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ANNOUNCEMENT: The material here is based on spiritual channeling. It was not composed out of historical literature. Do not use anything on this page for school projects, and do not use this text as facts. Everything here is based on what spirits of Great Romans have told me in channeling. But since I cannot prove that the conversations were real, treat this text as a fictional work, consider it, imagine, and let yourself be transported into the world of Ancient Romans.
When I channel the Romans, I hope to talk to them about Roman politics and military. But the Romans I meet are always very strong-minded individuals who run the conversation for me. And what they mostly want to talk about are personal matters and relationships, and gods. What I knew about Roman religion before I started channeling, was a very basic and sporadic high school public school education. That the Romans had adopted Greek religion with the gods Zeus, Aphrodite, Poseidon and others, and had renamed them into names such as Jupiter, Mars, Neptune and Venus. When I read about Romans, what little I had read, it was almost entirely about politics and military. Instead the Romans talk almost exclusively about religion and gods. And here is a summary of some of what the conversations with channeled Romans have taught about their gods! All here is based on channeling, and not on history books.
ASTRONOMY RULED THEIR WORLD
When we think of Romans, perhaps I am not the only one who thinks that they would be just like us, very rational and logical people whose belief system was as down to earth and scientific as ours, that Romans were probably the first civilization that was like ours, that they formed systems like politics, military and warfare, and science. However the Romans I meet are completely ruled by signs from nature which they interpret religiously.
The Greeks had already constructed a very elaborate and beautiful religion that had gods, stories about how the gods lived, and had built temples in the Greek world to celebrate their gods. The Romans took great pride in not being Greeks, however the Romans had looked at the Greek religion and been convinced that the Greek gods are true, because the evidence of Greek gods could be shown. Better safe than sorry, the Romans adopted the Greek gods and got to work in making sure that the Roman citizens would also be on good terms with the gods, because the Greek gods were the ones who ruled over powers such as earthquakes, the wind that blew, lightning bolts, and even decided which ships would sail safely and which ones would sink.
The Greeks were not a military nation, rather they focused on celebrating beauty and poetry together with their gods. The Romans, however, for reasons that need their own page to explain, ended up being a warring nation. And so the Romans selected out those of the Greek gods, that were now also the Roman gods, which could give them favor in warfare. Speaking to military Romans such as Sulla and Pompeius, the favorite god of the Romans was Mars, the god of warfare.
The Romans saw many powerful things in the world they lived in. Lightning bolts threwn from the sky into a tree, wind that blew and could move things sometimes favorably to Romans and sometimes not, diseases that seemed to come out of nowhere, strange whirlpools in the sea that sunk ships, meteors and comets in the sky, and the planets in the night sky. All of these, were either a god, or manifested by a god.
How did the Romans end up attributing things that we today call natural phenomena, to something godly? One reason was because the Greeks had already managed to convince them of their gods. Another reason was fear, fear of lightning bolts, fear of whirlpools in the sea that sunk ships. And a main reason was event and consequence, it made sense to Romans that when a sign from the gods took place, then it was tied to an event or a person that was active at the time. When the god Mercury flew over above a hill, then he was giving a sign that he was claiming that hill as his. When the gods threw a lightning bolt into a tree at the time when a significant Roman had an important event in his life, then it meant that the gods had acknowledged that Roman and approved of what was taking place then.
ROME WAS A CITY FOR THE GODS
It is tempting for people today to think that the Romans built their grand city because they were focusing on humanity, on civics, architecture, politics. That it was like when humans build new cities today. But when Romans, whether men or women, talk about their city of Rome, they describe the city as being there only because the gods had wanted it. The city grew out of people interpreting signs from the gods. And Roman citizens lived under a commitment to always serve the will of the gods and to serve the city of Rome, for the gods. The entire plan of Rome and the plan and direction its people were going, all was designed by reading the signs from the gods.
Military men like Sulla talk about the Roman wars as if they were only held and designed based on what the gods wanted and signs given by the gods. Sulla asserts that his success in the military was entirely based on favor from the wind gods, and not on any skill of his own.
MERCURY
Hortensia and her father talk about the god Mercury, which they say is a god that could give disease to people, or he could also give health. Mercury could sometimes be seen riding a chariot across the sky, and he had once flewn over a hill in Rome which became known as the hill of Mercury. All the families that lived on the hill of Mercury were wealthy, and they were the families of Mercury. Mercury was feared, but respected. If Mercury liked a Roman man who stood under the sky, then sometimes Mercury would throw glowing discuses to play discus with the man (I suspect this was a meteor shower).
MARS
The god Mars was the god of warfare and fire. Men who set out to war would make sure they had favor from god Mars. Sulla had been part of a small cult or group who burned their wrists with fire to leave a black mark as a sigil of Mars. Roman soldiers were not given warm pants for the cold nights out in the field, because they were meant to awaken the fire of Mars from within. When a person had a fever then it was the god Mars burning in them. From Hortensia we learn, that when a woman in childbirth has a fever, it means that the god Mars is angry at the woman.
JUPITER
Julius Caesar worked in a huge temple which was out of green marble on the inside. Inside this temple was a huge green marble throne chair sized for a large-sized Greek god Jupiter to sit in. There was also a dish or bowl out of green marble, in which was a dark oil, on which a large green marble orb floated. Romans I talk to claim that this orb moved in the dish all on its own, and if it did, then I suspect temperature fluctuations that were causing changes to the density of the oil in the dish, but that is the modern scientist in me thinking. It was the god moving the orb. The orb had a natural pattern of black splotches in the green, and those patterns and the movement could be read into messages from the god, specific directions on the map to send troops to.
CEREMONIAL MARRIAGES
Hortensia describes the day when she got married. She was dressed in the crown that is made out of small leaves and is open at the front, and in gowns like a Greek goddess. She got to ride slowly in a chariot through the Roman streets. The husband that was chosen for her, was chosen by the gods. This marriage was made for the gods, and the wedding itself was a spectacle given out in the streets for the gods to see, the gods were up in the sky watching down.
HEKLA AND TEKLA
Hekla and Tekla were black witch women with black messy hair that lived on the bottom of the sea. They wanted to take down ships so that they could steal the men who were on those ships and have sex with them. This was a real problem, and it was difficult to even try to find ways of convincing these creatures to let ships sail safely. Hekla and Tekla lived in the underworld in a red crack in the ground called Hayden. There was an actual red crack in the sea which formed a line in the sea with bubbles that were bubbling up to the surface. It was always very dangerous to pass this line of Hayden on a sea voyage. Whirlpools were also these creatures trying to bring ships down.
NEPTUNE
Neptune was a male sea god who seems actually to be quite reasonable. Men at sea such as Sulla would be sure to toss down some pearls for the sea gods before a voyage to know that they had favor from the sea gods. It was easy to win favor from the sea gods.
FEMALE GODDESS
I do not have the names of the female goddesses, but they let people fall in love.
THE WIND GODS
By far the gods that the Romans channeled speak the most of, are the wind gods. It seems that almost every Roman I talk to, assumes that I am the wind gods. Because they say, they are hearing my voice yet there is no one there, and they cannot see me. Someone talks to them through the walls, and that can only be the wind gods! Romans like Sulla are very amused and intrigued when I try to convince them that I am not the wind gods, and he refuses to believe me that I am not. Sulla knows the wind gods very well.
Wind gods are the ones that make the wind blow. It is not ok to talk or write about the wind gods, and that must be why I have not ever seen them mentioned in texts about Roman history. Wind gods played a much greater part in Roman everyday life than probably the other gods, yet the wind gods are not mentioned and perhaps they even did not have temples built for them. And that is because the wind gods are not to be spoken of.
When a Roman man or a woman puts on the crown that is made out of small leaves, the wind gods will show if they approve of them wearing it, by either blowing it off their head or letting it stay. Wind gods put wind in the sails of ships out at sea, or gave no wind at all, or put wind in the sails to make a ship go around in circles or go the wrong way. It all depended on what the wind gods want.
Wind gods can talk to people, but not everyone knows how to hear the words when they whisper, but the wind gods sure do talk to people. Wind gods are also the ones who give disease, and that is why wind gods are tremendously feared! But, a Roman will never hold any fear to them in their heart. You are meant to stay brave and happy when you think of the wind gods, to love them almost as if they were a brother, even though they are the ones responsible for diseases like syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases. Horrible diseases and plagues could be given by wind gods, diseases which we cannot imagine today because they are either eradicated or we have medicines for them.
THE WOMAN IN THE CAVE
There was a witch woman who lived in caves at the coast. This woman was invisible it seems, but she was there because her voice could be heard when the sea and the wind howled through the cave. This woman was nothing but bad news, and many bad things that happened to women and in families could be attributed to curses from her.
GOD OF WINE
Wine was a beverage of the gods. The feeling of intoxication from drinking wine was a feeling that was given from the gods. The Romans have also mentioned the god of wine. Pompeius said that when he had sex with Julia for the first time, he was drunk on wine, and the fact that he was able to have an erection meant that the god of wine had approved of him having sex with Julia, and that is one reason why also Julius Caesar, father of Julia, had to accept that Pompeius had rightfully earned Julia, because they had favor from the gods. (I know, this is not what history tells us.)
COLOSSEUM
The Colosseum where brutal battles were fought, was not there to satisfy an appetite of gore in the Romans, but to show fights to the gods, because some of the gods wanted to see these things. That is why the Colosseum had no roof. The gods could watch the scene. Gods saw everything that happened in the human world, the gods were literally up in the sky watching.
PLEASING THE GODS
The gods watched everything in a person's life, sort of like today we have Santa Claus who watches us and judges whether we have been good or bad. Romans did things to please the gods and to keep them on good terms with the Roman and his or her family, but especially when the gods were unhappy with the Roman, then they needed to do more to try to make the god like them again.
Playing music with a flute or a harp and singing songs to gods was one of the favorite ways for the gods. Hortensia also made drawings of a tree for the god Mercury, and Sulla later explained that the reason she did this, was because it was known that the gods "liked trees", since they often sent lightning bolts into trees. Gifts could be sunk into the sea to be given to the sea gods, and things that were burned were given to the god of fire Mars.
EMBODYING THE GODS
Romans could dress up as a god and then impersonate the god and embody the god. They literally felt that the god or goddess came into their presence and lived in their body. If a Roman woman impersonated and embodied a goddess of love, then she would feel love, serenity and beauty, and she would be the living presence of that goddess. It was not for show, but it was real.
CATO AND POSEIDON
My favorite channeling is the one with Cato and he tells me of how he stays at a fountain of Poseidon waiting for Poseidon to come to him. Cato wants to ask Poseidon to return the men back whom Poseidon had taken when he had sunken the ships. From Cato I learn that Poseidon was a god, yet he looks like a robust built Greek man with curly white hair and white beard. Poseidon lives in the ocean and he has a room which has a fountain and lots of shiny things. Poseidon can use the surface of the water on fountains as a mirror to see. We learned from Pompeius that if there ever is a fountain inside a building, then Poseidon can see what goes on there. And Pompeius said, that Poseidon does not like war, that is why Poseidon takes down so many war ships, and therefore it was wrong to have a water fountain in the "temple" where the bust of Pompeius is stored, at Glyptoteket museum.
When a ship goes down at sea, according to Cato it is because Poseidon takes them down. He wants the men or pearls or gold that is on those ships. Cato fully believes that the men who were taken are still alive down in the sea with Poseidon. Cato assumes that Poseidon is simply one of those many men who prefers to have sex with men. Pearls in seashells belong to Poseidon and Poseidon eats those, the seashells are the plates or dishes that he eats them from. This is why men like Sulla always remember to drop down some pearls into the sea to ensure a good voyage with favor from Poseidon. Otherwise Poseidon will take down ships to get pearls back. Cato had brought an amphora urn of his best wine to offer to Poseidon, yet, Cato did not want to pour the wine into the fountain, to not risk getting any into his hair or beard or eyes. It is the most delightful channeling I have ever made, the one with Cato and Poseidon. Cato even asks me in it, what porpoise dolphins are, and his best guess is that they are women of Poseidon, but he does not know, and he asks me.
The best way to learn of the Roman gods in my channeling is to read the channeled conversations I have had with Romans. It is far better explained in their own words and stories. For more on the gods I would recommend the Vettius Valens chapter in the book "The Romans Channeled", and the marvellous piece with Cato and Poseidon.
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