Legends and Mythology

By Farid Alakbarli

Legends about the Amazons - a warlike tribe of women warriors - have existed in various cultures throughout the world. Not many people realize, however, that Amazons are closely associated with Azerbaijan. Yes, ancient Greeks believed that Caucasian Albania was the native land of the Amazons. Perhaps, much of what has been written about Amazons is only a legend; however, it is true that many Albanian women really did serve in the armies of Caucasian Albania when they fought against the Roman invaders during the 1st century BC.

Kingdom of Caucasian Albania: Caucasian Albania was a territory that covered most of entire region of modern-day Azerbaijan Republic including some additional areas in neighboring countries. Note that Caucasian Albania had nothing to do with the modern state of Albania in the Balkans. According to legends, the kingdom of Caucasian Albania was founded in the 4th century BC by king Aran. There were 26 different tribes in Albania including Udi, Sodi, Gargar (Gagarians) and Gardman. Strabo describes Caucasian Albanians as tall, blonde-haired and gray-eyed. He characterizes them as brave and warlike. Albania was a fertile agrarian state with vast wheat fields, grape vineyards and fruit gardens. People worshiped the moon and various stars and planets. There was a Temple dedicated to the Moon located in the vicinity of Gabala in northern Azerbaijan, which was the ancient capital of Albania. Sometime during the 4th-5th century AD, Albania adopted Christianity. Today we know about Albania from ancient Greek and Roman historians such as Pliny (23 AD to 79 AD), Ptolemy (100 AD to 170 AD), Strabo (64/63 BC to 23 AD), Plutarch (46 AD-after 119 AD).

Strabo and Albanian Amazons: For example, a little explicitly Strabo is reporting: "Also the Amazons, it is said, live in the mountains of the Caucasian Albania. Theophanes, who took part in Pompeius campaign (106 BC-48 BC) and marched on the country of the Albanians, says that the Geles and the Leges - Scythians - lived between the Amazons and the Albanians.There was a river called Mermadalis, running between these tribes and the Amazons. Others, however, among whom were Metrodorus the Sceptic, and Hypsicrates, who were also familiar with these regions, wrote that the Amazons lived near the border with Gagarians in the northern promontories of the Caucasus called the Ceraunian Mountains...

The Lithuanian pagan faith and mythology, as well as the ritual connected with them, are among the oldest phenomena of human spiritual creation. Religious and mythic imagery permeated all the spheres of society life that was based on hunting and gathering already during the period of the early tribal system which comprised the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic.The history of Lithuanian faith and mythology can be subdivided into three epochs. The first epoch is that of the early matriarchaltibal system, during which religious imagery (totem, animist and craft cult imagery) connected with feminine supernatural beings appeared in the hunters' and gatherers' society (the Upper Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic).The second epoch was that of the late matriarchal tribal system, based on hoe agriculture, during which religious imagery connected with the cult of feminine deities of the Sun, the Moon, the Earth developed as well as those representing fertility and water. In the period of matriarchy the goddesses were responsible for the birth, existence and death of man, fauna and flora.

Those deities took care that the continuity of life and fecundity be maintained in the Universe through constant interchangeability of life and death. The goddesses supervised the sky, the earth, water, fire and the atmosphere.Art, especially the symbolic art, was created in thesphere of the cult of feminine divinities, while the rites of this cult was performed by women themselves survived into the the period of patriarchy. The third epoch was the period of the patriarchal tribal system and its disintegration, followed by the formation of class society. The chief gods appearead during this period, while most of the feminine deities lost their supremacy, though not all: some of them remained in the pantheon of Lithuanian gods together with masculine deities. After the state of Lithuania was formed and the Christianity was adopted in the country, the Lithuanians still refused to renounce their gods for a considerable period of time. The tribes of the Aestii creted their religion jointly throughout millennia. In the middle of the Ist millennium A.D., as they began to split into separate pations, their religious imagery changed but alittle. ......

By Ramon Thomas

From an interview with Credo Mutwa : Zulu Shaman, World renown traditional healer, Zulu Sangoma and High Sanusi

In many western countries, when an old person dies it is simply the death of an old human being who has gone through life and whose days on earth now come to an end. But in Africa, the death of an elder- an old man or an old woman, becomes a supreme disaster because in the mind of that elder often carries knowledge passed down from parent to child. Knowledge that is not only valuable to Africa and her children, but to human kind as a whole. No matter where you go in Africa, no matter how deep into the interior of the dark continent you tread, you will find very ancient stories which are incredibly similar. You will find African tribes and races who will tell you that they are descendants from gods who came out of the skies thousands of years ago. Some however say that theses gods came to them from the sea in magical boats made out of reeds or wood or copper or even gold.

In some cases these gods and goddesses are described as beautiful human beings whose skins were either bright blue or green or even silver. But most of the time you will find it being said these great gods, especially the ones that came out of the sky were non human, scaly creatures, which lived most of the time in mud or in water. Creatures of an extremely frightening and hideously ugly appearance. Some say that these creatures were like crocodiles, with crocodile like teeth and jaws, but with very large round heads. Some say that these creatures are very tall beings with snake like heads, set on long thin necks, very long arms and very long legs. There are those that tell us that these gods who came from the skies travelled through the lend in magical boats made of bright metal, silver, copper or gold. Boats which had the ability to sail over water or even to fly through the sky like birds. It is further said that some of these sky gods carried their souls in little bags which hung from their belts. These souls being in the form spheres of crystals clear material. Spheres which could float about in the air, and which emitted a dazzling light. A light which could illuminate an entire village at night...

By Mary Sutherland

Millions of years ago, before what we call 'modern' man an ancient race with high intelligence, advanced technology and aerospace capabilities lived on earth. Great earth catastrophies wiped out much of this race , mutated some and drove many more underground. While waiting out the effects of what an ancient nucleur war created on the surface, man went back to a more natural or should I say 'simplistic' culture.  By the time they once again surfaced to  the earth or even came back from distance planets the Age of Man had changed.   Knowledge was lost and the old technology was gone. Man had to start over. ..as they had done in previous Ages. Today we still remain very ignorant  of our past.   Until 1847, almost nothing was known about fossil man. Science ignored the study of ancient man. It was only thorugh the bible and traditions that the western worlds had any reference to these wonderous races.   One such race was the race of Giants who were "in the earth in those days" of old.

H.P. Blavataksy, The Secret Doctrine, points out to us references in the Bible and in our tradition about the Rephaim (Giants,(the mighty ones),   the spectres (Phantoms), the Nephilim, or the fallen ones.. they are shown  "as if identical, though they are all men, since the Bible calls them the primitive and the mighty ones" -- e.g., Nimrod.  These names, which belong by right only to the four preceding races and the earliest beginning of the Fifth, allude very clearly to the first two Phantom (astral) races; to the fallen one -- the Third; and to the race of the Atlantean Giants -- the Fourth, after which "men began to decrease in stature." Although Science has come a long way since 1847, they, for their own reasons,  have not shared this information with the world populas. We have been kept in the dark . Not only kept in the dark, but conditioned and trained through the educational system, media and peers to scoff and shut out alternative ideas about the history of man...