Merry meet lovely people,
It is Nina,
You're watching Fairy Chamber channel.
Let's get back into Baltic Mythology and today we are going to talk about the invisible spirits in Baltic Mythology.
This is a topic you can find pretty much all over the world and also in Finland we have lots of invisible spirits in our mythology and it's very interesting when I did,
When I've done research on Baltic Mythology,
The invisible spirits,
They are very female oriented and if you have looked on my previous videos about Baltic Mythology,
You are aware that we are talking about extremely matriarchal mythological system,
Which is pretty cool.
So in Latvia and Lithuania the mythology is quite matriarchal and some of the most worshipped deities are goddesses,
There is Saulei,
The Sun Goddess and then there is the Nina,
The Earth Goddess,
Rakaana,
Who is not necessarily worshipped,
But still very important goddess,
And Lyama,
The goddess of fate and so on.
So in Baltic Mythology,
When it comes to the invisible deities,
Many of them are female spirits as well,
It's very interesting.
So the Baltic Mythology itself,
It dates back all the way to this time period in Europe,
When most people worshipped so-called primordial mother,
The Earth Mother cult,
And that is where these pagan deities in Baltic Mythology have widespread,
You can see them as aspects of this primordial mother and developed to their own entities,
Speaking English.
Anyway,
It's a very interesting area to research and there's different kinds of these invisible spirits.
There is Laume,
Which are like,
Which are spirits of nature,
They're usually female and they walk together with the goddess of the destiny,
Lyama,
And you could see them as her group.
I could make a comparison to ancient Greece,
Where nymphs were groups of Aphrodite or her maiden,
So Aume could see them as Lyama's destiny fulfillers,
Helpers and very important nature spirits in Baltic Mythology.
Then there is Kaukai.
Kaukai,
They have had also a god,
Whose party they belonged to,
And this god was Puskaitis,
Who was the god of the elder tree or elder bush,
So he was one of the minor earth deities.
The earth goddess in Baltic Mythology is Semina,
And Puskaitis,
You could see him as one part of Semina or Semina's kingdom.
So Kaukai were the people of Puskaitis,
And when he is the god of the bushes and god of the trees,
Kaukai naturally are the tree and bush spirits and earth spirits,
Since they are connected to muses and mushrooms and all kinds of roots and branches and things intertwining together.
So there's lots of this symbolical meaning,
And Puskaitis himself as a god,
Sometimes he's described to be the lungs of Semina.
And what trees are for the word lungs?
So this whole idea of Kaukai being the roots or spirits of the roots,
And then being people's good luck bringers,
It kind of all makes sense,
But like keeping this kind of nature connection alive all the time,
It's very interesting.
So this whole symbolism behind these deities is quite mind-blowing when you think about it.
And people created the myths to explain why things happen like they happen in nature,
Obviously.
So Puskaitis is the lungs of the forest,
And Kaukai are his connectors between people and nature,
One of the connectors.
And it is very interesting when we think about the Baltic mythology,
And it is said that the worship of this primordial mother,
That it was the starting point of the Baltic mythology,
A mother cult,
It survived all the way to the 19th century.
So it has had huge impact on Baltic folklore and mythology,
And still has.
Then we have another group of spirits,
Which is Aitvarai.
And Aitvarai is a dragon,
Or it's also an umbrella term for household spirits.
So it was believed that some people,
They kept dragons as their pets,
Or they were like,
I don't think they were really true dragons,
But also invisible spirits.
But they were seen as dragons,
And sometimes also as snakes.
If you are familiar with the Baltic animal mythology,
Snakes were especially worshipped really in Lithuania,
And Lithuanians were called as the snake people.
So Aitvarai could have been in the shape of a dragon,
Or a huge snake with a flaming head.
And it is believed that this idea of Aitvarai,
And these dragons and snakes,
It came from meteorites.
And when people saw meteorites in the skies,
They thought they were dragons,
And they thought they were Aitvarai.
And Aitvarai,
In the beginning,
It was also somewhat a good luck bringer.
But then when Christianity arrived,
And dragons got demonized,
And Aitvarai became a very bad woman,
And it was believed that only witches and devil worshippers kept these dragons,
These invisible dragon spirits at their homes.
But in the pagan times,
People saw them as good luck bringers,
And also they used to feed them with baked cookie,
Baked meals,
And cooked meals,
And omelettes.
It's very interesting.
And it was believed that the first Aitvarai they lived in the skies,
Probably because of meteorites,
Or in the woods.
And also that the more we come closer to Christian times,
It was believed that only wicked people kept Aitvarais.
And also some people blamed,
Especially during the witch hunt period,
That jealous people,
They sent their Aitvarai to take other people's grains and barns,
And destroying their crops,
And so on.
So people believed that witches would send Aitvarai to destroy their enemies.
And also Aitvarai was connected to Perkunas,
And Perkuna is the thunder god in Baltic mythology.
And this makes sense,
Because Perkunas sky god creates thunder,
And dragon with flaming snake head could be seen as a thunder symbol.
So Aitvarai is also connected to Perkunas.
Conclusion for this would be that Aitvarai was seen as a prosperity bringer,
And divine creature,
Really,
Coming from the skies,
And bringing abundance for the people who took care of them.
So thank you for watching guys.
These were some stories from Baltic mythology.
I will come back to you when I have more stories to tell.
I will see you soon.
