The MOUNTAIN

the primordial egg, but also the centre of the world (the bellybutton of the world), a place where Heaven meets the Earth and vice versa, that is, a place where the wedding of the god of vegetation with the daugther of the heavenly god takes place. Therefore it is one of the abodes of the gods and demons of nature, the goal of the man's (spiritual) rise where he listens to the hum of the woods and the mountain’s song gaining knowledge and returning to his ancestress, his mother (often represented as the search of a hero for the medicinal herbs, hidden treasure or magic crystal). It is a symbol of endurance, firmness (it supports the sky), safety, purity, solitude and reflection. It is the opposite of water which carries the meaning of instability. The mountain top is like a needle, representing human fate and superconscious.That is why the fate fairies are handy with the needlework. A legend says a dragon lands on it to rest after sundown. The climbing of the mythical dragon or snake on the mountain causes disorder in the cosmos, because it cloggs all the water springs with its huge body. (Veles watches over his treasure, i.e. cattle, i.e. water.) The thundermaker has to chase it away because the mountain is his home. Because the mountain is a heavenly and holy place where people offer their sacrifices to god(s) each nation has its holy mountain. In Medjimurje it is Zelezna gora (the Iron Mountain). Their shape was always imitated, whether they were stone hills or grave mounds or artificial hills with temples and palaces, pagodas, etc. That is why higher parts of the village are chosen as the place where ritual bonfires are burned. As a sign of gods’ inconstancy, clouds, fogg, lightning and thunder come to the mountain, embodied in the form of spirits or gods of nature. In folk tales the night sky is sometimes symbolized by the glass mountain. It is believed when the world ends all the mountains will disappear.