Compare And Contrast The Ancient Religious Perspective On Weather Death And Change

Nina Baggio

Dr. Wilson

ANT 322J

30 April 2023

Ancient Religious Perspectives on Weather, Death, and Change

Two Case Studies of the Divine Feminine as Destructive and Transformative

Introduction Across the world and throughout history, religion has played a key part in providing a sense of understanding of our existence and the universe (McGivern). For both mono and polytheistic religions, the concept of a deity is integral to communicating these ideas in a more intimate and less abstract manner (Frey and Levison). More specifically, however, is the creation of entities who directly control aspects of life that are beyond our reach, such as natural disasters, the loss of life, and traumatic events (Ember and Skoggard; Mondal). Although these

To aid with the intermediate stage of death before rebirth, Ọya escorts souls into the afterlife as she grants them their last dying breath, and she sentinels the boundaries between the deceased and the living (Onilu; Stanic). Accordingly, she is bestowed with the intuition of knowing whether someone is soon to pass, as well as whenever drastic change is required in someone’s life (Onilu). Ọya’s description as a “goddess of… transformation from one state of being to another” (Nicholson 56) encapsulates her explanatory function as an orisha: She was essentially formed to help ancient Nigerian peoples cope with the loss of loved ones and disasterous environmental events, such as West African tornadoes or tropical cyclones that have wreaked havoc on entire communities (Jackson;

Similar to the Yoruba, they viewed death as a mobile process with divine intervention (Cartwright), and their religion featured prominent animistic qualities in an attempt to demystify their distinctive phenomena, such as the cold temperatures and sometimes treacherous geography (Ledwith 298). Out of this religious viewpoint arose an idiosyncratic figure of their own, an old woman named the Cailleach (O’Connor; Van der Hoeven).

This goddess parallels some of the same powers as Ọya in that she also controls the weather and presides over the life cycle, but she differs in her environmental jursidiction and is the opposite of Ọya in her appearance (Crualaoich 156; Lockett; Shaw). Cailleach, whose title doubly translates to “old hag” and “Veiled One” in Old Gaelic (Wylie), is depicted as an elderly crone with deep blue skin and red teeth who predominantly determines the length and severity of the winter months (O’Connor). Her typical apparatus includes a large hammer to unleash “powerful and cleansing storms” (Shaw), and she keeps large rocks in her dress apron to throw upon the ground as stepping stones during her travels that later form into geological landmarks throughout the area (Crualaoich; O’Connor). Due to her striking appearance, harsh personality, and destructive capabilities, the Cailleach