The worlds beneath the world. Underground and initiatory journeys in the practice of esoteric Buddhism

Ophidic folklore: the "Rainbow Serpent", the Nagas and the fairy Melusina

Mythical ancestors, cultural heroes, feral entities of the subtle world and supernatural brides: the topos of the ophidic-anthropomorphic mythical entities is widespread throughout the world, and affects both the European tradition (regarding which we will focus above all on the medieval tradition of the Fairy Melusina ), as well as extra-European traditions such as the Indian one of the Nagas, "serpent people" residing in the world below ours, that of the Hopi and that of the Australian aborigines.

Buffalo sacrifice and megalithic funerary cults in Sulawesi and Southeast Asia

From the analysis of the Indonesian funerary rites (Sulawesi and Sumba), and more generally in Southeast Asia, a conceptual plot emerges including the erection of megaliths, the ritual sacrifice of the water buffalo (psychopomp animal par excellence), the cult of the Ancestors and its link with the fertility of rice fields. Let us try to understand how such different symbolic areas have harmonized with each other over the millennia.

"The Age of the Serpent": "The snake and the dragon: morphology of the ophidic symbolism"

Era of the Serpent, second annual publication and seventh total of Italian Sword & Sorcery Book, is on sale in digital format for โ‚ฌ 3,30, with our 40-page essay (40.000+ characters) "The snake and the dragon: morphology of ophidic symbolism", as well as an unpublished story by Andrea Gualchierotti and an essay by Francesco La Manno