In "The Golden Bough" by James George Frazer we can read that:
"Among the Slavs from Masuria the new fire for the village was made on the Midsummer day by making a wheel to revolve rapidly around the axle of oak until the axle took fire..."
"Also among the Magyars in Hungary on the Midsummer Eve in many places it is customary to kindle bonfires on heights by rotating a wheel round a wooden axle wrapped in hemp."
In the "Balder the beautiful : the fire-festivals of Europe and the doctrine of the external soul" by Sir James George Frazer we read that: "In the Island of Mull in the Hebrides, the need-fire was as late as 1767 kindled like this..."
"People would carry a wheel and nine spindles of oak wood to the top of the Carnmoor hill. Every fire in the vicinity of the hill was extinguished. The wheel was then turned rightward, over the nine spindles...to produce fire by friction. The fire had to be produced by noon..."
We know that wheel is a symbol directly linked with sun. But it is also linked with thunder and fire. We can see this through the symbols of Svetovid (sun) and Perun (thunder): their wheels. The wheel of Perun is "like" the wheel of Svetovid, a fiery version of it...
Sun creating fire through lightning...
Q: "It is a great secret how Svarog (heavenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder and lightning) and Svetovid (Sun)."
Science: easy...Solar fire creates solar winds which trigger lightning which creates earthly fire...I talked about this in my post "Sun, Thunder, Fire"...
Also don't forget St Elijah, who was in Balkan Slavic countries known as St Elijah the Thunderer...And was depicted blazing and thundering over the tops of the clouds...
When I was a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents. One year, around the 2nd of August, the day of the St Ilija the Thunderer, a late summer storm was rumbling over the village. My grandmother turned to me and said: "It's St Ilija the Thunderer driving his chariot over the clouds. The rolling thunder and flashing in the clouds are made by the fiery wheels of St Ilia's chariots bouncing off the bumpy tops of the clouds".
I talked about this in my post "Thundering sun god"...
In North Germany too, the peasants say, when they hear the low rumbling of distant thunder, "Use Herr Gott mangelt" meaning 'The Lord is mangling, or rolling the thunder...
Rolling the burning wheel down the hill was part of the celebrations usually linked with summer solstice across Germanic and Slavic world. I talked about it in my post "Burning rolling wheel". Pic from Belarus.,.
Hence Taranos
In the "Curiosities of Indo-European tradition and folk-lore" by Kelly, Walter Keating, we can read that:
"It appears from the preceding accounts that, both by Celts and Germans, a wheel was often used for kindling the needfire..."
"Jacob Grimm was the first to make it evident that, for the Germans at least the wheel was an emblem of the sun, and numerous facts which have come to light since he wrote, abundantly verify his conclusion..."
"He mentions...that in the Edda the sun is called fagrahvel " fair or bright wheel," and that the same sign ☉ which in the calendar represents the sun stands also for the Gothic double consonant 'hw,' the initial of the Gothic word 'hvil,' Anglo-Saxon 'hveol,' English wheel..."
"In the needfire on the island of Mull the wheel was turned, according to Celtic usage, from east to west, like the sun..."
Digression: Talked about the importance of the "sunwise" movement in
Q: "Which way to turn myself I know not?"
A: "If you worship the gods, right-hand wise, I apprehend."
Ever wondered why "clockwise" means "circle to the right" and "anti clockwise" means "circle to the left"?
Cause the original clocks were sundials...
I talked about this in my post "Sunwise"...
"There was a twofold reason for this use of the emblem of the sun, for that body was regarded not only as a mass of heavenly fire, but also as the immediate source of the lightning..."
"When black clouds concealed the sun, the early Aryans believed that its light was actually extinguished, and needed to be rekindled. Then the pramantha [firedril] was worked by some god in the cold wheel until it glowed again..."
Digression:
Thread: "Hestia, you who tends the holy house of the lord Apollo...come now into this house...having one mind with Zeus the all-wise..." From "Homeric Hymn To Hestia"
What does this mean?
It means that the lightning which was the source (essence) of fire...
I talked about this in my post "Having one mind with Zeus"...
Apparently, Hestia was for some "inexplicable" reason linked to Hermes...
"...but before this was finally accomplished the pramantha often shot out as a thunderbolt from the wheel, or was carried off by some fire robbers..."
"The word 'thunderbolt' itself like its German equivalents expresses the cylindrical or conical form of the pramantha. When the bolts had ceased to fly from the nave, and the wheel was once more ablaze, the storm was over."
Interestingly, it is Hermes, the younger brother of Apollo (Sun god) who invented fire (!!!) drill...
That's the same Hermes who later became Messenger (Thunder) of Zeus (Thunder god)...
What did Hermes do on the day he was born? He stole Apollo's cows. He then invented fire drill, made fire, and sacrificed one of the cows to the gods...I talked about this in my post about (apparently inexplicable π) link between Hermes and Hestia (fire)...
I talked about this in my post "12 Olympians"...
Also interestingly, the term pramantha is closely associated with the, sacred, ancient symbol of the swastika, particularly in Vedic and metaphysical contexts, acting as a metaphor for the creation of fire and, by extension, cosmic creation...
In Sanskrit, pramantha is an instrument used for kindling fire through rotary motion (a fire drill)...
The swastika (ε or ε) is traditionally seen as a symbol representing the pramantha (drill) and the arani (the baseboard) used in Vedic rituals to produce sacred fire (Agni)...
The rotary action of the fire drill—symbolized by the bent arms of the swastika—represents the creation of life and energy. It is considered a "summary in a few lines of the whole work of creation or evolution"...
Swastika is also a solar symbol, a symbolic depiction of ever turning solar wheel, solar year...
I talked about this in my post "Kolo-Vrt"...
