What follows, has been written with the greatest reluctance & self-doubt.
I’m not comfortable with this subject, but for some reasons, thought I might jot down some fundamental ideas pertaining to it.
What follows will give some significant hints, but will otherwise be muddled & confusing.
It’s very mysterious, very muddled, very hazy, and very disturbing – because none of this has actually been written anywhere, as far as I know.
For one, I can’t write down a lot of things which are very crucial to understanding this issue—they can’t be written on a public forum, and shouldn’t be relayed to the world at large.
For another, I am myself working out the idea in my head, and it will be years before I figure it out properly, myself.
As I said, I’ll jot down a few salient points.
Make of it what you will.
I am too hard-pressed for time to edit it carefully, so please forgive me the errors, whether grammatical or more serious!
These are working notes, and I might alter my views with time.
I might take down this post, in a few days.
But let me first put it out there, and see how I feel about it!
The idea that human civilization originated in a region which was dominated by a volcano, is something which has been hinted at by others, much before me.
I’ve been toying with this idea for several years, as a matter of fact.
Initially, I was very enthusiastic about it: I saw the volcano everywhere, just as John Allegro sees the Amanita Muscaria everywhere.
Over the years, I’ve become far more cautious, skeptical, and self-critical.
At a certain point, I had almost abandoned the notion, but ... I haven’t.
Yet.
Ancient religion, mythology, symbolism, allegory, and philosophy are too vast, too complex, too nuanced, too layered – and above all, too muddled – to adopt any sort of reductive theory that simplifies everything to a single idea.
Most of it is allegorical and philosophical – representing various points of view, interpretations, cults, philosophers, poets, etc.
It’s just that the moderns don’t know what the allegories mean.
Some occultists in the 19th century made very intriguing & intrepid attempts to elucidate at least a part of the ancient mysteries.
But they probably caused more confusion & frustration than ever before.
So that is pretty much a closed book.
And yet, one has to strain one’s mind & imagination to try to trace & identify the tenuous traces of historical reality fleetingly glimpsed in these complicated & chaotic myths & records.
One idea which definitely penetrates the thick veils laid over ancient myths & legends, is the fight between the forces of “good” and “evil” – represented as the war between the God of Rain-Sunlight-Food-&-Water, etc. and the “Dragon” of Drought-Famine-Darkness-Hunger etc. – the God of Life & Light and the “Dragon” of Death & the Abyss.
The conflict between the Dragon and the Dragon-Slayer.
This is the most simplistic statement of facts.
The first important point.
This “Dragon” is none other than the Volcano.
The second important point.
THE VOLCANO FELL.
If this hadn’t happened – the rest of human history as we know it, wouldn’t have happened.
This has been reflected in all ancient mythologies as the “Fall” of the Dragon – and often, its imprisonment beneath the surface of the Earth, or its immersion in the seas.
IT IS PRECISELY THE DESTRUCTION, THE DISMEMBERMENT (TOTAL DISINTEGRATION), AND SUBMERSION/ BURIAL/ DISAPPEARANCE IN THE NETHER REGIONS – OF THE “DRAGON” – THE MOUNTAIN – WHICH IS THE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE CODE.
I don’t know how often mountains (read “normal” mountains) collapse – and I don’t know if mankind has actually recorded the collapse of any mountain(s).
But I’m sure that a particular type of mountain CAN or DOES collapse, visibly.
And that is the volcano.
And such a collapse has taken place.
And mankind might well have known it, and even observed it, close at hand.
It is probable that volcano was located in Indonesia.
Indeed, Indonesia is the quintessential land of volcanoes.
Indonesia is the quintessential tropical paradise – the “Garden of Eden”, Equatorial, in the East – whence Mankind originated.
Or, if not Mankind, its civilizers – the engineers & architects of human civilization –symbolized (for example) by the figures of Adam, Cain & Seth – the Giants, the Titans, & the Olympians?
I’m surely not the first person to have noticed the volcano connection.
All sorts of theories exist.
I’m not well acquainted with those theories, and am pursuing this lead entirely on my own.
The volcano is the most fascinating terrestrial phenomenon.
The volcanic eruption involves all the elements – above all, that of fire.
The idea of the volcano is inseparable from the idea of the fire-breathing “dragon” or the fire-spitting serpent (“poison” being a symbolical allusion to magma-fire).
The volcano is the dragon that breathes or spews “fire” from its mouth.
There is no other such phenomenon on the planet.
But the earliest “Dragon” was not necessarily the serpent: it is symbolized by all sorts of animals.
Indeed, the lion seems to be as important as the serpent, in this context – primarily because of the association with fire.
Yet, the serpent – probably originally the gigantic Indonesian python– is the most prevalent & potent symbol of this volcano, the volcano-god, the volcanic “cult”, and the volcanic civilization.
As far as I know, there is – or was – no such volcano in India.
There are volcanoes in Africa – indeed, in central Africa.
(There are also a lot of volcanoes in Central & South America.)
At one point, I wondered if the original Mountain-Volcano God of mankind wasn’t the Kilimanjaro.
It pretty much fits the descriptions of the sacred mountains we have in Hindu literature.
Kailāsa in Nepal doesn’t.
Hindus will hate me for it, but Kailāsa in Nepal isn’t the Kailāsa of Hindu scriptures.
But while Kilimanjaro might have inspired Kailāsa, it doesn’t fit in with my theory – because, though a volcano – it is still standing proud and tall!
We need to look for an area where the volcano completely collapsed – though there are many other important elements to the story.
And that’s the principal reason why I’m not convinced that human civilization originated in India itself.
The collapse of the volcano had already taken place, before the Vedas were composed.
The prodigious significance & utter ubiquity of the typical dragon-slaying motif compels me to conclude that human civilization originated at the place where this “dragon” was slaughtered – indeed, where the “dragon” originally existed & flourished.
Since, in this interpretation, the “dragon” is a volcano – we are looking for an intensely volcanic region.
In my humble opinion, that region is Indonesia.
What’s more, the “Dragon” might have well been the most important god of mankind before its downfall & destruction.
The cult centering on the “Dragon” was replaced by the cult of the “dragon-slayer”: Indra, Marduk, Zeus, Apollo, Hercules etc.
The “Dragon” cult was certainly older than the cults which we know of, whether in India, China, Egypt, or Sumeria.
I have no reason to think of it as a “Mother Goddess” cult – but some might interpret it that way – because the most horrible Witch-Harlot cults seem to have sprung from this Volcanic cult.
It was, however, either always a Black-Magic cult or it was merely a typical primtive cult that later devolved into utter depravity & sheer Black-Magic.
It is the symbol of the ancient Sex cult – not to be confused with “fertility” cults – replete with pedophilia, incest, bestiality, and revolting sexual debauchery.
This was the creed that was obliterated, or at least crushed, by the so-called “Patriarchal” creeds.
But it not only survived in several pockets, elements of it remained in the reformed dragon-slayer cults too.
Indeed, I’m of the opinion that the “Dragon-Slayer” cults took over all the symbols & motifs of the “Dragon” cult, and gave them a fresh meaning.
In India, the “Dragon” cult is best represented by the Asuras, Daityas, Dānavas, and Rākṣasas – and of course, the Nāgas.
But the Nāgas of Indian literature, interestingly, are the least negative of all these magical beings.
And yet, we should not forget that in the Ṛg Veda, Vṛtra is not only called an Asura & a Dānava – but also an Ahi, i.e. a serpent.
Indians never quite demonized snakes as much as more western cultures did.
The reverence for the serpent in India distinguishes it considerably from the comparatively western view, and in China, the Dragon – though not really a serpent – is literally worshipped & adored.
Durgā slays a buffalo in Mahiṣa.
This image comes closest to the “Dragon-slaying” images of the West.
The Lion dominates the Elephant, all over Indian temples.
(The Lion interchanges with the Bird – mostly Garuḍa – who holds the serpents or serpent-beings in its talons – but this seems more prevalent in Buddhist art.
Indeed, the Bird is the more potent symbol of the dragon-slayer, than the Feline.)
The lion-headed Narasiṃha disembowels a grotesque but nevertheless very human-looking Hiraṇyakaśipu.
Kṛṣṇa merely dances on the serpent Kālīya.
Apasmāra, whose recumbent body Shiva Naṭarāja dances upon, merely holds a serpent.
And while Shiva flays the elephant Gaja, the Boar-Avatāra, Varāha, merely steps on reverential Nāgas.
From what I’ve known & seen, there are more negative portrayals of the elephant in India, than of the serpent – though I must say that the elephant is interchangeable with the serpent.
To put it differently, the elephant seems to have been substituted for the negative serpent, in India.
So there are negligible images of slaying serpents, in India, as far as I know.
Nāgas are not portrayed as particularly evil or inimical in Hindu literature – quite the opposite.
The “demons” in our literature come in all forms & shapes – such as the bull Ariṣṭa – the horse Keśin – the elephant Gaja – and the crane Baka.
Even in the West, Satan is not necessarily a serpent.
Indeed, he mostly isn’t.
He seems to be modelled more on the Lizard – I think the Komodo Dragon + Crocodile – or even the Chinese Dragon – rather than the serpent.
Serpents have neither horns nor hooves.
Serpents have neither wings nor talons.
Satan invariably has at least three of these.
The serpent can’t be said to have a tail – it can be called a tail!
Fact is, art & iconography is way more complex & interesting than our modern notions of it.
Christian art developed very unique & complex depictions of Satan, which have little to do with any particular animal.
We will get deflected if we think in terms of “snakes” and the “serpent-race”.
Or Lizard-beings.
Or reptilian humanoids.
All that is mere symbolism.
The “Dragon” is often, but not necessarily, a serpent.
“Reptile” – something in the line of the crocodile or monitor lizard – would be more appropriate, but nevertheless misleading.
In other words, this is not about a “serpent-race” or “reptilians”.
This is about human beings alright, though some lost races – of which no traces exist today – may be involved.
Yes, I would not totally deprecate the idea of Giants.
As for beings who are “Magical” – i.e., can do things which normal human beings can’t – well, yes – in my hearts of hearts, I’d like to believe they exist—or existed – but not in the sense of shape-shifters or people who vanish into thin air in a second.
All these beings are deeply related to the “Dragon-Volcano” Cult.
The Volcano – the Mountain That Fell – represents all the “Fallen Angels”.
But, as we see in the case of Nāgas, Gandharvas, and Yakṣas, in India – there are no simplistic explanations – and there are a hundred shades of grey between the white and the black.
In Meso-American cultures, the ancient creed seems to have continued in its very early, original form – if all the accounts of brutal, hair-raising human sacrifice are to be believed.
Since civilization began with the Volcano-centred culture, its initiates are said to be masters of engineering, architecture, metallurgy, navigation, and astronomy.
They undoubtedly were the creators of art, literature & philosophy – but clearly not the deeply spiritual philosophy that defined the later, more austere “Patriarchal” creeds (of the Dragon-slayer).
The immense confusion arises from the fact that there was no simplistic, easy-to-explain annihilation of a once vast, majestic culture: it survived, transformed, changed, was integrated into new creeds & beliefs in a myriad different ways, and hid under a myriad different disguises.
We are all descendants of the Volcano, we are all children of the Dragon.
Also, the dragon-slayer is himself not a saint or ascetic: he is primarily a fertility deity, & a god of war.
But the “patriarchal” creeds we are best acquainted with, have gone beyond the dragon-slayer too, while employing the ageless, primordial symbolism of dragon-slaying.
(We would be spared a lot of confusion if we distinguished between the hunter-gatherers, the pastoralists, the agriculturists, the city-builders (a very complex lot), and finally, the saints & ascetics.
The “later” religions are so muddled, because they integrate ALL these aspects of existence.
The god of the shepherd is not the same as the god of the carpenter.
The god of the fisherman is not the same as the god of the milkman.
The god of the royal dynasty of aristocratic warriors is not the same as the god of the wild mountain tribe.
The more advanced creeds often employ images from the earlier stages of human existence, but give the symbol a completely new meaning.
For the pastoralist, the cow is worshipful as a cow – as a giver of milk & meat, horn & hide.
For the later poet-philosopher, the cow is a symbol – of Nature, or the Earth, or “Speech” (Vāc-Sarasvatī, in India), or Wisdom (Aditi).)
One question that needs to be answered is: did the Volcano-cult worship the god(s) of rain, wind, storm, clouds etc.?
It is actually difficult to answer this question.
To even figure out, with certainty, whether the Volcano itself was worshipped – or if the Volcano merely serves as a symbol – isn’t easy.
The image we have in mind is that the Volcano-Cult was opposed to the Rain/Storm/Light-Cult.
But I find it difficult to believe that there was ever a civilization in the history of mankind, which did NOT worship the God of Rain, Sunlight, Moonlight etc.
So, there are 2 broad answers to that question.
One, that the Volcano-cult was a total, normal cult (so to speak) in which all the forces of nature were worshipped – but either with the worship of the Volcano at its centre – or, possibly there was no specific volcano worship at all – but a volcano was physically, definitely present.
Second, that it was a very distinct cult amongst many others, which evolved into a highly advanced cult, in which the Gods of Rain, Thunder, Lightning, Wind, Air, Sunlight, Moonlight etc. weren’t revered (or played only a marginal role) – and in which the Volcano was actually the central deity.
Please understand the difference.
In the first case, we have an entire civilization – albeit situated around a volcano – which is the root of all historical civilizations.
In the second case, we have a very specific cult – which became very powerful, then very corrupt – and had to be destroyed (or simply got destroyed).
I haven’t yet reached the point where I can find an answer to this dilemma with confidence.
So, to take names & examples to simplify the issue...
We may consider EITHER that the Egyptian Sut-“Typhon” was the original God of mankind – and he wasn’t specifically a Volcano – but was REPRESENTED BY a Volcano – since the civilization, culture, and era he represents, grew up around an actual volcano.
This Sut-“Typhon” was overthrown, and later became Horus and Set.
OR...
That Horus & Sut both existed from the very beginning, distinct & separate, but Sut became greedy & corrupt, and had to be destroyed or subjugated.
In the first case, the one civilization & race splintered into several factions, which broadly could be recomposed into two warring factions.
In the second case, there were already multiple cults, but the Volcanic-cult became very powerful & subsequently, very dangerous & decadent.
IN BOTH CASES, THE PHYSICAL PRESENCE OF THE VOLCANO IS NECESSARY.
But in the first case, the actual worship of a volcano is not absolutely necessary – at least not in the initial stages.
A civilization existed, which became overly ambitious, appallingly immoral, and violent – and it fell.
In the second case, however, the volcano was itself the most important object of actual worship.
This cult was destroyed by another cult/other cults (represented by the “dragon-slayer”).
In either case, there was a mass destruction & planetary cataclysm, associated with the collapse of the Volcano.
Also, moral decadence & finally subjugation of the Volcanic cult is simultaneous with the apocalyptic destruction of the Volcano itself.
This is an important point, and should not cause needless confusion in an already maddeningly nebulous issue.
Most gods of the Post-Volcanic-Cult world – of our world – of the world as we know it – were modelled on this Volcanic God, even when they were earnestly opposed to him.
Jehovah, for one, is clearly modelled on the Volcano-God, though He is presented as being at constant war with him.
Sigmund Freud noticed it in his book “Moses & Monotheism”.
At one point I thought that all the Dying-&-Resurrecting Gods of the ancient world were representatives of the Volcano-Dragon God.
But today, I doubt it.
The issue is almost unfathomably complicated because of the multiplicity of rites, cults, interpretations, and scarcity of detailed records – and all deities & figures were constantly jumbled & mixed up, in ancient texts.
Attis, Adonis, and Bacchus-Dionysus, at least to an extent, do reflect the Volcano God – but only to an extent.
In Egypt, the most appropriate representative of the Volcano-God seems to be Set – not Osiris – even more than the serpent Apep/Apophis (though Apep clearly is a representative of the Volcano-Dragon).
In Greece, the clearest representative is Typhon.
But Kronos-Saturn, Hephaistos-Vulcan, Atlas, Poseidon, & Prometheus reflect the ancient volcanic cult in their own ways.
Indeed, Saturn is strangely & strongly related to this cult.
The problem is, this Saturn is not the planet Saturn.
Pytho, or Python, killed by Apollo, is also imaged along the same lines.
The Giants, Titans, Centaurs, Cyclopes, etc. are groups of people reminiscent of it.
In the Bible, a lot of figures – Satan, Cain, Esau, Ham-Cush-Nimrod, “Pharaoh”, Leviathan etc. – are representative of this figure – as are the Nephilim, the Anakim, the Rephaim, etc.
In India, the topic is highly intricate & complicated (because so is reality), but what I’ve already said applies: the Asuras, Daityas, Dānavas, Rākṣasas, and to a lesser extent, the Nāgas & Yakṣas, seem to be the primary representatives or relics.
In the Ṛg Veda, Vṛtra & Vala come closest.
The Tāmasika rites, mentioned even in the Bhagavad Gītā, would stem from this cult.
Most – if not all – “Tantric” practices, the “Left-Hand” Path, Black Magic, the lurid & brutal Mother-Goddess cults of the ancient world, the depraved Drugs-&-Prostitution Mafia overrunning the world today, all Witchcraft – all derive from this irrepressible, virulent, ancient Volcanic Cult.
These include ingestion of semen, menstrual blood, and fetuses; forms of cannibalism etc. – which, in no sense, promote fertility & general prosperity.
I admit there is confusion with the obscene & fescennine “fertility” rites of those eras – of the pastoralists & agriculturists – and that’s why there’s so much perplexity about identifying who is who, and what is what.
But one way of judging the Volcanic cult is its intrinsic opposition to the proliferation of organic life.
From everything I have known, it would be very difficult to see it as associated with rites & rituals associated with the nurturing & growth of organic life, that which nourishes & replenishes crops, animals, forests, rivers & lakes, food & water.
It doesn’t have any such concerns, or interests – even if it is not consciously & deliberately opposed to them.
The pastoral-agricultural rites may be filthy or cruel, but they do not belong to the volcanic cult.
The volcanic god has 2-3 distinct dimensions.
If possible, I’ll try to write in more detail on this topic in subsequent posts.
It does make me very uncomfortable, with all the vagueness, all the uncertainty, all the conflicting & contradictory material that has come down to us, and the surfeit of speculation.
All sorts of authors – bewildered themselves – have come up with all sorts of half-baked, half-digested, incoherent theories about something which nobody really understands or knows.
So a certain degree of confusion & haziness is inevitable.
But, to be brief...
One dimension is that he is the God of pure chaos, darkness, destruction, and death.
It’s not as simple as that because he is also an inverted Fire-Sun God: the Fire & the Sun within the Earth – proverbially, even at the center of the Earth – but purely in its negative aspect.
The Black-and-Red God of smoke & dark, blood-red fire.
He is the “Fallen Sun”.
The “Black Sun”.
That’s how he’s very closely associated with the Earth itself, and yet, isn’t the god of fertility or life.
(Philosophically, the Fire at the center of the Earth, known as Brahmāgni in India, is not an evil phenomenon at all.
The Greek Hestia, and to an extent, the Roman Vesta, more or less represent the same idea – but they are benevolent figures.
Saturn, it should be remembered, was also an agricultural god – thus, there are clearly 2 forms or aspects of Saturn we’re dealing with.)
He is nevertheless persistently associated with the “Underworld” – and the cult of the underworld gods was proverbially a very cruel & violent cult.
The second dimension – darker, more disturbing, and probably not an original characteristic – is that he is the God associated with strange, horrible & depraved sex rites, bloody sacrifices, black magic, and sorcery.
I can’t see kinky, unnatural, wanton sodomy – or copulation of humans & animals, or breeding different types of grotesqueries – as promoting “fertility”.
Pederasty doesn’t promote “fertility”.
A 6-year old boy, sodomized by 10 adult men, can’t give birth to a child.
Bestiality – if at all effective in the reproductive sense – merely creates abortions & abominations.
Thus, the “gods” (spirits) worshipped through all sorts of weird, filthy rites, cannot be “fertility” gods.
The exact opposite.
We hear of castration amongst many ancients – even in the Bible – and castration cannot be a “fertility” rite (unless meant to “fertilize” the Earth – but was this actually done?).
So there appear to be TWO independent streams of cruel, obscene & fescennine sexual rites, which get mixed up in our perception.
The crude & “backward” & superstitious agriculturist & pastoralist wouldn’t encourage rites of wanton debauchery, pedophilia & bestiality, though they might have engaged in human sacrifice, or other forms of cruelty.
The Volcano cult engaged in all sorts of bizarre, unnatural & degenerate sexual behavior – not for reasons associated with rolling seasons & lush crops & vigorous cattle & joyful multiplication of people & abundant fruits & blooming flowers – not to make rivers joyfully flow under radiant skies – but for attaining strange states of “ecstasy”, for experiencing various eccentric & extreme “states of being”, and for all sorts of magical & occult reasons.
The Volcanic-God is, if anything, the God of utter sterility.
The third dimension is that the Volcano-God is the God of technical knowhow, of “technological development” – indeed, of the material sciences.
This is the most positive dimension, and almost clearly identifiable.
These three may seem to be conflicting, mutually exclusive, contrary themes – but the strange truth is that the same “God” and same Cult underlies all three.
And that is the God of Volcano, the “Dragon”.
Added 22nd August, 2023:
This is Sigmund Freud, from “Moses and Monotheism”, where he links Moses to the Cult of Aten as recast by the Pharaoh Akhenaten:“From the surmise that Moses was an Egyptian, be it proven or not, nothing more can be deduced for the moment.
No historian can regard the Biblical account of Moses and the Exodus as other than a pious myth, which transformed a remote tradition in the interest of its own tendencies.
How the tradition ran originally we do not know.
What the distorting tendencies were we should like to guess, but we are kept in the dark by our ignorance of the historical events.
That our reconstruction leaves no room for so many spectacular features of the Biblical text the ten plagues, the passage through the Red Sea, the solemn law-giving on Mount Sinai will not lead us astray.
But we cannot remain indifferent on finding ourselves in opposition to the sober historical researches of our time.
...
These modern historians, well represented by E. Meyer follow the Biblical text in one decisive point.
They concur that the Jewish tribes, who later on become the people of Israel, at a certain time accepted a new religion.
But this event did not take place in Egypt nor at the foot of a mount in the Sinai peninsula, but in a place called Meribat-Qades, an oasis distinguished by its abundance of springs and wells in the country south of Palestine between the eastern end of the Sinai peninsula and the western end of Arabia.
There they took over the worship of a god Jahve, probably from the Arabic tribe of Midianites who lived near-by.
Presumably other neighbouring tribes were also followers of that god.
...
Jahve was certainly a volcano god.
As we know, however, Egypt has no volcanoes and the mountains of the Sinai peninsula have never been volcanic; on the other hand, volcanoes which may have been active up to a late period are found along the western border of Arabia.
One of these mountains must have been the Sinai-Horeb which was believed to be Jahve’s abode.
...
In spite of all the transformations the Biblical text has suffered, we are able to reconstruct according to E. Meyer the original character of the god: he is an uncanny, bloodthirsty demon who walks by night and shuns the light of day.”
All this doesn’t make Mr. Freud remotely Anti-Semitic, btw.
As for his views about Moses, they’re very interesting, and one could look deeper.
It’s not as if I agree with all that he says, or even half of it.
But it contains a clue that we may be on the right track, in looking at the volcanic connection.
For instance:
“Jahve was undoubtedly a volcano god.
There was no reason for the inhabitants of Egypt to worship him.
I am certainly not the first to be struck by the similarity of the name Jahve to the root of the name of another god: Jupiter, Jovis.
(I had the same opinion, in a previous blog-post.)
The composite name Jochanaan, made up in part from the Hebrew word Jahve and having a rather similar meaning to that of Godfrey or its Punic equivalent Hannibal, has become one of the most popular names of European Christendom in the forms of Johann, John, Jean, Juan.
When the Italians reproduce it in the shape of Giovanni and then call one day of the week Giovedi they bring to light again a similarity which perhaps means nothing or possibly means very much.
Far-reaching possibilities, though very insecure ones, open out here.
In those dark centuries which historical research is only beginning to explore, the countries around the eastern basin of the Mediterranean were apparently the scene of frequent and violent volcanic eruptions which were bound to make the deepest impression on the inhabitants.
Evans supposes that the final destruction of the palace of Minos at Knossos was also the result of an earthquake.
In Crete, as probably everywhere in the Aegean world, the great Mother Goddess was then worshipped.
The observation that she was unable to guard her house against the attack of a stronger power might have contributed to her having to cede her place to a male deity, whereupon the volcano god had the first right to replace her.
Zeus still bears the name of "the Earth-shaker."
(Perhaps that’s because Zeus is modeled on the Volcanic God?
Dyaus, the Vedic Heaven does not make the Earth shake, though, yes, it may be said vaguely & indirectly, for one who causes powerful storms.
A powerful, menacing volcano, however, does make the Earth shake, or rather, is invariably associated with Earthquakes.
Poseidon is said to have the exact same title.
But it may be said that Dyaus, Heaven, was located on the top of the mountain, or world-mountain – in this case, the gigantic volcano at the center of the primordial civilization.)
There is hardly a doubt that in those obscure times mother deities were replaced by male gods (perhaps originally their sons).
Specially impressive is the fate of Pallas Athene, who was no doubt the local form of the mother deity; through the religious revolution she was reduced to a daughter, robbed of her own mother, and eternally debarred from motherhood by the taboo of virginity.”
Complete nonsense.
Typical Liberal propaganda which has poisoned mankind for the last 150 years.
Bachofen started it.
Gerald Massey was paranoid about it.
All unprovable, vague hypothesizing.
The Volcano-God, however, may be seen as the Son of the Earth-Mother – but also as Brother or Husband.
Added 23rd August, 2023:
From Hesiod’s Theogony:
“But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bore her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite.
Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring.
From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared.
These serpent-heads are nothing but many peaks with/or volcanic-vents & fissures all around a very colossal, active volcano.
Hesiod is encoding the volcanic symbolism into the allegory of Typhon, through the guise of serpentine imagery.
Hundred heads can have a very specific esoteric meaning, but it also means that the volcano was spouting lava from several holes or vents.
It might also be a reference to a whole mountain range of volcanoes, each “head” being a volcano.
Indian temples, for instance, are said to represent Meru or Mandara or Kailāsa, and this is said to be one mountain.
But we get to see several peaks, which are smaller replicas of the central pyramid (the shikhara or vimāna).
One can poetically imagine a volcano with a gigantic central crater, endowed with several smaller peaks, each with its own crater or vent or hole, through which lava pours out.
“And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at another, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed.
...
And truly a thing past help would have happened on that day, and he would have come to reign over mortals and immortals, had not the father of men and gods been quick to perceive it.
But he thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean’s streams and the nether parts of the earth.
Great Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat.
And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea, through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt.
The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking.
Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because of the unending clamor and the fearful strife.
...
So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and lurid thunderbolt, he leaped from Olympus and struck him, and burned all the marvellous heads of the monster about him.
But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned.
And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount, when he was smitten.
A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus.
Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire.
And in the bitterness of his anger Zeus cast him into wide Tartarus.”
This signifies nothing but the collapse of a gigantic volcano – a volcano which erupted violently, and then exploded & burst & fell.
The imagery couldn’t have been more direct – or infact, more accurate.
It is almost visually accurate.
A 2nd Century CE author, known as Pseudo-Apollodorus, wrote, with a more poetic flourish, in his Bibliotheca:
“Typhon was a mixture of man and beast, the largest and strongest of all Ge’s (Earth’s) children.
Down to the thighs he was human in form, so large that he extended beyond all the mountains while his head often touched even the stars.
(This is the colossal World-Mountain, said to uphold the heavens.)
One hand reached to the west, the other to the east, and attached to these were one hundred heads of serpents.
(This refers to a mountain range – or rather, a long line of volcanoes – like the Pacific “Ring of Fire” – which maybe said to either surround, or extend from, the central world-pillar.
Again, the serpent-heads are either volcanic craters, or crater-peaks, or vents & fissures.)
Also from the thighs down he had great coils of vipers, which extended to the top of his head and hissed mightily.
(This may simply be a poetic touch, or may refer to rivers of lava flowing down the volcano, with their gases spurting & vapor & smoke rising to the top.)
All of his body was winged, and the hair that flowed in the wind from his head and cheeks was matted and dirty.
(I take the “wings” to mean the large plumes of smoke extending far beyond any volcano, spreading ash all over the lands.
Same with “hair”, which refers to the thick clouds of smoke immediately above & around the crater.)
In his eyes flashed fire.
Such were the appearance and the size of Typhon as he hurled red-hot rocks at the sky itself, and set out for it with mixed hisses and shouts, as a great storm of fire boiled forth from his mouth.”
(This is as perfect a description of a raging volcano as one can get.)
But keep in mind that it’s not as if a god – i.e. an external force – actually destroyed the volcanic mountain.
It was destroyed by force of its own vehement eruption.
This has been imaged as Zeus destroying Typhon.
Nobody can demolish an exploding volcano from the outside.
Unless, of course, you introduce aliens and some super-extraterrestrial-nuclear technology which was used from the skies to destroy a volcano.
Not sure if even then – given that outlandish, ludicrous assumption – it would be possible to stop a massive volcanic explosion.
Last but not the least, one can think of some external body falling from the skies and destroying the volcano.
It’s miserably far-fetched and very fortuitous – what a coincidence that a meteor should fall on this mighty volcano and destroy it at the precise time of its most aggressive activity! – but yes, it’s not outside the range of possibility.
This may be one reason why meteorite stones were held in reverence in all ancient cultures?
Volcanic activity can be very prolonged, and carry on for months.
It is not impossible that some celestial intervention actually happened when this was going on, and stones fell from the skies, and blew the mountain to smithereens.
Only, I prefer the idea that the volcano simply split open & caved in & sank – and that this act of destruction was seen as an act of punishment, of revenge, and of justice – which was attributed to Zeus.
Added 25th August, 2023:
An example of
a “fertility rite”, which would seem gruesome & disgusting to us today... in the essay “On The Worship of the Generative Powers During The Middle Ages of Western Europe”, it is written:
“This brings us
to the close of the fourteenth century, and shows us how long the outward worship
of the generative powers, represented by their organs (i.e., in Indian terms, the liṅga & the yoni), continued to
exist in Western Europe to such a point as to engage the attention of ecclesiastical
synods.
During the
previous century facts occurred in our own island illustrating still more
curiously the continuous existence of the worship of Priapus, and that under circumstances which remind
us altogether of the details of the phallic worship under the Romans.
It will be
remembered that one great object of this worship was to obtain
fertility either in animals or in the ground,
for Priapus was the god
of the horticulturist and the agriculturist.
St. Augustine, declaiming againat the open obscenities of the Roman featival of the Liberalia, informs us that an enormous phallus (i.e., a liṅga) was carried in a magnificent chariot into the middle of the public
place of the town with great ceremony, where the most respectable matron
advanced and placed a garland of flowers “on this obscene figure”; and this, he says: was done to appease the god, and to obtain an abundant
harvest, and remove enchantments from the land.
...
We learn from
the Chronicle of Lanercost that, in the year 1268, a pestilence prevailed in
the Scottish district of Lothian, which was very fatal to the cattle, to
counteract which some of the clergy bestiales, habitu claustrales, non animo
taught the peasantryto make a fire by the rubbing together of wood (this
was the needfire), and to raise up the image of Priapus, as a means of saving their cattle.
When a lay member
of the Cistercian order at Fenton had done this before the door of the hall,
and had sprinkled the cattle with a dog’s testicles dipped in holy water, and
complaint had been made of this crime of idolatry against the lord of the manor, the latter pleaded in his defence that
all this was done without his knowledge and in his absence, but added, while
until the present month of June other people’s cattle fell ill and died, mine were
always ſound, but now every day two or three of mine die, so that I have few left for
the labours of the field...”
So either a dog was killed, or was castrated and its testicles
were dipped in Holy Water, and cattle were sprinkled with that Water, to prevent
them from dropping dead!
Most likely, the dog was killed.
I’m wondering if the castration rites (of men, i.e.) of the ancient world,
especially in the “Mother-Goddess” cults, were fertility rites of this sort – the
“Mother Goddess” representing the Earth in both its death-dealing & life-giving
aspects.
The shedding & sprinkling of blood was seen as salutary for the fertility of the soil.
Blood was probably the original “Holy Water”, which was sprinkled on objects to purify them, sanctify them, and make them flourish.
But there could be many other interpretations.
Added 27th August, 2023:
The famous passage from the Book of Isaiah (14.12-17) which is said to refer to Lucifer, runs as follows (Orthodox Jewish Bible Version):
“How art thou fallen from Shomayim (“Heaven”), O Heilel Ben Shachar (Bright One of the Dawn, Day Star, Lucifer)!
How art thou cast down to the earth, thou, which hast laid low the Goyim!
For thou hast said in thine lev (“heart”),
I will ascend into Shomayim,
I will exalt my kisse above the kokhavim (stars) of El (G-d);
I will sit also upon the har mo’ed (mount of assembly), on yarketei Tzafon (on the heights of Tzafon);
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like Elyon (the Most High).
Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the bor (pit).
They that see thee shall gaze at thee, and consider thee, saying,
“Is this the ish (man) that made ha’aretz to tremble, that did shake mamlechot (kingdoms);
That made the tevel (world) like a midbar (desert), and overthrew the towns thereof; that would not release his prisoners to go home?””
“Lucifer” – or whatever you want to call him – is nothing but the Volcano-God.
The symbolism employed in this passage by Isaiah, is EXACT SAME used in the account of Typhon being thrown into Tartarus, by Hesiod, which I’ve quoted above.
It has been understood correctly by subsequent generations, who see Satan & the Devil in it: though in the original text itself, the reference is to the King of Babylon.
“Lucifer” is in one sense Satan-Prometheus, the one who brings forbidden knowledge to mankind (or perhaps a specific group of people, whom it made very dangerous & corrupt?) – and his name clearly indicates his volcanic origins, the “luci” or “lux” element referring to the fiery flames of the volcano.
This is related to the Sanskrit roca, “shining, radiant”.
The volcano is the glorious, natural torch – the BEARER of the terrifying, terrible but mesmerizing fiery light.
“Heaven” is symbolic as in “Lucifer” was thrown down from his high position, his immense power, his intolerable tyranny – as well as a reference to the lofty & dominating height & extent of the mountain which exploded & sank into the Earth.
It no longer shot up to the skies – no longer upheld the heavens – no longer rose high & mighty above others.
This has nothing to do with the Morning Star – which was never “thrown down”, and absolutely goes nowhere – which is in no “pit” whatsoever – and has been shining brightly in the heavens for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.
