/Things We Name After Gods
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Things We Name After Gods

Days of the week

Since "the gods" map to human inner consciousness, we will also give a little commentary about the levels of consciousness here, using Robert Anton Wilson's "circuit" framework, which is derived from more ancient teachings that he read about.

For the specific circuits numbering/naming, see Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson. Leary also had a version of circuits as well, which Robert worked from.

  • Monday - Moon day - named after the god (Máni), goddess Luna (Roman), Selene (Greek).
    • The basic emotional state of being loved, protected, and safe. Mother as nurturer. Your sense of security or fear stems from here. The base imprint of safety, trust, and maternal protection – established by the first experience of mother’s love or fear.
    • 1st circuit – Bio-survival circuit
  • Tuesday - Tiw’s day - named after the god Tiw / Tyr (Norse god of war and law) or Mars (Roman) or Ares (Greek).
    • Reptilian brain. This is the mental consciousness of war like mind, limbic dominance, above and below the line, villain/victim (below) vs creative/coach/constructive (above). Will, aggression, boundaries, pride, shame. This is your inner dog: dominance, submission, fight/flight reflexes. The emotional and territorial mind – reactive, prideful, shame-driven, capable of violence or courage, depending on whether one is trapped below (victim/villain) or rises above (creative, coach, constructive leader).
    • 2nd circuit – Emotional-territorial circuit
  • Wednesday - Woden's day - named after the god Woden / Odin (Norse god of wisdom, poetry, and magic) Mercury (Roman), Hermēs (Greek).
    • This is the day of symbols, strategy, language, and wit. Hidden wisdom and tricks, both govern the mind’s ability to manipulate time and language. Language, logic, categories, cleverness, abstraction. Mind as information processor.
    • 3rd circuit – Semantic/time-binding circuit (also known as the symbolic or conceptual mind)
  • Thursday - Thor's day - named after the god Thor (Norse god of thunder and force) Jupiter (Roman), Zeus (Greek).
    • Mammalian social brain. Culture, Tribal codes, status games, honor, and the forming of social bonds. This circuit navigates acceptance, pride, shame, and status within the tribe. Morality, social rules, status, mating behaviors, culture.
    • 4th circuit – Socio-sexual circuit
  • Friday - Frigg’s day - named after the goddess Frigg (Old English / Germanic Norse wife of Odin, goddess of love) or Freya (Norse goddess of sex, fertility, magic) Venus (Roman), Aphrodite (Greek).
    • Bliss, sensory pleasure, body-mind connection. Turn-on, relaxation, dance, cannabis, orgasm. This circuit awakens joy and present-tense bodily bliss – yoga, tantric flow, pleasure without guilt. These states alter body-time awareness.
    • 5th circuit – Neurosomatic circuit
  • Saturday - Saturn's day - named after the god Saturn (Roman god of time, structure, karma, agriculture), Kronos (Greek)
    • Visionary awareness, systems thinking, psychic time-travel. Transcends cause/effect thinking. The circuit of detachment and pattern recognition. Saturn governs limits and boundaries – but in this circuit, we begin to master them through insight, reflection, and synthesis of experiences into wisdom. Detachment allows visionary insight.
    • 6th circuit – Neuroelectric circuit
  • Sunday - Sun day - named after the Sun, Sol (Norse/Roman), Helios (Greek).
    • The bringer of life, but also of inner divine light. Cosmic consciousness, ancestral memory, archetypal symbols, the “inner light.” Sunday is illumination – not just the solar orb, but the awakening of consciousness to itself. It’s the awareness that you are part of a long evolutionary line – spiritual DNA humming with myth, memory, and meaning.
    • 7th circuit – Neurogenetic circuit

  • The Void - nameless. timeless. dayless. beyond the cycle... Union with the cosmos, ego-dissolution, pure consciousness. Sometimes linked to psychedelics, near-death experience, transcendent experience. The meta-programmer becomes aware of itself. No name, no shape. Ego dies. All circuits dissolve into the great hum. This is where mystics, trippers, and the nearly-dead glimpse the holographic unity.
    • 8th circuit – Psycho-atomic or quantum non-local awareness.

Day of the WeekGermanic Deity NameNorse Deity NameRoman Deity NameGreek Deity NameConsciousness Meaning
MondayMonāMániLunaSeleneNurture, maternal intuition, cycles
TuesdayTiw / TīwTyrMarsAresWar, courage, will, aggression, personal boundaries
WednesdayWodenOdinMercuryHermesWisdom, language, generational knowledge sharing
ThursdayThunorThorJupiterZeusSocio-cultural structure, justice, moral authority, leadership
FridayFriggFrigg / Freya¹VenusAphroditeLove, bliss, sensual pleasure, body-mind connection
Saturday— (Laugardagr)²SaturnKronosTimelessness, structure, visionary insight through detachment, awareness
SundaySunnaSólSolHeliosInner light, life, cosmic consciousness, archetypal insights, illumination

Footnotes

  1. Friday – Named after Frigg, but Freya shares domain traits with Venus/Aphrodite, leading to conflation.
  2. Saturday – In Old Norse, it became “Laugardagr” ("Bath Day") rather than being named after a god, unlike Latin dies Saturni.

Time

TermRoot / Named AfterMeaning / Association
ChronographKronos (Greek god of time)Timekeeper, structured time (e.g. clock or watch)
HourHorusSun’s position in the sky — “Which Horus rules this hour?”
DayDeis / Deus (Latin for “god”), dʰegʷh- (PIE, to shine, burn), Deitythe shining light of the Sun "god", Sol (Roman), Helios (greek). Deus (god) and divine light. Dies = day, of a particular Roman deity.
MonthMoon (Latin mensis)Luna is the name for our moon, named after the goddess. Month is one full lunar cycle (about 29.5 days) — feminine, rhythmic. Full cycles of waxing and waning. The Moon’s role in menstruation, tides, and ritual calendars made it a biological and sacred timekeeper.
Great YearPlatonic Aeon / Zodiac Cycle25,920-year precessional cycle — macrocosmic clock. aka: age, epoch.
EonPlatonic “Aeon”very long but finite time period, age, epoch, lifetime, eternity (greek adion); Influenced by Aion (Greek)

Egyptian understanding of time, and gods

Time of DayDeityConsciousness Phase
DawnHorus risingAwakening, vision, clarity begins.
NoonRaPower, agency, identity.
SunsetSetDescent into unknown, chaos, shadow. Ra goes to Seth, it Sets. Set’s domain is twilight, sleep, confusion, night, the unknown — symbolically akin to egoic shadow, death, or disorientation.
MidnightOsirisDeath, mystery, stillness, inner wisdom
Pre-dawnThoth / Isis / VenusDream, memory, preparing for rebirth. Dawn bringer.
RebirthHorus againNew day, new self

  • Hour - Horus - What hour (horus) is it? horizon. Hours of the day track the movements of the sun, which are the movements of Horus in the sky. Eye of Horus is a mathematical fraction system, used to divide time, senses, and offerings.
  • Sunset - Seth - Ra goes to Seth, it Sets. Set’s domain is twilight, sleep, confusion, night, the unknown — symbolically akin to egoic shadow, death, or disorientation. ego unraveling: fear, illusion, madness, or creative unbinding.
  • Noon - Ra is the sun at high noon — blazing clarity, total power. When at noon, all shadows vanish. You are most "you".
  • Osiris - The Dead Sun, Rooted in the Soil - god of the dead, rebirth, and agriculture, the sun below the horizon. Every day, Ra dies into Osiris — and is reborn as Horus. Represent mystical ego-death initiation. under the earth, in it’s tomb (Night)

Iēs / Yes

  • "Yes" = the head nod, following the arc of the rising sun.
  • This affirmative gesture follows the path of Horusupward and forward.
  • Iēs = Yes
  • Ios = Poison, but also vision / trance (Greek: ἰός = arrow, venom, insight)
  • Iesoue (Joshua), Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous)
  • nod our heads “yes” up/down because how the sun rises. Constantine - took Mithraic god of the sun - called it Yes Krishna (Yeshua / Jesus Christ)

Planets

Thing NamedDeityPantheonDomain
MarsMarsRomanWar, aggression
VenusVenusRomanLove, beauty
MercuryMercuryRomanSpeed, communication
JupiterJupiterRomanKingship, justice
SaturnSaturnRomanTime, harvest, order
UranusUranusGreekSky, primordial heavens
NeptuneNeptuneRomanSea, storms
PlutoPlutoRomanUnderworld, death
Earth (Terra)TerraRomanEarth, fertility

Months of the Year — Origins and Deities

MonthNamed AfterPantheon / SourceMeaning / Association
JanuaryJanusRomanGod of doors, gates, transitions, beginnings and endings. Faces both past and future. Perfect for the first month.
FebruaryFebrua (Festival of Purification)Roman (Sabine origin)From Februarius mensis, the month of ritual purification. Associated loosely with Pluto/Hades through themes of death and cleansing.
MarchMarsRomanGod of war and agriculture. March marked the start of the war season in Rome.
AprilAphrilis (possibly from Aphrodite)Greek / RomanPossibly linked to Aphrodite (Venus) — month of opening (aperire in Latin) — opening of flowers and spring. Etymology is debated.
MayMaiaGreek / RomanGoddess of growth, fertility, motherhood. One of the Pleiades. Month associated with growing plants.
JuneJunoRomanQueen of the gods, protector of women and marriage. Matronly power and authority.
JulyJulius CaesarRoman (historical)Renamed from Quintilis (fifth month) in honor of Caesar. Originally the fifth month before calendar reform.
AugustAugustus CaesarRoman (historical)Renamed from Sextilis (sixth month) to honor Emperor Augustus.
SeptemberSeptem (seven)Latin (numeral)Means “seventh” — kept its name even after calendar reform moved it to month nine.
OctoberOcto (eight)Latin (numeral)“Eighth” month — still in the tenth position.
NovemberNovem (nine)Latin (numeral)“Ninth” month — now the eleventh.
DecemberDecem (ten)Latin (numeral)“Tenth” month — now the twelfth.

Notes:

  • Calendar reform: The original Roman calendar began in March, which is why the "numbered" months from September onward are offset by two.
  • July and August were renamed to honor powerful emperors, disrupting the original numeric pattern.
  • Only January, February, March, April, May, and June are possibly or clearly theophoric (named after deities or divine concepts).
  • February’s Februa purification festival honored Februus, a god of purification and possibly linked with Pluto (underworld).

Other Words

WordRoot DeityPantheonMeaning
JovialJupiter (Jove)RomanCheerful, kingly (Jupiter seen as benevolent)
MartialMarsRomanWarlike
VenerealVenusRomanRelated to love or sex
MercurialMercuryRomanChangeable, quick-witted
LunaticLunaRomanOriginally: moonstruck, madness tied to lunar cycles
EroticErosGreekPassionate or sexual love
VolcanoVulcanRomanGod of fire and forge
PanicPanGreekGod of the wild — sudden fear in open places
CerealCeresRomanGoddess of agriculture, grains
HygieneHygieiaGreekGoddess of health, daughter of Asclepius