Ariadne

I found something today.  I had a hunch that in ancient times, the midwives may have used very sophisticated herbal medicine for pain relief.  And then some midwives would have lost the know-how causing spectacular failures that would lead to the persecution of witches.

Today's find: scientists studying spider toxins at the University of Queensland find painkillers in 40% of the species studied.  I want to link this to the story of Ariadne.  And it might explain why Mokosh is the goddess of spinning and weaving.

Edit: I guess that I was wrong when I said that the 3 Fates represent 3 plants.  Now, I'm thinking it might be 2 plants and a drug derived from a spider?

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Persephone + Mokosh + Poppy

Persephone, Mokosh, and the poppy plant are all the same thing, but I can't prove it yet.  I'm getting discouraged and exhausted.  Last night I realized that I've been working on this idea for about a month.  I thought it would easy to figure out this stuff.  If Mokosh is the poppy, then who are her friends?  I said that the 3 Fates represent 3 plants, but I can't be sure whether I got the correct plants.  This is much more complicated than it seemed at the beginning.  I have a sense that this research could be an amazingly good way to untangle women's history.  I think there is much more to discover.

I have wanted to talk to Elizabeth Wayland Barber for a long time, but she is so famous.  There is no address in her book, The Dancing Goddesses, so I don't know how to write her a letter.  This blog is my response to her book.  I'm not limiting my blog to one subject - I'm saying that this book has become very important to me.

I have lots of cool ideas in my diary.  I'm not exactly a writer, but I would like to share my ideas.  I am considering possibly dumping everything (almost everything) I ever wrote in my diary into the Internet.  It's only a thought now, but I could do it.  Wondering what would happen next...?

I am not very good at computers.  I want to share everything, yet not have my ideas stolen.  Today I must explore copyright protections for my writing.  Maybe I can chose the less restrictive approach...

I need help.  I want to find people interested in Mokosh who could share in my research.  I don't even know if I am reinventing the wheel.  Maybe someone already did this same research?  It can't be possible that I've found something new..?  Because if I really found something amazing, what would I do with it?  Give it away?  Maybe.

There's something really big hidden here, just below the surface.  (Dale Pendell said that, but it's also true for me.)

Mokosh

Mokosh - goddess of spinning and weaving is linked to the Fates.  I found this when I looked her up in Wikipedia and then translated the Russian wikipedia page about her.  Mokosh is quite similar to Saint Paraskeva (also known as Saint Friday) according to Russian wikipedia.  It looks like Mokosh was the reason that women were allowed to have a day off from work in ancient times.

I've looked and looked but I still can't find anything to link Mokosh to the poppy plant.  I think Mokosh is the poppy, or maybe poppies are her flower.  Her name sounds like the word, "poppy," in eight languages.  And they are languages from different language families, which is odd...

I've been searching non-stop for days and days.  I'm getting tired.  I wish somebody would help me prove my idea.  I've had some wonderful help from my husband, and a friend who is into history.  But I need to find more evidence.  Maybe I can improve my Google-fu along the way.

Nepenthe

I found a thing.  It's called "nepenthe" and it's a brew mentioned in the Odyssey that gives drugged sleep or removes sorrows.  Maybe it was real, and maybe it could have been poppy pods in wine, possibly with added nightshade plants.  That would make a brew that could give ancient world midwives the ability to give pain relief.

I also found 8 different languages that used a similar word for poppy.  I started with Hungarian, and put all the neighboring languages into Google Translate.  But Hungarian is not related to the neighbors.  These are languages from very different language families.

Arabic was interesting.  I got three words for poppy.  One word turned out to be "anesthetic" - part of the Arabic words for poppy.  And it was the part most similar to everybody else / the part that sounds like the name of the goddess Mokosh.

So if Mokosh is the poppy, and Demeter is the corn/grain, who is the third goddess?  I expect to find 3 big name goddesses linked to the 3 Fates.  Maybe.

3 Fates, 3 Plants

Each of the 3 Fates has a plant.  Here are the plants (I am making a guess not a fact!):
Belladonna (or another nightshade plant)
Opium poppies (still just guessing)
and Ephedra.

The combination of these 3 plants as a drug mixture can give twilight sleep.  I think the 3 Fates were 3 midwives who could give pain relief during child birth.  I think that the ancient Romans used this drug mixture.... maybe.

Here is something that I found on Wikipedia page = Scopolamine, under the heading, history:

"Scopolamine mixed with oxycodone (Eukodal) and ephedrine was marketed by Merck as SEE (from the German initials of the ingredients) and Scophedal starting in 1928, and the mixture is sometimes mixed on site on rare occasions in the area of its greatest historical usage, namely Germany and Central Europe."

There's a thing about the 3 Fates, they were from Rhineland.  Lots of ancient 3 Fates stuff was found in Rhineland.  Then this medicine called SEE was made in Germany...  Looks like a bit of historical detective work is needed.  Too bad I can't do German.  Maybe Google Translate can help.

Edit:  this could be wrong.  What if the 3 Fates represent 3 categories, not 3 specific plants?

...

Veronica

Veronica plant from New Zealand:  the bamboozle plant

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10608278

I find this article interesting.  It reminds me of the Wollemi Pine...  I'm not going to write much now.  But mayb I can add some material in a few days.  I was looking for Veronica teucrium but Wikipedia did not have anything.  One day, I'd love to be able to contribute to Wikipedia...

Anyway, I found Veronica teucrium in Wikipedia under another name:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_austriaca

I noticed some peculiar things about this plant.  Maybe it's just my imagination, but I wondered if this plant was special to women before Christianity.  Before the inquisition...  Somebody should write a novel about life in 5000 BCE...  That's where I keep going in my imagination, but I don't have much yet.  Not enough material for a story yet.

So, large Veronica was called Herb Marion... Why?

*** This is probably not related but I wondered if Veronica had some pagan traditional uses, kind of like Elecampagne.  So, I found pictures of Saint Margaret right next to the herb (could be totally random coincidence). When I looked up St. Margaret, I found lots of pagan roots.  Margaret seems to be linked to the Three Fates.  Here is the page that places Margaret as one of the Fates:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Holy_Helpers

Ok, now I am copying the key part of the Wikipedia page about the 14 Holy Helpers:

"At the heart of the fourteen were three virgin martyrs:

Sankt Margaretha mit dem Wurm, Sankt Barbara mit dem Turm, Sankt Catharina mit dem Radl, das sind die heiligen drei Madl.[2]

Saint Margaret with the dragon Saint Barbara with the tower Saint Catherine with the wheel those are the three holy maids."

Pagan roots of Arbor Day (?)

Just a link about Arbor Day.  I think Arbor Day is related to (but not the same as) Oak Apple Day.  And Oak Apple Day seems to have a pagan history.

All I know is that I saw it on Wikipedia.  I don't have strong evidence, yet.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Apple_Day

The Wikipedia page about Arbor Day also hints at a history of pagan and Christian blended spring festivities.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_Day

What I would like to find is something about actual arbors, festive arches, shelters decorated with flowers.  Imagine if the ancient world had other festivals similar to the Jewish festival of booths?  Springtime booths?


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