The spider myth is a symbol of resistance and survival by turning the force of powerful oppression to the shoulders of unexpected individuals by using cunning and trickery speeches, but at the end the truth always is set to free those who lost their freedom by the hand of the treacherous.
This is an Anansi story that explains how his name became attached to the whole corpus of tales:
There was once an African king who had the finest ram in the world. When this ram happened to be grazing on Anansi's crops one day, he threw a rock towards the animal, hitting the ram between the eyes and killing him.
Anansi knew that the king would punish him for what he had done to his prized ram, and he schemed how to get out of the situation. Anansi resorted to trickery as always.
Anansi went to sat under a tree to think of an escape plan when, all of a sudden, a nut fell and struck him on the head. He immediately had an idea.
First, Anansi took the dead ram and tied the animal to the nut tree. Then he went to a spider and told the insect of a wonderful tree laden with nuts. The spider was delighted and immediately went to the tree.
Anansi then went to the king and told him that the spider had killed the prized ram. The ramm was hanging from a tree where the spider was spinning webs.
The king flew into a rage and demanded the death penalty for the spider. Then he thanked Anansi and offered him a great reward.
Anansi returned to the spider and warned the insect of the king's wrath, crying out to the whole world that the spider had killed his precious ram. The spider was very confused. Then Anansi told the spider to go to the king and plead for mercy, and perhaps the insect's life would be spared.
Meanwhile, the king had gone home for lunch and told his wife what happened. The wife just laughed and said, "Have you lost your mind? How on earth a little spider make a thread strong enough to hold a ram? How in the world could that little spider hoist the ram up there? Don't you know, Anansi obviously killed your ram! By now you should know, he is a trickster!"
The king was angry that he had been deceived and told his court to fetch Anansi immediately. When the king's men came for him, Anansi assumed that it was to bring him to the palace for his reward for turning in the spider. So he went along willingly. Anansi walked into the palace as if he owned the place and then said to the king, "Well, what is my reward for the killer of your ram?" This enraged the king so much that he kicked Anansi very, very hard, splitting him into 2 pieces; he was no longer a man but a spider with long legs.
Monday, June 18, 2018
Saturday, June 16, 2018
PEOPLE AND ANIMALS IN MYTHS AND LEGENDS.
Ancient mythologies describe a time in the past when the boundaries between people and animals were less sharply drawn and beings changed form freely. Animals offered helpful advice to ordinary people in many legends. Generally, those who ignored the animal's advice failed to achieve their goal.
Sometimes transformations between the two different worlds were forced on some individuals by cruel or wicked sorcerers or as punishment for offending entities with authority in the supernatural world. In the case when people voluntarily sought transformation, however, the change was perceived as a sign of power.
In ancient West African and American societies, for example, the believe that each person has a magical or spiritual connection to a particular animal that can act as a guardian, a source of wisdom, or an inspiration, was common. In general, individuals had to discover their spirit animal through a mystical experience.
Traditional African religions had secret societies in which men were believed to take on a leopard's strength by performing rituals that involved wearing leopard skins.
The ancient people of the Northwestern United States and Canada believed and still maintain the belief that each clan or kinship group is descended from a particular animal, such as whale, wolf, or bear. Bears, in particular, were especially close to them. In some of their stories, bears appear as human wearing coats made of bearskins.
In ancient Central America people had the idea that each person's life is linked to an animal or object (a nagual). If the animal was killed or the object destroyed, the person was supposed to suffer because of it of die as a consequence of it.
In ancient South American communities, particular individuals were carefully chosen from birth (since they carried a birth-mark), to train them as communal healers. They had the ability to act as messengers or intermediaries between the human world and the spirit world with the purpose of restoring the balance and wholeness of an individual or a community. The supernatural abilities that they performed included the power to communicate with animals that helped them through the supernatural realm, or transform themselves into animals. Andean healers were said to be able to change themselves into jaguars.
The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that the gods could blur the boundaries between different classes of beings. Ovid's Metamorphoses is a collection of Greek and Roman legends about mortals whom the gods turned into animals and plants.
Chinese and Slavic mythologies include tales of people who, under some evil force, turn into werewolves. Chinese and Eskimo tales mention beautiful, seductive women who turn out to be foxes in disguise.In one Eskimo story a woman enters the home of a hunter while he is out. She cooks for him and stays for some time, but eventually she puts on her fox skin and disappears. The well-known fable of Beauty and the Beast is a modern version of the myth of the animal husband whose beastly form cannot disguise his noble soul.
The Scots have stories about silkies -imaginary sea creatures resembling seals that take on human form, marry men and women, and then return to the sea.
Animals fill a wide variety of roles in myths and legends. They are linked to human origins as well as to the origin of the world. They help to shape human existence by acting as messengers to the other world. They can play tricks, symbolize human qualities, and terrorize humans as well.
Animals sometimes appear as symbols of certain characteristics. Common phrases such "brave as a lion" or "sly as a fox" are everyday examples of the practice of using animals to represent human qualities. The dog often appears as symbol of loyalty and the tiger stands for power and vitality.
Some stories have the representation of the dualistic nature of certain powerful animals. Snakes, for example, can be helpful or harmful. The Romans regarded snake spirits as protection for their homes. However, in the Bible, the snake is a treacherous creature. The bull is another animal with a dualistic nature. It can represent either tremendous energy and power or frightening strength. In Celtic myths, the bull was a sign of good fortune and fertility, while in several Greek legends, bulls were associated with death and destruction.
The frog appears in many transformation stories, most likely because it goes through a transformation of its own, from tadpole to frog. Another one that undergoes a physical transformation is the butterfly, which begins life as a caterpillar, rests in a cocoon, and emerges as a butterfly to spread its wings. The Greek word for butterfly, 'psyche' is also the word for 'soul,' and in Greek mythology the butterfly was the symbol of the soul's transformation after the death of the body.
Sometimes transformations between the two different worlds were forced on some individuals by cruel or wicked sorcerers or as punishment for offending entities with authority in the supernatural world. In the case when people voluntarily sought transformation, however, the change was perceived as a sign of power.
In ancient West African and American societies, for example, the believe that each person has a magical or spiritual connection to a particular animal that can act as a guardian, a source of wisdom, or an inspiration, was common. In general, individuals had to discover their spirit animal through a mystical experience.
Traditional African religions had secret societies in which men were believed to take on a leopard's strength by performing rituals that involved wearing leopard skins.
The ancient people of the Northwestern United States and Canada believed and still maintain the belief that each clan or kinship group is descended from a particular animal, such as whale, wolf, or bear. Bears, in particular, were especially close to them. In some of their stories, bears appear as human wearing coats made of bearskins.
In ancient Central America people had the idea that each person's life is linked to an animal or object (a nagual). If the animal was killed or the object destroyed, the person was supposed to suffer because of it of die as a consequence of it.
In ancient South American communities, particular individuals were carefully chosen from birth (since they carried a birth-mark), to train them as communal healers. They had the ability to act as messengers or intermediaries between the human world and the spirit world with the purpose of restoring the balance and wholeness of an individual or a community. The supernatural abilities that they performed included the power to communicate with animals that helped them through the supernatural realm, or transform themselves into animals. Andean healers were said to be able to change themselves into jaguars.
The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that the gods could blur the boundaries between different classes of beings. Ovid's Metamorphoses is a collection of Greek and Roman legends about mortals whom the gods turned into animals and plants.
Chinese and Slavic mythologies include tales of people who, under some evil force, turn into werewolves. Chinese and Eskimo tales mention beautiful, seductive women who turn out to be foxes in disguise.In one Eskimo story a woman enters the home of a hunter while he is out. She cooks for him and stays for some time, but eventually she puts on her fox skin and disappears. The well-known fable of Beauty and the Beast is a modern version of the myth of the animal husband whose beastly form cannot disguise his noble soul.
The Scots have stories about silkies -imaginary sea creatures resembling seals that take on human form, marry men and women, and then return to the sea.
Animals fill a wide variety of roles in myths and legends. They are linked to human origins as well as to the origin of the world. They help to shape human existence by acting as messengers to the other world. They can play tricks, symbolize human qualities, and terrorize humans as well.
Animals sometimes appear as symbols of certain characteristics. Common phrases such "brave as a lion" or "sly as a fox" are everyday examples of the practice of using animals to represent human qualities. The dog often appears as symbol of loyalty and the tiger stands for power and vitality.
Some stories have the representation of the dualistic nature of certain powerful animals. Snakes, for example, can be helpful or harmful. The Romans regarded snake spirits as protection for their homes. However, in the Bible, the snake is a treacherous creature. The bull is another animal with a dualistic nature. It can represent either tremendous energy and power or frightening strength. In Celtic myths, the bull was a sign of good fortune and fertility, while in several Greek legends, bulls were associated with death and destruction.
The frog appears in many transformation stories, most likely because it goes through a transformation of its own, from tadpole to frog. Another one that undergoes a physical transformation is the butterfly, which begins life as a caterpillar, rests in a cocoon, and emerges as a butterfly to spread its wings. The Greek word for butterfly, 'psyche' is also the word for 'soul,' and in Greek mythology the butterfly was the symbol of the soul's transformation after the death of the body.
Saturday, June 2, 2018
THE MAPUCHE EVIL RAT.
The Colo Colo is a shape-shifter evil-rat creature from Mapuche mythology originated from the Chiloe Archipelago, in Southern Chile.
The appearance of the Colo Colo varies depending on the region where the myth is told. Sometimes it is described as having the crest of a rooster and the body of a serpent. Other times as a feathered rat, or as a snake or lizard with a rat's head, and occasionally it is just depicted as a huge rat.
According to a legend, the Colo colo hatches from an egg laid by a snake that is incubated by a rooster. After hatching, the Colo Colo will hide in a house, commonly living in a hole which it digs under it, or at the corners or cracks found in it.
The Colo Colo will feed by taking the saliva or phlegm from the sleeping people who live in the house, causing the inhabitants to dehydrate, feel exhausted, and make them susceptible to several serious diseases that eventually will take the life of the person.
The Colo Colo can be detected if someone of the house is feeling tired for no reason, or of its cry, which is similar to an infant wailing. Also if a Colo Colo is present it will also produce a very distinct, foul smell.
When a Colo Colo is in the house, a traditional healer (Machi) and religious leader must be contacted to exorcise the premises. He must burn the egg as soon as it is laid and kill the chicken that laid it, to prevent further eggs from being laid. Once hatched, sometimes the only way to destroy it is by burning down the house where it lives, because its energy is vulnerable to Fire.
Colo Colo are believed to attack their human prey while they sleep. The monster prefers to bite the tongue of it's sleeping prey and then proceeds to drain the victim of it's saliva, body fluid, and life force.
Accoding to some sources human brains may also be consumed. The victims of Colo Colo can be identified by their "zombie" or trance-like state. If repeat attacks occur on the same person he/she will eventually die.
THE ORIGEN OF THE MONSTROUS RAT.
The concept of this monstrous creature is said to have existed for centuries. It may have its origin in an old belief which states that elderly rats known for their wisdom would sit on the entangled tails of his fellow rats. The rat was believed to have been treated as royalty by other rats, hence giving rise to the term "rat king."
The majority of stories about the rat king originate from Germany and has also been reported in other countries such as france, poland, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Indonesia. Two factors coincide in the areas where rat kings had been found, the first being cold winters, while the second being the presence of the black rat, 'Rattus rattus.' It is worth to mention that the rat king found on Java, Indonesia, is by far the only one not consisting on black rats, instead, this rat king is made up of sawah rats, Rattus, rattus brevicaudatus.
New research in Physical Anthropology has revealed that the ancient population that once inhabited Easter Island, famous for its more than 1,000 walking Moai statues, had a diet based on Polynesian rat (kiore), strangely lacking a diet based on seafood that traditionally distinguished Polynesian cultures. The island (also called Rapa Nui) is located in the South Pacific and is the most isolated inhabited land mass on Earth.
Considering that rat kings are regarded as bad omens, they were often killed immediately out of fear of disease. The Black Death, though not caused by the black rats themselves, was spread to humans by the specific fleas they carried. One of the largest mummified rat kings is displayed in the Mauritianum Museum in Alten'Burg, Germany. This particular rat king has 32 individual rats stuck together.
Many are familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Few realize however, that the story is based on real events. It is set in 1284 in the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany. the town was facing a rat infestation, and a piper, dressed in a coat of many colored, bright cloth, appeared. This piper promised to get rid of the rats in return for a payment, to which the townspeople agreed too. Athough the piper got rid of the rats by leading them away with his music, the people of Hamelin reneged on their promise. The piper left vowing revenge. On the 26th of July of that same year, the piper returned and led the children away, never to be seen again, just as he did the rats. Nevertheless, three children were left behind, one of these was lame and could not keep up, another was deaf and could not hear the music, while the third one was blind and could not see where he was going.
By associating the rats with the Black Death, it has been suggested that the children symbolically were the innocent victims of these plague that severely hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, more than half a century after the event in Hamelin.
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