Pagan Deities and Occult Themes
Aradia is a powerful goddess sent to earth to teach witchcraft in Charles Godfrey Leland’s 1899 book, “Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches.” Leland claimed that this was a genuine religious text used by pagan witches in Tuscany, which he later edited and published. Others support his claim, suggesting that she can be identified... Continue Reading →
Rome, for all its military might and political innovation, was a profoundly religious society. At the heart of its state religion, shaping its responses to crises and guiding its most crucial decisions, stood the enigmatic and revered collection known as the Sibylline Books. These were not sacred texts in the modern sense, but a set... Continue Reading →
The Book of Enoch is an apocryphal Jewish religious text probably written in the 2nd century BCE and discovered as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It claims to record the experience of Enoch, who lived seven generations on from Adam and was the father of Methuselah and the great-grandfather of Noah (of flood fame).... Continue Reading →
Many cultures have a version of “Death” or a “Grim Reaper,” the entity responsible for guiding the recently dead into the afterlife. Similar but distinct versions of death existed in the folklore of the British Isles, influenced by both Celtic and Christian traditions. Dullahan – Irish Folklore In Irish folklore, Dullahan is a headless rider... Continue Reading →
Helios was the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, by whom he was the brother of Selene (the moon) and Eos (the dawn). This made him one of the primordial gods. While he was probably imagined as the sun disk itself, he was also portrayed as an athletic young man driving a four-horse chariot... Continue Reading →
Teutates, or Toutatis, is one of the many names of ancient Celtic gods that has been transmitted down through the millennia. But unlike the Greeks and Romans, who wrote extensively about the gods, the Celts left almost no written records about their deities. Consequently, we have to piece together the character and importance of this... Continue Reading →
In Greek mythology, the Titans were the rulers of heaven before the Olympian gods. They were the children of Gaia, the personification of the earth and one of the first gods to emerge from the water of Chaos, and Uranus, Gaia’s son and the god of the sky. Together Gaia and Uranus had several groups... Continue Reading →
Ouranos, better known as the Latinized version Uranus, was one of the very first gods to emerge from Chaos and forms part of the primordial group of gods alongside Gaia and Tartarus. Ouranos was the personification of the sky or heavens. While often considered the equivalent of the Roman god Caelus, he seems to have... Continue Reading →
Hermes was one of the Olympian gods and was considered a divine messenger, often acting on behalf of Zeus. He was also considered a Chthonic god with responsibility for showing people the path to the underworld. This seems to have been an extension of his role as the god of crossroads, which meant that he... Continue Reading →
Eros, better known by his Roman name Cupid, was the winged figure carrying a bow and arrow. If he shot you with his arrow, you would fall in love with the person he chose for you. But while that is the most popular image of Eros that survives today, the oldest sources for Greek religion... Continue Reading →