Apotropaic

In Serbia axe was still used as a protection against (thunder, hail) storms until recently. Before a storm, an axe was thrown into the yard with the blade facing the sky, "to cut the clouds, ice"...

People believed that axe was the weapon of the Thunder God, and by using the axe, people "enacted" the Thunder God himself...

Check my posts Jupiter Zeus Dolichenus, Teshub killing snake, Goibniu to see why the thunder gods were linked to (armed with) axes...

Why were Thunder Gods armed with axes?

A 15th-century engraving depicts the town of Ensisheim in present-day France being struck by a thunderbolt (stone)...I talked about this in my post "Jack and magic beans", about giants who lived on a stone sky and who hurled giants rocks down on earth...The original sky (stone) thunder gods...

People all over the world believed that thunderbolts were made of stone. Interestingly, people also thought that these thunder stones were actually (shaped like) stone axes...This belief existed in Europe until well into the Middle Ages...Which is why ancient stone axes were believed to be petrified lightnings and were kept as talismans as a protection against lightning strikes...

I talked about this in my posts "Thunder axe" and "Kataibates"...

The use of iron axes for protection from thunder strikes is just a continuation of this ancient tradition...

People always used (iron) axe as the first and the best weapon against (thunder, hail) storms. But they believed that iron in general was in some way connected with thunder (god) and could influence his behaviour.

This can be seen from the fact that other sharp iron objects were also used as a defence against (thunder, hail) storms. Like a knife, scythe, sickle, rake, which were also sometimes placed outside crossed, turned, like the axe, upwards with sharp ends facing the clouds...

This directly equates smiths (makers of sharp iron objects) with thunder gods. I talk about this link in detail in my post Goibniu...

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

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.

In some parts of Serbia a broom was thrown into the middle of the yard as a protection against (thunder, hail) storms.

I talked a lot about brooms and storms and witches (who rode on brooms and whose main sin, according to medieval witchcraft literature, was storm, bad weather, magic).

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

Check theses two posts first, then follow links for more info: Walpurgis night, Donderbezem...

Finally, in some areas of Serbia, during the (thunder, hail) storms, a tripod was upturned in the yard with the legs pointing towards the sky...

This is very interesting...

Is this symbolic invocation of Triglav?

Acupuncture

Otzi the iceman is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. 

He had tattoos on his skin which corresponded with acupuncture points which would be used today to treat his health problems...You can read more about this here...

Acupuncture developed from acupressure, using either hand or sharp pointed objects...Like these Ancient Chinese acupuncture / acupressure bone "needles". The acupuncture (acupressure with penetration of the skin) is much later invention...

The speculation is that the ancient healer marked the spots on Otzi's body and told him to apply acupressure when his problems got worse...

Other cultures where tattoos were interpreted as therapeutic/acupressure maps:

Pazyryk culture, Altai/Siberian region, Iron Age, c. 5th–3rd centuries BC 

Tattoos over joints and the lower back have been compared with therapeutic tattooing in other populations. You can read more about this in The Tattooed and the Social Environment: The Cultural Heritage of Tattooing: A Brief History.

Chiribaya culture, Southern Peru, approximately 1000 years ago 

Circular tattoos on a woman's neck may have had a therapeutic purpose because of their proximity to acupuncture points; ritual or protective purposes are also possible.  

You can read more about it in Different staining substances were used in decorative and therapeutic tattoos in a 1000-year-old Peruvian mummy

St. Lawrence Island Yupiget (Yupik), Alaska, historically documented 

Therapeutic tattoo punctures around joints were used against pain and ligament complaints; the practice has been compared to acupuncture. 

You can read more about this in Can Tattoos Be Medicinal

Unangan, (Aleut) Aleutian Islands, Alaska  

Joint tattooing has been documented as a preventive or treatment for bodily pain and arthritic complaints.  

You can read more about this in The Tattooed and the Social Environment: The Cultural Heritage of Tattooing: A Brief History.

Kayan Sarawak, Borneo 

Therapeutic tattoos placed around joints have been compared with Ötzi's tattoos in location and presumed function.

You can read more about this in The Tattooed and the Social Environment: The Cultural Heritage of Tattooing: A Brief History.

Vermilion tika

A "vermilion tika", a custom of applying vermilion powder on the forehead or in the hairline, primarily by married women in South Aian cultures, particularly in Nepal and India, is a tradition which originates in Harappan civilisation...

These figurines, showing visible traces of red paint on the hair partition line, were found in Harappa culture site Nausharo, prove that "vermilion tika" is part of the unbroken local tradition spanning over 4000 years...

BTW, vermillion is made from the powdered mineral cinnabar, a form of mercury sulfide...

Cinnabar was the second oldest thing ever mined. 

The first documented use of vermilion pigment, made with ground cinnabar, dates to 8000–7000 BC, and was found at the neolithic village of Catalhoyuk, in modern-day Turkey. I talked about this in my post Ore...

The oldest thing ever mined being another red pigment, "red ochre" which owed it's colour to large amounts of hematite, or dehydrated iron oxide...

The earliest evidence of its use by "Modern Humans" in Africa dates to 307,000 years ago.

The earliest evidence of its use by Neanderthals in Europe dates to 250,000 years ago...

Again, I talked about this in my post Ore...

I already talked about cultural continuity in Indian Subcontinent in many of my posts discussing animal calendar markers found in Hindu mythology. They show that the mythology had to have been developed locally in India...

Could it be that this is not a depiction of a male warrior but of a female warrior, a Warrior Goddess actually, a Proto Durga, the killer of the buffalo Asura who scared the Devas shitless? From my post Proto-Durga with the analysis of this 3rd mill BC Harappan tablet...

Human-Bull hybrid, Deity or a Priest wearing a bull skin and horns. I think animal calendar markers can help us figure out who is depicted on this Indus Valley civilisation seal from Mohenjo-Daro, dated to 2600-1900BC...Full analysis can be found in my post Human-bull hybrid...

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white (cloud) elephant...Articles about elephant calendar marker, India: Musth, Samantabhadra, Modesty, Ganesha...

Varuna, the old Monsoon god, rides on a Makara, a mythical beaing which is a combination of many different animals, all linked to the monsoon rain season, including three different types of crocodiles which all breed during the monsoon rain season in India...

I talk about this in several of my posts: Makara, Yakshi, Proto Durga, Maruts...

7th c. Maruts relief, Sambor Prei Kuk, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.

From my post Maruts, about another proof that Rig Vedas had to have been written in India proper, proof discovered through applying animal calendar markers theory to one of the more obscure parts of the Marut's legends...

Agni was born (among gods, in the sky) bright like the sun and was moving in the night sky along with smoke. After that Maruts were born with great commotion holding shining spears. Then the Maruts stood surrounding Agni with their lights.

Maruts then came (to earth) along with Agni from above. They are visible at a distance shining like stars. They come down in thousands to earth together. They are shaped like drops and are bright like fires. They gleam like serpents as they approach the earth.

From my post Rudra, in which I talk about the fact that Perseid meteor shower coincides with the rain and thunderstor storm season in India...

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...

Mother Earth from Revadim

A clay plaque of the Mother Earth, from the Late Bronze Age, Found in Revadim, Levant, dating around 1250 BC. Similar terracotta plaques have been found in archaeological excavations in sites like Tel Harasim, and Tel Aphek. 

The Revadim mother earth is depicted:

1. With a prancing Ibex goat facing a tree on each of her legs...

2.  Spreading her vagina...

3. Nursing people...

4. Wearing a crescent moon necklace pendant...

Why?

Let me try to decipher these symbols in this post:

The Revadim mother earth is depicted:  

1. With a prancing Ibex goat facing a tree on each of her legs...

The reason why rampant Ibex goats are depicted facing trees (of life) is because the climate in Levant is divided into hot, dry half (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and cool, wet half (Oct/Nov-Apr/May)...

The rains, which support (the tree of) life in Levant, arrive when male Ibex goats start their mating fights over females, in Oct/Nov...

So prancing (fighting) ibex goat became an animal calendar marker for the start of the rain season...

This is why we also find two prancing ibex goats facing the tree of life on this pottery vessel, a ewer, from the Fosse temple at Lachish, Levant, dated to the 13th century BC, which also bears an inscription on the shoulder which reads from left to right "Mattan (the donor), an offering to my lady ’Elat"...

I talk about this amazing animal calendar in my post Lachish animal calendar

Here is another vessel from the Fosse temple at Lachish also dated to the 13th century BC. On this vessel we see two rampant goats facing not a tree, but a vulva...Vulva is the symbol of fertility number one...Obviously...Easy to understand why...

Vulva is used on a lot of ancient artefacts to represent the fertility of the land. And here this is explicitly spelled out: mating goats of rain, rain which makes land fertile, facing vulva, symbol of fertility...

Please note that the tree of life surrounded by prancing Ibex goats is on the Lachish vessel depicted in a shape of Menorah...Just like here, on this 3,000 BCE Sumerian Stamp Seal with Impression Tree of Life with Rampant Goats. Mesopotamia. Chicago. Oriental Institute Museum...

I talk about the link between Menorah and the Tree of life and the Hanukah that is celebrated in Tevet, Dec/Jan, the "muddy month" (peak of the rain season in Levant) which is marked by the goat mazal (which marks Dec/Jan, middle of the Ibex goat mating season)...in my post The Tree of Life/Light...

The tree of life also resembles menorah here too, on this super cool Bactrian bronze stamp, dated to 2400BC-1600BC...And again it is surrounded by prancing Ibex goats...

I talk about it in my post Bactrian Bronze Age menorah...

The tree of life surrounded by prancing Ibex goats was also depicted on this seal found in Alalakh/Tell Atchana, located 20 km from Antakya (Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. It was found in one of the rooms of the Level VII (c. 1800BC) palace...

I talk about it and another similar find from the same site in my post Pottery shard from Alalakh...

Same climate, same animals, with the same behaviour, same animal calendar marker, which later gets deified...And eventually into a god...

Elamite bronze idol of a (goat-) man with large ibex horns, 3rd-2nd millennium BC...

I talked about this transition, which is found all over the world, in my post Kuseh Gardani about the traditional Iranian "Kuseh Gardani" ritual, which is performed by men dressed as Ibex goats, in times of drought or low rainfall...

"Kuseh" (rain god turned devil of drought)...

The Revadim mother earth is depicted:

2.  Spreading her vagina (giving birth to all things)...

Bedrock is in the Balkans known as "živi kamen, živa stena" (living stone, living rock) because it is believed to be still part of the living body of the Mother Earth which gives birth to all life...I talk about it in my post Living stone...

I think this belief was what lied at the core of all mother goddess all over the world. Because:

"Man — despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments — owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains."

What is the best way to symbolically depict "Mother Earth"? Place mountains, plants and animals between eyes and  a pubic triangle. Decorated bone depicting slightly bewildered "Mother Earth", 6th - 5th millennium BC, Hagoshrim, Southern Levant. I talked about this in my post Eyes...

Or in the case of the Revadim mother earth, place the "goat of rain" and a "tree of life" on her thighs, just below here vagina, the source of all life...

This Revadim Goddess is believed to be the earliest depiction of Asherah, who herself is just another name for Inanna/Ishtar...

Remember what Inanna, Sumerian Mother of Grain, said in "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi":

"...Before my lord, Dumuzi,

I poured out plants from my womb.

I placed plants before him,

I poured out plants before him.

I placed grain before him,

I poured out grain before him,

I poured out grain before my womb..."

I talked about "Mother of Grain" in many of my posts...

So I think that the Revadim goddess could be depicted giving birth to food (grain)...

This is explicitly depicted on this gold pendant, dated 1400-1200 BC. It is 4.9 cm in height and was found in Ugarit, Syria. Louvre Museum, Paris, France. See grain growing out of the Goddess's pubic area? Another very common symbol found all over Central Asia, Mesopotamia, Iran, Levant, Aegean...

I talked about this in my post Hathor grain pendants...

BTW, do you see how the trees (of life) depicted on Revadim Goddess's thighs, one on each side of her vulva, look like grain ears?

Just like the grain ears depicted on the (possibly) the earliest (symbolic) depiction of Demeter (Vulva/Mother surrounded with grain ears)...

This symbol is hidden in plain sight on one of many mysterious Early Cycladic "Frying Pans" found on Cycladic islands in Greece and dated to the second half of the 3rd mill BC...

I talk about it in my post The oldest Demeter depiction...

The Revadim mother earth is also depicted:

3. Nursing (her) people...

What is the milk of the Mother Earth? Spring water of course...

And considering that Asherah was called the "Divine Nurse" of gods and people...

This image shows few of thousands of similar pillar figurine of Asherah, found in house shrines from the Iron Age II period (8th–7th century BC) Levant...

I talk about "the milk of the Mother Earth" in these two posts, Mesa Mouliana vessel and Anavlochos mountain, where I talk about Cretan version of the same goddess, where similar figurines were found deposited inside cracks on limestone mountain peaks (remember living rock, the body of mother earth):

The Revadim mother earth is finally depicted:

4. Wearing a crescent moon necklace pendant...

I wonder if this is "The Wet Moon", the Winter/Spring (Wet Season) Moon...Just depicted inverted...Pouring water on the Mother Earth...

Wet Moon?

During the winter, the ecliptic plane intersects the western horizon at its steepest, most vertical angle at sunset. Because a waxing crescent Moon follows right behind the Sun along this steep line, it sits directly above the Sun. This makes the crescent look like a upright bowl (the "wet moon") that sinks straight down into the horizon...

I talk about the Wet Moon and why Moon Gods were so important in places where winter is the rainy part of the year, like Mesopotamia, Iran, Levant, Northern Arabia in many of my post...

Also, guess what else happens in Dec/Jan, around Winter Solstice, the peak rain season in Levant, the peak Ibex mating season in Levant, when the Wet Moon starts shining in the night sky?

Sirius, the original Star of Inanna/Ishtar/Asherah..., reaches its highest point in the night sky... 

Ever seen this symbol?

I talked about Inanna/Ishtar and why it was Sirius that was her original "star" in Sirius mother of venus, Inana and Sukaletuda, The brightest star, Inanna in Egypt, Temple of Isis on Philae Island, Apocalypse, Whore of Babylon, Dog coin...

I think this is all I have to say about this clay plaque of the Mother Earth, from the Late Bronze Age, Found in Revadim, Levant, dating around 1250 BC. And why she was depicted 

1. With a prancing Ibex goat facing a tree on each of her legs...  

2.  Spreading her vagina...  

3. Nursing people...  

4. Wearing a crescent moon necklace pendant...

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...