Equilibrium

Libra (♎) is the seventh astrological sign in the Zodiac. Under the tropical zodiac, Sun transits this area on average between (northern autumnal equinox) September 22 (23) and October 23.

The ruling planet of Libra is Venus. Libra is the only zodiac constellation in the sky represented by an inanimate object.

The Libra sign follows the Virgo sign.

We could almost say that Virgo (Lady) "holds" Libra (Scales) in her hands.

Libra is also another Zodiac sign which can help us understand the true nature of the Zodiac. Which is that the Zodiac is Solar and not Stellar system of signs.

I have already written several article explaining how zodiac sings mark periods of time when important natural events happen during Solar year. These events are linked to the climatic changes in temperate zones of Evroasia and occur every year at more or less the same time. And are not in any way affected by any other star except our own, our Sun.

So far I have shown that four zodiac signs, Aries (ram), Taurus (bull), Pisces (fishes) and Capricorn (goat) mark important cyclical natural events related to animals who live in temperate zones of Evroasia.  

Aries - marks lambing season of European wild sheep
Taurus - marks calving season of European wild cattle
Pisces - marks mating season of European salmon
Capricorn - marks mating season of Alpine ibexes

These events occur every year at the same time, during the time period marked by the images of these animals. And these events are not in any way affected by any star. And they are not in any way influenced by the precession. 

And what about the other non animal zodiac signs? I have so far covered these 3:

Sagittarius - marks the fur hunting season in Continental Eurasia

Aquarius - marks the beginning of the snowmelt in Continental Eurasia

Virgo - marks the beginning of the cooling of the Northern hemisphere, the beginning of the period dominated by the Earth, Yin (Cold, Dark, Wet), the arrival of the Lady which rides on a lion, rides in chariots pulled by lions or stands or sits between lions

But what about Libra? How does it fit into this fixed Solar zodiac?

Well the part of the Solar year marked by the Libra zodiac sign start the day after the Autumn Equinox. Autumn Equinox marks the moment when day and night are of the equal length. 

The day after the Autumn Equinox, night becomes longer than day. This is the moment when the feminine principles (dark, cold, wet), the Yin principles of Mother Earth, finally overpower the masculine principles (bright, hot, dry), the Yang principles of Father Sun. 

I talked about this in my post "Yin and Yang". 

From that day the scales tip and Mother Earth, The Lady, The Virgo, becomes dominant force in the Sun - Earth system. 

This event, the tipping of the equilibrium of day and night in favour of night, occurs every Solar year at the same time (22nd of September). And this event is not affected by stars and is not influenced by precession. It is firmly fixed on the Solar circle. 

And this is why we find the Zodiac sign Libra where it is. To mark this event. 

So what do you think of all this? 

BTW, Mesopotamians seems to have viewed Libra in the same way, as their name for this sign suggest: ZIB-BA AN-NA, The Balance of Heaven. I talked about this in my post "ZIB-BA AN-NA"...

PS: I have since finished the full analysis of the European Zodiac. You can find the jump page to the articles about all the signs here...

Sacrificial animals

On this picture you see "badnjak" (Serbian Yule log, a young oak sapling which is ritually cut on Christmas Eve morning and is then ritually brought into the house on Christmas Eve) and "pečenica" a pig on a spit which is ritually slaughtered on Christmas Eve, roasted and then brought into the house with badnjak.

In Serbian ritual tradition there is a very specific rule which specifies which animal should be sacrificed for which religious holiday. 

Christmas - pig is slaughtered, roasted and eaten by the family (always)

St George's day - sheep is slaughtered, roasted and eaten by the family (always)

St Elijah's day - bull is slaughtered, roasted and eaten by the family (only in exceptional circumstances of devastating draughts. Normally it is a cockerel which is slaughtered, roasted and eaten by the family)

Two things are interesting here. 

First have a look at this excerpt from "Indo European And The Indo Europeans A Reconstruction And Historical Analysis Of A Proto Language And A Proto Culture" by Th V Gamkrelidze:

Roman tradition preserves both the archaic religious function of the pig as a fertility symbol and its place in the hierarchy of sacrificial animals. The sequence of sacrificial animals in archaic Roman tradition was given by the formula su-oue-taurilia ‘pig-sheep-bull’, in order of increasing importance. In the text of Cato discussing the sacrifice of unweaned animals ( suouetaurilia lactentia ), the sequence is porcus-agnus-uitulus ‘piglet-lamb-calf. This sequence of sacred sacrificial animals must reflect the significance and relative weighting of each animal in the economy. Interestingly, an analogous enumeration of sacred sacrificial animals in Sanskrit tradition does not mention pigs at all; their place is taken by goats (Dumezil 1966:238, 530). It is important that in cultures with developed swineherding that is dominant over sheepherding (as in many ancient Indo-European cultures, in particular early Slavic culture), the pig stands before the sheep in such listings (for East Slavic fairytales see Ivanov and Toporov 1974:39).

It can be concluded that the Romans preserved the ancient Indo-European practice whereby pigs, although they had an important economic function, were nonetheless ranked last in the hierarchy of relative economic weight, behind horses, bulls, and sheep. Of the Indo-European cultures known to us from archeological data, the Scytho-Sarmatian tribes of the northern Black Sea area in the first millennium B.C. are among the groups in which pigs in fact are the least important element in the livestock (Calkin 1966:74).

This is the important bit:

The sequence of sacrificial animals in archaic Roman tradition was given by the formula su-oue-taurilia ‘pig-sheep-bull’, in order of increasing importance.

Second have a look at this diagram linking Serbian sacrificial animals to the stages of the Sun god marked on the Solar circle:

You can see that Serbs strictly follow the above Archaic Roman (Indoeuropean) rule of more important animal being sacrificed to more important aspect of the sun god:

Pig - Baby sun
Sheep - Young sun
Bull - Old sun

Now here is something even more interesting. In the above excerpt the second highlighted part says:

Interestingly, an analogous enumeration of sacred sacrificial animals in Sanskrit tradition does not mention pigs at all; their place is taken by goats

You can see how in Serbian tradition the order of the sacrificial animals is tightly tied to the solar wheel. Now have a look at this:

Goat marks the beginning of the solar year, Ram follows then Bull...

Interesting don't you think?

Mountain Serbs of Montenegro

Anthropologist Chris Boehm spent 3 years, between 1963 and 1966, doing fieldwork in Montenegro in Gornja Morača region. He called the people that he encountered there "Mountain Serbs of Montenegro".

At the time Chris was there in the mid 1960's, Gornja Morača Tribe numbering 1800 people lived isolated at the headwaters of the Morača River seven hours by foot from the nearest road.

Firewood had to be brought from far away on foot. This was usually women's job.

The Gornja Morača area is a karst country. Arable land is scarce and fields are small. In the 60's these fields were still worked in the same way they had been worked since medieval time.

At home babies slept swaddled in wooden cots. 

Life in villages in Gornja Morača in 1960's involved a lot of hard work outside of the house done by both men and women. If a mother had to go out and do some work, like get water from a well o firewood from a forest (or both) the baby was carried around on their mother's back.

People from Gornja Morača kept small flocks of sheep. The flocks grazed on high mountain pastures which were exposed to extreme weather conditions year round. 

The sheep were of the type Pivska pramenka, a long tailed coarse wool, typical mountain breed, well adapted to severe conditions of rearing

Every household usually had few cows too, of the buša type, a small tough mountain breed, which was used as a working animal.

Horses were used for transport. They belonged to a local hilly horse breed, tough animals used to hard mountain terrain and harsh climate. 

106 years old man from Gornja Morača in front of his house. He insisted on changing into his "burial clothes", traditional local dress, before being interviewed by the anthropologist

In 1960's, a typical house from Gornja Morača was a single room stone hut covered with wooden slates. 

The centre of the house was open hearth like this one used for heating and cooking.

When the walls of a new house were built Gornja Morača, just before the roof work began, a lamb was sacrificed on top of the wall to ensure that the house would stand for a long time.

Local church was the focal point of the Gornja Morača community. All important tribal events took place on the plateau in front of the church. Oro (traditional circle dance) was often part of the event.

Tribal graveyard is located on a hill top overlooked by high mountain peaks. The ancient oak in the middle of the graveyard is considered sacred. Cutting it or any part of it is considered sacrilegious. Even collecting naturally fallen branches is forbidden.

The graveyard is very old and has many ancient tombstones of unknown age.

It is the isolated communities like this one that have preserved some of the oldest cultural traits in Europe. No wonder considering that they were literally living hidden from the rest of the world in the land above the clouds...

Slavic pyramids

"As the Sunday dawned in the early morning after the service of the Mass had been completed, Otto, the servant of God, having put on his episcopal headdress and with the standard of the cross borne in front of him, went forth to the multitude of the people in order to preach to them. He took with him Udalricus, who wore a dalmatic, as a deacon, and Adalbert who served as a sub-deacon and others to assist in preaching. There were there some large pyramids surrounded by walls to a considerable height in pagan fashion. The good preacher ascended one of these pyramids with his companions, and through his interpreter Adalbert began to explain the way of truth to those who had gone wrong and to threaten them with eternal destruction if they did not turn from their apostasy."
This is the description of Otto's missionary work among the Slavs of Stettin, from "The life of Otto, apostle of Pomerania, 1060-1139"
Were those "large pyramids built to considerable height in pagan fashion" which Otto saw in the 12th century among the Baltic Slavs, the same pyramids Slavs all over Slavdom still make on St John's day (Summer solstice)
Like this one on the picture: