The Swan an Ancient Indo-European Solar Symbol

One of the most beautiful and ethereal of Richard Wagner`s operas or music dramas to use the correct term, is Lohengrin, first performed in 1850 in Weimar. It is particularly remembered by people for its Bridal Chorus in Act 3, marking the marriage between the hero Lohengrin and Elsa, the sister of Gottfried, Duke of Brabant.
Lohengrin is the son of Parsifal, another Wagnerian hero. He is the Swan Knight who comes from Hyperborea to rescue the wrongly accused Elsa who is being tried for the alleged murder of her brother. Lohengrin has appeared in Elsa`s dreams and she knows that these dreams have a prophetic quality. He thus arrives by a boat drawn by a swan. The swan is recognised by scholars as being an ancient pre-xtian Indo-European symbol, associated with the sun.

"Its manifestly prominent role in the solar cults of Bronze Age Europe, for example, doubtless helped to establish its permament position in the mythology and in the literary legends of later Europe."[Pagan Celtic Britain, 1967, Anne Ross].

In Germanic mythology we may recall the stories of swan maidens such as in the legend of Wayland the Smith. It would appear to be an inheritance that is common to both the Germanic and Celtic peoples and thus probably signifies a joint inheritance from Aryan[Proto-Indo-European] times.

"The impressive weight of evidence for the perpetuation of the motif of the chain-bearing, music making, boat-or chariot-pulling swans of Urnfield and Hallstatt Europe in verbal form in some of the stories current in mediaeval Ireland and in Germanic literature, is one of the most satisfactory illustrations of the extraordinary longevity of cult legends which had their origin in pre-Celtic Europe.The persistence and frequency with which motifs, clearly derived from earlier cult practice, are found in the literatures of the early Celtic world is noteworthy. The Germanic `Swan Knight` legends, having obvious affinities with the Celtic material, probably stem independently from the same cult source, although in all probability reinforced and given a fresh stimulus by contact with the Irish Church during its missions to Europe."[Ross]

The swan solar motif is not confined to the Celto-Germanic cultural area but can be found in other lands settled by Aryans such as India:

"The Irish gods and the Celestial Rishis of India take the form of swans, like the swan-maidens when they visit mankind."[Indian Myth and Legend, 1913, Donald A. Mackenzie]

There is no doubt that the motif of the swan as a sun symbol is extremely ancient and predates both the Celtic and Germanic peoples. How far back this concept goes is difficult to say but it certainly predates the Iron Age. Evidence from the Bronze Age in the form of bronze swan heads with rings for chains under their beaks have been found in central Europe.

Lohengrin is referred to in Wolfram von Eschenbach`s Parzival as being the son of Parzival and Condwiramurs. Wagner presents Lohengrin as a much more of a Hyperborean hero than his father Parsifal.
He mysteriously makes his entrance into the earthly plane of existence via a swan pulled boat and as we have established the swan is an ancient Indo-European solar motif. He forbids his wife Elsa to enquire of his name or land of origin. The penalty for doing so is that he would have to return to his land and leave her behind which in fact does happen. One is reminded of a similar condition from Greek mythology where Cupid forbids Psyche to enquire of his identity.

Some scholars seek the origins of Lohengrin in the Anglo-Saxon myth of Skeaf, the culture-bringing hero of the Anglo-Saxons.

"Scholars are now universally agreed that the origin of the Swan-Knight story is to be found in the myth of Skeaf, the reputed ancestor of the Anglo-Saxons. This legend relates how to the shores of these, our own ancestors, there drifted a rudderless boat, in which, cradled on a sheaf of corn, and surrounded by arms and treasure, there lay a sleeping child. To the child the Angles gave the name of Skeaf, from the sheaf of corn on which he lay. Grown to manhood he became their king, and from him they learned the arts of peace and of war. At length the king died, and obedient to his will they bare the body to the seashore, laid it again in the ship which had brought him hither, and the vessel and its burden drifted away into the unknown distance. From Skeaf sprang a mighty race of kings, and the folk were fain to believe that this mysterious ancestor of their rulers had been in truth a god."[Legends of the Wagner Drama, 1900, Jessie L. Weston]

 The God Hoenir was also connected to the swan myth via folk songs and folk lore surviving from the Faroe Islands and considered to a spring or light God.[See Weston, 1900]. Lug the principal Celtic Light God announces the birth of His son, the Irish hero Cuchulainn via a flight of unnamed birds which some conjecture to be swans. It would seem therefore that the appearance of the swan with the introduction of the hero is a way of announcing and indicating the arrival of a solar hero, a Sonnenmensch, a God-man.

Schutzstaffel, Schwarze Sonne and Schwarze Stein

National Socialism was more than a political ideology it was an entire Weltanschauung, almost a religion and indeed more than a religion.

"Do you understand now the profound significance of our National Socialist movement? Whoever sees in National Socialism nothing but a political movement doesn`t know much about it.............It is even more than a religion: it is the will to create mankind anew."[Hitler Speaks]

Like all religions it had an exoteric and an esoteric aspect. Miguel Serrano recognised that the exoteric war had been lost in 1945 but the esoteric war continues and it is this struggle that we are engaged in today.

Like National Socialism the elite organisation known as the SS had both an exoteric and an esoteric aspect.
Externally it was initially Adolf Hitler`s Protection Squad[Schutzstaffel] which later was enlarged by its subsequent leader Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler[ the fourth out of five leaders in total] into a police force and elite military unit.
Its outward trappings became more occultic-two Sig runes for its symbol, its use of the Totenkopf[Death`s Head] and black uniforms, reminiscent of the ancient Teutonic Harii.

SS men were encouraged to relinquish their former allegiance to xtianity and were indoctrinated into Rune Lore and ancient Teutonic heathen rituals to mark the seasons of the year. Fire was also venerated in their night time rituals.

The public and exoteric interpretation of SS[Schutzstaffel] had an inner esoteric interpretation-Schwarze Sonne. This was only known to the higher initiates of the organisation who actively sought to transform it under Himmler`s leadership into a mystical order of warrior monks with their centre at Schloss Wewelsburg.

After the external collapse of the German Reich in 1945 the Swastika symbol was replaced by the Schwarze Sonne and this was to be seen on German fighter aircraft in the closing days of WWII. The golden visible sun[the external Aryan Reich] gave way to the black invisible sun of the esoteric internal Aryan Reich. The war which had been thought on the earth in gross matter was now being fought on other planes of reality in spirit-and still is!

Like the SS symbol the Schwarze Sonne consists of Sig runes but 12 in number, all radiating from a centre. These runes signify the 12 knights of the Round Table, a mystical secret order. They also stand for the 12 signs of the zodiac and as Nigel Pennick has ably shown in his book Runic Astrology[1995] each half month is governed by a rune of the Elder Common Germanic Futhark. Also in many Indo-European mythologies the primary Gods were grouped into 12, such as the Aesir.

"The alchemical metaphor of sol niger[Black Sun] was said to represent occultation, blackening, a sinking into the mystery of self-discovery."[Black Sun, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, 2002].

Karl Maria Wiligut in his writings also referred to the Black Sun which he called Santur:

"Sunur saga santur tvo

Sintyr peri fuir sprueh

Wiligoti haga tharn

Halga fuir santur tvo" [Santur Charm]

The Black Sun became more prominent when Wilhelm Landig published his trilogy of books between 1971-1991.

"The Black Sun shines above the Midnight Mountain. The human eye cannot see it-and yet it is there: its light shines within. The bold and the righteous are solitary but they have divinity.[Rebellen fuer Thule, 1991]

In addition to the Schwarze Sonne interpretation of the double Sig runes I recently identified a third interpretation: Die Herren vom Schwarzen Stein[The Lords of the Black Stone], a less well known organisation which features mainly in German literature.
DHvSS was founded by Knight Commander Hubertus Koch in 1221, a Marcionite Order who were privy to ancient Aryan Babylonian and Sumerian[Sumer-Aryan] teachings regarding the Babylonian/German mountain Goddess Isais[Isa-Is] who resides in the Untersberg mountain in Germany and Austria, close to where Hitler had his famous Berghof retreat at Berchtesgaden.

Interestingly the Untersberg as allegedly the mountain into which the German Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossa[Red Beard] retreated and who will one day like King Arthor[Ar-Thur/Aryan Thor] return to save his people. The etymology of Berchtesgaden is also interesting. This name could derive from the German Goddess Berchta/Perchta.

According to the teaching of DHvSS:

"The Black Sun is the divine source of energy accessible to initiates through a hierarchy of spiritual intermediaries."[Black Sun]

 The Sig rune symbolises amongst other things, lightning, the power of Thunor, the mark of the Uebermensch and also of the sun, the Sonnenmensch.

"life-force, vitality, the light of truth, human consciousness, rationality...........the chariot of the gods was often depicted among the Germanic peoples as carrying a sun-disc or mandala, a universal symbol for the sun, the higher self, wholeness."[Peterson, 1988]

There appears to be a significant connection between the mythology and secret doctrines of the Aryan elite of Babylon and Sumer and the teachings of Armanism which I intend to analyse in closer detail in future articles along with the significance of the Schwarze Stein.

GCHQ and the Eye of Sauron

The recent `revelations` that Britain`s GCHQ has been spying on what appears to be the entire population by accessing their e mails, search engine Internet searches and telephone calls should come as no surprise unless you have been burying your head in the sand for the last 20 years.

For many years we have been warning people not to engage in `social media` sites. Apart from this activity being senseless and pointless you deserve all that you get by revealing the most intimate details of your life to absolute strangers. Now they know that as predicted in George Orwell`s excellent and prophetic novel 1984, published in 1948 Big Brother is truly observing your every thought, word and action. The desperate need for the government to encourage, persuade, cajole and coerce people to `go online` is now revealed for what it is. The primary reason for this big push for us all to `go digital` is to enable their security services to have a broader base of people to spy on. Now they do not need to follow us in cars whilst they peer over the tops of their newspapers. All they have to do is remain at their desks in GCHQ, the National Domestic Extremism Unit of the Metropolitan Police, MI5 and M16 and who knows what other secret secret spy agencies and tap into our telephone lines and everything is revealed. The government`s failed attempt to push through its unpopular Draft Communications Data Bill was merely a smokescreen as they have been routinely spying on us for years, stealing our data on a day to day business. They have no need whatsoever to involve Internet Service Providers. The bill was a red herring.

Now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag will this change anything for the millions of smart phone addicts and morons who seek their 15 minutes of fame on Facebook, Twitter and the like? I doubt it. Most people really don`t care what their government does to them. They are walking blindfolded into the world predicted by both George Orwell and Professor Tolkien. The Eye of Sauron sees everything, not only our digital communications  but through a conservatively estimated nearly 2,000,000 CCTV cameras, more than any other country in the world including communist China!  It is virtually impossible for any of us to avoid the All Seeing Eye of Sauron.

It is significant that in several places in Tolkien`s Lord of the Rings the Eye of Sauron is referred to as the Lidless Eye. Why `lidless` you may ask? Because it never sleeps! Our surveillance is constant!
I would encourage people to only use digital communications as a last resort and to never reveal sensitive information using modern media. The old fashioned letter and postage stamp has much to commend it. It is still the most secure means of distant communications.

Ragnarok-Korangar, Walhalla-Allah Law and the Survival of Aryan Man

Problems regarding over-population and pollution of Mutter Erde will one day be resolved with the cosmos shaking event known as Ragnarok.
The catalyst that will start Ragnarok will be the final global war between the zionist world represented by the United States of America and her pet poodle the United Kingdom against their long time enemy Russia alongside countries such as China and zionist-free middle-eastern countries such as Iran. One can see these sides in the process of alligning now. This is the real reason why Israel and her zionist allies will do anything they can to resist Iran developing nuclear capability for military purposes.
It is ironic that the only military power to have ever used nuclear weapons in anger is the USA and yet she sits in judgement over countries such as Iran who wish to have the same capability. The USA has set itself up as the self-appointed arbiter of who should be allowed to join the select nuclear club which it appears to chair.

Once this war has begun we will see the real dark powers in operation. What will begin as a middle-eastern war thought indirectly between the USA and Russia with their proxies doing the actual fighting will escalate into a conflict between between the Semite and the Aryan, between the dark forces of the Demiurge Jehovah/Allah and the forces of light led by Woden-reborn in the form of Wid-Ar the avenger.
The USA is merely a husk. It has no power in and of itself. It was formed by zionist forces centuries ago to become its enforcer in the world. It is Judaism which is responsible for the creation of Islam. Without Judaism there would have been no Islam and no Christianity. All three monotheistic religions have the same genesis and hold or have held similar Weltanschauungen. Their intolerance of dissent is a matter of record and history. Islam is currently at the same spiritual stage as Christianity was in the Middle Ages. Christianity is now dying but it still has some influence in the USA and in particular in the White House.

Zionists are not necessarily Jews. Many of them are Europid Christians who recognise themselves to be the `little brothers` of Judaism and this relationship is reflected between Tel Aviv and Washington. It is not just a matter of Jews controlling Wall Street[which of course they do] they also have a deep influence on American churches and on each successive American President who knows that he cannot afford to alienate his Christian voters.

Islam of course means "submission" and this is what they require of the rest of the world, that we submit to their intolerant religion, a religion that inspires martyrs to blow themselves up alongside innocent men, women and children or to butcher unarmed young men in English streets just because they wear a uniform. No doubt some will say that this is not the `real` Islam, that it is a `peaceful`religion. The truth of the matter is that from its inception it like Christianity has always been the catalyst for wars and that is a matter of history. However the average cowardly parliamentarian in this country will not admit that even though  he or she knows this to be the truth. Parliamentarians are political whores. By the very nature of the democratic system they must prostitute themselves for votes in order to get elected. Thanks to the traitors and idiots over the decades who have allowed England to become a multiracial cesspit every politician must in effect work for the detriment of the indigenous English and British population. Therefore the solution to the multiracial hell that we are experiencing can not be found in the ballot box.

However the `solution` is coming and it will be a final solution, not one instigated by us but by Mutter Erde Herself. The nuclear holocausts that will be unleashed by the zionists will cause a chain reaction throughout nature and will wipe out most of humanity. This we know has happened before many times in the unrecorded history of the earth. As someone far wiser than me once noted Ragnarok spelled in reverse is Korangar-the spear[Gar-Proto-Germanic] of the Koran. In otherwords Ragnarok will be initiated as the result of Islamic fundamentalism. Recently I noticed that likewise Walhalla spelled in reverse says Allah Law. So the Aryan spiritual forces of Walhalla, the Einheriar will find themselves fighting against hordes of the Law of Allah, in other words Islam. Before this battle is fought upon the earth it will be fought first in the heavens-as above, so below.

Some years ago, taking David Myatt`s lead I thought that an accommodation may be made between Islamists and `White Nationalists`. I now realise that this was a mistake. Nothing can or will alter the destiny of the earth so forewarned we must spiritually prepare ourselves for decades of struggle, a struggle that may not be resolved in the life times of some of us older ones. This struggle must first be engaged in in spiritual realms-this is THE key to our winning the war but win we will.

We know from the Eddas that man-Aryan man will survive Ragnarok and once again the term humanity or man will be synonymous with Aryan, Aryankind. There will be no other. The earth will be cleansed and be renewed and a new Golden Age will begin.

"And in a place called Hoddmimir`s holt two people will be hid during Surt`s fire called Life and Leifthrasir, and their food will be the dews of morning. And from these people there will be descended such a great progeny that all the world will be inhabited. As it says here: Life and Leifthrasir, and they shall lie hid in Hoddmimir`s holt. Dews of morning they shall have as their food, and from them shall grow mankind."[Gylfaginning, Younger Edda]

Also in the Elder Edda in Vafthrudnirsmal:

"Life and Lifthrasir, and they will hide in Hoddmimir`s wood; they will have the morning dew for food; from them the generations will spring."

Scholars, in particular Rudolf Simek in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology consider Hoddmimir`s holt  not to be a wood or forest in the ordinary sense of the word but possibly Yggdrasil. Thus we have Aryo-Germanic humanity being reborn from a tree just as their ancestors Ask and Embla were.

The Swastika Stone

Ilkley Moor in the old West Riding of Yorkshire is the home of many sacred prehistoric sites: barrows, rock carvings and five stone circles. Perhaps the most interesting feature is the Swastika Stone on Woodhouse Crag. According to the Guide to Prehistoric England by Nicholas Thomas originally published in 1960 the stone:

 "shows the double outline of a swastika, with a cross-shaped arrangement of hollows incorporated in it. There is a hollow within an open circle close to it. The first motif is common on Celtic art of the last 3 centuries BC, which may be the date of this carving."

Whilst many academics such as Thomas attribute the carving to the Iron Age there is no evidence to substantiate this and in my opinion the age of this carving must be traced back to the Neolithic.  Evan Haddingham in Circles and Standing Stones[1975] makes the valid observation that:

"Here and there, interspersed with the familiar concentric circle patterns, are rocks with surprising variations on the cup-and-ring motifs, such as the famous Swastika Stone on Woodhouse Crag, with a symmetrical layout so unusual that it has often been attributed to the Iron Age despite the presence of imitations on other rocks in `classic` cup-and-ring style."

Haddingham draws an interesting parallel with the Tree of Life Stone and the Death`s Head Stone on Snowden Moor north of the River Wharfe.

"The skull-like Death`s Head marking may be an attempt to produce a symmetrical pattern, based on a triangle, fairly similar to the Swastika Stone. Are these outlying cup-and-ring marks therefore decadent and degenerate copies of the Ilkley Moor rocks, or could they be primitive early attempts?"

My readers will not need me to remind them that the Swastika or Sun Wheel in its various manifestations is an extremely ancient Aryan symbol and can be found on rock carvings all over northern Europe. There is no reason at all to suggest that the Swastika Stone has such a recent origin as the Iron Age. These islands have been inhabited by Aryans for thousands of years prior to the coming of the Romans and they are responsible for the building of Phases I and II of Stonehenge.
The Death`s Head or Totenkopf is likewise and ancient Germanic symbol as is the Tree of Life.

The Rev. Stephen Taylor states in his The Fylfot File[2006] that:

"The Ilkley Swastika Stone is far from being an isolated example of the close link between the number `nine` and Fylfot-Crosses, labrynths, and sacred knots.. The curvilinear Fylfot-Cross may be signifying, amongst other things, the unity of opposites in all four directions, balancing the central point."

The four arms of the Swastika Stone do point to the four cardinal directions. Nine of course is a sacred number to the Germanic peoples and especially to Woden, the Totenkopf being a symbol associated with Him. Taylor points out that 80 examples of this type of swastika rock carving have been found in Valcamonica in Italy, 16 of which are practically identical to the Swastika Stone.This part of Italy was settled very early on by Indo-Europeans. The author also has identified a faded version of the Swastika Stone just one mile away from Ilkley Moor on the Badger Stone. Examples of this kind of swastika have been found sculpted on church walls such as at Little Waltham Chuch in Essex. We must not forget that the church builders did utilise stones from megaliths and it is quite possible that these cavings date back thousands of years.

Some critics may point to the theory that as in the 2nd century CE a the Second Cohort of Lingones from Italy was stationed at the Roman fort at Ilkley that this explains the carving`s origins but they cannot explain the occurrence of similar swastika carvings in parts of Britain not occupied by Rome. So their theory is just that-a theory!

The Harii, an Ancient Germanic Maennerbund

In pre-xtian Germania a band of warriors flourished called the Harii. According to Rudolf Simek in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology Harri was a latinised term for the Gothic harjis meaning `army`. The meaning that Tacitus was trying to convey is that of `warriors` rather than `soldiers`. Today there are no real warriors in the western world only soldiers, a Latin derived term from solidus, a gold coin. This implies that the soldier as opposed to the warrior is little more than a paid mercenary, another Latin derived term. This tells us a little about the character of the Germanic `warrior` as opposed to the Latin `soldier`.

Tacitus refers to the Harii in his Germania:

"For their part, the Harii, besides the military might in which they surpass the peoples listed above, savage as they are, enhance their inborn ferocity by trickery and timing: their shields are black, their bodies stained, they choose dark nights for battles, and thus inspire terror with the shadowy horror of a ghostly army. None of their enemies can withstand that strange and so to speak hellish sight: for in every battle the men are overcome first."[Rives translation]

I prefer the Mattingley translation:

"As for the Harii, not only are they superior in strength to the other peoples I have just mentioned, but they minister to their savage instincts by trickery and clever timing. They black their shields and dye their bodies, and choose pitch dark nights for their battles. The shadowy, awe-inspiring appearance of such a goulish army inspires mortal panic; for no enemy can endure a sight so strange and hellish. Defeat in battle starts always with the eyes."

Simek draws an interesting link between the Harri and the Einheriar:

"The name of this shadowy army of warriors also reminds us of the einherjar, who do not necessarily represent an old detail from the concept of the Germanic warrior`s paradise. A more likely explanation is the night-time activity of the Wild Hunt, which O. Hoefler convincingly interpreted as a band of warriors, which he associated with the cult of Odin."

Caesar in his de Bello Gallico refers to a similar staining of the body by the ancient Britons:

"All the Britons paint themselves with woad, which produces a dark blue colour: by this means they appear more frightening in battle."[Book 5,14]

Woad[vitrum or isatis tinctoria] is a plant from whose leaves a blue dye was pressed. So either the Celts shared a similar cultish practise to the Teutons or perhaps Caesar was inadvertantly referring to a colony of Teutons already established in England as some scholars such as Oppenheimer proposes in his groundbreaking work The Origins of the British which I referred to in my articles The Belgae and the Ancient Germanic Colonisation of England and The Ancient Presence of the Germanic Peoples in England both posted on my Celto-Germanic Culture, Myth and History blog on 11/4/13 and 24/6/12.

The Harii were not a tribe in the usual sense of the term but a band of brothers sworn and bound together by sacred oaths to Woden[the God who binds], to their lord and each other. Their bonds were considered more sacred than the bonds of family and tribe.

Hoefler identified the Harii with the God of storms and battles, Woden and he was right to do so for this God is the one who was primarily honoured by the warrior elite and most of the Anglo-Saxon royal houses acknowledged Him as their divine ancestor, thus conferring legitimacy for their right to rule.

In addition to Woden it is quite possible that the Harii also honoured other battle deities such as Hariasa. An old but now lost stone from Koeln in the Rheinland refers to this Goddess. Her name reminds one of the valkyrie Herja. An inscription on a 1st-2nd century BCE helmet fom Slovenia refers to a God Harigast. This could be an alternative name for Woden whose alternative names include Herass[`army-god`] and Herblindi[`the one who blinds the enemy army`].

I believe that the Harii chose black not just as a means of camouflage or to inspire terror but also for more spiritual and cultic reasons. My readers will recall from my article The Significance of Red, White and Blue/Black in Aryan Society and Cosmology posted on this blog on 8/4/13 that the colours in the combinations of black/blue/green, white/gold and red feature on the flags of most European nations and are a manifestation of the deep cosmological significance of these colours for the Aryan peoples.

A more recent manifestation of the Harii as a Maennerbund is of course Germany`s Waffen SS, a pan-Germanic body of highly trained mystical warriors devoted to the lord-retainer concept which features not only amongst the Teutonic peoples but other ancient Aryan peoples as well. A scholarly work which explores this concept amongst the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic peoples of Britain is Lords of Battle by Dr Stephen S. Evans. The associations between the Maennerbund and Woden are fully explored in Kris Kershaw`s Odin: The One-Eyed God and the [Indo-] Germanic Maennerbuende. I have only a German translation of this work, the English language one being long out of print and the cost of second hand copies being quite prohibitive.An essay titled The Woden Maennerbuende by the leader of our Order, Wulf Ingesunnu was published in Troy Southgate`s Woden, which I highly recommend.

One will recall the ceremonial black uniforms of the SS with their silver insignia incorporating such ancient Germanic symbols as the Totenkopf and the Sigel runes.  As a Woden Mannerbund today we follow this tradition in our donning of black which I tend to wear all of the time. This visually sets us apart from the masses and reinforces  in our minds that we are mystics and warriors sworn to Woden and the Maennerbund in which we serve with the higher purpose of engaging in spiritual warfare for the destiny of the English, Germanic and Aryan folk.

The Bush Barrow Stone Mace-Indo-European Thunder Axe?

When the Bush Barrow which is part of the Stonehenge complex was first excavated in 1908 a number of highly significant artifacts were discovered which help to establish the Indo-European origins of the builders of phases II and III of Stonehenge[as we see it today]. Included within the find were two golden lozenges, one smaller than the other, three bronze daggers, a sheet gold belt plate, bronze rivets and a stone mace.
The lozenges, no doubt worn as breastplates are likely to be royal insignia as is the stone mace.

Readers may be puzzled as to why the mace head is made of stone and not a precious metal such as gold or bronze but the fact of the matter is that the stone head is precious in the sense of its symbolic significance. Even in the Bronze Age the Battle Axe wielding Indo-European warrior elite had not forgotten their origins in the Neolithic and whilst stone had been superceded by bronze as the material for axe heads it continued to have a special meaning for them.

Could this "special meaning" have to do with the stone axe of the Indo-European Thunder God? Followers of my blogs will recall earlier articles where I emphasised that Thunor`s hammer was originally an axe and prior to being made of Iron it was a stone weapon.

" Ryberg in his Teutonic Mythology volume 2[Investigations into Germanic Mythology Volume II Part 1] repeats this argument: "Thor`s oldest weapon is made of stone. The name itself says so, hamarr, and this is confirmed by the folk-idea of the lightning bolt as a stone-wedge."[Celto-Germanic blog, 17/1/10]

And again from the same article:

"  "Thorr was brought up in Jotunheimr by a jarl named Vingnir, and when he was ten years old, he received the stone hammer, Vingnir`s Mjollnir."[Asatru Edda]

It may very well be that the stone mace head from the Bush Barrow burial signifies not only royal authority but religious as well. In Indo-European antiquity the two roles of priest and king were combined in one person and not yet divided. Anyone caring to explore European history over the last several thousand years will understand that one of the major causes of international conflict between Aryan peoples and tension within their own societies is the battle of primacy between the priestly and the warrior castes. This struggle continued even into the xtian Middle Ages. Only in India did the priestly caste dominate the warrior or royal caste. Ancient Aryans of course elected their kings from various noble families but this vote was not a universal franchise as is the case in our decaying and degenerate `democratic` western world. Only the nobles chose the king. They had not yet succumbed to the idiotic idea of primogeniture. Only the fittest should and must rule.

Leon Stover in his Stonehenge City A  Reconstruction[2003]  draws attention to the bone jagged lightning flashes that were fitments on the now perished original wooden handle. He compares this artifact with Agamemnon`s "lightning sceptre" in Homer`s Iliad. He also mentions a similar mace head found in Clandon Barrow in Dorset. This mace head is made of polished jet and has five gold studs inset. Also very significantly the Clandon Barrow contained a gold breastplate similar in style to the Bush Barrow ones. He speculates that this once belonged to one of the four former sub-kings of the Stonhenge Over-king[more on this subject in a later article].

Professor Stover interprets these royal stone maces as representing the "foundation stones of Indo-European cosmology, which everywhere posited a thunder-and-lightning god not unlike the well-attested Thor of Norse mythology."[2003]