D: Dardanus to Dzilke 95
early struggle with native Shinto traditionalists, when the annual date of its
celebration was probably shifted to the middle of the seventh lunar month, around
August 14. A similar “day of the dead” festival is still conducted on the island of
Taiwan, and, until the Communist revolution, in China, where it was known as the
Feast of Lanterns. Another Japanese ceremony of the dead does indeed take
place from the last week of October to the first days of November. This is the
Tsunokiri, or ritual “Antler-Cutting” at the Kasuga Taisha shrine, near Nara. The
sacred bucks are lassoed by a priest, who carefully saws off their antlers; they
signify life, due to their regenerating velvet. Deer also symbolize the sun, so
cutting their antlers implies the sun’s loss of power—darkness.
The Assyrians conducted elaborate rituals on behalf of the dead during
Arahsamna, their month that included the end of October and the beginning
of November. It was then, they believed, that the sun-god and the god of the
Pleiades entered the land of the dead to rule.
The ancient Persian New Year began after November 1, and was known as
Mordad, a month sacred to the Angel of Death. Mordad derived from the earlier
Marduk of the Babylonians. They revered him as “the Lord of the Deep,” who
caused the Great Flood, and November belonged to him. It is reported in the Old
Testament (Genesis, Chapters 7 and 8) that the World Deluge began on the 17th
day of the second month, concluding on the 27th day of the second month the
following year. In the ancient Hebrew calendar, the Second Month was known as
Cheshvan, and equivalent to the end of our October and the start of November.
Both the 17th and 27th days occur in early November. Non-biblical Jewish tradition
relates that Noah regarded the appearance of the Pleiades at dawn—identically
to the Aztec Atemoztli cited previously—of the 17th of Cheshvan, as an omen
signifying the onset of the flood.
The Roman Catholic “All Souls’ Day” is set aside for special prayers on
behalf of the dead, and takes place every November 2. It was officially adopted in
998 by Odilo, the Abbot of Cluny. He supposedly decided to institute All Souls’
Day after having learned about an island where the lamentations of the dead could
still be heard. The inclusion of this island is a discernable mythic reference to
Atlantis. The Egyptian version of the Deluge happened during Aethyr, a name
associated with the Greek Alkyone, one of the Pleiades, because the month was
regarded in the Nile Valley as “the shining season of the Pleiades.” Aethyr, like
the Assyrian Arashamna, corresponded to late October/early November. The name
has several revealing connotations in Egyptian myth, proving its significance over
a long period of time. The story of Osiris tells of the man-god who, through the
mysteries of Isis, his wife, achieved new life. He was locked inside a coffin that was
thrown into the sea on the 17th day of Aethyr, our November 2.
It was henceforth known as a day of death and rebirth. Aethyr is a variant of
Hathor. The sun-god, angry with mankind, commanded Hathor to punish Earth’s
inhabitants. Her obedient onslaught was catastrophic, so much so, the other gods,
fearing all humanity would perish, unloosed a worldwide deluge of beer. Drinking it
up, she became too intoxicated to complete her genocidal task. Her great festival in