#World Religions

[ominouspositivity-or-else]

*The Eucharist is the body of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine.

**God is bound to these sacraments, meaning he always gives grace through them when they are done, but he is not bound by these sacraments, meaning that God can do literally whatever he wants and can of course go around them and provide grace in other ways.

***7 sacraments, listed: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Confession, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.

Feel free to add nuance in the tags or talk about why you find the teachings strange! Let me know if there's anything utterly baffling that I didn't include!!!

Also please remember to be respectful!!! Not everyone knows theology like you might!!!

[cosmopoliturtle]

Chalkydri - Bringer of Dawn

Created for @13daysadvent

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Not every goddess is a mother goddess.

Read that again.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Today (September 24th), the city of Barcelona celebrates its festa major (Catalan holiday for the local patron saint), dedicated to the Virgin of Mercy (Mare de Déu de la Mercè, in Catalan).

Usually, on this holiday of La Mercè, or at least on the days around it, it rains. The legend says that it's not rain, but the tears of Saint Eulàlia —old patron saint of Barcelona—, who cries because the city forgot her.

In this post I'll explain who was Eulàlia (according to the legend) and what happened that made her lose the position as the city's main patron saint.

1. Saint Eulàlia of Barcelona, martyr

Saint Eulàlia is believed to have lived in the 4th century AD, when the Roman emperor Diocletian was persecuting Christians. Eulàlia lived in Sarrià (village near Barcelona, nowadays a neighbourhood of Barcelona). She was only 13 years old, but she knew she was a good speaker so she went to see Dacian —the Roman governor in Barcino (modern-day Barcelona)— to try to convince him to stop the persecution of Christians in his territory.

The Roman governor accused her of going against the emperor's orders and sentenced her to suffer as many tortures as her age: they beat her on the streets, teared her skin off with hooks, marked her body with burning irons, forced her to stand on her feet on top of a burning grill, cut off her breasts, scratched the inside of her tights with rocks, threw boiling oil in her injuries, poured melted lead on her, locked her naked in a prison cell full of fleas, and tried to burn her; but during her whole tortures she had been praying, and by the time they tried to burn her, the flames moved away from her and attacked her torturers instead.

The most famous one out of the tortures was when she was put inside a barrel full of broken glass, knives and nails, and she was thrown down a hill 13 times to roll on them.

In the end, she was crucified naked on a cross shaped like an X to make her die in an dishonourable way. Then, a miracle happened. Some say that her hair grew quickly to cover her breasts and sex; others say that a snow storm suddenly appeared and covered her in snow. The thirteenth torture killed her, but the passerbies saw how her soul turned into a white dove that came out of her mouth and ascended into heaven.

Two scenes from a Medieval altarpiece that explained Saint Eulàlia's story, by Bernat Martorell. Nowadays it's in Museu Episcopal de Vic (Vic, Catalonia).

She became a local hero, was canonized as a saint and declared patron saint of Barcelona.

Centuries later, during the Islamic invasion in the Middle Ages, her body was unburied and hidden to make sure the Muslim armies wouldn't profane it. From then on, the location of her body was lost until the year 877, when Bishop Frodoí found her hidden tomb under the church Santa Maria de les Arenes (nowadays Santa Maria del Mar). Her remains were moved to the Cathedral of Barcelona, where they remained until the Cathedral was sacked during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

Saint Eulàlia's tomb in the crypt of Barcelona's Cathedral.

2. Our Lady of Mercy

Our Lady of Mercy is one of the aspects of under which the Virgin Mary is worshipped. She became popular in Catalonia in the 13th century, after a night of August 1218, when she appeared in the dreams of the king James I and two religious men who would later be canonized as saints (Pere Nolasc and Ramon de Penyafort), ordering them to start a new Order destined to rescuing Christian prisoners who had been kidnapped by Saracens.

In the year 1687, a terrible locust plague attacked the city of Barcelona, as well as much of Catalonia. The desperate population of Barcelona asked the Virgin of Mercy for help. The City Council promised that they would nominate the Virgin of Mercy as the city's patron saint if She freed it from the locusts. Soon, the locust plague ended, and the City Council kept their promise, though the change didn't receive official permission from the Pope until 200 years later, in 1868.

3. Protest and change

Barcelona's population didn't forget that for so many centuries there was great devotion for Saint Eulàlia. A group of citizens showed up to the Church of Mercy and threw stones at the city's authorities, asking for Saint Eulàlia to be the patron again. After this event, the City Council decided that Eulàlia should be co-patron.

4. The holiday

Since then, and particularly since the 1900s, the day of the Virgin of Mercy became the most popular festa major (Catalan holiday celebrated with big parties and folk culture on the day of the local patron saint) for the whole city together. Though each neighbourhood (nowadays they're neighbourhoods of Barcelona, but most of them used to be towns that became attached to the city with the industrial expansion) keep their own festa major and Saint Eulàlia is also still celebrated in February, La Mercè is the biggest festa major in Barcelona.

Source: Carla Galisteo for Sàpiens.

[akhret]

Kemetic discord: Welcome to Per-Maat!

This is a Kemetic based educational server that’s open to people of all paths. We share resources, knowledge, personal experiences, and you’re more than welcome to share insight about your personal practice as well.

We would love it if you could come join us, and at least make some new friends!

[rrcraft-and-lore]

You know the Norse 9 realms perhaps. Yggdrasil, the world tree. But the idea of a world tree, cosmic tree, exists in many cultures/mythos. But what of the Vedic 14 realms? The Lokas.

Let's discuss.

As said, there are 14 worlds/realms 7 higher ones 7 lower ones.

Following?

7+7=14

We're not using Terrance Howard math here.

Okay. These are the Vedic lokas (because there is a more commonly accepted number in Hinduism - nuance moment: commonly accepted, doesn't mean it's believed in totality by everyone).

K, back to the 14 first.

The higher 7 lokas are said to be the heavens, inhabited by the gods and celestial beings more affiliated/closer to "truth" - in vedic and hindu terms, this is idea of divine truth, waking up to the realizations of the universe - maya (the grand illusion), think more awakened, fully formed, wise, have achieved some form of spiritual liberation from ego and the like). And to counter - the 7 lower are often thought of as "hells" - not exactly fire and brimstone but where you suffer the consequences of bad karma, having to live out/purify yourself.

In some iterations, yes, hellish beings to use that phrase, and demons (of a like) can occupy those lower lokas.

As mentioned earlier, in Hinduism, one of the most common take on the lokas is the: Trailokya.

Or three lokas, three spheres, planes of existence, three worlds, often considered: Earth (Bhuloka), Heaven (Svarga), Hell (Naraka), or - Earth (Bhuloka), Heaven (Svarga), and the Netherworld (Patala).

This is just a primer - because of the birth of Buddhism and it's spread, the idea of lokas spread as well to cultures that later adopted Buddhism. So there is a Tibetan Buddhist take on lokas, a Chinese Buddhist one, Vietnamese, and there is even a Jainism interpretation/belief on lokas.

[daveykimy]

Chinese Folk Religion: Snowy edition

Recent snow storms where I live has got me thinking: is there a deity responsible for snowfall and winter in traditional Chinese religion?

You got Frau Perchta/Holle in Germanic folklore, Yuki-Ona in Japanese Shinto folk beliefs, Skadi in Norse Paganism, and Morana in Slavic mythology, but I haven't ever heard of such a figure from my elders growing up.

So for this one, I had to actually use my limited Mandarin skills to do research, along with some help from more fluent family members and friends.

It turns out there are more than one traditional winter & snow deities in Chinese folklore. The reason I personally didn't hear of any is because, again, Chinese folk religion is extremely regional. There are central major deities that are uniform but the rest all differs from region to region. Han Chinese people have always spread out across several climate zones, from tropical to sub-arctic. Understandably, Gods and Goddesses associated with weather will differ from region to region. My Chinese side of the family hailed from a region where snowfall isn't very common, and winter isn't normally extreme. But look towards regions north of the Yellow River, and it's more upstream valleys in the Han Chinese heartland, it's a different story.

Teng'Liu: The Spirit of Snow and Frost

The first deity I can find is a figure named Teng'Liu (藤六). This is a male deity associated with snow itself. The "Liu" part if his name is the Chinese character for 6. Snowflakes typically have six arms/branches regardless of pattern. In Chinese numerology, the number 6 is also a number with "extreme Yin energy" (极阴). Snow itself is a thing with a lot of Yin energy too, as it's formed from water. Those familiar with Chinese cosmology should be familiar with the element's association with the cardinal direction of North. Which, again, is attributed with Yin. Thus explains why many forms of his folk names contains the number 6.

There is a folk ritual (which thankfully hasn't been practiced in over a century), which in Northern villages they used to offer up a young girl to this snow deity as a gift to appease him. The unfortunate girl would be tied up in a sack and left to the elements in the cold.

Teng'Liu occurs often in poetic works of literature as a stand-in for "snow". A fitting example is a work from Song dynasty writer and poet Yang Wanli, where he mentions "The Azure Lady pulls along Teng'Liu, as the Sun wilts away as she shakes (him)"** The meaning is obvious, but he mentions an Azure Lady, which takes us to another deity.

Qing'nu (青女）: The Azure Lady

The second deity associated with snow and winter is a Goddess called Qing'nu, or "The Azure Lady", "The Lady in Turquoise", "The Lady in Blue", depending on the translation. She seems to be much more well-attested in ancient religious texts in addition to poetry and seems to predate the emergence of Teng'liu.

Attested in Huainanzi, a text compiled around 139 BC, "...three moons into autumn, Qing'nu emerges (from her home), and makes frost and snow fall..."

She is also mentioned as having white hair in a lot of classical Chinese poetry.

In traditional Chinese folk beliefs, Qing'nu resides in the moon and is a companion/handmaiden of the Moon Goddess Chang'E (嫦娥). Every year at the end of autumn, she will emerge from the moon palace to perform her duty: to bring winter, frost, cold, and snow. She will descend upon Mount Qing'yao (青要山), where she will bathe in the waters there to purify herself. She will then start playing her seven-stranded lyre and snow and frost will fall upon the earth to cleanse the land of impurities and diseases (until they come back next summer).

BTW Mt. Qing'yao is an actual mountain in Henan Province. The mountain itself does play a rather big role in traditional beliefs and in Taoism. In fact, there is a hill adjacent to the mountain named Qing'nu's Peak (青女峰), where on the peak there stands a pillar-like rock. In local folklore they say that lone pillar looks like a slender lady, standing atop the mountains looking down upon the earth. It marks where the Goddess herself stands every year to bring winter. The locals call it "the maiden's rock" (闺女石).

Legend has it there was once a gorgeous palace at the foot of this mountain where Qing'nu would stay in temporarily during winter. This could possibly be a reference to some type of structure used as a shrine or temple. Today only the spring that flowed in the palace remain. The very spring that, according to folklore, that the Goddess herself bathes in to purify herself. Today, young ladies from around would make pilgrimage to that spring to welcome her arrival on 14th day of the ninth month. A second pilgrimage would also be made on 13th day of the third month as she is supposed to leave and return to the moon. (the dates are the dates in the Chinese lunar calendar).

From these we can see while those deities are all associated with snow, they are seen by the people as very different. Teng'liu is very embodiment of the weather phenomenon, kind of like Jack Frost in American folklore. The fact there were rituals to appease him means that he is seen as a very unpredictable and volatile force. A spirit which has to be controlled under strict orders from a higher Celestial deity (天神): Qing'nu. Think of her as the Chinese counterpart to Frau Holle, a spirit attributed to making snow fall but not the snow itself. Or rather, think of those two like Helios and Apollo in Greco-Roman mythology. One being the sun itself and the latter being the one who pulls the sun across the sky.

This was fun, i hope all you folks who are trying to connect to their ancestral beliefs found this useful.

**translation might be off, sorry. Middle Chinese is difficult even for fluent speaker who studies old literature, plus this was Middle Chinese in it's poetic form.

[aztec-religion]

Here is shown

Mictlantecuhtli as guardian of the fifth temple. He is Lord of the land of the dead. The roof of his house is crowned with five skulls. A spine is drawn on the wall while the outer walls are sketched flints. On the bottom are four other skulls.

In his hands he holds a bone dagger and a maguey thorn. In the other hand he holds a vase containing green feathers and two flints.

Photo: Codex Fejervary-Mayer

[septembergold]

Templo Libertad - Museo Judío de Buenos Aires

[mask131]

I always find it funny when people try to reduce one of the big world-religions to like... One ethnicity. They're not called "world religions" for nothing.

Even within their history, they are showed to evolve. Buddhism was born and created in India - and yet today its leading countries are China and Japan, and it is a minor, secondary religion in its own birth-country. Same thing with Christianity, which might have grown in power and importance in Europe, but was originally a religion from what we call the Middle-East.

In fact about Christianity - people like to imagine it somehow as a "white religion"... Did you know that one of the oldest branches of Christianity is the Church of Ethiopa? In fact, the Ethiopian Christianity is considered to be, to this day, the branch of Christianity that is the closest to what Christianity originally looked like, in the early days of the Church.

[moonlit-archeress]

Today, August 11th of 2023 will complete one month my father made his passage. He was a babá, a priest of the Afro-Brazilian religion named Umbanda, where we essentially worship nature and its spirits, powers and deities, mostly called orishas.

My sister is a musician, just like he was and she paid this tribute to him with two traditional ritualistic invocation songs for the Orisha Oshun, the one who assisted him, his Mother.

I will provide the lyrics below, in Yoruba, Brazilian Portuguese and English. If you can give the video a thumbs up or a comment, it would make us both very happy.

We hope you enjoy it and that we were able to bring you some of our culture and religion to you, just like he would want it.

Osun ya mi oh

Osun sole ni fo mi

Elou odô already fun la yo

Jakunan yo ke rê e

Oxum, Mãe das Águas

Oxum está sobre mim

Senhora do rio de peixes felizes

Peixes graciados no caminho de felicidades

Oxum de Osogbô

Oxum Mãe das Águas.

Oshun, Mother of Waters

Oshun is above me

Lady of the Happy Fish River

Fishes graced the way to happiness

Oshun of Osogbo

Oshun Mother of Waters.

Iyê iyê, yêyê ô (Mãe, Mamãe)

Mother, mommy

Iyá Òsun ni ilé (A mãe Òsun está na casa)

Iyá Òsun ni ilé (A mãe Òsun está na casa) 2x

Mother Osun is in the house

Omo ni ilé okán mimo (Os filhos que estão na casa possuem um coração santo)

The children who are in the house have a holy heart.

Iyá tundè Iléshà, Iyá tundè (A mãe retornou para Ileshà, a mãe retornou).

The mother returned to Ileshà, the mother has returned.

Iye ku aabo, omi rê, yèyé o (A mãe é bem vinda, a água é sua, mãe)

The mother is welcome, the water is hers, mother.

Omo ni ilé okán mimo (Os filhos que estão na casa possuem um coração santo)

The children who are in the house have a holy heart

Iye ku aabo ìré o (A mãe é bem-vinda em Ìré)

Iye ku aabo Ijëshà (A mãe é bem-vinda em Ijëshà) 2x

The mother is welcome in Ìré

mother is welcome in Ijëshà

Iyê iyê, yêyê ô (Mãe, Mamãe) 2x

Iyê iyê, yêyê ô (Mother, Mother)

[santmat]

Christspiracy Film Review, by Keith Akers: https://compassionatespirit.com/wpblog/2024/03/05/christspiracy-review

[useless-catalanfacts]

Arnadí, also known as carabassa santa ("holy pumpkin"), caramull ("brim") or cassoleta de Dijous Sant ("Holy Thursday little casserole") 🍰

It's a cake made of chestnut and pumpkin eaten during the Holy Week in some areas of the Valencia area and the Central Valencian Country.

The most widespread recipe uses toasted or boiled pumpkin, boiled sweet potatoes, lemon peel, almonds, pine nuts, egg yolks, sugar and cinnamon.

The origin of this dish is unknown, but it's documented in the area since at least the 1600s. Some food historians point that it might be related to an Amazigh (=indigenous Northern African) dish called sellou (سْلّو), tquawt (تْقاوْتْ), sfouf (سْفوفْ), zammitta (الزٌمٌيطة) or bssisse (بْسيِسْ), depending on the region, which is eaten for Ramadan.

An Amazigh sellou. Photo by picturepartners.

The sellou is made of almond, cinnamon, wheat, oil or butter, and other spices that vary depending on the region. It has the same shape as the arnadí and is also decorated with almonds.

Another noticeable similarity is that both are eaten during their religion's holy time: Ramadan for Islam and the Holy Week for Catholics. They're both very important religious celebrations based on the lunar calendar and based on fasting or restricting food (for Ramadan, Muslims can't eat during sunlight hours and, for the Holy Week, Catholics aren't supposed to eat meat and eggs and have to eat simple humble food). Both religions view it as a way of sharing compassion with poor people and to distance themselves from Earthly desires, and in the case of Christians also to get closer to Jesus' suffering. Even though most people in historically-Catholic countries don't follow these religious rules anymore, it's still common to eat the traditional dishes of the time.

To get ready for the hours of fasting or reduced food intake, both communities have the tradition of eating high-calories, high-energy dishes, such as the arnadí and sellou.

The arnadí, in its current recipe, can't date back to the Middle Ages, when the Valencian Country was conquered by Islam and received Arab and Amazigh population. The reason is simple: its main ingredients (pumpkin and sweet potato) would not reach us until after the colonization of the American continent, where these species are from. But it can be possible that arnadí/sellou was made of almond paste at the time and, centuries later, they were changed for pumpkin and sweet potato paste, which is cheaper and it turned out to taste even better.

Photos and info source: Tasta'l d'ací.