Kuseh Gardani

Oh this is amazing. This image depicts a traditional Iranian "Kuseh Gardani" ritual, which is performed by men in times of drought or low rainfall...This image is from this site...

One man, chosen as the "Kuseh" (devil of drought), has his face blackened, wears horns (positioned in such a way to resemble ibex goat horns) and bells, and leads a procession through the village...

He stops at every house and collects some flour. After visiting all the houses, a large bread is baked from the collected flour and is shared between the villagers...

The ceremony is a symbolic performance of overcoming drought and seeking rain...

Unreal...Here is why:

Climate in Iran is divided (roughly) into hot, dry half (Apr/May - Oct/Nov) and cool, wet part (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)...

And the start of the wet season coincides with the start of the mating season of the ibex goats, mating season characterised by wild male goat fights for females...

Which is why ibex goat became associated with rain, and became "goat of rain", an animal calendar marker for the start of the rain season: When ibex goats start fighting the rain will start falling...

And which why ibex goat became the most depicted animal in Iran since Early Neolithic...

I talked about this in my post "Goat petroglyphs from Iran"...

Eventually, with the start of grain agriculture, when having rain at exact time at exact quantity became super important, people turned "goat of rain" into "god of rain with goat horns". It's easier to pray to gods than goats...

And so, local priests started wearing goat horns and playing the role of the goat rain god...

It is most likely that it was in Iran in the 9th mill BC when the goat of rain got anthropomorphised and turned into the god of rain with goat horns...

I talked about this in my post "Zavi Chemi Shanidar"...

"Kuseh Gardani" is a very very very very....distant echo of this...

And this:

Stamp seals, Tepe Giyan, Iran, 5000-4000 BC...Anthropomorphised rain goat (god) dominating sun snake (dragon)...

I talked about this in my post "Master of the animals from Tepe Giyan"...

And this:

Elamite figurine from around 3000BC, depicting a man with goat horns (or a goat horns helmet, cap) and a goaty 🙂 How goat of rain became god of rain...

I talked about this in my post "Strider"

And this:

Article about this Bronze top for a standard. ca. 8th–7th century BC. Luristan, Iran...Two human figures with male Ibex goat ears and horns holding hands...Why? Same thing I guess...

I talked about this in my post "Dancing goat men from Luristan"... 

The rain brought by the goat of rain is what supports (the tree of) life in Iran. Which is why we see prancing ibex goats flanking the tree of life...

I talk about this in my post "Sassanian goats with the tree of life" where I analyse these two Sassanian wall relief slabs dated to the 5th-6th c. AD, depicting rampant ibex goats flanking "the tree of life"...

This again is an ancient symbol found in all the areas where ibex mating season overlaps with rain season...

As we can see, Iranian people still kind of remember that "ibex is linked to rain". But with the arrival of Islam, the (goat) "god of rain", became "devil of drought"...The one who (still) brings rain (and bread) if he is asked politely...

How cool is this? 

If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...