Thunder and Lightening

I love a good storm, but I know many people are terrified, there are so many folk beliefs about them. The ones I've heard are:, turning mirrors to face the wall, (why I dont' know)? Opening the front and back doors so as any energy balls can exit, turning off and unplugging anything electric, especially the tv, this I can understand as surge protectors wern't as good or as common as now and TV arials were often the highest point in a house. My friends Gran used to hide in the cupboard under the stairs until it was allover as she was so scared.

My Gran told my Dad it was just God moving his furniture about, I guess that was to stop him being scared.

Has anyone else ever seen ball lightening? It's a weird thing to see, a bright ball flying across the sky from one cloud to another, quite distinct from normal sheet lightening and it explodes with a hell of a bang like an explosion. It was only scientifucally confirmed as being real in the late !980's, so I guess some scientist actually saw it and couldn't say ever body who had seen it was a superstitious liar. It's thought that it accounts for many dragon stories, as it's often firey in colour rather than blue/white, it was also thought to be an omen of change for centuries.

I've seen forked lightening coming in across the sea, the storm looked like it was walking. No wonder there are so many legends, stories and superstitions about storms.

Any one got any more folk beliefs to add?

  • ArchaeC, I think part fo the fascination for me about researching this lesser known path, is that we can look at the archaeology, what are the similarities in material culture, iconography, what and where were the trade links? Then we get onto the gentetics, can we see genetic similarities between early Northern Europeans and those from the Middle East? Could ancient Sumarian beliefs come as part of a Neolithic package? We know farming and domesticated animals did, it would seem a lot of people came north and west too, it would seem very strange if they had left thier inner culture behind and just brought thier material culture with them. There's anohter book I have which might interest you as it sheds light on pre-historic Scandinavia and that's, The Children of Ash and Elm, A history of the Vikings. by Neil Price, agains mines an ebook on my kindle, but it's available in hard copy, maybe you could get it from your local library?

    I think the Nephilim by thier very nature undermine a lot of the OT and ask to many questions of it that are to uncomfortable to answer, leaving the field open to conspiracy theorists. One fo the Best books I've read on it is  From the Ashes of Angles, by Andrew Collins, it's still pretty out there, but not as far as some.

  • Thank you for that  . Your information gives me something to sink my teeth into and I am at my happiest when searching for potential missing links.

    It’s fascinating to think of these stories and myths travelling with our ancestors from Asia through Europe and into Scandinavia. 

    The written Sumerian sources going back to c.3200BCE have proven too difficult to be fully translated by experts, and chunks of cuneiform have broken from the tablets and have been lost. At least some of the Mesopotamian myths would have been passed down through previous generations. There is a big gap in culture and years from Sumerian to Akkadian culture, and on down and across cultures and years, but art and iconography imagery and figurines could also provide clues into some of the myths. Christian Old Testament scholars have been unable or unwilling to seriously tackle the Nephilim, but I have read somewhere about a potential link with Mesopotamia, so it is worth looking at. 

  • The book is Anglo-Saxon Pagainism, History and Beliefs, by Jamie Lang, mines an ebook on my kindle downloaded from amazon.

    I remember being intrigued by it and wanting to do more research, but not being able to find anything I wanted on Innana and Ishtar, I think that there are more biblical links with Ishtar, or certainly OT ones as the early Jews had more contact with the worshipers of Ishtar, theres some ideas around the Nephilim being the offspring of angels and "the daughters of Ishtar", some of the stuff's a bit fringe.

    But the research in Langs book points to contact and maybe survival or intermixing of Scandinavian Gods and Innana and Mesopotamia. I think this could be one of the least explored linkages of early religion and hasn't had all the accretions of the OT and Ishtar links, or the Helenistic pantheon. Early forms of Greek religion are interesting too and I'd like to look more at how they were expressed and did some of the Helenistic gods get tacked onto to any earlier Greek deities?

    I can't remember if it's this book or another that tries to seperate the Vanir from the Aesir in Scandinavian religion, I was less convinced by that, or maybe less convinced by the interpretation given than to the idea that they were different godly families.

  • Thanks  I would be interested in any accounts showing links to Scandanavia.

    I know some of the Mesopotamian myths such as the flood stories (with what is possibly a later addition to the Epic of Gilgamesh) have influenced the Greek myths, and they in turn show several similarities to the flood account in the Jewish Torah//Christian Old Testament. Ultimately I would like to look at similarities and differences between the many accounts and myths around the world. Hinduism, possibly has some accounts of floods. 

    Religions can be a bit like genomics in that we are interconnected by the belief systems that have been carried and adapted by the movement of people around the world. People in power with a political agenda make the religion their own. 

  • I don’t really have any folk beliefs myself but I remember a Simpsons episode when Ned Flanders told his kids the storm was also angels bowling as well as God moving the furniture. I normally like a good storm as I find it very cozy but the other day the thunder was so loud I actually did get scared! Like I thought everything was going to fall down and that had really set me off. 

  • I think theres quite a lot of linkage between between the deities of the ancient middle east and more historical ones, I read a book on the links between Scandinavian beliefs and Mespotamian beliefs. I'll try and dig it up and tell you what it was.

    As well as thunder gods theres also similarities with the Goddess being the sun and the God the moon and with Goddesses being drawn in carriages pulled by cats.

  • I’ll add this to my to do list of things of interest.

  • Not really an expert in ancient religions but I think Greek pantheon is heavily influenced by Mesopotamia. Sumeria had a lightning god Ishkur, probably others?

  • Any one got any more folk beliefs to add?

    I'm not much for beliefs but prefer hard facts.

    There is a university here in Sao Paulo that one of the autistic students I mentored has gone to who are studying ball lightening amongst other high energy studies and I get to hear a few ridbits of the research.

    The military control the info released from the research rather dissapointingly but there are some interesting experiments being performed on how it passes through physical barriers. I guess you can see why the military may be interessted in passing high energy sources through solid walls / armoured vehicles etc.

    They do now understand a lot more about the laws that govern the event but being able to reliably reproduce them is trickier due to the massive amounts of energy required.

    I do love a good thunderstorm (we get them frequently) and when one has a lot of electrical discharge it makes you realise how insignificant we are in the face of nature.

  • Gosh yes! I suspect you are better up on your Norse gods than I am. I love that the tales of thunder and gods are interconnected. I am wondering if there could be a direct connection from a potential thunder god in Mesopotamia, through to the Greek and Roman gods and on to Thor? Some of the Mesopotamian myths are linked to more recent times, but I don’t know if there is a specific Sumerian or Akkadian god of thunder. 

  • Don’t forget Thor….

  • I vaguely remember being told thunder was furniture being moved, but I can’t recall who was doing the moving. 

    I haven’t any other thunder related folk belief tales to add, though thunder does bring to mind Zeus, the ancient Greek King of the Gods and God of Thunder, lightening, hail, rain and other things. Zeus deposed his father Cronus, and with lots drawn from a helmet, he divided the world between himself and his two brothers, ending up with the sky. 

    Perhaps the forked lightening was one of his thunderbolts! 

  • I don't have any more folk beliefs - I too was told it was God moving his furniture around when I was little. I don't ever remember being scared, just wondering what the noise was that woke me up. I love a good storm now.