Modesty

Hi. My name is Modesty...Modesty Blonde...Lajjā (Modesty) Gaurī (Blonde, White, Yellow) is a Hindu goddess associated with abundance, fertility and sexuality. 

She is invoked for abundant crops (vegetative fertility) and good progeny (human fertility)...

She is most often shown in a birthing posture, but without outward signs of pregnancy...

She has a blossoming lotus instead of her head and neck. Her arms are bent upwards, each holding a lotus stem...

So what's all this about? Who is Lajjā Gaurī? And what's with the lotus head?

Well let's see what Hindu legends tell us:

Lord Shiva and Lady Parvati were having sex after they got married. Just when they were reaching their orgasms, they were rudely interrupted by other Gods, who urgently needed to talk to Shiva about preserving world order or some similar rubbish...Parvati was so surprised by the sudden entry of the heavenly folk, that she picked up a full bloomed lotus and covered her face. And this is why she is called Lajja ("modesty") 🙂

How is this helping? Well, remember this?

The Ardhanarishvara, the union of Shiva and Parvati producing river Ganga...

Maximum monsoon, which feeds the river Ganga, falls in Jul/Aug.

At the meeting point of Summer (symbolized by Bull, mount of Shiva) and Autumn (symbolized by Lion, mount of Parvati)...

I talked about this in my article "Ardhanarishvara"

The "union of Shiva and Parvati", is just a calendar marker for the moment when Summer (Shiva, Bull) meets Autumn (Parvati, Lion)...

Why Bull and Lions? Well...

I talked about this in my article "Symbols of the seasons"... It's all to do with ancient animal calendar markers derived from the mating of birthing seasons of the depicted animals. 

Summer (May, Jun, Jul) starts in Taurus, calendar marker marking the beginning of the calving season of wild Eurasian cattle. 

And Autumn (Aug, Sep, Oct) starts in Leo, calendar marker marking the beginning of the Eurasian lions...

Anyway, when bull meets lion, or when lion catches bull...is when the monsoon peaks in India. The wettest part of the year... 

Monsoon which produces river Ganga, which is the source of the fertility of the land and the abundance (of food)...

Interestingly 🙂 river Ganga is said to come out of the top of the head of Shiva...Shiva, whose symbol is lingam, penis...So out of the top of which head exactly?  🙂 The upper one or lower one? Oh, Look! Ganga is pouring out of Shiva's head on top of a lingam...So symbolic...

Is Shiva another divine ejaculator in disguise? Like Mesopotamian Enki who ejaculates Tigris and Euphrates...Or Egyptian Min who ejaculates Nile (well ensures that nile floods)...Or Egyptian Atum who ejaculates Shu (air) and Tefunut (moisture), monsoon which feeds the Nile...

I think so...Rain is the heavenly semen with which Father Sky fertilizes Mother Earth...This heavenly semen then flows out of the earth as life giving rivers, Tigris, Euphrates, Ganga, Nile...

Anyway, look what Lajja Gauri holds on this relief: Shiva Lingam in one hand and Lion in the other...

Remember, River Ganga's flow peaks at the beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian lions. In Leo...Shiva (Lingam) ejaculates (produces) Ganga in Leo...

By the way, Lajjā Gaurī is sometimes depicted with with liquid (menstrual blood, amniotic fluid, urine???) gushing out of her vagina...

But is it actually water which is pouring out of Lajjā Gaurī's vagina? Living water (as flowing water out of a well is called in Serbia)...

Now have a look at this. A very interesting object from Harappa, dated to 2100-1750 BC and currently in New Delhi Museum, Huntington archives...

First, on the left, we see two lions facing each other. The monsoon peaks during the mating season of Eurasian lions, which starts in the middle of Leo (beginning of August)...

Then we see a sign in a shape of a person carrying water jugs. Northern India would be a desert if it wasn't for the annual monsoon which fills in the wells and rivers...

Then we see a sign in a shape of a growing tree, plant...India would not be a green paradise if it wasn't for the monsoon...

Then there are some yet undeciphered squiggles and then an upside-down Lajjā Gaurī with a lotus growing out of her vagina...

The whole thing is basically a description of how (Mother) Earth becomes fertile:

Lions start mating, monsoon peaks, lots of water, plants growing (urinating dog urinating dog urinating dog) Mother Earth happy, pregnant, giving birth to all life...(For the urinating dog joke explanation refer to the Discworld novels series 🙂)

Cool. Amazing...But why lotus flowers??? Well, Lotus is the herald of the peak of the rainy season....It's peak flowering season is July-August, the peak monsoon season in the Ganga river catchment area...

And during the rain season, lotus flowers cover the surface of the river...Her face...

There is another thing that the union of of Shiva and Parvati produces. Ganesha, elephant god...

Why elephant? Well, the peak of the elephant mating season coincides with the peak of the monsoon season...

And guess who rides on an elephant? Indra, the rain god of course... 

I talked about this in my articles "Ganesha" and "Musth"...

So it is the rain that falls during elephant mating season that makes lotus flowers open and makes soil fertile so grain can grow...And people can get fat, rich and happy...

Guess who is sitting or standing on a lotus, holding lotus flowers in her hands, surrounded by humping elephants? Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune, love, beauty, joy and prosperity...

Modestly dressed, like a real lady, not some squatting naked whore, right?

Lakshmi is depicted in Indian art as an elegantly dressed, prosperity-showering golden-coloured (!!!) woman. She typically stands or sits on a lotus pedestal, while holding a lotus in her hand, symbolizing fortune, self-knowledge, and spiritual liberation (eeee WTF?, not rain?).

Lakshmi is very often shown with elephants. Elephants symbolize work, activity, and strength, as well as water, rain (!!!) and fertility for abundant prosperity (!!!).

Like on this cool 1st c. BC coin from Gandhara...Elephants on lotus flowers...Next to a naked (!!!) lady...

The Gupta period sculptures used to associate lion with Lakshmi too (!!!) which was later attributed to Durga or a combined form of both goddesses...Interesting...

Lakshmi, holding lotus and cornucopia, flanked by two elephants and two lions. From Kashmir, 6th century CE

Oh, look at this: An Indus Valley artefact showing a woman standing on an elephant, between two lions, under a wheel 

By pure "coincidence", this same wheel is the symbol of the Slavic rain god Perun and Slavic Sun god Svetovid...

Monsoon being the hottest and wettest part of the year...

By the way, Durga, Devi (Mother earth) at her most powerful (fertile), is also associated with lions. 9th century relief depicting Durga, the ultimate weapon of the gods, sitting on a lion and holding a trident...Most probably from Uttar Pradesh. (The Met)...

This is because Leo, Jul/Aug, when Indian monsoon peaks, is the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian lions...

Apparently Durga, who rides on a lion was a super weapon created to "defeat a buffalo demon"...Buffalos  start their breeding season in Oct/Nov, at the beginning of the dry season in India...

Lions start their breeding season in Jul/Aug, the peak of wet season...

So Lion (rain) vanquishes buffalo (drought)...

I talked about Durga in my article "Mahishasuramardini"... 

By the way, aren't lions yellowish, golden in color????

So Lajjā Gaurī (who is Modest) is a Hindu goddess associated with  sexuality, fertility and abundance. And Lakshmi (who is Super Modest) is the goddess of wealth, fortune, love, beauty, joy and prosperity...

In agricultural societies wealth, abundance, prosperity, fortune and all directly linked to fertility...Human, animal and land fertility...And hence sex, love, joy, beauty...

Both Lajjā Gaurī and Lakshmi are associated with Lotus flowers (rain season)...These are all nicknames of Lakshmi:

Padmā: She of the lotus, 

Padmapriyā: Lotus-lover

Padmamālādhāra Devī: Goddess bearing a garland of lotuses

Padmamukhī: Lotus-faced (!!!)

Padmākṣī: Lotus-eyed (!!!)

Padmahasta: Lotus-hand (!!!)

Padmasundarī: She who is as beautiful as a lotus

They are both "golden"...They are both associated with elephants and lions...Could they be the same "goddess"? Well of course they are...

Anyway, you might find this interesting:

Slavic goddess Mokosh depicted as a Birth Giver. She is Spring, Summer, Autumn Mother Earth giving birth to nature (plants). She stands between the birds which symbolically depict the fertile part of the year between the arrival and departure of migratory birds...

But on a second glance, these birds look very much like peacocks...

The peacock's call is a loud trumpet-scream resembling the miaou of a gigantic cat. In Northern India it is said to form, the syllable “Menhao” meaning “Come Rain!” for the peacock is especially noisy at the approach of the rainy season...The most fertile time of the year in India...

If you are interested in animal (and plant) calendar markers, start here, then check the rest of the blog posts I still didn't add to this jump page (I got lazy after a while), and finally check my twitter threads @serbiaireland I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 11 months behind now...

Lotus and papyrus

A bowl whose base is adorned with a lotus flower and the body with a procession of cows, possibly symbols of the goddess Hathor, through a setting of lotus flowers. Egypt, 775-653 BC. Currently in the Brooklyn Museum...

I explained why Hathor was represented as a cow in my article about "Cow and calf ivory".

In short, it is because of how the water level of the Nile is linked to the reproduction cycle of the wild Eurasian Auroch cattle, the ancestors of the domesticated cattle...

This is the annual river Nile flow chart.

The water level starts to rise in May/Jun, just after the wild Eurasian cattle (aurochs) start calving (Apr/May)...

The Nile water level rises through the summer, until it reaches its peak in Jul/Aug, when the flood starts. And aurochs start mating...

Normally, Hator and her cows are depicted emerging from the papyrus flowers thickets...

This is because Hathor has an alter ego, Mehet-Weret, another "Cow goddess", whose name means "Great Flood"...The rising of the water level of the river Nile which culminates in the Great Flood, starts in May/Jun...Which is just after the papyrus plant flower season peaks... 

Hence, Hathor/Great Flood, emerging from the papyrus thickets...

So why are cows on the Brooklyn Museum bowl depicted walking through lotus flowers? Well, first these are not lotus flowers. They are water lilies, wrongly called Blue Lotus, even though they don't belong to the lotus family...

These beautiful blue flowers, native to the Nile marshlands, were believed to be "magic flowers", and were worshiped by the Egyptians...

Blue water lily flowering season is from July until September. When the Nile water level reaches its peak. During the annual Nile flood...When Hathor, who was also Mehet-Weret (The great flood) finally arrives...

Hence papyrus (the beginning of the Nile flood) and lotus (the peak of the Nile flood), the sacred flowers of Egypt...The most depicted plants in Egyptian art. 

This is why the Egyptian god Hapi, who was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile in ancient Egyptian religion, was associated with papyrus and lotus flowers, and is often depicted as twins, tying papyrus and lotus flowers together

This is interpreted as "unity between Lower Egypt, whose symbol was papyrus flower, and Upper Egypt, whose symbol was lotus flower"...But really this is Nile, which rises between flowering of papyrus and flowering of lotus, which is what connects and unites Egypt...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Mehr

Late Sassanian depiction of a deity on a column capital now held in Taqe Bostan , which @persiaantiqua identified as Mehr (Mithra) based on the fact that he is surrounded by blooming lotuses...

Mithra was directly associated with lotus, to the point where on the most famous relief of Mithra, the one from Taqe Bostan, he is actually depicted standing on a lotus flower, radiating light, while witnessing Ahura Mazda giving ring of power to king Ardashir II...

I talked about this ring giving ceremony and it's meaning in my post "The ear ring of god" if anyone is interested...

Anyway, why Lotus? Mitra originates in India. Where he was, in the earliest times, directly associated with Varuna, the old Monsoon good whose Vahana was a crocodile, an animal calendar marker for the monsoon season in India....

Varuna, the old Monsoon god, rides on a crocodile/Makara...In India, crocodiles hatch during the monsoon season...I talked about this in my posts "Makara" "Yakshi" "Proto Durga" and "Maruts".

Mithra was so closely linked to Varuna, that the two of them were invoked together as Mitra/Varuna...Which would indicate that Indian Mitra was also in some way linked to the monsoon season in India. How?

I recently read this paper "Mit(h)ra(s) and the Myths of the Sun" by David H. Sick, in which he talks about the solar aspect of Mithra and proposes that Indian Mitra, the observer and enforcer of contracts between men and gods, was (linked to) the sun from the earliest times...

This is because sun sees and knows everything...Slavs called sun god Svetovid, meaning "The one who sees (everything in) the world", but also "The one who makes things visible in the world"...I talked about this in my post "Svetovid"...

Most people in the world thought the same about the sun.

Skull with amber discs on clay in eye-sockets. 

Dated to the 4th mill BC. Latvia. One of many amber "sun" disc (obverse (sun cross), reverse (sun rays) and cross-section) made by the same culture...

And Sumerian symbol for sun...

Sun + Eye = Sight

I talked about this in my post "Sun eyes"...

The Sun = The God of Justice...The one who sees everything...Like Utu/Shamash, Mesopotamian Sun God...

Akkadian seal, 2350-2100BC. From "Gods, demons and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia: an illustrated dictionary" by Jeremy Black and Anthony Green...Depicting the sun god Utu/Shamash...The god of justice...Being bribed...I talk about this in my post "Bribing Shamash"...

The Sun God Shamash whose symbol was a cross...

I talked about this in my post "The cross of Shamash"...

The symbol on this Solar Disc, the symbol of Shamash, is the Solar Cross, which combines a sun, a cross (solstices and equinoxes), and wavy lines representing sun (heat) rays...

The Sun God Shamash, who is the "Central light of the Menorah"...

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

The Sun God Shamash, God of Justice, who is related to this "other" God of Justice" who also sees everything...

Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol, 3rd c. AD, Vatican. Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god). Interesting...

I talked about this in my "Alexamenos graffito"...

Anyway, I talked extensively about Mithras/Mithra/Mitra, including about his solar aspect, in my post "Mithras"...

And in it I postulated that this god was, from it's earliest incarnation in India, directly linked to Jul/Aug...When Mithras kills bull...In Leo...

Lion (autumn, starts in Leo) killing Bull (summer, starts in Taurus) depicted on the wall of the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir the oldest mosque in Anatolia.

I talk about the meaning of this complex animal calendar marker in my posts "Mystery seal", "Angra Mainyu" "Bull leaping in Syria", "Lion killing bull under date palm", "Butt chewing" and many others....

Or to depict it in Indian way, when the lion of Parvati meets the bull of Shiva

Ardhanarishvara, the union of Shiva and Parvati, is a complex calendar marker for the peak of the monsoon season, Jul/Aug, where bull=summer=May/Jun/Jul  meets  lion=autumn=Aug/Sep/Oct 

Which produces (the tree of) life and the river Ganges. 

I talked about this in my post "Ardhanarishvara"...

More specifically Mithras/Mithra/Mitra was linked to the Sun in Jul/Aug...Interestingly, in India monsoon starts properly around summer solstice and peaks in Jul/Aug...So it is the Monsoon Sun, the ultimate Judge, that determines if people deserve Monsoon rain or not...

It is after all the sun that heats the ocean, evaporates the water and creates the summer wet monsoon...

I talked about this in my post "Vayu, about Vayu, the Hindu god of wind whose name literally means air/wind. But not just any wind. Summer monsoon wind...

And it is the sun that heats the earth, evaporates the water and creates the winter, dry monsoon. I talked about this dual effect (summer vs winter monsoon) of the sun on Indian subcontinent in my post "Surya's wives"...

This very happy looking dude, with two gorgeous babes sitting on his laps, is no other than the Vedic Sun God Surya. He is positively "beaming" with pride...And I guess pretty glad to have few extra hands...But what is really the narrative here?  

But Mitra is not Surya. The same way Apollo is not Helios...But they are still both linked to the sun in Jul/Aug, Leo...

If you are interested in how and why Apollo is linked to the sun in Jul/Aug, check these posts:

1. "Palil". About "Palil" a nickname of Nergal, the terrible, burning, destructive sun of Jul/Aug, Leo...And about the origin of the name Apollo and its meaning...

2. "Lord of the flies". About Nergal and Apollo as "The lords of the flies"...And about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the peak of the fly and fly born diseases season in Northern Hemisphere...

3. "Lions of Delos". About the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions. 

4. "Apollo and dolphins". About Jul/Aug, Leo being the "best time to sail in Eastern Mediterranean", and the link between dolphins and Lions...and Apollo...

5. "Marble throne of Apollo". About snakes (symbols of sun's heat), dragons (symbols of burning sun's heat) and terrible sun gods, Nergal and Apollo who are dragons themselves...

6. "Apollo and Python". About why Python followed Apollo after his birth? Cause snakes are solar animals...According to the Delphian tradition, Apollo was born on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (Jan/Feb)

7. "White raven". About the black and white raven legend which is found in both Nergal and Apollo mythology, Egyptian vultures and the twins that guard the gates of hell. And some other weird stuff...

8. "Threshing floor of Apollo". About the threshing floors as solar observatories/temples, about the threshing floor of Apollo from Delphi, about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the holy month of Apollo, and about solar bonfires...

9. "Apollo the great archer". About why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer...About arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...

10. "Apollo Sminthius". About Apollo his arrows that cause plague and peak infectious diseases season, Jul/Aug

And if you are interested in how Mitra was linked to the sun in Jul/Aug, in Leo, read my post "Mithras"...

Ok...But what about lotus? Well, lotus peak flowering season in India is Jul-Aug (Leo), the peak monsoon season and the peak flood season...

I talked about it in my post "Modesty", in which I explain why is Lajjā Gaurī, a Hindu goddess associated with abundance, fertility and sexuality depicted with Lotus head... 

Now, we don't have any depictions of Mitra at all, so I have no proof that Indian Mitra was associated with lotus. But the god that replaced Mitra/Varuna, Indra, held lotus...Indra with lotus, late 7th–early 8th c. AD, Kālikā Mātā Temple. The pic is from this paper...

Indra holds lotus while riding on an elephant...

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides not just on any elephant, but on a white (cloud) elephant...

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

Oh, and btw, Indra, replacement for Indian Mitra also wielded Vajra (Sanskrit for club/mace)...Which is cognate with Vazra (Avestan for club/mace), main weapon of Iranian Mithra...

And this is important because Leo, Jul/Aug is also the peak Rudra season...When stone clubs/maces fall from the sky together with rain...I talked about it in my post "Rudra"...

I think that the fact that lotus, as plant calendar marker, makes a lot of sense being linked to Mitra in India, but very little sense being linked to Mitra in Iran, indicates that this is another proof that Iranian Mithra is actually imported Indian Mitra...

In Iran, due to the climate being the opposite to Indian climate, imported Indian deities lost a lot of their original symbolic meaning. A lot of symbols were kept, like lotus, but the meaning was lost...

I talked about this in my post "Daevas vs Devas". 

Zoroaster said that "daevas" were "wrong" or "false" gods that should be rejected...Were Iranian "daevas" actually Indian "devas"? And if so, what could have turned devas (good guys) into daevas (bad guys)??? Well, the opposite climate of course...

In India, Jul/Aug is the wettest time of the year, the time of flood, while in Iran, Jul/Aug is the driest time of the year, the time of drought. Yet, Iranians still celebrate lotus festival, linked to Anahita, goddess of water, in Jul.

I will talk about Anahita and lotus soon...

But this link between lotus and Iranian water goddess and Jul/Aug, just confirms that my interpretation of the link between lotus and Iranian Mithra was correct...I think...🙂

What do you think?

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