Myths and Legends, and Regions far north of the Black Sea

[Charlotte]

The incident of the cliff-hanging Pegasus Aircraft at Trabzon Airport, Turkey, lead me to look for a map. Trabzon being on the Black Sea, which body of water has become important in my view of the World as the Germans, Skythians, Greeks and Sarmatians are spoken of.

Armenia and Mt. Ararat not far

1.bp.blogspot.com/-poNGpG--7aQ/VDvDhSAed1I/AAAAAAAAAUQ/0L4eN8CmqZI/s1600/trabzon-on-the-turkey-map.gif

Wikipedia

"The Arimaspi were described by Aristeas of Proconnesus in his lost archaic poem Arimaspea. Proconnesus is a small island in the Sea of Marmora near the mouth of the Black Sea, well situated for hearing traveler's tales of regions far north of the Black Sea."

Herodotus reports:

"This Aristeas, possessed by Phoibus, visited the Issedones, beyond these (he said) live the one-eyed Arimaspoi, beyond are the Grypes that guard gold, and beyond these again the Hyperboreoi, whose territory reaches to the sea. Except for the Hyperboreoi, all these nations (and first the Arimaspoi) are always at war with their neighbors.

"Herodotus, "Father of History", admits the fantastic allure of the edges of the known world. "The most outlaying lands, though, as they enclose and wholly surround all the rest of the world, are likely to have those things which we think the finest and rarest." Histories iii.116.I) Ignoring the scepticism of Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny's Natural History perpetuated the fables about the northern people who had a single eye in the center of their forehead and engaged in stealing gold from the griffins, causing disagreements between the two groups."

I love Herodotus, who tells us that the 'most outlaying lands, enclosing and wholly surrounding all the rest of the world, are likely to have the finest and rarest things'. No wonder, it takes us so long to find these fine and rare things, unless, as Strabo and Pliny intimate, we become like the 'northern' people with a single eye on our forehead enabling us to steal gold from the griffins.

The Sea and Island of Marmara

www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/seaofmar.gif

[Charlotte]

Herodotus, who in my estimation is not only the father of general history, as he himself tells about the Egyptian Priest taking him here and there, telling him this and the other which would not be pious to say, the probable reason he became such a wonderful fibber, fabricating stories to give a name and habitation to figures and things he coul not say directly, is what I think.

Herodotus tells that the strange tales of the far north of one-eyed man and gold guarding griffins originated with the Issedonians, which the Skythians passed on to the rest of us.

Wikipedia

"The flimsy report of Herodotus seems to be very flimsy ground for making unequivocal statements about the historical background out of which the legend emerged. Notwithstanding these resevations, Tadeusz Sulimirski (1970) claims that the Arimaspi were a Sarmation tribe originating in the upper valley of the River Irtysh, ... "

The River Irtysh is in Siberia, Russia.

"Modern historians speculate on historical identities that may be selectively extracted from the brief account of "Arimaspi". Herodotus recorded a detail recalled from Arimaspea that may have a core in fact: "the Issedones were pushed from their lands by the Arimaspoi, and the Scythians by the Issedones". ... "It has been suggested that the griffins were inferred from the fossilized bones of Protoceratops". Modern historians need something rational most of the time.

Aristeas, the semi-legendary Greek Poet, during his travels in the far North, reports that he encountered the Issedones, who "were an ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade route leading north-east from Scythia, described in the lost Arimaspeia by Aristeas, by Herodotus in his History (IV.16-25) and by Ptolemy in his Geography. Like the Massagetae to the south, the Issedones are described by Herodotus as similar to, yet distict from, the Scythians."

Ancient Scythia

i.pinimg.com/originals/75/4a/3a/754a3a62f1c4c8127b51f63bf59f1ce6.jpg

[Charlotte]

Names and Habitations

The regions about the Sea of Marmara and north of the Black Sea are "well situated for hearing traveler's tales of regions far north of the Black Sea".

Herodotus tells that the strange tales from the distant north originate with the Issedonians. The exact location of these ancient people of central Asia is unknown. They are placed in Sibiria, Chinese Turkestan, east of Scythia and north of the Massagatea, the Tarim Basin, and on the south-western slopes of the Altai Mountains.

"The Byzantine scholiast John Tzetzes, who sites the Isssedones generally "in Scythia", quotes some lines to the effect that the Issedones "exult in long flowing hair" and mentions the one-eyed men to the north.

"According to Herodotus, the Issedones practiced ritual cannibalism of their elderly males, followed by a ritual feast at which the deceased patriarch's family ate his flesh, gilded his his scull, and placed it in a position of honor much like a cult image. In addition, the Issedones were supposed to have kept their wives in common. This may indicate institutionalized polyandry and a hight status for women (Herodotus IV.26: and their women have equal rites to men"). Similar customs could be found until recently among many Tibetan tribes, leading som to speculate that the Issedones were of Tibetan extraction. However, the similarities with the Tibetans may be the result of proximity alone."

Even the word cannibalism gives me an ill feeling, needless to say I would not have liked to be an Issedonian women, and equal rights to men would have been natural to me.

Since the Arimaspi were the one-eyes, perhaps the poem by Aristeas is of the Issedones as is indicated in this portion of the poem of which the rest is lost.

Amarvel exceeding great is this withal to my soul—

Men dwell on the water afar from the land, where the deep seas roll.

Wretched are they, for they reap but a harvest of travail and pain.

Their eyes on the stars ever dwell, while their hearts abide in the main.

Often, I ween, to the Gods are their hands upraised on high,

And with hearts in misery heavenward-lifted in pra do they cry.


The meaning of the one eye is unclear, and apparently the men dwelling afar on the water were miserable because they reaped what they sowed.

[Charlotte]

The Arimaspi being "a legendary people" who lived at the foothils of the "Ural Mountains or the Carpathians", bringing them close to the great Carpathian and Danube Basin, and the Vinca Civilization. Mr. Sulimirski (1970) "claims that the Arimaspi were a Sarmatian tribe...", and the Scythians seem to be everywhere. The Massaggetae are also mentioned. Historians speculate that "the "sp" in the name suggests that it was mediated through Iranian sources to Greek, indeed in Early Iranian Arimaspi combines Ariama (love) and Aspa (horses). Herodotus or his source seems to have understood the Scythian word as a combination of the root arima ("one") and spou ("eye") and to have created a mythic image to account for it."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massagetae#/media/File:Asia_323bc.jpg

However: "All tales of their struggles with the gold-guarding griffins in the Hyperborean lands near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind (Geskleithron), had their origin in the lost work by Aristeas, reported by Herodotus."

I would have to go with Herodotus' arima-spou, Aristeas creating a mythis image, since the gold-guarding griffins were in the lands of Hyperborea near the cave of the North Wind, which at times, I read, occasions cold blasts, blows strongly, other times less so, to carry the griffin-fighters to the "Land of the Blessed", which is what Hyperborea is called at times. Reminds me also that Hamlet's Father was a Hyperion.

[Charlotte]

The Issedones, Arimaspoi, the Massagetae, and the Hyperboreoi. "Except for the Hyperboreoi, all these nations (and first the Arimaspoi) are always at war with their neighbors", however, the one-eyed Arimaspi were "a legendary people", in a region well suited for traveler's tales.

"The Massagetae were an ancient Eastern Iranian nomadic confederation, who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia, north-east of the Caspian Sea in mosern Turkmenistan, western Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan.

"The Massagetae are known primarily from the writings of Herodotus who described the Massagetae as living on a sizable portion of the great plain east of the Caspian Sea. He several times refers to them as living "beyond the River Araxes", which flows through the Caucasus and into the west Caspian. Scholars have offered various explanation for this anomaly. For example, Herodotus may have confused two or more rivers, as he had limited and frequently indirect knowledge of geography."

The Aras river, "one of the largest rivers in the Caucasus, flows through Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran".

The Aras River, Ararat on its banks

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aras_(river)#/media/File:Arasrivermap.jpg

Of the Massagetae, Herodotus writes:

"In their dress and mode of living the massagetae resemble the Scythians. They fight both on horseback and on foot, neither method is strange to them: they use bowes and lances, but their favorite weapon is a battle-axe. Their arms are all either of gold or brass. For their spear-points, and arrow-heads, and for their battle-axes, they make use of brass; for head-gear, belts and girdles, of gold. So too with the comparison of their horses, they give them breast-plates of brass, but employ gold about the reins, the bit, and the cheek-plates. They us neither iron nor silver, having none in their country; but they have brass and gold in abundance."

How could one loose fighting with gold and brass. Priviously, it was suggested that the "sp" in Arimaspi, in early Iranian meant "love", and Aspa meant "horses", which would link the Arimaspi with the Massagetae, the latter being 'lover of horses', whereas Herodotus "understood the Scythian word as a combinationof the roots arima "one", and spou "eye", and has "created a mythic image to account for it", as in legend.

[Charlotte]

Happy Sunday

Got lost in the texts of Pindar this morning and found the connection to the Danube and Carpatian Basin, also that the Arimaspoi "mounted on horses, who dwell about the flood of Plouton's (Pluton') stream that flows with gold. Do not approach them." Aeschylus, Prometheus bound.

A few points

Pindar:

"... keeping in reverence of heart the gods' mysteries. But if water is the best of all things, and of possession gold is the godliest..."

Herodotus:

"But in the north of Europe is by far the most gold. In this matter I cannot say with assurance how the gold is produced", which the Arimaspoi steal it from the griffins who guard it.

"The Arimaspoi were a tribe of one-eyed men who lived at the foot of the Rhipaen Mountains in northern Skythia (probably the Carpatians)."

Pindar writes that the wreaths of green olive leafs worn by men at the Olympic games, came from the shady streams of Istros, the Greek name for the Danube in the region where it flowed into the Black Sea. He also mentiones the land of Istria, which sounded much like Austria, and learned that Istria is the largest peninsula in the Adriadic Sea and became part of Austria.

[Charlotte]

Apropos Pindar's "But if water is best of all things, and of possessions gold is the goodliest...", in yesterday's Cathedral Bulletin is written:

SAINT CYRIL OF JERUSALEM ON 'WHY DID CHRIST CALL THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WATER?'

"Because all things depend on water; plants and animals have their origin in water. Water comes down from heaven as rain, and although it is always the same in itself, it produces many different effects, one in the palm tree, one in the vine, and so on throughout creation. It does not come down, now as one thing, now as another, but while remaining essentially the same it adapts itself to the needs of every creature that receives it.

"In the same way the Holy Spirit, whose nature is always the same, simple and indivisible, apportions grace to each man as He wills. Like a dry tree which put forth shoots when watered, the soul bears the fruit of holiness when repentence has made it worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit. Although the Spirit never changes, the effects of its actions, by the will og God and in the name of Christ, are both many and marvelous."

Makes me think of the Spirit of Shakespeare, universal consciousness, which adapts itsel to the individual reader, if he surrenders his mind to the Poet. No interference from thought; or, be compared to the quantum realm where life and the universe is seen or appears according to the perception of the observer.

Gold being the goodliest, or godliest as I misquoted in my last post, because all extraneous ciphened off, only gold endures at the bottom of the crucible. I don't know if that is what Pindar eluded to, but it works.

[Charlotte]

Wikipedia

The journey to Hyperboria.

Legends

""According to Herodotus (4.13), Aristeas had written a hexameter poem (now lost) about a 'trip' to the Issedones. Beyond these lived the one-eyed Arimaspians, further on the gold-guarding griffins, and beyond these the Hyperborians. Hesiod mentioned the Hyperboreans, Herodotus reported, "and Homer also in the Epigoni, if that be really a work of his."

So to speak, first we have to visit the Issedones, an ancient people of Central Asia, then the one-eyed Arimaspians, then get to know the gold-guardian griffins before arriving in land of the Hyperboreans.

"Along with Thule, Hyperborea was one of several terra incognitae to the Greeks and Romans, where Pliny and Herodotus, as well as Virgil and Cicero, reported that people lived to an age of one thousand and enjoyed lives of complete happiness."

Why would such great Minds write like outlandish stories, I asked myself. Thule being the galactic center which we can't see because obscured by interstellar dust. Since the mind of Man and the cosmos depend on each other, when working in harmony that dust is removed "the Ultimate Thule is seen", says St. Germain. The true nature.

"Alone among the Twelve Olympians, Apollo was venerated among the Hyperboreans: he spent his winter among them. For their part the Hyperboreans sent mysterious gifts, packed in straw that came first from Dodona and then were passed from people to people until they came to Apollo's temple on Delos (Pausanias). Abaris, Hyperborean priest of Apollo, was a legendary wandering healer and seer. Theseus and Perseus also visited the Hyperboreans."

These mysterious gifts came first from Dodona, Egypt, remiding me of the "False Doors", behind which dwells Anubis in his divine tent-shrine, giving offerings to guide individuals from the world of the living to the 'afterlife', new life.

Such are the gifts given to us.

"Cheremmisin and Zaporozhchenko (1999), following the methodology of Georges Dumézil, attemps to trace parallels in Germanic mythology (Odin and the mead of poetry, the eagles stealing golden apples of eternal youth). They hypothesize that all these stories, Germanic, Scythian, and Greek, reflect Proto-Indo-European belief about the monsters guarding the entrance to the otherworld and returning with a variety of precious gifts symbolizing new life."

The "otherworld" of the Lector Priest of Egypt, "the carrier of the book of ritual, keeper of secret knowledge."

[Charlotte]

Hyperboria is given different locations.

"Since Herodotus places the Hyperboreans beyond the Massagetae and Issedones, both Central Asian peoples, it appears that his Hyperboreans may have lived in Siberia. Heracles sought the golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Hyperboria. As the reindeer is the only deer species of which female bear hornes, this would suggest an arctic or subarctic region. Following J.D.P. Bolton's location of the Issedones on the south-western slopes of the Altay mountains, Carl P. Ruck places Hyperborea beyond Dzungarian Gate into northern Xinjiang, noting that the Hyperboreans were probably Chinese. Hecataeus of Abdera, however, clearly places the Hyperboreans in the British Isles."

Interesting, as Dr. Hoeller, Gnostic Bishop, taught that a stag ran across the Round Table when King Arthur and his Knights gathered in secret.

As noted before, Hamlet's father, the elder Hamlet was an Hyperborean, it follows that Shakespeare, also known as Sir Francis Bacon, were Hyperboreans, so to say.

Dragons and griffins in the City of London. "The City Dragon of London is incorrectly called a Griffin", with a note that it is associated with St. George and the Dragon. Not here. It matters not since Hyperborea is "Terra Incognita", or "unknown lands".

"An urban legend claims that cartographers labeled such regions with "Here be dragons". Although cartographers did claim that fantastic beasts (including large serpents) existed in remote corners of the world and depicted such as decoration on their maps, only one known surviving map, the Lenox Globe, in the collection of the New York Public Library actually says "Here be dragons" (using the Latin "hic sunt dracones"). "

The Lenox Globe

www.draconem.net/here-be-dragons/

Why would they do that.

This one is acalled a griffin at the eastern boundry of London

static.panoramio.com.storage.googleapis.com/photos/large/38521757.jpg

"At the heart of London are two cities: the city of London and the City of Westminster. The City of London is the ancient part of London that was once known as the Roman city of Londinium. It comprises an area of one square mile and is located north of South Bank and London Bridge. The boundries of the City of London have changed little since medieval times and the boundry is six miles long.

"The entrance to the City of London is marked in ten locations by statues of dragons. There are two dragons supporting the City of London Coat of Arms and dragons are important symbols of the city."

In times of Elizabeth I, dragons and gold-guarding griffins lived and moved and had their being in the ancient City of London, contemplating the next step for Humanity of how to get to Hyperborea.

[Charlotte]

We know that there are no dragons or large serpents in the seas or Hyperborea, the unknown land inaccessable by land or sea, where lived a happy and blessed race "exempt from disease or old age, from toil and warfare." They:

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished the my course, I have kept the faith:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

2 Timothy 4:7-8 (KJV)

Pindar:

Never the Muse is absent
from their ways: lyres clash and flutes cry'
and everywhere maiden choruses whirling.
Neither disease nor bitter old gae is mixed
in their sacred blood, far from labor and battle they live.

The Poet Keats wrote that he stumbled "on a post-Edenic feast scene, and partaking of a "cool vessel of transparent juice, that became his muse."

"Reaching such exotic lands is never easy:

"Never on land or sea will you find
the marvelous road to the feast of the Hyperborea."

Diodorus Siculus

"Of Hyperion we are told that he was the first to understand, by diligent attention and observation, the movement of both the sun and the moon and the other stars, and the seasons as well, in that they are caused by those bodies, and to make these facts known to others; and that for this reason he was called the father of these bodies, since he had begotten them, so to speak, the speculation about them and their nature.

"Hyperion is often considered th 'God of Observation' while his sister Theia the 'Goddess of Sight'."

Suggesting that by dilligent attention and observation, "In James Joyce's Ulysses, Buck Mulligan tells Stephen, "I'm hyperborian as much as you."

In the main, the marvelous road to the feast of the Hyperboreans betokens an interior journey which is both perilous and enchanting, what else could 'they' be talking about?

[Charlotte]

Abaris

"Abaris was a name attributed to several different men in Greek mythology.

"Abaris the Hyperborean, son of Seutes, was a legendary sage, wandering healer and seer, and priest of Apollo known to the ancient Greeks. He was supposed to have learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea, which he fled during a plague. He was said to be endowed with the gify of prophecy, and by this as well as by his Scythian dress and simplicity and honesty he created great sensation in Greece, and was held in high esteem.

"According to Herodotus he was said to have traveled around the world with an arrow symbolizing Apollo, eating no food. Heraclides Ponticus wrote that Abaris flew on it. Plato Charmides 158C) clsses him amongst the "Thracian physicians" who practice medecine upon the soul as well as the body by means of "incantations" epodai). A temple to Persephone at Sparta was attributed to Abaris by Pausanias (9.10). Alan H. Griffiths compares Abaris to Aristeas in terms of being a "shamanistic missionary and savior-figure" and notes that Pindar places Abaris during the time of Croesus."

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Interesting how the Wise of old collaborate and re-affirm things important in different narratives to evoke understanding. My Philosophy Teacher phrased it thusly: if you don't get it this way, maybe this one will work. Abaris traveled or flew around the world on an arrow, Aristeas gives an account of travels to the far North, to the most outlying lands which enclose and surround the rest of the world, where is the most gold by far and those things which are finest and rarest.

Aristeas

"Aristeas was a semi-legendary Greek poet and miracle-worker, a native of Proconnesus in Asia Minor, active ca. 7th century BCE. In book IV of The Histories, Herodotus reports

The birthplace of Aristeas, the poet who sung of these things, I have already mentioned. I will now relate a tale which I heard concerning him both at Proconnesus and at Cyzicus. Aristeas, they said, who belonged to one of the noblest families in the island, had entered one day into a fuller's shop, when he suddenly dropt down dead. Hereupon the fuller shut up his shop, and went to tell Aristea's kindred what had happened. The report of the death had just spread through the town, when a certain Cyzicettian, lately arrived from Artaca, contradicted the rumour, affirming that he had met Aristeas on the road to Cyzicus, and had spoken with him. This man, therefore, strenuously denied the rumour, the relations, however, proceded to the fuller's shop with all things necessary for the funeral, intending to carry the body away. But on the shop being opened, no Aristeus was found, either dead or alive. Seven years afterwards he reappeared, they told me, in Proconneesus, and wrote the poem called by the Greeks The Arimaspeia, after which he disappeared a second time. This is the tale current in the two cities above-mentioned.

"Two hundred and fourty years after his death, Aristeus appeared in Metapontum in southern Italy to command that a statue of himself be set up and a new altar decicated to Apollo, saying that since his death he had been travelling with Apollo in the form of a raven."

Love those tales, renewed and kept alive throughout centuries, bringing to mind the traveling Minnesänger, the Eschenbacher my favorite, having a connection to him via my birthplace in Bavaria, where he rested from his wanderings.

[Charlotte]

A last and telling note on Abaris the Hyperborean

Wikipedia

Phalaris

"A particularly rich throve of anectodes is found in Iamblichus's Vita Pythagorica. Here, Abaris is said to have purified Sparta and Knossos, among other cities, from plagues (VP 92-93). Abaris also appears in a climactic scene alongside Pythagoras at the court of the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris. The two sages discuss divine matters, and urge the obstinate tyrant toward virtue (ibid. 215-221). Iamblichus also attributes to Abaris a special expertise at extispici, the art of predicting future events through examination of anomalis in the etrails of animals. The Suda attributes a number of books to Abaris, including a volume of Scythian Oracles in dactylic hexameter, a prose thegony, a poem on the marriage of the river Hebrus, a work on purification, and an account of Apollo's visit to the Hyperboreans. But such works, if they were really current in ancient times, were no more genuine than his reputed correspondence with Phalaris the tyrant."

Nevertheless, Iamblichus knew, so to say, the legendary sage, healer, and priest of Apollo, Abaris, being one himself.

"A more securely historical Greco-Scythian philosopher, who traveld among the Hellenes in the early sixth century, was Anacharsis.

"Eighteenth century Bath architect John Wood, the Elder wrote about Abaris, and put forth the fanciful suggestion that he should be identified with King Bladud."

So I meet up again with the mythical King Bladud, founder of the City of Bath, the King contracing leprosy while in Athens, returned home, was imprisoned, escaped, went into hiding, became a swineherd, noted that the pigs would roll in the warm mud in the winter, so Bladud did the same and was cured of leprocy.

"Poetry", knows Percy B. Shelley, "is at once the centre and circumference of knowledge to which all science must be referred, a Poet is the author to others of the highest wisdom, pleasure, virtue and glory....."

Aristeas, the semi-legendary Greek Poet and Miracle-Worker, narrates "that he was "wrapped in Bacchic fury" on his travels to the North.

Shakespeare

The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear!
But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd so together,
More witnesseth than fancy's images,
And grows to something of great constancy,
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.

The lovers of myths, legends, and tales from regions "far north of the Black Sea", well situated for hearing travelers stories.

[Charlotte]

Not all is legend considering that the people lived "in a perpetually warm and sunny land", which, as some writers say was the case before the shift of the Earth's axis of which I know next to nothing, but it makes sense since Apollo, here the sun, spent the winter there after the shift. As noted before, "a region well suited for travelers tales", incorporating the spiritual journey.

The Mercator map was shown in an articel from PRAVDA, Russia. It reads that Catherine the Great "got some information of the ancient mythical land near the Arctic Circle via the Free Masons." The Empress signed a secret decree for an expedition to the North Pole, however the ship could not make it through the ice and had to turn back.

"Why was Catherine II so interested in finding Hyperborea? I believe that Catherine, not unlike other kings and queens, was enchanted by the prospects of discovering the elixir of eternal youth, which is said to have been invented by the Hyperboreans. We shouldn't forget that the Empress was a women."

HaHaHa, them Russians.

Mercator, Gerhard, 1512-1594, writes a letter to John Dee, an English mathematician and astrologer, consultant and friend to Elizabeth I.

libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/northwest-passage/mercator.htm

[Charlotte]

Die Lorelei

Don't know how many people in America know the legend of the Lorelei, which is told mostly in terms of the terrestrial world, but can be thought of as celestial creature of purety, a virgin in the song. Here, she is also depicted holding a lyre, and some imagine her with a wreath of stars in her copper coloured hair. The legend is "aus uralten Zeiten", hoary times.

i.pinimg.com/736x/50/af/9e/50af9e61f4f560fcb41ca94008859685--photo-postcards-vintage-ephemera.jpg

The terrestrial image is at the end of the video



The Lorelei was written as a Poem by Heinrich Heine 1789-1860, the melody composed by Friedrich Silder.

The Song

I don't know why my disconsolate disposition,
a legend of hoary times will not leave my soul,
the air is cool as darkness approaches,
tranquil flows the Rhine,
the summit of the rock shimmers
in the glow of the evening sun.

Seated on high a beautiful virgin,
her golden raiment glistens
as she combs her golden hair.
She sings a wondrous song,
with a powerful melody.

The boatman in a small ship
is seized by a mighty yearning,
he notes not the crags in the rock,
enthralled his gaze fixed on high,
At the end the waves will sink
boatman and ship,
due to the enchanting song of the Lorelei.

Perhaps the legend betokens that man will risk his earthly existence to reach the unreachable stars, the Lorelei being his Soul and soul-mate.

[Charlotte]

Somewhat related to the myths of the one-eyed Arimaspoi, who, according to Herodotus, had a single eye in the center of their forehead, are accounts given by the Hopi and Rosicrucians. However, the information of the Hopi harkens back to the creation of man, the account of the Rosicrucian to Lemuria. These two accounts may be 'spirit involution causes matter evolution'. By the time of the Greeks and the Egyptians before them, to stick with these two civilizations, the consciousness of man had attained a realization that, in Mr. Hall's words, "every grain of sand must become a star" to arrive at Hyperborea, a happy place without toil or sickness, not accessable by land or sea but by the spirit. I explored this Thema before, so a brief recap.

"The first people", writes Mr. Frank Waters in the Hopi Creation Myth, "knew no sickness. Not until evil entered the world did persons get sick in the body and head." Knowing how the body was constructed, the medecine man cured them. "At the time of the dark purple light", the mystery of man's creation is revealed." At that time, "there was still a dampness on their foreheads and a soft spot on their heads. This was at the time of the yellow light - the second phase of the dawn of Creation, when the breath of life entered man.

"In a short time the sun appeared above the horizon, drying the dampness on their foreheads and hardening the soft spot on their heads. This was the time of the red light, - the third phase of the dawn of Creation, when man, fully formed and firmed, proudly faced his Creator."

The Hopi bid us to always "remember and observe these three phases of your Creation. The time of the three light, the dark purple, the yellow, and the red reveal in turn the mystery, the breath of life, and warmth of love. These comprise the Creator's plan of life for you as sung over you in the Song of Creation."

[Charlotte]

LEMURIA

The Lost Continent Of The Pacific

By Wishar S. Cervé of the Rosicrucian Fellowship, San Jose, California, who dedicated the book to Sir Francis Bacon of "brilliant mind and soul." Had to say that

"The average forehead of the Lemurians must have been about six to seven inches in height. In the center of this forehead, about an inch and a half above the bridge of the nose, there was a large protrusion much like the size and shape of a walnut. We would look upon this sort of growth in the center of the forehead today as a disfigurement, but with them it was perfectly natural, -- the protrusion was composed of a soft mass of matter over which the outer cuticle was drawn tightly and the cuticle itself was of a delicate, soft nature and color like the skin that is underneath our eyes.

"The protrusion in the center of the forehead was the result of the sustained development of a faculty of the human body that has gradually disappeared since Lemuria submerged and the races of its people were dispersed throughout the world. I trust that my readers will not compare this protrusion of the forehead with the fantastic stories of the Cyclops. However, the story of Cyclops is based upon what was an actual fact with the people of Lemuria, for, although this protrusion was not an organ of sight of a limited nature, nor was it precisely a "third eye," it did constitute an organ of sense that was equivelant to an eye, and an ear, and a nose, and any other faculty that we now possess for the reception of impressions. It was commonplace for the Lemurian to close his two physical eyes and to stand still at any moment in his daily activities and focalize his consciousness upon the center of his forehead and receive an impression that might have been translated into one of sight, or smell, or hearing, or feeling, or tasting."

As we do today, Mr. Cervé writes, we stop talking or activities, stand still and concentrate on a faint sound or when we want to see something more clearly. "The Lemurians, however, used this special faculty not for local impression or for purely intimate matters, but for long- distance impressions", they learned to communicate with the animals in their language, as did the Hopi, and it shouldn't surprise us "that the art of mental telepathy or the mental exchange of ideas and impressions at unlimited distances became a perfectly natural, commonplace, and regular practice with the Lemurians."

We do this today, saying to someone: I thought of this too yesterday, and many other instances of telepathy, but generally speaking, science has convinced us that all these and other occurrances are merely coincidence, unless we study the old Lovers of Wisdom or quantum physics.

"That this sixth sense originated with an organ equal to, or in some way connected with the present small organ in our modern bodies known as the pineal body is quite likely", and that in remote corners of the world where races are not as "civilized" as we are, the pineal gland is much larger, hence they yet have a cosmic connection. We know this from tribes who now and then come out of their hidden retreats and speak of their knowledge of things. The atrophied pineal gland in our advanced civilization falls under the common 'if you don't use it you lose it'.

In any event, the importance of the pineal gland, "the eye of the gods", is well known, is symbolically depicted in many forms, including the Top, Kreisel in German, we spin as children and the whirring sound expands space and we feel magic in the air.

[Charlotte]

Sunday Travel, especially for Don Barone, celebrating his birthday in cold Canada. Happy Birthday from sunny California and all the best, Don, always.

Geography, Monuments, Legends of ancient Ireland

[Don Barone]

Thanks Charlotte it was a nice day. The entire family watched the Super Bowl and it was a very exciting game with lots of wine and cheese to be had. Hard to believe I am now 68 ! ... too bad about the neurons finally fired out

[Don Barone]

Feb 4, 2018 10:12:53 GMT -5 Charlotte said:

Sunday Travel, especially for Don Barone, celebrating his birthday in cold Canada. Happy Birthday from sunny California and all the best, Don, always.

Geography, Monuments, Legends of ancient Ireland

Fantastic documentary Charlotte ... thanks for posting it ...

Cheers
Don

[Charlotte]

Feb 5, 2018 21:26:30 GMT -5 Don Barone said:

Thanks Charlotte it was a nice day. The entire family watched the Super Bowl and it was a very exciting game with lots of wine and cheese to be had. Hard to believe I am now 68 ! ... too bad about the neurons finally fired out

You're welcome, Don, glad you had a good day with the Family, I rooted for the Eagles for I love to fly Take care.

[Charlotte]

Searching for Legends and Myths by gold-guarding Griffins

Deep have I delved in many a loreful tome,
Seeking the ores of alien happiness,
And from such forays turned full-parcelled home,
With fairy throves from fabled Lyonesse,
Dorado's blazing silts, and pile on pile
Of far Serendib's moon-outglittering gems,
Waters of youth from that ensorcelled isle,
Sea-wandered Bimini, rose-diadems
Andramandoni's wedded lovers wear,
Unwintered blooms of Hedon and Horai,
Attars and musks that balm Al-Jannat's air,
And appled bins with Hesper's harvest high;

Yet found but thee no goodly merchandise,
Nor heaven but here in thy love's Paradise.

Anonymous

[Charlotte]

Was looking for Appalachian folk tales and myths, gave up and wandered through this peaceful country town, seems a nice place to settle if it weren't so cold.

[Charlotte]

The famed "Thousand and One Nights", a marvelous story of life.

Once upon a time there was a powerful Persian King wedded to a beautiful Princess. Upon hearing rumours that she cheated on him, he stood by the window to see for himself, and so it was. His heart turned to stone and he ordered her beheaded. He took to himself another wife and after enjoying one night with her she suffered the same fate. This he did until no maidens were left, save the two daughter's of his vizier who had hidden them away.

His daughter Scheherazade asked her father for permission to marry the King, but he refused. Scheherazade persisted and her father finally relented. Scheherazade and the King were married and retired to their chamber after the great feast to consummate their vows. Anxious that Scheherazade would suffer the same fate as the King's previous wives, her sister came in the early morning hours, say about 4:00 or so, suggesting that Scheherazade tell one of her many stories to while away the rest of the night. Gladly, said Scheherazade, if the King will let her live, and told her first folktale, but soon it dawned and the noise of the court disturbed the silence. Scheherazad turned to the King saying she will continue tomorrow for the activity of the court impaired her concentration, thankful she would live another day.

[Charlotte]

Scheherazade means "the freer of cities", I read and like as it holds back the ususal first thought of a noble virgin and a King spending 1001 nights together in tächtel-mächtel only.

Arabian Nights Wiki

"In Sir Richard F. Burton's translation of The Nights, Shahrazad was described in this way:

"[Sharazad] had perused books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by gone men and things. Indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart, she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred."

According to storytree.com, Scheherazade told stories "of the whole range of human experiences, from the comical to the tragic, the wondrous to mundane, the secular to mystical. In her telling, nothing was rejected as common or unclean, all classes of people were represented, slave and king, and courtier and countryman, pietists and free-thinkers, ignorant and learned, wise and foolish, moralist and debauchee. In a word - Humanity - wise, obscene, and greater than judgment.

"The stories included genies and jinns, ghouls, sorcerers, magicians, legendary places, and sometimes, a character in Scheherazade's tale told other characters a story of his own, and that story may have another one told within it, stories within stories, multilayered, rich and textured.

"Her narrative was sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, but never a sentimental reading of the human heart, and slowly, slowly was transferred to King Shehriyar's morbid intellct little by little (nevermore at a time than a self-righteous tyrant could assimilate), the wondrousness of the kaleidoscope of life, until the end, there was nothing left in the world for him to resist or not to love. And with the stories, he saw his own story in perspective.

"The stories, which was Life talking to him, wounds its way underneath his self-righteous indignation and released his heart from its stone prison. Scheherezade, a master of her art, presented the Universe of story, or rather the Universe as story. I have heard tell from the wise old storytellers that it is not humans who tell stories, no no, it is us who are the characters in a large story, it is the story that tells us.

"Scheherazade told her tales for one thousand nights and one night, and when she came to the end of her stories, she had her three sons that she had in the meantime born to the king brought to the room, and said to him, "My most august king, will you take away the mother from these your three sons? I beg of you to spare my life." And the king, whose heart had been healed, had fallen in love with his wife, her wit and strategy, and he had aleary long thought that he would not put her to death.

"Thus we see that the stories in One Thousand and One Night, brought about a death - of the tyrant, and refreshment as man.

"And now, I bid you all a wonderful life of stories and songs."


And I wish you all a great weekend, I'm off to the Farmers Market to mingle with the hard-working people who bring us organic food.

[Charlotte]

Escaping to mythical Ireland and the Salmon of Knowledge




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Fintan Mac Bochra

i.pinimg.com/originals/df/ba/c4/dfbac44e1050fd07444406f4b078d15b.jpg

[Charlotte]

Not on my life would I leave the the mystical tales of Ireland for the unreal world we live in, and I like Anthony Murphy's thinking and presentation of this and the other worlds.

[Charlotte]

Our very own Storyteller

Crickets and cicadas sing
a rare and different tune,
his job was to shed light
and not to master.

Since the end is never told
We pay the teller off in gold
In hopes he will come back
But he cannot be bought or sold.

[Charlotte]

Dreamtime

"According to Aboriginal belief, all life as it is today - Human, Animal, Bird and Fish is part of one vast unchanging network of relationships which can be traced to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime.

"The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the world, of it's creation, and it's great stories. The Dreamtime is the beginning of knowledge, from which came the laws of existence. For survival these laws must be observed.

"The Dreaming world was the old time of the Ancestor Beings. They emerged from the earth at the time of the creation. Time began in the world the moment these supernatural beings were "born out of their own Eternity."

[Charlotte]

Mysterious Shell Grotto, Margate, England

[Charlotte]

Was searching for the exact location of the Giant mountain range, Riesengebirge, on a map of Europe, all are too involved, will try again, to make notes on the extensive and famous legend of Rübezahl.

fineartamerica.com/featured/rubezahl-theobald-freiherr-von-oer.html

In "folklore, Rübezahl is the Spirit of the mountain range along the border between the historical lands of Bohemia and Silesia. He is the subject of many legends and fairy tales in German, Polish, and Czech folklore."

On a German site, one Henning Eichberg, titles 'the historic Gestaltwandel, known as shapeshifting, and latest shamanic information. There is a long tale in German, which suggests that he who wants to know more about this and other legends of mountain men should read up on "Herrn Johann Trithemium von Spanheim", who put or asked much better questions in print, in 1603, in the city of Mainz.

I noted Rübezahl, also called "The Lord of the Mountain", before, and got the gist of it, but the connection to the Spanheimer, as Mr. Hall called him, surprised me.