| I believe in what I see I believe in what I hear I believe that what I'm feeling Changes how the world appears Media messiahs preying on my fears Pop culture prophets playing in my ears I've got celestial mechanics To synchronize my stars Seasonal migrations daily variations World of the unlikely and bizarre I've got idols and icons, unspoken holy vows Thoughts to keep well-hidden Sacred and forbidden Free to browse among the holy cows - Totem by Rush - Neil Elwood Peart / Gary Lee Weinrib / Alex Zivojinovich Chapter 21: Satanic Shaman Santa In Slavic mythology, the god that is most revered is Perun, a thunder and lightning god, whose other attributes included fire, wind and mountains as well as the oak, and the eagle and something referred to as the “Axe of Perun” which is a hammer of sorts. Perun was also associated with weapons made of stone, and later, metal. The word in Slavic, Perun means thunder or lightning bolt. The mythology or the Slavs involves a world tree, similar to the Norse myth, which is usually an oak. Perun is an eagle who lives in the tree and his opponent is a serpent or dragon called Veles who lives in the roots of the tree. Veles is a watery god of the “underworld.” Veles is constantly provoking Perun by creeping up above ground and stealing his cattle, children, or wife. The unique quality to this story is that we have a bird, a serpent, and cattle, all in the same story. The story is the same pretty much, all over the world, as we have seen, including the cattle theft, with only slight variations. This story closely resembles the Sumerian myth of Etana. In a peace treaty made between Prince Oleg (Scand. Olaf) and the Byzantine Empire in the year 907 AD, Prince Oleg had his men swear by their weapons and by their god Perun, and by Volos, the god of cattle, to ensure peace. The fact that they had a separate god for cattle is interesting here, but not significant. But it does insinuate that the Slavs considered the god stealing their cattle different from the cattle god, in this case, Volos. (1) In the Norse version of creation told in the Edda, Midgard is the central theme and the land of the giants where all creation is made from Ymir the Giant. The central mythology is carried on from Genesis and the Garden by the World Tree or Yggdrasil. The World Tree, we briefly touched upon in Chapter 3, is symbolic of the mushroom itself, reaching deep down into the earth and blossoming above ground as a fruit. The idea of giants is prevalent, which is always a theme of mushroom lore due to macropsia, or seeing things larger than they really are, a common experience under the influence of A. muscaria. |
Briefly, we read from the Norse Edda: VIII “Then said Gangleri: These are great tidings which I now hear; that is a wondrous great piece of craftsmanship, and cunningly made. How was the earth contrived?” And Hárr answered: “She is ring-shaped without, and round about her without lieth the deep sea; and along the strand of that sea they gave lands to the races of giants for habitation. But on the inner earth they made a citadel round about the world against the hostility of the giants, and for their citadel they raised up the brows of Ymir the giant and called that place Midgard. They took also his brain and cast it in the air, and made from it the clouds, as is here said: Of Ymir's flesh | the earth was fashioned, And of his sweat the sea; Crags of his bones, | trees of his hair, And of his skull the sky. Then of his brows | the blithe gods made Midgard for sons of men; And of his brain | the bitter-mooded Clouds were all created.” This is almost the exact same story of the Hindu creation from Man. Continuing: IX “Next they made for themselves in the middle of the world a city which is called Ásgard; men call it Troy. There dwelt the gods and their kindred; and many tidings and tales of it have come to pass both on earth and aloft. “His wife was called Frigg daughter of Fjörgvinn; and of their blood is come that kindred which we call the races of the Æsir, that have peopled the Elder Ásgard, and those kingdoms which pertain to it; and that is a divine race. For this reason, must he be called Allfather: because he is father of all the gods and of men, and of all that was fulfilled of him and of his might. The Earth was his daughter and his wife; on her he begot the first son, which is Ása-Thor.” Thor, we should keep in mind, is a thunder god, wielding lightning bolts and thunder as his implements. He is a storm god just like Greek Zeus or Hittite Teshub, or Hindu Indra: X. “Nörfi or Narfi is the name of a giant that dwelt in Jötunheim: he had a daughter called Night; she was swarthy and dark, as befitted her race. She was given to the man named Naglfari; their son was Audr. Afterward she was wedded to him that was called Annarr; Jörd was their daughter. Last of all Dayspring had her, and he was of the race of the Æsir; their son was Day: he was radiant and fair after his father. Then Allfather took Night, and Day her son, and gave to them two horses and two chariots, and sent them up into the heavens, to ride round about the earth every two half-days. Night rides before with the horse named Frosty-Mane, and on each morning, he bedews the earth with the foam from his bit. The horse that Day has is called Sheen-Mane, and he illumines all the air and the earth from his mane.” (1) Wondrous Mushroom, p. 43;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perun |