@jrdepriest @pathfinder Have you checked out the book #Hermaphrodeities? It's one that I want to read but haven't found it in any library I have access to, but from what I've heard it actually focuses on #deities that aren't completely male or female, and I believe offers prayers and things with a #nonbinary focus.
The snowy weekend led to snow-covered deities and the appearance of snow kitsune and snow minions.
Annwn
This is the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it’s a world of delights & eternal youth where disease is absent & food is ever-abundant. In both Welsh & Irish mythologies, the Otherworld was believed to be located either on an island or underneath the earth.
In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, it’s implied that Annwn is a land within Dyfed. While the context is a land within Dyfed. While the context of the Arthurian poem Preiddeu Annwfn suggests an island location.
Two other otherworldly feasts that occur in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi are located in Harlech in northwest Wales & on Ynys Gwales in southwest Pembrokeshire.
Locations inside Annwn:
In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, Prince Pwyll of Dyfed offends Arawn (the ruler of Annwn) by baiting his hunting hounds on a stag that Arawn’s dogs had brought down. In recompense, he changes places with Arawn for 1 year & defeats Arawn’s enemy, Hafgan.
During this year, Pwyll doesn’t sleep with Arawn’s wife. This earned him gratitude & eternal friendship from Arawn. On his return, Pwyll became known by the title Penn Annwn (“Head/Ruler of Annwn”).
In the 4th Branch, Annwn is mentioned but doesn’t show up. It’s revealed that he sent a gift of otherworldly pigs to Pwyll’s son & successor, Pryderi. This leads to war between Dyfed & Gwynedd.
The epic poem, Cad Gaddeu describes a battle between Gwynedd & the forces of Annwn, led again by Annwn. It’s revealed that Amaethon, nephew to Math (King of Gwynedd), stole a female dog, a lapwing (a type of bird), & a male roedeer (or a roebuck) from the Otherworld.
This led to a war between the 2 peoples. The inhabitants of Annwn are shown as bizarre & hellish creatures. These include a “wide-mawed” beast with 100 heads & bearing a host beneath the root of its tongue & another under its neck, a 100-clawed black-groined toad, & a “mottled ridged serpent, with a thousand souls, by their sins, tortured in the hold s of its flesh.”
Gwydion, the Venedotian hero & magician, successfully defeats Arawn’s army, 1st by enchanting the trees to rise up & fight & then by guessing the name of the enemy hero Bran, this winning the battle.
Priddeu Annwfn, an early medieval poem found in the Book of Taliesin, describes a voyage led by King Arthur to the numerous otherworldly kingdoms within Annwn. Either to rescue the prisoner Gweir or to retrieve the cauldron of the Head of Annwn.
Over time, the role of king of Annwn was transferred to Gwyn ap Nudd, a hunter & psychopomp, who may have the Welsh personification of winter. Psychopomps are creatures, spirits, angels, demons, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife.
The Christian Vita Collen tells of St. Colleen vanquishing Gwyn & his otherworldly court from Glastonbury Tor with the use of holy water.
In Culhwch and Olwen, an early Welsh Arthurian tale, it’s said that God gave Gwyn ap Nudd control over the demons lest “this world be destroyed.” Tradition revolves around Gwyn leading his spectral hunts, the Cwn Annwn (“Hounds of Annwn”), on his hunt for mortal souls.
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#amaethon #angels #annwn #arawn #arthurianLiterature #bookOfTaliesin #bran #cadGoddeu #caerGolud #caerPedryvan #caerRigor #caerSidi #caerVandwy #caerVedwyd #caerWydyr #canAnnwn #cauldronOfAnnwn #chairOfTaliesin #culhwchOlwen #deities #demons #dyfed #earth #firstBranch #fourthBranch #glastonburyTor #gweir #gwydion #gwynApNudd #gwynedd #hafgan #houndsOfAnnwn #irishMythology #isleOfTheStrongDoor #mabinogi #math #otherworld #pembrokshire #pennAnnwn #preiddeuAnnwfn #princePwyll #psychopomps #secondBranch #spirits #stCollen #vitaCollen #wales #welshMythology #ynysGwales
A quotation from Robert Ingersoll
Nothing is so pleasing to these gods as the butchery of unbelievers. Nothing so enrages them, even now, as to have some one deny their existence.Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1872-01-29), “The Gods,” Fairbury Hall, Fairbury, Illinois
More info about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #apostasy #deities #disbelief #divineanger #divinepunishment #divinewill #divinewrath #God #gods #unbeliever
Brilliant video by Kelly-Ann Maddox: „Stop Asking the Gods to Fix It For You“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Ps6mO9idI
Kelly-Ann Maddox explains, instead of seeing the deities as interventionists, you could see them as role models, as entities that teach us how to find the archetypes that they represent, within ourselves. They help us to anchor into our own power.
A thought of mine about this: So for instance instead of praying to a protective deity for protection, see them as a role model. How does the deity protect? And how can you protect yourself in the situation where you want to be protected?
If you on the other hand view a deity as an interventionist, but they don’t show up to help you, you might feel abandoned or side-lined, as Kelly-Ann explains. She also says that the deities do not fight our battles, but they may cheer us on and root for us while we fight our battles on our own.
"#Circe’s most distinctive trait, however, is not her parentage but her persona. While many #deities and their offspring wielded brute force or commanded the elements, Circe’s authority was embedded in her mastery of #magic. She was a mistress of #transformation, capable of turning men into beasts and bending nature to her will. Unlike the gods she was descended from, Circe wasn’t born with power. No, she had to study to gain it. She had to educate herself in a world in which #women weren’t meant to expand their knowledge in such a way. She learned the properties of herbs, the secrets of the earth, and the subtle art of #potionsandspells. This marked her as a dangerous figure in #Greekmythology—a #woman who was willing to level herself up in spite of common expectations."
If you're #pagan, or otherwise so inclined, join with me invoking these #ancientgodsandgoddesses for truth, fairness, justice, and freedom to stand in the #CanadaElection tonight.
(I'm aware I mixed #pantheons. Some don't do that, I see no issue in most cases, as long as the #deities "match". )
#Themis, #Inanna, #Libertas, #Artemis , #Athena , #Lugh, #Liber, #Jupiter #Apollo, I invoke thee to bring justice, freedom, and fairness to our government tonight. As I will, #somoteitbe!
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