Death: We are the stars…

“The god of death, the wind, the underworld, the ever-burning entrance to hell, the knife-edge, poison, serpent, and fire – women are all of these in one.” ~The Ramayana

The Throne of Hell in the Superman comics. Image from  ComicVine.

Death is very important in many cultures.  Gods and goddesses of Death, and ones of the Underworld, are quite common around the world.  In our modern culture’s drive to avoid Death, we tend to demonize any god of death or the Underworld.  They become Satan to us.  It’s interesting that Satan became the ruler of Hell in Christian mythology, since in the Bible, he isn’t thrown into Hell until the end of the world, and he definitely doesn’t rule there.  It is Hades ruling the Underworld that became Satan ruling Hell.

In Mesoamerica, Death was, and still is, especially important, and most of the cultures in that area had more death deities than any other type.  And most death deities and images were also those of fertility.  This connection is found in Europe as well, the seed dies and from it comes life.

One set of deities, Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl, ruled the lowest, northern part of the Underworld, Mictlan, in Aztec mythology.  The story goes that the bones of the gods of the previous world, the fourth sun, were kept in Mictlan.  After Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created this current world, Quetzalcoatl and his twin, Xolotl, went to Mictlan to get the bones.  Mictlantecuhtli agreed to give them, but didn’t want to give them up to tried to stop them from leaving Mictlan.  Quetzalcoatl dropped the bones and some of them broke, but he gathered them up and made it out.  He gave the bones to Cihuacoatl, who grinds them up, then the gods add their blood and the humans of our world are formed.

Mictlantecuhtli sculpture at the museum of the Great Temple in Mexico City. Image from Wikipedia.

Mictlantecuhtli’s head is usually portrayed as a skull with eyes intact.  Sometimes he has a human body and sometimes a blood splattered skeleton.  Sometimes he has a head dress of owl feathers and sometimes of knives (representing the wind of knives).  Sometimes he has a necklace of human eyeballs, or clothes made of paper.  The plugs in his ears were made of human bones.  The Aztecs sacrificed humans to Mictlantecuhtli, and sometimes worshiped him by eating human flesh.  He is described both horrible, tormenting souls, and benevolent, giving life.

Mictecacihuatl. Image from Aztec Gods blog.

It was Mictecacihuatl’s job to guard the bones of the dead.  As a result, she presided over Aztec festivals.   I can’t find much more details about her.  Many believe she evolved into Santa Muerte.

Third of the stars falling. Image from Catholic Caveman blog.

Both of them are described as having their jaw wide, to swallow the stars during the day when they enter the Underworld.  The idea of them swallowing the stars brings to my mind the third of the stars falling from the sky into the sea in the Book of Revelations in the Bible (which some relate to the fall of Satan and his angels after waring against God and the angels led by Michael, and then being kicked out; this is where the idea of a third of the angels following Satan came from) and of all the stars falling from the sky into the sea in The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis.  It brings to mind the death of stars and the end of the universe.

Black Mother #1 by Storm Faerywolf. Image from his website.

I picture the Anna and the Arddhu standing at the Gates of Death, the stars falling from the sky.  I also think of Storm’s description and invocation of Black Mother, the Feri Guardian of the North in some lines.

Close-up view of a Santa Muerte south of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Image from Wikipedia.

Santa Muerte (Saint Death) was underground and hidden in Mexico.  Only recently has she become more public, and she is condemned and not accepted by the Mexican Catholic Church.  She is depicted as a skeleton, and is usually robed.  Ofter she is holding a scythe and a globe, the scythe representing both the harvest and death, and the globe for Death’s dominion over the earth.  She is the Lady of the Shadows, the White Lady, the Black Lady, the Holy Girl, and the Skinny One.  She is thought to preside over the Day of the Dead in early November, much like Mictecacihuatl presiding over Aztec festivals.

I’d like to look at a few mentions of Death in Robert Cochrane’s writings.

Fire, as such is the province of Alder, the God of Fire, of Craft, of lower magic and of fertility and death. ~Third letter to Joe Wilson

Here we see the tie between death and fertility that’s so prevalent in Mesoamerica.

The Thorn is Death or the process of Fate and as such the first principle, of the Broom. ~Fourth letter to Joe Wilson

 So Death is the process of Fate.

The Wizard is Merridwen, the Sky re-creating Life out of Death ~Fourth letter to Joe Wilson

This is what we see of the stars being eaten during each day but reborn the next evening.

 Even death is movement, one disintegrates and is recreated. The past moves in the future, since past shapes the future to come – this is Fate. ~Fourth letter to Joe Wilson

Here we bring together the two.  Death becomes life reborn, we are the stars, eaten each morning but reborn each evening.  This is Fate.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

Odin: The True God of All Witches

“You’re walking on gallows ground, and there’s a rope around your neck and a raven-bird on each shoulder waiting for your eyes, and the gallows tree has deep roots, for it stretches from heaven to hell, and our world is only the branch from which the rope is swinging.”
~American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Viking stone, 600’s AD, from Gotland, Sweden. Image from  History for Kids.

I’ve noticed that modern followers seem to sanitize Odin.  They make him into a benevolent loving god.  They make him fluffy and safe.  But Odin was Hangi (Hanged One), Hangaguð (God of the Hanged), and Hagvirkr (Lord of the Hanged) not just because he hung from the Tree for nine days, but also because the sacrifice to him was to hang someone on a tree.  This wasn’t the mystical experience people seem to like today of going out and hanging yourself upside down to commune with Odin.  They would tie the unwilling sacrifice to a tree, stab them in the side so the bled out, and leave them for the ravens and crows to eat.  To gain favour from Odin.

Odin wasn’t a loving god, though he did usually take care of his own.  He was generally more concerned with preparing for Ragnarök than the welfare of the common person.  He was a god of warriors at war, out fighting, while Thor was a god of farmers, fighting to defend their land and their home.  You prayed to Thor for your crops, for food, for provision, never to Odin.  And even the warrior had to worry about Odin.  If you were a good warrior and Odin thought you would be good in Ragnarök, he would take you in the middle of battle, even if it meant your people, who also prayed to Odin for victory, might lose.  Odin wasn’t much easier to trust than his blood brother, and in many ways Twin, Loki.  But in battle, you prayed to Odin.  Before battle or for thanks for surviving, you sacrificed to Odin.  You had no choice.

Muninn and Huginn. The eye represents Odin sitting in  Hlidskjalf on his throne where he can see all that passes in the world. Image from Alpha Stamps.

Odin is a god of wisdom and knowledge, but also of war and death.  He is a dark god, not the benevelent old man many portray him as today.  There’s a reason he’s accompanied by wolves and ravens, both of which feed on the dead after battles.  The dead are his, well, half of them.

In many Germanic and Scandinavian areas, Odin/Woden was seen as the Lord of the Wild Hunt, or as it was sometimes called, Odin’s Hunt.  The Wild Hunt is a common element in much of Europe and even in the Americas.  The Huntsman comes riding on the Winter Solstice, the Longest Night, the Darkest Night, for Odin truly is the Winter King.  If you hear the horn, you either join the Hunt (forever or the night, depending on the story, often depending on if you cursed the Hunt or joined it willingly) or you are hunted down by it and torn limb for limb.  In much of the British Isles, you find the Wild Hunt associated with the Fey.  In the Old West in the United States, there was the story of the ghost riders, forever condemned to chance the devil’s herd across the skies, immortalized in the song Ghost Riders in the Sky.  There’s a similar story in India of Shiva, King of Ghosts astride a bull with a host of ghosts accompanying him.  Regardless of the story, the Wild Hunt was greatly feared, and the Huntsman especially.  Odin as Huntsman is terrifying indeed.

Odin leads the Wild Hunt. Image from Orkneyjar.

In his Basic Structure of the Craft, Robert Cochrane identifies Woden with Tettens, the Wind God who is Lucet’s Twin:

In the North lies the Castle of Weeping, the ruler thereof is named Tettens, our Hermes or Woden. He is the second twin, the waning sun, Lord over mysticism, magic, power and death, the Baleful destroyer. The God of War, of Justice, King of Kings, since all pay their homage to Him. Ruler of the Winds, the Windyat. Cain imprisoned in the Moon, ever desiring Earth. He is visualized as a tall dark man, shadowy, cold and deadly. Unpredictable, yet capable of great nobility, since he represents Truth. He is the God of magicians and witches, who knows all sorcery. Lord of the North, dark, unpredictable, the true God of all witches and magicians if they are working at any decent level at all. A cold wind surrounds Him, age and time so ancient that it is beyond belief flows from Him. Dark is His shadow, and he bears a branch of the sorrowing alder, and walks with the aid of a blackthorn stick. Sorrow is printed upon His face, yet also joy. He guards, as a rider upon an eight-legged horse, the approaches to the Castle of Night. He is also the Champion of the glass bridge after the Silver Forest. Cold is tho air as he passes by. Some say tall and dark, I say small and dark, speaking in a faint voice which is as clear as ice. ~Robert Cochrane’s third letter to Norman Gills

Storm’s version of Arddhu entitled The Royal Darkness. Image from  Faerywolf.

He is the “true god of all witches” and the last face you see at the Gates of Death (Arddhu?).  Are you willing to face him?  He is terrible, he is to be feared, he is unpredictable, but all come before him and “every knee shall bow.”

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

The Fallen: Wisdom and Death, Arddhu and Anna

What can popular media tell us about spiritual things?

The Fallen
By Seether

She’s wearin’ dresses on the borderline
(lookin good)
Or making senses that were lost in time
(make amends)
This liberation is the one they’ll love for ages (hey man I see them comin’ again)
Just cut those dresses make you look so fine (you’re a ten)
Put on that shirt and you’ll look so divine
(i’m impressed)
This generation won’t forgive those signs of aging (hey man I see them comin’ again)
I got my ticket for the next makeover
I got my ticket for a stolen ride

I believe, I believe
I believe in the fallen
I believe, I believe
I believe in the callin’

They got injections for those facial lines (make amends)
Break out the scalpel keep the nose defined
(look again)
A crucifixion of the love we’ve known for ages (hey man i see them comin’ again)
You’re much too pretty you don’t need your mind (just pretend)
Just bat them eyelids get your heart’s desires
A resurrection of the shallow and the vapid
(hey man I see them comin’)

I got my ticket for the next makeover
I lost my taste for this I’ll keep my pride
I believe, I believe
I believe in the fallen
I believe, I believe
I believe in the callin’

Reject

I got my ticket for the next makeover
I lost my taste for this, I’ll keep my pride
I believe, I believe
I believe in the fallen
I believe, I believe
I believe in the callin’
I believe in the callin’

Image from My Jewelry Blog

In my Good Friday post, I talked about how our society doesn’t like death and avoids the subject.  It isn’t just talking and thinking about it that we, as a society, avoid.  We also do everything we can to eliminate those things that remind us of death.  We use plastic surgery, as this song talks about, to avoid looking like we’re aging, because aging reminds us of death, that we will die some day.  But avoiding death makes life shallow, because death is very much a part of life.  Life loses its meaning without death.

Another way we avoid death is to take people as they get older and put them in old folks homes, and then we don’t visit them, because their age reminds us of our own mortality.  We put them away, out off sight, out of mind.  If we can’t see them, they aren’t there.  If they aren’t there, there is no aging, there is no death.  Hiding them is our immortality.  Or so we hope.

Cora Anderson, Grandmaster of Feri Image from Harpy Books Taken by Valerie Walker

There was a time when the elderly were venerated.  They are wisdom.  They are the ones who would teach the young, imparting their wisdom and experience, at least what the young were willing to listen to.  They might have been too old to do the heavy work required for the community, but they still had a purpose.  They were still valuable, and valued by the community.  By putting our elderly out of sight, we don’t just deny them a purpose to live for, we deny ourselves the wisdom they can impart.  With the loss of their experience, our society is getting dumber and more foolish.  “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Death and Wisdom are very closely connected.  Robert Cochrane described the feminine Mysteries as the pentagram as Life/Birth, Love, Maternity, Wisdom, Death/Resurrection.  Wisdom is the stage that proceeds Death.  It grows out of Maternity and heads toward Death and hence Resurrection.  In avoiding Death, we avoid Wisdom.

When I think of Wisdom and Death, I think of the Anna and the Arddhu, the Feri gods returning to God Herself.  One isn’t Wisdom and the other Death, for both are both Wisdom and Death.  In this situation, they are the Divine Twins.  They are separate, yet they are the same.  They are both near Death, and both long to impart the Wisdom they have to those they care.  They are both dangerous, as Death always is, but their Wisdom is worth it.

Image from Star of Nuit blog

It is significant that the Anna stands as priestess of the Star Goddess, not young Nimue or nurturing Mari.  It is Wisdom, standing closest to Death, which is also Rebirth, that is closest to God Herself, who can stand as the Bridge between Herself and us.  The marriage of the gods is in Death and Rebirth, an end and a new beginning, like all initiations.  The Anna stands at the Altar of the ineffable, her red veil covering her face, waiting for us to draw near.

The Arddhu stands at the Gates of Death.  But the Gates of Death are also the Gates of Life, another set of Divine Twins.  Everyone comes at the end of their life in from of Arddhu, and all pass him coming into the world.  It’s the same Gates, yet we see them differently depending on which direction we pass.  Storm says Arddhu is Guardian of the Crossroads.  Crossroads are transition points, liminal points, the passages between worlds.  As are the Gates of Life and Death.  What is Witch without the crossing between worlds?  And how do you cross without Arddhu?  All must come to him, but Witch comes early.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

*And, as my About This Journal page states, this entry, like all my entries, express my opinions, my experiences, my ideas.  Though they are influenced by others and I quote others, don’t take what I say as dogma or doctrine for any tradition or religion.