Anubis is called in the texts Sekhem Em Pet, and is said to be the son of Osiris, and Ap-uat bore the title Sekhem Taui, and was a form of Osiris himself. When, therefore, we find the two jackals upon sepulchral stelae, we must understand that they appear there in character of openers of the ways of the deceased in the kingdom of Osiris, and that they assure to the deceased the services of guides in the northern and southern parts of heaven; when they appear with the two Utchats thus, they symbolize the four quarters of heaven and of earth, and the four seasons of the year.

After referring to the view that Anubis was born of Nephthys, although Isis was his reputed mother, he goes on to say, "By Anubis they understand the horizontal circle, which divides the invisible, to which they give the name of Isis; and this circle equally touches upon the confines of both light and darkness, it may be looked upon as common to them both--and from this circumstance arose that resemblance, which they imagine between Anubis and the Dog, it being observed of this animal, that he is equally watchful as well by day as night. In short, the Egyptian Anubis and the Dog, it being observed of this animal, that he is watchful as well by day as night. In short, the Egyptian Anubis seems to be of much the same power and nature as the Grecian Hecate, a deity common both to the celestial and infernal regions.

Theirs again are of opinion that by Anubis is meant Time, and that his denomination of Kuon does not so much allude to any likeness, which he has to the dog, though this be the general rendering of the word, as to that other signification of the term taken from breeding; because Time begets all things out of it self, bearing them within itself, as it were in a womb. But this is one of those who are initiated into the worship of Anubis. This much, however, is certain, that in ancient times the Egyptians paid the greatest reverence and honor to the Dog, though by reason of its devouring the Apis after Cambyses had slain him and thrown him out, when no animal would taste or so much as come near him, he then lost the first rank among the sacred animals which he had hitherto possessed." Referring to Osiris as the "common Reason which pervades both the superior and the inferior regions of the universe," he says that it is, moreover, called "Anubis, and sometimes likewise Hermanubis {i.e., Heru-em-Anpu}; the first of these names expressing the relation it has to be superior, as the latter, to the inferior world. And for this reason it is, they sacrifice to him two Cocks, the white one,as a proper emblem of the purity and brightness of things above, the other of a saffron color, expressive of that mixture and variety which is to be found in these lower regions."

Strictly speaking, Anubis should be reckoned as the last member of the Great Company of the gods of Heliopolis, but as a matter fact his place is usually taken by Horus, the son of Isis and of Osiris, who generally completes the divine part; it is probable that the fusion of Horus, with Anubis was a political expedient on the part of the priesthood who, finding no room in their system for the old god of the dead, identified him with a form of Horus, just as they had done with his father Set, and the double god possessed two district and opposite aspects; as the guide of heaven and the leader of souls to Osiris he was a beneficent god, but as the personification of death and deacy he was a being who inspired terror. From an interesting passage in the "Golden Ass" of Apeleius {Book xi.} we find that the double character of Anubis was maintained by his votaries in Rome even in the second century of our era, and in describing the Procession of Isis he says, Immediately after these came the Deities, condescending to walk upon human feet, the foremost among them rearing terrifically on high his dog's head and neck----that messenger between heaven and hell displaying alternately a face black as night waving aloft the green palm branch. His steps were closely followed by a cow, raised into an upright posture----the cow being the fruitful emblem of the Universal Parent, the goddess herself, which one of the happy train carried with majestic steps, supported on his shoulders. By another was borne the coffin containing the sacred things, and closely concealing the deep secrets of the holy religion."

"Feathered Snake". One of the major deities of the Aztec, Toltecs, and other Middle American peoples. He is the creator sky-god and wise legislator. He organized the original cosmos and participated in the creation and destruction of various world periods. Quetzalcoatl ruled the fifth world cycle and created the humans of that cycle. The story goes that he descended to Mictlan, the underworld, and gathered the bones of the human beings of the previous epochs. Upon his return, he sprinkled his own blood upon these bones and fashioned thus the humans of the new era. He is also a god of the wind (the wind-god Ehecatl is one of his forms), as well as a water-god and fertility-god.

He is regarded as a son of the virgin goddess Coatlicue and as the twin brother of Xolotl. As the bringer of culture he introduced agriculture (maize) and the calendar and is the patron of the arts and the crafts.

In one myth the god allowed himself to be seduced by Tezcatlipoca, but threw himself on a funeral pyre out of remorse. After his death his heart became the morning-star, and is as such identified with the god Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. In dualistic Toltec religion, the opposing deity, Tezcatlipoca ("Smoking Mirror"), a god of the night, had reputedly driven Quetzalcoatl into exile. According to yet another tradition he left on a raft of snakes over the sea. In any case, Quetzalcoatl, described as light-skinned and bearded, would return in a certain year. Thus, when the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés appeared in 1519, the Aztec king, Montezuma II, was easily convinced that Cortés was in fact the returning god.

LOKI: God of Hokey Pokey and one of the world's major Trickster Gods.

In his early days LOKI was a rascal; crafty, sneaky, silly and malicious - a Loki The Lad. The son of two Giants, he was so outrageously mischievous that he even sneaked his way into becoming a God. He was the first Anti-Hero, quick-witting his way out of the tight corners and confrontations caused by his misdeeds. But as time wore on he became increasingly nasty.

His first escapade was a very rampant romp. When the Gods were struggling to build ASGARD, they found they'd run out of funds. Which is not surprising as money and banks hadn't been invented yet. All the basic construction had been completed but they needed a large protective wall to keep the riff-raff out.

LOKI came up with the plan of contracting a Giant to do the job. As payment, the Giant asked for the Sun and Moon and also the Goddess FREYA if the work was completed to schedule. The Gods were not too sure. "Don't worry," advised LOKI. "He'll never manage it on his own, even if he works night and day - and the deal will be off. We'll let him keep the wheelbarrow or something."

Alas, the Giant was not on his own. He had a huge stallion called Svadilfari, which could haul boulders like there was no tomorrow. With three days to go, FREYA was in distress and the Gods aghast.

Now LOKI, like fire and smoke, was a shape-changer from the word go. A talent he'd developed to make him the shiftiest transmogrifier of all time - from flea to fish to fast flying feathers in 0.3 seconds. So he changed himself into a mare and seduced the Giant's stallion. By whinnying and prancing off into the woods, Svadilfari was led far away from the stone pile.

With his horse missing, the Giant didn't quite make the schedule. Seething with rage, he tried to take FREYA by force - until THOR cracked his skull with his hammer.

Meanwhile LOKI was having a fine old time frolicking in the fields. In fact he became pregnant, and decided to sample the joys of motherhood. He gave birth to a fine baby boy stallion with eight legs. He gave this as a gift to ODIN and it was called SLEIPNIR.

LOKI was now well in with top God ODIN and his son THOR, with whom he shared numerous adventures. THOR, the perfect fall guy, was persuaded to appear in drag as the prospective bride of a giant and other embarrassments. THOR could always be relied on to supply the muscle when corners became too tight for trickery.

LOKI had many run-ins with the dwarves, which he cheated at any opportunity until they stitched him up. Literally. They stitched his mouth shut, which kept him quiet for quite some time.

LOKI never missed an opportunity to take advantage of any Goddess, despite already having had three wives. The first not many folk know about, and it is only by assiduous research we have discovered GLUT, who bore two daughters EINMYRIA and EISA.

Next was ANGRBODA, a giantess who spawned FENRIR the Giant Wolf, JORMUNGAND the Earth-encircling Serpent, and HEL the Underworld Goddess. Finally there was his wife SIGYN, who produced their ill-fated sons NARVI and VALI(2).

For further LOKI adventures, click your way to ANDVARI, FAFNIR, GEIRROD, THIASSI and BALDUR. And check out our Loki Trickster Wearables! We are still investigating the mysterious theft of FREYA's precious necklace Brisingamen when a flea was seen to flee the scene. As a well-known God of bed-hopping, fingers of suspicion are already pointing at you-know-who.

As the most scandalous God of all time, LOKI was seldom out of the Nordic News or the Sunday Runes. But his tricks came to an end after causing the death of BALDUR. Now he's trapped in eternal punishment until RAGNAROK rolls around.

In Egyptian mythology, Sobek (also spelt Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, Sobki, Soknopais, and in Greek, Suchos) was the deification of crocodiles, and was originally a demon, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River. His worship began as an attempt to pacify crocodiles so as to reduce the danger they posed.

Gradually, Sobek, as a major one of its residents, also came to symbolise the produce of the Nile, thus the fertility that it brought to the land, and so his status quickly became more ambiguous. Sometimes the ferocity of a crocodile was seen in a positive light, Sobek in these circumstances being considered the army's patron, as representative of their strength and power. When Neith took on the characteristics of a goddess of primal waters, Sobek became, as a watery creature, of both good and evil, to be considered her son.

Sobek's cult originally flourished around Al Fyyum, where some temples still remain; the area was so associated with Sobek that one town, Arsinoe, was known to the Greeks as Crocodilopolis. In Arsinoe, they kept a tamed crocodile, ornamented with jewelery, and hand fed with meat, which the Greeks referred to as Petsuchos, meaning he of Suchos [i.e. Sobek]. The Petsuchos was seen as the current incarnation of Sobek. Sobek-worship flourished in and after the Twelfth Dynasty, with other major centres developing in Kom Ombo and Thebes. However, in other areas of Egypt, crocodiles were dealt with simply by hunting and killing them.

Sobek's ambiguous nature lead some to say he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death. He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part. In this way, he was seen as a more primal god, eventually becoming regarded as an avatar of the primal god Amun, who at that time was considered the chief god. When his identity finally merged, Amun had become merged himself with Ra to become Amun-Ra, so Sobek, as an avatar of Amun-Ra, was known as Sobek-Ra.

In art, Sobek was depicted as an ordinary crocodile, or as a man with the head of a crocodile. When considered a patron of the pharaoh's army, he was shown with the symbol of royal authority - the uraeus. He was also shown with an ankh, representing his ability to undo evil and so cure ills. Once he had become Sebek-Ra, he was also shown with a sun-disc over his head, as Ra was a sun god.

In myths that appear extremely late in Egyptian history, Sobek is credited with catching the four sons of Horus in a net, as they emerged from the waters of the Nile in a lotus blossom. This motif derives from the birth of Ra in the Ogdoad cosmogony, and the fact that as a crocodile, Sobek is the best suited to collecting items upon the Nile.

Vulcan, in Roman mythology, is the son of Jupiter and Juno, husband of Maia and Venus, and father of Caeculus. He was god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Vulcan's analogue in Greek mythology is the god Hephaestus. He is also called Mulciber ("softener") in Roman mythology and Sethlans in Etruscan mythology.

The queen of the Olympian deities. She is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and wife and sister of Zeus. Hera was mainly worshipped as a goddess of marriage and birth. It is said that each year Hera's virginity returns by bathing in the well Canathus. The children of Hera and Zeus are the smith-god Hephaestus, the goddess of youth Hebe, and the god of war Ares. According to some sources, however, her children were conceived without the help of a man, either by slapping her hand on the ground or by eating lettuce: thus they were born, not out of love but out of lust and hatred.

Writers represented Hera as constantly being jealous of Zeus's various amorous affairs. She punished her rivals and their children, among both goddesses and mortals, with implacable fury. She placed two serpents in the cradle of Heracles; she had Io guarded by a hundred-eyed giant; she drove the foster-parents of Dionysus mad, and tried to prevent the birth of Apollo and Artemis. Even Zeus usually could not stand up to her. Sometimes when he got angry, he chained her to the mountain of Olympus by fastening anvils to her feet. However, most of the time Zeus resorted to stratagems: he either hid his illegitimate children, or he changed them into animals.

Hera's main sanctuary was at Argos in the Peloponnesus, where she was worshipped as the town goddess. Also, in this town the Heraia, public festivities, were celebrated. Other temples stood in Olympia, Mycene, Sparta, Paestum, Corinth, Tiryns, Perachora, and on the islands of Samos and Delos.

The peacock (the symbol of pride; her wagon was pulled by peacocks) and the cow (she was also known as Bopis, meaning "cow-eyed", which was later translated as "with big eyes") are her sacred animals. The crow and the pomegranate (symbol of marriage) are also dedicated to her. Other attributes include a diadem and a veil. Hera is portrayed as a majestic, solemn woman.

Her Roman counterpart is Juno.

AMATERASU: Shinto Sun Goddess born from the tear in IZANAGI's eye.

She had to take refuge in a cave following a bit of domestic violence. This caused a stoppage of sunlight and she had to be lured outside the barricaded entrance which involved a jewelled necklace and her reflection in a mirror. What Goddess can resist a little flattery? And she does have a sunny personality.

Top Mayan God of Agriculture, Fertility, Rain and Lightning. He's also one of the ALPHABET-GODS known as God B. B is for Bursting Clouds.

CHAC is a reptilian critter with fangs and a rather droopy snout. His hair is a permanently knotted tangle of confusion, which we find quite endearing.

Very important for harvests and growing, CHAC sends rain into the world by weeping from his large benevolent eyes. He's very good like that, even teaching the secrets of farming at no extra cost.

CHAC comes in four fashionable colors symbolising the four corners of the world, red (east), white (north), yellow (south) and black (west), and owns the color-coordinated BACABS.

The Megalithic Mother Goddess and 'The Phantom Queen'.

Don't attempt to mix it with The MORRIGAN. You are very unwise to mess with her and her sisterly accomplices. She was one of the original members of the TUATHA-DE-DANANN (People of the Goddess DANU) who chose Ireland as their Headquarters. This was good preparation for battle and shenanigans as the Fir Bolgs had to be defeated first.

As a shape-changer she can turn from ravishing beauty to hag, from battle crow to BEAN-NIGHE, all in triple time. This has caused a great deal of confusion to careless mythologists and innocent Godcheckers. Some sources claim there is three of her. But as her sisters BADB and NEMAIN usually join in the fray, this is not surprising.

There could have been more as FEA, FOTLA and NEMAIN, other warrior Goddess compatriots with shapechanging abilities, were hardly likely to sit on the sidelines when things got exciting. With crows wheeling and shrieking and startling transformations going on, who is going to stop to count? Especially when you are fleeing in terror, knowing they always picked the winning side.

When MEDB The Queen of Connaught employed the MORRIGAN Mob in her battle against Ulster and CUCHULAINN, more confusion was caused - as MEDB is similar to BADB. BADB was not as bad as MEDB, and the MORRIGAN forces used fear itself as a weapon rather than adding to the slaughter.

MORRIGAN does have a loving side to her nature, and gave the Irish Hero CUCHULAINN every chance to make love not war. But would he listen? That's why he is now only commemorated as a statue of a dying warrior with a MORRIGAN crow on his shoulder. Who knows what she could be saying to him?

Far from fading away, The MORRIGAN is still exceedingly popular and has many followers. There no longer seems to be a pecking order for battle crows; she is more into utilising Earth energy - which is very nice to know. A Dark Green Goddess from the Emerald Isle.

AKKA: Finnish Earth Mother Goddess.

The consort of UKKO, she is an empowering female deity who provides feminine fertility, strength and sexuality. She is also the Goddess to call upon for Earth Magic and channelling.

As Goddess of the harvest, she can provide in abundance. She is also very kind to Rowan trees.

Her name means simply 'woman' or 'female' - and she is closely related to the Saami Mother Goddess MADDERAKKA.

The most important of the Egyptian gods, the personification of the (midday) sun. According to the Heliopolitan cosmology he created himself from a mound that arose from the primeval waters of Nun or out of a primordial lotus flower. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), who in turn engendered the earth-god Geb and the sky-goddess Nut. Re was said to have created humankind from his own tears and the gods Hu and Sia from blood drawn from his own penis.

The sun itself was taken to be either his body or his eye (the 'Eye of Re'). The center of his cult was from the very beginning in Heliopolis, where he was also venerated in the forms of Atum (the setting sun) and Khepri (the rising sun) and, in connection to the morning sun, as Re-Harachte. As Re-Atum he is the creator who gives light and warmth and thus growth. Re was often combined with other deities to enhance the prestige of the latter, as in Re-Atum or Amun-Re.

It was said that Re traveled each day in his solar barque through the sky, starting in the morning. At night, Re journeyed through the underworld in another barque. And each night, the monster Apep would try to prevent the sun-god from emerging again: the eternal battle between light and darkness. The gods Seth and Mehen accompanied him and were often depicted defending Re's barque. Others believed that Re could be found at night in the underworld, consoling and giving support to the dead. Re is also the god of the pharaohs and since the fourth dynasty the Egyptian kings styled themselves 'sons of Re'. After death, the monarch was said to ascend into the sky to join the entourage of Re.

In Heliopolis the Benu or Phoenix (sacred heron) and the oracular Mnevis (bull) were venerated as manifestations of the sun-god. Here the kings also built temples for Re, which were important institutions in the field of ideology. Re was usually portrayed as a man with the head of a falcon, crowned with the sun disc encircled by the uraeus.