A Gaulish coin with a lyre

A very interesting Gaulish coin indeed...

Obverse: Unidentified diademed head, but I can bet this is Apollo (as Maponos, his Gaulish clone), as this is exactly how Apollo was depicted on Macedonian (solar horse) coins which were originally copied by the Celts...

That this is indeed Apollo/Maponos is confirmed by what is depicted on the reverse of the coin: a (solar) horse with the sun above its back, and a (solar) lyre, favorite instrument of Apollo/Maponos, under its belly...

Here is English equivalent:

A Celtic coin from Sussex, minted by the Atrebates and Regini tribes, 55-45 BC.   

Obverse: Unidentified diademed head, but I can bet this is Apollo...

Reverse: A (solar) horse with the (solar) wheel above its back, and a (solar) lyre under its belly...

Horse (equid) is one of the most common solar symbols found all over Eurasia since Bronze Age...This is because horse (equid) fertility and their mating season, which is marked by wild stallion fights, is governed by the sunlight. It starts in Apr/May, peaks on summer solstice, and ends in Sep/Oct...

This is why horse (actually equid in general) was the preffered ride of the sun gods (and kings who worshiped them) from Mesopotamia onwards...

I talked about Horse (Equid) as a solar symbol in many of my posts: 

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak", "7 heads"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn", "Sun god from the first temple"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "White stag" "The horseman", "Artemis Orthia", "Curlew", "Poseidon pursuing Demeter"...

Anatolia "Cilician Nergal"

Another celtic coin, from Eastern Europe, Hungary, this time with the sun depicted as solar rider. With the sun god Apollo depicted on the other side...

Now on the Gaulish coin, the (solar) horse is depicted prancing above the waves...

This scene is actually a complex calendar marker for the sailing season in Gaul, Apr/May - Sep/Oct...

In Roman times, the official and safe sailing season (mare apertum) along the French coast ran from Apr/May to Sep/Oct...I talk about Roman sailing season in my post "Swallow tattoo"...

Which overlaps with the horse mating season...

This is also the reason why horse was the sacred animal of Poseidon (Greek) and Yamm (Phoenician) sea gods. 

Horse mating season overlaps with the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean too. I talked about this in my posts "Trojan horse", "Three sacrifices"...

BTW, the lyre of Apollo is also a calendar marker. 

The lyre was made by Apollo's younger brother Hermes, who later swapped it with Apollo of caduceus...  

And interestingly, every single plant and animal that features prominently in Hermes's mythology is a calendar marker for Apr/May...Beginning of the sailing season...  

I talk about Hermes in these articles... 

Oh yeah, did I mention that Hermes was patron of commerce, and because most commerce was conducted by boat, by extension seafaring...

Hermes features prominently in Celtic mythology together with Apollo...Sometimes two are actually merged into a single Celtic equivalent...

I talk about this in my post "Pillar of the boatmen" in which I give symbolic analysis of the second row of the 1st c. AD Roman monument known as the "Pillar of the Boatmen" found in Paris, France...

Diodorus Siculus, citing Timaeus of Tauromenium, who lived in 4th-3rd century BC says: "The Celts dwelling along the Ocean have a particular veneration for the Dioscuri; according to one of their ancient traditions, these gods arrived by way of the Ocean"...

The sailing season in Gaul started when horses started mating, in Apr/May and peaked when horses mating season peaked, on Summer Solstice...

I think this is why Dioskuri mark Summer Solstice, and that this is why they were venerated by maritime Celts...

I talked about the (horse) twins marking Summer Solstice in different cultures in my post "Little horses"...

I also think this specific type of gold stater, made in 2nd-1st c. BC by Celtic tribes in Gaul, actually depicts "Sailing season" through depiction of Poseidon (as one of his Celtic clones), in a chariot pulled by a solar horse, depicted above a seahorse...

BTW, I find it really neat that horses and sea horses, which are both linked with sea gods in the Eastern Mediterranean, have the same breeding season, Apr/May - Sep/Oct, which is also the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. Where all these animal calendar markers originate...I talk about seahorses in my post "Seahorse ring"...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

The ride

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

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

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...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...

From my post Donderbezem...

Now guess who like riding on birch brooms...

Donnerbesen (Thunderbroom) was also the name for these growths found mostly on birches... 

The names in German were Hexenbesen (Witch's broom) and Donnerbesen (Thunder broom)   

You can read more about this here and here...

And guess what medieval witches were up to

Two witches conjuring a hailstorm.

Did you know that the sudden climate change which resulted in the medieval mini ice age was blamed on the weather controlling witches and was the excuse for the subsequent witch-hunt? 

I talked about this in my post De lamiis et pythonicis mulieribus...

So suddenly witches riding on birch brooms makes a lot of sense...And the best way to protect yourself and your possessions from thundering witches on birch brooms is of course thunder (also known as witch) mark...

Early medieval "witch mark" from St Cormac's Cave, Eileen Mor, West Scotland... 

I talk about this symbol and how it was linked to the female weather magic and the worship of Mother Earth in my post Witch mark...

The fact that in Slavic culture birches were female trees  and that witches causing summer thunderstorms and hailstorms were women riding on birch brooms is definitely important. After all falling down, rain, ice, cold, darkness = Yin...

In the past in Russia, when a boy was born, people planted an oak (a male tree) and when a girl was born people planted a birch (a female tree)...

Strong wide (male) oaks and slender thin (female) birches...

You can read more about this in my post Planting tree when a child is born...

Now I think this explains why witches' favourite ride was a birch broom...

But according to European folklore: 

"Witches were said to anoint their bodies with uncanny salve and, muttering a spell, could take flight on a broom, twig's branch, goat, pig, butter churn staff, mortar and pestle, distaff, pitchfork, ladle, fire tongs, fire pokers"...

As I said, I think I explained why witches' favourite ride was a birch broom...and why they could also ride on twig's branch (the original brooms were just bunches of birch twigs)...

I also already answered the question why would witchel ride on goats in my post Walpurgis night:

Goat is universally associated with dark, cold, wet half of the year (Oct/Nov - Apr/May) in Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, Western Asia, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Iran...This is because ibex goat mating season starts in Oct/Nov and the ibex goat birthing season finishes in Apr/May...

I talked about symbolism of ibex goats in many of my posts, like 

Europe:

"Pitys", "Goat in European culture", "Patera of Rennes", "Gotland sun stone with horses and ibexes"... 

Levant:

"The tree of life/light", "Lachish animal calendar"...

Mesopotamia:

"Feast plaque from Louvre", "Green pastures", "Problems with Abzu", "Relief from Dur Sharrukin", "Goatfish"...

Iran: 

"Flamingos from Susa", "Goat carrier", "Iranian goat of rain", "Strider", "A vessel from Tepe Hissar", "Rhubarb and ibex"...

Interesting, right?

What about pigs?

Pig (boar) is another animal calendar marker for the (beginning of) winter (cold, damp, dark) half of the year. This is because wild boar start their mating season in Oct/Nov, and they give birth to piglets in Mar/Apr, basically marking the beginning and the end of the (cold, damp, dark) half of the year...

I talk about wild boar as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

But also, in the past, pig was symbolically directly linked to female genitalia...

I talk about this in my post "Baubo"...

The last type of Baubo figurines depicts a woman sitting with again in the natural birthing position, this time on a pig(let). 

The meaning of this figurine becomes obvious when you know about the link between Persephone and pig(lets)...I discuss this in my article "Pigging around"...Pic: Terracotta figurine of a female wearing a polos and holding a piglet in her right hand and a torch in her left hand. From the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore (Persephone) at Ancient Corinth. Around 320-200 BC. Corinth Archaeological Museum... 

One thing that I didn't talk about is the fact that according to the Latin writer, M. Terentius Varro: "...For our women...identify the female vulva of virgins with piglet, Latin porcum and Greek choiros..."

This word play with porcus/choiros referring both to piglet and to the vulva of virgins indicates that the pigs offered in the Thesmophoria could have been substitutes for (and symbolic of) the sacrifice of a young girl, just as Kore had been sacrificed (abducted)...

Or maybe what was sacrificed was virginity. You need to kill the piglet (rapture the hymen) in order to conceive, to produce life...In order to become the birth giver...

Thesmophoria, the festival commemorating the abduction of Persephone, was celebrated by married women only. And every one of them "had to sacrifice a piglet" to be allowed to participate...

Just like (Virgin) Earth (Persephone) has to be ploughed (raptured) so the grain seeds can be sown into it, and so she can become (Mother) Earth...More precisely Mother of Grain...Demeter...

And so, Baubo, sitting in the natural birthing position, on a pig(let), sometimes touching her vulva, as if to emphasise that the pig(let) and the vulva of the virgins were symbolically, at least from the point of view of the Eleusinian mysteries, one and the same...

The women participating in the Eleusinian mysteries were in a way "witches", preservers of the ancient magical knowledge...

The rituals involving pig sacrifices were linked to fertility, both land or female. And most likely rain, water, moisture, which makes both land and women fertile...I talk about this in my post Pigging around...

This makes a pig another very fitting ride for a witch...

This sacred knowledge of wet earth/female fertility magic was historically preserved by women...I talk about this in my post North Berwick witches and the linked posts...

This article ends with:

In Serbian we have these words: nevesta (ne vešta) = not skilful (knowledgable, wise) = maiden, vešta (the skilful one, married woman, the one who "knows") and veštica (the witch, the old woman, the one who knows everything, the preserver of sacred knowledge)...

I talked about this in my post The skillful one and Wrach...

Plus, remember this?

Hey, you Halloween witches, dressing up in black on the first day of winter...You know that The Witch here is The Hag, Winter Earth, Baba, Cailleach, The Dark, Veiled One...Here she is, all in black, with bare branch, on the four seasons Roman mosaic from the Bignor villa, England...

What about the rest of the flying implements, distaff, mortar and pestle, pitchfork, butter churn?

I think they are all somehow linked with the main agricultural season in Europe, which overlaps with the thunderstorm season in Europe, Apr/May - Oct/Nov...Which is the time when witches were most dangerous, because this was the time when witch magic could cause the most harm...

Distaff...  

Witch uses distaff to summon up a storm, 1537, by Hans Weiditz

The Witch (riding on a goat and holding a distaff), 1500, Albrecht Dürer

Interestingly, in the area between Balkans and Baltic (the true Central Europe), traditional distaffs were often decorated with the the above mentioned "Witch mark" also known as "Thunder mark" or "Perun's flower"... 

Married women from Montenegro spinning wool using hand distaffs and spindles by Zdenka Sertić... 

Here are some examples of distaffs from Central Europe:

Balkans: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia...

Romania

Hungary

Slovakia

Russia

Finland

Sweden

Latvia

In my post Witch mark I talked about the use of this symbo as a protection from the summer thunderstorms by European shepherds...To me it is not surprising at all that distaffs, used for processing woll, were decorated with this symbol. 

Plus, distaffs were a quintessencial female symbol, as woll processing, yarn spinning and knitting were quintessencial female activities.

Which all started after the sheep sheering...

Sheep sheering season in Europe spans the period Apr/May - Jul/Aug/Sep, and overlaps with the thunderstorm season.

Mortar and pestle

The most famous Russian witch Baba Yaga, lives in birch forest and flies around in a wooden mortar stiring with a pestle and using a silver girch broom to sweep away her tracks as she flies through the air. She is also directly linked with winds, storms, rain and snow and generally causing bad destructive weather while she is flying around...

Wooden mortar and pestle were used in Russia for grain processing (dehusking, crushing of barley, oat, rye, wheat, millet). Grain harvest season in Europe spans the period Apr/May - Jul/Aug/Sep, and again overlaps with the thunderstorm season.

The fact that the mortar grinding stones were used as a fertility altars dedicated to the Mother Earth, is not surprising at all. A hole in the ground is where the plant seed is planted. A hole (vagina) in the lying woman is where human seed is planted. So a horizontal lying stone with a hole (mortar) is already suggestive enough. Mortar grinding stone and pestle even more. So much so that the mortar and pestle became the symbol of male and female genitalia in Hinduism (Yoni and Lingam).

This is a so called "wet" grinder mortar and pestle from India from this great blog post about making stone ground chutney. 

And this is Yoni and Lingam 

The union of sky (father) and earth (mother) produces (releases) cereal seeds which are then poured into the mortar and pounded into flour with pestle in a motion which greatly resembles coital movement of penis (Lingam) inside vagina (Yoni) which produces (releases) human seeds which are poured into the vagina....

I talk about this in my post Stones with narrow bottomed bowls...

Pitchfork...

Traditional wooden pitchfork looks exactly like the above mentioned protection rune and like the ancient lightning symbol...

What is interesting is that in Serbian tradition we find Vila (literally "pitchfork"), a mountain fairy (but really personification of lightning). They live on mountain tops and shoot lightnins at their enemies...For people interested in this subject, check Stara vjera Srba i Hrvata from Nodilo, and have a look at his discussion about vilas and lightning...

One of my favourite Serbian ritual songs talks about a (disastrous) marriage between Vila and Davor (Dabog), Serbian (Slavic) sun and rain (sky) god...I talk about this poem in my post "When bride dies soon after weading"...

Here is another Serbian folk song. This one is from Bosnia and was collected by Kosta H. Ristić in 1873. It talks about quarrel between Sun and Vila. 

Remember the peak of the thunderstorm season (Vila) is the hottest time of the year (Sun)...

Interestigly, hay gathering season in Europe spans the period Apr/May - Jul/Aug/Sep, and again overlaps with the thunderstorm season.

Hay gathering with a pitchfork by 19th century French painter Julien Dupré

Churn-staff...

Bride, the effigy of St Brigit, the "hag" (winter) turned "bride" (spring), which is paraded around Ireland on Imbolc, 1st of Feb, the first day of Gaelic spring, was made from the stick or dash from butter churn, which was dressed as a bride...

I talk about this in my post "Bride"...

There are some who believe that the word Imbolc, could be derived from im = butter...Would make a lot more sense than the official etymology...Considering that this is the time of the year when the last year's butter supplies are running low and when all the other fat/butter festivals, like Slavic Maslenitsa (literally butter festival) are celebrated around Europe to mark the end of winter and the beginning of spring...

So again we have a tool, which is also a fertility symbol linked with Mother Earth and shepherds, and with an action that resembles coitus being used as witch's ride...

Woman Churning Butter by Jean-François Millet, 1855–56

BTW, the milking season in Europe spans the period Apr/May - Jul/Aug/Sep, and overlaps with the thunderstorm season...

Ladle

Ladles, water scoops, and buckets were used in traditional European rain-making rituals, primarily as instruments for sympathetic magic. In these agrarian customs, pouring, splashing, or scooping water mimicked the rainfall the community desperately needed to save their crops.

In the Balkans (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece), during severe summer droughts, people performed rain making rituals known as Paparuda or Dodola.

A young, unmarried girl was stripped naked and then covered in fresh green leaves, vines, and branches.

She would dance through the village from house to house. At each stop, homeowners used wooden ladles, buckets, or water scoops to douse her thoroughly with water. The water cascading off the green leaves directly symbolized rain falling onto fertile fields.

And these rain making rituals were made during the hottest time of the year Apr/May - Jul/Aug/Sep, which overlaps with the thunderstorm season... 

In some parts of Greece, like Athens and the Aegean islands, during summer droughts villagers, together with priests would go to local spring caves, and would use water scoops or large ladles to draw water from deep within holy spring caves (like the Panagia spring cave in Athens) to wash icons, sprinkle the fields, or distribute water to invoke rain. This custom seems to be remnant of the old Mother Earth as Mountain Mother worship that was very common in the Balkans, Aegean and Anatolia. I talked about this in my post Mesa Mouliana vessel, about this ceramic vessel form Crete dated ca 2200-2000 BC. Probably during rituals the liquid would pour out of her breasts symbolically providing nourishment. It’s believed to represent the mountain goddess of Crete producing spring water...

This ancient belief that it is Mother Earth that controls cold, wet weather, including rain and snow, is still preserved in it's original form among the Balkan Slavs...I talk about this in my post Witch mark...

And again, these rain making rituals were made during the hottest time of the year Apr/May - Jul/Aug/Sep, which overlaps with the thunderstorm season...

Fire tongs, fire pokers

In some parts of Serbia, fire tongs, fire pokers were also place in the yard pointing upward as a protection against (thunder, hail) storms. 

This is why:

A blacksmith has to strike his anvil with his hammer on every Christmas morning before sunrise. If he doesn't do it, his hammer and anvil should be broken and he and his family should be expelled from the tribe (medieval Vasojevići tribe law cannon, Montenegro)...

Striking anvil with hammer produces sparks and sparks create fire. And Christmas Day is the day when the fire of the sun gets rekindled (the old winter solstice, the rebirth of the sun and solar year)...

This is what Yule log rituals are all about...

A toast to yule log, Dalmatia, 1893. South Slavs believed that yule log was the earthly seat of god,  addressed it with utmost respect and made sacrifices to it, during cutting, bringing in, burning...

I talked about this in my posts "Badnjak", about Yule log customs in the Balkans, "La buche de Noel", about Yule log customs in France and "Yule log in English tradition", about Yule log customs in England. 

BTW, you need an axe to cut a Yule log...

Everything indicates that the Yule log ceremonies are solar ceremonies. But why was Oak, the holy tree of Perun, The Thunder God, used as Badnyak (Yule Log)? 

To understand the link between the heart fire, yule log, thunder god and the sun, you need to check this out:

"It is a great secret how Svarog (heavenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder) and Svetovid (Sun)"...

Mathis (Matthias) Gerung, The Mighty Angel with the Little Book (Revelation 10), illuminated miniature on parchment in the Ottheinrich Bible, vol. 8, fol. 293r, c. 1530–1532 AD. Collection: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich...

Apparently, no one knows what this image really represents. I think it represents this:

Modern science has confirmed that it is indeed (heavenly) fire of the Sun which through Lightning descends to earth and becomes (earthly) Fire. I talked about this in my post "Sun Thunder Fire"...

So this is why the Yule Log is an Oak Log.

An Oak Yule Log (The Holy Tree of the Thunder Gods) is placed in the house hearth, the seat of the Earthly Fire on Christmas (Winter Solstice) eve to (symbolically) link it to the Sun's Fire...As long the Yule Log is burning, these two fires are (symbolically) connected and on Christmas (Winter Solstice) morning, the earth fire will (symbolically) ascend from the hearth to the sun and will restart the sun's fire...

BTW, this is how Ancient Greeks symbolically depicted the same thing:

"Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo...come now into this house...having one mind with Zeus the all-wise..." (Homeric Hymn To Hestia)...  

What does this mean? Sun (Apollo, Helios) creates Fire (Hestia) through lightning (Zeus)...

I talked about this in my post "Having one mind with Zeus"...

Back to sparks:

In Serbia, one of the most important part of the Yule log ceremony was the sparks divination performed by the first footer, the luck bringer...I talked about this in my post "First Footer"...

The First Footer repeatedly "strikes" the fire to produce sparks. After each strike, he exclaims:

As many sparks, as much luck!

As many sparks, as much love!

As many sparks, as much health!

As many sparks, as much money!

This "creation of sparks by striking burning Oak (the sacred tree of the thunder gods) Yule log" seems to me to be symbolic enactment of the creation of lightning by the thunder god...

This is why smith "creating sparks by striking hot iron with a hammer" has the same symbolic meaning and directly links smiths with thunder gods...

And this is why fire tongs, fire pokers are used for protection against thunder and lightning. That and the fact that keeping fire burning was one of the main female duties in the past...Fireplaces, hearths were literally female house temples...

I talked about this in these posts: Verige, Fire goddess, Bride and hearth...

This is why Hestia was the goddess of the hearth...

I talked about this in these posts: Jestija, 12 Olympians

As I said already, in Serbian we have these words: nevesta (ne vešta) = not skilful (knowledgable, wise) = maiden, vešta (the skilful one, married woman, the one who "knows") and veštica (the witch, the old woman, the one who knows everything, the preserver of sacred knowledge)...

Sooo...What do you think?

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...