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Animal Worship




Animal Worship:

Has been around since the beginning of human existence.

Clearly, the magnificence and enduring elements of fascination that man has held for all the different strengths of such a vast amount of animals that occupy the same space as man.

Animal worship has taken the different abilities of such animals that inhabit mans space in different areas and countries. Worshiping the different animal may take different forms of birds of flight to the running ability of land animals to the strength in magnitude to others.

Animal worship takes the different forms as art, animal movements in dance and respect of a specific animals private space and safety, such as the sacred cow in India. Where they roam the streets with their human inhabitance, without fear of being in danger.

So human worship still is very alive today, maybe not as much as it was in the old days past, yet you can still see the ruminants today with art and figurines, literature of peoples past.



Dog



Actual dog animal worship is uncommon. The Nosarii of western Asia are said to worship a dog. The Kalang of Java had a cult of the red dog, each family keeping one in the house. According to one authority the dogs are images of wood which are worshipped after the death of a member of the family and burnt after a thousand days.

In Nepal it is said that dogs are worshipped at the festival called Khicha Puja. Among the Harranians dogs were sacred, but this was rather as brothers of the mystae.





Horse



There is some reason to believe that Poseidon, like other water gods, was originally conceived under the form of a horse. In the cave of Phigalia Demeter was, according to popular tradition, represented with the head and mane of a horse, possibly a relic of the time when a non-specialized corn-spirit bore this form.

Her priests were called Poloi (Greek for "colts") in Laconia. In Gaul we find a horse-goddess, Epona. There are also traces of a horse-god, Rudiobus. The Gonds in India worship a horse-god, Koda Pen, in the form of a shapeless stone, but it is not clear that the horse is regarded as divine. The horse or mare is a common form of the corn-spirit in Europe.






Leopard




Animal worship of the cult of the leopard is widely found in West Africa. Among the Ashanti people a man who kills one is liable to be put to death; no leopard skin may be exposed to view, but a stuffed leopard is worshipped.

On the Gold Coast a leopard hunter who has killed his victim is carried round the town behind the body of the leopard; he may not speak, must besmear himself so as to look like a leopard and imitate its movements. In Loango a prince's cap is put upon the head of a dead leopard, and dances are held in its honour.





Lion




The lion was associated with the Egyptian deities Horus, Nefertum, Ra and Sekhmet. There was a lion-god at Baalbek . The pre-Islamic Arabs had a lion-god, Yaghuth. In modern Africa we find a lion-idol among the Balonda





Tiger



The tiger is associated with the Hindu deities Shiva and Durga. In Pokhara, Nepal the tiger festival is known as Bagh Jatra.

Celebrants dance disguised as tigers and "hunted". The Warali tribe of Maharashtra, India worship Waghia the lord of tigers in the form of a shapeless stone. In Hanoi and Manchuria tiger-gods are also found.





Wolf



Both Zeus and Apollo were associated with the wolf by the Greeks, but it is not clear that this implies a previous cult of the wolf. It is frequently found among the tutelary deities of North American dancing or secret societies. The Tlingit had a god, Khanukh, whose name means "wolf," and worshipped a wolf-headed image.




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