(The images shown above all represent Lord Shiva in his aspect as Bhairava or Bhairab. The first is included because it shows the temple AFTER the big Earthquake. The last one is of the mural at the Temple of Chandeshwari)
Lord Shiva is extremely popular in Nepal and traditions state that he was born in Nepal. His Festival is attended by millions who flock to Kathmandu from other parts of the land, India and other nations each year. The usual ban on cannabis is lifted and intoxication, one the gifts of the God, is allowed to take possession of his devotees.
I think it is vital to be able to lose control once in awhile, to surrender the iron will that often imprisons us in the confines of our own minds, our anxieties and terrors. Unfortunately, loss of control is terrifying in itself. Whether a person simply is afraid of embarrassing or shaming himself or herself or afraid of losing his or her mind permanently, many of us cannot take the leap into the abyss, especially as we grow older. There was a time when I feared nothing. Now Fear is almost a constant companion, nipping at my heels, along with self-doubt and all the other enemies of courage that drag us down and hold us prisoner in our lives. There is a need for Order and for common sense and everything else that keeps our lives running, but at the same time, it is only the very brave who are given glimpses of other realities and other worlds.
From my earliest childhood, I knew a deep desire to experience other realities and other worlds. I believed that there was an unseen reality that was possibly as important as the one we could see and touch on a daily basis. Dreams were my path to other realities and I still have very vivid dreams that actually connect to dreams from the past, of cities and people I never met or knew in this reality, but have become invested with their own 'dream' memories through the years.
Shiva is one of the most terrifying of the Gods, willing to rip aside all of the little safety measures we have placed round us, and all of our protective clothing and accoutrements. Lord Shiva is the naked face of power. Durga has the same function and power. Nepal honours both.
It is Shiva in his aspect as Bhairab who terrified me as a child in Nepal. I had nightmares about those masques that one sees everywhere. I still find it difficult to look even at a photograph of Bhairab without trembling but this makes me aware of the need to obtain one and hang it in front of my bed where I am forced to confront it upon waking and communicate with it. One of my daughter's mantras is 'Conquer your fears' and I salute her for it and aspire to do the same in my life, even as it grows increasingly difficult. I yearn for FREEDOM from physical disability and lack of money and all the other earthly difficulties in my path and yet, if I were to be freed from FEAR, all of the rest would become trivial.
One of the most powerful symbols of Shiva is the Trisul or Trident. Interestingly enough, it is the national symbol of the Ukraine as well. It is a most ancient symbol, that three-pronged spearhead and is found throughout the ancient world, whether in the hands of the sea god Poseidon or in that of the Thunder God.
Below is the photograph of an Iron Trisul, Trident of Lord Shiva from Nepal. What makes this one particularly of interest is the double axe motif or 'butterfly' beneath the trident. The triangle in itself is a very potent symbol and one used prolifically by the Nepalese throughout their long history. It can symbolise many different things, including the opening to the womb of the God or female. The double axe was a symbol of ancient Crete, among others. The trident actually was adopted by Christianity in the form of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I have included photographs of Thor's Hammer Mjolnir and the Ukrainian Trident as well.
The origins of the Tryzub have been explained in many different ways but the consensus of opinion now is that it originally represented an anchor, a symbol found in Hindu tradition as well. Going back to the association of the Sky or Thunder God with the Sea and his victory over the serpent, it makes sense that the weapon he wields would be based on an anchor. Other theories promote a bird of prey, the gyrfalcon as the original symbol or a cross within a trident, but both Mjolnir and the Trysub do resemble an anchor in form. The Tryzub, like Thor's Hammer definitely is a pre-Christian potent amulet.
In Eastern Europe, many amulets of anchors have been discovered from cultures that far predate the advent of Christianity.
Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea, had the trident as his symbol, of course, and his weapon could cause earthquakes and tsunamis.
A few days later: For all my research and years of working with symbols, the most obvious correspondence here eluded me completely: The Trident of Shiva is the Pitchfork of the Devil of the West! Lucifer, Star of the Morning, most powerful and beautiful of the Angels, predates the Christ and certainly is older than humankind. In Islamic tradition, his name is Iblis and Allah after creating humans, ordered his favourite to prostrate himself (perform sajeda or ritual worship/respect) to Adam, the first of men. Iblis refused, declaring that he and his race of Jinn were superior to humans as they were created from pure fire and humans were created from clay. Thus was he cast forth from Paradise for his pride.
Here we have many ancient powers translated to fit into biblical lore. Fire is one of the most ancient of Gods in all traditions. In India, it was Agni. In Persia, Fire was worshipped for thousands of years and still is by some. Clay is of Earth but according to ancient Mesopotamian myth, mankind was created from clay in order to be the servants of the Gods, no more and no less. The race of Jinn, on the other hand, were sublime in their creation and were more than slaves.
So Lucifer, the Morning Star, is cast forth and becomes the ruler of the damned in Christianity, taking the name of Satan or in Arabic, Shaitan. In medieval iconography, he is often depicted with the head and tail of a Goat. Remember that Daksha, ancient Indian God who predated Shiva and whose daughter Sati was Shiva's first wife, had his head struck off and replaced with the head of a Goat. His sin was one of pride as well. He believed that his daughter deserved better than marriage to a god who had no dignity and lived a horrible life in the cremation grounds, unkempt and dirty.
He offered free choice of marriage partner to his daughter but, like the King in Sleeping Beauty, invited every one BUT Shiva. Sati throws her marriage garland into the air, declaring it is for Shiva alone and the God appears with the garland round his neck. Sati leaves with her husband and they live together happily.
Daksha cannot forget his hatred of Shiva, however and announces he will make the Great Horse Sacrifice, inviting ALL the Gods except, once again, Shiva. Sati tells her husband she needs no invitation to attend her father's festival but Shiva warns her against the journey. She goes, nevertheless and when no portion of the sacrifice is offered to Shiva, is heartbroken and furious by the insult to her spouse. She tells her father that all but he adore and worship her Lord Shiva and that the only way for her to counter his insult to her Lord is to surrender her own life. She throws herself into the Sacred Fire and dies.
Shiva in fury creates a demon from a lock of his hair who assaults Daksha and takes off his head. After this, however, Shiva informs the other gods that Daksha was but an ignorant child and that he will restore life to him. The head of Daksha was consumed by funeral flame and the god therefore replaces the human head with that of a Goat.
Shiva then strides across the earth with the body of his beloved Sati on his back or across his shoulders. The Earth mourns with him. All the crops and plants wither and nothing is nourished until Vishnu, to prevent total destruction of the Earth, hurls his discus at the corpse again and again, cutting it into 52 pieces. Each piece drops to the ground at a different location and there rest forevermore. Temples are built on each spot where a piece of the body of Sati rests.
Here then we have a tale that embodies many of the ancient themes of Sacrifice. First there is the Sacrifice by Fire. Then there is the cutting up of the body and the sowing of it in the Earth to return Life to the Earth.
Shiva's desolate journey of mourning is similar to that of the Great Goddess Demeter. The Sacrifice of Sati is not that different from the ancient offerings of Virgin Goddesses, the daughters of Kings to appease a Monster or ancient god who was threatening or ravaging the kingdom. One thinks of Andromeda and the Sea Serpent as one such Sacrifice. The Sea Serpent of course is none other than that most ancient of Gods, Yamm,
The voluntary sacrifice of life by a wife later became enshrined in the practice of suttee in India wherein a widow would join her dead husband on the funeral pyre. This is not a practice that is unique to India. In ancient Germany and the Northern lands, a King or chieftain in death would be accompanied not only by his favourite horse and dogs but by his wife or wives and slave girls. They would take or be given poison often before their throats were cut and then the entire grave (often a ship) would be consigned to the sacred flames.
Shiva mourns the death of his beloved Sati for a long time and shuts himself away in his abode in the Himalayas. It is only when the spirit of Sati appears to him, promising to return in the form of the daughter of the Himalayas that he returns to the world. In her second manifestation, Sati is Parvati or Uma.
This has little to do with the Trident as the symbol of Lord Shiva or the god-headed elder god as the father of his first wife, Sati, apart from the fact that often myths become muddled when they are taken abroad as well as by journeying through time, especially in ancient oral traditions. Whatever the journey or mutations, there is no doubt whatsoever that the goat-headed Devil of Christianity who wields a three-pronged Pitchfork originally was a God.
The goat-headed One with the three-pronged Pitchwork remained a god in the West in Pagan Witches' rites. There is the deity Baphomet, depicted sometimes with the head of a goat, although apparently the original Templars' Baphomet had little in common with the pagan deity later worshipped by the Witches and their Covens. There is an association, far more ancient between Dionysus and the Goat. Dionysus often was portrayed both as Bull and Goat. Pan was depicted as part-human, part-goat as were the Satyrs. They were not evil but were simply spirits of the vegetation, of leaf and grain, of field and forest and in particular, of the grapevine. In ancient Canaan, there were servants of the gods in charge of the grapevines. I have to look up the passage in the old epic that deals with them.
