Thursday 1 June 2017

Minoan sacred marriage seal

This is a Minoan seal which is by archaeologist interpreted as a depiction of "hieros gamos" or the "sacred marriage".  


Hieros gamos ("holy marriage") is a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities.

So who are the god and goddess depicted on this seal? And why are they depicted standing on top of a dog?

In my post "Ognjena Marija" I wrote about the holly marriage between Ognjena Marija (Fiery Mary) and St. Ilija Gromovnik (Elijah the thunderer). 

Ilija Gromovnik (Elijah the thunderer) is the Christianized Perun. But also he is the Christianized Helios, the old titan Sun God. 

In Slavic mythology, Ognjena Marija or the "Fiery Mary" is considered to be the sister of St Ilija Gromovnik and (or) wife of Perun. She is also known as Perunika.

Serbian folk tradition says that if it wasn't for Ognjena Marija, St Ilija Gromovnik, Perun, Thundering fiery sun would burn the whole world. 

The day on which St Eliah the thunderer is celebrated, the 2nd of August, used to be the known as Perun day. 

The period three days before and the three days after the 2nd of August, is in South Slavic tradition called Kresovi meaning Fires. This is the hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere, the period of the burning heat. These are the dog days when the dog star Sirius is in the sky with the sun. 

In Serbian folk mythology, Ognjena Marija has been transformed into two female Christian characters: St Marina, known also as St Margaret and St Mary Magdalene.

If we look at the days on which people celebrate these two female saints, we can see that they mark the beginning and the end of Kresovi (the fire days):

30th of July. St Marina, St Margaret, Ognjena Marija
2nd of August. St Ilija the thunderer
4th of August. St Marija Magdalena, Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) Marija

You can see that Serbian tradition Kresovi, the week of fire, starts with the fiery Marija and Ends with kind, benign, mild, gentle Marija. The 2nd of August, Perun day, the day of Ilios the thundering sun, is actually the hottest day of the year in the Balkans. All summer the sun has been burning in the sky. This is the time of wild fires and drought. Everyone is praying for the first big thunderstorms to arrive and save the land from being burnt to cinder. And this is what Ognjena Marija delivers. In Serbia there is a saying: "Od svetog Ilije sunce sve milije" which means "From St Ilija the sun starts getting kinder, milder, gentler". The first part of the 2nd of August is considered to be Summer and the second is considered to be Autumn. And this is what the transformation of Marija from Ognjena (Fiery) to Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) represents, The end of summer and beginning of autumn.

The reign of the sun (Yang, Light, Heat, Dryness, Male principle) is ending and the right of the earth (Yin, Darkness, Cold, Wetness, Female principle) is beginning. 

Basically the god and goddess are Father Sky and Mother Earth...

Is this what the above Minoan seal represents?

4 comments:

  1. You did not mention the age of this item.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is because i don't know what the age is. The drawing is from "Att tyda antika bildverk" by Säflund, G

      Delete
  2. Logicne bajke, melem za dusu.

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