The Real Truth Behind Those Flying "Reindeer"

Attention all those who believe in Santa Claus a/k/a Saint Nicholas. The origin of flying "reindeer" goes back much farther than the red-coated, white-whiskered, gift-giving Wonder invented by an illustrator in the 19th century. I wonder if he was a student of the ancient classics? Hmmm... Check this out: Artemis, depicted at Potnia Theron (a/k/a Lady of the Beasts). Image, thanks to Mr. Don who posted it at Goddesschess, and doesn't her skirt look like a checkered gameboard now:

ARTEMIS POTNIA THERON
Museum Collection: Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, Florence, Italy Catalogue Number: Florence 4209
Beazley Archive Number: 300000
Ware: Attic Black Figure
Shape: Volute krater
Painter: Signed by Kleitias
Date: ca 570 - 560 BC
Period: High Archaic

SUMMARY
Detail of Artemis, here depicted as the Potnia Theron (Lady of the Beasts), from the Francois Vase. The goddess is winged, and grasps a panther (or lioness) and stag by the neck.

Yes, it's true! The origin of those flying reindeer is none other than the Great Goddess Artemis flying through the air holding a sacred lionness in one hand and a sacred horned stag (a/k/a "reindeer") in the other! Dashing through the sky, She wings her way on high, waving a horned deer, she's looking for some beer...

Okay, so Irving Berlin I'm not. But the key elements of Santa Claus flying through the air in a sleigh pulled by "eight tiny reindeer" (19th century version of the legend) are featured, except Santa Claus is actually a Great Goddess: (1) Goddess/figure postulated to be a Goddess (2) flying through the sky (she can be a bird goddess, on a winged horse or in a chariot pulled by flying horses, or winged herself (3) closely associated with horned animals (such as stag, ram or unicorn), or other animals (those flying horses, for instance) and/or animals of power/rulership (lion/lioness, eagle and other birds of prey).

The other part of the legend is that she can bring blessings - or curses. In modern terminology and much more benign - gifts, or lumps of coal - just like old St. Nick.

Cf:
Rhiannon (Rhiannon flies like a bird through the sky and wouldn't you love to love her..., lyrics made popular by Fleetwood Mac in their hit song "Rhiannon"), who is closely associated (and may, indeed be an aspect of) the great Celtic Horse Goddess, Epona.

How about this very early candidate for being the original "Mother Goose?" Whenever I read about geese I am reminded, first of all, about how sacred the goose was in ancient Egypt and, secondly, how goose was the dish of choice served at Christmas in any household that could possibly scrape together the money to afford one in Dickens' England (for instance, fictional "Clerk" Bob Cratchett's family feasted on goose in Dickens' tale of loss and redemption in Scrooge a/k/a "A Christmas Carol.") The association of Goddess and goose is an ancient one, but in ancient Egypt, the sacred goose was a God known as Geb. Personally, I think something was lost in translation somewhere along the way, or perhaps the original Geb was a hermaphrodite and modern translators just don't "get it."

But that's going in a different direction, actually, since I think that this very old line drawing actually shows a skirted female riding atop a somewhat abstract style horse figure travelling through some trees...

White Mares and Crop Circles

Epona is a Celtic horse goddess - a White Mare. A nice play of words could be made on Night Mare, and probably was, hmmm... Great Britain is known for the outlines of large white horses carved into underlying chalk deposits. Most of the horses aren't very old - at least, they cannot be classified as "ancient." There is one "white horse" that has drawn more than the usual attention by way of strang crop circle formations (for years). It's located near the Village of Alton Barnes in Wiltshire, England, on Milk Hill. This chalk horse outline is not ancient. It seems it was first created around the year 1812. Above is a photo of a current crop circle that appeared in a field lying below the Alton Barnes (or Milk Hill) white horse. The image is from Crop Circle Connector.com and was reported just a few days ago, on June 21, 2009. The first day of Summer. The photo was taken by Lucy Pringle. In this depiction, Epona reminds of an older goddess, The Mistress of Beasts, a/k/a Astarte a/k/a Artemis. In those older renditions of the Goddess, she is sometimes depicted as a tree (Tree of Life) flanked on either side by rampant deer-like creatures or other wild life, sometimes depicted as a Goddess or woman with a crown flanked by rampant wild beasts. This image of Epona is from Wikipedia and dates to the 4th century CE from Greek Macedonia, and depicts the Goddess Epona flanked by two pairs of horses. The four knights on the chessboard???

Synchronicity at Work – The White Horse

It was yesterday I stopped by and checked out The Daily Grail website. You’re saying “whaaattt?” What is the rational JanXena doing visiting SUCH a website? The truth is, I visit there a couple times a month to see what the “other side” is talking about on the internet, on the radio (live broadcasts), and in print. I can always count on the Grail to give me some interesting news; sometimes we publish a piece in our “Random Roundup” at Goddesschess. Although I try to focus on rationalism in most things, I hope I’m not such an intellectual snob that I don’t like to have a little hoodoo/voodoo in my life every now and then! After all, it’s that very hoodoo/voodoo that led me to my interest in the Great Goddess – and chess - for that matter. Anyway, I found a very interesting story at the Grail about a recent crop circle that cropped up (pun!) in Wiltshire, England – a crop circle that looks like a three dimensional pyramid when shot from the air – see the photo above. Now ordinarily I don’t pay a lot of attention to crop circles, although they are fascinating, aren’t they. How DO they make them, anyway – overnight in most cases. Amazing – well, I don’t want to get us all distracted by such musings! This crop circle caught my attention because it is “pointing” to a “white horse” carved out of the underlying chalk on a neighboring hillside. This particular white horse is not ancient – but of course the worship of the white horse IS very ancient. In Britain, she was worshipped as Epona by the Celts, who brought horse worship with them from the European mainland. Horse worship is extremely ancient – and has been intimately connected with the Goddess. The horse is also intimately connected to ancient chess – both in the form of the “knight” (warrior on horse) and the rook, which used to be a chariot pulled by one or more specially trained horses and “manned” by one or more warriors. I did not PLAN this to happen but early this morning I sat down and wrote the post about the “Holy Grail,” the vulva/chalice symbolism and how it cropped up in the Yakut culture in the form of the sacred choron, a carved wooden vessel that is used to hold the sacred kumis (fermented mare’s milk). And I came across a reference to – can you guess? – a white horse: The horse is a central symbol of Sakha (Yakut) culture; the white horse represents the sun whose light energizes plant and animal life. At the ysakh festival, in the spring, a sacred brew of fermented mare's milk is drunk from special wooden vessels called choron. Well, knock me over with a feather, darlings! Or maybe I should say – mare’s tail…

• white horse seen in a photograph of a recent crop circle in Wiltshire, England, found at the website “The Daily Grail” – I like the photograph, so I pass it on to Don for inclusion in a future edition of “Random Roundup” at Goddesschess
• coming across a totally unconnected essay about feminine symbols in ancient history, and learning about the choron of the Yakut (a carved wooden vessel used in sacred ceremonies to hold kumis -–fermented mare's milk)
• writing about Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” and his theory that the “Holy Grail” chalice is actually a symbol for a woman’s womb and the connection of the “grail/cup” symbolism to the Yakut choron
• the Yakut connection to one and possibly two chess variants
• the Yakut connection to the white horse
• the horse connection to two chess pieces
• the horse connection to the Goddess (Epona is not the only horse/goddess link in antiquity) EQUALS
• chess is the game of the Goddess

Is this a circle or what? I don't think it is just "coincidence." Some people just write us off as nut cases, but --