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yournextflame · 2 years

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Elden Ring Sigils and Color Theory

Elden Ring magic sigils sorted by color. Long post about their lore, meanings of certain colors and what it can reveal about the story of Elden Ring under the cut.

In this post, I will be going over why it is important to have a good understanding of color and meanings associated with color in the context of lore. In a game, color is used by developers for more than just drawing the world, it’s about creating visual language, a bridge between writers and players. There are countless articles about usage of colors in videogames, but in this post I will try to reverse-engineer the process and find out the meaning behind visual symbolism and combine it with game’s equivalent of heraldic symbols - magic sigils.

In Elden Ring magic sigils have been used to represent origin of sorceries and power sources of incantations, usually they give us hints what kind of deity is worshipped by people or who created the spell. They are an invaluable source of information on history on the Lands Between. I’ve been already playing with idea of color sorting when I did the same thing with remembrances, but sigils revealed even more secrets about story and lore. How about origin of life on the Lands Between? Origin of the outer gods? But let’s not rush.

The first category, Blue Sorcery as I called it, already shows how color sorting method is supported by the game itself. With a help of descriptions we can place the sigils in the chronological order and track the change in design over the course of story such as replacement of flowing weapon in the sigil of Eternal Cities to Carian sword. Their sigils are incredibly similar to each other, solidifying connection between Nox and Carian royal family; both factions are associated with silver, sorcery, artifical life, moons and stars.

This talisman represents the lost black moon. The moon of Nokstella was the guide of countless stars (Memory Stone)

The young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked. She had always chased the stars every step of her journey. Then she met the full moon—and, in time, the astrologer became a queen (Stargaizer Heirloom)

Moons played a central role in Nox and Carian culture, the circle is a base shape for both crests, however, while Raya Lucaria sigil shares similar elements with Eternal Cities and Carian emblems (glintstone sorcerers are the descendants of astrologers, a fact that the Carians remain aware of, - Preceptor's Long Gown), this part was drastically redused in size and moved on top; the central place is taken by the star and framed by a pair of cuckoos. The hue of sigil is also significantly different from cold blue tones of Nox and Carians emblems, the warm greenish tint is close to the color of primeval current spells, which were banished once Rennala became rector of the Academy.

These scholars, who sought to master Carian sorcery, instead learned to see the moon as equal to the stars. This robe, in the hue of the full moon, signifies their heresy (Lazuli Robe)

(Cuckoo Greatshield) Boasting high magic damage negation, this shield is used to hunt down mages. "Our enemy is none other than Caria itself."

So far I’m not going to delve deeper in the roots of the conflict between Carian royal family and Academy of Raya Lucaria, it’s a mere demonstration of a method and how it works. But in next paragraphs I will use it as evidence for a few theories about worldbuilding.

(thanks for clarification about Malenia’s Crest, I rewatched fight on youtube and, yes, it’s a normal Raya Lucaria sigil)

Golden incantations is the biggest group on the list, in a way I can say that history of the Lands Between is a history of gold. Here we can see a symbolical depiction of the Erdtree, the central piece of the game both in a metaphorical and literal sense; we can track how portrayl of the Erdtree changed during Marika’s age until it was replaced altogether by the abstract emblem of the Golden Order Fundamentalism. I have a lot of to say about this group and currently working on post with a more detailed investigation, so far I will touch only basics: such as origin of life gold.

Gold in Elden Ring is more than than shine metal or a color, it’s prima materia of the Greater Will, a force of unknown origin (it’s never called 神 god or an 外なる神 outer god anywhere in EN or JP script and before jumping to conclusion wait until I’m going to observe confirmed outer gods) which is responsible for the creation of Elden Ring. From the description of Elden Stars, the most ancient incantation in this category, and Elden Remembrance we can figure out keywords associated with the Greater Will:

It is said that long ago, the Greater Will sent a golden star bearing a beast into the Lands Between, which would later become the Elden Ring/It was the vassal beast of the Greater Will and living incarnation of the concept of Order (I’d like to point that it’s “Order”, not “The Golden Order”).

(I believe we still can see remnants of the golden star in a form of meteorite ore in Divine Towers and Sealed Tunnel near Erdtree)

In other words, the Greater Will is about gold, Order and everything Elden. However, a common mistake is to tie the Greater Will to the Golden Order, despite the name the latter is not representative of it, even more so... original gold from the golden star wasn’t yellow.

From dialogue with Sellen we can learn that stars are containing amber, but golden stars are kind of special:

Golden amber contains the remnants of ancient life, and houses its vitality (Sellen)

And Hyetta’s speech supports futher that the Greater Will is responsible for creation of life in one way or another:

…すべては、大きなひとつから、分かたれた分かたれ、産まれ、心を持った

けれどそれは、大いなる意志の過ちだっただから、戻さなくてはならない

All that there was divided from the One Great. Divided, born and given heart. But it was a mistake of the Greater Will (Hyetta)

So, Miyazaki pretty much unitied theories about meteorites being consensually considered to be involved in the origin of life and primordial soup:

Meteorites could have been responsible for delivering the basis of life's genetic code. Analyses of three meteorites suggest that nucleobases, the crucial components of DNA, could have formed in space and then fallen to Earth to provide the raw material for the origin of life itself

For nearly nine decades, science's favorite explanation for the origin of life has been the “primordial soup”. This is the idea that life began from a series of chemical reactions in a warm pond on Earth's surface, triggered by an external energy source such as lightning strike or ultraviolet (UV) ligh

Now if we check descriptions of Crucible Aspects and Crucible Knights items we can find out that original gold had rent tint.

Holds the power of the crucible of life, the primordial form of the Erdtree. Strengthens Aspects of the Crucible incantations (Crucible aspects incantations)

This sword is imbued with an ancient holy essence. Its red tint exemplifies the nature of primordial gold, said to be close in nature to life itself (Ordovis Greatsword, the name itself is a reference to Ordovician Period, part of the Paleozoic era, a rich variety of marine life flourished in the vast seas and the first primitive plants began to appear on land)

Ancient Erdtree/Crucible emblem is slightly reddish too, however, the modern gold is more pure and yellow, the gold of the Golden Order. The sigil changed the color too and lost the root part just like the Elden Ring itself if we compare modern depiction with Farum Azula mural:

The Golden Order was created by confining Destined Death. Thus, this new Order will be one of Death restored

But a gold is a gold, even though it’s different, but as Turtle Pope said heresy is not native to this world and everything can be cojoined:

The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lighting itself, are both imbued with gold

Yes, the Greater Will governs everything what is golden.

And yet, the young Miquella abandoned fundamentalism, for it could do nothing to treat Malenia's accursed rot. This was the beginning of unalloyed gold

I can already hear the raise of pitchforks from certain kind of Miquella fans, so let’s talk about outer gods and what exactly they are.

With a surprising exception of emblem from the Scepter of the All-Knowing (Gideon, I have a few questions for you) all sigils in Red Group are assigned to the deities: outer/ancient god of Rot, outer god Formless Mother, Rykard’s immortal serpent and Fell God, who is bit tricky, it’s ambitious if 古い火の悪神 “ancient” is applied to the god or fire. The only confirmed outer gods, who didn’t made it here is an outer god of Deathbirds and Frienzied Flame. Considering theory that removal of the Destined Death from Elden Ring drained color from the god-slaying Black Flame and eclipsed sun of outer god of Deathbirds, I can suggest that original color of their sigils was red too.

Long story short: sigil of the outer gods and other unwelcomed deities are represented by red color and they are all related to the death, Formless Mother is about bleed, fell flame is burning, rot is decay, etc.

However, as stated in the description of Ordovis Greatsword, primordial gold of the Crucible had a red tint that was lost when Marika estabilished Golden Order by sealing away red Rune of Death; and this knowledge eventually leads to conclusion that...

Outer gods aren’t aliens. What a surprise.

They are natural powers that were screwed by the removal of Destined Death, when they got outed from the Golden Order. They are red tint of the primordial gold.

Once the concept of Death was banished from the Lands Between the elements and effects linked to it - death, decay, combustion, bleed became outer to the newly estabilished Order. There is a clear thematic difference between celestial Greater Will, who isn’t even presented on the Lands Between, and actual outer gods, who can be sealed or banished, more over there are no outer god of water, sunshine or happiness, they are all linked to the side-effects of death. When death was excluded from the Order, they were affected as well.

The thing is that gold in Elden Ring is a magical substance and changes the tint depends on the currently running Order, which is shown in the endings when Golden Tree (黄金樹 that’s how Erdtree is called in JP) acquires different hue. It’s another overlooked element of visual storytelling.

This Golden Order is something that the Elden Ring may have once represented, but not directly. It’s more about how you apply those rules and how you enforce them on the physical world and what effects they have on it, - Miyazaki in interview to gamesradar

(Golden Order isn’t direct representation of the Greater Will/Elden Ring as it was said by Miyazaki himself, it’s only one temporary set of rules)

Elden Ring consists of runes and even newly discovered mending runes (concepts) can be added to the system (regression is the pull of meaning; that all things yearn eternally to converge) ot removed and the gold will respond to it by changing the color and reshaping reality according to the Order (causality is the pull between meanings; it is the connections that form the relationships of all things). Elden Ring - Rune of Death = yellow gold and banishment of ancient gods, who were associated with death, Elden Ring+mending rune of a choice=see example aboive.

For futher evidence that gold changes metaphysical properties and in the current state (Golden Order) preserves things from not only from dying, but decomposing too, I want to bring a few descriptions:

Fresh beast blood, glinting with gold. Material used for crafting items. Found by hunting carnivorous beasts.This glimmering blood never rots or decays ( Beast Blood)

Someone's excrement. It has a golden tinge. Material used for crafting items. Gold-tinged excrement is a highly stable substance; it doesn't dry out, nor does it lose its customary warmth or scent. For better or for worse, it remains as it is (Golden Dung; I can’t believe I’m using description of literal sh/t to prove my point)

However, from what we know only Rune of Death was sealed, and while outer gods’ influence was seriously weakened, it still existed. This is why Miquella abandoned Golden Order and was working on development of his own gold, even more pure and untainted, before he got mohgged:

Unalloyed Gold Needle: An intricately crafted needle of unalloyed gold. A ritual implement crafted to ward away the meddling of outer gods, it is thought capable of forestalling the incurable rotting sickness.

Now let me clarify: community’s favorite boogieman “influence of the evil alien outer gods/the Greater Will” isn’t a thing in a sense that there is a group of invaders from the outer space trying to enslave the Lands Between. Even thought 外なる神 is used in Japanese media culture for lovecraftian beings, we should remember that history is fabricated by the Golden Order in Marika’s favor; "outer gods” are alien to the current Order”. Same goes for the influence of the Greater Will, it was never about mind-control or whatever was projected onto it, the influence of the Greater Will is simply how Order and gold are changing course of the nature.

Last thing I want to add is that influence of the outer gods isn’t always about destructive powers (Order of Rot is about decay and rebirth), but I’ll leave it for a dedicated post.

In Mixed Group I put sigils with unique or unknown colors.

In my first draft Dragon Communion was placed in the Red Group for the intense hue of sigil, but upon futher research I decided to move it here. The power of Dragon Communion incantations doesn’t stem from any patron god or the assigned star (unless I missed something); they are scaling from arcane, an inner force of the caster.

Violet is an interesting choice for Gravity sigil because this color, albeit with the less intence hue, is used for sleep status and associated items.

I like how yellow color of Frenzied Flame is similar to the gold of the Greater Will, carrying the theme of duality, yet the shape of the sigil is distorted and assymetrical. In fact, designs of the ancient sigils usually is far less complex than intricate shapes of newer ones (with a few exceptions). Just to be clear, even though influence of the Flame of Frenzy can be cleared by Miquella’s needle, the game never calls it an outer god. It’s a matter of semantics, but I guess that unlike crew from the Red Group it was never booted from the Order since Chaos and Order can’t naturally coexist, but there are a lot ot of to speculate about, considering drastic changes in Frenzied Flame quest and lore.

Golden star in the centre of Bestial sigil reminds of Cinquedea dagger (Short sword given to high ranking clergymen of Farum Azula. The design celebrates a beast's five fingers, symbolic of the intelligence once granted upon their kind), which shows beast’s arm holding golden slab.

So, Death spells. I believe that both Black Flame incantations and Death Sorcery of Deathbird outer god were affected by confining of Destined Death.

The black flame could once slay gods. But when Maliketh sealed Destined Death, the true power of the black flame was lost

Storied sword and treasure of Castle Sol that depicts an eclipsed sun drained of color.The eclipsed sun, drained of color, is the protective star of soulless demigods. It aids the mausoleum knights by keeping Destined Death at bay. Mausoleum Knight Armor: The wing-shaped ornaments on its back evoke the Deathbird

And, as I’ve been already pointing in a different post, death of Godwyn brought back forgotten death sorcery that almost ceased from existance during age of immortality, but was rediscovered

Death in the Lands Between is incredibly complex subject and deserves a series of posts, even though I believe there should be DLC because so far all lore related to it seems to be incomprehensible.

Unmarkered sorceries don’t have background sigil, but they all share something in common. They originated from the Mountaintops of Giants:

Zamor Ice Storm: Ice sorcery of the Town of Zamor.Strike the ground with the staff to create a freezing tornado. Charging enhances potency. Cloaked in icy tempests, the knights of Zamor have challenged the Fire Giants since ancient times.

Briars of Sin : An aberrant sorcery, discovered along with red glintstone by those exiled to the north for their crimes.The Academy reviles this sorcery, which draws its power from faith

Founding Rain of Stars: The eldest primeval sorcery, said to have been discovered by an ancient astrologer. A sorcery of legendary status.The glimpse of the primeval current that the astrologer saw became real, and the stars' amber rained down on this land. Sword of Night and Flame: Astrologers, who preceded the sorcerers, established themselves in mountaintops that nearly touched the sky, and considered the Fire Giants their neighbors.

Another interesting details to consider is that they are all in some ways are unwelcomed or straight up heretical. It reminds me of relationships between Golden Order and remnanats of the Crucible. Aberrant sorcery is a mark of sin, primeval current was banished and cold sorcery is veiled in occult mystery:

The snowy crone taught the young Ranni to fear the dark moon as she imparted her cold sorcery.

I guess Ranni’s secret mentor is called snowy crone for a reason.

That’s being said, everything I wrote is a subject to change as DLC may reveal more details or I will reconsider some parts under futher research. But overall I think it was an interesting experiment.

読んでくれてありがと

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bestworstcase · 30 days

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Out of curiosity (and some confusion), how do you think Faunus came about? Unless I'm misremembering (in which case this would be pretty awkward) Faunus didn't exist in the First Wave of Humanity, and given that the two creation myths we're presented with (not even by an actual Faunus) disagree on almost every point I'd be surprised if there was an actual answer-

you’re remembering correctly that the faunus are unique to remnant. also tonight has been one of my periodic episodes of being unhinged about this so here is some Background Reading.

of the two faunus creation myths one is explicitly a very old faunus oral tradition and the other reads to me very strongly as a syncretism with the (human) brother-cult, in that the earlier conceit of freely chosen, joyful transformation and liberation by a wild but benevolent trickster god is retained but presented within an explicit framework of divine judgment and moral imperative to be peaceful and harmonious or else bring about self-annihilation through conflict. which is exactly the sort of cultural evolution that you’d expect to get from refracting ‘the shallow sea’ through the eschatological prism of ‘the two brothers’ and the doctrine of the brother-cult generally.

(for a real historical exemplar of this sort of shift occurring, see the cultural remapping of ambiguous deities in many pre-christian polytheistic traditions onto the christian idea of The Devil; this is fairly ubiquitous but the most generally accessible case is the popular conception of hades as an evil god and hades as hell, whereas in actual practice hades was the god who ruled over hades, which was where everyone went when they died and encompassed a variety of different areas raging from very nice to okay to unpleasant.)

see also: ozpin’s commentaries on ‘judgment,’ which gestures at exactly this phenomenon. “faunus always cast their god as a wise and noble figure, while human stories portray the same god as a trickster, not to be trusted.” he identifies both tales as faunus in origin (& certainly the characterization of the god of animals in ‘judgment’ is more ‘wise and noble’ than ‘trickster,’ although i think ozpin is also showing his own biases here because the god depicted in ‘the shallow sea’ is a trickster who is also very wise, honest, and fair. so ‘wise and noble’ vs ‘untrustworthy trickster’ is something of a false dichotomy, but also one that maps perfectly onto the gods of light and darkness as depicted in brother-cult doctrine.

<- the way rwby Handles religion is really excellent

anyway. i have a theory.

it’s lightly implied that grimm and faunus came first, humans second. (per WOR: there has never been a time in human history without grimm, and faunus have been around as long as humans “if not a little longer,” and there was a historical period when faunus were more numerous than humans.)

which is incongruous with the faunus’ own creation myths, both of which hinge on humans choosing to be transformed into something new by divine power.

salem squares that circle. salem was the last human of the old world, all that remained of humanity, and by extension she was also the first person of remnant. if faunus came to be before humans were revived, and salem embraced the faunus as her own people as discussed in the background reading post, it’s perfectly cogent for the faunus to be older than this humanity whilst understanding themselves as a people who came from humans, because for the very oldest one of them that was true.

which explains the myth, more than the factual history, but i do think it probably gets at the factual history too, because…

mechanically speaking.

what did salem do when she jumped into the pool of grimm? she combined the waters of life (pure creation) with the waters of grimm (pure destruction) into a new kind of being (herself, a grimm-person) in the same pattern as before (herself, a human-person with free will and a dualistic nature).

that’s, uh, how the brothers created humankind. and the jabberwalker. and the cat by combining their magic (dark’s fire, light’s smoke) into new kinds of beings modeled after themselves.

what did salem hope to achieve by rebelling against the brothers? she wanted humanity to “claim the powers of their creators and perfect their own design.”

and she failed but also succeeded in the end because she Did That—in the very literal sense. salem Remade Herself in the pool of grimm; jinn’s framing of the story through ozpin’s point of view elides salem’s agency at every step and implies an uncomplicatedly suicidal motive for jumping into the pool of grimm, but—i mean–

—the blacksmith has been right under our noses this whole time because she’s the form that salem gives to the idea of remnant’s souls. the lore put forward in v9 recontextualizes and clarifies a lot of what happens in the lost fable, not just in terms of the interpersonal history with the brothers but also the reason certain things unfold as they do and (most importantly) where the missing pieces might be.

the god of light’s understanding of balance is wrong. death as permanent unconscious stasis is not the natural order of things, it’s an arbitrary rule the brothers made up, and they themselves are beings from a place where death is a moment of rest and healing before rebirth as yourself again. they made humans in their image. balance is something that happens when things are given the time to figure themselves out.

what happens to the nature of life and death on remnant when the brothers remove themselves from the artificial system they created? it’s not balanced. it’s like a ball perched juuust at the upper rim of a ramp after you pull your hand away: it might not start rolling right away, but if you leave it long enough then something will eventually give it a nudge, whether the wind or the vibrations of a truck passing by or tiny imperceptible movements of the earth, and then that potential energy will be released.

the “death is when you stop and don’t change, forever” system was a ball sitting on a ramp in a room with someone who both really wanted to get the ball rolling and had absolutely nothing better to do than figure out how to give it that nudge. for millions of years.

yeah? here’s salem telling ozma “our souls transcend death.” that’s a surprise tool that will help us later.

the natural order of things, in remnant as in the ever after, is change. changing, it rests. ascension is just how it is in the ever after, meaning it’s in balance, meaning it’s the rhythm the ever after kind of settled into over time. the ball is on flat ground down there, jabber and all.

but the ever after didn’t begin the way the brothers’ world did—it wasn’t created ex nihilo with a specific prescription for how life/death were going to work, it was cultivated into a garden from wilderness. (ascension is the cycle of the harvest: when you have finished, when you are ready, the tree calls you back—you’re reaped—and then the seeds of you are sown and you begin again. this is a life/death system that developed through gardening!)

so it’s silly to imagine remnant’s balance will necessarily look exactly like the ever after’s balance. different beginnings, different variables, different environment. neither the ball nor the ramp are identical, so why in the world would the outcome be the same?

here’s pyrrha chanting that it is in passing we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death, i release your soul. that is also a surprise tool that will help us later.

but we can look at the ever after to get an idea of what the “lowest energy state” for the rolling-ball of a life/death system is, practically speaking, because—like i said—ascension is a cosmic repetition of how the ever after was made. the garden is populated by living fruits and blossoms of the tree who are reaped and sown in a continual cycle. the proverbial level ground is a pattern that wears in some grooves for the changing to follow. rivers, to change up the analogy a bit, don’t go flooding around everywhere all the time; the water flows through its channels, generally.

so, what patterns has remnant got, potentially?

death either takes a really, really long time (because it was dammed up for so long, the reservoirs is deep) or happens really fast, in a flood (what happens when a dam breaks?)

dying once makes you infinite (salem drowned in the fountain of creation, and became immortal)

dying twice unbinds you (salem drowned again in the pool of grimm, and remade herself into something new)

the “really fast” way of dying can maybe bind you to someone else, changing both of you in ways you may not like (ozma’s soul is continually recombined with another and he is changed against his will)

penny ambrosius bootleg ascension (i hope ambrosius enjoys his probable eventual new role as the chthonic god of remnant’s very complicated afterlife. he cannot possibly do worse than the guy who built the dam.)

however ozma’s curse gets resolved is likely to complete or alter the existing pattern(s)

gestures at the maidens. that’s a “really fast” way of dying that follows both the ozma pattern (the maidens cleave to new hosts) and the unbinding salem pattern (maidens choose themselves and also do not compromise the free will of the host or corrupt or take over the host’s conscious mind or identity)—maidens are twice-dead because they were cut out from ozma’s soul (<- spiritual death) and their cycle began with the deaths of the first four women who were given this magic.

gestures at whatever the hell is going on with silver-eyed psychopomps and the white liminal space between life and death. ruby’s eyes make her a conduit of some kind for that passage through the void; she hears pyrrha’s and penny’s cries for help (and pyrrha’s last words) after they die, and in the ever after she is haunted by penny’s sword. and the light motivated by her desperation to save people she cares about appears to be the white light that fills the void where life and death both part and come together again.

if death is a reservoir behind a dam and it happens either quite fast or very slow, what—or who—are the floodgates? [checks notes] the biological children of the “really fast” pattern-maker absent the interference pattern of salem. obviously.

notably, ozma’s influence as a pattern-maker is constrained to specific things with a direct spiritual or biological connection to himself, which tracks because his reincarnation sitch is relatively new. (likewise, i expect the penny ambrosius bootleg ascension deal will not have far-reaching effects any time soon; there are much older, deeper patterns at work here.)

salem, on the other hand, is two fucking hundred million years old. probably. on account of plate tectonics. which means that she has a much greater gravitational pull, so to speak, and is most likely to be that pattern that life/death on remnant ‘wants’ to fall into. the ball rolls down; water will flow into the deepest available channel.

so she died and became infinite and then died again in a manner she hoped would “take [infinite life]” away from her (TAKE AWAY FROM AN INFINITE QUANTITY AND AN INFINITE QUANTITY REMAINS. WAS SHE SUICIDAL OR DOING MATH.) and so remade herself.

salem wandered the face of the planet alone, awaiting a death that would never come. then she jumped into the pool of grimm. then ???. then the god of light pulled ozma out of stasis and told him “mankind is no more, but in time they’ll come back” and also he’ll kill everyone again if ozma doesn’t make them obey teach them to live in harmony with each other and stop demanding things from the gods :). THEN ozma comes back and there are human civilizations everywhere and all the faunus he encounters are in cages.

remember how the faunus are older than humankind? tha-at would be our “???” gap between salem crawling out of the grimm pool and light digging up ozma. probably.

you’ve got grimm. there have, as it’s said in ‘the shallow sea,’ always been grimm. they survived the moonfall.

you’ve got faunus. they were created when salem remade herself—the infinite life taken away from her brought them to life, in her image, just as original humans were brought to life by the brothers’ power in the brothers’ image (and of course the power salem has now was the brothers’ power and is now hers). this is maybe not what she was expecting to happen but she’s not alone anymore and, unlike humans of old, the faunus can coexist peacefully with the grimm with salem to mediate.

you’ve got the god of light taking a peek to see if perhaps salem is ready to grovel in repentance yet and going HEY WHAT THE FUCK THAT’S NOT ALLOWED…

…and hastily attempting to get the situation back under control by arranging for the “right” creations (he and his brother’s) to crowd out the ones salem defied him by making (WHEN WILL SHE LEARN HER LESSON!) and for good measure sending her beloved to punish her (SURELY THIS WILL MAKE HER SEE THE ERROR OF HER WAYS. BECAUSE SHE’S DEFINITELY THE ONE WHO’S WRONG.) because he is the god of the sunk cost fallacy first and foremost.

of course, the mere fact of allowing mankind to rise again achieves nothing but completing the “very slow” pattern—humans were dead for a long time and now they’re alive again. whoops! this is what happens when you meddle with forces you don’t understand.

anyway i think probably everyone on remnant reincarnates very slowly, not the way ozma does and also not the way ascension happens. i think when you die in remnant a part of you stays behind—infinite—to wander the face of the planet until it finds a way to guide the rest of you back home, in whatever form that takes. (BUT AS A BABY PROBABLY.) ’cause that’s the salem pattern.

points at the autumn leaf dancing around pyrrha’s memorial statue that guides jaune to see her so he can meet her mother and say goodbye. That’s Actually Pyrrha For Real. maybe. probably. a sliver of her soul left behind to find her way. i think faunus have the same cycle but it’s a bit smoother for them because they were never stuck in the old artificial death-as-stasis system and also this is why faunus genetics are so FUCKING weird, it’s because if you’ve got cat ears the first time you have cat traits forever even if in one of your lives your parents are, like, a crab faunus and a tortoise faunus. possibly children of interracial couples are more likely to be new, hence the more genetically logical outcome of usually inheriting the faunus parent’s animal.

but yeah i think the faunus like popped into existence as a consequence of salem grimming herself. that was my working theory prior to volume nine on the basis of mechanically how humans were created but in light of the v9 lore it’s quite literally the most thematically coherent explanation.

#salem is going to win because she has in fact already won. light is ineffectually raging in a last ditch effort to make her not have won.

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aufi-creative-mind · 9 months

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I hc that the Bargainer Statues are early depictions of the Fierce Deity (who's true form therefore has 4 eyes), who is referred to as a Kishin in Japanese, which according to folklore, are wrathful, powerful, even scary-looking beings & vicious fighters, but are also deeply compassionate, benevolent, & protectors at there core. They're said to enact just & righteous vengeance for those who've been wronged.

Anyway, my thoughts are that he is the 3rd in the Hylian/Demise triad, being where the Hero's Spirit originates from. I also hc that he created the Sheikah much like how Hylia created the Hylians. (So, if the naming conventions follow, his true name could start with "Shei" or "Sheik.")

Anyway, he's a god of war, the moon, heroism, & death. Which is why Link is always able to see spirits. He gathered spirits & fought or soothed Poes (the enemies) either by fighting them or playing the Song of Healing.

The Dark Clumps being pieces of the pseudo-flesh that spirits form to create Poes & the Depths Set being made from this pseudo-flesh.

Also, I hc that the symbols are actually ancient Sheikah script, which the Fierce Deity taught the Sheikah. And before losing or giving up his immortality, he tasked the Sheikah with taking his place, which is who delivered the spirits to the Bargainer Statues before Link.

This is part of the reason why the Sheikah are so heavily associated with death & graveyards.

As for who the Bargainers are, they are this thing called a bushin in Japanese culture, which there deities have the ability to split pieces off of themselves & create lesser copies that rule over certain areas, but are lead by the source deity. The same is said for the Goddess Statues. Basically, Hylia & Fierce gave up their immortality, but the statues are still being run by their bushin.

Stop me, I will literally talk you ear off if you don't.

Anyway, what are your thoughts??

.................................................... OP. My guy, my gal, my non-binary pal. Why did you drop this on my inbox? This needs to be its own proper post! This is a very fascinating take on the Bargainer and the other known deities in the Zelda world.

Ngl, I haven't thought much about the Bargainer and their role is since there's so little in their lore. Other than "guiding lost souls into the afterlife without prejudice" and exchanging materials, weapons and outfit sets in return of Poes... (Kinda like how the Goddess Statue exchanges Blessings for Hearts, Stamina and Sage's Wills).

And seeing so many Poes in the Depths in a state of purgatory, makes me think that they are akin to the Grim Reaper of sorts. On top of the Yiga notes about how those "strange statues" would rip the souls out of fellow members if they come too close to it in the Depths.

I also imagine that the name "Bargainer" is a recent title when they were (re)discovered by present-day Hyruleans. And their true name had already been lost to the looooooong passage of time. And for all we know, the "Bargainer" was the god(dess) of the long extinct Zonai people.

That's about as far as I have for the Bargainer.

As for other deities like Hylia, Demise and the Fierce Deity, I don't have much beyond what is present in the games and the popular headcanons shared within the Zelda fandom.

I do have headcanons on how each race and clans interpret these deities and their own faith systems. For example, the Sheikah view Hylia as a "two faced" deity with "light and shadow" themes in their faith. Which is in contrast to their Hylian counterparts who have more clear-cut views on Hylia as the benevolent protector-goddess of their people (And why the Horned Statue exists and is shunned and hidden away).

(Though this is all part of my BotW-TotK Family and Legacy story.)

TL;DR I don't have a lot of ideas / headcanons on who or what these deities are. BUT I do have headcanons on how they are interpreted by different peoples/races.

But seriously though OP, if you're reading this, you need to create dedicated posts and elaborate more on these headcanon ideas. They have POTENTIAL to become some very delicious reads.

#also quick edits on spelling and grammar #answered #legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #totk #zelda headcanon #zelda worldbuilding #breath of the wild #botw #hylia #demise #the bargainer #fierce deity #botw family and legacy #botw totk family and legacy

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bethanythebogwitch · 7 months

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Digimon & Mythology: the Holy Beasts and the Deva

I really like mythology and I really like Digimon, so why not combine them? Talking about the real-world inspirations behind monsters is something I've been doing with Pokemon, so let's give Digimon the same treatment.

Digimon has a lot of special groups whose members share common goals and origins. Two of these groups that are inticately linked to each other are the Holy Beasts (translated to English as the Sovereigns or Harmonious Ones) and the Deva. The Holy beasts are Ultimate/Mega level Digimon who each guard one of the cardinal directions of the Digital World: north, south, east, and west, with a 5th member ruling over the other four and guarding the center. The Deva are a group of 12 Perfect/Ultimate level Digimon that serve the Holy Beasts, with each of the Beasts having 3 Deva that answer to it. The Beast of the center has no Deva.

The Holy Beasts are based on the Chinese legend of the Four Symbols or Sì Xiàng. Other names for them include the Four Guardians, Four Gods, and Four Auspicious Beasts. These are four constellations that are said to represent and guard the four cardinal directions. Some versions of the myth add a 5th member representing the center. While it originated in China, the legend of the Four Symbols spread across East Asia and can now be found in many cultures. The legend reached Japan where it inspired the designers of Digimon. They specifically made the Holy Beasts based on a Japanese variant of the legend where the Four Symbols are believed to guard Kyoto. The Beasts are also associated with seasons and were syncretized into the 5 elements of the Wuxing: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. I will discuss each Digimon and its mythological counterpart below.

The Deva have multiple origins. The name comes from the Devas of Hinduism, benevolent supernatural beings who fought against the evil Asuras. As Hinduism evolved and changed over time, the term took on varying meanings, but still retained the idea that Devas are good. Buddhism adopted the idea when it split off from Hinduism. Buddhist Devas are beings that are more powerful than humans, but are still mortal and trapped in the same cycle of death and reincarnation as humans are. While Devas may be venerated by humans, they are still below the Buddhas. This can be seen in the Digimon Deva who are powerful beings (though not all of them are as benevolent as their mythical counterparts) but still are subordinate to the Holy Beasts. The Deva take the shape of animals from the Chinese zodiac. The names of the Deva come from the Twelve Heavenly Generals. These are Buddhist figures that are the guardians of Bhaisajyaguru, the Buddha if healing and medicine in Mahāyāna Buddhism. This story spread throughout Asia including to Japan, where Bhaisajyaguru is called Yakushi. The Heavenly Generals eventually came to be associated with the animals of the Chinese zodiac, though different traditions disagree on which animal is associated with which general. I think I have tracked down the version used by the Digimon creators, which uses the same animals for the Generals and the Deva. The Deva's names all come from Japanese transliterations of the Generals' original Sanskrit names. In this tradition, each General is associated with a particular weapon. The Deva share this trait, each having a weapon named in Chinese called the Bǎo [weapon name] with Bǎo meaning "treasure". Stragely, the Deva mix up which weapon is associated with which General. I don't know if this was intentional or not. Each Deva also has an attack named after one of the Narakas (hells) listed in the Hindu text Vishnu Purana. More detail on each Deva will be presented below.

The Holy Beast of the north is Xuanwumon (Ebonwumon in English). It is a gigantic tortoise with two snake-like heads and a tree for a shell. It is based on Xuánwǔ, the Black Tortoise of the Four Symbols. While nearly every depiction of Xuánwǔ depicts it as a tortoise, usually with a snake on its shell, the name actually translates to "black warrior". It is associated with the season of winter and element of water. The snake seen with it is because it was believed that turtles could only mate with snakes and not each other. Yeah, the Greeks weren't the only people who could be hilariously wrong about animals. The snake connection carries over to Xuanwumon, whose heads and necks are those of snakes. Xuanwumon is the eldest of the Holy Beasts and fights using water powers (fitting its mythical counterpart). It is also the least violent of the Holy Beasts and is a philosopher who comes up with zen koans.

The Deva who serve Xuanwumon are Kumbhiramon the mouse, Vajramon the bull, and Vikaralamon the boar. Kumbhiramon is usually depicted as the weakest of the Deva, but is very intelligent, capable of predictions the actions of others, and participates in Xuanwumon's philosophical musings. It is also rather rude and sarcastic while playing up its charming and cute aspects. It's weapon is the Bǎo Chǔ, a vajra (type of Indian club) that it controls with telekinesis. This is one case where its namesake does use the same weapon and it functions as a pun since "chu" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a mouse's squeak.

Vajramon is the most physically strong of the Deva and is a mighty warrior who seeks truth and honor and despises cowardice. It also aims to rid itself of material and emotional concerns, fitting the Buddhist origins of the Deva. It wields the Bǎo Jiàn, a pair of swords, which fits its legendary counterpart.

Vikaralamon is the largest of the Deva. It is detached, preferring to silently observe the world form a distance and only steps in when it needs to. It may also just be lazy as it sleeps a lot and can sleep with its eyes open. Its weapon is the Bǎo Lún, wheels that it spits out of its mouth and which have different effects depending on what color they are. None of the Heavenly Generals uses a wheel. Its namesake instead uses a sword or vajra. The wheel is a common symbol in Buddhism used to symbolize the cycle of death and rebirth.

The Holy Beast of the west is Qinglongmon (Azulongmon in English), a dragon made of storm clouds. It is based on Qīnlóng, the azure dragon of the east. It is associated with the season of spring and the element of `wood. Xuanwumon seems to have stolen the wood though, given it has a tree on its shell and Quinglongmon has nothing woody about it. Quinglongmon is described as a dispassionate deity who rarely concerns itself with humans or weak Digimon and will only step in when things get serious. This is in contrast to its anime appearances, where it was the most helpful and proactive of the four. Quinglongmon is also a member of the Four Great Dragons, possibly the least utilized group in the franchise. They exist as nothing but a reference to the Chinese Myth of the Four Dragon Kings.

The Deva that serve Quinglongmon are Andiramon the rabbit, Majiramon the dragon, and Mihiramon the tiger. Andiramon (Antylamon in English) is the first of the Deva to debut, predating the group as a whole, though in a different form. There are two forms of Andiramon, Andiramon (data) and Andiramon (virus) with the former being treated as the normal form and the latter being a corrupted version of the Deva as a result of a computer virus. Andiramon (virus) appeared before Andiramon (data). Andiramon is also the only Deva with a dedicated evolution line from Child/Rookie to Ultimate/Mega. Andiramon is a gentle Digimon that loves small and cute creatures and will defend them. Its weapon is the Bǎo Fǔ, which are its own hands transformed into axes. Its mythical counterpart instead uses a mallet or whisk.

Andiramon (data)

Andiramon (virus)

Majiramon is the most capitalist of the Deva. It is extremely greedy and will not lift a finger to do anything that doesn't benefit itself. It also puts a monetary value on everything and will intervene if anything upsets the flow of money. Its weapon is the Bǎo Shǐ, arrows formed from its hair, each of which is worth 5,000 yen. Its associated General is usually associated with bows or spears.

Mihiramon is a scoundrel and a ruffian that enjoys picking fights, but is also the Deva's best strategist and possesses a brilliant tactical mind. Combined with its ability to fly and incredible speed, Mihiramon is one of the best fighters amongst the Deva. Its weapon is the Bǎo Bàng, a three-sectioned staff connected by chains that it can turn its tail into. Think a souped-up nunchuck. Its mythical counterpart uses a vajra instead.

The Holy Beast of the South is Zhuqiaomon. It is based on Zhūquè, the Vermillion Bird of the south. The bird is described as a pheasant with five-colored feathers and that is perpetually covered in fire. Fittingly, its season is summer and its element is fire. Zhuqiaomon is also a flaming bird that attacks with fire. It is the least pleasant of the Holy Beasts, a violent and often cruel god who incinerates those who approach it and rarely helps out others. Fittingly, its sole major anime appearance was as a villain.

The Deva who serve Zhuqiaomon are just as assholeish as their master. They are Indaramon the horse, Pajiramon the sheep, and Sandiramon the snake. Indaramon is a vain asshole that spends its time bragging about talented it is. It even looks down on those who value hard work as it views them as inferior to its natural talent. Despite fussing over its appearance, it is completely unrefined in battle and fights like a berserker. Its weapon is the Bǎo Bèi, a giant gilded conch shell that it uses as a bludgeon and as a horn that can release ultrasonic blasts. Its mythical counterpart instead used a staff

Pajiramon is one of the coolest Deva and one of the evilest. It rules the world of dreams and knows many dark secrets that it divulges to no others. It even avoids the other Deva. While it is described as always calm and yet cruel to others it gives me the impression that the secrets it holds are so dangerous that it must stay away from others at all costs. Its weapon is the Bǎo Gōng, its crossbow that fires arrows which can put others to sleep and trap them in nightmares. It's mythical counterpart also uses a bow.

Sandiramon is the cruelest and most cunning of the Deva. It prefers to draw out fights and kill its enemies in slow and torturous ways. It also lives underground and excels in subterranean combat. Why do snakes always have to be evil? Let us have good snakes damnit. I really don't like it when a group of animals are always or almost always villains in fiction, like sharks, rats, vultures, and snakes. Its weapon is the Bǎo Kuí, spears made of light that it spits out of its mouth. Its mythical counterpart uses a sword or conch shell instead.

The Holy Beast of the west is Baihumon. It is based on Báihǔ, the White Tiger of the West. Báihǔ is associated with autumn and the element of metal. Metal is fitting for Baihumon as it wears metal armor and can unleash a roar that turns targets into metal statues. Baihumon is the youngest and strongest of the Holy Beasts. It is a neutral being that prefers not to get involved in most matters, but is the first Holy Beast to leap into the fight against a powerful enemy.

The Deva that serve Baihumon are Caturamon the dog, Makuramon the monkey, and Sinduramon the rooster. Caturamon has a strong sense of justice and will preside over judgement of others, proclaiming them as good or evil. It's view of justice is very black and white and it doesn't like dealing with situations without a clear good and bad side. It also acts like an older brother to its fellows, something they do not seem to reciprocate. Its weapon is the Bǎo Chuí, a giant hammer it can transform its whole body into. Its mythical counterpart uses swords instead.

Makuramon is interesting it that it almost never speaks and its face remains completely expressionless. This would make its emotions enigmatic, but its body language is extremely expressive, showing it to be hyperactive and extremely curious, though with a short attention span. It dislikes battles and prefers to trap enemies and settle fights nonviolently. This is opposed to its major anime appearance, where it was a total asshole. Its weapon is the Bǎo Yù, spheres that can be used to trap other Digimon. Its mythical counterpart prefers an axe.

The last Deva is Sinduramon, which also sounds like it would be unpleasant to be around. It's a gossip that loves to give insults and pick fights, then it hides inside its armored shell when this inevitably gets it into trouble. I know some people like that and they suck. Its weapon is shared with Kumbhiramon, a vajra called Bǎo Chǔ. Sandiramon's vajra can shoot lightning. Its mythical counterpart also uses a vajra, but a single-pronged one instead of a three-pronged one.

The leader of the Holy Beasts and one of the most powerful Digimon in existence is Huanglongmon (Fanglongmon in English). It is based on Huánglóng, the Yellow Dragon of the Center. It is considered the incarnation of the supreme deity that is the Yellow Emperor and its color represents the earth. It represents the changing of the seasons and the element of earth. Huanglongmon is associated with earth in that it is trapped in the center of the world, from which it observes the Digital World and oversees the other Holy Beasts. In the distant past it was free, but when Lucemon (Digimon's devil) rebelled against God, it trapped Huanglongmon as its first act since its rebellion would have been foiled were Huanglongmon around to oppose it. The imprisonment of Huanglongmon caused the other Holy Beasts to begin fighting for supremacy, but they eventually settled into an equilibrium. Huanglongmon's body is coated in the ultra-rare metal Huanglong ore, which is utterly indestructible. Assimilating Huanglong ore into one's body is a process that takes so long that only Huanglongmon is old enough to actually use it. Huanglongmon is both good and evil, having achieved true balance. If that balance is thrown off, bad things can happen. Specifically, if it leans too hard to evil it will become Huanglongmon Ruin Mode, an unstoppable god of ruin whose rampage was only stopped when the other Holy Beasts restored the balance. This would imply that it also has a mode where it leans too hard to good (Holy Mode? Creation Mode?) but this have never been made official.

Huanglongmon

Huanglongmon Ruin Mode

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alatismeni-theitsa · 9 months

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okay, i've heard you're one of the 'greek gods are white' people. how do you explain 'zeus athiops', considering linguistic research proved that's a word for what we now call Black. how do you explain drastically different depictions of the same deities in Syria and Lybia and more. how do you explain that a third of the pantheon have eastern roots. like girl... please get out of that mindset.

i think you need to legit drop that whole whiteness thing. it'd reductive as fuck, to us Europeans too. leave it to the people who made it, adhering to whiteness is just erasing heritages.

If that's what you got out of the discourse, you have a really USAmerican thinking pal, albeit not a USian. Or perhaps someone simplified this to you in this way and you took it word-by-word. Let me tell you what the discourse is actually about, and why there's a problem even when the Greek gods are depicted (for example) blue-eyed and blond, like N. Europeans.

It is about the treatment of pantheons by Western nations, a treatment with colonizing and imperialistic attitudes which separate the gods from their culture. A treatment that ignores depictions of a culture with an extremely large history and reduces it to distinctly Western and Anglophone pop-culture and Fandom.

Just because this happens to a nation which is considered generally light-skinned it doesn't mean it shouldn't alarm you. And the complaints of Greeks only alarm you when they address changes from lighter to significantly darker appearance, and not the opposite.

I bet you didn't send Greeks any hatemail when they were complaining about actors being too pasty and saying "This person doesn't even look like a Greek. More Irish. They even have an Irish accent…" We had this problem for centuries. N. Europeans had this super pale depiction of our gods which they considered "noble" and they saw actual Greeks are dark barbarians who are "not like the original Greeks". Now this type of projection is happening again, in order to make the West feel better, and we are actually told how we look and don't look.

Now we constantly hear "You are too light to be Greek"/"You don't look Greek" because another stereotype has settled among the powerful nations that control our image. Needless to say, this is negative too, just by the nature of being untrue, and harmful to Greek people. But this doesn't seem to worry you. You only worry when the West tells you to worry because now the cause is "noble" according to them. They never stopped seeing themselves as the righteous and noble ones. Fuck other cultures and their specific issues and histories, right?

Treating popular pantheons as a blank canvas will happen to more "races" and ethnicities when they start being considered "white" specifically in the US, our "beloved" planetarch nation. (There's already some discourse about Mexicans and Asians being the "new white"). In 50 years perhaps your grandchild will shout at a Mexican for not understanding why "it is okay" for the deity Tezcatlipoca to be depicted half-Chinese half-Nigerian.

The same thing happened to the Greeks. In many parts of the world, Greeks are still "non-white" and in the US we only recently became "white". The Middle Easterners and N.Africans are also "White" on paper. The Greek Whiteness is also only on paper, since the Westerners get the hickeys every time they hear our names, or see a part of our culture which so resembles the Middle Eastern ones. Or they clock us as Mexicans, Arabs, Turks etc. But I digress.

My point so far is that this Western approach, in its effort to be progressive, has used pantheons of foreign cultures in a way that it negates these cultures and their depictions, or their beliefs. (Something that I wouldn't call progressive)

Onto the depictions themselves. As you understand, me - and the overwhelming majority of Greeks - wants to maintain them. To this day, within the Greek culture I haven't seen depictions of native gods as - we would say today - Black. If we had some that would be okay. But we don't. I reckon, even other lands who got Hellenized didn't change the "race" of these gods. Sometimes they were alterations, yes, but to the point we are talking about a new deity, and certainly not a deity the Greeks would recognize or worship. Then we are not talking about Greek mythology, but mythology of other nations which, at some point, came in contact with the Greek culture.

But, again, it doesn't look like the Greek gods had different races in the depictions of other nations. Even today the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations don't racebend the gods. They see them as they are in the ancient depictions. Perhaps they indeed saw these gods looking a bit more like them but if you think Greek people and their neighbors (N. Africans, M. Easterners) belong to different races… you might want to check some racist notions you might hold.

"Aithiops" can mean "glowing" and "of burnt face". (��ἴθω < πρωτοϊνδοευρωπαϊκή ρίζα *aidʰ- (φλέγω) = burn/on fire + όψη = face/look) It's an Epithet (an adjective) of Zeus on the island of Chios (Lycophron, Cass. 537, with the note of Tzetzes.). You can see where this island is and you may easily understand that it had more or less the same population as the rest of Greek areas, in which "Black" individuals were very rare.

But the most important thing is, we also haven't found a depiction of Zeus as a "Black" individual. If we had found a statue with the features of a "Black" man and the name Zeus underneath, I'd be happy to say "Some Greeks indeed saw Zeus as Black". I don't mind the "race", I mind how everyone gets in mental gymnastics to try and defend a lie just because it sounds progressive.

Perhaps in their minds this aspect of Zeus had the appearance of a Middle Eastern but... this is not what you call another race. Even today Greeks don't consider Middle Easterners and South Arabs a different "race". Also, as I said in the beginning, it could just mean "Glowing Zeus", like his face is glowing so much as if it is on fire. One word can have more than one use. The "αιθ-" root is also used about the sky, because it's glowing. The word Aether/Aitheras which we still use in Greece (αιθέρας/αιθέρες) refers to the skies. Maybe he had a "appearance/face like the sky"

Also, very important: Back then the region where the country of Ethiopia is today was called Abyssinia. The Greeks, in the period you're thinking about, probably had no contact with the land which today is Ethiopia. Aethiopia was a whole region, possibly the Middle East. (See the post here where many sources are gathered)

The first depiction of Andromeda, an Aethiopian princess as "Black" came from Ovid, who came much later and who is not part of the Greek narrative. He's also very unreliable because with his stories he wanted to oppose the status quo and therefore the mythological figures of his time. The Greek depictions have Andromeda and her family look more or less like Greeks. (Otherwise, they would have noted the difference in appearance)

Plus, Andromeda and Perseus birthed the nation of Persians. As you know, while there are "Black" Persians the population, in general, is not "Black". Plus, I am not even sure the Greeks had contact with the "Black" Persians because they are mostly extremely far south. Such a small population so down south it's not something to base the whole Look of a Nation on, at least.

It's the Northwesterners that always use the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations as an excuse to disrespect these depictions. (Meanwhile the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations don't agree with this. They never get ACTUALLY asked)

Not to mention, the changes the western nations make are not part of a cultural exchange and they don't happen naturally through cultural osmosis. It's plain theft and ownership over the gods of a foreign culture, which they have been doing for some centuries now. The Western cultures are dominant over the Greek one. We are towards the bottom of the ladder socioeconomically in Europe. The US is literally a puppet-master of the Greek nation (and many other nations). Our government can't even fart without checking with the US. Oh, and the US also helped the 70's Junta rise to power.

Lastly, the Greek gods don't have "Anatolian origin". This rhetoric (which again implies that ancient people of a region were all the same stock) has been refuted. Nobody "stole" gods from anyone. There are so many posts on these blogs about it. Greeks were also in Anatolia for 3.000 years before the genocide, so we are not even talking about separate regions. (But I know that you saw them as separate so I approached the argument the way you meant it)

There are common roots, common beginnings, perhaps but the difference grew so much that neighboring nations had distinct gods. They also believed that their gods were distinct. You have to respect that, and also you can't lump them all together because they "all look the same to you" or some sort of a similar mindset. The Greek gods are not interchangeable with the Assyrian gods etc.

One or two, like Dionysus, indeed were brought from outside. But most are considered native to the land. (Aphrodite, too, is native to the island of Cyprus) And the Greek gods are considered ethnically Greek. The Greeks considered themselves born by these gods. Each line had a god that gave birth to it or claimed to descend from a god. See more at the end of this great video: (Video with Timestamp) Again, the Greek gods are not ethnically Japanese, or ethnically Argentinian, or ethnically Norwegian. They come from a specific culture, with specific stories and appearances. You cannot imply otherwise without making all cultures a disservice.

You can see more discussions about this, including why the argument "But a minority must be represented!" kind of argument.

Some are a bit old but the general point is the same.

*In my language "Black" for a person is not exactly a positive term so it's in quotations. The term "race" is also extremely bad in Europe. I leave this disclaimer cause I know no one gives a shit if non-Anglophones must say slurs to convey a point, as long as we all speak the USAmerican way :) We also know that the individuals I am talking about weren't identifying as "Black".

#Guys I should find a way to tag this types of post and idk how #i have some stuff in my f.a.q. page but each ask is a bit different and perhaps the f.a.q. doesn't cover it #I know it's a long post so I tried to cut it relatively early :P #I TRIED #answered #xenoi doing bs #racebending

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jasminewalkerauthor · 7 months

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Deep dives into folklore: Sea monsters

The vast and mysterious expanses of the world's oceans have long captured the human imagination. Throughout history, sailors and storytellers have shared tales of monstrous creatures lurking beneath the waves. These sea monsters, both mythical and literary, have evolved over time, reflecting the changing beliefs, fears, and knowledge of the societies that created them. This week we explore the fascinating evolution of sea monsters in literature and mythology, from their ancient origins to their modern interpretations.

The concept of sea monsters dates back to some of the earliest civilizations, such as the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians. In their mythologies, these cultures often depicted sea serpents and other monstrous beings as guardians of the underworld or as symbols of chaos and destruction. One of the earliest recorded sea monsters is the Babylonian dragon-god Tiamat, a primeval chaos monster who embodied the sea.

In Greek mythology, the sea monster Scylla, with her multiple heads and writhing tentacles, was feared by sailors who navigated the Strait of Messina. Scylla represented the dangers of the sea, as well as the unpredictable and uncontrollable forces of nature that ancient seafarers had to contend with.

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, sea monsters took on a more symbolic and allegorical role in literature and art. The medieval bestiaries, encyclopedic collections of animal descriptions, often included fantastical sea creatures with moral lessons attached to them. These creatures were seen as manifestations of sin, temptation, and the unknown.

One of the most famous sea monsters of this period was the Kraken, a colossal cephalopod said to terrorize sailors off the coast of Norway. The Kraken embodied the fear of the deep sea and the dangers that awaited those who ventured too far from shore. It was also a metaphor for the vast, uncharted territories of the ocean.

The Age of Exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries brought about a new wave of sea monster lore. As European sailors ventured into uncharted waters, their accounts of strange and terrifying creatures fueled the imaginations of writers and readers alike. These tales often blended fact with fiction, as sailors encountered real but unfamiliar marine life, such as giant squids, which contributed to the mythos of sea monsters.

One of the most famous literary sea monsters is Captain Ahab's nemesis, Moby Dick, from Herman Melville's novel of the same name. Although Moby Dick is a sperm whale rather than a mythical creature, the obsessive pursuit of this massive white whale symbolized humanity's struggle against nature and the perils of obsession.

In the modern era, our understanding of the ocean and its inhabitants has deepened through scientific discovery. As a result, sea monsters have evolved from mythical creatures to fascinating, real-life creatures with unique adaptations. For instance, the colossal squid, with its enormous eyes and powerful tentacles, has captured the imagination of both scientists and the public.

While ancient sea monsters were often depicted as malevolent beings, modern interpretations are more nuanced. In literature and popular culture, sea monsters have become multifaceted characters, sometimes serving as protectors of the ocean's fragile ecosystems or representing the unknown wonders of the deep.

The evolution of sea monsters in literature and mythology reflects the ever-changing relationship between humans and the ocean. From ancient civilizations' fears of chaotic sea serpents to the allegorical monsters of the Middle Ages and the real-life marvels of the modern era, sea monsters have served as symbols of the human imagination and our evolving understanding of the natural world. As our knowledge of the ocean continues to expand, so too will our interpretations of the creatures that inhabit its depths, ensuring that sea monsters will continue to captivate our minds and inspire our stories for generations to come.

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@axl-ul @crow-flower @thoughts-fromthevoid @alderwoodbooks @harleyacoincidence

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#writeblr #writers of tumblr #bookish #writing #booklr #fantasy books #creative writing #book blog #ya fantasy books #ya books #deep dives into folklore #folklore #books #literature #sea monsters #kraken #loch ness monster #moby dick #20000 leagues under the sea

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tokyogruel · 3 months

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hellos!! is there any frame in triage where shidou Does have the same patterned scarf-thing(?) his sons and wife wear? actually do you know what those mean? (<- i only now noticed them skldjlsd)

hello anon! hola!

to answer your question,, well,, no. not really. but also- well, kind of?

the pattern youre thinking of is called paisley. it has a lot of symbolic meaning that i will get to in this post, but.. shidou doesnt really wear it. kind of

i went through triage again and want to point a few things out:

shidous family wears paisley in 3 different places

his wife, around her waist. shidou mimics this with his apron

his youngest, around his neck. shidou mimics this with his jacket(? why are you wearing it like that idiot)

his eldest, around his waist. shidou mimics this almost exactly- except his cloth belt is light blue, not grey, and plain- no paisley

there is, however- one very brief scene where it could be debated that shidou's belt has a paisley pattern. it moves very quickly- and is heavily obscured by light

the pattern is incredibly faint- but look closely. you can see the paisley. this is the only scene that shidou is shown wearing paisley even remotely explicitly.

(and, before i get into the symbolism of paisley- i find it's important to note that triage has a floral-pattern overlay over the entire video. it is subtle, and you can see it better on a higher-resolution screen. but it is there, and it distorts the video slightly, yet entirely)

but, well. why is paisley so important anyway?

paisley, or Boteh-Jegheh (بته جقه), is a design that has been used for centuries, it originates from Iran (considered "Persian")

"So what is behind paisley’s incredible longevity? Its symbolic power has probably played a part. The original Persian droplet-like motif – the boteh or buta – is thought to have been a representation of a floral spray combined with a cypress tree, a Zoroastrian symbol of life and eternity. The seed-like shape is also thought to represent fertility, has connections with Hinduism, and also bears an intriguing resemblance to the famous yin-yang symbol. It is still a hugely popular motif in Iran and South and Central Asian countries and is woven using silver and gold threads on to silks and fine wools for weddings and other celebrations." (source)

"in paisley people have seen resemblances to a lotus, a mango, a leech, a yin and yang, a dragon, and a cypress pine. Ancient Babylonians likened it to an uncurling date palm shoot. Providing them with food, wine, wood, paper, hatch, and string—all of life’s necessities—date palms symbolized prosperity and plenty. Paisley began its life as the privilege of cosseted, powerful men." (source)

"The circle of paisley’s irony is now complete. A pattern of exclusive royal privilege in the East becomes the pattern of Western capitalist longing. It trickles down on humbler fabrics to working men, gay men, gang members, and Boy Scouts. It signifies free love and forbidden love, belonging and exclusion—a seemingly impossible range of human experience." (source, same as above)

(source)

"In Ancient Egypt, for instance, paisley designs were often used on wall paintings and pottery vessels as symbols of life and rebirth; while in Persian culture they represented heavenly gardens filled with lush vegetation and flowing watercourses – a metaphor for paradise itself. Similarly, this pattern became an integral part of Hindu iconography; being used to depict gods such as Shiva or Ganesh." (source)

"The iconic design consists of intricate swirls and floral motifs which are believed to represent life’s cycle of birth, death and rebirth. It also represents fertility and abundance – qualities that were greatly valued by our ancestors who lived off the land they farmed. In many parts of Asia it was even thought that the paisley patterns had magical properties that could ward off evil spirits." (source, same as above)

"Additionally, the paisley flower is believed to represent the cycle of life, death, and rebirth in many cultures. The intricate design of the paisley pattern is said to symbolize the twists and turns of life’s journey, with each curve representing a different phase of life. The paisley flower is also associated with the concept of inner peace and tranquility, making it a popular choice for meditation and spiritual practices. Overall, the paisley flower holds deep spiritual significance and is a beautiful symbol of life’s journey and the eternal nature of the soul." (source, i recommend reading this page in full- foliagefriend is a site i use often as a resource, and their articles are in-depth and pleasant to read.)

so... thats about it, then!

there have been a few other elements pointed out in these articles though, so ill leave a few resources below to read up on, if youre interested :>

paisley (wikipedia page)

cypress (foliagefriend) // cypress (spiritualunite) // cypress (silentbalance) // cypress (artofmourning) // cypress (meaningsymbolism) // cypress (groovingtrees)

"On the Complexity of Using the Mango as a Symbol in Diasporic Literature"

"In Myth and Literature, the Mango Remains King"

"Leeches in modern medicine"

"Leeches are still used in medicine—yes, really. Here’s why." (this article discusses transplanted tissue)

leeches (wikipedia page, the link directs you towards the medical section of the age)

dragons (worldbirds) // dragons (athsq) // dragons (givemehistory)

yin and yang (wikipedia page) @mukuberry heres your 0510 b/w parallels again

ankh (wikipedia article)

date (allaboutpalmtrees) // date (desertempirepalms) // date (groovingtrees) // date (bateel)

phoenix (wikipedia page)

shiva (wikipedia page)

ganesh (wikipedia page)

gray (colorpsychology) // gray (colorpsychologymeaning)

blue (colorpsychology) // blue (colorpsychologymeaning)

white (colorpsychology) // white (colorpsychologymeaning)

purple (colorpsychology) // purple (colorpsychologymeaning)

(ps. shidou has consistent themes of fertility, ovaries, motherhood, birth/rebirth... the ovarian imagery is very persistent in Throw Down!)

#YAYYAYYY #PUT THIS MAN ON THE TABLE I WILL DISSECT HIM RAVENOUSLY #creature speaks #ask tag

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pickerelstripe · 10 months

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ClayClan’s Mythology

ClayClan has a developed religion! They believe in six gods, who made the world and have power over it; Silverpelt, the place where dead Clan cats reside; and various other myths and folk heroes. Their culture has no hell equivalent, as cats barred from Silverpelt are instead believed to remain on earth after death as ghosts. Note that, in-story, the nature of ClayClan’s mythology is vague - I’m not confirming or denying it as a true force in the world, but it does impact the characters through their faith.

Below the cut: Notes on the gods, patrons, the origin of ClayClan, death and the afterlife, blessings and curses, bobcats, and more

The Gods, Patrons, and ClayClan’s Origin

ClayClan’s pantheon is made up of six gods. The gods are considered genderless - they use a special set of pronouns, shaf/shafs, and may be referred to with molly, tom, or jack depending on the story. The imagery associated with a god is not what they truly look like, it’s just what Clan cats can approximate about their appearance - the exceptions to this are Yiaow, who is literally considered to be a bobcat with the head of a Clan cat, and Rhurr, who is literally considered to be a long-haired cat with a magnificent mane and flowing tail.

Rhurr God of the sun, moon, stars, and wisdom. Represented by a longhair cat with a great mane, sitting with its tail over its paws. Prayed to for knowledge, leadership skills, and important desires. Often seen as the leader of the gods. Parent of Hyaash and Mrrha.

Chikik God of seasons, natural change, and cycles. Represented by a snowshoe hare with its ears laying down against its back. Prayed to for good seasonal conditions and safety against negative change. Also prayed to for healing, as they’re associated with the cycle of life. Parent of Fulgurr.

Fulgurr God of clouds, rain, storms, snowfall, and travel. Represented by a bald eagle. Prayed to for good weather, protection against natural disasters, and for safety on physical journeys. Often seen as a protective spirit over messengers. Child of Chikik.

Hyaash God of hunting, fighting, and teamwork. Represented by a longhair cat with an open mouth and unsheathed claws. Prayed to for good hunting, good fighting, and to solve disputes between Clanmates. Seen as a protective spirit over apprentices. Child of Rhurr and littermate of Mrrha.

Mrrha God of creativity, clay sculpting, and community. Represented by a longhair cat laying down with a kitten tucked in its belly. Prayed to for good luck in life and for familial or romantic relationships. Child of Rhurr and littermate of Hyaash.

Yiaow God of the ocean, predatory animals, and all things unknown. Represented by a bobcat with the head of a Clan cat. Prayed to for safety against physical danger. Often depicted as having a strict sense of justice, or enforcing “an eye for an eye” - this contributes to a healthy fear towards them.

Living cats cannot contact the gods, but sculpting their image is said to appeal to them or bring their favor upon whoever prays with the sculpture (for more information, see my entry on sculpting). It’s believed Silverpelt ferries messages between the gods and the living; these messages manifest in omens and dreams.

While cats respect every god, some cats will have a patron, a specific god they feel close to and pray to more often. It’s common for a cat’s patron to change over time - for example, a captain whose patron is Hyaash may switch over to Rhurr after becoming deputy.

It’s said that the first three gods were Rhurr, Chikik, and Yiaow; Rhurr and Yiaow as opposing sides to the same leaf, with Chikik as an in-between force of change. Chikik’s child Fulgurr came to be around this time. Rhurr eventually led the cats of the world to form ClayClan to keep them safe from Yiaow’s dangers. The cats didn’t know how to live in a community, so Rhurr bore two kits, Hyaash and Mrrha, who taught the cats how to live properly.

Death, Killing, and The Afterlife

When Clan cats die, they ascend to Silverpelt, a mythical afterlife represented by the sparkling night sky. This is a direct result of their connection to the gods - due to this, it’s believed that cats only go to Silverpelt if they’re buried on ClayClan territory. This custom is kept tightly by the living and has led to a dedicated graveyard. If a cat disappears or is presumed dead without a body, the acolytes sculpt a clay rendition of them and bury that instead, out of honor.

Killing is mandated by the gods under specific conditions; cats may kill prey and predator, but only when necessary. Killing beyond these boundaries upsets the natural way of things. Killing another cat is majorly frowned upon, but killing a Clanmate is downright sinful, and a surefire way to get cursed by the gods (see the next section for more info). The concept of killing in self-defense applies only to non-Clanmates.

Blessings and Curses

The gods may bless or curse living cats based on their actions.

Blessings and curses take the form of events in someone’s life. Blessings may manifest as especially bountiful hunting, completing a difficult task, etc; curses may manifest as losing something important to you, being injured, etc. They’re very up to interpretation.

Curses are generally brought down upon someone for committing acts against ClayClan or the gods. Two examples are murder and faking omens - murder because it disrespects the proper way of life, and faking omens because it is both pretending to know the gods’ will and deceiving your Clanmates into thinking that as well.

These concepts come into play in the story primarily through Pickerelstripe (who lied about being blessed) and Cootfeather (who killed her former mate).

Bobcats and The Ocean

Bobcats have a dedicated spot in ClayClan’s mythology, despite rarely venturing into the territory. They’re seen as uncanny, devilish figures - like cats, but not quite right. Myth states you can sell your soul to a bobcat... you’ll receive an incredible bounty in life, but when you die you’ll be cursed to become a bobcat yourself, barred forever from the gods’ light in Silverpelt.

The ocean also has myths surrounding it. It’s seen as the end of the world; as far as ClayClan is concerned, it stretches past the horizon forever. Being around or in the ocean is incredibly dangerous. Though ClayClan is technically near the coast, cats would have to walk for a day or two before hitting the ocean. its reputation for danger and association with Yiaow mean that nobody really attempts this.

#clayclan #religion #mythology #warriors worldbuilding #warrior cats

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arthurdrakoni · 10 months

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Flag of the Inca Empire

This is the flag of the Inca Empire. It comes from a world where the Inca were able to defeat Pizarro and his troops, and resisted Spanish conquest. The naturally mountainous terrain of the Andes helped give the Inca a considerable boost in self-defense against other European powers. The Inca played the various European powers off of each other to preserve their independence. The Inca initially considered a policy of isolationism, but this would prove untenable. Though, initially, the Inca limited their interactions with the Europeans as much as possible.

As time went on, the Inca began to study and replicate European technology and ideas. The first major change being the introduction of gunpowder weaponry, and the establishment of permeant standing army. The Inca also established a formal written language; with its alphabet largely based on the Latin Alphabet, but with some unique flourishes. The Inca had been ravaged by smallpox, and other Europeans diseases, though not quite to the extent they were in our world. Naturally, the Inca sought out the vaccine for smallpox as soon as it became available in the 18th Century. The 19th Century saw the next major wave of reforms. The Incan government reformed into a parliamentary democracy, with limits set on the Sapa Inca’s powers. The first stages of industrialization also began at this time. The Inca adopted Western styles of clothing, but mixed in their own designs and color choices. Indeed, to this day, the Incan clothing is known for its unique mix of Western and Indigenous designs. However, more traditional style clothing can be found at important events, such as major religious festivals, or the crowning of a new Sapa Inca. Today, the Inca Empire is a prosperous modern nation. Cusco, the nation capital, is a true global city. It is home to several universities, museums and art galleries, restaurants, and temples that are the envy of the world. The Quechua people are the largest ethnic group within the empire. However, the empire is home to many other ethnic groups including, among others, Aymara, Mapuche, Wayuu, Het, Polynesians, and even Amazonian tribes. The Inca Empire also receives many immigrants from around the world. Incan citizens enjoy a very generous social safety net. Government-funded healthcare is provided to all citizens, though private insurance also exists. The Department of Employment provides jobs to all citizens who find themselves unemployed. In the event that a citizen cannot fulfill any available jobs, they are instead given a welfare payment until new jobs become available. The Department of Culture helps provide funding for the arts. Some citizens, of course, cannot attend performances of the arts due to their financial circumstances. In this case, they can apply for free vouchers from the Department of Culture. This all means that most Inca citizens have fairly high taxes, but most consider the trade-off worth it. The flag includes a stylized depiction of the sun god Inti. The Inca still largely follow their traditional religion; though secularism is on the rise. The blue symbolizes how the same blue sky stretches over all parts of the empire. In the corners of the flag are four chakana; a common geometric shape found in art across various Andes Civilizations. They are in the four corners of the flag in reference to the Inca Empire’s official name, Tawantinsuyu, which means Land of the Four Corners.

Link to the original flag on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2022/04/flag-of-inca-empire.html?m=0

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ideas-on-paper · 1 year

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Celtic seasonal festivals - Part 2: Beltane

Part 1 ; Part 3 ; Part 4

Hello, my dear folks! The 1st of May finally has arrived, and as promised, we will continue with our examination of ancient Celtic festivals and their modern counterparts. This time, we will take a closer look at Beltane, which is probably the most famous Celtic festival aside from Samhain - and, contrary to popular belief, involved way less sexy times than one might imagine.

General/Etymology

Beltane (or Beltaine) is one of the four Celtic seasonal/"fire" festivals, taking place on May 1st. Also known as Cétshamhain in some older sources (meaning "first of summer"), it marked the beginning of the bright season, when the steadily increasing light of the sun would finally burn the last remnants of the dark winter season away. Aside from Samhain, Beltane was the most significant festival of the Celtic calendar, with the two of them lying exactly six months apart.

However, just like the other threshold festivals, Beltane didn't mark the meteorological beginning of summer, but rather the date when herdsmen would drive out their cattle to the summer pastures. It was also the time when snow and frost would finally decline in the higher reaches, and it was common for farmers to lead their herds to fresh summer grazings atop hills or mountainsides. From this, we can conclude that animal husbandry most likely played an important part in Celtic economy, a theory which receives its staggering confirmation in the numerous Irish myths and legends featuring livestock.

For Celtic farmers, cows were both a source of income and their own livelihood - the Kerry cattle (depicted above), a now rare breed native to Ireland, is believed to be one of the oldest European cattle breeds as well as the first to be bred primarily for milk production (Source)

As proven by Táin Bó Cúailnge, one of the most famous Irish tales, cows were seen as a symbol for wealth and status, since they gave a variety of products such as leather, meat, milk, cheese, and butter. In particular, cows were appreciated for the dairy products they yielded, as milk and butter were an essential part of the people's diet. These qualities are reflected in Glas Gaibhnenn, a mythical cow of bounty and fertility which belonged to the hero Cian mac Cáinte, only for the precious animal to be stolen by his adversary Balor.

In regard to etymology, the most wide-spread theory is that Beltane is derived from the Proto-Celtic belo-te(p)niâ, composed of the prefix belo- meaning "white/bright/shining", and tene/teine, the word for "fire". Thus, Beltane can be translated as "bright fire" - a fitting name considering the numerous bonfire rites associated with it.

Ancient origins and customs

There are numerous references to Beltane and its rites in early Irish literature, suggesting that the festival was a very integral, ancient part of Irish culture. Some medieval sources even mention an Irish god named Bel/Beil, in whose honor so-called "Bel's fires" (possibly the origin of the word "balefire") would be lit on May 1st. This makes for some interesting parallels with the Gaulish deity Belenus, a Celtic healing god who is believed to be the namesake of Beltane. Furthermore, in some ancient depictions of Belenus, he seems to be accompanied by a female goddess, which some scholars have identified as Belisama. Although these two deities share the same etymological root, their religious function is largely unclear. Due to the Roman identification with the sun god Apollo, Belenus was originally interpreted as a solar deity, his name being translated as "the bright/shining one"; consequentially, Belisama would mean "the very bright" (the suffix -isama denoting a superlative). However, different theories regarding the origin have also been proposed: It is suspected that belo- rather stems from the Gaulish word for "strong/powerful", while -nos was the term for "lord/master" - thus, Belenus and Belisama would translate to "Master of Power" and "the very powerful". A connection to the plant henbane (called belenuntia in ancient Gaul and known for its healing and hallucinogenic properties) and a derivation from the Indo-European root *gwelH- for "source"/"spring" have also been speculated. The Proto-Indo-European term *bʰleh₃ōs meaning "blossoming" seems like another possible option, although this does not seem to have been considered by scholars yet.

Viewed in the context of the few hints about Celtic religion that we do have, all of these interpretations seem valid: Symbolically, the sun not only stood for light and fire, but also the never-ending year cycle - as such, many solar deities also act as gods of nature and fertility. Another integral part of spiritual practices - especially during the threshold festivals - was divination, with henbane possibly being used during such rituals to put the oracle in ecstasy. Last but not least, bodies of water were believed to be the dwellings of gods and gateways to the Otherworld in ancient Celtic culture, so it's no surprise that Belenus and Belisama share various associations with water as well (also, as we learned in the article about Imbolc, fountains were believed to have healing properties as well, reaffirming Belenus' status as a healing god). Although we will most likely never know the exact ancient rituals of Beltane, we can put together the archaeological evidence, the accounts from medieval Irish authors, and surviving customs to get an idea what this celebration of fertility and new beginnings might have looked like.

Not much is known about Belenus and Belisama, but it is speculated they were a pair of ancient fertility deities (Source)

From the medieval Irish texts Sanas Cormaic and Tochmarc Emire, we learn part of the festival of Beltane was lighting two bonfires. On the eve of April 30th, the candles and hearth fires of all households would be extinguished; then, two druids would ascend to a mountain or hill, and ignite a fire by the means of friction between wood while chanting magic incantations. Afterwards, people would drive their cattle either past or between the two bonfires, occasionally also making it jump over the flames. This ritual was meant to cleanse away any harmful influences left over from winter, as well as protect their livestock against disease. Since it was believed to bring good luck, the people themselves would also run between or around the bonfires, with some especially brave jumping over the embers. In some regions, it was also considered important for the smoke to blow across the people and their cattle, since the ashes and smoke of the bonfire were also believed to have protective powers.

This custom is also attested in a source from the 17th century, where Geoffrey Keating claims that two bonfires were lit in every district of Ireland and livestock driven between them to ward off disease. Keating also describes a great gathering at the hill of Uisneach on May 1st, during which sacrifices to the god Beil were made. While is event is nowhere mentioned in the Irish annals, there is a legend recorded in the Dindsenchas of a hero lighting a fire at Uisneach which burned for seven years. These might be faint remnants of an annual Beltane tradition being held there, a theory which may be supported by archaeological evidence found in the 20th century: Due to traces of large fires and charred bones being excavated there, scholars assume that Uisneach was a sanctuary site since ancient times, acting as a place for animal sacrifices and hosting a perpetually burning fire.

These gatherings were usually accompanied by a feast, with food being cooked at the bonfire and some of it being offered to the aos sí, the spirits and fairies of Irish folklore (which are generally believed to have evolved from ancient nature gods). For example, in the Scottish Highlands, a lamb would be sacrificed, after which people would consume the remaining parts to figuratively feast alongside the gods. In Perthshire, another region of Scotland, a caudle consisting of eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk would be made, some of which was poured onto the ground as a libation to the spirits. Baking an oatmeal cake, called bannoch Bealltainn ("Beltane bannock") was also a common ritual, and after every of the guests had taken their own piece of it, they would offer bits of it to the spirits for protection of their livestock (one dedicated to the horses, another one for the sheep, etc.). Furthermore, the predators that might prey on their cattle also had to be appeased, and to show respect to them, each would be offered a small piece of the cake as well (one for the fox, one for the eagle, and so forth). Once all the pieces had been properly distributed, people would drink of the caudle that had been cooked over the fire.

Another ritual involving oatmeal cake is also documented: First, the cake would be cut into multiple slices, one of them being marked with charcoal. Then, all of them would be put into a bonnet (a traditional type of headdress) and each of the guest would pull out one while blindfolded. Whoever got the marked piece would have to leap through the flames three times, or the other attendees would pretend to throw them into the bonfire in a kind of mock ritual. Following the feast's conclusion, everyone would act like the "sacrificed" person was dead for a period of time. It has been suggested that this is a remnant of ancient human sacrifice (which we do know the Celts practiced) that morphed into more of a symbolic custom over the centuries.

Once the bonfire had died down, people would daub themselves in the ashes, as well as take some of it with them to sprinkle it over their crops and livestock. In addition, people would light torches at the bonfire and bring them home, carrying them around the borders of the farmstead and through their house to bless the place. Finally, the torches would be used to reignite all hearth fires - a ritual which most likely not only represented the changing of seasons, but also the waxing light of the sun, invoking a plentiful supply of sunlight for people, animals, and plants to grow.

Another Beltane custom typical of Ireland was the May Bush (also called May Bough), a small tree or branch decorated with various adornments. Usually, the bush would be hawthorn, rowan, holly, or sycamore, and thorn trees in particular were seen as special trees associated with the aos sí. (In fact, the tradition of decorating trees in springtime might be a remnant of ancient tree worship, a ritual meant to bestow the tree spirit's blessing onto each house and village.) On the morning of Beltane Eve, children or youths would go out into the countryside looking for a suitable bush, while also collecting brightly-colored wild flowers along the way. These flowers would then be used to decorate the bush for the festive occasion, in addition to ribbons, painted seashells, candles, and rushlights.

Sometimes, the tree would be decorated where it stood, while other times the youths would cut off branches from it to bring them home. (In Ireland, damaging a thorn/"fairy" tree was widely believed to bring great misfortune, so Beltane might have been the only occasion where it was actually allowed.) The May Bush branches would be fastened above doors and windows, to the roof or barns. Traditionally, the smaller branches would be decorated as well - a task which was normally the duty of the oldest household member - and would remain up until May 31st.

In cities such as Dublin and Belfast, May Bushes from the countryside would be brought into town and decorated by the whole community. Since each neighborhood competed for the most handsome tree, people had to be wary of residents of other towns trying to steal their May Bush. Occasionally, the bush would be paraded around the community, accompanied by a procession of children who would sing, dance, and ask people for a humble donation of money, sweets, or candles for the tree. Dancing and singing around the May Bush were also very commonplace, with the men and women usually forming a circle and intertwining their hands, weaving in and out under their arms and gathering other dancers to follow them - a practice which possibly represented the movements of the sun. Furthermore, ceremonial sport events were a popular Beltane tradition, and in certain regions of southern Ireland, silver and gold hurling balls (known as "May Balls") were part of the tree's decoration, which would later be gifted to children or the winners of a hurling match. At the conclusion of the festivities, the May Bush might sometimes be burnt in the ritual bonfire as well.

Believed to be a remnant of ancient tree worship, the May Bush was essential to ensure the luck of the household and the whole community (Source)

It was not only the May Bushes that were decorated, though: Doors, windows, byres, and even livestock would be adorned be with yellow or white May flowers, such as primrose, rowan, hawthorn, gorse, hazel, daisies, and buttercups. (It's likely that these bright-colored blooms were meant to evoke fire, and as such encourage growth.) Either loose blossoms would be strewn in front of doors and on windowsills, or they would be arranged into bouquets, garlands, or crosses and fastened to them. Often, children would also place wreaths of flowers in front of their neighbor's doorstep, as a gesture of goodwill. Not only the horns of cows, but also utensils for milking and butter making were adorned with flowers, ensuring a plentiful supply of milk in the coming year.

However, these flowery adornments not only served the purpose to bring good luck, but also were meant as protection: Just like at Samhain, fairies and other supernatural creatures were believed to be especially active during the time of Beltane, and most rituals were focused on warding them off or appeasing them. According to folk belief, fairies and Cailleachs - old hags with magical powers - were particularly prone to stealing dairy products, so there were various practices to prevent them from doing so. Aside from tying May Bush branches to milk pails, the tails of cattle or hanging them in the barn, placing three black coals under a butter churn was supposed to prevent the butter from being snatched by mischievous fairies (alternatively, people might light a candle inside the churn or put herbs into it). It was common to leave food and pour some milk in front of the doorstep as an offering to the aos sí, which would also be done in other places associated with them, including the "fairy trees".

Furthermore, farmers would not let their cattle out on the pastures before noon, since they feared that the fairies would steal the herd otherwise. To prevent this, herdsmen would follow their livestock and pick up the clay their cows had walked over, presumably to cover their trail. It was also believed that the Cailleachs were able to siphon the future year's profit of milk from the cows by making use of Beltane dew, and to retain the profits and protect them from disease, people would drive their cattle onto the fields with a hazel stick (the hazel tree was associated with wisdom and sacred knowledge in Celtic mythology). To gain divine protection for their herds, some Irish farmers would also bring them to so-called "fairy forts", remains of stone circles, ringforts, and hillforts from the prehistoric age of Ireland. There, they would collect a small amount of blood from their livestock which then would be poured into the earth, accompanied by prayers for the herd's safety; occasionally, the blood was also dried and ritually burned.

Additionally, it was common for farmers to lead a procession around the borders of their farmstead. While doing so, they would carry with them seeds of grain, agricultural utensils, the herbs vervain or rowan, and the first well water of Beltane. They would stop at each of the four cardinal points, beginning in the east, and performing rituals in each direction, which were meant to drive off harmful spirits as well as pray for fertility and a productive year.

In concert with the origin of Beltane's patrons as water deities, visiting holy wells was an often practiced ritual at Beltane. Just like at Imbolc and Lughnasadh, visitors would pray for health while walking sunwise around the well, after which they would leave coins and piece of cloth ("clooties") as offerings. The first water drawn from a well on Beltane was also thought to be especially potent, having great curative and protective effects and being good for the complexion. Since it was believed to bring good luck, the water was also used to bless property and animals. Herbs gathered on May 1st were also considered to have more restorative powers, and kidney vetch that was picked on Beltane was stored throughout the year as a cure for various animal diseases.

In addition, Beltane dew was believed to bestow good fortune, beauty, and health: Early at dawn, young maidens would roll in the fresh dew on the meadows, or gather it to wash their faces; sometimes, it would be collected in a jar, left to stand in the sunlight, and then filtered before it was used. Leaving their dew-wet faces to dry in the air was supposed to increase sexual attractiveness, maintain youthfulness, and protect the skin from sun damage, freckles, and other ailments in the year to come. Furthermore, it was said that a man who washed his face with soap and water on Beltane would grow a long mustache, which - judging by ancient sources about the Gauls - was probably seen as a male beau idéal in Celtic culture.

However, there were also things you should avoid doing at Beltane and that would bring you misfortune if you didn't pay attention: For example, no one should light a fire on the morning of 1st May until they saw smoke rising from their neighbor's chimney, so the household fires typically wouldn't be kindled before midday. If you were to enter someone else's dwelling on Beltane, it was said that you always should put your right foot first.

Parting with clothes, ashes, coal, or salt was further believed to bring bad luck, as giving away any resources on Beltane meant you were giving them away for the year. Farmers were especially protective of their dairy products, some of them staying up all night to guard their cows from potential thieves who would try to milk them and thus steal their profits for the following year. On a similar note, if you cut your finger with a stone on Beltane, it was said that the wound would never heal.

Also, spending the night outside was considered to be a very bad idea, as there was nothing to protect you from being captured by the aos sí. If a family owned a white horse, they were advised to keep it in the stable all day, as white animals were said to be especially prone to be stolen by fairies. Meanwhile, all other horses would have a red rag tied to their tail as protection from the gaze of harmful spirits.

Generally, any large undertaking, be it house building, marriage, or anything else, was believed to be ill-fated if it occurred on Beltane. The same went for births, as any foal born on that day was fated to cause someone's death, and any cow that calved on May 1st would soon perish.

Similar to Samhain, Beltane Night was also believed to be the time when the ghosts of Irish ancestors who died abroad would return to their homes, and all of the deceased would return from the Otherworld to visit their old friends. As a gesture of hospitality, people would often leave their door unlocked, as well as putting a cake and a jug of milk on the table for them.

As with the other Celtic seasonal festivals, there were also various animal superstitions surrounding Beltane: If a girl saw a white snail on the morning of May 1st, it meant that she would have good luck and find a good husband, but if a black snail crossed her way, it was considered a harbinger of death. Seeing a white lamb from the left was also thought to be a good sign, but hearing the call of a cuckoo was supposed to bring misfortune. (The cuckoo was seen as a herald of summer in Ireland, as the migratory bird would typically return to its breeding grounds mid-April or even as early as April 2nd; thus, it was unusually late for the cuckoo to arrive in late April/early May, which was seen as a sign of a bad summer.) If a robin flew into the house on Beltane, it was believed to be an especially bad sign, prophesizing the future death of a household member. (According to Irish folklore, the Robin murdered its father the Wren, the Oak King and old sun, thus gaining its blood-red chest and becoming the new sun.)

Beltane, Easter, and the origin of the May Queen

As early as the 5th century, the population of Ireland slowly started converting to Christianity. However, in contrast to other nations where conversation was usually accompanied by violent struggles and/or active repression of the previous pagan religion, the old Irish traditions and Catholic faith peacefully assimilated with each other, creating a unique, Celtic subbranch of Christianity. Due to this and the date of Beltane not really coinciding with any major Christian holiday in spring - Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost - the pagan rituals and Christian traditions more or less co-existed alongside each other for several centuries, with some conventions also influencing each other: For example, left-over eggshells from Easter Sunday were a popular decoration for May Bushes, and making the sign of the cross with milk on May Day was generally believed to bring good luck.

However, as with the other seasonal festivals, we can also see some attempts to Christianize the original meaning behind Beltane: Legend has it that Saint Patrick was also the first one to ignite an Easter fire in Ireland, back in the year 433. In one of the earliest tales about him, recorded by the monk Muirchú in the Vita sancti Patricii ("The Life of Saint Patrick") some time in the 7th century, Saint Patrick intends to light a Paschal fire on the Hill of Slane to commemorate the Easter Vigil, as is Christian tradition. However, just on the same date, an important pagan celebration (which may be identical with Beltane) also took place, and according to the law, no one else was to ignite a bonfire before the High King's Fire was lit by his druids on the Hill of Tara, or else they would be punished with death. St. Patrick, however, defied this taboo, setting up a large fire in honor of the Lord which was visible from miles away. This challenge of authority did not go unnoticed, as the bewildered druids soon spotted the bonfire from the king's residence at Tara, about 10 miles away from the Hill of Slane. The druids soon informed their king that someone had dared to violate their sacred customs, anxiously telling him about visions that they saw of "an eternal kingdom that triumphed over all others" and "that would bring about their pagan kingdom's fall" - also, if they did not extinguish the rival's fire this night, "it would keep growing and eventually outshine all others, spreading to all of Ireland, and the one who lit it would become the new ruler of the country". The enraged king and his great band of warriors made his way to the Hill of Slane with their chariots, nine in total, ready to slay the person who was behind the fire. When they arrived there, the king sent messengers to speak to St. Patrick first, but upon hearing the latter's words, some of them promptly converted to Christianity. In another version, the messengers tried to put out St. Patrick's fire but failed, believing it to be some kind of superior magic and taking St. Patrick for a very powerful sorcerer. Eventually, St. Patrick was invited to a meeting with the king himself on the following Easter Sunday. Clad entirely in white, St. Patrick appeared at the High King's court with his companions, explaining the cornerstones of the Christian doctrine to all those present. The attendees were enamored by his zealous devotion, and even the king was so impressed that even though he didn't convert, he gave St. Patrick permission to preach the Gospel to the Irish people, granting him and his religion his royal protection - and thus, "the light of Christ" conquered the entire nation of Ireland. On the Hill of Slane, at the same spot where St. Patrick's bonfire once burned, ruins of a Christian monastery can still be seen.

According to legend, Saint Patrick was the first one to light an Easter fire in Ireland, although his bonfire has obvious similarities to those of Beltane (Source)

It's pretty clear from the wording alone that this tale is a classical metaphor for "pagan religion gets ousted by superior Christian faith" - but contrary to what the story tells us, it seems that Easter fires were not part of the Catholic liturgy at all until the 8th century: There is a correspondence between Pope Zachary and Saint Boniface preserved from 751, which mentions so-called "ignis pachalis" (paschal fires) and raises the question of how to deal with them. This strongly suggests that Easter fires were previously unknown in the Roman Catholic Church - so either, the chronicler incorporated a tradition from his time into the 5th century legend, or Easter fires were a custom specific to Ireland. This would support the theory that Easter fires were a custom of pagan origin (either Celtic or Germanic) that has been Christianized over the centuries. In medieval times, the association of the Easter fires with God and Jesus was introduced for the first time. From this, the ritual to ignite an open-air fire on Easter Night developed, around which the whole community would gather while the priests lighted a candle at the consecrated fire. This candle would then be carried through the darkness to the church, lighting the way for the followers to the Mass. The candle came to be seen as a symbol of Christ, "the light of the world", and just like the Israelites followed the fiery column through the desert during their Exodus from Egypt, the believers would follow the light of Jesus on his way from death to life. As such, the Easter fire became firmly associated with the resurrection of Christ - a symbolism that is undoubtedly very similar to the revival of summer represented by pagan bonfires.

Aside from this, there is the Christian rite - particularly in Roman Catholic countries - of crowning an icon of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, as "the Queen of the May" as part of various celebrations in her honor taking place during the same month, which may be connected to other May Queen traditions. Ever since the Middle Ages, the May Day custom of crowning a May Queen is attested in Germany, although it seems to have started out more as an auction for potential future brides (which probably originated from the fact that girls were mostly treated as commodities on a legal level). In England, however, the character of the May Queen possessed traits of the personification of May and summer, which at least go back to the High Middle Ages. In Tudor and Stuart times, choosing a Lord and Lady to preside over each festival was very popular, which also may have influenced the selection of a May King and Queen during the May Day festivities.

In the 18th century, due to the many holidays in May dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the Roman Jesuits declared the whole month as a time of veneration for her, and as the practice spread from Italy to other Catholic countries, the ritual of a crowning of Mary also developed over time. Although crowing images of Mary goes as far back as the 5th century, it was usually done with a golden crown, while in parishes and private communities of the 19th century, it would be a flower crown that adorned the head of Mary's icon - a custom which, somewhat coincidentally, became more widespread at almost the same time when the tradition of crowning a May Queen experienced a revival due to Alfred Tennyson's poem "The May Queen".

A crowning of Mary, also known as May Crowning, could take place at any time during May - although May 1st was a common date, some parishes might prefer to do it on Mother's Day, and sometimes, it would even take place after Pentecost. Traditionally, the ceremony would take place during Mass, when a procession of young girls carrying hawthorn flowers would make their way to the statue of Mary. The flowers would then be used to adorn the statue or laid at its feet, while the oldest girl of the procession - who was typically also the May Queen - would take a crown of flowers and place it on Mary's head. Afterwards, various prayers and hymns to Mary would be recited, praising her as the "Queen of Heaven", "Mother of God", and "Queen of May".

Whether the similarities to old pagan customs are mere coincidence or not, it is clear that the figures of Jesus Christ - the God who died and rose again - and the Virgin Mary - the Holy, life-giving Mother - possess a high recognition value. This, however, gives rise to an interesting question: Just what is it that makes these archetypes so identifiable for so many people across different countries?

The beginning of May as a time for fertility rites is widely believed to go back to the ancient Romans' worship of the spring goddess Flora, whose festivities took place during late April and early May. People would adorn themselves with flowers, women wore colorful, normally indecent clothes, and many games and plays would be held to celebrate Flora's reunion with Favonius (also called Zephyrus, like his Greek counterpart), the god of the favorable west winds who would finally return to her at the advent of springtime after months of separation. (It's noteworthy that "west" is also the cardinal direction of death, as west is where the sun sets).

However, the motifs behind this myth appear to be way older, and can be seen in the Phrygian goddess Cybele, the Great Mother, and Attis, the shepherd god that was her consort. Their cult originated in Anatolia in the 7th century BC, eventually spreading to Greece, Thrace, and the Roman Empire. According to the version of Pausanias, both of them were born from Agdistis, a hermaphroditic being, and fell deeply in love with one another due to their shared origin. However, since Attis was supposed to marry the daughter of the King of Pessinus, Cybele appeared at his wedding and furiously voiced her protests. She cursed all of the attendees with madness, including Attis, who ran into the wilderness and castrated himself in front of a pine tree, dying in the process. Thus, his spirit passed into the pine, with Cybele asking Zeus that Attis' body - the evergreen tree - would never wither. From this, the tradition of the Roman festival Hilaria from March 15th to 28th developed, during which a pine tree would be ceremoniously cut down, mourned, and buried. Afterwards, a day of joyous festivities and merriment followed, to celebrate Cybele's reunion with Attis after his resurrection.

A divine couple consisting of a mother/fertility goddess and a periodically rising-and-dying god can also be observed in other religions, such as Aphrodite and Adonis from Greek lore and Isis and Osiris from the Egyptian myths, whose festivals would always take place some time in spring or summer in accordance with the growth of vegetation. However, although the figure of a god who dies and is revived again has been argued to be more typical of Near Eastern religions and the cults that developed from them, it is still possible that the concept influenced other European beliefs. After all, the Ancient Celts maintained flourishing trade relationships with Greece and Rome, and in addition to the exchange of goods and technological achievements, there might also have been an exchange of religious ideas. Also, aside from a few similarities between Celtic and Mediterranean spiritual practices that we've been seeing - such as sanctuaries with perpetually burning fires (a characteristic of Vesta and Hestia's cults) and the worship of the three "Matronae", or triple goddesses (represented by the Moirai in Greek mythology) - the cycle of death and rebirth is a very prominent theme in Celtic myths. So, perhaps what Flora and Favonius were to the Romans and what Cybele and Attis were to the Phrygians might have been Belenus and Belisama for the Celts. Either way, the notion of a pair of fertility deities uniting at the advent of the growing season and bringing about the budding of nature seems to be a notion so deeply rooted in our collective mind that even centuries of religious revolution and reinterpretation were unable to wipe it away.

Modern May Day traditions

Throughout most countries, Beltane and May Day have been replaced by International Workers' Day nowadays. Unfortunately, the old Beltane traditions of Ireland and Scotland mostly died out during the course of the 19th century, which may have been amplified by legal prohibitions. In Scotland, the May Day festival was officially outlawed as early as 1555, and in the 18th century, the May Bush was formally prohibited in Ireland by the Victorian government due to the competition for the most beautiful tree being deemed a hazard to public order. However, although they are no longer widespread, bonfire customs still survive in some regions of Ireland such as Limerick and Clare, and even in the Dublin suburb Ringsend. Scottish Beltane traditions had largely declined for a time, but have experienced a revival in the late 20th century. Since then, Glasgow and Edinburgh organize annual Beltane festivals and rallies, with the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburh lasting from May Eve till the early hours of May Day morning - and even today, it is said that young women from Edinburgh who climb Arthur's Seat and wash their face with the morning dew will gain lifelong beauty.

Meanwhile, in Wales, May Day is known under the name Calan Mai, literally meaning "the first of May" (alternate terms include Calan Hâf, "first of summer", and Cyntefin). Although they differ in name, the Welsh celebrations on May Day share numerous similarities with Beltane: According to folklore, Calan Mai is one of the "spirit nights" of the year, when spirits were out and about and divination was possible. Traditionally, bonfires were lit by the means of friction between wood, sometimes two of them side by side - until the 19th century, a calf or sheep would also be sacrificed to the fire, to prevent disease from befalling the whole flock. Round cakes of oatmeal and brown-meal were also baked, and whoever pulled a brown-meal slice out of a bag would have to leap over the flames or run between the bonfires three times, which was supposed to ensure a good harvest. On May Eve, villagers would go out to gather hawthorn branches and flowers to decorate the outside of their houses and celebrate growth and fertility. At the dawn of May Day, they would be woken up by groups of young musicians going around and reciting bawdy May or summer carols, expressing wishes of good luck and a fruitful summer in a custom commonly known as "singing under the wall" - if their performance was worthy, they would be rewarded with food and drink by the people. From mid-14th century Wales, we have the first account of a Maypole in all of the British Isles, a large post fashioned out of birchwood and adorned with ribbons, which would be set up for people to dance around it. As part of the festivities, a mock battle between seasons would also take place, with two warriors representing winter and summer going up against each other: The warrior of winter carried a hawthorn stick and a shield with wool pieces symbolizing snow, while the warrior of summer was bedecked with garlands of flowers and ribbons and wielding a willow-wand which had bands of spring flowers tied to it. Winter would combat summer by throwing straw and dry underbrush at it, which Summer countered with birch branches, willow rods, and young ferns. Eventually, Summer would win, a King and Queen of the May would be crowned, and dancing, games, feasting and drinking would take place until the morn of the next day. Although these traditions are old, some of them are still practiced in modern-day Wales.

Across the rest of Great Britain, traditional May Day customs include the crowning of a May Queen, Morris dancing, and festivities involving a Maypole, usually with dancers circling around it while holding ribbons. In the Isle of Ely, the Maypole tradition remains alive even in the 21st century, while in other regions, the old May Day customs have been revived. Kingsbury Episcopi has reintroduced a modern version of the festival several years ago, while more traditional festivals are held in Hastings, Whitstable, and Rochester (Kent), often featuring a figure called Jack in the Green, a human dressed up as a tree or bush who is accompanied by musicians during a procession.

Although Maypole customs regionally differ, they are usually young birch trees adorned with colorful ribbons and garlands (Source)

However, folk customs resembling those of Beltane also can be observed in other European countries, such as south-western Germany and Switzerland, which once formed the core of the Celtic territories in ancient times. On Walpurgis Night, as the May Eve is called in Germany, a Maypole is erected in many places, and in earlier times, folk dances would often take place around it. Communities have a competition for the tallest and prettiest Maypole, and in Bavaria, Maypoles actively need to be defended from being stolen by rivaling towns - if the competitors manage to steal your tree anyway, you have to pay a considerable amount of beer to the "captors" as ransom. In Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, and the Rhineland, "private" Maypoles are also very common: Young men put a birch sapling in front of their sweetheart's door, colorfully adorned and usually bearing an inscription hinting at their identity - however, they have to pay attention to put it in a well-hidden place, or else other suitors might discover it and take it away or exchange it with their own until dawn. In leap years, it's the women's turn to place a Maypole in front of their lovers' houses. In some regions, such as Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatine, and the Saarland, it's also typical for youths to play tricks: For example, all objects which could be found in the neighbors' front yards would be taken and thrown onto a pile on the village square, where the rightful owners would have to retrieve them. Young children will also go through the neighborhood ding-dong-ditching, as well as smearing door handles with shoe polish - tricks that seem quite reminiscent of the mischievous fairies of old. In the Swiss Cantons of Fribourg, Geneva, and Ticino, there is also the tradition of the so-called "May singing", where children go from house to house and recite songs in front of the doors, for which they are rewarded with sweets and coins. (It is noted that May singing was also formerly practiced in other regions of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Northern Italy, and German-speaking areas of the Czech Republic - all of which once were among the Celtic regions of continental Europe.)

Singing is also an integral part of the festival of Calendimaggio in Northern Italy (also known as Cantar maggio) which is still very alive today, primarily in the regions of Piedmont, Linguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, and Umbra. In a tradition that somewhat resembles a magical propitiation ritual, singers known as the Maggi (or maggerini) adorn themselves with flowers and plants of spring, such as violets, roses, golden rain, and alder - the alder in particular is considered a symbol of life, as the trees start blooming along many rivers during spring. Dressed up like this, the Maggi go from house to house chanting auspicious verses, typically romantic love songs to celebrate the arrival of spring. Historically, Calendimaggio has been observed as a mystical character in Tuscany who shares many attributes of the god Belenus, and the Maggi's auspicious role is also clearly of pagan origin. As such, Calendimaggio is a festival strongly influenced by the cycle of nature, going back to the traditions of the Celts, Etruscans, and Lingurians alike, for whom the arrival of summer was of great importance.

Some May Day customs even made their way over to America: Irish emigrants brought the tradition of decorating a May Bush with flowers, ribbons, garlands, and bright shells to Newfoundland, and the custom is also part of some Easter traditions on the American East Coast. Until the mid-20th century, it was also very common to make a May Basket in America. At the end of April, people would collect flowers, candies, and other goodies to put them in a basket which they would hang on the doors of their neighbors, friends, and loved one once dusk fell. Furthermore, it was also seen as an opportunity to express romantic interest, with young boys and girls gifting May Baskets to their crushes - a story which seems very reminiscent of German Maypole traditions.

Beltane may be surrounded by a lot of rumors, mysteries, and fantastical perceptions, in no small part thanks to modern popular culture. Nevertheless, the risen interest in pagan religions is proof that more and more people begin thinking back to their origins. However you wish to celebrate it, Beltane is a festival of new beginnings, when you can finally shed yourself of old burdens and look forward to what the future might bring. So, use this opportunity to clear your mind, embrace positivity, and good luck in all that's coming for you!

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And that's it for Beltane! I must say, this was the hardest one for me so far since separating truth from fiction when it comes to Beltane can be quite difficult. xD Nevertheless, it was an enlightening experience, and I hope you enjoyed this article as well. If you did, please stay tuned for the next issue on August 1st, when we will take a look at the festival of Lughnasadh. See you then! :-)

#beltane #beltaine #paganism #celtic paganism #belenus #belisama #st patrick #easter #may queen #may day

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33-108 · 11 months

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https://www.thecanadianbazaar.com/jews-descended-from-brahmin-priests-of-india-says-new-book/#:~:text=About%202%2C400%20years%20ago%2C%20the,he%20was%20right%2C%20says%20Brown.

This will upset many people, especially vehement anti jews, but it is a reality people are going to have to face.

The kabbalah, merkavah mysticism etc and the general ontology of a monastic, supreme consciousness, emanating into all that is we see and interact with, with total boundless, free will, in which can be interfaced by us, as emanations of the supreme; gifted with free will - directly corresponds to that of prevedic ideologue, the idelogue of those studying the brahmavidya - the ontological structure of shaivism, evidently predating the vedas themselves and the devas of the indoaryans.

Mind you, every other system interpreting the vedas i.e the vedanta school - differs from this perspective, they either believe god does not have free will, or that this reality is, "an illusion", in contrast to a multiplicity of the one supreme consciousness.

The aryans were consumed with the devas, similar in nature to aryan descended Greeks and their gods, for the sake of compartmentalized, spritual or other powers of the natural world.

The indoaryans discussed a prevedic shiva worshipping civilization, they encountered 3000 b.c.

The hebrews are descendants of this precise society - a class of brahmin priests in which migrated west, from india - as aristotle mentioned over 2 millenia ago.

The jews were originally shaivites.. in which relied nearly entirely on oral tradition who spread their knowledge and integrated their philosophy into other cultures, using the symbols and linguistics of novel, western civilizations of both iranian and various cannanite - hence the alien nature of the Hebrew language as a semitic language relative to others in the region, as well as the emergence of monotheistic zoroastrianism in the respective province.

The invisible father and barbelo, mentioned in the secret book of John- is an absolute kabbalistic depiction of the supreme consciousness birthing the first material manifestation.. the first question of the answer and all answers, the first step in the infinite dance. Just as barbelo (the mother father) and the invisible father are androgynous, with barbelo being an inseparable multiplicity of the supreme consciousness, parabhairava and bhairavi (the goddess) are the same.

Kashmir shaivism, cultivated in the syncretic religious mecca, now war torn due to religious and cultural disputes - is the most similar ontologically to Jewish kabbalah and had a massive influence on sufism.

While only an official categorical sect of hinduism as of 1000 or so a.d, expounded by the great Abhinavagupta, its most foundational roots, are far predating.. this early eastern culture, is the lost, esoteric key of Abrahamism, hidden in plain sight and Kashmir shaivism, the school of thought directly descended from it- astutely conveys this sentiment.

AUM namashivaya - Aum Kalabhairavaya namah

#shiva #history #hebrews #hinduism #jews #kabbalah #religion

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dragontamer05 · 2 years

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Spooky Season!!

A perfect time for me to ramble on about one of my favourite series- Vampire’s Assistant / Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan.

It’s just so good.

Written in first person, with the idea that this is a diary written out by the main protagonist.

As you may guess by the title the main thing is Vampires, and quite frankly one of my favourite depictions of them;

While not immortal beings they are, extremely long lived as their aging is slowed to about 1/10th or 1 year for every 10 for a full blooded Vampire and 1/5th for those who are only half-vampires,

- A Half-Vampire being one who’s only received a small amount of vampire blood.

Similarly although they have an increased healing speed, just like anything else they can and will still get scars from more serious injuries- no super magic healing with no sign of injury at all.

They have the typical superhuman agility, heightened senses and strength too of course.

Much like Dracula of old these Vampires too have hypnotism (an often forgotten aspect and under utilized if you ask me)

Part of how they’ve gone undetected for so long/ have been able to mostly just become myth is they do not need to drain a human dry to survive (and a human will only become a vampire through an exchange of blood) Those that still do choose to drain humans dry are part of a group called the Vampenze.

They also can sustain themselves for a short time on animal blood- with certain animals they can’t drink from as well however they cannot fully live off of animal blood.

- Now they can’t shape shift in anyway, because realistically how could something the size of a man become a bat (these Vampire’s at least aren’t *magic* so you know)

Vampires also have certain amounts of telepathy that can be used among other vampires (and a select few non human characters of mysterious origin)

- These vampires are friends with Wolves!

Much like Dracula these guys can go out in daylight - with the addition that if out long enough they will eventually start to burn and can/will die but not instantaneous.

-Half Vampire’s can walk around in daylight no problem

One big difference is that they don’t have fangs- more commonly they will use their sharp nail to make a small cut to drink from.

And that’s just general aspects of their abilities- Darren Shan really went all out creating a whole cultural aspect to them- having their own gods / beliefs and even their own set of laws.

e.g being so long lived Vampires don’t really get married as we human’s do but from time to time it’s not unusual for Vampires to choose a ‘Mate’ as they put it and basically go off and be together for like a set amount of time before going back on their own again.

There are female vampires - we meet at least one they’re just uncommon.

Vampires and Vampaneze are at a base level the same - the Vampaneze splitting off from the Vampire’s once things started to change most notably the decision of not draining and killing humans any more (of course there’s a lot more to it then that)

No one really knows exactly how Vampire’s came to be although they seem to have a belief that they may have descended from Wolves - and having been created in part by Desmond Tiny

- A strange fellow of unknown origin and age but with terrifying powers.

#darren shan

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blorbosexterminator · 2 years

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Can you recommend books written by contemporary authors that you consider good literature?

Sure! As contemporary is such a wide-term, I'll try to stick to books published within the past two decades (with inevitably a few books from the 80s and 90s making their way in) or whose author are still writing/still alive.

Zabor or the Psalms by Kamel Daoud (2017). It's a flawed book, as many on this list are. It's originaly in French, being its first flaw. And it slightly loses orientation towards the end, in my opinion. But it's still very much worth the read. The story concerns "Zabor", who believes (or is!) that he holds peoples' lives in his hand, or more accurately in his writings. So the entire book is very much concered with the art of writing, with literature, its power, limitations, etc. Being set in Morocco, it's also concerned with colonialism, religion, faith and God and all that ordeal, and it's tied pretty well with its main themes. Things become more complex when Zabor's father, who abandoned him as a boy, gets fataly sick and his other family members recluse to Zabor as a last chance to prolong his life. It can be a tedious read in a way, the prose is obsessive, repetitive, elaborative, urgent, and frantic. Which as ostensious as it can get, fits REALLY well with the book (and are all words that describe the main character). Perfect form and content complementing each other to serve the same end. I haven't yet read anything else of Daoud, so I'm not sure whether it's his personal style or designed like this for this one particular novel, but what matters is that it works really well. The novel is overall really enjoyable.

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (2017). A pretty ambitious novel that covers the Thirty Years' War through the use of the Jester Tyll Ulenspiegel. That sounds slightly wrong. Tyll isn't a mere propp here to allow the largely non-linear narrative to jump from one place to the other. He's an incredible depiction of a resilient, mocking, cruel, ambitious trickster. The novel crosses roads with superstition, folklore, magical realism, the pursuit of science, art, and power, all while covering a pretty turbulent period that's difficult to grasp. It's somewhat funny, dark, and also emotional without ever getting sentimental.

The Plains by Gerald Murnane (1982). This is a book difficult to speak or write about. It's just an experience I highly recommend you go through. It's a book concerened with obscurity, and more originally than anything I've ever read, disfamiliaries anything possible; I can't promise you that you would have any idea what the narrator is talking about at any given point, but that doesn't matter. The premise is deceptively simple: a filmmaker takes a journey into a fictive inner Australia to research his original screenscript titled The Interior and to receive patronage for his film that is sure to depict "The Plains" in a way nothing has ever had before. There's very little plot, dialogue, or even named characters (not even the narrator is named) but that doesn't make it at all a boring or tedious read. And it creatively concerns itself with a myriad of themes regarding culture, borders, the obsession with distinctinvness, the endless search for meaning, uttering the unutterable, all within a mirage. The prose is beautifully, neatly, elegantly and complexly clear, without ever forsaking the Obscure it's dealing with. (In the back of my head there's a connection with Conrad's Heart of Darkness that's yet too elusive to capture.)

The Last Wolf & Herman by László Krasznahoraki. ( 2009): I'd recommend a lot by Krasznahoraki but this is a good place to start. There are two short novellas in the 2016 translated edition, this one and Herman, thematically somewhat connected but are pretty much stand-alones. The Last Wolf is a 70 pages one sentence of an ex-philosophy professor telling a bored Hungarian bartender in some deadbeat German bar the story of how he got a really generous invitation to Extremadura from a foundation that wants him to write about the region in its new transformative age, which leads him to a rabbit hole with the last wolf of the region that's proclaimed to have been killed in 1983 but which has a much more complex story the narrator gets increasingly obsessed and affected by. The thing about it is this inexplicable melancholy that takes over the narrator is very easily transmitted to the reader as well. The style is just Krasznahoraki really, you either like it or you don't, but it's definitely not this indecipherable, difficult or tedious style I've sometimes seen it proclaimed as, it's actually really gripping and does a really good job of crystalizing the inarticulable without persistenting on articulating it and thus mutilating it. Also again, is emotionally honest without ever nearing sentimentality.

The Dove's Necklace by Raja Alem (2010). This is a pretty peculiar novel that might not always be easy to stay on the same line with yet definitely worth it. It starts with a woman found dead and naked in a Meccan gritty alley, and you're being told the story by the alley itself. Then it just gets more and more complicated in every possible way, with dozens or so characters, different povs, etc. It's really grand in scope and lives up to that ambition in every way and in my opinion does every theme it takes (which are are a lot of them) justice. The prose is some of the best I've read in recent years. I would recommend though, if you are fluent in another language than English to look up that translation. The English translation is fine if it goes down to it, but it hardly does the original (especially the tone) justice; it takes a lot of liberty in "casualness" where the original is very refined, careful, and sparse.

The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante (2011- 2014). This one is self-evident lol, but if you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do. The Neopolitan Novel's place in literature and specifically Italian literature, I'm still unsure of. Elena Ferrante is maybe a a better narrator/storyteller than she is a writer (which is not to say she isn't a good writer, she's an incredible one) and it's evident in how gripping this entire story is. And with the wide-range of history and themes it covers, with dozens or so fully formed characters (not even mention the spectacular creation of the two main ones), you're abound to come across something that will particularly pique your interest.

The Door by Magda Szabó. Actually, Szabo's narrator in this novel reminds me a lot of The Neopolitan Novel's Elena. As different as it (really, not many mode points of comparison beyond the similarities between Elena and the Lady Writer), it also concerns an indecipherable relationship between two women; a young, important writer and her eccentric housekeeper. As much mutual love as grows between them, this is no wholesome novel and the book is all the better for it. The narrator is not at all likable; she's naive, selfish, irritating, self-righteous, self-victimizing, and as often aware of it all as not. The housekeeper is no angel either. Essentially, really, what is most interesting about this novel is how it deals with doing the unforgivable and the impossiblity of its resolve, yet with the inevitability of just having to live with it. Though the prose isn't really my cup of tea, and I'm sure I wouldn't actually read much by the narrator-writer [Ironic as I think the character is at least somewhat autobiographical], it's really well-written, and as far as I can tell, really good translation.

The Notebook Trilogy [The Notebook/The Proof/The Third Lie] by Ágota Kristóf. (1986-1991). I think, if you're going to read only one book on this list, this should be the one. Narrated by a nameless pair of twins (in the first one), the book starts with them being moved to their grandmother house in the (Hungarian-not a single country in the book is named, no revolution or war either. But it's clear) countryside somewhen during the last years of WWII, and carries along onto the first period of communist Hungary. The first novel uses the first person plural, the twin boys are inseparable and indistinguishable. They think, behave, and act as one. Though they are anything but naive, the style of writing is as concise as a fable's. Those kids, for all means and purposes, are what I would imagine biblical angels (TM) would be like as human children; terrifyingly ethical with complete detachment, and willngess, alongside the intelligence and capabilities, to do just about anything. And it only gets more interesting and much more complex from here. You can stop at the first and it'll be a perfect novel on its own accord. If you do continue though, be prepared to the have the story altered, affirmed, rejected and interogated in every possible way. Or you can continue, and take a page out of the book by dissecting yourself into two versions, one who did continue and one who didn't. I do believe reading this is an experience worth having in whatever case . Do read a little about the content before you read it if you do, though; the book is set during the war and doesn't shy away from anything, alongside a pretty fair amount of sexual perversion.

#that's all that comes to mind for now #I hope you end up enjoying any of them!#I've not actually read that much recently published novels and a lot of the ones I've read are too mediocre to recommend lol #read A Little Life as a teen and decided contemporary literature isn't worth it actually #my origin story atakwkwk #Book recs

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