...

The tree of life and the Turks found in shamanism, in which the tree provides a ladder for the shamans to use, ascending and descending between the spirit world and the underworld. The wood of the sacred tree is what is said to be what was used to form the shaman’s drum, an integral part of the materials used in performances of rituals and sacred rites. The beech tree seems to have been the tree that was worshipped right up to recent times. Sacrifices would even be made to it, according to Abdülkadir İnan in his book on shamanism....

Northern Caucasus region. He notes that once a year the people would gather and light candles around the tree and perform a rite. This tree grew from a piece of the Tuba tree and had been sent to Alexander from God by means of the angel Gabriel....

The Tree of Life

http://symboldictionary.net/?p=34

Another form, the inverted Tree, represents spiritual growth, as well as the human nervous system. This tree, with its roots in heaven, and its branches growing downward, is most commonly found in Kabbalistic imagery.

A similar tree is mentioned in the Vedic Bhagavad Gita: “The banyan tree with its roots above, and its branches below, is imperishable.”

The Norse cosmic World Ash, Ygdrassil, has its roots in the underworld while its branches support the abode of the Gods. ...the Norse God Odin received the gift of language while suspended upside down in the World Ash

Celtic Tree of Life (Crann Bethadh)

http://symboldictionary.net/?p=268

Trees were a connection to the world of the spirits and the ancestors, living entities, and doorways into other worlds. The most sacred tree of all was the Oak tree, which represented the axis mundi, the center of the world. The Celtic name for oak, daur, is the origin of the word door- the root of the oak was literally the doorway to the Otherworld, the realm of Fairy. The word Druid, the name of the Celtic Priestly class, is compounded from the words for oak and seeing- a Druid was one who was “Oak seeing,” meaning learned in Tree magic and guardian of the doorway.

IX. The Worship of Trees

http://www.bartleby.com/196/17.html

The central point of the grove, at least among the tribes of the Volga, was the sacred tree, beside which everything else sank into insignificance. Before it the worshippers assembled and the priest offered his prayers, at its roots the victim was sacrificed, and its boughs sometimes served as a pulpit. No wood might be hewn and no branch broken in the grove, and women were generally forbidden to enter it.

But it is necessary to examine in some detail the notions on which the worship of trees and plants is based. To the savage the world in general is animate, and trees and plants are no exception to the rule. He thinks that they have souls like his own, and he treats them accordingly.

Turkic Mythology - 'Bayterek' (Tree of Life) and 'Samruk' (mythical Bird)

Baiterek

https://strategy2050.kz/en/news/10673

According to the legend, Baiterek is the tree of life, the destination of the sacred bird, Samruk.... "Bajterek" expresses cosmogonic representations of ancient nomads under the legends of which the World River proceeds on the world’s junction. The Tree of Life— Bajterek towers on its coast, keeping the earth by the roots and propping up the sky by its crown. Roots of this tree, accordingly, are in the underground world, the tree itself, its trunk — in the terrestrial world, and its crown is in the heavenly world.

Every year in the Tree crown Samruk - the sacred bird - lays an egg — the Sun - which is swallowed by Ajdahar - the dragon - who lives at the foot of the Tree of Life. This legend symbolically means the alternation of summer and winter, day and night, Good and Harm struggle. "Bajterek" means a young, strong, growing tree that symbolizes the state which preserves its historical roots and have a strong support and the tendency to the future prosperity.

The World Tree - Kazakh Mythology

http://magicalgains.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-world-tree-kazakh-mythology.html

Baiterek is the the name of the World Tree and literally means 'original poplar or mother poplar' (poplar being a genus of tree).... the universe as well as the gate or door between worlds.

According to myth, Baiterek is the original life form and was once considered the centre of the universe as well as the gate or door between worlds.

Legends of heroes are often found around Baiterek. One such is a hero who finds himself in the underworld and makes a long and difficult journey to the middle world. There, he finds a tree, and saves the chicks of a giant mythological bird (Simurgh), by killing a dragon (Aydakhar) that threatened to devour them. The mother Simurgh is so grateful that she takes the hero to heaven.

Baiterek – the world tree – is according to this legend the center of the universe. It is the gateway between the astral and physical realms of existence and it is for this reason that sacred rites (including giving birth) were once performed underneath poplar trees in the region.

Kazakh shamans used to believe that the world tree appears as a material thing an ‘asa tayak’ and may be represented by the placement of a tall pole in the grown near the tomb of a holy individual.

According to an old Kazakh legend, on the banks of the World River grew the tree of life, Baiterek. Each year the sacred bird Samruk laid a golden egg in the crown of the tree, only for it to be consumed by a dragon. This annual routine of egg laying and destruction symbolized the switch between good and evil.

Samruk the sacred bird has a similar theme to the Phoenix, i.e., a sacred bird that resurrects after 1400 years, or after 500 years according to different legends. The resurrection theme itself also is told by Thors Goats that reserrect themselves daily after feeding Thor's people.

The Tree of Life, or World Tree also may have its roots in the Turkic Tree of Life.

This Turkic Mythology may be the source for similar mythologies of the Phoenicians, Greek, Norse, Brits, and several other peoples which have resurrecting themes, sacred trees, and sacred animals. Just my personal assumption.

The Celtic Druids"

https://ia601309.us.archive.org/6/items/TheCelticDruids/The_Celtic_Druids.pdf

THE DRUID FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS

The festival of the twenty-fifth of December was celebrated by the Druids in Bri- tain and Ireland with great fires lighted on the tops of the hills. This festival was repeated on the twelfth day, or on what we call the Epiphany....This was a great festival with the Persians, who, in very early times, celebrated the birth of their God Mithra....

a day had from time immemorial been dedicated to the God Sol his birth-day, and that he bore the epithet Lord. This Lord they thought could b other than their Lord and God : the mistake was easily made and very naturally adop And the rites of this Lord became, after long and bloody feuds between different bo of these persons, spliced into and amalgamated with Christianity. Thus came 25th of December, the Heathen festival of the God Sol, to be selected as the birth-day of Christ, and the Druidical festival of the winter Solstice to become a Christian rite,

MISLETOE AND OTHER SACRED PLANTS

The Druids are said to have been much addicted to the study of the qualities of vege-

tables, plants, and herbs. Vervain was amongst their greatest favourites; they used it

in casting lots and foretelling future events; they used it to anoint persons to prevent

fevers, &c. ; but it was to be gathered with certain ceremonies and at certain seasons of the year. " They deified the misletoe, and were not to approach either that or the selago, or the samolus, but in the most devout and reverential manner. When the end of the year approached, they marched with great solemnity to gather the misletoe of the oak, in order to present it to Jupiter, inviting all the world to assist at this ceremony, with these words: The new year is at hand, gather the misletoe."*

Pliny says, " The Druids (as the Gauls call their magicians or wise men) held nothing

so sacred as the misletoe, and the tree on which it grows, provided it be an oak. They

make choice of oak groves in preference to all others, and perform no rites without oak

leaves ; so that they seem to have the name of Druids from them, if we derive their name from the Greek. They think whatever grows on these trees is sent from heaven, and is a sign that the Deity has made choice of that tree. But as the misletoe is seldom to be met with, when found, it is fetched with great ceremony, and by all means on the sixth day of the moon, which with them begins the months and years, and the period of thirty years, which they term an age ; for at that season the moon has sufficient influence, and is above half full. They call this plant in their own language all heal, and after preparing for the sacrifice and feast under the tree, they bring up two white bulls, whose horns have been then bound for the first time. The priest, habited in white, mounts the tree, and with a golden hook cuts the misletoe, which is received in a white cloth. They then sacrifice the victims, praying the Deity to render this his gift favourable to those to whom they distribute it. They suppose it renders every animal fruitful which drinks a decoction of it, and that it is a remedy against all sorts of poisons. So much does the greatest part of national religion consist of trifles."

Mistletoe, Mythology and Folklore

https://stairnaheireann.net/2018/12/17/mistletoe-mythology-and-folklore-3/

‘Mistletoe is rare and when found it was gathered with great ceremony, and particularly on the sixth day of the moon…. Hailing the moon in a native word that means ‘healing all things,’ they prepared a ritual sacrifice and banquet beneath a tree and brought up two white bulls, whose horns were bound for the first time on this occasion. A Bard arrayed in white vestments climbed the tree and, with a golden sickle, cut down the mistletoe, which was caught in a white cloak. They finally killed the victims, praying to a god to render his gifts propitious to those on whom he bestowed it. They believed that mistletoe given in drink imparted fertility to any animal that was barren and that it was an antidote to all poisons.’

Mistletoe was harvested on the sixth day after the new moon following autumn, when the leaves had fallen from the trees making it easier to find and access....

Mithra the Pagan Christ | Mithraism and Christianity

http://www.truthbeknown.com/mithra.htm

"Mithra or Mitra is...worshipped as Itu (Mitra-Mitu-Itu) in every house of the Hindus in India. Itu (derivative of Mitu or Mitra) is considered as the Vegetation-deity. This Mithra or Mitra (Sun-God) is believed to be a Mediator between God and man, between the Sky and the Earth. It is said that Mithra or [the] Sun took birth in the Cave on December 25th. It is also the belief of the Christian world that Mithra or the Sun-God was born of [a] Virgin. He travelled far and wide. He has twelve satellites, which are taken as the Sun's disciples.... [The Sun's] great festivals are observed in the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox—Christmas and Easter. His symbol is the Lamb...."

Because of its evident relationship to Christianity, special attention needs to be paid to the Persian/Roman religion of Mithraism. The worship of the Indo-Persian god Mithra dates back centuries to millennia preceding the common era. The god is found as "Mitra" in the Indian Vedic religion, which is over 3,500 years old, by conservative estimates....

Like so many gods, Mithra was the light and power behind the sun. In Babylon, Mithra was identified with Shamash, the sun god, and he is also Bel, the Mesopotamian and Canaanite/ Phoenician solar deity, who is likewise Marduk, the Babylonian god who represented both the planet Jupiter and the sun. According to Pseudo-Clement of Rome's debate with Appion (Homily VI, ch. X), Mithra is also Apollo. In time, the Persian Mithraism became infused with the more detailed astrotheology of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, and was notable for its astrology and magic; indeed, its priests or magi lent their very name to the word "magic." ...

By the Roman legionnaires, Mithra—or Mithras, as he began to be known in the Greco-Roman world—was called "the divine Sun, the Unconquered Sun." He was said to be "Mighty in strength, mighty ruler, greatest king of gods! O Sun, lord of heaven and earth, God of Gods!" Mithra was also deemed "the mediator" between heaven and earth, a role often ascribed to the god of the sun....

In an early image, Mithra is depicted as a sun disc in a chariot drawn by white horses, another solar motif that made it into the Jesus myth, in which Christ is to return on a white horse. (Rev 6:2; 19:11)

According to the Roman historian Plutarch (c. 46-120 AD/CE), Mithraism began to be absorbed by the Romans during Pompey's military campaign against Cilician pirates around 70 BCE. The religion eventually migrated from Asia Minor through the soldiers, many of whom had been citizens of the region, into Rome and the far reaches of the Empire. Syrian merchants brought Mithraism to the major cities, such as Alexandria, Rome and Carthage, while captives carried it to the countryside. By the third century AD/CE Mithraism and its mysteries permeated the Roman Empire and extended from India to Scotland, with abundant monuments in numerous countries amounting to over 420 Mithraic sites so far discovered....

Mithra has the following in common with the Jesus character:

⦁ Mithra was born on December 25th of the virgin Anahita.

⦁ The babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a manger and attended by shepherds.

⦁ He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.

⦁ He had 12 companions or "disciples."

⦁ He performed miracles.

⦁ As the "great bull of the Sun," Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.

⦁ Mithra ascending to heaven in his solar cart, with sun symbol

⦁ He ascended to heaven.

⦁ Mithra was viewed as the Good Shepherd, the "Way, the Truth and the Light," the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah.

⦁ Mithra is omniscient, as he "hears all, sees all, knows all: none can deceive him."

⦁ He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.

⦁ His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.

⦁ His religion had a eucharist or "Lord's Supper."

⦁ Mithra "sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers."

⦁ Mithraism emphasized baptism.

Mitra is Rig Vedic. A mediator between Surya Sun God and Earth, or between Father Sky and Mother Earth. Mitra is not the sun god. Yalda is not a Zoroastrian holiday. In Zoroastrian Mitra is an Angel that guards the morality of truth and honesty, also greets the souls passing on. In Rig Vedic Mitra is an Asura guardian of the moral law. In Zoroastrian Mitra is not celebrated on winter solstice nor the 25th Dec. Mithraism was incorporated by the Roman and Greeks into their winter solstice fests much like christianity was....

Yalda; The Birth of God Mithra and Significance of Winter Solstice in Iranian Culture and Heritage

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Celebrations/yalda.htm

Zayeshmehr* which is known as Yalda and Shab-e Cheleh in Persian is celebrated on the eve of the first day of the winter (December 21-22) in the Iranian calendar, which falls on the Winter Solstice and forty days before the next major Iranian festival "Jashn-e Sadeh (fire festival)".... Yalda celebration has great significance in the Iranian calendar. It is the eve of the birth of Mithra, the Sun God, who symbolised light, goodness and strength on earth.... Yalda is a Syriac word meaning birth...

The celebration was brought to Iranian plateau by the Aryan (Iranian) migrants around middle of the 2nd millenniums BCE, but the original date of celebration could be reach as far as pre-Zoroastrian era, around 3rd to 4th millennium BCE.... In Ancient Iran, the start of the solar year has been marked to celebrate the victory of light over darkness and the renewal of the Sun. ... Fires would be burnt all night to ensure the defeat of the forces of Ahriman....

One of the themes of the festival was the temporary subversion of order, as the masters and servants reversed roles.... The Iranian traditions merged into ancient Rome belief system, in a festival dedicated to the ancient god of seedtime, Saturn. ... Another related Roman festival celebrated at the same time was dedicated to “Sol Invictus” (the Invincible Sun) dedicated to the God Mithra. This ancient Iranian cult was spread into the Roman world by Emperor Elagabalus (r. 218 to 222 CE) and declared as the god of state....

With the conquest of Islam the religious significance of the ancient Iranian festivals was lost.... At CAIS believe the correct term for this ancient Iranian celebration should be 'Zayeshmehr', or the 'Birth of Mithra', rather than 'Yalda', which is a Syriac word.

Shab-e-Yalda - an ancient winter solstice celebration that commemorates the triumph of Mithra

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/ancient-tradition-iranians-celebrate-winter-solstice-001146

winter solstice is not just the longest night of the year, it is also the time to commemorate the triumph of Mithra , the Sun God, over darkness... "Night of Birth” and is celebrated on the eve of the first day of Winter (21-22 December),... “where evil will run havoc on the longest night of the year,” ...

Mithra, in ancient Indo-Iranian mythology is the god of light, whose cult spread from India in the east to as far west as Spain, Great Britain, and Germany. The Indian Mitra was essentially a solar deity, representing the "friendly" aspect of the sun. So too was the Persian derivative Mithra, who was a "benevolent god" and the bestower of health, wealth and food. ... The first written mention of the Vedic Mitra dates to 1400 BC....

MITHRA, MITHRAISM, CHRISTMAS DAY & YALDA

http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/reference/Yalda-Mithra-Dec25-Eduljee-complete.pdf

In Zoroastrianism, Mithra is a Fereshteh or Yazata (Izad), an angel and guardian of truthfulness, honesty, keeping of one’s word one’s promises and bonds. Mithra is also one of three angels who greet a soul on the fourth dawn after a person’s demise. ... In the oldest Hindu scriptures, the

Rig Veda, we find Mithra called Mitra, a deity belonging to a group called Asuras. The Vedas often mention Mithra paired with another Asura called Varuna. Together, Mitra and Varuna are the guardians of the cosmic and moral laws of Rita... In Pre-Christian Rome, the name Mithra became Mithras...Mithraism in Europe dates to between 80 and 100 CE....

The primary image in surviving Mithraic temples (Mithraeums) is humanlike Mithra killing a bull with the Sun god and Moon goddess looking on. ... A. Sun & Mithra have Separate Dedicated Chapters in the Avesta The Zoroastrian Avesta’s book of Yashts, the Radiant Sun (Khorsheed) and Mithra (Meher) have dedicated and separate chapters to each. The chapter’s verses treat the two entirely separately and describe them and their domains separately. This indicates the concepts behind them are entirely different.

B. Mithra – the Bond of Friendship between the Sun & Moon In a rare mention of Mithra, the Khorsheed (radiant Sun) Yasht makes an insightful statement in verse five on the role of Mithra (Meher) as the bond of friendship/companionship between the Sun (Khvar/Khor) and the Moon (Mah).... in early

times Mithra was mentioned separately from the Sun, Khvar/Khor, by medieval times Mithra was often conflated with the Sun. ...

Mitra & the Sun in the Rig Veda Hindu Scriptures If we are to look for proof of a conflation between Mithra and the Sun in ancient Aryan theology, a good place to look is the oldest sacred Hindu text, the

Rig Veda. The Rig Veda mentions Mitra (Mithra) at least 412 times but only in a couple or so occasions in the same verse as the Sun, Surya. In a chapter dedicated to the Sun, Surya (chapter 50), we find no mention of Mitra at all. Importantly, the Rig Veda states, “Indra raised the Sun, Surya, on

high in heavens that he may see afar”. Similarly, “In the sky’s lap the Sun, Surya, assumed its form so that Varuna and Mitra may behold it (the work of the godhead).” In the Vedas, the Sun clearly stands separately physically and conceptually from Mitra. Mitra means ‘friend’ and ‘ally’ in Sanskrit. ...

the claim that Zoroastrians of old may have celebrated either the winter solstice or the day after the winter solstice (say December 23-25 in the northern hemisphere) as the nativity of Mithra has no foundation in Zoroastrian scriptures in general and the Avestan Mithra Yasht in particular....

The Zoroastrian calendar has a solar year of 365 days. The year is divided into twelve months (called Mah meaning Moon). The months were originally lunar-based but are now standardized months of 30 days each. Five intercalary days called Gatha days are added after the last month to make a total of 365 days in a solar year. ...the Zoroastrian year shall start on the first day after the Hamaspathmaedya...spring equinox. ... Zoroastrian calendar does not mark or celebrate any of the other solstices or the autumn equinox....

Fifth century CE Byzantine writer Joannes the Lydian says it best that the cold season in Europe (starting in November) brought a stop to the work of farmers, hunters and soldiers. Now idle from work, they occupied themselves... well, partying....

we can substitute the Roman Sun god Sol with Mithra. We have previously found this assumption to be unfounded and incorrect. Zoroastrians do have a celebration dedicated to the angel Mithra and the qualities over which Mithra is a guardian. It falls on October 2 (using the Zoroastrian Fasli calendar) and is called Mehergan. ...

No Zoroastrian Winter Solstice Celebration ... We found a winter solstice celebration during Poseidon month in a 3rd-4th century BCE Greek Athenian calendar that was celebrated in a wild manner like the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Biruni’s notes that the Greeks called the winter solstice (likely the day after) the “Great Birth”.... Assyrian Christian the rising-place of the Sun at the time of the winter solstice is the true east and the very midst of paradise.... Hurrians...Shamsi were Sun-worshippers....some Magi officiated over them...“The traces of a Sun cult (are) found all over Kurdistan.” He finds these traces embedded in the practices of the Kurdish Alevis and Sunnis....

The word ‘Yalda’ is said to be of Syrian Christian origin....We can understand the negative connotations since in Zoroastrianism it would be an abhorrent to celebrate the longest night. Rather it is its passing, i.e. the next morning the first or ‘new’ morning after the longest night that may be argued as the occasion for celebration. ...

Conclusions Our Historical Search Despite our best efforts searching old records, we have not found mention in of a traditional mainline Zoroastrian festival named ‘Yalda’, ‘Zayesh-e Mehr’ (meaning ‘Birth of Mithra’) or one that marked the passing of the winter solstice. We must therefore conclude that Yalda a popular festival in Islamic Iran has never been an orthodox Zoroastrian festival. We have also not found any information that an ancient group of Mithra worshippers celebrated the passing of the winter solstice as the birth of the god Mithra or that Yalda celebrated the birth of Mithra. Instead, what we have found is that Romans and Greeks who worshipped their native nonMithraic gods including Sun gods Sol and Helios and many others celebrated the passing of the winter solstice....

December 23 is the auspicious day of Daegan-Adar on the Orthodox Vehizaki (Fasli) calendar’s Dae-pa-Adar day, Dae month. The Zoroastrian calendar treats the month of Dae in a special way it has four auspicious Daegan days of which both the December 16 Daegan and the December 23 Daegan-Adar are three-quarter year festivals honouring Ahura Mazda as Creator and Ahura Mazda’s creation. ... Maidyarem means mid-winter and the Maidyarem Gahambar is

celebrated from December 31 to January 4...

Our suggestion is that a ‘Jashne Meher’ be added to the December 23 Daegan-Adar. In the same manner as Nowruz celebrates renewal just after the spring equinox, the Hamaspathmaedya, Daegan-Adar falling just after the winter solstice can celebrate the triumph of light over darkness. As a consequence, rather than celebrating the birth of a ‘god’, Jashne Meher can celebrate light and a renewed avowal to abide by the values of which Meher Izad is a guardian values of honesty, being truthful, keeping one’s word and promises, true friendship and being Meheraban, being kind, loving and peaceful....

Festival of Fire Lighting on Adar-Day, Dey-Month (Jashne Daegan) GB.25.14. (Tr. Anklesaria) “Therefore on the day Adar of the month Day [Jashne Daegan now on December 16th, is a day before Adar-Dey], they kindle the fire everywhere, and make a sign that winter has come.” ...

The eyes of Horus were Ra(sun) and Thoth(moon). An, or Ani was also used to describe Ra Sun God, and Moon God. Thoth was originally a Moon God, then a scribe that became divine intelligence. Ani was also the greeter of souls in the underworld just like Mithra. Is there any links?...

Mitra

Rig Veda

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm

Book 1

HYMN XLI. Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman.

HYMN CXXXVI. Mitra-Varuṇa.

Firm-set in heaven is Mitra's home, and Aryaman's and Varuṇa's... This Soma be most sweet to Mitra, Varuṇa: he in the drinking-feasts, shall have a share thereof, sharing, a God, among the Gods.

May all the Gods of one accord accept it joyfully to-day....

HYMN CXXXVII. Mitra-Varuṇa.

Here are the droppings; come ye nigh the Soma-droppings blent with curd, juices expressed and blent with curd. Now for the wakening of your Dawn together with the Sun-God's rays, juice waits for Mitra and for Varuṇa to drink, fair juice for drink, for sacrifice....

HYMN CLI. Mitra and Varuṇa ***

HEAVEN and earth trembled at the might and voice of him, whom, loved and Holy One, helper of all mankind, The wise who longed for spoil in fight for kine brought forth with power, a Friend, mid waters, at the sacrifice. As these, like friends, have done this work for you, these prompt servants of Purumīlha Soma-offerer, Give mental power to him who sings the sacred song, and hearken, Strong Ones, to the master of the house. The folk have glorified your birth from Earth and Heaven, to be extolled, ye Strong Ones, for your mighty power. Ye, when ye bring to singer and the rite, enjoy the sacrifice performed with holy praise and strength....

HYMN CLII. Mitra-Varuṇa.

THE robes which ye put on abound with fatness: uninterrupted courses are your counsels.

All falsehood, Mitra-Varuṇa! ye conquer, and closely cleave unto the Law Eternal. This might of theirs hath no one comprehended. True is the crushing word the sage hath uttered, The fearful four-edged bolt smites down the three-edged, and those who hate the Gods first fall and perish. The Footless Maid precedeth footed creatures. Who marketh, Mitra-Varuṇa, this your doing? The Babe Unborn supporteth this world's burthen, fulfilleth Law and overcometh falsehood. We look on him the darling of the Maidens, always advancing, never falling downward, Wearing inseparable, wide-spread raiment, Mitra's and Varuṇa's delightful glory...

HYMN CLIII. Mitra-Varuṇa.

Book 3

HYMN LIX. Mitra.

MITRA, when speaking, stirreth men to labour: Mitra sustaineth both the earth and heaven....

Auspicious and adorable, this Mitra was born with fair dominion, King, Disposer. May we enjoy the grace of him the Holy, yea, rest in his propitious loving-kindness. The great Āditya, to be served with wor. ship, who stirreth men, is gracious to the singer. To Mitra, him most highly to be lauded, offer in fire oblation that he loveth.

Book 5

HYMN LXII. Mitra-Varuṇa

1. BY your high Law firm order is established there where they loose for travel Sūrya's horses.

Ten hundred stood together: there I looked on this the most marvellous Deities' one chief glory.

2 This, Mitra-Varuṇa, is your special greatness:...

HYMN LXIII. Mitra-Varuṇa.

Through heaven and over earth the thunderers take their way. Imperial Kings, strong, Heroes, Lords of earth and heaven, Mitra and Varuṇa, ye ever active Ones, Ye wait on thunder with the many-tinted clouds, and by the Asura's magic power cause Heaven to rain. Your magic, Mitra-Varuṇa, resteth in the heaven. The Sun, the wondrous weapon, cometh forth as light.... Refreshing is your voice, O Mitra-Varuṇa: Parjanya sendeth out a wondrous mighty voice. With magic power the Maruts clothe them with the clouds. Ye Two cause Heaven to rain, the red, the spotless One. Wise, with your Law and through the Asura's magic power ye guard the ordinances, Mitra-Varuṇa. Ye by eternal Order govern all the world. Ye set the Sun in heaven as a refulgent car.

HYMN LX1V. Mitra-Varuṇa

You, foeman-slaying Varuṇa and Mitra, we invoke with song, Who, as with penfold of your arms, encompass round the realm of light. Stretch out your arms with favouring love unto this man who singeth hymns, For in all places is sung forth your evergracious friendliness. That I may gain a refuge now, may my steps be on Mitra's path. Men go protected in the charge of this dear Friend who harms us not. Mitra and Varuṇa, from you may I, by song, win noblest meed. That shall stir envy in the homes of wealthy chiefs and those who praise. With your fair splendours, Varuṇa and Mitra, to our gathering come, That in their homes the wealthy chiefs and they who are your friends may thrive. With those, moreover, among whom ye hold your high supremacy, Vouchsafe us room that we may win strength for prosperity and wealth. When morning flushes, Holy Ones! in the Gods’ realm where white Cows shine, Supporting Arcananas, speed, ye Heroes, with your active feet hither to my pressed Soma juice.

HYMN LXV Mitra-Varuṇa.

FULL wise is he who hath discerned: let him speak to us of the Gods, The man whose praise-songs Varuṇa the beautiful, or Mitra, loves. For they are Kings of noblest might, of glorious fame most widely spread; Lords of the brave...

HYMN LXVI. Mitra-Varuṇa.

O SAPIENT man, call the Two Gods, the very wise, who slay the foe. For Varuṇa, whose form is Law, place offerings for his great delight....

HYMN LXVII. Mitra-Varuṇa.

HYMN LXVIII. Mitra-Varuṇa.

SING forth unto your Varuṇa and Mitra with a song inspired....

HYMN LXIX. Mitra-Varuṇa.

THREE spheres of light, O Varuṇa, three heavens, three firmaments ye comprehend, O Mitra:

Waxed strong, ye keep the splendour of dominion, guarding the Ordinance that lasts for ever.

Ye, Varuṇa, have kine who yield refreshment; Mitra, your floods pour water full of sweetness.

There stand the Three Steers, splendid in their brightness, who fill the three world-bowls with genial moisture.

I call at dawn on Aditi the Goddess, I call at noon and when the Sun is setting.

I pray, O Mitra-Varuṇa, for safety, for wealth and progeny, in rest and trouble.

Ye who uphold the region, sphere of brightness, ye who support earth's realm Divine Ādityas,

The Immortal Gods, O Varuṇa and Mitra, never impair your everlasting statutes.

HYMN LXX. Mitra-Varuṇa.

HYMN LXXI. Mitra-Varuṇa.

O Varuṇa and Mitra, ye who slay the foemen, come with might To this our goodly sacrifice.

For, Varuṇa and Mitra, ye Sages are Rulers over all. Fill full our songs, for this ye can. Come to the juice that we have pressed. Varuṇa, Mitra, come to drink This Soma of the worshipper.

HYMN LXXII. Mitra-Varuṇa

To Varuṇa and Mitra we offer with songs, as Atri did. Sit on the sacred grass to drink the Soma juice...

Book 6

HYMN LXVIL Mitra-Varuṇa.

Book 7

HYMN LX. Mitra-Varuṇa.

WHEN thou, O Sun, this day, arising sinless, shalt speak the truth to Varuṇa and Mitra, O Aditi, may all the Deities love us, and thou, O Aryaman, while we are singing. Looking on man, O Varuṇa and Mitra, this Sun ascendeth up by both the pathways, Guardian of all things fixt, of all that moveth, beholding good and evil acts of mortals. He from their home hath yoked the Seven gold Coursers who, dropping oil and fatness, carry Sūrya. Yours, Varuṇa and Mitra, he surveyeth the worlds and living creatures like a herdsman.... For these, even Aryaman, Varuṇa and Mitra, are the chastisers of all guile and falsehood. These, Aditi's Sons, infallible and mighty, have waxen in the home of law Eternal. These, Mitra, Varuṇa whom none deceiveth, with great power quicken even the fool to wisdom, And, wakening, moreover, thoughtful insight, lead it by easy paths o’er grief and trouble. They ever vigilant, with eyes that close not, caring for heaven and earth, lead on the thoughtless....

HYMN LXI. Mitra-Varuṇa.

O VARUNA and Mitra, Sūrya spreading the beauteous light of you Twain Gods ariseth.

He who beholdetb all existing creatures observetb well the zeal that is in mortals.

The holy sage, renowned afar, directeth his hymns to you, O Varuṇa and Mitra,—

He whose devotions, sapient Gods, ye favour so that ye fill, as ’twere, with power his autumns.

From the wide earth, O Varuṇa and Mitra from the great lofty heaven, ye, Bounteous Givers, -

Have in the fields and houses set your warder-, who visit every spot and watch unceasing.

I praise the strength of Varuṇa and Mitra that strength, by mightiness, keeps both worlds asunder.

Heroless pass the months of the ungodly he who loves sacrifice makes his home enduring.

Steers, all infallible are these your people in whom no wondrous thing is seen, no worship.

Guile follows close the men who are untruthful: no secrets may be hidden from your knowledge.

I will exalt your sacrifice with homage: as priest, I, Mitra-Varuṇa, invoke you.

May these new hymns and prayers that I have fashioned delight you to the profit of the singer.

This priestly task, Gods! Varuṇa and Mitra! hath been performed for you at sacrifices.

Convey us safely over every peril. Preserve us evermore, ye Gods, with blessings.

HYMN LXII. Mitra-Varuṇa.

O undivided Heaven and Earth, preserve us, us, Lofty Ones! your nobIy-born descendants.

Let us not anger Varuṇa, nor Vāyu, nor him, the dearest Friend of mortals, Mitra.... hear, Mitra-Varuṇa, these mine invocations. Now Mitra, Varuṇa, Aryaman vouchsafe us freedom and room, for us and for our children. May we find paths all fair and good to travel. Preserve us evermore, ye Gods, with blessings.

HYMN LXIII. Mitra-Varuṇa.

COMMON to all mankind, auspicious Sūrya, he who beholdeth all, is mounting upward; The God, the eye of Varuṇa and Mitra, who rolled up darkness like a piece of leather. Sūrya's great ensign, restless as the billow, that urgeth men to action, is advancing: Onward he still would roll the wheel well-rounded, which Etaśa, harnessed to the car-pole, moveth. Refulgent from the bosom of the Mornings, he in Whom singers take delight ascendeth. This Savitar, God, is my chief joy and pleasure, who breaketh not the universal statute....

HYMN LXIV. Mitra-Varuṇa.

May the imperial Varuṇa, and Mitra, and high-born Aryaman accept our presents.... To you this laud, O Varuṇa and Mitra is offered like bright Soma juice to Vāyu. Favour our songs of praise, wake thought and spirit. Preserve us evermore, ye Gods, with blessings.

HYMN LXV. Mitra-Varuṇa.

WITH hymns I call you, when the Sun hath risen, Mitra, and Varuṇa whose thoughts are holy,...

HYMN LXVI Mitra-Varuṇa.

The Two exceeding wise, the Sons of Dakṣa, whom the gods ordained For lordship, excellently great.... May we be thine, God Varuṇa, and with our princes, Mitra, thine. Food and Heaven's light will we obtain.... So at the rising of the Sun we think of you with hymns to-day, Even as Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman deserve: ye are the charioteers of Law. True to Law, born in Law the strengtheners of Law, terrible, haters of the false,... Lord of each single head, of fixt and moving things, equally through the whole expanse,

The Seven sister Bays bear Sūrya on his car, to bring us wealth and happiness. A hundred autumns may we see that bright Eye, God-ordained, arise A hundred autumns may we live. Infallible through your wisdom, come hither, resplendent Varuṇa, And Mitra, to the Soma draught. Come as the laws of Heaven ordain, Varuṇa, Mitra, void of guile: Press near and drink the Soma juice. Come, Mitra, Varuṇa, accept, Heroes, our sacrificial gift: Drink Soma, ye who strengthen Law.

Book 8

HYMN XXV. Mitra-Varuṇa.

Mitra and sapient Varuṇa, Sons high-born from of old, whose holy laws stand fast. These Twain, possessors of all wealth, most glorious, for supremest sway Aditi, Mighty Mother, true to Law, brought forth.

Great Varuṇa and Mitra, Gods, Asuras and imperial Lords, True to Eternal Law proclaim the high decree.

The offspring of a lofty Power, Dakṣa's Two Sons exceeding strong, Who, Lords of flowing rain, dwell in the place of food. Ye who have gathered up your gifts, celestial and terrestrial food, Let your rain come to us fraught with the mist of heaven.... We keep the old accustomed laws, the statutes of supremacy, The Iong-known laws of Mitra and of Varuṇa. He who hath measured with his ray the boundaries of heaven and earth, And with his majesty hath filled the two worlds full, Sūrya hath spread his light aloft up to the region of the sky, Like Agni all aflame when gifts are offered him... So unto Sūrya, Heaven, and Earth at morning and at eve I speak. Bringing enjoyments ever rise thou up for us....

Book 10

HYMN CXXXII. Mitra. Varuṇa.

Your Mother Aditi, ye wise, was purified with water even as earth is purified from heaven. Show love and kindness here below: wash her in rays of heavenly light....

Aditi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aditi

In the Vedas, Aditi is mother of the gods (devamata) and all twelve zodiacal spirits from whose cosmic matrix, the heavenly bodies were born. As celestial mother of every existing form and being,... She is mentioned nearly 80 times in the Rigveda: the verse "Daksha sprang from Aditi and Aditi from Daksha" is seen by Theosophists as a reference to "the eternal cyclic re-birth of the same divine Essence" and divine wisdom. In contrast, the Puranas, such as the Shiva Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, suggest that Aditi is wife of sage Kashyap and gave birth to the Adityas such as Indra, Surya, and also Vamana...

The name is mentioned in Vedas as mother of Surya (Sun) and other celestial bodies or gods Adityas (meaning sons of Aditi). The first mention of goddess Aditi is found in Rigveda, which is estimated to have been composed roughly during 1700-1100 BC....

Aditi with sage Kashyapa had 33 sons or 33boy child, out of which twelve are called Aditya including Surya, eleven are called Rudras and eight are called Vasus. Aditi is said to be the mother of the great god Indra, the mother of kings (Mandala 2.27) and the mother of gods (Mandala 1.113.19). In the Vedas, Aditi is Devamata (mother of the celestial gods) as from and in her cosmic matrix all the heavenly bodies were born. She is preeminently the mother of 12 Adityas whose names include Vivasvān, Aryamā, Pūṣā, Tvaṣṭā, Savitar, Bhaga, Dhātā, Varuṇa, Mitra, Śakra, and Vishnu (Lord Vishnu was born in his Vamana avatar to her)[8] She is also the mother of the Vamana avatar of Vishnu. Accordingly, Lord Vishnu was born in his Vamana avatar as the son of Aditi in the month of Shravana (fifth month of the Hindu Calendar, also called Avani) under the star Shravana. Many auspicious signs appeared in the heavens, foretelling the good fortune of this child....

Most prehistoric civilizations venerated a dual principle, Sky Father and Earth Mother, ...

NEITH BECAME ISIS, THEN ATHENA, AND MORE RECENT SPIN/WEAVE/WAR/VIRGIN MOTHER GODDESSES. NEITH (AS ISIS) WIFE OF OSIRIS, AND MOTHER OF HORUS....

December 8 Feast of Neith

Neith is a Goddess of war and weaving, a huntress and a Creatrix.... War-Goddess...She protected women and the home...weaving Goddess...She is associated with the primordial waters of creation, and in fact Her name might even mean “water”. Neith was the wife of Khnum, the ram-headed Deity Who creates men and women on His potter’s-wheel. In Tripolitania she is the wife of the Punic god Bal Hamon. Since Ra arose from the waters of Nun at the birth of the world, Neith came to be considered His mother. Osiris myth and Neith's part in his resurrection as she opened the way for the dead to communicate with the living in the same way she had helped Isis and Nephthys bring Osiris back to life. As the Virgin Mother Goddess the Goddess Neith had no male consort. She was the one who existed, who is and who will be. Hence her parthenogenesis nature as the Mother of Osiris (in the form of Isis) was later transferred to Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ.

December 21 Winter Solstice; Feast of Aset (Isis)

December 25 Birth of Heru (Horus) the child of Aset (Isis)

Celebrations of Horus: Macrobius' Chronicon noted the annual ancient Egyptian celebration of Horus, specifying the time as the winter solstice. An analysis of the works of Epiphanius of Salamis noted the Egyptian winter solstice celebration of Horus in Panarion.

The ancient Egyptians believed Zeus and Hera were the children of Kronos and Rhea but they also believed Osiris and Isis were two of the five children of Zeus and Hera...

Neith, Virgin Mother of the World

https://stellarhousepublishing.com/neith/

The worship of the Egyptian goddess Neith, a sometime mother of the solar deity Horus, is traceable to around 7,000 years ago... one of the oldest deities of Egypt, who most likely was worshipped throughout ancient Libya, she thus represents one of the earliest appearances of the archetype of the Virgin Mother goddess in the ancient Mediterranean world.... It should be recalled that Neith is identified in antiquity with both the Greek goddess Athena, who is likewise a parthenogenetic creatrix or virgin mother, as well as Isis, about whom the same can be and is said. Among others, Isis is identified with the constellation of Virgo, the Virgin, likewise in antiquity. There are many such manifestations of the virgin mother, long before Christianity was ever conceived.

SOME WEAVING AND SPINNING GODDESSES...

Textiles in folklore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textiles_in_folklore

NEITH, TANIT, ATHENA, PENELOPE, FRIGG, HOLLE, BERTHA, NERTHUS, MINERVA, BRIGANTIA, SAULE, KALEVALA,...

Horus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus

Parents: Osiris and Isis. Siblings: Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys (as Horus the Elder), Anubis (as Horus the Younger).

Horus is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists... He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner falcon or peregrine falcon, or as a man with a falcon head.... Osiris's heir and the rival to Set, the murderer of Osiris. In another tradition Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife. Horus served many functions, most notably being a god of kingship and the sky.... Nekheny may have been another falcon god worshipped at Nekhen, city of the falcon, with whom Horus was identified from early on.

Horus may be shown as a falcon on the Narmer Palette, dating from about the 31st century BC. ...

Sky god: Since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the sun and moon.[citation needed] It became said[by whom?] that the sun was his right eye and the moon his left, and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Later, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as The Contendings of Horus and Seth.... In this tale, it was said that Set, the patron of Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Lower Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually the gods sided with Horus. As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as ḥr.w wr "Horus the Great", but more usually translated "Horus the Elder". In the struggle, Set had lost a testicle, and Horus's eye was gouged out....

Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother....The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or Ra. The symbol is seen on images of Horus' mother, Isis, and on other deities associated with her.... the word for this symbol was "wedjat"...Wadjet was a solar deity and this symbol began as her all-seeing eye. In early artwork, Hathor is also depicted with this eye....

Horus was told by his mother, Isis, to protect the people of Egypt from Set, the god of the desert, who had killed Horus' father, Osiris. Horus had many battles with Set, not only to avenge his father, but to choose the rightful ruler of Egypt.... Horus and Set challenged each other to a boat race...Horus then won the race, and Set stepped down and officially gave Horus the throne of Egypt. After the New Kingdom, Set was still considered lord of the desert and its oases. In many versions of the story, Horus and Set divide the realm between them....

Heru-pa-khered (Horus the Younger): He is a form of the rising sun, representing its earliest light.

Her-ur (Horus the Elder): In this form, he was represented as the god of light and the husband of Hathor. He was one of the oldest gods of ancient Egypt...the son of truth signifying his role as an important upholder of Maat. He was seen as a great falcon with outstretched wings whose right eye was the sun and the left one was the moon....

NOTES: THE WINGED SUN SYMBOL OF HORUS IS SIMILAR TO ZOROASTRIAN SYMBOL.

VISHNU HOLDS THE LOTUS, OR IS STANDING ON THE LOTUS. VISHNU RIDES GARUDA AN EAGLE.

BRAHMA EMRGES ON A LOTUS. BRAHMA SITS ON A LOTUS. THE INHABITANTS OF VAIKUNTHA HAVE EYES THAT RESEMBLE LOTUS. KRISHNA WAS A GOD CHILD. CHREESHNA WAS AN IRISH NAME FOR SUN GOD. Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother.

MITRA, AND MITHRA UPHELD THE TRUTH AND MORAL LAW, JUST AS HORUS.

ANNUAL CELEBRATION FOR HORUS IS WINTER SOLSTICE.

Saturnalia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia

Date 17–23 December

Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December.... The first inhabitants of Italy were the Aborigines, whose king, Saturnus, is said to have been a man of such extraordinary justice, that no one was a slave in his reign, or had any private property, but all things were common to all, and undivided, as one estate for the use of every one; in memory of which way of life, it has been ordered that at the Saturnalia slaves should everywhere sit down with their masters at the entertainments, the rank of all being made equal." — Justinus, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus 43.3 ...

In one of the interpretations in Macrobius's work, Saturnalia is a festival of light leading to the winter solstice, with the abundant presence of candles symbolizing the quest for knowledge and truth. The renewal of light and the coming of the new year was celebrated in the later Roman Empire at the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the "Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun", on 23 December.

As an observance of state religion, Saturnalia was supposed to have been held ante diem xvi Kalendas Ianuarias, sixteen days before the Kalends of January, on the oldest Roman religious calendar, which the Romans believed to have been established by the legendary founder Romulus and his successor Numa Pompilius.... The date 17 December was the first day of the astrological sign Capricorn, the house of Saturn, the planet named for the god. Its proximity to the winter solstice (21 to 23 December on the Julian calendar)...The name of his consort Ops meant "wealth, resources". Her festival, Opalia, was celebrated on 19 December. ...

Saturnalia: The December Festival of Joy and Merriment in Ancient Rome

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/saturnalia-ancient-rome-004963

Saturnalia was a festival celebrated by the ancient Romans. Originally, this celebration was held annually for a day on the 17th of December, but the festival was so popular that it was extended to a week (December 17-23). Despite efforts to reduce the length of the celebration - Augustus tried to reduce it to three days and Caligula attempted to cut it to five - the celebration of Saturnalia remained a weeklong event. ...Italy was ruled by the god Saturn (the Roman equivalent of the Greek Cronus).... Saturnalia was designated as a holy day in the Roman calendar... Saturnalia was also a day of feasting and celebration....

According to the historian Livy, this practice was introduced in 217 BC:

“…a lectisternium was ordered (the senators prepared the couch), and a public banquet. For a day and a night the cry of the Saturnalia resounded through the City, and the people were ordered to make that day a festival and observe it as such for ever.”...

Another important aspect of the Saturnalia festival was the temporary inversion of the social order. For example, slaves would be treated as equals in remembrance of the Golden Age, when slavery was not known. Thus, slaves were allowed to wear nice clothes, to sit at the head of the table, to gamble, and basically to have time-off. ...

Sol Invictus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus

Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. On 25 December AD 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official religion alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree about whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol, a revival of the cult of Elagabalus, or completely new. The god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until the last third-part of the reign of Constantine I. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to AD 387...Scholars have sometimes regarded the traditional Sol and Sol Invictus as two separate deities, but the rejection of this view by S. E. Hijmans has found supporters...

Brumalia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumalia

Brumalia (Latin: Brumalia [bruːˈmaːlɪ.a], "winter festivals") was an ancient Roman, winter solstice festival honouring Saturn/Cronus and Ceres/Demeter, and Bacchus in some cases. By the Byzantine era, celebrations commenced on 24 November and lasted for a month, until Saturnalia and the "Waxing of the Light"... Despite the 6th century emperor Justinian's official repression of paganism, the holiday was celebrated at least until the 11th century in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople...

Farmers would sacrifice pigs to Saturn and Ceres. Vine-growers would sacrifice goats in honor of Bacchus—for the goat is an enemy of the vine...

Thor: "How is the Sun hight, that's seen since old (lang) syne, In every hame?"

Dwarf: "'Sol' 'tis called 'mong men, and 'Sunna' 'mong Goths, 'Larking Dallier' by the dwarfs, 'Ever-glow' by the Edenites, 'Fair-wheel' by the elfs, and 'All-scourer' by the Asa's sons."

Thors blot

19 Wolfmonath Jan 20 Every year Thorrablot (Sacred to Thorr). (Thor's Feast: Full Moon of January which is usually wolf moon

Thorrablot: This holiday began the Old Norse month of Snorri. It is still observed in Iceland with parties and a mid-winter feast. It is of course sacred to Thorr and the ancient Icelandic Winter Spirit of Thorri. On this day we should perform blot to Thorr and invite the mighty Asaman to the feast.

Minor feast honoring Thor, the protector of Midgard. During this time, the height of the Storm season, Thor's power is invoked to drive back the frost Jotuns so that Spring may return to Midgard.

Full Moon January 28, 2021 1:16 pm Wolf Moon

Þorrablót

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Eorrabl%C3%B3t

The 2018 date is January 19. old Icelandic calendar, which begins on the first Friday after January 19th

http://www.iceland.is/the-big-picture/people-society/traditions/thorrablot/

Runes Asatru Thor Blot

http://norse-rituals.blogspot.com/2008/06/runes-asatru-thor-blot.html

One of the most popular of the Norse Gods is Thor. We can visualize him with his red beard, giant hammer, Mjollnir riding through the mountains slaying frost giants....

THE NORSE GOD THOR. Thor lives in Thruoheim, (The World of Might) or in Thruovangar (Fields of Might.) His magical hammer Mjollnir was forged by a dwarf or dark elf Sindri. He also has a Belt of Strength Megingjaruan. Thor constantly struggles against the Jormungand serpent. This serpent is trying to strangle midgard with his grip of ignorance and fear. Thor would have killed the serpent with his hammer if another giant had not cut the fishing line Thor used to trap him. In Ragnarok Thor and the Midgard Serpent will kill each other. Thor's natural enemies have always been and still are the giants.

THOR'S POPULARITY. Rune masters of the 10Th century inscribed Thor's name on stone asking for his protection. Thor was chief guardian of Icelandic settlers and Guardian of the settlements. In Iceland Thor was chief god of the invaders. The Norse rulers of Dublin, Ireland were called the Tribe of Thor. The vikings of Normandy worshiped Thor. Thor was the god whom the invaders of England loved most. The Lapps adopted the Cult of Thor. The Lapp Thunder God is depicted on shaman's drums with a hammer in each hand. The heathen English worshiped a God Thunor. The Saxon's regarded Thunaer (Thor) as the foremost of the gods. In Germany Donner (Thor.) Tacitus shows that there was a Germanic god who the Romans called Hercules (Thor.) India's Hindu god of Lightening is Donar (Thor) so says Jacob Grimm....

THOR'S THREE RUNES There are three runes associated with Thor. Rune Uruz the rune of healing energy, patience and endurance. Rune Thurisaz rune of protection. It stops all negative energies and sends them back to the owner. The Thurisaz (Thorn) rune protects the rose and the sleeping Valkyrie Brunhild....

Thor Blot

http://home.earthlink.net/~jordsvin/Blots/Thor%20Blot.htm

A Devotional: Honoring Thor and Family By Etter Robert James

https://books.google.com/books?id=THG714ixoZgC&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=thors+blot&source=bl&ots=Ufi-txZ1Lb&sig=ACfU3U1GT4HP6-uY3Xs-GSO2FLTFD0kCtA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiAoOTXsfrfAhUKyYMKHeJzBVs4FBDoATAFegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=thors%20blot&f=false

EASTERN N.D. JANUARY 20, 2019 11:16 PM

"Super Blood Wolf Moon" Eclipse of 2019: Complete Guide

https://www.space.com/42830-supermoon-blood-moon-total-lunar-eclipse-2019.html

The total lunar eclipse of January 2019 promises to be a spectacle to behold, and may be visible to millions across North and South America, weather permitting. ..."blood moon" ... On the night of Jan. 20, beginning just minutes after 10:30 p.m. EST (7:30 p.m. PST), the moon will noticeably, progressively get darker. The sun, the Earth and the moon will converge in an instance of perfect cosmic alignment to create a total lunar eclipse....During a special nocturnal hour, the full moon will become fully tinted with the red-orange color of sunset....The Jan. 20-21, 2019 total lunar eclipse will last 1 hour and 2 minutes,... The full experience, from the start of the partial eclipse to the end, will last 3 hours and 17 minutes. The peak of the total lunar eclipse will happen shortly after day's end on Sunday, Jan. 20, on the U.S. east coast, at 12:16 a.m. EST (0516 GMT) on Monday, Jan. 21....

Basic Outline of the Blót Ritual:

http://ravennorth.org/rituals.html

Solmōnaþ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solm%C5%8Dna%C3%BE

Anglo-Saxon name for the month of February. Sol-Monath can be said to be the month of cakes, which were offered to their gods”.

OUR ancestors called February Sol Monath (the mud month)

A month of purity, love and lambs

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/month-purity-love-lambs/story-11686170-detail/story.html

OUR ancestors called February Sol Monath (the mud month); or Sprout-Kele (the cabbage month). ...February 2 was once Imbolc, the Celtic celebration of the start of the lambing season. ...

Rituals for Solmonath

http://www.paganbookofhours.org/solmonath.html

Solmonath (sahl-mon-ath) coincides with February. It is the month of sol, or hearth-baked cakes.

Sol (Norse)

http://mythology.net/norse/norse-gods/sol/

Nordic goddess Sol, brought into the universe along with her brother, Mani.... Sol was anointed the goddess of the sun, and Mani god of the moon. Sparks were gathered by the gods from Muspellsheim, the Land of Fire, and the sun, moon and stars were created. Sol was to ride in the sky in a chariot drawn by her horses, Arvak, which translates to early riser, and Allsvinn, meaning swift. They raced quickly across the skies as they were being chased by Skoll, an evil wolf.

According to the Prose Edda,...Mundilfari was the father of Sol and her brother Mani. Sol was so beautiful Mundilfari named her after the sun, and Mani was named for the moon. The gods were collectively irritated by the arrogance of Mundilfari in his choosing of the children’s names, and decided to force Sol to drive the chariot of the sun as punishment for his conceit....

On occasion, the wolf Skoll would get close enough to the chariot to risk a nip at the goddess, causing a solar eclipse.

The family varies between different Nordic mythology literature sources. There is an agreement that Sol was the daughter of Mundilfari, who is proposed as either a Norse giant or a human depending on the writings referred to. Her brother is agreed to be Mani, the god of the moon, whose chariot was also chased by a wolf,...

There is another discrepancy regarding Sunna. Some say Sunna is another name for the goddess Sol and that they are actually one and the same, while others claim that Sunna was the daughter of the goddess.

During Ragnarok, the “twilight of the gods”, which in Norse mythology is the end of the world, Sol is finally swallowed by the wolf Skoll along with the sun, and the Earth submerges into the waters. Ragnarok is a major event in the legends of the Norse. A huge battle occurs, along with a series of natural disasters that consume the world. Only two humans and a few gods survive. Subsequently, a new world rises that is rejuvenated and fertile. The reborn gods meet once again, and Sunna, the daughter of Sol, now even outshines her mother.

Unlike in the mythology of other cultures, the goddess of the sun was not a major focus of the Norse people. The oldest known documents about the Germanic pagan religion are called the Merseburg Incantations. Written in Old High German, are two medieval spells or incantations. They are stored in the cathedral of Merseburg, Germany, hence their name. The incantations reveal that Sol was honored as a deity of protection and victory, in addition to as the goddess of the sun. She was also a healer. Despite being somewhat of a lesser goddess of the legends, Sunday (Sunnudagr) originated as the specific day in her honor....

Sól (sun)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B3l_(sun)

Sól (Old Norse "Sun") or Sunna (Old High German, and existing as an Old Norse and Icelandic synonym: see Wiktionary sunna, "Sun") is the Sun personified in Germanic mythology... In the poem Vafþrúðnismál, the god Odin tasks the jötunn Vafþrúðnir with a question about the origins of the sun and the moon. Vafþrúðnir responds that Mundilfari is the father of both Sól and Máni, and that they must pass through the heavens every day to count the years for man:...

Odin asks Vafþrúðnir from where another sun will come from once Fenrir has assailed the current sun. Vafþrúðnir responds in a further stanza, stating that before Álfröðull (Sól) is assailed by Fenrir, she will bear a daughter who will ride on her mother's paths after the events of Ragnarök.... Odin (disguised as Grimnir) says that both the sun and the moon are pursued through the heavens by wolves; the sun, referred to as the "bright bride" of the heavens, is pursued by Sköll, while the moon is pursued by Hati Hróðvitnisson.

In the poem Alvíssmál, the god Thor questions the dwarf Alvíss about the sun, asking him what the sun is called in each of the worlds. Alvíss responds that it is called "sun" by mankind, "sunshine" by the gods, "Dvalinn's deluder" by the dwarves, "everglow" by the jötnar, "the lovely wheel" by the elves, and "all-shining" by the "sons of the Æsir"....

Scholars have proposed that Sól, as a goddess, may represent an extension of an earlier Proto-Indo-European deity due to Indo-European linguistic connections between Norse Sól, Sanskrit Surya, Common Brittonic Sulis, Lithuanian Saulė, Latin Sol, and Slavic Tsar Solnitse...

Sol (mythology)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_(mythology)

This article is about the Roman sun god...Sol was the solar deity in Ancient Roman religion. It was long thought that Rome actually had two different, consecutive sun gods. ...According to Roman sources, the worship of Sol was introduced by Titus Tatius shortly after the foundation of Rome...

Imbolc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc

Gaelic traditional festival marking the beginning of spring. Most commonly it is held on February 1, or about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain—and corresponds to the Welsh Gŵyl Fair y Canhwyllau.

Imbloc - February 2nd

http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/the_wheel_of_the_year/imbolc.asp

Imbolc Lore (February 2nd)

https://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/imbolclore.htm

All About Imbolc

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/imbolcfebruary2/a/AllAbout_Imbolc.htm

The Right and Wrong of Imbolc

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2015/01/the-right-and-wrong-of-imbolc/

Imbolc (Imbolg) - Cross Quarter Day

http://www.newgrange.com/imbolc.htm

Imbolc derives from the Old Irish i mbolg meaning in the belly, a time when sheep began to lactate and their udders filled and the grass began to grow. ...

In early Celtic times around 2000 years ago, Imbolc was a time to celebrate the Celtic Goddess Brigid ...

The author Felicity Hayes-McCoy links St. Bridget to the Celtic Goddess Danu. ...Danu was their fertility goddess whose powerful energy revitalised the earth each year in spring.

She was a powerful personification of fertility and in Celtic mythology, her marriage to the shining sun god Lugh combined the elements of light, heat and water which brought life to the fields in springtime.

Imbolc

http://www.folkstory.com/articles/imbolc.html

Brighid - Brigantia & Imbolg

https://youtu.be/3EEr0IT03kI

How To Make A Brigid's Cross From Rushes

https://youtu.be/bq0ci42PnLc

The Feast Day of St Brigid | Imbolc – The traditional first day of Spring in Ireland

https://stairnaheireann.net/2022/01/31/the-feast-day-of-st-brigid-imbolc-the-traditional-first-day-of-spring-in-ireland-3/

St Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland (c. 451-525) is one of Ireland’s patron saints along with Saints Patrick and Colm Cille. Her feast day is 1 February or Imbolc, the traditional first day of spring in Ireland. She is believed to have been an Irish Christian nun... In Irish mythology Brigid was the Celtic goddess of fire, poetry, unity, childbirth and healing. She was the daughter of Dagda a High King of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Sacred wells were always places of pilgrimage to the Celts...

Disfest / Disablot

http://pagancalendar.co.uk/index.php

January 31 is Disfest or Disablot which is a day of sacrifice honoring the Disir. The Disir are all the female relatives from the eons of time that have passed over and over see as well as protect their living family members. In some homes every candle and light is lit in the house to honor them. A sacrifice of the very best food and drink in the house is given to the LandvÃ¦ttir/Land Wights as well. It is a day of remembrance and honoring the females that passed over and to thank them for their loving protection.

Norse funeral - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_funeral

Thereafter, the relatives of the dead chieftain arrived with a burning torch and set the ship aflame. It is said that the fire facilitates the voyage to the realm of the dead.

Afterwards, a round barrow was built over the ashes, and in the centre of the mound they erected a staff of birch wood, ...

Cremation... Ynglinga saga: "Thus he (Odin) established by law that all dead men should be burned, and their belongings laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, every one will come to Valhalla with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth. For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone; which custom remained long after Odin's time."

Viking Funerals | Viking Burials

http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/the-vikings/viking-funerals-buriels-and-the-afterlife/

Death and culture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_culture

This article is about death in the different cultures around the world ... cremation or interment in a tomb ... sky burial, which involves placing the body of the deceased on high ground (a mountain) and leaving it for birds of prey to dispose of, as in Tibet. In some religious views, birds of prey are carriers of the soul to the heavens.... Many funeral customs exist in different cultures. In some fishing or marine communities, mourners may put the body into the water, in what is known as burial at sea. Several mountain villages have a tradition of hanging the coffin in woods. ...

Strange Customs and Taboos - Burials and funerals

http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Superstitions-Strange-Customs-Taboos-and-Urban-Legends/Strange-Customs-and-Taboos-Burials-and-funerals.html

No one can possibly derive an exact date when early humans first began to bury their dead. Controversy continues on the question ...tree coffins bearing the dead were sometimes set adrift in a river, sometimes left upon the ground, sometimes buried in the ground. ...The Iberians, the original people who inhabited the peninsula where modern-day Portugal and Spain exist, buried their leaders with great pomp and ceremony in chambers made of huge stones, covered over with earth. The bodies were placed in these megalithic chambers in a sitting posture. The Aryans, an Indo-European people, burned their dead and placed the ashes in urns shaped like rounded huts with thatched roofs....

Cremation. Because early humankind so feared the evil spirits that caused death and believed that they continued to dwell in the corpse awaiting new victims, it is not surprising that cremation, the burning of the body, became one of the earliest methods of disposing of the dead. ...

The Vikings of old Scandinavia sometimes buried their kings and queens in their ships, but the traditional Viking funeral was to set the dragon-headed longboat afire and send it out to sea to burn. On the Danish colony of Greenland, the Vikings who settled on its shores believed that there was danger of pollution from the evil spirits that lurked around the corpse until the smell of death had passed away. They burned the dead body almost before it became cold and tried to avoid inhaling any of the fumes from the fire. They also burned every object in the dead person's house....

Burial Practices by Period in Britain

http://www.spoilheap.co.uk/burial.htm

This paper presents a survey of burial practices from earliest times to the recent past, with particular emphasis on Britain. Evidence from elsewhere is used for those periods from which there is little surviving in this country....

Celtic Burial and Funeral Rites

https://nicoleevelina.com/2014/01/20/celtic-burial-and-funeral-rites/

For a warrior people, it’s not surprising that to the Celts, the most honorable death was to die in battle. Depending on the time period and which tribe you were in, you might be buried, cremated or have your ashes buried....The Celts believed in reincarnation....

On the Continent the Celtic dead were burned on a pyre...

Pre-Roman Britain: According to the poems of Homer and the accounts of Caesar, on the Continent the Celtic dead were burned on a pyre. Sheep and oxen were slain and their fat was placed on the body, their carcasses around it. Jars of honey and oil placed around the body. Beloved horses, dogs and slaves were slain, their bodies piled on top. The whole was lit on fire. The dead were addressed by name and people wailed in mourning. When the fire was extinguished with wine, the “whitened bones” were taken out and laid in a gold urn. The urn was then buried with a mound over it. There is no record of this practice in the myths of Britain or Ireland....

Roman Britain: under Roman rule, the Britons adopted Roman burial practices. Roman graveyards were usually located outside of the city. Romans practiced inhumation (burial) rather than cremation....

Lesson Twelve ~ Funeral Rites and the Afterlife - The Druid Network

https://druidnetwork.org/what-is-druidry/learning-resources/polytheist/lesson-twelve/

A wide variety of different funeral rites were used by the assorted Irish and British tribes, and often the same tribe would change methods several times over the course of the centuries....

Julius Caesar reported on the funeral rites of the Gauls (presumably the upper class ones), saying: “Their funerals, considering the state of civilisation amongst the Gauls, are magnificent and costly; and they cast into the fire all things, including living creatures, which they suppose to have been dear to them when alive; and, a little before this period, slaves and dependents, who were ascertained to have been beloved by them, were, after the regular funeral rites were completed, burnt together with them.”...

Caesar said that the belief in reincarnation was so strong that warriors went fearless into battle, convinced that if they died with honour then they would be reborn into an honourable life elsewhere.

“They wish to inculcate this as one of their leading tenets, that souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another, and they think that men by this tenet are in a great degree excited to valour, the fear of death being disregarded.”...

Chapter XXII. The State of the Dead

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/rac/rac25.htm

...the Vedic teaching that the soul, after the burning of the body, went to the heaven of Yama, and there received its body complete and glorified. The two conceptions, Hindu and Celtic, may have sprung from early "Aryan" belief. ... For this reason, he adds, the Celtic warrior had no fear of death. ...

Certain passages in Irish texts also describe burials, and tell how the dead were interred with ornaments and weapons, while it was a common custom to bury the dead warrior in his armour, fully armed, and facing the region whence enemies might be expected. ...

The Open-air Sacrificial Burial of the Mongols

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/corff/im/Texte/burial.html

Apart from the open-air burial there were other funeral practices in Mongolia like cremation, embalming and the "water-burial", another form of open-air burial....When people died from infectious diseases, they were cremated to reduce the danger of an epidemic. Sometimes the corpses of Lamas were also cremated to allow their spirit to rise directly to heaven without any desecration of the spirit. This is because Mongolian people believe that fire cleanses everything....

Funeral

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral

Ancient Greece...The cremation of the dead that appears around the 11th century BC constitutes a new practice of burial and is probably an influence from the East. Until the Christian era, when interment becomes again the only burial practice, both cremation and interment had been practiced depending on the area....

Ancient Rome... These rites usually included a public procession to the tomb or pyre where the body was to be cremated ...Since most Romans were cremated, the ashes typically were collected in an urn and placed in a niche in a collective tomb called a columbarium...

Cremation

https://www.britannica.com/topic/cremation

The practice of cremation on open fires was introduced to the Western world by the Greeks as early as 1000 bce. They seem to have adopted cremation from some northern people as an imperative of war, ...The Romans followed Greek and Trojan fashion in cremating their military heroes. ...By about 100 ce, however, cremations in the Roman Empire were stopped, ...The pagan Scandinavians favoured cremation, believing that it helped free the spirit from the flesh and also that it kept the dead from harming the living. These pagans’ practices paralleled the Greek and Roman epic cremations. After the Icelandic conversion to Christianity in 1000 ce, cremation was rare in western Europe until the 19th century, except in emergencies. During an outbreak of the Black Death in 1656, for example, the bodies of 60,000 victims were burned in Naples during a single week. In India and some other countries where the custom is ancient, cremation is considered very desirable. It is the wish of all devout Hindus to be incinerated in Varanasi. The remains are then deposited in the Ganges River....

History of Funerals

http://www.deathcare.com/category/funeral-arrangements/history-of-funerals

Shunned by many, Indian man carries on cremating virus dead

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/04/world/shunned-by-many-indian-man-carries-cremating-virus-dead

While Hindu's believe cremation rights are sacred and release the dead person's soul from the cycle of rebirth, those who actually deal with corpses are looked down upon. ...

VALENTINES DAY BEGAN AS A WOLF FESTIVAL. FROM VALI TO LUPERCALIA TO ST VALENTINE.

FROM THE FOLLOWING POSTS NOTE HOW VALI ODINS SON WAS A WOLF WARRIOR ULFHEDNAR WHICH IS LATER CELEBRATED AS LUPERCALIA A WOLF FESTIVAL.

VALI SON OF ODIN WAS AN ARCHER GOD OF LIGHT OF THE COMING SPRING. WHO AVENGED HIS BROTHERS DEATH BY KILLING HODR. VALI SON OF INDRA KILLED KRISHNA AND RAVANA, AND IS KNOWN BY SOME AS BALI A SON GOD. THEN RAMA KILLED VALI THEN REINCARNATED VALI TO AVENGE HIS UNJUST MURDER.

NOTE THE SIMILARITIES OF VALI SON OF ODIN WITH VALI SON OF INDRA. NOTE SIMILARITIES OF BALDR TO THAT OF BALI.

MANY OF THE PAGAN GODS AND FESTIVALS WERE CHRISTIANIZED WHEN CHRISTIANITY WAS FORCED INTO EUROPE WHICH GIVES MANY OF TODAYS HOLIDAYS.

St Valentine

https://stairnaheireann.net/2020/02/13/st-valentine-6/

There are many versions of the Legend of St Valentine, but a few things are known. That he was a priest martyred (as in beheaded) on 14th February, in either 269 AD or 270 AD by the Roman Emperor Claudius II, also known as Claudius the Cruel. Among Valentine’s crimes was secretly marrying Christian lovers.

Claudius, being a sexist as well as a tyrant, decided that those pesky women were the reason he was having so much trouble getting soldiers for his armies. His reasoning was that men didn’t want to leave their families, wives, or girlfriends to go to war. (Apparently it never occurred to him that they might not be all that willing to die for an emperor they detested.) So his solution was to ban engagements and marriages. An edict Valentine, who had a warm place in his heart for all lovers, ignored.

VALI: THE GOD OF VENGEANCE. VALI'S BLOT MAY NOT BE FEBRUARY 14 BUT, RATHER FEBRUARY 12. I AM NOT SURE. VALI'S BIRTH STORY IS NOT IN AGREEMENT. FOR ONE WAS HIS MOTHER A FROST GIANTESS, OR A DWARF. SECOND, WAS SHE RAPED OR WAS SHE A WILLING PARTICIPANT BEING PROTECTED BY HER FATHER. OR WAS THE STORY OF VALI'S BIRTH LATER CORRUPTED BY RIVAL AGENDAS TO OUST ODIN PEOPLE. THIS STORY IS AN OBVIOUS ATTEMPT TO SLANDER AND DEFAME ODIN BY THE MIDEVIL PEOPLES PROBABLY BY MIGRATING PEOPLES. AND IF THE BIRTH STORY IS NOT IN AGREEMENT THEN IS THE REST OF VALI'S STORY TO AVENGE HIS BROTHER BALDUR ACCURATE OR ALSO A CORRUPTION AND BY HOW MUCH?

DOES VALI HAVE ANYTHING IN COMMON WITH VALENTINES DAY OF LOVE, OR IS IT A DAY OF VENGEANCE? IF VENGEANCE IS IT JUSTIFIED FOR LOVE AND PROTECTION OF FAMILY.

COULD VALI HAVE ORIGINATED OR BE A RETELLING OR DISTORTION FROM OTHER STORIES SUCH AS RAMAYANA....

The sacred feast of Váli

Birds of a feather flock together:

https://vinlandheritage.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/birds-of-a-feather-flock-together-the-sacred-feast-of-vali/

The ancient Europeans in Northern Europe celebrated February 14th(around the 24-25 of Sokkvabekkr in the ancient calendar) as The Feast Day of Vali also referred to as The Festival of the Kin. This day was held sacred to the god Váli and in honor of the family and friendship. The god Váli is known as the defender of the family unit, light, and goodness. Vali is the son of the god Oðin and giantess Rinðr, as well as the brother of Balðr, Þórr, Höðr, etc. Váli is depicted as an archer with arrows of light.

Facts and Figures: The Norse Way

http://www.timelessmyths.com/norse/way.html

Norse Festivals

Feast of Vali February 14

This day was to commemorated the god Vali, son of Odin and Rind. Vali was the god who avenged Balder, by killing his Balder's twins, Hod. Vali was one of the survivor of Ragnarok.

Feast of Thunar & Vali Blot

https://www.theasatrucommunity.org/feast-of-thunar--vali-blot

Váli

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1li

In Norse mythology, Váli is a son of the god Odin and the giantess Rindr. Váli has numerous brothers including Thor, Baldr, and Víðarr. He was birthed for the sole purpose of avenging Baldr, and does this by killing Höðr who was an unwilling participant, and binding Loki with the entrails of his son Narfi. He grew to full adulthood within one day of his birth, and slew Höðr before going on to bind Loki. Váli is prophesied to survive Ragnarök....

Prose Edda Gylfaginning: the Æsir changed Váli into the form of a wolf, and he tore asunder Narfi his brother. And the Æsir took his entrails and bound Loki with them over the three stones: one stands under his shoulders, the second under his loins, the third under his houghs; and those bonds were turned to iron.

"One is called Ali or Váli, son of Odin and Rindr: he is daring in fights, and a most fortunate marksman." The same text also states that he will survive Ragnarök, along with his brother Víðarr and the sons of Thor, Móði and Magni....

the gift of wolf's strength and rage is well attested as being granted by Odin to warriors known as Ulfhednar, which would make his son Váli a Berserker and a possible origin for the ulfhednar legend....

VALI

http://www.norse-mythology.cba.pl/page,409,vali.html

The youngest son of the god odin. His mother was rinda. Vali avenged balder's death by slaying the blind god hodur with his arrow. He was one of the few gods to survive ragnarok, the end of the world.Vali is a personification of the light of the days that grow longer as spring approaches. Because rays of light were often depicted as arrows, Vali was usually represented and worshiped as an archer. For that rea-son his month in old Norwegian calendars is desig-nated by the sign of the bow and is called Lios-beri, the light bringer. Lios-beri falls between the modern calendar's mid-January and mid-February.

Vali, the Avenger Vali was the youngest son of the god odin. This myth tells of Vali's origins and of how he avenged the death of his half brother, Balder. It is part of Balder's Dream in the poetic edda.When Balder, Odin's beloved son, began having frightening dreams, Odin made a journey to the underworld to seek the knowledge of an ancient sybil. She told Odin that Balder would be killed and that his death would be avenged by another son of Odin's, Vali, as yet unborn. The child's mother would be Rinda. Vali would slay Hodur Balder's killer when he was but one night old, with his hands still unwashed and his hair uncombed.Odin next sent hermod, the messenger of the gods, to the wicked but powerful wizard rostioff, in Lapland, to find out more. Hermod took Odin's horse, sleipnir, and runic spear, and set off. The journey was long and there were many perils, but at last Her-mod reached the desolate country where the wizard dwelled. Rostioff was not welcoming. He took the form of a terrible giant and approached Hermod with a strong rope, but Hermod struck him with the magic staff, and the giant fell at once. Hermod bound Rostioff with his own rope.

Vali

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali

Vali, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran

Vali, East Azerbaijan, a village in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran

The Vali tribe, a Sarmatian tribe of Ptolemy

Vali (Ramayana) or Bali, character in the Hindu epic Ramayana

Vali

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Vali

Vali (Hinduism) King of Kishkindha, a son of Indra and the elder brother of Sugriva in Ramayana.

Valī A tribe of Sarmatia, which dwelt between Mount Ceraunus and the river Volga

Rindr VALI'S MOTHER

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rindr

Rindr (Old Norse) or Rinda (Latin) (sometimes Anglicized Rind) is a female goddess in Norse mythology, alternatively described as a giantess or a human princess from the east. She was impregnated by Odin and gave birth to the avenger of Baldr's death—in the Old Norse sources, Váli.

Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda refers to Rindr as the mother of Váli and one of the ásynjur (goddesses). The most detailed account is in Book III of the Gesta Danorum, written by Saxo Grammaticus around the early 13th century. There she is called Rinda and is the daughter of the King of the Ruthenians. After Balderus' death Odin consulted seers on how to get revenge. On their advice Odin went to the Ruthenians disguised as a warrior called Roster. There he was twice turned down by Rinda. He then wrote runes on a piece of bark and touched her with it, causing her to go mad, and disguised himself as a medicine woman called Wecha, who was allowed to see her. Finally she fell ill; the disguised Odin then said he had medicine with which to cure her but that it would cause a violent reaction. On Odin's advice, the king tied Rinda to her bed, and Odin proceeded to rape her. From the rape was born Váli, who would later avenge Balderus.

Rind: Who is Rind

http://www.northernpaganism.org/shrines/rind/about.html

Rind, the daughter of the much-traveled giant Billing, Master of the Vanir Trade, is very much a throwback to her frost-giant bloodlines. While her father has become accustomed to the shore and the ocean, she prefers to live in his winter hall in the snowy northeastern mountain range of Jotunheim. Rind is a potent sorceress, cold and reserved; she works with weather and snow and frost, but her particular talent is the ability (like that of Unn the Undine) to move through time in limited ways. ... Rind's story, or the tattered scraps of it, raises many questions....

Saxo Grammaticus, who casts the Aesir not as gods but as historical mortals who made themselves rulers through superior magic, tells a story about a mortal Odin and Rind that may be a vague, garbled echo of the immortal version. In this version, Rind is a young girl who is the daughter of King Billing, Lord of the Ruthenians (translated loosely to Russians, who were at that time a Nordic colony). Odin is cast as a mortal sorcerer and king who sees the young girl and desires her. He comes to her in disguise as a great warrior, but she refuses him. He comes to her in a second disguise as a craftsman with fine wares, but she scorns him again. Angered, he casts a spell on the girl to make her desperately ill, then presents himself to her father as an old wisewoman, saying that he can cure the princess's sickness. Her father consents to the treatment, which Odin tells him will be painful, and so the young girl must be physically bound to her bed. Once this is done and they are alone, Odin reveals himself, strikes the helpless Rind with a magic wand that paralyzes her, and rapes her. According to Saxo, the Aesir were so horrified by his act that they ousted him from the throne and put Ullr in his place. ...

Billingr FATHER OF RIND

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billingr

In Norse mythology, Billingr (or Billing) is the father of a maiden (whose name is not provided) desired by Odin. According to stanzas 96-102 of the poem Hávamál from the Poetic Edda, Odin was told by the maiden to meet her after nightfall when it would be safest and she would give herself to him, but when Odin returned he found the path blocked by warriors with swords and burning torches. When he came back at daybreak he discovered that the maiden was gone and had left a bitch tied to the bed in her place. In this way Odin was thwarted in his attempts to possess the girl. The episode is narrated in the first person by Odin himself and used by him as an example of the supposed fickleness and deception of women, and he laments the folly of longing for that which is unobtainable.

Billingr was presumably either a giant or a dwarf,...Billing is listed as a dwarf name in the Hauksbók manuscript version of Völuspá...while Odin's relations with giantesses are well attested throughout the Eddas.

Vali (Ramayana)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali_(Ramayana)

In the Hindu epic Ramayana, vanara Vali was king of Kishkindha, husband of Taara, son of Indra, biological son of Vriksharaja and Elder brother of Sugriva and father of Angada. He was killed by Lord Rama, an Avatar of Lord Vishnu. Vali was invincible during Threta Yuga. Vali defeated some of the greatest warriors like Ravana and Meghanada. Even Lord Rama & Lord Hanuman couldn't fight against Vali because Vali was blessed that when he will fight with someone he would take 50% of the opponent's strength thus any body would lose their half of strength & Vali goes upper hand with opponent's half strength & his own power & could defeat any one.

In Hare Krishna belief-system, Vali was reincarnated as Jara (the hunter) who killed Krishna with an arrow tipped with a shard of iron from a club borne by Samba(Krishna's son by Jambavati). Vali is also known as Bali in several Indian languages....

Birth: One day, Vriksharaja was on his way to take bath in a water source nearby. After having bath, he came out of it. He was astonished to see his body turned into female form. Soon he turned into beautiful lady. At the same time, Indra & Surya (Sun-god) were on the way to heaven after visiting Brahma. Suddenly their vision got diverted to Vriksharaja (in female form). As a result of which Vali was born as Indra’s son & Sugriva was born as Surya’s son....

Vali was husband of Tara....Vali asked Brahma to give a boon such that 'In any duel with Vali, Vali's opponent loses his half strength to Vali'....Ravana challenged Vali to come & fight....Vali defeated Ravana...Sugriva tells him the story of how Vali became his enemy. In Sugriva's version, he is entirely innocent and Rama believes him....Rama asks Sugriva to challenge Vali and bring him outside Kishkindha. As Rama explains later, for 14 years he cannot enter a city. Moreover, Rama does not want any unnecessary bloodbath of Vali's army with whom he wants to maintain friendly relations. Despite this, killing Vali would not be impossible for Rama as Sugriva and Vali were identical twins....Sugriva formed an alliance with Rama. Rama had been travelling the length of India in search of his kidnapped wife, Sita. Sugriva asked Rama's help in return for his help in defeating Ravana and rescuing Sita. The two hatched a plan to topple Vali from the throne.

Sugriva challenged Vali to a fight. When Vali sallied forth to meet the challenge, Rama emerged from the forest to shoot and kill him with an arrow from the back of a tree.

A dying Vali told Rama, "If you are searching for your wife you should have come to me for help and friendship. Whoever took Sita, be it Ravana himself, I would have defeated them and would have brought them to your feet, to your mercy."

Vali asked the following questions: He made my wife a widow and stole my kingdom. What was my crime? Even if I committed a crime (with my brother), what is your right to kill me? I would have helped you in getting Sita, your father King Dasharatha helped my father King Indra to fight against rakshasas....

It is also said by ISKCON that Rama promised Vali to give him a chance to avenge his unjust murder. Vali was reincarnated as a hunter and archer Jara in Mahabharata (Dwapar Yug). Jara was the cause of the death of Shri Krishna (the reincarnation of Shri Rama) when he struck his feet by an arrow taking them to be a deer....

Lupercalia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia

Lupercalia most likely derives from lupus, "wolf," though both the etymology and its significance are obscure... Lupercalia was an ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral annual festival, observed in the city of Rome between February 13 and February 15, to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Lupercalia was also called dies Februatus...

The name Lupercalia was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lykaia, a wolf festival (Greek: λύκος, lýkos; Latin: lupus), and the worship of Lycaean Pan, assumed to be a Greek equivalent to Faunus, as instituted by Evander. Justin describes a cult image of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans Lupercus," as nude, save for a goatskin girdle. It stood in the Lupercal, the cave where tradition held that Romulus and Remus were suckled by the shewolf (Lupa). The cave lay at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on which Romulus was thought to have founded Rome....

The Lupercalia had its own priesthood, the Luperci ("brothers of the wolf")...They formed two religious collegia (associations) based on ancestry... At the Lupercal altar, a male goat (or goats) and a dog were sacrificed by one or another of the Luperci, under the supervision of the Flamen dialis, Jupiter's chief priest...

Lupercalia

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia

Lupercalia was an ancient pagan festival held each year in Rome on February 15. ...

Romulus and Remus: No one knows the exact origin of Lupercalia, but it has been traced back as far as the 6th century B.C. According to Roman legend, the ancient King Amulius ordered Romulus and Remus—his twin nephews and founders of Rome—to be thrown into the Tiber River to drown in retribution for their mother’s broken vow of celibacy. A servant took pity on them, however, and placed them inside a basket on the river instead. The river-god carried the basket and the brothers downriver to a wild fig tree where it became caught in the branches. The brothers were then rescued and cared for by a she-wolf in a den at the base of Palatine Hill where Rome was founded. The twins were later adopted by a shepherd and his wife and learned their father’s trade. After killing the uncle who’d ordered their death, they found the cave den of the she-wolf who’d nurtured them and named it Lupercal. It’s thought Lupercalia took place to honor the she-wolf and please the Roman fertility god Lupercus....

They then ran naked or nearly-naked around Palantine whipping any woman within striking distance with the thongs. Many women welcomed the lashes and even bared their skin to receive the fertility consecration; it’s open to speculation what the lashes represented.

During Lupercalia, the men randomly chose a woman’s name from a jar to be coupled with them for the duration of the festival. Often, the couple stayed together until the following year’s festival. Many fell in love and married....

Faunus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faunus

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan. Faunus was one of the oldest Roman deities, known as the di indigetes. According to the epic poet Virgil, he was a legendary king of the Latins....

Faunus revealed the future in dreams and voices that were communicated to those who came to sleep in his precincts, lying on the fleeces of sacrificed lambs.... Faunus is very probably of Indo-European origin, which he shares with the Vedic god Rudra....

In fable Faunus appears as an old king of Latium, grandson of Saturnus, son of Picus, and father of Latinus by the nymph Marica (who was also sometimes Faunus' mother)....

With the increasing Hellenization of literate upper-class Roman culture in the 3rd and 2nd–centuries BC, the Romans tried to equate their own deities with Greek ones, applying in reverse the Greeks' own interpretatio graeca. Faunus was naturally equated with the god Pan, who was a pastoral god of shepherds who was said to reside in Arcadia. Pan had always been depicted with horns and as such many depictions of Faunus also began to display this trait. However, the two deities were also considered separate by many, for instance, the epic poet Virgil, in his Aeneid, made mention of both Faunus and Pan independently....In Gaul, Faunus was identified with the Celtic Dusios.

Dusios https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dusios Dusios was a divine being among the continental Celts who was identified with the god Pan of ancient Greek religion and with the gods Faunus, Inuus, Silvanus, and Incubus of ancient Roman religion....

History of the Holidays: History of Valentines Day | History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8QRXkrWUjM

Valentine's Day History | Ancient Origins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuiA5iwP3fk

AN AESIR. ASURA. ASA. OSS. OSSIR. AUSIR. AN ULFHEDNAR, A WOLF WARRIOR. SURVIVES RAGNORAK....

Valisblot: Norse Valentine’s Day

https://www.alehorn.com/blogs/alehorn-viking-blog/valisblot-norse-valentine-s-day

Valisblot is named for Vali, Odin’s youngest son, who is born, grows to manhood in a day, and avenges the murder of his brother, Baldr. Unlike Odin and Thor, Vali survives Ragnarok and is sort of a representation of new hope for the Norse....

Rather, it’s a day of remembrance and vengeance....

Day of Love? The Complex Origins of Valentine’s Day

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/valentines-day-002672

Greek historian Plutarch described Lupercalia in his works, recording:

“Lupercalia, of which many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy.”...

Another possibility for the origin of Valentine’s Day involves Christian priest, St. Valentine. It is alleged that, at one point, Roman emperor Claudius II banned marriage to prevent young men from avoiding the draft by marrying. Valentinus, a Christian priest, agreed to perform secret marriages for those who wished to become married....

Texts:

Wicca and Neo-Paganism

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/index.htm

The Internet Book of Shadows

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/index.htm

Vernal Equinox March 20, 2021 04:37 CT, 09:37 UTC, 09:37 WE

Full Moon March 28 1:48 pm

Comment:

My personal opinion based on my current understanding is that Ostara was probably spread into all of Europe by the Near East migrations of people, and perhaps also by the more recent migrations from the steppe people after having mixed themselves with the Near East peoples.

MY thinking is that the original indigenous Hunter-Gatherers of West Europe all the way eastward to Siberia gave honors to the Great Mother Earth rather than to Ostara, or any other names used to denote a Goddess of the dawn (Eos, Eostre, Ishtar, Easter, ...)

My opinion is the original belief has Mother Earth conceives and is joined by a Great Sky Father.

I am not sure if the original belief specified a date for the union of Mother Earth - Father Sky, or if the date became adapted with the tellings of the oral traditions, and/or new technologies. But, the date of this union is different among the various peoples.

This original belief system becoming diluted, and misinterpreted, as it integrated into many various forms as it passed with time, geography, and migrations.

Many names were given to Mother Earth and Father Sky by the passing of time and of peoples but, the roles of the belief system are similar in foundation with some variations added in, and/or taken away.

The Wheel Year of the Germanics have Mother Earth conceiving on Ostara then giving birth on Yule. To the Celts Mother Earth conceives on Beltane after her union with Father Sky.

Whatever the name used, or date celebrated it all basically means the same thing, the fertility period of life given to us by the Earth, and Sky (Sun).

Honor it for our survival depends on it.

In the old Celtic calendar, today is Sheelah’s Day. 18 March

https://stairnaheireann.net/2019/03/18/otd-in-the-old-celtic-calendar-today-is-sheelahs-day-2/

In the old Celtic calendar, today is Sheelah’s Day. In ancient Ireland, it was an annual festival to honour the fertility Goddess known as Sheela-na-gig. Naked Sheela-na-gig figures appeared in Irish churches constructed before the 16th century,...

Decoding the Sheela-na-gig

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40835376?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

SHEE MEANS SPIRIT. GIG MEANS THE FEMALE GENITALIA.

MAY BE THE SPIRIT OR WITCH OF CIOCH, CAILLEAGH OR KALI.

MAYBE A PORTAL BETWEEN THE OTHERWORLD, NETHERWORLD INTO THIS WORLD.

MAY BE THE GREAT MOTHER, OR AN EARTH GODDESS. MAY BE FERTILITY GODDESS SUCH AS UMAY PROTECTOR OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. MAY BE EARTH MOTHER WHO GIVES BIRTH TO THE NEW SUN GOD.

MANY POSSIBILITIES THAT MAY HAVE EVOLVED AND CHANGED WITH CHANGING BELIEFS AND TRADITIONS...

Sheela na gig

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheela_na_gig

Sheela na gigs are figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva. They are architectural grotesques found all over Europe on cathedrals, castles, and other buildings. The highest concentrations can be found in Ireland, Great Britain, France and Spain, sometimes together with male figures. Ireland has the greatest number of surviving sheela na gig carvings;... Scholars disagree about the origins of the figures. James Jerman and Anthony Weir believe that the sheela na gigs were first carved in France and Spain in the 11th century; the motif eventually reached Britain and then Ireland in the 12th century.... almost all of the surviving in situ sheela na gigs are found in areas of Anglo-Norman conquest (12th century). The areas that remained "native Irish" have few sheela na gigs.... Another theory, espoused by Joanne McMahon and Jack Roberts, is that the carvings are remnants of a pre-Christian fertility or mother goddess religion....

The goddess in question usually is identified as Celtic, the hag-like Cailleach figure of Irish and Scottish mythology. Margaret Murray proposed this, as did Anne Ross, who wrote in her essay, "The Divine Hag of the Pagan Celts", "I would like to suggest that in their earliest iconographic form they do in fact portray the territorial or war-goddess in her hag-like aspect...". Georgia Rhoades suggests that the figures may represent the crone or an earth goddess from Celtic mythology....

The Encyclopedia of Religion, in its article on yoni, notes the similarity between the positioning of many sheela na gigs above doorways or windows and the wooden female figures carved over the doorways of chiefs' houses (bai) in the Palauan archipelago. Called dilukai (or dilugai), they are typically shown with legs splayed, revealing a large, black, triangular pubic area; the hands rest upon the thighs. The writers of the encyclopedia article say: These female figures protect the villagers' health and ward off all evil spirits as well. They are constructed by ritual specialists according to strict rules, which if broken would result in the specialist's as well as the chief's death. It is not coincidental that each example of signs representing the female genitalia used as apotropaic devices are found on gates. The vulva is the primordial gate, the mysterious divide between nonlife and life.

My take on this is that Eostre was originally Nerthus, Mother Earth, who becomes fertile on Hrethmonath then gives birth to the new sun 9 months later on Yuletide.

Nerthus was also referred to a Freya, and Frigga. SO she has different names depending on the tribes.

SO it is possible that Nerthus later was called Eostre, or Rheda as time passed, and new people migrated, and oral traditions were shared, or Eostre may have been the name of the fest rather than the Goddess.

Ēostre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

Ēostre or Ostara...is a Germanic goddess ... the festival of Easter ...

goddess called *Austrō ...a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn *H₂ewsṓs (→ *Ausṓs), from which descends the Common Germanic divinity from whom Ēostre and Ostara are held to descend. ... “all of this evidence permits us to posit a Proto-Indo-European *haéusōs 'goddess of dawn' who was characterized as a "reluctant" bringer of light for which she is punished. In three of the Indo-European stocks, Baltic, Greek and Indo-Iranian, the existence of a Proto-Indo-European 'goddess of the dawn' is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the 'daughter of heaven'" ...

Second volume of Deutsche Mythologie... But if we admit, goddesses, then, in addition to Nerthus, Ostara has the strongest claim to consideration.... a potential connection to the Slavic spring goddess Vesna and the Lithuanian Vasara. ...

Billson cites numerous incidents of folk custom involving the hare around the period of Easter in Northern Europe. Billson says that "whether there was a goddess named Eostre, or not, and whatever connection the hare may have had with the ritual of Saxon or British worship, there are good grounds for believing that the sacredness of this animal reaches back into an age still more remote, where it is probably a very important part of the great Spring Festival of the prehistoric inhabitants of this island." ...

Eostre is the Germanic Goddess of Spring. Also called Ostara or Eastre, She gave Her name to the Christian festival of Easter (which is an older Pagan festival appropriated by the Church), whose timing is still dictated by the Moon. ... She is also a dawn goddess, and may be related to the Greek Goddess of the dawn Eos.

A Brief History of Ostara

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/naturespath/2016/03/a-brief-history-of-ostara/

The most prevalent is that Ostara is named after Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn, and that she may have been a variant of Ishtar or Astarte. Another popular claim is that the Easter bunny and the Easter egg are re-appropriated Pagan symbols of fertility associated with Eostre and Her holiday, and that they can trace their roots back to Ishtar. Still another holds that the Easter bunny is derived from a lunar hare seen in both far- and near-Eastern mythologies. The problem with this interpretation is that much of it is historically unfounded.

Historical Origins

There is no doubt that the Spring Equinox held significance amongst a number of ancient Indo-European and near-Eastern religions ... The pre-Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles likely observed the Spring Equinox, as their surviving megaliths are oriented on a solar basis. But there is no clear evidence that the Spring Equinox received any special attention by the pre-Christian Celts [3], and no reference to Ostara itself can be found before 725 C.E. ... Nothing else was written on either Ostara or Eostre for more than a millennium, until they captured the imagination of the famed German folklorist Jacob Grimm. Writing in his Deutsche Mythologie (1839), ...

Eostre, Goddess of the Dawn

One of the most popular misconceptions about Eostre is that She is a Teutonic derivation of the Babylonian Goddess Ishtar. While Ishtar can loosely be connected to Easter, there is very little evidence that would otherwise connect Her to Eostre. ... Because we can prove linguistically that Eostre is cognate with this family of Dawn Goddesses, it is likely that Eostre was indeed an Anglo-Saxon Goddess of the dawn.

Why Do People Celebrate Ostara, the Spring Equinox?

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/ostarathespringequinox/p/Ostara_History.htm

In ancient Rome, the followers of Cybele believed that their goddess had a consort who was born via a virgin birth. His name was Attis, and he died and was resurrected each year during the time of the vernal equinox on the Julian Calendar (between March 22 and March 25).

Around the same time, the Germanic tribes honored a lunar goddess known as Ostara, who mated with a fertility god around this time of year, and then gave birth nine months later – at Yule.

In medieval societies in Europe, the March hare was viewed as a major fertility symbol -- this is a species of rabbit that is nocturnal most of the year, but in March when mating season begins, there are bunnies everywhere all day long.

According to the Venerable Bede, Eostre was the Saxon version of the Germanic goddess Ostara. Her feast day was held on the full moon following the vernal equinox.

Ostara

https://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/ostara.htm

March 21 -- Ostara -- Spring or The Vernal Equinox

Also known as: Lady Day or Alban Eiler (Druidic)

As Spring reaches its midpoint, night and day stand in perfect balance, with light on the increase. The young Sun God now celebrates a hierogamy (sacred marriage) with the young Maiden Goddess, who conceives. In nine months, she will again become the Great Mother. It is a time of great fertility, new growth, and newborn animals.

The next full moon (a time of increased births) is called the Ostara and is sacred to Eostre the Saxon Lunar Goddess of fertility (from whence we get the word estrogen, whose two symbols were the egg and the rabbit.

Bede, on 'Eostre'

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/bede_on_eostre.htm

The first month, which the Latins call January, is Giuli; February is called Solmonath; March Hrethmonath; April, Eosturmonath; May, Thrimilchi; June, Litha; July, also Litha; August, Weodmonath; September, Halegmonath; October, Winterfilleth; November, Blodmonath; December, Giuli, the same name by which January is called. ...

Nor is it irrelevant if we take the time to translate the names of the other months. ... Hrethmonath is named for their goddess Hretha, to whom they sacrificed at this time. Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month....

All About Eostre/Ostara and The Origins of ‘Easter’

http://www.magickalwinds.com/info/2011/03/19/all-about-eostreostara-and-the-origins-of-easter/

Interestingly, Eostre doesn’t appear anywhere in Germanic mythology, and despite assertions that she might be a Norse deity, she doesn’t show up in the poetic or prose Eddas either. However, she could certainly have belonged to some tribal group in the Germanic areas, and her stories may have just been passed along through oral tradition. It’s fairly unlikely that Bede, who was a scholar as well as a Christian academic, would have just made her up. Of course, it’s equally possible that Bede simply misinterpreted a word at some point, and that Eostremonth was not named for a goddess at all, but for some other spring festival....

High Feast of Ostara:

This is the Spring Equinox. The end of Winter and the beginning of the season of rebirth. Today we honor Frigga, Freya and Nerthus with blot and feast. Pour a libation of mead onto the Earth; celebrate the rebirth of nature, Asatru, and the new hopes of our Folk.

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter

https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/ancient-pagan-origins-easter-001571

Ushas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushas

Vedic goddess of dawn... Her sister is Ratri, or the night....

Vedic uṣás is derived from the word uṣá which means "dawn". This word comes from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hušā́s ("ušā" in Avestan), which in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éusōs ("dawn")...

Ushas is mentioned in numerous hymns of the Rigveda. Forty of its hymns are dedicated to her, while her name appears in other additional hymns....

Ushas is described in Vedic texts as riding in a shining chariot drawn by golden-red horses or cows, a beautiful maiden bedecked with jewels, smiling and irresistibly attractive, who brings cheer to all those who gaze upon her. She dispels darkness, reveals treasures and truths that have been hidden, illuminates the world as it is. Hymn 6.64 associates her with wealth and light, while hymn 1.92 calls her the "mother of cows" and one, who like a cow, gives to the benefit of all people. Hymn 1.113 calls her "mother of the gods", while hymn 7.81 states her to be the mother of all living beings who petition her. She is the goddess of the hearth, states hymn 6.64. She symbolizes reality, is a marker of time and a reminder to all that "life is limited on earth". She sees everything as it is, and she is the eye of the gods, according to hymns 7.75–77.

She is variously mentioned as the sister of Ratri (night), Aditya and one who goes about her ways closely with deities Savitri and Surya. She is also associated with Varuna (sky, water) and Agni (fire).... In the "family books" of the Rig Veda (e.g. RV 6.64.5), Ushas is the divine daughter, a divó duhitâ, of Dyaus Pita ("Sky Father")....

Ushas is regionally worshipped during the festival of Chhath Puja,...

HYMN XLVIII. Dawn.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01048.htm

1 DAWN on us with prosperity, O Uṣas, Daughter of the Sky,

Dawn with great glory, Goddess, Lady of the Light, dawn thou with riches, Bounteous One.

HYMN CXXIII. Dawn.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01123.htm

5 Sister of Varuṇa, sister of Bhaga, first among all sing forth, O joyous Morning.

HYMN LXXV. Dawn.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07075.htm

5 She who is rich in spoil, the Spouse of Sūrya, wondrously opulent, rules all wealth and treasures.

HYMN LXXVI. Dawn.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07076.htm

1. SAVITAR God of all men hath sent upward his light, designed for all mankind, immortal.

Through the Gods’ power that Eye was first created. Dawn hath made all the universe apparent.

HYMN LXXVIT. Dawn.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07077.htm

She hath beamed forth lovely with golden colours, Mother of kine, Guide of the days she bringeth.

3 Bearing the Gods’ own Eye, auspicious Lady, leading her Courser white and fair to look on,

Is the Dawn Goddess (Usha, Eos, Eostre,..) the daughter of Father Sky (Dyaus, Tanri, Odin, Horus, Jupiter, Anu, Zeus, Jove, ...), or is she actually Mother Earth (Nerthus, Ana, Freyja, Prithivi, Venus, Cybele, Rhea, Nammu,...) the wife of Father Sky? Not sure as it depends on the mythologies. The Sun God (Surya, Ra, Bel, Lug, Sol, Sunna, ...) also has been viewed as Father Sky, and also as the Son of Father Sky.

Is Usha sister, or wife of Surya? Not sure as it depends on the mythologies....

Hausos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausos

Hausos is the reconstructed name for the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn. Derivatives of her found throughout various Indo-European mythologies include the Greek goddess Eos, the Roman goddess Aurōra, the Vedic goddess Uṣás, the Lithuanian goddess Aušrinė (cf. Lith. aušrà "dawn"), and possibly also the (West) Germanic goddess *Austrǭ (Old English Ēostre, Old High German *Ōstara)....

The Dawn Goddess is hypothesised to have been one of the most important deities to the Proto-Indo-Europeans, due to the consistency of her characterisation as well as the relevance of Ushas in the Rig Veda. Her attributes have not only been mixed with those of solar goddesses in some later traditions, but have subsequently expanded and influenced female deities in other mythologies.

The Dawn Goddess is thought to have been envisioned as the daughter of Dyeus. This is partially reflected in Vedic mythology, where Ushas is the daughter of Dyaus Pita, though in some other Indo-European derivations this is not the case. (Eos is a titan daughter of Hyperion and Theia while Aušrinė is the daughter of Saulė and Mėnulis; even Ushas is inversely sometimes considered the daughter of Surya), though nonetheless the epithet "daughter of heaven" remains in nearly all Indo-European mythologies. This reflects her status as a relevant goddess as well as a celestial deity.

She is also envisioned as the sister of the Divine Twins, with Ushas still maintaining this relation to the Ashvins. Although the "marriage drama" myth (in which one or both of the Divine Twins compete for the hand of a woman in marriage) is usually linked to the sun goddess rather than the dawn goddess, there is a possible degree of syncretism in this regard, particularly as the Baltic Aušrinė is in a similar marriage drama situation, albeit in relation to her father and her mother.

Due to the dawn heralding the sun and inducing the daily routine, the Dawn Goddess is associated with instilling the cosmic order. Ushas is the arouser of Ṛta, while the role of Aušrinė as the maid of the sun renders her a moral example in Lithuanian traditions and helped her syncretism with the Virgin Mary.

The Dawn Goddess was probably the original love and lust deity in Proto-Indo-European religion, an aspect maintained in nearly all reflexes but noticeably lost in later stages of Hellenic and Indu myth (Eos replaced by Aphrodite and Eros, Ushas replaced by Kamadeva). Notably, the Greek myth of Aphrodite cursing Eos with lust may be a representation of usurpation of the role as love goddess by the former. ...

In the Rig Veda, Ushas is "The ancient goddess, born again and again, dressed in the same color, causes the mortal to age and wears away his life-span, as a cunning gambler carries off the stakes" and "Bringing old age, thou hast come, O unageing Dawn … Unageing, thou dost make to age all else"...

The Dawn Goddess was associated with weaving... Nearly all reflexes are associated with reddish horses, perhaps due to syncretism with solar goddesses as well as the hypothesised relation with the Divine Twins. Red cows are also sacred to Ushas, while Eos is linked with songbirds and cicadas....

Umay (Ana)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umay

Umay (also known as Umai; in Old Turkic: Old Turkic letter Y1.svgOld Turkic letter M.svgOld Turkic letter O.svg; Kazakh: Ұмай ана, Umay ana; Russian: Ума́й / Ымай, Umáj / Ymaj, Turkish: Umay (Ana)) is the goddess of fertility in Turkic mythology and Tengriism and as such related to women, mothers and children. Umay resembles earth-mother goddesses found in various other world religions.

In Mongolian, Umai means 'womb' or 'uterus'. The earth was considered a "mother" symbolically. The Turkic root umāy originally meant 'placenta, afterbirth', and this word was used as the name for the goddess whose function was to look after women and children, possibly because the placenta was thought to have magic qualities. Literally in the Mongolian language, "eje" or "eej" means "mother," and in Old Turkic, the word eçe also means 'mother'.

Umay is a protector of women and children....Umay not only protects children, but also Turkic communities around the world. At the same time Umay helps people to obtain more food and goods and gives them luck. As Umay is associated with the sun... She is depicted as having sixty golden tresses that look like the rays of the sun....

Rheda (mythology)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheda_(mythology)

In Anglo-Saxon paganism, Rheda... is a goddess connected with the month '"Rhedmonth"'. Rheda is attested solely by Bede in his 8th century work De temporum ratione. While the name of the goddess appears in Bede's Latin manuscript as Rheda,... Bede records that Hrēþmōnaþ is analogous to March, and details that "Hrethmonath is named for their goddess Hretha, to whom they sacrificed at this time". Bede notes that Hrēþmōnaþ occurs between Solmōnaþ (February), so named due to the offerings of cakes to the gods during the month, and Ēostermōnaþ (April), named after the goddess Ēostre.

Hrethmonath

Third month of the Old English calendar

http://www.carlanayland.org/essays/hrethmonath.htm

the Old English noun 'hreth' means 'victory, glory'. ...hrethe, means 'fierce, cruel, rough', and suggests that Hretha was a war goddess or a valkyrie ...

Rheda Winter Goddess

http://www.englisc-gateway.com/bbs/topic/29960-rheda-winter-goddess/

Rheda was a valkirie and goddess of the winter. She had watched over the community here ever since they had arrived from the old country... Bede records that Hrethmonath is analogues to the Latin March, and details that "Hrethmonath is named for their goddess Hretha, to whom they sacrificed at this time"...

The Goddess Hreda and the Month of March

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/heathenatheart/2017/02/367/

Hreda (or Hretha) – the much less popular Goddess of March....Nerthus attested in northern Germany...Earth Mother deity of the Anglo-Saxons during February...

Saxon Paganism for Today

https://books.google.com/books?id=OZg6CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT47&lpg=PT47&dq=Hrethmonath&source=bl&ots=V5CYx1k_qr&sig=BtBxoGGc-w7SO6Y-CLyPvRWiDFU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEqp3d_a7SAhXL7YMKHVuODts4ChDoAQgvMAQ#v=onepage&q=Hrethmonath&f=false

Hretha meands Glory. ... I beleive that Nerthus is the same goddess as Hretha...

Earth-Mother-Earth:

http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/earthmother.htm

Archaeological evidence from around the prehistoric world suggests that the Earth may have once been viewed/worshipped as a living, female being. ... The worship of the Earth-mother was a common belief before the more recent development of the patriarchal society (c. 3,000 BC), coinciding with a shift in focus from Lunar to Solar worship across Neolithic Europe. Traces of a matriarchal society can be seen reaching back into the Palaeolithic period through the numerous Venus figures discovered in Europe. The early mother-earth belief system also had close connections to the beliefs in the afterlife, as seen in the use of red-ochre in funerary rights. ...

The European Prehistoric Earth Goddess 'Cybele' , (later Britannia), is also often depicted enthroned with lion/s as is the Minoan mountain goddess ...

Malta - 'Home of the Mother-Goddess'. The large number of female figurines discovered in the prehistoric Maltese temples has led to suggestions that it was once home to a 'matriarchal oracle-culture'. It has been suggested that the temples themselves may have been built in the shape of the mother-earth. The same design feature has also been noted at Skara-Brae, on the Orkneys where the interior outline of one of the buildings bears a stark similarity to the human form. A similar but more primitive version on the same theme is said to be seen at the Neolithic house at Gruting School, also on the Shetlands, a pit-dwelling at New Barn Down, Sussex, and in the outline of the moat surrounding Silbury-hill (as the pregnant earth-mother)...

The Palaeolithic Venus Figurines. The worship of the female figure can be traced back to the Palaeolithic period through the numerous Venus figurines which have been discovered across Europe and Asia. Although there is no direct association, the figurines display the same featureless face, exaggerated hips, breasts and belly as seen in later images of the mother earth. The fact that so many examples of this type of female figure have been found over a broad geographical area ranging from France to Siberia, suggests that some system of shared understanding and perception of a particular type of woman existed during the Palaeolithic. It has been noticed that while these figurines exhibit amplified sexual/reproductive organs, they tend to lack limbs such as hands, feet or faces. This has been suggested as being due to the figurines representing the 'fertility' of women rather than a goddess. ...

Venus of Laussel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Laussel

...carved into the limestone of a rock shelter (Abri de Laussel) in the commune of Marquay, in the Dordogne department of south-western France. The carving is associated with the Gravettian Upper Paleolithic culture (approximately 25,000 years old). It is currently displayed in the Musée d'Aquitaine in Bordeaux, France....

The figure holds a bison horn, or possibly a cornucopia, in one hand, which has thirteen notches. According to some researchers, this may symbolize the number of moons or the number of menstrual cycles in one year....

She has her hand on her abdomen (or womb), with large breasts and vulva. There is a "Y" on her thigh and her faceless head is turned toward the horn.

Earth-Mother-Earth:

http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/earthmother.htm

Many ancient cultures worshipped female deities who match the modern conception of a "mother goddess". The word 'Gaia' originates from ancient Greece, in which it was considered the primary Greek Goddess personifying the Earth....

In the Hindu context, the worship of the Mother entity can be traced back to early Vedic culture, and perhaps, even before that time. The Rigveda calls the divine female power, Maimata (R.V. 1.164.33), a term which literally means Mother Earth.

In Anatolia, the Neolithic settlement from 7,500 BC, Çatal-höyük, has yielded many examples of worship of a mother goddess....

Mother goddesses are present in the earliest images discovered among the archaeological finds in Ancient Egypt. Primarily the Supreme Egyptian Goddess, Hathor, who is portrayed as a cow, a woman, and the holder of the sky...

The European Prehistoric Earth Goddess 'Cybele' (left), (later Britannia), is also often depicted enthroned with lion/s as is the Minoan mountain goddess (right).

(Note the similarity to Sumerian Gilgamesh figure)...

Malta - 'Home of the Mother-Goddess'. ...The same design feature has also been noted at Skara-Brae, on the Orkneys where the interior outline of one of the buildings bears a stark similarity to the human form. A similar but more primitive version on the same theme is said to be seen at the Neolithic house at Gruting School, also on the Shetlands, a pit-dwelling at New Barn Down, Sussex, and in the outline of the moat surrounding Silbury-hill (as the pregnant earth-mother) ...The fact that so many examples of this type of female figure have been found over a broad geographical area ranging from France to Siberia, suggests that some system of shared understanding and perception of a particular type of woman existed during the Palaeolithic. ...

Recent research has made it clear that our belief in a primitive female Mother-earth-goddess cult is based more on current perceptions than on actual facts. Apart from the fact that these discoveries come from a time period stretching from the Upper Palaeolithic c. 40,000 to Neolithic c. 5,000 years ago,...

A very incomplete list...

Mother-Earth Deities

http://www.pearltrees.com/t/mythology/mother-earth-deities/id12059303#l793

Note similar Mother Earth just different names, and beliefs differ among different peoples. Even the stories are similar in nature but told differently, while others are quite different...

ABOUT FEMALE DEITIES IN THE MYTHOLOGY OF FINNO-UGRIC PEOPLES

https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol47/yurchenkova.pdf

Mordvin Ved’ava has certain common traits with mermaids, both with regard to their appearance, functions and disposition as mermaids, Ved’ava was an anthropomorphic figure, she could appear as a young girl (either naked or in clothes) with long loose hair, and as a dreadful woman with hanging breasts. As with mermaids, water was the home of Ved’ava, and she could affect the destiny of man, fertility and crop yield of fields. Likewise, water spirits protected motherhood and women’s work among the Maris. After wedding, the young wife would give an offering to the Water Mother Vyd Ava: three beads or coins and a cowrie, saying, at the time: “Let it be peaceful for me to come to the water and let the evil not besiege me.”

The Udmurts worshipped Gudyr-mumy and Invu-mumy (the Mother of Celestial Water), her name was constantly reiterated in prayers and at large ritual gatherings where the gusli-player played a sacred tune about the search of heavenly water, this was accompanied with the ritual lamentation of the people: the tears had to bring about a downpour from heaven. Invu-mumy would also bring luck at childbirth and happiness in the family. (Note: This is similar to Turkic Mythology where Ak Ana is the White Mother. White Mother sits at the Tree of Life. She is a water mother similar to mermaid. In Tengriism Tengri is the Heavenly Father, and Earth Mother is Eje)

THE WELSH MOTHER GODDESS OF LLEW THE SUN GOD. SHE ALSO SOME ATTRIBUTES AS A QUEEN OF THE SKY. ALSO SHARES SIMILARITIES TO MORRIGAN. SIMILAR WITH RAPE STORY OF VALI'S MOTHER RINDR IMPREGNATED BY ODIN FATHER SKY SO VALI COULD AVENGE SUN GOD BALDUR'S DEATH. VALI ALSO GREW FAST (ONE DAY). ARIANRHOD AS WEAVER IS SAME AS EARTH MOTHER FRIGG (NERTHUS) WIFE OF ODIN FATHER SKY WHO WEAVES OUT THE FATES...

Arianrhod

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianrhod

Arianrhod is a figure in Welsh mythology who plays her most important role in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi. She is the daughter of Dôn and the sister of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy; the Welsh Triads give her father as Beli Mawr. In the Mabinogi her uncle Math ap Mathonwy is the King of Gwynedd, and during the course of the story she gives birth to two sons, Dylan ail Don and Lleu Llaw Gyffes, through magical means. Mabinogion According to the Fourth Branch (circa 12th century)... In Math's absence Gilfaethwy rapes Goewin. When Math returns he punishes his nephews severely by turning them into a series of mated pairs of animals, and marries Goewin to alleviate her shame. However, he must find a new virgin to hold his feet.... she immediately gives birth to a young boy, Dylan ail Don, and a blob-like entity which becomes Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Before long it becomes a boy who grows at twice the normal rate; when he is four he is as big as an eight-year-old....

However, Arianrhod was angry about her humiliation at Math's court. She places a tynged (a geis or taboo) on the boy that he will never have a name unless she gives it to him. Gwydion disguises the boy as a shoemaker and returns to Caer Arianrhod; while Arianrhod is being fitted, she sees the boy killing a wren with a single stone and remarks that the fair-haired one ("lleu") has a skillful hand ("llaw gyffes"). Gwydion reveals the disguise, and says she has just given her son a name – Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Arianrhod then places a second tynged on Lleu, that he would never take arms unless she armed him. A few years later Gwydion and Lleu return to Caer Arianrhod, this time disguised as bards. Gwydion is an accomplished storyteller and entertains her court. That night, while everyone sleeps, he conjures a fleet of warships. Arianrhod gives her guests weapons and armor to help her fight, thereby dispelling her second curse. When Gwydion reveals the trickery, Arianrhod places a final tynged on Lleu: he would never have a wife from any race that is on this earth now. Gwydion and Math eventually break this curse by creating a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet; she is named Blodeuwedd ("flower face").

One of the Welsh Triads, 35 by Rachel Bromwich's numbering, establishes a different family connection for Arianrhod. Her father is named as Beli Mawr, and her brother is Caswallawn (the historical Cassivellaunus). She has two sons by Lliaws son of Nwyfre, Gwenwynwyn and Gwanar, who both accompany Caswallawn in his pursuit of Julius Caesar after he has been chased from Britain. This triad is the only source connecting Arianrhod to Beli Mawr and the Caswallawn saga, but it is not incompatible with the tradition recorded in the Mabinogion.

The stories of Welsh mythology changed over time, and the Mabinogion does not contain the only version of them....

The name "Arianrhod" (from the Welsh arian, "silver," and rhod, "wheel") may be cognate with Proto-Celtic *Arganto-rotā, meaning "silver wheel." Alternatively, the earliest form of the name may have been Aranrot, in which case the first part of the name would be related to "Aran."

Arianrhod

https://www.goddess-guide.com/arianrhod.html

ARIANRHOD, MOON GODDESS OF THE SILVER WHEEL

http://www.angelfire.com/journal/ofapoet/arianrhod.html

Mother of the twins, Llew, a Sun God, and Dylan, a God of the Sea. But their birth was a consequence of magic and trickery.

Arianrhod is the Celtic Goddess of the Moon, the Stars and the Sky. She has also been known by such other names, as Margawse or Morgause, and by such titles as the Goddess of Childbirth, Magick, Justice and the Night. In Wales, Arianrhod takes on other attributes as well, when she becomes the Goddess of the Wheel of the Year and the Goddess of the Full Moon, Destiny, Fertility, Death and Reincarnation. What is extremely important is the fact that Arianrhod is also the Goddess of Feminine Power, an integral part of the Divine Feminine. ...

Arianrhod might possibly be that weaver... Arianrhod was the Mistress of Caer Sidi, the Otherworld Tower of Initiation.... When warriors died in battle, it was Arianrhod’s role to gather up their souls, put them aboard her ship, known as Oar Wheel, and then transport them to Emania, which was also known as Moonland. It was then, when they finally arrived at Moonland, that Arianrhod initiated the Otherworld souls into their new lives at Caer Sidi....

The March equinox

https://aratta.wordpress.com/2016/03/29/the-march-equinox/

The Babylonian calendar began with the first full moon after the vernal equinox, the day after the Sumerian goddess Inanna’s return from the underworld (later known as Ishtar), in the Akitu ceremony, with parades through the Ishtar Gate to the Eanna temple, and the ritual re-enactment of the marriage to Tammuz, or Sumerian Dummuzi....

Akitu was a spring festival in ancient Mesopotamia... originally marking two festivals celebrating the beginning of each of the two half-years of the Sumerian calendar, marking the sowing of barley in autumn and the cutting of barley in spring. In Babylonian religion it came to be dedicated to Marduk’s victory over Tiamat.

In Mesopotamian Religion, Tiamat is a primordial goddess of the ocean, mating with Abzû (the god of fresh water) to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial creation, depicted as a woman...identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon....In the Enûma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, she gives birth to the first generation of deities; her husband, Apsu, (correctly) assuming they are planning to kill him and usurp his throne, later makes war upon them and is killed. Enraged, she, too, wars upon her husband’s murderers, taking on the form of a massive sea dragon, she is then slain by Enki’s son, the storm-god Marduk, but not before she had brought forth the monsters of the Mesopotamian pantheon, including the first dragons, whose bodies she filled with “poison instead of blood”. Marduk then forms heavens and the earth from her divided body.... The origins of the Chaoskampf myth most likely lie in the Proto-Indo-European religion whose descendants almost all feature some variation of the story of a storm god fighting a sea serpent representing the clash between the forces of order and chaos....

Ginnungagap: Jacob (2005) attempts to establish a genealogical relationship between Tuisto and Ymir based on etymology and a comparison with (post-)Vedic Indian mythology: as Tvastr, through his daughter Saranyū and her husband Vivaswān, is said to have been the grandfather of the twins Yama and Yami, so Jacob argues that the Germanic Tuisto (assuming a connection with Tvastr) must originally have been the grandfather of Ymir (cognate to Yama). Incidentally, Indian mythology also places Manu (cognate to Germanic Mannus), the Vedic progenitor of mankind, as a son of Vivaswān, thus making him the brother of Yama/Ymir....

The sequence in which one god has a son, who has three famous sons, has a resemblance to how Búri has a son Borr who has three sons: Odin, Vili and Vé. The same tradition occurs with the Slavs and their expansion, in the legend of Lech, Čech and Rus....

Puruli was a Hattian spring festival, held at Nerik, dedicated to the earth goddess Hannahanna, who is married to a new king. The central ritual of the Puruli festival is dedicated to the destruction of the dragon Illuyanka by the storm god Teshub. The corresponding Assyrian festival is the Akitu of the Enuma Elish. Also compared are the Canaanite Poem of Baal and Psalms 93 and 29....

Nowruz (literally “New Day”) is the name of the Iranian New Year, also known as the Persian New Year...

The Dísablót appears to have been held during Winter Nights, or at the vernal equinox...

In the western liturgical year, Lady Day is the traditional name in some English speaking countries of the Feast of the Annunciation (25 March)...The logic of using Lady Day as the start of the year is that it roughly coincides with Equinox (when the length of day and night is equal); many ancient cultures still use this time as the start of the new year, for example, the Iranian new year....In Ireland, however, Lady’s Day means 15 August,...

Hilaris, the ancient Roman religious festivals celebrated on the vernal equinox to honor Cybele, has it’s origin from the Greeks,...But the Romans also celebrated hilaria, as a feria stativa, on March 25, the eighth day before the Kalends of April, in honor of Cybele, the mother of the gods; and it is probably to distinguish these hilaria from those mentioned above, that the Augustan History calls them Hilaria Matris Deûm. The day of its celebration was the first after the vernal equinox, or the first day of the year which was longer than the night....

Ishara (išḫara) is an ancient deity of unknown origin from northern modern Syria. She first appeared in Ebla and was incorporated to the Hurrian pantheon from which she found her way to the Hittite pantheon. Ishara is a pre-Hurrian and perhaps pre-Semitic deities, later incorporated into the Hurrian pantheon. She was associated with the underworld. Her astrological embodiment is the constellation Scorpio and she is called the mother of the Sebitti (the Seven Stars) (Seux, 343)....In Hurrian and Semitic traditions, Išḫara is a love goddess, often identified with Ishtar....

Derivatives of *h₂ewsṓs in the historical mythologies of Indo-European peoples include Indian Uṣas, Greek Ἠώς (Ēōs), Latin Aurōra, and Baltic Aušra (“dawn”, c.f. Lithuanian Aušrinė). Germanic *Austrōn- is from an extended stem *h₂ews-tro-. The name *h₂ewsṓs is derived from a root *h₂wes / *au̯es “to shine”, thus translating to “the shining one”. Both the English word east and the Latin auster “south” are from a root cognate adjective *aws-t(e)ro-. Also cognate is aurum “gold”, from *awso-. The name for “spring season”, *wes-r- is also from the same root. The dawn goddess was also the goddess of spring, involved in the mythology of the Indo-European new year, where the dawn goddess is liberated from imprisonment by a god (reflected in the Rigveda as Indra, in Greek mythology as Dionysus and Cronus). Besides the name most amenable to reconstruction, *h₂ewsṓs, a number of epithets of the dawn goddess may be reconstructed with some certainty. Among these is *wenos- (also an s-stem), whence Sanskrit vanas “loveliness; desire”, used of Uṣas in the Rigveda, and the Latin name Venus and the Norse Vanir. The name indicates that the goddess was imagined as a beautiful nubile woman, who also had aspects of a love goddess.... The abduction and imprisonment of the dawn goddess, and her liberation by a heroic god slaying the dragon who imprisons her, is a central myth of Indo-European religion, reflected in numerous traditions. Most notably, it is the central myth of the Rigveda, a collection of hymns surrounding the Soma rituals dedicated to Indra in the New Year celebrations of the early Indo-Aryans.

Ēostre or Ostara is a Germanic divinity who, by way of the Germanic month bearing her name... Bede states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent of April), pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in Eostre’s honor... As the Germanic languages descend from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), historical linguists have traced the name to a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn *H₂ewsṓs (→ *Ausṓs)...

Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility, and warfare. She was associated with the planet Venus, and was associated with the eastern fish of the last of the zodiacal constellations, Pisces, while her consort Dumuzi or Tammuz (“faithful or true son”), the name of a Sumerian god of food and vegetation, was associated with the contiguous first constellation, Aries.... Recent discoveries reconfirm him as an annual life-death-rebirth deity: tablets discovered in 1963 show that Dumuzi was in fact consigned to the Underworld himself, in order to secure Inanna’s release, though the recovered final line reveals that he is to revive for six months of each year....

Attis was the consort of Cybele in Phrygian and Greek mythology. His priests were eunuchs, the Galli, as explained by origin myths pertaining to Attis and castration. Attis was also a Phrygian god of vegetation, and in his self-mutilation, death, and resurrection he represents the fruits of the earth, which die in winter only to rise again in the spring....

Baldr is a god in Norse mythology who is given a central role in the mythology...He is the second son of Odin and the goddess Frigg, and the husband of Nanna. Balder is seen as a vegetation god of the dying and rising type, like Adonis, Osiris and Dumuzi...

Divine associations with Pisces include Poseidon/Neptune, Vishnu, Christ, Aphrodite, Eros, and Typhon. Pisces is associated with Aphrodite and Eros, who escaped from the monster Typhon by leaping into the sea and transforming themselves into fish...

The earliest identifiable reference to Aries as a distinct constellation comes from the boundary stones that date from 1350 to 1000 BC. On several boundary stones, a zodiacal ram figure is distinct from the other characters present....In ancient Egyptian astronomy, Aries was associated with the god Amon-Ra, who was depicted as a man with a ram’s head and represented fertility and creativity. Because it was the location of the vernal equinox, it was called the “Indicator of the Reborn Sun”...

In Hellenistic...the golden ram of Greek mythology that rescued Phrixos and Helle on orders from Hermes, taking him to the land of Colchis. Phrixos and Helle were the son and daughter of King Athamas and his first wife Nephele. The king’s second wife, Ino, was jealous and wished to kill his children... It was strongly associated with Mars, both the planet and the god. It was considered to govern Western Europe and Syria, and to indicate a strong temper in a person. The First Point of Aries, the location of the vernal equinox, is named for the constellation....The Sun now appears in Aries from late April through mid May...

Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this sign mostly between March 21 and April 19 each year. Under the sidereal zodiac, the sun currently transits Aries from 15 April to 15 May (approximately). Since 1900 the vernal equinox date ranged from March 20 at 08h (2000) to March 21 at 19h (1903) (all times UTC)... the precise time of the equinox is not the same each year, and generally will occur about 6 hours later each year...

Taurus...is one of the oldest constellations, dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox. Its importance to the agricultural calendar influenced various bull figures in the mythologies of Ancient Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome...Taurus marked the point of vernal (spring) equinox in the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age, from about 4000 BC to 1700 BC, after which it moved into the neighboring constellation Aries.... In Babylonian astronomy, the constellation was listed in the MUL.APIN as Gugalanna (gu.gal.an.na) (the Great Bull of Heaven”), better known as the (GU.AN.NA) (“The Bull of Heaven”), a Sumerian deity as well as the constellation known today as Taurus,...the Northern Hemisphere’s Spring Equinox from about 3,200 bc. The equinox was considered the Sumerian New Year, Akitu, an important event in their religion. The story of the death of Gugalanna has been considered to represent the sun’s obscuring of the constellation as it rose on the morning of the equinox....

In the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest works of literature, the goddess Inanna-Ishtar sends Taurus, the Bull of Heaven, to kill Gilgamesh for spurning her advances. Gugalanna was sent by the gods to take retribution upon Gilgamesh for rejecting the sexual advances of the goddess Inanna. Gugalanna, whose feet made the earth shake, was slain and dismembered by Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu. Inanna looked down from the city walls and Enkidu shook the haunches of the bull at her, threatening to do the same if he ever caught her. He is later killed for this impiety. Gugalanna was the first husband of the Goddess Ereshkigal, the Goddess of the Realm of the Dead, a gloomy place devoid of light. It was to share the sorrow with her sister that Inanna later descends to the Underworld....

In Greek mythology, Taurus was identified with Zeus, who assumed the form of a magnificent white bull to abduct Europa, a legendary Phoenician princess....A second Greek myth portrays Taurus as Io, a mistress of Zeus. To hide his lover from his wife Hera, Zeus changed Io into the form of a heifer....

The Akkadian name was Alu. Alalu is god in Hurrian mythology. He is considered to have housed “the Hosts of Sky”, the divine family, because he was a progenitor of the gods, and possibly the father of Earth....He was identified by the Greeks as Hypsistos. He was also called Alalus. Alalu was a primeval deity of the Hurrian mythology. After nine years of reign, Alalu was defeated by his son Anu (the sky). Anuʻs son Kumarbi, the chief god of the Hurrians, also defeated his father, and his son, the storm-god Teshub, defeated him, too. Alalu fled to the underworld....

Alulim was the first king of Eridu, and the first king of Sumer, according to the mythological antediluvian section of the Sumerian King List. Enki, the god of Eridu, is said to have brought civilization to Sumer at this point, or just shortly before. Professor William Wolfgang Hallo notes that Alulim’s name means “Stag”. The Sumerian King List has the following entry for Alulim: “After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug (Eridu). In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28,800 years.”...

MARKS END OF WINTER , BEGINNING OF NEW YEAR. Holi marks the closing of the winter season. According to the Hindu calendar, Holi is celebrated on the last full moon day or Purnima of the month of Falgun. It falls in the month of February-March according to the English calendar.

Holi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

Holi is an ancient Hindu spring festival, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is celebrated predominantly in India and Nepal... "festival of spring", the "festival of colours", or the "festival of love"... It lasts for a night and a day, starting on the evening of the Purnima (Full Moon day) falling in the Vikram Samvat Hindu Calendar month of Phalgun, which falls somewhere between the end of February and the middle of March in the Gregorian calendar. The first evening is known as Holika Dahan (burning of demon holika) or Chhoti Holi and the following day as Holi....

Holi is an ancient Hindu religious festival... Holi celebrations start on the night before Holi with a Holika Dahan where people gather, perform religious rituals in front of the bonfire, and pray that their internal evil be destroyed the way Holika, the sister of the demon king Hiranyakashipu, was killed in the fire. The next morning is celebrated as Rangwali Holi – a free-for-all festival of colours, where people smear each other with colours and drench each other.... Some customary drinks include bhang (made from cannabis), which is intoxicating...

There is a symbolic legend to explain why Holi is celebrated as a festival of colours in the honour of Hindu god Vishnu...chapter 7 of Bhagavata Purana...The Holika bonfire and Holi signifies the celebration of the symbolic victory of good over evil, of Prahlada over Hiranyakashipu, and of the fire that burned Holika.

In the Braj region of India, where the Hindu deity Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated until Rang Panchmi in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna...

Holi is linked to Shiva in yoga and deep meditation, goddess Parvati wanting to bring back Shiva into the world, seeks help from the Hindu god of love called Kamadeva on Vasant Panchami. The love god shoots arrows at Shiva, the yogi opens his third eye and burns Kama to ashes....This return of the god of love, is celebrated on the 40th day after Vasant Panchami festival as Holi....

Days before the festival people start gathering wood and combustible materials for the bonfire...On the eve of Holi, typically at or after sunset, the pyre is lit, signifying Holika Dahan....In North and Western India, Holi frolic and celebrations begin the morning after the Holika bonfire. There is no tradition of holding puja (prayer), and the day is for partying and pure enjoyment.... Holi is of particular significance in the Braj region, which includes locations traditionally associated with the Lord Krishna...

Mathura, in the Braj region, is the birthplace of Lord Krishna.... Intoxicating bhang, made from cannabis, milk and spices, is consumed with a variety of mouth-watering delicacies, such as pakoras and thandai, to enhance the mood of the festival....

It’s March 25 – Happy Medieval New Year!

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/march-25-0015100

For over a millennium across Europe and beyond this was the date of the New Year. In fact this was the case for Protestant Britain and its colonies, including those in America right up until 1752.... March 25 on the Christian calendar is marked as the Feast of the Annunciation, also known as Lady Day, and it is actually connected with Christmas Day...

“In Egypt, for instance, the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius. The Phoenicians and Persians began their new year with the spring equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice. The first day of the Chinese New Year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice.”...

Hindus must observe Chaitrashukla Pratipada as their New Year. April 2, 2022

THE EYES OF GOD ARE UPON YOU...

The eve of the vernal one was called Aiche Baal tinne the night of Baal's fire. Bel is the Sun.

The eve of the autumnal is Aiche Shamain is the night of the Moon's solemnity. Fires are lit on both nights.

If El is God and b is personality, and if ba is the soul or spirit then it seems that Bel, or Bael is the spirit, and/or personality of God.

Belanos is a Sun God.

In vedic, egyptian, some Irish, and perhaps other religions the sun and moon are the eyes of God...

Beli Mawr (i.e. "Beli the Great"), an ancestor figure in medieval Welsh literature, has also been connected to the theonym, but alternative suggestions connect the name to Gaulish Bolgios and the tribal name of the Belgae.... (Bel Gaels)?

My understanding is Sky Father and Sun worship began in Asia by the Turcs, then by the Indo Europeans. From the following articles about Bel I get the impression Bel is not Indo European. It is possible Bel is a semetic word. But I understood the original semetic religion was not a Sun cult, nor a Sky Father religion. So if Bel is a semetic word for the sun it may not be their original God but, the semites may have adopted a sun cult belief later on when meeting the native Europeans, and/or Aryan/Tur people.

Bel, and its word derivatives were widespread in areas of Egypt, Canaan, mid east, and /or Babylon and beyond as far as the far east, and as far north west of Europe.

Trade routes, and migrations may have spread the Sun God. Rome also contributed to spreading Bel religion. Or since Bel just meant Lord it was used to identify everyones god as a title "Lord" followed by their God. Used so as not to use the name of the God in disrespect saying Bel (Lord) rather than the god's actual name. So that Bel really was Bel to everyone's different god despite it representing many gods.

In Egypt El was God, and b is personality, power and essence, and ba is the soul, or spirit then it seems that Bel, or Bael is the spirit, and/or personality/power of God.

It may also have been used to describe something other than a god like perhaps a tribe, or was used in names of people which later could have been misinterpretted, or became a deified name of a people or chief.

Baal has many features of the Indo European Sky God the Thunderer. So if Bel is a semetic word it must be to describe a Sky God of the Turs, and/or Indo Europeans.

Thus, Bel or Baal or Bael or whatever Bale is a sun of father sky, or is father sky or is the sun or son then it must be a good religion from the native Europeans , Tur or Aryan, or Indo European. (At least to my current understanding)...

Belenus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belenus

Belenus (also Belenos, Belinus, Bel, Beli Mawr) is a sun god from Celtic mythology and, in the 3rd century, the patron deity of the Italian city of Aquileia. Called the "Fair Shining One" (or "The Shining God")... There are 51 known inscriptions dedicated to Belenus, mainly concentrated in Cisalpine Gaul (Aquileia/Carni), Noricum and Gallia Narbonensis, but also extend far beyond into Celtic Britain and Iberia.... Tertullian, writing in c. 200 AD, identifies Belenus as the national god of Noricum. Inscriptions dedicated to Belenus are concentrated in the Eastern Alps and Gallia Cisalpina, but there is evidence that the popularity of the god became more widespread in the Roman period....

comparison with Semitic Bel, Belus. In this context, linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Baal with the same meaning; however, the aforementioned similarities can only remain theory, due to how far removed the cultures in question are....

Baldr = Beldeg (Anglo-Saxon) is a sun god.

Bel (mythology)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_(mythology)

Bel (; from Akkadian bēlu), signifying "lord" or "master", is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in the Mesopotamian religion of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. The feminine form is Belit 'Lady, Mistress'. Bel is represented in Greek as Belos and in Latin as Belus. Linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Baal with the same meaning.

Early translators of Akkadian believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian Enlil was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. Current scholarship holds this as incorrect, but one finds Bel used in referring to Enlil in older translations and discussions.

Bel became especially used for the Babylonian god Marduk and when found in Assyrian and neo-Babylonian personal names or mentioned in inscriptions in a Mesopotamian context it can usually be taken as referring to Marduk and no other god. Similarly Belit without some disambiguation mostly refers to Bel Marduk's spouse Sarpanit. However, Marduk's mother, the Sumerian goddess called Ninhursag, Damkina, Ninmah and other names in Sumerian, was often known as Belit-ili 'Lady of the Gods' in Akkadian.

Other gods called "Lord" could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra is an example, though in the later period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god.

Similarly, Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon as born to Cronus/El in Peraea is certainly most unlikely to be Marduk. Bel of Palmyra, Syria: A god named Bel was the chief-god of Palmyra in pre-Hellenistic times, being worshipped alongside the gods Aglibol and Yarhibol. Originally, he was known as Bol, after the Northwestern Semitic word Ba'al (usually used to refer to the god Hadad), until the cult of Bel Marduk spread to Palmyra and by 213 BC, Bol was renamed to Bel. The temple of Bel was dedicated to this god.

Shamanism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism

Shamanism ( SHAH-men or SHAY-mən) is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world....A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing....

The shaman crosses over to the underworld. This happens so the shaman can venture to its depths to bring back vital information for the sick, and the tribe.

The shaman must become sick to understand sickness. When the shaman overcomes his or her own sickness, s/he will hold the cure to heal all that suffer. This is the uncanny mark of the wounded healer.

Shamans claim to gain knowledge and the power to heal by entering into the spiritual world or dimension. Most shamans have dreams or visions that convey certain messages. The shaman may have or acquire many spirit guides, who often guide and direct the shaman in his/her travels in the spirit world. These spirit guides are always present within the shaman, although others encounter them only when the shaman is in a trance. The spirit guide energizes the shaman, enabling him/her to enter the spiritual dimension. The shaman heals within the spiritual dimension by returning 'lost' parts of the human soul from wherever they have gone....

Shamans act as mediators in their culture. The shaman communicates with the spirits on behalf of the community, including the spirits of the deceased. The shaman communicates with both living and dead to alleviate unrest, unsettled issues, and to deliver gifts to the spirits.

Drum - The beating of the drum allows the shaman to achieve an altered state of consciousness or to travel on a journey between the physical and spiritual worlds....

Feathers – In numerous North and South American cultures, as well as in Europe and Asia, birds are seen as messengers of the spirits. Feathers are often used in ceremonies and in individual healing rituals.

Pipe – Used for smoking various tobaccos and psychoactive herbs (e.g. tobacco in North and South America, cannabis in Eurasia)....

Shamanic practices may originate as early as the Paleolithic, predating all organized religions, and certainly as early as the Neolithic period. The earliest known undisputed burial of a shaman (and by extension the earliest undisputed evidence of shamans and shamanic practices) dates back to the early Upper Paleolithic era (c. 30,000 BP) in what is now the Czech Republic....

Siberia is regarded as the locus classicus of shamanism. The area is inhabited by many different ethnic groups, and many of its peoples observe shamanistic practices, even in modern times. Many classical ethnographic sources of "shamanism" were recorded among Siberian peoples....

Animals are one of the most important elements of indigenous religion in Central Asia because of the role they play in the survival of the nomadic civilizations of the steppes ... Shamans wore animal skins and feathers and underwent transformations into animals during spiritual journeys. In addition, animals served as humans' guides, rescuers, ancestors, totems and sacrificial victims. As a religion of nature, shamanism throughout Central Asia held particular reverence for the relations between sky, earth and water and believed in the mystical importance of trees and mountains. Shamanism in Central Asia also places a strong emphasis on the opposition between summer and winter,...

Some of the prehistoric peoples who once lived in Siberia have dispersed and migrated into other regions...many Uralic peoples live now outside Siberia, however the original location of the Proto-Uralic peoples (and its extent) is debated....this area was north of Central Ural Mountains and on lower and middle parts of Ob River. The ancestors of Hungarian people or Magyars have wandered from their ancestral proto-Uralic area to the Pannonian Basin....

Such practices cannot be generalized easily, accurately, or usefully into a global religion of shamanism. Because of this, Kehoe is also highly critical of the hypothesis that shamanism is an ancient, unchanged, and surviving religion from the Paleolithic period. ... despite really astonishing similarities, there is no unity in shamanism. The various, fragmented shamanistic practices and beliefs coexist with other beliefs everywhere. There is no record of pure shamanistic societies...

Paganism (32 Videos)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcroOUap-NylBcWAle2Dg_8bxpLkcSMlH

Indo-European Pagan beliefs

Georgian Swastika:

BORJGALA-ბორჯღალი-Бо́рджгала

https://youtu.be/cDp5Q6KwTBE

Borjgala- Symbol of Proto-Kartvelian Civilization-is an ancient Georgian symbol of the Sun and is related to the Mesopotamian and Sumerian symbols of the eternity and the Sun.

Evolutionary origin of religions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_origin_of_religions

Prehistoric evidence of religion: When humans first became religious remains unknown, but there is credible evidence of religious behavior from the Middle Paleolithic era (300–500 thousand years ago) and possibly earlier....

The earliest evidence for treatment of the dead comes from Atapuerca in Spain. At this location the bones of 30 individuals believed to be Homo heidelbergensis have been found in a pit. Neanderthals are also contenders for the first hominids to intentionally bury the dead. They may have placed corpses into shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. The presence of these grave goods may indicate an emotional connection with the deceased and possibly a belief in the afterlife....

Organized religion traces its roots to the neolithic revolution that began 11,000 years ago in the Near East but may have occurred independently in several other locations around the world. ...Organized religion emerged as a means of providing social and economic stability...

Writing is thought to have been first invented in either Sumeria or Ancient Egypt and was initially used for accounting. Soon after, writing was used to record myth. The first religious texts mark the beginning of religious history. The Pyramid Texts from ancient Egypt are one of the oldest known religious texts in the world, dating to between 2400–2300 BCE. Writing played a major role in sustaining and spreading organized religion. In pre-literate societies, religious ideas were based on an oral tradition, the contents of which were articulated by shamans and remained limited to the collective memories of the society's inhabitants. ...Writing therefore enabled religions to develop coherent and comprehensive doctrinal systems that remained independent of time and place...

HOLY WEEK BEGINS ON YGGSDRASIL DAY TO MAY DAY. OR FROM THE DAY ODIN SACRIFICED HIMSELF ON THE YGGSDRASIL TREE OF LIFE TO BELTAINE WHEN SUN GOD OR THE ALL FATHER FERTILIZES MOTHER EARTH . OR to the DAY WHEN WASIR (THE GREEN MAN) GOES FORTH FROM HIS MOUNTAIN.

Yggdrasil Day April 22

http://whispersofyggdrasil.blogspot.com/2012/04/yggdrasil-day-22nd-of-april.html

Yggdrasil Day is not an old Northern tradition nor an ancient pagan celebration, it is a new day in the Nordic neo-pagan calendar, however, Yggdrasil has always played an important role in the lifes of the Northern people of Europe....

Odin’s Discovery of the Runes

https://norse-mythology.org/tales/odins-discovery-of-the-runes/

When Odin sought the runes, he wasn’t merely attempting to acquire a set of arbitrary representations of human vocal sounds. Rather, he was uncovering an extraordinarily potent system of magic. At the center of the Norse cosmos stands the great tree Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil’s upper branches cradle Asgard, the home and fortress of the Aesir gods and goddesses, of whom Odin is the chief.

Yggdrasil grows out of the Well of Urd, a pool whose fathomless depths hold many of the most powerful forces and beings in the cosmos. Among these beings are the Norns, three sagacious maidens who exert more influence over the course of destiny than any other beings in the cosmos. One of the foremost techniques they use to shape destiny is carving runes into Yggdrasil’s trunk. The symbols then carry these intentions throughout the tree, affecting everything in the Nine Worlds.

Odin watched the Norns from his seat in Asgard and envied their powers and their wisdom. And he bent his will toward the task of coming to know the runes.

Since the runes’ native home is in the Well of Urd with the Norns, and since the runes do not reveal themselves to any but those who prove themselves worthy of such fearful insights and abilities, Odin hung himself from a branch of Yggdrasil, pierced himself with his spear, and peered downward into the shadowy waters below. He forbade any of the other gods to grant him the slightest aid, not even a sip of water. And he stared downward, and stared downward, and called to the runes.

He survived in this state, teetering on the precipice that separates the living from the dead, for no less than nine days and nights. At the end of the ninth night, he at last perceived shapes in the depths: the runes! They had accepted his sacrifice and shown themselves to him, revealing to him not only their forms, but also the secrets that lie within them. Having fixed this knowledge in his formidable memory, Odin ended his ordeal with a scream of exultation.

Yggdrasil: The tree of life

http://norse-mythology.net/yggdrasil-in-norse-mythology/

Saint George's Day 23 APRIL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George%27s_Day

Saint George as celebrated by various Christian Churches and by the several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint including England, and regions of Portugal and Spain (Catalonia and Aragon).... 23 April is the traditionally accepted date of the saint's death in the Diocletianic Persecution of AD 303.... The earliest documented mention of St. George in England comes from the Catholic monk the venerable Bede (c. 673–735). His feast day is also mentioned in the Durham Collectar, a ninth-century liturgical work. The will of Alfred the Great is said to refer to the saint, in a reference to the church of Fordington, Dorset. At Fordington a stone over the south door records the miraculous appearance of St. George to lead crusaders into battle....

Edward III (1327–1377) put his Order of the Garter (founded c. 1348) under the banner of St. George. This order is still the foremost order of knighthood in England and St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle was built by Edward IV and Henry VII in honour of the order. The badge of the Order shows Saint George on horseback slaying the dragon.... The tradition of celebration St. George's day had waned by the end of the 18th century after the union of England and Scotland.... There have also been calls to replace St. George as patron saint of England on the grounds that he was an obscure figure who had no direct connection with the country....

Iberian peninsula: Saint George is the patron saint of the former Crown of Aragon, since King Peter I of Aragon won the Battle of Alcoraz with his patronage. He is also patron of several cities. In most cases, the reason for those cities' relation with the Saint as their holy Patron is linked to historic events which happened during the "Reconquista."... In Catalonia...a thanksgiving celebration for the proclaimed aid the Saint provided to the Christian troops fighting the Muslims in the siege of the city....

Portugal: Devotions to Saint George in Portugal date back to the twelfth century, and Saint Constable attributed the victory of the Portuguese against what is now mostly modern day Spain, in the battle of Aljubarrota in the fourteenth century to Saint George....

Germany Georgiritt: In tradition-rich Buttenheim and many other towns in Bavaria, Georgiritt (plural Georgiritte), (George's Ride) takes place around St George's Day 23. April...

In Hungary, 24 April is the day of Saint George the Dragonkiller, thus it is the name day of men named György....

Lutheran Churches, those of the Anglican Communion, and the General Calendar of the Roman Rite, the feast of Saint George is normally celebrated on 23 April... Lutheran, Anglican and Catholic calendars celebrated Saint George's Day... the Eastern Orthodox ... in England and Wales the Catholic calendar celebrated Saint George on Monday 24 April 2017 ... The country of Georgia celebrates the feast of St George ... The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the dedication of the Church of St George in Kiev by Yaroslav the Wise in 1051 on 26 November (Julian calendar), which currently falls on 9 December on the Gregorian calendar.... Eastern Orthodox tradition... In Serbian, St. George's Day is called Đurđevdan and is celebrated on 6 May every year... Possibly the most celebrated name day in Bulgaria, St. George's Day is a public holiday that takes place on 6 May each year... In the Greek Orthodox Church, ... In the Georgian Church, St. George the Victory-Bearer is commemorated twice a year: on 23 November (the Breaking on the Wheel of Holy Greatmartyr George) and 6 May (the Beheading of St. George). The Romanian Orthodox Church, which uses the Revised Julian calendar, celebrates St. George's Day on 23 April.

Middle East: Veneration of St. George as a martyr originates in the Levant, spread from Palestine through Lebanon to the rest of the Byzantine Empire – though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac Breviarium – and Georgia in the 4th to 5th centuries. In Georgia, the feast day on 23 November is credited to Saint Nino of Cappadocia, who in Georgian hagiography is a relative of St. George, credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century.... In Mosul, northern Iraq, St. George's Monastery was destroyed in November 2014 by ISIS militants. Saint George's Day (Jeries) is celebrated widely in Jordan, especially in a town near Amman called Fuheis. In Jordan, many churches are dedicated to St. George. St. George's Day is celebrated throughout Lebanon, but especially in towns and villages where churches for St. George have been erected. Many Christian denominations in Syria[which?] celebrate St. George's Day...

Walpurgisnacht 30 April

Walpurgis/Thrimilci

22 April - 1 May: Norse. The festival of Walpurgis, a night both of revelry and darkness. The nine nights of April 22 (interestingly enough, the modern festival of Earth Day) to April 30 are venerated as rememberance of the AllFather's self-sacrifice upon the World Tree Yggdrasil. It was on the ninth night (April 30, Walpurgisnacht) that he beheld the Runes, grasped them, and ritually died for an instant. At that moment, all the Light in the 9 worlds is extinguished, and utter Chaos reigns. At the final stroke of midnight, the Light returns in dazzling brilliance, and the bale-fires are lit. On Walpurgisnacht, the dead have full sway upon the earth; it is the ending night of the Wild Hunt. May 1 is the festival of Thrimilci; the beginning of Summer. Thrimilci is a festival of joy and fertility, much like Ostara; however, most of the Northern World is finally escaping from the snow at this time.

Walpurgis Night

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night

the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia. In Germanic folklore, Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht literally "Witches' Night", is believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the Brocken, ...essentially a midsummer celebration "with witches". ...The current festival is, in most countries that celebrate it, named after the English missionary Saint Walpurga (c. 710–777/9). As Walpurga's feast was held on 1 May (c. 870), she became associated with May Day,...

The 17th-century German tradition of a meeting of sorcerers and witches on May Day eve (Hexennacht, "Witches' Night") is influenced by the descriptions of Witches' Sabbaths in 15th- and 16th-century literature....Influenced by German culture, the night originally stood for the gathering and meeting of witches. ...

Recall prior to the Christianizing of Europe Witches were considered good, and of the highest standings in the tribes. The witches had medicine, helped with births, and general good doings for the folk. It was the Christian Church in the middle ages which began the genocides of the witches defaming them as evil, accusing the witches meetings with the devil, and casting spells, etc... This holiday may be another Christian sabotage of yet another original Native European Holiday to demonize the old beliefs, and inflicting fear, in order to convert the natives to Christianity.

And as with other Native Holidays it is probably originally Nerthus, Frigga, or Freya, who marries Odin with the Germanic Norse as Mother Earth and Father Sky. Among the Celts (Danu, or Brigid marries the Sun God Lugh, Oak King, or the Green Man).

Pagan Holidays: Walpurgis Night and how a British lady went from Catholic saint, to Germanic goddess, to witch and gave us a second Halloween

http://www.gothichorrorstories.com/pagans-and-heathens/pagan-holidays-walpurgis-night-and-how-a-british-lady-went-from-catholic-saint-to-germanic-goddess-to-witch-and-gave-us-a-second-halloween/

Many of the ancient cultures divided the year into just two seasons, summer and winter. The dividing line between the two seasons were Beltane and Samhain...

Despite sharing the same date and many customs, there is a distinct difference between Walpurgis and Beltane. At its most basic, Beltane is primarily Gaelic and celebrated on May 1, whereas Walpurgis is Germanic and often celebrated the night before Beltane. If you were able to go back in time however, you’d realize you’re dealing with rural customs, in areas quite often cut off from much contact with the outside world. From that perspective you’d likely see little difference between the two holidays.

The primary difference between the ancient times and more modern history, is Walpurgis has developed a distinctly witchy flavor. Walpurgis in the Middle Ages concerned itself with protecting yourself from or driving away witches....

Old pagan myths say that on the night of April 30th Wotan married his love Freya on the Brocken in Schierke, on the slopes of the Broken on the night before Beltane....

We find that St. Walburga takes on the mantle of an ancient deity, be it Nehalennia, Nerthus, Holda, Berchta, and over time becomes along with Walpurgis Night, the celebration of the witch.

Waelburga and the Rites of May

http://www.friggasweb.org/walburga.html

MAY 1:

Maypole - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maypole

The fact that they were found primarily in areas of Germanic Europe,...a continuation of a Germanic pagan tradition. One theory holds that they were a remnant of the Germanic reverence for sacred trees, as there is evidence for various sacred trees and wooden pillars that were venerated by the pagans across much of Germanic Europe, including Thor's Oak and the Irminsul. It is also known that, in Norse paganism, cosmological views held that the universe was a world tree, known as Yggdrasil. There is therefore speculation that the maypole was in some way a continuance of this tradition....bore similarities with the May Day garlands which were also a common festival practice in Britain and Ireland....In Sweden and Swedish speaking parts of Finland, the maypole is usually called a midsummer pole, midsommarstång, as it appears at the Midsummer celebrations,...

Interesting similarities of the May Pole Dance with native Amerinds Sun Dance

native american Sun Dance Part 1 1/3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAjw0Z_83jY

Beltane

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane

Beltane is the anglicised name for the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish the name for the festival day is Lá Bealtaine, in Scottish Gaelic Là Bealltainn and in Manx Gaelic Laa Boaltinn/Boaldyn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh—and is similar to the Welsh Calan Mai....

It marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. ... Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers....The aos sí (often referred to as spirits or fairies) were thought to be especially active at Beltane (as at Samhain) and the goal of many Beltane rituals was to appease them. Most scholars see the aos sí as remnants of the pagan gods and nature spirits....

The earliest mention of Beltane is in Old Irish literature from Gaelic Ireland. According to the early medieval texts Sanas Cormaic and Tochmarc Emire, Beltane was held on 1 May and marked the beginning of summer. The texts say that, to protect cattle from disease, the druids would make two fires "with great incantations" and drive the cattle between them... Sometimes the cattle would be driven "around" a bonfire or be made to leap over flames or embers. The people themselves would do likewise. In the Isle of Man, people ensured that the smoke blew over them and their cattle. When the bonfire had died down, people would daub themselves with its ashes and sprinkle it over their crops and livestock....

In Irish, the festival is usually called Lá Bealtaine ("day of Beltane") while the month of May is Mí Bhealtaine ("month of Beltane"). In Scottish Gaelic, the month is called (An) Cèitean or a' Mhàigh, and the festival is Latha Bealltainn. Sometimes the older Scottish Gaelic spelling Bealltuinn is used. ...In modern Scottish Gaelic, Latha Buidhe Bealltainn or Là Buidhe Bealltainn ("the yellow day of Beltane") is used to describe the first day of May. This term Lá Buidhe Bealtaine is also used in Irish and is translated as "Bright May Day". In Ireland it is referred to in a common folk tale as Luan Lae Bealtaine; the first day of the week (Monday/Luan) is added to emphasise the first day of summer. Since the early 20th century it has been commonly accepted that Old Irish Beltaine is derived from a Common Celtic *belo-te(p)niâ, meaning "bright fire". ...

In Ó Duinnín's Irish dictionary (1904), Beltane is referred to as Céadamh(ain) which it explains is short for Céad-shamh(ain) meaning "first (of) summer". The dictionary also states that Dia Céadamhan is May Day and Mí Céadamhan is the month of May....

Bel (mythology) - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_(mythology)

Bel became especially used of the Babylonian god Marduk ... Of course other gods called "Lord" could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra is an example, though in the later period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god. Similarly Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon as born to Cronus/El in Peraea is certainly most unlikely to be Marduk....

Bel was believed to be a patriarch from Armenia, somehow related to Hayk (the supreme God for ancient Armenians)

Bel

http://www.witchipedia.com/god:bel

Bel is cognate with Ba'al. ...Whether "Bel" is the name of the God or His title is sometimes difficult to discern. Bol is identified as the sky God and King of the Gods of ancient Palmyra and Syria with the eagle and lightening bolts as his symbols. His companions were Yarhibol and Aglibol. He was identified with Bel-Marduk and came to be called Bel, which is probably cognate anyway....

The famous code of Hammurabi begins with an invocation Anu, Bel, Marduk (mentioned separately from Bel, but perhaps interchangeably, you read and judge) and Ea and declares that Hammurabi is chosen and called upon by Bel to create this code of laws and bring order to the land: "to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind.

Bel is Mentioned in the Bible ...In Isaiah, the idols of Bel and Nebo are mentioned, scornfully comparing the Gods to beasts of burdens and making fun of their idols. In Jeremiah, the prophet delcares that the idols Bel and Merodach will be destroyed and Babylon conquered.5 And issues more severe threats and trash talk against Bel and Babylon (on behalf of Yaweh) ...

Beltane – Welcome the Sun God – Bel (Belenos)

https://salemsmoon.wordpress.com/gods/beltane-welcome-the-sun-god-bel-belenos/

Bel (Belenos) is the Celtic Sun God, the deity of light, health and healing. Belenos was thought – in some parts of northern Europe – to drive a chariot carrying the Sun’s disc. In his healing aspect, he is associated with healing waters, wells and springs. His cult spread from northern Italy to southern Gaul and Britain. The prefix ‘Bel’ means shining and was often linked with solar and aquatic deities. His name was given to the May festival of Beltane, which means ‘the fire of the God Bel’, and part of the seasonal festival celebrating the rise of the Sun. The wheel, sunburst, head with penumbra or halo are the symbols and associations of Bel.

His ‘wife’ is the goddess Belisama. A Gaulish goddess, she is known from Romano-Gaulish inscriptions that equate her with the Roman goddess Minerva… In Gaulish mythology she is the consort of the god Belenos and this (along with her name) has led to the proposition that she is a goddess of all types of fire (including sun- and moon-light) as well as of crafts. ...

Beltane -- Holiday Details and History

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=holidays&id=2765

Beltane, and its counterpart Samhain, divide the year into its two primary seasons, winter (Dark Part) and summer (Light Part). As Samhain is about honoring Death, Beltane, its counter part, is about honoring Life. It is the time when the sun is fully released from his bondage of winter and able to rule over summer and life once again. Beltane, like Samhain, is a time of "no time" when the veils between the two worlds are at their thinnest. No time is when the two worlds intermingle and unite and the magic abounds! It is the time when the Faeries return from their winter respite, carefree and full of faery mischief and faery delight...

Beltane has been an auspicious time throughout Celtic lore, it is said that the Tuatha de Danaan landed in north-west Connacht on Beltane. ...

On Beltane eve the Celts would build two large fires, Bel Fires, lit from the nine sacred woods. The Bel Fire is an invocation to Bel (Sun God) to bring His blessings and protection to the tribe. The herds were ritually driven between two needfires (fein cigin), built on a knoll. The herds were driven through to purify, bring luck and protect them as well as to insure their fertility before they were taken to summer grazing lands. An old Gaelic adage: "Eadar da theine Bhealltuinn" - "Between two Beltane fires"....

the union of the Goddess and Her Consort, the joining of earth and sun, the endowment of summer. The Goddess has many guises: Danu - The Great Mother, Blodeuwedd (the Flower Bride), Isolt (Iseult, Isolde) and many, many others. The consort can also take many forms including the Green Man, Cernunnos or Tristan.

As Beltane marks this handfasting (wedding) of the Goddess and God, it too marks the reawakening of the earth's fertility in its fullest. This is the union between the Great Mother and her Young Consort, this coupling brings new life on earth. It is on a Spiritual level, the unifying of the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine to bring forth the third, consciousness. On the physical, it is the union of the Earth and Sun to bring about the fruitfulness of the growing season....

The Goddess and the Green Man

https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/beltane

Beltane honours Life. It represents the peak of Spring and the beginning of Summer. Earth energies are at their strongest and most active. All of life is bursting with potent fertility and at this point in the Wheel of the Year, the potential becomes conception. On May Eve the sexuality of life and the earth is at its peak. Abundant fertility, on all levels, is the central theme. The Maiden goddess has reached her fullness. She is the manifestation of growth and renewal, Flora, the Goddess of Spring, the May Queen, the May Bride. The Young Oak King, as Jack-In-The-Green, as the Green Man, falls in love with her and wins her hand. The union is consummated and the May Queen becomes pregnant. Together the May Queen and the May King are symbols of the Sacred Marriage (or Heiros Gamos), the union of Earth and Sky,...Beltane is a Fire Festival. The word 'Beltane' originates from the Celtic God 'Bel', meaning 'the bright one' and the Gaelic word 'teine' meaning fire. Together they make 'Bright Fire', or 'Goodly Fire' and traditionally bonfires were lit to honour the Sun and encourage the support of Bel and the Sun's light to nurture the emerging future harvest and protect the community....

May Day

May 01 Merry-Moon on May 1st weekend, celebration of spring dedicated to Njord and Nerthus. Merrymoon 1, May Day: The first of May is a time of great celebration all across Europe, as the fields get greener and the flowers decorate the landscape with colorful confusion. Freya turns her kindly face to us after the night of Walburg. Celebrate the birth of Spring and the gifts of Freya on this day.

Eve of Bealtaine | Beltane

https://stairnaheireann.net/2022/04/30/eve-of-bealtaine-beltane-5/

At the Beltany Stone Circle, located just south of Raphoe, Co Donegal, the sunrise at Bealtaine is aligned with the only decorated stone in the circle which dates from around 1400-800 BC... The Hill of Uisneach is an ancient ceremonial site in Co Westmeath and in mythology it is the centre of Ireland and is closely associated with the festival of Bealtaine.... Tradition tells that Bealtaine fires were lit and Druidical ceremonies held on the hill. In the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Nemedian Druid Mide lit the first Bealtaine fire there. This fire it was said could be seen from the Hill of Tara and when those at Tara saw it, they lit their fire....

Half way between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice...

Eve of Bealtaine/Beltane

https://stairnaheireann.net/2019/04/30/eve-of-bealtaine-beltane-2/

The Celtic Festival of Bealtaine/Beltane which marks the beginning of summer in the ancient Celtic calendar is a Cross Quarter Day, half way between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. While the Bealtaine Festival is now associated with 1st May, the actual astronomical date is a number of days later.... accompanied with rituals to protect the people from any harm by otherworldly spirits... According to the early medieval texts Sanas Cormaic and Tochmarc Emire, Bealtaine was held on 1st May and marked the beginning of summer. The texts say that, to protect cattle from disease, the druids would make two fires “with great incantations” and drive the cattle between them.

The name Bealtaine derives from the Irish meaning ‘Bright Fire’. Pre-Celtic and Celtic traditions involve the lighting of fires at Sunset. Tonight the dark half of the year ends and the bright half begin. The biggest Celtic festivals in Ireland fall on Cross Quarter days which mark the astronomical half way point between the equinoxes and the solstices....

The Hill of Uisneach is an ancient ceremonial site...Tradition tells that Bealtaine fires were lit and Druidical ceremonies held on the hill. In the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Nemedian Druid Mide lit the first Bealtaine fire there. This fire it was said could be seen from the Hill of Tara and when those at Tara saw it, they lit their fire.... Ancient cultures such as the Neolithic (Stone Age) people who built Newgrange aligned their monuments to the major solar events, the Winter Solstice, the Spring Equinox, the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox. The solar year was further divided to mark the half way points between the major solar events giving the cross quarter days of Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasadh and Samhain.

2019: [Halfway between Spring and Summer is May 5 +/- one day could make Beltane either May 4, 5, or 6. May 4 is a new moon.

Pertaining to Hexenacht the witches meet on Full Moon but on April 30 which is the date for Hexenacht there is no full moon. April 19 was a Full Moon and also the last day of winter on the lunisolar calendar.]

Astronomical Cross Quarter Dates 2015 to 2019

http://hearthandhedge.blogspot.com/2014/11/astronomical-cross-quarter-dates-2015.html

There are two sets of dates which can be used to determine when the cross quarter days fall. The first is simply a set of fixed date...there is also the method where the dates are calculated by the position of the solstices and equinoxes of the year....

2019: Imbolc - February 3; Beltaine - May 5; Lammas - August 7; Samhain - November 7

2020 Equinox, Solstice & Cross-Quarter Moments

https://www.archaeoastronomy.com/2020.html

BELTAINE MAY 4, 2020 1949 CT MAY 5, 2020 0049 UTC

Government Legal Genocide against Pagans :

The Roman Empire Church and State officially began the European Pagan Extermination in 314 CE. Mass exterminations of Native Europeans was in full force by Government under the Papacy which exterminated the Heruli shortly after 493 A.D., the Vandals soon after 533 A.D., and the Ostrogoths in 554 A.D.

Prior to Christianity the Roman Empire Genocides was felt by Native Europeans as the Roman Government expanded stealing lands and murdrering the Native European people.

Although genocides occurred prior to the middle ages the middle ages saw the worst of the Holy Roman Empire Government Extermination Programs:

From 1100 to 1500 CE: 200 MILLION Native Europeans Killed by Government.

From 1500 to 1800 CE: 100 MILLION Native Americans Killed by Government.

In 1454, the Bull Romanus Pontifex was issued by Pope Nicholas V to King Alfonso V of Portugal , which declared war upon all non-Christians worldwide. He specifically sanctioned and promoted the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of all non-Christians and lands under their control.

...Essentially, all Native nations were subject to the ultimate authority of Christendom and the US could then claim possession of any region of indigenous lands.

...The Court essentially affirmed that U.S. law was based upon precedent of the “Law of Nations,” and that it is was permissible, as such, to ignore native rights as they were considered “heathens.” All “unoccupied lands” of America, rightfully belonged to any Christian European nation that claimed them.

...Operating from a standpoint of legal recognition for “discovery,” in 1831, the Supreme Court stated in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia that the Cherokee Nation (and, by default, all Native nations) was not fully sovereign, but “may, perhaps,” be deemed a “domestic dependent nation.”

This decision allowed the federal government to refuse to recognize legal treaties made with Indian nations, as they were no longer considered sovereign nations, but under U.S. government control.

Native American nations were now considered “domestic dependent nations” subject to the federal government’s absolute legislative authority – known as “plenary power.” This power is a direct retardation of the those enumerated in the Constitution, and was never intended by the Founding Fathers.

Somehow an ancient Christian religious doctrine, which allowed for the subjugation of “heathen” non-Christians, was granted legitimacy by the U.S. federal government. This, in turn, allowed the federal government to exert almost complete control over Native nations and their lands.

Five Hundred Years of Injustice:

The Legacy of Fifteenth Century Religious Prejudice

http://ili.nativeweb.org/sdrm_art.html

Origins of the Doctrine of Discovery

How Columbus’ “Discovery” Set Off the Brutal Native American

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/doctrine-discovery-500-years-genocide/#OJBMbZyUIxUqrSL0.30

The Triple Goddess

http://www.crystalinks.com/triplegoddess.html

The triple moon is a Goddess symbol that represents the Maiden, Mother, and Crone as the waxing, full, and waning moon. It is also associated with feminine energy, mystery and psychic abilities. You often see this symbol on crowns or other head-pieces, particularly worn by High Priestesses.

The Maiden represents enchantment, inception, expansion, the female principle, the promise of new beginnings, youth, excitement, and a carefree erotic aura. The Maiden in Greek Mythology is Persephone - purity - and a representation of new beginnings. Other maiden goddesses include: Brigid, Nimue, among others.

The Mother represents ripeness, fertility, fulfillment, stability, and power. The Mother Goddess in Greek mythology is Demeter, representing wellspring of life, giving and compassionate. Other mother goddesses include: Aa, Ambika, Ceres, Astarte, Lakshmi.

The Crone represents wisdom, repose, and compassion. The Crone in Greek mythology is Hecate - wise, knowing, a culmination of a lifetime of experience. Crone goddesses include: Hel, Maman Brigitte, Oya, Sedna, Skuld, and others.

These aspects may also represent the cycle of birth, life and death (and rebirth)...

The Celtic triple spiral or triskele symbol is sometimes called the spiral of life and was found in the Newgrange site from the Bronze Age in Ireland. The triple spiral is an ancient symbol of Celtic beliefs, and was used consistently in Celtic art for 3 millennia. The Celts believed that all life moved in eternal cycles, regenerating at each point. Celts also believed that all important things came in three phases; for example: birth, death and rebirth and mind, body and spirit. ...In neopagan religions, the triple spiral is also used to represent the triple goddess.

Triple Goddess (Neopaganism)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Goddess_(Neopaganism)

The term triple goddess can be used outside of Neopaganism to instead refer to historical goddess triads and single goddesses of three forms or aspects....

"Persephone, who is the third and lowest aspect of our goddess Hecate..."

"be true by the sacred rites of the three-fold goddess"...

Triple deity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_deity

A triple deity (sometimes referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune or triadic, or as a trinity) is three deities that are worshipped as one. Such deities are common throughout world mythology...

Einherjar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einherjar

In Norse mythology, the einherjar (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters") are those who have died in battle and are brought to Valhalla by valkyries. In Valhalla, the einherjar eat their fill of the nightly-resurrecting beast Sæhrímnir, and are brought their fill of mead (from the udder of the goat Heiðrún) by valkyries. The einherjar prepare daily for the events of Ragnarök, when they will advance for an immense battle at the field of Vígríðr; the battle which the "ein" (here meaning single-time) refers to....

Odin is called Valföðr (Old Norse "father of the slain") "since all those who fall in battle are his adopted sons," and that Odin assigns them places in Valhalla and Vingólf where they are known as einherjar.... Odin sends valkyries to every battle, that they allot death to men, and govern victory...

High foretells the events of Ragnarök. After the god Heimdallr awakens all the gods by blowing his horn Gjallarhorn, they will assemble at a thing, Odin will ride to the well Mímisbrunnr and consult Mímir on behalf of himself and his people, the world tree Yggdrasil will shake, and then the Æsir and the einherjar will don their war gear. The Æsir and einherjar will ride to the field Vígríðr while Odin rides before them clad in a golden helmet, mail, and holding his spear Gungnir, and heading towards the wolf Fenrir.

Gangleri asks what will happen after the heavens, earth, and all of the world are burned and the gods, einherjar and all of mankind have died, noting that he had previously been told that "everyone will live in some world or other for ever and ever." High replies with a list of locations, and then describes the re-emerging of the world after Ragnarök.

Ragnorak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k

In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle, foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors. Ragnarök is an important event in Norse mythology, and has been the subject of scholarly discourse and theory throughout the history of Germanic studies.

The event is attested primarily in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In the Prose Edda, and in a single poem in the Poetic Edda, the event is referred to as Ragnarök or Ragnarøkkr (Old Norse "Fate of the Gods" and "Twilight of the Gods" respectively)...

Völuspá

The völva describes the state of humanity:

Brothers will fight

and kill each other,

sisters' children

will defile kinship.

It is harsh in the world,

whoredom rife

— an axe age, a sword age

— shields are riven —

a wind age, a wolf age —

before the world goes headlong.

No man will have

mercy on another....

The gods then do battle with the invaders: Odin is swallowed whole and alive fighting the wolf Fenrir, causing his wife Frigg her second great sorrow (the first being the death of her son, the god Baldr). Odin's son Víðarr avenges his father by rending Fenrir's jaws apart and stabbing it in the heart with his spear, thus killing the wolf. The serpent Jörmungandr opens its gaping maw, yawning widely in the air, and is met in combat by Thor. Thor, also a son of Odin and described here as protector of the earth, furiously fights the serpent, defeating it, but Thor is only able to take nine steps afterward before collapsing. The god Freyr fights Surtr and loses. After this, people flee their homes, and the sun becomes black while the earth sinks into the sea, the stars vanish, steam rises, and flames touch the heavens....

Gylfaginning chapters 52 and 53

At the beginning of chapter 52, Gangleri asks "what will be after heaven and earth and the whole world are burned? All the gods will be dead, together with the Einherjar and the whole of mankind. Didn't you say earlier that each person will live in some world throughout all ages?"

The figure of Third, seated on the highest throne in the hall, responds that there will be many good places to live, but also many bad ones. Third states that the best place to be is Gimlé in the heavens, where a place exists called Okolnir that houses a hall called Brimir—where one can find plenty to drink. Third describes a hall made of red gold located in Niðafjöll called Sindri, where "good and virtuous men will live."[36] Third further relates an unnamed hall in Náströnd, the beaches of the dead, that he describes as a large repugnant hall facing north that is built from the spines of snakes, and resembles "a house with walls woven from branches;" the heads of the snakes face the inside of the house and spew so much venom that rivers of it flow throughout the hall, in which oath breakers and murderers must wade. Third here quotes Völuspá stanzas 38 to 39, with the insertion of original prose stating that the worst place of all to be is in Hvergelmir, followed by a quote from Völuspá to highlight that the dragon Níðhöggr harasses the corpses of the dead there....

High responds that the earth will appear once more from the sea, beautiful and green, where self-sown crops grow.... High reveals that two humans, Líf and Lífþrasir, will have also survived the destruction by hiding in the wood Hoddmímis holt. These two survivors consume the morning dew for sustenance, and from their descendants the world will be repopulated...

Midsummer Jun 21

Midyear 21,

Midsummer: This is the longest day and the shortest night of the year: Now Sunna begins its ling decline, sliding into the darkness which will culminate six months from now at Yule. Identifying the sun with the brightness of Baldur, we celebrate in honor of both. Hold blot to Baldur and High Feast. This was the traditional time for holding the AlThing in ancient times.

Midsummer

20-21 June

Celebration of the Summer Solstice, when the power of the Sun is at its height. It was at this time that most foreign trade was conducted, as well as shipping, fishing expeditions, and raiding. Thus, Midsummer was the festival of power and activity. It was not without its dark side as well. Midsummer was recognized as the longest day of the year; thus, the year began to age after this time and the days grow progressively shorter. The god Baldur is said to have been sacrificed at this time, but is reborn at Jul; the hero Sigurd was also said to have been slain by treachery at Midsummer by his blood-brothers Hagan and Gunthur (Gundahar).

NH-Summer Solstice

2017 Jun 21 05:24:01 Europe/London time (+0100)

Summer Solstice Midsummer/Litha/Alban Hefin, on the summer solstice Celebrated with the lighting of bonfires, feasting and merrymaking. Litha, is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism, especially Wicca, though the New Forest traditions (those referred to as British Traditional Wicca) tend to use the traditional name Midsummer. It is celebrated on the Summer Solstice or close to it. The holiday is considered the turning point at which summer reaches its height and the sun shines longest, but at the same time it is said we are reminded that the days will soon begin to shorten Wed Jun 21 4:24 GMT 2017

Midsummer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litha

Midsummer, also known as St John's Day, is the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, and more specifically the Northern European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice or take place on a day between June 19 and June 25 and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different cultures....

European midsummer-related holidays, traditions, and celebrations are pre-Christian in origin. They are particularly important in geographic Northern Europe ...

Midsummer is also sometimes referred to by some Neopagans as Litha, stemming from Bede's De temporum ratione which provides Anglo-Saxon names for the months roughly corresponding to June and July... The fire festival or Litha – Summer solstice – is a tradition for many neopagans. ... Solstice celebrations still centered on the day of the astronomical summer solstice. Some choose to hold the rite on June 21, even when this is not the longest day of the year, and some celebrate June 24, the day of the solstice in Roman times.... In Wicca, practitioners celebrate on the longest day and shortest night of the year...

The celebration of Midsummer's Eve (St. John's Eve among Christians) was from ancient times a festival of the summer solstice. Bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southward again. ...The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since Neolithic times. ...In Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia, Midsummer's Eve is the greatest festival of the year...

Contemporary national traditions: (depends on which tribe you identify with since each celebrates a little different on a dfferent date.) ...

Litha

http://sacredwicca.jigsy.com/litha

Summer Solstice On or around June 21 when the Sun enters Cancer

Litha, Summer Solstice or Midsummer is a celebration of the Goddess and God at the height of their power. They are the King and Queen of the fertile lands, and together they rule over the fertile, growing Earth. Their mature love for each other ensures the success of the ripening crops. The Goddess heavy with pregnancy mirroring the heavily laden fields, orchards and gardens. The God is the living representation of the summer sun, the Sun King who nurtures and protects the Earth Goddess.

The Sun God of Litha is also the Oak King, God of the light half of the year. The Oak King is also at the height of His power, but a new challenge to his authority, the Holly King, God of the dark half of the year, is born on Summer Solstice. Though Litha marks the zenith of the Sun and the day of the longest light, it is also a day of sadness. From this day forward the Oak King/Sun King will begin to falter and weaken, for with birth comes death, the birth of the Holly King brings the death of the light half of the year and we begin to spiral into the darkness. We have begun to move towards winter.

The power of the Sun at Solstice is protective, healing, empowering, revitalizing and inspiring. It adds a powerful charge to all spells, crystals and herbs. Divination on this night is traditional.

Summer Solstice - Alban Hefin

http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-festivals/summer-solstice-alban-hefin

The name for the festival of the Summer Solstice in Druidry is Alban Hefin, which means 'The Light of the Shore'. Druidry has a great respect and reverence for places that are 'in between' worlds. The seashore is one such place, where the three realms of Earth, Sea and Sky meet. There is great power in places such as these. It is the time of greatest light when the Solar God is crowned by the Goddess as the King of Summer. It also brings some sadness because from now until Alban Arthan, the Sun's strength is declining and we have entered the waning year. For some this is the time of the Dark Twin, or Holly King, who is born and will take his crown at Alban Arthan. Of all the festivals Druidry is mostly associated with Alban Hefin. The wonderful white-robed figures filmed at the dawn rituals at Stonehenge are testament to this. However, to many Druids it is the turning seasons and the cycle of life, death and rebirth - reflected in the Wheel of the Year in its completeness - which are significant.

Litha - Summer Solstice

http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/the_wheel_of_the_year/litha_-_summer_solstice.asp

21st/22nd June Midsummer or the Summer Solstice is the most powerful day of the year for the Sun God. Because this Sabbat glorifies the Sun God and the Sun, fire plays a very prominent role in this festival. ... Most cultures of the Northern Hemisphere mark Midsummer in some ritualised manner and from time immemorial people have acknowledged the rising of the sun on this day. At Stonehenge, the heelstone marks the midsummer sunrise as seen from the centre of the stone circle.

In ancient times, the Summer Solstice was a fire-festival of great importance when the burning of balefires ritually strengthened the sun. ...The Celts would light balefires all over their lands from sunset the night before Midsummer until sunset the next day....

History of Litha, the Pagan Summer Solstice

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-summer-solstice-holiday-litha-2562244

Practices of the ancient Celts .. indicate that Midsummer was celebrated with hilltop bonfires and that it was a time to honor the space between earth and the heavens. When they arrived in the British Isles, the Saxon invaders brought with them the tradition of calling the month of June . They marked Midsummer with huge bonfires that celebrated the power of the sun over darkness. For people in Scandinavian countries and in the farther reaches of the Northern hemisphere, Midsummer was very important....

Litha has often been a source of contention among modern Pagan and Wiccan groups, because there's always been a question about whether or not Midsummer was truly celebrated by the ancients. While there's scholarly evidence to indicate that it was indeed observed, there were suggestions made by Gerald Gardner, the founder of modern Wicca, that the solar festivals (the solstices and equinoxes) were actually added later and imported from the Middle East....

In some traditions, Litha is a time at which there is a battle between light and dark. The Oak King is seen as the ruler of the year between winter solstice and summer solstice, and the Holly King from summer to winter. At each solstice they battle for power, and while the Oak King may be in charge of things at the beginning of June, by the end of Midsummer he is defeated by the Holly King....

Outside the Circle: The Bad Fairies Of Litha

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2016/06/outside-the-circle-the-bad-fairies-of-litha/

Litha or Midsummer, a time of bonfires, mugwort, mythical beings, nights and days of mischief and love. The veil is thin. The Celts, the Norse and the Slavs believed that there were three ‘spirit nights’ in the year when magic ran amok and the Otherworld was near. The first was Halloween, the second was May Eve and the third was Midsummer Eve. All sorts of enchantments are in the air now and Spirits and Fairies abound. What follows here are some of them. These are not your good fairies but tricksters and darker spirits...

Litha Legends and Lore

Myths and Mysteries of the Midsummer Solstice

https://www.thoughtco.com/litha-legends-and-lore-2562233

Deities of Litha

Gods and Goddesses of the Summer Solstice

https://www.thoughtco.com/deities-of-litha-2562232

Lugh (Celtic), Sunna or Sol (Germanic),

List of solar deities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_deities

Sól (sun)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B3l_(sun)

Sól, or Sunna...is the Sun personified in Germanic mythology....

The Legend of the Holly King and the Oak King

https://www.thoughtco.com/holly-king-and-the-oak-king-2562991

A Midsummer Ritual 2014

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2014/06/a-midsummer-ritual-2014/

Litha Sonnwende

https://youtu.be/pRJGyBOBoEc?list=PLlw-TK7KiikZbnzgWqJFnGVIZMgotkvnB

Avebury summer solstice celebration 2010 part 3

https://youtu.be/Aap_8XBoHp8?list=PL9EE1A5433F51A017

litha Island Midsommar 2017

https://youtu.be/LMhsdeUkNrk

Litha, or Midsummer is a time to honor the Sun God, or to others Sky Father. This is the time of his greatest powers. Before the advent of the Sun God it was Father Sky who was honored for the Sun and all things of the Heavens. But as the beliefs gave birth to the Gods, and Goddesses Father Sky and Mother Earth gave way to the changes of practices of honor. So that to various peoples have different names for their Sun God, or Goddess. I think the Father is the original power we must observe. (this just my personal belief.) I think the Sumerians may have started the concept of dividing powers to the sons and daughters of Father Sky and Mother Earth so the perversion of the original belief thus began with the first city state concept. Prior to Sumer I think it was only Father Sky / Mother Earth. (personal opinion).

Sky father

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_father

sky father is a term for a recurring concept of a sky god who is addressed as a "father", often the father of a pantheon. The concept of "sky father" may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics. The concept is complementary to an "earth mother"....

The Indo-European Sky Father (Survive the Jive)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIfB1LI79OQ

Dyeus = daylight sky god = old Irish dia = Sanskrit deva = latin dei = old norse tivar =

Lithuanian Dievas = Greek Zeus = Latin (Jupiter) djous pater =

Vedic Sanskrit = Dyauspitr = the bull

Twin Horses Hengest and Horsa progenitors of the english race claim descent from sky father Wodan....

Sky deity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_deity

List of sky deities:

The following is a list of sky deities in various polytheistic traditions, by ethno-linguistic or geographic grouping....

Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice

https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/summer-solstice.html

June Solstice in Universal Coordinated Time is on

Thursday, June 21, 2018 at 10:07 UTC

June Solstice in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA is on

Thursday, June 21, 2018 at 5:07 am CDT

Sunday - Lord Surya’s worship day | The Sun God | Artha | AMAZING FACTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooUZhiS4yBs

Surya

https://www.ancient.eu/Surya/

god of the Sun... He is considered the creator of the universe... Each day he travels across the sky in his golden chariot pulled by seven horses and driven by red Aruna, a personification of Dawn...

Surya is considered to dwell in and protect shrines... The god had many temples and shrines across ancient India but certainly the most celebrated temple built in honour of Surya is in the Orissa region at Konarak. Constructed in the 13th century CE using sandstone... Surya wearing a conical crown and standing above his seven chariot horses....Depictions of the god on Ossian temples show Surya holding lotuses in each hand and wearing a jewelled crown and loincloth....

Summer solstice celebration in Latvia by burning a hey statue to welcome rizing sun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQocahhZHlY

Maypole - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maypole

Interesting similarities of the May Pole Dance with native Amerinds Sun Dance

native american Sun Dance Part 1 1/3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAjw0Z_83jY

SUMMER SOLSTICE 2021: JUNE 20 22:32 CT, JUNE 21 03:32 UTC, 04:32 WEUR

Summer Solstice

https://www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/history-of-summer-solstice

In Ancient Egypt, the summer solstice corresponded with the rise of the Nile River....

Midsummer....Litha...St. John’s Day... ancient Greek calendars, the summer solstice marked the start of the New Year.... Kronia, a festival celebrating Cronus, the god of agriculture... In the days leading up to the summer solstice, the ancient Romans celebrated Vestalia, a religious festival in honor of Vesta, goddess of the hearth....

ancient China, the summer solstice was associated with “yin,” the feminine force...

ancient Northern and Central European pagans (including Germanic, Celtic and Slavic groups) welcomed Midsummer with bonfires....

Midsummer was a crucial time of year for the Vikings, who would meet to discuss legal matters and resolve disputes around the summer solstice.... The Sioux, for instance, performed a ceremonial sun dance around a tree while wearing symbolic colors....In some parts of Scandinavia, Maypoles are erected and people dance around them at Midsummer instead of May Day....

Connecting to the Ancient Roots of the Summer Solstice

https://vikasayoga.com/connecting-to-the-ancient-roots-of-the-summer-solstice/

Ancient Egypt...Shortly after Sirius arrived each year, the Nile would overflow its banks and the flood season would begin, which the Egyptians relied on to nourish the land. They believed that Sirius was responsible for the flooding and set their calendar based on the star’s arrival in the night sky. As soon as the priests saw Sirius they declared that the New Year had begun....

The summer solstice was not a time for celebration in ancient Mesopotamia, but one of mourning. In Babylon the solstice meant intense heat, disease and famine. They saw it as a “dead season” and so they associated it with the rising power of the god Nergal, god of war and pestilence. They held a six day funeral for Tammuz, the god of food and vegetation because it was assumed he must die each year at this time....

In ancient Gaul the celebration was called the Feast of Epona and honored a mare goddess of fertility who protected horses. The Celtic Druids celebrated a Midsummer festival at the June solstice.... ANCIENT GREEKS...Prometheia, which celebrated the Titan Prometheus, and Kronia, honoring the agricultural god Cronus....the summer solstice was also the first day of the New Year.... ANCIENT ROMANS...honoring the goddess Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, sacred to women and protector of marriage and virginity. In the weeks leading up to the solstice, the festival of Vestalia was celebrated and the Vestal temple was opened for all women to visit and make sacrifices. The Vestal Virgins would bake a sacred cake as an offering to Vesta using consecrated water carried from a holy spring.

Newgrange And The Winter and Summer Solstices

https://vagabondtoursofireland.com/blog-summer-winter-solstice-newgrange-traditions

The calendar of the ancient Irish was based around the high-, mid- and low- points of the sun.... Perhaps the most astounding thing about Newgrange is its great age. The passage tomb is older than Stonehenge in England. It is also, believe it or not, older than the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.... The Druidic name for the Summer Solstice is Alban Hefin, which means the 'The Light of the Shore' or 'Light of Summer'....

In Pagan traditions, the legend of the Oak King and the Holly King were told to explain the Summer and Winter Solstices. On the 21st of June, the Oak King is reputedly at his strongest....

EGYPTIAN NEW YEAR, FLOOD OF NILE BEGINS WITH RISING OF SIRIUS USED TO BE AT SUMMER SOLSTICE NOW IN JULY...

Egyptian calendar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_calendar

link between the heliacal rising of Sirius and the beginning of their year... With its interior effectively rainless for thousands of years, ancient Egypt was "a gift of the river" Nile, whose annual flooding organized the natural year into three broad natural seasons...

As early as the reign of Djer (c. 3000 BC, Dynasty I), yearly records were being kept of the flood's high-water mark... astronomical observations of Sirius whose reappearance in the sky closely corresponded to the average onset of the Nile flood through the 5th and 4th millennium BC....

The Egyptians appear to have used a purely lunar calendar prior to the establishment of the solar civil calendar in which each month began on the morning when the waning crescent moon could no longer be seen...

A FESTIVAL CALENDAR OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS ***

http://www.panhistoria.com/www/AncientEgyptianVirtualTemple/calendar1.html

Month:Mesore

Egyptian Gregorian Festival/Celebration

8 June 21 Summer Solstice; Wadjet ceremony

19 July 2 Wadjet eye has returned complete

30 July 13 Birthday of Ra

THE EPAGOMENAL DAYS

Egyptian Gregorian Festival/Celebration

1 July 14 Birthday of Wasir (Osiris)

2 July 15 Birthday of Heru-Dunawhy

3 July 16 Birthday of Set

4 July 17 irthday of Aset (Isis)

5 July 18 Birthday of Nebet-Het (Nephthys)

June 21 Summer Solstice; Wadjet ceremony

http://www.panhistoria.com/www/AncientEgyptianVirtualTemple/calendar1.html

Wadjet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadjet

Ancient Egyptian: wꜢḏyt "Green One"...ancient local goddess of the city of Dep...

Greeks called Buto (now Desouk), which was an important site in prehistoric Egypt and the cultural developments of the Paleolithic. There was also a Per-Wadjet in Upper Egypt....protector of Lower Egypt...The image of Wadjet with the sun disk is called the uraeus, and it was the emblem on the crown of the rulers of Lower Egypt. She was also the protector of kings and of women in childbirth. Wadjet was said to be the nurse of the infant god Horus. With the help of his mother Isis, they protected Horus from his treacherous uncle, Set, when they took refuge in the swamps of the Nile Delta.

Wadjet was closely associated in ancient Egyptian religion with the Eye of Ra,...Much later, Wadjet became associated with Isis as well as with many other deities....

depicted as a snake-headed woman or a snake—usually an Egyptian cobra...

Wadjet was associated with the Nile Delta region and was more associated with the world of the living. She was closely linked to pharaohs as a protective deity....

What is the Wadjet Festival?

The "Going Forth of Wadjet" was celebrated on December 25 with chants and songs. An annual festival held in the city celebrated Wadjet on April 21. Other important dates for special worship of her were June 21, the summer solstice, and March 14. She also was assigned the fifth hour of the fifth day of the moon.

7 Ancient Monuments in the World Built Around the Summer Solstice

https://www.rd.com/list/ancient-monuments-summer-solstice/

Stonehenge, England...The first monument on the site was an early henge monument, built about 5,000 years ago. But the stone circle most people think of when they think of Stonehenge was erected in the late Neolithic period, around 2500 BC, near some early Bronze Age burial mounds... the main axis of the stones is aligned upon the solstitial axis, according to English Heritage...

The Temple of Karnak, Egypt...in Luxor is the modern-day name for the ancient site of the Temple of Amun in what was formerly known as Thebes. Ancient Egyptians believed that Thebes was the first city founded on the primordial mound that rose from the waters when the world was created. The Temple of Karnak was built on the site where the mound was...Dedicated to Amun, the god of sun and air, the temple was designed so that the inner sanctum—as well as its western gate—was perfectly aligned with sunset at the summer solstice...

Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico,... Pyramid of Chichen Itza, Mexico,... Temple of the Sun at Machu Picchu, Peru,... Mnajdra Temple, Malta,...

Pagan and Wiccan Symbols

https://www.thoughtco.com/pagan-and-wiccan-symbols-4123036

Fairy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy

A fairy (also fay, fae, fair folk; from faery, faerie, "realm of the fays") is a type of mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore, a form of spirit... Fairies have their historical origin in the conflation of Celtic (Breton, Welsh) traditions in the Middle French medieval romances....The Celtic Revival viewed them as part of Ireland's cultural heritage...

The early modern fairies do not have any single origin, representing a conflation of disparate elements of folk belief, influenced by literature and speculation. Their origins are less clear in the folklore, being variously dead, or some form of demon, or a species completely independent of humans or angels...

According to King James in his dissertation Daemonologie, the term "faries" was used to describe illusory spirits (demonic entities) that prophesy, consort, and transport individuals they served....

Another, perhaps incorrect, theory is that some fairies were originally worshiped as minor deities, such as nymphs or tree spirits,...Yet another belief was that the fairies were demons entirely....

Spirits of the dead: One popular belief was that they were the dead...

At one time it was a common belief that fairy folklore evolved from folk memories of a prehistoric race. It was suggested that newcomers drove out the original inhabitants, and the memories of this defeated, hidden people developed into the fairy beliefs we have today....

The Tuath(a) Dé Danann are a race of supernaturally-gifted people in Irish mythology. They are thought to represent the main deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland. Many of the Irish tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann refer to these beings as fairies, though in more ancient times they were regarded as goddesses and gods. The Tuatha Dé Danann were spoken of as having come from islands in the north of the world or, in other sources, from the sky. After being defeated in a series of battles with other otherworldly beings, and then by the ancestors of the current Irish people, they were said to have withdrawn to the sídhe (fairy mounds), where they lived on in popular imagination as "fairies."...

The aos sí is the Irish term for a supernatural race in Irish and Scottish, comparable to the fairies or elves. They are variously said to be ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods. A common theme found among the Celtic nations describes a race of diminutive people who had been driven into hiding by invading humans. In old Celtic fairy lore the Aos Sí (fairy folk) are immortals living in the ancient barrows and cairns. The Irish banshee (Irish Gaelic bean sí or Scottish Gaelic bean shìth, which both mean "woman of the fairy mound") is sometimes described as a ghost... Rowan trees (Mtn. Ash) are considered sacred to the fairies...

In Scottish folklore, fairies are divided into the Seelie Court, the more beneficently inclined (but still dangerous) fairies, and the Unseelie Court, the malicious fairies....In terms of protective charms, wearing clothing inside out, church bells, St. John's wort, and four-leaf clovers are regarded as effective. In Newfoundland folklore, the most popular type of fairy protection is bread,... fairy forts (mounds) were left undisturbed;... Fairy trees, such as thorn trees (Hawthorn) were dangerous to chop down;...

Sometimes fairies are described as assuming the guise of an animal.[64] In Scotland it was peculiar to the fairy women to assume the shape of deer; while witches became mice, hares, cats, gulls, or black sheep....A common feature of the fairies is the use of magic to disguise appearance. Fairy gold is notoriously unreliable, appearing as gold when paid but soon thereafter revealing itself to be leaves, gorse blossoms, gingerbread cakes, or a variety of other comparatively worthless things....

The Religion of the Ancient Celts By J. A. MacCulloch [1911]

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/rac/

Cernunnos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos

Cernunnos is the conventional name given in Celtic studies to depictions of the "horned god" of Celtic polytheism. Cernunnos was a Celtic god of fertility, life, animals, wealth, and the underworld. The name itself is only attested once, on the 1st-century Pillar of the Boatmen, but he appears all over Gaul, and among the Celtiberians. Cernunnos is depicted with the antlers of a stag, sometimes carries a purse filled with coin, often seated cross-legged and often associated with animals and holding or wearing torcs, are known from over 50 examples in the Gallo-Roman period, mostly in north-eastern Gaul.

Not much is known about the god from literary sources, and details about his name, his followers or his significance in Celtic religion are unknown. Speculative interpretations identify him as a god of nature, life or fertility.

The theonym [C]ernunnos appears on the Pillar of the Boatmen, a Gallo-Roman monument dating to the early 1st century CE, to label a god depicted with stag's antlers in their early stage of annual growth. Both antlers have torcs hanging from them.

The name has been compared to a divine epithet Carnonos in a Celtic inscription written in Greek characters at Montagnac, Hérault ...

The Proto-Celtic form of the theonym is reconstructed as either *Cerno-on-os or *Carno-on-os. The augmentative -on- is characteristic of theonyms, as in Maponos, Epona, Matronae, and Sirona. ...the Celtic word for "horn" has an a (as in Carnonos)....Celtic polities, most prominent among them the Carnutes, meaning something like "the Horned Ones," ...

The name Cernunnos occurs only on the "Pillar of the Boatmen" ... Constructed by Gaulish sailors probably in 14 CE,...site of ancient Lutetia, the civitas capital of the Celtic Parisii.... Gallic deities ...

Additional evidence is given by one inscription on a metal plaque from Steinsel-Rëlent in Luxembourg, in the territory of the Celtic Treveri. This inscription read Deo Ceruninco, "to the God Cerunincos", assumed to be the same deity. The Gaulish inscription from Montagnac reads αλλετ[ει]νος καρνονου αλ[ι]σο[ντ]εας (Alletinos [dedicated this] to Carnonos of Alisontea), with the last word possibly a place name based on Alisia, "service-tree" or "rock" (compare Alesia, Gaulish Alisiia)....

God of Etang-sur-Arroux, a possible depiction of Cernunnos. He wears a torc at the neck and on the chest. Two snakes with ram heads encircle him at the waist. Two cavities at the top of his head are probably designed to receive deer antlers. Two small human faces at the back of his head indicate that he is tricephalic....

In spite of the name Cernunnos being attested nowhere else, it is commonly used in Celtological literature as describing all comparable depictions of horned/antlered deities.

This "Cernunnos" type in Celtic iconography is often portrayed with animals, in particular the stag, and also frequently associated with the ram-horned serpent, and less frequently bulls (at Rheims), dogs and rats. Because of his frequent association with creatures, scholars often describe Cernunnos as the "Lord of the Animals" or the "Lord of Wild Things", and Miranda Green describes him as a "peaceful god of nature and fruitfulness"...

The Pilier des nautes links him with sailors and with commerce, suggesting that he was also associated with material wealth...

Other examples of "Cernunnos" images include a petroglyph in Val Camonica in Cisalpine Gaul. The antlered human figure has been dated as early as the 7th century BCE or as late as the 4th. An antlered child appears on a relief from Vendeuvres, flanked by serpents and holding a purse and a torc. The best known image appears on the Gundestrup cauldron found on Jutland, dating to the 1st century BCE, thought to depict Celtic subject matter though usually regarded as of Thracian workmanship.

Divine representations of the Cernunnos type are exceptions to the often-expressed view that the Celts only began to picture their gods in human form after the Roman conquest of Gaul....

There have been attempts to find the cern root in the name of Conall Cernach, the foster brother of the Irish hero Cuchulainn in the Ulster Cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conall_Cernach

Cernunnos, as the Gaulish manifestation of the Roman Dis Pater, is considered to share the latter’s attributes of ruling over the hidden treasures of the underworld. Subterranean treasures were commonly linked in Medieval Bestiaries to the serpent, the occupant of the underground, or otherworld, and the keeper of its treasures and mysteries....

The anti-climatic nature of the eighth-century Irish tale then gains significant clarity in the light of the relationship between a horned or antler-bearing deity, warrior, or progenitor, and the chthonic dwelling, treasure-guarding serpent that encircled the waist of the one it chose to protect. This universal Celtic concept comes down to us as a mere echo of its ancient self through centuries of the Christianization of Ireland. The Gaelic Cernunnos may now possibly only be found in the slight similarity of a name and the peculiarity of a single passage from a Middle Ages Irish epic....

Torc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torc

A torc,... is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. ...Torcs are found in the Scythian, Illyrian, Thracian, Celtic, and other cultures of the European Iron Age from around the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. For the Iron Age Celts the gold torc seems to have been a key object, identifying the wearer as a person of high rank, and many of the finest works of ancient Celtic art are torcs. The Celtic torc disappears in the Migration Period, but during the Viking Age torc-style metal necklaces, now mainly in silver, came back into fashion....

The word comes from Latin torquis..., from torqueo, "to twist", because of the twisted shape many of the rings have. Typically, neck-rings that open at the front when worn are called "torcs" and those that open at the back "collars". Smaller bracelets and armlets worn around the wrist or on the upper arm sometimes share very similar forms. Torcs were made from single or multiple intertwined metal rods, or "ropes" of twisted wire....

Other examples twist a bar with a square or X section, or just use round wire, with both types in the three 12th– or 11th-century BC specimens found at Tiers Cross, Pembrokeshire, Wales....To the East, torcs appear in Scythian art from the Early Iron Age...Torcs are found in the Tolstaya burial and the Karagodeuashk kurgan (Kuban area), both dating to the 4th century BC. ...

Depictions of the gods and goddesses of Celtic mythology sometimes show them wearing or carrying torcs, as in images of the god Cernunnos wearing one torc around his neck, with torcs hanging from his antlers or held in his hand, as on the Gundestrup cauldron. This may represent the deity as the source of power and riches, as the torc was a sign of nobility and high social status....

One of the earliest known depictions of a torc can be found on the Warrior of Hirschlanden (6th century BC), and a high proportion of the few Celtic statues of human figures, mostly male, show them wearing torcs....

Torcs were clearly valuable, and often found broken in pieces, so being a store of value may have been an important part of their use. It has been noted that the Iberian gold examples seem to be made at fixed weights that are multiples of the Phoenician shekel....Pliny the Elder records that after a battle in 386 BC (long before his lifetime) the Romans recovered 183 torcs from the Celtic dead,...The c. 150 torcs found in the lands of the Iberian Celts of Galicia favoured terminals ending in balls coming to a point or small buffer ("pears"), or a shape with a double moulding called scotiae....

Ásatrú holidays Freyfaxi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81satr%C3%BA_holidays#Freyfaxi

1 August Lammas (Freyfaxi) one of the "lesser blessings"; The name Lammas or "Loaf-fest" refers to an Anglo-Saxon festival of the wheat harvest; the name Freyfaxi refers to a tradition of horse sacrifice to Freyr.

Horse sacrifice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_sacrifice

Many Indo-European religious branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ritual. Often horses are sacrificed in a funerary context, and interred with the deceased, a practice called horse burial. There is evidence but no explicit myths from the three branches of Indo-Europeans of a major horse sacrifice ritual based on a mythical union of Indo-European kingship and the horse. The Indian Aśvamedha is the clearest evidence preserved, but vestiges from Latin and Celtic traditions allow the reconstruction of a few common attributes....

The reconstructed myth involves the coupling of a king with a divine mare which produced the divine twins. A related myth is that of a hero magically twinned with a horse foaled at the time of his birth (for example Cuchulainn, Pryderi), ... Vedic (Indian) ...Roman ...Irish ...Norse...

The primary archaeological context of horse sacrifice are burials, notably chariot burials, but graves with horse remains reach from the Eneolithic well into historical times. ...burials in Iron Age India. ...is continued by Turkic tribes.

Freyfaxi or Hlæfæst and Honoring Freyr

http://www.paganprincesses.com/freyfaxi-or-hlaefaest-and-honoring-freyr/

One of the main ideas behind hard polytheism** is the idea of tribal gods – that certain gods associate themselves with certain people, becoming the patron gods of a particular tribe. So Zeus, Posiedon, Aphrodite, etc. are patron gods of the Greek people. Lugh, Morrigan, Bridget, Epona, etc. are gods that watch over the Celts. Isis, Seth, Osiris, Horus, etc, are the tribal gods of the Egyptians. Jehovah is the tribal god of the Jews. Shiva, Ganesh, Lakshmi, Kali, etc are the tribal gods of India. ...

The Northern people extended tribalism and recognized two sets of gods – the Aesir and the Vanir – although they only worshipped the Aesir. According to Norse myth, there was a great war between the Aesir and the Vanir which ended in favor of the Vanir, although it was a tough fight on both sides. The peace treaty included an exchange of hostages, and the Vanir sent the Aesir three of their favorite members – Njörðr (say Nyore-thur, with the “th” like “they”) and his twin children Frejya [Fray-uh] and Freyr. The three Vanir quickly integrated themselves into their new home in Asgard, and the twins Frejya and Freyr became two of the most worshipped deities of the North.... Freyr is a fertility deity,...

Odin was appealed to during times of war for his cunning and battle rages, civilized Freyr was turned to during times of peace.... Freyr is also ruler of the elves and when he cut his first tooth the other gods gave him Alfheim as a present (Elf-home; ...He owns a magical boat called Skíðblaðnir [skeeth-blawth-near] that always has a favorable wind and will fold up to fit in your pocket, and he rides a chariot pulled by a boar called Golden Bristles (because his bristles glow in the dark). ...

The Holy Tides – Hlæfmæsse /Freyfaxi

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2010/08/wyrd-designs-%E2%80%93-the-holy-tides-%E2%80%93-hl%C3%A6fm%C3%A6sse-freyfaxi/

(Hrafnkel’s Saga and Vatnsdæla Saga) reveals that Freyfaxi was a name used to describe two different horses, both owned by people strongly dedicated to Freyr. The name of the horse reveals much, first the inclusion of the name Frey references that horse’s special connection to the God, and faxi meaning eye-catching mane was a common name used for horses....

In the Germanic tradition, and seen also among the Scandinavian sources horses were incredibly sacred. Tacitus’ Germania describes them as being milk-white, and similar to the sanctuary we see centuries later at Thrandheim the equines were housed in sacred groves where they were never used for the purposes of riding or working the land. Horses in Germania were described as being more sacredly close to the Gods then even their priests; somehow these horses were in the Gods’ confidence. For this reason horses were used to divine the will of the Gods. They were yoked to a special sort of chariot and their behavior observed. ...

As a fertility deity Freyr would be intimately tied to the land and the food grown upon it.... Many will also reach out to include other Deities connected with the earth like Nerthus or Eorde....

Frey Faxi Blot

http://www.theasatrucommunity.org/frey-faxi-blot

Freyr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyr

Freyr (Old Norse: Lord), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested god associated with sacral kingship, virility and prosperity, with sunshine and fair weather, and pictured as a phallic fertility god in Norse mythology. Freyr is said to "bestow peace and pleasure on mortals". Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden and seen as an ancestor of the Swedish royal house.

In the Icelandic books the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr is presented as one of the Vanir, the son of the sea god Njörðr, as well as the twin brother of the goddess Freyja. The gods gave him Álfheimr, the realm of the Elves, as a teething present. He rides the shining dwarf-made boar Gullinbursti and possesses the ship Skíðblaðnir which always has a favorable breeze and can be folded together and carried in a pouch when it is not being used....

Adam of Bremen: Written around 1080, one of the oldest written sources on pre-Christian Scandinavian religious practices is Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum. Adam claimed to have access to first-hand accounts on pagan practices in Sweden. He refers to Freyr with the Latinized name Fricco..."In this temple, entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor, occupies a throne in the middle of the chamber; Woden and Frikko have places on either side. The significance of these gods is as follows: Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and lightning, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops. The other, Woden—that is, the Furious—carries on war and imparts to man strength against his enemies. The third is Frikko, who bestows peace and pleasure on mortals. His likeness, too, they fashion with an immense phallus." Gesta Hammaburgensis 26, Tschan's translation ...

"Njördr in Nóatún begot afterward two children: the son was called Freyr, and the daughter Freyja; they were fair of face and mighty. Freyr is the most renowned of the Æsir; he rules over the rain and the shining of the sun, and therewithal the fruit of the earth; and it is good to call on him for fruitful seasons and peace. He governs also the prosperity of men." Gylfaginning XXIV, Brodeur's translation ...

According to the Prose Edda, Freyr had to fight Beli without his sword and slew him with an antler. But the result at Ragnarök, the end of the world, will be much more serious. Freyr is fated to fight the fire-giant Surtr and since he does not have his sword he will be defeated. In the Íslendingabók, Freyr's sword is known as Sumarbrandr....

boar Gullinbursti whose mane glows to illuminate the way for his owner. No myths involving Skíðblaðnir have come down to us but Snorri relates that Freyr rode to Baldr's funeral in a wagon pulled by Gullinbursti. ... "The battle-bold Freyr rideth First on the golden-bristled Barrow-boar to the bale-fire Of Baldr, and leads the people." Húsdrápa, Brodeur's translation...

In Nafnaþulur Freyr is said to ride the horse Blóðughófi (Bloody Hoof). ...

Völuspá, the best known of the Eddic poems, describes the final confrontation between Freyr and Surtr during Ragnarök. "Surtr moves from the south with the scathe of branches: there shines from his sword the sun of Gods of the Slain. Stone peaks clash,

and troll wives take to the road. Warriors tread the path from Hel, and heaven breaks apart. Then is fulfilled Hlín's second sorrow, when Óðinn goes to fight with the wolf, and Beli's slayer, bright, against Surtr. Then shall Frigg's sweet friend fall." Völuspá 50–51, Dronke's translation...

A tooth-gift was a gift given to an infant on the cutting of the first tooth. Since Alfheimr or Álfheimr means "World of Álfar (Elves)" the fact that Freyr should own it is one of the indications of a connection between the Vanir and the obscure Álfar. Grímnismál also mentions that the sons of Ívaldi made Skíðblaðnir for Freyr and that it is the best of ships. ...

Snorri Sturluson starts his epic history of the kings of Norway with Ynglinga saga, a euhemerized account of the Norse gods. Here Odin and the Æsir are men from Asia who gain power through their prowess in war and Odin's skills. But when Odin attacks the Vanir he bites off more than he can chew and peace is negotiated after the destructive and indecisive Æsir-Vanir War. Hostages are exchanged to seal the peace deal and the Vanir send Freyr and Njörðr to live with the Æsir. At this point the saga, like Lokasenna, mentions that incest was practised among the Vanir. "While Njord was with the Vanaland people he had taken his own sister in marriage, for that was allowed by their law; and their children were Frey and Freya. But among the Asaland people it was forbidden to intermarry with such near relations." Ynglinga saga 4, Laing's translation...

Odin makes Njörðr and Freyr priests of sacrifices and they become influential leaders. Odin goes on to conquer the North and settles in Sweden where he rules as king, collects taxes and maintains sacrifices. After Odin's death, Njörðr takes the throne. During his rule there is peace and good harvest and the Swedes come to believe that Njörðr controls these things. "Frey took the kingdom after Njord, and was called drot by the Swedes, and they paid taxes to him. He was, like his father, fortunate in friends and in good seasons. Frey built a great temple at Upsal, made it his chief seat, and gave it all his taxes, his land, and goods. Then began the Upsal domains, which have remained ever since. Then began in his days the Frode-peace; and then there were good seasons, in all the land, which the Swedes ascribed to Frey, so that he was more worshipped than the other gods, as the people became much richer in his days by reason of the peace and good seasons. His wife was called Gerd, daughter of Gymis, and their son was called Fjolne. Frey was called by another name, Yngve; and this name Yngve was considered long after in his race as a name of honour, so that his descendants have since been called Ynglinger. Frey fell into a sickness; and as his illness took the upper hand, his men took the plan of letting few approach him. In the meantime they raised a great mound, in which they placed a door with three holes in it. Now when Frey died they bore him secretly into the mound, but told the Swedes he was alive; and they kept watch over him for three years. They brought all the taxes into the mound, and through the one hole they put in the gold, through the other the silver, and through the third the copper money that was paid. Peace and good seasons continued." Ynglinga saga 12, Laing's translation

"When it became known to the Swedes that Frey was dead, and yet peace and good seasons continued, they believed that it must be so as long as Frey remained in Sweden; and therefore they would not burn his remains, but called him the god of this world, and afterwards offered continually blood-sacrifices to him, principally for peace and good seasons." Ynglinga saga 13, Laing's translation...

The protagonist of Hrafnkels saga is a priest of Freyr. He dedicates a horse to the god and kills a man for riding it, setting in motion a chain of fateful events. ...

The 12th Century Danish Gesta Danorum describes Freyr, under the name Frø, as the "viceroy of the gods". "There was also a viceroy of the gods, Frø, who took up residence not far from Uppsala and altered the ancient system of sacrifice practised for centuries among many peoples to a morbid and unspeakable form of expiation. He delivered abominable offerings to the powers above by instituting the slaughter of human victims." Gesta Danorum 3, Fisher's translation ...

Another reference to Frø and sacrifices is found earlier in the work, where the beginning of an annual blót to him is related. ..."[I]n order to mollify the divinities he did indeed make a holy sacrifice of dark-coloured victims to the god Frø. He repeated this mode of propitiation at an annual festival and left it to be imitated by his descendants. The Swedes call it Frøblot." Gesta Danorum 1, Fisher's translation ...

Yngvi

A strophe of the Anglo-Saxon rune poem (c. 1100) records that: Ing was first among the East Danes seen by men

This may refer to the origins of the worship of Ingui in the tribal areas that Tacitus mentions in his Germania as being populated by the Inguieonnic tribes. A later Danish chronicler lists Ingui was one of three brothers that the Danish tribes descended from. The strophe also states that "then he (Ingui) went back over the waves, his wagon behind him" which could connect Ingui to earlier conceptions of the wagon processions of Nerthus and the later Scandinavian conceptions of Freyr's wagon journeys.

Ingui is mentioned also in some later Anglo-Saxon literature under varying forms of his name, such as "For what doth Ingeld have to do with Christ" and the variants used in Beowulf to designate the kings as 'leader of the friends of Ing'. The compound Ingui-Frea (OE) and Yngvi-Freyr (ON) likely refer to the connection between the god and the Germanic kings' role as priests during the sacrifices in the pagan period, as Frea and Freyr are titles meaning 'Lord'.

The Swedish royal dynasty was known as the Ynglings from their descent from Yngvi-Freyr. This is supported by Tacitus, who wrote about the Germans: "In their ancient songs, their only way of remembering or recording the past they celebrate an earth-born god Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their race, as their founders. To Mannus they assign three sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are called Ingaevones; those of the interior, Herminones; all the rest, Istaevones". ...

Freyr

https://www.ancient.eu/Freyr/

According to Snorri, Freyr even directly rides this boar to the god Baldr’s cremation. Although the mentioned superboar traits are probably courtesy of Snorri’s imagination, the boar link itself is likely to be old. Boars were sacrificed in the sonarblót, or sacrifice of the boar, which was held as a harvest blessing from early on, and, as signs of fertility, boars fit in nicely with the Vanir in general. ...

One of the powerhouses of Germanic mythology, H. R. Ellis Davidson, also adds the horse as an attribute of both Freyr and his sister Freyja....

Freyr’s foremost function as a Norse god is found in his influence over fertility. ...

Sacrifices to Freyr are known from the literature. For instance, there was the previously mentioned sonarblót ("Sonar-sacrifice") in which a boar known as the sonargöltr ("sacrificial boar") was sacrificed to Freyr to ensure good harvests. The poem Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar and the saga Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks both describe how on the evening of Yule, hands were placed on the back of this boar while an oath was sworn, after which it was killed. The Heimskringla gets a bit more nitty-gritty in its description of a sacrificial feast in Trøndelag, Norway, in the 10th century CE. Animals, mostly horses and pigs, were said to have been killed and cooked while their blood was sprinkled across walls and idols, and participants drank sacred beer and ate the meat, toasting to Odin, Njord, and Freyr to curry favour with them.

Another Freyr-related sacrifice is the Frøsblot ("Frø-sacrifice", with Frø being another name for Freyr) as recorded by Saxo Grammaticus, a Danish scholar who lived c. 1150-1220 CE. In Uppsala, Sweden, a certain Haddingus is said to have instituted a yearly sacrifice to Freyr – the Frøsblot - as a way of atonement to the god,something seemingly linked to the great sacrifice at Uppsala that is supposed to have happened every nine years.

There may indeed have been a temple at Uppsala, as a famous account – based on hearsay but usually considered reasonably to moderately authentic – written by Adam of Bremen c. 1070 CE argues. Adam writes of a big, golden temple with statues of Thor, Odin, and Fricco (synonymous with Freyr), the latter adorned with an "immense phallus" (4). Every nine years, men, horses and dogs were allegedly sacrificed, their bodies swinging from trees in the sacred grove. ...

Vanir

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanir

In Norse mythology, the Vanir (; singular Vanr) are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods (the other being the Æsir) and are the namesake of the location Vanaheimr (Old Norse "Home of the Vanir"). After the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir became a subgroup of the Æsir. Subsequently, members of the Vanir are sometimes also referred to as members of the Æsir.

The Vanir are attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, both written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; and in the poetry of skalds. The Vanir are only attested in these Old Norse sources. Vanir is sometimes anglicized to Wanes... All sources describe the deities Njörðr, Freyr and Freyja as members of the Vanir....

They have speculated whether the Vanir originally represented pre-Indo-European deities or Indo-European fertility gods, and have theorized a form of the gods as venerated by the pagan Anglo-Saxons. ...

Njörðr was not raised among the Æsir. Vafþrúðnir responds that Njörðr was created in Vanaheimr ("home of the Vanir") ...during the Æsir–Vanir War, Njörðr was exchanged as a hostage. ...

The poem Þrymskviða states that the god Heimdallr possesses foreknowledge, "as the Vanir also can." Sigrdrífumál records that the Vanir are in possession of a "sacred mead". In the poem, the valkyrie Sigrdrífa provides mystical lore about runes to the hero Sigurd. Sigrdrífa notes that runes were once carved on to various creatures, deities and other figures, and then shaved off and mixed with a "sacred mead." This mead is possessed by the Æsir, the elves, mankind, and the Vanir.

In Skírnismál, the beautiful jötunn Gerðr first encounters the god Freyr's messenger Skírnir, and asks him if he is of the elves, of the Æsir, or of the "wise Vanir." Skírnir responds that he is not of any of the three groups. Later in the poem, Skírnir is successful in his threats against Gerðr (to have Gerðr accept Freyr's affections), and Gerðr offers Skírnir a crystal cup full of mead, noting that she never thought that she would love one of the Vanir....

during the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir sent Njörðr as a hostage to the Æsir, and the Æsir sent to the Vanir the god Hœnir. The sending of Njörðr as a hostage resulted in a peace agreement between the Æsir and the Vanir...

goddess Freyja, including that one of her names is "Dis of the Vanir."... goddess Gná rides the horse Hófvarpnir, and that this horse has the ability to ride through the air and atop the sea....

A wild boar in Northern Europe. In the Prose Edda, "Van-child" is listed as a name for boars. Both Freyja and Freyr are attested as accompanied by boars...

The Heimskringla book Ynglinga saga (chapter 4) provides an euhemerized account of the Æsir–Vanir War. As a peace agreement, the two sides agreed to trade hostages. The Vanir sent Njörðr and Freyr to the Æsir, and in turn the Æsir sent to the Vanir Hœnir and Mímir. Upon receiving Mímir, the Vanir sent the "cleverest amongst them," Kvasir. In Vanaheimr, the Vanir made Hœnir a chieftain. However, whenever Hœnir appeared at assemblies or meetings where the Vanir asked him his opinion on difficult issues, his response was "let others decide." The Vanir suspected that they had been cheated by the Æsir in the hostage exchange, and so grabbed hold of Mímir, cut off Mímir's head, and sent it to the Æsir....

Njörðr lived among the Vanir, his wife (unnamed) was his sister, and the couple had two children; Freyr and Freyja. However, "among the Æsir it was forbidden to marry so near a kin." By Odin's appointment, Njörðr and Freyr became priests over offerings of sacrifice, and they were recognized as gods among the Æsir. Freyja was priestess at the sacrifices, and "it was she who first taught the Æsir magic as was practiced among the Vanir."...

Like the Vanr goddess Freyja, the Vanir as a group are not attested outside Scandinavia...its possible basis in a war between tribes, and whether the Vanir originated as the deities of a distinct people. Some scholars have doubted that they were known outside Scandinavia; however, there is evidence that the god Freyr is the same god as the Germanic deity Ing...he is attested as having been known among the Goths....

link the Vanir to ship burial customs among the North Germanic peoples, proposing an early Germanic model of a ship in a "field of the dead" that may be represented both by Freyja's afterlife field Fólkvangr and by the Old English Neorxnawang (the mysterious first element of which may be linked to the name of Freyja's father, Njörðr)....

Investigations into Germanic Mythology: Toward the Origin of the Vanir and the Alfar

The Geneaology of the Vanir and Elves

http://www.germanicmythology.com/original/GeneologyoftheElves.html

The Vanir Gods and Goddesses - Norse Mythology for Smart People

https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/

Brief Youtube Cartoon

The Aesir-Vanir War - Extra Mythology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9TET6YTYrk

Æsir

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86sir

In Old Norse, ǫ́ss (or áss, ás, plural æsir; feminine ásynja, plural ásynjur) is a member of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Týr. The second pantheon is known as the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two pantheons wage war against each other, which results in a unified pantheon. The cognate term in Old English is ōs (plural ēse) denoting a deity in Anglo-Saxon paganism. The Old High German is ans, plural ensî.... Unlike the Old English word god (and Old Norse goð), the term ōs (áss) was never adopted into Christian use.

Etymology:

Æsir is the plural of áss, óss "god" (genitive case āsir), which is attested in other Germanic languages, e.g., Old English ōs (gen. pl. ēsa), Old Dutch ans and Gothic (as reported by Jordanes, who wrote in the 6th century CE) anses "half-gods". These all stem from Proto-Germanic *ansuz, which itself comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énsus (gen. h₂n̥sóus) "life force" (cf. Avestan aŋhū "lord; lifetime", ahura "godhood", Sanskrit ásu "life force", ásura "demons" ( *h₂n̥suró). It is widely accepted that this word is further related to *h₂ens- "to engender" (cf. Hittite hass- "to procreate, give birth", Tocharian B ās- "to produce").

Old Norse áss has the genitive áss or ásar, the accusative æsi and ásu. In genitival compounds, it takes the form ása-, e.g. in Ása-Þórr ("Thor of the Æsir"), besides ás- found in ás-brú "gods' bridge" (the rainbow), ás-garðr, ás-kunnigr "gods' kin", ás-liðar "gods' leader", ás-mogin "gods' might" (especially of Thor), ás-móðr "divine wrath" etc. Landâs "national god" (patrium numen) is a title of Thor, as is allmáttki ás "almighty god", while it is Odin who is "the" ás. ... The cognate Old English form to áss is ōs, preserved only as a prefix Ōs- in personal names (e.g. Oscar, Osborne, Oswald) and some place-names,... Jordanes has anses for the gods of the Goths....

The feminine suffix -ynja is known from a few other nouns denoting female animals, such as apynja "female monkey", vargynja "she-wolf". The word for "goddess" is not attested outside Old Norse. ... In the Eddas, however, the word Æsir is used for gods in general, while Asynjur is used for the goddesses in general....

In surviving tales, the origins of many of the Æsir are unexplained. Originally, there are just three: Odin and his brothers Vili and Vé. Odin's sons by giantesses are naturally counted as Æsir. Heimdallr and Ullr's connection with the Æsir is not clearly mentioned. Loki is a jötunn, and Njörðr is a Vanir hostage, but they are often ranked among the Æsir. ...

According to another theory, the Vanir (and the fertility cult associated with them) may be more archaic than that of the more warlike Æsir, such that the mythical war may mirror a half-remembered religious conflict. ... speculated that this conflict is actually a later version of an Indo-European myth concerning the conflict between and eventual integration of a pantheon of sky/warrior/ruler gods and a pantheon of earth/economics/fertility gods, with no strict historical antecedents....

List of Æsir:

Gylfaginning (20.ff) gives a list of twelve male aesir, not including Odin their chief, nor including Loki, "whom some call the backbiter of the asas": ...

Corresponding to the fourteen Æsir listed above, section 36 lists fourteen asynjur: ...

The A-rune:

The a-rune, ansuz, ᚫ, Younger Futhark ᚬ, was probably named after the Æsir. The name in this sense survives only in the Icelandic Rune Poem as Óss, referring to Óðinn, who is identified with Jupiter:

ᚬ Óss er algingautr / ok ásgarðs jöfurr, / ok valhallar vísi. / Jupiter oddviti.

"Óss is Aged Gautr / and prince of Asgard / and lord of Valhalla / chieftain Jupiter." ...

Personal names:

Gothic has Ansila and Ansemund.

Theophoric names of the Anglo-Saxons containing the os element: ... As occurs in many Scandinavian given names: ... As also occurs in some English names. ...

Theophoric name

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophoric_name

A theophoric name ("bearing or carrying a god") embeds the name of a god, both invoking and displaying the protection of that deity. ...Theophoric personal names, containing the name of a god in whose care the individual is entrusted (or a generic word for god),...

Crom, Taranis and Lughnasadh

https://youtu.be/JjL03sikqh8

SOUND OF THUNDER AT DAWN ON LUGHNASADH IS A SIGN OF A NEW KING. LUGH MAY BE GRANDSON OF CROM.

CROM DUBH CRUACH LAST SUNDAY OF JULY.

CROM IS THE MILESIAN GOD OF DEATH....

Crom Cruach and the Cult of the Head

https://www.threewellsofthesea.com/blog/crom-cruach-and-the-cult-of-the-head#:~:text=Like%20Crom%20Cruach%2C%20aka%20Crom%20Dubh%20or%20Cenn,arrived%20in%20Ireland%20in%20the%20early%20Iron%20Age.

According to one of the oldest records in Ireland, the Annals of the Four Masters, Crom Cruach was a god worshipped by the Milesians, a tribe of invading Celts that came from Spain and arrived in Ireland in the early Iron Age. What is interesting to note is that all the "gods and goddesses" we associate with the early Irish, Morrigan, Lugh, Brigid . . . were never called gods as such in the old texts. They were called heroes of legend, colored by the Christian monks who first wrote down the old stories. The one and only name that is labeled as a god is Crom Cruach. That goes for all of the early texts.

This is rather interesting coming from Christian writers. Maybe it was to set up the fable that St. Patrick struck the stone idol of Crom Cruach with his staff and broke it, releasing the spirit of a demon which he cast into hell. This story does not appear until much later, however, so I argue that is not the reason.... Physically, Crom Cruach has been identified as a round stone in the shape of a head which once sat in the middle of a stone circle in an area of County Cavan known as Magh Slecht, the Plain of Prostrations or the Plain of Slaughter....

One might think old Crom to be a thing of the past, but in parts of Ireland, Crom Dubh (Dark Crooked One) Sunday is still a thing. The Sunday that falls just before the first of August, which in the Celtic calendar is the harvest festival of Lughnasa, is Crom's Sunday....

LUGH IS TUATHA DE DANANN. HE IS GRANDSON OF FOMORIAN BALOR. HE IS A SUN gOD.

Lugh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugh

Lugh or Lug ; Modern Irish: Lú [luː]) is an important god of Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Lugh is portrayed as a youthful warrior hero, a king and saviour. He is associated with skill, crafts and the arts as well as with oaths, truth and the law. He is sometimes interpreted as a sun god, a storm god or a sky god. Lugh is also strongly associated with the harvest festival of Lughnasadh, which is named after him....

As to ancestry, Lugh is given the matriname mac Ethlenn or mac Ethnenn ("son of Ethliu or Ethniu", his mother) and the patriname mac Cein ("son of Cian", his father). He is the maternal grandson of the Fomorian, Balor, whom Lugh kills in the Battle of Mag Tuired. His foster-father is the sea god Manannán. Lugh's son is the hero Cú Chulainn, who is believed to be an incarnation of Lugh.

Lugh has several magical possessions. He wields an unstoppable fiery spear, a sling stone, and a sword named Fragarach ("the answerer"). He also owns a self-sailing boat named Scuabtuinne ("wave sweeper"), a horse named Enbarr, and a hound named Failinis....

LAMMAS IS THE ANGLO-SAXON FIRST HARVEST. FREYFAXI IS HORSE SACRIFICE TO FREYR...

AINE IS PART OF THE TRINITY. SHE IS GODDESS OF THE MOON WHICH IS WHY SOME PEOPLE OBSERVE THE FIRST FULL MOON IN AUGUST RATHER THAN SOLAR, OR CALENDAR. SHE IS LADY OF THE LAKE AND WIFE OF SEA GOD MANNANAN MAC LIR WHO RAISED LUGH AS A CHILD. LUGH AND THE DE DANANN'S OVERTHREW THE FOMORIANS...

AINE

As a goddess of the moon, she also became a deity of agriculture and cared for the crops. Her celebration took place on August 1st. Aine is also part of the Triple Goddess group with her two sisters - Fenne and Grianne. Tradition says that during the full moon they ride their horses and play in the Lough Gur, a lake dedicated to Aine in County Limerick....

Celtic legends say that Aine was the daughter of Eogabail, who was a member of the legendary Tuatha Dé Danann. In folklore, she was also recognized as the wife of the sea god Manannan Mac Lir – a deity who was very important for Celtic warriors. In ancient Irish myths and legends, Aine is described as a Faery Queen, a goddess of the earth and nature, and a lady of the lake. It was believed she brought luck and good magic to her worshippers. Some identify her as a brighter side of the famous goddess Morrigan. Aine is also known as the goddess who taught humans the meaning of love. She took many human men as lovers and bore Faerie-Human children....

Deeper Into Lughnasadh

http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-festivals/lughnasadh/deeper-lughnasadh

Also known as Lammas, or First Harvest, the name of this festival as Lughnasadh is Irish Gaelic for "Commemoration of Lugh".... The meaning remains basically the same: Lugh is the Deity of Lughnasadh, and there is a feast.... The modern Irish Gaelic name for the month of August is Lúnasa. In Scottish Gaelic Lunasda means the 1st of August.... Lughnasadh, marking the beginning of fall. It takes place on the 1st of August, a date internationally agreed upon, or on the day of the full moon next to this date, if you want to celebrate when the ancient Celts probably did...

Lughnasadh marks the beginning of the noticeable descent of the Sun into the darkness of winter. From the connection between the Earth (female principle) and the Sun (male principle), the marriage of the Sky Father (Sun God) with the Earth Mother we celebrated at Bealtaine, emerge the fruits of the first harvest of the year. Lughnasadh is a time of joy about the first fruits. It is also a time of tension, because the dark days of winter are coming nearer, and most of the harvest is not brought in and stored away yet.

The God of the harvest is the Green Man (also known as John Barleycorn). He sacrifices himself every year in order to enable human life on Earth. In some areas his death is mourned with wreaths decorated with poppies or cornflowers....

The celebration of Lughnasadh includes the ritual cutting of the first grain and an offering thereof, possibly the making of a first meal and the ritual eating of it, as well as dancing. Fires are mentioned,... Lughnasadh celebrations are reported from Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall....

The Deities of Lughnasadh are Danu (Anu), the Mother of Gods and Men, and Lugh, the patron of scholars, craftsmen, warriors and magicians. Lugh is also known as Lugh Samildánach (the Many Skilled) and Lugh Lámhfada (Lugh with the Long Arm). It is disputed among authors whether this refers to Lugh's magical spear or to the rays of the Sun. ...

Lammas: August 2, July 31st/Aug 1st

http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/the_wheel_of_the_year/lammas.asp

This is an Irish Gaelic name for the feast which commemorates the funeral games of Lugh, Celtic god of light, and son of the Sun. In the mythological story of the Wheel of the Year, the Sun God transfers his power into the grain, and is sacrificed when the grain is harvested. So we have a dying, self-sacrificing and resurrecting god of the harvest, who dies for his people so that they may live. Sound familiar?

The power of the sun goes into the grain as it ripens. It is then harvested and made into the first new bread of the season. This is the Saxon hlaef-masse or loaf-mass, now lammas. Seed grain is also saved for planting for next year's crop, so the sun god may be seen to rise again in Spring with the new green shoots, as the sun also rises in the sky. There are many traditions and customs all over the country that are still carried on at harvest-time today.

Lughnasadh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lughnasadh

(pronounced , LOO-nə-sə) ...Lughnasadh is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Samhain, Imbolc and Beltane. It corresponds to other European harvest festivals such as the Welsh Gŵyl Awst and the English Lammas.... The festival itself is named after the god Lugh. It involved great gatherings... Much of the activities would have taken place on top of hills and mountains ...

This is a combination of Lug (the god Lugh) and násad (an assembly),... In Irish mythology, the Lughnasadh festival is said to have been begun by the god Lugh (modern spelling: Lú) as a funeral feast and athletic competition (see funeral games) in commemoration of his mother or foster-mother Tailtiu. She was said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. Tailtiu may have been an earth goddess who represented the dying vegetation that fed mankind. The funeral games in her honour were called the Óenach Tailten or Áenach Tailten...

Neopagans usually celebrate Lughnasadh on 31 July – 1 August in the Northern Hemisphere and 31 January – 1 February in the Southern Hemisphere, beginning and ending at sunset. Some Neopagans celebrate it at the astronomical midpoint between the summer solstice and autumn equinox (or the full moon nearest this point). In 2017, this is on 7 August in the Northern Hemisphere....FULL MOON August 15, 2019 7:29 am...

Lughnasadh (Wicker Gaia) celebration in Castlefest 2012

https://youtu.be/BGoBVF5XhyE

Lughnasadh 2015

https://youtu.be/-uRaO0U5z1U

Medieval Pagan Folk Night ~ Lughnasadh ~ Leipzig/Germany July 2016

https://youtu.be/7fiOePBnFM0

Lugh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugh

Lugh's father is Cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and his mother is Ethniu, daughter of Balor, of the Fomorians. In Cath Maige Tuired their union is a dynastic marriage following an alliance between the Tuatha Dé and the Fomorians. In the Lebor Gabála Érenn Cian gives the boy to Tailtiu, queen of the Fir Bolg, in fosterage....

The Battle of Magh Tuireadh:

Using the magic artifacts the sons of Tuireann have gathered, Lugh leads the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh against the Fomorians. Nuada is killed in the battle by Balor. Lugh faces Balor, who opens his terrible, poisonous eye that kills all it looks upon, but Lugh shoots a sling-stone that drives his eye out the back of his head, wreaking havoc on the Fomorian army behind. After the victory Lugh finds Bres, the half-Fomorian former king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, alone and unprotected on the battlefield, and Bres begs for his life. If he is spared, he promises, he will ensure that the cows of Ireland always give milk. The Tuatha Dé Danann refuse the offer. He then promises four harvests a year, but the Tuatha Dé Danann say one harvest a year suits them. But Lugh spares his life on the condition that he teach the Tuatha Dé Danann how and when to plough, sow and reap...

Lugh instituted an event similar to the Olympic games called the Assembly of Talti which finished on Lughnasadh (1 August) in memory of his foster-mother, Tailtiu, at the town that bears her name (now Teltown, County Meath). ... Lughnasadh itself is a celebration of Lugh's triumph over the spirits of the Otherworld who had tried to keep the harvest for themselves.... Lúnasa is now the Irish name for the month of August...

According to a poem of the dindsenchas, Lugh was responsible for the death of Bres....

Lugh obtained the Spear of Assal ... in Lebor Gabála Érenn (Poem LXV, 319), which adds that the incantation "Ibar (Yew)" made the cast always hit its mark, and "Athibar (Re-Yew)" caused the spear to return...

Nature Myth Items:

Lugh's projectile weapon, whether a dart or missile, was envisioned by symbolic of lightning-weapon. Lugh's sling rod, named "Lugh's Chain", was the rainbow and the Milky Way. Unlike the rod-sling, Lugh had no need to wield the spear himself. It was alive and thirsted so for blood that only by steeping its head in a sleeping-draught of pounded fresh poppy seeds could it be kept at rest. When battle was near, it was drawn out; then it roared and struggled against its thongs, fire flashed from it, and it tore through the ranks of the enemy once slipped from the leash, never tired of slaying....

Lugh had a horse named Aenbharr which could fare over both land and sea. Like much of his equipment, it was furnished to him by the sea god Manannán mac Lir. ...Lugh's currach (coracle) or boat, the "Wave-Sweeper" (Irish: Sguaba Tuinne)....

Failinis was the name of the whelp of the King of Ioruaidhe that Lugh demanded as éiric (a forfeit) in the Oidhead Chloinne Tuireann. This concurs with the name of the hound mentioned in an "Ossianic Ballad", sometimes referred to by its opening line "Dám Thrír Táncatair Ille (They came here as a band of three)". In the ballad the hound is called Ṡalinnis (Shalinnis) or Failinis (in the Lismore text)...

Lugh's name has been interpreted as deriving from the Proto-Indo-European root *leuk-, "flashing light", and he is often surrounded by solar imagery, so from Victorian times he has often been considered a sun god... He appears in folklore as a trickster, and in County Mayo thunderstorms were referred to as battles between Lugh and Balor, so he is sometimes considered a storm god..."fierce striker") and concludes that "if his name has any relation to 'light' it more properly means 'lightning-flash'...

Lugh's mastery of all arts has led many to link him with the unnamed Gaulish god Julius Caesar identifies with Mercury,...Caesar describes the Gaulish Mercury as the most revered deity in Gaul, overseeing journeys and business transactions....

Lugh

http://sacredwicca.com/lugh

Celtic Wonder Tales: The Coming of Lugh

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cwt/cwt07.htm

M]ANANAUN MAC LIR who rules the ocean took the little SunGod, Lugh, in his arms and held him up so that he could see the whole of Ireland with the waves whispering about it everywhere. "Say farewell to the mountains and rivers, and the big trees and the flowers in the grass, O Lugh, for you are coming away with me."...Then Mananaun wrapped Lugh in his cloak and stepped into his boat, the Ocean-Sweeper, and without oar or sail they journeyed over the sea till they crossed the waters at the edge of the world and came to the country of Mananaun--a beautiful country shining with the colours of the dawn....

When Lugh was full grown, Mananaun said to him: "It is three times seven years, as mortals count time, since I brought you to Tir-nan-Oge, and in all that time I have never given you a gift. To-day I will give you a gift."

He brought out the Sword of Light and gave it to Lugh, and when Lugh took it in his hand he remembered how he had cried to the hills and rivers of Ireland -" Some day I will come back to you!" And he said to Mananaun:

"I want to go back to Ireland." ...

you shall drive the Fomorians out of Ireland as chaff is driven by the wind."... No one saw the Faery Host coming into Ireland....

"That is the harp of the Dagda. No one can bring music from that harp but himself. When he plays on it, the four Seasons--Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter- pass over the earth." "I will play on it," said Lugh. The harp was given to him....

"The Fomorians have not taken the sun out of the sky," said Nuada. "Let us go to the Hill of Usna and send to our scattered comrades that we may make a stand against our enemies." They took their weapons and went to the Hill of Usna, and they were not long on it when a band of Fomorian devastators came upon them. ..."We will not bow ourselves before you," said Nuada, "for ye are ugly and vile: and lords neither of us nor of Ireland."

With hoarse cries the Fomorians fell on the De Danaans, but Nuada and his folk held together and withstood them as well as they were able. Scarcely had the weapons clashed when a light appeared in the horizon and a sound of mighty battle trumpets shook the air. The light was so white that no one could look at it, and great rose-red streamers shot from it into the sky. "It is a second sunrise!" said the Fomorians. "It is The Deliverer! " said the De Danaans. Out of the light came the glorious company of warriors from Tir-nan-Oge. Lugh was leading them. He had the helmet of Mananaun on his head, the breast-plate of Mananaun over his heart, and the great white horse of Mananaun beneath him...."Bow yourselves," he said, "before King Nuada, and before the De Danaans, 'for they are your Lords and the Lords of Ireland, and go hence to Balor of the Evil Eye and tell him and his mis-shapen brood that the De Danaans have taken their own again and they will wage war against the Fomorians till there is not one left to darken the earth with his shadow."

The nine Fomorians bowed themselves before King Nuada, and before the De Danaans; and before Lugh Lauve Fauda, the Ildana; and they arose and carried his message to Balor of the Evil Eye, King of the Fomorians.

Domhnach Crom Dubh | Dun Briste, Co Mayo

https://stairnaheireann.net/2020/07/25/domhnach-crom-dubh-dun-briste-co-mayo/

The last Sunday in July was known in Ireland as Domhnach Crom Dubh (meaning the ‘dark, stooped one’), Crom Dubh (originally called Crom Cruiach) was the chief Celtic idol of Ireland. His chief shrine was located on Magh Slécht (The Plain of Prostrations) in Co Cavan, surrounded by twelve other gods. The Domhnach (meaning Sunday) element is illustrative of the practice of syncretism where the new religion simply blended old beliefs and practices into the new Christian religion.

The pagan god Crom Dubh, lived in the underworld throughout winter, emerging on 1st August to claim the ‘first fruits’, in the form of Eithne the corn maiden. He lifted her on his back (hence his stoop) and brought her down to the underworld.

Crom Dubh is also associated with Dun Briste (literally Broken Fort), Co Mayo. It is a spectacular sea-stack which is approximately 50 metres in height. It stands just off Downpatrick Head, in the townland of Knockaun, east of the quiet village of Ballycastle. The stack is crowned by an old ruined fort. On Downpatrick headland itself, several archaeological monuments can be seen. These include Bronze-Age ring-barrows, early ecclesiastical sites and the remains of a promontory fort.

According to a local legend Crom Dubh was an extortionate chief who lived at the present Downpatrick Head; and he had two sons, Téideach and Clonnach, who were even worse than himself. The pagans, too of those days looked upon him as a kind of deity, though a cruel one. St Patrick being in the Province and hearing of his misdeeds, set out to visit him. Crom Dubh, on the Saint’s approach, set two fierce hounds at him but the Saint deprived them of their fierceness and likewise extinguished a fire into which Crom Dubh intended to throw him. The Saint’s endeavours to convert Crom Dubh being ineffectual, he struck with his crosier the ground before the chief’s house and caused that portion of the cliff to separate from the mainland, with the result that Crom Dubh and his son Téideach were imprisoned on it and perished. Clonnach, the other son, who was pillaging the country and was burnt in a conflagration of his own making. Ever since the people hold a pattern every year in honour of St Patrick at Kilcummin and at Downpatrick on the last Sunday of July, called in Irish ‘Crom Dubh’s Sunday’ (Domhnach Chrom Dubh).

LANASSA IS 1ST DAY OF AUTUMN ON CELTIC CALENDAR. BUT, WHICH IS THE 1ST DAY DEPENDS:

1ST DAY OF AUGUST BASED ON CURRENT CALENDAR: AUGUST 1

BASED ON LUNAR CALENDAR WHICH IS FULL MOON BEGINS EACH MONTH: AUGUST 3, 2020

MID POINT EQUAL DAYS BETWEEN SUMMER SOLSTICE AND AUTUMNAL EQUINOX. SOLAR CALENDAR: AUGUST 6, 2020 CT

Lughnasad August 6 20:04 CT USA. August 7 01:04 UTC; 02:04 W.EUR

AUGUST 1

Aine: Radiant Celtic Goddess of Love, Summer, and Sovereignty

https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/aine-radiant-celtic-goddess-007097

Turkic mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_mythology

Turkic mythology embraces Tengriist and Shamanist traditions as well as all cultural and social subjects being a nomad folk. Later, especially after Turkic migration some of the myths were decorated with Islamic symbols. It has many common points with Mongol mythology. Turkic mythology was influenced by other local mythologies. For example, in Tatar mythology elements of Finnic and Indo-European myth co-exist. Subjects from Tatar mythology include Äbädä, Alara. Şüräle, Şekä, Pitsen, Tulpar, and Zilant. Besides Buddhism, Turkic mythology was influenced by Manichaeism.

Irk Bitig, a 10th-century manuscript found in Dunhuang is one of the most important sources for Turkic mythology and religion. This book is written in Old Turkic alphabet like the Orkhon inscriptions.

Kök Tengri is the first of primordial deities in the religion of the early Turkic people. He was known as yüce or yaratıcı tengri (Creator God) after the Turks started to migrate and leave middle Asia, ...Tengrism was changed from its pagan/politheistic origins. The religion was more like zoroastrianism after its change, with only two of the original gods remaining, Tengri, representing the good god and Uçmag ( a place like heaven or vallhalla), while Erlik took the position of the bad god and hell. The words Tengri and Sky were synonyms. It is unknown how Tengri looks. He rules the fates of entire people and acts freely. But he is fair as he awards and punishes. The well-being of people depends on his will. Tengri worship is first attested in the Old Turkic Orkhon inscriptions of the early 8th century.

Umay (The Turkic root umāy originally meant 'placenta, afterbirth') is the goddess of fertility and virginity. Umay resembles earth-mother goddesses found in various other world religions and is the daughter of Tengri.

Öd Tengri Is the god of time being not well-known, as it states in the orhun stones, "Öd tengri is the ruler of time" and son of Kök Tengri.

Boz Tengri Like Öd Tengri, he is not known much. He is seen as the god of the grounds and steppes and is a son of Kök Tengri.

Kayra is the Spirit of God. Primordial god of highest sky, upper air, space, atmosphere, light, life and son of Kök Tengri.

Ülgen is the son of Kayra and Umay is the god of goodness. The Aruğ (Arı) denotes to "good spirits" in Turkic and Altaic mythology. They are under the order of Ülgen and doing good things on earth.[1]

Erlik is the god of death and the underworld. Also a god of the manly seem, since his name Erklik is also used for male. Later Erlik was used depriving him of this rather anti-hero status. The titel khan in his name is because of his ruler position (the ruler of hell).

Ay Dede is the moon god.

Gün Ana is the sun goddess.

As a result of the nomad culture, the horse is also one of the main figures of Turkic mythology...

The dragon (Evren, also Ebren), also expressed as a snake or lizard, is the symbol of might and power. It is believed, especially in mountainous Central Asia, that dragons still live in the mountains of Tian Shan/Tengri Tagh and Altay. Dragons also symbolize the god Tengri (Tanrı) in ancient Turkic tradition, although dragons themselves are not worshiped as gods.

The World Tree or Tree of Life is a central symbol in Turkic mythology. According to the Altai Turks, human beings are descended from trees. According to the Yakuts, White Mother sits at the base of the Tree of Life, whose branches reach to the heavens where it is occupied by various creatures that have come to life there. The blue sky around the tree reflects the peaceful nature of the country and the red ring that surrounds all of the elements symbolizes the ancient faith of rebirth, growth and development of the Turkic peoples.

Grey Wolf legend: The wolf symbolizes honor and is also considered the mother of most Turkic peoples. Asena is the name of one of the ten sons who were given birth by a mythical wolf in Turkic mythology.

The legend tells of a young boy who survived a raid on his village. A she-wolf finds the injured child and nurses him back to health. He subsequently impregnates the wolf which then gives birth to ten half-wolf, half-human boys. One of these, Ashina, becomes their leader and establishes the Ashina clan which ruled the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic empires. The wolf, pregnant with the boy's offspring, escaped her enemies by crossing the Western Sea to a cave near to the Qocho mountains, one of the cities of the Tocharians. The first Turks subsequently migrated to the Altai regions, where they are known as expert in ironworkers, as the Scythians are also known to have been....

Asena

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asena

Legend tells of a young boy who survived a battle; a female wolf finds the injured child and nurses him back to health. The wolf, impregnated by the boy, escapes her enemies by crossing the Western Sea to a cave near the Qocho mountains and a city of the Tocharians, giving birth to ten half-wolf, half-human boys. Of these, Ashina becomes their leader and establishes the Ashina clan, which ruled over the Göktürk and other Turkic nomadic empires. These first Turks migrated to the Altai region, where they were known as expert blacksmiths, akin to the Scythians.

Irk Bitig

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irk_Bitig

Book of Omens or Book of Divination in English, is a 9th-century manuscript book on divination that was discovered in the "Library Cave" of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China, by Aurel Stein in 1907, and is now in the collection of the British Library in London, England. The book is written in Old Turkic using the Old Turkic script (also known as "Orkhon" or "Turkic runes"); it is the only known complete manuscript text written in the Old Turkic script. It is also an important source for early Turkic mythology....

List of Turkic mythological figures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Turkic_mythological_figures

Deities ... Creatures...

Sumerian Mythology was influenced from Turkish Mythology... Sumerians were NOT only Turkic. Sumer was comprised of Hunter gatherers, Samarrans, and Semitic peoples. The timing of the arrivals of the different peoples I do not know. Maybe originally Sumer may have been an all Turkic community which later became integrated.

Sumerian Mythology, Turkish Mythology comparison, Sumerian Gods

http://sumerianturks.org/sumerianmythologyturkic.htm

One important note about the Turkic people and their languages is that there are many forms of languages...

It is quite probable that Hungarian is another Gur/Oghur Turkic language, but that's my speculation at this point as the separation of Hungarian from main Turkish seems have taken place 2,000-4,000 years ago ...

Different forms of Turkish languages spread around Eurasia are only considered one language and not a language family. Turkic mythology accordingly encompasses a lot of the common myths and tales, plus local Turkish culture specific elements and tales. ...

The first historic record for the name Turk is dated to 2400 BC, as written on cuneiform by the Sumerian Turks: Turuk. Cuneiform phonetic errors stemming from spelling Sumerian through Akkadian and Afroasiatic (Semitic) languages that can be seen in words such as Elam(a), An(u), etc.,...

A Chinese historian, Li Sheng, writes that Turks were present 4,000 years ago in Northwest China. By combining these two data, we can suggest Turkic people may have formed a continuity from the Altai to Mesopotamia and probably to Central Europe about 4,000 years ago. We know such a Eurasian continuity existed much later, with Scythians (800-200 BC), with Huns (200BC-600 AD), and with Mongols (1300s). ...

...Sumerian "pantheon" (that's a Turkic-Greek word from 2,000 years later) consisted of primordial gods and then lesser gods, just like in Turkic mythology. Similarly, he observed that Sumerians prayed to good gods against evil gods.

The traditional Turks of Turkey from Central Asia, Yoruk, Turkmen, and Alevi (Alawite) who have kept some of their ancient customs tell myths akin to Sumerian ones. ...

Putting together them all: the myths, beliefs, cosmic mountain, cosmology of Underworld-Earth-Sky-Heaven, Shamanism and shaman rituals, sky god, as well as the linguistic terms that refer to sky and sky god (An and Dingir being the same in Turkic and Sumerian), we can firmly conclude that Sumerians were Turkic people from Central Asia whose ancestral home was Siberia.

Tengrism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengrism

Central Asian religion characterized by shamanism, animism, totemism, poly- and monotheism and ancestor worship. It was the prevailing religion of the Turks, Mongols, Hungarians, Xiongnu and Huns, and the religion of the five ancient Turkic states: Göktürk Khaganate, Western Turkic Khaganate, Great Bulgaria, Bulgarian Empire and Eastern Tourkia (Khazaria). In Irk Bitig, Tengri is mentioned as Türük Tängrisi (God of Turks).

Tengrism has been advocated in intellectual circles of the Turkic nations of Central Asia (including Tatarstan, Buryatia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan) since the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the 1990s. Still practiced, it is undergoing an organized revival in Sakha, Khakassia, Tuva and other Turkic nations in Siberia. Burkhanism, a movement similar tKhukh tengri means "blue sky" in Mongolian,o Tengrism, is concentrated in Altay....

In modern Turkey, Tengrism is known as the Göktanrı dini ("Sky God religion"); the Turkish "Gök" (sky) and "Tanrı" (God) correspond to the Mongolian khukh (blue) and Tengri (sky), respectively. According to Hungarian archaeological research, the religion of the Hungarians until the end of the 10th century (before Christianity) was Tengrism....

Tengrists view their existence as sustained by the eternal blue sky (Tengri), the fertile mother-earth spirit (Eje) and a ruler regarded as the holy spirit of the sky. Heaven, earth, spirits of nature and ancestors provide for every need and protect all humans. By living an upright, respectful life, a human will keep his world in balance and perfect his personal (Wind Horse). The Huns of the northern Caucasus reportedly believed in two gods: Tangri Han (or Tengri Khan), considered identical to the Persian Aspandiat and for whom horses were sacrificed, and Kuar (whose victims are struck by lightning)....

Kyrgyz means "we are forty" in the Kyrgyz language... Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev and former Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev have called Tengrism the national, "natural" religion of the Turkic peoples.... Tengrism was brought to Eastern Europe by the early Huns and Bulgars....

Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, said: "We believe that there is only one God, by whom we live and by whom we die, and for whom we have an upright heart. But as God gives us the different fingers of the hand, so he gives to men diverse ways to approach him.", May 31, 1254)...

revival of a national religion... Presenting Islam as foreign to the Turkic peoples, adherents are found primarily among the nationalistic parties of Central Asia. Tengrism may be interpreted as a Turkic version of Russian neopaganism....

The Ancient Practice of Tengriism, Shamanism and Ancient Worship of the Sky Gods

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/ancient-practice-tengriism-shamanism-and-ancient-worship-sky-gods-002387

In ancient times, people in Central Asia practiced a religion known as Tengriism, which focused on living in harmony with the natural universe.... Tengriism is a religion that revolves around the sun deity Tengri, and focuses on balance with nature....

Under Tengriism, the origins of the universe began with Tengri, and his self-created companion, Kishi. The two flew above the primordial deep together until one day, Kishi decided he wanted to fly higher than Tengri. Due to his arrogance, Kishi lost his ability to fly, and fell into the sea. He called out for Tengri to save him. Tengri brought forth rocks and earth from the sea, creating a primal mound to stand upon. From this mound grew the Cosmic Tree – the tree of life, and from its branches emerged people and lesser gods. He guarded against evil with dogs and snakes. Tengri lived in harmony with Yer – the earth spirit. Some say they were married, and that is what led to the creation of man. Yer gave man his physical body. Tengri gave man his soul at birth, and takes it back upon death....

The main principles of Tengriism are:

Tengri is the one supreme god. He is the all-knower, and the judge of people’s actions, good and bad. He is unpredictable.

Tengri is the power behind all of nature, and all of nature is controlled by him.

There are many diverse spirits among Tengri, good and bad. They can reside in the heavens, the underworld, or as spirits of the land. They can harm people.

There is no one true religion of the world. A man may be any religion, and Tengri may still judge who is righteous.

All humans are weak, and there should be tolerance for shortcomings. There should be tolerance for different religions and beliefs. No one is perfect....

Today, Tengriism is practiced in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Sakha, Buryatia, Tuva, Mongolia, and Turkey ...

the history of tengriism

https://www.reddit.com/r/tengri137/comments/6b6jzm/the_history_of_tengriism/

23 min video

Turkish Mythological Gods, Goddesses, Creatures & Tengrism

https://youtu.be/emwUTfrOU6s

Tengri

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengri

Tengri (Old Turkic: ‏𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃‎; Bulgarian: Тангра; Modern Turkish: Tanrı; Proto-Turkic *teŋri / *taŋrɨ; Mongolian script: ᠲᠨᠭᠷᠢ, Tngri; Modern Mongolian: Тэнгэр, Tenger), is one of the names for the primary chief deity since the early Turkic, Xiongnu, Hunnic, Bulgar and Mongolic (Xianbei) peoples.

Worship of Tengri is Tengrism. The core beings in Tengrism are Heavenly-Father (Tengri/Tenger Etseg) and Earth Mother (Eje/Gazar Eej). It involves shamanism, animism, totemism and ancestor worship.

Tengri was the national god of the Göktürks, described as the "god of the Turks" (Türük Tängrisi).... Tengri was the chief deity worshipped by the ruling class of the Central Asian steppe peoples in 6th to 9th centuries (Turkic peoples, Mongols and Hungarians).... Tengri is considered to be the chief god who created all things. In addition to this celestial god, they also had minor divinities (Alps) that served the purposes of Tengri. As Gök Tanrı, he was the father of the sun (Koyash) and moon (Ay Tanrı) and also Umay, Erlik, and sometimes Ülgen.

Tengri was the main god of the Turkic pantheon, controlling the celestial sphere. Tengri is considered to be strikingly similar to the Indo-European sky god, *Dyeus, and the structure of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion is closer to that of the early Turks than to the religion of any people of Near Eastern or Mediterranean antiquity....

The most important contemporary testimony of Tengri worship is found in the Old Turkic Orkhon inscriptions, dated to the early 8th century. Written in the so-called Orkhon script, these inscriptions record an account of the mythological origins of the Turks. The inscription dedicated to Kul Tigin includes the passages (in the translation provided by the Language Committee of Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan): "When the blue sky [Tengri] above and the brown earth below were created, between them a human being was created. Over the human beings, my ancestors Bumin Kagan and Istemi Kagan ruled. They ruled people by Turkish laws, they led them and succeeded" ...; "Tengri creates death. Human beings have all been created in order to die"...; "You passed away (lit.: 'went flying') until Tengri gives you life again".

In Turkic mythology, Tengri is a pure, white goose that flies constantly over an endless expanse of water, which represents time. Beneath this water, Ak Ana ("White Mother") calls out to him saying "Create". To overcome his loneliness, Tengri creates Er Kishi, who is not as pure or as white as Tengri and together they set up the world. Er Kishi becomes a demonic character and strives to mislead people and draw them into its darkness. Tengri assumes the name Tengri Ülgen and withdraws into Heaven from which he tries to provide people with guidance through sacred animals that he sends among them. The Ak Tengris occupy the fifth level of Heaven. Shaman priests who want to reach Tengri Ülgen never get further than this level, where they convey their wishes to the divine guides. Returns to earth or to the human level take place in a goose-shaped vessel.

[Ak Ana the "White Mother", is the primordial creator-goddess of Turkic people and the Khanty and Mansi peoples of Siberia. She is also known as the goddess of the water. She was the consort and daughter of Kayra Han.]

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO TENGRIISM

https://tengrism.wikispaces.com/

Tengrism

http://www.tengri.hu/index.php/en/cere

Gök Tanrı - Tengri

https://www.facebook.com/GokTanriTengri

ANCIENT TURKIC DEITIES ***

http://www.hunmagyar.org/turan/tatar/turk.html

Chapter III Deities

Sky God – Tengri. The ancient Türks believed that 17 Deities – Tengri, Yer-Sub, Umai, Erlik, Earth, Water, Fire, Sun, Moon, Star, Air, Clouds, Wind, Storm, Thunder and Lightning, Rain and Rainbow, ruled our Universe. Mongols believed that 99 Deities-Tengris, ruled our Universe.... The faith in Tengri of ancient Türks and Mongols was continuous, and it was preserved partially by the Altai peoples to the present time. The Türkic peoples named the Sky God almost identically: Tatars – Tengri; Altais – Tengri, Tengeri; Turks – Tanri; Khakases – Tigir; Chuvashes – Tura; Yakuts – Tangara; Karachai-Balkars – Teyri; Kumyks – Tengiri, Mongols – Tengeri, etc. ... The words ‘Tengri’ and ‘Sky’ for the ancient Türks and Mongols were synonyms....

Yer (Earth) and Tengri (Spirit of the Sky) the Türks perceived as the two sides of a single beginning, not opposing each other, but mutually complimentary.... Türks addressed to Him for the help, and if the call was to Yer, Tengri was also always mentioned. Tengri could be mentioned without the Earth, but not Yer without Tengri. Tengri was considered a father, and Yer a mother.

‘Tengri who gives the states (to Khans), put me, it should be thought, as Khagan, so that the name and glory of the Türkic people would not disappear’ (monument in honor of Bilge-Khagan) ... On the ancient stone carvings of the 6-9 cc., found by the scientists on the banks of Orkhon and Tola rivers, in Altai region and in Tuva, the Türkic Khans – batyrs (mighty Heroes) left to their descendants these words: ‘Forward, to the sunrise; right, to the noon; back to the sunset; left, to the midnight... For the Türkic people I did not sleep nights and days, did not rest... Let not the Türkic people to vanish! Let not vanish the name and glory of the Türkic people!’ ‘My silver people increases the freedom, wealth, possessions... ‘ ...

Times and rules of sacrifice ritual to Great Kuk Tengri.:

The Chinese testimony about rituals of Kuk Tengri are few and brief. The ‘Chjoushu’ chronicles about ancient Türks say: ‘In the 5-th month Türks usually slaughter sheep and horses to sacrifice to Tengri’....

In the beginning of a summer,...went to the sacred mountain to sacrifice a colt to Great Tengri.... Thousands of people from nearby auls (villages) and cities gathered at sacred mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes and springs. It was an impressive show. Tens of thousands of fires burnt near birches on sacred grounds, where were sacrificed horses, sheep, lambs. The purpose of warship was to pray for a crop, condition of cattle, abundance of milk, health and smarts for the people, help in just deeds. ...

The written evidence about Altai peoples, and especially about the Central Asia Türks, not only records a wide spread worship to Tengri as a highest Deity, but also underlines the solemnity of the sacrifice ceremony. Also testifies about the large role in the past of Tengri religion between Türks and Mongols the preservation of its ancient name among modern peoples...

The collective ritual sacrifice to Tengri was made as an act of Creation. The ritual was meant to reconstruct Cosmos in the most sacred point of its space, at a world tree. The ritual was conducted on a spring morning in a place associated with a center, on a mountain between four sacred birches. The ritual accentuated the East: in this direction from the trees was set up a large sacred fire. The East, spring and morning corresponded with the beginning of space and time, with a place and time of the sunrise. The East in the ritual became a starting point in the ‘creation’ of the world. Then, strolling in the direction of sun, each mountain and river were worshiped, not only those within sight, but also those invisible, but real. Invoking names of the mountains, rivers etc. replicated a symbolical creation of space. ...

‘Prayer was organized on the top of a specific mountain, next to a sacred birch (bai kaen). If no naturally growing birch was there, it was dug out with the roots, brought here and replanted. If it did not take root, the next year another birch was brought and replanted. ...

Neither women, nor girls were admitted here. Even the female domestic animals (mare or sheep) could not be here. The sacrificial lambs were usually male of white hue, but with black head or black cheeks. They were sacrificed in various quantity (3-15 heads), ...

Prayer went on without involvement of Shaman (Kam). ...Behind a sacred birch (on the west), at some distance, was a sacred fire. Between it and the birch was a little table, hastily assembled of birch branches; cups, dishes, and spoons made from bark were left there.... Algyschan kizi was saying blessings and appeals to sacred birch, the followers were splashing with spoons vine and milk on its top, and all others were bowing to it. After a third circle they stopped, drank from the cups the rest of vine and milk (everyone one sip) and went on to slaughter the sacrificial lambs. It was done in an ancient way (osot sogarcha)...

Yer-Sub.:

One is a Great Deity. Another is the visible world, an image of the native Land. In the believes of the ancient Türks and Mongols the Great Deity Yer-Sub existed in the middle section of the Universe, and of Her residence was on Khangan Plato (more exactly, on a mountain Lanshan at the upper course of Orkhon river, in modern Mongolia); this place the ancient Türks called Otüken homeland. ...Türks esteemed Yer-Sub Deity as a highest deity after Tengri, which found a reflection in ancient inscriptions. ...

the rituals of reverence to Yer-Sub ...were conducted in the upper rivulets and on a shore of the lakes. Mostly were sacrificed white rams, their hide was not burnt, but hung out (with head and legs in it) on a tree, under which a prayer was conducted....

The native land is not only a geographical concept: it is a space emotionally perceived by a man. It is the land of the clan, the land of fathers, here the man was born, has grown. That is why this Yer-Sub, the Native Land, is not for sale, under any circumstances it can’t be given away, but should be defended. People die in fight for it, because in other lands people would not have the protection of Tengri, or Yer-Sub, and so no happiness.

Umai (Ymai, Mai, Omai):

female Deity associated with benevolent deities and spirits. She was considered to be a favorite wife of Sky God Tengri, living in the heavenly zone....

The ancient Türks did not sacrifice domestic animals to Goddess Umai. They prepared dairy and meat dishes and with solemn ceremonies dedicated them to Her. ...

When the Kut of the child reached the Earth, he was weak and helpless, and therefore together with him Umai descended from heavens, and guarded him even in the womb of the mother. ...The complete care and the constant presence of Umai near the child continued until he learned not only to walk freely, and run, but mostly until he understood speech well, and spoke fluently. It happened at approximately 5-6 years of age. ...Tengri endowed the Kut (soul) to the child. ...

Erlik.:

The ancient Türks and Mongols considered Erlik a Deity of the Underground World....Erlik the Türks connected the worst disasters, for example epidemics and illnesses of the people and cattle.... Erlik had a family. The sons of Erlik helped Him to rule the underground world, ...Erlik has several daughters.

The ancient Türks believed that the Kut, after the body being burnt, returned to Sky, or after being buried went to the land of diseased, to the world of ancestors, instead of the care of the Master of Hell (Erlik’s) as it is in the doctrines of the world global religions. In the Erlik kingdom were live malicious spirits – Kermeses who sometimes rose to the land under the sun to harm people. Especially many of them come at sunset. ...

Sacrifices to Erlik were conducted at night, by slaughtering domestic animals with some defect (broken horn, lame, etc.), as it was believed that the underground, the invisible world is a contrast to the visible world.

The Earth:

The deity Earth was considered to be a mother and a wife of Tengri. She appears as a force of nature, She is one of the main deities, only Sky was higher. ...

In the spring, before the beginning of the production year, and in the autumn, after finishing the work, as a sign of gratitude for the abundance of food and happiness of the people, the ancient Türks and Mongols made a sacrifice to deity Earth. Milk, kumys and tea were sacrificed to her; pleads for fertility of the land, rich crop etc. were addressed to Her. ...

Water.:

Ancient Türks believed deity Water was born earlier than deity Earth. Therefore She was believed to be a senior sister of Earth. ...It is the possession of spirits and the entrance in another world. ...

The life, fertility and productivity of land depend on Water deity. Therefore sacrifices were brought, at the river sources and lakes, to Earth and Water, asking for good harvest, increase of cattle and well being in life. ...

Fire.:

Ancient Türks believed deity Fire was a grandson of Sky God Tengri and a son of the Sun. His brother was Lightning. Therefore, in spite of the fact that Fire was born and has grown on the Earth, after death It rises to the Sky as smoke, to again return to the Earth. ... Ut-Ana, Mother Fire. Ut-Ana was believed to be the mother of all people. ...

Completely inadmissible was to desecrate Fire...When the burning wood in the hearth cracked or a whistling was heard, it meant Ut-Ana’s good mood, and the master should expect good news and visitors. ...

Once a year in a yurt were organized family prayers to Ut-Ana. ...A white ram with a black head was given as a sacrifice. Before the sacrifice, simmered milk was poured upon the ram,...

A required attribute at all Kam’s sacramentations was a birch, symbolizing link of the upper and lower world, and in the yurt its branches – sis were used....

Fire had a cleaning quality. A desecrated thing was held above the flames for cleaning. The ambassadors arriving to Khagan were always led through a flame, between two fires, subjecting them to a fiery clean up. Leaving the winter quarters, the Horde passed between two fires. A man giving a public oath also had to be cleared by flames. For this purpose fires were set in two places, he was led between fires...

It was believed that the ashes also had medical property....

Sun. (Koyash).:

Sun for the ancient Türks was an esteemed God. The ancient Türkic mythologies said that the Sun is the son of Tengri, and His mother is Earth. Therefore, it circles between the father and mother....

Winged horses as a symbol or personification of the Sun were widely spread in the cosmogonic myths of the Türkic peoples. In addition to the horse and birds with the symbol of Sun were also connected such animals as ram, deer, bull.

The huge number of domestic artifacts decorated with signs and symbols of solar ornament, found on all the territory of Eurasia, testifies to a wide distribution of the cult of the Sun between the Türks. Such signs are pictured in large numbers on ceramic vessels and female earrings.

Moon (Ai).:

Ancient Türks’ mythology regarded Moon as a daughter of Sky God Tengri and Earth. Ancient Türks perceived goddess Moon dually: Moon frightened them and at the same time they loved Her. The moon was represented as a Lady and as a symbol of the night. The night is darkness, when the malicious spirits emerge from all holes. All feasts and jamborees of malicious spirits occur at night...

Stars.:

The ancient Türks and Mongols revered stars. For them were brought sacrifices. The Star deities, in the opinion of the Türks, influence the human happiness, richness, cattle, and others, and each star corresponds to a Kut of a man on the Earth, and when the man dies, his star also falls on the Earth. ...

Air.:

The Byzantian historian Th. Simocatta wrote that ‘the Türks worship fire, water, earth, sky and air’.

Thunder and Lightning.:

Ancient Türks believed that Great Sky God Tengri controlled Thunder and Lightning. By His order deity Thunder and Lightning punished malicious forces. The Türks believed that a thunder is an angry voice of Tengri, and lightning are heavenly arrows, which strike malicious spirits....

Wind.:

In ancient Türkic mythologies deity Wind mainly symbolized mischievous, brawling, sometimes a violent character.... Ancient Türks believed that deity Wind directly reports to Great Spirit Tengri. ...The ancient Türks perceived the wind as a touch of the other world and its breeze was believed to be a reason for discomfort, especially, if the wind was an ‘envoy of the lower world’. ...

the Türks constructed a temple under a name ‘Dispersing the clouds’. The Türks visited this temple before a military campaign, made a sacrifice and asked for a victory...

As it is known, one of the main movements of a Kam during sacramentation with tambourine or a fan was a fast spinning on feet. This movement symbolically represented a whirlwind.Kam turned clockwise. The same rotation made the faithful around the sacred birches, fire etc during a sacrifice. People trusted the spirit of Wind, a personifying force of the nature, which gave them energy. At the same time the Türks had the idea of a whirlwind as an evil spirit, if the rotation was counter-clockwise. Such a whirlwind could steal the Kut of a man.

Clouds.:

Ancient Türks believed that deity Cloud directly subordinated to Great Sky God Tengri. Thunder and Lightning were His brothers. ...

Rain.:

The most esteemed deity for the Türks was Rain. Both the harvest and the well being of a man depend on Him. In May a sacrifice was made to deity Rain. After the sacrifice started the ‘rain celebration’. By ancient mythologies, the ancient Türks portrayed Rain as a human. He lived in the Sky, but was more connected with Earth deities. His brothers were Thunder and Lightning, Cloud, Wind, and sister Water on Earth...

The Ancient Practice of Tengriism, Shamanism and Ancient Worship of the Sky Gods

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/ancient-practice-tengriism-shamanism-and-ancient-worship-sky-gods-002387

Lugh may just be a different name for the same deity from a different civilization and/or a different time.

"Atys the sun god, slain by the boar's tusk of winter". (Sun King Lugh? Same story different name? John Barleycorn?). Also note how the Gauls were turned into Eunuch's. Native Europeans were slaves and eunuchs were more a valuable slave in the Arab/Jewish community in the mid east. Also note how the Gauls adapted to abstaning from eating pork, a practice found amongst the Arab/Jewish people...

Attis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attis

The 19th-century identification with the name Atys encountered in Herodotus (i.34–45) as the historical name of the son of Croesus ("Atys the sun god, slain by the boar's tusk of winter") is mistaken.

An Attis cult began around 1250 BCE in Dindymon (today's Murat Dağı of Gediz, Kütahya, Turkey)... In the late 4th century BC, a cult of Attis became a feature of the Greek world....

The story of his origins at Agdistis, recorded by the traveler Pausanias, have some distinctly non-Greek elements: Pausanias was told that the daemon Agdistis initially bore both male and female attributes. But the Olympian gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ and cast it away. There grew up from it an almond-tree, and when its fruit was ripe, Nana, who was a daughter of the river-god Sangarius, picked an almond and laid it in her bosom. The almond disappeared, and she became pregnant. Nana abandoned the baby (Attis). The infant was tended by a he-goat. As Attis grew, his long-haired beauty was godlike, and Agdistis as Cybele then fell in love with him. But the foster parents of Attis sent him to Pessinos, where he was to wed the king's daughter. According to some versions the King of Pessinos was Midas. Just as the marriage-song was being sung, Agdistis/Cybele appeared in her transcendent power, and Attis went mad and cut off his genitals... Pausanias adds, to corroborate this story, that the Gauls who inhabited Pessinos abstained from pork. This myth element may have been invented solely to explain the unusual dietary laws of the Lydian Gauls. In Rome, the eunuch followers of Cybele were known as Galli.....

Attis is said to have introduced to Lydia the cult of the Mother Goddess Cybele, incurring the jealousy of Zeus, who sent a boar to destroy the Lydian crops. Then certain Lydians, with Attis himself, were killed by the boar....

A new name for the original Mother Earth who has had many names given her? Similar story in Sumerian Mythology which goes back to Turkic Mythology which goes back to Siberian Mythology 24,000 yrs ago which is also found in South Western France 25,000 yrs ago. Note how different civilizations adopt deities from other civilizations...

Cybele

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybele

Anatolian mother goddess... spread to mainland Greece and its more distant western colonies around the 6th century BC... In Greece, Cybele met with a mixed reception. She was partially assimilated to aspects of the Earth-goddess Gaia, her Minoan equivalent Rhea, and the harvest-mother goddess Demeter. ... In Greece, Cybele is associated with mountains, town and city walls, fertile nature, and wild animals, especially lions.

In Rome, Cybele was known as Magna Mater ("Great Mother"). ... The inscription Matar Kubileya at a Phrygian rock-cut shrine, dated to the first half of the 6th century BC, is usually read as "Mother of the mountain"...

The Greeks called her Mātēr or Mētēr ("Mother"), or from the early 5th century Kubelē; in Pindar, she is "Mistress Cybele the Mother".... "Mistress of animals" ... She was readily assimilated to the Minoan-Greek earth-mother Rhea, "Mother of the gods"... partly assimilated to the grain-goddess Demeter ..

Romans knew Cybele as Magna Mater ("Great Mother"), or as Magna Mater deorum Idaea ("great Idaean mother of the gods"), equivalent to the Greek title Meter Theon Idaia ("Mother of the Gods, from Mount Ida"). Rome officially adopted her cult during the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC),... Romans believed that Cybele, considered a Phrygian outsider even within her Greek cults, was the mother-goddess of ancient Troy (Ilium). Some of Rome's leading patrician families claimed Trojan ancestry; so the "return" of the Mother of all Gods to her once-exiled people would have been particularly welcome, even if her spouse and priesthood were not; ...

KYBELE

http://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Kybele.html

Kybele was the daughter of the Phrygian sky-god and earth-mother. She was born as an hermaphrodite named Agdistis who was castrated by the gods to become the goddess Kybele. The Phrygian sky-god is identified with the Greek Zeus in Pausanias' account of the myth.

Another ressurrection story...

Phoenix (mythology)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(mythology)

In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that is cyclically regenerated or reborn. Associated with the Sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.... although there are other sources that claim that the legendary bird dies and simply decomposes before being born again. According to some texts, the phoenix could live over 1,400 years before rebirth....

In ancient Greece and Rome, the bird, phoenix, was sometimes associated with the similar-sounding Phoenicia ... Because the costly purple dye from Phoenicia was associated with the upper classes in antiquity and, later, with royalty, in the medieval period the phoenix was considered "the royal bird"....

Classical discourse on the subject of the phoenix points to a potential origin of the phoenix in Ancient Egypt....may have actually been influenced by Greek notions of the phoenix, rather than the other way around....

Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, gives a somewhat skeptical account of the phoenix:

"[The Egyptians] have also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I myself have never seen, except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity, even in Egypt, only coming there (according to the accounts of the people of Heliopolis) once in five hundred years, when the old phoenix dies. Its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, are as follow:- The plumage is partly red, partly golden, while the general make and size are almost exactly that of the eagle. They tell a story of what this bird does, which does not seem to me to be credible: that he comes all the way from Arabia, and brings the parent bird, all plastered over with myrrh, to the temple of the Sun, and there buries the body. In order to bring him, they say, he first forms a ball of myrrh as big as he finds that he can carry; then he hollows out the ball, and puts his parent inside, after which he covers over the opening with fresh myrrh, and the ball is then of exactly the same weight as at first; so he brings it to Egypt, plastered over as I have said, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun. Such is the story they tell of the doings of this bird."...

The phoenix is sometimes pictured in ancient and medieval literature and medieval art as endowed with a nimbus, which emphasizes the bird's connection with the Sun. In the oldest images of phoenixes on record these nimbuses often have seven rays, like Helios (the personified sun of Greek mythology)....

Symbolism of the Mythical Phoenix Bird: Renewal, Rebirth and Destruction

https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/ancient-symbolism-magical-phoenix-002020

It is brilliantly coloured in reds, purples, and yellows, as it is associated with the rising sun and fire. Sometimes a nimbus will surround it, illuminating it in the sky. Its eyes are blue and shine like sapphires. It builds its own funeral pyre or nest, and ignites it with a single clap of its wings. After death it rises gloriously from the ashes and flies away....

The Greek named it the Phoenix but it is associated with the Egyptian Bennu, the Native American Thunderbird, the Russian Firebird, the Chinese Fèng Huáng, and the Japanese Hō-ō. It is believed that the Greeks called the Canaanites the Phoenikes or Phoenicians, which may derive from the Greek word 'Phoenix', meaning crimson or purple. Indeed, the symbology of the Phoenix is also closely tied with the Phoenicians....

the Egyptians told of the Bennu, a heron bird that is part of their creation myth. The Bennu lived atop ben-ben stones or obelisks and was worshipped alongside Osiris and Ra....

Why and How did the symbol of the Goths become a symbol of satan? Why would the powerful and good symbol of the Goth Goats be turned into an symbol to represent bad and evil?

My opinion was Judeao-Christian religion demonizing the Pagan religions. Using the pagan's symbols to represent the Judaeo-Christian devil worship to defame pagan religion, and make the pagans convert to the new religion of Judeao-Christianity.

But, pagans did not worship satan, nor was satan ever a deity for pagans. Satan is a Judeao-Christian deity of bad that they could claim the pagan witches were worshipping satan. The Goths were a sun cult. But, some other cults were moon worship such as the semites.

It is most probable that it was the medevil period of Judaeo-Christians,a nd their witch burnings were demonizing the Goths and other Northern European Tribes as war propaganda per say to convert Europe to the new Judaeo-Christianity. Using the pagan symbols as symbols of evil.

The witches who merely used magic had symbols of their people, such as goth goats became demonized by the church as devil worshippers so their good symbols became symbols of evil by the church, and possibly other cult rivals possibly by jew semites. In modern times the new satan worshipping cults have used the goth goat of the Lévi's Baphomet as their symbol which falsely symbolizes their god satan as a goth goat which is a great deception because goths did not had a satan deity let alone worship satan.

In summary, goth goat as a symbol of satan was a modern invention by an artists drawn image based on medevil propaganda to wipe out paganism, and convert all of Europe to one religion of Judaeo-Christianity....

Why Are Goats Associated With the Devil, Like Black Phillip in The Witch?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/26/goats_and_the_devil_origins_black_phillip_in_the_witch_isn_t_alone.html

The Witch by noting on screen that much of the film came “directly from period journals, diaries, and court records,” and his movie goes to extraordinary lengths to summon authentic 17th century wares and atmosphere. So are there actual accounts of insidious goats terrorizing North American settlers? Why are goats linked to the occult, anyway? Is Black Phillip real??... The answer to the first two questions, alas, is no. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but there is nothing about goats in the Salem records or, that I can recall, in any American records of other witchcraft prosecutions,” ...

“There aren’t a lot of direct goat antecedents, but pretty much any animal could be a witch’s familiar—that’s certainly an accurate notion,” he said. “One of the definitions of a witch is of a shapeshifter, and the ability to put themselves into animal form. We see that repeatedly, in the concept of the black cats, or rats, mice, dogs, you name it.” He noted a record of two dogs in Salem, in 1692, who were shot to death because they were believed to be witches. ...

I followed the history a bit more to England, where Eggers and several American scholars also pointed me. Malcolm Gaskill, a professor of early modern history at the University of East Anglia, confirmed that goats play a more prominent role in European witch imagery. “In European engravings and painting[s] that depict the witches’ sabbath—that is, the remote meetings where witches were supposed to gather to pay homage to Satan—the devil is often depicted as a goat or a goat-like man,” ...

Baphomet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet

The original goat pentagram first appeared in the book La Clef de la Magie Noire by French occultist Stanislas de Guaita, in 1897. This symbol would later become synonymous with Baphomet, and is commonly referred to as the Sabbatic Goat. Samaelis a figure in Talmudic lore, and Lilith, a female demon in Jewish mythology. The Hebrew letters at the five points of the pentagram spell out Leviathan, a mythic creature in Jewish lore. This symbol was later adapted by the Church of Satan in 1969 and officially named the Sigil of Baphomet...

Baphomet is a term originally used to describe an idol or other deity that the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping and that subsequently was incorporated into disparate occult and mystical traditions. It appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century. The name first came into popular English usage in the 19th century, with debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templars....

Since 1856, the name Baphomet has been associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas Levi... Later in the 19th century, the name of Baphomet became further associated with the occult. Eliphas Levi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ("Dogma and Rituals of High Magic") as two volumes (Dogme 1854, Rituel 1856), in which he included an image he had drawn himself which he described as Baphomet and "The Sabbatic Goat", showing a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns...

Lévi believed that the alleged devil worship of the medieval Witches' Sabbath was a perpetuation of ancient pagan rites. A goat with a candle between its horns appears in medieval witchcraft records,...

Goat of Mendes

Lévi called his image "The Goat of Mendes", possibly following Herodotus' accounts that the god of Mendes—the Greek name for Djedet, Egypt—was depicted with a goat's face and legs. Herodotus relates how all male goats were held in great reverence by the Mendesians, and how in his time a woman publicly copulated with a goat. E. A. Wallis Budge writes,

At several places in the Delta, e.g. Hermopolis, Lycopolis, and Mendes, the god Pan and a goat were worshipped; Strabo, quoting (xvii. 1, 19) Pindar, says that in these places goats had intercourse with women, and Herodotus (ii. 46) instances a case which was said to have taken place in the open day. The Mendisians, according to this last writer, paid reverence to all goats, and more to the males than to the females, and particularly to one he-goat, on the death of which public mourning is observed throughout the whole Mendesian district; they call both Pan and the goat Mendes, and both were worshipped as gods of generation and fecundity. Diodorus (i. 88) compares the cult of the goat of Mendes with that of Priapus, and groups the god with the Pans and the Satyrs. The goat referred to by all these writers is the famous Mendean Ram, or Ram of Mendes, the cult of which was, according to Manetho, established by Kakau, the king of the IInd dynasty.

Historically, the deity that was venerated at Egyptian Mendes was a ram deity, Banebdjedet (literally Ba of the lord of djed, and titled "the Lord of Mendes"), who was the soul of Osiris. Lévi combined the images of the Tarot of Marseilles Devil card and refigured the ram Banebdjed as a he-goat, further imagined by him as "copulator in Anep and inseminator in the district of Mendes".

Lévi's Baphomet is the source of the later Tarot image of the Devil in the Rider-Waite design. The concept of a downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead was enlarged upon by Lévi in his discussion (without illustration) of the Goat of Mendes arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasted with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram. The actual image of a goat in a downward-pointing pentagram first appeared in the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire by Stanislas de Guaita. It was this image that was later adopted as the official symbol—called the Sigil of Baphomet—of the Church of Satan, and continues to be used among Satanists....

MABON (Autumn Equinox)

http://www.earthwitchery.com/mabon.html

Mabon Lore: Autumn Equinox, around September 21, is the time of the descent of the Goddess into the Underworld. With her departure, we see the decline of nature and the coming of winter. This is a classic, ancient mythos, seen the Sumerian myth of Inanna and in the ancient Greek and Roman legends of Demeter and Persephone.

In September, we also bid farewell to theHarvest Lord who was slain at Lammas. He is the Green Man, seen as the cycle of nature in the plant kingdom. He is harvested and his seeds are planted into the Earth so that life may continue and be more abundant.

Mabon ("Great Son") is a Welsh god. He was a great hunter with a swift horse and a wonderful hound. He may have been a mythologized actual leader. He was stolen from his mother, Modron (Great Mother),when he was three nights old, but was eventually rescued by King Arthur (other legends say he was rescued by the Blackbird, the Stag, the Owl, the Eagle, and the Salmon). All along, however, Mabon has been dwelling, a happy captive, in Modron's magickal Otherworld -- Madron's womb. Only in this way can he be reborn. Mabon's light has been drawn into the Earth, gathering strength and wisdom enough to become a new seed. In this sense, Mabon is the masculine counterpart of Persephone -- the male fertilizing principle seasonally withdrawn. Modron corresponds with Demeter....

Mabon - Overview by Christina

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=holidays&id=3623

Mabon is a time when we are poised between the worlds of life and death, of light and dark, of day and night. ...Mabon, dwells in the Earth Mother's womb, the Otherworld. ...

Mabon (Autumnal Equinox Ritual | Leesoja | Estonia)

https://youtu.be/iPwt_ebQwc8

Mabon September 21 Witch Ritual 2017

https://youtu.be/P3hrJ6KG6sI

The Morrigan comes as a Raven over the battle field determining the fate of warriors.

The Morrigan selects half of the fallen warriors to enter Vallhalla to await the Great Battle of Ragnorak.

Other similar mythologies claim the Valkyries riding on Ravens, or transforming into Ravens take the fallen chosen warriors to Vallhalla.

Ravens in Celtic and Norse Mythology

https://www.transceltic.com/pan-celtic/ravens-celtic-and-norse-mythology

an omen of death. It can also be associated as a source of power, straddling as it does the worlds of the living and the dead therefore often depicted as messenger between the two. Ravens hovering over the scenes of battle, ...It is also said that the Morrigan, in the form of a raven, perched on Cú Chulainn’s shoulder at the time of his death.... In Irish mythology the war goddess Badb features in the story of Táin Bó Cúailnge which is the central tale in The Ulster Cycle. Taking on the form of a crow or raven...In Welsh mythology the figure of Bendigeidfran appears in the Welsh Triads ...Arthur’ attendants were tormenting Owain’s ravens. Arthur ignores Owain’s request that this be stopped. In revenge Owain’s ravens kill many of Arthur’s attendants before peace is restored....It is said in Cornish folklore that King Arthur did not die but his spirit entered into that of a red billed Chough, a member of the crow family. ...In Norse mythology the raven holds a special place. The god of the Æsir pantheon Odin is sometimes referred to as the Raven God. This is due to his association with the ravens Huginn and Muninn as referred to in the Poetic Edda,...

Ravens also feature in the stories of the Valkyrie in Norse mythology. They are female figures that choose who will live and die in battle. Of these they select some who will go to Valhalla (hall of the slain), located in Asgard home of the Æsir gods. Here they would prepare to aid Odin in the forthcoming battles of Ragnarök where the old world would die and new world would begin. ...The importance of the raven to Vikings is shown by how often the bird’s image is used....

The Raven as a Symbol

https://youtu.be/7jwMxwwSdug

Spirit Animal - Animal Totem: Crow

https://youtu.be/egR9v4tuZUA

Huginn and Muninn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn

In Norse mythology, Huginn ("thought") and Muninn ("memory" or "mind") are a pair of ravens that fly all over the world, Midgard, and bring information to the god Odin. Huginn and Muninn are attested in 13th century traditional sources: In the Poetic Edda, a disguised Odin expresses that he fears that they may not return from their daily flights. The Prose Edda explains that Odin is referred to as "raven-god" due to his association with Huginn and Muninn. Heimskringla details that Odin gave Huginn and Muninn the ability to speak.

Migration Period (5th and 6th centuries CE) gold bracteates feature a depiction of a human figure above a horse, holding a spear and flanked by one or more often two birds. The presence of the birds has led to the iconographic identification of the human figure as the god Odin, flanked by Huginn and Muninn.

Vendel era helmet plates (from the 6th or 7th century) found in a grave in Sweden depict a helmeted figure holding a spear and a shield while riding a horse, flanked by two birds. The plate has been interpreted as Odin accompanied by two birds: his ravens.

A pair of identical Germanic Iron Age bird-shaped brooches from Bejsebakke in northern Denmark may be depictions of Huginn and Muninn.

The Oseberg tapestry fragments, discovered within the Viking Age Oseberg ship burial in Norway, feature a scene containing two black birds...

A portion of Thorwald's Cross (a partly surviving runestone erected at Kirk Andreas on the Isle of Man) depicts a bearded human holding a spear downward at a wolf, his right foot in its mouth, and a large bird on his shoulder. Andy Orchard comments that this bird may be either Huginn or Muninn. Rundata dates the cross to 940, while Pluskowski dates it to the 11th century. This depiction has been interpreted as Odin, with a raven or eagle at his shoulder, being consumed by the monstrous wolf Fenrir during the events of Ragnarök.

Raven banner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_banner

The raven banner was a flag, possibly totemic in nature, flown by various Viking chieftains and other Scandinavian rulers during the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries. The flag, as depicted in Norse artwork, was roughly triangular, with a rounded outside edge on which there hung a series of tabs or tassels. It bore a resemblance to ornately carved "weather-vanes" used aboard Viking longships....

Odin was also closely linked to ravens because in Norse myths he received the fallen warriors at Valhalla, and ravens were linked with death and war due to their predilection for carrion. It is consequently likely that they were regarded as manifestations of the Valkyries, goddesses who chose the valiant dead for military service in Valhalla. A further connection between ravens and Valkyries was indicated in the shapeshifting abilities of goddesses and Valkyries, who could appear in the form of birds...

The raven banner was used by a number of Viking warlords regarded in Norse tradition as the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok....

References to the Raven:

https://archive.org/stream/Waddell-TheBritishEdda/WADDELLL.A.-The_British_Edda_1930_2_of_3_djvu.txt

Fig. g. — Herd of Pigs in Fig. 9A. — Wodan with Lion-

Syrio-Hittite seal, c. 2000 head of his Wolf-Lion totem

B.C. (After Ward.} And tribe, carying slain goat,

see pig in lower register of From Hittite seal. (After

seal Fig. 76, p. 114. Ward.) Note his two Ravens

above shoulders.

The (carrion) ravens Hugin and Munin

Fly onwards every day,

Far o'er Irming ground.

I fear for Hugin

That he'll ne'er come back,

Tho' I fear more for Munin.

[Eve, thus failing to get her virago mother matriarch

El or Eldi to accompany her from Eden on her wedding

procession to Adam Thor's home, got instead her mere-

tricious "brother" Baldr (Abel), or Ty or Tys (Attis), who

we shall see is also disclosed as the truculent " Green

Man " of the Arthur Legend. He is mounted on his

Wolf-Tiger (pictographic for his wolf -tribe chieftainship),

and accompanied by his Valkyrie weirds " riding on

ravens." And significantly this procession as described

in the Edda is actually represented in the archaic Hittite

rock-sculptures at King Adam's old capital at Pteria,

the modern Boghaz Koi {see Fig. 58, p. 81) ; and thus

establishing again in the most strikingly conclusive way

the remarkable historicity of the Edda tradition. And it

is significant that the scene on this remotely ancient

Cappadocian rock-sculpture, which has exercised the con-

flicting conjectures of countless savants, now receives its

first authentic interpretation, and that an historical and

not a mythological one, as hitherto supposed, through the

Brito-Norse Edda !

Rides Baorg (Baldr) to the burg, the battle-frothed son

of Wodan,

Frey (Eve) also on her first of battle-steeds Gold-Bristle.

That choice rider (Eve), of the kin of the sea-foam,

gallops to the hearth of the Goth.

That Raven-priestess (Eve) a-horse is much fallen in

with the Home-Daler (Father Adam).

Their hags of the rune secrets of victory, the swift-

swilling Valkyrs of Ur follow,

For their ' holy ' blood-sacrifice (riding) on Ravens. To

draw blood-lots are they so minded.

In the wretched Raven's Land, Wae's me, warrior of

Sig-Ur-dar !

Fig. 73.— The Wolf of Fen or Van (Baldr-Loki) and his

father Wodan or Bodo put to flight by Thor.

From Hittite seal, c. zzoo b.c. (After Ward.)

Note the Wolf's head of Baldr-Sut, and the Raven's

head, surmounted by Serpent, of his father Wodan.

Fig, 136A. — Adam Thor or King George of Cappadocia and

his Sun-Cross. From Cassi seal, c. 1500 B.C. (After

Ward.)

Note his Goat emblem as Goth, and his treading on

the Vulture or Raven of the sanguinary Wodanist

cult.

European Shamanism / Shaman Portal

http://www.shamanportal.org/shamanism_european.php

Shamanism had a strong tradition in the European continent before the rise of monotheism.... The word 'Shaman,' is actually a Tungus (Siberian) word that means Keeper of the Fire for a spiritual practice that is as old as mankind,...

In shamanic traditions, all people are guarded and watched over by a totem beast, which joins them at the time of their birth. In addition to this totem animal, which can remain with a person throughout their life, the shamanic practitioner acquires additional power animals at different times. These animal spirits serve as guides and spirit helpers....

Norse Mythology for Smart People

https://norse-mythology.org/concepts/totemism/

Totemism is a kinship relationship between a human or group of humans and a particular species of animal or plant. The totem animal or plant is generally held to be an ancestor, guardian, and/or benefactor of the human or humans in question.... Remember the cats, ravens, and other familiar spirits who are often the companions of witches in European folktales? These are fylgjur (pronounced “FILG-yur”)...

One of the most prominent examples of group totemism among the ancient Germanic peoples is that which occurs within the institutional framework of the initiatory military society. Many of these societies had a totem animal, usually the wolf or the bear, who would lend his ferocity and strength to the warriors.

Initiation into one of these societies typically involved spending a period of time alone in the wilderness. The candidate’s food was obtained by hunting, gathering, and stealing provisions from nearby towns....The candidate lived in imitation of the group’s totem beast....The warrior achieved a state of spiritual unification with the bear or the wolf,...the warrior’s dressing himself in a ritual costume made from the hide of the animal,...Viking Age warriors who had wolves as their totem animals. Those who had bears as their totem animals were none other than the famous berserkers, “bear-shirts.” The names berserkir and úlfheðnar are both references to the ritual bear- or wolf-costumes worn by these warriors....

Sacred Symbols

http://www.odinsvolk.ca/O.V.A.%20-%20SACRED%20SYMBOLS2.htm

Celtic Totem Animals

http://www.gothicimage.co.uk/gi3/index.php/freebies/item/81-celtic-totem-animals/81-celtic-totem-animals

the boundaries between humans and animals were few or non-existent. Inuit tradition speaks of a time when a person could become an animal, or an animal could change into a person: all they needed to do was to say the words. ...

The current view regarding the use of animal iconography in Celtic art refers to theiromorphic deities – that is, gods or goddesses who tend towards animal form or assume such shapes for an indefinite period of time. However, it is my belief that this is a mistaken reading, and that what we are in fact seeing is a catalogue of the various Totem Animal helpers whose aid was summoned by the tribal shaman, or whose form he also, briefly, assumed, either during trance or by donning a costume created from the fur or feathers of the creature in question. This may well have led to the shaman figure becoming identified with the god or goddess he served, and would explain the reason why the Celts did not make representations of their gods until the influence of Roman and Greek art forms made itself felt – there would have been no need to do so if the shaman-priest regularly assumed the form of the animal, bird or fish in question.

Originally emblems which designated the identity of each tribe within the society, these creatures became the 'totems' of the shaman, powerful spirit allies who aided them in their work as healers, seers and guardians of the traditions of the ancestors – the great dead of the tribe....

I doubt the mermaids and other sea gods and goddesses were originally a serpent cult. I think the early water deities were Turkic Mythology. Probably apart of their own unique mythology separate until later integrating peoples shared beliefs in newly formed societies merging belief systems with different peoples. I think the serpent cult originated in the southern lands, while the water fish deities probably originating in the northern Eurasian lands. Just my understanding and interpretation thus far...

Tracing the origins of the Serpent Cult

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/tracing-origins-serpent-cult-002393

In China, it was a male and female pair with human heads and serpent bodies named Fu Xi and Nu Wa who created humans. In Sumer, it was the Annunaki Nin-Khursag and her husband Enki who were given the task of creating workers. Enki is known to us as the serpent in Genesis... To the Hindus, it was the cosmic serpent Ananta who created us.... The next serpent was Enki’s son Ningizzidda, known to the Sumerians, Egyptians and Tibetans. According to Zecharia Sitchin, he dwelt in Magan, or what is known to us as Egypt...

Numerous ancient cultures throughout the world worshipped the serpent, beings such as Quetzalcoatl, Cihuacohuatziti, and Cihuacohuatl in Mexico and Peru, the Naga King of India and his Nagin children, Po Nagar in Vietnam, who was their first Empress, and the serpent deities who were beautiful women associated with trees and lakes. The Snake Goddess of Egypt, Wadjet, was protector of the land, kings, and women in childbirth. In Minoa, the Snake Goddess was addressed as A-sa-sa-ra-me and was related to the Hittite Ishassara, the Khmer Apsara and the Canaanite Asherah. Pre-Christian Ireland, Scotland and England also worshipped the serpent.

In India, the serpent beings were known as Nagin—the children of the Naga King.... In Greece, the most famous example is Alexander the Great, whose mother was an enthusiastic participant in Orphic rites, often dancing with serpents draped about her.... In Java, there is a story that bears some similarity to the Little Mermaid.... In France, we have the tale of Melusine—half human/half fish (or serpent), ...

Holy Goats! They're Kind Of A Big Deal In One Nepali Town

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2014/11/03/360448834/holy-goats-theyre-kind-of-a-big-deal-in-one-nepali-town

Khokana's 1,000 or so inhabitants are members of the Newar population of Nepal. They're the valley's original inhabitants and live in one of the area's oldest towns. ...Newars practice a combination of Hinduism and Buddhism that was forged centuries ago. To them, the goats are holy. "We believe God looks after them,"... According to the Newars, the goats belong to the goddess Rudrayani, an incarnation of the Hindu goddess Durga... The females are deemed descendants of the first sacred goats and cannot be sacrificed. Males aren't quite as lucky. They can be sacrificed during festivals and then eaten....

Newar people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newar_people

The Kathmandu Valley and surrounding territories constituted the former Newar kingdom of the Nepal Mandala. Unlike other common-origin ethnic or caste groups of Nepal, the Newars are regarded as an example of a nation community with a relict identity, derived from an ethnically-diverse, previously-existing polity. Newar community within it consists of various strands of ethnic, racial, caste and religious heterogeneity, as they are the descendants of the diverse group of people that have lived in Nepal Mandala since prehistoric times. Indo-Aryan tribes like the Licchavis and Mallas (N) from respective Indian Mahajanapada (i.e. Licchavis of Vajji and Malla (I)) that arrived at different periods eventually merged with the local population by adopting their language and customs. These tribes however retained their Vedic culture and brought with them their Sanskritic languages, social structure and Hindu religion, which was assimilated with local cultures and gave rise to the current Newar civilization. Newar rule in Nepal Mandala ended with its conquest by the Gorkha Kingdom in 1768....

According to the 2001 Nepal Census, 84.13% of the Newars were Hindu ... "Nepal Bhasa" is classified as among the Sino-Tibetan languages but it has greatly derived much of its grammar, words and lexicon from the influences of southern Indo-Aryan languages like Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Maithali....Nepal Bhasa is of Tibeto-Burman origin but has been heavily influenced by Indo-Aryan languages like Sanskrit, Pali, Bengali and Maithili....

10 Worshipped Animals from around the World

https://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/10-worshipped-animals-from-around-the-world/246430

10. Pig: Egypt..., Greeks also practice the ritual of sacrificing pigs to their goddess Demeter.... Chinese zodiac pigs are one of the twelve auspicious animals. The Celts also worshiped a ‘god of swine’ named Moccus,...

9. Snake: In India Serpent deities are worshiped. ...Hindu culture Lord Shiva wears a Nag “Indian Cobra” around his neck...,in other parts of the Old World such as America serpents are worshiped.... The Egyptians worship a number of snake gods... the Native American tribes snake is the god who give fair winds and cause thunderstorm.

8. Tiger: According to Chinese myth and culture tigers are among one of the 12 zodiac animals....In Hinduism tiger is associated with the Hindu god Shiva and Durga. In Nepal, a tiger festival is celebrated called as Bagh Jatra. In many parts of Vietnam, there is a tiger temple in every village.

7. Cattle: In Hinduism cattle’s are considered to be holy, even Zoroastrianism, ancient Egyptian and Greek... The Egyptian distinguishes bull

6. Elephant: In Thailand people believe that a white elephant contain the soul of a dead person. In India, Lord Ganesha has the head of an elephant. ...In Sumatran culture elephant statues were built as “seats of the souls”.... The elephant holds a special place in Hindu culture and tradition. ...Hindu God Ganesha (son of Lord Shiva and Parvati) has an elephant head.

5. Monkey: According to Chinese zodiac calendar monkeys are the ninth in the twelve-year cycle of animals... In Hinduism the monkey is seen as Hanuman. ...The Buddhist believes that the monkey is an incarnation of Buddha. But some also believe that they are dishonest and ugly.

4. Wolf: The wolf holds a significant position in foundational mythologies of Eurasia and North America... In many cultures, wolves are identified with warrior. The Tlingit community god name means “wolf,” and they worship a wolf-head. The shamanic Turkic believes they are descendants of wolves. Both Zeus and Apollo are also associated with the wolf ... Ancient Roman legend states that, Goddess Luperca, a she-wolf, nursed Romulus and Remus (twin siblings, children of Rhea Silvia and Mars).... Turkic mythology states that, they are descendants of the wolf. Even Native Americans worshiped the wolf as god.

3. Dog: In Nepal and parts of India dogs carry a religious significance...In Hinduism, dog is considered as a messenger to the god of demise. It is also believed that they are guard to the doors of Heaven. In Nepal 14th day in November is celebrated as Kukur toyhar, meaning dog’s day.... The Nosarii tribe of western Asia also worships dogs. The Karang of Java believes that dogs are reflection of wood....Lord Dattatreya is depicted with four dogs, and these dogs represent the four Vedas (Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda).

2. Goat: ancient times in Syria...believed that they carry evils with them. Certain communities like Silenus and the Fauns had part of their bodies shaped like goat. In northern Europe a community Leszi, have goat’s horns, ears and legs.... Greece and Egypt goats are worshiped in goat and phallic form. According to Chinese Zodiac sign, people with goat sign are shy, aloof, introvert and creative.... Karnak temple of Egypt has ram-shaped sphinxes. The Greek mythological characters Silenus and Satyr had a goat-like appearance. The Greek mythological Gods 'Fauns' were said to be half-human and half-goat. The Greek God 'Pan', God of Flocks and Shepherds.

1. Horse: Turkish and Indo-European people. It is also believed that Poseidon, a water god, was formerly conceived in the appearance of a horse. The horse and the mule are holy to the Roman god. In Hinduism and Buddhism, a horse headed god named Hayagriva is worshipped. Gonds tribe in India also worships a horse, which is in the shape of a stone. Horses are also commonly worshipped in Europe. In Balkan culture, a bachelor person is wrapped with a horse to transfer the sexual power of horse to the individual.

10 Most Sacred and Worshiped Animals Around the World

https://spiritualray.com/most-worshiped-animals-around-world

Lion: Hindu culture depicts Goddess Durga as having a lion as her vehicle. In China, the lion symbolizes a protector of evils... In ancient Egypt, many gods, such as Aker, were lion-headed. In the Narasiṁha avatar, Lord Vishnu acts as a protector against evil, and killed the demon Hiranyakashipu.

Eagle: is one of the highly revered animals of Native Americans... In Hindu culture, the 'garuda' (eagle) is a vehicle of Lord Vishnu.

Animal worship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_worship

Bear: There is evidence that connects the Greek goddess Artemis with a cult of the bear...

Sheep: Amun, the god of Thebes, Egypt, was represented as ram-headed.... Another Egyptian ram-headed god was Banebdjed, a form of Osiris.

Goat: Silenus, the Satyrs and the Fauns were either capriform or had some part of their bodies shaped like that of a goat. In northern Europe the wood spirit, Leszi, is believed to have a goat's horns, ears and legs... Excavations in Central Asia have revealed ancient ritual goat-burial that show a religious significance of the goat predominantly in the area. These findings have been used as evidence for a goat-cult of Asia originating either in the Neolithic or Bronze Ages.

Raven: chief deity of the Tlingit people of Alaska. ...Ravens also play a part in some European mythologies, such as in the Celtic and Germanic Religions, where they were connected to Bran and the Morrigan in the former and Woden in the latter.

Fish: Canaanite god Dagon was a fish god. a fish-god with human head and hands was worshipped by people who wore fish-skins.

Shamanism and animals: When a shaman set out to journey spiritually to the outer world, animals were a key component, assisting him in his work... Without the assistance of animals, humans from Inner Eurasia were not capable of reaching the sky, traveling rapidly throughout the earth, or going beneath the earth's outer crust, all of which were important activities to the culture...). Heaven was represented by the people in assemblies of animals, usually grouped in sevens or nines. When participating in hunting or warfare, Inner Eurasians also took on animal qualities because they believed it would increase their success. Animals were a central part of this religion.

Same ol story, just different names. The Seasons, or turning of the year wheel: Death, Descend to the underworld, Ressurection. Inanna probably a Turkic ana goddess prior to Sumer. After Sumer the stories were similar with minor changes, and names were changed. But, the themes were so similar. Inanna is another dieity that goes to the underworld but, it is her husband who must go to the underworld in her place every year at the Autumn Equinox for her inequities.

Inanna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna

Sumerian goddess of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, combat, and political power,...

Abode Heaven. Symbol hook-shaped knot of reeds, eight-pointed star, lion. Children Lulal and Shara.

Parents usually Nanna and Ningal (though her father is sometimes alternatively given as Enki or An along with an unknown mother). Siblings Utu, Ishkur, and Ereshkigal.

Equivalents: Greek equivalent Aphrodite. Canaanite equivalent Astarte. Babylonian equivalent Ishtar.

Inanna was the Sumerian goddess... She was also the patron goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk, which was her main cult center.... Many of her myths involve her taking over the domains of other deities. She was believed to have stolen the mes, which represented all positive and negative aspects of civilization, from Enki, the god of wisdom. She was also believed to have taken over the Eanna temple from An, the god of the sky, thereby becoming the Queen of Heaven....

Her most famous myth is the story of her descent into and return from Kur, the ancient Sumerian underworld, a myth in which she attempts to conquer the domain of her sister Ereshkigal, the queen of the Underworld, but is instead deemed guilty of hubris by the seven judges of the Underworld and struck dead, before being brought back to life three days later through the intervention of the god Enki due to the fervent pleading of her sukkal, or personal attendant, Ninshubur, even after all the other gods reject her. Her husband Dumuzid is dragged down to the Underworld by the galla, the guardians of the Underworld, as her replacement, but is eventually permitted to return to heaven for half the year while his sister Geshtinanna remains in the Underworld for the other half, resulting in the cycle of the seasons....

Inanna was the most prominent female deity in ancient Mesopotamia. ...Two major theories regarding her origins have been proposed. The first explanation holds that Inanna is the result of a syncretism between several previously unrelated Sumerian deities with totally different domains. The second explanation holds that Inanna was originally a Semitic deity who entered the Sumerian pantheon after it was already fully structured, and who took on all the roles that had not yet been assigned to other deities.

As early as the Uruk period (ca. 4000–3100 BC), Inanna was already associated with the city of Uruk....

During the Akkadian period, Inanna was extensively syncretized with the East Semitic goddess Ishtar. The Akkadian poetess Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon, wrote numerous hymns to Inanna, identifying her with Ishtar. Eventually, Inanna and Ishtar came to be seen as effectively the same....

Inanna was associated with lions, which were a symbol of power even then. During the Akkadian Period, Ishtar was frequently depicted standing on the backs of two lionesses, but, even during Sumerian times, Inanna was already associated with lions; a chlorite bowl from the temple of Inanna at Nippur depicts a large feline battling a giant snake and a cuneiform inscription on the bowl reads "Inanna and the Serpent," indicating that the cat is supposed to represent the goddess....

Inanna was not, nor was she ever viewed as a mother goddess.... Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Gilgamesh points out Ishtar's infamous ill-treatment of her lovers....

Descent into the Underworld: In Sumerian religion, the Kur was conceived of as dark, dreary cavern located deep underground; life there was envisioned as "a shadowy version of life on earth". It was ruled by Inanna's sister, the goddess Ereshkigal. Inanna's reason for visiting the underworld is unclear.... Before leaving, Inanna instructs her minister and servant Ninshubur to plead with the deities Enlil, Nanna, Anu, and Enki to rescue her if she does not return after three days. The laws of the underworld dictate that, with the exception of appointed messengers, those who enter it may never leave. ...

Inanna dresses elaborately for the visit, with a turban, a wig, a lapis lazuli necklace, beads upon her breast, the 'pala dress' (the ladyship garment), mascara, pectoral, a golden ring on her hand, and she held a lapis lazuli measuring rod. These garments are each representations of powerful mes she possesses. Perhaps Inanna's garments, unsuitable for a funeral, along with Inanna's haughty behavior, make Ereshkigal suspicious.

Following Ereshkigal's instructions, Neti, the gatekeeper of the underworld, tells Inanna she may enter the first gate of the underworld, but she must hand over her lapis lazuli measuring rod. She asks why, and is told, "It is just the ways of the Underworld." She obliges and passes through. Inanna passes through a total of seven gates, at each one removing a piece of clothing or jewelry she had been wearing at the start of her journey, thus stripping her of her power. When she arrives in front of her sister, she is naked:

"After she had crouched down and had her clothes removed, they were carried away. Then she made her sister Erec-ki-gala rise from her throne, and instead she sat on her throne. The Anna, the seven judges, rendered their decision against her. They looked at her – it was the look of death. They spoke to her – it was the speech of anger. They shouted at her – it was the shout of heavy guilt. The afflicted woman was turned into a corpse. And the corpse was hung on a hook."

Three days and three nights pass, and Ninshubur, following instructions, goes to the temples of Enlil, Nanna, An, and Enki, and pleads with each of them to rescue Inanna. The first three deities refuse, saying Inanna's fate is her own fault, but Enki is deeply troubled and agrees to help. He creates two sexless figures named gala-tura and the kur-jara from the dirt under the fingernails of the deities. He instructs them to appease Ereshkigal and, when she asks them what they want, ask for the corpse of Inanna, which they must sprinkle with the food and water of life. When they come before Ereshkigal, she is in agony like a woman giving birth. She offers them whatever they want, including life-giving rivers of water and fields of grain, if they can relieve her; nonetheless they take only the corpse.

The gala-tura and the kur-jara sprinkle Inanna's corpse with the food and water of life and revive her. Galla demons sent by Ereshkigal follow Inanna out of the Underworld, insisting that she is not free to go until someone else takes her place. They first come upon Ninshubur and attempt to take her, but Inanna stops them, insisting that Ninshubur is her loyal servant, who had rightly mourned her while she was in the underworld. They next come upon Shara, Inanna's beautician, still in mourning. The demons attempt to take him, but Inanna insists that they may not, as he too had mourned her. They next come upon Lulal, also in mourning. The demons try to take him, but Inanna stops them once again.

Finally, they come upon Dumuzid, Inanna's husband. Despite Inanna's fate, and in contrast to the other individuals who were properly mourning Inanna, Dumuzid is lavishly clothed and resting beneath a tree, or upon her throne, entertained by slave-girls. Inanna, displeased, decrees that the demons shall take him, using language which echoes the speech Ereshkigal gave while condemning her. The demons then drag Dumuzid down to the Underworld.

In other recensions of the story, Dumuzid tries to escape his fate, and is able to flee from the demons for a time, as Inanna's brother Utu, the god of the Sun, repeatedly intervenes and transforms Dumuzid into a variety of different animals, enabling him to escape. Nonetheless, the galla eventually capture Dumuzid and drag him down to the Underworld. However, Geshtinanna, Dumuzid's sister, out of love for him, begs to be taken in his place. Inanna decrees that Dumuzid will spend half the year in the underworld with Ereshkigal, but that his sister will take the other half. Inanna, displaying her typically capricious behavior, mourns Dumuzid's time in the underworld. This she reveals in a haunting lament of his deathlike absence from her, for "[he] cannot answer . . . [he] cannot come/ to her calling . . . the young man has gone." Her own powers, notably those connected with fertility, subsequently wane, to return in full when he returns from the netherworld each six months. This cycle then approximates the shift of seasons....

In different traditions, Inanna is described as either the daughter of the sky god An or as the daughter of the moon god Nanna. In different versions of her stories, her siblings sometimes include the sun god Utu, the rain god Ishkur, and the Queen of the Underworld Ereshkigal. In nearly all of her myths, her sukkal is the goddess Ninshubur. Dumuzid, the god of shepherds, is usually described as Inanna's husband, although Inanna's loyalty to him is questionable; in the myth of her descent into the Underworld, she abandons Dumuzi and permits the galla demons to drag him down into the Underworld as her replacement, but in the later myth of "The Return of Dumuzi," Inanna paradoxically mourns over Dumuzi's death and ultimately decrees that he will be allowed to return to Heaven to be with her for one half of the year....

Later influence: The cult of Inanna influenced the cult of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar to such a profound extent that the two goddesses were widely considered to be the same. The cult of Ishtar, in turn, gave rise to the cult of the Phoenician goddess Astarte, which either gave rise to or at least heavily influenced the later cult of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis is possibly derived from the story of Inanna and Dumuzid. Samuel Noah Kramer has compared the story of Ereshkigal with the Greek story of Persephone, implicating that the Greek story was probably influenced by the Sumerian one. The cult of Inanna may also have influenced the deities Ainina and Danina of the Caucasian Iberians mentioned by the medieval Georgian Chronicles....

Innana

http://www.ancient.eu/Inanna/

The Descent of Inanna - transforms in time into the dying-and-reviving god Tammuz and, annually at the autumn equinox, the people would celebrate the sacred marriage rites of Inanna and Dumuzi (Ishtar and Tammuz) as he returned from the underworld to mate again with her, thus bringing the land to life. The Sacred Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi was central to the fertility of the land and was re-enacted at important festivals (such as the Akitu Festival at Babylon) by the king and a priestess having sexual intercourse or, perhaps, only symbolically mating in a kind of pantomime.

Inana's descent to the nether world: translation

http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm

6-13 She abandoned the office of en, abandoned the office of lagar, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the E-ana in Unug, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the E-muc-kalama in Bad-tibira, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the Giguna in Zabalam, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the E-cara in Adab, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the Barag-dur-jara in Nibru, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the Hursaj-kalama in Kic, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the E-Ulmac in Agade, and descended to the underworld. (1 ms. adds 8 lines: She abandoned the Ibgal in Umma, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the E-Dilmuna in Urim, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the Amac-e-kug in Kisiga, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the E-ecdam-kug in Jirsu, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the E-sig-mece-du in Isin, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the Anzagar in Akcak, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the Nijin-jar-kug in Curuppag, and descended to the underworld. She abandoned the E-cag-hula in Kazallu, and descended to the underworld.) ...

Dumuzi becomes partially transformed to a part serpent to escape the demons of the underworld...

Descent Of Inanna (Full Poem)

http://people.uncw.edu/deagona/myth/Descent%20Of%20Inanna.pdf

Inanna answered: 'Because... of my older sister Erishkigal, Her husband, Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, has died. I have come to witness the funeral rites. Let the beer of his funeral rites be poured into the cup. Let it be done.' ...

...Then Erishkigal fastened on Inanna the eye of death. She spoke against her the word of wrath.

She uttered against her the cry of guilt. She struck her. Inanna was turned into a corpse, A piece of rotting meat, And was hung from a hook on the wall... When, after three days and three nights, Inanna had not returned, Ninshubur set up a lament for her by the ruins. ... She cried out: 'O Father Enlil, do not let your daughter Be put to death in the underworld. ...Father Enlil answered angrily:'My daughter craved the Great Above. Inanna craved the Great Below. She who receives the me of the underworld does not return.

She who goes to the Dark City stays there.' ... 'Oh Father Nanna, do not let your daughter Be put to death in the underworld. ... 'O Father Enki, do not let your daughter Be put to death in the underworld. ... From under his fingernail Father Enki brought forth dirt. He fashioned the dirt into a kurgarra... Erishkigal, the Queen of the Underworld,...She will ofer you a gift. Ask her only for the corpse that hangs from the hook on the wall.

One of you will sprinkle the food of life on it The other will sprinkle the water of life. Inanna will arise.'...

Inanna was about to ascend from the underworld When the Annuna, the judges of the underworld, siezed her. They said: 'No one ascends from the underworld unmarked. If Inanna wishes to return from the underworld, She must provide someone in her place.' As Inanna ascended from the underworld, The galla, the demons of the underworld, clung to her side. ... The galla said: 'Walk on to your city, Inanna. We will go with you to the big apple tree in uruk.' In Uruk, by the big apple tree, Dumuzi, the husband of Inanna, was dressed in his shining me garments. He sat on his magnificent throne; (he did not move) The galla

seized him by the thighs. ... Inanna fastened on Dumuzi the eye of death. She spoke against him the word of wrath. She uttered against him the cry of guilt. 'Take him away! Take Dumuzi away!... Dumuzi let out a wail.

He raised his hands to heaven to utu, the God of Justice, and beseeched him:... The merciful Utu accepted Dumuzi's tears. He changed the hands of Dumuzi into snake hands. He changed the feet of Dumuzi into snake

feet. Dumuzi escaped from his demons. They could not hold him.....

Love is a Battlefield: The Legend of Ishtar, First Goddess of Love and War

https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/love-battlefield-legend-ishtar-first-goddess-love-and-war-008301

So it was with the world’s first goddess of love and war, Ishtar, and her lover Tammuz.... Ishtar (the word comes from the Akkadian language; she was known as Inanna in Sumerian) was the first deity for which we have written evidence. She was closely related to romantic love, but also familial love, the loving bonds between communities, and sexual love.

She was also a warrior deity with a potent capacity for vengeance,...

The earliest poems to Ishtar were written by Enheduanna — the world’s first individually identified author . Enheduanna (circa 2300 BCE) is generally considered to have been an historical figure living in Ur, one of the world’s oldest urban centres . She was a priestess to the moon god and the daughter of Sargon of Akkad (“Sargon the Great”), the first ruler to unite northern and southern Mesopotamia and found the powerful Akkadian empire....

On the battlefield, the goddess’s ability to fix fates ensured victory. In love magic, Ishtar’s power could alter romantic fortunes....

Ishtar and Tammuz are the protagonists of one of the world’s first love stories... he most famous account of this myth is Ishtar’s Descent to the Underworld, author unknown. This ancient narrative, surviving in Sumerian and Akkadian versions (both written in cuneiform ), was only deciphered in the 19th Century. It begins with Ishtar’s decision to visit the realm of her sister, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld.

Ostensibly, she is visiting her sister to mourn the death of her brother-in-law, possibly the Bull of Heaven who appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh . But the other gods in the story view the move as an attempt at a hostile takeover. Ishtar was known for being extremely ambitious; in another myth she storms the heavens and stages a divine coup. ...Ishtar is frequently described applying cosmetics and enhancing her appearance before undertaking battle, or before meeting a lover. ...

But when Ereshkigal learns that Ishtar is dressed so well, she realises she has come to conquer the underworld. So she devises a plan to literally strip Ishtar of her power.

Once arriving at Ereshkigal’s home, Ishtar descends through the seven gates of the underworld. At each gate she is instructed to remove an item of clothing. When she arrives before her sister, Ishtar is naked, and Ereshkigal kills her at once. ...

Ea - the god of wisdom - facilitates a plot to revive Ishtar and return her to the upper world...

Once a space had been created in the underworld, it was thought that it couldn’t be left empty. Ishtar is instructed to ascend with a band of demons to the upper world, and find her own replacement.

In the world above, Ishtar sees Tammuz dressed regally and relaxing on a throne, apparently unaffected by her death. Enraged, she instructs the demons to take him away with them. ...her role in her husband’s death shows her vengeful nature....

The concept is encapsulated by the line, often misattributed to Shakespeare, from William Congreve’s The Mourning Bride: Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned. ...

Ishtar’s legacy is most clearly seen through her influence on later cultural archetypes, with her image contributing to the development of the most famous love goddess of them all, Aphrodite.

Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enmerkar_and_the_Lord_of_Aratta

Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta is a legendary Sumerian account, of preserved, early post-Sumerian copies, composed in the Neo-Sumerian period (ca. 21st century BC). It is one of a series of accounts describing the conflicts between Enmerkar, king of Unug-Kulaba (Uruk), and the unnamed king of Aratta...

E-ana was a temple in Uruk built in honour of the goddess Inanna, the "lady of all the lands" (E-ana is 'house of An', or 'Temple of An').... her brick temple in Uruk....Enmerkar, thus "chosen by Inanna in her holy heart from the bright mountain", then asks Inanna to let him subject Aratta and make the people of Aratta deliver a tribute of precious metals and gemstones, for constructing the lofty Abzu temple of Enki at Eridu, as well as for embellishing her own E-ana sanctuary at Uruk....

Devastated by this news, the lord of Aratta finally gives his response: he is more than prepared for a military contest with Uruk, whom he considers no match for his might; however he will submit, on the sole conditions that Enmerkar send him a vast amount of barley grain, and that Inanna convince him that she has forsaken Aratta and confirm her allegiance to Uruk. The herald returns to Enmerkar bearing this reply, and the next day Enmerkar actually sends the barley to Aratta, along with the herald and another demand to send even more precious stones. The lord of Aratta, in a fit of pride, refuses and instead asks Enmerkar to deliver to him these precious stones himself.... To relieve the herald who, beleaguered, can no longer remember all the messages with which he is charged, Enmerkar then resorts to an invention: writing on tablets.... the king of Aratta tries to read the message, Ishkur, the storm-god, causes a great rain to produce wild wheat and chickpeas that are then brought to the king. Seeing this, the king declares that Inanna has not forsaken the primacy of Aratta after all...

...the tablet seems to end with Enmerkar triumphant, possibly installed by Inanna on the throne of Aratta, and with the people of Aratta delivering the tribute to E-ana, and providing the materials to build the Apsû.

Demeter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter

Goddess of agriculture, harvest, fertility and sacred law.... In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. ... Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of c. 1400–1200 BC found at Pylos, the "two mistresses and the king" may be related with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. Her Roman equivalent is Ceres. ...

Demeter's character as mother-goddess is identified in the second element of her name meter derived from Proto-Indo-European ... and that Demeter is "Mother-Earth"... she is the Mother and the giver of food generally. ...

Wanax (wa-na-ka) was her male companion in Mycenaean cult. The Arcadian cult links her to the god Poseidon, who probably substituted the male companion of the Great Goddess ; Demeter may therefore be related to a Minoan Great Goddess (Cybele)....

Demeter's greatest gifts to humankind were agriculture, particularly of cereals, and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife... Demeter help the crops grow full and strong....

In Hesiod's Theogony, Demeter is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. At the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, Demeter lured Iasion away from the other revelers. They had intercourse in a ploughed furrow in Crete, and she gave birth to a son, Ploutos. Her daughter by Zeus was Persephone, Queen of the Underworld....

Mythology: Demeter and Persephone

Demeter's virgin daughter Persephone was abducted to the underworld by Hades. Demeter searched for her ceaselessly, preoccupied with her loss and her grief. The seasons halted; living things ceased their growth, then began to die. Faced with the extinction of all life on earth, Zeus sent his messenger Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back. Hades agreed to release her if she had eaten nothing while in his realm; but Persephone had eaten a small number of pomegranate seeds. This bound her to Hades and the underworld for certain months of every year, either the dry Mediterranean summer, when plant life is threatened by drought, or the autumn and winter. There are several variations on the basic myth. In the Homeric hymn to Demeter, Hecate assists in the search and later becomes Persephone's underworld attendant. In another, Persephone willingly and secretly eats the pomegranate seeds, thinking to deceive Hades, but is discovered and made to stay. In all versions, Persephone's time in the underworld corresponds with the unfruitful seasons of the ancient Greek calendar, and her return to the upper world with springtime. Demeter's descent to retrieve Persephone from the underworld is connected to the Eleusinian Mysteries....

Demeter and Poseidon's names appear in the earliest scratched notes in Linear B found at Mycenae and Mycenaean Pylos... Poseidon carries frequently the title wa-na-ka (wanax) in Linear B inscriptions, as king of the underworld,...

An exception is the myth of isolated Arcadia in southern Greece. Despoina, is daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios, Horse-Poseidon. These myths seem to be connected with the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north during the Bronze age. Poseidon represents the river spirit of the underworld and he appears as a horse as it often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and she bears one daughter who obviously originally had the form or the shape of a mare too. Demeter and Despoina were closely connected with springs and animals, related to Poseidon as a God of waters and especially with Artemis, the mistress of the animals and the goddess of, among others, the Hunt....

Demeter

https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Demeter/demeter.html

Demeter was intimately associated with the seasons. Her daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades to be his wife in the underworld. In her anger at her daughter's loss, Demeter laid a curse on the world that caused plants to wither and die, and the land to become desolate. Zeus, alarmed for the barren earth, sought for Persephone's return. However, because she had eaten while in the underworld, Hades had a claim on her. Therefore, it was decreed that Persephone would spend four months each year in the underworld. During these months Demeter would grieve for her daughter's absence, withdrawing her gifts from the world, creating winter. Her return brought the spring....

DEMETER

http://www.mythweb.com/gods/demeter.html

(Roman name Ceres) was the goddess of agriculture. Demeter as the sister of Zeus and the mother of Persephone.

Persephone was gathering flowers in a meadow one day when a huge crack opened up in the earth and Hades, King of the Dead, emerged from the Underworld. He seized Persephone and carried her off in his chariot, back down to his his realm below, where she became his queen. Demeter was heartbroken. She wandered the length and breadth of the earth in search of her daughter, during which time the crops withered and it became perpetual winter.

At length Hades was persuaded to surrender Persephone for one half of every year, the spring and summer seasons when flowers bloom and the earth bears fruit once more. The half year that Persephone spends in the Underworld as Hades' queen coincides with the barren season.

When depicted in art, Demeter is often shown carrying a sheaf of grain.

Hel (being)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hel_(being)

In Norse mythology, Hel is a being who presides over a realm of the same name, where she receives a portion of the dead. Hel is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In addition, she is mentioned in poems recorded in Heimskringla and Egils saga that date from the 9th and 10th centuries, respectively...

In the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and Heimskringla, Hel is referred to as a daughter of Loki, and to "go to Hel" is to die. In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Hel is described as having been appointed by the god Odin as ruler of a realm of the same name, located in Niflheim. In the same source, her appearance is described as half blue and half flesh-coloured and further as having a gloomy, downcast appearance. The Prose Edda details that Hel rules over vast mansions with many servants in her underworld realm and plays a key role in the attempted resurrection of the god Baldr....

Related early Germanic terms and concepts include Proto-Germanic *xalja-rūnō(n), and *xalja-wītjan, ... Latinized Gothic *haliurunnae... meaning 'witches'), Old English helle-rúne ('sorceress, necromancer', and Old High German helli-rūna 'magic'. ..."one who travels to the netherworld" ...

Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, Hel's realm is referred to as the "Halls of Hel."... Grímnismál, Hel is listed as living beneath one of three roots growing from the world tree Yggdrasil. In Fáfnismál, the hero Sigurd stands before the mortally wounded body of the dragon Fáfnir, and states that Fáfnir lies in pieces, where "Hel can take" him...

The Poetic Edda also mentions that travelers to Hel must pass by her guardian hound Garmr....

Gylfaginning, Hel is listed by High as one of the three children of Loki and Angrboða; the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Jörmungandr, and Hel. ...

High says that Odin sent the gods to gather the children and bring them to him. Upon their arrival, Odin threw Jörmungandr into "that deep sea that lies round all lands," Odin threw Hel into Niflheim, and bestowed upon her authority over nine worlds... Hel has "great Mansions" with extremely high walls and immense gates,...

From the Book Gylfaginning: The goddess Frigg asks who among the Æsir will earn "all her love and favour" by riding to Hel, the location, to try to find Baldr, and offer Hel herself a ransom. The god Hermóðr volunteers and sets off upon the eight-legged horse Sleipnir to Hel. Hermóðr arrives in Hel's hall, finds his brother Baldr there, and stays the night. The next morning, Hermóðr begs Hel to allow Baldr to ride home with him, and tells her about the great weeping the Æsir have done upon Baldr's death. Hel says the love people have for Baldr that Hermóðr has claimed must be tested, stating:

"If all things in the world, alive or dead, weep for him, then he will be allowed to return to the Æsir. If anyone speaks against him or refuses to cry, then he will remain with Hel." ... after the female jötunn Þökk refuses to weep for the dead Baldr, she responds in verse, ending with "let Hel hold what she has." High describes the events of Ragnarök, and details that when Loki arrives at the field Vígríðr "all of Hel's people" will arrive with him....

Freyja

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyja

In Norse mythology, Freyja is a goddess associated with love, sex, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death. ... rides a chariot pulled by two cats, keeps the boar Hildisvíni by her side, possesses a cloak of falcon feathers, and, by her husband Óðr, is the mother of two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. Along with her brother Freyr her father Njörðr, and her mother (Njörðr's sister, unnamed in sources), she is a member of the Vanir. ...

Freyja rules over her heavenly afterlife field Fólkvangr and there receives half of those that die in battle, whereas the other half go to the god Odin's hall, Valhalla. Within Fólkvangr is her hall, Sessrúmnir. Freyja assists other deities by allowing them to use her feathered cloak,... Völuspá contains a stanza that mentions Freyja, referring to her as "Óð's girl"; Freyja being the wife of her husband, Óðr.... In the poem Grímnismál, Odin (disguised as Grímnir) tells the young Agnar that every day Freyja allots seats to half of those that are slain in her hall Fólkvangr, while Odin owns the other half....

High recounts that, soon after the gods built the hall Valhalla, a builder (unnamed) came to them and offered to build for them in three seasons a fortification so solid that no jötunn would be able to come in over from Midgard. In exchange, the builder wants Freyja for his bride, and the sun and the moon. After some debate the gods agree, but with added conditions. In time, just as he is about to complete his work, it is revealed that the builder is, in fact, himself a jötunn, and he is killed by Thor. In the mean time, Loki, in the form of a mare, has been impregnated by the jötunn's horse, Svaðilfari, and so gives birth to Sleipnir. In support, High quotes the Völuspá stanza that mentions Freyja. In chapter 49, High recalls the funeral of Baldr and says that Freyja attended the funeral and there drover her cat-chariot, the final reference to the goddess in Gylfaginning....

This list is incomplete. I see several other deities not included that should be...

List of death deities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_death_deities

Deities of the underworld, and resurrection deities are commonly called death deities... refers to deities that either collect or rule over the dead, rather than those deities who determine the time of death. However, all these types will be included in this article. ...

Examples: Angels, Valkyries, Morrigan, Hermes, etc....

Psychopomp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopomp

Psychopomps (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός, psuchopompos, literally meaning the "guide of souls")are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to provide safe passage. psychopomps have been depicted at different times and in different cultures as anthropomorphic entities, horses, deer, dogs, whip-poor-wills, ravens, crows, owls, sparrows and cuckoos....

Classical examples of a psychopomp are the ancient Egyptian god Anubis, the Greek ferryman Charon and deities Hermes and Hecate, the Roman god Mercury, and the Etruscan deity Vanth.... In the Persian tradition, Daena, the Zoroastrian Self-guide, appears as a beautiful young maiden to those who deserve to cross the Chinvat Bridge or a hideous old hag to those who don’t. In Judaism and Islam, Azrael plays the role of the angel of death who carries the soul up to the heavens....The most common contemporary example of a psychopomp appearing in popular culture is the Grim Reaper, which dates from 15th-century England...

Interesting notes he is a trickster god like Loki. This article is almost contradictory in several issues. For one is he Pans father, son, or is Pan? 2nd his equivalent to Odin but, Odin is a God of the otherworld but, Herme is not lord of the otherworld but, only a messenger and guide between this world and the otherworld.

Hermes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes

Messenger of the gods, god of trade, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, border crossings, guide to the Underworld. Abode Mount Olympus. Symbol Talaria, caduceus, tortoise, lyre, rooster, Petasos (Winged helmet, winged sandals, and winged cap).

Consort Merope, Aphrodite, Dryope, Peitho, Hecate.

Children Pan, Hermaphroditus, Tyche, Abderus, Autolycus, Angelia, Myrtilus

Parents Zeus and Maia.

Siblings Aeacus, Angelos, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Eileithyia, Enyo, Eris, Ersa, Hebe, Helen of Troy, Hephaestus, Heracles, Minos, Pandia, Persephone, Perseus, Rhadamanthus, the Graces, the Horae, the Litae, the Muses, the Moirai.

Roman equivalent Mercury. Norse equivalent Odin.

Hermes is an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia. ...

Hermes was the emissary and messenger of the gods. Hermes was also "the divine trickster" and "the god of boundaries and the transgression of boundaries, ... the patron of herdsmen, thieves, graves, and heralds." He is described as moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, and was the conductor of souls into the afterlife. He was also viewed as the protector and patron of roads and travelers. In some myths, he is a trickster and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or for the sake of humankind....

His main symbol is the Greek kerykeion or Latin caduceus, which appears in a form of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff with carvings of the other gods.... Hermes himself originated as a form of the god Pan,... Hermes took over the roles as god of messengers, travelers, and boundaries, which had originally belonged to Pan, while Pan himself continued to be venerated by his original name in his more rustic aspect as the god of the wild in the relatively isolated mountainous region of Arcadia. In later myths, after the cult of Pan was reintroduced to Attica, Pan was said to be Hermes's son....

Hellenistic Greek sources: One of the Orphic Hymns Khthonios is dedicated to Hermes, indicating that he was also a god of the underworld. ...Phlegon of Tralles said he was invoked to ward off ghosts,... Oh mighty messenger of the gods of the upper and lower worlds (Aeschylus). ... Psychopompos, conveyor or conductor of souls and psychogogue, conductor or leader of souls in (or through) the underworld.... In addition to serving as messenger to Zeus, Hermes carried the souls of the dead to Hades, and directed the dreams sent by Zeus to mortals....

Pan, could possibly be the son of Hermes through the nymph Dryope. In the Homeric Hymn to Pan, Pan's mother fled in fright from her newborn son's goat-like appearance....

Autumn Equinox 2017

https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/autumnal-equinox.html

September 22, at 20:02 UTC. Because of time zone differences, the equinox will take place on September 23, 2017 at locations that are at least 10 hours ahead UTC.

Northern Hemisphere will be at 3:02 PM on Friday, September 22 in Central Time USA.

Autumnal Equinox: September 22, 2020 08:31CT 13:31 UTC 14:31 W.EUR

FATHER SKY KICKS OUT GREAT MOTHER FROM HEAVEN AND SENDS HER TO THE UNDERWORLD FOR USURPATIONS, DECEPTIONS, AND THEFTS OF HEAVEN ACCORDING TO SOME MYTHS SUCH AS ASHERAH, INANNA, ISHTAR, ASTARTE, PERSEPHONE, ETC.... THE UNDERWORLD RULED BY HER SISTER ERESHKIGAL WHILE TO OTHER MYTHS UNDERWORLD IS RULED BY MALE DEITIES SUCH AS HADES, POSEIDON, OSIRIS, ETC.... IN LATER NORSE MYTHS HEL IS LOKI'S DAUGHTER WHICH ODIN SENDS TO RULE A PART OF THE UNDERWORLD. GREAT MOTHER WHO WAS ORIGINALLY SENT TO HEL FOR USURPING THE HEAVENLY FATHER'S THRONE AND THEFTS OF HEAVENLY DEITIES TRICKED HER DAUGHTER BY SOME MYHTS, OR SON THE SUN GOD TO GO TO THE UNDERWORLD FOR HER INSTEAD. THUS, IT IS SUN GOD WHICH MUST DIE, DESCEND TO UNDERWORLD TO BE BORN AGAIN BY THE GREAT MOTHER AT JULETIDE (WINTER SOLSTICE), AND RESURRECT AT SPRING EQUINOX.

MANY OTHER NAMES OF UNDERWORLD DIEITIES, AND MYTHS SIMILAR IN NATURE FOR DIFFERENT CULTURES CAME ABOUT OVER TIME AS ORIGINAL STORY DEVIATES FROM ORIGINAL. AUTUMN IS THE DEATH PERIOD..

Where Did the Word Mabon Come From?

https://www.thoughtco.com/origins-of-the-word-mabon-2562313

In Welsh folklore, there is a figure known as Mabon ap Modron, or Mabon son of Modron. He appears in some of the Arthurian legends, as one of Uther Pendragon’s loyal servants, and as a follower of Arthur himself.

Also of note, there was a female Cornish saint named Mabyn, to whom the founding of St. Mabyn’s Church is dedicated, although there is speculation that the church was actually started by the Welshman, Mabon, rather than the female martyred saint. Mabyn’s festival is celebrated on November 18, approximately halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.

There is much discussion in the Pagan community as to whether one of these figures provide the name of the autumn equinox holiday, Mabon. Interestingly, it appears that the tradition of calling the autumn equinox by the name Mabon goes back only to around 1970, when author Aidan Kelley wrote was gathering information for his 1991 book, Crafting the Art of Magic, and assigned new names to the Sabbats, most of which were rooted in Celtic lore.

Historian Ronald Hutton has pointed out that there is no academic evidence indicating that ancient Celts called their equinox celebration Mabon.

In Druidic traditions, the autumn equinox was referred to as Alban Elfed, meaning the light of the water.

This name refers to a time of year in which the balance of light and dark shifts, so that the darkness begins to take over.

The Symbolism of the Stag in Today's Paganism

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-symbolism-of-the-stag-2562308

For many Pagans, the antlers of the stag are associated directly with the fertility of the God. The Horned God, in his many incarnations, often appears wearing a headdress of antlers. In some depictions, the horns grow directly from his head. Early Paleolithic cave art shows men wearing antlers on their heads... the stag plays a key role in the tales of the Greek Artemis and her Roman counterpart, Diana, as well as the Celtic Finn mac Cumhail. All three are figures associated with the hunt....

"Bears, boars, raven, and many other animals are well represented as the totemic animals of gods and goddesses across the IE [Indo-European] spectrum. However, in Classical times the stag was of paramount importance to the Scythians and other peoples across the Eurasian steppes. The subject of the most striking Scythian gold jewelry, the stag has even been found as tattoos on the so-called ‘ice princess’ in the Altai Mountains. Here at the eastern extremity of the IE steppe culture zone, her frozen body was recovered with Scythian style stags still plainly visible on her skin... The stag was one of the favourite motifs of the so-called Kurgan peoples in previous millennia, and so its pedigree as an object of veneration amongst the IE peoples is very ancient."...

These animals, especially the antlered stags, were large, alert and swift beasts against which royalty, aristocracy and other wealthy patrons could pit their wits. Laws and taboos denied the common folk access to this bounty,...

To the Hunter Gatherer people a Hunting God such as Cernunnos, and possibly with horns would make more sense to them. While an Agricultural God such as Lugh, or Ceres would explain their world...

Cernunnos, the Wild God of the Forest

https://www.thoughtco.com/cernunnos-wild-god-of-the-forest-2561959

Cernunnos is a horned god found in Celtic mythology. He is connected with male animals, particularly the stag in rut, and this has led him to be associated with fertility and vegetation. Depictions of Cernunnos are found in many parts of the British Isles and western Europe. He is often portrayed with a beard and wild, shaggy hair -- he is, after all, the lord of the forest. With his mighty antlers, Cernunnos is a protector of the forest and master of the hunt.

He is a god of vegetation and trees in his aspect as the Green Man, and a god of lust and fertility when connected with Pan, the Greek satyr. In some traditions, he is seen as a god of death and dying, and takes the time to comfort the dead by singing to them on their way to the spirit world.

In some traditions of Wicca, the cycle of seasons follows the relationship between the Horned God -- Cernunnos -- and the Goddess. During the fall, the Horned God dies, as the vegetation and land go dormant, and in the spring, at Imbolc, he is resurrected to impregnate the fertile goddess of the land. However, this relationship is a relatively new Neopagan concept, and there is no scholarly evidence to indicate that ancient peoples might have celebrated this "marriage" of the Horned God and a mother goddess.

Britain's Herne, God of the Wild Hunt

https://www.thoughtco.com/herne-god-of-the-wild-hunt-2561965

Unlike the majority of deities in the Pagan world, Herne has his origins in a local folktale, and there is virtually no information available to us via primary sources. Although he is seen as an aspect of Cernunnos, the Horned God, the Berkshire region of England is the home to story behind the legend. According to folklore, Herne was a huntsman employed by King Richard II. In one version of the story, other men became jealous of his status and accused him of poaching on the King's land. Falsely charged with treason, Herne became an outcast among his former friends. Finally, in despair, he hung himself from an oak tree which later became known as Herne's Oak.

In another variation of the legend, Herne was fatally wounded while saving King Richard from a charging stag. He was miraculously cured by a magician who tied the antlers of the dead stag to Herne's head. As payment for bringing him back to life, the magician claimed Herne's skill in forestry. Doomed to live without his beloved hunt, Herne fled to the forest, and hanged himself, again from the oak tree. However, every night he rides once more leading a spectral hunt, chasing the game of Windsor Forest....

In Margaret Murray's 1931 book, God of the Witches, she posits that Herne is a manifestation of Cernunnos, the Celtic horned god. Because he is found only in Berkshire, and not in the rest of the Windsor Forest area, Herne is considered a "localized" god -- and could indeed be the Berkshire interpretation of Cernunnos.

The Windsor Forest area has a heavy Saxon influence. One of the gods honored by the original settlers of the region was Odin, who also hung at one point from a tree. Odin was also known for riding through the sky on a Wild Hunt of his own.

Around Berkshire, Herne is depicted wearing the antlers of a great stag. He is the god of the wild hunt, of the game in the forest. Herne's antlers connect him to the deer, which was given a position of great honor...

Autumnal Equinox

http://www.witchipedia.com/def:autumnal-equinox

At this time the day and night are just about the same length, about 12 hours each. During the Autumnal Equinox, the sun passes over the Earth's equator going from North to South. There are two equinoxes each year, the Vernal Equinox in the spring and the Autumnal Equinox in the autumn. The word equinox is derived from the Latin aequus meaning "equal" and nox meaning "night"....

the Autumnal Equinox represents the height of the harvest season which began with Lughnassadh and ends with Samhain. ...many different Pagan and Heathen traditions have specific festivals tied to the date. Some of these are Second Harvest, Alban Elfed Winter Nights, Harvest Home, Feast of the Ingathering, Meán Fómhair and Mabon.... The Gods & Goddesses celebrated at this time tend to be Gods of the Harvest.

Some Pagans commemorate Persephone's descent into the Underworld at this time, or this observation may be saved for Samhain. Either way, Her mother Demeter or Ceres is often a major focus of worship at this time.

The descent of Inanna into the underworld may be remembered at this time. Some Pagans use this time to honor the Dark God/dess or Crone. Some Pagans believe that the Sun God is defeated and dies at this time (Many observe this at the Summer Solstice instead) and he will be reborn at the Winter Solstice. Others honor The Green Man or The Horned God at this time.

Autumn Equinox Dates for the Northern Hemisphere: September 22, 2017 September 23, 2018

Mabon

http://circleofthesacredmuse.com/celebrations/mabon/

Mabon is the autumn equinox. The Sabbat is named for the Mabon, the Welsh God who symbolized the male fertilizing principle in the Welsh myths. Mabon is a Fire Festival and one of the Lesser Sabbats... In Rome, this equinox marked the Festival of Dionysus, the God of Wine and Revelry, whose party lasted for as many days as revelers could remain upright! ...

The birth of Mabon ap Modron (Great Son of the Great Mother) is celebrated at the Equinox. He is born from his mother Modron (Great Mother), who is seen as the Guardian of the Otherworld, the Earth and the Protector. Mabon was stolen from his mother, Modron, when he was three nights old. In different versions of the story he was three years old. In one version of the myth the Eagle, the Owl, the Blackbird, the Stag and the Salmon rescued him, while in another King Arthur was the one who saved him. During his captivity, Mabon dwelled in a magical Otherworld -Madron’s Womb. Madron’s womb was a place of challenge and nurturing, and while there Mabon grew in strength and wisdom before being reborn as the Son of Light, his mother’s Champion.

Another myth that pertains to Mabon is that of Persephone and Demeter. Autumn begins when Persephone returns to Hades and the Underworld to live. The myth begins as Demeter’s daughter Kore, goes out to pick some flowers in a field. The earth opened up and Hades stole her away to become his wife. While in the Underworld, Kore refused to eat anything until Hades finally convinced her to eat six pomegranate seeds. Kore did not know at the time that the seeds she had eaten would make her have to stay in the Underworld. Finally Hades persuaded her to marry him; thus her named changed from Kore to Persephone. For nine days Demeter searched for Kore and in desperation she asked Helios, the Sun God, if he knew anything. Helios told Demeter that Zeus had given Kore to Hades. Enraged, Demeter cursed the earth so that is wouldn’t yield any crops. Zeus frantically asked her why she had stopped the growth on earth. Demeter replied that until her daughter was safely home nothing would grow. Zeus came to the conclusion that Kore/Persephone would live with Hades for six months, the same amount of time as the seeds she had eaten, and would then return to her mother to live the rest of the year. Thankful, Demeter lifted her curse creating Spring. In Autumn her curse renews as she grieves her daughter’s return to Hades and the Underworld....

In Ireland, and in parts of Western Scotland and Cornwall, it became customary during Mabon to visit burial mounds, called cairns, to honor dead ancestors, especially female ones. This practice may have had two origins. One was to visit the dead and appease them so that, when they visited the human world at Samhain, they would be inclined toward kindness and good will. The second origin may have been in ancient Ireland, where a group of female ancestor worshippers based its beliefs on the notion that, upon death, all human souls were reabsorbed into the wombs which bore them, and therefore, only women inhabited Tir-Na-Nog, the Irish land of the Dead. Women were the ones required to decorate and adorn the graves at Mabon, while the men prepared the nearby feasting site.

Cairns and cemeteries were feared by many of our ancestors as places where evil spirits lingered. Approaching such places at Mabon was deemed safe, however, because it was believed that the balance of light and dark would act like an equilateral cross and offer protection from any negative spirits. Fires were lit at cairns, or carried in gourds similar to our jack-o-lanterns, to further frighten away baneful spirits....

The deities are aging and the God will soon die, as will the old year. For our Pagan ancestors, who marked time by the turning of the Wheel of the Year, this was a natural time to reflect upon the meaning of death. Mabon is not just a celebration of life, but also one of death. When contemplating this aspect of the holiday, you might want to think about those who passed away during the year. One way to honor them would be to place an apple on their marker or headstone. This is an old Celtic tradition of honoring the dead, and the apple also reminds us of the circle of life, from passing to rebirth....

Since Mabon is considered the Witches Thanksgiving, it is very appropriate to celebrate by having a grand dinner with the foods that you have harvested.

The Grove of Manannan Mac Lir

http://www.druidry-sfbayarea.net/The_Wheel_of_the_Year/Autumnal_Equinox.htm

Archetype: Manannan mac Lir (Irish under sea god), Cernunos (The Celtic Dear Horned God who is the Lord of the animals and the forest)...

It is the time of the full ascendancy of the earth god over the sky god. It is a time of connecting to the underworld. It is the time of the liberation of the spirit, preparing for death, to transcend death. ...

Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World: A Work of Reclamation and ..., Volume 1

https://books.google.com/books?id=3k4XAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA333&ots=0yz_m9J1Uc&dq=which%20gods%20go%20to%20the%20otherworld%20on%20autumn%20equinox&pg=PA333#v=onepage&q=which%20gods%20go%20to%20the%20otherworld%20on%20autumn%20equinox&f=false

As sun-god on the western horizon in the autumn equinox Har-Makhu was born, ... who went down into the underworld to die and be buried ; to transform and to ...

Threskeia in Bulgaria - Autumn Equinox Ceremony - The Spiritual Sun

https://www.spiritualsun.com/events/europe/autumn-equinox-threskeia

For Threskeia, autumn equinox is a day when god enters the underworld; this symbolic process is present in various ancient spiritual traditions. During the celebration grapes are harvested and crushed to produce wine symbolizing, according to Threskeia, death and the transition of the soul into another form.

Celebrants also express gratitude for the summer harvest and the last sunny days of the year and “pray for kindness, good fortune and health in the coming months when the sun god takes on the image of a wolf and the chill of Boreas will cover our land”.

BBC - Bradford and West Yorkshire - Paganism in West Yorkshire

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/lifestyle/faith/2005/paganism_autumn_equinox.shtml

For Pagans this time is commonly known as 'Mabon' and marks the transition, for the Sun God, into a state of suspension and 'death'. He has reached his peak in July, fallen from his throne in August and, in Autumn, descends into a realm we call the Shadow Lands, or the Summerland. These stages of his rise and descent are the basis for many forms of ancient Pagan worship ...

The Goddess in this sequence takes on a far more prominent role at this time, though. As the Sun's influence over the world declines the Moon's light and energy become more dominant. The Goddess, in her aspect as both grieving consort and also pregnant Earth Mother, must now stand by and watch the old God slip into the other world and take his place in the cycle. She is the bringer of life and the child she carries now will, come the Spring, be the next incarnation of the Sun God. The Goddess' cycle is turning here too. She began her journey as the maiden, the May Queen, and then becomes the Goddess of fertility and Motherhood, then transforms into the wise woman, teaching and guiding the next generation. At this time of year her aspect is bright and clear but she has lost her partner and must stand alone in the night skies, holding life, dormant and sleeping, within....

It is a common analogy that the God is represented by the Oak tree and his rival, the Holly God, will challenge and fight him later in the year to take his place as King of the Woodlands.... But, to see the full cycle at work you must also consider the acorn. Grown to maturity on the tree's branches until the first gusts of Autumn, these 'seedlings' then fall and are thrown to the Earth (the Goddess) where, over the Winter, they lay dormant in her Universal womb, only to be warmed by the Sun's light and then to be born back into the world as young oak saplings....

Lady Day: The Vernal Equinox

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos049.htm

Autumnal Equinox September 22, 2022 20:04CT 22:04ATL

Sept 23 01:04UTC 02:04WEUR

Full Moon September 10 4:59 am

New Moon Sept 25 4:54 pm

HINDU HALLOWEEN...

Pitru Paksha

https://www.mpanchang.com/festivals/pitrupaksha-begin/?year=2022

Pitru Paksha is a 16 days period when Hindu community offer prayers and honor their ancestors. This period begins on the first full moon (Purnima) following Ganesh Chaturthi and ends on the Peddala Amavasya. Pitru Paksha begins on the following day of Bhadrapada Purnima Shraddha.

About Pitru Paksha

As per the ancient Indian history, when Karn passed away during the war of Mahabharat and his soul reached heaven, he didn't get to eat regular food. Instead, he was given gold and jewels to eat. His soul got frustrated and he addressed this issue to Indra (Lord of heaven) that why is he not being served the actual food? Then Lord Indra revealed the actual reason that He donated all these things to others throughout his life but never gave the same to his ancestors. Then Karna replied that he didn't know of his ancestors and after hearing him out, Lord Indra allowed him to return back to Earth for the period of 15 days so that he can donate food to his ancestors. This 15-day period came to be known as Pitru Paksha....

Pitru Paksha timeline

https://nationaltoday.com/pitru-paksha/

3138 BCE

The story behind Pitru Paksha

When Karna ( a warrior during the times of the Mahabharata) dies, his soul is served foods made of gold and silver. His hungry soul learns that this is due to his karma. While Karna was alive, he donated gold and silver but no food. His soul prays and returns to earth to donate food for a better afterlife.

6000 - 1000 BCE

Earliest evidence of ancestor worship

Evidence of the earliest form of ancestor worship was found in China in the Yangshao society, which existed in the Shaanxi Province area.

AD 1624–74

Gai Jatra

Gai Jatra, the Nepalese festival that commemorates the death of the people during the year, was started by King Pratap Malla to show his grieving wife that she alone had not lost a son.

1877

Ancestor worship is signified by a scholar

Herbert Spencer, the English philosopher-scientist, wrote in 'Principles of Sociology' that ancestor worship was the root of every religion.

2008

UNESCO inscribes the Day of the Dead

Like Pitru Paksha, on the Day of the Dead, people pray for their ancestors. In 2008, this tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Hallowed Rite: A Guide to Blot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgwSSITMjao&t=9s

Hallowed Rite: A Guide to Blot

https://www.norroena.org/understanding-the-blot

The symbol of the Swastika and its 12,000-year-old history

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/symbol-swastika-and-its-12000-year-old-history-001312

List of thunder gods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_thunder_gods

In Indo-European cultures, the thunder god is frequently known as the chief or king of the gods, e.g. Indra in Hinduism, Zeus in Greek mythology, and Perun in ancient Slavic religion; or a close relation thereof, e.g. Thor, son of Odin, in Norse mythology. ...

Thunder gods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Thunder_gods

Christianity I have not delved into here. I concentrated on the other religions to explore their thoughts, and beliefs. Whether all this is intertwined by Gods will I don't know. I was brought up to believe in Christianity which in my heart is the true religion. I think we all make mistakes in life but, we cannot blame God for our own inadequacies. For peace, and strength Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man who acts as our salvation to cleanse us of our sins which allows God to help us. God used his Son because he loved us. Love comes from God.

I don't think that all people living in a nation all share the same religious belief. Although some nations have similar, and common general beliefs. Either way it would be difficult to list every religious belief under the nation of peoples. Although we could generalize a common belief for a group of people in the nation. With so many different nations that share similar beliefs, and some having evolved into more refined beliefs, some nations do have their own unique history in their religion. For simplicity sake, and fairness to the beliefs I choose to list all the religious beliefs under this page "Religions" rather than to list each belief to a particular nation.

So if it is religion, or a belief related to Native Europeans (or has been in Europe for a vast time) it will be listed here rather than in the country(s) most closely matched. However, I am devoting this primarily to Native Europeans as best able but, it is difficult because so much Non-Native-European influence. And the ability to define Native European is a loose relative term.

With so many complexities lets end by saying this section will just list some of the many beliefs related as closely to the European peoples.

“On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind." -- Thomas Jefferson

“If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian." -- Samuel Clemens "Mark Twain

“Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion –- several of them.

He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight.

He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven." -- Mark Twain

“They came with a Bible and their religion- stole our land, crushed our spirit... and now tell us we should be thankful to the 'Lord' for being saved." -- Chief Pontiac, American Indian Chieftain

Pagan calendar

http://pagancalendar.co.uk/index.php

2018 Pagan and Wiccan Calendar

https://www.thoughtco.com/pagan-wiccan-calendar-4110202

The Asatru Alliance

Runic Era Calender Feast Days and Days of Observance

http://www.asatru.org/holidays.php

Norse Holidays and Festivals

http://www.wizardrealm.com/norse/holidays.html

A FESTIVAL CALENDAR OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS ***

http://www.panhistoria.com/www/AncientEgyptianVirtualTemple/calendar1.html

Equinox, Solstice & Cross-Quarter Day and Time