Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, parts of Siberia and Greenland. Their religion shares many similarities with some Alaska Native religions. Traditional Inuit religious practices include animism and shamanism, in which spiritual healers mediate with spirits. Today many Inuit follow Christianity, but traditional Inuit spirituality continues as part of a living, oral tradition and part of contemporary Inuit society. Inuit who balance indigenous and Christian theology practice religious syncretism.
Inuit cosmology provides a narrative about the world and the place of people within it. Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley writes:
The Inuit cosmos is ruled by no one. There are no divine mother and father figures. There are no wind gods and solar creators. There are no eternal punishments in the hereafter, as there are no punishments for children or adults in the here and now.
Traditional stories, rituals, and taboos of the Inuit are often precautions against dangers posed by their harsh Arctic environment. Knud Rasmussen asked his guide and friend Aua, an angakkuq (spiritual healer), about Inuit religious beliefs among the Iglulingmiut (people of Igloolik) and was told: "We don't believe. We fear." Authors Inge Kleivan and Birgitte Sonne debate possible conclusions of Aua's words, because the angakkuq was under the influence of Christian missionaries, and later he even converted to Christianity. Their study also analyses beliefs of several Inuit groups, concluding (among others) that fear was not diffuse.
#Inuit
Inuit cosmology provides a narrative about the world and the place of people within it. Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley writes:
The Inuit cosmos is ruled by no one. There are no divine mother and father figures. There are no wind gods and solar creators. There are no eternal punishments in the hereafter, as there are no punishments for children or adults in the here and now.
Traditional stories, rituals, and taboos of the Inuit are often precautions against dangers posed by their harsh Arctic environment. Knud Rasmussen asked his guide and friend Aua, an angakkuq (spiritual healer), about Inuit religious beliefs among the Iglulingmiut (people of Igloolik) and was told: "We don't believe. We fear." Authors Inge Kleivan and Birgitte Sonne debate possible conclusions of Aua's words, because the angakkuq was under the influence of Christian missionaries, and later he even converted to Christianity. Their study also analyses beliefs of several Inuit groups, concluding (among others) that fear was not diffuse.
#Inuit
Lord Igaluk
In Inuit mythology, Igaluk is one of the most powerful gods of the pantheon. He is a lunar deity. In Greenland, he is known as Aningaaq.
#Inuit
In Inuit mythology, Igaluk is one of the most powerful gods of the pantheon. He is a lunar deity. In Greenland, he is known as Aningaaq.
#Inuit
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According to Inuit mythology, Igaluk and his sister Malina lived together in a village. They were very close when young, but came to live apart as they grew older, in the lodges for women and for men. One day, as Igaluk looked at the women, he found that his older sister was the most beautiful. He took notice of the unique material her clothes were made of. And so that night, when the lamp went out in the women's dwelling, he crept in and found her by recognising the feel and texture of her clothes. Since that night, Igaluk mated with his older sister many times. As it was dark, Malina was never able to tell who the man was, but one night, in the middle of their copulation, she covered her hands with the soot from the lamps and smeared his face with it. Afterwards, she took a lamp and looked through the skylight of the men's lodge to identify the man who took her. Upon learning that it was her own brother, Igaluk who'd been enjoying her, Malina became red and hot with shame; after confronting him about it, she ran out the door, grabbing a torch as she went. Igaluk chased after her, likewise taking a torch, and followed her path. However, he tripped and dropped his torch, and the flame was put out, except for a faint glow. Eventually however, Igaluk caught up to his sister, and the two ran so fast that they took off into the sky and became the Moon and the Sun. Once every while Igaluk managed to catch up with his older sister, Malina, and enjoy a brief union with her, causing a solar eclipse. The chase also inspired the tradition of the first sunrise of the New Year in which three qulliqs were extinguished and retighten.
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Väinämöinen is a demigod, hero and the central character in Finnish folklore and the main character in the national epic Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot. Väinämöinen was described as an old and wise man, and he possessed a potent, magical singing voice.
Powers/Abilities: Väinämöinen is a shaman who can entrance any human or animal with his poetic singing. Among other things, he sang his way out of a giant's belly, made Ilmarinen fly with a pine, in one confrontation made his opponent sink to a swamp on the spot and put a whole household of Louhi to sleep.
Väinämöinen is variously described as a deity who existed in the mythic past before the world's creation (in which he took part), as an extraordinary shaman who was a master of magic songs and incantations, and as the “eternal sage,” an immortal wise man.
#Finland
Powers/Abilities: Väinämöinen is a shaman who can entrance any human or animal with his poetic singing. Among other things, he sang his way out of a giant's belly, made Ilmarinen fly with a pine, in one confrontation made his opponent sink to a swamp on the spot and put a whole household of Louhi to sleep.
Väinämöinen is variously described as a deity who existed in the mythic past before the world's creation (in which he took part), as an extraordinary shaman who was a master of magic songs and incantations, and as the “eternal sage,” an immortal wise man.
#Finland
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Ilmatar continued to float in the waters. Her footprints became pools for fish, and by pointing she created contours in the land. In this way she made all that is. Then one day she gave birth to Väinämöinen, the first man.
llmatar the finnish goddess of Air and Nature🌬🍀
llmatar the finnish goddess of Air and Nature🌬🍀
Finnish mythology is a commonly applied description of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many features shared with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies, but also shares some similarities with neighbouring Baltic, Slavic and, to a lesser extent, Norse mythologies.
Finnish mythology survived within an oral tradition of mythical poem-singing and folklore well into the 19th century.
Of the animals, the most sacred was the bear, whose real name was never uttered out loud, lest his kind be unfavorable to the hunting. The bear ("karhu" in Finnish) was seen as the embodiment of the forefathers, and for this reason it was called by many circumlocutions: mesikämmen ("mead-paw"), otso ("browed one"), kontio ("dweller of the land"), metsän kultaomena ("the golden apple of the forest") but not a god.
#Finland
Finnish mythology survived within an oral tradition of mythical poem-singing and folklore well into the 19th century.
Of the animals, the most sacred was the bear, whose real name was never uttered out loud, lest his kind be unfavorable to the hunting. The bear ("karhu" in Finnish) was seen as the embodiment of the forefathers, and for this reason it was called by many circumlocutions: mesikämmen ("mead-paw"), otso ("browed one"), kontio ("dweller of the land"), metsän kultaomena ("the golden apple of the forest") but not a god.
#Finland