Dancing sun god

😂😂😂 Wow!!! Animation made by overlying two Celtic Silver Quinarius coins from Central Europe (Rhineland), minted between 65 BC - 1 AD, both featuring slightly different version of the same scenes:

Obv: dancing mannikin right, head turned left, holding snake in right hand [me: which is biting his nose], torque in left hand. 

Rev: horse standing right, head turned left [me: wandering WTF is going on on the other side of the coin]; around, zig zag border. 

Animation and data from this great page...

What I think is that the "dancing mannikin" is actually The Sun God. His spiky hair symbolising the sun rays. Just like here, on this coin of Alexander the Great depicting the face of Helios. 350-331 BC - British Museum, London...

That this is indeed The Sun God is indicated by the fact that he is holding a snake. 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 snake as the solar symbol from around the world in many of my posts...

BTW, because snake also spends half of the time in the underworld, snake is also a chthonic animal. So no contradiction here...

Just like the Sun God who also spends half of the time in the underworld, making the Sun God also a chthonic deity...

Think about this for now, will talk about this more soon...

Also, Apr/May, the beginning of summer, is when most common Eurasian snakes, vipers, start mating, and fighting...

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

BTW, Hermes/Mercury, who features prominently in Celtic mythology, carries caduceus (staff with two intertwined snakes) because he himself was a deified calendar marker for Apr/May...Every single plant and animal that features prominently in his mythology is a calendar marker for Apr/May...I talk about Hermes/Mercury in these posts...

And remember the dual, solar/chthonic aspect of snakes? Which links them to both the land of living and the land of the dead, and makes them the messengers of the dead, the carriers of their will (prophecies)? This is why Apollo, who also features prominently in Celtic mythology, is associated with a (is basically a deified) snake...

I talk about the link between Apollo and Python (snake) in several posts: Apollo and Python, Marble throne of Apollo, Kassandra

Pic: Marble Throne of Apollo, Roman, late 1st c. AD. Currently in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Whoever made this, knew who Apollo really was and wanted to show Apollo in his true shape (serpent, dragon), sitting on his throne...

One last thing about snakes, solar animals number one, the symbols of sun's heat.

3rd millennium BC, Bactrian seal depicting the sun god (see heat rays emanating from his shoulders) holding snakes, symbols of sun's heat...

I talk about it in my post Nude winged hero dominating snakes...

Vipera Pythia, c. 1651, by Marco Aurelio Severino. Some people still knew what snakes were until recently. But for some reason this was a secret...

What about the horse? Horse (actually equid in general) is another animal calendar marker for summer. The fertility of equids is linked to sunlight. Which is why the mating of equids starts in Apr/May, lasts until Sep/Oct and peaks on Summer Solstice, and is characterised by wild stallion fights for mares...

I talked about this first in my post Trojan Horse...

This is why horse (actually equid in general) is together with snake one of the most widespread solar symbols. 

Here it is, sun above the midle of the horse (on summer solstice) depicted on a 

Roman coin

Celtic coin 

This is even better. Another Celtic coin, this time with the sun depicted as solar rider. See the spiky hair symbolising sun rays? With the sun god Apollo depicted on the other side...Eastern Europe. Hungary. 

BTW, this is another Celtic copy of a Macedonian coin...

This is why horse (actually equid in general) was the preferred ride of the sun gods (and kings who worshiped them) from Mesopotamia onwards...

Pic: Helios on a chariot pulled by 4 white horses. Apulian vase dated to 350BC

I talked about Horse (Equid) as a solar symbol in many of my posts. Here are just a few: 

Mesopotamia 

Shamash playing with solar horse

Sun god from Tell Brak 

Seven heads

Iran

Water carrier equid

Dioscuri plate from Iran

India 

Hayagriva

China 

Longma

Mythical beast from Xian

Europe 

Curlew

White stag

Archaic rider

Beotian solar Pyxis

Pegasus and Chimera

King John

Svetovid

Poseidon pursuing Demeter

Anatolia

Cilician Nergal

Levant 

Sun god from the first temple

Alexamenos graffito

Goddess on a horse

This is also why we find horse animal calendar marker disguised in our western Zodiac as Dioskuri, divine twin horsemen, marking the Summer Solstice. The guys who wanted to marry "the daughters of the white horse". 

I talked about the horse twins in my post Little horses

O yeah, almost forgot. Unicorn is also a solar symbol, symbol of summer. 

I talked about this in several of my posts:

Reem

Unicorn

Stag and unicorn

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

Oh and guess when the horse (equid) mating season ends? In Virgo...

The virgin, which calms the unicorn 🙂...

So, what is depicted on this funny coin is the dancing sun god with his pet snake and his pet horse...Is dancing here supposed to represent some king of celebration? Beltane (Apr/May), beginning of summer and the beginning of Celtic White Half of the year, celebration? Marked by the beginning of mating seasons of snakes and horses? 

Here is a post Horse and boar about the series of Celtic coins which depict horse as animal calendar marker for (the beginning of) the Celtic White Half of the year (Mating of horses starts in Apr/May)...And boar as animal calendar marker for (the beginning of) the Celtic Black Half of the year (Mating of boars starts in Oct/Nov)... 

That's it for today. 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...

Horse and boar

Today by pure fluke I came across this group of Celtic coins depicting on one side a boar and on the other side a horse. Together with pile of solar symbols. They were minted by Corieltauvi and Iceni tribes in Britain 1st c. BC and 1st c. AD... 

A Corieltauvi one:

Why boar and horse and solar symbols?

Well, because boar and horse are two opposite animal calendar markers...

Boar is an animal calendar marker for the (beginning  of) winter.

Horse is an animal calendar marker for the (beginning of) summer.

Another Corieltauvi one:

Boar is an animal calendar marker for for the (beginning  of) winter, because wild boar mating season starts in Oct/Nov and ends in Jan/Feb, spanning the whole of winter...I talked about this in many of my posts...

Hers is an Iceni one:

Horse is an animal calendar marker for the (beginning of) summer because wild horses mating season starts in Apr/May and ends in Aug/Sep, spanning the whole of summer...I talked about this in many of my posts...

Another Iceni one:

Basically these coins depict this: Celtic (solar) year divided into dark and light half, demarcated by boar and horse. With Winter solstice falling within the boar mating season and summer solstice falling within the horse mating season...

Now look at these three Corieltauvi coins. Look at the horse's tail. 

On this one it ends in a deciduous tree (most likely linden) leaf...

Symbol of summer...

Was that a mistletoe above the boar? Symbol of winer...

Look at this one. On it the horse's tail ends in grain...With a blazing sun right above it...

Another symbol of summer...

Another grain tail one...

I can't see any other reason why would these coins depict these two animals in this way, except to symbolically, with a summer and winter side of the coin, mark summer and winter half of the year...

For those interested in my other posts about Celts and Celtic culture go here...

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...

Curlew

60BC-20BC, Celtic Atrebates/Regni gold coin, found in 1873 in Selsey, East Wittering, England, currently in the British Museum.  Official description:

Obv: Abstract design derived from head of Apollo.

Rev: Stylised horse, left; wheel above horse; bird, right below horse.

Basically what the description says is that this Celtic coin is an abstraction of a coin like this: Bronze drachm of the Philip II of Macedon. 359-336 BC. Alexander the Great's father. From this article...

Obv: Head of Apollo

Rev: Naked youth on a prancing horse

Celts are known to have made their own copies of well known Greek/Macedonian coins. More on this great site "Balkancelts"...

But what I find very interesting about this Celtic coin is how it has abstracted the Macedonian one.

The head of Apollo became two sun discs eyes...

The youth on a prancing horse (which was actually a depiction of the Young Sun God Apollo himself riding on a solar horse) became sun disc on a prancing solar horse...

BTW, Celts made another version of this Solar Rider coin, where the rider is still "a young man" but with a sun for a head...Like this Celtic coin from Hungary...

I talked about solar riders, and why was horse a solar animal in many of my posts...

Anyway, the reason why horse is a solar symbol found all over Eurasia, is because horse mating season, characterised by vicious stallion fights, is governed by the sunlight: it starts at the beginning of the summer and it peaks in midsummer, on summer solstice...

Hence these two lads, Castor and Polux, marking the summer solstice...

This is the horse sorted 🙂 But what bird is depicted on the original Celtic coin? 

I think to answer this "important" 🙂 question, we need to look at the reverse of this coin as an animal calendar marker...

Knowing what we know about horses mating season, and how horse was used as a calendar marker elsewhere, I would suggest that the prancing solar horse with the sun disc on the original Celtic coin depicts the hot, sunny half of the year in England, Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

Now usually, the birds associated with solar cult are migratory birds, like swans, which arrive to the areas with the continental climate from their wintering grounds in spring, with the "Young Sun"...

This link is already found in Late Neolithic Northern Europe. Among the Lake Onega petroglyphs, Russia, made c. 4000BC, the only two petroglyphs which were "Christianised" with a cross were "The Devil" and "The Swan"...

Why? Cause "The Devil" is actually the sun god. And (migratory) swans are his birds. These two images are actually part of a large solar year calendar which was encoded using local animal and plant calendar markers. I talk about these amazing petroglyphs in my post "Bes"...

I talk about migratory birds as animal calendar markers linked to the solar cults in many of my posts...

But looking at the bird depicted under the horse, you can see that it definitely isn't a swan. I was first reminded of a common crane, another bird associated with the solar cult

Another bird that looks like the bird standing under the horse, which is also associated with the sun cult is a stork.

But there is a problem here: the curved beak...Now this could be just a bad craftsmanship. But it could actually be an important clue that could help us identify the bird depicted standing under the solar horse...

There is a bird native to England, which (kind of 🙂) looks like this: curlew. This bird is a resident species in England, bit it is also locally migratory: During the warm part of the year, it is found inland, and during the cold part of the year it is found only on the coast...

The reason for this is that curlew "nests on the ground in rough pastures, meadows and heather"...

This is the horses country...

And: "Curlew arrive back at their breeding grounds in late March or early April, laying their eggs between mid-April and mid-May. Chicks hatch between May and June and have typically fledged by mid-July"...

Right during the time when horses are mating (and prancing 🙂).

And when the "Young Sun God" arrives riding on a prancing horse...

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...

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...