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"The gravitational field of the Stone breaks life into its parts, into revelation."
-Peter Makem

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Mera believed that there was a great masculine spirit who was a consort to the Earth Mother, that she called the "Swelling life father", because his phallus swelled to immense size. He was the impetuous power of life and fertility in nature, making the ground capable of giving fruit, and animals mate, and human males to be virile. This "Phallus Father" was represented by Bulls, Boars, and Stags. He made warriors strong, and was chiefly worshipped by them and by people involved in animal husbandry, which was just about everyone. His power drenched the world, but withdrew in winter, when he had to go into the Spiral himself. A "ghost" twin of him remained behind, which was dangerous and destructive. He was seen as the Father of human beings and even, at times, the other Gods. The curved horns of his bulls made the symbol of the crescent moon, an emblem of his favorite Daughter, the Moon Goddess, and Bulls, cows, and the moon were seen as spiritually united for this reason. In his purely phallic, fertile role he was also associated with serpents as phallic creatures.(5)

The bull or ox had a special relationship to the Phallic Father- aside from having the largest phallus that people in Mera's time could ever see, the ox represented, quite unconsciously to Mera's folk, the wild force of uncivilized nature, the perfect embodiment of the Phallic God. Part of the primal quest of humans towards civilization had to do with the taming of wild bulls and cows or oxen, and the Phallic Father was, at any rate, the first "God" of people.

In the form of the Ox, particularly the skull with curved horns, was an image of the moon, the dark twin of the sun, who represents instinct and the dark depths of consciousness that the first humans dwelled within. The "taming" of the ox thus came to represent the bridge into human "civilized" life, the sunlit mental world of calculation and structure, with herds and even primal forms of social structure and technology. The bull's skull or body was therefore sacred and fit to be placed at "entrance" places, for it represented a bridge between the civilized and uncivilized, or the wild and the tame, or the human and the beast.

It could also represent the door between the seen and the unseen, so the Phallic God, ever associated with the Ox, was seen as having power over that transition, for those dead who were passing over into the unseen. The legendary human hero- himself resembling the Shaman God- who had tamed the horned Ox thus represented the hero who merged the qualities of human and beast or untamed nature and civilization, mediating between the two.

There is a bond here between the ox, the Phallic God, and the "points of transition" between the wild and the tame or the seen and the unseen. They all overlap with the passage of the ecstatic minds of shamans into the "center" and their reaching out to journey into all possible realities; the bull's skull on a ceremonial pole was like a tree, similar to a tree- a symbol of the vertical axis.

It can also be seen as the crescent moon at the center of the sky- shamans did operate in the dark of night more commonly when they sought entrance to the unseen world. It also represents the return of the primacy of feeling and instinct at the top of the "pole"- the spine- replacing the "civilized" use of language and reliance on the inputs of the day-lit senses, a condition that the dead were forced into, and which shamans went into on purpose.

Insofar as the vertical axis of consciousness was mastered by the "legendary hero" who taught humans civilization (without forsaking his access to the wild aspects of the self, and remaining to mediate that to humans on the "civilized side"), he can be seen as a supremely shamanic hero, a shaman of types himself. The Phallic God, Oxen or Bulls, and the "World Tree" or vertical axis, all have a relationship of power.

There was a "Sorcery God" or a "Shaman God", a "God of Magic" who made shamans powerful and sometimes brought about the Traumas needed to awaken their relationship with their Follower-spirits. He was symbolized by the sun, but he was not a sun god; the sun was his emblem because it represented the power of light conquering darkness and cold, and he was a famous hunter and slayer of monsters and evil spirits. He was represented by snakes, wolves, and ravens, all of which were forms he took to communicate with people, and all of which acted as his messengers at times. He was possessed, like shamans, of an unpredictable and wild side, but he was married to the wind-mother, and was a great healer of body and mind, like she. He knew the secret of the Trance better than any other being. (6)

The Sun Goddess and the Moon Goddess were daughters of the Binder, and sisters to the Phallus Father-God and the Sorcery God. Some said the Phallus God was their father. They visit and watch the world every day, sometimes even sharing the sky, but mostly dividing their time on earth between night and day. They see everything that happens, and tell the Binder. The Sun Goddess shares all that she sees with the ravens, and the Moon Goddess with the wolves, and they in turn inform the Sorcery-God, making him pretty much all-knowing as well. The daughters were called "power of their mother", as they mediated the Binder's power into the world, particularly the Sun Goddess, whose fire dispensed life and warmth to the world, and whose motions and seasons were watched with awe. There was a profound connection between the spirit/awareness principle of each person, the physical reality of fire and heat, and the Sun. These three things were seen as the "three lights" or "three fires" of the world. The Sun was a symbol of the essence of life and awareness/consciousness triumphant over darkness, and any gold plant, like wheat, was also.

The colors White and Red, so sacred to the Binder, are shown in her Sun and Moon daughter, both of whom appear white and red at times, and these were seen as especially sacred times. Evil spirits hate these daughters, the Sun because she is a force of pure fire and they can't bear her face on them, and the Moon because the Moon Daughter loves hunting evil spirits, like her brother the Sorcery God. Occasionally, the daughters meet by day and the Moon goddess gets in the way of the Sun goddess, causing an unnatural darkness. This requires special protective rites to be done for all the people and animals on the Land, because evil spirits can take advantage of this temporary confusion and darkness to hurt the world. The Moon Goddess, with her special relationship to the dead and to wolves, was a sorceress, and could be uncanny and dangerous at times.

The stars are not just "gates" into the Great Whiteness of the Otherworld, but the essence of heroes and shamans long dead, who no longer are bound to our world. They never die now, but live perpetually, watching and helping people on earth. It was thought that a falling star came down to the earth and its essence became the first shaman, to teach shamanism to the first humans. The stars are held in great awe and respect. (7)

Ancestor spirits include the spirits of people who have died and made the transition into the inner world. Only the most wicked become evil spirits to cause trouble and be hunted by the Gods; most people dwell in the inner world, which is also under the ground, mounds, and waters, with the spirits of those who have gone before, until the time comes that they have to be re-bound and return. In the interim, all the dead and the ancestors can "see" humans and their kin through the fires of villages and sacred places, and on some seasons, can just wander back close enough to watch over them. They can always hear prayers directed to them, and they are appealed to for inspiration to bravery and honorable behavior, and for guidance and wisdom.

Animal Spirits were often worshipped like the "Great" Gods mentioned above- the "Stag God" did not always refer to the Phallus Father, though he could appear as a stag; it referred to the spirit that watched over all the deer and stags of the world. If you wanted to hunt his kin, you needed his blessing and you needed to assure him that you would not take more than you needed. Sometimes the distinction between a separate "stag god" and the phallus father was lost. Either way, animal spirits were prayed to, not just the living animals, but also the "ruling spirit" of that kind of animal.

When a shaman underwent the trance and drummed, by being at the great "center" of the spiral, they could reach any spiritual power. When drumming inside of a henge, the Binder was normally who they reached, but drumming in a forest could give them easy access to any powers, the spirits of trees, animals, or drumming at a mound or a burial ground, the ancestors or the dead buried there.


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Mera gave her communion to us and then left, leaving just the stone behind. I still have it. She waited a long time (though it didn't seem so long to her) to share wisdom she knew that the world would need one day.



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All of the beautiful images in this site are from "The Greenwood Tarot"
And are Copyright © 1996 by Chesca Potter.

All text is copyright © 2006 by Robin Artisson