{"id":12131,"date":"2021-06-22T17:12:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T14:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/?p=12131"},"modified":"2021-06-22T17:24:36","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T14:24:36","slug":"12131-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/12131-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Myth Similarities: Cult of the Deer"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/81YoQzsq8ML._AC_SL1500_.jpg\" alt=\"Amazon.com: Ebros Gift Wicca Horned God Cernunnos Wall Plaque Masculine Divinity Neopaganism Wall Decor Sculpture: Everything Else\" width=\"973\" height=\"990\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 973px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 973\/990;\" \/><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Cult of the Deer<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0Although the masculine figure that we view in Wicca, who turns into a devil in Abrahamic religions later is called &#8220;horned deity&#8221; in a way reminiscent of deer, female deer also has a place in many cultures. It\u2019s kind of a symbol of wisdom and it is a pathfinder to humanity. A protective, matronly guiding spirit. This writing won\u2019t include the roots of \u2018\u2019evil\u2019\u2019 and gods like Pan, however; I\u2019m planning to continue writing about similarities between mythologies. Therefore, an essay about the \u2018\u2019Devil\u2019\u2019 will be written for sure.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>\u00a0Horned God and Mood Goddess<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Speaking of the \u2018Horned Deity\u2019, let\u2019s start with the duality of the Horned God and the Moon Goddess. The oldest materials that can be <\/span>connected with the cult of the horned god dates back to 9000 BC. Those materials are twenty-one red deer headdresses, made from the skulls of the red deer and likely fitted with leather laces, found in the Mesolithic site of Star Carr in Yorkshire, England. As well as it has a duality with Goddess, Horned God also has a duality within himself. Having two horns represents this duality and contrast. Two aspects of Horned God and Three aspects of Moon Goddess may be placed on the five points of the pentagram.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12112\" style=\"width: 248px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12112\" class=\"wp-image-12112 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Star_Carr_headdress_cropped-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"238\" height=\"175\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Star_Carr_headdress_cropped-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Star_Carr_headdress_cropped-768x566.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Star_Carr_headdress_cropped.jpg 800w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 238px) 100vw, 238px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 238px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 238\/175;\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-12112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the twenty-one red deer headdresses made from the skulls of the red deer and likely fitted with leather laces<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0Horned God symbolizes wildlife, hunting, sexuality, and the cycle of life. His \u2018equal opposite\u2019, The Moon Goddess, on<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the other hand, is mentioned as Mother Nature. She is nature and she gives birth to nature. She is the holder of \u2018creative energy&#8217;. Moon Goddess is being remarked as \u2018\u2019Three-faced-goddess\u2019\u2019 a lot. Even her symbol is three forms of Moon together. There is a picture of the symbol below with the horned deity symbol. The first form represents a maiden, young form of the goddess. We often see the maiden as Artemis in Greek Mythology. The full moon is a mother, which is generally Selene and the other form of the Moon is a wise old lady as Hekate. The mysterious goddess of witches. These names are variable but this is likely to be the main construct. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Triple deity is also an abstruse topic; therefore, It\u2019s not this writing&#8217;s topic. Hence, going around it cursorily would be appropriate.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12109\" style=\"width: 258px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12109\" class=\"wp-image-12109 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/il_1140xN.2451157151_l6rr_89e8f259-7ce0-438b-9cd9-e89d253ac77e_1024x1024-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"165\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/il_1140xN.2451157151_l6rr_89e8f259-7ce0-438b-9cd9-e89d253ac77e_1024x1024-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/il_1140xN.2451157151_l6rr_89e8f259-7ce0-438b-9cd9-e89d253ac77e_1024x1024-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/il_1140xN.2451157151_l6rr_89e8f259-7ce0-438b-9cd9-e89d253ac77e_1024x1024.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 248px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 248\/165;\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-12109\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Moon Goddess &#8211; Horned God symbols<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 199px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/5\/50\/Wiccan_Syzygy.png\/220px-Wiccan_Syzygy.png\" alt=\"Wiccan views of divinity \" width=\"189\" height=\"258\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 189px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 189\/258;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A representation of horned god and moon goddess together<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Horned God and M<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">oon Goddess united somewhere in time. A couple of goddesses became the symbol of the life cycle,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> some gods coalesced <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">with n<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">ature and some became the symbol of the moon. In the meantime, speaking of horns, Artemis became the goddess of hunting and her symbol became a deer as well. Artemis is a moon goddess and her twin Apollo is a sun god, just like the other twins Selene and Helios. Selene defines the moon itself, unlike Artemis. Anyway, legends mention Artemis as a wise, sublime goddess.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 394px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sklblog.ku.edu.tr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/250px-Apollo_Artemis_Brygos_Louvre_G151.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"384\" height=\"378\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 384px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 384\/378;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artemis and Apollo<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 177px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/5\/57\/Hans_Rathausky_-_Helios_et_Selene.jpg\" alt=\"Helios et Selene, Hans Rathausky\" width=\"167\" height=\"279\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 167px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 167\/279;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Helios et Selene, Hans Rathausky<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Legend Examples<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0In one of the legends; Agamemnon kills a deer in the hunt. Howev<\/span>er, the deer he killed was one of Artemis&#8217;s deers. Thus, the supercilious goddess got steamed up and stopped the winds for the Greek fleet who were on the way to the war of Troja. Agamemnon invokes for winds to Artemis, meanwhile, the goddess has one condition: sacrificing of Agamemnon\u2019s daughter. Even though he refused to obey at first, he couldn\u2019t let his whole crew die in the middle of the ocean. Just before he was about to kill her daughter, the goddess&#8217;s heart softened when she saw Agamemnon\u2019s daughter laying on the altar with a knife next to her neck and she granted a deer for them to sacrifice\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 157px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/a\/a7\/Saint_eustace.jpg\/407px-Saint_eustace.jpg\" alt=\"File:Saint eustace.jpg\" width=\"147\" height=\"216\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 147px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 147\/216;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saint Eustace with a Deer<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0European folklore speaks of a hermit living in the forest and a deer that keeps him alive with its milk. The deer has become a protective animal for them with its meat and milk. In some Christian communities, the deer has been accepted as the symbol of Christ. Around the sixth century, the deer began to appear with the identity of the &#8216;holy virgin&#8217; and the young girl, reminiscent of Artemis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0To continu<\/span>e with another triple deity, let\u2019s talk about Indian Mythology. There, \u2018triple deity\u2019 is not just feminine but both feminine and masculine. Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati. All three forms assist Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva to create, sustain and reproduce the universe respectively. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the protector, and Shiva is the destroyer. Shiva is referred to as the pure one, though he is the representation of annihilation. He is the destroyer of evil, a symbol of beginnings. Saraswati is the goddess of wisdom and learning, and according to legends, she takes the form of a red deer. Here, too, we see the pairing of feminine wisdom and deer.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 148px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i.pinimg.com\/564x\/78\/60\/90\/786090b30f191a37bc22c687bd0af30f.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"138\" height=\"195\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 138px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 138\/195;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 In Turkish culture, femininity is associated directly with wisdom; In fact, in a creation epic belonging to Altai Turks, Ak-Ana, who came out of the water while God \u00dclgen was thinking about creating the world, gave \u00dclgen advice. The legend text says, &#8220;This is how God made it, on the command of Ak-Ana&#8221;. Legends also mention the daughters of God Ulgen as &#8220;White-girls&#8221;. This indicates the existence of other Turkish female sea goddesses who are mentioned as &#8220;White&#8221;. Whiteness is a feature attributed to the goddesses. The word \u2018\u2019Ak\u2019\u2019 (White) means heaven in Altai Turks and the gods sitting in heaven are called &#8220;Aktu&#8221;.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 154px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i.pinimg.com\/originals\/65\/63\/7b\/65637bab6d284459b65be130aaf323be.jpg\" alt=\"M\u0130TOLOJ\u0130 &amp;amp; EFSANE &amp;amp; DESTANLAR panosundaki Pin\" width=\"144\" height=\"199\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 144px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 144\/199;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ak Ana in Turkish mythology<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The deer is a sacred animal for the Turks and has a great place in Turkish mythology and tales. On the other hand, there is no record of derivation from deer in an old and original Turkish legend. It is the female deer that takes place in Turkish legends, as in many other mythologies. Just as the white elephant is sacred in India, the white deer was considered sacred by the Turks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 168px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i.pinimg.com\/564x\/75\/e6\/de\/75e6de9083704b1dc451732442726801.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"158\" height=\"206\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 158px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 158\/206;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Additionally, there is some kind of a bond between lakes\/seas and deers. They often appear with a sort of water mass. To give an example, \u2018wolf\u2019 is a symbol of Turks in general and there are some legends with a wolf and a deer crossing the sea together. These legends gave their way to the guiding white deer that led the Turks through the sea, and the subject of crossing the sea became one of the most important motifs of Turkish myths. We see it especially in Altai and Siberian tales and in the origin myths of the Huns and Hungarians. According to their beliefs, there is a sea called White or &#8220;Sky Sea&#8221; that isolates this side of the world from the other, and there is a great mountain at the end of the world by that sea.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0There is also a Turkish myth that is similar to Artemis\u2019 case. According to the legend, one of the ancestors of the G\u00f6kt\u00fcrks fell in love with a sea goddess and as the love interest between them continued, the G\u00f6kt\u00fcrk khan organized a hunt. While the soldiers were cornering the wild animals, one of them killed a White-deer he saw in the distance with his arrow. The khan, who could not find his lover, understood what happened in the sack and ashes. After that, he decided to punish the soldier who killed the deer and announced that the human sacrifices would be given from his clan after that time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 198px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i.pinimg.com\/originals\/f7\/73\/1a\/f7731aa53fc1d5d89012ca1467996300.jpg\" alt=\"T\u00fcrk Mitolojisinde \u00d6ne \u00c7\u0131kan 37 Tanr\u0131, Tanr\u0131\u00e7a ve Fig\u00fcr | Mitoloji, Tanr\u0131\u00e7alar, Tanr\u0131lar ve tanr\u0131\u00e7alar\" width=\"188\" height=\"260\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 188px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 188\/260;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Umay Ana in Turkish Mythology<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0In Shamanism, there are power animals and although there were more birds, in the beginning, different animals had a place over time. We can see the traces of this totemism in Shaman clothes. For example, three main types of clothing representing the earliest power animals have been found in Central Asia and Siberia; they are bird, deer, and bear. The belief of carrying the spirit of the animal and disguising it in Turkish Shamanism was continued by the Islamic dervishes. Thus, the stories of hunters who injured a deer and saw it turn into a dervish continued to be told.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 511px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-PV7X3vK-mKw\/XCvYqKPoLpI\/AAAAAAAAMeM\/rjbN9UoMTJMrJxm--OSulJnLyCo9UspVACLcBGAs\/s1600\/TotemAnim-7003_820a.jpg\" alt=\"\u0130lk dinler: Animizm, Dinamizm, Totemizm - Fethi Demir\" width=\"501\" height=\"458\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 501px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 501\/458;\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Horned Deity, cult of the deer<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0As we move toward north and west, we can talk about Celts. Because in the Edda poem Grimnismal, the four deer of Yggdrasil are describe<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">d as feeding on the world tree. The poem also mentions a deer named Eik\u00feyrnir sitting on the top of Valhalla. In one of the epics, Freyr kills Giant Beli with an antler. In another, Sigurd is milked and cared for by a deer before being found by the wise Mimir. It reminds the stories of hermits kept alive by deers from European folklore. There are many such legends in Turkish culture also.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0To continue with England and Celts; An Anglo-Saxon royal scepter found at a burial site in England presents a depiction of an upstanding, horned deer. In the Old English language poem, Beowulf, much of the first part of the story takes place in a large banquet hall called Heorot, meaning &#8216;Deer Hall&#8217;. The deer has a great place in Celtic tribes\u2019 culture. Little details somewhere and magnificent deities themselves grounding on the deer cult\u2026 As the similarities between different cultures are incredible, these cultures are just as incredible in themselves! Hence, I\u2019m gonna stop writing this to write different articles which are more focused on each culture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Cult of the Deer &nbsp; \u00a0\u00a0Although the masculine figure that we view in Wicca, who turns into a devil in Abrahamic religions later is called &#8220;horned deity&#8221; in a way reminiscent of deer, female deer also has a place in many cultures. It\u2019s kind of a symbol of wisdom and it is a pathfinder [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1,13],"tags":[2419,76,2418,152,2420],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-general","category-history","tag-animism","tag-culture","tag-deer","tag-mythology","tag-paganism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12131"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12138,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12131\/revisions\/12138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12131"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}