He is a god hidden in plain sight in the modern world arguably the best day of the week is named for him Saturn’s day the day many people are freed from their toil the ancient Festival dedicated to the god near the time of modern Christmas was also a time of relaxation taking
People back to the Golden Age of humanity the poet Ovid said of him before there was Earth or sea or sky that covers everything nature appeared the same throughout the whole world what we call chaos a raw confused Mass nothing but inert matter badly combined discordant atoms of things confused in
The one place this conflict was ended by a God and a greater order of nature since he split off the Earth from the sky and the sea from the land and divided the transparent Heavens from the dense air when he had distangled the elements and freed them from the Obscure Mass he
Fixed them in separate spaces in harmonious peace Ovid gives a beautiful description of the beginning of the world and his metamorphosis one it must be said not so dissimilar from the account found in Norse mythology The God Who separated the matter of the world who set Sky apart from Earth and
Arranged all things in order was not Jupiter but Saturn the Romans equated him with the god Kronos but he was authentically Roman with one of the largest and most popular festivals dedicated to Saturn running from December 17th to the 23rd where courts were adjourned gifts were given
And the social order was stood on its head but who really is this mysterious God at the center of it all who is Saturn hi friends I’m Kevin McLean don’t forget to like subscribe and consider supporting the channel on patreon or PayPal your support helps me to make videos like this
Much thanks to all of my supporters one of the most frustrating things for those who truly want to understand the nature of the ancient gods is that the Ancients often purposely concealed their deeper knowledge of them this is no less the case with Saturn microbius Ambrosius theodosius one of
The last Pagan intellectuals in the late Roman Empire wrote a work called the saturnalia where he gives some details about the God his festival and many other things besides in book one the character of pridextrous says the laws of the region allow me to disclose the origin of the Festival of
Saturnalia so far as the account is a matter of Mythology or is made known to All by the physicists but of the secret nature of the deity I may not speak but is not permissible even at the sacred rites themselves to tell of the Hidden principles which flow from the
Fountain of pure truth and whoever attains to knowledge of them is bitten to keep such knowledge locked in his breast whatever the long-serving priests of Saturn knew of the true metaphysical nature of the God he would not relate in public this tradition of guarding the secrets of the Sacred Mysteries was and
Is a practice in many religions the ancient Druids though they studied for 20 years in their Craft only related their knowledge to the public in riddles seemingly for the same reason knowledge is like a fountain or well which Springs up from the very core of the cosmos and
From that well flows truth a concept found also in Celtic and Norse mythology not just anyone can wander there profaning the sacred Waters yet from a rigorous analysis of the myths which flow from that sacred truth we can gain a glimmer of the reflection of the god
The Romans equated Saturn with the Greek god Kronos and as such they adopted his Greek counterparts core myths however they may have had a common origin both gods are strongly linked to Agriculture and the Harvest and both are progenitors the name Saturn is likely related to the
Word satus meaning to sow or plant with his name meaning the one who sows or the sower it fits with everything that we know of the god he was a god of Agriculture he gave the knowledge of Agriculture and taught field fertilization to mankind one of his epithets was starkes meaning dung
For he taught man to spread dung on the fields to increase fertility one of his wives was Ops the goddess of Earthly fertility while some suggest that the name was copied from an Etruscan God called satre this Etruscan name is found only twice and it seems more likely that if this
Refers to the same God that it is the Etruscans who adopted the name from the Romans just as they adopted Heracles Apollo faunus Sylvanas and others from Greek and Roman religion while Saturn was connected to Agriculture and with practices like spreading manure on fields he was also a royal God
The oldest known Temple was built for Saturn and before he was displaced by Jupiter he ruled from the capital line hill of old known as the mountain of Saturn during his rule it was said that there was no private property and nobody was allowed to Mark out the land with boundary stones
He was also the father of the Latin people as he was believed by some to be the father of Picos the first king of latinum who is in other accounts the Son of Mars Saturn was also believed to wield the power of lightning often an attribute reserved for ruling deities
Legends said that he was an ancient King that ruled alongside Janos and when he disappeared Janus instituted his worship candles were lit in honor of him at saturnalia and it would said their light represented the rule of Saturn who led the people from the shadows and into the knowledge of the Arts
As over the tests Saturn was believed to have formed the world and ruled as its king before being replaced by Jupiter this act of forming the world from the inert and undivided matter has a strong similarity to the creation myth of the Norse Emir the first giant is killed by Odin
Likely his grandson along with his two brothers his body is dismembered and divided in all his different parts become the separate parts of the world of him he is flesh the Earth was fashioned and of his sweat the sea Crags of his bones trees of his hair and of
His skull the sky then of his brows the Blythe gods made mythgarth for the sons of men and of his brains the bitter mooded clouds were all created though far more personified than ovid’s account the Act and the results are the exact same Emir represents the chaotic matter from
Which the entire world was formed cut up divided and ordered by the triple aspect of it he becomes the ruler of the Gods and the creator of the world like Saturn he is the father of the Thunder God Thor the notion that Saturn is the father of
Picos and his General title as pathir suggests that he was seen as an ancestral figure of both men and gods his very name suggests the force of Life represented by the act of planting a seed but unlike Jupiter who ruled from the bright Heavens Saturn may have predominantly had a cathonic nature
According to vero’s account of the origins of saturnalia the palazzgias when fleeing from their homes received an oracle at the sacred Greek sanctuary of dodona to settle in the land sacred to Saturn there they are told to offer heads to Hades and a man to the father
When they find the location described to be Lake kutilia in latinum they make a shrine to dies and an altar to Saturn these human sacrifices are later sublimated by offerings of masks to Hades and Clay figurines to Saturn the sacrifices given to the two gods were part of the saturnalia festival
What is curious is that often diese is called dispathar meaning wealthy father the Temple of Saturn served in ancient days as the treasury of Rome and according to this account at least Saturn was also called father it is said that during the rule of Saturn there was no theft and this is
Why the money was kept under his protection but very likely the God was believed to have great Powers over wealth and over any who dared to steal from him the altar to dece also formed a part of the Temple of Saturn one of the Etruscan artifacts that may
Bear his name locates him in the north the direction associated with the realm of the Dead he was sought to rule over wintertime lightning as opposed to Jupiter who ruled the lightning of summer storms The farsalia Echoes this saying the freezing ice of snowy zones was a sign to Saturn
Though Lucan is likely referring to the planet in astrology the same may have applied to the god the Festival of saturnalia also pays homage to Mania or Mania the goddess of the Dead she is called the mother of ghosts the undead as well as the lares and the manes who are ancestral Guardian
Spirits her name comes from proto-indo-european men meaning to think related to mind and of course Mania insanity and also the root of the name of Norse yotun mimia who is closely linked to ozon though considered the husband of Ops by many Saturn also had another wife in ancient days called Lua
She was a goddess to whom Soldier sacrificed weapons taken from enemies defeated in battle and her name means destruction or dissolution while on one hand Saturn is wed to Ops goddess of fertility he is also wed to the goddess of Destruction he is connected therefore with both
Fertility and life as well as death and this is similar to the Gaelic God dagda whose staff kills with one end and brings to life with the other the Ancients connected this to his association with time which both sees things come into being but also destroys them this Mastery over creation and
Destruction may also be the origin of his association with Janus linked to transition points like start and end sunrise and sunset and doorways Saturn is also believed to be a hooded God he is always depicted with a cowl and saturnalia also has a connection with masks
It said they began to Kindle wax tapers in honor of Saturn in preference to the former ritual and to carry little masks to the Chapel of dece which adjoins the altar of Saturn instead of human heads thence arose the traditions of sending round wax tapers at the saturnalia and
Of making and selling little clay figures for men to offer to Saturn on behalf of these as an act of propitiation for themselves and their families we see how closely linked Saturn is to dece and also the ritual of human sacrifice on the day shared between them both obscured Mast hooded Gods even
Sharing a Sacred Space with the altar to Deez located in part of the same Temple the same Temple that also acted as a treasury of the Roman state it perhaps isn’t hard to derive from this the name di spather as meaning both diese and Saturn perhaps even as a single deity
In the saturnalia it says during the days of the Festival of the saturnalia and also when the entrance to the underworld is open religion forbids adjoining of battle and for the following reasons during the Festival of Saturn because his Reign is believed to have been free
From any tumult of war and when the entrance to the underworld is open this being the sacred occasion dedicated to father deese and prosperina and Men deemed it better to go out into battle when the jaws of Pluto were shot when the entrance to the underworld is
Open it is if a door to the Grim infernal deities were open as the saturnalia is also marked by the worship of these and other infernal gods and Spirits it may have been originally viewed as one of the times in which the doors to the underworld were open
The exact same idea is found in the Gaelic tradition of Sawan the idea that Saturn is the father of the Latin people is the original Roman notion later replaced by Greek inspired Tales centering on the likely fictional rather than mythical Aeneas yet even in that work the idea of Saturn
The father persists saying and don’t neglect the fact that the Latins are Saturn’s people just not through constraint or law but of our own free will holding to the ways of the ancient god all of this seems very similar to the account given by Julius Caesar not of
The Romans but of the Celts all the goals assert that they are descended from the goddess and say that this tradition has been handed down by The Druids for that reason they compute the division of every season not by the number of days but by nights
This is the oral father of the Gauls and perhaps the Latins originally believed a Saturn was their ancestor other italic peoples believe that Mars was the father of Picos and thus Mars was their ancestral God however of Jupiter macrobius says a yearly right was instituted in her
Honor at which sacrifice was offered by a priest to her departed spirit the rest day being dedicated to Jupiter because it was believed of old that souls are given by him and go back to him after death the dating of this Festival is the 23rd of December the closing of the
Saturnalia offerings were made to the dead and it’s associated with the nurse of Romulus and Ramos thus the theme of the Dead is continued in connection with Saturn some believe that the gladiatorial games that were traditionally held at large funerals were part of a blood sacrifice to the Dead
We also see such festivals in ancient Greek epics as well as Gaelic traditions where the funeral games have tiled to you were the wives of Luke involved horse racing and martial contests gladiatorial games were also held at the time of saturnalia and were believed by
Some to be a human sacrifice to the god if the god is an ancestor then in some way he is also like the ancestors dead he would dwell with them in the afterlife Abode and rituals to him would be associated with the gods and spirits of the Dead
The Saturn Alias certainly has all those features and the timing too the very lowest period of the sun is also suggestive of a connection with the underworld Julius Caesar mentions Celtic dece in relation to the night sky because the night is thought to be the underworld
And the Abode the ancestors is in the north likely centering on the North Star in microbius’s the saturnalias at greater reverence is paid to Saturn than any of the other gods this may be a bit hyperbolic but it’s certainly true that the Festival of the saturnalia seems to have been the most
Popular and large-scale celebration of the Year Akin in many ways to Gaelic sawi Saturn Alias seems to be linked to the timing of the winter of solstice and may be anciently connected with similar festivals throughout Europe such as yule it sees the reversal of social rules suspension of Law Courts gift giving and
Merry-making that aspects of the ritual see the flouting of social norms and laws suggests that Saturn’s Rule and nature is connected to the violation of these things which are brought about by Jupiter the statue of Saturn stood bound with a Woolen cord around its legs the whole entire year
Which was removed only during the Festival of saturnalia there is also of course found a late Pagan Theory within the saturnalia not all the gods are actually just expressions of the sun Saturn of course is also with his associations with time and Seasons linked to the Sun this expresses a rather simplified
Notion of the gods that had begun to develop in Rome under the influence of Eastern Cults in Christianity while any God linked to the flowing of seasons is also connected to that aspect of the Sun the God isn’t the son elsewhere in the work Saturn is said to
Be the sky and Ops the Earth both of these things can be true at the same time in reality the gods represent a plethora of Concepts that are tied to One Core idea as these things are expressed in many different ways throughout the world whether it be the sun the sky the Earth
Or other various aspects even human thoughts and emotions then the gods are connected to these things but are themselves not only those things just like a a person is not the sum total of a single thought that they have one afternoon the reality is if Saturn
Was the sun he would simply be called the sun gods are simply named four things that they are associated with Saturn’s name comes from his association with planting and the agricultural cycle so Saturn was also sometimes thought to be equine in nature so he took on a horse form
A story tells how when he was in the shape of a horse he mated with philia who gave birth to Geron the Centaur teacher of Greek myth in the Aeneid it says Saturn was the first to come down from Heavenly Olympus fleeing job’s weapons and exiled from his lost realm he
Gathered together the untaught race scattered among the hills and gave them laws and chose to call it Latium from la Terre to hide since he had hidden in safety on these Shores under his Reign was the Golden Age men speak of in such tranquil peace did he rule the
Nations until little by little an inferior tarnished age succeeded with War’s Madness and desire for possessions this was the golden age that without coercion without laws spontaneously nurtured the good and the true there was no fear or punishment there were no threatening words to be read fixed in bronze no crowd of supplies
Fearing the judge’s face they lived safely without protection no pine tree fell in the mountains and yet reached the flowing waves to travel to other lands human beings only knew their own Shores so it wasn’t that under Saturn’s rule that people lived vicariously but rather people were in a pure state
It is like the Christian Garden of Eden period before evil existed in the world and everyone lived in a state of nature in accord with the good the evil came with the desire for possessions in Saturn’s time there was said to have been no private property and Saturn would not allow the creation
Of borders for fields it said there is an old story that when the land was saturnly job prophetically said something like this throw two people into the Tuscan River as a sacrifice to the sickle-bearing ancient until syrithian Heracles came to our Fields the sad right was performed each year
As at Lucas he threw query days of straw into the water and now they throw effigies in the same way interestingly this is very similar to a practice described in relation to Romulus and Remus of which you can learn about in another video of mine while much remains mysterious about the
Original nature of Saturn we can see he’s connected with generation and destruction cathonic Gods like these and of course the saturnalia which involved gift giving and the weakening of social roles honoring the dead and of course Saturn above all ruled the Golden Age of man and from whom many Latin people believed
They descended I hope you found this interesting and informative and if you did please like share subscribe and consider supporting me on patreon or PayPal like to thank everyone for their support and as always stand tall
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