Synchroblog: Journeys to the Otherworld

This synchroblog comes from http://mythology.ourgardenpath.com/. I'm happy to participate as this is my second time and these are fun. Check out Mahud's blog to see the other takes on this topic.


Journey to the Otherworld - When I first heard the topic, I kept hearing "otherworld" in deep, echoing words. That is until I remembered that I had watch a Genesis video and Phil Collins introduced "Home by the Sea" as a journey into the other - world (echo echo echo). Alas, I'm not doing a blog on Genesis. I would never be invited to do another synchroblog and it really doesn't have any mythology to it anyway.

Instead, I'm going with Cu Chulainn, Irish hero and all around neat guy. Now the last time I did a Celtic blog entry was about the salmon connection and no, I am NOT going to talk about fish (although Cu Chulainn can jump so high they call it the salmon leap...). I did one Cu Chulainn and his battle rage yesterday (http://bubosblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/action-figure-waiting-to-happen.html). This is his journey into the other world.

The Irish otherworld is not a distinct other location, as it is in most other mythologies. It exists all around us in a different dimension. There are places and times where/when the boundaries are weaker than others and people and otherworlders can cross between at will or by accident.



This story starts early in our hero's life. He had been in battle, but had not made a name for himself and he falls in love (right there, you know trouble is coming) with the gorgeous Emer. Her father, Fogall, does not like him and puts Cu Chulainn off by saying, "You don't have enough battle experience, kid." He was obviously thinking Cu was like any other boy who would just go and find someone else. Instead, Cu Chulainn said, "You're right," and goes off to find the best teacher in the world to make him worthy of the beautiful Emer (you know, if she had a better name, I would not have to add adjectives.

The problem is, how do you find the best warrior? Cu Chulainn decides to do so by travelling to the land of shadows and trains under the warrior-princess Xena (Ha! just joking, the warrior princess is named Scathach). He trained for a year and a day.


As you'll see from the picture, warrior princesses may be able to fight well, but often do not understand the finer aspects of armor and how it works.

During this year, Cuchulainn becomes the lover of Scathach’s daughter. Now this is O.K., because he still love Emer. Scathach warns Cuchulainn not to fight her sister, Aoifa, but Cuchulainn cannot turn down the challenge. When she enters the field to teach him a lesson, he beats Aoifa and she becomes his mistress (once again, this is O.K., because in his heart, he is faithful and true to his one love, Emer). He gives Aoifa a ring to remember him by when he leaves. After he leaves, she gives birth to his son, Conlai. Cuchulainn does not know this.

Cuchulainn returns from the shadow world to claim Emer, but Fogall puts up a fight a she never intended Cu Chulainn to have Emer. Cuchulainn, now the best warrior in all Ireland (although he doesn't officially earn that title until he defeats a Green Knight wannabe) defeats all of Fogall’s warriors and Fogall does what any sane man would do to avoid fighting Cu Chulainn, jumps to his death to avoid Cuchulainn.


And they live happily ever after.


What? The kid? Oh yeah, Conlai returns to find his father, refuses to give the king his name (an offense with a death penalty) and the king has Cu Chulainn kill him. Since the kid is wearing the ring, Chulainn knows who he must be and kills him anyway. Loyalty to one's king is a heroic trait, after all...

Here are some other participants to the synchroblog:

Faith and the Hero’s Journey (Hawk’s Cry: The voice of a witch)
Journeying to Otherworlds: Access Denied (Between Old and New Moons)
Lions at the Door (Quaker Pagan Reflections)
More Than These Words (Aquila ka Hecate)
Journeying to Otherworlds (The Dance of the Elements)
Mythology Synchroblog 4: Children’s Story for Mabo (Pagan Dad)
Underground Ruminations (Gorgon Resurfaces)
Otherworlds Synchroblog: Olympus (Paleothea: the Ancient Goddess)
Symbolic Saiho-ji and Otherworld Journeying (Symbolic Meanings)
Becoming pagan in America - an otherworld journey (Executive Pagan)
Welcome to the Otherworlds Next Door (Many Questions)

Duality Synchroblog

This is a part of the May Synchroblog (where many bloggers write about the same theme) on Duality. See below for a list of other blogs that participated and check them out.


I jumped into this thing late, but wanted to find the right perspective for it. The answer literally fell into my lap. I am a big Raiders of the Lost Ark fan. I know it is loosely based on facts, but who cares. When I was kid, I wanted to be Indiana Jones. My name and state didn't have the right sound, though. North Carolina Alford just doesn't have the same ring to it. So I gave up a career in archeology and became a teacher instead.

Anyway, I'm at home watching my new DVD of Raiders and I can't help but wonder if the idol in the beginning scene has any basis in real life. There is a basis for the other stuff (the ark, the grail, the Sankara stones, the crystal skulls), so why not. Being a bit lacking in Hovitos mythology, I had to do some research.

What I found is that this idol (of a woman giving birth) is based on one of two Aztec fertility goddesses: Omecihuatl or Tlazolteotl. Both deal with duality and I'll handle the most frequently cited one first.


Omecihuatl is a dual deity. In fact her title is Lady of Duality (see, I told you this stuff fell into my lap). She is never seen by herself. She must have her brother/twin/life partner with her at all times. They represent the male/female duality which the world must have to survive. She and her brother (Omecutli) make up one deity known as Ometeotl. They preside over Omeyocan (Two Place), which is the thirteenth and highest heaven. Sometimes they are referred to as Tloque Nahuaque, which means "Owner of the Near and Far." Yes, there will be a test and you will need to know spelling.




You see here a real statue of the two. Ometeotl lived in a world of darkness. All she or he or they could see were the eyes of monsters glittering around them (like on Scooby Doo). They did what anyone would do stuck in a world of darkness with monster eyes all around. That's right. They poked the eyes. What happened was that the monsters became stars when their eyes were poked (wish I had known that as a kid). They got all into it and made a bunch of stars.


Finally, they found a monster that was all eyes and mouths and made the land and sea out of it. Since this is mythology and we have a brother/sister pair, what happens next is inevitable. They give birth to several children and completely ruin their school life by giving them impossible to pronounce names (Xipe Totec, Huitzilopochtil, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Coatlicue). Some of these go on to become a sun to light the world and end up destroying the world. After destroying the world four times, they decide to use a human to be the sun. We live in this world now and if we are not careful, this too shall end.


The biggest problem with this is that the statue looks nothing like the film statue and there were no temples to worship Omecihuatl. I only had other people's word on the Omechihuatl so I continued to research and found another goddess this child birthing idol could be. I found Tlazolteotl - the Two Faced Eater of Filth. Her statue looks a lot like the idol in the movie and is probably the one being referenced to despite the popularity of Omecihuatl. Tlazolteotl is a goddess of filth; however, she is also a goddess of forgiveness. This is how it works: when people are dying, she comes along and eats their filth thus cleansing them and granting them forgiveness. When she is not eating filth, she is usually seen giving birth in her role as a fertility goddess. She goes beyond duality - her roles are: goddess of fertility filth, sex, witches, carnal desires, earth, childbirth, prostitution, temptation, gambling, and purification. She is able to do all these things since she changes like the moon. In each stage she is a bit different.


Although this is supposed to be a synchroblog, as usual, I am out of synch and am a bit late. Thanks to A. Venefica for still letting me participate. Check out http://symbolic-meanings.com/2008/04/21/synchroblogging-symbolic-style/ for more blogs in this synchroblog.