|
Hierarchies — The Cosmic Ladder of Life
The great gods were revered and praised as masters.
The Deities of ancient Egypt
The Great Ennead
- Nu (Nun, Inert One, Primordial Watery Abyss) Nunet is the female aspect.
- Atum (Atem, or Tem) the Complete One, the Underlying Substance of the World.
- Iusaaset (Iusas, Iusaaset, Juesaes, Ausaas, and Jusas) The Grandmother of all Deities. A Shadow.
- Shu (Emptiness, He Who Rises Up, Personification of Air) son to Atum and Iusaaset.
- Tefnut (Goddess of Moisture, Moist Air, Dew and Rain) daughter to Atum and Iusaaset.
- Geb (God of the Earth) son of Shu and Tefnut.
- Nut (Goddess of the Sky) daughter of Shu and Tefnut.
- Osiris (Usiris) God of the Afterlife, the Underworld and the Dead. The oldest son of Geb and Nut.
- Isis (Aset, Ast, Uset, or Iset, Goddess of Religious Beliefs & Magic, Protector of the Dead and Goddess of Children) She who knows all the names.. daughter of Geb and Nut.
- Set (Seth, Setesh, Sutekh, Setekh, or Suty, God of the Desert, Storms, and Foreigners. Later the God of Darkness and Chaos) son of Geb and Nut. Typhon in Greek.
- Nephthys (Nebthet, Lady of the Temple Enclosure) Associated with Funeral rites. daughter of Geb and Nut.
The Deities of ancient Africa
The most high African creator-God called Nana Buluku which is both male and female.
Dividing the deity into two parts, we have:
- Anu (Sky God) - "Buluku," and
- Ki (Earth Goddess) - "Nana".
The Greek Deities
Cosmic Forces
- Gaea (Gaia, Primeval Divinity of the Earth) First emerged at the Dawn of Creation, along with Air, Sea and Sky.
- Uranus (Ouranos, Primeval God of the Sky.) Was the Literal Sky. married to Gaea.
- Cybele (Kybele, Mountain Mother, Great Mother, Exotic Mystery-Goddess) Phrygian Mother of the Gods. daughter to Gaea and Uranus.
- Tartarus (the Underworld) God of the great stormy Tartarean pit that lay beneath the earth.
- Erebus (or Erebos, Personification of Darkness) born from Chaos.
Hindu Gods
Trimuti (the Triad)
Brahman is considered by Hindus the creator god of all existence and is the one and only true God.
- Brahma (Creation. Progenitor or Great Grandsire of all human beings). In order to create the world and the human race, Brahma made a goddess out of himself. The woman Gayatri "Saraswati".
- Shiva (Siva, Mahakala, God of the Yogis, Protector of Dharma). Lord Shiva is the destroyer of the world. He is responsible for change both in the form of death and destruction and in the positive sense of destroying the ego, the false identification with the form. Kronos in Greek.
- Vishnu (Preserver and Protector of Creation) The embodiment of mercy and goodness, the self-existent, all-pervading power that preserves the universe and maintains the cosmic order Dharma.
The Etruscans
The Etruscans were a people with a distinct language and culture during the period of the earliest European writing.
Heaven and earth were imagined as being quartered by a great invisible cross consisting of a north-south axis calledmcardo and an east-west line called decumanus. All ritual and religious observance was based on this division of celestial and terrestrial space.
Etruscan: The Gods & Goddesses
Inca Deities
Viracocha created the Earth, Sky and the people. He did not create the Sun in the beginning, however. The people defied Viracocha so he decided to kill them all. A great flood "the Unu Pachakuti" came and only a male and female who hid in a box survived. The Box was carried by the waters to Tihuanaco where they receded. Viracocha forgave the two survivors and created many more different tribes of people from clay. He gave them breath and life, their languages and songs, and seeds for them to plant and sow.
Incan Pantheon:
Viracocha (the Creator God).
- Paca Mama (the Earth Mother). She is Mother Earth and the most important Deity in the Andes. Especially, worshiped by farmers, since she rules over harvesting and fertility. Furthermore, she is connected to earthquakes. Today, she is still worship through the Holy Virgin Mary.
- Apu (god of the Mountains). He is the God of the mountains. He is called for good fortune and support. Many festivals in his favor still exists.
- Inti (Apu Punchaur, Our Father the Sun, Ancestor of the Incas). Represented by a great golden disk with a face, but in the Incan mind he was thought to have a human form. His annual festival was to celebrate the harvest of maize. Chanting lasted from sunrise to sunset with continual animal sacrifices. Fertility, crops. All major settlements throughout the Inca Empire had a Sun Temple.
The Mayan Deities
TThe Mayan people had an extensive pantheon of deities since they had a polytheistic belief system. The religion was based on a number of creation mythologies which described how humans came into being, how the world and the cosmos was created and what were the main tasks of different gods.
Mayan Pantheon:
- Itzamna (zam-Yeh, The Serpent Bird) The Celestial Bird. Itzamná was one of the most important gods for the Maya: he was the creator, and ruler of day and night. Believed to be largely kind and protective towards humans, he was the one who taught men to grow maize and how to use calendars, as well as being a god of medicine.
- Chaac God of rain, thunder, and lighting. With his lightning axe, Chaac strikes the clouds, causing them to produce thunder and rain.
- Yum Kaax Lord of the forest and protector of wildlife. He also protects farmers from the dangers of the jungle. He is a hulking gentle green giant who is constantly swarmed by dragonflies, butterflies, and a single quetzal. He uses vines from the ground to attack at melee range.
- Hunab Ku (The One God) Represent the Supreme God or the One Being, with ‘Hunab’ meaning ‘one state of being’ and ‘Ku’ meaning ‘God.’ It encompasses all opposites in the universe and unites them as one: male and female, dark and light, yin, and yang, conscious and unconscious, internal and external.
- Ix Chel (Lady Rainbow) She is known as the goddess of medicine, childbirth, healing and weaving. Also as the Goddess of the Moon. She is often depicted as an aged woman with snakes and spindles.
- Kinich Ahau Controls drought and disease (also known as Ah-Kinchil). Often represented by a jaguar, eagle or deer. He was a generator of light, time, heat and the four directions that the universe had in its expanse.
- Ek Chuaj Ek Chuaj, the "black war chief" was the patron god of warriors and merchants. He was depicted carrying a bag over his shoulder and wearing a Jaguar mantle. Merchant deity and god of cacao.
- Kukulkan (Feathered Serpent) He was the god of death and rebirth, storms and earthquakes, and was the creator of life on earth. He is often depicted as a plumed serpent, but can take human form as well.
The Aztec Deities
Aztec Pantheon:
- Huitzilopochtl The famed Aztec god of war, Huitzilopochtli (pronounced Weet-zee-lo-pocht’-lee) was the patron god of the Mexica people and a key figure in the creation of the Aztec cosmogony. Huitzilopochtli led the Aztec people to Tenochtitlan, a fact that was not easily forgotten: half of the city’s Templo Mayor was dedicated to him.
- Quetzalcoatl Quetzalcoatl is a deity in Aztec culture and literature. Among the Aztecs, he was related to wind, Venus, Sun, merchants, arts, crafts, knowledge, and learning. He was also the patron god of the Aztec priesthood.
- Tezcatlipoca Tezcatlipoca was a central deity in Aztec religion. He is associated with a variety of concepts, including the night sky, hurricanes, obsidian, and conflict. He was considered one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the primordial dual deity.
- Tlaloc Tlaloc is the god of rain in Aztec religion. He was also a deity of earthly fertility and water, worshipped as a giver of life and sustenance. This came to be due to many rituals, and sacrifices that were held in his name. He was feared, but not maliciously, for his power over hail, thunder, lightning, and even rain.
- Xipe Totec In Aztec mythology, Xipe Totec or Xipetotec was a life-death-rebirth deity, god of agriculture, vegetation, the east, spring, goldsmiths, silversmiths, liberation, deadly warfare, the seasons, and the earth. The female equivalent of Xipe Totec was the goddess Xilonen-Chicomecoatl.
- Mictlantecuhtli Mictlantecutli or Mictlantecuhtli, in Aztec mythology, is a god of the dead and the king of Mictlan, the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. He is one of the principal gods of the Aztecs and is the most prominent of several gods and goddesses of death and the underworld.
- Xochiquetzal In Aztec mythology, Xochiquetzal, also called Ichpochtli Classical Nahuatl: Ichpochtli, meaning "maiden", was a goddess associated with fertility, beauty, and love, serving as a protector of young mothers and a patroness of pregnancy, childbirth, and the crafts practiced by women such as weaving and embroidery.
- Chalchiuhtlicue Chalchiuhtlicue is an Aztec deity of water, rivers, seas, streams, storms, and baptism. Chalchiuhtlicue is associated with fertility, and she is the patroness of childbirth.
- Coatlicue Coatlicue, wife of Mixcohuatl, also known as Teteoh innan is the Aztec goddess who gave birth to the moon, stars, and Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war. The goddesses Toci "our grandmother" and Cihuacoatl "snake woman", the patron of women who die in childbirth, were also seen as aspects of Coatlicue.
|
|
