Month: February 2017
Secret history of the conquest of Peru: the prophetic dream of the Inca Viracocha and the coming of the Spaniards
di Marco Maculotti
In an earlier essay from this cycle [cf. Viracocha and the myths of the origins: creation of the world, anthropogenesis, foundation myths] we were able to distinguish, in the Andean tradition, three types of characters called "Viracocha": the creator god of the origins, which we called "Divine Viracocha"; the civilizing hero of the beginning of the era of the "Fifth Sun", creator of Tiahuanaco, whom we have defined "legendary Viracocha"; and finally a historical figure, the eighth Inca ruler, the Inca Viracocha. If we have said enough of the first two, we now have to investigate the role of the third, referring to the most suitable chronicle in the study of the Inca royal dynasty of the "Sons of the Sun". We are obviously talking about the Royal Commentaries of Garcilaso Inca de la Vega, the only ancient source that has the supreme merit of listing, one after the other and with related enterprises, the twelve Inca who ruled the empire of Tahuantinsuyu.
Lupercalia: the cathartic celebrations of Februa
by Ascanio Modena Altieri
originally published on The Dissident Intellectual
ย
The first rays of the civilization of Rome and of the Italian national myth begin their grandiose work among the districts of the Earth. The Palatine Hill is home to the she-wolf, the nurse, savior of the divine couple of infants from the waters of the Tiber and from the evil king of Alba Longa Amulio. On the slopes of the future Colle dei Principi, with tall oaks and fabulous woods, is the Lupercale, the mythical cave, home of the fatal fair, where the blood of the prey and the milk of the breasts mix in a combination of colors that, between a few centuries, it will become an imperishable ritual and celebratory imprint. However, aids to the auspicious destiny could not be delayed: the consanguineous shepherds, Faustulus and Plistinus, found the two nobles in swaddling clothes and, with the sacred consent of the feminine beast, decided to take the two to their hut on the hill, ready one day, to tell which most dignified blood is what gushes in their veins. In the beginning it was Acca Larenzia, wife of Faustolo, who took care of the children of the God Mars and of Rhea Silvia, in the house on the Palatine, until the two appropriated, in different ways, the already marked fate.
Cyclic time and its mythological meaning: the precession of the equinoxes and the tetramorph
di Andrew Casella
It will certainly not go unnoticed by those who are at least a little accustomed to sacred science, a Christian symbol that has always stood out on the facades of churches, adorns manuscripts and is even found on a tarot blade: the tetramorph. This symbol draws its origin from the famous vision of Ezekiel (Ez. 1, 4-28) which St. John later poured into his own Apocalypse. These are four figures that surround the throne of God: the first has the appearance of a lion, the second of a bull, the third of a man and the fourth of an eagle in flight (Ap. 4, 7). Traditionally, these strange figures (which the Apocalypse calls the "Living") are attributed a literary value: in fact, they are the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These figures, however, as mentioned, can be found (even more strangely, one might say) also on a tarot blade, and precisely the number XXI, which designates the world.
