Whore of Babylon

Whore of Babylon on the Seven-Headed Beast, Illustration for Rev. 17:3–8. From the Las Huelgas Apocalypse, ca. 1220

I love this. The Whore of Babylon (aka Sirius, aka Ishtar) riding (in the middle of, in Jul/Aug, in Leo) seven headed beast (seven months of Mesopotamian summer Apr/May - Oct/Nov), just before she starts rising with the sun before dawn (so still invisible in the day, red sky)...

I talked about her in my post "Apocalypse" in which I give full symbolic analysis of the Woman of the Apocalypse, described in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation...

The same girl...

The Woman Clothed with the Sun (aka Sirius rising with sun in Leo, aka Ishtar), an illustration from the Rothschild Canticles, c. 1300

The same girl again...

3rd mill BC Mesopotamian dragon has lion body (Jul/Aug, Leo is the hottest time of the year) and seven snake heads (one for each hot month of Mesopotamian summer, Apr/May-Oct/Nov)...Analysis of this seal dated to 2200 BC can be found in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

The "dragon" (summer) is depicted while his 4th head (4th month, Jul/Aug) is being killed (is in progress). To the left we see "The Lady" standing under a star (Ishtar -  Sirius)...

Why is Ishtar depicted standing next to the seven headed dragon? 

For the same reason she is depicted here standing on a lion. Cause she is deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

For the same reason she is the one who sits on a lion throne...

I gave complete explanation of why Ishtar is Sirius and not Venus in this article containing full symbolic analysis of the Sumerian poem "Inanna and Šukaletuda"...

I talked about Inanna/Ishtar and why it was Sirius that was her original "morning star" in many of my posts...

You can start here: You know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar (Morning Star) is Venus and how I think that it was originally Sirius, and only later became Venus?

Well, it seems that Ancient Egyptians preserved the proof of this switch in their myths about Sopdet...

I talked about this in my post "Sirius mother of Venus"...

She of course has many faces and names...

Silver seal from Gonur Tepe, Turkmenistan, late 3rd-early 2nd mill BC. Depicting a winged goddess riding on a lioness...

Who could this be?

Well, of course, a Central Asian version of the "Lioness of heaven", Inanna/Ishtar/Asherah/Artemis.../Sirius in Leo...

I talk about this in my post "Silver seal from Gonur Tepe"

Back to the original Whore of Bablylon painting and why I like it so much. The same "two skies" trick was used here: Does anyone else think that this picture, allegedly showing King John on a stag hunt, looks strange, and may be hiding something in plain sight? No? 

Well I do 🙂 I explain why in my post "King John"...

In short, King John here is symbolic depiction of St John's day, Midsummer day, Summer solstice. 

White horse is a universal solar symbol. On this Celtic coin from Hungary, this is symbolically depicted through "solar rider", an anthropomorphised sun riding a horse. 

I wrote many posts about horse/equid as a solar symbol from Around the world. 

Horse is a solar symbol because horse fertility is governed by sunlight and peaks on Summer solstice. St John (day), Summer solstice is in the middle of the solar horse, going from red sky (increasing sunlight, before summer solstice) to blue sky (decreasing sunlight, after summer solstice)...

John is riding after (towards) a stag, (the symbol of) winter...

Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way...Bronze stag pendant with bell feet, early 1st mill BC, Transcaucasia or Iran. Currently in the Met Museum...

Stag is a symbol of winter because it is through the winter that stags have their full grown antlers. 

I talked about the stag as the symbol of winter in my posts "Winter deer"  and "Deer kills snake" 

What is very interesting is that deer antlers are fully grown in Sep/Oct, right in time for the start of deer mating season and the end of the horse mating season. The old antlers fall off, and the new ones start growing, in Mar/Apr/May right in time for the start of the horse mating season. 

This means that deer and horse are natural animal calendar markers for the opposite halves of the year...Which is why King John on his white horse will (symbolically) never catch the deer... 

So, (never ending) stag hunt..Talked about it in my post "White stag"...

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...

PS: Just came across this amazing painting: The woman clothed with the sun and the seven-headed dragon, c. 1360-70 by Giusto di Giovanni de Menabuoi.

Which is, I think, much better viewed like this...

The Woman clothed with the sun - Sirius rising with the sun in Jul/Aug, the middle, the hottest part of the Mesopotamian summer which lasts seven months...

The Dragon - Nergal, The Destructive Sun (God) Shamash...The God whose seat is in Jul/Aug, the middle, the hottest part of the Mesopotamian summer which lasts seven months...Whose main head is the middle head of the seven headed dragon...

This guy...

Casa dei Ceii zodiac

Very interesting fresco of hunting animals from the garden of the Casa dei Ceii, Pompeii (I.6.15)...

What is interesting is that the animals are, from left to right, top to bottom, all arranged in order based on their anima calendar marker meaning...

Top row, left to right:

Deer, mating season Sep/Oct/Nov

I talked about deer as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Boar, mating season Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan. 

I talked about boar as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Wolf, mating season Jan/Feb/Mar. 

I talked about wolf as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Leopard: Mating season Jan/Feb. 

I talked about leopard as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Sheep: Lambing season, Feb/Mar/Apr. 

I talked about ram/lamb as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Bottom row, right to left:

Bull: Calving season Apr/May/Jun. 

I talked about bull/calf as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Lion: Mating season Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct. 

I talked about lion as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

So here we have a full solar year marked circularly, sunwise (turning from left to right as the sun moves in the sky) by animal calendar markers...

Coincidence? Or deliberate? No idea. If deliberate, why? Again, no idea...

That's that. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Stag and Unicorn

Stag and unicorn, Figure 3 from "Alchymistica", 17th/18th century document found in Benedictine Abbey Admont, Austria...

"The Sages say truly

That two animals are in this forest..."

"...One glorious, beautiful, and swift,

A great and strong deer;

The other an unicorn.

They are concealed in the forest,

But happy shall that man be called

Who shall snare and capture them..."

"...The Masters shew you here clearly

That in all places

These two animals wander about in forests

(But know that the forest is but one)..."

"...If we apply the parable to our Art,

We shall call the forest the Body.

That will be rightly and truly said.

The unicorn will be the Spirit at all times.

The deer desires no other name

But that of the Soul; which name no man shall take away from it..."

"...He that knows how to tame and master them by Art,

To couple them together,

And to lead them in and out of the forest,

May justly be called a Master..."

"...For we rightly judge

That he has attained the golden flesh,

And may triumph everywhere;

Nay, he may bear rule over great Augustus."

From "Book Of Lambspring" by Nicholas Barnaud Delphinas...

Let's test my "Art" on this...

Deer and unicorn, in "the same" forest, surrounded by "fiery ouroboros"...What does this mean?

The true meaning of a unicorn is easy to decipher if we know that they are white horses, and if we know that horse is one of the most widespread solar symbols...

I talked about Horse (Equid) as a solar symbol in many of my posts: 

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman", "Artemis Orthia"...

Horse is a solar symbol cause wild equid mating season, characterised by wild stallion fights, starts in Apr/May, at the beginning of summer, and ends in Sep/Oct...Equid  fertility is governed by the sunlight, and peaks on summer solstice...

Now unicorn has the same symbolic meaning as white horses...Unicorn is a solar animal, symbolising the hot, sunny half of the year...The virgin that "calms" the Unicorn is Virgo, Aug/Sep (horse mating season ends in Sep/Oct)...

BTW, Unicorn horn is described as "being cubit and a half (28 inches) in length". Erect horse's penis length 🙂 is max 28 inches...

I talked about Unicorns as animal calendar markers in my posts "Reem" and "Unicorn"...

What about the deer? Deer with fully grown antlers is a symbol of winter, because antlers become fully grown just before deer rut (Sep/Oct/Nov) and fall off just before beginning of summer, Apr/May...

I talked about deer as animal calendar marker for winter in my posts "Winter deer", "Dancing with deer and birds", "The return of Apollo to Delos", "Patera of Rennes", "Deer kills snake"...

So basically, unicorn=horny horse and deer are two animal calendar markers marking summer and winter. Two (opposite) halves of the same solar year (forrest)...Talked about it in my post "White stag":

"As for the White Roebuck [Stag], how many kings in how many fairy tales have not chased this beast through enchanted forests and been cheated of their quarry?"

That we are here looking at solar year calendar markers is confirmed by the fact that deer and unicorn are framed by the Ouroboros. 

The true meaning of the Ouroboros, "The serpent biting it's tail", is easy to decipher if we know that snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...

I talked about this in many of my posts...

Basically Ouroboros represents the ever spinning the solar wheel...the ever changing seasons: Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter-Spring...the ever changing temperature of the sun and earth in continental parts of the northern hemisphere...

It is symbolic equivalent of this:

You know that Yin-Yang symbol is imagined as constantly spinning, ever changing? I talked about this in my post "Yin and Yang"...

So...

"He that knows how to tame and master [deer and unicorn], To couple them together...May justly be called a Master..."

He who knows the true meaning of Stag and Unicorn and how they are linked, and who knows how to use them...May justly be called a Master?

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Deer and bee

 Silver tetradrachm of Ephesos, 390–380 BC.   

Obverse: A bee

Reverse: A stag kneeling in right profile, looking back towards a date palm tree.

Interestingly, everything depicted on this coin is a calendar marker for autumn, Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov...

Let me explain:

Obverse: The bee

In Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia and Iran, the wild honey harvest season starts with scouting for wild beehives in Aug and then honey collection in Sep/Oct...

Reverse: The stag

Based on the size and shape of the antlers, this is a Persian fallow deer with full antlers during mating season, which in Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia and Iran takes place between Aug and Oct...I talked about fallow deer in these articles...

Reverse: The date palm

Date harvest in Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia and Iran lasts from Aug to Oct...I talked about date harvest in these articles...

Interesting right? 

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Maruts

About another proof that Rig Vedas had to have been written in India proper, proof discovered through applying animal calendar markers theory to one of the more obscure parts of the Marut's legends.

7th c. Maruts relief, Sambor Prei Kuk, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.

In the Vedic mythology, Maruts, are a group of storm/rain deities which always accompany Indra...You can read about them in "THE MARUTS" by Uma Chakravarty...

Indra of course primarily the monsoon rain god, whose main duty is to annually defeat Vritra, the dragon of drought...You can read about this aspect of Indra in "Indra as God of Fertility" by E. Washburn Hopkins

BTW

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white (cloud) elephant...

Articles about elephant calendar marker, India: "Musth", "Samantabhadra", "Modesty", "Ganesha"...

Marut's main duty is to bring rain. 

In RV we can read that:

They are clothed with rain

Rain follows them

They bring water and impel rain

They cover the eye of the sun with rain

They create darkness with the cloud when they shed rain

You can read more about this in "Vedic Mythology" by Macdonell, Arthur Anthony

Their mother is said to be the ocean or the heavenly cow Pṛśni (rain cloud). And their father is said to be Agni (fire) or Vāyu (wind).

A terrestrial river is called, Marudvṛddhā, 'swelled by the Maruts'.

All of this describes the summer wet monsoon

Varāhapurāṇa chapter 82: A "river of the sky" starts at the "ocean of the sky" and, being agitated by the elephant of Indra, falls at the top of mount Meru, where at the bottom it forms four great rivers...I talked about this in my post "Elephants and the river in the sky"...

In other places in Rig Veda, Maruts are said to be the sons of Rudra, and are also often called Rudras. I will talk about Rudra and Rudras soon. This is a very interesting topic which deserves its own post.

On the Sambor Prei Kuk relief, maruts are depicted riding on Makaras. 

Makara is another complex animal calendar marker for monsoon season, which could have only been developed in Indian Subcontinent. I talked about it in my posts "Yakshi" and "Makara"...

And, Makara is already found, with many other, later deified, animal calendar markers, in Indus Valley Civilisation. I talked about this in my post "Proto Durga"...

On the Sambor Prei Kuk relief, the central Marut is depicted riding on an elephant. 

Already explained that elephant is an animal calendar marker for the summer monsoon season, cause elephant mating season peaks in Jul/Aug, peak of summer monsoon season in India...

The elephant rider is flanked by two horse riders. Horse is a universal solar symbol. And horse mating season (Apr/May-Sep/Oct) marks the summer monsoon season in India...You can read more about it in my article about solar horse in India, "Hayagriva"...

Anyway, after this shortish introduction, let me get to the interesting bit 🙂

"Maruts, whose steeds are the spotted deer..." Rig Veda 7.40.3

Rig Veda is full of references to Maruts riding on chariots pulled by spotted deer. And I haven't seen one explanation why would that be the case. 

I have seen attempts to replace spotted deer with spotted horses, probably to make the whole story more Steppe Indo-European. But there is a perfectly good Indian Subcontinent explanation for this "weird" choice of ride for Monsoon Rain Gods...

The chital or cheetal, also known as the spotted deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent...

Now I explained many times before, animal calendar markers mark significant events from the annual reproduction cycle of the depicted animal: mating, birthing...

Events well known to the local population. So for the spotted deer, people in India would say: "when spotted deer start mating, that would mean that monsoon rain is soon to arrive to"...Why? Cause of this:

You can read more about cheetal deer here and here...

How would locals have known when spotted deer started to mate? Chital stags bellow loudly during mating season. Not something you can miss...

Chital Stag Bellowing - Unseen and Often Unheard Chital Deer Call

Chital stags fight madly during mating season. Also not something you can miss...

So the locals could indeed say "mating of spotted deer is followed by monsoon rain". Or they could say "spotted deer brings rain"...Or they could say "Maruts arrive on chariots pulled by spotted deer"...More poetic...

And apparently this was incomprehensibly difficult to decode for all the people who looked at Rig Veda before me...Why is that? I mean this is obvious, right? Anyone with some knowledge of Indian climate, flora and fauna could have figured this out, right?

Well, yes, if you knew about the existence of animal calendar markers, then this would be obvious. But it seems that the idea of using animals and plants as calendar markers never occurred to anyone...Before me...

And honestly, I am not bragging. I just can't believe I am...

1981, Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia...Šarlo Akrobata - O, o, o, o, o...

Prvi i Jedini 🙂 The First and The Only one

Finally, the fact that the spotted deer is an animal calendar marker for the beginning of summer monsoon in India, means that the hymns about Maruts and their spotted deer steeds had to have been composed in India proper, where all this spotted deer nonsense actually makes sense.

For those interested, I talked about deer as animal calendar marker in many different posts, like "White stag", "Deer kills snake", "Winter deer", "Lachish animal calendar", "Dancing with deer and birds", "Mythical beast from Xian"... Different deer, different mating season, different climate, different animal calendar marker, for different time of the year with different meaning.

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...