By the blood of the Lamb

"...And [after a long battle] they overcame him [the dragon] by the blood of the Lamb..."

What does this verse from the Apocalypse Chapter 12 mean?

Let's start here: When a lamb is decorated like this in Serbia, it means that it's destined to be sacrificed to St George on St George's day...Aries must die so Taurus can begin...Lamb sacrificed to a Calf...I talked about this in my post "Aries must die"...

Recently I did the analysis of the Apocalypse story where I used animal calendar markers to show that the story is just a symbolic calendar. You can read full analysis in my post "Apocalypse"...

In this post I proposed that the 7 headed dragon was the personification of the 7 months of Sumerian summer, the season dominated by the sun which "steals water and causes drought"...

I talked about the meaning of fire breathing dragons in many of my posts...

Which is why local dragon (dragon = symbol of summer) depicted on this 3rd millennium BC seal from Tell Asmar, had seven snake heads (snake = symbols of sun's heat)...The dragon has lion body, because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest time of the year in Mesopotamia, the time of the fire breathing dragon (burning sun of the later summer) who steals water and causes drought...Oh, and look, we also have dragon killer(s) and the princess (Lady?) standing under a star 🙂 I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

In my post about the Apocalypse, I proposed that "The Woman Clothed in Light" that dragon is pestering is Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius. 

Here is Inanna/Ishtar, 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"...

I talked about Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius in many of my posts and I explained in detail why I believe this is the case based on all the written and symbolic evidence we have...

BTW, Inanna/Ishtar is the princess/lady standing under the star facing the seven headed dragon on the Tell Asmar seal...

But Inanna is also deified (fertile) Mother Earth, Mother of grain...In "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" we read:

As for me, Inanna,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Before my lord, Dumuzi,

...

I poured out grain before him,

I poured out grain before my womb...

I talked about the "Mother of grain" in many of my posts. This is a good one to start with: "Mother of grain from Mari" in which I analyse this alabaster stele from Mari dated to the 3rd millennium BC.

So if the dragon that steals water gets defeated, then his defeat would mean that the stolen water is released back to earth...

To understand what this means in Mesopotamia, where this story originates, we need to take a look at the climate chart of the region:

Levant has pretty much the same climate:

You can see that the climatic year is divided into hot dry summer (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and cool wet winter (Oct/Nov-Apr/May):

In the Apocalypse Chapter 12 we read that "...The woman was given...wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly...and escape the dragon..." 

The Sumerian summer Apr/May-Oct/Nov ends in Oct/Nov when the rains arrive...

Rains brought by the rain god, who was in Mesopotamia originally imagined as huge black eagle. I talked about this in my post about this mad Kassite seal, where we see two headed eagle spewing water. I talked about this in my post "Kassite seal with Apkallu"...

BTW, double headed Eagle/Vulture here, is the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the vulture mating season, Oct/Nov. When Eagles/Vultures dance over the mountains 

Dancing here is synchronised flying

Which from the ground looks like this

I talked about this first in my post "Double headed eagle" and then in my post "Eagle dance"...

But the fight continues until: "...[after a long battle] they overcame him [the dragon] by the blood of the Lamb..."

What does this mean?

Now remember my post "Goatfish"? 

Goatfish, the sacred animal of Enki, the Sumerian god of fresh water, is a complex animal calendar marker for the wet half of the year in Mesopotamia...Between the mating season of wild goats and the mating season of giant Mesopotamian carps...

There is another version of the goatfish. 

Oooook...And this means what?

Towards the end of the wet period, Oct/Nov-Apr/May, in Mar/Apr, close to the fish tail of the goatfish, we find Aries, Ram...

Animal calendar marker that marks the end of the lambing season of the wild and domestic sheep...And the beginning of the milking season...Very important time of the year...I talked about the origin of Aries in my post "Aries must die"... 

Great, but why is Ram combined with Goat-Fish, symbol of wet season? Because it is "during the sheep lambing season" Feb/Mar/Apr, that the snowmelt suddenly intensifies in mountains surrounding Mesopotamia...

And the water level in Mesopotamian rivers suddenly starts to rise...

So we have Goat (Oct/Nov) -- Ram (Mar/Apr) -- Fish,Carp (Apr/May)...

And it is this sudden surge in snowmelt discharge during Mar/Apr, Aries that makes the water level in Mesopotamian rivers suddenly rise...And peak in Apr/May, in Taurus, causing the Annual Tigris and Euphrates flood...

BTW, Taurus here is The Old Taurus, the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the calving season of wild eurasian cattle...

I talked about this in many of my posts, like "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull", "Human bull hybrid", "White calf", "Calydonian boar"...

So it is much more appropriate to mark Apr/May, Taurus, with a calf, just like it is more much more appropriate to mark Mar/Apr, Aries, with a lamb...I talked about this in my post "Maran"...

Anyway, in "Enki and the world order" we read that:

"Enki placed in charge of the whole of heaven and earth the hero, the youth Utu (Shamash), the bull standing triumphantly, audaciously, majestically...the great herald in the east of holy An...with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon..."

It is the rising elevation of the sun that causes the snowmelt which feeds Tigris and Euphrates which causes the flood in Taurus. 

So golden bull's head (sun) with lapis beard (flowing water)  

BTW, in "Enki and the world order" we also read:

"...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris [and Euphrates] with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..." Some scene 🙂

So Bull Utu (sun) melts snow and Bull Enki (source of Tigris and Euphrates) fills the rivers in Taurus, when "wild cows are mooing for their young in the wild grass"...

I talked about this in my posts "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up to heaven", "Problems of Abzu", "But chewing"...

BTW, in Serbia, St George's day which marks the end of Aries beginning of Taurus, is the time when shepherds sacrifice lambs to St George...Remember, the lamb (Aries, Mar/Apr, End of lambing season, End of spring) has to die (end) so that calf can be born (Taurus, Apr/May, Beginning of the calving season, Beginning of summer)...I talked about this in my post "Aries must die"...

Interestingly, in the past, during spring droughts, Serbs used to go to mountain lakes to pray for rain to "a dragon living in the lake who swallowed the rain"...They also sacrificed a lamb to the dragon...The same sacrifice they made to St George, the dragon killer...I talked about this in my post "Dragon that stole rain"...

Anyway...What about the serpent? "...And the serpent cast out of his mouth, after the woman, water, as it were a river: that he might cause her to be carried away..."

First, snake is a solar animal, pretty much a universal symbol of the sun's heat. Snakes follow sun everywhere. They are in our world when sun is in our world (day, summer) and in the underworld when the sun is in the underworld (night, winter)...I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance "Snake god from Hatra"...

And as I said, it is the sun's heat that melts the snow...

Second, snake mating season, when snakes intertwine, starts in Apr/May, the time of the peak snowmelt runoff, and the peak discharge of the rivers in the Tigris/Euphrates system...

Which is why in the Deliver Me from Evil: Mesopotamian Incantations, 2500-1500 BC, By Graham Cunningham, we can read that in the Earliest Sumerian texts, Enki, the god of sweet flowing water and the source of Tigris and Euphrates, was associated with poisonous snakes...And was depicted as a god with the snake body. Like on this Elamite seal from the 3rd millennium BC, currently in the Isreal Museum, Jerusalem...

And again, Utu, Sun, Serpent, Dragon, melts the snow (releases the stolen water) and Enki, Serpent, Dragon, Abzu, source of Tigris and Euphrates, pours this water into Tigris and Euphrates...During snake mating season...

Interesting...Right?

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... 

The birth of Romulus and Remus

Roman Republic, Didrachm, 269BC Apparently, today (April 21) is Rome's birthday...Roman historians dated the city's foundation by Romulus (plus/minus Remus) to c. 750BC, and Plutarch reckoned that Romulus and Remus were born c. 771 BC. But in what month? Let's find out...

The legend:

Romulus and Remus were born in Alba Longa. Their mother, Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin, was impregnated by the God Mars, when he visited her in a sacred grove dedicated to him...

Rhea Silvia was the daughter of the former king of Alba Longa, Numitor, who was overthrown by his brother Amulius. Seeing Romulus and Remus as a threat to his rule, Amulius, took the kids from Rhea Silvia and ordered a servant to kill them by throwing them into the Tiber River...

But the servant took pity on the twins and instead of throwing them into the river, he placed the twins into a basket and put the basket into the River Tiber, and the river carried the boys to safety...

The river god Tibernus ensured the safety of the twins by calming the river, and causing their basket to catch in the roots of a fig tree which grew at the base of the Palatine Hill in the Velabrum swamp...

The twins were then discovered by a she-wolf (Lupa), who had just lost her cubs. She lived in a cave near the fig, which is today known as the Lupercal. She suckled the twins and they were also fed by a woodpecker...

Eventually, Romulus and Remus were discovered and adopted by a shepherd called Faustulus...

The rest is boring stuff, murders, rapes, wars and other "glorious" stuff...I will leave that to historians and Rome "enthusiasts"...

So...Where do we start? I think with the she-wolf (Lupa). She just lost her cubs...and was still lactating...which means that Romulus and Remus were born during the Italian wolf birthing season...Or just before it...Which is when?

Well, it turns out that the Italian wolf, a special subspecies of the wolf family, begins to mate in the middle of Feb...Right around the time of the very important Roman fertility festival Lupercalia (wolf festival)...

The sacred rites performed during Lupercalia were centred around the Lupercal cave...Yup, the one where she-wolf Lupa lived...And the wild fig-tree to which Romulus and Remus were brought by the divine intervention of the river-god Tiberinus...

Interestingly, some Roman sources name the wild fig tree caprificus, literally "goat fig". 

Why is this interesting? 

Cause the main sacrificial right performed during Lupercalia was a sacrifice of goats at the Lupercal altar by Luperci, Wolf Priests...

After the blood sacrifice, two Luperci had their foreheads anointed with blood from the sacrificial knife, which was then wiped clean with wool soaked in milk, after which they were expected to laugh...

The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs (known as februa, hence February) from the flayed goat skin, and ran with these, naked, along the old Palatine boundary, laughing and striking those they met with goat skin thongs...

Plutarch writes that "Many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy"...

Luperci then returned to the Lupercal cave...

So...What's all this about? Remember that Ibex (wild) goats were in Europe used as animal calendar markers for winter (Nov,Dec,Jan)...Because their mating season starts in Oct/Nov...

Article "Goat in European culture", about Ibex goat as an animal calendar marker imbedded in in European cultures and mythologies...

Winter finishes in Jan, and spring starts in Jan/Feb...Right when Italian wolves start mating in Feb/Mar...And when Luperci, wolf priests (spring) kill goats (winter) and use goat skin thongs as magic fertility instruments...

Because in continental Europe nature dies at the beginning of winter, and gets resurrected at the end of winter, and because winter is the season of the goat, the goat has to die, so nature can get resurrected...

Article "Krampus", explaining the link between Mountain Ibex Goats, #Capricorn zodiac sign, #Yule Goat, #Krampus and all the other Christmas related goat characters and masks:

You might like this too: Describe winter zodiac poetically 🙂

A hunter chases an ibex with gold horns up the mountain. At the summit he shoots the goat. The goat is bleeding and dying. But a magic flower grows out of its blood. Goat eats the flower, gets revived and runs away. I talked about this in my articles "Zlatorog-Goldhorn" and "Trentar"...

After the goat was killed by Wolf priests, the sacrificial knife  was cleaned by milk and wool...Feb is the the time when sheep start lambing and lactating...

The sheep stop lambing and the milking season starts in Mar/Apr, in Aries...

When a lamb is decorated like this in Serbia, it means that it's destined to be sacrificed to St George...Aries must die so Taurus can begin...Spring is sacrificed to summer... 

Also the lambing season is over and the milking season begins. From my article "Aries must die"...

The killing of a dog, together with goats, was a sacrifice to wolves, so that they spare the flocks...

BTW, dog mating season is opposite to wolf mating season...They are opposite calendar markers...Natural antagonists...

When our mythologies were made out of animal calendar markers, Sirius, the Dog Star rose with the sun in Jul/Aug, when mating season of the old dog breeds began...

Egypt: Article about "Dog days"...

Mesopotamia: Article about "Tishtrya"...

India: Article about "The bitch of the gods"...

Anyway, back to Romulus and Remus...The Italian wolf mating season spans Feb/Mar. The gestation lasts 2 months...Which means that the Italian wolf cubs are born in in Arp/May...

And so, Romulus and Remus could have been born in Mar/Apr (Aries) possibly in Mar, the month of their father Mars...But then they would have been a month old before they were thrown into Tiber...

Could that be the case?

I think that Amulius decided to kill Romulus and Remus as soon as he found out they were born...Which means that they were probably born in Apr/May...

Look at this. This is flood chart of the river Tiber. You can see that the floods almost completely subside by Apr/May...Remember that Tibernus "calmed the waters of Tiber down to ensure safety of the twins"...

And then he delivered the basket with the boys to the roots of a wild fig...Where they were "cradled in the shade of the fig branches". Fig trees are deciduous, dropping their leaves in late fall and leafing out again in early spring...

So when are fig leaves fully grown in the area around Rome? Finally, while Lupa was breastfeeding the twins, "woodpeckers were bringing them food too"...Woodpecker was the sacred bird of Mars, the father of Romulus and Remus...

And 4 main woodpecker species in Italy (The great and lesser spotted woodpeckers, Green and Black woodpecker) are nesting in Apr/May...Right on time to feed Romulus and Remus...

The two wolf boys were then found and adopted by Faustulus, the shepherd, and were brought up as shepherds...Interesting...Apr/May is when shepherds take their sheep to the highland pastures...I talked about this in my article "Aries must die"...

Sooooo....Apr/May? Guess what happens in Apr/May? More precisely on the 21st of Apr? The Rome was founded...By Romulus (plus/minus Remus)...

Oh and this is when the flocks are purified during Palilia (Parilia) ceremony...

Palilia (Parilia), the Roman festival, held on 21st April, cleansed shepherds & sheep, honouring the god of shepherds & sheep, Pales. Interestingly, Romans didn't really know who Pales was...So in this article I tried to uncover Pales's the secret identity 🙂 I talked about this in my article "Parilia"...

That's that. Interesting? I think so. 

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...