ATDDTA: Finland / Tibet connection

[bekah]

"Another major branch of this Central Asian tradition is the Bön-po 
religion of Tibet and Tibetan Mysticism in general."

The Sampo: Artifact or Artifice?

One of the uniquely Finnish artifacts is the Sampo, although its 
symbology partakes of the universal concept of the Sacred Tree. It is 
a cosmological metaphor for the stellar dome centered upon the 
Polestar and, at the same time, a kind of Magic Mill capable of 
producing wealth. The Sampo is a model of the cosmos directly 
springing from the traditions of Siberian mythology, which has many 
features in common with Finnish myth: the cosmic axis, shamanic 
journeys to the Polestar (the Nail of the North), the Sacred Tree 
with three, seven, or nine levels, the shaman's tent with its central 
pole and the starry "ciphered cover." The Polestar was the universal 
cosmic axis of these circumpolar schemes, but the Sampo is uniquely 
Finnish. Surviving through the archaic surges of historical 
migrations, relayed from generation to generation by word of mouth 
alone, its details transforming in the slow-pass of ages, the Sampo's 
conceptual antecedents travelled across the Siberian tundra from 
Central Asia thousands of years ago. But in the Finnish legends, its 
true nature is shrouded. And yet myth has a way of preserving the 
essence of ancient knowledge.

The Theft of the Sampo episode is believed by many scholars to be the 
oldest core of Finnish mythology. In its deepest meaning, the Theft 
of the Sampo is about the upsetting of the celestial frame, the 
removal of the celestial center to another place, and the beginning 
of a new World Age. This idea, clearly present in the "Theft of the 
Sampo" story presented below, is tantamount to saying that the 
Polestar moves. The Polestar does move; a slow wobbling of the 
earth's axis in a cycle of 26,000 years is the foundation of the 
concept of astrological ages. Each age delineates different chapters 
in the development of humanity. Modern astronomy calls this 
phenomenon the precession of the equinoxes. This arcane astronomical 
fact is at the core of the ancient concept of World Ages. Could this 
astronomical knowledge be hidden in the ancient legends of Finland?

Studies detailing connections between Central Asia and the Sampo 
metaphor, Finnish culture and language, include Emil Nestor Setälä's 
Sammon Arvoitus (The Riddle of the Sampo), (Helsinki, Finland: Otava 
Publishing, 1932), Uno Harva's Suomalaisten Muinaisusko (Helsinki, 
Finland: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, 1948) and Uno Harva's Sammon 
Ryöstö (The Theft of the Sampo) (Helsinki, Finland: Werner Söderström 
Osakeyhtiö, 1943). The theories of these prominent Finnish scholars 
are summarized by Juha Pentikäinen in english in his Kalevala 
Mythology (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1989). 
Other books which discuss ancient knowledge of the precession of the 
stellar frame include Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame 
of Time (Boston, Mass: Gambit, 1969), by Giorgio de Santillana and 
Hertha von Dechend and Joseph Campbell's The Inner Reaches of Outer 
Space (New York: Harper & Row, 1986). Mircea Eliade (Shamanism, 
Princeton University Press, Bollingen Series LXXVI, 1964) and Uno 
Harva (Finno-Ugric and Siberian Mythology, Norwood, Massachusetts: 
Plimpton Press, 1927) both explore Eurasian shamanistic cosmologies 
which clearly resemble the Finnish Sampo concept. Another major 
branch of this Central Asian tradition is the Bön-po religion of 
Tibet and Tibetan Mysticism in general. 
http://edj.net/mc2012/sampo.htm

<http://mst3k.booyaka.com/episodes/info/sampo_artifact_or_artifice.shtml>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20070609/836aba6a/attachment.html>