• Pukwudgie

    These magical creatures where capable of both good and evil. They where similar to the fairies and gnomes of Europe. They are usually described as being knee-high or even smaller. Their name literally means ‘person of the wilderness’ and are considered to be spirits of the forest. In some traditions, they have a sweet smell and are associated with flowers. Their stories come from Algonquian folklore. They are told throughout the northeastern United States, southeastern Canada, and the Great Lakes region but their stories differ between tribes. In the Ojibwe and other Great Lakes tribes, the pukwudgie (or bagwajinini) is considered a mischievous but basically good-natured creature who plays tricks…

  • Princess Liễu Hạnh

    Princess Liễu Hạnh is one of The Four Immortals worshiped by the people of Vietnam’s Red River Delta Region.  In the Taoist faith, she is the thirteen daughter of the Jade Emperor.  The Jade Emperor is also known as Yuanshi Tianzun, one of the Three Pure Ones, the three primordial emanations of the Tao.  According to their faith, she has been incarnated on earth multiple times.   The first incarnation was as the daughter of a righteous man Le Thai Cong.  He had been knocked unconscious while his wife was pregnant and had a vision of a Liễu Hạnh dropping the Jade Emperor’s favorite jade cup and smashing it into…

  • Forseti, Norse God of Truth and Justice

    Not much is known about Forseti as he is only mentioned twice in Old Norse literature. Our main source is from the Poetic Edda. The first mention of him is in the 15th stanza of the Grímnismál or “The Song of the Hooded One”, part of the aforementioned Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda is a collection of poems by anonymous Old Norse-speaking poets collected by Snorri Sturluson. Sturluson then took the information in the Poetic Edda and extrapolated it into the Prose Edda. The debate about the authenticity of the Prose Edda has been raging amongst scholars for some time. For example, the second mention of Forseti is in the…

  • Tyche- The Original Lady Luck

    Tyche, or Tykhe in Greek, was the goddess of fortune, chance, providence and fate.  Although some sources identify her as an Oceanid, a daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, other sources have indicated her parents were Aphrodite and either Zeus or Hermes.  Some sources give her a husband called Agathos Daimon, literally “good spirit”, which emphasizes her later association with good luck.  She is depicted holding a rudder as she was the deity charged with guiding the affairs of the world.  In this aspect she was a one of the Moirai, or Fates.  Tyche is also shown with a ball, showing the unsteadiness of fortune as it can roll…

  • Yama God of Death

    Yama or Yamarāja, also called Imra, is a god of death, the south direction and the underworld, belonging to an early stratum of Rigvedic Hindu deities. In Sanskrit, his name can be interpreted to mean “twin”. In the Zend-Avesta of Zoroastrianism, he is called “Yima”. According to the Vishnu Purana, his parents are the sun-god Surya and Sandhya. In Hinduism he is the twin brother of Yami, brother of Shraddhadeva_Manu and the step brother of Shani. He is sometimes depicted riding a buffalo. In Hinduism, Yama is the lokapala (“Guardian of the Directions”) of the south and the son of Brahma. He has two dogs with four legs and wide…