The Winter Maker & the Spider
The deeper symbolism behind Halloween
In my book Orion’s Door, I weave together various strands of esoteric knowledge and symbolism significant to the connection between Orion and Saturn worship.
The blog below is a sample of research material taken from the book
The Ojibwa (Chippewa) Native Americans call the Orion constellation, ‘Kabibona’kan’, which means the ‘Winter Maker’, as its presence in the night sky heralds the coming of winter. Orion is the marker for the coming of the ‘time of death’ in nature and the eventual arrival of the new sun (new year). He is the ‘Year Maker’, and from late summer through to the Beltane (May Day), Orion dominates the sky above the horizon, along with Aldebaran, the Pleiades, Polaris and Ursa Major. Earth’s Pagan festivals marked by the passage of the Sun and the Moon combined, give us the equinoxes and solstices; but the constellations, especially Orion, seem to provide a ‘backdrop’ for some of the most important rituals (festivals) on Earth.
Orion leaves our night skies during the late spring months of May and into June. While out of sight, Orion is said to be in the Underworld. Orion’s passage through autumn into the heart of winter, and the symbols, festivals and other planetary bodies connected to the star man, not least through a collection of archetypes related to Gnostic hermetic mysticism, astrology, and symbols associated with the trickster, or the ‘fool’.
Tripartite (triangle) symbolism, the number three (see the points on the hat of the medieval court jester) and the tripartite goddess connects to the notion of doors (gateways) into darker days (or the Underworld) and the nocturnal aspects of Orion. Hecate, was one of the principal deities worshipped in Athenian households as a protective goddess who bestowed prosperity and daily blessings on the family. The ancient Greeks honoured Hecate (or Hekate) during the ‘Deipnon’ – the evening meal, especially on a new moon, but generally, she was a ‘nocturnal’ doorkeeper goddess (see figure below).
Hecate is sometimes associated with the cypress, a tree that is symbolic of death and the Underworld – sacred to a number of chthonic (under the earth) deities, not least the spider. The ‘Day of Hecate’, or ‘Soteira Nocturnal’, is the Winter Solstice (21st December) and ritual sacrifice was (and still is) a common practice at the solstices and equinoxes in many ‘underworld cults’, not least the Orion-Saturn Cult I highlight in the book. In Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate’s Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature (1990), Sarah Johnston provides the chief attributes of this goddess. She writes:
Hekate was present whenever souls crossed the boundaries between life and death… In her role as the goddess of the crossroads Hekate’s control over passage of liminal points also included opening and shutting the gates of Hades.1
Beckoning Darkness & the coming Winter 'Door'
Around 160 AD, the alchemists (or theurgist), authors of the Chaldean Oracles, linked Hecate to the Cosmic Soul in Plato’s Timaeus, whose form was also a celestial ‘X’ (there is a whole chapter dedicated to the ‘X’ symbol in Orion’s Door). The point here is that Hecate, as the ‘triple’ goddess, whether we see her as a personification of the moon, or the torch carrier at the gates of Hades, is the goddess of the ‘darkness’. Hesiod, the Greek poet (750 and 650 BC), one of the authors credited with Homer for establishing Greek religious customs, described Hecate as a ‘primal cosmic force, one that can be called upon when worlds cross’. Like the ‘Three Norns’, or the ‘Three Weird’ (Wyrd) Sisters found in Runic magic, all can be ‘drawn down’ at important dates on the pagan wheel at the equinoxes and solstices. Hecate’s wheel symbolism also relates to the ‘core star’, or ‘soul’, said to be at the centre, interacting with what the Gnostics called the ‘fire serpent’ and primordial energy that creates us. What I see with Hecate’s wheel is a ‘celestial compass’, tuned to the stars (especially Orion) and the moon in the darker days of the year.
The winter triangle formed between the stars of Orion (Betelgeuse) and Sirius (Procyon) form another doorway, which is part of two prominent winter asterisms: the ‘Winter Triangle’ and the ‘Winter Hexagon’. The other two stars forming the Winter Triangle, also known as the ‘Great Southern Triangle’, are Sirius and Procyon, which are the brightest stars in the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor, respectively (see figure below). The configuration is another version of the tripartite symbols associated with darker days.
Writing in his book, Stellar Magic (2009), Payam Nabarz mentions the moon goddess (Hecate) in myths associated with Sirius and the Winter Triangle:
The star Sirius or the Dog Star is part of the constellation Canis Major (Great Dog), in Greek myths he was seen as Orion’s hunting dog. After the death of Orion, Diana placed Orion’s dog in the sky at his heel to help with the stellar hunt. The star Sirius is part of the winter triangle; the two other points of the triangle are the star Betelgeuse in Orion and the star Procyon in Canis Minor. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, can be located in the night sky by following an imaginary line from the three stars of Orion’s belt to the left and down. The star Sirius is one of the oldest constellations described by man; the Fire Star is one of the stars in the Babylonian A Prayer to Gods of the Night (circa 1700 BC).2
Canis Major and Canis Minor are the ‘hunting dogs of Orion’ and with Betelgeuse (the reddish star), they are all symbolic of the royal hunt (see fox hunting) in the UK (especially in autumn and early winter when ‘darker days’ draw to us).
Lenaea of the Wild Hunt
Like Orion and Artemis, ‘Lenaia’ (Lenaea) heralded the hunting season, which is predominantly through the autumn leading up to Samhain or Halloween (Hallowe’en). Samhain is a major point on Hecate’s wheel, along with Kali and the Darker aspects of the Goddess. The end of October focuses our attention at the time of the ancestors, when the curtain between the dead and the living opens. As a goddess of the door, Hecate was also known as ‘Arianrhod’, ‘Catherine’ and ‘Persephone’ in other cultures and myths, as she ushers in the winter festival of ‘Lenaea’ and the time of the wild hunts. The wild hunt, popular in ancient Greece, was also akin to celebrating ‘dark forces’ that would run amok from their point of entry into our world at Samhain (Hallowe’en) through to mid-December or Saturnalia. The forces hunting were said to be ‘otherworldly’, captured brilliantly in Peter Nicolai Arbo’s painting, Asgårdsreien (The Wild Hunt of Odin) 1872 and by the German painter, Friedrich Wilhelm Heine, in his drawing, ‘Wodan’s Wild Hunt’ (1882), see figure below.
The mantra of Halloween and Christmas in their modern guise, along with imagery connected to other calendar dates, serve as a ‘channel’ for otherworldy forces that feed off our collective energy, primarily through the darker nights as we head towards the birth of the new son (sun), or year. It’s as if a door is opened at the autumn equinox and as daytime gradually gets shorter, with an increase in darkness, we become more susceptible to sublime forces appearing in the visible world. Archetypes are at work in the collective mind, too, and at the time when the veil is thin (from Halloween onwards), we find ourselves starting to go inward.
The Renewal Twins
In Christian symbolism, John the Baptist was said to be born six months before Jesus Christ, and both figures astrologically mark Orion’s arrival in the sky, along with the dog days of the Sothic Sirius calendar. They are the ‘Oak’ and ‘Holly Kings’ or ‘twin sun kings’ whose coronations coincide with the summer and winter solstices – 21st June and 21st December. In Pagan worship, they are also the ‘Green Man’ figure entwined with the goddess forming part of these coronations throughout the solar year, which is why Green Man symbols can be found all over Christian churches and cathedrals (see figure below). The hairy woodwose figures, found in iconography and art from ancient Sumeria to 14th Century Christian literature, are also connected to the Oak and Holly Kings (June and December Solstices).
The bear and woodwose, often depicted in art, are symbols for the ‘Children of Hermes’, the original magicians and angelic humans. A house in Thiers (Puy-de-Dôme), France, shows an effigy of a bear-man (a woodwose) with the head of a Fool on his staff (see figure below). The 15th Century place is called the ‘House of the Man of the Woods’. The Fool, of course, is a link to Orion, or Kesil (below right); similar sculptures can be found on numerous Christian cathedrals, all of which seem based on the man of the woods – or the children of the bear. John the Baptist (middle) was often depicted as ‘hairy’ in canonic art due to the ‘Hermes’ and pagan connection.
Whether pagan or Christian, the twin sun king (Jesus and John) reigns over the solstices in a perpetual cycle of life, death and rebirth. According to the biblical story, John loses his head, symbolic of the pumpkin (skull) at Halloween, of which some scholars speculate was in the month of ‘Tishre’ (October), sometime after Yom Kippur. Just as the leader of the ‘Sun and Fire’ clans, Pahana, of the Orion worshipping Hopi, also has his head removed on their ancient tablets. The Orion worshipping Hopi deity, Masau’u, was also said to carry a pumpkin-like mask (or head) and a sack of seeds (stars) and all of the symbolism relates to Orion’s appearance in the form of Masau’u between the summer solstice and winter solstice every year.
The twin symbols of the ‘skull and the crucifix’ also represent two prominent dates on the Christian calendar, especially in America – Halloween and Easter. And both festivities have a common denominator, which is ‘death’ and ‘renewal’ represented by the solar king guided by Orion’s passage across the skies.
Light and Darkness at Hallowe’en
The ‘dark side’ is exactly what we are looking at with Halloween and the days leading up to it. The symbolism relates to death, and sometimes the opposite, ‘the god of Life’ (from the light half to the dark half of the year). The imagery associated with the skull (the Halloween pumpkin-head), the scorpion and the ‘Day of the Dead’ was, and still is, a prominent symbol for the cults who focus on death.
As Stephen Arroyo writes in his book, Astrology Karma & Transformation: The Inner Dimensions of the Birth Chart (1992):
The Scorpio period of the year (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) is the time when the life force withdraws from all outer forms in nature and is concentrated in the seed. It is striking that the cultural symbol for this time of the year in the United States is the Halloween pumpkin with its insides removed, leaving only an empty shell with a blankly staring face. In fact, the Jack-o’-lantern is a symbol of death, a symbolic skull with the glimmering remains of the departed life-force represented by the candle within.3
The scorpion (or spider) is an important symbol, too, not only because it represents the astrological period of Scorpio (October – November), but it sits opposite to Taurus (Orion) on the wheel and therefore creates the duality of light and dark. Orion’s death in Greek myth is from the sting of the scorpion (spider). The skull (a symbol of death) is still used as an image at festivals from Halloween through to Christmas, or what was called Saturnalia.
The Trickster Star Gods
In Greek myth, the Minotaur and Ariadne are aspects of the Underworld and associated with Dionysus, another Christ-Orion figure. It was Ariadne, according to Greek myth, that created the Labyrinth to hold the horned Minotaur. In fact, the giant spider-scorpion and the Minotaur are symbolic of nefarious forces opposing Orion in Taurus. It is also interesting to note that in Lakota myth, there is a giant spider called ‘Iktomi’ who is a trickster spirit, and a culture hero for the Teton Sioux Lakota people. Alternate names for Iktomi include Ikto, Ictinike, Inktomi, Unktome, and Unktomi and according to numerous North American plains tribes, Iktomi represents a star deity. I would suggest Iktomi is connected to nefarious forces originating from Orion’s star, Betelgeuse, just as are the Koshari clowns in Lakota belief (see the movie Beetlejuice)
On another level, Lakota mythology itself is a ‘living belief system’ and the spider, Iktomi, represented a ‘living (alien) consciousness’ that would spread its web all over the land. Today, this has been interpreted by some contemporary Native Americans to be the telecommunications network, the Internet, or the World Wide Web. Some Lakota see the spirit of Iktomi as the patron of ‘new technology’, from the invention of language, to today’s modern cyber world of the computer, robots and I would add ‘artificial intelligence’. I would suggest that the ‘spider’ is a prominent image that could relate to an extraterrestrial intelligence that has hacked into our minds. The themes in so many science-fiction movies, not least The Matrix movies seem to suggest such a phenomenon (below).
Nefarious extraterrestrials? A huge ‘subjective’ topic I explore in the book.
If people wish to make a change (internally) and want to really ‘vibrate’ to a ‘higher level’, and go beyond the religious symbolism and materialism connected to Halloween and later Saturnalia, we have to ‘come away from the ‘same old rituals’, programmes and polarised views that are tucked away within all of the ‘razzamatazz’. Symbols, icons, stories and legends are more powerful than we can imagine. We are still in ancient Rome (and Egypt) in so many ways; these rituals and festivals have been with us since then and linger still. I would prefer to focus on ‘introspection’ at this time of year (which is hard I know) but whatever you do, make sure you can get out of the ‘Orion-Saturn vibe’, even if it’s just for an hour or two, to contemplate the ‘bigger picture’ beyond the hold of Halloween as we venture into the darker half of the year.
Neil
NOTES
1) Hekate Soteira. A Study of Hekate’s Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature (1990), & Sarah Johnston (Oxford University Press; 1 edition (May 1, 1990) Johnston, 1990, p150
2) Payam Nabarz is the author of numerous books on mythology and magic, including The Square and The Circle (2016), and Anahita (2012).
3) Stephen Arroyo writes in his book, Astrology Karma & Transformation: The Inner Dimensions of the Birth Chart. CRCS Publications, 1992, p59
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