|
Creatures/Beings/People * Bennu - see phoenix * Phoenix - Greek name for the Egyptian bird "Bennu" - symbol of the rising sun. Only one of its kind. Life span of 500 years at a time. Puts self on funeral pyre and out of its ashes grow a new phoenix. (DM.215) Places, Geographical Elements * Styx - River in the greek underworld. represents death and rebirth. The river enters the underground womb and emerges after 7 turns through neither spheres. (WDS.34) Plants and Minerals * Mistletoe - Associated with death and rebirth/resurrection. (Norse myth of Balder) (WDS.447) * Yew - (see life) - death resurrection. (WDS.476) Symbols and Objects * A (alpha) - the letter "A" is the birth letter of the greeks. Some older versions of "A" are upsidedown, perhaps a universal representation of the a cow goddess, associated with the birth of all things. Also, an alternate name for the river Styx (see Styx).(WDS.34) * Henna - Egyptian mummies were wrapped in cloth dyed with Henna , which represented maternal blood - thus they would be reborn. * Labyrinth - soul's journey to the center of the uterine underworld and return -> rebirth. (a labyrinth has one path, a maze has branches) - many cultures have a labyrinth to walk. Labyrinth = 'house of the double axe' from Labrys, the sacred axe of Crete. (WDS.95,96) * Runic Swastica - appeared on pagan tombstones in scandinavia (sweedish) closed arms - idea of return to the earth/ recycling. - Death as reabsorption. (WDS.60) * Spiral - death and rebirth - 'entering the mysterious earth womb, penetrating to its core and passing out again by the same route' Sacred dances imitate the movement (most eu pagan) (WDS.17) * Vessels for the dead - (like coffin, vase, jar) represent a returning to the womb of rebirth. Originally in story of Pandora - "Rhea - all giver with vase, the origin of all things. (Hesiod later made this into the source of all ills) - later, the vase was mistranslated into a box. (WDS.160,161) * Treskelion (in a circle) - like the yinyang - an image of eternity. (WDS.43) * Wheel - (Etruscans) Vortumna's (or Fortuna's) wheel marked the seasons and the fates of men. (WDS.17) * Yin Yang - duality. (see light and dark) (WDS.18) |