When you think of faeries, what comes to mind? For many, it’s the benevolent wish-granters and environmental champions depicted by Disney and other Hollywood cleansers. However, delve into actual folklore, and you’ll uncover a more sinister and complex world. Far from being the charming creatures of modern tales, faeries have long been feared as beings who kidnap, deceive, and even kill. Here, we explore the darker side of faerie folklore, shedding light on their terrifying...
The rape of Lucretia …Leibniz, the founder of optimism, and a great poet as well as a profound philosopher, writes somewhere that in a temple at Memphis there was a great pyramid of globes placed one on top of the other. A priest, who was asked by a traveller what this pyramid of globes represented, replied that these were all the possible worlds and that the most perfect of all was at the summit; the...
Melusine; or, The Noble History of Lusignan has much to delight and fascinate anyone interested in the Middle Ages. No medieval history would be complete without an account of the illustrious Lusignan dynasty that lent its name to a fair city in the Poitou region of southwestern France, and played leading roles in the Crusades and in shaping the political landscape of western Europe during the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Likewise, no history of the great literary milestones of the Middle […]...
Laurin ‘s marvels. Are you worthy to enter the Rosengarten? King Laurin ’s greatest marvel is his understanding of day and night, which is also that of life and death. Oh, how we would like to possess that knowledge! It is in these terms that men lament, but they need not. As one can always ascend to Laurin ’s marvellous kingdom. In spite of the silk threads which protect it. Still, one must be a...
Hidden within age-old classic stories lie the hermetic teachings of alchemy and Freemasonry. In his Mystery of the Cathedrals, the great alchemist Fulcanelli revealed the teachings of the hermetic art encoded in the sculpture and stained glass of the great cathedrals of Europe. What he did for churches, his disciple Bernard Roger does here for fairy tales. It is customary to label as legend the story of a fabulous “fact” attached to either a place—a...
Holle the goddesses and Yule. Frau Holle is connected to springs, wells and lakes, where she lives in a land on the bottom of the water. She is also connected with the fog. Holle can be seen as a bright shape drifting in the fog, and her fog maidens are “die Hollen”, who move over the land to come to the aid of women and children. Yule is a twelve day holiday, it begins on Mōdraniht “Mothers Night” (December 21st) and ends […]...
An enigmatic depiction of the golden fleece quest: an Athenian Red-figure cup discovered in 1834 and attributed to the Athenian painter Douris (c. 480 BC) shows in its interior the goddess Athena who watches as a huge serpent disgorges a man, alive. Behind them is a tree with a ram’s skin in its branches. These clues assure us that the hero is Jason. The artist has also taken care to label him (the name is...
To fully grasp a Deity, you need to make an effort to understand the heritage and characteristics of the very first people to worship that Deity. Brigid the Celtic goddess Brigid originated in the pantheon of the Celtic people—the inhabitants of Ireland and the British Isles. Similar to Brigid, the history of these folks is mysterious and multifaceted. You can somewhat decipher what’s going on, but a large amount of the heritage is lost....
Legend tells us that one day Ilias, founder of the city of Troy, was asleep and had an extraordinary dream that the gods were communicating with him. When he woke up he found nearby a statue of a woman holding a shield and carrying a spear. It was the sacred statue of Pallas Athena, the Palladium. We know from Plutarch that in antiquity Isis was identified with Athena, the Greek goddess of Wisdom. Athena got a half-sister, a dark-skinned gal […]...
For those of you who are reading the Maier files series probably already recognized the Hyperborean thread or layer and the Grail’s link with Ireland and Scotland throughout the story. Now, the legendary history of Ireland draws on the events of races that later on invaded it and also dominated it, originating from a puzzling Northern-Atlantic center, to which they occasionally returned. The Historia Britorum frequently gives to this center the name Hiberia, however in reality this...
The name Kudrun, and hence the title of a German epic, is rendered as “Gudrun” in most older English translations. But today the form “Kudrun” is preferred because Gudrun is also the name of an unrelated character in Norse mythology. Gudrun is a major figure in early Germanic literature that is centred on the hero Sigurd, son of Sigmund. She appears as Kriemhild in the Nibelungenlied and as Gutrune in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen....
The German forest is immense, vast, dense, dark, and impenetrable. It is the refuge of the exiled and of outlaws. A site of lairs for terrifying and often monstrous animals. The dwelling place for brigands and marginal individuals. The woods thereby forms a natural frontier. The Bohemian Forest (or Nemus Boemicum) to the south connects with the Bavarian Forest and the Austrian Nordwald; the forest of Falster separates Denmark from Saxony and has always been a singular place. Teutoburg It […]...