This page groups mythical creatures by the idea or figure they symbolize. Wikipedia notes that "in Christian art, animals carried symbolic meanings, where, for example, the lamb symbolized Christ, a dove indicated the Holy Spirit, and the classical griffin represented a guardian of the dead." Browsing by associated-with lets a visitor find every creature carrying the same symbolic meaning.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingA cover term. "Spirit" is a translator's word: the jinn of Islamic cosmology, for one, are a created and corporeal species rather than disembodied spirits, and the beings collected here belong to unrelated traditions with little in common but the English label. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredAlgonquian-speaking nations of the northern woodlands and subarctic - distinct peoples, not one tradition - tell of the being English spells "wendigo". Basil Johnston writes of the Anishinaabe wiindigoo and of the ethics of hunger it carries. 3 Peoples and Traditions CoveredIslamic: the jinn are a created species named in the Qur'an, with the ifrit and the qarin among their kinds - part of Islamic cosmology rather than folklore about ghosts. 2Tradition: Islam Learn More
The Spirit Beings
This group holds spirit beings, the many kinds of non-corporeal or nature-dwelling beings of world folklore, from the guardians of place to the wandering spirits of wild and domestic spaces. They occupy the middle ground between the human and the divine.
The browser will find the spirit figures the atlas gathers here. The entries describe each being's nature and its role in the tradition that tells of it.
Associated With
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn
Amira El-Zein, Syracuse University Press, 2009on the jinn as a created and corporeal order of beingsView the Source 3. The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway
Basil Johnston, HarperCollins, 1995The Manitous, on the wiindigooView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.