When someone says "papyrus," most people think of Egypt - specifically, ancient Egypt with papyrus plants growing along the banks of the Nile and being made into sheets of material to write on.
People don't often think of the Minoans in connection with papyrus. But papyrus appears in Minoan art more than you might think. And we're still not quite sure what it means.
Last week I looked at the top five blog posts of 2021, a couple of which surprised me. Then I decided I wanted to look back over the seven years (time flies!) that I've been writing this blog and see which posts have been most popular over the long term. In this case, four out of the top five surprised me - and one didn't. At all.
Herewith, the top five Minoan Path posts since I began this blog in 2014, from least popular to most popular. Have you read them all?
We often think of deities as being less tethered to the Earth than we are, so it only makes sense that many of them have winged creatures among their symbols and iconography.
I've written about birds in Minoan art before, but from a more general perspective, looking back toward the Minoans' ancestors in Neolithic Anatolia. But a lot happened after those people migrated down to Crete and began a new life there. So let's discover which birds - and other winged creatures - are associated with which deities in Modern Minoan Paganism.
I feel a little bit like an elementary school teacher: OK, everyone, we're going to learn to read Minoan art!
We're all a bit past elementary school, but learning to understand the iconography of any ancient culture is a big step toward understanding their religion and worldview. Iconography is the set of symbols (icons) that have meaning in religious art. They're pictures, but in a sense, we can "read" them and they'll tell us their story. Archaeologists and historians of religion have pieced together the basics, and we've fleshed it out just a bit more in MMP using dance ethnography and shared gnosis.
Over three years ago, I made a post here called The Evolution and Re-Interpretation of Symbols (or, The Coffee Tarot Leaves Me Cold). Click here to read that post.
Jamie
Mr. Posch,Thank you for neatly summarizing, as an occult practitioner who would know, the difference between wizards and warlocks in the modern sense....
Anthony Gresham
I remember reading a newspaper article about a witch bottle found at a civil war site. Apparently some Pennsylvania soldiers had made up a witch bott...
Anthony Gresham
I received an update from drivethrurpg about a supplement for the Runequest about a new book called "The Six Paths" about the six main genders in Heor...
Jamie
Mr. Posch,Yeah, hard pass on one scissor or one pant leg. Good point.We know that Christian conservatives get triggered by the whole pronoun thing any...
Jamie
Molly,That's beautiful. It would have been perfect inside your anniversary card for your husband! (If you do cards...we do.)And wow. A one-legged red-...