Something I've been meaning to remark upon for awhile, is this rather amusing irony when it comes to the Centum-Satem divide in Indo-European linguistics. Now, for those unaware, you can classify most Indo-European languages into one of two categories - "Centum" languages, wherein an array of "K-" [and some "G-"] sounds and particles in Proto-Indo-European … Continue reading On The Subtle Satemization Of Centum In Modern English
The War-Shrine Of Tanot Mata [Incredible Indo-European Holy Sites Series Part III]
One of my criteria for judging whether a culture is spiritually healthy, is how it treats its religion. Is it something that is actively integrated? Into the culture, into the state, into daily life? Or is it merely something that is wheeled out in the manner of Easter in much of the West - a symbol, … Continue reading The War-Shrine Of Tanot Mata [Incredible Indo-European Holy Sites Series Part III]
On Odin Brihaspati As Song-Smith – The Sung Seizing Of The Wealth Of Cows
The Nordic textual corpus is a frustrating, glinting thing. So often we glance across a passage therein which evidently speaks to something that is evidently far deeper in meaning than what is written there upon the page … and yet which the ravages of time and obscurity mean that we now cannot feasibly interpret except … Continue reading On Odin Brihaspati As Song-Smith – The Sung Seizing Of The Wealth Of Cows
On Lord Shiva As Tripurantaka In The Vedas
Tomorrow marks one of the more important Shaivite observances of the year - Tripurari Purnima / Kartik Purnima . Which, inter alia, commemorates the Destruction of the Three Fortresses of the Demons by Lord Shiva . Now, it is often asserted by some that Lord Shiva is somehow not a Vedic God - something I … Continue reading On Lord Shiva As Tripurantaka In The Vedas
On The Inspiration Of The Balochistan Hindus To The Modern Indo-European Devotee
We occasionally may feel that it is a bit difficult being of an Indo-European religion amidst the 21st century. In most of the world, we are minorities - and with the major exception of Hinduism, the faith(s) of our forefathers are near-extinct even despite some salient efforts at resurrective, revitalizing revanchism. Yet spare a thought … Continue reading On The Inspiration Of The Balochistan Hindus To The Modern Indo-European Devotee
On The Potential Unintended Consequences Of Rome Inviting Home Foreign Gods – The Siege Of Jerusalem Example
Something I was … rather surprised to learn in the course of researching a previous article, is that during the Siege of Jerusalem, the Roman general Titus appears to have potentially performed a variation of the 'Evocatio' rite - the formalized Roman custom of endeavouring to entice the God or Gods that were patrons of … Continue reading On The Potential Unintended Consequences Of Rome Inviting Home Foreign Gods – The Siege Of Jerusalem Example
On The Concepts Of Religious Warfare And Foreign Religion Amidst The Archaic Indo-Europeans
Something I have been absolutely perplexed by in the past few days, is a sudden upwelling of people who seek to claim that 'religious war' was a 'monotheistic' or more specifically 'Christian' invention; and that prior to this, the non-/pre-Christian world had neither these concepts, nor even the barest notion that there could be such … Continue reading On The Concepts Of Religious Warfare And Foreign Religion Amidst The Archaic Indo-Europeans
Of Hittites And Hindus And Their Respective Differing Receptions Amidst Some
We often hear people attack Hinduism as being 'impure' from an Indo-European perspective - purportedly hopelessly "compromised" via incorporations of all manner of non-IE customs and cults. I disagree most strongly with much of that, of course - and have repeatedly demonstrated how what often looks non-IE to a certain sort of observer … is … Continue reading Of Hittites And Hindus And Their Respective Differing Receptions Amidst Some
Witzel On The Essential Coterminities Of Vedic And Later Hindu Religion
Something I have often shouted in the course of my work is the fact that Hinduism - the 'modern' Hinduism - is not some sort of 'new religion' built up atop the ruins of the old Vedic religion. People seem to think that the two things are fundamentally different, almost irreconcilable - and that even … Continue reading Witzel On The Essential Coterminities Of Vedic And Later Hindu Religion
The Indo-European Cosmology – A Brief Guided Tour : Part One – Ritual Space And The Radiating Law
Two areas I have long intended to direct more effort towards extolling - are Indo-European Cosmology and Ritual. Both are fascinating, and as it happens, quite fundamentally coterminous much of the time. However, they're also both huge - and so instead of a series of five-to-fifty-thousand wor(l)d plus megaliths, I thought I'd try something a … Continue reading The Indo-European Cosmology – A Brief Guided Tour : Part One – Ritual Space And The Radiating Law