Thunder & Lightning

    Thunder and lightning were believed to engender mushrooms in ancient times. In Persian, mushrooms were called banat-al-ra’d which means “daughters of thunder.” (40) As we will soon see, there are many thunder gods, including Zeus, Thor, Odin, Indra, and so on, but the interesting connection to the mushroom that is usually overlooked is how each of these gods are also bull gods or have the bull as their representative symbol. Oftentimes, you will see these deities holding thunderbolts, such as the Assyrian god Adad (14e), or the Hurrian god Teshub (15e, f) and even Zeus at a later age. So, then the question becomes, are they really thunder and lightning deities, or bovine dung bearing deities, aka, mushroom deities? Or both? And another question we will find ourselves answering, or attempting to at least, is the lightning just lightning or does it have a double occultation and meaning, as well?


(14e) Adad