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Ankou :deity or psychopomp , or both?

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  • Ankou :deity or psychopomp , or both?

    Some resources say he's the deity of death but also a psychopomp and others say he was just a psychopomp. Although these tales tent to be after the christianisation of the celts.but ones saying he is both originate before. Any ideas?
    Also does anyone else feel a connection to Sirona?

  • #2
    Re: Ankou :deity or psychopomp , or both?

    I don't know much of Ankou but I have experience with deities of death, which might help you with your questions.

    In my experience there are three main types of 'deities of death'. There are deities of Death, deities of The Dead, and Psychopomps. Some are a combination of the three.

    Deities of Death (I call them Death Dealers) are the deities that rule over Death itself... as in the actual moment of death, the process of death, when and where you die, how you die, and the energy of the death. An example would be Skuld, who governs What Is To Become and therefore when and how you die (along with other significant life events). Another is Namtar, who is mostly Psychopomp but can also deal death through cursing a person with disease. Some Death Dealers make the decisions but don't wield the knife themselves (many of the deities of fate are Death Dealers in this sense). Some Death Dealers wield the knife but aren't actually in control of the final decision. Some do both.

    Many of the entities who embody the moment of Death aren't worshipped as deities but are considered to be spirits or demons... Thanatos and the Grim Reaper are examples of that. These entities are often also Psychopomps, but not all the Psychopomps are Death Dealers. Sometimes these deities have absolutely nothing to do with you after you die... Skuld is one of those. Once you die you are passed to Hela, Odhinn, Frejya or Ran... and perhaps one of those deities engineered your death in the first place, but Skuld is the one who decides whether you die or whether you live. She can overrule even Othinn and Hela if She decides it's not your time to die. On the other hand, some do serve a role once you die... Namtar serves as Ereshkigal's agent and right hand, both within Irkalla and without it.

    Deities of The Dead
    (I call them Death Keepers) are the deities that look after dead people... the ones who rule over Lands of The Dead. Examples are Hela, Ereshkigal and Hades. They don't normally control the moment of death itself, but look after the souls of the dead. Some don't get a say at all about who dies and when... they just look after whoever is sent to them. Some are Psycopomps and some employ other entities to do that for them. Some are also Death Dealers themselves and some must ultimately submit to the decisions of other deities.

    Psychopomps look after you between the moment of death and the moment you reach the Land of the Dead. They are temporary keepers of the dead and it's their job to get you to the appropriate Land of the Dead safely. Some are also Death Dealers, and every now and then a Death Keeper will personally come to get you themselves. But there are Psychopomps who are not involved with death or the dead otherwise... Hermes would be one of those. Similarly to Death Dealers, many Psychopomps are considered to be spirits rather than deities, and there are also human Psychopomps... mediums, spirit workers and shamanists who help to guide the dead from Thisworld to the next.

    Realistically, any deity who has anything to do with death or the dead on any level can be considered to be a death deity. That's why I break them down into types... because I've worked with deities and entities who fit into all these categories, and it's clear to me that 'death deities' is a much more complex set of roles than other deity roles. In my practice... it's not enough to say that someone is a death deity... that has lead to all sorts of confusion and misconceptions about how death works in the Nine Worlds because people make assumptions and connections that aren't accurate.

    Regarding Ankou specifically... does he come out into Thisworld to get dead souls and take them to the Land of the Dead? Then he's a Psychopomp. Does he actually engineer or cause the moment of death itself? If so then he is also a Death Dealer of deity or entity of Death.

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    • #3
      Re: Ankou :deity or psychopomp , or both?

      Thank you so much sister,
      Ankou is said to knock on the house of someone . This knock is sometimes heard by the living. (Although in some narrations he screams like a banshee , or is an apparation in the house. )
      Then he will take the soul of the dead person and with the help

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