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Post by King Kodiak on Jun 9, 2020 13:54:45 GMT -5
Am so glad that even black bears represent something. Had no idea about this. Awesome.
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Jun 10, 2020 10:55:58 GMT -5
Look at what the polar bear represents.
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Jun 10, 2020 10:57:05 GMT -5
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Jun 10, 2020 11:00:09 GMT -5
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Jun 10, 2020 11:00:48 GMT -5
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Post by brobear on Jun 10, 2020 13:16:38 GMT -5
TheGreenArtos - four posts: no online addesss or story origin. This I assume: www.theastrologyweb.com/ One post might have been sufficient.
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Jun 10, 2020 17:39:36 GMT -5
TheGreenArtos - four posts: no online addesss or story origin. This I assume: www.theastrologyweb.com/ One post might have been sufficient. I will remember to post the online address in the future.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2020 2:51:32 GMT -5
I found this long yet fascinating read on grizzly bear shamanism of pacific slope cultures of North America it deals with a number of topics and concepts such as bear spirits and bear sickness as well as grizzly bear related magic. ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/9943I also have another link that briefly mentions the topic of bear dreaming society’s and the ancient petroglyphs left by them in the state of Colorado once home to brown bears. It has some really cool photos of shamanistic bear related imagery. www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/uploads/Getinvolved_RAC_nearyou_Colorado_Northwest_rockart.pdfAll three species of bears found in North America played a huge role in aboriginal cultures be it economically or spiritually. And again would also love to invite anyone to my Facebook group the link in my profile here who would be able to share what they know about bears. ( deleted member is makwa )
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Post by King Kodiak on Jun 14, 2020 22:56:08 GMT -5
IT LOOKS LIKE THE ANDEAN BEAR WAS ALSO WORSHIPPED:
A god forsaken: The sacred bear in Andean iconography and cosmology
Bears are all but invisible in Andean iconography, and consequently are considered unimportant in pre-Columbian cosmology. This assumption is re-examined in the context of present-day Andean culture in which bears are highly salient characters in stories, ritual and performance. Indeed, Qoyllur Rit'i, the largest native pilgrimage in the Americas, has a bear as its main protagonist. Refuting a presumed colonial Spanish origin for bear imagery in contemporary Andean culture, a pre-Columbian origin is proposed in El Lanzón, the principal deity at the Formative Horizon's highly influential cult centre of Chavín de Huantar. Here, we present ethnographic, ethnohistoric and archaeological data to propose a significant place for the bear in Andean cosmology.
Full report here:
www.researchgate.net/publication/238400109_A_god_forsaken_The_sacred_bear_in_Andean_iconography_and_cosmology
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Jun 24, 2020 0:54:37 GMT -5
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Post by brobear on Sept 27, 2020 3:54:38 GMT -5
news.mongabay.com/2020/09/the-vanishing-trails-of-sri-lankas-sloth-bears-commentary/ Unkind folk tales Folklore and legend, too, have been unkind to the sloth bear, for it stands demonized. While other animals have been connected with benign deities and spirits, not so the sloth bear. The elephant is associated with Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god of wisdom, the peacock with Lord Skanda, the cobra with the mythical Nagas, and many others are looked upon benignly as creatures of the Pansiya Panas Jathaka or the 550 reincarnations of Siddhartha, in his quest for Buddhahood. The sloth bear, however, is linked to “the evil lord of the burial spaces,” the dreaded Mahasona, who sports a gaping bear’s head fixed “back to front” and walks the jungle paths at night searching for human prey, bringing pestilence, disease and death to terror- stricken villagers in the remote corners. There is also the legend that two giant warriors of the fabled King Dutugemunu, Gotaimbara and Ritigala Jayasena, who came into conflict and fought for several hours, both being exponents of martial arts. Gotaimbara finally leapt into the air, dealing a flying kick that shattered the head of Jayasena, whose lifeless body fell to the ground. Lord Saturn, passing that way, came upon the wife of Jayasena, weeping disconsolately by the dead body of her lord, and felt a deep pity. Making an astrological calculation, he found that Jayasena could be brought back to life if the first head found in the auspicious direction were cut off and fixed on the dead body. This had to be done before the auspicious hour expired. Lord Saturn hastened in the prescribed direction, but found no human head, and time was fast running out when he came across a sloth bear whose head he cut off. Rushing back, with the last few seconds running out, he fixed the head onto the body, bringing life to it. But in his great haste, he had put the head on backward. Springing back to life, Jayasena, realizing the hideous transformation he had undergone, ran away with bloodcurdling screams to hide in the cemeteries, away from humans, devouring the corpses brought there and to forever seek vengeance from humans. Little wonder, then, that the sloth bear is looked upon as “the devil incarnate” by the superstitious!
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Sept 27, 2020 7:27:22 GMT -5
/\ No wonder the sloth bear has been misunderstood.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 1, 2020 2:46:19 GMT -5
ENGRAVED BEAR SKULL:
" Shown here is the skull of a bear, an animal revered for its strength and ferociousness"
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Post by brobear on Nov 1, 2020 3:18:28 GMT -5
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Post by brobear on Nov 10, 2020 14:13:35 GMT -5
Atalanta and the bear who raised her
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Nov 15, 2020 3:28:16 GMT -5
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Post by brobear on Dec 12, 2020 10:19:40 GMT -5
Reply #111 continued: The rite of the Orochons connected with the head of the killed bear is full of deep pagan symbolism: Evenks believe that the soul of the killed bear does not die, but remains in the forest for some time, after which it moves to another bear, and thus the delicate natural balance is not violated." "The attitude of Buryats to the bear is also interesting. Buryat language has two ways of designating a bear: babagai and guroohen. The first word is a combination of words - baabai (father, ancestor, forefather) and abgai (elder sister, elder brother’s wife, elder brother). It is known that when Buryats were talking about a bear or were just mentioning the animal in a conversation, they often gave it family names: a mighty uncle dressed in a fur-coat; a grandfather in a fur-coat; a mother or a father... By the way, the word babagai is a general definition of all living and deceased older relatives. So it is very symbolic that the bear is called exactly in the same way. A similar respectful names and perception of the bear as a close relative is characteristic not only of Buryats. For example, Khakasses called the bear aba, ada, aga, apchakh, abai, which also meant a father, a mother, an elder brother, ab uncle and other terms denoting close relations. The second name of the bear in the Buryat language is guroohen. This is already a more “zoological” word. Depending on the species, the bear was called khara guroohen (a brown or black bear) or sagaan guroohen (a polar bear). Probably, this bear’s name was derived from the general term “an guurol” meaning “wild animals”." "Buryat shamans considered the bear itself to be a shaman, morover, the strongest shaman of all. Buryat language has the following expression: “Khara guroohen boodoo elyuutei”, which translates as “The bear is higher that the flight of the shaman”. Buryat shamans often used fir bark in their practices; the bark had to be taken from a tree scratched by a bear. Such trees were usually called “baabgain ongolhon modon” – “a tree consecrated by the bear”. "The Buryat folk calendar contains direct associations and similarities connected with the image of the bear. For example, one of the winter months in the calendar of the Khori Buryats is called “Burgan” and an “ekhe Burgan”, which literally means “a big male bear” in the Alar dialect. One more evidence of the sacredness of the bear’s image in the traditional culture of Buryats is the oath with the use of the bear’s skin. Such an oath is usually given alongside with eating or biting a piece of the bear's skin and is considered the most binding and having the most terrible consequences." "Besides, since ancient times, the bear has been one of the most popular characters of folk games of Buryats. A description of the bear games is found in the notes of travelers who visited Buryat uluses. For example, A. Potanina wrote about this folk leisure: “Here people try to correctly imitate all the movements of this powerful animal as strongly as possible. The person who imitates a bear shows the animal’s strong jaws and teeth. That person tries to take different things with the teeth and carry them to one place, thus the bear puts all people present at the game to that place. To keep the game going, everyone grabbed by the bear’s teeth should show no more signs of life and obey, no matter where the imaginary bear wants to put a person”." Well, that was actually all the text, not too long I hope. From this article: 1baikal.ru/en/istoriya/khozyain-taygi-kult-medvedya-u-sibirskikh-korennykh-narodov
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Post by brobear on Dec 15, 2020 11:53:27 GMT -5
wildfact.com/forum/topic-russian-brown-bears?pid=135503#pid135503 By Shadow... This is one very interesting article concerning bear mythology in North-East Asia and also a bit other places opening up the status bear has in the boreal zone of the globe. Since mostly these areas are in Russia I put this here. Interesting things also concerning Korea, Northeast China (Manchuria) and Hokkaido etc. Article of professor Juha Janhunen, University of Helsinki TRACING THE BEAR MYTH IN NORTHEAST ASIA ”All over the northern boreal zone of the globe, the bear is widely respected as the Lord of the Animals, which in some important respects differs from all other wild beasts. ” ”THE BEAR CULT The mythological role of the bear is manifested in the complexity of beliefs and practices known as the Circumpolar Bear Cult which has been occasionally traced back to the Palaeolithic hunting societies of the latest glacial period.6 In the Bear Cult, the bear is elevated to the status of a supernatural being which, when treated properly, will grant success to the human community. The Bear Cult may be understood as a conceptual complex aimed at controlling the bear, and, through the bear, the resources of wild game in the boreal environment. This is congruent with the bear’s status as the “Lord of the Animals,” for the bear is thought to have the ability to send not only other bears, but also other species of game to the hunter. ” ”Spevakovsky reports the following taboo from the present-day Ewen reindeer herders in Northeast Siberia: “Recent wolf’s or bear’s footprints or their excrement might influence one’s psychological condition. It is forbidden to talk about them, particularly in a negative way, since it is said that the spirits of these animals, especially the bear’s, understand the human language and might take revenge, by killing domesticated reindeer” (Alexander Spevakovsky, “Rational Role of the Religious World View in the Tundra and Forest-Tundra Zones: A Case of the Even Reindeer Herders,” Proceedings of the 9th International Abashiri Symposium / Dai 9 kai Hoppou Minzoku Bunka Shimpojiumu Houkoku (Abashiri, 1995), p. 93). ” ”Obviously, in the Bear Festival the bear is neither a beast nor a human, but a god. It may be noted that no other beast, not even the tiger, is revered in this way in the boreal zone.11 Moreover, in dualistic systems involving the cult of two animals, the bear is always there, while the other animal may vary from tiger to elk to whale.12 ” THE BEAR GOD ”From the tales featuring a marriage between a woman and a bear it is evident that there are actually two kinds of bear. On the one hand, there are the ordinary bears, which can be hunted and killed and which form a renewable resource of the boreal environment. On the other hand, there is the Prototypical Bear, which is represented either directly by the bear husband of the human female, as in the Udeghe tale (4), or by his father, as in the Ainu tale (3). In either case, the hunter has a personal (in-law) relationship with the Prototypical Bear. There are many indications that the Prototypical Bear has supernatural powers, which make it equal to a god. For this reason, it can die only symbolically, only to resurrect later.23 The following Amur Ghilyak tale (5) suggests that the Prototypical Bear is, in fact, the Sky-God. In this tale, the hero’s elder sister ascends to Heaven to marry the Sky-God. Although it is not expressly mentioned, both the Sky-God and the sister are bears, and both of them are ultimately killed by the hero: ” ”On the basis of the presented folkloric material (1-8), the elements of the boreal bear myth may be summarized as follows: The bear is the Lord of the Animals and a male deity, who has the power of regulating the resources of the forest. In order to secure his share of the resources, the human hunter has to establish a relationship with the bear. Since the hunter is typically a man, the relationship is established through his elder sister, who marries the bear and is transformed into a bear herself. In order to approach the bear, the sister has to assume the role of shaman ” ”The tradition concerning the marriage of a woman with a bear, and the birth of bear cubs from this union, is also surprisingly widespread in the boreal zone, extending from Western and Northern Europe to Sakhalin and Hokkaido, and further to North America.35 Even relatively minor details, such as the taboo forbidding women to eat the fore parts of a bear, are attested in an identical form in regions as distant as Lapland and the Amur basin.36 ” ”The Bear Festival is a more clearly localizable phenomenon. Although the ritual killing and eating of the bear is common throughout the Eurasian boreal zone, the Bear Festival seems to be attested as a major ritual in only three relatively restricted regions: among the Finns and Sami of Fennoscandia (Finland and Lapland), among the Ob-Ugrians, Selkup, and Ket of Western Siberia (the Ob-Yenisei region), and among the Amur Tungus, Ghilyak, and Ainu of Eastern Manchuria and Northern Japan (the Amur basin, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido).3 ” ”It is therefore perhaps not a coincidence that female shamans are, indeed, conspicuously common in the Manchurian region, broadly defined, the very same region where the bear myth is also particularly prominent. Most importantly, female shamans predominate in both Korean and Japanese shamanism. The Korean female shaman (mudang) does have a male counterpart (baksu), but the spheres of the two tend to differ and the vast majority of all Korean shamans are females.43 In Japan, all shamans (itako) are females.44 The same seems to be true of the Hokkaido Ainu shamans (tusukur), while among the Sakhalin Ainu and Ghilyak, as well as among all the other Manchurian and Siberian populations, there are also male shamans.45 Even so, some particularly famous shamanic figures, such as the Nishan Shaman of the Manchu, are specifically women.46” ”It may be presumed that the female shamanism of Ancient China was already distanced from the simple context of hunting rites. The Chinese Bear Cult, with the female shaman as the main medium, must have involved an elaborate ritual drama in which it was no longer the primitive hunter, but the earthly ruler – king or prince – who sought a contact with the Sky-God, who may or may not have been conceptualized as the Prototypical Bear. Through the female shaman, clad as a bear, the ruler was able to get the help of celestial powers. Unfortunately, in the absence of preserved documentation, the exact structure of this drama and its position in the Ancient Chinese society remain unknown.55 To a considerable extent, the Chinese shamanistic traditions were distorted by the framework of Taoism.56 ” ”Similarly, the institutionalized Bear Cult of the Amur-Sakhalin region, though supported by a rich folkloric tradition of bears and females, is no longer specifically connected with the institution of female shamanism. However, it is important to note that the institutionalized Bear Cult in this region, like its counterpart in Ancient China, is also rather distant from the rituals of the boreal hunters. The economy of the ethnic groups today embraced by the institutionalized Bear Cult is by no means dominated by hunting. Rather, it involves a complicated combination of hunting, fishing, gathering, and small-scale agriculture, including the rearing of domestic animals. The elaborate Bear Festival documented from the region should therefore also be seen as a “refined” form of a spiritual tradition that has lost its original concrete connection with the boreal subsistence economy. ” *Some quotes above, but to get overall picture read whole article: src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/publictn/acta/20/asi20-001-janhunen.pdf
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Post by brobear on Dec 16, 2020 18:07:46 GMT -5
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Dec 25, 2020 6:22:15 GMT -5
Kesagake-a gigantic brown bear,the most brutal bear attack in Japan history.The human meat causing Kesagake addicted into it The most dangerous wild animal in Japan is usually considered to be the Japanese Giant Hornet, which kills 40 people a year, on average.The most brutal bear attack in history took place in the village of Sankebetsu, Hokkaido, in 1915. At the time, Sankebetsu was a pioneer village, with very few people living in a largely wild area. The area was inhabited by brown bears, including a gigantic male known as Kesagake. Kesagake used to visit Sankebetsu to feed on harvested corn; having became a nuisance, he was shot by two villagers and fled to the mountains, injured. The villagers believed that, after being shot, the bear would learn to fear humans and stay away from the crops. They were wrong. On December 9 of 1915, Kesagake showed up again. He entered the house of the Ota family, where the farmer’s wife was alone with a baby she was caring for. The bear attacked the baby, killing him, then went for the woman. She tried to defend herself by throwing firewood at the beast, but was eventually dragged to the forest by the bear. When people arrived to the, now empty, house, they found the floor and walls covered on blood. Thirty men went to the forest, determined to kill the bear and recover the unfortunate woman’s remains. They found Kesagake and shot him again, but failed to kill him. The animal fled and they found the woman’s partially eaten body buried under the snow, where the bear had stored it for later consumption. The bear later returned to the Ota family’s farm, and armed guards were sent after him. But this left another village house unprotected, and Kesagake took advantage of this, attacking the Miyoke family’s home and mauling everyone inside. Although some of the people managed to escape, two children were killed and so was a pregnant woman, who, according to surviving witnesses, begged for her unborn baby’s life as the huge bear advanced. Of course, it was all in vain; Kesagake killed her, too. When the guards realized their mistake and returned to the Miyoke house, they found the bodies of the two children, the woman and her unborn fetus all laying in the blood covered floor. In only two days, Kesagake had killed six people. The villagers were terrified and most of the guards abandoned their posts out of fear. A famed bear hunter was informed of the incidents, and he identified the bear as being Kesagake and informed that the bear had actually killed before the Sankebetsu attacks. At first he refused to participate in the hunt but eventually he joined the group and on December 14, he was the one to finally kill Kesagake. The bear was almost three meters tall and weighed 380 kgs. Human remains were found in his stomach. The horrible incidents didn’t end there; some of the people who had survived the attacks died of their wounds. One of the survivors drowned in a river. The region was soon abandoned by villagers and became a ghost town. Even today, the Sankebetsu incident remains the worst animal attack in the history of Japan, and one of the most brutal of recorded history. Sankebetsu was soon abandoned by villagers and became a ghost town storiesmh.blogspot.com/2011/12/kesagake-gigantic-brown-bearthe-most.html
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