From: magentashadow@webtv.net   
      
   NAME: Ga-Oh, or Gaoh. Master of the Winds.   
      
   SYMBOLS: The Western sky, a lodge with four doors, the four animals that   
   are leashed to the doors of his lodge, a bear, panther, moose & fawn.   
      
   USUAL IMAGE: A giant Iroquois warrior.   
      
   HOLY DAYS: No feast day of his own.   
      
   FORM OF WORSHIP: Not so much worshipped as understood as a higher power   
   who was in charge of an important force of nature that sometimes brought   
   good things and sometimes brought bad, but had to be respected no matter   
   what.   
      
   SYNODEITIES: Ehecatl (Aztec), Fei Lian (China), Futen (Japan), Michabo   
   (Algonquian), Njord (Iceland, Nordic), Stribog (Slavic), Vayu (Iranian),   
   Zephyrus the West Wind (Greek) along with his brothers Boreas the North   
   Wind, Notus the South Wind, Apheliotes the East Wind.   
      
   DETAILS: Gaoh was the Iroquois people's Master of the Winds. Said to be   
   a giant who kept his lodge of four doors in the Western sky, he was so   
   powerful that there was nowhere that he could not move.   
      
   So great was his power he was in danger of tearing the world apart. To   
   keep this from happening he set in the middle of his lodge and sent out   
   a call that was heard over the whole land, soon he heard four animals   
   coming in answer to his call.   
      
   The first to arrive was Bear who was outside his North door, at the same   
   time a fierce storm with thick snow and freezing wind raged around   
   Gaoh's lodge. Because of his strength Gaoh set Bear a place at his North   
   door and put him in charge of the Northern winds.   
      
   Next came Panther who showed up at his Western door bringing with him   
   whirlwinds, tempests and the shrieking and moaning winds, because of   
   this Gaoh placed a leash around his neck and making a place for him by   
   his Western door giving Panther charge of Winds of the West that could   
   tear down forests.   
      
   After Panther was put by the West door, the sky turned gray and started   
   to sob, opening his Eastern door Gaoh saw that Moose was there, because   
   of this he lashed him by that door and gave him charge of the cold wet   
   winds and gray mists of the East.   
      
   Knowing that things were not yet finished Gaoh threw open his Southern   
   door, which brought to him a gentle breeze that carried with it the   
   scent of a thousand flowers, and the songs of a thousand birds, outside   
   the Southern door was a shy fawn whom Gaoh invited into his lodge and   
   put in charge of the Summer winds so that thereafter whenever a pleasant   
   breeze was felt in the Summer it was said that the fawn was returning   
   home to it's mother.   
      
   Ga-oh was a god of the Iroquois people, the oldest democratic government   
   on Earth, and the tribe that had the most important impact on the United   
   States.   
      
   A confederation of five nations, with a sixth non voting tribe, the   
   Tuscarora, added in 1722, the Iroquois, which was not what they called   
   themselves, that name being a combination of what the Algonquins called   
   them "rattlesnakes" with the French suffix "ois." They called themselves   
   The People of the Long House or Haudenosaunee.   
      
   The Nation was made up of the Cayuga "those of the great pipe," Mohawk   
   "people of the flint," Oneida "people of the standing stone," Onandaga   
   "people of the hill", Seneca "keepers of the Western door," & Tuscarora   
   "shirt wearing people." At it's greatest it stretched from Niagara Falls   
   and Upper New York to the junction of the Ohio & Mississippi rivers.   
      
   A matrilineal society, it was the Iroquois and not the Greeks who   
   supplied the main inspiration that would eventually become the American   
   republic.   
      
   Notable for some very interesting mythic creatures, such as the Giant   
   Flying Heads whom one had to be very careful of on stormy nights and   
   Onatah, a goddess very similar to Persephone, I picked Ga-oh as this   
   month's God because with the windy trouble that has been taking plaguing   
   America lately I thought perhaps he was perhaps past due an offering or   
   two of corn meal and wanted to do what little I could to at least give   
   him some of his props!   
      
   Terry   
      
   For images and links go to the site below and find the Ga-Oh link:   
      
   The God/dess Of The Month Club:   
      
   http://community-2.webtv.net/magentashadow/GOMC/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)