Ancient Beliefs
From Genco
A deity that was thought to be benevolent in Greek mythology. It was referred to as a "good spirit" of the vineyards and cornfields. According to Aristophanes these deities were honored by drinking a glass of wine to them after the meal. The deity was represented pictorially in the form of a serpent, or as a young man holding a horn of plenty, a bowl and ears of corn. Winged serpents also were venerated by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese and other peoples.
Amduscias is known as the Duke of Hades, according to Johan Weyer, and took the form of a unicorn, but when invoked appeared in human shape. He gave concerts at the command of men, where music was heads coming from many invisible musical instruments. It is said even trees themselves bend to his voice. He commands twenty-nine legions.
Amy is the Grand President of Hades, and one of the princes of the infernal monarchy. There he appears enveloped with flame, but on earth he assumes human form. He teaches the secrets of astrology, and of liberal arts, and provides faithful servants. To those possessing his favor he reveals the hiding place of treasures guarded by demons. Thirty-six of the infernal legions are under his command. The fallen angels acknowledge his orders, and at the end of 200,000 years he hopes to return to heaven to occupy the seventh throne. A.G.H.
Anamelech is an obscure demon, bearer of ill news. He was worshiped at Sepharvaun, a town of the Assyrians. He always reveals himself as a quail. His names, it is held, signifies "good king," and authorities declare that this demon is the moon, as Andramelech is the sun.
Secret rituals of pagan religions taught and known only to initiates who had developed a higher spirituality. Such mysteries were kept from the popular worshipers, and the initiates took a binding oath of secrecy. This is why even today the knowledge of these mysteries is partly conjectural.
The typical mystery cults were those of Eleusis in Greece in the 15th century BC, which may have part of their origins in the mystery religions of ancient Egypt and the mysteries of Mithras, a Persian deity. Traces of Mithraism still exist in Britain. Many present secret societies claim their ritual descend from ancient traditions.
Since the beginning of mankind people have believed in the superhuman qualities of animals. This belief originates in animism. Early people honored animals for having a spiritual life or soul similar to their own. They also honored the animal's superior strength, speed, and fertility, and the animal became recognized as symbolizing these powers. These people always held the animal sacred because it shared a vital part of their lives, and they recognized their dependency upon the animal.
The spiritual life or soul of the animal was believed to exist after death, and remained powerful to promote good or evil. All animals, especially snakes and birds, eventually were venerated by early cultures who adopted prayers, rituals, and built temples in which to worship them.
The ancient Egyptians paid homage to almost every ordinary animal. Different animals were sacred in different districts which gave rise to many disputes and fights. A person might get even with an enemy by killing his sacred pig or cow which was not sacred to that person. The falcon and ibis were sacred throughout the country. In most regions of Egypt the bull was sacred. At Memphis, the sacred bull Apis was worshiped as the actual incarnation of the god.
To the Greeks the sacred animal was the eagle of Zeus. An early Gnostic sect, the Ophites, as was as the Buddhists, and the American Indians all venerated the snake. The Aztec and the Toltec had the Quetzalcoati bird.
Such are examples that there has always existed a belief in animal transformation or lycanthropy, i.e., in folklore, the ability to take on the form and characteristics of a wolf.
The Egyptian symbol of life, the universe and immortality is the tau or looped cross called the ankh, which means both "life" and "hand mirror." It is symbolic of regeneration; as an amulet it protects against bad luck; and as a talisman it indicates good fortune. Also, it represents the union between the male principle (the staff) and the female principle (the closed loop).
In ancient Egypt, the House of Life was a building or group of buildings housing the temple library, the repository of all magical lore that was available to magicians, priest, and laymen. In Egyptian art the ankh is shown as a scepter that was carried in the right hand of deities who would apply it to the nostrils of the dead to bring them back to life.
Ankh amulets were composed of faience, semiprecious and precious stones, wax, metal, and wood. Tutankhamen had a hand mirror fashioned in the shape of an ankh.
When the Egyptians were converted to Christianity in the first century AD, they used both the ankh and the Christian cross as their symbols of belief. Presently the ankh is worn as jewelry by many Neo-pagans, witches, and occultists.
Ancient deities of inferior rank, which were believed to be attached to men at birth as their constant companion. They were capable of giving impulses and being messengers between the gods and men.
They were thought to be of a hostile nature as opposed to the Agathodaemons. The deity appearing to Cassius was huge in stature, having a black hue.
The belief in these daemons seems to have been traditional. They are thought to be bad deities cast from heaven for their crimes. They wondered various parts of the universe seeking a settlement. They finally settled among the stars where they are still hated by all. Tthey seek to exert revenge and injury. Their king was called Hades by the Greeks, Typhon by the Egyptians, and Ahrismanes by the Perisans and Chaldeans.
The poem, Kako-daemon or The Cavern of Anti-Paros by T. C. Kendrick was published in London in 1825.
Early astrologers named the 12th house of the sun "Cacademon," as its influence is regarded as evil.
Ancient deities of inferior rank, which were believed to be attached to men at birth as their constant companion. They were capable of giving impulses and being messengers between the gods and men.
They were thought to be of a hostile nature as opposed to the Agathodaemons. The deity appearing to Cassius was huge in stature, having a black hue.
The belief in these daemons seems to have been traditional. They are thought to be bad deities cast from heaven for their crimes. They wondered various parts of the universe seeking a settlement. They finally settled among the stars where they are still hated by all. Tthey seek to exert revenge and injury. Their king was called Hades by the Greeks, Typhon by the Egyptians, and Ahrismanes by the Perisans and Chaldeans.
The poem, Kako-daemon or The Cavern of Anti-Paros by T. C. Kendrick was published in London in 1825.
Early astrologers named the 12th house of the sun "Cacademon," as its influence is regarded as evil..
Egregore was a collective ritual held among the ancient hunting and agricultural societies. Usually leading the ceremony was a sorcerer or witch doctor. The ritual was to assure a plentitude of animals for the hunters and a sufficient rainfall for the farmers. In the ceremony the collective energy of the groups attending, which composed their egregore, or magical mana, was combined with that of the leader, or officiator. Similar ceremonies were universally used for rainmaking.
The fly was a predominant soul-symbol within many ancient religions. Many primitives believed that flies possessed souls of deceased persons, and by swallowing a fly the women conceived and bear children. Virgin mothers of Celtic heroes--Etain, Cuchulainn--conceived this way. The Greeks similarly believed that souls traveled from one life to the next in insect form; their very word for soul, psyche, meant a butterfly. As in the Middle East, Baal-Zebub or Beelzebub was "Lord of Flies" because he was a psychopomp, his title really meant "Lord of Souls."
Such ideas and images indicate a very archaic mode of thought, which predates the discovery of fatherhood. Women thought they conceived by themselves. Both men and women were attempting to imagine methods by which the fetus entered the woman's body.
In Latin focus means "hearth," or first altar, and the center of early tribal life. The Goddess of the focus was Vesta (Greek Hestia), whose priestesses attended a perpetual fire that was connected to the soul of Rome. The altar of Vesta was believed to be the center of the universe. The origin of the cult came from Neolithic views of matriarchal power radiating from the home center of the clan, with the matriarch serving as high priestess and conducting religious ceremonies from her hearth.
Jakin and Boas are the names of the two symbolic pillars of Solomon's Kabbalistic temple, which were believed to explain all mysteries. One pillar was white, while the other one was black, thus the represented the powers of good and evil. It was said that they symbolize they need for "two" in the world: Human equilibrium requires two feet; the worlds gravitate by means of two forces; generation requires two sexes.
An imaginary country, according to popular belief in ancient Persian folklore, which was home to Jinns who served King Solomon.
Ka was the Egyptian conception for one of the seven parts of man, his spiritual double or astral body. The Ka was represented in drawings as a birdlike duplicate of the deceased. It was believed animals and inanimate objects possessed a Ka as well as man. Every mortal received a Ka at birth. At death the Ka leaves man, but it was supposed to remain near the body and occasionally reanimate it. For this purpose statues were placed near the mummy in which the Ka might find temporary shelter. The Ka was given food by the relatives of the deceased who left provisions in the tomb for its use. If the relatives were neglectful in providing the provisions, the Ka presumably haunted them. The Ka was differentiated from the soul, called the "Ba," which left both bodies at death.
In ancient Greece these were thought to be malignant spirits which brought on evils of various kinds such as pollution, blindness, many diseases, old age, death and spiritual blindness. Also keres were considered souls of the dead.
The ancient Egyptian name for the shadow, which at death was supposed to quit the body to continue to exit on it own. It was represented under the form of a sunshade.
Manes, in ancient roman times, was the name given to the collective souls of the dead who were believed to be "good" and worshiped as gods, particularly at the three important festivals-the Feralla, Perentalia, and Lemuria. The deities of the underworld, Dis Pater, Orcus, and Persephone also bore the name. However, later the name referred to individual souls of the dead, and their names were added to the grave inscriptions.
Nif was an Egyptian symbol in form of a ship's sail widely spread; symbolizing breath.
The writings from Orphism that inspired several Greek poets. However, the greatest work attributed to Orpheus or the Orphic writers is the work Rhapsodic Theogony. This work has been quoted numerous of times by many Neo-Platonic writers, and has been important in the history of mysticism, alchemy and the occult.
Orphism is the teachings of an ancient Greek philosophical cult which exerted great influence on Greek culture, and later on Western mysticism and occultism. It began in the sixth century BC, and is attributed to the mythical Orpheus. The chief teachings are of reincarnation, a Greek version of Karma, a history of the universe which was formed by Cronus who formed an egg and created the first king of the gods -- whom Zeus supplanted and fathered Dionysus -- the divine child. Other teachings are that the body is the prison of the soul, animals were not to be killed or eaten, the good were to be rewarded while the evil were to be punished in Nether World, and teachings of self-denial and seriousness in religious matters. Apollo was the kindered god who demanded purification and righteousness. Orphism had a great impact on alchemy.
Palengenesisis an ancient Greek term meaning, "becoming again," as the seed of an oak tree recreates its parental oak. This identical life in cyclical recurring phases is the essential essence of the following phrase: being the continuous transmission of the same life-stream.
Preanimism is thought to be the first feeling of fear, of awe, of wonder instigated by supernatural events. Also, it embodies the earliest beliefs that all objects are alive with life, energy, or spirits.
Shayba, the Arabic-Aramaean title of the Great Goddess, was the "Old Woman" whose spirit dwelt in the sacred stone of the Kaaba or Mecca. Shayba was the land-name and the Goddess-name of Arabian queens in the ancient seat of government, Marib in southern Arabia (now Yemen).Shebat was the Mesopotamian moon-goddess(a variation of Hebat or Eve), and the month named after her. In Assyria the ancient head of the family was called shebu, formerly a matriarch and later a tribal elder of either sex.
Sheol, Hebrew "Pit," is a term symbolizing a cavern, womb, or underworld; related to the uterine paradise-garden called Shal-Mari in Tibet and Shalimar in India. Originally Shoel was the Virgin's "enclosed garden" of flowers, fruits, fountains, and fairy nymphs. Sacred kings dying on trees entered this world. The Markandeya Purana mentioned an underworld realm when men's souls are impaled on trees.
Shal-Mari probably became Sheol-Mari in the Middle-East, where Mari was Ishtar, and there was a long tradition of hanging human sacrifices on trees.
Simulacra, in ancient Egypt, were paintings and statuettes of slaves, persons, animals, and sometimes other beings that were placed in tombs. The simulacra accompanied their masters into the other world where they would render them service and minister to their comfort.
