By the blood of the Lamb

"...And [after a long battle] they overcame him [the dragon] by the blood of the Lamb..."

What does this verse from the Apocalypse Chapter 12 mean?

Let's start here: When a lamb is decorated like this in Serbia, it means that it's destined to be sacrificed to St George on St George's day...Aries must die so Taurus can begin...Lamb sacrificed to a Calf...I talked about this in my post "Aries must die"...

Recently I did the analysis of the Apocalypse story where I used animal calendar markers to show that the story is just a symbolic calendar. You can read full analysis in my post "Apocalypse"...

In this post I proposed that the 7 headed dragon was the personification of the 7 months of Sumerian summer, the season dominated by the sun which "steals water and causes drought"...

I talked about the meaning of fire breathing dragons in many of my posts...

Which is why local dragon (dragon = symbol of summer) depicted on this 3rd millennium BC seal from Tell Asmar, had seven snake heads (snake = symbols of sun's heat)...The dragon has lion body, because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest time of the year in Mesopotamia, the time of the fire breathing dragon (burning sun of the later summer) who steals water and causes drought...Oh, and look, we also have dragon killer(s) and the princess (Lady?) standing under a star 🙂 I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

In my post about the Apocalypse, I proposed that "The Woman Clothed in Light" that dragon is pestering is Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius. 

Here is Inanna/Ishtar, deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I talked about Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius in many of my posts and I explained in detail why I believe this is the case based on all the written and symbolic evidence we have...

BTW, Inanna/Ishtar is the princess/lady standing under the star facing the seven headed dragon on the Tell Asmar seal...

But Inanna is also deified (fertile) Mother Earth, Mother of grain...In "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" we read:

As for me, Inanna,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Before my lord, Dumuzi,

...

I poured out grain before him,

I poured out grain before my womb...

I talked about the "Mother of grain" in many of my posts. This is a good one to start with: "Mother of grain from Mari" in which I analyse this alabaster stele from Mari dated to the 3rd millennium BC.

So if the dragon that steals water gets defeated, then his defeat would mean that the stolen water is released back to earth...

To understand what this means in Mesopotamia, where this story originates, we need to take a look at the climate chart of the region:

Levant has pretty much the same climate:

You can see that the climatic year is divided into hot dry summer (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and cool wet winter (Oct/Nov-Apr/May):

In the Apocalypse Chapter 12 we read that "...The woman was given...wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly...and escape the dragon..." 

The Sumerian summer Apr/May-Oct/Nov ends in Oct/Nov when the rains arrive...

Rains brought by the rain god, who was in Mesopotamia originally imagined as huge black eagle. I talked about this in my post about this mad Kassite seal, where we see two headed eagle spewing water. I talked about this in my post "Kassite seal with Apkallu"...

BTW, double headed Eagle/Vulture here, is the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the vulture mating season, Oct/Nov. When Eagles/Vultures dance over the mountains 

Dancing here is synchronised flying

Which from the ground looks like this

I talked about this first in my post "Double headed eagle" and then in my post "Eagle dance"...

But the fight continues until: "...[after a long battle] they overcame him [the dragon] by the blood of the Lamb..."

What does this mean?

Now remember my post "Goatfish"? 

Goatfish, the sacred animal of Enki, the Sumerian god of fresh water, is a complex animal calendar marker for the wet half of the year in Mesopotamia...Between the mating season of wild goats and the mating season of giant Mesopotamian carps...

There is another version of the goatfish. 

Oooook...And this means what?

Towards the end of the wet period, Oct/Nov-Apr/May, in Mar/Apr, close to the fish tail of the goatfish, we find Aries, Ram...

Animal calendar marker that marks the end of the lambing season of the wild and domestic sheep...And the beginning of the milking season...Very important time of the year...I talked about the origin of Aries in my post "Aries must die"... 

Great, but why is Ram combined with Goat-Fish, symbol of wet season? Because it is "during the sheep lambing season" Feb/Mar/Apr, that the snowmelt suddenly intensifies in mountains surrounding Mesopotamia...

And the water level in Mesopotamian rivers suddenly starts to rise...

So we have Goat (Oct/Nov) -- Ram (Mar/Apr) -- Fish,Carp (Apr/May)...

And it is this sudden surge in snowmelt discharge during Mar/Apr, Aries that makes the water level in Mesopotamian rivers suddenly rise...And peak in Apr/May, in Taurus, causing the Annual Tigris and Euphrates flood...

BTW, Taurus here is The Old Taurus, the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the calving season of wild eurasian cattle...

I talked about this in many of my posts, like "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull", "Human bull hybrid", "White calf", "Calydonian boar"...

So it is much more appropriate to mark Apr/May, Taurus, with a calf, just like it is more much more appropriate to mark Mar/Apr, Aries, with a lamb...I talked about this in my post "Maran"...

Anyway, in "Enki and the world order" we read that:

"Enki placed in charge of the whole of heaven and earth the hero, the youth Utu (Shamash), the bull standing triumphantly, audaciously, majestically...the great herald in the east of holy An...with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon..."

It is the rising elevation of the sun that causes the snowmelt which feeds Tigris and Euphrates which causes the flood in Taurus. 

So golden bull's head (sun) with lapis beard (flowing water)  

BTW, in "Enki and the world order" we also read:

"...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris [and Euphrates] with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..." Some scene 🙂

So Bull Utu (sun) melts snow and Bull Enki (source of Tigris and Euphrates) fills the rivers in Taurus, when "wild cows are mooing for their young in the wild grass"...

I talked about this in my posts "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up to heaven", "Problems of Abzu", "But chewing"...

BTW, in Serbia, St George's day which marks the end of Aries beginning of Taurus, is the time when shepherds sacrifice lambs to St George...Remember, the lamb (Aries, Mar/Apr, End of lambing season, End of spring) has to die (end) so that calf can be born (Taurus, Apr/May, Beginning of the calving season, Beginning of summer)...I talked about this in my post "Aries must die"...

Interestingly, in the past, during spring droughts, Serbs used to go to mountain lakes to pray for rain to "a dragon living in the lake who swallowed the rain"...They also sacrificed a lamb to the dragon...The same sacrifice they made to St George, the dragon killer...I talked about this in my post "Dragon that stole rain"...

Anyway...What about the serpent? "...And the serpent cast out of his mouth, after the woman, water, as it were a river: that he might cause her to be carried away..."

First, snake is a solar animal, pretty much a universal symbol of the sun's heat. Snakes follow sun everywhere. They are in our world when sun is in our world (day, summer) and in the underworld when the sun is in the underworld (night, winter)...I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance "Snake god from Hatra"...

And as I said, it is the sun's heat that melts the snow...

Second, snake mating season, when snakes intertwine, starts in Apr/May, the time of the peak snowmelt runoff, and the peak discharge of the rivers in the Tigris/Euphrates system...

Which is why in the Deliver Me from Evil: Mesopotamian Incantations, 2500-1500 BC, By Graham Cunningham, we can read that in the Earliest Sumerian texts, Enki, the god of sweet flowing water and the source of Tigris and Euphrates, was associated with poisonous snakes...And was depicted as a god with the snake body. Like on this Elamite seal from the 3rd millennium BC, currently in the Isreal Museum, Jerusalem...

And again, Utu, Sun, Serpent, Dragon, melts the snow (releases the stolen water) and Enki, Serpent, Dragon, Abzu, source of Tigris and Euphrates, pours this water into Tigris and Euphrates...During snake mating season...

Interesting...Right?

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind... 

Donderbezem

This is so called Donderbezem (thunder broom), a protective symbol used in Holland and northern Germany as a protection from lightning strikes and evil spirits.

These symbols were either built into brick walls of the houses...This example is from the city wall of Elburg, Holland, and dates to 14th century...

Or they were engraved on the metal parts used as wall or door frame reinforcement...This one is from Nijmegen, Holland, and dates to 16th century. It is even made to look like a broom...

Or they were placed on the ridge of a roof pointing to the sky...This one is from Vleerbosch, Haarle/Tubbergen, and dates to 20th century. 

Most sources will tell you that these symbols were connected with the Germanic god of thunder (Thunar/Donar/Thor) and that the origin of this symbol is the Younger Futhark Haglaz rune which means "hailstone"...

What is interesting is no one really knows why this symbol is called "thunder broom"...Apart from a vague belief that a broom would keep evil spirits from entering your home, cause broom is used for cleaning, expelling...

That thunder broom being a broom is important, can be seen from the fact that there is a variant of Donderbezem symbol built into brick walls which actually looks like a broom. This example is from Altengamme near Hamburg, Germany, and dates to 20th century.

The broom pointing up looks very much like another rune, this time  Elder Futhark rune, Algiz...Which means "Protection"...From thunder and lightning?

That thunder broom being a broom is important, can also be seen from the fact that most of the Donderbezem symbols placed on the ridge of a roof actually look like a broom too...These examples are from Rekken in Berkelland province, Holland.

That thunder broom being a broom is important, can also be seen from the fact that sometimes actual brooms were hang under the roof as a protection from thunder...

Originally a Donderbezem was just a bundle of twigs stuck under the roof of the house...Technically brooms were originally just bundles of twigs. Like these ones...So it was in affect a broom stuck under the roof of the house that was the original Donderbezem (thunder broom)...

But as I said, I couldn't find any explanation in Germanic mythology or folklore for why people would believe that a broom was able to protect their houses from thunder strike. I have to admit I didn't do a thorough search, so I could've missed some important info. Anyone knows?

Traditionally, brooms are made from the twiggy growth of the birch tree, and the craft was particularly strong in areas where birch coppices abounded...

So I thought: could it be that the reason why broom was used as a protection against thunder strikes was because birch tree was believed to protect against thunder strikes?

Again, I couldn't find anything in Germanic mythology or folklore about people believing that birch was able to protect their houses from thunder strike. I have to admit I didn't do a thorough search, so I could've missed some important info. Anyone here knows?

But interestingly, Slavs believed that the birch, planted near the house, repels evil and protects from lightning...And even better, they believed that stuck under the roof of the house, birch branches (broom) protected the house from the lightning, storm, and hail...🙂

Wow...Strange...So what about Donderbezem? Where did that belief come from? This is map of Utrecht, city in Central Holland, dated to 1581...

And this is Willibrord  (658 – 739 AD),  a Northumbrian missionary saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first Bishop of Utrecht...I talked about him in my post "Axe of Martin"....

Bede says: "Pepin gave Willibrord a place for his episcopal see in his famous castle, which, in the ancient language of those people (who originally built it), is called Wiltaburg (the town of the Wilti), but in the French tongue Utrecht..."

Wilti, of Wiltzi were a West Slavic tribe. During the time of Charlemagne, Wilti were in alliance with the Saxons, fighting against the Franks who were allied with another Slavic tribe, Obodriti...

You can read more about Slavs among Anglo Saxons in my post "The origin of Anglo-Saxon race" which talks about the 1906 book "Origin of the Anglo – Saxon race" by Thomas William Shore...

Slavs lived all over Northern Holland and Northern Germany (Donderbezem country) until they were either exterminated or germanised during hundreds of years of Anti Slavic crusades...

So is it possible that Donderbezem is a remnant of old Slavic belief that birch and birch twigs (broom) can protect the house from thunder strikes?

Interestingly, some of the roof Donderbezem look like this... 

See that rosette? That's Perunika, The flower of Perun (Slavic thunder god). Also known as "Gromoviti znak" (Thunder mark), it was carved into wood, stone, plaster on Slavic houses as a protection against...thunder...

Like this...BTW, do you notice how much Perunika looks like Donderbezem aka Haglaz rune??? 

Interesting, right? And mysterious...

Now it is possible that this is also linked in some way to the shape of the κεραυνός (keraunos), the lightning bolt of Zeus...

And is it possible that this is also linked to वज्र (vajra) the thunderbolt of Indra... 

And is it possible that this is also linked to the unnamed lightning weapon wielded by Ninurta?

And is it possible that this is also linked to the the "bundle" with unknown meaning held by Hadad

Don't they all look like the original, double broom Donderbezem?

Also just remembered this. 

Serbian Folk song from Bosnia collected by Kosta H. Ristić in 1873. 

It talks about quarrel between Sun and Vila. Vila is mostly translated as Fairy or Mountain Nymph. The problem is that the word Vila literally means trident, pitchfork, fork...

Pitchfork being one of the ancient weapons of the thunder gods means that Vila is actually lightning personified...The best discussion about Vila's identity and her identification with the thunderstorms and lightning can be found in "Stara vjera Srba i Hrvata" by Nodilo... 

The song describes the two competing forces, sun and thunderstorms during summers, when sun wins over thunderstorms, skies dry out and droughts arrive...

Original in Serbian can be found here...

And here is another Serbian ritual song which talks about a (disastrous) marriage between Vila (literally "pitchfork"), a mountain fairy (but really personification of lightning) and Davor (Dabog), Serbian (Slavic) sun and rain (sky) god...I wrote about this in my post "When bride dies soon after the wedding"...

Is it possible that this is somehow linked to the the "pitchfork/broom" weapon of Ningirsu?

Or the त्रिशूल (trishula) pitchfork of Shiva

Doesn't this look like single broom Donderbezem?

Anyway...