Paganism

I prefer podcasts with at least two people, infotmational but also with some fun banter in between. Couldn't find anything like that - not many active ones in general that I could find.

Podcasts that don't meet above criteria also welcome. Though would be best if it is active podcats that still gets new episodes

Share what you know about Easter, its traditions, symbolism, history, etc.

My limited understanding is that it's a spring festival, celebrating resurrection/new life

There is a Germanic spring-goddess called Ôstara (in Old High German) and Ēastre (in Old English). I believe this has a Proto-Indo-European link to 'Aurora' and hence a connection between spring and dawn, both of which are times of new life and of brightening.

I might revisit this thread as I learn more over the weekend, until then tell me eveything you know!

Oh Themis, divine goddess of order,

Blessing all devotees who adored Her,

We call upon you to guide us O’ wise sage,

Through life as we turnover another page.

Your justice, though forever unfolding, never fails,

Overcoming violent seas, as a mighty ship sails.

In your good time, the truth shall be unfurled,

Like a beacon of light, shining brightly on the world.

Grant us the patience to await the hour,

When justice blooms, upheld by your great power.

May we act with integrity and grace,

Trusting in the fairness of your pace.

Themis, we honor your eternal flame,

The righteous path that bears your noble name.

May your scales balance, may your sight be clear,

And in your wisdom, may we persevere.

I'd br interested in what you'd consider a good book (or other sources) on various pagan beliefs and traditions that you would recommend.

I'm personally interested in European pagan traditions - be it Norse, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic (bonus points for Slavic!) - but would love to leave the topic open to others as well, just to make it interesting for people with different intrests.

Brigid’s Day is the first traditional festival of the calendar year in Ireland and has been for centuries. However, it was only in 2023 that the government officially recognised Brigid’s Day as an official holiday.

The Celtic year was traditionally broken up by four festivals, known as the quarter days: Imbolg, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain. Imbolg (also spelled Imbolc) is celebrated on February 1 and signals the beginning of the Celtic season of light, a time for renewal and essentially a new year.

Many of the rituals associated with Imbolg (and the other quarter days) actually begin on the eve of the festival because, in Celtic belief, days begin at sunset as opposed to sunrise. Imbolg is a festival that has strong associations with Brigit (the early Celtic goddess) and Brigid (the later saint) and is associated with ideas of renewal, light, fertility, fire, food production.

It was the shortest day and the longest tailback. The line of traffic to greet the midwinter sun began to form near Stonehenge long before dawn. With the final mile from Larkhill and Winterbourne Stoke taking an hour, and English Heritage warning that the car park was full, many ignored the yellow cones and dumped their cars on the verge, completing the journey on foot.

Druids and hippies, families and tourists walked past Fargo Wood to the ancient stone circle where people first gathered 4,000 years ago to worship the returning sun. “Feels like one of the larger gatherings,” said Arthur Pendragon, a former soldier and biker turned once and future king. Some 6,000 were clocked on the gate, with 98,500 watching the sun rise online via a livestream.

“The winter solstice has become more popular recently and was more important than the summer one when Stonehenge was built,” said Jennifer Wexler, a historian with English Heritage. “There’s something magical about wandering across fields in the dark to celebrate the return of the light.

Original article.

My SO and I - in the UK - celebrate an adapted form of the Roman festival of Brumalia - which, as celebrated in Byzantium in later times (recorded as late as C11th CE despite Xtian repression) began on Nov 24th and continued through to Saturnalia - and a little beyond. This will be our third Brumalia.

A common greeting during the festival was 'Vives Annos' - Live for Years.

I follow a broadly Celtic path, but am happy to adopt, adapt and extend the Interpretatio Romana where it usefully adds to my understanding of the Celtic deities, and certainly am happy to adopt appropriate festivals from the Roman calendar.

We will be progressively decorating the house for the solstice, starting from today - the first day of Brumalia - and then adding additional items each day until the start of Saturnalia. This year, I have also created an advent-style calendar running from Nov 24th to the end of Brumalia with a pair of chocolates in each day's drawer. In addition, since this is above all a chthonic, Saturnian festival, on each weekend during the period, we will make offerings to relevant gods and godesses: Bruma (personification of Winter), Bacchus, Ceres and Saturn being the originals. Consequently our calendar for the season looks like:

• Fri Nov 24th - Put the first of the lights up, and then offerings to and celebration of Bacchus
• Sat Nov 25th - First hebdomad of Brumalia, saythen a Cailleach - Offering to and celebration of the Cailleach Bheur, the Crone of Winter
• Mon Nov 27th - Full moon
• Sat Dec 2nd - second hebdomad of Brumalia, saythen a Sucellos - new moon
• Tues Dec 5th - Faunalia and also Krampusnacht (both Dec 5th). Offering to and celebration of Faunus Auseci Medugeni^1
• Sat Dec 2th - third hebdomad of Brumalia, saythen a Erecura - Offering to and celebration of Erecura
• Thu Dec 14th - Geminids peak
• Sat Dec 16th - decorations completed, fourth hebdomad of Brumalia, saythen a Cernunnos, Eponalia
• Sun Dec 17th - start of Saturnalia, Offering to and celebration of Cernunnos
• Fri Dec 22nd - Solstice (03:27) - and off to a local mummers' mystery play
• Sat Dec 23rd - end of Saturnalia
• Sun Dec 24th - Mother Night
• Mon Dec 25th - Sol Invictus, end of Brumalia
• Tues Dec 26th - Boxing day and off to a Cutty Wren ceremony held locally.
• Wed Dec 27th - Full moon
• Mon Jan 1st - Morris dancing

1 - Although a title of Roman origin, Faunus had a temple and cult revealed through archaeological digs quite near to us in the late Romano-Celtic period and has a strong personal significance for me. Several items found in the dig were inscribed with Brythonic epithets to Faunus.

Location of Thaaj in Arabia

Medallion featuring Zeus

A tablet from nineteenth century BC Anatolia mentions a Puzu-Ishtar ‘the Tadmuraean’ (Palmyrene) as witness to a contract. But there are very few references to Tadmur in historical texts until the first century BC, when it grows into a substantial settlement. Because of its central location on the route between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean, the city was always in danger of being conquered by greater powers. It finally was conquered in 20 AD by Rome. It became thoroughly Romanized getting a senate, magistrates, theatre, colonnaded streets, etc.

When the Sassanians captured the Roman emperor Valerian, Odenathus son of Hairan son of Wahb-Allat son of Nasor, a leading citizen of Palmyra and a Roman senator, stepped into the power vacuum and took up Rome’s cause. He was of mixed Arab-Aramean ancestry. His name, the name of his father, Hairan, and that of his grandfather, Wahb-Allat, are Arabic while Nasor, his great-grandfather, has an Aramaic name. At that point Arabs have been in Palmyra for centuries. They migrated to the city in the later half of the first millennium BC and formed a significant segment of the aristocracy. Two hundred years prior to Odenathus there was Sheikh Zabdibel, who aided the Seleucids in the battle of Raphia and was mentioned as the commander of "the Arabs and neighboring tribes to the number of ten thousands." The Arabs introduced their Gods to the city and built temples and wrote inscriptions in Their honor. This makes Palmyra an important city for understanding Arab polytheism.

Ba'al Hamon and Manawat

Ba'al Hamon was brought to Palmyra from Canaanite lands by Arab tribes. The worship of Canaanite deities among Arabs should not surprise us as the oldest Arabic inscription invokes Malkom and Kemosh and Qos, all Canaanite Gods of the Iron Age. In 89 AD the Arab tribe of the Bene Agrud built a sanctuary in Ba'al Hamon's honor on top of Jebel Muntar giving Him the status of the God of the high place of Palmyra. The inscription commemorating the dedication of the sanctuary consists of three lines:

"To Ba'al Hamon, Moqimu son of Moqimu son of Zabdibol ‘Arima and Yarhibola son of Malku son of Lishamsh son of Hannibel ’A'abai, at their own expense, have erected this sanctuary, and the portico of alabaster which is in front of it, and the portico which is below, and all the ceiling, and its door, and the Srgb’ in bronze. And they have also offered the sanctuary of Manawat and its portico, and all its decoration, for their lives, and the lives of their children and brothers for ever. In the month Iyyar, the year 400 (May, 89 AD)"

Ba'al Hamon was identified with Bel due Babylonian influence. The mountain sanctuary of Ba'al Hamon stood as the dwelling place of Bel on the basis of a parallelism with that of the Mesopotamian God who had a temple on top of the ziggurat and another one at its base. Ba'al Hamon is often paired with Manawat, Goddess of time, fortune, and destiny, though it is not known if They formed a married couple. Manawat was also popular in Hegra, the southern extend of the Nabataean kingdom. Inscriptions tell us that She is a Goddess who appropriates gifts to Her worshipers and presides over chance and luck, like an Arabian Nemesis or Tyche. Ba'al Hamon and Manawat were the Fortunes (Gads) of Bene Agrud.

Ba'al Shamin

The cult of Ba'al Shamin at Palmyra was also brought into the oasis by Arab tribes that came from the Anti-Lebanon or the Hauran. Ba'al Shamin, a weather God, a patron of farmers and shepherds, was adored along the Levantine coast in the second millennium BC, and His cult became the religious patrimony of the Phoenicians in the beginning of the first millennium BC. The epithet Ba‘al Shamin, “Lord of Heaven,” can also be used to denote the supreme God of any local pantheon, such as Dushara among the Nabateans. Lord of Heaven, signifying the God to Whom the heavens belong. Ba'al Shamin is thus neither the Moon God nor the Sun God, but rather the equivalent of the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter. Ba'al Shamin is already mentioned in the first part of the fourteenth century BC in the treaties concluded between Shuppiluliuma, king of the Hittites, and Niqmadu II, king of Ugarit. At the Hittite fortress of Karatepe He heads a list of deities described as "the whole group of the children of the Gods’’ indicating that He presides over the assembly of the Holy Ones. Josephus, writing around 100 AD but quoting from reliable sources preserved in the archives of Tyre, asserts that the cult of Ba'al Shamin was current in that city in the tenth century BC.

A Greek bilingual inscription from Palmyra calls Ba'al Shamin "Zeus Most High and the One who listens to prayers.” This is translated to Aramaic as mare 'alma, "Lord of the World/Eternity” which is translated into Greek as Zeus megystos keraunios "Zeus the Bearer of Thunder." In the Hauran epekoos (who-listens-to-prayer) was an epithet of Ba'al Shamin exclusively. He is styled the “Most High” (hypsistos), an epithet which was translated into Latin as summus exsuperantissimus "the Most Superior" in order to indicate that He was superior to all other divine beings. He is the sixth most invoked deity among Safaitic nomads and there's even an inscription that references the Ba'al Cycle. Ba'al Shamin's cult spread toward the arable lands of Syria, and His preeminence as a supreme weather God was acknowledged in the Hauran and in the Anti-Lebanon by Arab tribes. It is from these buffer zones between the coast and the Syrian Desert that the cult of Baal Shamin reached Palmyra. The tribe of the Bene Maazin seem to have owned the temple of Ba'al Shamin. In 62 AD a member of the Bene Maazin offered an altar to Ba'al Shamin, Durahlun (dwrhlwn), Rahim (rhm), and the Gad (gd) of Yedi'ebel. Greek bilingual inscriptions identify Ba'al Shamin and Durahlun with Zeus implying that They weren't separate entities.

Ten out of nineteen inscriptions found in the temple of Ba'al Shamin mention His name followed by that of Durahlun, which most probably means Du-Rahlun, i.e. “the One of Rahle.” Durahlun would have been the supreme God of the region of Rahle, on Mt. Hermon. The earliest inscriptions from the temple of Ba'al Shamin call Him and Durahlun "the Good Gods" and "the Good and Bountiful Gods." This association of Ba'al Shamin with Durahlun, the tribal God of the Arab group that migrated from the Anti-Lebanon to Palmyra, indicates that the God of the Rahle region had been accepted by the priests of Ba'al Shamin because He was thought to be a sort of "avatar" of the Lord of Heaven. Before migrating to Palmyra the Arabs tribes must've been influenced by the religious traditions of the Phoenicians and the association at Palmyra of Ba'al Shamin with the God of Rahle, on the Hermon, is a remnant of this. Ba'al Shamin also has angels. Inscriptions mention the “Holy Brothers” or “Holy Angels” of Ba'al Shamin, Malakbel and Aglibol. This triad echoes an Aramaic inscription from about the fifth century BC, found in Cilicia, which invokes Ba'al Shamin, “the great,” the Moon/Dawn God Shahr, and the Sun God Shamash.

Shamash

Shamash is the God of the Sun, justice, and oracles. In ancient Mesopotamia He committed law to kings, guided living creatures rightly, bore witness to oaths and is called is called the Lord of Oracular Decisions. The earliest reference connecting Shamash with the Arabs comes from the Iron Age. After revolting Arabs were defeated by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, their priestess queen, Teelhunu, was forced to settle in Assyria. When Esarhaddon reinstated Hazael as king of Duma, he was willing to return Teelhunu to the Arab monarch in view of her position as priestess. Esarhaddon consulted the oracle of Shamash to learn whether he should return the priestess to her country. The oracle said yes and Teelhunu was allowed to return to Arabia. Its possible that Teelhunu introduced the worship of Shamash to the Arabs after this incident. Shamash was worshiped in the Arab quarter of Palmyra at least since the first century BC. There were two other solar Gods in Palmyra, Yarhibol, Malakbel, but they could not have all been the Sun God. Very likely Shamash alone impersonated the Sun God to the Arab ancestors of the Palmyrenes, Yarhibol and Malakbel having been associated with the sun only by the theological reasoning of priests.

Strabo says of the Nabateans that "they worship the sun, building an altar on top of the house, and pouring libations on it daily and burning frankincense" although mentions of Shamash in Nabataea are rare. Shamash was also worshipped by Arabs living in Hatra and on its coins Hatra presented itself as "Hatra (sacred enclosure/fortress) of the Sun God, Shamash" which suggests that the whole city was dedicated to Shamash. The Hatrene ruler Nasru was even the high priest of Shamash and so were his descendants. This parallels the situation in Emesa where Arab kings acted as priests of the Sun God Elegabal, a God assimilated to Helios in later times. Although Elegabal was worshipped as a mountain God by the original inhabitants of Emesa He became a Sun God after Sampsigeramus ("Shamash has decided") had established his rule there. The cult of the Sun reached its climax under the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, who was of Emesene origin, and had been a priest of the local Elahgabal. The heliolatry propagated by Elagabalus succeeded in merging the cult of the emperors with that of Sol Invictus. Under Aurelianus the cult of the Sun became a state religion. The Arab cult of the Sun which had flourished in many Syrian cities during the Greco-Roman period was transformed by the Roman philosophers, and the Sun became the ever-present image of the intelligible God. This is clearly stated in Julian’s Hymn to King Helios.

Arsu, Azizu and Mun'im

Another city where the cult of the Sun God excelled was Edessa. Here, the traditional cult of Sin, the Moon God of Harran, had prevailed ever since the beginning of the first millennium BC. In the early centuries AD Sin is still called "Lord of the Gods” but the increasing influence of the solar theology had already engulfed the Edessenes, for when Emperor Julian delivered his oration on Helios at Antioch he said that the Edessenes worshiped the Sun flanked by Azizos and Monimos, two deities to be identified with Ares and Hermes, according to Iamblichus. Thus Monimos is the planet Mercury, whereas Azizos is Mars. Azizos comes from the Arabic Azizu ’’the strong one” while Monimos comes from Mun'im "the favorable one." A tradition similar to that of Edessa is found in the Hauran. An altar in the Museum of Sweida represents the eagle, symbol of the sun, standing with its wings fully spread on a bust of Azizu. Some scholars believe that in the Hauran, Azizu and Mun'im stood for Phosphorus, the Morning Star, and Hesperus, the Evening Star. The Edessean theology may have developed as a result of the popularity that the cult of Helios/Shamash gained in the Levant.

At Palmyra, one relief shows Azizu together with Arsu. They are called the "Good and Bountiful Gods" and Azizu is called "the good and compassionate God." Arsu is seen riding a camel and Azizu a horse. The camel is Arsu’s animal as protector of caravans. The Greeks saw Him as an Ares, the God of war, as shown by a bilingual inscription from the temple of Ba'al Shamin. On some tesserae Arsu is associated with Hermes/Mercury, no doubt in the latter’s role as the patron of merchants. The epithet of Arsu is r'yy’ or r'y' i.e. the one who loves. It must be emphasized that there is only one occasion so far discovered on which Arsu and Azizu are associated at Palmyra, and that on other reliefs and inscriptions each is associated with other deities, or appears alone. There is no evidence of Arsu having a similar relationship to Azizu as Mun'im does, and no evidence of the conflation between Arsu and Mun'im as some earlier scholars have attempted to prove. There is also no evidence of any astral association, either. Just because Arsu was conflated with Ares and associated with Hermes does not mean that Arsu was associated with the planet Mars or the planet Mercury.

Rahim

Rahim was worshiped together with Shamash and Allat in the temple erected in the western quarter of the city. The name Rahim (rhm) is probably related to the attribute rahman, ‘‘the compassionate,” often applied to the Palmyrene Gods. The Quranic epithets of Allah, ar-rahman ar-raheem, ‘‘the Merciful and the Compassionate,” are also good parallels to the Palmyrene name. Rahim may be the epithet given to their God by some Arab tribes of the oasis long before they settled there. The inscriptions show that the devotees of Rahim were also worshipers of Allat. The Bene Maazin and their associates, the Bene Nurbel, excelled in this devotion. The worship of these two deities was essential in the religious life of the Arabs in Palmyra. Rahim is also mentioned in three Safaitic inscriptions and the name also often appears in the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud as one of the names of Yahweh.

Jinn?

Some divine beings in Palmyra are frequently called gny', ginnaya, plural ginnayi, namely, genii. This Aramaic term is cognate with the Arabic word jinn, which means "to conceal." The Palmyrene ginnaya may have been conflated with the Latin genius. Greco-Roman writers acknowledged the existence of deities who were tutelaries of people and places. In petitions and oaths Romans often appealed to the "genii” of the persons addressed. The concern of these genii was to take care of human lives and enterprises. The Palmyrenes worshiped Them everywhere and gave Them the epithet šbb' “close,” meaning that the beings were guardians of people. The Palmyrene genii were frequently invoked in pairs. Some scholars believe that certain pairs of divine beings stand for the Roman Dioscuri but there is very little evidence for a cult of Castor and Pollux at Palmyra or in the Palmyrene region. They instead probably have Semitic roots maybe connected to the Gods of dawn and dusk.

The Palmyrenes acknowledged the genii as protectors of their caravans, their herds, and their desert villages. Camels loaded with all kinds of products were easy prey for bandits. The caravans had to be escorted through the desert and this, the Palmyrenes believed, was the main occupation of the genii. The tutelary entities are consistently portrayed wearing what would be the traditional dress at the time. Reliefs depicting the genii have been found primarily in the wadis and outskirts of Palmyra or in the hamlets that surrounded the oasis in Roman times. Here the Arab tribesmen lived as semi-nomads, which was not the case with the Arabs living in the city itself. In the Roman era the hamlets around Palmyra were not only centers of settled life but also relays for the passing caravans. In this environment the cult of the tutelary genii proliferated. They were believed to protect flocks and caravans and therefore shrines were erected in Their honor. The connection between the Palmyrene ginnaya and the later jinn of Islam is unclear.

Abgal and His Companions

The God Abgal is often depicted as a youth with long hair and mustache, wearing the local costume while holding a lance. Sometimes He is riding a horse with a bow and quiver. An inscription from Khirbet Semrin indicates that Yarhibol had placed Abgal in charge of the village: "Let Abgal, His brothers, and the members of His house be remembered by Yarhibol who gave Abgal authority over this locality forever. Let whoever fears Abgal be remembered." Abgal had a Greco-Roman style sanctuary in Khirbet Semrin where He was paired with Ma'nu. Like other pairs such as Ba'al Shamin and Durahlun, or Azizu and Arsu, Abgal and Ma'nu are called "the Good and Bountiful Gods." Abgal is also mentioned with Aglibol, Malakbel, and "the jinn" in the same sanctuary.

In Jebel al-Abiad He is invoked with other deities including Bel, Baal Shamin, Aglibol, Malakbel, Astarte, Nemesis, and Arsu. Worship of Abgal is appears late, in the second and third centuries, and He was not worshipped in the city of Palmyra itself but in satellite villages. This indicates that Abgal is a God of the Syrian steppe. Another indication of this is the fact that Abgal being associated with Aglibol and Malakbel is not common and it is much more common for Him to be associated with other steppe Gods such as Azizos, Ma'anu, Ashar, or Shalman worshipped by nomads and semi-nomads of the Syrian desert. These were all depicted in a very similar style, as warrior Gods with long hair, mustache and weaponry. Often riding a camel or horse. They were also all given the epithet "good and bountiful" and often called gny'. Ma'nu was worshipped with Abgal in His sanctuary but He is much more frequently paired with another deity named Sha'ad(u). Ma'an rides a horse like Arsu while Sha'ad rides a camel like Azizu. Ma'nu's feast was celebrated on the 16th of August. Shalman has a sister, the Goddess Shalmanat. They seem to be identical with the Assyrian Shulman and Shulmanitu.

Gads

Many different Gads were worshipped in Palmyra including tribal Gads such as Gad Taimi and the Gads of cities such as Palmyra and Dura-Europos. They were often depicted as the Goddess Tyche/Fortuna but sometimes also depicted as a male God in native dress. A Gad personified the protection given by a God to specific individuals and groups. Among the Safaitic nomads, the great tribal confederations of Ḍayf and ʿAwīḏ each have their own Gad, but so do outside nations, such as the Nabataeans (Gad-Nabaṭ).

Deities that Require More In-Depth Discussion

I have already written an article on Allat. Its an article I plan on updating/reworking in the future. Shay' Al-Qaum also deserves His own post and there is also much more to be said about Ba'al Shamin and the Gads.

Further Reading:

• The Pantheon Of Palmyra
• The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia
• The Pagan God: popular religion in the Greco-Roman Near East
• Who Are the “Attendants of Helios”
• The God Gad

For me, I am a paying member of the Scottish Pagan Federation which is affiliated with the Pagan Federation in the UK. I receive quarterly magazines in the form of Pagan Dawn and Espin and get lots of interesting articles, ideas and such.

Wondered if there were more around the world?

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/12600657

Seventeenth-century English antiquarians thought that Stonehenge was built by Celtic Druids. They were relying on the earliest written history they had: Julius Caesar’s narrative of his two unsuccessful invasions of Britain in 54 and 55 BC. Caesar had said the local priests were called Druids. John Aubrey (1626–1697) and William Stukeley (1687–1765) cemented the Stonehenge/Druid connection, while self-styled bard Edward Williams (1747–1826), who changed his name to Iolo Morganwg, invented “authentic” Druidic rituals.

Druidism has come a long way since. In 2010, The Druid Network was listed as a charity in England and Wales, essentially marking the official recognition of Druidism as a religion. (74,000 called themselves Druids in a recent census.) Historian Carole M. Cusack positions Druidism as one of the branches of the tree of Paganism and/or New Age-ism(s), which burst into all sorts of growth during the twentieth century. Modern Druidism fits into the smorgasbord of what Cusack calls the “deregulated spiritual marketplace” of our times.

But there’s a disconnect here. In the popular imagination, Stonehenge and Druidism now go together like tea and crumpets. Historically, Stonehenge, a product of Neolithic Britain, predates Caesar by thousands of years. It had nothing to do with Druids and certainly nothing to do with modern Druidism.

“The false association of [Stonehenge] with the Druids has persisted to the present day,” Cusak writes, “and has become a form of folklore or folk-memory that has enabled modern Druids to obtain access and a degree of respect in their interactions with Stonehenge and other megalithic sites.”

Meanwhile, archaeologists continue to explore the centuries of construction at Stonehenge and related sites like Durrington Walls and the Avenue that connects Stonehenge to the River Avon. Neolithic Britons seem to have come together to transform Stonehenge into the ring of giant stones—some from 180 miles away—we know today. Questions about construction and chronology continue, but current archeological thinking is dominated by findings and analyses of the Stonehenge Riverside Project of 2004–2009. The Stonehenge Riverside Project’s surveys and excavations made up the first major archeological explorations of Stonehenge and surroundings since the 1980s. The project archaeologists postulate that Stonehenge was a long-term cemetery for cremated remains, with Durrington Walls serving as the residencies and feasting center for its builders.

The hippie-turned-New Age movements birthed in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in a surge of interest in Stonehenge. Tens of thousands, not all of them Druids, attended the Stonehenge Free People’s Festival starting in 1974. In 1985, the festival was halted by English Heritage, the organization that maintains Stonehenge today, because of the crowds, disorder, and vandalism. Druids were also banned from performing rituals on site. However, English Heritage and the Druids soon came to an understanding: Druids could use the site as long as there was no associated festival.

So the clash of academic archaeology and what might be called folk archaeology comes into stark focus at Stonehenge.

Modern paganism is not without interest, of course, but continuing revelations about prehistory—whether of neolithic Britain or elsewhere—should be a lot more interesting. As are the techniques used to extract data from the past: an example used to telling effect by the Stonehenge Riverside Project is the analysis of lipid remains on pottery: we can tell if the pot held dairy products or the fat of ruminants or pigs, giving insights into the diet four thousand years ago. Another example: strontium isotope in bovine molars show that beef consumed at Durrington Walls was raised at least thirty miles away.

Of course, all this is not as photogenically mysterious/magical as robed Druids in the long shadows of a midwinter sunset. Academic archaeology, which suffers from charges of “elitism” in the reactionary populist politics of anti-intellectualism and anti-science, has a hard time competing with the popular irrationality of mysticism. Maybe the real Stonehenge needs more publicists.

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My salutation is belated, because I just found this community. Seems a little sleepy here, but maybe we can get some conversation going. I'm a solitary practitioner and would enjoy a bit of company.

I'd love to hear what the Equinoxes mean to you in your faith system and how you express it. I don't personally ascribe to nameable form of paganism, but my personal practice is largely nature-based and draws a lot of principles from modern druidry and Buddhist philosophy.

I've seen through my reading that often the equinoxes are recognized and honored to a lesser degree then the solstice's, but for me they are very special, because I feel like I can see them in nature more strongly; they are times of change. In the spring equinox it's a joy to watch the natural world reawaken from its winter slumber, but the autumnal equinox fills me with feelings of nostalgia, of a summer cycle completed, a time of rest and coziness, warm fire, reflection, and optimism. But, it's also the beginning of a time of hardship, of death, and of perseverance after which we will welcome and cherish the warm breeze of spring, and the cycle continues.

No idea if anyone will reply, or even ever see this. But whether this is seen by hundreds or just you, I send you my love and wish you a very happy autumnal equinox!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.film/post/1070625

I accidentally backed a Kickstarter for this but it's actually fun and useful. Taking an entire deck with me to work or wherever can be cumbersome but this coin fits in my pocket and doubles as a fidget. Love it for that.

Anybody else grab one of these or something similar?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1977580

Dusares or Dushara, being a mountain God, is also a storm God as is custom in the Ancient Near East, which would give Him a fertility aspect. A parallel can be drawn with Dhu-Ghābat, “He of the thicket”, the supreme God of the Lihyanites, Dushara is in the same way a God of vegetation and fertility. This fertility aspect allowed for the identification of Dushara with Dionysus as God of fertility but the evidence for this is inconclusive. Several ancient writers, including Herodotus from the 5th century BC, Strabo from the 1st century AD, and lexicographer Hesychius from the 5th century AD, all say that the Arabs worshipped Dionysus. Hesychius in particular directly equates Dushara and Dionysus but this is not attested in Nabatean inscriptions. Nor is there any evidence for Dushara being depicted as Dionysus in Petra. The Hauran, which became the center of Arabia Petraea, is known for its agriculture including grapes. Sia', a temple of pilgrimage known from Safaitic inscriptions is full of grape and vine imagery though it was probably a temple to Ba'al Shamin not Dushara nor Dionysus. There are depictions of Dionysus in Petra but none are linked to Dushara. Dushara's identification with Dionysus might have to do with the cult of the dead and resurrection, linking Him with Osiris. It's interesting to note that Dushara's consort Al-'Uzza was associated with Osiris's consort, Isis. More on this later.

Dushara as supreme storm God was more often compared with Zeus. His assimilation with Zeus seems natural as both are the respective heads of Their pantheons and are storm Gods. Evidence for this pairing can be found on a 1st century BC bilingual inscription from Miletus, Greece at the temple of Apollo: "Syllaeus, brother of the king, on behalf of king Obodas, dedicated to Zeus Dusares Soter (Savior)." Another inscription in the island of Delos mentions Zeus Dusares. Eagle and lion imagery in His temples might show a link with Zeus-Hadad though this can also imply a solar aspect, power or protection without a direct link to Zeus. Dushara was called Zeus Hypsistos in Petra and this title was also given to Ba'al Shamin in Palmyra, another supreme storm God, though this does not mean that Dushara is Ba'al Shamin. The cult of Zeus Hypsistos was widespread and could be attached to the local supreme God of many places. One coin depicts a deity's bust above thunderbolts and thunderbolts are found in many temples though not directly linked to Zeus nor Dushara. Another coin has a bull on the obverse side which might suggest a link with Zeus-Hadad but this is local money and it probably doesn't refer to a deity in Syria. It rather expresses the fertility aspect of Dushara. An altar dedicated to Zeus Hagios was found on the northern bank of Gaia, today Wadi Musa, opposite the Temenos of Dushara's temple (Qaṣr al-Bint) and there's another one in Siq. There is also a terracotta relief of Zeus Ammon found at the Temple of the Winged Lions.

As Lord of Heaven with solar features Dushara could be associated with Helios. This goes back to Strabo (or rather his informer Athenodoros) informing us that the Nabataeans "worship the sun, building an altar on the top of the house (or temple?), and pouring libations on it daily and burning frankincense." The presence of eagles in many temples might imply solar imagery and the epithets of Dushara include aspects of Sol Invictus like one from Suwayda set up by a priest of Dushara which honors Him with the title aniketos (invincible), an epithet normally reserved for Sol Invictus. In Hegra an inscription describes a God "who separates night from day," which might refer to Dushara. If it does it might mean Dushara is a creator God. Solar deities were common throughout the Near East such as Elagabal of Emesa and Heliopolitanus of Baalbek. Palmyra had three distinct solar Gods, Shamash, Yarhibol and Malakbel. Either Elegabal or one of the Palmyran Gods became Sol Invictus though scholars are in disagreement as to which one. In Petra there are approximately 15 to 19 high places, many of which may be associated with the worship of Dushara, based on the presence of betyls and the simplicity of architecture atop each space. These could also link Dushara to the sun. If Helios was assimilated with any deity in Nabataea it would've been Dushara but there's no direct link. There are depictions of Helios in Petra, like there are of Dionysus, but usually as part of façades with other Olympian Gods or as part of the 7 classical planets without any association with Dushara. Dushara definitely has solar features but as Lord of Heaven and not as a sun God in a triad with a moon deity and Venusian deity as seen in Duma and Tayma.>

With the aim of stimulating discussion if there is anyone here...

With the solstice approaching, does anyone have any plans to celebrate?

I have very recently moved and although we now have a sizable garden surrounded by woodland and eminently suited to outdoor celebrations etc, anything that we are going to do this time will be pretty low-key - since we are still unpacking and generally recovering. We will have a fire of some kind - either outdoors or in the hearth that we now have indoors - I'm going to watch the sunrise and maybe we will plant the first thing in our garden: there is a pot of meadowsweet waiting.

In one Safaitic inscription the author petitions two deities for security and the protection of those who read and invoke his text. One deity is familiar to us, Allāt, the most commonly invoked deity. She is called upon beside another god, a unique deity named 'ḥd (احد), meaning "one." While writers often invoke Allāt alongside other gods, especially Ḏušarē, which many scholars regard as Her consort, it would be odd to use 'ḥd as an epithet for Him since He's never referred to as such or any epithet for that matter. There's also no evidence from the Nabataean tradition that He was given such a title, or that oneness was a characteristic associated with Him. In Deuteronomy 6:4 Yahweh is also given the attribute of "One," "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." And in Verse 112:1 "Say, “He is Allah - One." But it's not unheard of to see "One" used as an epithet in pagan contexts. In one Palmyrene inscription we see an invocation to a deity called mrn 'ḥd "our lord, [who is] one", dated to 159 AD. This is an Aramaic rendition of the Greek εἷς θεός (one God), which was popular in the first few centuries AD. εἷς θεός was originally an epithet of a Pagan sect, appearing in the 2nd century AD. So is this a Hellenistic divine epithet rendered in Aramaic and Arabic, or the influence of Jewish monotheism on neighbouring Paganism?

The nomads of Arabia traded, travelled to and from, and conducted raids against Palmyra. These interactions would have provided the opportunity for a Hellenistic divine epithet to transfer to Old Arabic. At the same time, there is also evidence of contact between Arab nomads and Jews but no evidence for the existence of Jewish nomadic tribes in the area. But the fact that our author invokes 'ḥd beside Allāt stops us from regarding this text as a monotheistic Jewish inscription. The polytheistic climate of the region meant that anyone could seek favour from any source, both local and outside deities. Most deities are Arabian; Allāt, Roṣ ́aw/y, YayṯeꜤ, Allāh, etc. Other gods are from neighbouring peoples. Nabataean deities are also popular, such as Dhul-Shara and ShayꜤhaqqawm. It was common to invoke many gods, including foreign ones, so an invocation could be heard widely. So it seems most likely that our author was invoking a Palmyran deity, either borrowing the divine epithet εἷς θεός directly into Arabic or taking it from Aramaic.

Source:

The 'One' God in a Safaitic Inscription

Introduction

Tayma was an important trade and religious center in North Arabia which attained prominence during the reign of king Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, during the 6th century BCE. Nabonidus lived there for ten years and ruled over a vast tract of desert extending from Tayma to Yathrib dotted with oases. He settled colonies of Babylonians in these oasis after fighting, then making peace with some unknown Arabian tribes. The Babylonians brought Aramean deities to the oasis as attested in this Aramaic Stele: "in the 22nd year … ' [in Taym]a, Ṣalm of Mahram and Shingala and Ashima*, the gods of Tayma, to* Ṣalm of [Hajam] . . appointed him on this day [in Tay]ma which … therefore … which Ṣalm-shezeb, son of Pet-osiri, set up [in the temple of S]alm of Hajam, therefore the Gods of "Tayma ma[de gra]nts to Ṣalm-shezeb, son of Pet-osiri, and to his seed in the temple of Ṣalm of Hajam. And any man who shall destroy this pillar, may the Gods of Tayma pluck out him and his seed and his name from before Tayma! And this is the grant which Ṣalm of Mahram and Shingala and Ashima, the gods of Tayma, have g[iven] to Ṣalm of Hajam … from the field 16 palms, and from the treasure of the king 5 palms, in all 21 palms year by year. And neither Gods nor men shall bri[ng out] Ṣalm-shezeb, son of Pet-osiri, from this temple, neither his se[ed] nor his name, who are prie[sts in] this temple [forever]." - Ṣalm-shezeb the priest.

The inscription records how a new deity, Ṣalm of Hajam, was introduced into Tayma by the priest Ṣalm-shezeb, who further provided an endowment for the new temple, and founded a hereditary priesthood. On one side of the stone the god Ṣalm of Hajam is represented in Assyrian fashion, and below him a priest stands before an altar. The name of the priest, Ṣalm-shezeb, means ”(the God) Ṣalm has saved” or ”Ṣalm saves (me)," an Aramaic name. The name of the priest's father is Egyptian, Pet-Osiri meaning "he whom Osiris gave." Tayma was at the crossroads for the caravans going to Egypt or Mesopotamia which made it an obligatory stop for travelers. And thus, like other oasis-caravan cities such as Palmyra, Tayma had a cosmopolitan character. Though this doesn't necessarily mean that his father was Egyptian as names don't always indicate ethnicity. We know that in Egypt Aramaeans gave their children Egyptian names and in the Greco-Roman period Arabs in Egypt would do this as well.

Deities

The chief God of Tayma was Ṣalm of Mahram. The word ṣalm is cognate with the Arabic صنم which today means idol/image but it could also mean "the strong one." Another explanation is that it is connected to the Arabic ẓalām ظلام (dark) and the Assyrian kakkabu dhalmu, the planet Saturn. Mahram is a place name apparently preserved in the Arabic Mahramah محرمة near Jebel Selma, close to Tayma. The word means holy place/sacred area. C. J. Gadd has compared the Tayma cube with steles found in Harran with astronomical symbols (the star of Ishtar-Venus, the winged disc of the sun God Shamash and the crescent of the moon God Sin). It is in Harran that we find many theophoric names with Salmu. A deity named Salmu is attested in many Aramaic inscriptions elsewhere and in Assyrian deity lists. This Ṣalmu might be the same one in Tayma where we also find the emblem of the sun God, the winged disk. It appears at the top left of the Tayma cube hovering above a humanoid figure. According to Gadd, the figure on the Tayma cube would be Ṣalm of Hajam being received by the Gods of Tayma, while the disk would be Salm of Mahram.

It is more likely that Ṣalm is represented by the bull-head altar since bullheads are frequently found with inscriptions mentioning Ṣalm, suggesting that Ṣalm was a lunar deity. This might be why Nabonidus was so interested in Tayma, he was a devotee of the moon God Sin and relocated to a city that was the center of moon God worship. The issue is that the inscriptions with bull-heads don't mention which Ṣalm they are referring to and the bull-heads themselves have solar disks between the horns anyway. Regardless, the fact that we have terms such as Ṣalm of Mahram and Ṣalm of Hajam indicate that Ṣalm was believed to be a tutelary deity of a given locality like the gny' (jinn) in Palmyra. In Palmyra there were many jinn who acted as tutelary deities of villages, settlements, encampments, orchards and tribes. Deities being "of" places is not unheard of in North Arabian, South Arabian and Aramaic, the most famous example being the Nabatean Dushara (of Shara). Ṣalm of Hajam, who was being introduced to Tayma in the inscription, might have come from Al-Hajam الهجم in Yemen. Another deity, Ṣalm of rb, also had a temple in Tayma. Inscriptions found in Najran and Jordan also record the deity Ṣalm. When Tayma waged war against Dedan or the Nabateans it was Ṣalm who lead these wars. Inscriptions mention nsr lslm (supported/aided Ṣalm) similar to the Quranic nasara نصر. Salm is found in many theophoric names such as *ṣlmd' "*Ṣalm has known," ṣlm'l "Ṣalm is God," and ṣlmškr "Ṣalm has been thanked."

The second deity mentioned is Šingala. Like Ṣalm, Šingala is found in many Aramaic theophoric names like Saggildaa "Saggil is judge" or Tab-Sagal "Saggil is good." Over the years there have been many explanation for the name Shingala. One suggestion is that it might be connected with the Goddess Shigal mentioned in Late Syriac sources like the lexicon of Bar Bahlul which claims She is the Chaldean equivalent of Aphrodite. Another is that it might be a compound of the Akkadian moon God Sin and some other word. Perhaps the Sumerian word gal which means "great," "the great Sin," or maybe it is Sin-egalla’ "Sin of the palace," or Sin-gly "Sin uncovers." Many more suggestions have been offered by various scholars, none truly satisfactory. Shingala or variants of it don't appear in any Akkadian deity lists. The best explanation we have is that Shingala is a compound of Shinga and El meaning "the great God" or "El is great." Such divine names are often found in Semitic deities such as the Amorite Yakrubel and the Hebrew El Shaddai. Sadly this doesn't tell us much about the nature or personality of this deity but Shingala is most likely a lunar deity.

Ašima doesn't show up in any cuneiform texts unless we accept the identification with Ishum, an Akkadian God who acts as a divine night watchman, tasked with protecting houses at night, and also associated with various underworld deities, especially Nergal and Shubula. Ašima was first incorrectly read as Ashira, a mother Goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources including South Arabian inscriptions. Ašima is found in Aramaic texts in Egypt in the compound name ’šmbyt’l "Ashima's baetyl." In the Hebrew Bible we find a mention of Ashima being worshipped by the people of Hamat 2 Kings 17:30 The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima. Like the previous deities, Ashima shows up in Aramaic personal names such as 'šmzbd "Ashima has given." Ashima comes from the root word 'šm or اسم in Arabic, meaning "name." As far as we know, Ashima is a Goddess, thus completing the Sun, Moon and Venus triad with Ashima as Venus, Ṣalm as the Sun and Shingala as the Moon. A similar triad is found in Dumat, another caravan city in Arabia. All the Taymanitic deities mentioned so far seem to be Aramean in origin and were first attested in North Syria before they show up in Tayma.

When Nabonidus made Tayma his home, he introduced the worship of many Akkadian deities including Nabu, patron God of literacy, the rational arts, scribes, and wisdom, His consort Tashmetu, Marduk, patron deity of the city of Babylon, Nanaya, a Goddess of love, closely associated with Inanna/Ishtar. These deities may have influenced or been transformed into Nabatean deities mentioned in the Greco-Roman period such as Al-Kutbay, a God of scribes like Nabu and Allāt and Alʿuzza may have been influenced by Nanaya. Ishtar, goddess of love, war, and fertility, is also mentioned in cuneiform fragments found in Tayma and Her cult has long been connected to those of Allāt and Alʿuzza, all three are considered Venusian deities. The Mesopotamian empires eventually succumbed to the Achaemenid Empire and its during this period that we start hearing about what are usually considered Arabian deities proper, though invoked in Imperial Aramaic, the lingua franca of the region. Salm continues to be worshipped but we start hearing about deities such as Manafu, known as Manaf in Islamic sources, attested in the Hauran as Zeus Manaphos and even mentioned in Palmyra with Tammuz. The Goddess Manawatu, commonly known as Manāt, also shows up in this period. The Nabateans and Lihyanites fought over Tayma though this doesn't seem to have affected it's pantheon.

Neo-Babylonian Period

• Ṣalm/Ṣalam: A tutelary solar deity associated with the sun disk and bull
• Šingala/Šangila: Likely a lunar deity
• Ašima: A Venusian Goddess *Nabu: God of writing and wisdom. His name means "to prophesize"
• Tašmetu/Tašmetum: Consort of Nabu. Her name means “the lady who listens”
• Marduk: God of Babylon astrologically associated with the planet Jupiter
• Nanaya: Goddess of love associated with eroticism and sensuality
• Ištar: Goddess of war and love associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power

Persian Period

• Ṣalm/Ṣalam: This tutelary solar deity continues to be worshipped in this period
• Manafu/Manaf: A God equated with Zeus in the Hauran
• Manawatu/Manawat/Manat: Goddess of time, fate, fortune, destiny and death

أورانيا، المتغنى بها، أفروديتي الضحوكة، وليدة البحر، رافدة النشء، صديقة ليالي السمر، ربة الزواج، مُقْرِنة، أُم الحاجة، بارعة؛ فكل شيء منك و الكوزموس متناغم بنيرك؛ وضعتي مراسيم المويرات الثلاث، يا أُس كل شيء، كل ما في السماوات و ما في الأرضين المثمرة، و ما في أعماق البحار، يا جليسة باخوس المقدسة.

مبتهجة بالإحتفالات، والدة الإيروتيس، جميلة و مدللة، مُقْنِعةٌ، بليغةٌ، كتومةٌ، هيفاءٌ أنتي… أيتها الملكة المُبهِجة. بديهية مع ذلك خفية، ابنةُ أبٍ نبيل، ذات شعر جميل زيجية، رفيقة الوليمة، عسقلةٌ، حَبْوك الآلهةُ صولجان.

واهبة الذرية، محبة البشر، معشوقة، معطية الحيوان؛ تُقرني الفانين في رغبةٍ جامحةٍ مطلقة العنان، و كافة الوحوش، هائمة من طلاوة حبك الفتّان.

تعالي يا ابنة قبرص، أيتها الإلهة الملكية، سواء كنت في أوليمبوس، مبتهجة بِطَلَّتك البهية، أم على عرشك في سوريا باللبان غنية، أم عابرة السهول في سيارتك الذهبية، أم مع كهنتك عند نهر مصر الثرية، أم على يختك تجره البجع على مياه البحر اللازوردية، تسعدك جوقات الولدان و هم في دوائر يرقصون أو مستمتعة برفقة الحوريات سوداوات العيون أثناء وثبهن بخفة على شواطئ البحر الرملية.

أو حين إستواءك على عرشك في قبرص، يا ملكتي، حيث تغني لك العذراوات و الحوريات البِكر الجميلات، ولأدونيس القدّيس الخالد، طيلة العام أيتها السعيدة.

تعالي، أيتها الإلهة المباركة العبهرة الحسناء، فأنا أدعوكِ بكلماتٍ وَقرِة و روحٍ وَرِعة.

So have you considered Allāt and Al’uzza? And Manāt, the third - the other one? - Quran 53:19-20. Well, let us consider Manāt, then. The earliest Quranic codices spell Manat as mnwt which is the same spelling we find in the Nabataean, Latin and Palmyrene forms of the name instead of mnāt which would correspond to the Classical Arabic pronunciation of the name. She is understood as a Goddess of fate and time so before we begin we must understand how ancient Arabs understood fate and time.

Manāyā and Dahr

There is time as we use the word today (زمن zamān - وقت waqt) and time as a symbol of life and death. Time is the determining factor of fate in pre-Islamic poetry and is not itself determined by some other power. Although time and fate are conceptually different, they are closely bound as seen in the multitude of terms used by Arab poets with dual meaning such as dahr (دهر), zamān (زمن era) and ayyām (أيام days) used for expressing reversals of fortune. The word dahr is used the most, and although it's usually translated as eternity, dahr simply means a long time. Dahr could also mean nāzila (نازلة mischief from the heavens, literally, "coming down") and one would attribute their misfortune to dahr. The oracle Satih, who interpreted a dream for the Yemeni king Rabia, said: "Time (dahr) sometimes is misfortune (dahārīr)".

Then there's manāyā (منايا destiny) which is more about individual fate or the preordained death of each individual while dahr or zamān is universal fate, or the impersonal fate of everyone. Dahr is fate-as-time that changes and wears things down while manāyā is fate-as-death. In poetry, manāyā is presented as a ruthless force that dooms humans, its indiscriminate and inevitable. From Zuhayr's Mu'allaqa:

I regard Fate like the blows of a nearly blind she-camel, whomsoever it strikes, dies but whom it misses, lives on and ages.

Fate worries people and the occasions of relief are few and fleeting. This mood is captured well by the poet 'Adi ibn Zayd who said:

They lived a good life for a time, trusting restfully in their lot.

Then Fate turned against them in the same manner that it destroys mountains.

Thus Fate fires at the man in quest of livelihood circumstance after circumstance.

In the Greek tradition destiny was represented as a thread spun from a spindle while in ancient Arab poetry we also see the archetype of rope connected to destiny. Again from Zuhayr:

And whosoever fears the ropes of Fate will nevertheless be ensnared by them, even if one manages to ascend the courses of heaven with a ladder.

The poet Ṭarafa bin al-‘Abd stressed that human beings are linked to fate-as-death by rope. It cannot be bargained or reasoned with:

By your life, swear that Death, so long as he misses a strong man, is surely as the loosened halter, both folded ends of which are in the hands of the owner of the animal.

So that, if he wishes, on any day, he leads him off his life by his reins. And he who is tied by the rope of death, will have to submit.

And in the Mu‘allaqa of 'Imru’ al-Qays, we see the Pleiades star cluster, al-Thurayyā in Arabic, tied by hemp ropes to the top of a rock:

Oh long night, dawn will come, but will be no brighter without my love. You are a wonder, with its stars held up as by ropes of hemp to a solid rock.

The Pleiades also shows up in a poem by Abīd ibn al-’Abras who mentioned “the Pleiades bringing evil fortune and good”:

And there shall surely come after me generations unnumbered, That shall pasture the precipices of Aikah and Ladud

And the Sun shall rise, and the night shall eclipse it, And the Pleiades shall circle bringing evil fortune and good

Related practices appeared in Arabia. People used rope to protect themselves from the evil eye. One poet’s parents were afraid the evil eye would harm him, so they took him to a sheikh (elder), who tied rope to his arm as an amulet. For this reason, the poet earned the nick-name Dhul-Rumma, (owner of rope). Some believed practitioners of witchcraft tied knots into rope to harm people. The traces of this art are reflected in the Quran where the believer seeks refuge “from the evil of the witches who blow into knots” (Q 113:4). The tradition says that the verses were revealed to Muhammad after magic was worked into his hair using a cord with knots, concealed under a stone at the bottom of a well. Another metaphor of Fate is the arrow, launched at unwitting victims like in the elegy of Rabīʿah bin Mukaddam:

But the arrows of Fate, whomsoever they strike, no medicine man nor sorcerer can avail.

And Labid's Mu'allaqa:

Indeed, Fate’s arrows never miss their mark.

Kahins (oracles/seers) would use bows to symbolically catch and shoot these arrows. Looking at the examples above, ancient Arabs were far from revering dahr or manāyā as divine. Due to the mortal fear of desert life, sudden misfortune, and the uncertainty of the future, they imagined this power in their poetry to be pretty hostile and viewed it negatively. A few centuries earlier we find the term rġm mny in Safaitic inscriptions always in a funerary context as an expression of grief for the deceased. The dead were "struck down" (raġām or raġm) by fate. The appearance of fate in these funerary contexts suggests that the force was regarded much in the same way as in the pre-Islamic poems; it was the ultimate cause of death. Many prayers request escape from the manifestations of fate: misfortune and adversity. There is no need to exhaust the examples given in Al-Jallad's work on Safaitic religion in the section titled Fate.

There are no prayers to manāyā itself, nor are there any attempts to appease it. This absence suggests that Safaitic authors regarded it, much like pre-Islamic poets, as blind and cold, unresponsive to invocations and indifferent to offerings. While a number of authors called out to the Gods to be saved from manāyā, one text illustrates the limitations of divine intervention and echoes the later stoicism of pre-Islamic poets. Fate may be avoided, but ultimately it prevails and everyone meets their death:

He stopped again while going to water and remembered the dead and grieved, so O Allāt, grant long life to your righteous worshipper and protect [him] but from death there is no deliverance.

Indeed, the only solution is stoic acceptance as seen in a verse from the Muffaddaliyat:

And of a truth I know and there is no averting it that I am destined to be the sport of Fate; but dost thou see me wailing thereat?

and the adoption of a hedonistic attitude towards mortality as Ṭarafa said:

By your life, the time is not, except borrowed; so provision yourself with what you can from the goodness of it.