Here is a vulgar but "honorable" gesture of defiance in the face of the barbarism of our time, obviously it is not an oath pose but without a doubt if our good gentleman with his hand on his chest from the Golden Age raised his head he would certainly raise his middle finger with a clenched fist.

Formerly the use of the comb simulated and was linked to the male phallus and its magical power to ward off the evil eye, a kind of phallic amulet against curses.

However, its practice as an obscene gesture comes from Roman times when Caligula offered his hand to his effeminate tribune to be kissed, the delirious and depraved emperor threw his finger in that position to humiliate his subjects.

As a direct insult we must go back to the Hundred Years War that faced the kingdoms of England and France when the French cut off the middle finger of all British archers, who, demoralized, were prevented from using their powerful bow. As the war favored the English, they showed them their middle finger to challenge and mock them.

We leave it to your imagination who to direct such an effective and ancient posture ...

Aur Aur !! Wake up Ferro !! his battle cry. The Almogávares were mercenary soldiers, rude, reckless, defiant and fierce, the best infantry of the time they say, coming from the Pyrenean mountains that declared war on the most powerful Empire of the time, the Byzantine Empire. And the fact is that the emperor, despite the valuable aid received to bring the Turks under control, did not hesitate to betray these brave Catalans and Aragonese, assassinating their leader Roger de Flor. Revenge was immediate and this company of wounded guerrillas razed, burned and burned various cities, and seized the duchies of Athens and Neopatria (1337). His terrible vendetta - we do not want to imagine the fate of those who came across the action and anger of this strike force, so experienced since the time of the reconquest and already so showering in the handling of its fearful colltell, that mixture of brutal dagger and enormous butcher knife - has been left to posterity as "Catalan revenge."

In 409 the first Germanic invasion took place in the peninsula, Swabians, Vandals and Alans entered Hispania. The Arian Visigoths, with Alaric in command, sacked Rome (410) and headed, led by Ataulfo, towards France and Iberia. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476) and the great defeat of Vouillé (507), the Regnum Gothorum of Tolosa fell, which definitively displaced the Visigoths towards Hispania. There is a rapprochement between the barbarian Goths and the civilized Roman aristocracy. Confrontations, friendship and alliances that favor the birth and formation of Regnum Gothorum and the strengthening of the Hispano-pagoda monarchy of Toledo. Leovigildo will be the true organizer of the political unity that seeks the fusion between the Hispano-Roman and Gothic populations. His son Recaredo will achieve the desired legislative and religious unity in the III Council of Toledo (589), and his descendants will settle the Regnum Hispaniae with the territorial unity...

There are many heroic moments, passages and characters during the two centuries that the indigenous resistance against the Roman invasion of Iberia lasted. Within that epic that began with the Celtiberian and Lusitanian wars, regarding the entry of Rome into the peninsula in front of the bellicose Carthage of Hannibal during the Second Punic War —The Romans of Publius Cornelius Scipio subdue the hard and iron Carthaginians in the 202 BC in the Battle of Zama. It is then when the Roman Republic begins its expansion in the ancient Iberia of the Greeks ... -, it is worth highlighting as examples of resistance the figure of the dux lusitanorum Viriato, the city of Numancia, and as the last resistant blow of the barbarian Hispania the confrontations between the Roman legions and the different Cantabrian and Asturian peoples, the so-called Cantabrian Wars.

The Celtiberians ready to revolt, despite some alliances, and the Lusitanians organized in guerrillas, knowledgeable about the forests and the mountains, were not going to back down a hand, they were going to fight to its last consequences. Between pacts, bribes, negotiations and finally betrayals that end in massacre stands its charismatic leader, a former shepherd boy, born in the Sierra de la Estrella, named Viriato. Many warriors will accompany him in his fight throughout the later Roman period, much blood spilled, Roman military leaders defeated and humiliated, among so many battles, the great victory of Tríbola, in the Serranía de Ronda, of the Lusitanian hordes in front of the consul Vetilio . The invincible Viriato who establishes his power in the Celtiberian capital of Segóbriga is a threat that must be demolished and liquidated. The consul Flavio Máximo Emiliano manages to defeat him, although the Celtiberians break their alliance with Rome and make a pact with Viriato, considered at that time the terror of the Romans, to try to definitively expel the Roman legions. Years of resistance until the desired peace, which will go through a new betrayal. The consul Cepión offers the three Viriato diplomats honors, perks and peace in exchange for the head of their leader. This is how they will kill him while he slept in 139 BC. The Celitiberian wars were also coming to an end. The last stronghold of heroic resistance would be Numantia, which fell in 133 BC. The Cantabrians and Asturians held out until 19 BC. The dream of Iberia passed away, the Roman Hispana would then be born, but that is another story ...

The famous Warrior Vessel was found in Numantia and represents a combat between two Numantine warriors. In the image we see the duel with helmet, caetra, sword and spear. It is one of the few graphic representations of the 1st century Celtiberian panoplies.

Silio Italicus relates about the Celtiberians: “The Celts came united in name to the Iberians. For them it is an honor to fall in the fight, and a crime to incinerate his corpse. They believe that the dead will go to heaven with the gods if hungry vultures devour the lying body. " The vultures therefore help the soul of the Celtiberians fallen in battle in their transit to the afterlife.

Adaptation of the war scene of an Iberian horseman on horseback that appeared in the ceramic vessels of Liria in Elche, decorated with paintings and epigraphs written in the Iberian-Levantine alphabet. At the bottom of the drawing we have incorporated the bundle of arrows. Whose text talks about Zaldi (horse in Iberian), who is wild, indomitable and brave, with a stately appearance, rebellious and ready for warlike violence.

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.

An ancient Persian myth told us of the coming of an envoy from the Sun, Mithras, who, dressed with Phrygian, torch and dagger, will be worshiped by shepherds, and in a primordial cave he will redeem men through the sacrifice of a primeval bull. According to legend after being captured, he will carry it on his shoulders and kill him. The new world will be reborn after its ascension to heaven together with its resurrected dead beyond the stars ...

As often happens, the myth was lost in time until Rome rescued it back in the 1st century BC. assimilating him to the God Invictus, where after the Saturnalia every December 25, Mitra would be reborn victorious "natalis solis invicti" (death, resurrection and growth of the crops).

Tartessia or Tarshish is considered the first civilization in the West ruled by the legendary Argantonio and located, it is believed, to the south of the Iberian Peninsula, on the riverbed of the Guadalquivir. The echo of a wonderful city, rich in agriculture, livestock and precious metals (silver and gold), is collected in texts, chronicles, stories, biblical episodes, myths and legends. It was the scene of Nórax, Gargoris, Habis and also Hercules, who traveled there, to the Garden of the Hesperides to finish his work, killing the mythological king of Tartessian, the three-headed giant Geryon.

Explorers, archaeologists and researchers continue to search, unsuccessfully, for this lost kingdom of Tartessos, leaving those vestiges in the collective imagination of a unique and mysterious city, of a cultured and happy people, perhaps fused with the Phoenician civilization or extinguished by the Carthaginians. Although it is possible that the classical texts and the sages warn us about the cyclical history of the world... when the very Atlantis that Plato tells us, that wise and advanced humanity was annihilated through a great catastrophe, an implacable divine punishment...

Image: Bronze Carriazo (Astarte, marshes & estuaries' goddesses).

The representation of the wolf in Iberian iconography, as a cult totemic animal, with strong roots in pastoral populations, related to myths and religious symbolism, represents ardor, heroism and warrior mysticism. Combat scenes between wolf and man are common, some symbolize death threat, lineage of power, protection in combat ... and the cult of the night, the path or initiation rite, in the passage to the afterlife, lupus as a guide in the afterlife ...

So recurrent in Iberian art, we find it in the sculptural ensembles of "El Pajarillo", in the Elche-Archena style ceramics, in the mints of the Iltirta and Iltiraka mint, in the "Copa del Carnassier", in the "Torso de Guerrero de la Alcudia"... and in the "Pátera de Perotito" where a young man, his hands are raised in a ritual position, is devoured by the wolf, merging with him, in his transit with the beyond ...

Because the wolf is also death, dying to live, dying to resurrect, when we are eaten we will renew our spirit, as a different being that is reborn as a new man. A journey of the initiate to the world of spirits, a descent to the bottom of the caverns, twinned with a wolf guide who will transfer us his great qualities...

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...

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]

["BAN" (people) "KEBERRIE" (Iberians) "EBAR" (from Iberia). According to the interpretation of the inscription on a bowl from the city of Turba]

The Celtiberian Warriors proudly wore one of their most important and representative indispensable pieces in their armor: the Helmet; and it is not surprising since it, according to its characteristics, ornamental designs and composition, represented its social status. They were a symbol of the Celtiberian elites.

These helmets, in addition to protecting and adorning, had a magical, supernatural character. They were thrown into the sea as an offering and it is thought that the helmets found in a single site could be a type of Sanctuary dedicated to the God of War.

To approach the Tolkien universe on the anniversary of his death is, in addition to remembering his life and his original work, to approach the myth, his ancestral conception, his values and his wisdom. To travel through Middle-earth with its dragons, hobbits, dwarves, elves, giants, wizards, ents, demons, skin-shifters, orcs, uruk-hais, nazguls, men... through its amazing landscapes, kingdoms and places, and to be left alone with the epic episodes and battles against the diabolic hosts of the dark lord Sauron would be to miss his spiritual teachings.

Through the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings or the Unfinished Stories we can learn from the magical and ancestral wisdom of the great wizards or sacred sages, observe and teach us against corruption, degeneration, weakness, envy, the mastery and ambition that will lead to a scenario of struggle between good and evil, as well as contemplating with hope the incarnation, love, friendship and dedication of archetypal characters with heroic vocation such as Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo or Aragorn who will give us life lessons.

[Interpretation of Tolkien's original drawing]

130 years ago, on August 20, 1890, a genius named Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born. Together with Edgar Alan Poe, he is considered one of the pioneers and great authors of the 20th century horror novel. He created an extremely detailed and lurid cosmic horror mythology called by his adherents as a Lovecraftian novel or short story. Many are the artists, authors, filmmakers and illustrators who have been inspired by his works (The Call of Cthulhu, In the mountains of madness, Ulthar's cats, The shadow over Innsmouth, The Dunwich horror ...) turning it into a whole cult. Misunderstood, eccentric, full of prejudices, undervalued in life, he is a genius who He has left us an incredible legacy that we are still playing with 130 years later. Lovecraft Country lives.

La Estantigua (in Castilian tradition), Güestia or Bona Xente (in Asturian mythology), Corteju de Genti de Muerti (in Extremadura), Estadea (in Zamora), Hueste de Ánimas (in León), Vision, La Huespeda… different names to refer to the Santa Compaña, that group of wandering hooded ghosts, a dark army of souls in pain that wandered in the gloomy night through the towns, forests and crossroads as an omen of death. To know its origin, we must go back to Germanic paganism (Wild Hunt — whose evolution under the medieval Christian veil would give the gloomy spectral procession Mesnie Hellequin—) and Celtic (the Sluagh or the Fairy Host) related to omens of wars, plagues, diseases future and acts of gathering souls.

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.