Source: LiveScience.
The Greek god of thunder and lightning had Earthly beginnings, and scientists think they finally know where.
Ancient Greeks first worshipped the omnipotent Zeus at a remote altar on Mount Lykaion, a team of Greek and American archaeologists now think. During a recent dig at the site, the researchers found ceremonial goods commonly used in cult activity and dated at over three millennia (...)
Source: Business Week.
Want a present that will raise some eyebrows — or maybe hackles — this Christmas? A Finnish charity is selling rings engraved with a swastika to raise money for the country’s 80,000 World War II veterans.
A silver ring [costing $86] featuring a swastika is being sold to raise money for Finnish World War II veterans.
The rings are replicas of the 1940 “Air Defence” ring, which was part of a (...)
Source: CAIS.
Every year the Chartaqi (چهارطاقی) of Niasar hosts a large number of Iranians that gather there to cherish their ancestral way of life and to mark the observance of the Sun’s Birth on Summer and Winter Solstice. Chartaqi of Niasar located near the city of Kashan and constructed during the late Parthian or early Sassanian dynastic eras.
«This Chartaqi (čārtāγī) is one of the greatest and the oldest in (...)
Semargl
In 980 in the “Tale of Bygone Years” (Povest vremennykh let) in the list of gods, which were revered in Kiev, was noted deity Semargl. Researcher Vasily Abaev believed that the name of this deity origin from Zoroastrian Simurg. Word Semargl borrowed into the Old Russian language from the Scythian and had the original form Senmarγ [1].
Simurg is the mythological character, combining the traita of dog and (...)
S’il est convenu que la franc-maçonnerie spéculative moderne a été inventée en 1717, il n’en est pas moins vrai que sa symbolique et nombre de ses concepts s’enracinent dans des traditions venant de beaucoup plus loin dans le temps. Parmi celles-ci, le tarot, apparu tel que nous le connaissons à la Renaissance.
Mais le tarot lui-même est issu de concepts du mithraïsme. Celle-ci, bien qu’occultée depuis l’émergence du (...)
Après l’invasion arabe, craignant le pire, un groupe de grands propriétaires terriens zoroastriens, les dehgans, descendants de la noblesse préislamique, se réunirent et décidèrent de sauver l’identité iranienne en créant une œuvre littéraire qui relaterait l’histoire mythologique et légendaire de l’Iran. Pour cette entreprise, ils se basèrent sur un texte de la période sassanide nommé Khodâi-Nâmak et confièrent la tâche à un (...)
Karna The spectacle based on Warrior of the Sun (see here).
It is the story of a great war planned by the Gods and ultimately by the one supreme God Vishnu, to end an age of human arrogance and herald the beginning of a new epoch of the Universe. The age of the warrior caste, the Kshatriyas, who were getting above themselves and losing the idea of dharma, their duty and position in the scheme of the Universe, (...)
درهم خلیفۀ عبّاسی منصور، ضرب کوفه (٧٦١ م).
ولی همین واقعیت واقعۀ کشته شدن یحیی نیز نزد شیعیان به نحو ناهنجاری قلب شده است و این فرد تاریخی با واژگون شدن کنیه ابوالحسن وی تبدیل به کودک در چاه حسن عسکری شده است. منظور از چاه همان منطقۀ شاهی (سرزمین چاه) در نزدیکی قادسیه است که یحیی در آنجا به قتل رسید. منابع کهن در این منطقه از شهری به نام بانقیا (محل بیرون کشیده شدن [فرزند از چاه] = شاوی) به عنوان موطن ابراهیم یاد می کنند. ابوالفرج اصفهانی به صراحت آنجا را محل قتل (...)
By the name of the Creator Ahuramazda and by the good omen of good creation, may there be good health and long life to all men good and righteous workers, and especially to him for whom this book is written.
This book, which is called the Yatkar-i-Zariran, was written at that time when King Vishtasp with his sons, and brothers, family-chiefs, and equals accepted from Ahuramazda this holy religion of the (...)
Tête d’une statue d’Anahita sous les traits d’Aphrodite British Museum, Le monde hellénistique.
Affrontant les difficultés d’interprétation des vieux textes, l’auteur, Eric Pirart, parvient à répondre à la question. La déesse est une part immatérielle de l’individu soucieux de son destin universel, celle qui, au-delà de la mort, rend fructueuse l’union de l’âme-moi du pieux zoroastrien et de sa conscience religieuse : (...)
Persian Carpet Detail — “The Raven Addresses the Assembled Animals”
Circa 1590, ascribed to Miskin. British Museum, London.
Watkins begins this study with an introduction to the field of comparative Indo-European poetics; he explores the Saussurian notions of synchrony and diachrony, and locates the various Indo-European traditions and ideologies of the spoken word. Further, his overview presents case (...)
آناهیتا … اینک آبها را میستائیم،
آبهای فروچکیده و گردآمده و روانشده و خوبکـُنش ِ اهورائی را…
(یسنا - هـات ۳۸ — بند ۳)
«جشن آبانگان» جشنی است در گرامیداشت ستارۀ روان (سیاره) درخشان «اَنَهیتَه / آناهید (زهره)» و رود پهناور و خروشان « اردوی / آمو (آمودریا)»، و بعدها ایزدبانوی بزرگ «آب»ها در ایران. «اَردوی سوره اَناهیتا» Ardavi – Sura Anāhita ایزدبانویی ایرانی بسیار برجستهای است كه نقش مهمی در آئینهای ایرانی دارد و پیشینۀ ستایش و بزرگداشت این ایزدبانو در (...)
The Egyptian Book of the Dead A myth of creation. In ancient Egyptian fragments dating from 3000 to 1500 B.C.E. (see here).
Let me explain what I mean. The Magi have a ritual that involves the placing of a number of sticks together and then tying them with a sacred cord. The cord symbolizes love and the sticks symbolize individuals are tied together by a mutual love. The ritual bundle of sticks is called (...)