Yule and Saturnalia

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Yule and Saturnalia (with graaaaaagh, Survive the Jive and Jarnefr Waggener)

Millennial Woes

Three modern Pagans educate me on the festivals that lit up Europe every December before Christianity. This recording was a difficult one to arrange and produce, so I hope it is not completely over-shadowed by the hangouts.

graaaaaagh:
http://www.graaaaaagh.com

Survive the Jive:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThomasRowsell/
http://fromrunestoruins.vhx.tv/

Jarnefr:
http://www.jack-donovan.com/axis/2014/06/a-time-for-wolves/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtfBLJv_024

[This video is not intended to condone violence or hate.]

[This project is my livelihood. Please see http://www.millennialwoes.com/donate. Thank you.]

ALTERNATIVE CHANNELS:
http://www.vid.me/millennialwoes
https://www.bitchute.com/channel/millennialwoes/
https://www.minds.com/millennialwoes

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'Carmina Burana' - Largely based on eclectic European pre-Christian spiritual folk traditions... and possibly of South Tyrolian origin: Part 1

Carl Orff: Carmina Burana (fantastic performance)

classicalplus

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I. Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

1. O Fortuna 00:00

2. Fortune plango vulnera 02:37

II. Primo vere

3. Veris leta facies 05:27

4. Omnia Sol temperat 09:19

5. Ecce gratum 11:32

III. Uf dem anger

6. Tanz 14:21

7. Floret Silva 16:16

8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir 19:45

9. Reie 23:01

10. Were diu werlt alle min 27:39

IV. In Taberna

11. Estuans interius 28:37

12. Olim lacus colueram 31:04

13. Ego sum abbas 34:53

14. In taberna quando sumus 36:25

V. Cour d'amours

15. Amor volat undique 39:36

16. Diex, nox et Omnia 42:48

17. Stetit puella 45:12

18. Circa mea pectora 46:55

19. Si puer cum puellula 48:53

20. Veni, veni, venias 49:50

21. In trutina 50:50

22. Tempus est iocundum 53:05

23. Dulcissime 55:32

VI. Blanziflor et Helena

24. Ave formosissima 56:17

VII. Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

25. O Fortuna 58:07

 


[Video contents compiled by Mauricio Rosas]


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'Carmina Burana' (Orff)

'Carmina Burana' is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936, based on 24 poems from the medieval collection 'Carmina Burana'. Its full Latin title is 'Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis' ('Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images'). It is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first and last movements of the piece are called 'Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi' ('Fortune, Empress of the World') and start with the very well known 'O Fortuna.'


'Carmina Burana' (manuscript)

'Carmina Burana', Latin for 'Songs from Benediktbeuern' [Buria in Latin]) is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical. They were written principally in Medieval Latin, a few in Middle High German, and some with traces of Old French. Some are macaronic, a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular.

They were written by students and clergy when the Latin idiom was the lingua franca throughout Italy and western Europe for travelling scholars, universities, and theologians. Most of the poems and songs appear to be the work of Goliards, clergy (mostly students) who satirized the Catholic Church. The collection preserves the works of a number of poets, including Peter of Blois, Walter of Châtillon, and an anonymous poet referred to as the Archpoet.

The collection was found in 1803 in the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern, Bavaria, and is now housed in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. It is considered to be the most important collection of Goliard and vagabond songs, along with the Carmina Cantabrigiensia.

The manuscripts reflect an international European movement, with songs originating from Occitania, France, England, Scotland, Aragon, Castile, and the Holy Roman Empire.

Twenty-four poems in Carmina Burana were set to music by Carl Orff in 1936. His composition quickly became popular and a staple piece of the classical music repertoire. The opening and closing movement 'O Fortuna' has been used in numerous films.



Carl Orff

Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer, best known for his cantata 'Carmina Burana' (1937). In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential approach toward music education for children.


'O Fortuna' (poem and cantata)

 'O Fortuna' is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the 13th century, part of the collection known as the 'Carmina Burana'. It is a complaint about Fortuna, the inexorable fate that rules both gods and mortals in Roman and Greek mythology.

In 1935–36, 'O Fortuna' was set to music by German composer Carl Orff as a part of 'Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi', the opening and closing movement of his cantata 'Carmina Burana'. It was first staged by the Frankfurt Opera on 8 June 1937. It opens at a slow pace with thumping drums and choir that drops quickly into a whisper, building slowly in a steady crescendo of drums and short string and horn notes peaking on one last long powerful note and ending abruptly. The tone is modal, until the last 9 bars. A performance takes a little over two and a half minutes.

Orff's setting of the poem has influenced and been used in many other works and has been performed by countless classical music ensembles and popular artists. It can be heard in numerous films and television commercials, and has become a staple in popular culture, setting the mood for dramatic or cataclysmic situations. 'O Fortuna' topped a 2009 list of the most-played classical music of the previous 75 years in the United Kingdom.


Carl Orff's 'O Fortuna' in popular culture

In 1935–36, the 13th-century poem 'O Fortuna' was set to music by the German composer Carl Orff for his twenty-five-movement cantata 'Carmina Burana'. The composition appears in numerous films and television commercials and has become a staple in popular culture, setting the mood for dramatic or cataclysmic situations. For instance, it is used to portray the torment of Jim Morrison's drug addiction in the film 'The Doors'. In 1983, Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek released his third solo album, 'Carmina Burana', which is an interpretation of the piece in a contemporary framework.

'O Fortuna' has been called "the most overused piece of music in film history", and Harper's Magazine columnist Scott Horton has commented that "Orff’s setting may have been spoiled by its popularization" and its use "in movies and commercials often as a jingle, detached in any meaningful way from its powerful message." Its contemporary usage is often joking or satirical in nature, owing to its oversaturation in popular culture.

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Polytheistic Religions in Pre-Roman Italy: Part III

South of Umbrians and Picenes, the Sabines, speaking Oscan and culturally close to Samnites, settled on Central Apennines. They were one of the most ancient populations in Italy and soon merged with Romans, to whom they handed down the pride they had in common with Samnites and the adherence to frugal customs and rural values we can find in archaic Roman writers, like Catone, who reports the presupposition that the Sabines’ name came from Sabo, son of Sancus, their main god, phonetic variant of Umbrian Saku, but this presupposition has no serious bases. Apart from Sancus-Saku, Umbrian religion and Sabine had much more in common: Sabines also worshipped the male parallel of Roman goddess Pomona, calling him Poimuni. Their goddesses Ardoina and Curi were identified respectively with Diana and Juno.

Vestini were very similar to Sabines. They settled in the Aterno valley and on Adriatic coast of current Abruzzo. They are known for the statue of the so-called Capestrano warrior; their name may come from the goddess Vesta, who became goddess of fireplace, home and preservation of life. Along the same river the Marrucini settled; they were an Osco-Umbrian population, too, and they might have been a branch of Marsi which moved north; both names may come from god Mars’.

We know very little about other Osco-Umbrian groups’ religion such as Aequi’s or Hernici’s, apart from what we can deduce from their belonging to this branch of Italic populations. We can deduce from Marsi’s name that they could practise a strong cult to the god Mars or that they might be born from a ver sacrum ceremony, as ancient sources say. Marsi settled at first in Sabine region, then moved to the region called Marsica from their name, under Umbrian pressure. Romans told that Marsi were snake-charmers or immune to their bite, so the snake should have had an important religious or totemic role among them, a role we can imagine linked to healing if we observe a christian rite which takes place in the same region nowadays, consisting in covering saint Dominic’s statue with snakes that are to be touched and taken by believers who want to heal or to preserve health. Marsi’s goddess Angizia held knowledge of medicinal herbs, of which they were experienced, and was a snake-charmer too.

The Paelignans settled in Samnio region, on Abruzzo’s Apennines, and made the Marsic league with Marsi, Marrucini, and Vestini; once they were believed to be of Illyric origins, but their language is Oscan. We don’t know much about their culture, because they romanized very quickly after the defeat they suffered during social war. The same happened with Frentani, inhabitants of basins of Fortore, Tiferno and Sangro rivers, on Adriatic coast of current Abruzzo and Molise. Their name may come from the word meaning “deer”, the sacred animal who led them during the ver sacrum from which they took origin.

The Volscians founded some cities which survived during Roman period: Antium, with a patron goddess who was interpreted as Fortune but had a larger “sphere of competence”: she was a goddess linked to fertility, birth, healing especially of reproductive organs, but also to navigation and agriculture; Anxur, where there were a temple dedicated to Iuppiter anxurus or Jupiter as a child, built in IV century a.e.v., over which Sulla made another temple to be built. Cassino is a Volscian city too, and there are traces of a cult to a deity of waters, later identified with Apollo.

Certainly Samnites are the most known among Osco-Umbrians, because of their pride and opposition to Roman conquest: these qualities are disclosed in books, where the role they had in Roman culture’s development is often forgotten. In facts, Atellans, farces of scurrilous humor, have a Samnite origin and were taken by Roman first attempt of literary production. For long Samnites were believed not to be a urban population: actually, while Samnites living on the mountains stayed reserved and conservative, those living in plains opened to influences coming from other populations, Grecians included, and rebuilt some cities: Pompeii, Etruscan city, was rebuilt by Samnites as the temple consecrated to fertility goddess of sulphurous waters, Mefitis, worshiped especially by Samnites, demonstrates; near the city of Capena, in southern Latium, there was a sacred area called in Latin lucus Feroniae, the wood sacred to the goddess Feronia, linked to springs and woods, whose cult was spread all over Central Italy: under Roman rule, this sacred area was widened.

As we have information about Umbrian religion from Gubbio’s tables, so we have information about Samnite religion from Agnone’s tables, regulating the practice of cult inside the sacred enclosure of Agnone, consecrated mainly to Ceres (Kerres, in their language) and subordinately to sixteen deities listed in these tables, often called “Kerriiais”, meaning “Cereal” and thereby “who makes grow”, referring to their function of inducing growth and coming from the name of the goddess Ceres, goddess of vegetation and harvest.

These deities are: Vezkei, in Latin Veiovis; Evklui Paterei, Father Euclo, called Hades or Hermes by Grecians, so he may have been a psychopomp god; Futrei Kerriai, Ceres’ daughter; Anter Statai, or Stata Mater for Latins; Ammai Kerriiai, Maia, Italic goddess of Spring, later identified with her Greek namesake, Hermes’ mother; Diumpais Kerriiais, Nymphs of springs; Liganakdikei Entrai, deity of vegetation and fruits; Anafriss Kerriiuis, Nymphs of rain; Maatuis Kerriiuis, dew’s goddess; Diuvei Verehasiui, or in Latin Jupiter Virgator, whipper, maybe someway bound to Lupercalia rites, during which some priests hit with leather straps the hands of women stretching out them to ensure fertility; Diuvei Regaturei, Jupiter Pluvius, who makes it raining; Hereklui Kerriiui, Hercules; Patanai Piistiai, goddess of wine making; Deivai Genetai, in Latin Mana Geneta; Pernai Kerriiai, Latins’ Pales, goddess of sheep farming; Fluusai, Flora, goddess of earth and patron of sprouds.

Samnites living near Agnone paid a tax for sacred enclosure’s maintenance and tables says that the enclosure belongs to those who paid this decima and have the right to attend it. There were fifteen altars inside this sacred garden; rites honoring Flora were performed outside it. Agnone’s sacred garden is an example of what Samnites’ first worshiping places looked like: they were open spaces, woods and valleys; only later Samnites began building sanctuaries, the most known of which is the sanctuary near Pietrabbondante, federal sanctuary of Samnite League. It had a big temple with three cellae and three altars dedicated to three deities, one of which was the goddess Victory, and a theatre. The architecture of this sanctuary shows consequences of the influence exerted by Grecians since VI century a.e.v. Mamerte, parallel to Latins’ Mars, was a very important god; his comrade-in-arms was the god Heres; like Sabines, Samnites worshipped Famel, goddess of earth. Lucina, goddess of birth, was a so important goddess that first Romans adopted her as an independent goddess and later her name became one of Juno’s appellations. Samnites had a sacred animal, like other Osco-Umbrian populations; theirs was the bull, while the cock was Samnite league’s sign.

Hirpini had the wolf as sacred animal and their name comes from the Samnite word for wolf, hirpus. They were an Oscan-speaking population, settled in southern Sannio, where Romans founded the colony of Beneventum. They, or their priests, were also called Hirpi Sorani (wolves of mount Soratte, from the place where this cult was celebrated); the historiographer Servius said that Hirpini practised the cult to Dis Pater, a Latin deity of underworld, with whom the original deity must have been identified, so some scholars believe that the adjective “Sorani” may come from Suri, an Etruscan underworld god. Hirpini also practised fire-walking, walking on coals with bare feet.

Lucanians’ sacred animal was the wolf, too, if we consider their name as given to them by Grecians, coming from the word meaning wolf, lukos; according to some philologists, their name is rather derived from the Latin word for “sacred wood”, lucus.

To their south, the Bruttii settled in current Calabria; ancient historiographers said they were shepherds or servants to Lucanians, but soon rebelled against them. They were a rough and nomadic population who conquered many cities of Magna Graecia before being defeated by Romans during the Punic Wars, when they were Hannibal’s allies. Archaeological findings demonstrate that they never founded real cities and their settlements consisted in an oppidum (fortification) and its connected villae. We don’t have traces of their culture.

The third Indo-European wave came from Illyria, preceding those of Grecians, Celts and Germans: various populations crossed the Adriatic and settled in current Apulia, between Abruzzo and Marches where overlapped to Osco-Umbrians population (Picenes) or in current Veneto. In Apulia, Illyrians were Daunii, Peucetii and Messapians; Liburni  settled in Picene region: we don’t know much about their religion because they merged with local Osco-Umbrians so that some historians believe Illyrian influences to be the result of relations at a distance and that Liburni never really settled in Italy; so Veneti were Illyrians too, and archaeologists prefer calling them Palaeoveneti, to avoid confusion with other populations reported under the same name, for example a Celtic group settled in Brittany, skillful navigators defeated by Cesar.

This confusion derives from uncertain origins of the name Veneti: it may come from the root ven- meaning “loved, friend”, and thereby Veneti means “members of groups united by blood ties”, or may come from a similar root meaning “to win” and so Veneti means “winners”; so Veneti is a generic name. The Veneti we are talking about may be, according to some sources, the Enetoi (Greek word for “praiseworthy”) mentioned in Iliad as a population coming from Paflagonia and by Herodotus as an Adriatic population, known to Grecians and then to Romans as skilful horse breeder. The so ancient use of this name doesn’t implies the existence of an original group later divided. The Palaeoveneti came from Illyria in XIII century a.e.v.; their language, attested by inscriptions, is an Indo-European language with similarities with Italic, Greek and Germanic branch, while their alphabet derives from the Etruscan alphabet of the city of Chiusi by adding the Greek letter O (in facts, this sound doesn’t exist in Etruscan language) and they have a syllabic script.

The Palaeovenetic culture is also called “atestina”, meaning “of the city of Este”, being this city their principal centre, near which there were four temples. The main one was dedicated to the goddess Reitia, connected to healing, as the ex-votos found around it show, but also to writing, as many alphabetic tablets and styli for writing have been found near the temple. Maybe the sanctuary contained also schools. The other temples were dedicated to the Dioscuri (Greek interpretatio of twin deities, common feature among Indo-European religions), to a warlike goddess whose name is not known, and the fourth may have been an auguraculum (a place where divination was practised). Most of Venetic temples are near waters; in Cadore region (Alps of current region Veneto) there was a temple consecrated to a triform goddess or to the god Trumusiate; near Abano’s thermal spring the cult of Hercules was practiced and there was a temple to the god Apono.

Iapyges was the collective noun for all the Illyrian population settled in current Apulia, who were believed to come from Crete according to some ancient sources: Sallentini, Calabrians, Messapians, Peucetii, Daunii. We don’t know much about Sallentini, Calabrians and Peucetii; we know something more about Daunii and Messapians.

Daunii settled in northern Apulia; they didn’t pass down much of their religion, but there remains some anthropomorphous stelae, bearing arms and hands drawn on them. Male stelae have an armor drawn on them, female ones a dress; some have a pin at the top, on which a head should be put. The of the entity drawn on the stele, which may be related to commemoration of dead people, was shown by other drawings: jewels, weapons, spheroid graphemes, colored scenes with people and animals. Scenes are different according to the stele’s sex: male stelae have fighting and hunting scenes, while female ones have a great variety of themes. On the latter representations of opium poppies were notices, so it is thought the Daunii used this flower not only for healing, but also for ecstatic and religious purposes.

Messapians settled in southern Apulia; they went to Italy during the Iron Age and stayed in touch with other Illyrian populations, both with those on the opposite coast of Adriatic and with those who came to Italy too, especially with Veneti. Some ancient historiographer, for example Herodotus, said Messapians were descendant of Cretans, who merged with local population. Messapian language is attested by many public, funerary, votive and numismatic inscriptions in Greek alphabet from Taranto and it is an Illyrian language. Their religion went under Grecians’ influence so that some Messapian deities have names which are very similar to those of Greek deities. In Torre dell’Orso’s and Roca’s inscriptions there are some names of typically Messapian deities: Tator or Taotor, one of the most important gods, or Batio, who was worshipped in brambles (and so his name, from the Messapian word for bramble) and represented sometimes as a god and sometimes as a goddess breast-feeding her child. Later, Batio was identified with Jupiter and worshiped as Jupiter Batio, but the cult of the goddess of growth survived in post-messapian period. Ana was another goddess, later identified with Aphrodite, as in a dedication on a capital to Aphrodite Ana.

 This is the general picture of Italian situation. Of course, it’s only an overview, just to give an idea of complexity and tissue of populations in the territory of what we call Italy nowadays. Even though I introduced them as distinct populations, actually they overlapped everywhere until they definitively merged under Roman rule.

The Federazione Pagana doesn’t have a predominant ethnic-religious orientation (except in “numeric” sense of word, I mean for what concerns the majority of members) and so its purpose is to support development of paganism in Italy and thereby of these paganisms and others and to let every single person search for his/her historic and emotional roots.

Manuela Simeoni


[2] It’s what happens with those who start studying “stregheria”, but they believe they can’t practice it or they won’t find a master because they don’t have Italian ancestors.

[3] Ante Era Vulgare: before current era, it means b.c.

[4] From now on, I will use mainly Latin names of population where I couldn’t find the English word for them. Latin names are in italic.

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Polytheistic Religions in Pre-Roman Italy: Part I

POLYTHEISTIC RELIGIONS IN PRE-ROMAN ITALY
 
[Published by the Pederazione Pagana in Italy, based in Venice]

Celsus, Alethès Logos, V, 25

“Every population cultivates its own traditions, anyway they have been established. And this seems to happen not only because every population believed that was right  to follow its own customs and necessary to preserve the principles in force, but also because, as it’s very similar, all parts of earth, assigned some to a tutelary deity and some to another from the beginning and divided into fixed domains, are still administered in this way. Besides, what is done by every population is right in so far as it is done in the way those tutelary deities like it. It will be impious to subvert the original institution of the various places”

So Celsus says in his work reconstructed from its criticism written by Origen; the basic concept is that every population has the right-duty to preserve its costumes, beliefs and deities of the land it belongs. Although Celsus is a late and not very reliable source, since his work comes to us indirectly, the idea he expresses here should be widely spread in Greco-Roman world. Just think that Greeks described other religions in geographical works or geographical parts of historical works (for example, the Histories by Herodotus, which Celsus often refers to) while Romans used, during wars, to call the enemies’ deities to Rome, where they promised they would built a temple for them.

After the long interruption due to Christianism, today in Europe we see the rebirth of the so-called “ethnic” religions, or, to use a word we are taking back to its ancient meaning, paganism. In Europe we don’t see that restless seeking for one’s origins as we see in America, where there are some Wiccans who feel sorry for they don’t have the “right” roots of the tradition they chose[2]. But it’s true that the pagan path to walk is often chosen on the strength of a sense of belonging, which comes from individual sensibility and not necessarily has an effective connection to a person’s  geographical background.

This is more true in Italy, where the ethnic groups, both native and immigrant ones, before and after Christianity, merged in various ways and everyone of them leaved its mark on the country; so, before and after the Romans’ conquest, ancient populations’ religion lived together on the same territory. So an Italian person can have Celtic, Germanic, Italic, Pre-Latin, Latin, Roman, Grecian roots without fully identify with only one of them: this is the sense of belonging who lead someone, for example many of those who find their Roman roots, to feel him/herself as a descendant of one ethnic groups, some others to feel him/herself part, to practise or to study more than one ancient religions, which can all be called traditional. Many of those traditions are probably still buried under the sands of time, some of them are “recovered” in a wiccan way: that’s the case of a Wiccan current in Veneto, putting on the center of their practices the ancient Venetic goddess Reitia.

I don’t want to enter into the merits of the choice; what I want to present here is some kind of geographic map of ancient polytheistic religions who came across Italy during the centuries before Christianity, showing superpositions among them and how they stratified on the territory. To be brief, I won’t talk over the most developed religions, those which are the most known and exerted a strong influence on Italic paganism: I mean Grecian religion, coming from the colonies of  Magna Graecia since VIII century a.e.v.[3], Etruscan religion, Celtic religion, Phoenician religion and Roman religion, which developed from the union of Italic, Etruscan and later Grecian elements. 

But in Italy the Germanic element didn’t lack, under the guise of the Cimbrian, who settled on the Alps and in northern Italy. The complexity of those religion and the abundance of information we have, if we compare it to the scarcity of sources we have about other ancient Italic religions, make it very difficult to discuss them here, where I simply want to give an overview of religious situation in Italy from the beginning to Rome. All those religion deserve a better elaboration (to which I will apply myself) also about the links among them I just sketched here. The Italian peninsula was occupied since the Palaeolithic era; the most ancient archaeological  finds go back to about 850,000 years ago. 

Since the Palaeolithic we can distinguish three different cultures, with different kind of tombs, all with rich outfits. These three groups fragmented still further during the Mesolithic, when we can date the so-called “Venuses”, little sculptures with marked feminine features. During the Neolithic, some new populations, coming from the East by sea or from the Danubian basin, came to Italy and brought some important innovations, like agriculture and ceramic. These populations also had a great surgical knowledge and could do the trapanning of the skull, making the patient to survive. Later the use of metals spread in the peninsula.

During the Eneolithic, cultural groups established and spread: in this period, in the region now called Emilia, developed the civilization of  “terramaras”, characterized by palafitte and manufacts spread in the whole Central-southern Italy. In the same period started in Europe the spreading of Indo-European languages coming from East in consecutive waves.

So the eldest local population are born in proto-historic Europe; later other immigrant population will arrive and add to them. In this article, because of its features of synthesis, I won’t dwell long on archaeological and social features of every civilization, but I’ll try to focus my attention, as much as possible and even when I’ll be forced to simply make a list of deities’ names, on religious aspects of those civilizations. Although, it’s necessary to keep in mind that ancient “pagan” cultures didn’t separate sacred and profane as monotheistic religions do, but everything had a sacred part and a profane (as we will define it nowadays) one.

Ancient sources pass down some names [4] of ancient populations living in the peninsula before Latins and Osco-Umbrian, but for these names we don’t have a strict definition nor enough finds to identify them accurately: the Ausonians, ancient inhabitants of Samnius, whose name we find in Virgil’s work, belong to this group. Maybe the word indicates all the ancient non-Grecian inhabitants of the area, but if they really were a civilization, they extinguished during V century a.e.v. The same can be said about the Oenotrii, ancient inhabitants of Southern Italy before Sabellian populations’ arrival. Some traces of their language remain in dialects, some tombs were found and Cato passes down three names of tribus (Coni, Morgetes, Vitales).

In ancient Italy there were also other populations whose origin we don’t know for certain, but which are probably non-Indo-European: Sardinians, whose civilization is called “nuraghic”; Sicanians, inhabitants of that island that Homer calls “Sikania” from their name, now Sicily, and their neighbours the Elimi; in current Veneto Rhaetians and Euganeans; the Villanovan civilization, ancestors of Etruscans; and above all the Ligurians.

The Sardinian nuraghic civilization’s religion was a naturalistic one, perceiving deities in natural elements. Their sanctuaries were built between 1300 and 900 a.e.v. and were used, as in other ancient cultures, also as a market place and for politic meetings; at their center there was a well-temple, consisting in a doorway at ground level, a stair going down under the ground, a sunken room with a false dome vault and the sacred spring just down the stairs. On the ground, the sacred area was delimited by a stone fence. There are still about forty of those well-temples dedicated to water deities (water is very precious in a so dry region as Sardinia is); a christian rural church was often placed side-by-side to them. 

Sardinians prosecuted their ancestors’ cults, worshiping a Mother Goddess and a Bull God, both deities of fertility, being the two forces who combine to generate life, whose cult was someway linked to the cult of the dead. The tombs they built were collective and enormous, with a semicircular façade in a bull’s horns shape and a stele with a little door to go inside the tomb. All around this tombs, called “Giants’ tombs” because of their impressive dimensions, there were some stone sedilia on which the dead ones’ relatives can sleep, maybe to communicate with their dearest in dreams, practicing the incubation. In front of the tombs there were some “betili”, a Sardinian word meaning little menhirs, phallic symbols of fertility carved with two eyes or two breasts: the betili having eyes were guardian deities of the dead, the betili having breasts represent the unity of the male deity with the feminine one to bring back the life. 

Sardinians had other kind of temples, the temple in a cave with a stalagmite for altar and a sacrificial fireplace, and the temple with rectangular plan. We have some remaining examples of both, but we don’t know who was the deity they were consecrated to; temples in caves are supposed to be consecrated to chthonian deities. Later, Sardinian were affected by Grecian and Carthaginian people; during Roman period, an ancient local god was known under the name of Sardus Pater (father Sardo): this god derived from or was similar to the Carthaginian god Baal. Ancient mythographers believed that Sardus Pater was Hercules’ son, and that Hercules came to Sardinia from Libia (so he can be considered son of Hercules-Melqart, a Greco-Roman interpretation of the Phoenician god Melqart).

Homer calls the other Italian big island “Sicania”, from the name of its ancient inhabitants, the Sicanians, who were pushed to the western part of Sicily by the Sicels. Thucydides said that Sicanians already lived in the island during Trojan war but they came from Iberia across Italy, while according to Antiochus and Thymeus Sicanians are native of Sicily. We know very little about them, because they lost their ethnic features during the IV century a.e.v. under Grecian and Phoenician influence. The same lot was shared by the Elimi, who ancient authors believed to be native of southern Italy, of which the Oenotrii pushed them out (Hellanicus), or to be a group originated in Asia from the union between Trojan exiles and other people (Thucydides); they underwent a quick process of Hellenization and disappeared under Carthaginian rule during I century a.e.v. 

According to contemporary scholars, they could have a Sicanian origin, or a Ligurian one; somebody believes they are Semites, a mixed population of Persians, Phoenicians and Trojans, whose name may come from that of the region Elam. Their main deity was a goddess belonging to the group of Mother Goddesses (with this name anthropologists call all ancient goddesses with maternal features and related to fertility): her main sanctuary stood on mount Erice and this goddess was called Aphrodite by Grecians and Venus by Romans, but she has also something in common with the Phoenician Astarte. Venus Ericina (Venus of mount Erice) has an ear of wheat as her symbol and she’s represented with a dog and other animals by her side (she’s a “potnia theron”, a “Mistress of animals”); her rites were celebrated outside, so that the dew could wash the stains due to sacrifices. 

Her cult was admitted in Rome, but with some restrictions on it because Roman magistrates thought it contravened Romans’ sense of decency; Venus Ericina’s day was on the 23rd of April, that was also the day of Vinalia, but the cult of the goddess was reserved to seventeen cities of Sicily, probably Elimi’s cities, which had the honor of  presenting a wreath to her, and to prostitutes (because of this, some scholars believed that sacred prostitution was practiced around the original temple in Sicily), while it was forbidden to other women to take part to it. Main Elimi’s city was Segesta: a Roman agricultural deity has the same name and her symbol was an ear of wheat like Venus Ericina’s, but the relation between the two is not clear.

In present region of Veneto, before of the arrival of palaeovenetic culture, there were two non-indoeuropean population, who left traces in names of local mountains: Rhaetian Alps derive their name from the Rhaetians, while the Euganean Hills from the Euganeans.We don’t know much about these two populations: the Rhaetians are supposed to be an ensemble of population including some groups coming from Illyria (from which the Palaeovenetics came, too) and Celtic groups also, while the Euganean are supposed to be part of the Ligurian culture, and were divided into Stoni, Camuni (who made rupestrian figures in Val Camonica) and Triumpilini (who made rupestrian figures of Val Trompia). Both Rhaetians and Euganeans merged with Celts, Etruscans and later Venetics.

On the contrary, we have enough about Etruscan religion, which influenced the Roman one as Grecians did (for a long time, the scholars believed that the Etruscans had been cultural mediators between Grecians and Romans but later direct contacts between these two cultures were proved), just as Etruscans joined Roman society: it goes without saying that three among the seven legendary kings of Rome were Etruscans. Etruscan language seems not to belong to Indo-European stock, while their alphabet had a Grecian origin: in their turn, Etruscans taught it to various population settled in northern Italy, but not, as it seems, to Latins, who learnt it directly by Grecians. Many hypotheses were made about the origin of Etruscan people:  the authochtonal theory was abandoned after the discovery of Lemnos’ inscriptions, made in a non-Grecian language, but very similar to the Etruscan one, so someone believes that Etruscans were descendants of some groups of Lemnos’ inhabitants who came to Italy and merged with local population. 

This union gave rise to Villanovan culture, first germ of the Etruscan one; at the present time, none of the theories about Etruscans’ origin can be proved with certainty. Even after this population’s decline, their language was used in Rome until the Augustan period, as it was a sacred language, used also for divinatory books, which collected cult and divinatory practices and rules of civilian life, all that was called by Romans “Etruscan subject”. Divination is the most known aspect of their religion, they taught to Romans the haruspicy, divination by observation of sacrificial victims’ viscera, of birds’ flight and of lightnings. Lightnings were particularly revered and were attributes of many deities, who could throw just one at a time, and of Tinia, later identified in Jupiter, a celestial god, who could throw three of them: the first to warn, the second to terrify and the third to destroy. 

Contrary to what happens with other Italic deities, we know many names of Etruscan deities (in their original version or through the Greco-Roman interpretatio) and we know how the priesthood was organized. According to what Romans passed down to us, Etruscan deities were hierarchically organized and there was a triad of deities at the top, consisting in Tinia, Uni and Menvra, more or less corresponding to Romans’ Jupiter, Juno and Minerva; there was also a chthonian triad consisting in Mantus, a god with features similar to those of Grecians’ Hades and Bacchus, Mania and another goddess, Phersipnei (Persephone) or Serfue (Ceres). 

Among Etruscan deities, we can distinguish deities with an Etruscan origin (Amharia, justice and revenge, Cautha, solar deity, Cilens, Colalp, Ethausva, Letham, Tecum, Thufltha, Tolusco and, known under his Latin name, Vertumnus or Volturnus, the turn of seasons), deities of Grecian origin or that we know with Hellenic features (Fufluns-Dionysus, Sethlans-Hephaestus, Turms-Hermes, Turan-Aphrodite, Aplu-Apollo, Artume-Artemis, Hercle-Hercules, Aita-Hades, Phersipnei-Persephone), deities of Italic origin (Maris-Mars, Nethuns-Neptune, Menvra-Minerva, Usil-Sun), Latin or Latinized deities (Uni-Juno, Ani-Janus, Selvans-Sylvan, Satre-Saturn, Vetis-Veiovis). 

Near the Etruscan city of Capena, there was the Lucus Feroniae, goddess Feronia’s sacred wood, dedicated to a Sabine deity. Priests compiled the calendar on a lunar basis; there was also a high priest who led the priesthood and was elected every year during federal festival of Fanum Voltumnae. The Etruscans’ religion is subject of many studies, so I won’t spread here about it, just as I won’t deal here with Grecian, Roman, Celtic and Phoenician religion, which are basic for Italian paganism, but for which I refer the reader to more exhaustive studies, as there are some deserving ones.

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The Druidic Temple of Mona

I'm currently reading the book 'Witchcraft Out of the Shadows: A Complete History' (Ruickbie; 2004), and I keep finding myself wanting to put excerpts here which are very applicable; which I did recently with the Greek legend of Medea. I found another which I can't resist. To start with, after the first chapter regarding the "Old Religion" as it existed prominently in pre-Olympian Greece (and after), chapter two is entitled 'East of Midgard: Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion Amongst the Pagan Tribes of Northern Europe'. He talks about the Germanic and Gaulish tribes, and it's fascinating to ponder the interaction between these two similar cultures. It also shows how the "Old Religion" existed within the ancient Odinic German societies. It's obvious to me the cultural overlap between the magical traditions of the proto-Europeans and the incoming Teutons. For example, the Druidic traditions developed as the two merged together; and the later Germanic invasion in the east reflected the more Teutonic spirituality.

In the subsection 'The People of the Oak', based mostly on the works of the Roman historian Tacitus, the Druids are shown to be nothing less than the "doctors, poets, priest and astronomers" of the Gaulish culture. When the Roman Emperor Claudius outlawed "Druidry" in 43 CE, it took about fifteen years to wipe it out by force. Since it was an oral tradition, little is known about it today. A few small reminders exist today, such as the mistletoe during Christmas; although it had an entirely different significance to the Druids. "...the Greek philosopher Dio Chysotomus (c. 40-112 CE) compared them to those other great mystical castes of ancient times, the Persian magi, Egyptian priests and Hindu brahmin." Apparently some Alchemists believe that the Druids were part of some type of "mystery school network" which existed from Greece and Egypt, to Phonecia, to Persia, to India, and even to China. It took years of training to become a Druid or Druidess.

Although so little is known of the Druids, it was beautiful to read about how they held court in special "sacred groves" of oak trees. I imagined groves of grey barked oak trees in Lake County, California where I spent summers when I was a child. It was almost like the oak trees possess a certain nurturing energetic quality. Even today, when I'm in some special remote place--morning, day, late afternoon, twilight, or evening--with nobody around, I find it incredible that nobody is there to enjoy the priceless feeling, sights, mood, and tranquil energy. Perhaps the Druids knew something that we don't know? I wanted to put in one more small but important excerpt that validates something that I've suspected for a good while now:

"Julius Caesar had broken their (the Druids) power in Gaul by 58 BCE and in 60 or 61 CE the Roman legions laid wast to their holy sanctuary of Mona (Mon) on the island of what is now called Anglesey (Wales). Tacitus describes how black-robed druidesses urged on the Celtic warriors and cursed their Roman attackers with great shouts and screams. The Romans were terrible in victory and having won the field of battle, destroyed the sacred groves and massacred the druids. As a spiritual and political force they were finished and gradually declined into obscurity."

The word Mòn meant "Moon" to the ancient Camunni. In the Camunian dialect, Al Camònega means "Val Camonica," and "mòn" is present in many words in the Lombard language and Camunian sub-dialect of Brescian; likely always having some tie-in to an old phrase with a moon-connection. There is a Camunian village called Monno in Italian, but was actually called "Mòn" in the Lombard language. It literally meant "Moon," and perhaps was the site of some forgotten temple to the moon goddess. Also, as I am somewhat ashamed to admit, the word "Mòna" in Camunian--which was very likely the actual, now forgotten, ancient local name of the moon goddess--is a vulgar and slanderous name for a woman.

I have long suspected, based on what little information I have come upon regarding ancient mostly central European languages, that the proto-European word for moon was "mòn." Also, more importantly, the word for the ancient moon goddess was "Mòna." Lombardy was once part of Cisalpine Gaul, and the ancient Camunni were a very ancient proto-European people. The Welsh, like Basques and Camunians, are also a very ancient proto-European people. Wales is where this "holy sanctuary of Mona" was located. It seems to suggest that the words and spiritual concepts of Mòn and Mòna were of pre-Celtic proto-European origin. In other words, the European-wide "Old Religion." Going back to the last glacial movement, where the northern two-thirds of Europe was covered by a mile high sheet of ice, this goddess had a common origin.

The Gaulish Mòna, the Greek Hecate, the Roman Diana, the Venus of Willendorf, etc., were all of a common origin if you go back far enough. People just can't wrap their minds around the fact that the true-Mediterraneans and original Teutons arrived later. Before there were Greeks, Germans, English, etc., there was this type of "European native" and their spiritual tradition. The origin of the "Old Religion." Of course, even before Christianity, it was being merged, marginalized, and sometimes altered. For example, there was likely Alchemical influence during the Middle Ages. The word "mòn" became "moon," and the Roman-Latin "Luna" and "Lunar" replaced it in scientific and spiritual reference. Also, the "horned god" was the "father god" of the Old Religion all over Europe from Cyprus to Scotland.

Cernunnos and Mona were later local manifestations of this "god and goddess" in Gaul. Much earlier manifestations of this same "god and goddess" were "The Sorcerer" and the "Venus of Willendorf." When we go back the far in time, we must suspend our idea of geography somewhat in order to comprehend that time period. So have we finally solved the problem of finding an ancient "European name" for the Almother? Regional names, such as Hecate, only seem to confuse the issue. As for the Alfather of the Old Religion, the late Stewart Farrar used the name "Karnayna," although I don't know at this time if this was based on any ancient word or concept. I had discussed in that earlier article the problem with adopting names from local traditions, since people often just can't separate that particular locale with the larger concept. 

"Heathen" is a good working example of the "reappropriation" of a word to fit a larger concept; while the word "Asatru" has run into problems, as people can't seem to forget it's regional Icelandic roots. It then becomes "an Icelandic religion" in some people's minds. The name "Mona" would be a good candidate for reappropriation, since it is generally just a given name and a word present in non-Indo-European languages due to it's simple pronunciation (likely to develop in various languages). "Máni" was a Norse, and probably Saxon, "moon goddess." Máni means "moon" in old Norse and Icelandic. In this somewhat parallel northern tradition, there was a "sun god and moon goddess" called "Máni and Sól." This seems to clearly show the proto-European tie-in within Norse paganism.

This tie-in is not Odinic, but a regional Norse connection to the Old Religion, which I have long suspected. I could not be certain, since "Norse witchcraft" could have developed on it's own. It is much more likely an older holdover, with Odinic influence. The author of 'Witchcraft Out of the Shadows' is Leo Ruickbie from the UK.

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Replica of an ancient Camunni village

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Prayer to Freya as Seer and Lady

Great Goddess, Mistress of cats,
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
Fulfill my greatest needs, O glorious one.

Teach me the magic I need.
Give me a glimpse of your deep wisdom.

Teach me in dreams. Enrich my life.

O Lady, you are Golden-Tears of Asgard
Lady of love, beautiful Vana-Goddess,
You are the Shape-shifter, the Sayer,
The Independent One.

Give me the strength and the magic I need. 

~~www.goddessfreya.info~~

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Discovering our Saints - St. Anthony of Padua

From the video description (YouTube channel CCTNtv):

CCTN is proud to present this new series of short informational videos about our Catholic Saints and the lives they lived.

This week, St. Anthony of Padua

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St. Anthony of Padua is the patron saint of Loveno Grumello, a two-village administrative unit within the comune of Paisco Loveno, the origin of part of my roots. Actually, there were many matron or patron spirits in Val Camonica long before St. Anthony. Vehmic, Gaulish, possibly Etruscan or Langobard, and Roman polytheistic; and later Catholic. The new paradigms simply knock the heads of off the old statues and erect the new ones. However, the valley is solidly Catholic today.

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Hecate and Cernunnos: Locating the proto-European spiritual paradigm

A few evenings ago, I had an online chat with a Celtic polytheist. When asked what my spiritual paradigm was, I tried to convey across that I was an adherent of European paganism aka "European witchcraft".. not Wiccan. She seemed to be against the Wiccan concept partly because it was so eclectic, which makes sense. However, when pressed for a rundown of deities, I mentioned Hecate and Cernunnos. Being someone who doesn't believe in mixing paradigms, she quickly responded by finding it odd that "Cernunnos is Celtic and Hecate is Greek." She herself seemed confused as to whether she was a Gaelic polytheist or a Gaulish polytheist.

This brought up the issue of the proto-European--aka "Alpine race"--role in the ancient world. To begin with, people just can't seem to grasp the fact that the Europe of the last glacial movement was one which was basically devoid of both Mediterranean and Teutonic peoples... and it was almost half covered in massive ice sheets. Demographically, Europe, north Africa, and the Middle East/western Asia cannot be compared to today.

Hecate seems to clearly be a deity which predates classic Greek mythology... clear back to the proto-European world. I believe a local name--in what is now Greece and Turkey--for a "European goddess"... not a "Greek goddess." The Mother Goddess, or what I call "the Almother." Being that Hecate is perhaps the strongest historical manifestation for this goddess, then her name would seem to be a good one to use. The gods and goddesses of Greek antiquity were different from those of the more distant past. The Almother was a European goddess... which manifested in Greece as Hecate. Just for the record, this was thousands of years before there were any Turkic people in what is now Turkey.

Cernunnos was probably a fusion of the proto-European "horned god" and Odin or Tyr of the incoming Teutonic peoples. Therefore "Cernunnos"--which is a Romanized name for the chief god of Gaul--is as much proto-European as he is Gaulish/Celtic. I just don't see the point in renaming the Mother Goddess and Horned God of the proto-Europeans. There probably was not "one name" for these deities, but regional names for them. Stewart Farrar, a pioneer of Wicca, used the name "Karnayna" for Cernunnos. Hecate is also spelled "Hekate." To attempt to make some distinction, perhaps these names could be used since they possibly might be closer to the proto-European names in those locales, as well as being the strongest manifestations of "the Alfather" (Cernunnos) and "the Almother" (Hecate).

When coming up with a name for a larger collective, most often one must use some local name. There's often no way around this. For example, the name "Asatru" is an Icelandic name... used for a larger Odinic collective. There were other local names as well. Therefore "Asatru"--within the expanded meaning of the collective--can be used in reference to the Odinic manifestation of Austria, Ukraine, or Spain. It's no longer just in reference to Iceland. Coming up with entirely new names for every expression of the same thing would add further confusion to an already somewhat confusing endeavor.


Vehmology

"Vehme" stands for the same five elements (earth, air, fire, water, and spirit) as does the pentacle star, and seems to have been the basis for European witchcraft. The proto-European spiritual tradition was based on science! It took into account the metaphysical... "spirit." What I call "Vehmology" is science. Magic and science were the same. The true purpose of the coming "Religion vs. Atheism" conflict in society is to prevent the scientific study of metaphysics. Closed-minded religion, closed-minded Atheism, and closed-minded science all have a vested interest in preventing the mere academic study of metaphysical science, which makes them Hegelian "opposames" rather than true opposites.

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Badalisc: Camunian folklore - Part III

Pre-Christian Alpine traditions

The central and eastern Alps of Europe are rich in folklore traditions dating back to Pagan (pre-Christian) times, with surviving elements amalgamated from Germanic, Gaulish (Gallo-Roman), Slavic (Carantanian) and Raetian culture.


Survival through the ages

Ancient customs survived in the rural parts of Austria, Switzerland, Bavaria, Slovenia, western Croatia and Italy in the form of dance, art, processions, rituals and games. The high regional diversity results from the mutual isolation of Alpine communities. In the Alps, the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and paganism has been an ambivalent one. While some customs survived only in the remote valleys inaccessible to the church's influence, other customs were actively assimilated over the centuries. In light of the dwindling rural population of the Alps, many customs have evolved into more modern interpretations.

Krampus

The word Krampus originates from the Old High German word for claw (Krampen). In the Alpine regions, the Krampus is a mythical horned figure represented as accompanying Saint Nicholas. Krampus acts as an anti–Saint Nicholas, who, instead of giving gifts to good children, gives warnings and punishments to the bad children. Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly in the evening of December 5, and roam the streets frightening children and women with rusty chains and whips and bells. This figure is believed to originate from stories of house spirits such as kobolds or elves.


Perchten

Originally, the word Perchten (plural of Perchta) referred to the female masks representing the entourage of an ancient goddess, Frau Perchta, or Pehta Baba as it is known in Slovenia. Some claim a connection to the Nordic goddess Freyja, though this is uncertain. Traditionally, the masks were displayed in processions (Perchtenlauf) during the last week of December and first week of January, and particularly on 6 January. The costume consists of a brown wooden mask and brown or white sheep's skin. In recent times Krampus and Perchten have increasingly been displayed in a single event, leading to a loss of distinction of the two. Perchten are associated with midwinter and the embodiment of fate and the souls of the dead. The name originates from the Old High German word peraht ("brilliant" or "bright").

Regional variations of the name include Berigl, Berchtlmuada, Berchta, Pehta, Perhta-Baba, Zlobna Pehta, Bechtrababa, Sampa, Stampa, Lutzl, Zamperin, Pudelfrau, Zampermuatta and Rauweib. The Roman Catholic Church attempted to prohibit the sometimes rampant practise in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but later condoned it, resulting in a revival.

In the Pongau region of Austria large processions of Schönperchten ("beautiful Perchten") and Schiachperchten ("ugly Perchten") are held every winter. Other regional variations include the Tresterer in the Austrian Pinzgau region, the stilt dancers in the town of Unken, the Schnabelpercht ("trunked Percht") in the Unterinntal region and the Glöcklerlaufen ("bell-running") in the Salzkammergut. A number of large ski-resorts have turned the tradition into a tourist attraction drawing large crowds every winter.

Sometimes, der Teufel is viewed to be the most schiach ("ugly") Percht (masculine singular of Perchten) and Frau Perchta to be the most schön ("beautiful") Perchtin (female singular of Perchten).


Badalisc

The Badalisc is a "good" mythological animal who lives in the woods of Andrista, in Val Camonica, Italy. During an annual town festival someone dresses up as the creature and is "captured" and brought to the town. The animal is made to tell the people of the town gossip. At the end of the festival the creature is released until the next year's ceremony.

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