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Symbolism

Everything on Symbolism related to the Maier files series, posts and articles referring to the different types of symbolism similes, metaphors, personification and much more.

Eleusian Mysteries

Harvest traditions have roots in Eleusis. The foundation of the Mysteries of Eleusis was the story of Demeter and Persephone. In this tale, Hades fell in love with Persephone and kidnapped her from the fields where she played, taking her back to his kingdom in the underworld. When Demeter discovered her child missing, she searched everywhere on Earth for her. When at...

What were these labyrinths for?

Since the dawn of civilization, labyrinths have fascinated humankind. Knossos in Crete, has a distinctive circular maze design with seven rings. Exactly the same design appears mysteriously at different periods in history on stones and artifacts as far apart as India, Norway, Germany, Ireland, England, Arizona, … In English, the term labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze. As a result of the...
Rotas Opera Tenet

The SATOR A REPO formula

The sator a repo formula was well known throughout the ancient and medieval worlds, and in fact, known as the “Devil’s latin” or the “Devil’s Square”. It remained quite popular in Scandinavia into the 19th century as protection against theft and various illnesses. The magical effect of the formula lies in the fact that if properly spelt and laid out, it constitutes a 25 letter word-square, reading the same horizontally and vertically, left to right and in reverse: SATOR AREPO […]...

The Twelve Knights

  In almost all myths all over the world the same theme reoccurs. The twelve knights, twelve tribes, twelve heroes etc. In his last and longest dialogue (Laws), Plato teaches: There are twelve feasts to the twelve Gods who give their names to the twelve tribes. Also in early christianity, the image of twelve disciples with the Godman figure at their center echoes...
Walpurgisnacht engraving

Walpurgisnacht

In the last days of paganism in Germany, the druids’ sacrifices were subject to punishment by death at the hands of the literalist Christians. Nevertheless, at the beginning of springtime the “druids” and the populace sought to regain the peaks of the mountains so that they could make their sacrifices or experience their celebrations at these remote locations, intimidating and chasing off...
Hexen kommando

German Witches

It’s almost Walpurgisnacht, no better moment to have a closer look at our witches or Hexen. Where did this cruel hatred against women and the ancient pre-christian sanctuaries start? When Pope Innocent VIII (1484–92) professed his belief in witchcraft, he condemned it, and dispatched inquisitors to Germany to try its supposed practitioners and punish them unimpeded. Singling out Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Salzburg, and Bremen, the papal bull declared that “some parts of Northern Germany” were infested with “many persons of […]...
Melusine

The secret of Anjou

Deeper levels and meanings in tales not only transcend time, they also cross continents and cultures. These links and hidden meanings one can find best in original local tradition and folklore. One such link is the original French myth of Melusine, whose name is associated with honey. Her story recalls the Indian tradition whereby the royal lineage claimed to come from serpent...

Birds and their symbolic meaning

Every winged being is symbolic of spiritualization. Birds are very frequently used to symbolize human souls, some of the earliest examples being found in the art of ancient Egypt. The bird, according to Jung, is a beneficent animal representing spirits or angels, supernatural aid, thoughts and flights of fancy. Hindu tradition has it that birds represent the higher states of being. To...
Skull cup

Skull Cups

In Sanskrit, skull cups are known as kapala, and they are generally formed from the oval section of the upper cranium. They served as libation vessels for large numbers of deities, which were mostly wrathful. However, they are also seen with gods such as Padmasambhava (India), who holds the skull cup, which is described as holding an ocean of nectar that floats in the longevity vase. This Elixir was at the heart of many secret orders and was one of […]...
Abraxas

Abraxas a god higher than the Christian God and Devil?

Carl Jung had written extensively on Abraxas. In his 1916 book called The Seven Sermons to the Dead, Jung called Abraxas a God higher than the Christian God and Devil that combines all opposites into one Being. Abraxas was a polymorphous world spirit which permeates — or even encompass — the very fabric of existence. Abraxas is … a thousand-armed polyp, coiled...
heresy

Heresy and Heretics

Heretic Middle English: from Old French heretique, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek hairetikos ‘able to choose’ (in ecclesiastical Greek, ‘heretical’), from haireomai ‘choose’. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica one can read:“The word heresy is derived from the Greek hairesis which originally meant an act of choosing, and so came to signify a set of philosophical opinions or the school professing them. As so...
Albruna Gudrun

From Ritual to Romance

Like in all ancient Norse myths codes and messages are hidden within. Mainstream scholars like us to believe that these myths are just simple stories to entertain or to describe natural phenomena our dumb forefathers were too ignorant to understand. But these tales are like riddles and intellectual challenges to be solved and contain real wisdom and knowledge. Ms. Jessie L. Weston, after more than thirty years of study, wrote a little book entitled From Ritual to Romance (London: Cambridge […]...
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