Veles, Taurus, and Mielikki

Here's another thing I learned last week...

I'm a Taurus. Now, people who know me, and who know things about that kind of thing, know that I'm just about the most Taurus Taurean there is. While I may not personally put a lot of stock in the notion that stars billions of light years away control our destinies, there's no denying that people born at certain times of the year tend to have certain traits or quirks that line up with their star sign.

It was probably the other way around and misattributed to the stars. We'll probably never know.

But never mind that part. There's something else interesting that falls under the banner of comparative mythology. Notably, this sign:

Any guesses as to what that might be?

Sure, it looks like a bull's head. And it is, in fact, a bull's head. But it's not a Taurus symbol. It's actually the glyph for the Slavic god Veles.

Veles was one of the principal gods of the Slavic pantheon. His brother, Perun, was the god of thunder and of the heavens and sky. Veles was the god of the Underworld -- which in pre-Christian Europe meant the land of the dead, not hell...though it's not uncommon for gods of the underworld to be cognate with the devil in Christian mythology.

Veles' realm was at the root of the world tree, whereas Perun ruled from the canopy. His domain was worldly, but damp (think "underground"), and he was the gatekeeper between the world of the living and the spirit world.

According to legend, the great conflict between Perun and Veles began when Veles absconded with Perun's wife, Mokosh. Mokosh was the embodiment of Mother Earth, so it's easy to see why both the sky and the underground would feel enthralled to her.

Anyway, the aspects of Veles I'm interested in here are actually a little more mundane. You see, he was the god of wealth and of herdsmen (the two were synonymous in ancient Slavic society). That's why his glyph is a bull's head. He was also one who guided honesty and integrity, and for this reason this same symbol was used to seal contracts.

Veles was the patron of craftsmen, artists, and musicians (oh ho!) as well as a powerful forest god. He was a shapeshifter, and preferred the form of a wolf or a bear. He was, in fact, the first werewolf in Slavic folklore, and could imbue this power on those he deemed worthy. This is why he's often depicted as an old forest hermit with a staff bearing his bull's head seal and a hood made of a bear skin. His totem often also includes a "paw of Veles," which can be either a bear or wolf paw, also bearing his glyph.

Finally, his sacred tree was the willow, because it was the great healer in the forest, always laid down roots first to hold the wet soil, and could be trusted to be steadfast with secrets.

Here's the eerie part; as though the bull thing and the musician thing weren't already eerie enough. According to Celtic birth signs, my tree sign is the willow. The willow, according to the Celtic interpretation, has a lot of characteristics that could describe me pretty well.

Know who else has the willow as their sacred tree? Mielikki, the Finnish goddess of the forest. Mielikki was the wife of Tapio, and they both inspired hunting and the arts. And they both enjoyed transforming into wolves or bears. 

I'm not making any snap assessments with regard to how these ancient legends diverged or converged. We already know that there was a lot of exchange between the Finno-Ugric peoples and the Slavic peoples, especially around the Baltic. It's just interesting to explore some of these correlations and relationships between cultures that stretch back into the murkiest depths of time.

I do think this one bears a little more exploration.