Under the Leaves 2 - Jupiter - a planet and a god

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. He is entirely made up of gases and has a belt of at least 67 moons around his waist. He has a big red "eye" on his surface that can be seen from space that is a huge storm centre in his atmosphere. Jupiter plays an important gravitational role for us. He is actually holding our solar system together and the planets in the right place. His force is stopping asteroids and meteors from crashing into the Earth's surface, his gravitation pulls in most of them so they stay away from us. Jupiter is easy to spot in the night sky in the winter half of the year. He looks like a big, bright star, and he is almost always up there if you look closely. If you're not sure if it's him you have seen, you can check it up on different phone apps.

I don't know who gave Jupiter his name, or why, but I can understand why they did. Jupiter is the name of the Roman God of sky and thunder. Well it actually fits very well with the eye of the storm and the matter of fact that the planet easily could be associated with a ruler of the sky, being the largest, shining object, always to be seen travelling over our heads.

In Celtic mythology, the God of thunder was called Taranis. He was often depicted with a thunderbolt and a wheel, just like Jupiter. The wheel could be an early symbol of his journey over the sky, but it is also a symbol of the circular movements of everything in the Universe. Celtic polytheism ( the several Gods of the Celts) has a wheel God that is a sky-, thunder- or sun God. This is proably coming  from an earlier indo-european culture and the carvings of sun crosses, the wheels with four spokes, are often seen in petroglyphs from the bronze age. His sacred tree was the oak.

In Norse mythology, the God of thunder, lightning, storms and oak trees was called Thor. Besides his famous hammer, he also had a strength belt that doubled his strength when he wore it. It just links him so well to the Jupiter's belt of moons, I think. Thor also rode a wagon over the sky when he was out fighting giants. The wheels made sparks of lightning and the beating of the hammer made the incredible loud and scary sound that was thrown between the mountains. His wagon can be seen in the night sky as the big dipper, or the "Karl's wagon" as it is called in Scandinavia. Thor was the God of the "Karls" of the Norse people, or the farmers.

Most of the short term comets is believed to come from Jupiter, and it is most likely that life on Earth came from a comet, so the old stories of Mother Earth and Father Sky are probably very valid tales and is certainly still working.

The Roman, the Celtic and the Norse mythologies are all evolved from the Proto-Indo-European religion. That is why we find all these similarities in these three (and more) mythologies and traditions. I don't know if the ancient Europeans based their stories on astro-theology, but I like to wonder. So I wonder.

People's worldviews seem to expand just like the Universe. As above, so below.

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"The Past meets the Present" - A quote from "The Dragon Leaves"

Under the Leaves 1 - Filidh

"Filidh" is a Scots-Gaelic word deriving from proto-Celtic and meaning "seer" or "seeing".

There is reason to believe that the "Filidhs" were people who worked in society as prophetic poets and philosophers who foretold the future in verses and riddles, rather than in simple poetry. The word could also be written like this: "file". 

The Filidhs kept the oral traditions of the pre-Christian Ireland alive. Telling stories by verses accompanied by music would make people better understand and remember the messages they wanted to get through.Their deeds were not only meant to entertain but also to teach. 

Another group of poets was called bards, and the Norse culture had a similar function called "skalder". Snorri Sturlusson became the most famous among them for writing his "Edda". 

Many of the filidh's manuscripts have survived and can tell us something about druids, Celtic religion and the Celtic world. 

You can find out more about the Filidhs at the digital gaelic dictionary Dwelly-d

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Under the Leaves is a series of articles about the subjects that inspired the poetry in "The Dragon Leaves".

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I am currently working on a series to be called "Under the Leaves" that will be launched for free here on my blog. "Under the Leaves" will be articles about the stories behind the pieces of poetry in "The Dragon Leaves". 

I hope you will all enjoy it very much!

Greetings from the deep of the woods.