July, 2025—Chris Friend

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Art by Chris Friend © 2024 |
In the pantheon
of Slavic
deities, Perun is the sky god and Veles rules the Underworld. And, as one might
assume, they are eternally in battle. The sun was believed to be the wife of
Perun, who kidnaps her every night, taking her down to his Underworld abode. In
the morning, she is delivered back into the arms of Perun. Another factor in
this rivalry was the belief that each felt the other stole their divine cattle.
In Slavic culture, cattle were sacred animals connected to water and rain. Perun
believed that Veles was also guilty of stealing the divine waters and taking
them down to the Underworld. Perun would have an obvious connection to rain,
being a sky god and a god of thunder. His life-giving rain would be fuel for
the crops and thus revered.
On a similar subject,
Zorya is the Slavic goddess who governs those threshold times of dusk and dawn.
She opens the doorway of morning and allows the sun to rise. Among some Slavic
tribes she is Danica, the sun's sister. In some versions, Zorya is the mother
of the sun. Zorya is sometimes known as the Dawn Maiden.

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Art by Chris Friend © 2024 |
In my research I frequently come upon references
for
the evil eye which seems to be a world-wide phenomenon and for me the best
example in classical mythology was the gorgon Medusa. Medusa and her two
sisters were very beautiful women who became cursed and turned into gruesome
monsters with snakes for hair. Medusa’s visage was so hideous that any mortal
who looked upon her would turn to stone. One finds a touch of sympathetic magic
with Medusa's image placed on the helmets and shields of Roman soldiers to
frighten their enemies, possibly freezing them with fear. When worn as an
amulet the image of Medusa was used as protection against the evil eye. The
terrifying image of Medusa would seem to be that of a nightmare and freeze
people with terror. Sometimes the other Greek goddess of the night, Hecate, was
described as having snakes for hair who would terrify anyone who beheld,
leaving them paralyzed with fear. According to one of the myths surrounding
Medusa was that the heron Perseus beheaded her and tossed her head into the
Mediterranean, where it could do no more harm. Pictures of squid that swim
there often resemble the severed head of Medusa and might be the spring board
for the mythical monster. And so it goes.
Chris Friend, mars_art_13@yahoo.com, of
Parkersberg, W.Va ,
who wrote BP #85’s poem, “Demons Play Flutes”; BP # 84’s poems, “The Sentinel”
and “Psalm of Mithra”; the BP #81 poem set, “Angel of the Bereft,” Beauty’s
Sleep,” & “Dark Trinity”; the BP #80 poem, “The Temple of Colors”; BP #79
poems, “The Marquis” and “My Bloody Valentine”; the BP #78 poem, “The Old Yule
Goat”; BP #77’s 4-poem set: “At 50,” “Owls,” “Vintage Halloween,” & “Xmas
in the Doll Asylum”; BP #76’s 4-poem set: “Hag Fairy Communion,” “Love’s
Sepulcher,” “Night Wanderer,” & “St. Andrew’s Feast”; 2 poems for BP #75,
“Angel of the Pagan Dead” and “Churchyard Watcher”; BP #72’s 2-poem set, “Ed
Gein” & “Sour Puss”; and the 2008 poem, “All Hallows’ Eve,” writes and
illustrates our “MARS News” column. He did a cover for Black Petals back in
2000 for the fall issue, and has been around ever since. BP keeps up two
websites for him and prints his column in the issue quarterly. Chris has a
gallery at http://chris.michaelherring.net/ and was featured artist in
Kurt Newton’s Ultimate PerVersities (Naked Snake) [Jan. 2011].
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