MAO, MAHOU, MAOU: Benin. Sun and creator god. Son of the mother goddess Lissa and brother of the Moon god GOV. He seems to have rtiplaced Lissa as the creator of all things.

MAPONUS - see MABON.

MARA: Hindu Buddhist. A major demon who tried to defeat the Bodhisattva SIDDHARTHA, first by sending his daughters to seduce him and then by direct attack, but failed.

MARCO, PRINCE: Slavonic. A Serbian legendary hero, son of a dryad, who sleeps mounted on his horse in a cave. His sword slowly rises from its sheath, and when it is fully out, he will ride forth to save his country from its enemies.

MARDUK: Assyro-Babylonian god of the Spring Sun; originally a vegetation god. First son of EA by the antediluvian Earth goddess Damkina (Ninella, Damku). One of the named consorts ofIshtar, though he also appears as the husband of the fertility goddess Zarpanitu (Zerpanitum) ('She Who Produces Seed'). In Sumerian myth, he and the goddess Aru (Aruru, Ninti) together created 'the seed of mankind'; in later patriarchal times, he created mankind by himself. He gradually took over the aspects of other gods, becoming chief god of the Babylonian pantheon. He is the Bel of the Old Testament.

MAREREWANA: Guinean, Arawak tribe. The Arawak Noah, who escaped the Deluge in a canoe with his followers.

MARIS: Etruscan name for MARS (this page, below).

MARISHI-TEN: Japanese, of Chinese origin. Protector of soldiers and averter of fires.

MARMOO: Australian Aborigine. The Spirit of Evil who devastated the world with swarms of poisonous and devouring insects. The Mother-Spirit Nungeena and the Father-Spirit BAIAME had to restore it by creating birds to eat up the insects.

MARNAS: The god of Gaza, who in Christian times became the personal enemy of the hermit-abbot St. Hilarion.

MARS. Roman god of war. 777: Tarot: Fives, Emperor, Death, Tower; gems: ruby, jacinth, any red stone; plants: oak, nux vomica, nettle, tiger lily, geranium, cactus, absinthe, rue; animals: basilisk, ram, owl, scorpion, beetle, lobster or crayfish, wolf, horse, bear; minerals: iron, sulphur; perfumes: tobacco, dragon's blood, Siamese benzoin, opoponax, pepper, all hot pungent odours; magical weapons: Sword, Spear, Scourge, or Chain, Horns, Energy, Burin, Pain of the Obligation.

MARSABA: Melanesian, Rooke Island. The Devil.

MARUMDA: - see KUKSU.

MARUTS, THE: Hindu. Storm and wind spirits. In Vedic myth, the eleven sons of RUDRA and Prisni (in another version, their mother was Djti, daughter of DAKSHA) who became the companions of INDRA. Also called the RUDRAS. 777: Tarot: Fool, (Swords) Emperors or Princes; gems: topaz, chalcedony; plant: aspen; animals: eagle, man; perfume: galbanum; magical weapon: Dagger or Fan. ,

MASHIA, MASHYA: The Persian Adam; his Eve was Mashyoi (Mashiane). They were born from the body (or seed) of GAYOMART after it had lain in the Earth for forty years. They gave birth to seven couples. Like the Biblical Adam and Eve, they first recognized that all was created by the principle of good (ORMAZD), and called it God, but were later led astray by his evil counterpart (AHRIMAN, ANGRA MAINYU).

MASLUM - see GLOOSLAP.

MASSIM-BIAMBE: Congo, Mundang tribe. The omnipotent, immaterial, sexless creator, forming a triad with the male god PHEBELE and the goddess Mebeli. Phebele and Mebeli had a son, Man, and Massim-Biambe gave him a soul and the breath oflife.

MASTER OF WINDS: Amerindian, Iroquois and Huron. His wife, Breath of Wind, gave birth to twins who fought in her womb; Master of Winds set them in the sky as Sun and Moon.

MATARISVAN: The Hindu PROMETHEUS, who captured the thunder bolt and gave mankind the secret of the fire element.

MATH AP MATHONWY: Welsh. King Math of Gwynedd, son of Mathonwy and brother of Don, a central figure in the Mabinogion story of the birth of LLEU LLAW GYFFES. A great magician, he taught his craft to his nephew GWYDION.

MATOWELIA: Amerindian. Chief god of the Mojave tribe of Colorado. He lived 'above the Sun' and guided travellers on their journeys. The souls of the cremated dead went to him; the uncremated became night owls.

MATSYA: Hindu. The first avatar of VISHNU, as a great horned fish.

MAUI (1) Polynesian Sun god. His sister was the Moon goddess Sina (Ina).

MAUI (2) Polynesian and Maori culture hero. Brought up by the gods, he raised the sky to its present position, created many islands by fishing for them and gave fire to mankind. He tried to make men immortal by penetrating the body of Underworld goddess Hine-Nui-Te-Po ('Great Goddess of Darkness'), but she crushed him to death, since when all humans must die.

MAWU-LISA: Haitian voodoo, African Benin origin. Twin children of NANAN-BOUCLOU, they engendered all the gods, including BADE and SOBO.

MAYON: Tamil equivalent of KRISHNA.

MAZDA - see AHURA MAZDA.