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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.satanism,alt.religion.satanism,talk.religion.misc.alt.magick.tantra,alt.mythology From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva) Subject: Re: The Black Dog Date: 27 Aug 1998 18:11:34 -0700 980826 IIIom cat "the black dog's friend" yronwode -- cat@luckymojo.com: >> |I am researching black dog cults around the world right now. In >> |"Speaking of Siva" -- a book of 10th and 11th century poems of praise >> |to "My Personal Saviour" :-) -- i have seen brief mention of "the >> |black dog cult of Siva" but no details. Then, in a recent usenet post >> |by Tzimon, he mentioned the black dog of Bhairava (an aspect of Siva >> |in his wrathful and protective form). Any citations of sources for >> |in-depth material on Siva/Bhairava and the Black Dog would be highly >> |appreciated. I am also checking out the Egyptian Anubis and other >> |Black Dog cults, if anyone has information on those as well. nagasiva: >> Myrddin, Satan, Anubis, Cerberus, Hunting Hounds cat: >What is the relationship between Myrddin and the black dog? >I am entirely unfamiliar with this. >Satan sometimes appears as a black dog (especially in German-derived >tales). But is there a "black dog cult" of Satan? That is, has Satan >ever been worshipped or adored in the form of a black dog? SHe COULD be. Eris has designs. ;> cf. _The Quest For Merlin...._, by Tolstoy. :> I'm pretty sure that I read it in this lovely exploration of Myrddin, but as I can't find the exact location of the text, here is an interlude sampling pertaining to the Satanic and setting the stage for assertions about the Black Dog: The demoniac aspect of Merlin's nature ... represents an archetype to the period of man's Creation, and surviving as the animal shadow lurking behind man's god-like image, with all its potential for anarchical disorder and evil. The myth arose to exorcize the constant reminder within the unconscious psyche that man is but a beast erect on his hind legs, and endowed with the powers of speech and thought. The exorcism is conducted through the familiar medium of ridicule, and Merlin with all his wisdom is frequently made to appear incongruously foolish. He is born with hairy animal-skin, and appears later in the guise of a woodman, dressed in 'a short tattered smock, with his hair very shaggy and long, and a very long beard, so that he really looked like a wild man (*houme sauvaige*).' The expression 'wild man' relates to relates to a widespread medieval conception, which in turn derives from extremely ancient belief. Wild Men were envisaged as semi-human creatures eking out brutish life in remote forests, and living on roots, berries, nuts, the raw flesh of wild animals. They dwelt in caves or primitive shelters, and were constantly obliged to defend themselves against other savage denizens of the woods. They were pictured as immensely powerful, savagely aggressive, and only able to command the barest rudiments of language. They believed in no god, being too backward to entertain such a conception and lacking souls in consequence, were greatly given to sating an unbridled sexual appetite, and were frequently regarded as insane. In appearance they were covered with thick pelts of hair (except on hands, face and feet), and frequently bore a massive untrimmed club as a weapon. Wild Men proliferate in medieval art and literature and the concept is traceable to the oldest literature in existence. *Gilgamesh*, the great Addakian epic composed some time in the third millenium B.C., contains a full account of Enkidu, the primordial Wild Man.... ...Enkidu represents mankind before civilization. On the steppe he lives in communion with the wild animals, a communion which is shattered once he knows woman, acquires wisdom, and becomes human. 'Carefree became his mood and cheerful, His heart exulted And his face glowed. He rubbed the shaggy growth, The hair of his body, Anointed himself with oil, Became human. He put on clothing, He is like a groom! He took his weapon To chase the lions, That shepherds might rest at night. He caught wolves, He captured lions, The chief cattlemen could lie down; Enkidu is their watchmen....' Enkidu, like other Wild Men, represents man in a primitive, brutish condition, before his crude, shaggy frame knew the softening influences of civilized culture and morality. The Wild Man is desire incarnate, possessing the strength, wit, and cunning to give full expression to all his lusts. His life is correspondingly unstable in character. He is a glutton, eating to satiety one day and starving the next; he is lascivious and promiscuous, without even consciousness of sin. Unlike other fabulous creatures, conceived of as remote in time or space, the Wild Man is conventionally represented as being always present, inhabiting the immediate confines of the community. He is just out of sight, over the horizon, in the nearby forest, desert, mountain, or hills. The implication is clear enough; the Wild Man not only represents man in his early, savage conditions, but also that strain of savagery in his nature which is a lingering heritage of his primitive condition. In medieval iconography Adam is sometimes portrayed as a Wild Man (there is a fine example carved on a panel in the fifteenth-century French church at Ambierle), and it was Adam's sin which continued to tarnish man made in God's image. The Wild Man concept is thus to be seen as a variant of the Trickster motif; with the difference perhaps that, whereas Trickster stories portray man's prolonged struggle to free himself from his animal heritage, the image of the Wild Man is simply a reflection of an earlier, unregenerate state, when man dwelt as yet in conditions of unalloyed primitive barbarity. (It is interesting, incidentally, to see this unconscious awareness of man's hominid and pre-hominid existence surviving in the face of virtually all [?] mythologies, which assert man's separate creation.) ... [in contrast to Merlin...] ...the traditional Wild Man is always represented as a great hunter after game, killing and devouring the raw flesh of his fellow-creatures of the wilderness.... ...Wild Men are given over to the crudest sexual indulgence, fornicating like beasts in the absence of any moral restraint.... ...The true Wild Man is by definition utterly devoid of [exceptional intelligence and emotional sensitivity, desires to be included in the pleasures of cultured society].... [re Monmouth's Merlin] ...Merlin is in truth far nearer to Prospero than Caliban -- a connexion which is oddly closer than mere analogy. For Shakespeare's Prospero is thought to have been based on the famous alchemist Dr. John Dee, who in turn regarded himself and was widely regarded as a sixteenth-century counterpart of Merlin! It is likely too that Spenser's picture of Merlin in _The Faerie Queene_ was drawn at least in part from Dr. Dee. There can be no question, therefore, but that the original Merlin-figure was far removed from being a Wild Man. However, this is not to say that he did not acquire some Wild Man characteristics along the way. ------------------------------------------------------- _The Quest for Merlin_, by Nikolai Tolstoy, published Little, Brown and Company; pp. 190-3. __________________________________________________ perhaps the Satan connection is Seth? I shall contemplate the Set Animal. the black dog thang might come out of wolves (I'm pretty sure I saw the terms 'black dog' per se somewhere and have been scouring the library for it, here's what I could find to date): Among the Goldi, the shaman drank the blood of a pig; 'only the shaman had the right to drink it, the laity couldn't touch it.' At the initiatory rites, he, his family and guests, 'sing and dance (it is necessary to have at least nine dancers) and nine pigs are sacrificed; the shamans drink their blood, fall down in an ecstatic trance and shamanize for a long time. [cites Eliade -- tn] _The Black Book of Carmarthen Hoianau_ poetry appears to reflect this setting. In it Myrddin is represented as addressing long, confused prophetic stanzas to his 'little pig' [brings to mind Gautama and Ananda, or Padmasambhava and Yeshes Tsogyal -- tn :>]; clearly the pig is envisaged both as familiar and source of mantic inspiration. And in the _Vita Merlini_, Merlin apostrophizes a wolf, his 'dear companion', whose presence is otherwise unexplained.... ------------------------------------------------------- Ibid., p. 150. ______________ and ...the invocations to the 'little pig' in the _Hoianau_ poetry. 'Oh, little pig!' starts each verse, followed apparently inconsequently with lamentations over Myrddin's wretched life in the forest, and prophecies of future wars and rumours of wars. It may be noted firstly that pigs wild and domestic played a very important role in the lives of the Celtic peoples. The boar was clearly the cult animal *par excellence* of the Celts, and pork their favourite food. Joints of pork were placed in the graves of the Marnian tribe, the Parisii of East Yorkshire, doubtless because 'the Celtic chief was to take with him on his journey the favourite food of the Celt.'.... [he provides a long batch of refs for Celt claims - tn] Above all, pigs were believed to come from the Otherworld, and 'were ceterin guides to the Otherworld'. Two lords of the Otherworld were divine swineherds and the heathen Celts sacrificed pigs, presumably in the belief that they returned to the Otherworld.... These pig sacrifices were not confined to the Celts. In Greece, initiates at the Eleusinian Mysteries had on their second day to sacrifice a pig, for the blood of the pig was considered a very potent agent of purification with the power to absorb the impure spirit inhabiting human beings. In the same way Christ compelled devils possessing the Gadarene to enter the herd of swine... and a Finnish folk-tale tells of the ritual killing of a divine pig 'with a golden club, a copper hammer, a silver mallet'.... ...Myrddin in the _Hoianau_ is said to life among the forest wolves, and in the _Vita Merlini_ Merlin addressed an aged wolf as his companion. Analogy suggests there may once have been a companion set of verses to the _Hoianau_ in which Myrddin was made to utter other prophecies to a wolf. Wolves, like pigs, were objects of a devotional cult among the Celts, being seen as companions of a god. Several Celtic saints are said to have tamed wolves, a feat probably intended to indicate that they possessed powers fully as strong as those of their heathen rivals. -------------------------------------------------- Ibid., pp. 72-4. _________________ >Anubis: >Anubis IS a black dog (a black jackal, to be taxonomically correct), but >he is an ancient Egyptian judge of the dead, not a Satan-analogue. the God of the Underworld. Lord of This World. Hades. Lucifer. Jackal-headed or dog-headed Satan is far less common, as far as iconography is concerned, than, say goat-headed or mule-headed). Shugal is fox-headed (the desert fox, 333, the male half of the Beast 666; cf. Grant's _Nightside of Eden_, Weiser or some other distributor, and others of his works, for more). >The ancient Eyptian deity Set has been identified with Satan >by a certain school of modern Satanist theologians, some Setians believe this, yes. all will no doubt dispute what facts may be derived from the data. ultimately what is authoritative is what derives from a rich source of prana, power, life, motivating energy. >but although his animal-form has some dog-like aspects, it is so >mixed and mingled in terms of species characteristics that it is >usually referred to as the Set-animal, not a dog. agreed, though it could be understood by skeletal structure to resemble dogs or pigs rather than other types of animals (birds). >Cerberus: >Cerberus, the Three-Headed Hound of the Greek underworld is a dog, >to be sure, but was there ever a cult in which his worship figured? and was hir color ever disclosed/ascertained? black? always? I have no idea, I forward the question to an appropriate newsgroup (what, alt.mythology?). >Hunting Hounds: >These are the Hell Hounds that figure in the famous Robert Johnson blues >song "Hell Hound on My Trail." It is these hounds, or one of them, that >i hve seen in dreams and have sought to understand. One might also note >in this connection the Hans Christian Andersen story about the three >demonic dogs with "eyes as big as saucers," eyes as big as "plates," and >"eyes as big as platters." lovely writer, Andersen. I more enjoy Grimm portrayal of witches. Laurie Anderson describes aliens with platter-hands, telescope-eyes in her songs. >> Cooper: sorcery, diabolocal powers, the damned, death. >Well, yes, that is the idea. that's not a very reassuring list of associations. :> >i am not sure how >far to take these implied correspondences with diabolical and Satanic >imagery that derives from Western European notions in which wild nature >is continually suppreseed and reviled as "evil." Perhaps you can assit? it is a personal assessment, reflecting on the condition of humans with respect to first nature. cf. above quote on the Demoniacal aspect of Merlin. >...the ascetic aspect of Siva.... details would be much appreciated! they function to build a type of energy which can be used in detachment, a kind of fireball-like directable charge, on par with ADnD's Magic Mis- siles Spell, applied an extending an ability to desensitize. it can be misused, can become a trap. >Death is the lot of us all, don't you agree? >A good death is all i ask. I agree strongly. sounds nordic. >Further, insofar as i assume the role and function of the Black Goddess, >i find that the Black Dog of Death, Siva's Black Dog, becomes as >biddable and willing to serve me as a Border Collie would be. a doggess biddable, a goddess unpredictable. >And this, in the end, may be what i hope to achieve: a state of >equilibrium with the Black Dog of Death in which i am not the prey of >wild Hunting Hounds but rather the loving mistress who sends forth my >Border Collie to do my bidding, "bringing in the sheep." one of the sheep is black, Ms. Peep. you will achieve whatever you set your will to accomplishing. namaste, nagasiva -- tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (emailed replies may be posted); 408/2-666-SLUG cc me replies; http://www.abyss.com/tokus; http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi
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