Sky Father, Earth Mother, harmony of the realms in my life.

As Romuvis, my worldview is shaped by the mythology of my Ancestors and in Baltic mythology. It is believed that we are from the stars also, it is sung in many traditional songs, that the Stars are our Sisters. This is why, we prefer cremation over burial, so our smoke and embers can rise up and return to the Sky father and our ashes return to the Earth mother, which are usually sprinkled into a Holy River, much in the same way Hindus* in India spread the ashes of the deceased into the river Ganges. Many cosmologies in many different races, across the world that retell a creation through depths of water and describe in great detail, the way to return to the Underworld of the Dead, is via water*, so it seems logical to me that early Lithuanians also spread the ashes of deceased people with a view of helping them to cross over. It is the ashes of my ancestors that were returned to the Earth in sacred waters and rivers in Lithuania, that make the land of Lithuania  a sacred place. Just as what the Ganges does for India. The Australian Aboriginal tribes like the Baltic tribes, viewed their land and it's creatures in their own particular land within Australia or Europe, to be sacred above all places elsewhere.  Australian Indigenous* tribes, orally passed down many stories of the creation of all species. They told the tales of the various geographical landmarks of their land, with what they called, "songlines", that acted like the prehistoric GPS. The stories and songs helped the navigate the land to which they belonged.

Sky is our Father, Earth is our Mother 
and we are their children of Stardust and Earth.

The branches of Physics and Astrophysics have declared that our chemical make up largely originated from the Stars. All atoms of carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen and other atoms of heavy elements, were formed in the life cycle of Stars that existed over 4.5 billion years ago! These elements travelled to Earth on the winds of a Super Novas and somehow formed into such beautiful, wondrous and varied forms of life, here on Earth. In the view of Quantum physicists, it is believed that all life in the universe is essentially Stardust.*

In a metaphysical point of view, the model of the atom is the same as the model of the solar system. The idea of a nucleus of Protons with orbiting Electrons is not hard to imagine acting the same as a Star with orbiting planets and so in this, our solar system could be an atom in a giants thumbnail and they could be orbiting in a solar system as an Electron in an atom of another being. The mind boggles when you really think about it!

I've never really been an Academic and I study life as only a Gemini could. Being Lithuanian, I have always loved song and music. I have learnt 100's of traditional folk songs with thousands still to learn. Anyway, to the point, I do believe within myself that the Uni verse is just one verse in a cosmic song that is complex with infinite harmonies with infinite planes of existence singing their own verse in a multi verse reality.

We watch our most precious and closest Star every day, our Mother Sun. She nourishes us by growing our crops, Sun comforts us with her warm amber rays of warmth, rising every day without fail, like a mother. Sun is our Mother and the Stars are our sisters and with them, they align to guide us in life, across the dark seas of life, like a sailor at night being guided by the Stars alone. Our years on Earth are marked by the cosmic celebrations at the time of Solstices and Equinoxes.

In Lithuanian mythology, the Sky is our Father, whom we call Dievas. It is from who we came and to whom we shall return, flying the Milky Way, (known as the Birds Way). Moon God and Sun Goddess are the Eyes of the Sky God, always watching, always caring and sends the mighty Perkunas, the Thunderer, to avenge wrong doing. This belief always keeps us moral, abiding with the global law of humanity to all life, plants, animals, humans and supporting the harmony of nature.

In everyday life, I connect with the magic of my Earth Mother by working in my vege garden. I plant by the seasons and the Moon, I celebrate the seasons and other agricultural festivals, in a similar way, as my Pagan Ancestors. I enjoy an abundant harvest each year. I am always grateful to the Gods and Goddesses of Nature for helping me to grow my crops. I plant Borage and other flowers to attract the Bees who help to fertilise my vege flowers.

So, in my own way, I will always strive to be in harmony with my celestial family and my terrestrial family, in everyday life. Remembrance and honour given to my Ancestors completes the 3 realms of harmony of existence as represented in the World Tree. Regular readers of my blog would be aware of the significance of Lithuanian World Tree to the Lithuanian worldview, I will just recap.

*The branches of the Tree that reach into the Sky and represents the celestial and etheric realm of our divinities, Guides and Heroes,
*The trunk represents the world of the living that is firmly planted in the earth by the roots.  Bees buzzing in a hive in the trunk is a common image in songs about Lithuanian mythology to represent this realm in which we live. Bees are described as industrious and work together as a community like we should.
*The roots reach into the earth to ground and supports the whole Tree. The roots represent the realm of the underworld, of wisdom, the past and the Ancestors.

The World Tree is often represented as an Oak.
This is my Oak Tree

As an adherent of Romuva, I believe that living my life, striving for this harmony of these 3 realms represented in the symbol of the Baltic mythological World Tree, to be a natural and logical way to live. Another point that I have come to understand is that the Gods and Goddesses are in balance, as opposed to, the commonly seen as solely Goddess focused over God and vice versa, in the Neo Pagan and Abrahamic religions of today. When asked to pick a patron Deity, I couldn't pick one and I realised that is what makes me Polytheist Pagan. If I was able to make a certain deity my patron, I would fall into the category of a monotheist where the other Deities become like saints as in the Catholic Faith. I certainly have favourite deities of Nature depending on my seasonal work but they are all equally powerful forces in their own right. All the Gods and Goddesses are my Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts and Uncles who are all my valued family. Female and Male, Peace and Strength, Sky and Earth, in harmony. 

Reference

* I draw a comparison here because Hindus and the Indian race are Lithuanian peoples closest relatives in the Indo European family. Linguistically, Lithuanian language is very similar to Sanskrit and many words are almost identical. Just to name a few examples:
SON: Sanskrit sunus - Lithuanian sunus
SHEEP: Sanskrit avis - Lithuanian avis
SOLE: Sanskrit padas - Lithuanian padas
MAN: Sanskrit viras - Lithuanian vyras
SMOKE: Sanskrit dhumas - Lithuanian dumas

SKY GOD: Sanskrit Devas - Lithuanian Dievas

Many Indian and Lithuanian customs and even sacred art, are also very similar, for example, cremation practices, custom of the fire rite, use of the swastika as a sacred symbol.

* Common waterways named in various mythologies across the world include: Greek mythology of the river styx where you're reminded not to forget to pay the ferryman and 4 other rivers of the Underworld called: Lethe, Acheron, Phlegethon and Cocytus

Atlantis is believed to have been swallowed by water.

Mayans believed that the way to the Underworld was through a maze of underground rivers.

In the Inca race of Peru and Cusco, Paryaqaqa was a god of water in pre-Inca mythology that was adopted by a shaman  who journeyed in trance to the lower plane or Underworld and the higher realms. These are just a few of many correspondences that Indigenous people had with water and the underworld.

* I draw a comparison with Australia Indigenous peoples because traditional their world view of the sacredness of land and her cycles, is very similar to the world view of Baltic Indigenous people, although the Australian cycles followed by the Indigenous here were never agricultural like the Balts, they were still in tune with their land and used the oral tradition of telling stories to explain the world and our place in it.

* “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” 

Carl Sagan-American Astronomer and a writer of Popular Science Magazine.