Crown Of Asteria "Karhun Vakat" CD Digipack (Bonustrack)

Re-mastered with bonustrack limited to 70 copies!!

An album of mesmerizing, atmospheric, Neofolk-infused US Black Metal from one-woman project Crown of Asteria. Adventurous, often breathtakingly beautiful, utterly singular sounds.
Originally self-issued in 2016, now remastered and presented in a very limited (70 copies) digipak with new artwork.

The bear (karhu in Finnish), King of the Forest, was the most respected animal of the ancient Finnish forests and still is today. The Birth of the Bear is a very old, probably Paleolithic myth having its roots in totemistic relationship between the powerful animal and the primitive man.
As such the bear was the symbol of the whole tribe and a sacred animal. For this reason in some areas it was never hunted. Shamanism was also closely connected to the bear and sometimes the bear was seen as the spirit of a shaman.
The most ancient myths of the Northern peoples tell of the marriage of the bear and the primordial Mother of all men. This relationship was later reflected in the rite Karhun vakat or Karhun peijaiset meaning the feast which was held after a successful bear hunt. At this feast the bear was re-united to its family through a symbolic wedding.
We have a very detailed description of the bear-feast from the 16th century:
The bear was killed and skinned in the forest after which the meat and the hide were taken to the village. Ale was brewed and the meat of the bear was eaten as a sacred meal. The feast was held in a large building. A girl and a boy were then elected as the symbolic wedding couple. During the feast the skull of the bear was carried on a plate to the room.
The plate was given a place of honor at head of the long table. The bride and bridegroom sat at the other end.
After the meal there followed a customary prayer: ( I interchanged the genders for the song)

Sample: