Tag: Snake
Marian & "Dame Bianche" appearances
The analysis of the archetypal aspect of the Marian Apparitions beyond the Catholic dogmas allows us to highlight some unexpected and recurring characteristics that seem not to present a solution of continuity with the pre-Christian cults.
The "Atlantic Crossing" and Ernst JΓΌnger's look at Brazil
JΓΌngerian chronicles of a 1936 cruise to South America: the fatal element of the Amazonian "Wildnis" emerges from the Brazilian shops of the German philosopher, the "memory of forms" on which the entire Creation and unconditional love for life is based. oceanic element, vector of the "original song of life that is lulling itself over the times".
Kernunnos: or of the perennial renewal of the cosmos
Primordial epiphany of the giver of life and death, archetypically connected to the dark forces of the natural world, the Celtic Cernunno was not only god of hunting and wild nature, but a real "cosmic god" ruler of the cycle of death-and - rebirth, as evidenced by the symbols attributed to it by traditional iconography: the stage with cervine horns, the torques and the horned snake.
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.
The symbolism of the double serpent and the "guardian of the treasure"
Within the vast mythical corpus concerning the ophidic symbolism there are some mythologems, recurring all over the world, conveying certain initiatory knowledge whose universality goes beyond the spatial and chronological boundaries, such as that of the double serpent (Caduceus of Mercury, Iga and Pingala), that of the serpent who, standing beneath the worlds or surrounding the earth in the form of Ouroboros, holds the entire cosmic manifestation, and that of the dragon in the function of "Guardian of the treasure" that the hero must subdue and defeat in order to save the "Princess ".
Shamanic initiation and the ways of the afterlife in the North American tradition
Similarly to the European tradition, also the North American one recognizes in the period of the winter solstice the "gateway" to the world of the dead and of the spirits and, therefore, the suitable time for youth initiations and masked ceremonies, including the Iroquois one of the βFalse Facesβ and the kwakiutl one of the βCannibal Spiritβ. These beliefs and practices, as well as the analysis of shamanic journeys to the "Village of the Spirits", allow us to understand the doctrines of the native peoples of North America on the various souls that make up the human being and on the relationship entertained by the living with the spirit world. .
The sexual bipolarization, the "feminine" and the advent of human corporeality
In this new appointment of the cycle of articles βManvantaraβ we will investigate the cosmological-traditional meaning of the two sexes, as well as the modalities and consequences connected to their differentiation, with particular regard to the human level.
"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 β¬ 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
Kasenian RΓ©ak: the Sundanese horse dance between artistic performance and ceremonial possession (II)
Luigi Monteanni spent a year in Indonesia to study the Kasenian RΓ©ak, the traditional Sundanese horse dance, during which the participants in the ritual are possessed by spirits. Whatβ¦