In 1212 three kings put aside their differences and, shoulder to shoulder, galloped and charged in the Navas de Tolosa against the Almohad army of Miramamolín Al Nasir that was determined to reconquer Spain and reach Rome itself.

Horsemen, cavalry, council militias, military orders, Templars, Calatravos, Santiaguistas, volunteers, gentle men ready to fight the half moon. The confrontation was cruel. Terrible scenarios with metal ripping and tearing ...

When it seemed that all was lost for Christians, the banner of the three wolves was raised...

It is Lopez de Haro who, together with his son and his Castilian knights and innkeepers, set out at the head of the vanguard determined to immolate themselves. King Alfonso VIII of Castile, who looks at it excitedly, launches the attack shouting "Here, Bishop, we all die." Pedro II of Aragon and Sancho VII of Navarra followed him ...

The epic and the enthusiasm seizes everyone and it is that the three kings ride and charge just through the hills of the Navas de Tolosa de Sierra Morena...

"He was not the most honest or the most pious man, but he was a brave man" P. Reverte.

If you lived dangerously and your life was hanging by a thread, if you defied authority, defending your reason and rights with the proud point of your sword, if you sacrificed yourself and were generous and human, if you were fearless, reckless, arrogant, brave, adventurous, seductive, rogue, loyal, if you were capable of the most heroic but also the meanest actions, if you were guided by your code of honour, if you sought glory on the margins of society and the law, if you lost your innocence in the face of the harsh reality of mud and blood, and if, disenchanted, everyone abandoned you. .. then you were probably an Old Thirdsman, a tired hero in rusty armour, a forgotten anti-hero like a cursed Alatriste.

February 27, 380, the emperor Theodosius abolished the religion and festival of the Sun Invictus by the famous edict of Thessalonica. Until then the Romans worshiped the Sun god during the Republic, and with greater prominence in the Imperial era, since the gradual entry of different religions of salvation of monotheistic tendency, such as Christianity and Mithrism, was giving greater weight to the power of the star king, the one who conquered the darkness ...

Emperor Aurelian made it official on December 25 as the day of the birth of the Undefeated Sun (the main divinity of the Roman pantheon at that time) back in the year 274 and later Juliano the Apostate would declare Helios (Greek equivalent) as the only divinity, and would try to prevent the spread of growing Christianity.

Finally, during a long process of syncretism, both the Festival of the Birth of the Invincible Sun "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" held after the Winter Solstice, when daylight increased, as well as many other acts and celebrations were gradually reconverted. Paganism would come to an end, a new stage would begin with a victorious sun reborn in the arms of a Galilean.

Fateful times we have had to live, a great darkness hangs over the spirit. In the midnight of the world the fight against the dragon is waiting for you. Arm yourself with strength and wisdom for the inner conquest, remember that the ego absorbs you, its tyranny controls you, do not back down, it is your heroic moment, the most vital and important in your life ...

[Sophia Perennis Collection]

CHOOSE BELOW BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE OJÁNCANU

[1 - Ojáncanu blue-green, 2 - Ojáncanu bone, 3 - Ojáncanu white  (WHITE COLOR), 4 - Ojáncanu full color, 5 - Ojáncanu dull blue, 6 - Ojáncanu orange, 7 - Ojáncanu military green, 8 - Ojáncanu electric green, 9 - Ojáncanu green Franky]

with reddish hair and beard who tears apart the mountains, provokes argayes, kills and destroys without mercy everything that crosses his path and delights in the suffering of the men of the north. Without a doubt, he is the vengeful destroyer of the entire mountain range that terrifies every living creature. His strength is enormous. He personifies hatred, anger and cruelty, he is the embodiment of the wild, the untamed and evil. This terrible ogre lives in the deep and gloomy caves of the most remote places of the mountain. "I hope you go blind, you evil-born ojáncanu, so that I can tear out your white hair and die, damn you."

AND DON'T FORGET TO CHOOSE YOUR SIZE!

When we enter the magical and mysterious Spain in the footsteps of the fairy world, we open not only a window to fantasy and imagination, but also to the most authentic meaning of life, since to look again with the eyes of a child is to return to believe, is to meet again with the spirit, is to be in harmony with Nature and the Earth.

Fairies, gnomes, goblins, trolls, giants, elves, undines, nymphs, mermaids, nereids, elves, sylphs, salamanders, beasts, dragons, basilisks, sorcerers, werewolves, demonic fauna —funny and grotesque—, hidden treasures, hidden kingdoms , magical caves and mountains, enchanted forests, springs of crystalline water, dark marine depths... Beings —such as elementals, spirits or men— and places —of earth, fire, air and water— that bring us closer to ourselves , to nature itself, to the pure etheric spirit, the anima mundi, where everything and everyone (living and dead) are interconnected in a spiritual way.

Tales, legends and myths loaded with folklore and popular traditions, between the real and imaginary, that help us understand and glimpse that there are forces that have been acting in our world for centuries with a higher purpose endowed with meaning.

The Iberians gained fame for their fighting prowess, but their writing systems, their trade, and their art show that they were much more than great warriors. Their mother tongue "Iberian" was spoken from the Hérault River (France) to Porcuna (Jaén) and they left thousands of inscriptions written in an original alphabet of signs that was a mystery for centuries that little by little is deciphering ... Written on coins , lead sheet, amphorae, mosaic, stone stele, silver crockery or trousseau, painted and engraved ceramics, copper plates, silver trousseau, walls ... Its enormous diffusion in the peninsula reveals to us how consolidated it was. The same alphabet was also shared with the Lusitanian and Proto-Basque languages.

[In the image the head of the wolf on the pectoral disc of the armor of the Iberian warriors]

When we enter the magical and mysterious Spain in the footsteps of the fairy world, we open not only a window to fantasy and imagination, but also to the most authentic meaning of life, since to look again with the eyes of a child is to return to believe, is to meet again with the spirit, is to be in harmony with Nature and the Earth.

Fairies, gnomes, goblins, trolls, giants, elves, undines, nymphs, mermaids, nereids, elves, sylphs, salamanders, beasts, dragons, basilisks, sorcerers, werewolves, demonic fauna —funny and grotesque—, hidden treasures, hidden kingdoms , magical caves and mountains, enchanted forests, springs of crystalline water, dark marine depths... Beings —such as elementals, spirits or men— and places —of earth, fire, air and water— that bring us closer to ourselves , to nature itself, to the pure etheric spirit, the anima mundi, where everything and everyone (living and dead) are interconnected in a spiritual way.

Tales, legends and myths loaded with folklore and popular traditions, between the real and imaginary, that help us understand and glimpse that there are forces that have been acting in our world for centuries with a higher purpose endowed with meaning.

“Nature is alive and populated with invisible _ intelligent forces and beings. Some humans seek their contact and they want it too, but first we must learn to know them..."

 Jesús Callejo

CULEBRE

Rural dragon or deadly winged serpent located in Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia, north of León and Palencia. This giant beast with a powerful jaw and forked tongue inhabits mountain caves, cliffs, rocky outcrops and caves. She is a guardian of treasures, the terror of villagers and shepherds, and devourer of maidens.

NUBEIRO

He is the lord of atmospheric phenomena, of rain, storms, hail... They are ruthless and mischievous beings with bushy beards and aged faces. He wears dark clothes and a wide-brimmed hat, lives in the clouds or travels in them and has fun controlling the weather and causing all kinds of damage to the crops. It is usually accompanied by wolves or ravens and is present in Asturian, Cantabrian, Galician and northern León mythology.

BUSGOSU

A kind of faun from Asturian mythology, half goat, half man, seems to have its origin in some entity of the Celtic pantheon. He is the lord and guardian of the forest and everything that lives in it, he helps and cares for the lost shepherds by showing them the way back, but at the same time he is a cruel and deadly enemy to anyone who dares to harm the forest. In addition, this genius of nature has an exacerbated and voracious sexual appetite, even kidnapping beautiful women to satisfy his desires.

XANA

The xanas or fairies of the waters are spirits of nature in the form of beautiful women and long golden hair. This species of nymphs inhabits caves, fountains and the banks of watercourses. There are enchanted ones or owners of treasures and xanas that steal children. They are collected in Asturian and Leonese mythology.

OJANCANO

The one-eyed giant of Cantabrian mythology. The vengeful destroyer of the mountains that terrifies every living thing. His strength is enormous. He personifies hatred, anger and cruelty, he is the embodiment of the wild, the untamed and evil. This terrible ogre lives in the deep and gloomy caves of the most remote places of the mountain.

GOBLIN

He is a leprechaun from Leonese, Asturian, Galician and Cantabrian mythologies. It is known as the “gorru colorau” due to its characteristic red beaked cap, it is small in size, and has a playful and mischievous character. They are very mocking and sometimes malevolent. They make objects disappear, change their places and entangle everything they can if they enter your house.

It is time to kill the dragon, it is time to tame the ego within us, but also to overthrow all kinds of tyrants, with their new faces and new appearances. Those new gods of modern societies, who try to take away our humanity, don't you see the effects of the crazy technology that has already usurped it from us?

We must not ignore the teachers of Tradition or Tolkien himself - who pointed out in his work the threats of machines and industrial hell against the natural environment, where technology was used by the forces of evil -, who put the emphasis on depersonalization and separation of man from nature as some of the evils of the modern world. It's time to slay this new dragon! In the words of Ronnie James Dio, the magical hard-rock voice of epic and heroic fantasy, it is time to put an end to “electronic serfdom”…

“Silence - we hunt for the queen

Sign of the cross

And pray in-between 

Look by the light of the day

She's hiding till dark

Waiting to play hey-hey

Something's taken a child

And it all must end

Time to be killing the dragon again

Silence - we'll hunt for the lord

He takes crimson and gold

Gave ice to the cold

Oh to be never afraid

Of wolves at the door

Howling for more

More's been empty for years

And it all must end

Time to be killing the dragon again

Kneel and behold your new king

Digital dreams

And wonderful things to tease you

Small gods with electrical hearts

And it all will end

Time to be killing the dragon” 

[Killing the Dragon - Dio]

Bringing in the work of Robert E. Howard was almost a must here at Culters. Heroic Fantasy and Conan has accompanied us since we were children, at home we devoured, in addition to the adult comics of Totem and Cimoc, the super conan and their wild sword. The cimero barbarian, that rogue-air hero who took on Lovecraftian creatures, demonic armies and sorcerers, had us completely overshadowed. Today we are especially interested in how much of ancient cultures there is built in all that Hyborio universe - which emerged after the sinking of Atlantis - of his stories. Serve this "Conan in heroic times. The Era of Hiboria" as a tribute and reminiscence of all that.

Landscapes of shady lands, winds from the north, peaks and hills surrounded by lush forests populated by tribes and warriors fighting in neighboring countries that take us to a lost era before the Neolithic. In those places we see European barbarians similar to the Celts, Goths, Vikings, Vandals, Cossacks, Tatars ... Druids, mercenaries, invaders, thieves, pirates, sailors, adventurers, savages, kings, civilizations, regions, mountains, jungle and desert, distant places and mythical, mysticism and Nordic beliefs, medieval culture ...

We find a perfectly recognizable cosmos, from north to south, from the West to the Far East, emerged after the decline of the precataclysmic civilizations - dominated by the kingdoms of Kamelia, Valusia, Verulia, Grondar, Thule and Commoria -, after wars, migrations and crossbreeds. Different places populated by the most varied races of the Hyboria era. Here are some interpretations:

Zingara —located on the Iberian peninsula, land of knighthood, chivalry, nobility and conspiracies, you travel through Celtiberian Spain but also Imperial Spain in other passages—, Vanaheim —Nordic town with red hair whose name comes from the Scandinavian god Vanir—, Asgard —Norse inhabitants with blond hair whose name comes from the Scandinavian god Aesir—, Nordheim —constituted by Vanaheim and Asgard, is a snow-covered Norse territory inhabited by peoples similar to Germans and Vikings—, Hyperborea —whose name evokes the mythical land of mythology. Greek, inhabitants of Norse culture that shows similarities with the Finns, Varangians and Russians—, Cimmeria —the land of Conan, the Cimmerians are the ancestors of the Celts, Gauls and Scythians—, Aquilonia —one of the most powerful, cultural and militarily, led by Conan, located perhaps in France, Great Britain or Italy - Argos and Nemedia - along with Aquilonia arose after the collapse of the Acheron Empire by the invasions barbarian ions (similarity to the Roman Empire) -, the Pictish lands - the tattooed Pictish inhabitants of northern Britain, with similarities to Native Americans versus European settlers or perhaps indigenous peoples versus Roman invasions of Britani -, Brithunia - similar to Roman Britain—, the Empire of Acheron —whose name was brought from the Greek mythology of Acheron, one of the rivers of Hades—, Zamora —browned and dark-eyed, semi-made people who recall the inhabitants of Ancient Palestine. , an exotic town of dances and initiation rites—, Stygia —a territory whose inhabitants are versed in magic and secret arcana, worshipers of Set, the Egyptian god—, Shem —Semitic references, resembling Arabia, Palestine, the Middle East, deserts with nomads and city-states, people from whom Phoenicians, Hebrews, Assyrians, Canaanites ... descended, protectorate of Styigia, like Palestine with respect to Egypt, Khitai - think of traditional China - Yamatai - a fantastic and stereotypical Japan—, Ophir —a desert kingdom similar to Arabic, a reference to the biblical region Ofir, perhaps referring to Africa or India, famous for its gold—, Black Kingdoms —primitive African natives—, Corinthia —populated by navigators and philosopher, similar to the land of the ancient Greeks—…

Cancel culture is the withdrawal of support, be it moral, financial, digital, and even social, from those people or organizations that are deemed inadmissible for their comments and actions. Those, those or "those" who transgress the new established order. The perfectly orchestrated trolls and bots to boycott and stigmatize the heretic. Everything fits here, we have all seen the virtual lynchings of those who criticize the system, who do not adhere to any side, and are tightly controlled by the thought police. Artists, writers, rockers, metalheads, famous freethinkers who use "non-inclusive" language and have been defenestrated and burned in those public bonfires. It is the new modern inquisition that limits freedoms and censors all dissidence.

Through newspeak —what is language but the soul of peoples transmitted from generation to generation! We think through it and it guides our behavior—a new change in mentality, another step towards cultural hegemony, a new victory to surrender to this modernity. That revisionism and that political correctness that subjects masters like Tolkien or Lovecraft, to comics like Tintin, Conan, the classics and popular tales and a very long etcetera...

Allow us the outburst and exaggeration, but we believe they will end the great works and authors of Literature. The rich language provided by the geniuses —such as Quevedo, Lope, Calderón or Cervantes— of our Golden Age, full of beauty and greatness, as well as comedy, satire and scathing baroque insults, will soon be persecuted and we will have to apologize because these soldier poets, eager for a spirit of adventure and militia, were born in our bull's skin. The century of arms and letters will be cancelled, its virtues and its universal themes of truth, honor, love, spirit, courage, heroism, chivalry or country will be reduced to ashes in this "reversal" of the politically correct.

"God is in the center, all roads lead to Him."

"Tradition is not a childish and outmoded mythology but a science that is terribly real"

The thinker, philosopher and poet Frithjof Schuon, promoter of the Sophia Perennis —influenced by the work of René Guenón—, and philosopher of the metaphysical current of Shankara and Plato, scholar of Christianity, Islam and Sufism, advocated the "Unity Transcendent of Religions" (above the devotional, totemic, animist, shamanic, telluric or lunar religions of a matrix nature where the possibility of Awakening to the Supersensible Reality or to the Supreme Principle that is found at the origin of the Cosmos is not conceived) as an antidote to modern nihilism.

Tradition, understanding this not as folklore or customs but as a reflection on the physical plane of the Transcendent reality, as a bridge between heaven and earth. Thus, man is not shielded before transcendence, he can come to see the light and update that transcendent seed within himself. An initiatory path of the hero to update the spirit that we carry in potential to conquer eternity, transmuting us into unconditioned sacred warriors of the world of becoming.

Let us think of Rome and its solar spirituality, of the Greek Dorians of Apollonian worship, that lineage that founded Sparta, of the Celtiberians with their warrior brotherhoods and the mors triunphalis, of the ascetic warrior cavalry of the High Middle Ages, of the Arthurian cycle, the Temple , the Holy Roman Empire, Taoism, Tantrism, the Vedas, the samurai and Zen Buddhism… where Tradition was very much alive…

That traditional world that also considered that the forces of nature were alive, they had a soul. Nature and the universe was someone. There was a sacral interpretation of virgin nature. From the Plains Indians —Schuon "saw something of the nobility and majesty of the Primordial tradition"—, the Celts, the Slavs, the Germans, classical Greece or ancient China.

Thus, there are clues in the world of Tradition to enliven the Sophia Perennis and face the darkness of the modern world or kali-yuga. The world of Tradition as an antidote to the Modern world.

There is no people more feared than the Viking, they have gone down in history as barbarian invaders, cruel and ruthless warriors from the north who looted, conquered and killed with their deadly axes, however they were incredible navigators, merchants and discoverers, whose mythical stories echoed in the ancient east. Its legends and poems, written in ancient and magical runes, tell alliances and skirmishes between clans and villages, mythological stories where the fierce gods of Asgard, Thor, Migdar, Odin, the Ragnarok or the Valhalla appear, that majestic hall of the fallen where they lived, guided by the Valkyrie, the warriors killed in battle...

Daredevils, robbers and adventurers of the sea... «The worst enemies of the human race» or «The bravest defenders of freedom»? Terrible looters of nabios, corsairs, buccaneers and filibusters, commonly known as pirates, whose greatest splendor took place during the golden age of piracy (between the XVII and XVIII centuries) on the Caribbean coast, which under the Jolly Roger flag faced the great European empires for the dominion of the sea and the looting of the booty.

Dead men tell no tales!!!

The origin of the fascination and curiosity for the mysterious and the unknown in Spain is lost in the mists of time. There are the cults of the sun and the moon, the Iberian gods, Celtic naturalism, Phoenician pantheism... To this day it continues to accompany us along with the seduction of the secret, the eschatological and the dark.

Faced with the empire of scientific reason and materialism, we walk in the footsteps of Magical Spain to observe the footprints of our ancestors and their intimate interconnection with the spiritual and sacred. Our hallmarks —which are our roots, our character, and our Hispanic spirit— lie behind the popular tales and legends handed down generation after generation, behind folklore and its enchanted places, and are already part of our collective unconscious. Reconnecting with all that supernatural universe —forces of energy and telluric power—, far from trickery and ignorance, and rescuing the heritage of that wonderful world is what moves us.

A mythical Spain, rich in Templar constructions linked to dark treasures, secret societies, legends of the Grail, magical beliefs of Islamic culture, Jewish sorcery and cabalistic magic. A Spain of heterodox tradition, miracles, saints and martyrs, idolatry and apostasy, superstition, demon worship, apparitions, processions of penitent souls or souls. A black Spain of obscurantism and witch hunts too. A Spain of stories and legends such as that of the cleric of Eiztari-Beltza and the legend of the black hunter, the nymph of Júcar, the xana Caricea, the mariños of Lobeira, the fish Nicolás, the treasure of the castro of Altamira, the gap of Roldán , the curse of Laurinaga, the legend of the magician Illán...

An unknown Spain with innumerable magical routes to get closer to its legends, the enigmatic, the sacred and the magical. Itineraries through dark worlds and worlds of light, through ancient forests, magical mountains, mystical enclaves, entrances to the afterlife, cave paintings, therapeutic sanctuaries, villages, cursed hospitals and convents, enchanted castles and hermitages, hidden chapels, abandoned holy places , cathedrals, churches, monasteries, mosques, synagogues, alleys of the dead, caves, underground, crypts or catacombs.

Magical walks that bring us closer to the ancestral arts, covens, spells, bewitchments, spells, spells, invocations, curses, evil eyes, sorceress entanglements, ritual and power objects, talismans, amulets, sacred relics; beings from here and there such as evil spirits, demons, angelic entities, possessed, exorcists, mummies, tormented ghosts, heretics, inquisitors, goblins, witches or goblins.

A journey through the geography of the mysterious through its mystical, enchanted and haunted forests like those of Orrius or Baztán; of its centuries-old beech forests inhabited by ireltxos (mischievous geniuses), lamias (seductive nymphs) and genius-protectors such as Basajuan in the magical Otzarreta; or by the chestnut and oak forests and powerful healing springs such as those of San Juan Xar.

This fantastic journey will go through its mountains of great spiritual charge and telluric force, with entrances and interdimensional portals such as that of Montserrat (La Moreneta) dominated by the great stone of the devil that points towards the sky —as a trace of the flight of the devil according to the legend of the woodcutter, a place of pilgrimages in search of the Holy Grail. Or by its rivers bathed in water nymphs with duck feet like those of Bidasoa; its black lagoons dominated by man-eating marine beings in the Sierra de Urbión. And its mountains of souls on the banks of the Duero or mountains of Celtic rituals like the one in Pindo inhabited by magical creatures. Without forgetting its enchanted roads like the Asturian one full of mythological characters and legends or with stories of witchcraft, black magic and cannibalism like those that took place in the Zugarramundi caves.

We can discover the magical thought that underlies Spain through its cities and towns, as in Galicia with its witches, its churches of souls, its old cemeteries, its stone crosses, its Santas Compañas, its pilgrimages or its Camino de Santiago to Finisterre; as in Aragon and the route of the chamineras and the scarecrows; as in the unusual and secret Barcelona that keeps in its Gothic quarter stories of freemasons, Templars, inquisitions, hermeticism and Solomon's talismans.

Or like in the imposing city of Toledo whose hinged entrance door to the old Regnum Gothorum already anticipates magical and hidden elements of the hermetic-alchemical tradition. A city that reveals its secrets, its hidden soul and its magical knowledge —magic, bewitchments, spells, spells and incantations were considered part of the Toledo sciences, which were not at all associated with fanaticism, superstition and ignorance— Inside we find: wise men, such as those of the School of Necromancy —to which famous witches, magicians and necromancers such as Enrique de Villena who practiced divinatory and magical arts attended—, who try to know the mysteries of the Ars Toledana, books that connect with the forces of the invisible, works of valuable knowledge in astronomy, alchemy, mathematics and magic from the different Greek, Arab and Jewish cultures, which were translated by the Toledo School of Translators in the time of Alfonso X; evidence of worship to the secret science of Baphomet by the order of the Temple; or clues about King Solomon's Table —which gave unlimited knowledge— and the Caves of Hercules —which accumulated knowledge and secrets, where only the chosen ones could access them.

In our journey through the sacred and profane —in the forests, towns and cities—, therefore, we can trace magical elements, hidden keys to our history and our traditions, vestiges of our distant past in order to understand thought, anthropology and the beliefs of our ancestors that still survive. We can know how they related to that invisible and supernatural world —which was in full harmony with nature— and make this magical and living Spain the “initiatory Spain” towards a knowledge without prejudices, towards a superior knowledge that reconnects us with the remote and the mysterious.

The irreverent and revolutionary Old skull, the spirit of fun. Skulls were used in the old traditions of satirical and ridiculous poems making social criticism and protest, dates 500 years ago. Also had been used in different plays like the ”Dance of Death” in the 14th century. People needed satire to help deal with the grim world (plagues and diseases) around them. But the symbol emerged in Mexico as a means of expression especially used with roguish and ironic tones against the nobles and powerful of the viceroy times. It is also used during the celebration of the day of the death.