Chthonia

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This week we continue the series on Female Christian Mystics with the polymath saint Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard began having spiritual visions at age 3, and was in a convent by age 8, where she was taught to read and write in Latin. She was an acclaimed mystic, philosopher, botanist, natural healer, and musician. She invented her own language and alphabet called Lingua Ignota. Hildegard's mystical revelations included the idea that nature was not imperfect, but a manifestation of God as Divine Feminine in our world. She was urged to write down her visions, though she also conveyed her experience through music, believing that celestial song existed "before Eden". We look at the traits of this remarkable medieval woman, her fierce independence with respect to Church authorities, and what her experiences say about female mystical experiences.

Links:

Music (chant with Lingua Ignota)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua4C2mzWfNQ

Lingua Ignota:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_ignota

In honor of Valentine's Day this past week, this podcast takes a look at 4 goddesses of love and desire: Aphrodite, Ishtar, Freya, and Rati. Love goddesses are often war goddesses as well, or at least have strong connections to war--why is that the case? We look at different ideas about love, marriage, and relationship, and examine how the rati-yuddha (love battle) is just as much a part of romantic relationships as the more pleasant associations.

In this week's podcast we look at my namesake, the goddess Brigid, as we have just passed Imbolc (also known as Brigid's Day). This episode focuses on the goddess rather than the saint, though there are obvious crossovers between the two. Brigid is portrayed as a triple goddess of poetry, smithcraft and healing,and is seen as a fire goddess. In the medieval Irish literature she is portrayed as the wife of the half-Fomorian Bres, and brings the art of keening to Ireland while mourning her son at the second battle of Maige Tuired (Moytura). Brigid is a goddess of Spring, but also has strong connections to warfare, and has a lot in common with her sister (or mother?) goddess, the Morrigan.

This week we continue our series on Christian female mystics with a look at St. Catherine of Siena. St. Catherine is an incredibly complex figure, who at once represents the Christian feminine ideal of the Virgin, while also defining her mystical "marriage" in rather shockingly embodied terms. We also look at the way in which she uses fasting as a way of maintaining her own personal sovereignty, and the surprising political and religious power that she wielded as a member of the religious laity.

Happy 2024! We start off the new year with the first podcast in the Female Christian Mystics series by looking at St. Teresa of Jesus, better known as Teresa of Avila. Teresa died in 1582 and was canonized a saint in 1622; she was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970. Teresa was a celibate nun, but had a deep erotic current that ran through her external and internal life, making her unintentionally a kind of Tantric saint. She is particularly remembered for a mystical event known as the transverberation, immortalized in art by Bernini as "the Ecstasy of St. Teresa." We look at Teresa's very unconventional life, the threatening combination of mystical experience and poverty, and that experience discussed in the Fourth Dwelling of her book The Interior Castle known as "The Prayer of Quiet."

We end 2023 with a look at Despoina, an obscure Arcadian goddess associated with this title which means "Mistress". Often connected to Kore/Persephone, Artemis and Hecate, this child of Demeter and Poseidon holds a powerful secret and a name that would only be revealed to initiates of her Mysteries. The only surviving image connected to Despoina is her veil, and the only account of her shrine in Arcadia comes from a description by the Roman writer Pausanias. Still, the little information that we have tells us a lot about this goddess and her cohorts.

Just in time for Santa Lucia's Day (13 December) we look at Lussi, the sorceress who rides with her ghoulish brood at the Solstice, bringing destruction to homes unprepared for the coming winter, carrying off naughty children, and those who mistreated their animals during the year. Lussi leads a version of the brood known as the Wild Hunt, and bears a lot of similarity to other European winter hags like Frau Holle and Frau Perchta.

As we head into the winter season, we round out the last few podcasts of the year with a discussion of the Japanese "snow woman" Yuki-onna. Like many of our Dark Feminine figures, she has both gentle and terrifying aspects; she can fall in love and marry, she can bring treasure, but she also freezes people to death and in some instances cannibalizes them. As a snow woman she is a deep embodiment of the yin principle, which we will explore with respect to her stories and attributes.

Jinn are spirits created from fire that are part of Arabic and Islamic folklore. A full discussion of the Jinn would take many episodes, so in this podcast I discuss what Jinn are and what is known about their origins, their place in Islamic cosmogony, and the different types of Jinn, particularly the Ghula and Si'lat, who often appear in feminine form to seduce men. Jinn have free will and be considered good or evil; thus these female Jinn may fall in love with a man and marry him, or may lure him to his death and cannibalize him. I will compare these Jinn to similar creatures in other cultures, and explain how they manifest the negative character of the Mother Archetype.

This week we are talking about Eisheth Zenunim, "queen of harlots" who is considered the personification of sin in the Zohar, and one of the 4 wives of Samael. We discuss Eisheth's relationship to the serpent in the Garden of Eden as well as to Babalon, and her Kabbalistic association with the Qlippoth, the flip side of the Tree of Life consisting of the "husks" of the dead and considered the embodiment of evil. But is she a temptation to sin for the spiritual aspirant, or a neglected part of the fullness of "creation"?

This week we look at Echidna, the mother of monsters in Greek mythology. Echnidna is said to be the mother of the Sphinx, the Chimera, the Lernean Hydra, and Cerberus among others. She is identified with Python, the dragon slain by Apollo at what would later be his oracle site at Delphi. As a monster associated with rot and decay, she represents terrors of physical death and depression, but is also an alchemical force for transformation.

This episode looks at the third goddess in our Canaanite trilogy, the warrior goddess Anath, the sister or helpmate of the Canaanite deity Ba'al Hadad. Anath's attributes and role with respect to the Israelites is contested, as is her role as a fertility and hunting goddess. The scholarship has a hard time reconciling this bloodthirsty goddess with a connection to fertility, but the connection is actually very clear. We talk about ancient Earth mother worship, the idea of something that is "anathema" (a term that comes from the name of this goddess), and how her violent nature connects her to the agricultural cycle of life.

This week I examine the Canaanite mother goddess represented by a sacred tree, and according to some archaeological evidence and speculation, may have been the wife of the Biblical god Yahweh. The episode looks at this theory as well as the origins of Asherah, her role in ancient Judaic society and her presence in the Bible, and how this is a prime example of valuing logos ("rational philosophy") over eros ("fertility cult"), as well as highlighting the difference between official state religion and local folk beliefs.

Also, as a refresher on the origins of the god Yahweh, I mention once again the ESOTERICA podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdKst8zeh-U

This week we look at Astarte, wife of Baal, goddess of love, hunting and war. We take a dive into Canaanite religion and its relationship to early Judaic religion, including her mentions in the Baal Cycle and the Bible, as well as her later role in Egypt as a war goddess and wife of Set. We also explore the seeming paradox of love goddesses also acting as goddesses of war.

This week we look at the Ancient Egyptian chimeric demoness called Ammit. Having the head of a crocodile, the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, and the forequarters of a lion, Ammit stands beside Anubis waiting to devour the hearts and souls of the unjust dead. In this episode we look at the background of afterlife beliefs in ancient Egypt and some of their near neighbors, and Ammit as a representation of the Devouring Mother as serving justice.

This week we look at the "Dancing Demon" of Talmudic and Kabbalistic literature, one of the 4 wives of archangel Samael, and an "angel of sacred prostitution". Lilith is viewed as her competitor, and sometimes as her mother and grandmother, though her name means "Agrat daughter of Mahlat," herself a daughter of Ishmael and a wife of Esau. We look at the Biblical and angelic backdrop for this Queen of Demons, and the significance of her chariot drawn by 18 legions of demons, who dances on rooftops on Wednesdays, and when the Sabbath begins on Fridays.

I mention the ESOTERICA YouTube channel and the excellent episode on the origins of Yahweh, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdKst8zeh-U

Poludnica, also known as Lady Midday and the Noonwraith, is a demon of the harvest who punishes those who do not rest at noontime. She has various names throughout Eastern Europe, and is represented as a woman in a white dress, sometimes with a skeletal face, who carries a scythe, shears, or a whip. In this podcast we take a deep dive into the "dark" side of the peak hour of the day, what it means to be "in the middle," and the relationship of the Noonwraith to Saturn or Kronos.

This week's podcast talks about the succubus, a female demon that is said to have sex with men while they sleep, and her male counterpart, the incubus. There is some version of the succubus in almost every culture; we will look at the medieval view of these creatures, its likely origins in ancient beliefs about immortality, and how these narratives affect things like the reproductive rights of women.

One correction: at some point I talk about pre-Christian ideas of the succubus, but I'm actually talking about the succubus as it appears in other religions, in addition to pre-Christian ideas.

I have talked about the Gorgon Medusa on this podcast in the past; today's episode looks at all three Gorgons, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. This is a deep dive into the psychological meaning of the Gorgons and other similar daimons, and their relationship to goddesses such as Athena and Artemis. When we move from archaic Greek literature to Roman literature of the early common era, we see a curious shift in the representation of Gorgons, from horrible women with hissing hair, boar tusks, and lolling tongues to "beautiful maidens". What does this mean?

We finally have a new Chthonia Conversation, and Joanna Madloch is back! We dive into Slavic theogony (creation mythology) and conceptions of the afterlife in the stories of Perun, Veles, and their offspring. Joanna sent me a few names in chat, that you can reference; these are in order within the conversation:

Swaróg
Dadźbóg
Chors
Księżyc
Mokosz
Strzybóg
Rod
Rodzanice
Nav, Nawia
Wyraj
Dola
Jaga
Wiedźma