Armenian Mythology and the Best Sister Ever with Seta Avedissian

Seta

===

[00:00:00] MacBook Air Microphone-4: Hi, everybody. I hope you're having a fantastic day. And thank you for listening to this week's pod. This week, we have a fantastic guest new sector sector is currently in Armenia and witnessing the atrocities going on there. This episode was actually not supposed to come out for a while, but she asked that we bring it forward, get it out there a little bit earlier. And I, 100% agreed with her so that we can highlight what's going on and tell more people about it. We do talk a little bit about it during the episode, but I thought it's really important for us to get more information out there. Setta everything very well. And she even wrote a statement that I'm going to read now. . Many of you. Might not have heard of what's going on in our cash. Also known as not Corno carapace. Armenians and our cash are going through a genocide organized by Azerbaijan and Turkey. [00:01:00] With the support of big countries like Russia and Israel. Over 6,000 Armenians have been forcibly removed from their homes and our cash. And are now. Refugees in Armenia. Most Armenians have had their houses burned. Leaving behind their ancestral lands their heritage, their belongings, and so much more.

[00:01:22] Armenians around the world are devastated and our hearts are shattered by this reality. We feel helpless in front of imperialism, big governments and greed. It feels like history is repeating itself. We have learned through the Armenian genocide that happened in 1915 through stories to be living in again is a kind of pain that I cannot find words to describe, but I feel it deeply in the, in my bones. And through my ancestral DNA. The world found out about the Armenian genocide in 1915 because of a European journalist recording it. And talking about it. So I kindly ask, [00:02:00] especially non-Armenian folks and allies for solidarity. To talk about what's happening, even if it's uncomfortable. And even if it's painful. We are always stronger together. I urge anyone who has the means to donate. Too and follow the work of all four armenia.org. Which is supporting Armenians. I'm currently volunteering with them. Supporting displaced families from our cash. Thanks again, SETA. So the link will be in the show notes, along with some articles, from some reputable sources about the conflict. Thank you so much, again, as set aside, if you have the means you can donate to all four armenia.org and you can also support as set aside. You can support the Armenians by talking about it on. just like she said Telling people about it again, even if it's uncomfortable, it's important that we get the word out there. Thank you so much and [00:03:00] enjoy the show.

[00:03:05] Ashley: okay, hi everybody! Welcome to Dine with the Divine! I'm your host, Ashley, and together we'll be exploring the magical, the mystical, and everything in between. So in today's episode, we're going to be talking about, we're going to be talking a lot about Armenia, so let's just start there. I'll explain everything later.

[00:03:24] So I hope you're having a great day. And if not, I hope it gets better. So today we have a fantastic guest as always. We have Seta. So Seta is a writer, medium, and artist who supports emerging mystics and spiritual leaders and Connects them to their intuition and follow their and helps them follow their dreams through cultivating a deep relationship to themselves Their dreams to spirit and to their ancestors and plant cesters loving that to reach emotional and spiritual liberation and sovereignty.

[00:03:54] Setsu's work is focused on healing our relationship with Mother Earth, to our bodies, and to [00:04:00] pleasure. She's the owner and CEO of Aurev Alchemy. Okay. Setsu has been trained in modalities of flower essence healing. Mediumship channeling coffee cup readings and theta healing her work is dedicated to bridging the gap between the material and spiritual realms connecting to our roots supporting empaths and people pleasers and Reaching liberation for all bodies and most importantly having a good time doing it She loves to travel teach flower essences making Teach flower essence making workshops and thought and offer coffee readings being raised in Syria in an Armenian household she identifies as swanna and Aspires to be a community spiritually and aspires to be a community spiritual herbalist also quick note I was like, what's swanna?

[00:04:51] So I looked it up This is a definition everybody because I think it's important. I was like, I never heard of this So swanla is a decolonized word for the South [00:05:00] West Asian and North African region in the place of Middle Eastern, Near Eastern, Arab world, or Islamic world that have colonial, Eurocentric, and Orientalist origins and are created to inflate, contain, and dehumanize our people.

[00:05:15] So we use SWANA to speak of the diversity of our communities and to forward the most vulnerable in Our, I'm saying our, but I don't, I'm not included, but you know what I'm saying. I got this from the website. for liberation and who is included in, SWANA people. They invite all people of communities from Southwest Asia and Northern African regions, including but not limited to.

[00:05:39] Kurz. Nubians, Sudanese, Armenians. S Syrian. Arabs.

[00:05:44] Iranians, Druze. Assyrians. Ians, I never say that word wrong, right? I'm so sorry if I didn't say it turks Yadi. Aziz Turkmen.

[00:05:54] Aries. Yeah. Yeah. Azar. Thank you. Cops, imagine, [00:06:00] I'm sorry, and others identifying with their intersections in the spirit of third world feminism. We do not believe our struggles are the same, but rather rooted in our differences. We ask the question, can we show up for each other in the face of white supremacy, imperialism, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism?

[00:06:19] We do not, we practice not solidarity, but joint struggles rooted in our differences. Whoo, this is from the Swana Alliance. So that is from the Swana Alliance. I learned something else that I wasn't expecting to learn. That was very exciting So that's a how are you today? I am

[00:06:37] Seta: good. How are

[00:06:38] Ashley: you? I'm doing good. I'm doing good so I always try to ask people what started you on your spiritual journey

[00:06:46] Seta: Yeah, absolutely so, I was just talking about this to a friend of mine, like, today.

[00:06:52] We were talking about how, my supernatural, gifts started kicking in when I was, like, a kid, I was extremely sensitive I knew [00:07:00] what was going out or I understood everything that was going around me without really not knowing the language as a kid, I just knew what was happening.

[00:07:08] And the dream world, like really opened me up to the supernatural. Yeah. And my first encounter was like I remember I did some Something like I should not have done as a kid and then in a dream, mother Mary showed up and like really comforted me and let me know that like I, what I did was not malicious.

[00:07:30] And I was very comforted. I, I always remember that dream. Like it just so embedded in my memory. And I've had, , in 2009 my dad passed away, it was very sudden and I remember, intuitively where, I had this urge to, go and give him one last kiss, it just, it literally, my body just, , drove me there.

[00:07:54] I didn't realize what was happening at the time, but, later on I realized, oh, that was me knowing, [00:08:00] that was the last time I was going to see him, and that's why I, wanted to have that one last Give him a last kiss. Yeah, and after he passed it opened me up to Mediumship more or less.

[00:08:12] He would just send me messages or yeah when I was in like I felt like I was somewhere where I couldn't handle it I would just call on him and ask him to do something and he'd do it. So I just Started that opened it up for me in a way And then like I dove like really into it in 2020 when I was on a, like a meditation retreat, like I wanted to connect to nature more, came back like COVID hit.

[00:08:43] We were in isola everyone was in isolation, and I was like, I had this urge to, connect to nature more, and it was, that's when, flower essences presented themselves to me. I had no idea what they were. Yeah. And what they are, they're like energetic [00:09:00] formulas so it's , they don't carry, the biochemistry of a plant.

[00:09:03] They're pure energy. Okay. They're, like, these little, like Sun potions that like we get to use and like, heal ourselves and our lineage And feel closer to nature by doing so and it you don't need a lot of the like it's very sustainable way of Communing with the plant world and like it has a big part of it has like ritual involved in it So like a big part of it is like creating that ceremonial space and having that communion and like that conversation that permission with the land with like the plant spirits and just like it's such a delicate way of having a connection and like, going deeper with, like, plans, or...

[00:09:51] What, whatever it is that you're working with. Like what? Like a stone. A gem. A crystal? . Yeah.

[00:09:58] Ashley: I love that.[00:10:00] Thank you for telling us about how you got there. That's really interesting. I love how, so flower essences are new to me. So I was like looking at your website and seeing how you, like what you talk about it.

[00:10:12] And so, yes, I see how. It can be very connecting to nature. I love that like using nature to use all these things to heal yourself And I know you like teach workshops on how to do That's really neat. I love

[00:10:23] Seta: that and I teach workshops on how to Collect an essence of a plant.

[00:10:29] Ashley: Okay. Yes interesting Okay,

[00:10:33] Seta: I love that.

[00:10:33] Also like in my coffee readings. So in my coffee readings, I prepare the coffee And then I offer it, I offer the coffee to the ancestors, and then I do the reading. So like, regardless whether you like drink coffee, or you don't drink coffee, everyone can get like a coffee reading. They don't necessarily have to consume it.

[00:10:55] Their like energy of like presence is enough. And I use [00:11:00] drops of the essence as I'm making the coffee. So like, as you're getting... the reading, they're being introduced into like the, like, it's like, obviously it'll be like more subtle than actually taking it. But like, yeah, this is a good way of like introducing essences into your like, energy field.

[00:11:23] Ashley: Oh, that's beautiful. And that's just like, that's like, I feel like that's like that instant connection with like, Nature it's like you don't even have to try when you're using that and the fact that you put that in your coffee readings It's very unique Yes

[00:11:38] Seta: Like it's I feel like it's a new spiritual technology that I'm actually like experimenting with and having fun with and just like it just it takes everything like it go it goes it helps me go deeper with like the person and Also, as we go deeper, it's also light, like I, like we talk about [00:12:00] heavy things in a light manner.

[00:12:04] Ashley: Yes. Yes. And so I wanted to ask you two about the coffee reading. So, I think, at least my perception, of coffee readings, I've, it has changed. I always thought they were more like, fortune telling kind of readings only. Yeah, but then I see that a lot deeper than that. And it really gets into some like, really interesting things, like you're talking about.

[00:12:29] So I was, I've, was learning about it, and reading about it. I was like, oh, okay, it's more than just like A fortune telling thing it can really be a very deep. For some people that was very life changing kinds of readings that people do.

[00:12:41] Seta: I mean, it was life changing for me. It was I was like in a very dark place when I when I got like a coffee reading through like my first mentor in the spiritual, in the spirituality realm.

[00:12:54] I can say that literally lifted me up from that darkness that I was in, it gave me hope and [00:13:00] here I am, offering coffee readings myself. I also want to mention that I grew up with like coffee readings, it was culturally very common in, in my family to the women would gather after lunch, where at my grandfather's house.

[00:13:13] And we would one person would would be. Looking at everyone's cup and just guess guessing or just telling what's going on what they see if there's gonna Be like a suitor coming or like just like in a very fun gossipy kind of Way, so yeah, I loved it. I it was my I loved doing it From the get go.

[00:13:36] So, and it's because like you've mentioned, like it's been it's been perceived as like this fortune telling thing. So it's like somehow, like when you do it as a profession or like as one of the things that you do, it's a little bit for me talking for myself, it's frowned upon, like in my head, like my mom is almost ashamed from this part of like work that I do [00:14:00] I'm just.

[00:14:00] very like passionate about it. And I know, , I know the impact it had on me. And I know that the way it's like one of the main tools that I feel comfortable enough to work with people and share my gifts with others. And I'm at a point where I know There is no pursuing this path.

[00:14:18] So.

[00:14:19] Ashley: Good for you living in your ultimate truth. I love that. Thank you. Yes, that is to be celebrated. I love that. We are going to go to our next section where we talk about our dishes of the week.

[00:14:34] So, and I'm going to mention before we talk about this, I have a little bit of a I always really enjoy like Armenian history and culture . So when I was in high school, I, everybody's like, why did you do this? I took a class called genocide. Sad, right?

[00:14:54] Yeah. Like, yeah, it's pretty sad, but I took this class and we all had to do a project . So I [00:15:00] ended up learning about the Armenian genocide. And I was shocked that everybody doesn't know about this, number one, and I was also shocked about.

[00:15:12] Just how horrible it was. So, ever since then, I love Armenian people. Like many Armenian people, like the resilience of Armenian people is pretty outstanding and amazing. And I just want to mention that because it's really like Armenian culture. Like I started just learning a little bit about it and , it's just really, to me, the whole, to me.

[00:15:39] Out of this really horrible thing that happened this group of people were so like, you know what, we're just gonna, we're just gonna keep going. And yes, this happens in a lot of places. I'm not saying other people don't do that. They do, of course. But I think just for me like at that time when I was reading about it The awfulness of the whole situation [00:16:00] the fact that like not many people Really knew anything was even going on.

[00:16:04] There was like very and I'm not sure how many but I know there was one reporter This is in 1915 everybody. There was like one reporter who got in Because the Ottoman Empire was like, nobody can come in here. There was like one guy who got all the information. He took pictures. He wrote his notes and took it back to America.

[00:16:22] And that's how people even knew it was happening. Because everybody's like we don't know what's going on there. And that's how they knew. But the fact that all of this happened, the people, like the people of Armenia were like, we're just gonna keep going on. And you're like, wow, it's really, if you want to learn more, I really suggest that you If you can read, you know, and learn about it just because I think it's a really important thing that everybody should know.

[00:16:45] That's just my little spiel about Armenia.

[00:16:48] Seta: I also want to add that like we currently unfortunately I, I feel like the Armenian genocide has not stopped. It may be stopped on like [00:17:00] a, maybe a macro level, but like on a micro level. Still continues to this day. I I've, I talk about this on my page a lot and it's like the blockade that Azerbaijan is doing currently in, in Artsakh.

[00:17:14] So it's like they have in, there was a war that happened in 2022 between Azerbaijan and Artsakh and Azerbaijan is someone that's very equipped and Artsakh is basically a small region in , it's an Armenian It's considered Armenian, but it's technically independent of Armenia. But we, there is no Armenia without Artsakh in a way.

[00:17:37] So yeah, Azerbaijan claims those lands for whatever reason. And like Turkey and Azerbaijan work together to rewrite history and claim those lands as theirs, but and right now the. It's blocked, like there is no any kind of supplies is like going in or out of Artsakh region.

[00:17:59] [00:18:00] So, there have been many deaths because of starvation. So, it's like, a modern day genocide. And because they control a lot no one is actually able to stop them from doing this. France actually went with ten trucks, filled eight, like with aid, trying to get there, but they did not let them go in.

[00:18:25] So it's it's literal, like they're trying to suffocate the people as much as they can to basically get them out of there and claim the land. Like before the war in 2022, Artsakh was bigger, but now they took over more, Azerbaijan took more lands and , there were so many displaced folks, but there are like, that came to Yerevan or came to, Yerevan is the capital of Armenia. Or came to like just villages around Armenia. And there are a lot of organizations that are like help or help them settle down. But still to this [00:19:00] day, there's like a lot of like people who aren't able to find work. They're very, it's that like very yeah, it's like a modern day genocide.

[00:19:08] And being here, it's literally people in the city are like a little bit. Like detached from like what's happening like they're almost like blocking it out. Yeah But this is like the reality of like what we're living right now And I'm like, I always used to say like how did the world like allow?

[00:19:31] Like the genocide in 1915 to happen and now we're looking like we're living it right now in life in the modern day but it's like No one's really doing anything.

[00:19:42] Armenia had this, like, we have a little bit of land left and it's like, it feels like they're doing what they were meant to do, almost. Yeah. Which is continue their genocidal ways of... existing. [00:20:00]

[00:20:00] Ashley: It's really, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do some in the show notes, I'll put some information about everything that Sets is talking about.

[00:20:08] And I will put any links I can find any organizations where they're trying to help. So everyone can know more about that, but yeah, it's. I think, I'm so glad that you brought that up I really think it's hard, and I know people say, well, ah, I can't know about everything, you can't know about everything, I understand, but I think when somebody is here to highlight it, it's something else to put in your, okay, I understand this, I know this, I think it's so, it just helps the global community when we all can say, okay, this thing is happening in the world, maybe I don't know anybody who's Armenian, but at least you know something about it, and if there's, Anybody who talks about it, or any way you can spread the message about how this thing is happening and it's wrong.

[00:20:50] I think it's really important for all of us. We're all responsible to take care of each other, no matter where we're from. So, thank you for bringing that up, so we can all educate ourselves and know about that.[00:21:00] Also, fun fact. My favorite. Armenian celebrity is not the Kardashians. It is Serge from System of a Down.

[00:21:12] Seta: He actually has an Armenian coffee brand. Really? Yes.

[00:21:17] Ashley: I love, so, I love System of a Down. And also, I remember, I think it was in 2015. I know it was because it was 100 years. He was making like a documentary about the Armenian genocide. And then I saw a clip of it and he was just like in the woods or something.

[00:21:38] And it was bordering Turkey and they like, this is how I'm not laughing. Cause it's funny. It's not funny at all. It's ridiculous. That's why I'm laughing everybody about this fact. So he was like talking to this soldier. Who's like, Oh, like, what are you doing? And he's like, Oh, I'm making a. Like, I'm making a documentary about the genocide and they're like, what genocide?

[00:21:58] You guys, I'm not kidding you right now. [00:22:00] The Turkish people still, this is a hundred years later. They still act like it didn't happen. There's pictures. There's pictures. There's people who have written books. Oh, another fun fact I learned. Actually, the other day, the lady whose recipe made rice a roni, okay?

[00:22:16] I've forgotten her name, I apologize, ma'am. She, I think she's passed away now, but, the lady whose recipe made San Francisco rice a roni, she was an Armenian refugee, who ended up in San Francisco, she wrote a book about everything that happened to her, all the, all what she went through, it was crazy, and then, she had these neighbors, right?

[00:22:37] And she would make this, like, Rice pilaf dish and they loved it and they were Italian. The neighbor's husband was like, damn, this shit is good. And he worked for a macaroni company and he found a way to like package it. For real? For real? I did not know that was.

[00:22:54] Seta: That is very,

[00:22:54] Ashley: I didn't know this either.

[00:22:55] Yes. I will find the lady's name and I will put, then she wrote a book. She wrote [00:23:00] a memoir. It's very cool. So yeah, you know more about Armenians than you think you do. Everybody

[00:23:07] Seta: know way more everywhere though. That's the beautiful thing. We're literally

[00:23:11] Ashley: everywhere. It's very cool. Yes. And, oh, and not only search is Armenian, everybody in system of the down is.

[00:23:20] Of Armenian heritage, just so you know. It's very cool. But I just love Serge because I think he's cool and he's like a musical genius. Like he, He does recordings for everything. He works with different orchestras. He's like, really amazing. He's one of the best heavy metal vocalists ever. That's what he's known of.

[00:23:35] Anyway, okay. I'll stop talking about System of a Down. Okay. No,

[00:23:38] Seta: I love that they showed up, honestly. I love that.

[00:23:43] Ashley: I'm like, how can I mention System of a Down at some point in this podcast? I was like,

[00:23:48] Seta: I hate it. I love it. I love it. I love it

[00:23:56] Ashley: Okay, so today now we're going to go to our dishes of the week and because we're [00:24:00] celebrating everything that's armenia We're going to talk about some armenian foods one really cool thing about armenia is it's really at like a crossroads of So they have lots of influences from other cultures including like their indigenous culture, so they have foods that are similar to other people's but then they have completely unique food So it's very neat. So the first thing we have here is a food.

[00:24:24] That is a it's something a lot of countries have but it is the armenian version of like a kebab. It's called a Khororot khororots

[00:24:35] Okay, thank you now again That's everybody pronunciation. We do my best.

[00:24:40] Seta: Yeah Basically means

[00:24:42] Ashley: barbecue. Okay, great. There we go. We have kebabs. Yeah, I don't need to explain kebabs Everybody knows that kebab is and it looks really good. Yeah. Yeah,

[00:24:51] Seta: that's like a staple here in Armenia like any Like on a Sunday, you'll see like people outside making [00:25:00] like the barbecue, like the barbecuing with like their vodka shots and they'll invite you if like you're just passing around and whoever passes gets to

[00:25:09] Ashley: join.

[00:25:10] Nice. Oh, I love that. Then we have.

[00:25:17] Okay. Yes. Okay. So this is a dish that is also seen a lot in different like, Arab countries, but like I said, because Armenia is a crossroads, they have their own version. It is a light, it's can be minced meat, lightly spiced and mixed with crushed wheat and onions. It's rolled up into a spinning top shape.

[00:25:40] Yep. Yep. Okay. And usually you can use, you can eat it with a dash of pomegranate, molasses, and brown sugar. Oh, is it sweet? And, or like,

[00:25:52] Seta: it's just like, pomegranate molasses just is like used a lot across the our, dishes. [00:26:00] Okay. Especially like in Lebanese dishes, Lebanese and Syrian dishes. So, it's also very common to eat it with yogurt, or like labneh, which is like like kefir cheese kind of

[00:26:12] Ashley: okay. Yeah. Okay Yeah, nice yogurt. Yeah vibes. Yeah. Yeah yogurt vibes. I love it. We also have dolma. Yes. Yes, which is like your grape leaves or so

[00:26:25] Seta: dolma in army in western armenian in eastern armenian dolma is used for the grape leaves but in In my culture, and how we grew up, Dolma is basically stuffed bell peppers red bell peppers or not zucchini or like, yeah, zucchini, it's stuffed zucchini, it's just, a dish that's very, Dolma flavored, it's the same flavored as the one with the grape vines.

[00:26:51] It's just juicier.

[00:26:53] Ashley: Okay,

[00:26:53] Seta: nice. But also stuffed with rice and minced

[00:26:56] Ashley: beef. Okay. Okay, we're [00:27:00] eating it. So we have okay and it says like this is a this is one of those recipes Where each family may have a slightly different? Yes recipe. Okay, exactly beautiful I love those kinds of recipes okay. We have this thing that as soon as I saw it, I really wanted to eat it.

[00:27:16] That's I do not mean to offend you. I'm so sorry There's a lot of like and there's also I've realized what I'm reading like in Armenian, there's a lot of Like, what do you call them? There's a lot of different marks on letters.

[00:27:31] Okay, let's let me go into my other spiel again We have a problem here with one of these languages that when you trans, when you try to use English lettering and English stuff, it gets very difficult because it's not meant to be like that.

[00:27:45] Cause I feel like we try to anglicize things all the time. And when we anglicize, it's completely wrong. So let's write something. And I'm like, that's not it because this other language is not meant to be anglicized. So. That's just my note on language. [00:28:00] Don't forget that. Some languages aren't meant to be like that, and that's okay, because we love it.

[00:28:03] Makes the world go round. So, this one, and, oh, another note real quick. I was reading, like, and we're gonna get to our folktale a little bit later, but I was reading about folktales, and a lot of, Armenia, for a landlocked country, has a lot of folktales about fish. And surprisingly, they have a lot of folktales about fish, and I was like, what's going on?

[00:28:23] But apparently there's like, a lot of, or a large lake,

[00:28:27] Seta: so that like, Occupied Armenia, or like, yeah, there used to be a lot of like, lakes and,

[00:28:33] Ashley: Yes. Okay, that's why. Because I was like, huh, you guys got a lot of fish stories.

[00:28:37] Seta: Yeah. Yes, we

[00:28:39] Ashley: do. That's so funny. So this, okay, speaking of fish, that's why I'm talking about it.

[00:28:44] This is called... Ishkhanatsug? Yes. So this is, okay. It's in Lake Sevan, yeah. Yes, that's it. So this is a fish dish and it's made from a very meaty trout. So this trout is a big [00:29:00] trout and it can be prepared in a bunch of different ways. It can be boiled, fried, braised with almonds and it's a very famous dish.

[00:29:09] dish that is cooked in wine and pepper, tarragon, chives and it can be stuffed with local hazelnuts or apricots and People will go from different places to eat this because it's just very popular and it's popular near that Sevan, that lake. So, I love that. People go to re There's a lot of restaurants, I guess, that cook it, but they're near the lake.

[00:29:35] Exactly.

[00:29:36] Seta: Yeah. They get the fish from the lake and they catch the fish and they prepare it. It's like that area is known. For the Ishkhanatuk, yeah.

[00:29:45] Ashley: Yes, beautiful. So people go to those restaurants and they can sit on the lake and eat your fish. Yeah, beautiful. I'm loving it. Yeah. I'm going to put pictures too of all these places and the foods.

[00:29:56] Then we have Manti. Manti, yes. [00:30:00] That's it. Okay. This is a This also something I was like, I'll eat this right now It's a delicious baked dumpling served in tomato sauce with a garlicky yogurt on the side Oh, you guys love the again yogurt vibes. Here we go We love the yogurt

[00:30:18] Seta: vibe, yeah I've been like, since I've been in Armenia, I've been so, I mean, I know they sell this in the States too, so like, salty yogurt drinks, basically water and yogurt and salt I've been, like, drinking that instead of water, I think.

[00:30:37] I mean, it's

[00:30:38] Ashley: probably good for like your digestion and stuff too, right?

[00:30:42] Seta: Yes, exactly. I'm happy.

[00:30:46] Ashley: Everyone in Armenia has great digestive systems because they've got the yogurts. We're doing great. No one has any problems and I love it. So we have... Yes, we have this delicious dish. It's like, [00:31:00] it's very cool to the way it looks.

[00:31:02] They're like little, almost like little diamond shape things, and then you can put them like in a circle. It's very aesthetically pleasing, I have to say. Yeah, they're

[00:31:13] Seta: delicious. Yeah, it's very like, it's all the kids love this dish. If the kid is picky, like, they will eat Manta.

[00:31:20] Ashley: Okay, I love it.

[00:31:22] It's like little dumplings and you dip it in the yogurt. Oh, this is like an experience too It looks like I really enjoy

[00:31:28] Seta: it. Yeah, there's a restaurant here called Manta actually. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah It's really good I love

[00:31:36] Ashley: that and then we have

[00:31:42] Hapama? Hapama. Okay, thank you. God, it sounds so much better when you say it. I love it. So this dish they said is from southern Armenia and Is but people like it throughout their country. So this now looks like a very interesting Almost like a pie. [00:32:00] So but basically it's a pumpkin a butternut pumpkin Scooped out and then stuffed with rice and dried fruits and it's a real Really good food to eat in the winter and is popular with vegetarians because there's no meat in it.

[00:32:15] Yes It's

[00:32:16] Seta: one of our only dishes without meat. Okay. I mean, not really, but like, we have more options, but like, one of the more known dishes without

[00:32:24] Ashley: meat. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure other dishes you could just not put meat in it if you wanted or something. Yeah. Excuse me. There's dried fruits can be used in it.

[00:32:33] Make people use apples, prunes, plums, and, or apricots. Say, apricots are a big thing in Armenia, apparently, according to this article. Okay, and people eat this and serve it you know, like a dessert, it sounds like. You could eat it, sounds very good. And then we have gata, which seems to be, go with coffee?

[00:32:54] Seta: Yes, so, in my all of the workshops that I've either, like, held [00:33:00] circles or spaces, And I always have gata there as a like just with coffee or with tea. It's basically it's very sweet. It's also very easy to make. Shout out to my friend and her mom who made them every time. It's just sugar and dough, basically, and it's delicious.

[00:33:19] Ashley: Okay, loving that. Okay, sugar and

[00:33:22] Seta: dough. And usually Ghapama, going back to Ghapama, is like, a dish that we make around Samhain. Okay. Yeah, and then also like, the Armenian Halloween that happens in February.

[00:33:36] Ashley: Oh, okay. Yeah. Yes. Ooh, I love it. I love how, and I also love how every... Every country in the world just has like their one, like, sugar water dough dish.

[00:33:50] Like, I feel like every single country, we all have it. Just do it, maybe, sometimes it's fried, sometimes it's baked, sometimes it's sauce, sometimes it's, they don't care. [00:34:00] Because

[00:34:01] Seta: sometimes it has cinnamon in it, like literally, yeah.

[00:34:05] Ashley: Every country figured out, they're like, we need this.

[00:34:07] Seta: Exactly,

[00:34:08] Ashley: exactly.

[00:34:09] I love that, okay. Yay, so we're gonna do a quick plug and then we'll move on. So if you enjoy the show, you can follow me on any of the socials. I'm dying with a divide on Instagram and Facebook. If you really liked the show, I'd love you to give me a five star rating. If you'd like on Apple or Spotify, and you can always give me a tip.

[00:34:30] That's in the show notes. And if you have any questions or suggestions or comments. Or if there's anything you want to say about anything I say, feel free. I'm not going to bite. You can always tell me you can email me at dinewiththedivinepod at gmail.

[00:34:43] com. Okay. So next we're going to go on to our next section. So one of the things that I first ever in my life knew about Armenia, because I really love religion and we like reading about religion was Armenia was one of the first countries to be [00:35:00] completely Christian. And this happened in the.

[00:35:02] Fourth century 301 301 right at the beginning. They said let's get this started quick Oh, they are the first

[00:35:10] Seta: it is the first nation to fool.

[00:35:12] Ashley: It is the first. Thank you I didn't want to say it cuz I was like, I'm not absolutely sure so I'm gonna say one of the first but you're right Thank you. Okay It is the first nation.

[00:35:21] So when we think about it, we're like, okay, they've been Christian for a long time. Part of the reason they had so much problems when the Ottoman Turks took over was because they were like, We've been Christian for hundreds of years.

[00:35:32] We're actually not going to change now because that's silly, right? So the Ottoman Turks didn't like that and they were like, but still, we're not going to change. That's silly. We've been Christian for like a thousand plus years. Anyway, 1600 at that point basically so so I was like, oh, so I was also looking at the name of your business Yes, so I was like, okay, what's that about?

[00:35:53] So let's google it. I was so So I started on my google slash wikipedia [00:36:00] journey and I was like, what's going on here? And I ended up with some armenian mythology and I was like, this is interesting since we go back so far with christianity that we still have a lot of Evidence of what was going on before that happened.

[00:36:14] And also another thing I found that was super interesting. I'm, sorry I'm, just going to give you guys fun facts this whole episode. Armenia, when you look at the language tree, I love languages I think it's fascinating on the indo european language tree Armenia has its own branch meaning that they're like, we don't know where this language came from How did you show it up and everyone started speaking it and that's what happened It has a lot of oh and I made a note about it.

[00:36:39] It has words from other languages like from different Anatolian languages, Hittite, Hayek Huro, Uretian, Semitic languages, Aramaic Iranian languages.

[00:36:53] Seta: I also believe it's very similar to Ethiopian, our

[00:36:58] Ashley: alphabet. [00:37:00] Oh yes, it is, yes. And that is the Aramaic Is it? The Aramaic yes. Okay.

[00:37:04] That's that, that, yeah, that's that connection. Yes, because I was looking at your alphabet, which is very, again, it's gonna sound funny, but to me, it's very aesthetically pleasing. I like all the curves. It makes me feel good when I look at it. Yeah, it's very beautiful. It's

[00:37:20] Seta: very, and it's hard to learn, honestly.

[00:37:22] It's not easy. It's not an easy language.

[00:37:24] Ashley: Yeah. I was trying to even pronouncing things are hard for me. But it's very, when you look at it, it's very flowy. It's very pretty. And it's genderless, which

[00:37:31] Seta: is nice.

[00:37:32] Ashley: Oh, okay. Yeah, that is cool. And you know what? A lot of languages, even a lot of my, My dad's native language too in the beginning was genderless like they had to invent words for it For women and men when the British came to colonize because they're like you guys don't have words We're like no cuz I don't know.

[00:37:51] We just know who we're talking about. We give them names and we talk We don't know what's so difficult for you guys to understand [00:38:00] But the British were like no, you can't do that.

[00:38:02] Seta: Yeah. So then we

[00:38:04] Ashley: had, I know. So it was like all of our words for women and men are only like 300 years old. It's like kind of hilarious.

[00:38:11] I think so. Yeah, that's stupid, but that's fine. I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole today. We won't go there yet. So, again, when I was doing my little research, so the Armenian Mythology , they were said to worship this creator spirit and the creator spirit was called our and then the embodiment of the sun was our of, am I saying that right?

[00:38:33] Yes. Okay. And the Armenian people call themselves children of the sun. So. I am guessing we have Arv and Arminian kind of coming together. Yes. Me and the Children of the Sun. And I really love that. The other thing is, when you, and I know this is another random fact, when you look at a picture of Yerevan?

[00:38:57] The capital? Yes. [00:39:00] It is so and everyone's like, you really like Armenia. I do. It is so pretty. It has this beautiful mountain behind it. It's really

[00:39:09] Seta: gorgeous. That's called Ararat. That's Ararat. That's in western Armenia, actually, which is like eastern Turkey. Okay. But it is Armenian. That's where Noah's Ark came.

[00:39:22] Okay.

[00:39:22] Ashley: Yes. Yes. Yes, I was reading that. Yes. Yes. Oh. It's so beautiful, the picture. Every time I see the picture, it's absolutely gorgeous. So, anyway, I know, sorry, I know I'm like fangirling over our country. I love you. You should come visit.

[00:39:37] Seta: You should come visit.

[00:39:40] Ashley: I'm like, oh, it's so pretty, and they have this, like.

[00:39:44] I know I'm like very excited. Okay. So, the other thing is, okay in Armenia, the first millennia BCE the Iranians came and they established Dominus and I [00:40:00] think it's the, I can never say the name of the empire, Achaemenid or something like that empire. I will write the name in it. I'm sorry. I'm mispronouncing it.

[00:40:07] They came and they were like, Oh, we're going to rule Armenia for a while. So what they did was they took their major religion at the time. Okay. It's first millennia BCE, a thousand BCE. And Zoroastrianism. It was the major religion at that time. So a lot of that had a lot of influence on the Armenian beliefs at that time.

[00:40:29] And they ended up melding. those beliefs into their deities that they already had. Zoroastrianism is its whole thing. And one day I'm going to do a whole episode on it because that's also completely and totally fascinating. So we'll talk about that later. It's very neat. Now during the Hellenistic age in the third to first centuries BCE a lot of Armenian deities were identified with Greek deities, which I was like, Oh, Interesting.

[00:40:57] So you have Aramazad was [00:41:00] Zeus. Aramaz. Aramaz, thank you. I'm so sorry. No, it's okay. Anahit. Anahit, yes. Okay, Anahit was Artemis. Yes. Vahagon. Vahagon, yes. Vahagon was Hercules. All right, this one has a dash on it, so we're not going to say it I'm going to do my best. Astlik. Astrik. Okay. I'm

[00:41:23] Seta: not going to, yes, no, that's okay.

[00:41:24] Yeah. It's, it has one of those letters

[00:41:27] Ashley: in there. Yeah. And we were associated with Aphrodite. Then we have Nani Nani associated with Athena. Athena. Yes. Yes, Mir with Hephaestus, you know, I can't even say the one in Greek sent here with Apollo. Yes. Okay, so then, like I said, after this the formal adoption, like, we are, like, Seta told us in 3.

[00:41:52] 0. 1, then a lot of these It was actually transformed in a lot of ways that it did in other countries to be [00:42:00] associated with some of the Christian angels and Christian gods.

[00:42:02] Seta: Almost forced into it, too. It was a lot of that

[00:42:08] much. I don't think we talk about it enough. , we're so Christian that it's like anything other than that. feels like, not natural, like almost, and it's like, almost unnatural. And it's like, it doesn't feel very it's, and I'm not like, I'm, I've recently opened up myself into experimenting and connecting more into I mentioned that my first connection to like the spiritual world was like Mother Mary because that's what I was like taught and I was exposed to, which I love so much, but we all, I also have like this connection to my army, the Armenian gods that were that are around all the time and it's just, it's an interesting almost transition because I come from, a very Christian household, super, super religious.[00:43:00]

[00:43:00] I don't consider myself religious, but, I am connected to that.

[00:43:04] Ashley: Yes. Ooh, yes, I understand. I feel very similar to you. I come from a Christian background, but when I started learning about other things, I was this is part of who I am, too, and this is who... What, maybe for me, like maybe four or five, six generations, that's who they were talking to.

[00:43:21] They weren't talking to Jesus. Do I love Jesus? Jesus is great in

[00:43:24] Seta: my whole life. I love Jesus. I mean, yeah, Jesus is awesome. Are you kidding? Like heart frequency all the way. Like he's literally the magician of like heart opening, like literally. Yeah,

[00:43:36] Ashley: he, people forget that. They're like people are, oh, Jesus.

[00:43:39] Jesus. Which is, yeah. But he's also a magical being and I. I certainly enjoy him. He's part of my practice to this day. Mary, my girl, part of my practice. Which

[00:43:49] Seta: one? Mother Mary or Mother Mary

[00:43:51] Ashley: Magdalene? I love Mother Mary, but I've recently learned a lot about Mary Magdalene, who is also, I didn't realize how interesting she was.

[00:43:58] I just thought she was Jesus [00:44:00] friend. She's

[00:44:00] Seta: a homie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I love their story.

[00:44:05] Ashley: It's amazing. It really is. I love her. She's she is a homie. She's the homie and she's like, she was down till the end. She was like, ride or die. You want Mary Magdalene, yeah. You want Mary Magdalene.

[00:44:21] Jesus's other friends were all like, like

[00:44:24] Seta: They were like one foot in one foot out. She was

[00:44:27] Ashley: there. Yeah. She's like, I'm checking the tombs. I'm going wherever he tells me to go. He's I'll be on my way. She's like, I'm washing feet. I'm doing whatever. I'm writing things down. Like yeah. Yeah.

[00:44:38] Yeah. Yeah. She was a ride or die she was cool. So yes, i'm now starting to realize how neat she was and be like damn I really should incorporate her too because her energy is awesome

[00:44:49] Seta: Yeah, no, she's amazing. She's also been I've, always connected to her, stories. We used to watch a lot of, Jesus movies.

[00:44:57] Yeah. , and she was around, and I, I [00:45:00] had this curiosity and interest in her for, like, A lot of reasons and later on she became like a guide and one of the first guides that like literally held my hand as I processed a lot of grief and , shattered walls around the heart and open the heart.

[00:45:17] And it was just like it was, it's a I just love working with

[00:45:21] Ashley: her. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. She's really cool. We did like a episode kind of about her and when I learned about her, I was like, damn, this is awesome.

[00:45:32] Seta: I just part of me does not like that how like almost whitewashed she's become now through stories.

[00:45:39] I'm like, she's not white. Okay. It's not white. It's not white. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. But yeah.

[00:45:48] Ashley: Laughing because it's like people don't realize that nobody in the bible

[00:45:53] Seta: was what exactly No one Like I know mary's [00:46:00] like a white name now, but it's like it was not like,

[00:46:02] Ashley: Ah. People like, oh, it was probably closer to Miriam at the time.

[00:46:08] Yes, that's the truth. Exactly. It wasn't Mary.

[00:46:10] Seta: Exactly. Yes. Now we use, ah, God. Okay, there you go. There you go. It's Miriam. Yeah, you're right. Exactly. Probably what

[00:46:19] Ashley: You're right. I know, and I know somebody right now is, wait, what? And I'm like, girl. . I know. You didn't know, and I know you know subs, and you're like, wait, what?

[00:46:29] And I'm like, I know. Yeah.

[00:46:31] Seta: There's so many versions of this name though. Like all of the word like yes. Literally. Yeah.

[00:46:37] Ashley: Yes. Exactly. And it's been, yeah, it's been very whitewashed from the beginning. None of these people were white. You can look and told tons of different artists and archaeologists have made renderings of what Jesus probably looked like, what Mary probably looked like.

[00:46:53] And they were probably darker, tanner than you think they were. They all didn't look [00:47:00] like they were from Sweden. That's to say. Yeah, geographically, yeah, they were not from that area. So it's okay.

[00:47:08] Seta: Yeah. It's so funny because not funny, but going back to the Armenian gods, there is this Armenian God I'm I've recently, like in the past couple of years, my relationship with Astrig and Nane.

[00:47:21] Astrig, who's Aphrodite and Nane, who is Athena, and compared to Greek mythology, have been, like, have been showing up a lot in life in terms of Deepening my, starting to build that, relationship with them and it's been really nice, I have this star that I I've had since childhood, like, this star necklace, I've had it since I was 5, and I started, Wearing it in a way of connecting to Astrid more and more like in a more conscious way and Astrid means star in English and so like the star in tarot card like that Like I was like[00:48:00] that started showing up in a way and I was like, okay,, Astig, I see you.

[00:48:04] Yeah. There's this pagan holiday that's like celebrated like around mid July and it's like a celebration of water and roses, like it's called Vartavar and in Armenia that day, like you can't walk in the street without being splashed with water. With water and getting really wet, like it's a way of blessing the other person offering.

[00:48:28] So there. Yeah. And it is said around that time in Western Armenia, where my ancestors are from, there was this area called. Moosh and moosh means mist almost and Ashtig would come down and there was a river in that area and she would like just she would bathe in that river and just like, , ask the mist, create a mist around her so no one would be able to watch her.

[00:48:56] And then, she would, as she bathed, [00:49:00] and then she would bring like lovers together around that time. Yeah, it's just, it's one of my favorites. Like, I love this story so much. I always love bringing her up and talking about her. It's just she's a very sweet. God, that's it comes up in , in harsh situations and it makes them sweeter.

[00:49:22] Ashley: Oh wow, that's so cute! I

[00:49:33] Plus, she's like, you know what? I want everyone to be blessed in this mist, but I actually don't want everyone to see me naked. So,

[00:49:38] Seta: I'm just gonna just put a mist around

[00:49:40] Ashley: me. I'm just gonna put like a beautiful, yeah, beautiful, magical mist around me. So I'm just gonna, I'm,

[00:49:46] Seta: I'm cool like that.

[00:49:47] And that's where the name Moosh came from. That's where the, how it was named. It is said, so, according

[00:49:57] Ashley: to the Yeah, so that is, well, [00:50:00] you, we all know about Astlik now. Astlik, yes. Astlik so we don't even have to go over that one. Yeah. We have, yeah, we have Arv who we talk, Arv we talk about Arv, the god of the sun, who is also a lot of these gods too are actually comparable to also Mesopotamian gods.

[00:50:19] Yes, true. Yeah, which is cool. And we have Ag, which is the goddess of the dawn. And then we have, okay, it's Angel, but with the thing on the L. So, it is Ange, well, okay. But anyway, it's like Angel, but it's like, you said Astric, and that L is like, like a L sound. Astric.

[00:50:46] Seta: How is it spelled?

[00:50:48] Ashley: It's spelled like angel, but the L has that, like, mark on it.

[00:50:52] Seta: I'm not, I don't think I've heard of this,

[00:50:54] Ashley: okay, so I'm gonna, okay, so I'm just gonna call... This god angel for [00:51:00] now, but I'll show you guys how it is written in the show notes So is the also called the invisible or the unseen and this is the god of the underworld actually So this is comparable to your Hades They just rule the underworld down there, but not like in a negative way there.

[00:51:18] That's just where they rule Yeah, then we have Tork, who is the son of this angel, the great grandson actually, and he's a monstrous and ugly hero. Okay he threw massive boulders to sink ships in the Black Sea, and sometimes people actually equate him with a Almost like Thor, but obviously they didn't know that at the time, but they were saying he's like a Thor like character.

[00:51:45] We have... Vanator, and this is the Lord of Van, or also called Given Asylum. Vanator is the god of hospitality. And it sounds like... from everything. That makes a lot of [00:52:00] sense. I find that cultures that have really big community always have like a god of being kind to your guests. We have a whole god for that because that's just like what we do all the time.

[00:52:10] We're good hosts. So you have that and then we have They have this one, okay? I'm going to attempt. It's Anandhyatan, which is the abysmal serpent. Again, I'll spell it out on the blog. And this lives, he lives in the black waters surrounding the world tree. So apparently here we have another world tree, just comparable again to Norse mythology.

[00:52:33] I love that. So that's a couple of the different deities from Armenian mythology. At least the ones I could pronounce. And we're gonna go in. Like I said, there's a big Zoroastrianism Influence, but I'm not gonna go into all of that because it's gets complicated and I would rather explain Zoroastrianism first, so we'll do that another

[00:52:55] Seta: time.

[00:52:56] Go ahead like even the [00:53:00] architecture in Christianity is like highly influenced By paganism.

[00:53:06] Yeah, and also like the Christian holidays that are celebrated a lot of them are like have that influence

[00:53:12] Ashley: Okay. Yes. Oh And I also forgot we have some oh, I love to find out also about monsters and different spirits in Different cultures that we have a couple spirits and monsters.

[00:53:24] So first we have Al Which I hope I'm pronouncing that because there's only two letters. Al is a dwarfish evil spirit that attacks pregnant women and steals newborn babies. Described as a half animal, half man, its teeth are of iron and nails and brass and copper. And it usually wears a pointy hat covered in bells, but it can become invisible.

[00:53:44] Ooh, Arla.

[00:53:48] Arlaz, the oldest god in the Ar yes, in the Armenian pantheon, Arlaz is a dog like creature with powers to resuscitate fallen warriors and resurrect the dead by licking the wounds [00:54:00] clean. Nice, okay Then you have devs and the dev are error composed spirit Creatures that actually originate from Zoroastrian mythology, but they share a lot of similarities with like angels and demons They can reside in stony places and ruins and but they usually keep to themselves.

[00:54:22] I don't bother people then you have Shahapet. The Shahapet, they have like a couple different names. They're usually friendly guardians of Armenian, but they also show up in Slavic and Persian mythology. And they appear in the form of serpents. They have, they come into houses, orchards, fields, forests, graveyards, and other places.

[00:54:42] They're usually places where there's agriculture going on. And they. They're usually treated well because like they can bless a home and they can oh, yeah, they can give the home gold sometimes But if you are not nice to them, they might cause [00:55:00] arguments in your house. So be nice to your local shahapet And we have hang that hang was a river dwelling serpent monster with shape shifting powers that is connected to Dragons.

[00:55:20] There's a lot of dragons going on here, too. A lot of

[00:55:23] Seta: dragons, yep. Yep,

[00:55:24] Ashley: yep. Yeah, I was like, ooh, Armenia's got a lot of dragons. And we also got a guy We call him

[00:55:29] Seta: Vishabh. Vishabh.

[00:55:30] Ashley: Yeah, that was the next one. Vishabh is a dragon closely associated with water, and it's usually depicted as a winged snake or a combination of elements from different animals.

[00:55:42] Prior to Iran Iranian domination in Armenia, the dragon may have been called a Jal, which was connected to Hurrian, okay, these were too hard to pronounce, guys, Hurrian culture or Hittite culture, okay. I can't pronounce those two words. I'm so sorry. Okay, [00:56:00] so these are some creatures too. All right, so we've gotten through that.

[00:56:06] I'm so sorry. I know I stumbled on the names, but we've gotten through that to a point where I don't have to do a lot of names, because now we're doing our story time. We're gonna tell a folk tale now And I really, I heard this folktale. I listened to a podcast called Tales a lot of the time, which I really love.

[00:56:23] And they do folktales from all around the world. This folktale I thought was really fun.

[00:56:27] So this is your Armenian version of the Cinderella. But way more fun not fun necessarily, but it's interesting. So So this story is called the golden maiden everyone. Okay. Yay. We're excited. So The one time there was a guy and he had a son and a daughter And his wife passed away, so he was just left with his son and a daughter.

[00:56:50] And so what was he gonna do? He's I don't, this is ancient times. I need a lady around, right? That's what everyone did. So he was like, he married this woman, but it [00:57:00] turns out she was horrible. She was really mean. And I'm not saying this because I didn't see the girl, but her daughter was ugly.

[00:57:06] That's according to the story. That's what they said. Don't judge me for saying that she's ugly. . So her daughter was ugly. So the stepmom, she really hated the girl and her brother talking about her husband's children couldn't stand them. So she was constantly trying to tell her husband, you gotta get rid of these kids.

[00:57:24] I can't stand them. And the husband's like, I love my kids. I'm not getting rid of them. But what had happened was the husband started to get really frail. And he realized like, I need someone to help me and take care of me. And I don't have that. So. He decided okay, this sucks. I guess I'm gonna have to get rid of my kids So he leads them into the forest one day.

[00:57:46] He sits them down on a rock He gives them his cloak to protect them from the Sun and they're like, what are we doing out here dad? And the dad's like just don't worry. Just chill. Don't worry and he starts crying and they're like dad what's going on? He's like, [00:58:00] oh, I'm just so sad because I don't have a lot of food and they're like, okay So he brings out like this bag of bread and gives it to them And they're like, okay.

[00:58:10] And the little boy is like, oh, I'm so thirsty. And the dad's like, okay, chill here. I'll be back. Let me go get some water. So now the kids are waiting, and they're waiting, and they're waiting. The dad didn't come back. So the girl, who's older than the boy, she's like, oh, shit.

[00:58:30] She's like, this is bad. Okay, so they're like, now we gotta go find food and water because obviously I think our father has abandoned us. So they start walking. And the little boy says to his sister, he's like, oh, look, there's a horse trough over there. We see some horses. I'm going to go drink that water.

[00:58:48] She's like, do not drink that water. You will turn into a horse. I don't know how she knew but she knew so he said okay fine So they kept walking then they saw a ox drinking some water. He said, oh, I'm gonna go drink that water She said do not do that [00:59:00] It will turn to an ox and the little boy's getting frustrated but he's walking with his sister cuz he's a big sister You know how big siblings are they tell you what to do They keep walking and this happens again now three more times.

[00:59:13] They see a bear drinking water She tells him, don't, you'll become a bear. They see a pig, don't do it, you'll become a pig. They saw a wolf, and he's like, alright, actually, I don't want to become a wolf, I guess I'll keep going. Then, finally, he sees one, and it's a lamb drinking water. And he's like, I'm so thirsty, we've been walking for so long, I'm gonna lose my mind.

[00:59:31] He goes and drinks the water, and she's like, oh, no! And then, he became a lamb! Oh! This is so terrible! So not only are they lost in the forest, now her brother's a lamb. This sucks. Like, it's the worst day ever.

[00:59:49] Seta: This girl is like, why don't you listen to me?

[00:59:52] Ashley: She's like, I keep telling you about this animal drinking water.

[00:59:55] I told you not to do it, but he did it. So now

[00:59:58] Seta: she's like, Listen to your old [01:00:00] siblings, always.

[01:00:01] Ashley: Listen to your older siblings. We know what's going on. Stop. So now her brother's a lamb and they're like, oh my god, this is so bad. So she starts walking and they walk all the way back to town. Finally they get home and the stepmother is pissed She thought they were dead and they were like absolutely not.

[01:00:20] She's like I'm here with my lamb brother and They were like this stepmom was like what?

[01:00:29] So she then tells the husband You know what? You need to kill that lamb because I want to eat it. So the older sister being nosy, which she should have been, she heard. She said, oh no, they're gonna kill my lamb brother. I gotta go. So she picks him up and they run. They run up into the mountain, okay, and now they're in the mountain, does the girl know what she's gonna do?

[01:00:50] Absolutely not, she doesn't have a plan from here, but it's okay. So, she's just making wool, and her brother's eating grass, cause he's a lamb now, that's what lambs do. And [01:01:00] her spindle, that she was using, it runs off into a cave, and she's like, Oh shit, I gotta go get my spindle. So she goes and gets her spindle, and she goes in the cave, there's a thousand year old lady in there, She's like, what?

[01:01:12] This is crazy. So, there's a fairy. A thousand year old fairy in there and the lady's like, can I help you? Why are you in my case? She's like, oh, the girl being smart. She said, oh, grandmother, your love brought me here. Oh, that's a slick line. Yes. So the fairy was like, oh my God, that's so sweet. She's like sit down.

[01:01:36] Let's talk. So they start chatting and then the fairy was like i'm gonna give you something to eat since we've been talking so long and it was a bunch of cooked snakes now The girl is like, oh my god, I don't want to eat this, you know When you go someone's house and you are they're offering you food.

[01:01:50] You don't want to be rude, but you don't want to eat that It's okay So the girl was like, what do I do? So the girl's like and the fairy was like [01:02:00] what's wrong and she's like, oh So she pretends it's fish. She pretends she doesn't know a snake. She said, Oh my god, fish! My mom used to make fish all the time and I miss my mom so much.

[01:02:10] Oh no! So she starts crying and the fairy was like, Oh my god, you poor girl. Oh my god, I'm so sorry. So then she's like, tell me like your story. So the young girl tells the fairy mom about everything that happened to her. Like, I got this awful stepmom, my brother's a lamb, I don't know what to do with my life, my dad abandoned me in the forest, I can't trust him anymore, like, I'm going through it, so, the fairy was like, okay, I have a plan, this is what we're gonna do to help you, she's like, but first, I need a nap, I really need to take a nap, so she's like, let me sleep on your lap, and that, like, hot poker by the fireplace, I want you to do something for me.

[01:02:56] There's gonna be a black fairy that passes by. When the black fairy passes [01:03:00] by, don't wake me up. But when you see the red and the green fairy pass by... Use a hot poker to poke my feet. And the girl's like, damn, can't I just shake you? And she's like, no, I need you to use a hot poker. So the girl didn't really want to do that because she didn't want to hurt her new friend.

[01:03:14] But, okay, so she did what she asked. So there was the fairy mom was sleeping. She saw the black fairy. The black fairy went by. Then she saw the red and the green fairy. They came by and she poked her with a hot poker. And the lady's like, oh my She's like, you told me to do that. Told me to poke you and she's like, oh, yeah, I forgot.

[01:03:33] Sorry, it's My bad So she gets up and the red and green fairy had a beautiful red and green ray behind them and she uses their Rays to put them on the girl and the girl turns into this golden meat in her Clothes are made of gold. Her shoes are made of gold. Her hair is now made of gold and she was like, what?

[01:03:57] This is crazy. And the girl was like, [01:04:00] oh my god, fairy mom. Thanks so much. You're the best So she kisses her hand and she's like i'm gonna go I gotta go get my lamb brother and take him home So the fairy mom's no problem. I love you. It's fine. So she goes home It's very sweet. She goes home. Now the stepmom is like, oh the stepmom wasn't home when she got there.

[01:04:16] Thank god So she gets in the house, right? She takes off her gold clothes and she puts on some rags because she don't want the stepmom to know she got gold clothes and she has her brother in the yard eating more grass because that's what lambs do so she left him there And she puts her clothes in a secret corner Then when the stepmom entered though, she sees her golden hair, which she can't hide and she goes what happened to you?

[01:04:41] And she's like, oh a crazy story. I was on the mountain because you were trying to eat my brother and I found this fairy in a cave and she turned my hair into gold. And stepmom was like, what? And she's like, yep, that's what happened. It's the truth. It is what happened. [01:05:00] So the stepmom was like, well. I'm gonna get my daughter to go do that to fix her ugliness, right?

[01:05:06] So she tells her daughter go take a spindle go do the same thing that your stepsister did so her daughter does but immediately upon seeing the other daughter, the fairy was like, Ooh, I don't like you. And made her uglier. Oh no, she's uglier now. It's a problem. So now she comes back, the stepmom's like, how did you get uglier?

[01:05:27] She's like, the fairy mom didn't like me. So the stepmom's now even angrier. Okay. So everyone's pissed. But thank God nobody ate the brother yet. So we're okay for now. ? Yeah. Now, this day, it's a couple days later, I don't know, maybe a day or a week. The king of the land, he had a really good looking son.

[01:05:48] And he said, I need a wife for my son. So I'm sending out a message to all the local ladies. I want y'all to come to the palace courtyard. So my son can look at all of you and [01:06:00] decide who he likes. Because that's how we decide who we want to marry in ancient times. We just look at their faces. He's not taking you on a date, ladies, sorry.

[01:06:07] He's... Maybe later after you get married. So all the eligible bachelorettes in the kingdom got the message and the stepmom got the message and she was like, I'm gonna send my daughter out there But she sent her with a veil over her face because she is so unattractive apparently so She knew that the golden maiden now the one with the pretty hair that she didn't want her to go because she was so pretty She was even prettier than she was before So the stepmom took a bunch of like wheat grains And she threw it all over the yard and she's like I want you to pick up every wheat grain And if you don't want to come back i'm gonna kill you It's a little extreme, but okay.

[01:06:46] So the girl was like, oh shit. Like, there's wheat grains everywhere. What am I gonna do? I need to go meet this prince. So, so. She went to the chicken coop. She got all the chickens out, because my [01:07:00] girl is smart. She said, let me put these chickens out. And the chickens ate all the grains, no problem. Every single one.

[01:07:05] She's like, great. So she runs back into the house. She gets on her golden clothes. And she's like, let me get to the palace real quick. So she runs. Here she goes she gets there and everyone can't stop looking at her because she looks so good. She's got golden hair She's got beautiful golden clothes Everyone's looking but I think this is where the story got a little confusing I think the prince didn't get to see her but everyone else did So because she had to go back home before the stepmom came back So she had to go back home put her clothes away again get back into her rags But when she was running she left her golden shoe, of course, okay She left it.

[01:07:41] Oh, shit. Where's my shoe? She doesn't know. But she went home, put on her old rags. Now, back at the palace, everybody's left, right? And the servants are getting the horses to the main fountain. They're like, okay, well, the horse got a drink. They're thirsty. Now the horses are like doing that thing horses do where they get nervous [01:08:00] and they start going, and they throw their arms up or whatever their legs.

[01:08:04] Horses don't have arms. They throw their legs up because they're nervous and they're like, why are these horses so jumpy? And then they see the gleam from the sunlight of the golden shoe and it was making the horses nervous. So they were like, whose golden shoe is this? This is crazy. And they take it to the prince, and the prince decides, because again, this is a fairy tale, he said, I'm gonna marry whoever's golden shoe this is, because I love it.

[01:08:28] And I've decided that whoever wears it, I'm in love with her. Okay, fine. That's fine. So, now, the servants, they're like, okay, we gotta take the golden shoe around, and we gotta figure out who it belongs to. So they start going around the town. So they get to our Golden Maiden's house. Now because the stepmom is so nasty, she's like, Golden Maiden, you gotta go hide in this fire pit.

[01:08:50] Because I don't want the prince to see you and how pretty you are. I want him to look at my daughter. And she's like, okay, that's weird, but fine. So she goes in the pit. And the stepmom answers the door and [01:09:00] she's like, Hello, royal congregation. I present to you my daughter. And of course, the daughter had a veil over her face because she wasn't attractive and they didn't want her to see it.

[01:09:09] Then the, sorry, they try on the shoe. And of course, it doesn't fit her. So they're like, oh my god. And then, this happened in another story. There's always a rooster who would just be telling stories. The rooster came, and the rooster was like, Cock a doodle doo, she's in the pit! And they were like, Ooh!

[01:09:29] They're like, the pit! And they're like, what Golden Maiden? So they go in the fire pit, and they see this girl in there, and they're like, What the hell are you doing in here? And she's like, I don't know! I don't want to die! Everyone's always threatening me! They're trying to kill my brother! I'm going through a lot!

[01:09:46] So they pull her out, So they pull her out, they try the shoe on, and it fits. Oh my god, and the prince is like, I'm marrying you, and she's like, Great! I've been living in abject poverty, and I'm trying to save my brother. This is so hard. [01:10:00] So, great. Now they have a seven day wedding. She's got her brother there in the palace.

[01:10:05] She's like, Great, nothing will happen to my brother. She explains that her brother's a lamb. The prince is like, That's fine. I don't mind that your brother's a lamb. He can stay with us. Nobody will touch your brother. She's like great That's all i'm trying to do. So then now after a while the step mom she comes Okay, she's so shady.

[01:10:24] She comes trying to be all friends right with our golden maiden and she's like Hey girl, you want to take a walk with me and your step sister? and the golden maiden's like A really good person. So she's like, okay, I'm gonna forgive and forget. Like, I'm pretty I'm a queen now. Like, I can't be mad about this anymore.

[01:10:40] So, she's like, fine, I'll go on a walk. So they go on a walk to the beach and she's like, Let's go swimming! The stepmom. And she's like, okay, let's be fun. So they start going swimming. And what does the stepmom do? She takes her head and she puts it in the water. And she pushes her into the deep water. Oh my god, what's our girl gonna do?

[01:10:57] I don't know how well she can swim. It doesn't matter. [01:11:00] She gets swallowed by a big fish. Oh shit, what's going on? What are we gonna do? So, so the stepmom gets off the shore. She's like, haha, she's dead now and then weirdly enough the I love how people just survive in fishes for so long in all these folktales.

[01:11:17] It makes me laugh how did you just live in this fish for days? No, but she did and we're happy, right? Oh, the other thing the stepmom was trying to do she took the golden maiden's clothes and put it on the ugly daughter and Try to pass her and the prince was like what's happening here? I don't know who this is Why is she wearing my wife's clothes at the same time the prince figured out the sexton So the sexton is the one who like calls everybody to go to church Apparently the golden maiden's in the fish, right?

[01:11:46] She's in the fish, but she can hear what's going on land and she hears the sexton ringing the church bell And she yells starts yelling from the fish She says sexton who ring your morning bell crossing your face send the devils [01:12:00] to hell for god's sake Go to the young prince and tell let him not kill my land brother or sell Wow, so she was in the belly of the fish and she was still worried about her brother This is the best sister in the world

[01:12:16] It's like, I know I'm stuck in the belly of the fish and I haven't eaten or drank anything for days, but just don't kill my brother.

[01:12:25] This is the best sister on earth. She's such a good person. So the sextant heard this and he was like, Oh my God, where's that coming from? And he realized it's coming from a fish \ in the lake . So he goes and he's prince.

[01:12:40] Oh my god. I think your wife's in a fish and he said what? You mean he said I heard a fish yelling and it can't be the fish so it must be your wife She's stuck in a fish. So the prince is like, oh my god So he gets his best sword and he's going on horseback I'm sure because we're on horses now and he's like, oh my [01:13:00] god, we got to get to the lake So he gets to the lake, and he runs in the lake, and he slays the fish!

[01:13:05] He opens the belly of the fish, and thank god his wife is alive. They've only been married for like a week at this point, like, she can't already be a widower. So, she gets out of the fish, thank god. Oh my god, so we're so happy she's alive. So now, she tells the whole story of what had happened. She's like, is my brother still alive?

[01:13:29] He's like, of course! He's like, are you okay though? Yes, but i'm so worried about my brother. He's a lamb. So so now They go back to the palace and they're at the court and the prince is like I want to call the stepmom so the prince calls her and She gets there. She's like Oh Prince what's going on?

[01:13:52] like, she's like, hey girl. Hey golden maiden. How you doing? She's like, yeah, bitch. Okay[01:14:00]

[01:14:00] Like okay you think I'm stupid that's fine so he says Kind, the prince says this now, he says, kind mother, what gift do you prefer? A nimble footed horse or a keen sword? The mom was like, Oh my God, you want to give me a present? That's so sweet. She's like, actually let your keen sword keep it. You need it to slay your enemies.

[01:14:22] And you're a prince when you go to war. She's like, I will totally have a horse. That would be great. A nimble footed horse. That sounds like a dream. No problem. He's like, okay, I'll take your word for it. You can have the horse. Oh no, what did he do? He took a rope and strapped it to the tail of the horse and then he tied the stepmom and he, you know, sent the horse off.

[01:14:44] And he said, that's what you get for trying to kill my wife. And then he also did the same thing to the stepdaughter. And, you know, they ended up dying. Oh, no. That sucked, but they also tried to kill our friend, so we don't like them. So now, the story is coming [01:15:00] to an end, and the wicked people were punished.

[01:15:02] The prince was like, actually, since we got married, but I feel like we should have a new wedding since you're alive. So they had another 40 day and 40 night wedding. That sounds like fun. And, then, they... He also had the lamb brother there and they made a nice little house for him. They gave him all the grains and grass he could eat and he lived forever with his sister and everything was good.

[01:15:26] And they lived happily ever after. Yay.

[01:15:35] That's gotta be one of my favorite Cinderella stories that I've read. Yes, I was just a little disappointed that we couldn't figure out how to turn the brother back into a human. Like, it's a

[01:15:48] Seta: story. Make it happen. But it's okay.

[01:15:52] Ashley: I'm like, can't you guys go back to the fairy lady, the thousand year old fairy?

[01:15:58] Seta: But I loved how, [01:16:00] like, she was calling for her brother, like, don't kill my brother. I'm still alive.

[01:16:07] Ashley: I'm in the belly of a fish, but make sure you don't eat my brother. Ma'am, can we save you? It's like on the airplane where they say, put the oxygen on yourself first. Ma'am, can we save you from the fish first?

[01:16:18] Calm down. We'll get him. Don't worry. Oh, I love it. Union women. They're selfless! Literally. It's no problem. \ save my relations please save them. So, this brings us to the end of our episode. So, Sata, thank you so much for being here. This has been Of course, this has been a good time. And just tell people where they can find you on the internet.

[01:16:48] Seta: Yes my social is on Instagram, I am ArevAlchemy. And my website is on there as well, and my DMs are always open if anybody wants [01:17:00] to have a conversation. And yeah.

[01:17:03] Ashley: Okay, thank you so much, and again, we're Time With The Divine, and we're Instagram, we're on Facebook. If you really like the show, please give us a rating, that's always helpful

[01:17:15] you can If you have suggestions for the episodes or questions or comments Please feel free to email me at dine with the divine pod at gmail. com And if you want to follow me ashley, i'm SankofaHS, that's S A N K O F A H S, and Sankofa Healing Sanctuary on Facebook. Thank you so much, Sata, this has been so great, and everybody, thank you for listening, and I hope you have an absolutely wonderful week, and I'll see you next time.

[01:17:44] Goodbye!