The Raven and the Wolf

This post stems from a piece sent to me which was posted on a website called Gnostic-Warrior and is also based upon a piece in Wikipedia, the latter not always being a reliable source but I have cross-checked some points from other sites. The post is based upon an Indo-European tribe called the Wusun who lived in North-West China, at one time around the area of the Tarim Basin, which may connect them to the mummified bodies found in this area. What interests me most is the symbolism attached to this tribe, and not so much its history which is rather vague.

The name Wusun stems from -

wu - 'crow' or 'raven'.

sun - 'grandson' or 'descendant'. 

Thus 'Descendants of the Raven'. 

The above is the flag of the Tegeingl which shows four sea-birds, but which originally seems to have been that of the crow or raven, as can be seen in the Coat of Arms below -

The Tegeingl or 'Fair Angles' are thus associated with the Raven or the Crow, as shown in the coat-of-arms and the flag of Tegeingl. 

Around 173 BCE the Yuezhi Tribe attacked the Wusun and slew their king, Nandoumi. A legend says that Nandoumi's infant son Liejiaomi was left out in the wild but survived the ordeal by being suckled by a She-Wolf and fed meat by a Raven. The Raven and the Wolf are both totems of this tribe. Leijiaomi was considered to be a supernatural being due to the legend, and thus invincible in battle. The Wusun, the Sai (Saka) and the Yuezhi occupied the area of Zhetysu and Dzungaria and the Sai and Yuezhi have been identified as Tocharians. The Saka are also seen as Iranians. The Wusun were the main suppliers of horses to the Han Dynasty of China - they were horsemen of the Steppes. Soviet archaeologists recognised the skulls of the Wusun to be Caucasian.

The principle activity of the Wusun was cattle-raiding which is a typical Indo-European trait recorded in myth and legend. There are various different tribal groups associated with the Wusun -

Ashina - Tribe of the Wolf. Also associated with the Raven.

The Saka/Sai.

The Hepthalites who occupied Tokharistan which is present day Afghanistan.

The Issedones. 

The name 'Wusun' seems to have been originally spoken as something like "Asman" this being from the Iranian asman meaning 'sky', the Iranian God Asman being 'the highest heaven'. 

The term Sai used by the Chinese for Saka is important, since there are indeed two variations of the name 'Saxon' -

• Saxon/Sachsen used by the English and Germans.
• Seis/Sassanach used by the Welsh-Scots.

These variations come out as 'Saka' and 'Sai' which is rather too much of a coincidence. Both Saxons and Vikings have also been found using what is termed a 'pointy-hat' which is a hallmark of the Saka and other tribes connected to them - the Phrygian Hat as it is sometimes called. The Saka Tigraxauda were the 'Saka with pointy-hats' and the Saka Haumavarga were the 'Haoma-drinking Saka'; the word 'varga' is the same as 'warg' meaning 'wolf'. In the Chinese Book of Han the valley of the Ili River and Chu River was called 'The Land of the Sai'. 

The title of kingship over the Wusun was Kunmi which is a word related to 'Khan' and to 'Kon' and thus to the Ken-Rune. There was also a greater figure called the 'Great Kunmi' which is the 'Great Khan' which was the title 'Genghis Khan'. 

In regard to the Ashina their name seems to stem from a root meaning 'blue' or 'dark' (asna (Tocharian) is 'blue' or 'dark'). The name also invokes the Ashvins/Asvins/Aswins who were the 'Horse Twins of the Vedas. The idea of 'blue' has been suggested as linked to the 'blue sky' but the blue-dark link may be to the Raven or Crow. Genghis Khan was of the Tribe of the Blue Wolf and worshipped the Sky-God Tengri whose name is  very much like that of the Tungri who were the original Germans. Genghis Khan may not have been mongoloid as has been mentioned in a previous post. 

The Hepthalites occupied Tocharistan and captured parts of the Tarim Basin; they seem to have called themselves Ebodala (Eb-Odala) which is an interesting name. 

The North-West European mummified bodies found in the Tarim Basin area date back as early as 2000 BCE some 4000 years ago. They were found to be Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA) which can be found in many different areas of the world due to the Folk-Wanderings. 

Occult Legend tells of certain distinct civilisations -

• Hyperborea - This was a 'vanished' island at the Far North which 'sank' (or was moved by the Gods into a different dimension) after a mighty catastrophe.
• At-al-land - This was a vast North-West European Continent much of which sank after another catastrophe, leaving parts around the Dogger Bank which finally sank beneath the waves.
• The Gobi - Legend has it that after the sinking of At-al-land tribes moved in different directions and a great civilisation was built in the area now known as the Gobi Desert. This civilisation was once more destroyed by a massive catastrophe. 
• The Aryans occupied areas of Iran (Aryania), India and also areas around Mongolia and China, as well as Tibet. 

In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings the Rohirrim are clearly based upon the Anglo-Saxons, but they are also portrayed as being 'horsemen'. Hengest and Horsa are also seen as 'horsemen' and they are clearly akin to the Vedic Ashwins - the 'Horse Twins'. The Yr-Rune is that of the 'Yew-Bow' which the rune-poem associates with the use of the bow on horseback, something missing from historical records about the English. We are told that the English did not use cavalry at Hastings. Again, in one of the burials at Sutton Hoo, seemingly that of an aethlinga, the warrior-figure is buried with his horse. Tolkien traces the Rohirrim back to their origins as Numenoreans, just like the Kings of Gondor. The name 'Rohan' is phonetically similar to 'rowan' and 'rune'. 

Updated 19th June 2017.

The legend related to Leijiaomi is in fact far closer to that of Romulus and Remus than I suggested. What is usually overlooked in the legend of Romulus and Remus is that they were indeed left drifting in the waters, found and suckled by a She-Wolf, but they were also fed by a woodpecker. So they were fed by a bird, the very same symbolism as that of the Raven feeding Leijiaomi! Thus the Raven and the Wolf are symbols that we may well come across again in our studies. Both the Wusun and the Ashina Tribe had this legend, which was repeated in that of Romulus and Remus. 

The "Great War' of the Mahabharata was fought between the Pandavas and the Koravas, the latter being the 'People of the Raven'.