Michael from Pavia

The Basilica of San Michele Maggiore is a church of Pavia, one of the most striking example of Lombard-Romanesque style. It dates from the 11th and 12th centuries.

Above the entrance is a bas-relief depicting St Michael standing on top of the defeated dragon. "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought..., and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven"...

This Michael is very interesting indeed. Look at what he is holding in his right hand. He is holding a plant. And look at his wings. His wings are turning into tree branches...

What about the dragon? Dragon is just an old snake...At least this is what Slavs believed...And not just Slavs...

Snakes are cold blooded, so they are out only during the hot part of the day and hot part of the year...

As I explained in many of my posts, this makes snakes pure solar animals. They are in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and are in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...

This also makes Snakes perfect symbol of the sun and the sun's heat. They are also symbols of the beginning of summer, as vipers, the most common Eurasian snakes, start mating in Apr/May, beginning of summer...

So no wonder we find snake linked to the sun over and over again...All over the world...

Interestingly, the key for understanding the link between snakes and the sun was best preserved in Slavic folklore (remnants of Slavic mythology). I talked about this in my post "Letnitsa treasure" and  posts linked from this post...

Dragon or a Great Serpent is the representation of the destructive Summer sun's heat which burns the earth. 

Dragon "steals the waters of heaven", clouds or "heavenly cows'...In Indo-European mythology this Dragon is killed by the Thunder god, who "releases the waters of heaven", clouds or "heavenly cows"...But this is not just Indo-European myth...It is found all over Eurasia...

Anyway, killing of the dragon (drought) saves the world and saves the vegetation...Saves the tree of life...

In Slavic mythology the Thunder god who kills the dragon is Perun. He fights it all summer, and he finally manages to kill the dragon at the end of summer and beginning of autumn. 

BTW this is the distribution of the rain/thunder storms in Europe per month...You can see that in the Balkans the thunderstorms (Perun fighting Veles, the Dragon) start at the beginning of summer and end at the end of summer... 

With the arrival of Christianity, one of the saints that replaced Perun was St Michael, whose name means "Who is like God". Now have a look at this: Left is the wheel of Svetovid, Sun god. Right is the wheel of Perun, Thunder god. Perun's wheel is Svetovid's wheel on fire...

Interestingly the oldest church dedicated to St Michael, St Michael at Sosthenion, was built on the site of a temple dedicated to "Winged Zeus"... Constantine interpreted the winged statue of the temple as a Christian angel... I talked about this in my post "Archangel Michael"...

BTW, check this article, "Pero" in which I proposed that the root of the name of the Slavic thunder god Perun is "pero" = feather, which would make Perun = Feathered one, and not from PIE perkwus, meaning "oak" or "mountain". Zeus, Jupiter, Perun were all linked to eagles. And the oldest descriptions of Mesopotamian thunder gods described them as thunder birds...

Phoenician drachm, 4th century BC, on exhibit in the British Museum. The coin shows a seated deity, labelled "YHW". This is EL to whom "MichaEL" is like...

The arrangement of the deity sitting on a winged wheel has been compared to Ezekiel's vision of Yahweh's throne as flying about the heavens on four wheels (chariot). I talked about this "vision" in this post about "Four living creatures"...

It is interesting that the main Christian "replacement" for Perun in Serbia, St Elijah the Thunderer, drives on top of the clouds in his chariots, causing thunder and lightning when the chariot wheels bump off the surface of the clouds...I talked about this in my post "Thundering sun god"...

When we look at the climatic effect of the end of summer and beginning of autumn, we see that Thunder god's function is to "defeat the Sun god", who is about to burn the earth to cinder...And he does that after a looong fight which lasts the whole summer...

So, St Michael is celebrated at the end of summer (Catholic church) / the end of autumn (Orthodox church) for a reason 🙂 ...

If we look at it more closely, we realise that there is actually no fight going on here. The sun's heat (Sun god's power) rises during summer, to it's maximum at the end of summer and it then it subsides...It is a naturally occurring oscillatory process...

This adds interesting twist to the question about the identity of Satan, who was defeated (replaced) by Michael...Until next spring of course, when snakes come out of the underground...

Especially when we know that it looks like Hebrews worshipped sun in their first temple. I talked about this in my post "Sun god from the first temple"...Sun was their EL...BTW, Sun still is the EL of Hebrews...I talked about this in my post "The tree of life"...To whom MichaEL was like...So if Michael replaced Thunder god, whose duty is to "kill dragon", Sun, Sun's heat, and Sun was the god of Hebrews/Christians...

This doesn't mean that Hebrew and Christian god is Satan 🙂 It means that Christian god is Sun...Life giving in the spring. Life destroying in the summer...And so He is finally cast from heaven into the underworld at the end of summer/autumn (depending on the local climate) where He stays until next spring...You know the story...

Bull of Grom Div

Storm clouds over norther Serbia, 2nd of August.

Terrible storms hit Serbia yesterday and today. Crops were destroyed, houses damaged, people killed. 

In Serbian the expression "On vedri i oblači" means "he rules", "he has absolute control, absolute power". Literally this expression means "he makes the sky clear and cloudy"... Storm clouds over northern Serbia... You can read more about this in my post "The power of the Thunder Giant" 

You can see why agricultural societies, like the Early Slavic society, would consider the Sky God, Perun to be the Supreme god... Procopius, 6th c. Byzantine historian, who tells us that the Slavs “believe that one god, the maker of lightning, is alone lord of all things...

Interestingly the 2nd of August is the old day of Perun, Slavic Thunder god. Painting depicting Perun by Andrey Shishkin.  

I like that Shishkin depicted Perun with a blazing sun on his chest. This is because Perun's day falls in the middle of Kresovi (Fires), the hottest part of the year in the Northern hemisphere.  You can read more about this in my post "Two Crosses"

This is why the 2nd of August is also the day of Helios, The burning sun. Today in Serbia known as the the day of St Elijah. St Elijah who every year gets so angry, that he wants to burn the world into cinder... Very saint like 🙂 

You can read more about St Elijah the Thunderer in my post "Thundering sun god". 

But St Elijah doesn't burn the world to cinder. Because his wife Ognjena Marija (Fiery Mary) calms him down. Ognjena Marija who is also known as Perunika. The wife of Perun, who has burning sun at its heart 🙂 Here is Ognjena Marija surrounded by Perun's burning wheels...

You can read more about Ognjena Marija in my post "Ognjena Marija".


The fact that Perun comes on the 2nd of August, when Sun is the hottest is symbolically depicted through Perun's wheel being basically Svetovid's wheel on fire...

Basically Perun and Svetovid are one and the same. 

You can read more about Svetovid in my post "The Horseman". 

So Perun comes at the moment of maximum heat to announce the beginning of the cooling of the northern hemisphere...This is part of the never ending change of the climate as a result of the never ending interplay between the Father Sun, Sky (Male principle) and Mother Earth (Female principle).  

You can read more about this in my post "Yin and Yang" and "Square and Compases";  


That Perun (thunder) really has Svetovid (sun) at its heart can be seen from the latest scientific data. It shows that it is the high speed solar wind particles which directly cause lightning. 

You can read more about this in my post "Sun Thunder Fire";

Svetovid (Sun) through Perun (Thunder) creates (Fire) Svarog. Fire (Svarog) heats up Sun (Svetovid) who creates lightning (Perun). In Slavic mythology this is symbolically represented by Triglav (Three headed) god... 

"Because it is a great secret how come Svarog (hevenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder) and Svetovid (Sun)..." From Book of Veles...

You can read more about this in my post "Triglav Trojan Trinity Trimurti Agni". 

In Slavic mythology, Perun's main "opponent" is Veles. He is "the great horned snake" who "stole heavenly cows from Perun". Every year on his day, 2nd of August, "Perun defeats Veles" and "rescues his heavenly cows"... 

Great snake is another name for a Dragon, a fire breathing beast. In Serbian mythology Dragon is just "an old male snake". Serbian word for dragon "zmaj" is a masculine form of the Serbian word for snake "zmija". And snakes are solar animals who Slavs believed "eat sun's heat, sun's fire" and cause sun to cool down and summer to end. You can read more about this in my post "Apep".

Fire breathing dragon is the symbol of sun's heat, sun's fire which causes draught.

Heavenly cows are clouds and their milk is rain. 

Basically Veles, the fire breathing Dragon, is the end of summer heat which dries the sky and the land and causes draughts. And guess what. The end of summer, the hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere, which is by Balkan Slavs called "kresovi" (fiers), is also known as "dog days" and falls in the middle of Leo zodiac sign. St Austell Norman baptismal font with a dragon standing between the lions (in the middle of Leo) on top of a dog??? 

You can read more about this symbolism in my post "St Austell font" and "You will trample the great lion and the serpent". 

And every year, in the middle of Leo, in the middle of Dog Days, on Perun's day, 2nd of August, Perun "kills" Veles. Summer (draught) ends and Autumn (rain) begins. 

The reason why Veles is "horned snake" or more precisely "horned dragon" is because Veles is not just dragon, he is also a bull (hence his love of heavenly cows🙂). This is because Veles is summer, and summer starts in Taurus. You can read more about this Dragon-Bull duality in my post "Water bull" where I talk about Balkan legends which equate dragons and monstrous bulls. 

At the beginning of summer the bull of summer is young, fertile and life creating. At the end of summer the bull of summer is old, sterile and life destroying. And has to be slaughtered before it destroys everything...Which is what happens on day of Perun...The bull is killed, summer ends. 

Interestingly, bull is also the animal sacrificed in Serbia on Perun's day, which falls on the same day as Lughnasadh (Crom Dubh day) in Ireland (2nd of August, Last Sunday in July or First Sunday in August, the beginning of Autumn). You can read more about sacrificial animals in Serbian culture in my post "Sacrificial animals"

This tradition of sacrificing bulls to Perun was attested by Procopius, 6th c. Byzantine historian, who tells us that the "Slavs sacrifice to Perun oxen and every victim.”  

Now remember my post "Bull of Crom Dubh"? In it I talked about the link between bull and mysterious Irish Sun (Sky) god and god of Agriculture, Crom Dubh. The Irish celebrated him on the Lughnasadh, Crom Dubh Day, the First Sunday in August and sacrificed bulls to him. As I said at the end of that post, there is one more god to whom people sacrificed bulls at the end of summer: Grom Div (which means Thunder Giant, Thunder God in Serbian), Perun...Interestingly in Serbian folklore (and only in Serbian folklore, not any other Slavic folklore), Dabog (Giving god), who is at the same time Sun god and Rain god (Sky god) is also known as Hromi Daba. Believe or not, in Irish folklore, Crom Dubh is said to be another name for Dagda (Giving god)...

In Bosnia every first Sunday in August, people organise traditional bull fights. These were originally probably organised as part of the old Perun day celebration which revolved around "bull sacrifice"... You can read more about these bull fights in my post "Bo-Vo". 

Day of Perun, sorry day of Helios, sorry day of St Elijah the Thunderer 🙂 is so important that it is also celebrated by Balkan Muslims (Serbs who converted to Islam during Turkish rule) as Alidjun, meaning "The day of Ali (Elijah)". More about this in my post "Alidjun"

As I said, the reason why bull is sacrificed on this day is because this is the day when summer ends. And the summer starts in Taurus (Bull). So killing the bull is symbolic killing of the summer, summer heat. But bull is also symbol for grain which grew through the summer and is ready to be harvested. In most of Europe, harvest (from Old English "hærfest" meaning autumn) begins at the beginning of August. And so killing of the bull on Perun's day is also symbolic killing of the grain, beginning of harvest. You can read more about this in my post "Klas". 

In Ireland this is Crom Dubh day, the day of first fruits when in the distant past even first born were sacrificed to the God of Grain, Crom Dubh, but to whom until recently people sacrificed bulls as replacements for human sacrifice. You can read more about these ancient sacrifices to Crom Dubh in my post "How old is Crom Dubh".

In Cornwall the last sheaf of wheat is ceremonially "slaughtered" while crying "we have cut the neck" (of summer). 

In Slavic countries the last sheaf of wheat is called "Velesova brada" (Veles's beard)...Veles (summer) has been slaughtered...Harvest is finished...

Interestingly, in some Slavic areas this last sheaf is called Perun's beard...and in Bulgaria the last sheaf of wheat is dedicated (sacrificed) to St Vlas, Christianised Veles...

So what is the link between Irish Crom Dubh, Serbian Hromi Daba and Grom Div?

I believe that Grom Div arrived to Ireland during Bronze Age, when we find many stone circles being aligned to his day, 2nd (1st) of August, beginning of harvest, Crom Dubh Day, Lughnasadh. There, the true meaning of God's name was forgotten and was replaced with the closest Gaelic words Crom Dubh (stooped dark???, strange name for sun, sky god). I believed that Crom Dubh then arrived to the Balkans during Early Iron Age. By then the original name of the Sky God, Grom Div, was long forgotten and Gaelic Crom Dubh was replaced with the closest Serbian words Hromi Daba (lame daba???, daba means nothing in Serbian). But both the Irish and the Serbs preserved the ancient link between the Sky god and the bull and his day which marks the end of summer and beginning of autumn.

This explanation, I know, opens sooooo many "difficult" questions...

I also believe that this is one the most important links found in European folklore and mythology, the link which is a key for understanding a lot of forgotten ancient lore encoded in numerous legends, rituals and monuments scattered throughout Eurasia and North Africa...I have been writing extensively about this on my blog.

Apep

Today I would like to talk about snakes. And the sun. 

Apep or Apophis was the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied chaos. He was viewed as the greatest enemy of the solar deity Ra who as the bringer of light was seen as the upholder of order. This is why he was given the title Enemy of Ra.

Apep was seen as a giant snake or serpent leading to such titles as the Evil Dragon. Some elaborations said that he had a head made of flint.

The few descriptions of Apep's origin in myth usually demonstrate that it was born after Ra, usually from his umbilical cord. Combined with its absence from Egyptian creation myths, this has been interpreted as suggesting that Apep was not a primordial force in Egyptian theology, but a consequence of Ra's birth.

In his battles, Apep was thought to use a magical gaze to hypnotise Ra and his entourage, attempting to devour them whilst choking the river on which they travelled through the underworld with his coils.

But god Set, who always accompanied Ra on Atet (Solar barge) defended Ra and killed Apep with his spear.

The god Set was usually depicted as a man with a head resembling that of the sha, Set animal.

In ancient Egyptian art, the Set animal is usually depicted as a slender canid, resembling a greyhound or a jackal, usually with a long, slightly curved nose, and erect ears, squared at the tops, and a forked tail.

Set was often depicted carrying the so called "was" (Egyptian wꜣs "power, dominion") sceptre. It appears as a stylized animal head at the top of a long, straight staff with a forked end. Basically it was a stylised Set animal.

In one account, Ra himself defeats Apep in the form of a cat.

Egyptian believed that thunderstorms and earthquakes were caused by Apep managing to temporarily overwhelm Ra. They also believed that solar eclipses were caused by Apep managing to swallow Ra during the day. However Ra's defenders would quickly cut Apep's belly open and free Ra out, ending the eclipse within a few minutes.

Comparable hostile snakes as enemies of the sun god existed under other names (in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts) already before the name Apep occurred. The etymology of his name ('pp) is perhaps to be sought in some west-semitic language where a word root "pp meaning 'to slither' existed. A verb root 'pp does at any rate not exist elsewhere in Ancient Egyptian.

Soooo. That's the story of Apep. How are we to understand all this?

Maybe this will help:

In Slavic languages the word for dragon "zmaj" is the masculine form of the word for snake "zmija". In Slavic mythology dragon is believed to be an "old male snake"... 

Snake is in Slavic mythology described as "the enemy"of the sun. As the protector of the sun, who saves the sun from the snake, we often find swallow. In Serbia people believe that swallow saved the sun when snake tried to swallow it. In Bosnia people believe that the swallow hid one quarter of the sun under it's wing, to protect it from the snake. In Dalmatia people believe that once there were three or four suns in the sky and that the snake ate all but one, which swallow hid under its wing. Two "blind suns" which can sometimes be seen in the sky together with our normal sun are the ones which the snake ate. The one that heats us is the one that the swallow hid under its wing. There is also a story that once there were 9 rays on the sun, but that snake ate (sucked, drank) all but one. In Montenegro people believe that a huge dragon once sucked in two out of three suns which once existed. In Bulgaria people say that once snake bit the sun in the eyes when it bent down to drink water. Another version of this story says that the sun used to have two or more eyes, but that the snake "sucked" them all out.

Bulgarians believe that the sun celebrates the killing of snakes. because the snake sucked in one of sun's eyes. In Montenegro people say that every time a snake is killed, the sun happily exclaims "A dragon was killed".

Bulgarians believe that snakes eyes have magic affect on the sun. They say that the sun can't set unless the snake looks at it. In Poland people say that the sun would stop shining if the snake looked at it. This is because the snake's eyes can suck all sun's strength out. In Bosnia people believe that snake gets more poisonous if it often looks at the sun. The most poisonous are the snakes that look at the sun for nine days. God forbade snakes to look at the sun longer than nine days a year. A lot less poisonous are the snakes which look at the sun only six days a year. And even less poisonous are the ones which only look at the sun for three days a year.

In Belarus people believe that snakes, while lying outside and sunbathing, actually sucking the sun's strength out, and that this is why the sun gets smaller and smaller as the summer progresses. The sun replenishes it's strength during the winter when snakes are under the ground. This is why one should always kill a snake, or they will multiply so much that they will completely destroy the sun. The dead snake should be buried or hid in the deep shade so that sun doesn't see it. If the snake is not buried the sun will start to shine weakly and will start hiding behind the clouds, because it can't look at it's dead earthly enemy. The sun won't shine on a man who doesn't kill a snake for three days. People in Ukraine also believe that a dead snake should be hidden in a shade or buried so that it doesn't harm the sun in some way. Polish people believe that a dead snake should always be buried so that the sun can't see it. If the sun sees a dead snake it might get extinguished. Also if the sun sees a dead snake it will get sick and turn red. The sun will get sick and start crying, because the snake is poisonous. The setting sun is red if it had seen a dead snake which wasn't buried. If a live snake comes out of its hole to sunbath, the sun will get sick and get pale. In Pomerania people believe that snakes actually don't like looking at the sun. If a snake is lying still, staring at the sun, has gone mad.

There is also a belief, which is found in all Slavic countries from Baltic to Balkans, that if you kill a snake, it will twitch and jump around, even if you chop it in bits, until the sun sets.

In Bulgaria people believe that the snake bite wound should be exposed to the sun. In Poland people believe that the person who was bitten by a snake should be outside, in the sun, or he will get sick.

People in Ukraine and Poland believe that snakes once had wings and flew in the sky. But the sun burned their wings and they fell on the ground. There is a Polish legend that says that the solar eclipse happens because a dragon covers the sun with its body. There is also a Polish fairytale which says that it is a twelve headed snake which causes solar eclipse. Ukrainians have a legend about a dragon which feeds on the sun, which is why the sun gets smaller and weaker as the year progresses. The motif of a dragon swallowing the sun can be found in all Slavic countries.

How should we understand all this? 

And why there are so many similarities between the Slavic and Egyptian stories about the sun and the snake?

The snake and the sun are intrinsically connected. 

Snakes come out of the underground when the air and soil get warm enough. They stay outside during the late spring, summer and early autumn and during that that time they are visible to people. 

This is why snake is the symbol of the sun's heat.  

In Egyptian mythology we find snakes wrapped around the sun disk on the head of the young Sun god Horus.

They are all around Amun-Ra

They have wings to symbolised their link with the supreme deity Ra 

And are called "the Uraei of goodness". You can read a lot more about the snakes in Egyptian mythology in the great book "The Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt". 

But let me continue with the analysis of the snake-sun symbolic relationship based on Slavic mythology and see how it fits with the Egyptian one. 

The sun's heat is "young" week and beneficial at the end of spring, just before the summer starts. This is the good snake. The sun's heat is "old" strong and destructive at the end of summer, just before the autumn starts. This is the bad snake. Dragon, a heavenly being that breaths fire, the great old male snake, represents the burning heat of the Late Summer, Early Autumn, the "old sun", the sun which is threatening to turn everything into cinder. 

In Slavic Pre-Christian religion this dragon was Veles, the great horned snake, who "Stole heavenly cows from Perun". Basically he is the late summer heat which dries the land and the sky and causes draughts. You can read more about this in my post "Lion killing Snake" and my post "Two crosses".

Just enough sun is beneficial but too much sun is destructive. 
Just enough sun makes grain grow and creates order, but too much sun makes grain wither and burn and creates chaos. 

This is why Apep, the great snake, the dragon, the destructive sun, the creator of chaos is the enemy of Ra, the beneficial sun, the creator of Order. 

The great snake, the dragon, Apep, is the sun, is Ra in its destructive manifestation. This is why Apep is "a consequence of Ra".

The sun's heat increases all the way through the summer until we reach the hottest point of the summer, the 2nd of August. This point marks the end of the summer and the beginning of autumn, the end of the heating and the beginning of the cooling of the northern hemisphere. I talked about this in my post "Two crosses".

At that precise moment, The Great Snake, The Dragon, Veles (the summer heat) gets killed by Perun (autumn thunderstorms) whose weapon is lightning (spear). This day is celebrated in Serbia as Perun day. 

But the thing is, Perun and Veles are one and the same. This can be seen from the fact that on the 2nd of August (the end of summer beginning of autumn), the day when Serbs celebrate Perun's victory over Veles, Serbs celebrate the day of St Elijah the thunderer. St Elijah is the burning sun of the late summer, Helios. 

This is Helios

This is Elijah

Every year on his day he is about to burn the world to cinder. But he never does. Because  St Elijah is also the thunderer, the one who makes lightning and the one who rides on storm clouds. Which arrive right on time, to cool the earth down. You can read more about this in my post "Thundering sun god".

This what is represented by Set killing Apep. The sun Ra, its protector Set and sun's enemy Apep are one and the same...

Set scores a small victory over Apep every day when the evening kills the heat of the day. 

Set scores the big victory over Apep on the 2nd of August (the end of summer beginning of autumn) when he kills the heat of the summer and when the northern hemisphere starts cooling.

The 2nd of August,  (the end of summer beginning of autumn) falls in the middle of the zodiac sign Leo. This is why Ra kills Apep as great cat (Lion). 

This is also why we find the depiction of a lion headed deity (probably Pakhet or Pasht) killing great snake, dragon, on the above Set killing Apep scene.

Here is another depiction of Pakhet holding in one hand was staff (Set animal used to defeat Apep) and in the other hand two snakes. 

Interestingly, in Serbian mythology, St Elijah doesn't burn the world down, because every year, in the middle of Leo, during the Dog days, he gets "calmed down" by his wife "Ognjena Marija" (Fiery Mary). 

I wrote about this in my post Ognjena Marija. 

I talked about the symbolism of the "Lion killing snake" image in my post Lion killing snake. 

The 2nd of August, (the end of summer beginning of autumn), the hottest part of the year, the time when the great snake, the dragon is killed is known as Dog days. This is when Dog Star Sirius, rises before sun in the sky. Which is very interesting considering that Set, the Egyptian dragon slayer, the god of storms, is a dog faced deity...Knowing this, I wonder if the Set animal (dog really) has a forked tail because it is itself the "animal that ends the great snake, the dragon"???

Medieval standing stone from Ubusko, Hercegovina depicting dog fighting snake.

Just after the dog days and the slaughter of the great snake which choked the "river on which Ra's barge sailed", the Nile flooding reaches its highest level. This is still celebrated by Egyptians as an annual holiday for two weeks starting August 15, known as Wafaa El-Nil. 


The Nile always followed the same water rise and fall pattern. First indications of the rise of the river could be seen at the first of the cataracts of the Nile (at Aswan) as early as the beginning of June, and a steady increase went on until the middle of July, when the increase of water became very great. 

This is the beginning of Leo. 

The Nile continued to rise until the beginning of September, when the level remained stationary for a period of about three weeks, sometimes a little less. 

This is the end of Leo.

In October it often rose again, and reached its highest level. From this period it began to subside, and usually sank steadily until the month of June when it reached its lowest level, again.

Here is the The god Nilus or Hapimou encircled by the serpent...

From the dead dragon water, vegetation and life burst out...

What do you think about all this?