The Crows of Juno

Latin materials speak of 'Divine Crows' [Corniscae Divae - Allen has this as "Crow-Goddesses", even] which are of Juno; Festus' Epitome [56L] relates: "Corniscarum Divarum locus erat trans Tiberim cornicibus dicatus, quod in Junonis tutela esse putabatur", with this being often cited in accompaniment of an engimatic inscriptional "DEVAS CoRNISCAS SACRVM". This, whilst lesser-known today, … Continue reading The Crows of Juno

Prometheus & Ithax, Saboteur of Sacrifice – Part One: The Emissary of the Anti-Divine

As applies Prometheus - everybody knows the main 'pop-culture' narrative. But what if there was an additional reason that Prometheus deserved the outcome - and for Prometheus to have wanted to interfere with setting down the formulaic metaphysics of sacrifice to begin with… Now, here is the key detail - a fragment transmitted via Hesychius … Continue reading Prometheus & Ithax, Saboteur of Sacrifice – Part One: The Emissary of the Anti-Divine

TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Four: Amidst The Glorious & Ancestral Dead

Now as something of a 'check and confirm' upon all of this (Parts III, II, & I), it should prove useful to return towards the Nordic cosmological schema. Wherein, as applies the destination(s) of the Glorious and Ancestral Dead - we once again observe what should decidedly seem to be 'Uppland' situations: Valhalla should certainly … Continue reading TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Four: Amidst The Glorious & Ancestral Dead

The Cailleach – Brief Comparanda [Arya Akasha Arka]

Happened across this impressive rendition earlier this evening, by the inimitable Angus McBride (known for both Osprey and certain tabletop RPG offerings). It depicts the Cailleach Bheur - effectively synonymous with the Cailleach Bhéarra (see Hull 1927, inter alia), also known as Buí , the Wife of Lugh. She is a figure of far broader … Continue reading The Cailleach – Brief Comparanda [Arya Akasha Arka]

TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Three: The Dead Among The Stars

Now speaking of the Night's Sky - this brings us to what's probably the most 'divergent' area for our trifold TriPlanar schema. And I mean that in two senses - first, in terms of just how 'different' one of the Hellenic (and later Classical) conceptions for this Layer is as compared to 'Everybody Else' on … Continue reading TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Three: The Dead Among The Stars

TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Two: Sailing The Sea Of Sky 

As promised, we begin our series of subsequent commentaries seeking to add illumination to 'what went where' - and, more especially as applies some detailings, 'why' - for our TRI-LOKA  charting of the archaic Indo-European cosmology. For the first installment, we delve into various of the considerations pertaining to the Middle Realm extant between the … Continue reading TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology – Part Two: Sailing The Sea Of Sky 

TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology

The archaic Worlds-view of the (Proto-)Indo-Europeans featured a functional conceptualization for the Cosmos as broadly divisible into three 'layers' or realms. We can safely infer this due to the shared fundamental TriPlanar structure carried forward by various of the major (post-PIE) Indo-European spheres, attested amidst both their mythic and ritualine perspectives - as we have drawn from … Continue reading TRI-LOKA : The Three Worlds Of Indo-European Cosmology