Chinese door deities

In Chinese mythology, Shentu神荼 and Yulü 郁壘 are two door deities that protect Chinese houses from ghosts and demons. Legend says that they were the guardians of the ghost gate in a divine peach tree in ancient times, and responsible for watching over the ghosts as they pass through...

Very interesting indeed...Ghosts normally means the souls of the dead ancestors...And it is very significant that "the ghost gate" was located "in a divine peach tree". Here is why: plant calendar markers 🙂. Let me explain:

Peach (apricot) was directly linked to thunder (rain) god and it is actually a plant calendar marker for the beginning of the monsoon season in China...

Lei Kung (or the son of thunder) started his life as a mortal and only became the God of Thunder after eating a magic peach (apricot) after which he grew storm wings and got supernatural strength...I talked about Peach/apricot as calendar markers in my posts "Lei kung", "The sun of thunder"...

I have written a lot about the link between the dead and water (rain). 

I talked about the "thirsty" dead first in my posts "Thirst" and "White feast" about South Slavic beliefs that the dead are linked to rain and grain fertility...And that thirsty ancestors will "drink rain from the clouds and will cause drought"...

I then talked about "thirsty dead" in my post "Lapis Manalis" about Roman belief that the dead are linked to rain and grain fertility...

BTW, do you see the similarity between cup and ring marked stones and rain caused ripples on water? Or is it just me?

And in my post "Care of the dead" about Hittite and Sumerian belief that the dead are linked to rain and grain fertility...And if you forget to respect the sacred bond with the dead you end up dying of thirst...

There is also a link between the dead and water in Egypt. I talked about this in my post "The beard of Osiris" about Pharaohs who wore a false beard to pretend to be Osiris (who wore a false beard to pretend to be a dead ancestor 🙂) and about the cult of the dead in Ancient Egypt. Grain growing from the body of Osiris. 

The same link is found in Buddhism where we find Pretas, the hungry ghosts of the ancestors...I talked about this in my post "Pretas"... 

And as we can see we have the same link in China, where the ghost (ancestors) gate is located in a peach tree, the thunder (rain) tree...Very interesting indeed...

It seems this link between the dead and water (rain) and grain is found everywhere in Eurasia and North Africa...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers which enabled me to decipher all this, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...