Cultural Crossroads: Comparing the Aztec Goddess Cihuacoatl to the Irish Goddess Morrigan

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

I read Skywizard's post today about the Indus tribe called the "Arus", or "the Demons" in Sanskrit. Naturally, this got me thinking about "snake people" from programs on TV, and some of the imagery used by Native Americans in order to preserve their own history and beliefs.

Stumbling through Google, I ended up on a Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cihuacoatl

In Aztec mythology, Cihuacoatl [siwa'koːaːt͡ɬ] ("snake woman"; also Cihuacóatl) was one of a number of motherhood and fertility goddesses.[nb 1][1] Cihuacoatl was sometimes known as Quilaztli.[2]

Cihuacoatl was especially associated with midwives, and with the sweatbaths where midwives practiced.[3] She is paired with Quilaztli and was considered a protectress of the Chalmeca people and patroness of the city of Culhuacan.[3] She helped Quetzalcoatl create the current race of humanity by grinding up bones from the previous ages, and mixing it with his blood. She is also the mother of Mixcoatl, whom she abandoned at a crossroads. Tradition says that she often returns there to weep for her lost son, only to find a sacrificial knife.[citation needed]

Although she was sometimes depicted as a young woman, similar to Xochiquetzal, she is more often shown as a fierce skull-faced old woman carrying the spears and shield of a warrior.[3] Childbirth was sometimes compared to warfare and the women who died in childbirth were honored as fallen warriors. Their spirits, the Cihuateteo, were depicted with skeletal faces like Cihuacoatl. Like her, the Cihuateteo were thought to haunt crossroads at night to steal children.[3]

Of course, the above reference to crossroads reminded me of things I've read in more European-style esoteric books, and I thought of Irish Mythology and the Morrigan:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrigan

The Morrígan ("phantom queen") or Mórrígan ("great queen"), also written as Morrígu or in the plural as Morrígna, and spelt Morríghan or Mór-ríoghain in Modern Irish, is a figure from Irish mythology who appears to have been considered a goddess, although she is not explicitly referred to as such in the texts.

The Morrígan is a goddess of battle, strife, and sovereignty. She sometimes appears in the form of a crow, flying above the warriors, and in the Ulster cycle she also takes the forms of an eel, a wolf and a cow. She is generally considered a war deity comparable with the Germanic Valkyries, although her association with a cow may also suggest a role connected with wealth and the land.

She is often depicted as a trio of goddesses, all sisters,[1][2][3] although membership of the triad varies; the most common combinations are Badb, Macha and Nemain,[4] or Badb, Macha and Anand; Anand is also given as an alternate name for Morrigu.[5] Other accounts name Fea, and others.[4]

Of course, those two versions of the Goddess also evoke the Roman/Greek interpretation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology)

In Roman mythology, Diana (lt. "heavenly" or "divine") was the goddess of the hunt, the moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis,[1] though she had an independent origin in Italy. Diana was worshipped in ancient Roman religion and is revered in Roman Neopaganism and Stregheria. Dianic Wicca, a largely feminist form of the practice, is named for her. Diana was known to be the virgin goddess of childbirth and women. She was one of the three maiden goddesses, Diana, Minerva and Vesta, who swore never to marry.

Oak groves were especially sacred to her. According to mythology, Diana was born with her twin brother Apollo on the island of Delos, daughter of Jupiter and Latona. Diana made up a triad with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god.

The Kings of May: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_May

The King of the May is a figure in the mythology of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as a folk custom. Every year, or every seven years, a man from the village would be chosen to represent the King of the May. He would bring fertility to the village, and during the time that he was in power, he could impregnate any woman in the village. At the end of his "reign," he would be ritually sacrificed and a new King of the May would be chosen. According to J.G. Frazier's The Golden Bough, this type of custom was derived from earlier Indo-European tree worship fertility rituals.[1]

May Queens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Queen

According to popular British folklore, the tradition once had a sinister twist, in that the May Queen was put to death once the festivities were over. The veracity of this belief is difficult to establish, but while in truth it might just be an example of anti-pagan propaganda, frequent associations between May Day rituals, the occult and human sacrifice are still to be found in popular culture today. The Wicker Man, a cult horror film starring Christopher Lee, is a prominent example of these associations.

The Beltane Fire Festival: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane_Fire_Festival

Beltane Fire Festival is an annual participatory arts event and ritual drama, held on 30 April on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.

The modern Beltane Fire Festival is inspired by the ancient Gaelic festival of Beltane which began on the evening before 1 May and marked the beginning of summer.[1][2][3] The modern festival was started in 1988 by a small group of enthusiasts including the musical collective Test Dept, with academic support from the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Since then the festival has grown, and now involves over 300 voluntary collaborators and performers with available tickets often selling out.

While the festival draws on a variety of historical, mythological and literary influences, the organisers do not claim it to be anything other than a modern celebration of Beltane, evolving with its participants.[4]

Burning Man Festival: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_man

One of the roots of the annual event now known as Burning Man began as a bonfire ritual on the summer solstice in 1986 when Larry Harvey, Jerry James, and a few friends met on Baker Beach in San Francisco[7] and burned a 9-foot (2.7-meter) wooden man as well as a smaller wooden dog. Harvey has described his inspiration for burning these effigies as a spontaneous act of "radical self-expression".[8] The event did have earlier roots, though. Sculptor Mary Grauberger, a friend of Harvey's girlfriend Janet Lohr, held solstice bonfire gatherings on Baker Beach for several years prior to 1986, some of which Harvey attended. When Grauberger stopped organizing it, Harvey "picked up the torch and ran with it,"[8] so to speak. He and Jerry James built an 8-foot (2.4-meter) wooden effigy for 1986, which was much smaller and more crudely made than the neon-lit figure featured in the current ritual. In 1987, the effigy grew to almost 15 feet (4.6 meters) tall, and by 1988, it had grown to around 40 feet (12 meters). Burning Man attendees informally called it "The Man," and this name was given to each successive effigy, every year since Burning Man began.

Harvey states that he did not see the movie The Wicker Man until many years later, so it played no part in his inspiration. A wicker man was a large human-shaped wicker statue allegedly used in Celtic paganism for human sacrifice by burning it in effigy. Accordingly, rather than allow the name "Wicker Man" to become the name of the ritual, he started using the name "Burning Man".[9]

Wicker Man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicker_man

Ancient[edit source]
While other Roman writers of the time, such as Cicero, Suetonius, Lucan, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder, described human sacrifice among the Celts, only Caesar and the geographer Strabo mention the wicker man as one of many ways the Druids of Gaul performed sacrifices.[4] Caesar reports that some of the Gauls built the effigies out of sticks and placed living men inside, then set them on fire to pay tribute to the gods. Caesar writes that though the Druids generally used those found guilty of crimes deserving death, as they pleased the gods more, they sometimes used slaves and innocent men when no delinquents could be found.[5]

One medieval commentary, the 10th-century Commenta Bernensia, states that men were burned in a wooden mannequin in sacrifice to Taranis.[6]

Wickerman Festival: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickerman_Festival

2001 festival[edit source]
performers:
Stiff Little Fingers, Spear of Destiny

Spear of Destiny: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear_of_destiny

The Holy Lance (also known as the Holy Spear, Spear of Destiny, Lance of Longinus, or Spear of Longinus) is the name given to the lance that pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross, according to the Gospel of John.

It seems that lots of religions center on leaving one's son at the crossroads, for various reasons, some more nefarious than others....



This stuff is really Mithraic, even the stuff from South America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos

Cernunnos is the conventional name given in Celtic studies to depictions of the "horned god" of Celtic polytheism. The name itself is only attested once, on the 1st-century Pillar of the Boatmen, but depictions of a horned or antlered figure, often seated cross-legged and often associated with animals and holding or wearing torcs, are known from other instances.

Nothing is known about the god from literary sources, and details about his name, his cult or his significance in Celtic religion are unknown. Speculative interpretations identify him as a god of nature or fertility.[1]

It's interesting that Mithra and Cernunnos both hold a Torc. They are the Lord of the Rings, lol! Mitha is a persian sun god and cernunnos comes all the way from the celts, so....

I would love to get into a group of people that really analyzes this stuff, it's quite interesting; one could get lost for many hours just looking at the similarities between some of these ancient belief systems.

[CD7]

I would love to get into a group of people that really analyzes this stuff, it's quite interesting; one could get lost for many hours just looking at the similarities between some of these ancient belief systems.

So true! Seems to be a common wavelength (haha funny you just used this word in a post to me) underneath it all with varying details throughout.

Thanks for the post, there are a few you posted I have not heard of or read about