Gods – Overview of Toltec Deities

Overview of Toltec Deities from lifepersona.com

The Toltec gods And the mythology that surrounds them, are intrinsic part of this Mesoamerican town that had its moment of apogee when they settled down in the Mexican plateau between centuries X and XII, long before the arrival the first settlers to America.

According to historical records, despite being a nomadic culture began a pilgrimage from the north of more than a century in the year 511 until they found the city of Tula, which lasted 348 years until the arrival of the Aztecs.

There they established themselves, created cities, developed their culture and formed a belief system with an influence that extended to Zacatecas and Yucatan.

Their language was Nahuatl, the form of government was a monarchy and left an important artistic, cultural, architectural and mythological legacy in the cultures that survived them.

Tolteca means”Dweller of Tula”, in reference to that after a long pilgrimage anchored its residence in the center of Mexico, but over the years that name was also used to call the artisans.

Its economy was based on agriculture, mainly maize and beans, and society was organized into two groups: the privileged, among them the hierarchs, the military, the officials, the supreme ruler and the priests; And the servants, the workers, and the craftsmen.

Like all the pre-Columbian towns they had a strong mythological imprint, with a nourished pantheon of gods and a gross system of beliefs. His religion was shamanic and had no permanent place of worship.

Worshipers of the forces of nature like the sky, the water and the earth, their system of beliefs was dualistic. The two supreme principles were Quetzalcoatl (beautiful serpent, represents good) and Tezcatlipoca (black mirror, figure of evil).

Like so many other pre-Columbian cultures, the Toltecs also made human sacrifices, as a form of communion and services to the gods. However, they conceived the divinity in a way different from other civilizations, they believed that the Supreme Being has a double condition: it creates the world but also destroys it.

The Toltecs worshiped and adopted all the gods of those who heard, so they had more than 400 gods, many of them shared with other cultures. Here we repair the 30 outstanding figures of his pantheon.

30 of the most important Toltec gods

1- Quetzalcoatl

The main god of the Toltec civilization, shared with the Mayans, the Aztecs and other peoples, represents the god of life, light, wisdom, fertility and knowledge.

It was considered as the pattern of the day and of the winds, residing in the west and was considered”beautiful or feathered serpent”, in reference to its physical and spiritual body, respectively.

In the legend of the five soles, Quetzalcoatl was the one who gave birth to the fifth Sun (in which we live now) and thus together with Xolotl created humanity. That is why he is considered as the main god.

Its name is that of”feathered serpent,”because it is a material physical body, according to the serpent conception in these cultures, and it is also spirit, which is what feathers represent.

2- Tezcatlipoca

It is called the duality of Quetzalcoatl, in its destructive function. He was the god of night and destiny, lord of heaven and earth, also a source of life and shelter of man.

Among other characteristics, it stands out to be a black or smoky mirror, with he could see everything and annihilate his enemies. He was a sorcerer, a diviner, and an expert in black magic.

3- Tlaloc

God of the rain and the waters. He is one of the oldest and venerated deities in Mesoamerica, his name translated as the”nectar of the earth”and he was the one who worshiped during the first month of the year to guarantee a rainy season, The crops.

4- Matlalcueye

Considered in the Toltec pantheon as the goddess of living water and fresh water currents. Her name meant”Owner of the green skirt”, where the cause of the rivers arose. She was the wife of Tlaloc.

5- Huixtocihuatl

It could be considered as a duality of Matlalcueye, although it is not registered in all cultures in the same way. She was the goddess of fertility, mistress of salt and salt water.

Their worship was with human sacrifices in all the women sang and danced around the victim dressed as a goddess.

6- Xochiquétzal

Goddess of beauty, flowers, love, loving pleasure and the arts. It was venerated with flowers of cempasúchil to obtain its grace. She was also the wife of Tlaloc.

7- Cipactli

One of the gods shared with other cultures, he is the god who provides food, represents the first man and his wife. For the Aztecs he was considered the first sea monster.

8- Tonacacihuatl

Considered as the first woman, Toltec culture was the goddess of the protégone of sustenance, stealth, inert and inherent.

9- Mixcoatl

Patron of the hunters, also it is known under the name of Camaxtli. Before leaving hunting, the Toltecs were entrusted to him in search of the fortune and the necessary value.

10- Xipe Tótec

God of the gold workers. He was regarded as a bloodthirsty almighty who demanded human sacrifice to ensure prosperity every year.

11- Ixotecuhtli

God of freedom, he was as fast as the wind and could go through matter. He was depicted with blue wings.

12- Itztlacoliuhqui

One of the dark gods of the Toltec pantheon was considered the god of cold, ice, winter, punishment, sin, human misery, disasters and obsidian, a black stone.

Tribute was paid to him as lord of the sacrifices and knives. He fought with the sun that is why it is related to the low temperatures and frost.

13- Ehécatl

He is the god of the wind and one of the first divinities of the mystical culture of Mesoamerican towns. These civilizations recognized the importance of the four elements: air, earth, fire and water, which served as regents of their beliefs.

The wind was linked with storms, humidity, life and the regeneration of plants. It was represented with a red beak, with which cleared the way to Tlaloc, the god of the rain.

14- Xolotl

God of the sunset, the spirits, the fire of wisdom and bad luck. He was the lord of the evening star and the underworld, which leads to the Sun as it passes through it.

15- Xochipilli

Prince of Flowers, Lord of the Morning Sun, is considered as a festive god, regent of music, spring, dance, musical instruments and vegetation.

It is related to love, entertainment and chance. His cult was one of the most important of the Mesoamerican pantheons.

16- Citlallicue

Goddess of the stars, lady of the Milky Way, her name means”the lack of stars”. Each culture has different legends about their husbands and real names.

17- Citlalatonac

He is the god of the male stars, he is associated with Citlallicue, with whom they would have created the Milky Way. His name in Nahuatl means”bright star.”

18- Ometéotl

God of duality, considered as the creator god of the universe, of men and also supreme god of all that exists. His name means”god of two.” He had as sons four gods, which are located at each cardinal point.

19- Mictlantecuhtli

Another of the divinities shared by different cultures, is considered the god of death and the underworld, companion of souls by the shadows and lord who gives and foster life. He was feared for his character.

20- Huehuecóyotl

The”old coyote”was the god of dance, the arts and plumery, for the Toltecs represented the properties of the beasts: ferocity, courage, struggle, which they considered fundamental elements for war.

21- Xiuhtecuhtli

As he says his name is”the lord of the grass,”he is considered as the god of fire and heat. In different Mesoamerican cultures, this representation was different.

22- Itzpapalotl

His name translates to”obsidian butterfly”and for the Toltecs he represents a central deity of his belief system. She was the goddess of sacrifices and war.

He had knives in his wings and his figure represented rebirth and regeneration. Those who were born under his day were assured of a long life.

23- Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli

This god is associated with the vital energy of the dawn, since its name represents”the star of the dawn”. He is another of the divinities shared by several cultures, in which he was worshiped associated with Venus.

During the Toltec civilization, a huge temple was built in Tula, which still stands.

24- Metztli

This deity was also shared with other civilizations, like the goddess of the Moon. Its name means”face of the serpent,”which was related to its dominions over storms, floods or the joy that water could bring to life.

25- Toci

Her name is the focus of discussions, but her worship is always associated with health care and the maintenance of life, which is why she is considered goddess of doctors, midwives and surgeons.

26- Cihuacóatl

“Woman serpent”, according to its translation is considered the goddess of the birth. His veneration among Mesoamerican cultures is associated with medicine, health, abortions and the wounded.

27- Atlacoya

Another of the shared divinities, goddess of drought, her name means sad water, represents austerity and hopelessness. It is feared for being the fertile devourer.

28- Ixtlilton

It was also for the Toltecs the god of medicine, dances, festivals and games. He was worshiped for his healing domains.

29- Huitzilopochtli

In Tula’s civilization he was the god of war, as in others. “Southern hummingbird or left hummingbird”, was the representation of his name and is associated as regidor of the Sun.

30- Tonacatecuhtli

In Nahuatl its name is conformed by the words that represent the lord of the sustenance. He is considered as one of the creator gods of the whole.

This deity is common to all Mesoamerican culture, with different venerations, but with equal importance for being one of the central deities.

He is the god of creation and fertility, lord of nature, was the source of daily sustenance. She was a kind and brotherly deity, who dominated food.

According to the legends, it was Tonacatecuhtli who blew and divided the waters of heaven and earth, which after creation were together. That is why it is considered as the being of the center.

In Place of a God – Buddhism

Buddhism – Definition, Founder, and Origins from history.com

Buddhism is a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (“the Buddha”) more than 2,500 years ago in India. With about 500 million followers, scholars consider Buddhism one of the major world religions. Its practice has historically been most prominent in East and Southeast Asia, but its influence is growing in the West. Many Buddhist ideas and philosophies overlap with those of other faiths.

Buddhism Beliefs

Founder of Buddhism

Types of Buddhism

Dharma

Four Noble Truths

Eightfold Path

Buddhist Holy Book

Dalai Lama

Buddhist Holidays

Buddhism Beliefs

Some key Buddhism beliefs include:

Followers of Buddhism don’t acknowledge a supreme god or deity. They instead focus on achieving enlightenment—a state of inner peace and wisdom. When followers reach this spiritual echelon, they’re said to have experienced nirvana.
The religion’s founder, Buddha, is considered an extraordinary being, but not a god. The word Buddha means “enlightened.”
The path to enlightenment is attained by utilizing morality, meditation and wisdom. Buddhists often meditate because they believe it helps awaken truth.
There are many philosophies and interpretations within Buddhism, making it a tolerant and evolving religion.
Some scholars don’t recognize Buddhism as an organized religion, but rather, a “way of life” or a “spiritual tradition.”
Buddhism encourages its people to avoid self-indulgence but also self-denial.
Buddha’s most important teachings, known as The Four Noble Truths, are essential to understanding the religion.
Buddhists embrace the concepts of karma (the law of cause and effect) and reincarnation (the continuous cycle of rebirth).
Followers of Buddhism can worship in temples or in their own homes.
Buddhist monks, or bhikkhus, follow a strict code of conduct, which includes celibacy.
There is no single Buddhist symbol, but a number of images have evolved that represent Buddhist beliefs, including the lotus flower, the eight-spoked dharma wheel, the Bodhi tree and the swastika (an ancient symbol whose name means “well-being” or “good fortune” in Sanskrit).

Gods – Anubis

Anubis

Anubis is one of the most iconic gods of ancient Egypt. Anubis is the Greek version of his name, the ancient Egyptians knew him as Anpu (or Inpu). Anubis was an extremely ancient deity whose name appears in the oldest mastabas of the Old Kingdom and the Pyramid Texts as a guardian and protector of the dead. He was originally a god of the underworld, but became associated specifically with the embalming process and funeral rites. His name is from the same root as the word for a royal child, “inpu”. However, it is also closely related to the word “inp” which means “to decay”, and one versions of his name (Inp or Anp) more closely resembles that word. As a result it is possible that his name changed slightly once he was adopted as the son of the King, Osiris. He was known as “Imy-ut” (“He Who is In the Place of Embalming”), “nub-tA-djser” (“lord of the scared land”).

He was initially related to the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, as the god of the underworld. In the Pyramid Texts of Unas, Anubis is associated with the Eye of Horus who acted as a guide to the dead and helped them find Osiris. In other myths Anubis and Wepwawet (Upuaut) led the deceased to the halls of Ma´at where they would be judged. Anubis watched over the whole process and ensured that the weighing of the heart was conducted correctly. He then led the innocent on to a heavenly existence and abandoned the guilty to Ammit.

The ancient Egyptians believed that the preservation of the body and the use of sweet-smelling herbs and plants would help the deceased because Anubis would sniff the mummy and only let the pure move on to paradise. According to early myths, Anubis took on and defeated the nine bows (the collective name for the traditional enemies of Egypt) gaining a further epithet “Jackal ruler of the bows”.

The growing power of the Ennead of Heliopolis resulted in the merging of the two religious systems. However, Osiris was the King of the Underworld in the Ennead and he was more popular (and powerful) than Anubis. So Anubis was relegated to a god of mummification. To save face it was stated that Anubis had voluntarily given up his position when Osiris died as a mark of respect. Some myths even stated that Anubis was the son of Osiris and Nephthys (who was herself associated with the funeral rites). Anubis was still closely involved in the weighing of the heart, but was more a guardian than a ruler.

He became the patron of lost souls, including orphans, and the patron of the funeral rites. In this respect he overlapped with (and eventually absorbed) the Jackal God Wepwawet of Upper Egypt.

During the Ptolemaic Period Anubis became associated with the Greek god Hermes as the composite god Hermanubis. Hermes was messenger of the gods, while Anubis was principally guide of the dead. Hermanubis was some times given attributes of Harpokrates. He was worshipped in Rome until the second century and was popular with Rennaisance alchemists and philosophers.

Priests wore Anubis masks during mummification. However, it is not clear whether the Anubis mask was a later development influenced by the Osirian myth or whether this practice was commonplace in the earlier periods too. Anubis was also closely associated with the imiut fetish used during the embalming ritual. Anubis was credited with a high level of anatomical knowledge as a result of embalming, and so he was the patron of anaesthesiology and his priests were apparently skilled herbal healers.

Tombs in the Valley of the Kings were often sealed with an image of Anubis subduing the “nine bows” (enemies of Egypt) as “Jackal Ruler of the Bows” and it was thought that the god would protect the burial physically and spiritually. One of his epithets, “tpy-djuf” (“he who is on his mountain”) refers to him guarding the necropolis and keeping watch from the hill above the Theban necropolis. He was also given the epithet “khentyamentiu” (“foremost of the westerners” i.e. the dead) because he guarded the entrance to the Underworld.

He was originally thought to be the son of Ra and Hesat, Ra’s wife (who was identified with Hathor), but later myths held that he was the child of Osiris and Nephthys, or Set and Nephthys. He was sometimes described as the son of Bast because of her link to the perfumed oils used in embalming. His wife, Anput (his female aspect) was only really referred to in association with the seventeenth nome of Upper Egypt. It is thought that they were the parents of Kebechet, the goddess of the purification.

Dogs and jackals often patrolled the edges of the desert, near the cemeteries where the dead were buried, and it is thought that the first tombs were constructed to protect the dead from them. Anubis was usually thought of as a jackal (sAb), but may equally have been a wild dog (iwiw) He was usually depicted as a man with the head of a jackal and alert ears, often wearing a red ribbon, and wielding a flail. He was sometimes depicted as a jackal (such as in the beautiful examples from the tomb of Tutankhamun) but only rarely appears as a man (one example is in the cenotaph temple of Rameses II at Abydos).

His fur was generally black (not the brown associated with real jackals) because black was associated with fertility, and was closely linked to rebirth in the afterlife. In the catacombs of Alexandria he was depicted wearing Roman dress and the sun disk flanked by two cobras.

Anubis was worshipped throughout Egypt, but the center of his cult was in Hardai (Cynopolis) in the the seventeenth nome of Upper Egypt. To the east of Saqqara there was a place known as Anubeion, where a shrine and a cemetery of mummified dogs and jackals was discovered. He was also worshipped at cult centers in Abt (the the eighth nome of Upper Egypt) and Saut (Asyut, in the thirteenth nome of Upper Egypt).

____________________________

Anubis

Anubis (/əˈnuːbɪs/ or /əˈnjuːbɪs/;[1] Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις, Egyptian: jnpw, Coptic: ⲁⲛⲟⲩⲡ Anoup) is the Greek name of a god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. Archeologists identified the sacred animal of Anubis as an Egyptian canid, the African golden wolf.

Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055 – 1650 BC) he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the “Weighing of the Heart,” in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead. Despite being one of the most ancient and “one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods” in the Egyptian pantheon, Anubis played almost no role in Egyptian myths.

Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized both rebirth and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is associated with Wepwawet (also called Upuaut), another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog’s head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined. Anubis’ female counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet.

Name
“Anubis” is a Greek rendering of this god’s Egyptian name. In the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 BC – c. 2181 BC), the standard way of writing his name in hieroglyphs was composed of the sound signs jnpw followed by a jackal over a ḥtp sign:
A new form with the “jackal” on a tall stand appeared in the late Old Kingdom and became common thereafter:
Anubis’ name jnpw was possibly pronounced [a.ˈna.pʰa], based on Coptic Anoup and the Akkadian transcription in the name “Reanapa” that appears in Amarna letter EA 315. However, this transcription may also be interpreted as rˁ-nfr, a name similar to that of Prince Ranefer of the Fourth Dynasty.

History
In Egypt’s Early Dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a “jackal” head and body. A “jackal” god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, and other pharaohs of the First Dynasty. Since Predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, “jackals” had been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh. In the spirit of “fighting like with like,” a “jackal” was chosen to protect the dead, because “a common problem (and cause of concern) must have been the digging up of bodies, shortly after burial, by jackals and other wild dogs which lived on the margins of the cultivation.”

The oldest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 – c. 2181 BC), where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh.

In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead. He was replaced in that role by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom (2000–1700 BC). In the Roman era, which started in 30 BC, tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to guide them to Osiris.

The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources. In early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of Ra. In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), Anubis is the son of either the cow goddess Hesat or the cat-headed Bastet. Another tradition depicted him as the son of his father Ra and mother Nephthys. The Greek Plutarch (c. 40–120 AD) stated that Anubis was the illegitimate son of Nephthys and Osiris, but that he was adopted by Osiris’s wife Isis:

For when Isis found out that Osiris loved her sister and had relations with her in mistaking her sister for herself, and when she saw a proof of it in the form of a garland of clover that he had left to Nephthys – she was looking for a baby, because Nephthys abandoned it at once after it had been born for fear of Seth; and when Isis found the baby helped by the dogs which with great difficulties lead her there, she raised him and he became her guard and ally by the name of Anubis.

George Hart sees this story as an “attempt to incorporate the independent deity Anubis into the Osirian pantheon.” An Egyptian papyrus from the Roman period (30–380 AD) simply called Anubis the “son of Isis.”

In the Ptolemaic period (350–30 BC), when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis was merged with the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis. The two gods were considered similar because they both guided souls to the afterlife. The center of this cult was in uten-ha/Sa-ka/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name means “city of dogs.” In Book XI of The Golden Ass by Apuleius, there is evidence that the worship of this god was continued in Rome through at least the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Although the Greeks and Romans typically scorned Egypt’s animal-headed gods as bizarre and primitive (Anubis was mockingly called “Barker” by the Greeks), Anubis was sometimes associated with Sirius in the heavens and Cerberus and Hades in the underworld. In his dialogues, Plato often has Socrates utter oaths “by the dog” (kai me ton kuna), “by the dog of Egypt”, and “by the dog, the god of the Egyptians”, both for emphasis and to appeal to Anubis as an arbiter of truth in the underworld.

Roles
Protector of tombs
In contrast to real wolves, Anubis was a protector of graves and cemeteries. Several epithets attached to his name in Egyptian texts and inscriptions referred to that role. Khenty-imentiu, which means “foremost of the westerners” and later became the name of a different wolf god, alluded to his protecting function because the dead were usually buried on the west bank of the Nile. He took other names in connection with his funerary role, such as tpy-ḏw.f “He who is upon his mountain” (i.e. keeping guard over tombs from above) and nb-t3-ḏsr “Lord of the sacred land”, which designates him as a god of the desert necropolis.

The Jumilhac papyrus recounts another tale where Anubis protected the body of Osiris from Set. Set attempted to attack the body of Osiris by transforming himself into a leopard. Anubis stopped and subdued Set, however, and he branded Set’s skin with a hot iron rod. Anubis then flayed Set and wore his skin as a warning against evil-doers who would desecrate the tombs of the dead. Priests who attended to the dead wore leopard skin in order to commemorate Anubis’ victory over Set. The legend of Anubis branding the hide of Set in leopard form was used to explain how the leopard got its spots.

Most ancient tombs had prayers to Anubis carved on them.

Embalmer
As jmy-wt “He who is in the place of embalming”, Anubis was associated with mummification. He was also called ḫnty zḥ-nṯr “He who presides over the god’s booth”, in which “booth” could refer either to the place where embalming was carried out or the pharaoh’s burial chamber.

In the Osiris myth, Anubis helped Isis to embalm Osiris. Indeed, when the Osiris myth emerged, it was said that after Osiris had been killed by Set, Osiris’s organs were given to Anubis as a gift. With this connection, Anubis became the patron god of embalmers; during the rites of mummification, illustrations from the Book of the Dead often show a wolf-mask-wearing priest supporting the upright mummy.

Guide of souls
By the late pharaonic era (664–332 BC), Anubis was often depicted as guiding individuals across the threshold from the world of the living to the afterlife. Though a similar role was sometimes performed by the cow-headed Hathor, Anubis was more commonly chosen to fulfill that function. Greek writers from the Roman period of Egyptian history designated that role as that of “psychopomp”, a Greek term meaning “guide of souls” that they used to refer to their own god Hermes, who also played that role in Greek religion. Funerary art from that period represents Anubis guiding either men or women dressed in Greek clothes into the presence of Osiris, who by then had long replaced Anubis as ruler of the underworld.

Weighing of the heart

One of the roles of Anubis was as the “Guardian of the Scales.” The critical scene depicting the weighing of the heart, in the Book of the Dead, shows Anubis performing a measurement that determined whether the person was worthy of entering the realm of the dead (the underworld, known as Duat). By weighing the heart of a deceased person against Ma’at (or “truth”), who was often represented as an ostrich feather, Anubis dictated the fate of souls. Souls heavier than a feather would be devoured by Ammit, and souls lighter than a feather would ascend to a heavenly existence.

Bibliography

Main Source: Ancient Egypt Online
Goodenough, Simon (1997) Egyptian Mythology
Grajetzki, W (2003) Burial Customs in Ancient Egypt
Ikram, Salima (1997) Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt
Pinch, Geraldine (2002) Handbook Egyptian Mythology
Redford Donald B (2002) Ancient Gods Speak
Watterson, Barbara (1996) Gods of Ancient Egypt
Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003) The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
Wikipedia

Gods – Aten

Click here for more information about the Egyptian God Aten from egyptian-history.com

Do you want to know who was Aten (or Aton), the god representing the Sun in the ancient Egyptian civilization? Do you want to know how Aten almost became the sole god of Egypt during the reign of a “heretic pharaoh”?

Fascinated by ancient Egypt, our team has prepared an article that answers these questions.

Aten is the “Sun disk god” of ancient Egypt: he is the incarnation of the Sun. The god Aten appears during the 25th century BC as a minor god of Egypt. However, it was in 1353 BC that Aten really entered the posterity by becoming the single god of Egypt throughout the reign of Akhenaten, the so-called “heretic pharaoh.”

In this article, you will discover:

The place of the solar god Aten in Egyptian mythology
The history of the “Cult of Aten” advocated by the pharaoh Akhenaten (who will progressively establish the replacement of all the gods by the unique and almighty Aten)
The great problem that Aten posed when he became the sole god of Egypt: the end of the myth of the “Weighing of the Heart”

At the end of this article, you will know everything about the god Aten and the Cult of Aten of Akhenaten.

Let’s start right away by presenting who Aten is according to Egyptian mythology.

1) Who was Aten?

Aten, the Sun disk god, is the personification of the Sun. Aten takes his name from the Egyptian word “yati” meaning “to be far away” (which obviously refers to the Sun high in the sky).

Clearly aware that the Sun is vital for life, the ancient Egyptians praised the multi-armed Sun disk called Aten very early in their history (from the year 2500 BC according to the Egyptian collection of texts called “Pyramid Texts”).

Aten is represented as a radiant sphere with long hands with which he bathes the world with his light, a necessary condition for plant, animal, and human life. In some representations, the Sun disk god has hands holding the Egyptian cross “ankh” (the Egyptian symbol of life) which seems to be stretched out to the earth to bring it food and fertility (thus representing the beneficial effects of the rays of the Sun).

Subsequently, in the course of the history of Egypt, more and more links appear between Aten and the kings of Egypt. According to ancient Egyptian legends, it is the pharaoh who controls the Sun: it is the pharaoh who orders the Sun to rise and set at the same times as he does.

Yet, if Aten is so famous in our modern society, it is because Aten became the one and only god of ancient Egypt during a small period of history: that of the “heresy of Akhenaten.”

2) The Cult of Aten

You now have a glimpse of the divinity embodying the Sun. Now let us discover the history of the establishment of the cult that placed him in the position of single god of Egypt.

A) The god Amun

In order to understand how Aten became the unique god of Egypt, one must understand the story of the almost “almighty” god he replaced: the god Amun.

Amun was initially the god of the creation of life. According to Egyptian mythology, there was only the original Darkness and the original Ocean at the beginning of our world. Then, through the repeated contacts between the Darkness and the Ocean was born the god Atum, the god representing the breath of life. Immediately after this event, responding to the call of Atum (i.e. the call of life), the two gods Ra and Amun were born by their own will.

The falcon-headed Sun god Ra creates the Earth, the stars, and the Universe by harmoniously mixing the original Darkness and the original Ocean. It is thus he who creates the Sun Aten which he then places like a crown on his head to illuminate the Universe, having known until then only the night.

The god Amun creates life by changing himself into a goose to lay an egg. Then, Amun changes himself into a snake to hatch and fertilize this egg. He thus creates the first animal, vegetable, and human life forms.

During the New Kingdom of Egypt’s period (the period of Egypt from 1550 to 1069 BC), the god Amun will become more and more important in Egyptian beliefs. Amun will gradually become known in his form of Amun-Ra, i.e. a form in which he becomes one with the hawk Sun god Ra. Under this form, Amun is therefore responsible for the creation of the “Universe” in addition to the creation of “life.”

It was during the reign of Akhenaten’s grandfather and father (respectively Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III) that Amun became a god truly more important than all the others.

However, Egypt did not fall into a form of monotheistic religion since, despite his importance, Amun did not replace the other gods and goddesses (the jackal Anubis remained the god of death, the ibis Thoth remained the god of knowledge, the cat Bastet remained the goddess of women and joy, Bes remained the dwarf god of the home . . .).

Gods – Apep

Apep Egyptian Serpent God of Choas from egyptian-history.com

You wish to know who is Apep, the Egyptian serpent god? You want to understand the role played by Apep in the myth of the solar boat of Ra?

Great amateurs of Egyptian mythology, we are here to enlighten you on these subjects.

Apep is a giant Egyptian serpent god whose goal is to devour Ra, the Sun god illuminating the entire universe. According to Egyptian mythology, every night since the creation of the world, Apep has tried to eat Ra, even though the latter was always defended by Set, Sobek, Maat, Isis, and Thoth.

Today, we will discover together:

The myth of Apep in the Egyptian mythology
The myth of the eternal combat of Apep against Ra
The other Apep: the snake Jörmungandr and the asteroid 99942 Apophis

Very soon you will know all about the Egyptian evil snake called Apep.

Let’s discover immediately the story of the largest snake of ancient Egypt!

1) Apep in Egyptian Mythology

Already present before the creation of the world by Ra, Apep (or Apophis) is an evil entity, the embodiment of darkness and destruction. Apep is a huge snake, allegedly as wide and long as the Nile. This snake is a fundamentally evil being whose sole motivation is to eat the falcon-headed Sun god Ra.

The latter illuminates the world during the day, crossing the sky on his boat before passing through the Underworld to return to his point of departure. It is in the world of darkness that Ra is the target of all types of monsters, demons and ghosts who wish to eat him. Indeed, Ra, a hawk with a Sun on his head, appears extremely appetizing to them.

2) Apep against Ra

Each night, Apep thus leads his army with the aim of eating Ra. Yet, he encounters great difficulty in reaching his objective because Ra has assembled a team of Egyptian gods to defend himself:

– Set, the god of chaos and tempests: with the mission to focus on Apep and repel him with sandstorms and lightning.

– Sobek, the crocodile god of strength and power: Ra’s long-time bodyguard, the god Sobek, unlike Set, focuses on the evil horde of Apep.

– Thoth, the ibis god of knowledge: planning, for each night, a new strategy to surprise Apep and his army.

– Maat, the winged goddess of justice: offering magical healing to her team and, able to fly, catching the team members who have fallen out of the boat of Ra.

– Isis, the goddess of magic: unleashing powerful spells on Apep and his army during difficult situations.

With this shock team, Apep lost every single fight, which never discouraged him. Apep could be mortally wounded, but he had the ability to regenerate when he was covered by the deepest darkness of the world of the dead.

Apep is the antithesis of the gods, representing chaos and darkness, the opposite of the values of the Egyptian pantheon, whose sacred mission was to spread order and light throughout the world. However, Apep contributes to the equilibrium of the universe, being one of its original components, and therefore should not be definitively defeated because his total elimination would destabilize the universe just as much as if the gigantic snake managed to eat Ra.

According to his myth, Apep is responsible for eclipses. Sometimes, Apep succeeded in swallowing Ra during surprise attacks in broad daylight, which made the sun disappear from the sky of mortals. Fortunately, the other gods quickly came to the rescue to pierce the belly of Apep, freeing Ra and thus ending the eclipse.

3) The other version of the myth of Apep: Set, the substitute of Ra

In Egyptian religion, Set gradually takes the place of Ra in the myth of the solar boat and replaces the entire team of Egyptian gods. Ra is then relegated only as the bearer of the Sun and not as the eternal adversary of Apep as he was.

How unfortunate it would be if you missed this great passage in Egyptian mythology: here is a concise summary of the “myth of Osiris” that tells us why Ra was replaced by Set.

A) The myth of Osiris

According to the Egyptian myth of the “Beginning”, Ra created the world by cleverly mixing the Darkness (from which Apep came) and the original Ocean.

From this enlightened mixture came Shu (the wind) and Tefnut (the warmth of the Sun). Shu and Tefnut married to give birth to Geb (the earth) and Nut (the sky). Geb and Nut in turn married and had two sons and two daughters (who also married each other in pairs): Osiris, Set, Isis and Nephthys.

Osiris took his sister Isis as his wife while Set took his sister Nephthys as his wife. Osiris was quickly sent to Earth to become the god-pharaoh who guide mankind.

When he arrived, Osiris fully committed himself to his mission, he brought to humanity a peace, security and unity that had never been seen before.

Set soon became jealous of Osiris’ position but kept this resentment to himself at first. However, when he realized that Nephthys was cheating on him with Osiris, he began to feel a deep hatred for his brother.

Set decided to assassinate Osiris in order to obtain the throne of Egypt. To do so, he visited the best craftsmen in the world to create a beautiful chest covered with precious stones and metals. This chest was made with a certain interior shape so that the only thing it could contain was Osiris himself. Set organized a large banquet on the banks of the Nile to which he invited Osiris and his relatives. At this event, he declared that he would offer the large chest to anyone who entered the chest in its entirety.

Not surprisingly, only Osiris managed to enter the chest. It was at this point that the plan of Set and his accomplices was revealed: they hurled themselves onto the chest and welded its opening before throwing it into the Nile. Osiris drowned.

The chest then drifted down the Nile until it came to a shrub by the riverside that trapped it in its roots. Over the years, the shrub completely absorbed the chest and Osiris. The chest and Osiris gradually found themselves in the middle of its trunk. On its side, the tree grew at a supernatural speed, thanks to the divine presence of the body of the deceased Osiris. The tree grew so large that it fed the lust of a great foreign king, who made it one of the columns of his palace.

Isis, who traveled the world in search of her husband’s body, arrived in this royal palace after years and years of searching. She convinced the king to give the pillar to her and cure her only heir of a fatal disease in appreciation. In possession of the chest (and thus the body of Osiris, she succeeded in reviving him for a single night, which enabled her to become pregnant with Horus).

But before she has time to perform certain rituals to bring Osiris back to life, Set falls on the body of Isis’ unfortunate husband during a hunting trip. To prevent any resurrection that might lead to the end of his reign, Set cuts the body of Osiris into fourteen pieces and scatters them throughout Egypt.

Once again, Isis sets out to find the body of Osiris in tears. These tears attract Nephthys and Anubis (the son Nephthys had with Osiris) who are sympathetic to Isis and help her in her quest. The three of them manage to find 13 of the 14 parts. But as they were about to find the last part, a fish eats it and digests it quickly. This part (namely, the phallus of Osiris) is thus lost forever.

Osiris cannot be reconstituted in its entirety and is brought back to life with an incomplete body. This incomplete body will then prevent him from directing the living. Set will therefore retain his place as king of Egypt (exercising a much less just and upright reign than his brother during his lifetime). Osiris will be forced to leave the world of the living and go to the Underworld where he will rule over the dead.

B) The myth of Horus and Set

As an adult, Horus claims the throne of his father from the greatest and wisest of the gods organized in an instance called the “divine assembly”.

The majority of this enlightened tribunal, composed of Ra (the falcon-headed Sun god), Shu (the god representing the wind), and Thoth (the ibis-headed god of knowledge), immediately rebelled against Egypt’s current situation. Shu and Thoth find despicable that Set could deprive Horus by killing his father of his rightful royal place. The two gods are therefore ready to go to Set and ask him to abdicate without delay.

Nevertheless, the myth cannot stop here: Ra is extremely offended that his opinion is not asked (because he is the father and first of all the gods of Egypt).

The falcon Sun god declares that Horus may well make a bad king. For Ra, the latter must prove his worth before any form of abdication that could put Egypt in a very unfortunate position.

The declaration of Ra is followed by various great trials between Set and Horus: duels, chariot races, and trials of strength, all of which have one thing in common: the countless frauds that Set commits in the course of them. Set wins all the tests organized by the jury by this not very honorable way.

The many trials of the competition culminate in the trial called the “Hippopotamus Trial”. In this event, the two rival gods must each plunge to the bottom of the Nile as hippopotamuses and hold their breath as long as possible. During this test, Isis, out of concern for the future of her son, will create a magic harpoon to catch Set and bring him back to the surface of the Nile (which would make him lose the test). Isis succeeds in touching Set with her harpoon, which makes Horus win (who wins a trial against Set for the first time).

Horus is however very unhappy with the situation because he has the ambition to win fairly. Very angry, Horus tears off his mother’s head and throws it away (fortunately, Thoth fetches this head and resuscitates Isis).

Following this matricide, the court of the three gods is angry against Horus and punishes him by proposing to Set to decide the form of a last trial. This final trial would determine who would be the definitive king and guide of Egypt for millennia to come. Set then chooses a final trial that would be memorable and would legitimize his superiority over Horus forever. Set thus claimed that the final test would be a race of ships built only with stones.

After these events, Horus, exhausted, falls asleep on one of Egypt’s highest mountains to take a well-deserved night’s rest before a challenge that will not be easy. Wanting to ensure his victory, Set discreetly follows him and tears out his left eye while he sleeps.

He then cuts that eye into six equal parts and hides them throughout the world. Seeing in this action a consequent imbalance in the next trial, Thoth will immediately seek to reconstitute the eye of Horus.

While Horus sleeps, the god of knowledge travels around the world at superhuman speed but can only gather five of the six fragments. He thus creates himself the last missing fragment and reconstitutes a new and more efficient eye thanks to a new magical sixth piece. This eye will have the capacity to see “what-is-invisible” (i.e. the future and the past).

As soon as his work is finished, Thoth gives the eye back to Horus, who will thus not be disadvantaged in any way in the upcoming boat race.

The trial begins with a boat construction: Horus starts by looking for some beautiful stones to build his boat. However, his new prodigious eye reveals to him that “he will not win the race”.

Horus becomes very worried: it is important for him to recover the throne that was once stolen from his father. So Horus tries to cheat: he builds a wooden boat with a plaster exterior that has a texture similar to stone.

The next day, the race begins. Set arrives without a boat because he has a rather specific plan. Set is convinced that the top of a high mountain could very well serve as a boat and should float.

However, his plan is a cruel failure because as soon as he launches his boat, the rounded tip of the mountain sinks steeply. The council therefore declares Horus the winner. Mad with rage, Set throws himself on Horus’ boat to ransack it and the deception is revealed. The boat being made of wood, Horus is obviously disqualified.

The divine council decides to meet in order to find the adequate solution to this unprecedented case. They call upon the just and wise Osiris (who became god of the dead after his death) to guide them in their decision. With the will to put his young son in power, Osiris tries to tip the jury’s balance in his favor with a clever stratagem.

He addresses the Sun, the Moon, and all the stars and asks them to follow him into his subterranean realm. Deprived of the light of these vital stars, the world of the living is on the verge of total collapse. Ra, Shu, and Thoth have no choice but to accept Osiris’ request.

Horus defeats the evil Set and comes to power, as he should have done initially. Later, he will marry Hathor, goddess of love and beauty. Having inherited his father’s qualities, he ruled the land of the Nile with a masterly hand.

Set, meanwhile, was banished to the desert, his original kingdom. It was here that he began his long journey of repentance alongside Ra in his solar boat.

It was truly at his redemption that Set became a popular and beloved god. After having been the god of chaos and destruction, now he is able to question himself by working for the good cause. Gradually, he becomes the symbol of the victory of good over evil in the struggle against Ra’s enemy, Apep.

The Egyptian snake god

You now know everything about the mysteries surrounding the largest snake in Egyptian mythology through the myths of the solar bark and the myth of Ra’s replacement by Set. As a bonus, you know more about 99942 Apophis and about Jörmungand (the Apep of Asgard).

If the myths of ancient Egypt are something you are interested in, know that we offer many necklaces, rings, bracelets and T-shirts referring to ancient Egypt.

In connection with the story of Apep, we obviously invite you to take a look at our collection of Egyptian necklaces. To do so, nothing could be simpler: just click on the image below!

Gods – The Dagda

The Dagda – Celtic God of Agriculture, Fertility, Seasons and Weather from letsgoireland.com

Who is the king of the gods in Celtic mythology?

The Dagda Celtic god is believed to be the father of the gods and is thought of as a strong, manly figure with the knowledge and wisdom of the druids.

As a god he had immense power and influence. The Dagda is the Celtic god of agriculture, fertility of the land and animals, weather, time and seasons.

He is also connected with life and death. Donn, the Irish god of death may have been an aspect of the Dagda.

Good, fruitful harvests were critical for the survival of Celtic people and animals, so it is easy to see how central a role this god played in the Celtic pantheon.

The fertility and health of cattle was also of primary importance as a person’s wealth was often counted in terms of cattle. Retribution payments for certain crimes were also paid in cattle according to the old Irish Brehon laws.

One ritual to ensure a fruitful harvest in the coming year was the annual coupling of the Dagda with his wife, the Morrigan goddess at the feast of the Samhain (on 1 November).

Some of the Dagda’s most prized possessions included an enchanted harp and a magical staff, with which he could kill 9 men at once with or restore their lives at will. He also had a bottomless cauldron to ensure that no man left his table feeling hungry.

The Dagda was the supposed father of several other important figures in Irish mythology including the goddess Brigid and Bodb Derg who featured a key role in the tale of the Children of Lir.

The river goddess Boann was his lover and mother of his child, and fellow god, Aengus.

Gods – Charge Of The God

Oak and Holly Kings

Charge Of The God on summergoddess.wordpress.com

Since Wicca is about balance in the Universe; a newer addition to the tradition is the “Charge of the God”. Once again, there are several versions out there for you to choose from. I am listing two here for you to see; the first is from my personal Book of Shadows, the second was another version that I liked for its content and poetic flow. (Once again, you will notice that the version I use does not have the names of the God listed within the first line.)

As I said before; Wicca is about balance. For this reason I feel that the Charge of the God is necessary when invoking the combination of the Goddess and the God within your ritual. This gives you the balance of the feminine; (wisdom and emotion,) and the masculine; (strength and protection,) in your rituals and spell casting.

The Charge Of The God

Listen to the words of the Great Father, who of old was called by many names:

My law is harmony with all things.

Mine is the secret that opens the gates of life and Mine is the dish of salt of the Earth that is the body of Cernunnos, which is the eternal circle of rebirth.

I give the knowledge of life everlasting; and beyond death, I give the promise of regeneration and renewal.

I am the sacrifice, the Father of all things and My protection blankets the Earth.

Now hear the words of the dancing God, the music of whose laughter stirs the winds, whose voice circles the seasons:

I who am the Lord of the Hunt and the Power of the Light; sun among the clouds and the secret of the flame, I call upon your bodies to arise and come unto me.

For I am the flesh of the Earth and all its beings.

Through Me all things must die and with Me they are reborn.

Let My worship be in the body that sings–for behold, all acts of willing sacrifice are My rituals.

Let there be desire and fear, anger and weakness, joy and peace, awe and longing within you.

For these; too, are parts of the mysteries found within you, within Me. All beginnings have endings, and all endings have beginnings.

Gods – Vishnu

The 10 Avatars of the Hindu God Vishnu from learnreligions.com

Vishnu is among the most important deities of Hinduism. Together with with Brahma and Shiva, Vishnu forms the principal trinity of Hindu religious practice.

In his many forms, Vishnu is regarded as the preserver and protector. Hinduism teaches that when humanity is threatened by chaos or evil, Vishnu will descend into the world in one of his incarnations to restore righteousness.

The incarnations that Vishnu takes are called avatars. The Hindu scriptures speak of ten avatars. They are thought to have been present in the Satya Yuga (the Golden Age or Age of Truth), when mankind was ruled by gods.

Collectively, the avatars of Vishnu are called dasavatara (10 avatars). Each has a different form and purpose. When an individual is faced with a challenge, a particular avatar descends to address the issue.

The myths associated with each avatar reference a specific period of time when they were most needed. Some people refer to this as the cosmic cycle or the Time-Spirit. For instance, the first avatar, Matsya, descended long before the ninth avatar, Balarama. More recent mythology states that Balarama may have been the Lord Buddha.

No matter the specific intent or place in time, the avatars are meant to re-establish the dharma, the path of righteousness or universal laws taught in the Hindu scriptures. The legends, myths, and stories that include the avatars remain important allegories within Hinduism.

01 of 10

The First Avatar: Matsya (The Fish)

A depiction of Vishnu Matsya (left) — Wikimedia Commons

Matsya is said to be the avatar that rescued the first man, as well as other creatures of the earth, from a great flood. Matsya is sometimes depicted as a great fish or as a human torso connected to the tail of a fish.

Matsya is said to have forewarned man about the coming flood and ordered him to preserve all the grains and living creatures in a boat. This story is similar to many deluge myths found in other cultures.

02 of 10

The Second Avatar: Kurma (The Tortoise)

Wikimedia Commons

Kurma (or Koorma) is the tortoise incarnation that relates to the myth of churning the ocean to obtain treasures dissolved in the ocean of milk. In this myth, Vishnu took the form of a tortoise upon which to support the churning stick on his back.

The Kurma avatar of Vishnu is usually seen in a mixed human-animal form.

03 of 10

The Third Avatar: Varaha (The Boar)

Ann Ronan Pictures/Getty Images

Varaha is the boar that raised the earth from the bottom of the sea after the demon Hiranyaksha dragged it to the bottom of the sea. After a battle of 1,000 years, Varaha raised the earth out of the water with his tusks.

Varaha is depicted as either a full boar form or as a boar head on a human body.

04 of 10

The Fourth Avatar: Narasimha (The Man-Lion)

CORBIS/Getty Images

As the legend goes, the demon Hiranyakashipiu obtained a boon from Brahma that he could not be killed or harmed by any means. Now arrogant in his security, Hiranyakshipiu began to cause trouble both in heaven and on earth.

However, his son Prahlada was devoted to Vishnu. One day, when the demon challenged Prahlada, Vishnu emerged in the form of a man-lion known as Narasimha to slay the demon.

05 of 10

The Fifth Avatar: Vamana (The Dwarf)

Angelo Hornak/Getty Images

In the Rig Veda, Vamana (the dwarf) appears when the demon king Bali ruled the universe and the gods lost their power. One day, Vamana visited the court of Bali and begged for as much land as he could cover in three steps. Laughing at the dwarf, Bali granted the wish.

The dwarf then assumed the form of a giant. He took the whole earth with the first step and the entire middle world with the second step. With the third step, Vamana sent Bali down to rule the underworld.

06 of 10

The Sixth Avatar: Parasurama (The Angry Man)

CORBIS/Getty Images

In his form as Parasurama, Vishnu appears as a priest (Brahman) who comes to the world to kill bad kings and protect humanity from danger. He appears in the form of a man carrying an ax, sometimes referred to as Rama with an ax.

In the original story, Parasurama appeared to restore Hindu social order which had become corrupted by the arrogant Kshatriya caste.

07 of 10

The Seventh Avatar: Lord Rama (The Perfect Man)

Instants/Getty Images

Lord Rama is the seventh avatar of Vishnu and a major deity of Hinduism. He is considered supreme in some traditions. He is the central figure of the ancient Hindu epic “Ramayana” and is known as King of Ayodhya, the city believed to be Rama’s birthplace.

According to the Ramayana, Rama’s father was King Dasaratha and his mother was Queen Kausalya. Rama was born at the end of the Second Age, sent by the gods to do battle with the multi-headed demon Ravana.

Rama is often depicted with blue skin, standing with a bow and arrow.

08 of 10

The Eighth Avatar: Lord Krishna (The Divine Statesman)

Ann Ronan Pictures/Getty Images

Lord Krishna (the divine statesman) is the eighth avatar of Vishnu and is one of the most widely revered deities in Hinduism. He was a cowherd (sometimes depicted as a charioteer or statesman) who shrewdly changed rules.

According to legend, the famous poem, the Bhagavad Gita, is spoken by Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield.

Krishna is depicted in a variety of forms because there are so many stories surrounding him. The most common story describes Krishna as a divine lover who plays the flute; he is also described in his child form. In paintings, Krishna often has blue skin and wears a crown of peacock feathers with a yellow loincloth.

09 of 10

The Ninth Avatar: Balarama (Krishna’s Elder Brother)

Wikimedia Commons

Balarama is said to be the elder brother of Krishna. It is believed that he engaged in many adventures alongside his brother. Balarama is rarely worshiped independently, but stories always focus on his prodigious strength.

In visual representations, he is usually shown with pale skin in contrast to Krishna’s blue skin.

In a number of versions of the mythology, Lord Buddha is thought to be the ninth incarnation. However, this was an addition that came after the dasavatara was already established.

10 of 10

The Tenth Avatar: Kalki (The Mighty Warrior)

Statue of Lord Kalki — Premiumstock / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Kalki (meaning “eternity” or “mighty warrior”) is the last incarnation of Vishnu. He is not expected to appear until the end of Kali Yuga, the current time period. Kalki will come, it is believed, to rid the world of oppression by unrighteous rulers. It is said that he will appear riding a white horse and carrying a fiery sword.

SOURCE: Das, Subhamoy. “The 10 Avatars of the Hindu God Vishnu.” Learn Religions, Aug. 28, 2020, learnreligions.com/avatars-of-vishnu-p2-1769984.

Gods – Anubis – Egyptian c. 2018

Anubis

Anubis is the Greek name of a god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. Archeologists have identified Anubis’s sacred animal as an Egyptian canid, the African golden wolf.

Name

“Anubis” is a Greek rendering of this god’s Egyptian name. In the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 BC – c. 2181 BC), the standard way of writing his name in hieroglyphs was composed of the sound signs jnpw followed by a jackal over a ḥtp sign:

A new form with the “jackal” on a tall stand appeared in the late Old Kingdom and became common thereafter:

Anubis’ name jnpw was possibly pronounced [a.ˈna.pʰa], based on Coptic Anoup and the Akkadian transcription 𒀀𒈾𒉺<a-na-pa> in the name <ri-a-na-pa> “Reanapa” that appears in Amarna letter EA 315. However, this transcription may also be interpreted as rˁ-nfr, a name similar to that of Prince Ranefer of the Fourth Dynasty.

History

In Egypt’s Early Dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a “jackal” head and body. A “jackal” god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, and other pharaohs of the First Dynasty. Since Predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, “jackals” had been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh. In the spirit of “fighting like with like,” a “jackal” was chosen to protect the dead, because “a common problem (and cause of concern) must have been the digging up of bodies, shortly after burial, by jackals and other wild dogs which lived on the margins of the cultivation.”

The oldest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 – c. 2181 BC), where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh.

In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead. He was replaced in that role by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom(2000–1700 BC). In the Roman era, which started in 30 BC, tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to guide them to Osiris.

The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources. In early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of Ra. In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), Anubis is the son of either the cow goddess Hesat or the cat-headed Bastet. Another tradition depicted him as the son of Ra and Nephthys. The Greek Plutarch (c. 40–120 AD) stated that Anubis was the illegitimate son of Nephthys and Osiris, but that he was adopted by Osiris’s wife Isis:

For when Isis found out that Osiris loved her sister and had relations with her in mistaking her sister for herself, and when she saw a proof of it in the form of a garland of clover that he had left to Nephthys – she was looking for a baby, because Nephthys abandoned it at once after it had been born for fear of Seth; and when Isis found the baby helped by the dogs which with great difficulties lead her there, she raised him and he became her guard and ally by the name of Anubis.

In the Ptolemaic period (350–30 BC), when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis was merged with the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis. The two gods were considered similar because they both guided souls to the afterlife. The center of this cult was in uten-ha/Sa-ka/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name means “city of dogs.” In Book XI of The Golden Ass by Apuleius, there is evidence that the worship of this god was continued in Rome through at least the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Although the Greeks and Romans typically scorned Egypt’s animal-headed gods as bizarre and primitive (Anubis was mockingly called “Barker” by the Greeks), Anubis was sometimes associated with Sirius in the heavens and Cerberus and Hades in the underworld. In his dialogues, Plato often has Socrates utter oaths “by the dog” (kai me ton kuna), “by the dog of Egypt”, and “by the dog, the god of the Egyptians”, both for emphasis and to appeal to Anubis as an arbiter of truth in the underworld.

Roles

Protector of tombs

In contrast to real wolves, Anubis was a protector of graves and cemeteries. Several epithets attached to his name in Egyptian texts and inscriptions referred to that role. Khenty-imentiu, which means “foremost of the westerners” and later became the name of a different wolf god, alluded to his protecting function because the dead were usually buried on the west bank of the Nile. He took other names in connection with his funerary role, such as tpy-ḏw.f “He who is upon his mountain” (i.e. keeping guard over tombs from above) and nb-t3-ḏsr “Lord of the sacred land”, which designates him as a god of the desert necropolis.

Most ancient tombs had prayers to Anubis carved on them.

Embalmer

As jmy-wt “He who is in the place of embalming”, Anubis was associated with mummification. He was also called ḫnty zḥ-nṯr “He who presides over the god’s booth”, in which “booth” could refer either to the place where embalming was carried out or the pharaoh’s burial chamber.

In the Osiris myth, Anubis helped Isis to embalm Osiris. Indeed, when the Osiris myth emerged, it was said that after Osiris had been killed by Set, Osiris’s organs were given to Anubis as a gift. With this connection, Anubis became the patron god of embalmers; during the rites of mummification, illustrations from the Book of the Dead often show a wolf-mask-wearing priest supporting the upright mummy.

Guide of souls

By the late pharaonic era (664–332 BC), Anubis was often depicted as guiding individuals across the threshold from the world of the living to the afterlife. Though a similar role was sometimes performed by the cow-headed Hathor, Anubis was more commonly chosen to fulfill that function. Greek writers from the Roman period of Egyptian history designated that role as that of “psychopomp”, a Greek term meaning “guide of souls” that they used to refer to their own god Hermes, who also played that role in Greek religion. Funerary art from that period represents Anubis guiding either men or women dressed in Greek clothes into the presence of Osiris, who by then had long replaced Anubis as ruler of the underworld.

Weighing of the heart

One of the roles of Anubis was as the “Guardian of the Scales.” The critical scene depicting the weighing of the heart, in the Book of the Dead, shows Anubis performing a measurement that determined whether the person was worthy of entering the realm of the dead (the underworld, known as Duat). By weighing the heart of a deceased person against Ma’at (or “truth”), who was often represented as an ostrich feather, Anubis dictated the fate of souls. Souls heavier than a feather would be devoured by Ammit, and souls lighter than a feather would ascend to a heavenly existence.

Source

Wikipedia

Gods – Baldur

Norse God Baldur from gods-and-goddesses.com

Baldur is the Norse god of innocence, beauty and goodness. He is known as “The Shining One.” He is the most handsome god of Asgard and known for his invulnerability. Ironically, he is most known for his death.

His name is spelled in several different ways, including Baldur, Baldr or Balder.

Name(s):	Baldur
Rules over:	Light, Joy, Summer.
Gender:	Male
Symbols:	Ringhorn (Greatest of all ships)
Linked Animals:
Parents:	Odin (Father) and Frigg (Mother)
Siblings:	Hod, Hermod; Thor, Vidar, and Vali are half-siblings
Greek Similar:	Apollo
Roman Similar:	Apollo

Appearance

The key physical attribute of Baldur is that he exuded beauty, and was possibly the most beautiful of the Aesir gods. He was said to be so beautiful that light shined from him. This can be found in the ancient Norse manuscript called the Prose Edda, from which a substantial amount of what is known about Norse mythology is derived from. The Prose Edda contains four main sections.

In the second section, called Gylfaginning, it states “Hann er svá fagr álitum ok bjartr svá at lýsir af honum, ok eitt gras er svá hvítt at jafnat er til Baldrs brár”. This passage can be roughly translated to “He is so beautiful in appearance and so bright that he shines, and one grass is so white that it is even to Baldr’s brow.”

Family

He is the son of Odin (father) and Frigg (mother). His siblings include Hod and Hermod, and his half-siblings include Vidar, and Vali.

Symbols

The greatest ship ever built was the Ringhorn, or Hringhorni, and belonged to Baldur. It a symbol commonly associated with the god.

Upon Baldur’s death, a giant fire was made on the deck of the Ringhorn, and his body was laid on top of it to be cremated.

Powers & Duties

Baldur is the god and champion of goodness, innocence, and forgiveness. His twin brother, Hod, is the god of darkness.

Myths

Baldur started to have dreams the night after some sort of grave misfortune happened to him. His mother and the other gods were nervous for Baldur because he was one of the most beloved gods in Asgard. They asked Odin what the dream meant, and Odin embarked on a quest to the underworld. There he met a dead seeress who told Odin that Baldur would soon die. When Odin got back and let everyone know, Frigg was desperate to try and save her son.

Frigg was able to get every living thing to promise not to harm him. Therefore, Baldur became invincible and he was even more beloved by everyone in Asgard. However, Loki was jealous of Baldur and tried to discover any weakness he may have. When he asked Frigg if she made sure that everything promised not to harm Baldur, she said she forgot to ask mistletoe, but that it was too small, weak, and innocent to harm him anyway.

During a party, Baldur told everyone to throw sharp objects at him as entertainment since he couldn’t be harmed. Everyone was having a good time. Loki then gave blind Hod (who was unknowingly Baldur’s twin brother) a dart made of mistletoe and told him to throw it at Baldur. When it struck Baldur, he died.

Frigg then asked everyone to travel to the land of the dead and offer Hel, the death-goddess, a ransom for Baldur’s release. Hermod, a son of Odin agreed. When he finally got to the throne room of Hel, he saw a distraught Baldur sitting next to her in a seat of honor. Hermod tried to convince Hel to let Baldur go, explaining that everyone was mourning his death. She said that she’ll let him go if everyone in the world wept for him. However, an old hag called Thokk refused to weep saying that he never did anything for her. But the hag turned out to be Loki, who was caught and chained up for eternal punishment.

But, Baldur won’t be dead forever. Although his death signaled the beginning of the events that would eventually lead to Ragnarok, his resurrection signaled the end of Ragnarok and the beginning of the new world. Once the cosmos was destroyed and recreated and all the gods had served their purposes and fallen to their prophesied fates, Baldur will return to the land of the living. He will bless the land and its inhabitants and bring with him light, happiness, and hope to fill the new world.

Facts About Baldur

Skadi had a crush on Baldur and had hoped to choose him based off his shoes, but instead accidentally chose Njord.
The name Baldur may mean “brave” or “Bold”, but it may also stem from Norse terms for “white” or “shining”.
Baldur’s wife is called Nanna, and they have a son named Forseti, the God of Justice.
Baldur’s great hall is called Breidablik.
After Baldur’s death, his wife, Nanna, was so distraught, that she herself died.
Odin placed the golden ring, Draupnir, on Baldur when he died, but later sent it back to Helheim.
Baldur and Hod will rule Asgard together in place of Odin after Ragnarok.
When Baldur died, he was placed on his ship Hringhorni for a funeral pyre. But, it was too large to launch the ship out to sea. So, the gods asked Hyrrokkin, the strongest giantess, to push it into the sea. She was successful.
Thor hallowed Baldur’s funeral pyre flames by holding his hammer over them.

Gods – Heimdall

Norse God Hemidall from gods-and-goddesses.com

Heimdall (or Heimdallr in Old Norse) is the Watchman of the Norse Gods. He guards the entryway of Asgard, the realm of the gods and stands firm at the edge of the Bifrost, the rainbow bridge that connects Asgard to Midgard (the realm of humans). Heimdall’s home near the Bifrost is called Himinbjorg (“sky cliffs”), where he keeps a vigil on the Bifrost and drinks heavenly mead.

Name(s):	Heimdall
Rules over:	Watchmen of the Norse gods
Gender:	Male
Symbols:	Gjallarhorn
Linked Animals:	Ram, Gulltoppr the Horse
Parents:	Odin (Father), Nine Sisters (Mothers)
Siblings:	Sif
Greek Similar:	None
Roman Similar:	None

Family

Heimdall is said to be a son of Odin, born from 9 mothers who were all sisters; the theory is that he is the son of the 9 daughters of the sea god, Aegir.

In Norse mythology, Heimdall is also known as the Father of Humankind because he helped establish the hierarchical structure of Norse society. In the Norse poem Rigsthula, Heimdall slept with three different human couples from different social classes for three nights. In the poem, these couples are named “Great-Grandparents,” “Grandparents,” and “Parents.” The social classes were serfs, peasants, and nobles.

The first born was an ugly, but strong boy named Thrall—ancestor of all serfs. Then came Karl, the ancestor of all peasants and skilled farm worker. Finally, Jarl, the ancestor of all warriors and nobles, was born with great intellect and the skills of hunting and combat. The names of the three sons became the words that denoted the three social classes in the Norse language.

Symbols

The most common symbol affiliated with Heimdall is the Gjallarhorn, or Resounding Horn. Heimdall would blow the horn to warn Asgard of impending attacks.

In the book Gylfaginning of Prose Edda, Heimdall is said to possess a horse named Gulltoppr, which means “golden mane” or “golden top”.

Powers & Duties

He is known to have great powers of the senses. Heimdall can hear grass grow and even the wool grow on sheep. He can also see more than 100 leagues and needs less sleep than a bird. These powers make him the perfect watchman for Asgard.

Heimdall’s most important duty, besides being Watchman of the Bifrost, is warning. He owns the Gjallarhon, the Resounding Horn, and will blow it when the giants attack; the giants are the enemies of the gods of Asgard. Legend has it that Ragnarok will begin when they attack Asgard and Heimdall blows his horn. Loki will lead the giants to Asgard, while Heimdall will try to stop Loki and they will end up slaying each other.

Many believed that Heimdall sometimes liked to escape his duties of watchman and would go on adventures using the name Rig, which meant king. A very famous story of one of these adventures is how he found and returned Freya’s treasure, the Brisingamen (an amber necklace) after doing battle with Loki who was in the shape of a seal. Loki had stolen the Brisingamen and hid himself amongst seals to avoid detection. But Heimdall, who had been sitting quietly disguised as a seal for hours, watched. He then immediately got down from his rock and punched Loki in the face and retrieved the necklace for Freya.

Facts about Heimdall

Heimdall’s name is pronounced “HAME-doll”;
He is known as the shining god—the whitest of all the gods. He has golden armor and golden teeth;
The horn, Gjallarhon, is thought to be hidden under the world tree Yggdrasil;
Heimdall owns a golden horse named Gulltoppr;
Not only does Heimdall have super senses, but he also has foreknowledge;
In Old Norse, Heimdallr means “the one who illuminates the world”;
He is known to be the wisest and most handsome of the gods of Asgard;
Not much is known about Heimdall, as there aren’t a lot of surviving poems or artifacts that mention him;
Some other names of Heimdall are Hallinskidi, which means “ram,” and Gullintanni, which means “golden-teeth”;
He is sometimes associated with sheep and rams. Some believe this to be due to his “golden teeth” because older rams’ teeth have a yellow sheen;
Heimdall’s sword is called “Head”;
Sometimes, Heimdall is equated with the Vedic deity Dyaus;
He is also sometimes equated with the Christian archangel Michael because he is the link between the realms of the humans and gods and his horn will signal the end of the world;
The three main sources of knowledge about Heimdall are the medieval epic poems, Poetica Edda, Prose Edda, and Heimskringia. There is also an earlier poem called the Heimdalargaldr, in which only two lines survive.

Gods – Chac

Chac Mayan God of Rain from gods-and-goddesses.com

Chac is the Mayan god of Rain. He is very similar to the Aztec god Tlaloc.

Name(s):	Chac
Rules over:	Rain, Lightning
Gender:	Male
Symbols:
Sacred animals:	Snake
Greek Similar:	Zeus
Roman Similar:	Jupiter

At times, Chac could manifest into four different gods, or parts. Each god had a cardinal direction and color, as well as a unique name. These manifestations are as follows:

Sac Xib Chac, North, White
Chac Xib Chac, East, Red
Kan Xib Chac, South, Yellow
Ek Xib Chac, West, Black

These four gods, or parts, are sometimes referred to as The Chacs. These four could also be seen as assistants to the god Chac.

Appearance

Chac had a very unique and distinct appearance in Mayan mythology. The deity was known for his long, hooked nose, fangs and long tongue. His nose was turned up, much like an elephant’s nose.

He was also portrayed with animal attributes as well. He could be depicted as having scales, like those of a fish or reptile. This was likely due to his affiliation with rain.

Powers & Abilities

Rain gods had a couple of different ways of making it rain. They would use jade or stone axes to hit rain-carrying snakes, or throw the axes or snakes at the clouds, causing rain, lightning and thunder.

Worship

There are several known rituals associated with Chac. One of these is known as Burner periods and rituals. A Burner period lasted 65 days, or a quarter of the 260 day religious Mayan calendar.

Note – The Mayans had two calendars. One was similar to ours, and had 360 days. The other was a religious calendar, and had 260 days.

Each of the four Chac gods was associated with one of the four Burner periods. Not a lot is known about Burner rituals and periods, but they are mentioned in several Mayan texts. It is possible that a sacred fire was constantly lit and tended to by a priest for the duration of a 65 day Burner period. After a given Burner period ended, a new priest would tend to the fire.

Sadly, in later Mayan times, another ritual involving child sacrifice became associated with worship of Chac. These sacrifices became more numerous in periods of long droughts.

Facts about Chac

He is sometimes referred to as god B. This is due to Paul Schellhas’ classification of the Mayan gods around the turn of the 20th century as he examined the four Mayan codices.
His name can also be spelled Chaac, Chaak or Chaack.
Depictions of this deity can be found at Mayan sites including Chichen Itza, Copan and Peten.
According to Mayan mythology, he created lightning, rain and thunder by throwing his stone or jade ax at the clouds.
He is one of the major gods of Mayan mythology, and is depicted more than any other Mayan god.
Chac is also the name for the Mayan color red.

References

Mercatante, Anthony S., and Down, James R. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend. Second Edition, 2004. Pages 227 and 228.
Jones, David M. Mythology of the Aztecs and Mayam, 2007. Anness Publishing Limited. Page 23.
Luxton, Richard N. The Book of Chumayel: The Counsel Book of the Yucatec Maya 1539 – 1638. Aegean Park Press, 1995. Page 279.
Wikipedia contributors. “Chaac.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 5 Feb. 2020. Web. 19 Feb. 2020.

Gods – Loki

Loki Norse God of Mischief from .gods-and-goddesses.com

Loki is known as the trickster god and deity of mayhem and mischief in Norse mythology. He is one of the most well-known gods of Norse mythology. He is at least half-giant; however, some think he is full-giant but sneaked his way to becoming a god.

Name(s):	Loki
Rules over:	Chaos, Mischief
Gender:	Male
Symbols:	Mistletoe, Horned Helmet (modern depictions)
Linked Animals:	Two Intertwined Snakes
Parents:	Fárbauti and Laufey
Siblings:	Helblindi and Býleistr
Greek Similar:	Atë
Roman Similar:	Laverna

Family

Loki’s father was Fárbauti and his mother was Laufey. It is unknown whether his mother was a lesser known goddess or a giant, and his father definitely was a giant.

This duplicity may have attributed to Loki’s split feelings about the gods of Asgard. Sometimes he is helpful to them, but other times he insults them, causes trouble, and during Ragnarok leads the giants into battle against Asgard.

Symbols

Loki has been associated with mistletoe, two intertwined snakes, and also a helmet with two horns.

Powers & Duties

Loki had the power to shape-shift in Norse legends. In various stories, he turned into a salmon, mare, seal, fly, and elderly woman. He also used a combination of masterful trickery and cunning to achieve his objectives.

Stories

The first time Loki helped the gods was when they were building Asgard. The gods had run out of funds and all they had built was a wall. Loki came up with the idea that a giant should finish the job for them. The gods agreed, as did the giant. But, the giant asked for the Sun, the Moon, and the goddess Freya as payment if he completed the job on time. The gods weren’t sure, but Loki assured them that the giant would never finish on time. The giant had a huge stallion called Svadilfari to help him, and the gods got nervous. Loki changed shape into a mare and seduced the giant’s horse. As a result of Loki’s trickery, the giant wasn’t able to finish on schedule and tried to kidnap Freya. Before the giant could, Thor cracked his skull with a hammer. However, Loki, as the female horse, got pregnant and gave birth to an eight-legged stallion named Sleipnir, which he gave to Odin.

Another time he helps the gods of Asgard is when Thor lost his hammer, Mjolnir. Thor asks Loki for help and they work together to find where the hammer is located. Thrymr, the giant, had stolen the weapon and taken it to the home of the giants. He would only return it if Freya would agree to marry him. Loki came up with a plan that included his and Thor’s cross-dressing to get the hammer back. It succeeded, and Thrymr was punished.

During a great feast in Asgard, Loki wasn’t invited and was upset. He asked the guard what the gods were talking about, and the guard told him they were talking about war, weapons, and saying negative things about Loki. Loki burst in, and the gods became silent. Loki then asks for a seat, and Odin finally agrees to let him sit. Loki gives a toast to all the gods except for Bragi, whom he insults instead. They start arguing and other gods and goddesses get involved.

Loki begins to insult them all, including Odin, and when Frigg, Odin’s wife, tries to stop Loki, he ends up insulting her as well. She tells Loki that if her son Baldur were still alive, Loki wouldn’t be able to escape the wrath of the gods. Loki then reminds her that he is responsible for Baldur’s death. The insults continue when Freya calls Loki mad – he retorts that she is a whore. Heimdall tells Loki he’s drunk and to stop, but Loki insults Heimdall. Skadi tells Loki to watch it or he’ll be bound up, and Loki insults her. Sif, the wife of Thor, gives him mead in a golden goblet saying she is blameless and he can’t insult her. Loki claims she is his lover. Thor finally arrives, threatens Loki to silence with Mjolmir, and Loki finally leaves after insulting Thor. He disguises himself as a salmon, but the gods find him and finally bind him until Ragnarok.

Facts About Loki

In Old Norse, Loki means “close”;
Loki typically cheated dwarves at any opportunity given to him. They finally were able to stitch his mouth shut to keep him quiet from insults;
Loki is the father of Hel, the goddess of the land of the dead. He is also father of Fenrir, the wolf demon that bites off Tyr’s hand and will eat Odin during Ragnarok. He is also the father of Jormungandr, the world serpent;
Loki steals Freya’s amber necklace, in which Heimdall fights him and retrieves it;
Loki tricked blind Hod to kill Baldur with mistletoe;
When bound until Ragnarok, Skadi places a venomous snake above him, which causes him terrible pain with the poison.

Gods -Perses

Perses

Perses from greekgodsandgoddesses.net

Long before the rise of the OLYMPIANS, Titans ruled the world. In Greek mythology, THE TITANS were a race of elder gods. The earliest generation of Titans was born from Chaos. Known as primordial deities, the first Titans represented fundamental principles of the Earth and universe. However, their children and subsequent generations resembled humans and giants with great mystical powers.

As a whole, the Titans are not as well-known as the more famous Olympians of the Greek Pantheon. However, they still play an important role in GREEK MYTHOLOGY.

One Titan whose story is largely lost to the sands of time is Perses. A second-generation Titan god, Perses is the god of destruction. He represents the devastation and disorder that can come from war, depicting the obliteration of land and lives in the process.

The Origins of Perses

Information about Perses is sparse. He did not play a significant role in Greek mythology. Despite his importance to ancient Greeks, he’s only briefly mentioned in poems and texts. Most information comes from “THE THEOGONY” by Hesiod, which is the most trusted source for tracing immortal lineage. Perses is mentioned in the Homeric Hymns and works by Apollodorus as well.

Perses is the son of Titans CRIUS and EURYBIA. Crius was the god of constellations, and Eurybia was the goddess of mastery of the seas. The two elder Titans came from the first primordial deities. Together they bore Perses, Pallas, and ASTRAEUS.

There’s very little information about Perses’ upbringing or personal history. Like many Titans, Greeks didn’t actively worship Perses. The only time Greeks would ask for assistance was during times of war. But outside of that, Perses didn’t have any temples, sanctuaries, or cults.

Perses Depictions

Few artistic depictions exist of Perses exist throughout history. Unlike the Twelve Olympians, Perses and other Titans didn’t get many paintings, sculptures, or pottery. As a result, modern artists have taken many creative liberties with the god’s appearance.

Generally, Perses is shown as a destructive force in the midst of war. As with many other Titans, Perses is usually depicted as a giant among men.

Some scholars believe that Perses was envisioned with animalistic features. The Titan Crius and his three sons have a strong connection to a group of interconnected star constellations, which also hold animal-like qualities. Perses takes the form of a canine. Meanwhile, his brothers Pallas and Astraeus had the form of a goat-like giant and an equine, respectively. Their father, Crius was a ram.

Perses Symbolism

The son of the Titan CRIUS was the personification of destruction. He was a violent and aggressive deity who represented all of the war’s darker aspects. Perses is just one of many war gods. While not as famous as Ares, he certainly made his mark.

Perses had a reputation for his bloodlust. Ancient Greeks knew him as “The Destroyer,” accompanying soldiers in the heat of battle to conquer nations. He had a fondness for chaotic battle, reveling in the ensuing violence.

As mentioned earlier, Perses didn’t have a cult of temples dedicated to his honor. But, that didn’t stop Greeks from praying for his favor. Soldiers often prayed to Perses for assistance during battle. They didn’t just ask for his protection. Greeks turned to Perses for strength and strategy, ensuring that they had what it took to take out their biggest enemies.

According to Hesiod, Perses was also a master of strategy. He reportedly had wisdom that could win battles even if the odds were stacked in his favor. The god was particularly helpful with military strategy, but he also had wisdom that surpassed all men.

Interestingly enough, some versions of Perses’ tale say that he didn’t just focus on destruction. Some scholars believe that Perses was the god of both destruction and peace. In ancient Greece, war was constant. Towns were ransacked frequently as death loomed over territory disputes and simple disagreements.

Many in ancient Greece turned to Perses for more than just success during the war. They asked for a swift end to battle so that they could enjoy the peace that followed. Even if the pause was brief, many saw Perses as a symbol of what came after conflicts were resolved.

Marriage and Children

Perses married Asteria. Asteria was a Titan goddess born from Coeus (Polus) and PHOEBE. She was an immortal inhabitant of Olympus and a dark goddess of necromancy.

Asteria was known to practice witchcraft and communicate with the dead. According to legend, she also predicted the future.

The union of the goddess of necromancy and the god of the destruction resulted in a powerful child. The pair gave birth to Hecate, the GREEK GODDESS of magic, specters, witchcraft, and more.

Confusion with King Perses

The Titan god Perses is often confused with King Perses of COLCHIS. Because there’s not much information about the Titan, some elements of the figures’ stories overlap.

King Perses is a minor figure in Greek mythology. He’s the son of Helios and Perseis, an OCEANID. Helios and Perseis gave birth to multiple children, making Perses the brother of Aeetes, CIRCE, and PASIPHAE.

Of his four siblings, this Perses is one of the least famous. He became the king of Tauric Chersonese. Tauric Chersonese doesn’t exist anymore, but it’s thought to be in the modern-day Crimean peninsula. However, his brother and sisters have a more significant part in Greek mythology. Aeetes became the king of Colchis and is most commonly associated with THE ARGONAUTS. Meanwhile, Circe became a famous sorceress, and Pasiphae married KING MINOS OF CRETE.

Eventually, this Perses did become the king of Colchis. His brother, Aeetes, feared that he would lose his kingdom if THE GOLDEN FLEECE ever left Colchis. If you’re familiar with the story of the hero JASON and his Argonauts, you know what ended up happening with the famed Golden Fleece. It left Colchis, and Perses seized the opportunity to take the throne. Perses threw Aeetes into a prison cell as the sons of HELIOS fell into a full-blown civil war.

Of course, Perses’ rule didn’t last long.

Aeetes’ daughter, Medea, returned to Colchis with her son Medus. The two lied, giving false identities. Perses didn’t recognize his own niece, giving her plenty of opportunities to kill Perses. She gave her son Medus a sword to slay the king of Colchis. Then, she freed her father Aeetes to help him regain his rightful place on the throne.

The story of King Perses doesn’t have any relation to the Titan god Perses. But because their names are the same, many confuse the two. It doesn’t help that names like “Circe” and “Medea” occur in both tales. While there are similarities even in the family tree, most scholars agree that the two Perses’ are unique entities deserving of their own spot in the mythology.

The Legacy of Perses

The Titan Perses doesn’t have much significance in Greek mythology, but he’s important to the earlier history and lore of the ancient religion. Perses was one of the first war gods to exist. As a second-generation Titan, he is an early deity that existed long before the uprising of the Olympians.

He helped ancient Greeks create a path of destruction during war before Ares or ATHENA ever came into the mix. He exhibits the primal nature of warriors and a never-ending lust for blood. The god also represented the powers of war, for better or worse. Even in the wake of massive annihilation, the end of conflicts brought a period of peace that ancient Greeks always longed for.

The Titans eventually fell to ZEUS and the Olympians. How Perses fared in the TITANOMACHY is unknown. Whether or not he participated in the great war is up for debate. One thing scholars do know is that he is not listed among the Titans that were banished to TARTARUS. As a result, most assume that the figure faded into obscurity or served the people of Greece in some other way. He fails to appear in later stories, further cementing the idea that other Greek gods like ARES took over his role.

Trivia:

Perses was the Titan god of destruction.

Not to be confused with King Perses of Colchis, Perseus, the slayer of MEDUSA, or Perses, the ancestor of the Persians.

The name Perses comes from the ancient Greek words “perso” and “pertho,” which has an English translation of “to sack” or “to destroy.”

Perses is the progeny of Titans Crius and Eurybia.

The Titan god Perses belongs to the second generation of Titan gods.

Asteria is Perses’ wife.

With Asteria, Perses had one child: Hecate.

Source: <a href=”https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/gods/perses/”>Perses – Greek Titan God of Destruction: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net</a> – Greek Gods & Goddesses, December 22, 2021

God – Xiuhtecuhtli

Xiuhtecuhtli – Aztec god of fire, day and heat from en.wikipedia.org

In Aztec mythology, Xiuhtecuhtli [ʃiʍˈtekʷt͡ɬi] (“Turquoise Lord” or “Lord of Fire”),^[3] was the god of fire, day and heat.^[4] In historical sources he is called by many names, which reflect his varied aspects and dwellings in the three parts of the cosmos.^[5] He was the lord of volcanoes,^[6] the personification of life after death, warmth in cold (fire), light in darkness and food during famine. He was also named Cuezaltzin [kʷeˈsaɬt͡sin] (“flame”) and Ixcozauhqui [iʃkoˈsaʍki],^[7] and is sometimes considered to be the same as Huehueteotl (“Old God”),^[8] although Xiuhtecuhtli is usually shown as a young deity.^[9] His wife was Chalchiuhtlicue. Xiuhtecuhtli is sometimes considered to be a manifestation of Ometecuhtli, the Lord of Duality, and according to the Florentine Codex Xiuhtecuhtli was considered to be the father of the Gods,^[10] who dwelled in the turquoise enclosure in the center of earth.^[11] Xiuhtecuhtli-Huehueteotl was one of the oldest and most revered of the indigenous pantheon.^[12] The cult of the God of Fire, of the Year, and of Turquoise perhaps began as far back as the middle Preclassic period.^[13] Turquoise was the symbolic equivalent of fire for Aztec priests.^[14] A small fire was permanently kept alive at the sacred center of every Aztec home in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli.^[14]

The Nahuatl word xihuitl means “year” as well as “turquoise” and “fire”,^[11] and Xiuhtecuhtli was also the god of the year and of time.^[15]^[16] The Lord of the Year concept came from the Aztec belief that Xiuhtecuhtli was the North Star.^[17] In the 260-day ritual calendar, the deity was the patron of the day Atl (“Water”) and with the trecena 1 Coatl (“1 Snake”).^[15] Xiuhtecuhtli was also one of the nine Lords of the Night and ruled the first hour of the night, named Cipactli (“Alligator”).^[18] Scholars have long emphasized that this fire deity also has aquatic qualities.^[13] Xiuhtecuhtli dwelt inside an enclosure of turquoise stones, fortifying himself with turquoise bird water.^[19] He is the god of fire in relation to the cardinal directions, just as the brazier for lighting fire is the center of the house or temple.^[20] Xiuhtecuhtli was the patron god of the Aztec emperors, who were regarded as his living embodiment at their enthronement.^[21] The deity was also one of the patron gods of the pochteca merchant class.^[22]

Stone sculptures of Xiuhtecuhtli were ritually buried as offerings, and various statuettes have been recovered during excavations at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan with which he was closely associated.^[23] Statuettes of the deity from the temple depict a seated male with his arms crossed.^[24] A sacred fire was always kept burning in the temples of Xiuhtecuhtli.^[25] In gratitude for the gift of fire, the first mouthful of food from each meal was flung into the hearth.^[21]

Xiuhtecuhtli is depicted in the Codex Borgia.^[26]

Attributes

Xiuhtecuhtli’s face is painted with black and red pigment.^[16] Xiuhtecuhtli was usually depicted adorned with turquoise mosaic, wearing the turquoise xiuhuitzolli crown of rulership on his head and a turquoise butterfly pectoral on his chest,^[27] and he often wears a descending turquoise xiuhtototl bird (Cotinga amabilis) on his forehead and the Xiuhcoatl fire serpent on his back.^[28] He owns fire serpent earplugs.^[12] On his head he has a paper crown painted with different colors and motifs. On top of the crown there are sprays of green feathers, like flames from a fire.^[12] He has feather tufts to each side, like pendants, toward his ears. On his back he has plumage resembling a dragon’s head, made of yellow feathers with marine conch shells.^[12] He has copper bells tied to the insteps of his feet. In his left hand he holds a shield with five greenstones, called chalchihuites, placed in the form of a cross on a thin gold plate that covered almost all the shield.^[12] In his right hand he has a kind of scepter that was a round gold plate with a hole in the middle, and topped by two globes, one larger than the other, the smaller one had a point.^[12] Xiuhtecuhtli is closely associated with youthful warriors and with rulership, and was considered a solar god.^[29] His principal symbols are the tecpatl (flint) and the mamalhuatzin, the two sticks that were rubbed together to light ceremonial fires.^[30] A staff with a deer’s head was also an attribute of Xiuhtecuhtli, although not exclusively so as it could also be associated with Xochiquetzal and other deities.^[31]

Many of the attributes of Xiuhtecuhtli are found associated with Early Postclassic Toltec warriors but clear representations of the god are not common until the Late Postclassic.^[28] The nahual, or spirit form, of Xiuhtecuhtli is Xiuhcoatl, the Fire Serpent.^[32]

Xiuhtecuhtli was embodied in the teotecuilli, the sacrificial brazier into which sacrificial victims were cast during the New Fire ceremony.^[32] This took place at the end of each cycle of the Aztec calendar round (every 52 years),^[33] when the gods were thought to be able to end their covenant with humanity. Feasts were held in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli to keep his favors, and human sacrifices were burned after removing their heart.

Annual festival[edit]

The annual festival of Xiuhtecuhtli was celebrated in Izcalli, the 18th veintena of the year.^[34] The Nahuatl word izcalli means “stone house” and refers to the building where maize used to be dried and roasted between mid-January and mid-February. The whole month was therefore devoted to fire.^[14] The Izcalli rituals grew in importance every four years.^[35] A framework image of the deity was constructed from wood and was richly finished with clothing, feathers and an elaborate mask.^[34] Quails were sacrificed to the idol and their blood spilt before it and copal was burnt in his honour.^[36] On the day of the festival, the priests of Xiuhtecuhtli spent the day dancing and singing before their god.^[37] People caught animals, including mammals, birds, snakes, lizards and fish, for ten days before the festival in order to throw them into the hearth on the night of the festival.^[38] On the tenth day of Izcalli, during a festival called huauhquiltamalcualiztli (“eating of the amaranth leaf tamales”), the New Fire was lighted, signifying the change of the annual cycle and the rebirth of the fire deity.^[39] During the night the image of the god was lit with using the mamalhuatzin.^[40] Food was consumed ritually, including shrimp tamales, after first offering it to the god.^[38]

Every four years a more solemn version of the festival was held at the temple of Xiuhtecuhtli in Tenochtitlan, attended by the emperor and his nobles.^[42] Slaves and captives were dressed as the deity and sacrificed in his honour.^[43] Godparents were assigned to children on this day and the children had their ears ritually pierced. After this, the children, their parents and godparents all shared a meal together.^[42]

New Fire Ceremony[edit]

Xiuhtecuhtli was celebrated often but especially at the end of every 52-year period. This was the time the 365-day solar and the 260-day sacred calendars ended on the same day and the Aztec celebrated the Binding of the Years with the New Fire Ceremony.^[17] In order to perform the ritual, priests marched in solemn procession up the Hill of the Star on a peninsula near Culhuacán to wait for the star Yohualtecuhtli (either Aldebaran in the Taurus constellation or the Pleiades as a whole) to get past its zenith. Having ascertained this, they would tear out the heart of a sacrificial victim and kindle a flame in a small wooden hearth they placed inside the hole left in his chest. Priests used a drill method to generate this sacred flame. It was then carried on pine sticks to light the fires anew in every hearth, including the sacred braziers of perpetual fire, that numbered over 600 in the capital alone.^[44]

Gods – Cernunnos

Cernunnos – Wild God of the Forest from learnreligions.com

Cernunnos is a horned god found in Celtic mythology. He is connected with male animals, particularly the stag in rut, and this has led him to be associated with fertility and vegetation. Depictions of Cernunnos are found in many parts of the British Isles and western Europe. He is often portrayed with a beard and wild, shaggy hair–he is, after all, the lord of the forest.

With his mighty antlers, Cernunnos is a protector of the forest and master of the hunt. He is a god of vegetation and trees in his aspect as the Green Man, and a god of lust and fertility when connected with Pan, the Greek satyr. In some traditions, he is seen as a god of death and dying, and takes the time to comfort the dead by singing to them on their way to the spirit world.

History and Worship of Cernunnos

In Margaret Murray’s 1931 book, God of the Witches, she posits that Herne the Hunter is a manifestation of Cernunnos. Because he is found only in Berkshire, and not in the rest of the Windsor Forest area, Herne is considered a “localized” god and could indeed be the Berkshire interpretation of Cernunnos. During the Elizabethan age, Cernunnos appears as Herne in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor. He also embodies fealty to the realm, and guardianship of royalty.

Because of his horns (and the occasional depiction of a large, erect phallus), Cernunnos has often been misinterpreted by fundamentalists as a symbol of Satan. Certainly, at times, the Christian church has pointed to the Pagan following of Cernunnos as “devil worship.” This is in part due to nineteenth-century paintings of Satan which included large, ram-like horns much like those of Cernunnos.

Today, many Pagan traditions honor Cernunnos as an aspect of the God, the embodiment of masculine energy and fertility and power.

A Prayer to Cernunnos

God of the green,
Lord of the forest,
I offer you my sacrifice.
I ask you for your blessing.

You are the man in the trees,
the green man of the woods,
who brings life to the dawning spring.
You are the deer in rut,
mighty Horned One,
who roams the autumn woods,
the hunter circling round the oak,
the antlers of the wild stag,
and the lifeblood that spills upon
the ground each season.

God of the green,
Lord of the forest,
I offer you my sacrifice.
I ask you for your blessing.

Honoring Cernunnos in Ritual

If your tradition calls for you to honor Cernunnos in ritual–especially around the season of the Beltane sabbat–be sure to read John Beckett’s article at Patheos, The Cernunnos Ritual. Beckett says,

“His presence, which had been mild but undeniable since we started setting up (what, you think a Forest God is going to sit quietly outside the door till he gets a proper invitation?) became overwhelming. Someone shouted. Someone got up and began to dance. Then another got up, and another, and another. Before long we had a whole line of people dancing, spinning, and chanting around the altar.
Cernunnos! Cernunnos! Cernunnos!”

Juniper, at Walking the Hedge, has an absolutely lovely and moving ritual worth reading about called A Devotional Ritual to Cernunnos. She says,

“I call to Him with feeling, with love with desire. I call until I feel His presence, I do not assume a few words of poetry will be enough and carry on. I call until the hair on the back of my neck stands up and goosebumps run down my arms. I call until I can smell His scent on the air… When Cernunnos has arrived I thank Him with gifts, by showing Him what offerings I have brought for Him and placing it at the foot of the god-stang.”

Other ways you can honor Cernunnos in a ritual setting include making offerings to him, particularly if you have a forest or wooded area nearby. Take some wine, milk, or consecrated water in a chalice and pour it upon the ground while calling to him. You can also decorate your altar with his symbols, such as leaves, shed antlers, moss, and fresh clean soil. If you’ve trying to conceive, and you’ve got a significant other who’s open to the practice of ritual sex magic, consider a bit of outdoor passion some evening, and call upon Cernunnos to bless your union.

The Study of Pagan Gods and Goddesses: Vidar c. 2018

Vidar

Vidar (Old Norse Víðarr), his name might mean “Wide Ruler” he is the son of the all-father Odin and the giantess Gríðr. Yes, you read that correctly, some of the Æsir have previously been together with the Jotuns, also known as giants. Some of the giants were so beautiful that even the Gods could not resist their beauty.

Vidar is the second strongest of the Æsir only Thor is stronger than him, Vidar might have inherited some of his strength from the giant side of the family. Vidar lives in Asgard in a great hall called Vidi, it’s a peaceful home and the inside looks like a garden.

Vidar is known for being very silent he loves being at peace with nature. Vidar sometimes sits for hours in his garden working on a special shoe.
This special shoe is the strongest of all the shoes and is being made from all bits and pieces of leather that shoemakers throw in the trash when making new shoes in Midgard. Vidar will use this special shoe to revenge his father’s death Odin at Ragnarok (Ragnarök).

This is when Vidar will fight the fearsome Fenris wolf, by placing one foot on Fenris’s lower jaw and pressing his hands on the upper jaw until Fenris’s mouth will be pulled apart. Ragnarok is the doom of the Gods and the end of the world. But from death, there also comes life, and Vidar is one of the few Gods who will survive Ragnarok and rebuilt the new world

—————————————

Hymn to Vidarr

Vidar1Hail to the Silent God
Who sees much and speaks little,
Who waits patiently for the moment
Of injustice that needs to be equalized.
Hail to the God called upon
When cruelty has gone so far
That there is no making things right,
Hail to the God of cold vengeance
Who does what is necessary
To even up the debt,
To bring Fate’s balance true
Quicker than entropy would allow.
Hail to the God of the Thick-Soled Shoe
Whose steps are silent
So that he might approach from behind.
Hail to you, son of Grid the Wise
And Odin the Powerful,
May I know to call upon you
Only as a last resort.

— Seawalker, Author

————————————————–

Vidar

It is said that Odin had an affair with the warrior goddess Grid, and that she bore him a son named Vidarr, who took after his father and became one of the honored Aesir Gods. He is one of the two Gods of Vengeance – the other being his half-brother Váli, as it seems that in ancient Norse culture one deity of vengeance was not enough.

Vidarr’s name may originally have meant “widely ruling”. He is known as “the Silent God”, meaning that he does not flaunt his vengeance; Vidarr is said to speak little, but be a fierce warrior when the moment is needed. It is also said that he is almost as strong as Thor, and that the Gods depend upon him in times of trouble. Some scholars theorize that his “silent God” appellation may have something to do with ancient rituals of vengeance; it may be that individuals who were preparing for a vengeance battle refrained from speaking as part of a ritual purification.

He is also known as the God of the Thick Shoe, as he is constantly in the process of building up the soles of his shoes. This is done so that if Ragnarok comes and he faces Fenrir, he will be able to put his foot on Fenrir’s enormous jaws and strike his heart through his throat. Traditionally, shoemakers (and before that, people who made their own shoes) were encouraged to dedicate the little scraps of leather they trimmed off of their new shoe soles to Vidarr, who would collect them and add them slowly to his own soles.

In the saga Grímnismál, Odin describes the halls of many Gods, including that of his son Vidarr:

Brushwood grows and high grass
widely in Vidar’s land
and there the son proclaims on his horse’s back
that he’s keen to avenge his father.

This latter point is a harbinger of the prophecy that if Ragnarok comes, Fenrir will be loosed and will slay Odin, but he will be slain in turn by Vidarr. Both brothers are said to survive Ragnarok and help to rebuild a new world after Surt’s fires have burnt down. To make an offering to Vidarr, give him a weapon – throw it into icy water, or a bog, or bury it in ice.

Reference

Norse Mythology

Odin’s Family Tribe of Asgard

God of the Day – Odin

Odin Facts and Mythology from gods-and-goddesses.com

Odin is the Norse king of the Aesir, the principal race of Norse gods. He was considered the father of all the gods and was primarily associated with magic, wisdom, war, poetry, and the runic alphabet.

Mentioned frequently from the period of the Roman occupation to the Viking Age, Odin is a prominent figure in Norse mythology who continues to be acknowledged in modern popular culture. For instance, we are reminded of him every Wednesday, the weekday that was named after him; Odin is Woden in Old English, and Woden’s day became Wednesday.

Appearance

In most Norse texts, Odin is depicted as a long-bearded, one-eyed man wearing a broad hat and a cloak. Odin lost his eye upon visiting a Norse god named Mimir. Mimir was known as an extremely wise god, and he had also possessed a well called Mímisbrunnr. The waters in the well contained substantial wisdom and knowledge, and if someone drank from the well they would also gain wisdom.

However, Mimir required the drinker to sacrifice one of their eyes in order to take a drink. Odin decided to make the trade. Because of this trade, he is traditionally shown as having a dark eye or with a patch over one of his eyes.

Family

Odin had two brothers, named Vili and Ve. Myth has it that Odin created the universe after killing the primal frost giant Ymir with the help of his brothers. The three continued by making the first man and woman, Askr and Embla, from an ash tree and an elm tree.

Odin married Frigg, who is the mother of his sons Baldur, Hod, and Hermod. With Jord, the earth goddess, he fathered Thor. He is believed to have had more sons by other wives, including Vidar from the giantess Grid.

Symbols

The most common symbol associated with Odin is the Valknut symbol, which is made of three linked or interlocked triangles. This symbol appears in a number of places along with Odin or ravens, including the Tängelgårda stone in Sweden.

There are a number of interpretations about the meaning of the Valknut. Some believe it represented slain warriors, many of which went to stay with Odin in Valhalla. In fact, the word Valknut is derived from the words valr, which means slain warriors, and knut, which means knot. Others think that it may symbolize the heart of Hrungnir.

Another common symbol affiliated with Odin is his spear, called Gungnir, which he acquired from the trickster god Loki after he stole it from the dwarfs who made it.

The ravens Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory) were Odin’s companions. They traveled across the Nine Worlds in Norse cosmology and returned to their master’s shoulder with tales of what they saw.

Odin also had two pet wolves called Geri and Freki. He is said to have created them when he became lonely. Like ravens, they haunt battlefields and feast upon the dead. Odin, who only drinks wine, gave them all his food.

Powers & Duties

In Valhalla, Odin sat on his throne called Hlidskjalf from where he watched over the Nine Realms.

Odin sought further knowledge in the runes, the letters of the runic alphabet. To achieve this, he hung from a tree with a spear in his side for nine days and nights without food or drink. He often used runes to practice wizardry.

Together with Freya, the goddess of love and war, Odin possessed the souls of slain warriors. The half that belonged to him found a final resting place in Valhalla, his palatial home with 640 doors. They were brought here by Odin’s daughters, the Valkyries, who met them on the battlefield.

Odin had a never-ending quest for wisdom. Sometime after he sacrificed his eye, he also took possession of Mimir’s head when Mimir was decapitated by the Vanir, a rival tribe. The head would tell him secrets and give him advice.

Facts About Odin …

God of the Day – Osiris

Osiris

Osiris the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and rebirth in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh’s beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail. (He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When the brother cut him up into pieces after killing him Isis, his wife, found all the pieces and wrapped his body up.) Osiris was at times considered the eldest son of the god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning “Foremost of the Westerners”, a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead. As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called “king of the living”: ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead “the living ones”. Through syncretism with Iah, he is also the god of the Moon.

Osiris was considered the brother of Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder, and father of Horus the Younger. The first evidence of the worship of Osiris was found in the middle of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, although it is likely that he was worshiped much earlier; the Khenti-Amentiu epithet dates to at least the first dynasty, and was also used as a pharaonic title. Most information available on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth, and much later, in narrative style from the writings of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus.

Osiris was the judge of the dead and the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. He was described as “He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful” and the “Lord of Silence”. The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead so would they in union with him, and inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals.

Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with the heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. Osiris was widely worshipped until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Etymology of the name

Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA: [ó.siː.ris], which in turn is the Greek adaptation of the original name in the Egyptian language. In Egyptian hieroglyphs the name appears as wsjr, which some Egyptologists instead choose to transliterate ꜣsjr or jsjrj. Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels, Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways as Asar, Yasar, Aser, Asaru, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire or Ausare.

Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name; as Egyptologist Mark J. Smith notes, none are fully convincing. Most take wsjr as the accepted transliteration, following Adolf Erman:

John Gwyn Griffiths (1980), “bearing in mind Erman’s emphasis on the fact that the name must begin with an [sic] w“, proposes a derivation from wsr with an original meaning of “The Mighty One”. Moreover, one of the oldest attestations of the god Osiris appears in the mastaba of the deceased Netjer-wser (from nṯr-wsr “Powerful God”).^{[citation needed]}
Kurt Sethe (1930) proposes a compound st-jrt, meaning “seat of the eye”, in a hypothetical earlier form *wst-jrt; this is rejected by Griffiths on phonetic grounds.
David Lorton (1985) takes up this same compound but explains st-jrt as signifying “product, something made”, Osiris representing the product of the ritual mummification process.
Wolfhart Westendorf (1987) proposes an etymology from wꜣst-jrt “she who bears the eye”.
Mark J. Smith (2017) makes no definitive proposals but asserts that the second element must be a form of jrj (“to do, make”) (rather than jrt (“eye”)).

However, recently alternative transliterations have been proposed:

Yoshi Muchiki (1990) reexamines Erman’s evidence that the throne hieroglyph in the word is to be read ws and finds it unconvincing, suggesting instead that the name should be read ꜣsjr on the basis of Aramaic, Phoenician, and Old South Arabian transcriptions, readings of the throne sign in other words, and comparison with ꜣst(“Isis”).
James P. Allen (2000) reads the word as jsjrt but revises the reading (2013) to jsjrj and derives it from js-jrj, meaning “engendering (male) principle”.

Appearance

Osiris is represented in his most developed form of iconography wearing the Atef crown, which is similar to the White crown of Upper Egypt, but with the addition of two curling ostrich feathers at each side (see also Atef crown (hieroglyph)). He also carries the crook and flail. The crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk, or association with the god Andjety of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt proposed.

He was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green (the color of rebirth) or black (alluding to the fertility of the Nile floodplain) in mummiform (wearing the trappings of mummification from chest downward).

Early mythology

The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of eternal travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, is found: “An offering the king gives and Anubis”. By the end of the 5th dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes “An offering the king gives and Osiris“.

Father of Horus

Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth (a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief). The myth describes Osiris as having been killed by his brother, Set, who wanted Osiris’ throne. His wife, Isis finds the body of Osiris and hides it in the reeds where it is found and dismembered by Set. Isis retrieves and joins the fragmented pieces of Osiris, then briefly brings Osiris back to life by use of magic. This spell gives her time to become pregnant by Osiris before he again dies. Isis later gives birth to Horus. As such, since Horus was born after Osiris’ resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the usurper Set.

Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of Creator god Ptah with Seker) thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently “reborn” every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as king of the underworld, god of the afterlife, life, death, and regeneration.

Ram god

Osiris’ soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes. This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjedet, which is grammatically feminine (also spelt “Banebded” or “Banebdjed“), literally “the ba of the lord of the djed, which roughly means The soul of the lord of the pillar of continuity. The djed, a type of pillar, was usually understood as the backbone of Osiris.

The Nile supplying water, and Osiris (strongly connected to the vegetable regeneration) who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and stability. As Banebdjed, Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the (sun god) Ra, since Ra, when he had become identified with Atum, was considered Osiris’ ancestor, from whom his regal authority is inherited. Ba does not mean “soul” in the western sense, and has to do with power, reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god.

Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened to be a word for ram in Egyptian, Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram was kept at Mendes and worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in a ram-specific necropolis. Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus’ father, as Banebdjed was an aspect of Osiris.

Regarding the association of Osiris with the ram, the god’s traditional crook and flail are the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an origin for Osiris in herding tribes of the upper Nile. The crook and flail were originally symbols of the minor agricultural deity Andjety, and passed to Osiris later. From Osiris, they eventually passed to Egyptian kings in general as symbols of divine authority.

Mythology

Plutarch recounts one version of the Osiris myth in which Set (Osiris’ brother), along with the Queen of Ethiopia, conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination of Osiris. Set fooled Osiris into getting into a box, which Set then shut, sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile. Osiris’ wife, Isis, searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tamarisk tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast. She managed to remove the coffin and retrieve her husband’s body.

In one version of the myth, Isis used a spell to briefly revive Osiris so he could impregnate her. After embalming and burying Osiris, Isis conceived and gave birth to their son, Horus. Thereafter Osiris lived on as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris was associated with the flooding and retreating of the Nile and thus with the yearly growth and death of crops along the Nile valley.

Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris was described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture, then travelled the world with his sister Isis, the satyrs, and the nine muses, before finally returning to Egypt. Osiris was then murdered by his evil brother Typhon, who was identified with Set. Typhon divided the body into twenty-six pieces, which he distributed amongst his fellow conspirators in order to implicate them in the murder. Isis and Hercules (Horus) avenged the death of Osiris and slew Typhon. Isis recovered all the parts of Osiris’ body, except the phallus, and secretly buried them. She made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations, which then became centres of Osiris worship.

Worship

Annual ceremonies were performed in honor of Osiris in various places across Egypt. These ceremonies were fertility rites which symbolised the resurrection of Osiris. E.A. Wallis Budge stated “Osiris is closely connected with the germination of wheat; the grain which is put into the ground is the dead Osiris, and the grain which has germinated is the Osiris who has once again renewed his life.”

Death or transition and institution as god of the afterlife

Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were “gloomy, solemn, and mournful…” (Isis and Osiris, 69) and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos commemorating the death of the god, on the same day that grain was planted in the ground (Isis and Osiris, 13). The annual festival involved the construction of “Osiris Beds” formed in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed.

The germinating seed symbolized Osiris rising from the dead. An almost pristine example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter.

The first phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder and dismemberment of Osiris, the search of his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, and the battle in which Horus defeated Set.

According to Julius Firmicus Maternus of the fourth century, this play was re-enacted each year by worshippers who “beat their breasts and gashed their shoulders…. When they pretend that the mutilated remains of the god have been found and rejoined…they turn from mourning to rejoicing.” (De Errore Profanorum).

The passion of Osiris was reflected in his name ‘Wenennefer” (“the one who continues to be perfect”), which also alludes to his post mortem power.

Ikhernofret Stela

Much of the extant information about the rites of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the 12th Dynasty by Ikhernofret (also I-Kher-Nefert), possibly a priest of Osiris or other official (the titles of Ikhernofret are described in his stela from Abydos) during the reign of Senwosret III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC). The ritual reenactment of Osiris’s funeral rites were held in the last month of the inundation (the annual Nile flood), coinciding with Spring, and held at Abydos/Abedjou which was the traditional place where the body of Osiris/Wesir drifted ashore after having been drowned in the Nile.

The part of the myth recounting the chopping up of the body into 14 pieces by Set is not recounted in this particular stela. Although it is attested to be a part of the rituals by a version of the Papyrus Jumilhac, in which it took Isis 12 days to reassemble the pieces, coinciding with the festival of ploughing. Some elements of the ceremony were held in the temple, while others involved public participation in a form of theatre. The Stela of I-Kher-Nefert recounts the programme of events of the public elements over the five days of the Festival:

The First Day, The Procession of Wepwawet: A mock battle was enacted during which the enemies of Osiris are defeated. A procession was led by the god Wepwawet (“opener of the way”).
The Second Day, The Great Procession of Osiris: The body of Osiris was taken from his temple to his tomb. The boat he was transported in, the “Neshmet” bark, had to be defended against his enemies.
The Third Day: Osiris is Mourned and the Enemies of the Land are Destroyed.
The Fourth Day, Night Vigil: Prayers and recitations are made and funeral rites performed.
The Fifth Day, Osiris is Reborn: Osiris is reborn at dawn and crowned with the crown of Ma’at. A statue of Osiris is brought to the temple.

Wheat and clay rituals

Contrasting with the public “theatrical” ceremonies sourced from the I-Kher-Nefert stele (from the Middle Kingdom), more esoteric ceremonies were performed inside the temples by priests witnessed only by chosen initiates. Plutarch mentions that (for much later period) two days after the beginning of the festival “the priests bring forth a sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water…and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found (or resurrected). Then they knead some fertile soil with the water…and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they cloth and adorn, this indicating that they regard these gods as the substance of Earth and Water.” (Isis and Osiris, 39). Yet his accounts were still obscure, for he also wrote, “I pass over the cutting of the wood” – opting not to describe it, since he considered it as a most sacred ritual (Ibid. 21).

In the Osirian temple at Denderah, an inscription (translated by Budge, Chapter XV, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection) describes in detail the making of wheat paste models of each dismembered piece of Osiris to be sent out to the town where each piece is discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried (the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields). Molds were made from the wood of a red tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, the cakes of ‘divine’ bread were made from each mold, placed in a silver chest and set near the head of the god with the inward parts of Osiris as described in the Book of the Dead (XVII).

Judgment

The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom in a 6th dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as the Negative Confessions performed in front of the 42 Assessors of Ma’at.

With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom the “democratization of religion” offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person’s suitability.

At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Ma’at, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to a “devourer” (such as the soul-eating demon Ammit) and did not share in eternal life.

The person who is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts.

Purification for those who are considered justified may be found in the descriptions of “Flame Island“, where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned, complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits, but there is no suggestion of eternal torture.

Divine pardon at judgement was always a central concern for the ancient Egyptians.

During the reign of Seti I, Osiris was also invoked in royal decrees to pursue the living when wrongdoing was observed, but kept secret and not reported.

Greco-Roman era

Hellenization

The early Ptolemaic kings promoted a new god, Serapis, who combined traits of Osiris with those of various Greek gods and was portrayed in a Hellenistic form. Serapis was often treated as the consort of Isis and became the patron deity of the Ptolemies’ capital, Alexandria. Serapis’s origins are not known. Some ancient authors claim the cult of Serapis was established at Alexandria by Alexander the Great himself, but most who discuss the subject of Serapis’s origins give a story similar to that by Plutarch. Writing about 400 years after the fact, Plutarch claimed that Ptolemy I established the cult after dreaming of a colossal statue at Sinope in Anatolia. His councillors identified as a statue of the Greek god Pluto and said that the Egyptian name for Pluto was Serapis. This name may have been a Hellenization of “Osiris-Apis”. Osiris-Apis was a patron deity of the Memphite Necropolis and the father of the Apis bull who was worshipped there, and texts from Ptolemaic times treat “Serapis” as the Greek translation of “Osiris-Apis”. But little of the early evidence for Serapis’s cult comes from Memphis, and much of it comes from the Mediterranean world with no reference to an Egyptian origin for Serapis, so Mark Smith expresses doubt that Serapis originated as a Greek form of Osiris-Apis’s name and leaves open the possibility that Serapis originated outside Egypt.

Destruction of cult

The cult of Isis and Osiris continued at Philae until at least the 450s CE, long after the imperial decrees of the late 4th century that ordered the closing of temples to “pagan” gods. Philae was the last major ancient Egyptian temple to be closed.

Source

Wikipedia

c. 2018

A New Daily Post – God of the Day – Ra

Ra – Sun God
The ancient Egyptians revered Ra as the god who created everything. Also known as the Sun God, Ra was a powerful deity and a central god of the Egyptian pantheon. The ancient Egyptians worshiped Ra more than any other god and pharaohs often connected themselves with Ra in their efforts to be seen as the earthly embodiment of the Sun God.
Who is Ra?
Ra (pronounced ray) represents sunlight, warmth and growth. It was only natural that the ancient Egyptians would believe him to be the creator of the world, as well as part of him being represented in every other god. The ancient Egyptians believed that every god should illustrate some aspect of him, while Ra himself should also represent every god.
Ra’s Appearance
Ra was usually depicted in human form. He had a falcon head which is crowned with a sun disc. This sun disc was encircled by a sacred cobra named Uraeus. Ra has also been depicted as a man with the head of a beetle and also a human man with the head of a ram. The ancients also depicted Ra in full species form such as a serpent, heron, bull, lion, cat, ram, hawk, beetle, phoenix and others. His main symbol, however, is the sun disk.
Ra Mythology
The ancient Egyptians believed that as the sun god, Ra’s role was to sail across the heavens during the day in his boat called the “Barque of Millions of Years.” In the morning when Ra emerged from the east, his boat was named, “Madjet” which meant “becoming strong.” By the end of the day the boat was called, “Semektet” which meant “becoming weak.” At the end of the day, it was believed that Ra died (swallowed by Nut) and sailed on to the underworld, leaving the moon in his place to light up the world. Ra was reborn at dawn the very next day. During his journey across the heavens during the day, he fought with his main enemy, an evil serpent named Apep, or also, The Lord of Chaos. In some stories, Ra, in the form of a cat named Mau, defeats the evil serpent, Apep. This is part of the reason why cats are so highly-revered in Egypt.
Ra created himself from the primordial chaos. He is also known as Re and Atum. His children are Shu, the God of Dry Air and Father of the Sky, and his twin sister Tefnut, the Goddess of Moisture and Wetness. As a lion-headed goddess, Tefnut is responsible for dew and freshness. Humans were created from Ra’s tears.
Although Ra was highly revered and devoutly worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, there is a story to suggest he eventually grew weak. In the Legend of Ra, Isis and the Snake, as Ra grew old, he dribbled saliva. Isis knew that Ra’s power was hidden in his secret name. Isis gathered Ra’s saliva and created a snake out of it. She set the snake in Ra’s path and it bit him. Isis wanted the power Ra had always enjoyed, but she knew she had to get him to tell her his secret name. Eventually, because of the pain he was in, Ra allowed Isis to “search through him” and in so doing, she healed him and Ra’s power was transferred over to her.
The Tree of Life is an important religious symbol to the Egyptians. The Tree of Life was located within Ra’s sun temple in Heliopolis and was considered sacred. The fruit that sprang from this tree was not available to humans, but only in aging-rituals reserved for pharaohs. The Tree of Life is also referred to as the mythical, sacred Ished tree. Eternal life came to those who ate the fruit from the Tree of Life.
Another important ancient Egyptian symbol connected to Ra is the “Bennu”. Bennu is the name of the bird that represented Ra’s soul. This bird is a phoenix and it was seated at the Tree of Life in Ra’s Sun Temple in Heliopolis. Inside the temple, on top of an obelisk, sat the Benben Stone. This pyramid-shaped stone served as a beacon to Bennu and is also an important ancient Egyptian religious symbol.
Worship of the Sun God
Solar temples were built for Ra but did not contain a statue of the god. Instead, they were created to be open to the sunlight that Ra represented. The earliest known temple built in honor of Ra exists in Heliopolis (what is now a Cairo suburb). This solar temple is known as “Benu-Phoenix” and is believed to have been erected in the exact spot where Ra emerged into creation.
Although Ra dates back to the second dynasty, he is not the oldest of the Egyptian gods. It wasn’t until the fifth dynasty that Ra became closely associated with the pharaoh. As the king and leader of Egypt, the pharaoh was seen as the human manifestation of Horus, so the two gods became connected. This new deity fusion was then referred to as “Ra-Horakhty” meaning Ra is Horus of the Horizon. Ra’s relationship with other gods did not stop there. As the powerful creator of mankind and the sun god, he also became associated with Atum to make “Atum-Ra.”
Fifth Dynasty and subsequent pharaohs were all known as “The son of Ra” and Ra became incorporated into every pharaoh’s name from then onward. During the Middle Kingdom, the new deity, Amun-Ra was formed. Amun was one of the gods who formed the Ogdoad (the assembly of eight gods who represented eight elements of creation).
The New Kingdom brought new heights of worship to Ra. Many tombs in the Valley of the Kings portray depictions of Ra and his journey through the underworld. During this time, many solar temples were built.
Eye of Ra
Present in the ancient Egyptian mythology is the Eye of Ra, shown as the sun disk with two ‘uraeus’ cobras coiled around it, next to the white and red crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. Initially associated with Horus (similarly to the wadjet, the Eye of Horus), the Eye of Ra shifted positions in the myths, becoming both an extension of Ra’s power and a separate entity altogether.
Click here to learn more about The Eye of Ra
Ra God Facts
The ancient Egyptians worshiped Ra to such an extent above other gods that some historians have argued that ancient Egyptian religion was indeed a monotheistic one with Ra as the singular god.
Historians believe that the pyramids might represent rays of sunlight, further connecting the pharaohs with Ra, the sun god.
During Ra’s journey through the heavens he was accompanied by several other gods including Thoth, Horus, Hathor, Maat, Abtu, and Anet.
Nut, goddess of the sky and heavens, is sometimes referred to as Ra’s mother, because he emerges from her and is reborn every morning.
The morning manifestation of Ra is known as “Khepri the scarab God.”
The evening manifestation of Ra is known as the ram-headed god, Khnum.
The sacred cobra that encircled Ra’s crown symbolized royalty, sovereignty and divine authority.
The right eye of Ra represented the Sun; while the left eye of Ra represented the moon.
Ra is also closely associated with the Tree of Life myth, the Ben-Ben Stone and the Bennu Bird myths.
Ra’s glory came to an end during the time when the Roman’s conquered Egypt in 30BC.

	Rev. Lady Carla Belt… on 2026 Moon Phase Calendar
	creationbeautiful12a… on 2026 Moon Phase Calendar
	Rev. Lady Carla Belt… on A Little Humor for Your D…
	zorropioneeringdcdcc… on A Little Humor for Your D…
	Rev. Lady Carla Belt… on A Little Humor for Your D…
	zorropioneeringdcdcc… on Welcome to WOTC! A Thought for…
	zorropioneeringdcdcc… on A Little Humor for Your D…

30 of the most important Toltec gods

1- Quetzalcoatl

2- Tezcatlipoca

3- Tlaloc

4- Matlalcueye

5- Huixtocihuatl

6- Xochiquétzal

7- Cipactli

8- Tonacacihuatl

9- Mixcoatl

10- Xipe Tótec

11- Ixotecuhtli

12- Itztlacoliuhqui

13- Ehécatl

14- Xolotl

15- Xochipilli

16- Citlallicue

17- Citlalatonac

18- Ometéotl

19- Mictlantecuhtli

20- Huehuecóyotl

21- Xiuhtecuhtli

22- Itzpapalotl

23- Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli

24- Metztli

25- Toci

26- Cihuacóatl

27- Atlacoya

28- Ixtlilton

29- Huitzilopochtli

30- Tonacatecuhtli

Table of Contents

Buddhism Beliefs

Anubis

Anubis

Do you want to know who was Aten (or Aton), the god representing the Sun in the ancient Egyptian civilization? Do you want to know how Aten almost became the sole god of Egypt during the reign of a “heretic pharaoh”?

1) Who was Aten?

2) The Cult of Aten

A) The god Amun

1) Apep in Egyptian Mythology

2) Apep against Ra

3) The other version of the myth of Apep: Set, the substitute of Ra

A) The myth of Osiris

B) The myth of Horus and Set

The Egyptian snake god

Oak and Holly Kings

The Charge Of The God

01 of 10

The First Avatar: Matsya (The Fish)

02 of 10

The Second Avatar: Kurma (The Tortoise)

03 of 10

The Third Avatar: Varaha (The Boar)

04 of 10

The Fourth Avatar: Narasimha (The Man-Lion)

05 of 10

The Fifth Avatar: Vamana (The Dwarf)

06 of 10

The Sixth Avatar: Parasurama (The Angry Man)

07 of 10

The Seventh Avatar: Lord Rama (The Perfect Man)

08 of 10

The Eighth Avatar: Lord Krishna (The Divine Statesman)

09 of 10

The Ninth Avatar: Balarama (Krishna’s Elder Brother)

10 of 10

The Tenth Avatar: Kalki (The Mighty Warrior)

SOURCE: Das, Subhamoy. “The 10 Avatars of the Hindu God Vishnu.” Learn Religions, Aug. 28, 2020, learnreligions.com/avatars-of-vishnu-p2-1769984.

Anubis

Name

History

Roles

Protector of tombs

Embalmer

Guide of souls

Weighing of the heart

Baldur Facts

Appearance

Family

Symbols