Mountain

People who live below high mountains, see only their side of the mountain. Most people are content with that view and believe that they know the mountain, that their view of the mountain is the mountain...When two people who live on opposite sides of the same mountain meet, they sometimes talk about "their" mountain not knowing that they are talking about the same mountain. And sometimes they even get into a fight over whose mountain is taller, bigger, more beautiful... 

People should hike more...Only through hiking, you can get to understand that even though there are many views of the mountain, and even though they are all different, they are all views of the same mountain...

Baba - the main beam that supports the house

In Serbia we have three very interesting proverbs:

"Ne stoji kuća na zemlji nego na ženi" - The house doesn't stand on the ground but on the woman

"Tri ćoška kuće stoje na ženi a jedan na mužu" - Three corners of the house stand on the woman (wife) and one on the man (husband)

"Gde nije žene tu nije ni kuće" - where there is no woman, there is no house

All these proverbs mean that it is the woman that holds the household together and also that within the household, it is the woman that is charge.

This might sound strange considering that Serbians and other Balkan people lived in the past in extremely patriarchal, tribal societies. Women had to produce male children. A woman which was not able to produce a male child was considered infertile. When asked how many members the family had, people would reply with the number of able men under arms. The heroic cult was extremely strong and men were expected to die in battle rather than in bed. Mothers gave birth to sons knowing that they will probably be killed in battle very young. There is even a recorded expression: "Why did I give birth to my sons if not for them to die in battle"... In societies like these, life expectancy of males is very short. Which means that in most households the oldest member of the family was not an old man but an old woman. With men spending a lot of their time fighting wars, and with the eldest male usually being long dead, this left women to be in charge and in care of the house, property and children and basically the society as a whole.

By the way all this sounds just like the old Spartan society, and not surprisingly the role of women in the Spartan society was very similar to the role of women in the old traditional Serbian society.

Spartan women were encouraged to produce many children, preferably male, to increase Sparta's military population. They took pride in giving birth to a brave warrior. Being the mother of a popular warrior was a high honor for a Spartan woman. This hero worship attitude is best illustrated by the famous parting cry of Spartan mothers to their sons: "Come back with your shield - or on it". Spartan mothers whose sons died in battle openly rejoiced while mothers whose sons survived hung their heads in shame.

At any given moment the Spartan polis would have consisted of predominantly women, given that half of the men were at war. When the men weren’t stationed they were preoccupied with training and remained separated from their homes leaving the women to completely dominate the household. This is why socially and politically women managed and led the community.

Aristotle was critical of the Spartan treatment of women on the grounds that in Sparta, men were ruled by their women, unlike in the rest of Greece.

Here is something interesting: in Serbian the main beam that supports the house roof is called "baba" (grandmother). The "baba" beam is supported by the main vertical pillar called "djed" (grandfather). 

Here are examples of early medieval Slavic houses with the "baba" beam and "djed" pillar marked in red. 

Also please note the calotte "baba" oven in the corner of the house. I already wrote about these ovens in my post "Baba - earthen bread oven".

The house is lying on the "djed" pillars but it is held together by the "baba" beam. Without the "baba" beam there would be no house...

Log cabin

When someone says log cabin, people immediately think of Scandinavia, because everyone knows that log cabins were invented by Scandinavians and that Scandinavians are the best at making them. But what if I told you that log cabins were a late cultural import into Scandinavia from the Slavic lands south and east of the Baltic sea?

The origin of these types of buildings can be traced to Pomeranian culture of the the late bronze age and early iron age, which developed from Lusatian culture. One of the best examples of the Pomeranian wooden architecture is the fortified town of Biskupin. Biskupin was an Iron Age fortified settlement in north-central (Wielkopolska) Poland (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship). When first discovered it was thought to be early evidence of Slavic settlement but archaeologists later confirmed it belonged to the Biskupin group of the Lusatian culture.

There are two settlement periods at Biskupin, which was located in the middle of a lake but is now situated on a peninsula, that follow each other without hiatus. Both settlements were laid out on a rectangular grid with eleven streets that are three meters wide. The older settlement from early Iron Age was established on a slightly wet island of over 2 hectares and consisted of ca. 100 oak and pine log-houses that are of similar layout and measure ca. 8 x 10 m each.They consisted of two chambers and an open entrance-area.These houses were designed to accommodate 10 to 12 persons. An open hearth was located in the centre of the biggest room. There are no larger houses that could indicate social stratification. Because of the damp, boggy ground the streets were covered with wooden planks. This is the reconstruction of one of the log cabins from Biskupin that can be seen in the Biskupin open air museum.

The settlement was surrounded by a tall wooden wall, or palisade, set on a rampart made up of both wood and earth. The rampart was constructed of oak trunks that form boxes filled with earth. The rampart is more than 450 m long and accompanied by a wooden breakwater in the lake. 6000–8000 m³ of wood have been used in the construction of the rampart.

The settlement at Biskupin belongs to the Hallstatt C and D periods (early Iron Age, 800-650 BC and 650-475 BC). However, dendrochronological analysis provided more accurate dating. It proved that oak wood used in the construction of the settlement was cut down between 747-722 B.C. Over half of the wood used was cut during the winter of 738/737 B.C.

What is very interesting is that the tradition of building dwellings and fortifications from logs was during the early Iron age found only in Pomeranian culture south of Baltic sea and not in Jutland or in Scandinavia.

The tradition of building log cabins was continued by the Central European Celts. This is a reconstruction of a Celtic house in Havranok, Slovakia.

The Havránok hill fort was an important religious, economic, and political center of the Púchov culture (300 BCE - 180 CE), in which the dominant Celtic tribe of Cotini mingled with the older people of the Lusatian (Pomeranian) culture.

In the early medieval period we find that the tradition of building dwellings and fortifications from logs was still exclusively found among Slavs living in the same area of the old Pomeranian Culture, south of Baltic sea, and further east, but not in Jutland and not in Scandinavia. As a matter of fact, the similarity between the Iron age Pomeranian log dwellings and fortifications, and Medieaval Slavic Pomeranian log dwellings and fortifications is so striking, that when Biskupin was originally discovered, it was presumed that it was a Medieval Slavic fort. Only carbon dating showed that Biskupin was in fact 1000 years older.

Here is an example of a typical Medieval Slavic fort: Chotěbuz - Podobora:

Slavs built both square semi-subterranean (sunk in) dwellings with heating devices in a corner and ground dwellings. They also used both log only and log frame with wattle doub construction technique.

Here are the reconstructions of completely sunken and semi sunken Medieval Slavic hut from Slovakia based on the actual discovered huts remains dated to the 6th - 7th century AD:

And this is what these types of houses looked like inside. Please note a built stone oven in the corner:

And here is a reconstruction of a Medieval Slavic surface log cabin, based on archaeological finds from Staré Město ("Old Town"), a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic, again dated to the 6th - 7th century AD.

The same building technique using logs was unknown in Scandinavia until the 11th century, the time of the closest cooperation and intermixing between the Norse and the Slavs. This all indicates that log cabins and fortifications are a Slavic cultural import into Scandinavia.

When looking at the introduction of the joint timber houses in the Germanic areas of the Baltic, we have to look at the Jutland and other Danish areas of the southern Scandinavia separately from the Northern areas of Scandinavia. These two areas were politically and culturally separate and were linked to different Slavic tribal group. The Danes were politically and culturally linked with the Western Slavs (Polabians, Obodrites, Serbs, Poles) and the Norse and Swedes were politically and culturally linked with the Eastern Slavs (Rus). There is no wander then that in these two areas of Scandinavia we find two different types of the joint timber construction techniques.

In the Danish controlled areas, the earliest constructions of lying and crossing logs were found in the fortification rampart of Danevirke in southern Jutland, built in the 8th and 9th centuries. A similar technique has been found in a few houses in Haithabu (Hedeby) near Danevirke in the 9th century and in a well in Kaupang in Norway in the beginning of the 9th century. The type of wood used was oak which was cut lengthwise to get appropriate dimensions. The logs had a rectangular section, and the joints had both an upper and a lower notch that were rectangular. In Wollin and Gdansk (Poland), there were also joint timber houses made of oak wood, mostly built of round logs, but occasionally also of rectangular ones. The woodworking skills needed to build these houses were so advanced that they must have been developed somewhere else and then brought to Jutland. This points to the technological import from the South Baltic Western Slavic territories (today Germany and Poland) where joint timber houses were also constructed from oak wood for millenniums. The same types of rectangular oak profiled log houses were also built by Serbs in the Balkans and are still built today.

Here is an example of the advanced joint timber houses from Serbia. You can see that the oak logs were longitudinally split into beams (thick planks) which are then joined together using deep rectangular joins.

This is another house from Serbia which shows even more complicated rectangular log construction technique. This technique combines the wooden frame made out of thick square profile oak logs and thinner horizontal wooden beams (thick planks). The wooden beams with external joins are inserted into the internal joins on the vertical holding beams.

In the Norse and Swedish controlled areas, the earliest joint timber houses were found in Trondheim, Sigtuna and Olso. They all seem to be built around 1000 AD. Before that time all houses built in these areas of Scandinavia were framework buildings with wattle and daub. The woodworking skills needed to build these houses were also very advanced and again the only explanation for a sudden appearance of such advanced woodworking technology is that it must have been developed somewhere else and then brought to Scandinavia. One of the explanations is that this house building technology was perhaps developed in the Scandinavian countryside before the first towns were built. But we did not find any trace of houses built in this way anywhere in the countryside before they appeared in the above mentioned towns. I would say that this is more likely a sign that people who had long experience of using this technique came and settled in the area and built a town there. And people who did have such know-how at that time were Slavs of the old Russian kingdom. The joint timber houses from Staraya Ladoga, and Novgorod, which were built using the same material (pine logs) and the same design and technology (round joints on one or both sides) were built at least as early as the 8th century AD. As I said already East Slavs south and east of the Baltic sea were building these types of houses, from various types of wood since at least the 6th century AD. Norse had extensive political, economic and cultural contacts with the East Slavs in the old Russia for at least two centuries before the first joint timber houses (log cabins) appeared in Scandinavia. It is quite possible that some of the Slavs from the Old Russia settled in Scandinavia and it is them who brought their traditional home building technology with them.

In the work entitled: "About the Introduction of Joint Timber Building in Scandinavia", Karin Rosberg from Uppsala university argues this is exactly what happened.

In the intro to the paper Karin says that the issue of the introduction of joint timber building is old in both Norway and Sweden. Former Swedish researchers, such as Boëthius, Erixon, and Lundberg, have been very uncertain about this, and Lundberg believed it was introduced as early as during the Vendel Period, i. e. 550-800 AD. A few decades later, Hauglid in Norway assumed, with some caution, that it was introduced by king Harald Hårdråde in the middle of the 11th century.

She then proceeds to explain where and when the earliest joint timber houses and other structures were built, after which she describes similarities and differences between the Slavic and Scandinavian joint timber techniques for building houses. Finally this is what the author of this work thinks about the reason why the Scandinavians adopted joint timber building so late (1000 AD), even though they were for centuries in contact with Slavs who built the joint timber houses and fortifications?

"As I said before, joint timber building has very good heat qualities, which is needed in the Scandinavian climate. Accordingly, one would expect the Scandinavians to be quick to adopt a solid building technique which would also save much work with wood cutting for heating. And they did so at last, and the heat qualities were certainly an essential reason for joint timber building dominating in Scandinavia for about 900 years. But they did not adopt it until such a long time had passed as 200 years. Why? I suggest the reason for the delay was cultural. The Scandinavians readily adopted foreign dress fashion and consumer goods, but not so readily foreign housing. They probably had much of their identity in the houses, especially in their dwellings. The house shows who is the owner, and for the Vikings an old family was important. So a traditional Viking long house could be associated with an old and impressing family. In addition, for the Vikings their house was a sacred place and had a religious dimension. Such things made the housing more conservative than other cultural features. There are theories, expressed by Rapoport, about socio-cultural factors having a considerable impact on house form, and about house form having a considerable degree of constancy due to culturally linked aspects. These theories point in the same direction as my suggestion. Towards the end of the 10th century, the cultural difference between the Scandinavian and Slavic peoples decreased. (My comment: This happened due to a long period of political cooperation and cultural and physical mixing (intermarrying) between the Scandinavians and the Slavs. This eventually lead to the large Slavic settlement in Scandinavia and equally large Scandinavian settlement in the Slavic countries). Eventually they both—or at least parts of them—converted to Christianity. All this probably made the Scandinavians more ready to adopt the Slavic joint timber house building tradition. "

But once the Scandinavians did start making log cabins, they made them their own, to the point when today everyone thinks that joint timber log cabins are a native Scandinavian tradition. So much so that today even Slavs believe that they borrowed the technology for building their own joint timber log cabins from Scandinavians. Funny how things like this happen.

The below picture shows a typical joint timber log cabin from Scandinavia (Stockholm). Please note that it uses the same horizontal beam joining constriction technique like the first hose from Serbia that I showed above.

If anyone has any additional info on the development of the joint timber log cabins please let me know. 

Prokletija - The cursing ceremony

The English nursery rime says:

Sticks and stones will break my bones
But words will never harm me.

But people didn't always think this way. In the past when people swore or cursed at someone, they weren't just being rude. Every curse or a swear was a prayer to God(s) to do something bad to someone, because the person who was cursing or swearing could not do it himself. This is still clearly visible in Serbian curses. 

In Serbian the standard list of curses starts with "Jebi se" meaning "F*@k yourself",  "Jebem te" meaning "I F*@k you",  "Jebem ti majku, oca, sestru, decu..." meaning "I F*@k your mother, father, sister, children..." all the way to "Jebem ti mrtvu majku" meaning "I F*@k your dead mother" and "Jebem ti celu familiju, i one koje znas i one koje neznas, i one sto je zivo i one sto je mrtvo" meaning "I F*@k all your family, all that you know of and all that you don't, all that are alive and all that are dead" and such things... On top of the curses which have to do with f*@king of the family members, there are also"Jebem ti lebac" meaning "I F*@k your bread", "Jebem ti sunce" meaning "I F*@k your sun" and "Jebem ti boga" meaning "I F*@k your god" and so on. 

What is interesting is that these "F*@king" Serbian curses are structure as a bad wish which one man wishes on another man. This I believe shows that "F*@king" is here seen as act of defiling,  humiliating, desecrating and not as a sexual act. It is related to the loss of power, enslavement, putting a man into a situation where he can not prevent other men taking, defiling, desecrating what was his like family, food, god, honor. "F*@king" here is act of ultimate submission. This shows that these curses are deeply linked to the patriarchal clan society. The proof for this is the fact that in Montenegro, where this patriarchal clan society still survives, the curse "Jebem ti oca" meaning "I F*@k your father" is worse than the curse "Jebem ti majku" meaning "I F*@k your mother".

All of these curses actually have an implicit  "Da Bog da", now spelled as "Dabogda" meaning "May God give, allows, lets it happen..." which used to precede the actual bad wish, but are omitted in the F*@king curses. However this explicit prayer to God is still present in many other Serbian curses. Like "Da bog da ti se vino ukiselilo" meaning "May god give that your vine gets sour", "Da bog da ti se žito osušilo" meaning "May god give that your wheat dries in drought", "Da Bog da crko" meaning "May God let you die", "Da  Bog da ti se seme zatrlo" meaning "May god give that your seed (line of descendants) disappears", "Da bog da te majka prepoznala u bureku" meaning "May God give that your mother recognizes you inside the meet pie", "Da bog da ti svi u kući plakali, a samo pop da ti peva" meaning "May god give that everyone in your house cries and only priest to sing (requiem)", "Dao bog da ti ispadnu svi zubi osim jednog a da te taj zadnji zub boli" meaning "May god give that all your teeth fall out except one which will hurt you for the rest of your life",  "Da bog da ti konj (pas) krvavim kurcem jebao sestru na majčinom grobu" meaning "May god give that a horse (dog) f*@ks your sister with a bloody dick on your mother's grave"...This goes on and on and on. The list of curses is only limited by your hatred and imagination...

My "favorite" Serbian curse is "Da bog da imao pa nemao" which means "May god give that you have and then have not". This curse is not rude but it is devastating. Having something, family, health, possession and losing it is one of the worse things that can happen to anyone. This is why this curse is so bad. 

In Serbian the word for curse is "klet". The words "uklet", "proklet" mean "cursed", the verb "prokleti" means "to succeed in cursing someone".
 

Interestingly the word "zakletva" means oath and "zakleti" means to swear oath. Ancient oaths were basically magical contracts which consisted of a promise and the curse which will befall the person who breaks the promise. Something like this:

"If I don't (pledge goes here) may God(s)...(list of curses, curse goes here)"

This is why we say "to swear the oath" and why "to swear" means to curse.

An example of such ancient "oath - curse" is the "The Kosovo curse" or "Prince's curse" which is, according to legend, a curse said by Serbian Prince Lazar before the Battle of Kosovo. Lazar curses those Serbs who ignored his call for war against the Ottoman Empire. Constantine of Kostenets, a medieval Bulgarian writer and chronicler best known for his biography of Serbian despot Stefan Lazarević, recorded that Lazar issued "invitation and threat" to Serbian states which is preserved in the Serbian epic poetry in the form of the curse.

Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth,
And of Serb blood and heritage,
And comes not to fight at Kosovo,
May he never have progeny born from love,
Neither son nor daughter!
May nothing grow that his hand sows,
Neither red wine nor white wheat!
And may he be dying in filth as long as his children are alive!

So what does all this have to do with the Irish the word "cleath" which means a goad, a wattle, pole, stake? 

Well let me tell you a story:

Stoning is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person accused of a capital crime until he or she dies. On the Wiki page on stoning I read that the stoning is done so that "...no individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the "subject"..." But stoning is not done so that no one can be identified as the person who kills the "subject". Stoning is done so that everyone in the group can be identified as the person who killed the "subject". Stoning is not just an execution. It is also an act of group bonding. It is the group who kills the "subject", and casting a stone is a symbol of being part of the group, of agreeing with the group, of obeying the group's will. Casting a stone is an act of communion. 

But what happens if a capital crime is committed, but the perpetrator is not known or was not caught? Well in Serbia, and in other parts of the Balkans where we find Serbian population, he is symbolically stoned and cursed in a ceremony known as "Prokletija" meaning punishment through cursing a stick.

Prokletija is a custom of cursing of an unknown perpetrator of a capital crime or some other serious crime, like theft, arson, killing of livestock, betrayal... In the ceremony, god and saints are summoned to identify and punish the culprit. This custom survived until the present time in Eastern Serbia and in the last century was still practiced in Eastern Nercegovina, Montenegro and few other parts of Serbia. Prokletija, also known as Temija (from Anatema) and Amen, ceremony takes place on Sunday or on some Red Letter church holiday. Injured party reports the damage, crime to the village elders, and asks that the village curses the unknown culprit. On a certain holy day, all the people from the village gather at the place where the crime was committed, or on a crossroads, or at the "an unmarked grave of an unknown person" (tumulus), or at the holy oak tree, or on top of a conical (tumulus like) hill or at the village court house.

At the place where the Prokletija ceremony is performed, a stake is stuck into the ground, or a wooden cross, often made from the burned support columns of a burned building. People gather around the stake or the cross. They take their caps and hats off, like they do in a church during the mass. They cross themselves looking at the stake or the cross, then they turn to the sun, and curse the one who committed the crime, asking god and saints to bring misfortune to the perpetrator of the crime. 

This is extremely interesting. Is the stake a totem, obelisk, as the earthly seat, the temple of the God which the people are praying to? Or is the stake the representation of the missing criminal? I am not sure. But I am sure that we can identify the God the people are praying to. It is the Sun. The cross, the crossing are later additions, a Christianization. What happens next during the Prokletija ceremony is even more interesting. 

During the cursing, every member of the group curses the perpetrator of the crime and throws several stones onto or next to the stick, cross. Remember that every person from the village has to be present at the ceremony, and that usually it is someone from the village who committed the crime. This means that the person who committed the crime has to curse himself and his family, or that the people related to the person who committed the crime, have to curse their relative and his family. 

After the ceremony is finished, the stake or cross is surrounded, or covered depending on the number of people participating in the ceremony, by a pile of stones, a small stone cairn. 

The stake, cross and stones are never removed. The place is protected by a village taboo and is from that day on known as Prokletija which literally means "The place where I curse you". Moreover, from that moment on, anyone who passes by this cursing stake throws more stones on the pile of stone and utters more curses. Eventually the stake, cross would rot away and only a pile of stone, a kind of a stone cairn would remain. 

Now what is the word for a curse in Serbian? It is "klet". What is the word for a pole, a stake in Irish? It is "cleath". Is Serbian word for a curse derived from the Irish word for a stick, pole, stake, the cursing stick which is used to summon the God of wrath, or to represent the cursed criminal? 

Remember the Eastern Serbia is the place where people still use "Celtic" crosses as their village crosses, like this one from Crna Trava area in Eastern Serbia: 

Or this one from Vlasotince area, also in Eastern Serbia:

So if this word was indeed borrowed from Irish, when did this happen? Celtic times? Or much much earlier, during early Bronze Age, or even earlier, during the spread of agriculture?

Here is a list of the descriptions of the recorded Prokletije ceremonies from various parts of Serbia, Montenegro and Eastern Hercegovina.

In the villages of the Upper Nišava area in eastern Serbia, there is a Prokletija stone pile which is fenced off, and everyone who passes by, throws a stone on top of it and says: "Cursed be who killed (the name of the murdered person)". In the villages of Vlasotince area in eastern Serbia, Prokletije ceremony is always organized when someone had something burned down by arsonists. There people stick the charred piece of wood from the burned building into the ground and then everyone throws stones at it cursing the person who started the fire. The stone pile is never removed. We find the same custom in western Bulgaria in near by villages of Zaplanje and Znepolje. 

In Montenegro, Prokletije ceremony is called "Amen". This type of ceremony was performed when someone was killed or betrayed, or when someone broke the personal or village (clan) oath. Kuči tribe in Montenegro performed the Prokletija ceremony like this: One person would utter a terrible curse, asking God and saints to bring misfortune on the perpetrator of the crime, and everyone else would say "amen" and through stones on the pile around the stake. When a theft, burning or other destruction of property was committed, the same ceremony was performed but a sort of a delay clause was added to the curses, giving the perpetrator chance to secretly return the stolen property or leave the money to repay the damage. Vasojevići tribe from Montenegro organized these ceremonies until the mid 19th century. During these ceremonies a village elder would hold a stone in one hand and a dry stick in the other. He would raise his hands and curses the person who committed the crime wishing that "every thing he owns turns to stone, that his arms dry out, that evil befalls him, that every trace of him disappears, that his house gets swallowed by earth, that his Slava candle (Christian replacement for the house holy flame) gets extinguish, and that the curse falls on next nine generations of his descendants". The rest of the participants of the Prokletije ceremony exclaim "amen" after every curse. There are records that Prokletije ceremonies were performed in Zeta area of Montenegro at the end of the 19th century. One of them was performed to curse someone who stole someone's beehives. The ceremony was performed on top of the hill in the middle of the village (probably tumulus).

There is a record that a cursing ceremony was performed in Bjelopavlovići area of Montenegro in 1751. In Popovo area, when something is stolen, and the perpetrator can't be found, the victim asks the village elders to help him find who committed the crime by organizing the Amen (Prokletije) ceremony. The elders would then gather the villagers making sure that the ones who are suspected of committing the crime are among them. Everyone who is asked to come to the gathering has to come. After the reason for the gathering is announced, a cursing ceremony is organized. First to curse the criminal is the victim. He takes his hat off, crosses himself and curses: "who ever stole from me or knew who stole from me. May god give that he suffers from terrible wounds and illnesses and that he never dies or recovers". And all the other people respond with "amen". Then the victim curses: "May god give that he loses his site and that living flesh falls off his bones. That he never has any happiness and prosperity or descendants..." And so on. And everyone again responds with "amen". In upper Hercegovina, people sometimes say to the priest after a mass in a church: "Common father say amen (say the curse). Someone stole my horse (or burned my hay or committed some other crime)" and I can't find who, so may God punish him, so that he doesn't do the same bad deed to others. The priest would then say that who ever did the bad deed didn't know what he was doing out of drunkenness or rage and is now feeling guilty. Then the priest would announce that who ever committed the crime should come to the church and confess and that he should repay the damage in secret and that then the debt will be re-payed and that there will be no need for the Prokletije (Amen). It is said that in Eastern Hercegovina everyone is afraid of Prokletije (Amen). 

Old Montenegro is full of toponyms "Gomila" meaning pile of stone, earth, tumulus. Several hill tops are also called "Gomila". What is interesting is that a lot of conical hills in Montenegro and Hercegovina have stone cairns built on top of them. One hill is actually called "Kletvena gomila" which means cursing pile of stones. Below is an actual ancient stone cairn tumulus from Hercegovina. 

An old cursing stone pile looks exactly like this. Many ancient stone tumuluses have been preserved because of the taboo attached to the cursing stone piles, which forbids removal of the stones from the pile. 

How old is this custom? Where did it originate? Does it exist anywhere else?

You can read more about Prokletije in 

"Prilog Proucavanju Nacina Sahranjivanja i Podizanja Nadgrobnih Spomenika u Nasim Krajevima u Srednjem Vijeku" (In Serbian)

"Srpski Mitoloski Recnik Grupa Autora" (In Serbian)

Donnybrook fair

I live in Donnybrook, across from Donnybrook church. This area is today considered to be one of the nicest parts of Dublin. But this was not always the case.

Until 1866, Donnybrook was the place where a notorious Donnybrook Fair was held every year in August.

This is a picture of Donnybrook Fair painted by Erskine Nicol in 1859.  

The official history of the fair says that it was established in the year 1204, when King John of England granted a licence to the corporation of Dublin to hold an eight-day fair in Donnybrook. In 1252 the duration was extended to fifteen days. Over the years the terms of holding the fair changed slightly, until in the 18th century it was held on 26 August on Donnybrook Green for a fortnight (14 days). But I believe that this was probably just an official recognition of the already existing Lughnasadh fair. Several other Lughnasadh fairs still survive in Ireland, like the Puck Fair which takes place in Killorglin on the 10th of August, County Kerry and the Ould Lammas Fair which takes place in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim on the last Monday and Tuesday in August. There is also the legendary Fair of Tailtiu (Oenach Tailten) which held  in the area of Teltown, and which was the principal fair of the Ui Neill confederation of dynasties and their vassal tribes. 

These fairs had been officially established as an occasion to trade cattle, but also as a chance for people to meet, eat, drink, have fun and broker marriages. Similar fairs are still held at the beginning of August (Lughnasadh) by the Serbs in the Balkans. I wrote about them in this article.

Donnybrook fair must have been the king of Lughnasadh fairs in Ireland. It was very popular and immensely crowded. According to the reports it attracted thousands of people and was chaotic and loud affair. The sounds of drums, bells, toy trumpets, fiddles, bagpipes and singing added to the pandemonium. In 1778 one writer writing for Freeman's Journal, complained on the 31 August of 1778 about the effects of the Donnybrook Fair: 

"How irksome it was to friends of the industry and well-being of Society to hear that upwards of 50,000 persons visited the fair on the previous Sunday, and returned to the city like intoxicated savages." 

By the beginning of the 19th century the fair had become more a site of public entertainment, drinking and fighting than a fair of any description. Folklorist Estyn Evans provides in his book "Irish Folk Ways" an 1845 account of Dublin's "infamous Donnybrook Fair" which appeared in The Parliamentary Gazetteer: 

"During the week, beginning on the 26th August, is held the notorious Donnybrook Fair, professedly for the sale of horses and black cattle, but really for vulgar dissipation, and formerly for criminal outrage and the most revolting debauchery. It was for generations a perfect prodigy of moral horrors - a concentration of disgrace upon, not Ireland alone, but civilized Europe. It far surpassed all other fairs in the multitude and grossness of its disgusting incidents of vice; and, in general, it exhibited such continuous scenes of riot, bloodshed, debauchery, and brutality, as only the coarsest taste and the most hardened heart could witness without painful emotion.' This was by day; 'the orgies of the night may better be imagined than described." 

Fighting was one of the chief characteristics of Donnybrook Fair. Fights often broke out between two people, and soon the onlookers became involved. To this day, the phrase 'Donnybrook Fair' is used to describe scenes of chaos and confusion. The Oxford English Dictionary  defines a donnybrook as "a scene of uproar and disorder; a riotous or uproarious meeting; a heated argument."

This sketch is by a man called Samuel Lover and is featured in Weston St. John Joyce's book The Neighbourhood of Dublin. The sketch depicts a brawl at the infamous Donnybrook Fair. 

 

You can see in the drawing that a wide variety of weapons and ammunition are being used by the participants with the knobsticks being the most widely used one. You can read about knobsticks in this article.

The fair was certainly popular among the ordinary people, but from the early nineteenth century onwards, there was a concerted effort by both the Church and State to bring about its demise. Attempts to ban the fair were made in the early decades of the nineteenth century, but it was not until 1850 and the death of the license holder John Madden, that any real success was achieved. In 1855, John Madden's sister Ellen sold the rights to hold the fair for £3,000 to Father Nolan and his association, which had led the campaign against the fair. The fair was sill held until 1866, because Joseph Dillon, the nephew of John Madden and owner of the fair ground, refused to stop organising it, claiming that it was his right as the owner of the fair grounds to do what ever he wanted on it. However in 1866 the new Catholic Church in Donnybrook opened on the south bank of the River Dodder, overlooking the fair grounds. It was dedicated to the Sacred Heart in order to atone for the sins of Donnybrook Fair. It was dedicated by Dr. Paul Cullen, the Cardinal Archbishop. 

The church was officially opened on Sunday 26th August, the same day as the fair. This was the message to all that the god had officially arrived to Donnybrook and that he was watching you. So no more messin' or you'll be going straight to hell. Two years later, Donnybrook fair was closed for good...

Ognjena Marija

In my post about stone circles on mountaing Devica, i mentioned the solar observatory called Bogovo Gumno. I would like to continue talking about this stone circle complex and explain why it is so significant.

The most important thing about Bogovo Gumno complex is not that it is a group of stone circles aligned with the summer solstice and used for determining the beginning of the solar calendar. Many other stone circles in Europe were built for the same purpose, although admittedly few are as big as Bogovo Gumno circles. The most important thing about Bogovo Gumno complex is that it gives us proof that a stone circle originally built as a solar observatory in an unknown distant past, was still recognized as a holy place and an astronomical observatory and was used as such by the local peasant population until the end of the 19th and the the beginning of the 20th century. 

Remember what I said about rondel enclosures. 

When you read about central European rondel enclosures, you are always told that

But, by contrast to the long lifetime of the "Megalithic" culture, the time window during which the neolithic ''Roundels'' were in use is surprisingly narrow, lasting only for about 200–300 years (roughly 49th to 47th centuries BC).

How is this usage period determined? It seems that what people mistake as usage period is actually build period. But once the henge is built and aligned, further usage of the henge will leave no traces. To determine the day of the solstice all you need is to stand in the center or in any other predetermined cardinal point of the henge every morning and evening and note where the sun is rising and setting. Thus the henges could have been used as solar observatories thousands of years after they were built without any trace of usage being left behind. 

It is exactly the same with aligned solar stone circles or any other astronomically aligned structure. 

With Bogovo Gumno circles we now have a proof for the above theory of a long term continuous usage of aligned stone structures long after they were originally built.

We know that the stone circles on Bogovo Gumno had been maintained and used as a solar observatory until about 50 years ago. The shrubs and trees now growing on the outside of the wall of the circle are all younger than 50 years. There is a possibility that this was due to the presence of sheep flocks or cow herds in the area up until 50 years ago, which would eat the new offshoots and thus prevent their growth into shrubs and trees. But there is also another indicator that people new how to use this sun circle and did use it until very recently and which could indicate that the stone circles were deliberately kept clear by people because their function depended on maintenance of a clear and unobstructed view from the center of the circles.

The large main sun stone circle contains an anthropomorphic baba, solar cross.

Originally it was thought that the cross marked the center of the circle. But the closer examination showed that the cross stands 15 meters off the center. The stone has an engraving on it which reads "For the glory of Ognjena Marija (Fiery Mary) for the health of people, bountiful harvests and multiplying and health of cattle, this cross erects Rosa with her sons". The local villagers from the nearest village of Scrobnica told the investigators that Rosa was a very smart and respected woman, so much so that her descendants are still in the area known as Rosići, meaning the descendants of Rosa, even though they have another patrilinear surname. This is extremely rare in Serbia. Rosa was famous for her knowledge of traditional medicine and medicinal herbs. She erected the cross after her house compound caught fire which was successfully extinguished without loss of life. Local people consider the whole complex but particularly the cross dedicated to Ognjena Marija a holy place and regularly visit it and bring offerings to it.

In Slavic mythology, Ognjena Marija or the "Fiery Mary" is considered to be the sister of St Ilija, the thundering sun and (or) wife of the thunder god Perun. She is also known as Perunika, Perena, Ljeljuja, Leluja, Ljelja, Gorka, Veronika. Later, under Christianity, her importance was degraded and she was regarded as an evil goddess, described as an evil and ugly woman named Irudika (who was in turn a daughter of Poganica).
She was the goddess of lightning, weddings, motherhood, and protector of marriage and justice on earth. Perunika wears a rainbow as her belt. In some parts of Croatian people still call rainbow "the mother of god" reffering to Ognjena Marija. Onjena Marija, Perunika uses a heavy sledge hammer to punish people, and controls lightning. Gromovnik (God of Thunder) Perun, helped by his wife Perunika Ognjena Marija, ''loads'' the thunderbolts and shoots them at thieves, liars, and immoral people in general.

In Serbo Croatian flower Iris is also called Perunika, Ljeljuja, Leluja, Ljelja, Sabljarka, Bogiša (bogiša, this name originates from the region around Dubrovnik town, southern Croatia and means God's flower). 

The flower is dedicated to the goddess Perunika. According to a legend, this flower grows at the place where Perun's spark, lightning, hits the fertile soil. In the same way, a place hit by lightning was considered sacred and objects, like a stone or tree, from such a place were consecrated. This represents a divine sexual act: Perun, the thunder giant, penetrates the earth with his penis (lightning),  inseminating the earth with heavenly semen, rain. In Serbian Perunika could mean the place where the seed of perun sprouted. Perunika = Perun + nika = Perun + sprouted.

Considering that Perunika, Ognjena Marija, is directly linked with fertility of the land, it sounds logical that Perun's female companion punishes immoral and dishonest women by the ''white plague'' (sterility).

In Medjimurje (northern Croatia), one greeting used on the feast day of St. Stephen (Dec. 26) mentions God with lelulja (ljeljuja), i.e. perunika, in his hand. This is the most probable origin of the alternative Perunika's name Ljelja. But also this could indicate that the true meaning of Perunika is actually lightning, electricity, the spark of life. Perun holding Perunika is Shiva holding Trishula, Lightning.

This Russian "Christian" icon depicts Ognjena Marija or the "Fiery Mary" surrounded with fiery wheels of Perun, inside the burning flame.

The fiery wheels of Perun are actually burning sun wheels of Svetovid, the sun god. In South Slavic folk tradition the day of Perun is the 2nd of August, the Crom Dubh day in Ireland. But this day is also the day of St Ilija the Thunderer. St Ilija the Thunderer is Ilios, the thundering sun, the sun at its hottest, the sun that burns with its fiery eye. In Serbian tradition the rolling thunders which can be heard around the 2nd of August are said to be made by the fiery wheels of St Ilia's chariots thundering over the tops of the clouds, and the lightning that is seen flashing in the clouds are the sparks created by those same fiery chariot wheels.

Serbian folk tradition says that if it wasn't for Ognjena Marija, St Ilija, Perun, Thundering fiery sun would burn the whole world. The the period three days before and the three days after the 2nd of August, the day of the thundering sun, is in South Slavic tradition called Kresovi meaning Fires. These are the dog days, the days of the burning heat when the dog star Sirius is in the sky with the sun. This is also the Irish Domhnach Crom Dubh, the week of Crom Dubh.

In Serbian folk mythology, Ognjena Marija has been transformed into two female christian characters: St Marina, known also as St Margaret and St Mary Magdalene.

30th of July. St Marina, St Margaret, Ognjena Marija
2nd of August. St Ilija the thunderer
4th of August. St Marija Magdalena, Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) Marija

You can see that Serbian tradition Kresovi, the week of fire, starts with the fiery Marija and Ends with kind, benign, mild, gentle Marija. In the Irish tradition, Domhnach Crom Dubh used to start on the 31 of July, but now starts on the last Sunday in July. The 2nd of August, Perun day, Crom Dubh day, the day of Ilios the thundering sun, is actually the hottest day of the year in the Balkans. All summer the sun has been burning in the sky. This is the time of wild fires and drought. Everyone is praying for the first big thunderstorms to arrive and save the land from being burnt to cinder. And this is what Ognjena Marija delivers. In Serbia there is a saying: "Od svetog Ilije sunce sve milije" which means "From St Ilija the sun starts getting kinder, milder, gentler". The first part of the 2nd of August is considered summer and the second is considered to be Autumn. And this is what the transformation of Marija from Ognjena (Fiery) to Blaga (kind, benign, mild, gentle) represents, The end of summer and beginning of autumn.

So back to our Bogovo gumno sun circle on mountain Devica and the anthropomorphic cross erected inside of it by a local medicine woman Rosa. Our good old Rosa erected the cross to thank Ognjena Marija, the tamer of fire, for saving her and her family from fire. But why was the cross erected inside the sun circle on Bogovo gumno?

Being the solar observatory designed to determine, mark, the summer solstice, the big stone circle in Bogovo Gumno was also dedicated to the Sun, also known as Višnji bog (the high god). In Serbian tradition, Sun, the "Višnji Bog", the High God, is perceived as a living being, which is born every year in the winter. He then grows into a young man Jarilo on the 6th of May the day of the strongest vegetative, reproductive power of the sun. This day marks the beginning of the heating of the world. Then he becomes the powerful ruler Vid at the summer solstice, 21st of June the longest day of the year. He then becomes the terrible warrior Perun on the 2nd of August the hottest day of the year. This day marks the beginning of the cooling of the world. 

Summer solstice, the day of Svetovid is exactly in the middle of the summer period marked by the day of Jarilo and the day of Perun. Jarilo (heat, fire), Svetovid (light, sun) and Perun (lightning, electricity, energy) are together forming Triglav, Dabog, Hromi Daba the main god of the Serbs. They are also forming Triglav, Crom Dubh, the main god of the Irish. The Thundering Burning Sun, Ilios, Crom Dubh, Hromi Daba, Grom Div is Three in one, Trinity, Trimurti, Agni. He is three in one, as he contains the heat of Jarilo, the light of Svetovid and he adds thunder and lightning. He is the sun at its most powerful and terrifying, the sun that contains the cumulative power of the whole summer. 

Being the wife of Perun, Fiery Sun Ilios, Ognjena Marija is also the wife of the three headed Sun, Dabog, Triglav, Trimurti Agni. So placing her cross inside the Sun circle is very appropriate. What is amazing is that Rosa new the meaning, the importance and the intended use of the Bogovo Gumno sun circle. She didn't pick the place where she erected the cross within the circle randomly. The cross was erected in such a place and oriented in such a way that when you look directly over it towards the sun circle, you see the point where sun rises on the day of Ognjena Marija, the Fiery Marija, the Wife of the Thundering Fiery Sun, Hromi Daba, Crom Dubh, Grom Div. The Cross marks the day of the beginning of the Kresovi, the fire week, Domhnach Crom Dubh, Lughnasadh.

Now let us have a look at these two Marys who stand on each side of St Ilija.

If we have a look at the hagiography of St Marina also known as St Margaret, who is in Serbia known as Ognjena Marija, the burning, firy Mary, we see some very strange things indeed. According to the version of the story in Golden Legend, she was a native of Antioch, and she was the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. In some sources the name of her father is Theodosius. When she was 15, Olybrius, Governor of the Roman Diocese of the East, asked to marry her but with the price of her renunciation of Christianity. Upon her refusal she was cruelly tortured. During her torture various miraculous incidents occurred.

One of them is that while she was praying "then appeared a horrible dragon and assailed her, and would have devoured her, but she made the sign of the cross, and anon he vanished away. And in another place it is said that he swallowed her into his belly, she making the sign of the cross. And the belly brake asunder, and so she issued out all whole and sound." This links St Marina aka as St Margaret to the dragon, the fire breathing beast. The dragon is no other but the Devil himself. "The Devil, having seen how Olybrius could not force St Marina to prostrate herself before the false gods, came to her cell in a shape of black dragon, wanting to scare her. But she was fearless and she grabbed him by his horns and beat him with a hammer and defeated him completely".

St Marina aka St Margaret uses a hammer, which is with axe, the weapon of Slavic and Germanic thunder gods to defeat a dragon. This makes St Marina aka St Margaret, just a thinly disguised Ognjena Marija, Perunika, the thundering fiery goddess, the wife of a thunder god Perun. Perun defeats Veles who is the dragon.

St Marina (Margaret) is depicted with a red fiery veil to emphasize her true identity: Ognjena Marija, Fiery Mary.

Another miracle occurred when her captors "having beaten her fiercely, fastened the saint with nails to a board and tore at her body with tridents". But all along she prayed to god. And the Archangel came and healed all her wounds and told her that she will have place in heaven. This is a very interesting story because it too connects St Marina aka St Margaret to a thunder god, but this time to Shiva whose weapon is Trident, Trishula. In my post about Triglav, you could read that in the old Serbian religion, Triglav consisted of Vishnji (Svetovid, Sun), Branjanj (Svarog, fire) and Siva Živa (Perun, thunder and lightning). And St Marina aka St Margaret, for whom Serbian tradition says that she is Ognjena Marija, Perunika, the wife of Perun, was tortured using weapon of Shiva, Živa who is according to Serbian tradition part of Serbian Triglav and the equivalent of Perun. This is the picture of Shiva with his trident, trishula.

The Angel who comes to heal the wounds of St Marina aka St Margaret, and to promise her a place in heaven, is no other than Archangel Michael, the angel who brandishes a flaming sword, who stands between Heaven and Earth. He is also the dragon slayer just like Perun, and he is the one who controls the rain, fire, thunder, lightning and who punished the wrong-doers exactly like Perun does. Remember that in Medjimurje (northern Croatia), one greeting used on the feast day of St. Stephen (Dec. 26) mentions God with lelulja (ljeljuja), i.e. Perunika, Ognjena Marija in his hand. Also remember that one of the names of Perunika is "sablja" meaning curved sword. Is this a description of Perun, Lightning head of Triglav, and his flaming sword? This is the picture of Archangel Michael killing the dragon.

So St Marina aka St Margaret aka Ognjena Marija, aka Perunika the sister of Thundering Sun Ilios and the wife of Thunder god Perun was protected by Archangel Michael who looks very much like Thundering Sun Ilios, Perun. They are both dragon slayers, they both stand between heaven and earth and they both contoll the rain and thunder.

I will have to dedicate a whole separate post to Archangel Michael as I believe that finding out the true identity of Archangel Michael is a key to finding out the identity of God our Lord.

The name of St Marina aka St Margaret is also very interesting. We don't know what the actual meaning of the name is. Let me propose this etymology.

In Serbian the word "gori" means burns, "goret(i)" means to burn, "goreća" means "burning (feminine)". Margareta = Mar + goret(ja) = Marija + Goreća = Mary + Burning = Ognjena Marija, Fiery, Burning Mary of Serbian Tradition. This is astonishing. The confirmation that this is indeed true etymology of the name Margaret we find in the German version of the name: Annegret. It is said that it comes from short form of Johanna Margareta. But it could also have this etymology: Annegret = Ann + e + gret = Ona + je + goret(ja) = She + is + burning = Ognjena Marija. The version of the name Greta comes from goret(ja) which literally means "she who is burning". Is this just a coincidence?

So Ognjena Marija stands on the 30th of July, before Ilios, the thundering fiery sun, stopping him from burning the world to ashes. And she does every year. On the 2nd of August every year the summer ends and autumn begins. The dragon is defeated, the sky opens and the waters of heaven are released on the barren burned earth making it moist and fertile again. The marriage of heaven and earth takes place and at the end of Kresovi, the week of Fire, on the 4th of August, St Marina aka St Margaret aka Ognjena Marija, aka Perunika becomes St Mary Magdalen, Blaga Marija, kind, benign, mild, gentle Marija, the wife of Perun, the wife of the Thundering Sun Ilios. I love that the name of the woman who erected the votive cross in Bogovo Gumno dedicated to Ognjena Marija was Rosa which means dew but also light rain in Serbian. Light rain and dew really do look like tear drops. How appropriate. People who are trying to decode the longest inscription dedicated to Lug, the Galic equivalent of Perun might be intereseted in word "orositi" meaning to sprinkle with water, to irrigate, to water .. :)

The "Gospel of Jesus' Wife" is the name given to a papyrus fragment with writing in Coptic that includes the words, "Jesus said to them, 'my wife...'". The text on the fragment is alleged to be a fourth-century Coptic translation of what is said to be "a gospel probably written in Greek in the second half of the second century." So based on this gospel, Jesus was married. To whom?

Mary Magdalen is famous for being a disciple (sister) of Christ the Son (Sun). But also she is famous for washing Christs feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. The gospel of Luke 7:36-50 says:

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

In villages of Serbia, up until mid 20th century, there was still a wedding custom which required the bride, deva, devojka, devica to wash the grooms feat. In the morning she had to bake a bread to prove that she is able to produce food and feed her children.

Marija Magdalena washes the feat of the Son the Lord with her tears. Remember the Grom Div, the thunder giant, the giant with a sun as a head and lightning as his weapon, flaming sword or spear? Where would his feet be? On earth. Ognjena Marija, Perunika is said to calm the heat of the Sun, the fury of the Sun the Lord. Perun kills the dragon and releases the waters of heaven, rain on earth and brings moisture and fertility to earth. 

As we go from the 30th of July to the 4th of August, we see the transformation of Marija. Marija was transformed from Ognjena Marija, Burning Marija, Marija who burns the land to Blaga Marija, Kind Marija, Marija who rains her tears on earth, on the feet of Thundering Sun, Thunder Giant, Grom Div. She is the wife of the Sun the Lord. 

But during that time Marija was also transformed from Virgin St Marina aka St Margaret to Harlot St Mary Magdalene. Desire is said to be "burning" and it is burning the most in the bodies of Virgins. In Serbian slang someone who did not have sex for a long time or ever is said to be "zagoreo" meaning to be burnt. It is the spilling of bodily waters that extinguishes this fire.

During the first night, Deva, Devica, (Virgin, Girl) is transformed into Žena (Wife, Woman the giver of Life). What Deva (Virgin, Girl) gives to her Muž (Husband but also Farmer) is her Virginity. In the four Gospels, Mary Magdalene is nearly always distinguished from other women named Mary by adding "the Magdalene" (ἡ Μαγδαληνή) to her name. This has been interpreted to mean "the woman from Magdala", a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke 8:2 says that she was actually "called Magdalene". But what if Magdalene comes from Mu + Ga + Dala + Ona = Him + It (Virginity) + Gave + Her = The one who gave her virginity to him, The one who is not a virgin any more, a woman, mother, but also a whore, a harlote, as you can not become a mother without engaging in a sexual act, human or divine. We still say that a girl "gave herself to a man". Ognjena Marija, Perunika gives herself to Perun, Ilios, she marries Perun, Ilios, the thundering Sun and becomes Blaga marija. Margaret the virgin becomes Mary the woman "Magdalen". In Serbian bride is called "nevesta". The word nevesta comes from ne + ve + šta = not + knows + anything = the inocent, the virgin. On her wedding night she gets to "know" her husband, she becomes the one who knows, the one who "ve + šta", wife.  And one of the main duties of a wife is to tend to the fire hearth, the center of the household. Is this where  Vesta, the goddess of the hearth comes from? In Serbian word vešt means skillful, full of knowledge and words veštac and veštica mean warlock and witch. Vestal Virgins were specially trained to be skilled in sacred art of fire tending. Is this all also just a coincidence?

In the end I would like to look at the name of the mountain Devica.

In Slavic mythology, Ognjena Marija or the "Fiery Mary" is a goddess who assists, the thunder God Perun. She is the wife (and) or sister of the thunder god Perun. If we know that in Serbian tradition Perun is also Shiva, Živa, then Ognjena Marija, Perunika is Shakti. 

Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as 'The Great Divine Mother' in Hinduism. She most actively manifests through female embodiment and creativity/fertility, though it is also present in males in its potential, unmanifest form. Not only is Shakti responsible for creation, it is also the agent of all change. Shakti embodies the active feminine energy of Shiva and is identified as Mahadevi or Parvati. The rural people in India believe that Shakti is the protector of the village, the punisher of evil people, the curer of diseases, and the one who gives welfare to the village. So exactly like Ognjena Marija, Perunika in Serbian mythology who punishes the evil people and who gives welfare to the people. The inscription on the votive cross from Bogovo Bumno says: "For the glory of Ognjena Marija (Fiery Mary) for the health of people, bountiful harvests and multiplying and health of cattle...".

The origin of Shakti is goddess Shachi. In Hinduism (specifically, early Vedic accounts), Shachi also known as Indrani (queen of Indra), is the goddess of wrath. She is associated with lions. She has a significance in Vedic lietrature in developing the idea of Shakti which denotes power, the feminine personified might, as described in later Hindu mythology. She gave origin to the concept that female consort, whether she s parvati or kali. She is the role model for all the goddesses in later period. Its is said that unlike other goddesses, she possess an independent character of her own. Unlike most of the goddess wives who are known by their husbands name like Rudrani, Varuni (wife of Varun), Saranya (wife of Sun), Indra is probably the only god who is known to be named after his wife's name, hence he was often referred as Shachipati - meaning master of shakti/power, or ShachiVat (possessor of Shachi). Indra controls, uses, wields Indrani. In the earlier Vedic accounts, Shachi was depicted as a female shadow of Indra.She is basically his feminine essence, the source of his power, in the same way Shakti is feminine essence and the source of power of Shiva. In the same way Perunika is probably the feminine essence and the source of power of Perun. This fits perfectly with the description of the role of Peruinka as being in the hand of god as his weapon, lightning, flaming sword, flaming spear, flaming trident, vayra. And here is Indrani sitting on a lion, under the tree of life with a child. 

Goddess Shakti, the consort of the thunder god Shiva, Živa, has an incarnation called Durga. She is the terrible war goddess, the goddess of wrath as well. And she too is sitting on a lion.

Durga is the original manifested form of Mother Adi - Parashakti, the Great Goddess, Devi herself. She is the goddess of victory of good over evil, exactly like Perunika. She has many weapons and all of them are weapons found used by Thunder gods: trident, scimitar, mace, bow and arrow, spear, sword (longsword), battle-axe, thunderbolt, snake, rod, spade, vajra, hammer weapon, iron weapon, weapon made out of thorns, javelin, dagger. But the two that is wielding most often are trident (vajra) and long blade curved sword. In Serbo Croatian the word for rainbow is "duga". In some parts of Croatia people call rainbow "Bogorodica" meaning the "mother of god". Remember that Indrani was the devine mother but also the power of Indra. The name of the mother of God is Marija. So rainbow is Ognjena Marija. Serbian tradition says that Ognjena Marija, Perunika helps Perun to shoot his lightning arrows. In Vedic tradition rainbow was known as "the bow of Indra". Was the original name of Durga "Duga" meaning rainbow?

Goddess Durga, in her benevolent form is known as Parvati, the consort of Shiva, Živa. Parvati Parvati is considered to be a complete incarnation of Adi Parashakti or Goddess Durga, with all other Goddesses being her incarnations or manifestations. Some communities also believe her to be the sister of Vishnu just like of Ognjena Marija who is the sister of Ilios who is Triglav and therefore Vishnu as well.

Shakti - Durga - Parvati is said to be the source of all the powers and weapons. It is believed that without her, Shiva is Shava or Corpse, for she is the ultimate source of power for all beings, gods and Devas. Remamber that Indrani, the original power goddess was the same. Without her Indra would have no power. So Shakti - Durga - Parvati-Indrani is truly Živa, meaning the alive one in Serbian, the one that gives life and is really Jiva. Indian mythology even says that she is most powerful of all gods. When her anger reaches its peak, she can destroy the whole universe in just seconds. Even Trinity, Trimurty i.e. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, never try to make her angry at any cost. 

The Durga and Parvati are Ognjena Marija and Blaga Marija. In Sanskrit Durga and Parvati are two opposite faces of the same goddess Shakti. In Serbian they even have the same name with opposite attributes, to indicate that it is one goddess with two faces. They stand on both sides of the thundering sun Ilios, Perun. And Perun day falls on the 2nd of August, the middle of the period when the sun is in the constellation of Leo. This is why Marija, Durga - Parvati - Shakti and Indrani all stand on a lion.

Leo

The Lion

July 23 to August 22

Fire

Fixed

Look at these divine couples:

Indra - Indrani
Shiva - Shakti (Živa).
Perun - Perunika

These divine couples are all said to be inseparable. The male can not exist without a female who gives the power to the male. So much so that in the first century CE we find Ardhanarishvara a composite androgynous form of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati (also known as Devi, Shakti and Uma in this icon). Ardhanarishvara is depicted as half male and half female, split down the middle. The right half is usually the male Shiva, illustrating his traditional attributes. The earliest Ardhanarishvara images are dated to the Kushan period, starting from the first century CE. 

If we think of Earth as female and Sky as male, then lightning would not exist without both Earth and Sky. Life would not exist without both Earth and Sky, without mother and father. This is why the river of life flows from Ardhanarishvara, from the place of connection of Shiva and Shakti. Ardhanarishvara stands at the root of the tree of life because only the union of Male and Female, Sky and Earth produces life.

It is very interesting that in Serbian tradition, Triglav consists of Vishnji, Branjanj and S(h)iva Živa. Does Siva Živa mean Shiva Shakti?

And why is Ardhanarishvara standing between the bull and the lion? Because bull and lion are the beginning and the end of the main vegetative season, Summer.

Taurus

21 April – 21 May

Leo

23 July – 22 August

In Serbian tradition, Sun, the "Višnji Bog", the High God, the Creator, is perceived as a living being, which is born every year in the winter. He then grows into a young man Jarilo on the 6th of May the day of the strongest vegetative, reproductive power of the sun, the beginning of the Summer, the middle of Taurus, the bull. Then he becomes a fully grown man, the powerful ruler Vid at the summer solstice, 21st of June the longest day of the year. He then becomes the terrible old warrior Perun on the 2nd of August the hottest day of the year, The end of the Summer, the middle of Leo, the lion.

All the above religious system is related to vegetative agricultural cycle. It is extremely important to farmers in continental Europe, but it is almost irrelevant to the steppe nomads, and it is completely wrong in Indian climate which is governed by a monsoon. The hottest month for the western and southern regions of India is April; for most of North India, it is May. So where did this religious system originate? I would suggest Europe. I believe that Vedic Solar Religion was brought to India by farmers from Europe, not by Steppe nomads from central Asia. But that is another story for another time....

So lets go back to the name of mountain Devica.

In Serbian word "deva", "devica" means Girl, virgin. Deva, Devica Marija is Virgin Mary. Mountain Devica is believed to have been named after Deva Marija, Virgin Mary. But did mountain Devica get its name after Devi Ognjena Marija, Goddess Fiery Marija, Perunika, Shakti (Živa), Indrana, the Great Goddess Devi? Is mountain Devica ancient religious complex dedicated to the Great Goddess, Devi, and if so when was it established and by whom? We might never find this out. But we know that local Serbian people still use this ancient religious complex to celebrate the Great Goddess even today under the name of Ognjena Marija, Perunika. 

This posts answered few questions but opened up so many new ones. Looking for answers  was and still is a lot of fun.