Something I have just been thinking about is the etymology of 'Guru'. From PIE 'Gwrehus' ['Heavy'], same place as Latin 'Gravis', English 'Gravitas' [or 'Grave' in the sense of serious] Effectively, therefore, "One Whose Words Have Weight" Although it should also be noted that 'Guru' has a general sense in Sanskrit to refer not only … Continue reading The Heavy Illumination Of Etymology And Folk Etymology Comparatively Considered
Etymology
The Place Of Worship – The Temple – The Home And Healing Whole Of The Community
Something I love about the Indo-European etymology - is that manner in which the roots of terms resonate with their descendants. And, in so doing, significantly broaden our understanding of just what they actually are - how we are to relate to them. A good example of this is the Ancient Greek ναός - 'Naos' … Continue reading The Place Of Worship – The Temple – The Home And Healing Whole Of The Community
The Indo-European Man – Sons of the Sun [Part II]: Yama And Manu – Firstborn of the Indo-Aryans
So, with that in mind - let us take a brief look at probably the oldest Indo-European origin myth that has come down to us: the Vedic understanding, which is to my mind also the 'cleanest' and easiest to directly understand. Both due to its age, and the strong presence of pretty much all the … Continue reading The Indo-European Man – Sons of the Sun [Part II]: Yama And Manu – Firstborn of the Indo-Aryans
Soma Kvasir – The Eddic-Vedic Myth Of The Meath of Poetry
Every so often, we happen across some element that is clearly the same thing across two (or more) Indo-European cultures; and which, regardless of the otherwise impressive span of distance between them (whether distance of time, or mere geography), even a lay-person can immediately grasp that we are talking about the same concept. Unfortunately, this … Continue reading Soma Kvasir – The Eddic-Vedic Myth Of The Meath of Poetry
Aesir-Vanir, Asura-Deva, but also A’Sura, Daeva
There's a few comparative mythographic ideas out there that are simple, intuitive, comfortable, persistent ... and downright wrong. One of these is the thorny thicket of presumptions which have grown up around three not-unrelated sets of terminology from the Vedic, Eddic, and Zoroastrian corpuses. The core of which is basically that as there was an Aesir-Vanir … Continue reading Aesir-Vanir, Asura-Deva, but also A’Sura, Daeva
On The Mytholinguistics Of War [Part 1]
In many ways, it is not at all a controversial thing to assert that War is rather fundamental to the Indo-European View of the Universe. One of the first mythemes that almost everybody tends to identify when they begin their journey along the skeins of comparative Indo-European mythography - is that of the 'Chaoskampf', the … Continue reading On The Mytholinguistics Of War [Part 1]