Religious visions have frequently taken place in the dark damp setting of caves and subterranean chambers making them attractive locations for shrines, chapels, pilgrimages and healing. One of the...
Deep in north central New Mexico is the sleepy little town of Dulce. Located on the Archuleta Mesa on the Colorado - New Mexico border, Dulce is home to about 3,000 residents and is the headquarters...
Son of night and darkness, and brother of the god of sleep, Thanatos was the personification of death in Greek mythology. Analyzing the scant stories in which he appears can help us understand the...
Shahmaran is the name given to a mythical creature found in the various cultures of the Middle East, in particular, those of the eastern Anatolian region of Turkey. According to the folklore of these...
Death always held great significance amongst the ancient cultures of the world. For many, death was a gateway into a new and different life in the underworld that was governed by the gods of death (...
Deep in the old-growth forests of Northwestern America lives a glorious gem of natural beauty. Crater Lake is renowned for its extreme depth, vibrant color, and crystal clarity. The towering cinders...
Few ancient cultures have captured the modern imagination like the Egyptian and Maya civilizations, with their elaborate belief structures. The author traces a remarkable resemblance between two dog-...
Who were Demeter and Persephone? And why did their myth resonate so strongly with women of ancient Greece? The story of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and her daughter Persephone, queen of the...
Doomed to forever roll a huge boulder up a steep hill, Sisyphus is a figure in Greek mythology who represents an impossible task. As his punishment in the Greek Underworld , each time Sisyphus neared...
In days of old, the dead were buried with a silver coin (the shiner the better) so that the souls of the faithful departed could pay the toll to the deathless demon ferryman of the underworld: Charon...
Ancient beliefs are often a complex puzzle and putting the pieces together can often be extremely challenging. Time has its way with unwritten traditions, and little of what wasn’t written down...
Hidden deep in the dark blue heart of the Pacific Ocean drifts the Hawaiian Archipelago. One of the youngest landmasses on the planet, made up of 137 volcanic islands covering an area of 1,500 miles...
The ancient Maya who populated the Yucatan Peninsula in the first millennium AD believed that there were three ways for the living to enter Xibalba, the world of the dead: through deep caves, through...
By far, Loki’s most well-known children are the ones he had with the giantess Angurboda. These include the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent Jormugandr, and the goddess Hel. Legends say that the...
The Column of Death is the name given to a pillar at the archaeological site of Mitla , in the southwestern Mexican state of Oaxaca . The column was named for a legendary ritual in which it appeared...
An astonishing discovery has been made on top of a mountain in Mexico. Archaeologists and locals have been exploring a site where previously unknown Zapotec ruins and carvings have been found. The...