Philosophy of Life and Death in Latvian Folklore

Saulīte
saulīte [sun in diminutive]
  • Provides light and warmth to grow biologically (zied) and spiritually (dzied). It calmly brightly shines at the core of our lives.
  • Life essence begins when a sunray begins to shine on its own within a body.
zied [blossoms]
dzied [sings]

Augumiņš
augumiņš [growing thing. Body]
Is the structure in which sunray starts to shine.
augumiņš zied. The biological structure starts new growth by blossoming.
augumiņš dzied. „d” added from dvēs ele [breathing thing] The biological structure sings (dzied) because it breaths (dvesma)

Dvēsele
Dvēsele is our personal sense of being.
Begins to grow when saulīte and augumiņš unite. It continues its growth throughout life.
All life form have dvēseles, from grass blades to humans.
elpa [breath]
  • dvesma, dvesmot, dvasa, dvašot [good easy breathing]
  • dvest [hard breathing]
esma [es – yourself, ma-rule]
  • The rules of yourself. Your personality, being, intelligence. Your truth.
dves ele [breathing thing]
dv-esma [esma – yourself] dv-esmot [esmo – behaving as yourself]
-> dvēsele [breathing spirit] is „truth” in the breath.

Velis

Life and death cycle

What is required to start new life?
For plant life:
Jumis (jumpts [roof])
Roofs protect things. The jumis roof is very similar to Dieva sēta [god’s fence] roof. In fall, small part of crop may be tied together as Jumis and left on the field, to symbolize protecting seeds over winter for next years growth. In spring, black symbolizes fertile soil, and hard working horses to plant seeds. Then saulīte shines and tadaa...
For human life:
Yellow yolky colour is symbolic of where seeds could begin their growth. Ex. Honey and bees. Amber. Oak trees often covered with bees. Women often offer men sweet honey. Men are carriers of seeds, and would plant them in these yellowy, sunny-looking places. Sēkliņas [seeds in diminutive. Male sperm]

What happens when born?
saulīte [sun]
A ray from dieva saule [god’s sun] begins to shine on its own within augumiņš
augumiņš [body]
IS structure in which this ray starts to shine.
  • zied [blossoms] grows on saules koks [sun’s tree]
  • dzied [sings] All living things breath, including plants; hence they sing from dvesma [easy breathing]

What happens when living?
saulīte [sun] continues to shine within augumiņš [body]
augumiņš [body] continues to grow in size and integration
dvēsele [breathing spirit]
Is „truth” in breath. Begins its growth when saulīte and augumiņš unite, and begin to breath. It continues its growth throughout life. All life forms have dvēseles, from grass blades to humans.
  • elpa [breath]
    • dvesma, dvesmot, dvaša, dvašot [good easy breathing]
    • dvest [difficult breathing]

What happens when die?
augumiņš [body] disintegrates back into earth
velis [non-breathing spirit] goes onto live in veļu valsts [valsts- country]
located in viņa saule [their sun] or aizsaule [behind the sun]
lives a saules mūžu [sun’s lifespan – meaning forever]

Summary
When living
Saulīte (Šī saule. Colours and changes)
Augumiņš (does grow. „a growing thing”)
Dvēsele (breathing spirit)
When die
Saulīte (Aizsaule. Is enough light to see shadows. Hold onto entity, but no changes)
Augumiņš (does not grow. Shadow outline of body.)
Velis (non-breathing spirit)
Candle analogy:
Šī saule -> saulestariņš [sun ray] ignites candle. Candles are like „yellow yolks”. They are ready to be „bright” and „warm”,  but need to be ignited to start.
Once ignited by sun ray, shines on own. Called saulīte [sun – diminutive]. Dvēsele breaths. Like candle, must breath to keep burning. Augumiņš [the growing thing. Body] changes as dvēsele breaths.
When die, saulīte stops shining and leaves augumiņš, and goes to aizsaule [behind sun]. Dvēsele stops breathing, so augumiņs stops changing. Like candle, when flame extinguished, it makes no more changes to its structure. It does not provide light or warmth.

 
Body and Mind Connection
The figure on left "mind-body connection":
Augumiņš:
non-permeable sēta. Our body has empirically measurable borders.
Velis:
permeable sēta. Body has definable borders, but are not empirically measurable.
Esma:
permeable sēta. Is within the spirit (velis) which is within our body (augumiņš).
Summary: Your augumiņš contains your velis which contains your esma.
The figure on right - the components of "psyche (esma)":
esma is a permeable sēta.
Implications:
  • Is part of dieva sēta which can offer us comfort and support; however, it makes us vulnerable to the elements of dieva sēta as well.
At core we have saulīte.
It is our life essence. It has a permeable sēta.
The next layer is our dvēsele.
It is the part of us that cares – or does not care. It is our feelings and motivation. It starts and ends processes within our intelligence and our bodies.
Our saulīte is at the core of the dvēsele within a permeable sēta.
The outer layer is our intelligence
Our learned and instinctive knowledge
To act on our knowledge, we must use care -use our dvēsele.
How saulite works:
When we block the light of our saulite:
Theoretically, this permeable sēta makes us potentially vulnerable. Our esma is highly motivated to protect it, so the light doesn’t fizzle out. Unfortunately, in doing so, it often creates an emotional army around the saulīte that is so thick, that our saulīte’s shine is hidden. The permeable sēta around our saulīte becomes non-permeable.
Finding our saulite that was hidden behind the dark:
But, in the diagram, the saulīte is separate and in the center. This is because it does not fizzle out as we are often inclined to believe. It is part of dievs and continues as such indefinately. (It is like a light in your room. Look at it. It shines. Take a pillow and put it in front of it. It appears to have lost its shine. Look behind the pillow. Aha, it’s still there. The pillow is like your emotions in your dvēsele. It can block the shine of your saulīte.)
Living the "white life":
In Latvian baltā dzīve it is said that the esma is white, but has some black parts, blocking the saulīte. It also says that the „skaistākie” people are aware that there saulīte cannot be taken or damaged. It is very important to understand that the pain we feel emotionally in life are not hurting our saulīte. The saulīte is always calmly shining.
How intelligence works:
The outmost layer is intelligence.
This contains our information database and the tools to build it, our learning, creative and communication capacities.
What separates humans from other species is extraordinary intelligence.
Intelligence and consciousness
With our intelligence our capacity to to create or destroy is powerful, that is why with our intelligence comes a consciousness - the part of intelligence that asks the why questions. The why questions are both practical (why is the bridge standing or falling) and spiritual (why do I feel this way? Why am I here?
In the diagram, intelligence is on the outer layer.
That means that for it to work, we have to care. Caring comes from dvēsele. The dvēsele itself exists because it shines from saulīte.
Biologically, our brains are structured the same. Our motivation centers are at the brain stem, and our intelligence is the huge add-on frontal lobe.
How inner layers of psyche, influence outer intelligence layer
Because our esma is within permeable sētas, our intelligence can influence our motivation and other reflexive bodily functions. Proactive or destructive behaviour can easily be established. A recursive positive spiral to growth and creation is as easy to create with our intelligence as is a negative spiral of personal and outward destruction.
Latvian folklore shows us all the consequences of intelligence. It also guides our intelligence towards positive „balta” growth, by using simple elements of nature, that do not have our own incredible intelligence. Calmness [mierīgums] and simplicity in nature are our guidelines to life. 

Dieviņi in your life cycle
Birth:
Laima determines time and place of birth and death. She determines wellness of mother and newborn – are they healthy, sick or dead by birthing.
Māra helps augumiņš of mother and newborn.

Living:
Māra takes care of you augumiņs.
All dieviņi help those who wish their guidance.

Death:
Laima determines time of augumiņu death.
Zemes māte receives augumiņu.
Veļu māte receives velis.
Dievs: Dievs and soul.
Dievs is sometimes said to be the one who bestows on you your soul, and then it is returned to dievs upon dying. This kind of wording seems from textbooks of other systems. It seems to imply dievs as ultimate creator, and can imply reincarnation. These concepts are add-ons that some like, but are not required for full spiritual understanding of Latvian folklore.
In Latvian folklore, it is through dievs, as the principle of Visuma (balanced whole) that all this happens. In cosmos discussion we saw that there is no beginning to the universe. Dievs itself is „balta” and is a „saules koks”, just as we individually are. This means that dievs is constantly growing and changing, just as we are. When someone is born, it is a branch in dieva saules koks that has started to grow. From this new growth, a dvēsele develops. So the concept of the soul being separately given to you by dievs, and then it has to be returned to dievs is a non-sequator. We grow onto a dieva saules/dzīvbas koks, just as naturally as a bud grows on a branch of a tree in nature.




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