Skadi - "Destroyer" Goddess

From Barbara G. Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

Skadi

The Celto-Teutonic Goddess in her "Destroyer" aspect. Like the Greek Persephone, "Destroyer," she was Queen of the Shades, Mother Death. Her name was the root of Gothic skadus, Old English sceadu, "shadow, shade." She was the Shadow into which all the gods went at doomsday, called Gotterdammerung, or Going-Into-the-Shadow-of-the-Gods.(1) As Scotia, she was the Dark Goddess - like Black Kali, the Caillech - after whom Scotland was named.(2)

Like Kali, Skadi had to be propitiated each year with an outpouring of male blood in primitive sacrificial rites. Her annual victim was assimilated to the god Loki, who became a "savior" by fertilizing Skadi with his blood. Loki's genitals were attached by a rope to a goat, and a tug-of-war ensued, until Loki's flesh gave way and he fell into Skadi's lap, thus bathing her loins in his blood. The gods watched anxiously to see if Skadi smiled; and when she did, it means spring could return once more to the land.(3)

Similar blood-rites were practiced all over the ancient world, when men sought godhood by giving their blood to the Goddess, before animal sacrifices replaced human ones, and even afterward. It was not uncommon for priestesses representing the Goddess to bathe in sacrificial blood, like the women who sacrificed Apis the bull-god in Egypt, hoisting their skirts as they dismembered him so his spurting blood would quicken their wombs.(4)   Like many death-goddess figures, Skadi collected the penises of her castrated heroes, and in this character she was named Mornir, "troll-woman."(5)

Remnants of the bloody sacrifice of Loki and the goat could still be found in Norway and Sweden in the late 17th century. Churchmen vainly denounced the masquerades, sexual promiscuity, and "goat games" associated with Easter and other religious festivals.(6)

Skadi was a dark twin of Freya, therefore virtually identical with the underground Goddess Hel. She was once all the Earth, birth-giver and devourer of her children. The entire land mass of Scandinavia was named after her. Originally, it was Scadin-auja, the land of Skadi.(7)

A variation of her name, Skuld, was given to the third of the three Fates, or Norns, in the role of destroying Crone. Naturally she became the patroness of witches, whose activities came to be called "skulduggery."

To the Celts, she was Scatha or Scath. Her underground realm of the dead was "the Land of Scath." Like Persephone's underworld within seven loops of the Styx, the Land of Scath was a city of seven walls.(8)   It was variously located under the earth, or in heaven, or far away over the sea on a western island, the land of "Sky." Cu Chulainn and other Celtic heroes learned magic skill in martial arts from a visit to Queen Scatha's island of Skye. She kept the hero for a "year and a day," the usual mythic image of the old 13-month lunar year with its intercalary day. When she had taught a man all she knew, she sent him back to earth a fey man, set apart and sacer, fated to do great deeds and die a sacrificial death.(9)   The legend suggests that the real island of Skye was a cult center of the Goddess, and warriors went there to be initiated into their heroic profession.

Skadi is still invoked by place named in Sweden, such as Skadave (Skadi's temple) and Skadalungr (Skadi's grove).(10)

Notes:

1.  Turville-Petre, 164.
2.  Graves, G.M. 1, 72.
3.  Oxenstierna, 213.
4.  Graves, G.M. 1, 255.
5.  Turville-Petre, 257.
6.  Oxenstierna, 216.
7.  Branston, 164.
8.  Lethuly, 163.
9.  Goodrich, 187.
10.  Turville-Petre, 165.

See also Walker's entries on Scotia and Caillech:

Scotia
Latin form of the "Dark Aphrodite" after whom Scotland was named; in her native land she was the Death-goddess Scatha, or Skadi.(1)  She was the mother of Caledonia; some said she was identical with the Caillech, or Crone, who created the world.

Notes:

1.  Graves, G.M. 1, 72.

Caillech
Old Celtic name for Kali-the-Crone, the Great Goddess in her Destroyer aspect.  Like Kali, the Caillech was a black Mother who founded many races of people and outlived many husbands.  She was also a creatress.  She made the world, building mountain ranges of stones that dropped from her apron.(1)

Scotland was once called Caledonia: the land given by Kali, or Cale, or the Caillech.  "Scotland" came from Scotia, the same Goddess, known to Romans as a "dark Aphrodite"; to Celts as Scatha or Scyth; and to Scandinavians as Skadi.(2)

Like the Hindus' destroying Kalika, the Caillech was known as a spirit of disease.  One manifestation of her was a famous idol of carved and painted wood, kept by an old family in County Cork, and described as the Goddess of Smallpox.  As diseased persons in India sacrificed to the appropriate incarnation of the Kalika, so in Ireland those afflicted by smallpox sacrified sheep to this image.(3)  It can hardly be doubted that Kalika and Caillech were the same word.

According to various interpretations, caillech meant either an old woman, or a hag, or a nun, or a "veiled one."(4)  This last apparently referred to the Goddess's most mysterious manifestation as the future, Fate, and Death - ever veiled from the sight of men, since no man could know the manner of his own death.

In medieval legend the Caillech became the Black Queen who ruled a western paradise in the Indies, where men were used in Amazonian fashion for breeding purposes only, then slain.  Spaniards called her Califa, whose territory was rich in gold, silver, and gems.  Spanish explorers later gave her name to their newly discovered paradise on the Pacific shore of North America, which is how the state of California came to be named after Kali.

In the present century, Irish and Scottish descendants of the Celtic "creatress" still use the word caillech as a synonym for "old woman." (5)

Notes:

1.  Rees, 41.
2.  Graves, W.G., 131.
3.  Squire, 413.
4.  Joyce 1, 316.
5.  Frazer, G.B., 467.

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I am pretty sure I read some time ago that Scatha/Scotia was closely associated with the practice of finger divination by the Celts.  I will see if I can find my notes - I know they're on one of my three computers (geez!) 

The Complex Traditions of the Diwali Celebration

Article from The Times of India. Photo from an article in the Daily Mail Online, November 10, 2007, I could not find a photo credit. Caption: Workers could take time off for the Hindu celebration of Diwali - the festival of lights. October 18, 2009 Diwali celebrations: A melange of traditions By Nidhi Singhi LUDHIANA: While Diwali is celebrated all across the country with same enthusiasm and fervour, it holds different meanings for various communities. While Bengali community celebrated it by worshipping Goddess Kali on Diwali night, people belonging to south Indian community marked the day commemorating victory of Lord Krishna over demon Narkasur. Bengalis worship Goddess Lakshmi five days after Dussehra, but on Diwali, they worship goddess Kali. Devotees believe that Kali is the aggressive form or the destructive incarnation of Goddess Durga, but Bengalis celebrated the festival by worshipping goddess Kali, because she destroys the evil and in turn, she promises rejuvenation of life and justice on earth. Among south Indians, it is believed that Diwali celebrations are simply for commemoration of victory of Lord Krishna who killed Narkasur, a powerful king of Assam, who had imprisoned various inhabitants and had been freed by the Lord on this day so Diwali is also known as Naraka Chaturdasi. Some devotees also believe that Narkasur had requested the Lord to fulfil his last wish that he wanted to enjoy the last day of his life in a grand manner and the practice thus continued. Describing celebrations, TK Banerjee, secretary, Bangia Samsad, said it is a tradition in their community to decorate the house with 14 candles a day prior to festival to keep ghosts away from their houses. Since they could not use fried sweets in the worship, they used plain burfi solely prepared by ladies of their homes but one sweet called nadu, served after havana, is liked by all. R Sidhartan, a member of south Indian community, said it is just the traditions that differ but the purpose of festivals is to celebrate it with friends and family members. He said Diwali celebrations include a visit to the temple, gifts of clothes and jewellery, gorging on sweets and receiving blessings of elders.

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I did not know that Hindus believe in ghosts. If there is reincarnation of a decedent's soul, where do the ghosts comes from, or who are the ghosts? At another website discussing the Diwali celebration, the worship of Ganeha in conjunction with the Goddess Lakshmi is mentioned (from Duniyalive.com. Hindus worship Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi in Diwali, Posted on October 19th, 2009 in Latest India News) : Diwali, Festival of Lights is an auspicious occasion celebrated across India. During Diwali the devotees worship Lord Ganesha beore any other god or goddess. Traditionally on Diwali night, Ganesh shares the altar with Lakshmi. Shree Ganesh is the Lord of Wisdom and the remover of obstacles. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity and also personifies beauty, grace, and charm. In the Hindu pantheon, the two are unrelated, Ganesh being the son of Shiva and Parvati. However, when placed side by side, Lakshmi Ganesh hold out promise of a year of fulfillment, free from wants. During the Ganesh pooja, the idol of goddess Lakshmi is placed on the left and Lord Ganesha, the elephant headed god is kept on the right. Goddess Lakshmi is worshiped for wealth and prosperity, while Ganesh is worshiped first to ensure that any obstacles to obtaining wealth and prosperity are removed. Shri Laxmi-Ganesh Pooja takes place on Diwali by placing their idol on a platform, making various offerings of sandal paste, saffron paste, perfume(itr), haldi, kumkum, abeer, gulal, garland of cotton beads, flowers , especially the marigold flowers and leaves of Bel (wood apple tree). Incense stick and dhoop is lit and offering of sweets, coconut, fruits, and tambul are made. At the end, aarti dedicated to Lord Ganesh is sung by the devotees.

Kali Puts on a Benevolent Face

Story from the Calcutta Telegraph Dark Kali gets a makeover! She sure reminds me of the ancient eye-goddesses! Black destroyer of demons goes true - City pandals turn Kali from fearsome goddess of the moonless night to benevolent protector SUDESHNA BANERJEE October 19, 2009 Goddess Kali has gone from dark and destructive to blue and benevolent. Shyama Kali, the relatively benign avatar of the mother deity, was more conspicuous this Kali puja than her dark-hued twin with fearsome eyes and blood-smeared lips. According to the Kumartuli Mritshilpa Sanskrity Samity, barely 500 of the 4,500-odd idols that were sculpted this year portrayed the goddess in her rudra roop (terrible form). “The number of Kali pujas in town has increased, and so has the demand for idols that show the goddess in a different light. In fact, 90 per cent of the new orders that came to us this year were for Shyama Kali,” Babu Pal, the secretary of the samity, told Metro on Sunday. So is the changing face of Kali in pandals just a cosmetic change? “Chardike shudhu khun, jokhom… (There’s blood and wounds all around). People are praying to the mother goddess to be spared the violence. It is easier to seek such a boon from a mother who does not look violent herself,” explained 64-year-old Himangshu Sekhar Chakraborty, the priest in charge of rituals at the Kali puja in Salt Lake’s AB Block. With Shyama Kali so much in demand, the more familiar image of the dark destroyer of evil whom people would invoke on Amavasya (no-moon night) has become a rare sight at baroari (community) pujas. “These days only people who perform Kali puja at home for mannat (blessings) ask for the rudra roop,” said 61-year-old Kumartuli veteran Nimai Chandra Pal. Of the 42 idols he sold this year, only two were of Kali in rudra roop. The evolution of the ferocious goddess to a still destructive but benevolent mother is, however, not a recent one. The best-known description of Kali is as the figure who emerged from the knitted eyebrow of Ambika in the heat of battle with demons. Legend has it that Kali drank blood oozing out of the body of Raktabij, the demon whom Ambika slayed, to prevent each drop from touching the ground and giving birth to innumerable other demons. According to writer Sanjib Chattopadhyay, the goddess in this avatar is the antithesis of what worshippers seeking solace would like to see in these violent times. “Hence the growing popularity of Shyama Kali with a countenance that almost smiles at you, and someone who one can visualise almost as a member of the family,” he added.

The True Origins of the Koran

From Barbara Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (Image: The Goddess Kore, from the PARTHENON, temple of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis. From the 6th century BCE. Photo Greek National Museum, Athens. Notice the artistry - are those just braids in her hair, or are they intertwined with serpents?) Koran Mohammedan scriptures, often erroneously thought to have been written by Mohammed. Moslems don't believe this.(1) But many don't know the Koran was an enlarged, revised version of the ancient Word of the Goddess Kore, revered by Mohammed's tribe, the Koreshites (Children of Kore), who guarded her shrine at Mecca. The original writing was done long before Mohammed's time by holy imams, a word related to Semitic ima, "mother."(2) Like the original mahatmas or "great mothers" in India,the original imams were probably priestesses of the old Arabian matiarchate. It was said they took the scriptures from a prototype that existed in heaven from the beginning of eternity, "Mother of the Book" - i.e., the Goddess herself, wearing the Book of Fate on her breast as Mother Tiamat wore the Tablets of Destiny. Sometimes the celestial Koran was called the Preserved Tablet.(3) There was some resemblance between this and other legendary books of divine origin, such as the Ur-text, the Book of Thoth and the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. As in the case of the Judeo-Christian Bible, the Koran was much rewritten to support new patiarchal laws and to obliterate the figures of the Goddess andher priestesses. See Arabia. Notes: (1) Encyc. Brit., "Mohammed." (2) Campbell, Oc.M., 443. (3) Budge, A.T., 52. *************************************************************** Kore Greek Holy Virgin, inner soul of Mother Earth [Demeter - The Divine Mother, she of the mare's head whose mane was entwined with serpents -- see earlier entry on Delphi]; a name so widespread, that it must have been one of the earliest designations of the World Shakti or female spirit of the universe. Variations include Ker, Car, Q're, Cara, Kher, Ceres, Core, Sanskrit Kaur or Kauri, alternate names for the Goddess Kali. Neolithic Asia knew a mysterious Goddess Ker, or Car, ancestress of the Carians.(1) Her city in the Chersonese was Cardia "the Goddess Car." Kardia became the Greek word for "heart," as cor became the Latin; both descended from the Goddess who was the world-heart. The same syllable is found in words for maternal blood relationships: Gaelic cairdean, kinship; Turkish kardes, maternal siblings.(2) The Goddess became Kardia ton kosmos: "Heart of the World."(3) Shrines of Karnak in Egypt and Carnac in Brittany were sites of gigantic temples and funerary complexes over 5000 years ago, dedicated to Kar or Kore. France had similar shrines in similarly-named locations, Kerlescan, Kercado, Kermario.(4) The last name combined the pagan Virgin with the Goddess Mari, who was sometimes her daughter, her mother, or herself, like Kali embodied in Kel-Mari.(5) Inhabitants of Carnac, and of Carnantum on the Danube, called themselves in Roman times the Carnutes, "people born of the Goddess Car."(6) In Egypt's early dynastic period there was a place called Kerma (Mother Ker) in Nubia, where mass sacrifices took place. A similar name, Kara, was held in reverence by several early Egyptian rulers. Egyptians spoke of an eastern land called Kher [possibly - Kehmet? -- land of the Mother Kar?], and called Palestine the country of Kharu.(7) Car or Carna was known to the Romans as "a Goddess of the olden time," whose archaic worship was connected with Karneia festivals of Sparta and the classic Roman Carnival.(8) Sometimes she was Carmenta, "the Mind of Car," who invented the Roman alphabet.(9) An extremely old temple on the Caelian Hill was dedicated to her.(1) A later variation of her name was Ceres, origin of such words as cereal, corn, kernel, core, carnal, cardiac. In the east this ancient Goddess was everywhere. Some said she was Artemis Caryatis, mother of the Caryatides of the Laconian temple of Caryae.(11) The Tyrian seaport of Caraalis (modern Cagliari) was sacred to her.(12) One of Israel's oldest shrines, the "garden" called Mount Carmel, was her place and that of her baalim (gods).(13) Kore was a great power in Coptic religion, with a flourishing cult at Alexandria in the 4th century A.D. Her festival, the Koreion, was held each January 6 , later assimilated to Christianity as the feast of Epiphany. [I believe this is the date the Holy Spirit in the form of "tongues of fire" was said to have descended upon the heads of loyal disciples of the LORD Jesus Christ who had gathered together in a room in Jerusalem to commemerate the 40th day after his death. This is an extremely ancient tradition that pre-dates Christianity and Islam. We have seen recently in Iran that people gather together to mourn the loss of a decedent 40 days after his or her death. The number "40" is mentioned several times in the Bible - according to Jewish tradition, this denotes a "long indeterminate period of time" but this is probably a later gloss-over of this number sacred to the Goddess]. Kore's festival celebrated the birth of the new year god Aeon to the Virgin, whose naked image was carried seven times around the temple, decorated with gold stars and the sign of the cross. The priests announced to the public that the Virgin had brought forth the Aeon.(14) The Koreion passed into British tradition as the Kirn, or Feast of Ingathering, which the church later changed to the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy. Kirn was a cognate of the Greek kern or sacred womb-vase in which the grain god was reborn.(15) [I assume this is also related to cairn, sacred burial place of the dead, and to the word corn - a food of the gods in the New World, and related words such as kernel. I find it very interesting that earlier this evening I blogged an article about an intact Elamite "jar burial" -- perhaps another ancient tradition that is related to this equally old Mother Goddess.] Here again, the Kore or Ker was a virgin mother. The Goddess's harvest instrument, a moon-sicle, represented even the Christian versin of the festival.(16) The classic myth of Kore's abduction by Pluto was another instance of a god's usurpation of the Goddess's power, according to Gnostic sources. "Plutonius Zeus...does not possess the nourishment for all mortal living creatures, for it is Kore who bears the fruit."(17) Kore's resurrection represented the seasonal return of vegetation. She was also the World Soul animating each human soul, and looking out of the eyes. Reflection in the pupil of an eye was known as the Kore or "Maiden" in the eye. To the Arabs, it was the "baby" in the eye. The Bible calls either a daughter or a soul "the apple of thine eye" (Proverbs 7:2); and of course, every apple had a Kore. [Perhaps this belief is the source for the phrase in Bryan Adams' mega-hit song from "Don Juan DeMarco" When You Really Love a Woman, "...when you can see your unborn children in her eyes, you know you really love a woman... ." Notes: (1) Graves, W.G., 373. (2) Farh, W.P., 144. (3) Cumont, A.R.R.P., 72. (4) Encyc. Brit., "Carnac." (5) Braffault I, 474. (6) J.H. Smith, D.C.P., 39. (7) Erman, 228, 278. (8) Dume'zl, 386, 389. (9) Graves, G.M., 1, 280; 2, 137. (10) Encyc. Brit., "Carna." (11) Graves, W.G., 372. (12) Masa, 43. (13) Encyc. Brit., "Carmel." (14) Campbell, M.I., 34. (15) Neumann, G. M., 132. (16) Brewster, 424. (17) Robinson, 305.

Further Explorations of the Word MA

From Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets: Tiamat Sumero-Babylonian "Goddess Mother" (Dia Mater), from whose formless body the universe was born at creation; personification of The Deep, or Tohu Bohu. Babylonians later claimed their municipal god Marduk, Tiamat's son, divided her into heavens above and earth below, as did Marduk's imitator, the biblical God. But the original division was made by the Mother herself, as in the ancient Pelasgian myth of her Aegean counterpart, Eurynome.(1) In derivative Hebrew myths, Tiamat became Tehom, The Deep; and this is how she appears in the Bible (Genesis 1:2). [Gen. 1:2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. -- King James Version. And from the Living Bible, which is a paraphrase of the Bible in modern English, Gen. 1:1-2: When God began creating the heavens and the earth, (2) the earth was a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors".] Patriarchal writers forgot that "The Deep" was a personified womb, a Middle-Eastern version of Kali whose being before creation was "formless." [I visualize it as the center "dot" in the "bindu." In Hindu mythology, although it may have older roots, it is from the bindu that all what we know as creation/universes sprung, rather like the "Big Bang" theory, KA-BOOM.] Most creation myths incorporated the idea of formlessness, in the darkness before the birth that brought "light" and the splitting of the Mother's body, so she became both heaven and earth. The Bible's account is based on the same archetype. In Egypt, Tiamat was Temu or Te-Mut, oldest of deities, mother of the archaic Ennead of four female elements: Water, Darkness, Night, and Eternity.(2) [The Ennead consisted of four paired goddesses and gods, each sister and brother, representing the earliest "Netjer" who were - I'm working from memory here so I hope this is right! - the offspring of that primeval creative force, akin to The Great Goddess or, in biblical terms, that Spirit of "God" roving about the face of the waters. Here is an interesting translation of Gen. 1:2 from the Bible used by the Jehovah's Witnesses, which is called The New World Translation: Gen. 1:2: Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of the water deep; and God's active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters. I have many different Bibles in my collection :)] She was also Nun, Naunet, or Ma-Nu, the great fish who gave birth to the universe and the gods. [Cf. Jonah inside the great fish's belly for "three" days, only to be "reborn" again by regurgitation]. In repeated cycles of becoming, she periodically swallowed up both gods and universes and gave them rebirth - like Kali.(3) Tiamat's firstborn child seems to have been a duplicate of herself, Mummu, translated either "churning" or "mother." The combination recalled the ancient notion that solid earth was made from "churning" the primordial fluid, like making butter from milk.(4) [Cf. Axis Mundi]. Some myths gave Tiamat a male consort, Apsu, similar to Jupiter Pluvius: a Father Heaven whose job it was to fertilize the Mother's abyss with seminal rain. But he was not her superior, not even her equal. Even in the chaotic conditions before creation, Tiamat was the true source of life. Her consort was subordinate, not even necessary.(5) Various myths said Tiamat alone produced the fluid of creation, which was not semen but her menstrual blood, flowing continuously for three years and three months.(6) Its great reservoir was the Red Sea - comparable to Kali's "ocean of blood"- the eastern shore of which is still called Tihamat by the Arabs. Babylonians said their god Marduk divided his mother Tiamat into two parts, upper waters and lower waters. Likewise, the Jewish God "divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which wre above the firmament" (Genesis 1:7). The Jewish god also divided the Red Sea, which was likened to Tiamat herself. The idea of dividing waters was not original with the Jews. Goddesses did it before gods. The Hindu Goddess Bindumati, "Mother of Life," divided the waters of the Ganges.(7) The Goddess Isis divided the waters of the river Phaedrus, to cross dry-shod.(8) Even an insignificant Egyptian wizard named Zazamonkh divided the waters of a lake to retrieve a courtesan's lost pendant.(9) Yahweh's miracle on behalf of the Israelites was fairly common in contemporary lore. By dividing Tiamat, Marduk established the Diameter (horizon), which was the Greek version of Tiamat's name, meaning Goddess-Mother [Dia Mater]. We still say a diameter divides a whole circle. Though Marduk was supposed to have slain his mother, the Ocean of Blood, he still maintained the menstrual calendar in Babylon, celebrating sabbaths and months of the year according ot the moom's phases.(10) Modern scholars tend to ignore Tiamat's maternal Creatress nature, describing her as nothing more than a "dragon of chaos" slain by Marduk. It is seldom emphasized that this was a myth of matricide, or that the Goddess was the one who created the world. Some traditions indicate that Marduk's murder of his mother may have been motivated by jealousy, like Cain's murder of Abel. Mother Tiamat had overlooked Marduk and chosen another of her sons, Kingu, to be her consort and the king of the universe. [She] exalted among the gods, her sons, that she had borne, Kingu, and made him greatest among them all . . . .placed him on a throne, saying, "By my charm and incantation I have raised thee to power among the gods. The dominion over all the gods I intrusted [sic] to thee. Lofty thou shalt be, thou my chosen spouse; great be thy name in all the world." She then gave him the Tablets of Destiny, and laid them on his breast.(11) Jealous Marduk not only killed Tiamat; he also deposed, castrated, and killed Kingu, and made the first man on earth out of Kingu's blood - which tends to show that Kingu was once the name of the sacrificed god-king, whose blood had the "feminine" power to make life.(12) [Cf. the Christian doctrines related to the sacrifice of Christ's life (blood) and the benefits of "Life's Water" flowing from the resurrected Christ/God.] Kingu was identified with the moon. Chaldeans called him Sin, the Moon-god of Mount Sinai. Apparently he still had the tablets of the Law given him by Tiamat (as Mother Rhea gave sacred tablets of the Law to Minos on Mt. Dicte), for the Old Testament claims he passed them on to Moses. In Southern Arabia, the Goddess was assimilated to Ishtar. The eyes of her idol Tehama wwere said to flow with tears each year as she bewailed the death of Tammuz.(13) Notes: (1) Graves, G.M., 1, 27. (2) Budge, D.N., 211. (3) Neumann, G.M., pl. 91; Erman, 252. (4) Brandon, 22. (5) Stone, 26. (6) Assyr. & Bab. Lit., 301. (7) Rawson, A.T., 74. (8) Budge, G.E., 2, 191. (9) Erman, 40. (10) Hooke, M.E.M., 45. (11) Assyr. & Bab. Lit., 287. (12) Larousse, 54. (13) Baring-Gould, C.M.M.A., 279.

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Ponderings:

As a totally irrelevant aside, I do believe that my given name, "Janet," which under traditional patriarchal interpretations is a derivative from "John," meaning something like "God's Gift [to men] ("Ja" = shortened name for God in Hebrew), is actually a derivative from the much older Naunet -- the "et" syllable denoted a female or the feminine in ancient Egyptian, much as "ette" denotes female or the feminine today in French). Perhaps the older name of "Nanette," which is out of style these days (as is my name, Janet), is an ancient carry-over from the times when the Goddess reigned supreme. Therefore, darlings, I am named after the Goddess of Creation, and not after "St. John." I always thought he was rather wimpy and - well, swishy. Oh, slap my face, I'm a bad girl for saying such a thing :)

Various myths said Tiamat alone produced the fluid of creation, which was not semen but her menstrual blood, flowing continuously for three years and three months.

Is this why the use of red ochre was so predominate in Neolithic times in sacred cave drawings and painted on stone, ivory and bone carvings -- to show life and a link to the Mother Goddess, from whom all life flowed through the sacred menstrual blood? Is this why the color "red" - as in "red blood" is associated with life and living? Is this why the mythical elixir of life, called "Soma" in Sanskrit and "Homa" in Pahlavi, was linked to menstrual blood? And is this why black (blood lacking oxygen from cessation of breathing, is a darkish, sort of black looking color = lack of life) is associated with funereal rites in many cultures to this day? I was going to put up an image of Tiamat with this post, but without exception those that I found were images of ugly beasts - sort of like Lizard-Dragons with huge claws and teeth -- ancestral memories of dinosaurs? Traditionalists would say I'm nuts for even thinking of such a thing, but based on the record -- actually lack thereof, to this point in time -- who's to really say? Wish I could live another 100 years to see what the archaeologists, paleontologists, anthropologists and historians come up with! Er - got sidetracked there for a second - back to finding an image of Tiamat: Since Tiamat is "formless" it occurred to me (duh, Jan!) that all images of her thus far discovered, without exception, were from much later times, after Marduk had "killed her off," and she was thereafter depicted as a monstrous being. As dondelion says, history is (re)written by the victors.

Hindus Offended at Heidi Klum 'Kali' Costume

Heidi Klum in trouble for Kali costume Indo Asian News Service Tuesday, November 4, 2008 (New York) Pics: Heidi leads Hollywood's Halloween gang (Photo: From San Francisco Gate "Daily Dish", November 3, 2008) Supermodel Heidi Klum has stirred a controversy by dressing up as Hindu goddess Kali for a Halloween party, with some Hindus seeking an apology from her and others asserting that she did nothing objectionable. The Halloween party here was thrown by Klum and attended by many celebrities. The German celebrity wore a goddess Kali costume while her husband, singer Seal, dressed up as Angulimaal - an Indian mythical character who used to chop off people's fingers and wear them as a necklace. Klum, who was in India last year along with Seal, told reporters at her annual bash that the idea of dressing up like goddess Kali was that of her secretary."My husband and I were in India last year, so she said, 'Why don't you do an Indian goddess? Like a scary Indian goddess?' And I said, 'Ok'," Klum was quoted saying. After this, her secretary did some Google search and showed her a picture of goddess Kali."I loved it because she's so mean and killed all these different people and had fingers hanging off her and little shrunken heads everywhere," Klum said. Nevada-based Hindu priest Rajan Zed, in a statement issued Monday, demanded the supermodel tender a public apology for dressing up as goddess Kali. "Goddess Kali is highly revered in Hinduism. She is meant to be worshipped in temples and not to be used in clubs for publicity stunts or thrown around loosely for dramatic effects," Zed said. However, there are others who feel otherwise. Kirit Desai said: "It is in good taste, if we could tune it in properly."In an online discussion, Ashish Dimri said: "We all know Heidi and Seal are fascinated by Hinduism. Maybe she did not know implication of her innocent act."Shamita Dasgupta said Heidi's dress reminded her about the Bengali tradition in which adults and kids dress up as deities, including goddess Kali and parade around. "This shouldn't pose a problem," she said.

Happy Easter!

The real meaning of Easter. From Barbara Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" Easter Springtime sacrifical festival named for the Saxon Goddess Eostre, or Ostara, a northern form of Astarte. Her sacred month was Eastre-monath, the Moon of Eostre.(1) Saxon poets apparently knew Eoester was the same Goddess as India's Great Mother Kali. Beowulf spoke of "Ganges' waters, whose flood waves ride down into an unknown sea near Eostre's far home."(2) The Easter Bunny was older than Christianity; it was the Moon-hare sacred to the Goddess in both eastern and western nations. Recalling the myths of Hathor-Astarte who laid the Golden Egg of the sun, Germans used to say the hare would lay eggs for good children on Easter Eve.(3) (See Cat.) Like all the church's "movable feasts," Easter shows its pagan origin in a dating system based on the old lunar calendar. It is fixed as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, formerly the "pregnant" phase of Eostre passing into the fertile season. The Christian festival wasn't call Easter until the Goddess's name was given to it in the laste Middle Ages.(4) (See Menstrual Calendar.) The Irish kept Easter on a different date from that of the Roman church, probably the original date of the festival of Eostre, until the Roman calendar was imposed on them in 632 A.D. Nevertheless, the Columban foundation and their colonies in Britain kept the old date for another fifty years.(5) The Persians began their solar New Year at the spring equinox, and up to the middle of the 18th century they still followed the old custom of presenting each other with colored eggs on the occasion.(6) [See post on Persian New Year]. Eggs were always symbols of rebirth, which is why Easter eggs were usually colored red - the life-color - especially in eastern Europe. Russians used to lay red Easter eggs on graves to serve as resurrection charms.(7) In Bohemia, Christ was duly honored on Easter Sunday and his pagan rival on Easter Monday [which would actually be the third day after death on "Good Friday"], which was the Moon-day opposed to the Sun-day. Village girls like ancient priestesses sacrificed the Lord of Death and threw him into water, singing, "Death swims in the water, spring comes to visit us, with eggs that are red, with yellow pancakes, we carried Death out of the village, we are carrying Summer into the village."(8) Another remnant of the pagan sacred drama was the image of the god buried in his tomb, then withdrawn and said to live again. The church instituted such a custom early in the Middle Ages, apparently in hopes of a reportable miracle. A small sepulchral building having been erected and the consecrated host placed within, a priest was set to watch it from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Then the host was taken out and displayed, and the congreagatin was told Christ was risen.(9) A curious 16th-century Easter custom was known as "creeping to the cross with eggs and apples," a significant use of the ancient female symbols of birth and death, beginning and ruition, the opening and closing of cycles. The Ceremonial of the Kings of England ordered carpets to be laid in the church, for the comfort of the king, queen, and courteriers was they crept down the aisle on hands and knees.(1) The penitential implication of the creeping ceremony is clear enough, but the female-symbolic foodstuffs are a bit mysterious. Germany applied to Easter the same title formerly given to the season of the sacred king's love-death, Hoch-Zeit, "the High Time." In English too, Easter used to be called "the Hye-Tide."(11) From these titles came the colloquial description of any festival holiday as "a high old time." Notes: (1) Knight, D.W.P., 157. (2) Goodrich, 18. (3) de Lys, 117. (4) H. Smith, 201. (5) de Paor, 70. (6) Hazlitt, 201. (7) Gaster, 603. (8) Frazer, G.B., 362. (9) Hazlitt, 281. (10) Hazlitt, 153. (11) Hazlitt, 316.

The Swan Knight

What could be more chessly than a knight - this one in swan's feathers. First, the "traditional" take on the Swan Knight, a brief summary from Wikipedia: The story of the Knight of the Swan, or Swan Knight, is a medieval tale about a mysterious rescuer who comes in a swan-drawn boat to defend a damsel, his only condition being that he must never be asked his name. Today, the story is probably best known as that of Lohengrin, son of the Grail knight Percival. The Lohengrin version forms the plot of Richard Wagner's opera of that name, which is based on the medieval German romance Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. However, the Knight of the Swan tale was originally attached to the family of Godfrey of Bouillon, first conqueror of Jerusalem in 1099, in the French chansons de geste known as the "Crusade cycle".[1] In Brabant the name of the Knight of the Swan is Helias. Notes: 1. Holböck, Married Saints and Blesseds, p. 147. ************************************************************************************** Now, from "The Woman's Encyclopedia" - the real scoop, not watered down poop! Swan An ancient, universal shamanic practice of wearing swan-feather cloaks created numerous muths of deities ableto transform themselves into swans. The Heavenly Nymphs (Apsaras) of Hindu mythology were swan maidens. As a phallic god sporting with these sexual angels of the Vedic heaven, Krisna became a swan knight. Multiplied forms of his Goddess were sometimes swan-houris, sometimes milkmaids, the Gopis. Kalmuck tales of the Siddhi Kur, translated from Sanskrit, made Krishna a swan knight who courted the Triple Goddess in the guise of three milkmaids, daughters of the Old Woman (Kali).(1) [Notes: for triple goddess, see prior post on the Hind of Hinds and the shrine to the triple goddess at Mecca; see post on Kelle earlier this evening for information on Kali.] The same Indo-European lore surfaced in Scandanavian myth as the swan incarnations of the Valkyries, who wore magic swan-feather cloaks to transmorm themselves. Kali or Kauri became the Valkyrie Kara, who flew in her swan feathers above battlefields and sang magic charms to deprive the enemy of strength. Legends insisted that if a man could steal a Valyrie's costume of swan feathers, she would be forced to grant his every wish.(2) The swan knight Krishna reappeared in classic Greek myth as Zeus in swan feathers, disguising himself as a swan to seduce the Goddess Leda, who gave birth to the World Egg, which suggests that she too was a totemic swan. Sometimes she was confused with the Goddess Nemisis to whom Zeus's very life was subjec: Leda or "Lady" being only her title.(3) Northern mythology also identified her with the Valkyrie Brunnhilde, whose seven children or Seven Dwarves were transformed into the seven swans of the fairy tale.(4) Zeus's swan form can be traced also to the Vedic image of Brahma in his special vahana ("vehicle," animal incarnation): a swan.(5) Swan maidens and swan knights associated with the Old Religion were common in European folklore throughout the Christian era. A certain order of knights connected with the legendary Temple of the Grail and the defense of women claimed descent from a divine swan-hereo. The families of Gelders and Cleves bore a san on their arms, to honor their ancestor "the Knight of the Swan, servant of women," in whose memory Duke Adolph held a tournament in 1453.(6) This Knight was sometimes called Lohengrin, a savior of women like the British hero Lancelot-Galahad. After the classic pattern, Lohengrin floated in a mystic vessel on the sea in his infancy, and was found and raised by a great queen in a foreign land. After his death he was reborn or reincarnated as his own son.(7) When Lohengrin became one of the Knights Templar of the Grail, he was sent from the Grail castle at Montsalvatch to champion the cause of Duchess Else of Brabant, who had been unjustly imprisoned for exercising the ancient right of noblewomen to choose a lover from among men of inferior rank. [Note: Wow! I have heard of the droit du seigneur. So, this is sort of the reverse practice! Hear hear! Information at Brittanica online: (Droit du Seigneur: French: “right of the lord”), a feudal right said to have existed in medieval Europe giving the lord to whom it belonged the right to sleep the first night with the bride of any one of his vassals. The custom is paralleled in various primitive societies, but the evidence of its existence in Europe is all indirect, involving records of redemption dues paid by the vassal to avoid enforcement of some lordly rights. Many intellectual investigations have been devoted to the problem. A considerable number of feudal rights were related to the vassal’s marriage, particularly the lord’s right to select a bride for his vassal, but these were almost invariably redeemed by a money payment, or “avail”; and it seems likely that the droit du seigneur amounted, in effect, only to another tax of this sort.] Having overcome Else's enemies, Lohengrin married her. According to one version of the story, probably drawn from the myth of Psyche and Eros, Else was forbidden to ask her husband's real name, but couldn't help insisting on it; so, sorrowfully revealing his name, Lohengrin was obliged to leae Else and return to the Mount of Paradise. Other versions of the story said he took her with him to Montsalvatch, where they lived happily ever after.(8) Other stories said Lohengrin appeared in his swan-feather costume to defend Clarissa, Duchess of Bouillon, against the Count of Frankfort, who tried to steal her duchy. Or, he took up the cause of Beatrice of Cleves, whose property rights wre threatened by hostile barons.(9) Though he salled forth to the rescue of several ladies in distress, the Swan-knight's real home was always "the mountain where Venus lives in the Grail."(1) Notes: (1) Baring-Gould, C.M.M.A., 568. (2) Larousse, 278-79. (3) Baring Gould, C.M.M.A., 579. (3) Graves, G.M. 1, 207-8. (4) Baring Gould, C.M.M.A., 571, 579. (5) Ross, 36. (6) Baring-Gould, C.M.M.A., 600. (7) Rank, 62. (8) Guerber, L.M.A., 202-3. (9) Baring-Gould, C.M.M.A., 600. (10) Jung & von Franz, 121. **************************************************************************************** I remembered some remnants of this fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm that I read as a child - most of the tales were more like nightmares, including this tale about a devoted sister and her six bewitched brothers. The Six Swans.

The Goddess Kelle, also known as Kelly

Ahhhh, a strong good Irish name, it is! And what a background! From The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets: Kelle (var. Kelly) Irish-druidic priest-name, derived from pre-Christian holy harlots of the Goddess Kelle, Kale, or Kali. Irish writings described the divine harlot Mary Magdalene as a kelle.(1) The medieval term Kele-De was considered somewhat mysterious, translated "Bridge of God" if a woman, "Servant of God" if a man.(2) These translations were inaccurate. Kele-De meant literally the spirit of the Goddess Kele, evidently identical with the Goddess Kali of the original Indo-European Celts. Votaries of the Goddess Kele stressed the search for inward perfection through meditation, yogic style.(3) Her gods assumed the lotus positin like eastern yogis. Her primitive Grail hereo, Peredur, experienced her as the "most beautiful woman in the world," represented by the three colors of the Divine Prakriti, still known as the Gunas, standing for her powers of creation, preservation, and destruction.(4) The mythical "St. Kilda" seems to have been another version of the Goddess Kele, dwelling on a remote rocky islet once identified with the western paradise of the dead. St Kilda's Isle still exists, but the origin of its name has been forgotten. The ubiquitous Irish word kill, a cell or cave, once meant a shrine of Kele, whose holy men called themselves Culdees, Colidees, Cele-De, Keledio, etc. Some where described in Christian histories as monks, though they wre obviously married.(5) Kildare ws a major shrine of the Goddess Kilda-Kele, or Brigit, identified with the virgin Mary after Christian monks appropriated the site. But the guardianship of the sacred fire at Kildare had long been a perogative of priestesses; the shrine ws forbidden to men.(6) Confusion of Kilda-Kele-Brigit with Mary was not too far-fethed, as they had been aspects of the same Goddess for thousands of years in India as Kali-Mari or Kel-Mari, the Pot Goddess who made human forms out of clay.(7) (See Kali Ma). Notes: (1) Malvern, 117. (2) Joyce, 352. (3) de Paor, 72. (4) Goodrich, 63-66, Avalon, 328. (5) Brewster, 130-31. (6) Briffault 2, 540. (7) Briffault 1, 474.