The Land of Saturn The Ancient Italic Cults by Vira Saturnio - Lodge Sothis Translation note: because of the problems with the translation of specific terms, many of the names of cities and populations are in the original Italian or Latin.

A brief historical introduction

With the term "italic" we mean generally the populations of ancient Italy, before the raising of Rome, called also the pre-roman tribes. Italy was interested, as Europe, by an original population developed on the land itself, and by several indoeuropean invasions: this will fix some cultural connections expecially with the greeks and with the germans. The situation during the late bronze age (XIII - X century B.C.) sees in Italy the influence of the micean civilization as the one of the anatolian tribes. This will set the difference of the population in the proto-historical period (X - VIII century B.C., or first Iron Age) between the pure italic-indoeuropean tribes and the proto-etruscan tribes. Large importance had the villanovian civilization, developed in north-central Italy, expecially because of its knowledge of metallurgy. Practically, the historical tribes or populations in Italy are based upon an original population, a first phase of invasion, based upon the first indoeuropean tribes, or the pelasgic (from the last studies they seems indoeuropeans), and a second indoeuropean phase, plus of course the strong greek influence in the south Italy. Also, we have egyptian inscription of the XVIII dinasty in which are described the Sea populations, of which some came, to the Egyptians, from Italy: the Shardanas, which are settled in Sardinia, and the Thurshas, which are Anatolians and seem to be the original etruscan origin.

We can speak of an assessed historical period from the VIII cen. B.C., and it's possible to describe a political situation of the entire territory: the western part of the north is occupied by the Celtic tribe of the Ligurians, while the eastern one by the Venetians, a mix of aboriginals, indoeuropeans and danubians. The north-central, actually the Tuscany and the northern part of Latium, is the etruscan territory. The pure indoeuropeans are on the western coast with the Piceni, and in the central part the Umbrians. Around the future Rome are settled the indoeuropean tribes of the Sabines, Latins, and on the south the Samnites, arriving to the actual Naples, also with the Oscans. In the south the greatest part of the land in greek hands, except Sardinia in which the Shardana originated the mysterious Nuragic civilization (some theorizes it can be Atlantis). These are the major ethnic groups, from which we will analyze both the indoeuropean cults and the etruscan ones, and finally how they influenced the roman cults and religion.

What we know actually about preroman religions came directly from the archaeological data and indirectly from the archaic roman traditions, expecially exposed by contemporary history of religions. Many of the indoeuropean cults like the ones of the Latins and of the Sabines contributed to the creation of the roman religion during the monarchic period and the first republican period. About the etruscan unfortunately we have not written data (I mean we have, but we cannot read them), at least of enough importance, but we have several examples of funerary data which can help us discovering their dark practice.

Saturnus and Janus

As it's obvious by the title of this writing, Italy is renown as the Land of Saturnus, or Saturnia. This is assessed both by roman legends and myth, and by greek myths, expecially by Esiodus, who wrote that Saturn, or Chronos, after he had lost the throne, overthrown by his son Zeus, escaped in Latium, or the territory around the future Rome. Here, as the roman myths report, he was guest of Janus, the god of two faces, and they reigned together recreating in this land a new Golden Age. It seems that was Saturn to give the knowledge of metallurgy and expecially of agriculture, the sign, at this time, of civilization. The two gods settled up their palaces on two of the hills that will be Rome: Saturn created the Saturnian Stronghold on the Capitoline Hill, while Janus on the Janiculum, on the other side of the Tiber. This is of fundamental importance also in the myth about the creation of Rome: during the first period of ruling, Romulus performed the kidnapping of the sabinian women, and the war raged out between roman and sabinians. After the peace, the two tribes were united with two kings, or Romulus for the original Romans, settled up on the Capitolium, and Titus Tatius for the sabinians, settled on the Palatine.

What we can find about festivities related to Saturn is the Saturnalias. The inner spiritual core of this festivity lay in the reaching again the state of the Golden Age, in which men are equal to each other, but expecially a "coming back in the days", the days before the creation, in the state of un-ordered chaos, of non-being, from which came the being in its golden form, or age.

We have also to note that the name Saturn came from the indoeuropean root sat, the same of satya yuga, which means to be. There is also to say that we have two main version of this numen, or an exoteric one and an esoteric one. Unfortunately the esoteric one lacks of tracks and data, but we know of its existence, beyond the exoteric scheme of the figure influenced expecially by greek mythology, from a dialogue of Macrobius' Saturnalias, where Pretestato, member of the roman gens Simmachia, who was a pontifex and had on himself about ten mysteric initiations in his life, said "It's not permitted to me (Latin fas, or "it's (not) allowed to him who know - or the initiate - to reveal") to tell about the real origin of the Saturnalias relative to the arcane origin of the divinity, but the mythical version we can explain to common people. In fact, neither during the ceremonies we can explain the occult origins of the source of the pure truth: and if anyone acquire them, it's ordered to him to keep this knowledge inside his consciousness. So, our Gold can know with me what is Fas to know". So, when we think about this festivity, we have to go beyond the appearance of chaotic festivity of dionisiacal ties. About the presence of the cult of Saturn in Rome, expecially on the Capitoline hill, wrote Virgil (Aeneid, liber VIII), Ovid (Fasti, liber I). It seems also that the pre-roman tribes give to him human sacrifices, then developed by Hercules (it seems that the temple to Saturn, now in the Forum, was created by him) in the sacrifice of manikins. We have also to report that the typical iconography of this god is closely related to the initiation one, and expecially, the pictures of December, the month of the Saturnalias, remember the one of the Atu I, the mage.

About Janus we have first of all to say he is a pure italic deity, without greek correspondences. He was invocated by the priests of Mars, the Salii during their war dances, before all the gods, with the Ianuli verses, that Varrone reported to us: "Pray for Consivius (the one who expand humanity), he who open all the doors, he who listen to us, the good creator, he who is the best among divine kings, sing in his honour, he who is the father of the gods, pray to the God of the gods". Janus if the god of the beginnings and the ends, he who open and close everything. Probably the most famous ritual related to his temple is the opening of the doors during the war, to make his fury going against the enemy. But there is more, of course: he is the god of initiation, the Gemini, of the one with two faces, god of regeneration, and it seems to be a solar deity, as Macrobius' Pretestato said: "Because of this we call Janus Father, and in this way we pray the Name of the Sun";. His two faces in fact are a typical solar attribute, like the cananean El, and he is also associated with the solar wheel. But this is a neoplatonic interpretation, so there are some points that didn't come from the original italic deity, which lacks of classification: no correspondences with Mediterranean counterparts, neither indoeuropean. For sure, he is an initiatory god, or a god of passage. He is the god who watch over the starting point of development, with the power of opening or closing (Patulcius and Clusius), and in the archaic Rome is the one who emanates the regal power, being the first divine king.

 

The sons of Mars: the Holy springs

To the ancient Italians, the divinity can show itself in several ways, but expecially trough wild animals, which are expecially the divine sphere made concrete on the material plane, and lead the man. Many of the italic names of cities, peoples, war and religious guilds, came from animals. They are expecially connected with the veria sacra, or holy springs. The ver sacrum is probably one of the most ancient rites we know, with its roots in prehistoric hunting populations, expecially indoeuropeans. To Guènon, the nomadic habits (like the case of the ver sacrum) are signs of population neared than others to their origins and Traditions. Practically the rite is a consecration of everything animated will born in the next spring: both animals and children. A perfect consecration of an entire generation to a particular god. When they will reach the age of twenty, they will be lead outside the tribe territory, and the god will look upon them and their migration. It seems that every indoeuropean migration inside Italy started from the Cotilia lake, in the centre of the land. From here both the Pelasgic people, the Latins, the Siculians and so on, reached their land.

Being the most ancient italic deity, of course Mars is the leader of the veria sacra. In the archaic period he was only represented by a spear, he was invoked by warriors before the battle, but also by common people to protect their territory and community. If the rite was connected with this deity and his animal manifestations (the wolf, the bull, the woodpecker), of course we can say the italic indoeuropean tribes were first of all warrior tribes. Other this, it was his month, Martius, both the start of spring and of the year. Populations like the Piceni (from woodpecker, Latin Picus), the Mamertini (from Mamers, or the osco Mars), the Irpini (from the sabinian Hirpus, or wolf), are examples of the results of the holy springs. Now results also obvious the connections of the female wolf which breed the two twins Romulus and Remus in the myth of the foundation of Rome. And also, it was a wolf that leads Rea Silvia, their mother, to the site where she will meet Mars. And this is why in the temple of the Capenam Door, dedicated to the god, he was represented inside a wolf pack.

But the wolf is not only a solar symbol of power. It detain also a telluric symbolism, showed in the ancient rite of the Lupercalia. One time per year, on the 15th of February, Faunus, the Latin god corresponding to Cernunnos, became wild and acquire an erotic connotation. In the morning of this day, a strange brotherhood begin a chaotic procession, starting from the Lupercale, or the site where seemed to be the holy wood of Faunus and a statue of the female wolf mother of Rome, along all the streets. They were naked, with a wolf skin, divided in two groups, related to two noble gens (families): the Luperci Fabiani and the Luperci Quinctiales (then Julius Caesar added a third group, the Luperci Julii). They start sacrificing two goats and a dog, and then proceed to an initiatory rite to two noble youths, touching them with the bleeding dagger of the sacrifice, and with a piece of wool with milk. Then, the two initiated have to laugh, and it remember the initiatory theme of mystic death and resurrection. During the run in the streets, they used to shot with the goats skins on the women back, to make them fertile.

The wolf was of course also used in other tribes: about 30 km north of Rome, on the Mount Soratte, there was the warriors brotherhood of the Hirpi Sorani (from the sabine Hirpus - wolf), or the wolves of Soranus, a sabine or faliscan (the Falisci were a Sabine-related tribe) deity corresponding to an infernal Apollo, both connected with solar and titanic symbolism. They used to perform firewalkings every two years to made possible the fertility of the land.

The theme of animal-warriors is a common initiatory-ritualistic moment to all the indoeuropean communities, and we have also some example in the iranic texts, and in the Nordic culture (ulfedhnars and berserkers). Of this will remain in the imperial roman culture the echoes in the warriors brotherhood of the youths (the Juventas military guilds), but expecially in the war rituals of the legions, during the consecrations of the arms and of the banners, and expecially the standards of the centurias will be brought in battle by the signifer, a particular officer dressed with a wolf skin, having his symbolism in an invocatory attitude of the Mars force.

The lords of animals

We have seen the importance of the manifestation of the divine through the animal: to many historians of religions, this is an ancient characteristic of civilization originally nomad and dedicated to hunting. This Weltanchauung typical of the hunter - warrior, remained also in modern times, either if the society became dedicated to agriculture and established itself definitively, and show itself also through a particular class of gods and goddesses strictly related to the animal archetype and to the wood one. A typical example is the Celtic deer god Cernunnos. This type of god is not necessarily linked to telluric archetypes, in fact has his symbology in the deer, which is to some indoeuropean tribe like the Scythes a solar animal. But the deer seems to be also a funerary animal, and in fact Cernunnos seems to be also a death god or a funerary god. He is also, more important, connected with fertility, both of the animals and men.

To the same archetype correspond the italic Faunus - Lupercus. This is the god, or lord, of the animals for the indoeuropean italic tribes, but he is connected not only with fertility, but also with chaotic forces which bring terror: "the Romans think that fear and panic are connected to this god, and they say that all the supernatural things inspiring terror are connected with him" wrote Dionigi of Alicarnassus, but also that "the voice of this god inspired the Romans to be brave, because they have won, and Valerius, inspired because of this, lead them to assault the fortress of the Etruscans". So, a double identity, that can be used in a double way.

But we have also a feminine counterpart, a Mistress of the animals. To be precise, not only one, but several ones. We have first of all Fauna, or Bona Dea, the good goddess, who was worshipped by all the noble women of Rome, called the potnia draconton or mistress of snakes, because one of her form was the snake, and in her temples domestic snake were breed. It seems also that Faunus transformed himself in a snake to have sex with her.

Another goddess related to this archetype is of course Feronia, worshipped in all the central regions of Italy: this is a potnia theron kai python, or mistress of animals and snakes, and she look upon everything is wild. But, as noted by Dumezil, her function is more related to the good wild things instead of the evil wild things. Expecially, she is the goddess of freedom, and looking from an initiatory perspective the concept of freedom is close to the one of illumination. An Italian academic, E.G. Pasquali, connected her with some mysteric practices similar to the one of Proserpina, being her also a goddess of hell, and expecially he connected her form of female wolf (and we will remember this when we will talk about the secret name of Rome), with the cult of Soranus and of Jupiter Anxurus, a form both linked with Jupiter in the young manifestation, with Apollo, with Mars, but all of them in an infernal perspective (we have to compare this archetype with the wolf-dog archetype of the egyptian Anubis-Wepawet and with the Scandinavian one of Fenrir - Tyr).

 

The Etruscans

Actually the Etruscans are one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of the western world. Their origins are undetermined. It's assessed they were not originally italic, but we don't know if they came within the indoeuropean wave (and it seems not, also because of their different traditions), or they came from an anatolian migration wave (more probably). Also the language actually is not completely translated. They wrote in characters both influenced by the greeks, the Celts, and in the Cerveteri Museum it is possible to observe a rune row very similar to the Scandinavians one.

However, coming back to the cults of this italic civilization, all the material we have (not too much to be true) is related to their funerary cults, and we are sure that their one was a revealed religion. Either if this material often represents practices related to life, death of course represents the most important concept of the etruscan civilization: this is also demonstrated by the huge necropolis they created, of which the most beautiful examples are the ones of Cerveteri (the ancient Cere) and Tarquinia (the ancient Tarquinii). Of course also the Romans have left to us some written material about them, being the etruscan probably their most powerful enemy during the conquest of central Italy. And to the Romans they resulted to be luxurious and dark. This is not entirely true, but of course the Etruscans were strongly linked to an exotic and erotic way of life, and with a dark concept of death. We have a lot of sexual representations, very similar to the ancient Hindu ones, showing that their sphere of magical thought are strongly tied within the sexual sphere. Unfortunately nothing remained of their rituals, other than pictures related to mysteries probably very similar to the dionisiacal ones.

The death concept to the Etruscans was very different to the other italic and greek civilizations. While in these the hell was something not necessary infernal or bad, to the Etruscans death was something related with darkness and demons (in the modern sense of the word). Expecially, they resulted to be terrorized by a typhonian deity called Tuchulca, which was not the ruler of the underworld, but something really to be feared, that can bring to the complete destruction of the soul. Other this, we have however to said they have not a merely dualist concept of metaphysical existence: they resulted to believe, of course, in two different parts of the soul, or in a lightside and a darkside (called the evening shadow), and they strongly believe that to keep the existence on a conscious level, they have to reach a complete equilibrium between these two sides, or in alternative they will finish to live in the otherworld in a larval state.

What of course is also important in this civilization, is the divination tool. This practice, common to all italic tribes, developed itself expecially among the Etruscans, in the form of the art aruspicina, instead of the art augurale common to all the indoeuropean tribes. The first was based on the believing that some parts of the interiors of some animals are equal to the divisions of the gods, and by the state of these animal body parts, they can reach the understanding of divine will. The second one, present also in imperial times among the Romans, is based upon the interpretation of birds flight.

Magical inheritance in Rome: the secret name of the city

To the ancient italics, every city has a protective god or goddess. This is shown also in Macrobius' Saturnalia, in which it is explained the pray of Scipio in front of the walls of Cartage, where he prays the protective gods of the enemy city to leave it. The typical form of the rite to the Romans was first of all the Indigitamenta, or an invocation or evocation in which the Roman ask the numen to obtain a particular effect on the material plane. In the case of the sieges, the Romans strongly believe that the cities eggregore was strongly connected to a god's one, and it's not possible to win the battle without the leaving of the god itself. Here, from this believing, originates the legend of the Secret Name of Rome, a secret kept inside the darkest sides of Romanity, in defence of the most sacred places of the city, or the Capitoline hill, never conquered by enemies.

To many esoterists, followers of Evola, the legend is the core of the metaphysical side of Romanity, and the core of Roman power, or the explanation of how a mere people of shepherds can reign all over the Mediterranean world. Inside the Traditional concept of Alchemical symbology, they explained how in the symbols of Rome like the wolf and the hawk, lays an eggregore of energy born under the signs of Venus and Mars. So, it's obvious to explain it through the legends of the foundations of Rome: the origins lays in the war for Troy, from which came Aeneas, the Trojan hero son of Venus. From his gens will came Romulus, founder of the city, son of Rea Silvia, priestess of Vesta, the maiden goddess, and Mars. Inside the story of this family the Italian Traditionalists see the symbology of the creation of the alchemical hero (Mars), through the awakening of the inner force (Venus). Here starts also the question about the real name of Rome, or the secret name, which is the identity of the god or goddess which protect the city, or in a larger sense, is the city eggregore itself. Because of this tantric concept of the force, many of them strongly believe that the real name is the same of the goddess which represents this force, practically one of the forms of the shakti in an italic version. The theories are several ones, but all of them are connected with forms of Venus, being them Feronia or Angeronia (these two particularly because of their connection with the wolf form) or others. From all these theories came the concept of an entire phase of history under the sign of a strong power leading the roman civilization to conquer the world, in which several of their leaders like Caesar and Octavian, Traian, Adrian and so on, were animated by divine (or better, alchemical) inspiration or illumination, translating it through their Imperium (command, but in this interpretation is the characteristic of metaphysical ability of leading) to all the aspects of the Roman civilization.

About this, we will publish a special essay in the near future.


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