by Terry McCombs

Terry McCombs ran the God/dess of the Month Club (GoM) on soc.religion.paganism from 2003 onward, posting a monthly profile of a deity from a different tradition each month. This profile of Ga-oh was posted in October 2004, during a season of major hurricanes in the United States — Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne had all struck Florida that year. McCombs notes the connection explicitly: it seemed past time to give Ga-oh his due.

Ga-oh (also Gaoh) was the Iroquois people's Master of the Winds. Said to be a giant who kept his lodge of four doors in the Western sky, he was powerful enough to tear the world apart. To prevent this, he summoned four animals to serve as leashed gatekeepers: Bear at the North door (fierce storms and freezing winds), Panther at the West door (whirlwinds and tempests), Moose at the East door (cold wet winds and gray mists), and at the South door — a shy fawn, carrier of the gentle summer breeze and the scent of a thousand flowers.

McCombs uses the occasion to note the wider context: the Iroquois Confederacy — the Haudenosaunee, or People of the Long House — was a confederation of five (later six) nations that constituted the oldest democratic government on Earth, and the model that most directly inspired the framers of the American republic. He closes with a mention of Onatah, the Iroquois Persephone, and the Giant Flying Heads who prowled on stormy nights — a reminder that Ga-oh's winds carried mythic company.

Name

Ga-Oh, or Gaoh. Master of the Winds.

Symbols

The Western sky, a lodge with four doors, the four animals leashed to the doors of his lodge: a bear, a panther, a moose, and a fawn.

Usual Image

A giant Iroquois warrior.

Holy Days

No feast day of his own.

Form of Worship

Not so much worshipped as understood as a higher power in charge of an important force of nature that sometimes brought good things and sometimes brought bad, but had to be respected no matter what.

Synodeities

Ehecatl (Aztec), Fei Lian (China), Futen (Japan), Michabo (Algonquian), Njord (Iceland, Nordic), Stribog (Slavic), Vayu (Iranian), Zephyrus the West Wind (Greek), along with his brothers Boreas the North Wind, Notus the South Wind, and Apheliotes the East Wind.

Details

Gaoh was the Iroquois people's Master of the Winds. Said to be a giant who kept his lodge of four doors in the Western sky, he was so powerful that there was nowhere he could not move.

So great was his power that he was in danger of tearing the world apart. To keep this from happening, he set himself in the middle of his lodge and sent out a call heard over the whole land. Soon he heard four animals coming in answer.

The first to arrive was Bear, outside his North door. At the same time, a fierce storm with thick snow and freezing wind raged around Gaoh's lodge. Because of his strength, Gaoh set Bear a place at his North door and put him in charge of the Northern winds.

Next came Panther, who showed up at his Western door, bringing with him whirlwinds, tempests, and the shrieking and moaning winds. Gaoh placed a leash around his neck and gave Panther charge of the Winds of the West that could tear down forests.

After Panther was put by the West door, the sky turned gray and began to sob. Opening his Eastern door, Gaoh saw that Moose was there. Because of this he lashed him by that door and gave him charge of the cold wet winds and gray mists of the East.

Knowing that things were not yet finished, Gaoh threw open his Southern door, which brought to him a gentle breeze carrying the scent of a thousand flowers and the songs of a thousand birds. Outside the Southern door was a shy fawn, whom Gaoh invited into his lodge and put in charge of the summer winds. Thereafter, whenever a pleasant breeze was felt in the summer, it was said that the fawn was returning home to its mother.

Ga-oh was a god of the Iroquois people, the oldest democratic government on Earth, and the tribe that had the most important impact on the United States. A confederation of five nations — with a sixth non-voting tribe, the Tuscarora, added in 1722 — the Iroquois (which was not what they called themselves; that name being a combination of the Algonquin word for "rattlesnakes" with the French suffix "ois") called themselves the Haudenosaunee: the People of the Long House.

The Nation was made up of the Cayuga ("those of the great pipe"), Mohawk ("people of the flint"), Oneida ("people of the standing stone"), Onondaga ("people of the hill"), Seneca ("keepers of the Western door"), and Tuscarora ("shirt-wearing people"). At its greatest it stretched from Niagara Falls and Upper New York to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

A matrilineal society, it was the Iroquois — and not the Greeks — who supplied the main inspiration that eventually became the American republic.

Notable for some very interesting mythic creatures, such as the Giant Flying Heads (whom one had to be very careful of on stormy nights) and Onatah, a goddess very similar to Persephone, I picked Ga-oh as this month's God because, with the windy trouble that has been plaguing America lately, I thought perhaps he was past due an offering or two of corn meal and wanted to do what little I could to at least give him some of his props.

Colophon

Posted by Terry McCombs to soc.religion.paganism, October 2004. Part of the God/dess of the Month Club series. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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